Reva McEachern

Microsoft So.cl makes your searches public information

revadigital — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:43:24 -0400

Micosoft has made its new Bing-powered learning network So.cl public. Here’s a quick run down of what the site is all about.

What is So.cl?

According to Microsoft, So.cl is “an experiment in open search” that’s focused on “exploring the possibilities of social search for the purpose of learning.” So.cl uses Microsoft’s public Bing API, so you’ll get very similar results as you do through Bing search. Launched in December and aimed at students, the website is now accessible to all.

How does it work?

To access So.cl, you can opt to sign up through your Windows Live ID or Facebook. Once you’re in, So.cl will show you any of your Windows Live connections or Facebook friends that currently are on the site and let you follow them. The site will also suggest other subjects to follow, ranging from music to startups to popular people. After you’ve chosen who and what you want to follow, So.cl populates your Feed with all of the applicable posts. You can also choose to view everything that’s being posted to So.cl.

What makes it unique?

Number 1, your searches are public. Each user’s post represents a search he or she conducted through the So.cl search bar.

Number 2, So.cl lets you curate your post so that it includes only the most useful search results. Let’s say you want to research the history of San Francisco. You enter “San Francisco history” into So.cl’s search bar, but after clicking through the first five to ten links, you realize that only two are useful. You can remove the other links from your post, and leave only the helpful links.

Number 3, So.cl includes a “riff” features that allows you to conduct the same search as that user, and a “tag” feature that lets you tag your posts and other users’ posts with specific interests. For example, a “pancakes” search could be tagged as “food.”

What makes it the same?

Like on other social networks, you can like, comment and share a user’s post. It has a cover image a la Facebook Timeline and Google+ and a Feed that consists of public posts from other users. Your So.cl profile is also fairly standard. It lists your name and uses your Windows Live or Facebook profile picture, shows you recent activity and lets people comment on your posts or leave you a message.

Is it a Facebook/Google+/Twitter competitor?

Not at all. Microsoft clearly considers So.cl a learning platform and not a social network. Although that makes the decision to call the platform So.cl (pronounced “social” a strange one). Unlike Facebook, So.cl isn’t a place to connect with friends and share personal moments from your lives. It’s more like an image board where you post and share web-based content based on general interest categories such as cars, movies, and sports all of which is filtered through a built-in Bing search tool and made public.

The take away?

So far, early adopters are hardly raving about So.cl. They say the interface is cluttered and the content curation does not live up to the site’s ideals. So.cl is still very much an experiment. It provides insight into what people are searching for and finding on the internet. While this is helpful for that specific research aim it is not helpful for people who want a search engine to find what they are looking for as quickly and easily as possible. If your life is already cluttered with social networks, you might want to skip this one for now.

Isn't traditional marriage arranged polygamous coupling based on women as property of their fathers or am I reading a different bible?

revadigital — Thu, 10 May 2012 21:45:33 -0400

All I can say is…

Is 2012 the year of Augmented Reality?

revadigital — Wed, 09 May 2012 08:22:00 -0400

I’ve been posting a lot on augmented reality lately and am starting to wonder two things. One, will 2012 be the year for augmented reality? And two, why isn’t anyone thinking of ways to use augmented reality that don’t involve Oreos popping up in my face, or something similar. Now, I’m not actually saying that Oreo has any plans to use augmented reality in a campaign, I’m just making the point that brands and advertisers are jumping on the AR bandwagon, while I would really like to see more practical applications of the technology.

Earlier I posted about Google and its augmented reality eyewear, and a few days ago I posted a video demonstrating Aurasma, another free AR app and company that allows brands to create AR marketing campaigns.

To be honest, what I would really love to see is more dialog about how AR can be leveraged in education. Then again, it does seem in natural form that marketers start using technologies in interesting ways first and then spaces like education eventually follow suit. While marketers and other early adopters have learned to use websites and related artifacts like social networking, web content management and mobile technology successfully, school administrators to this day fight over whether the same technologies are practical in education, despite the fact that new technologies introduce new literacies and students without access to them, whether practical or impractical in their nascent stages, may end up left behind.

