Posts from — December 2007
10 Internet statistics you should know
Priscilla at Solidariti has a post about the 10 statistics she reports on monthly to her organisation’s board:
These are the stats I report on to our board’s web sub-committee, staff, and database/IT volunteers to give them a quick snapshot of how we’re doing …
Quick, list the Internet stats your community organisation records each month. How does your list compare to Priscilla’s list?
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December 15, 2007 No Comments
Engage Your Community in 2008
On Tuesday, 22 April 2008 there’s a one-day conference in Hamilton, New Zealand called Engage Your Community:
Using Blogs, YouTube and other Cool Tools to achieve your group’s goals
Do you want to know how your tangata whenua, community or voluntary group / organisation can connect with volunteers, staff, and other stakeholders more easily, immediately and efficiently?
Do you want to learn to use the internet for fundraising, collaborating, promotion, advocacy, cost-cutting, service provision, and more?
And do all this with very little technical knowledge and at very little cost (often free)? Then read … www.webguide.net.nz/engage-your-community.
…You can also help shape the conference and make sure it meets your organisation’s needs by completing a quick online survey.
By completing the survey right away, you can also go into the draw for two $50 Farmer’s vouchers.
December 13, 2007 No Comments
When your ‘competitors’ are on YouTube
A disturbing report reveals that many people are sourcing health information from YouTube, and that many of the videos express views contradictory to national guidelines.
That’s fine: free and vigorous debate is a good thing. Allowing people to express opinions is held up as a cornerstone of democracy. Sometimes people just don’t agree with what the Government thinks may be good for them.
But where it becomes a concern is when the general public treat inherently unreliable sources of information as authoritative and inherently credible. YouTube as a source of definitive health information? This so-called authority is what Scott Adams often refers to as ‘some guy on the Internet‘1.
YouTube breeding ground for anti-vaccination views:
[Researchers] analyzed 153 videos about vaccination and immunization on YouTube, a popular online video-sharing site. … a staggering 45 per cent contained messages that contradict the 2006 Canadian Immunization Guide, which provides national guidelines for immunization practices.
…”YouTube is increasingly a resource people consult for health information, including vaccination … Our study shows that a significant amount of immunization content on YouTube contradicts the best scientific evidence at large. From a public health perspective, this is very concerning.”
The research team also found that videos skeptical of vaccinations — many of them highly provocative and powerful — received more views and better ratings by YouTube users than those videos that portray immunizations in a positive light.
While this specific report is about vaccinations and immunisation, and so will be of concern to health workers in New Zealand too, what other topics are being ‘discussed’ via YouTube?
YouTube is enormously popular, all around the globe. Kiwis watch YouTube videos too. Our community organisations can’t afford to ignore it, or to be ignorant of it.
1The Dilbert Blog: Nobel Prize:
The economics prize should be mine for my discovery that everything you need to know about investing can be put in nine bullet points. And I’m not the only one who thinks that. There’s also “some guy on the Internet” who agrees.
December 7, 2007 No Comments
3 billion cellphones in use
Cellphones are increasingly popular, and increasingly being used in ways that previously ‘belonged’ to computers. They are a device to be taken seriously. In some countries it’s common to have more than one cellphone.
Since the first Nordic Mobile Telephony (NMT) networks were switched on in 1981 in Saudi Arabia, Sweden and Norway, mobile phones have become the consumer electronics sector with the largest volume of sales in the world.
…According to the International Programs Center of the US Census Bureau, the total population of the world reached 6,634,294,193 yesterday.
At the same time 2,571,563,279 people were using the most widely used mobile technology, GSM (Global System for Mobile communications), according to global trade body GSM Association.
The second largest mobile technology, CDMA, had 421.4 million users at end September.
Telecom is the only mobile provider in New Zealand currently using CDMA technology.
Cellphones are becoming increasingly popular and important in countries where power grids and landline phone wires have not penetrated. A cellphone can allow farmers to check on market prices before carrying their goods to market, allowing them to increase their earnings, for example.
December 2, 2007 No Comments