But I digress…

This post was actually supposed to be about Blippar, a free app for iOS and Android devices, inviting users to wave their smartphone at branded products in return for some form of ‘fun’ offering. Blippar recently launched a campaign with Nestle’s Kit Kat. From the article:

“In what is the fourth time the food and beverage giant has tapped Blippar’s technology, Nestlé is enabling fans of the multi-fingered chocolate bar to play virtual football using nothing more than their smartphone and Kit Kat packaging & posters…An augmented 3D table football game ‘overlay’ will be revealed where you try to save as many shots as possible, building a score that will be automatically posted on the game’s league table in a bid to win the cash prize. The winner will be chosen at random via a draw from all the entries received.”

Since it works for Android, I might just give it a go today during my lunch break. And for all you teachers out there, maybe take a few minutes to download it on your phone and show your students. It’s free, and AR is the future after all.

REVA Digital Media: Microsoft and Barnes & Noble come together for "Newco"

revadigital — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:16:54 -0400

REVA Digital Media: Microsoft and Barnes & Noble come together for "Newco":

revadigital:

Microsoft has decided to invest $300 million into Barnes & Noble, makers of the Nook, tablet to create a new subsidiary. While the details are being worked out, the so-called “Newco” (a placeholder until they think of a name) sounds like a spinoff of Barnes & Noble’s Nook digital media…

Having graduated from Rutgers (undergrad) and Columbia...

revadigital — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:31:00 -0400

Having graduated from Rutgers (undergrad) and Columbia (graduate) Universities, I like many young Americans have college debts to pay. I can say that as a small business owner, it would be a huge burden for me to have to pay an additional $1000 a month. That money can make the difference between whether or not I can hire another employee, and that employee can make the difference between whether or not my company can continue to provide affordable information technology services to another small business or social entrepreneur.

Doubling the amount of money Stafford loan holders have to pay each month is not the right direction. Clearly, there are other, better alternatives to stimulating the economy. So listen to what the POTUS has to say as he slow jams the news with Jimmy Fallon and Black Thought. And stay tuned to see how this unfolds.

Not quite “Minority Report” grade yet, but...

revadigital — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:42:23 -0400

Not quite “Minority Report” grade yet, but we’re getting there. Are you ready for augmented reality advertising?

Battle for the internet | Technology | The Guardian

revadigital — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:24:02 -0400

Battle for the internet | Technology | The Guardian:

Over seven days the Guardian is taking stock of the new battlegrounds for the internet. From states stifling dissent to the new cyberwar front line, we look at the challenges facing the dream of an open internet. Click the headline to find out more and follow The Guardian @guardiannews.

Apple, book publishers sued for conspiring to fix prices of digital books | NJ.com

revadigital — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:55:02 -0400

Apple, book publishers sued for conspiring to fix prices of digital books | NJ.com

revadigital: Check out the new promo video for Template Tuning...

revadigital — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 10:04:10 -0400

revadigital:

Check out the new promo video for Template Tuning Service. What is Template Tuning Service? Professional Web development at affordable prices. Template Tuning Service customizes professionally designed Web templates to save customers time and money. They also do custom Web development, iPhone app development, iPad app development, Android app development and open source Web development using a variety of platforms including Drupal, Joomla, Magento, Moodle, Wordpress and more.

Are you ready for a Mitt Romney presidency?

revadigital — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:18:25 -0400

Are you ready for a Mitt Romney presidency?

New Social Learning Website for Teachers - Kidedotals

revadigital — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:36:58 -0400

New Social Learning Website for Teachers - Kidedotals:

Kidedotals.com is a social learning community for K-12 teachers, childcare service providers and parents. Share and discover free lesson plans, kids songs and educational videos. Collaborate and build online learning modules.
Get teaching and parenting advice from our community of experts.

Technology in Education: 15 Ways To Use The New iPad In Classrooms

revadigital — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:24:40 -0400

Technology in Education: 15 Ways To Use The New iPad In Classrooms:

techedblog:

Inspired by the magnificent edu-tweeter @ShellTerrell, I wanted to share a few of the great ways she and her fellow tweeps plan on using the new iPad in the classroom. I love crowdsourcing this kind of information. I’ve taken the liberty of using some of the many tweets and enhancing them to…

"An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail. Scientists made a great invention by..."

revadigital — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:23:23 -0400

“An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail. Scientists made a great invention by calling their activities hypotheses and experiments. They made it permissible to fail repeatedly until in the end they got the results they wanted. In politics or government, if you made a hypothesis and it didn’t work out, you had your head cut off.”

- Edwin Land

What It Takes To Innovate: Wrong-Thinking, Tinkering & Intuiting :: Articles :: The 99 Percent

I think school is the perfect place to embrace this type of experimentation of life. That is why we need to have less lesson planning and more question asking, more tinkering, more wondering, more being bored and confused, both by the teacher and the students. If we come into class every day with the answers it is hard to leave with anything new.

How often do you embrace the process of experimentation and process of true creative thought? Is your classroom a laboratory or a factory?

-adventures in learning

(via adventuresinlearning)

adventuresinlearning: royaltorch: When I first began my grad...

revadigital — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:21:50 -0400

adventuresinlearning:

royaltorch:

When I first began my grad program, I had to watch this video in order to complete an assignment for my Arts and Education course.

It’s been on my mind recently and with all my new education friends on here, I had to share.

:)

Watch this short but powerful video! I been thinking a lot about how adults’ fears impact our education system and how we interact with children… this video highlights it perfectly!

We’ve all seen the numerous comedic follow ups to...

revadigital — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:25:02 -0400

We’ve all seen the numerous comedic follow ups to “Shit Girls Say.” This video, by Britain’s nonprofit National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, smartly uses the cultural meme as a springboard to address the serious issue of child abuse. Take a look.

"Eighty percent of the jobs created in the next decade will require some mastery of technology, math,..."

revadigital — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:01:30 -0400

“Eighty percent of the jobs created in the next decade will require some mastery of technology, math, and science.”

- How Corporations Are Helping To Solve The Education Crisis | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation

10 Steps To Stealing Your Way To Creative Success

revadigital — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:57:58 -0400

10 Steps To Stealing Your Way To Creative Success :

I saw this band at Rockwood Music Hall in New York last fall and...

revadigital — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:46:00 -0400

I saw this band at Rockwood Music Hall in New York last fall and was blown away. I bought the CD and their songs “What Lies Within,” “Hail Mary Boy” and my favorite “Everywhere” have remained on rotation since. After waiting several months for them to return from touring overseas they came back to Rockwood last night and brought the house down. I was blown away again by Deva Mahal’s amazing voice (google this girl for more videos, you won’t be disappointed), Stephanie Brown’s vocal harmonies and melodic piano compositions, the duo’s knack for lyrical storytelling and the collective talents of their backing band mates on drums, guitar and saxaphone. And now, I want to share with you all Fredericks Brown…get into it.

Katy Perry - Ni**as In Paris (Cover). This is unexpected....

revadigital — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:53:00 -0400

Katy Perry - Ni**as In Paris (Cover). This is unexpected. Honestly, I braced myself for the worst just based on the idea. Have to say though, I’m impressed. What do you think? Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Angel-in-Training Investors in Boston funding women-led social ventures

revadigital — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:40:03 -0400

Angel-in-Training Investors in Boston funding women-led social ventures :

Below is a repost from Forbes.com about the Pipeline Fellowship program in Boston, an “angel-in-training” investor group that seeks to fund women-led social ventures. Read below or click the headline for the full article.

Our team of 10 women, angels-in-training, had sifted

through over sixty applications from for-profit, women-led social ventures and had selected nine businesses to invite to pitch to us at the 2012 Boston Pipeline Fellows Summit.

For its inaugural Boston class in late February, the Pipeline Fellowship, a woman-led social venture launched by Natalia Oberti Noguera that teaches women how to vet and invest in for-profit social ventures and also supports women social entrepreneurs, assembled a powerful team of 10 women with a wide range of complementary professional backgrounds.

Between us, we work in legal, finance, leadership psychology, market and investment research, business development, marketing, and community development. We also have a variety of industry-specific expertise. The nine businesses that presented at the 2012 Boston Pipeline Fellowship Pitch Summit had an interesting variety of social missions:

Combat2Careerhelps veterans find jobs or get into college.
iCreate to Educate‘s software enables kids’ learning in a new way.
The Green Life Guides enables green living.
Eve Echoprovides loans to women in ”challenged economies.”
Prosperity Candleempowers women refugees to become entrepreneurs
Buy with Heart creates an online marketplace for products of other social entrepreneurs.
Making Care Easier connects families caring for elderly parents.
Golden Health Guide provides expert reviews and ratings of home medical products.
AdhereTX enables health care providers and payers to manage medication in high risk patients.