Put The Phone Down

As more issues are being raised these days about appropriate uses of technology and social media, there are some that should be obvious at this point. Less than two weeks after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger outlawed texting for California drivers, a new report has come out revealing that the engineer driving the commuter train that crashed September 12th, sent a text message 22-seconds before the crash. The accident killed 25 people and injured 130 others.

I salute Gov. Schwarzenegger for his steps towards protecting people, but no amount of laws will cover every circumstance. Common sense should be our first line of defense when thinking about appropriate uses for how we use all the tools that the social media world is bringing us.

iTunes Music Store To Shut Down

No, not really. I don't think anyone believes this one, but Apple is threatening to close the iTunes music store if music royalty rates increase. Tomorrow, the Copyright Royalty Board will be voting on a substantial increase in the royalty rate paid to record labels. Apple already pays $0.70 per song to the labels and since record labels don't want to cover the costs, an increase would most likely force them to raise the consumer's price, making the current $0.99 model an unprofitable one.

In a related story, Warner Music's CEO said that Guitar Hero and Rock Band should pay more money to labels to use their songs in the games. Activision's CEO quickly responded that it should be the other way around. Due to the immense popularity of the video games, labels are receiving free promotion, a new avenue to market the music, and as a result have seen huge jumps in album sales of their back catalog (many albums have jumped 200%, 300%, and even 1000% in sales after being featured in the games).

What I see in these two situations is the record labels scrambling around and loosing sight of the bigger picture. Instead of panicking about how to make money and trying to squeeze cash out of everyone, the labels need to understand that they have to start looking at their business model differently. How about instead of labels trying to get more money for their songs in Rock Band, they set up a system that would allow gamers to click on a song they are playing, enter a music store, download an album to their XBox, search similar artists, and alert their friends list what music they bought. Maybe gamers could be alerted when the artist they are rocking out to is coming to their town in concert? I came up with these ideas in 30 seconds, and I would really hope there are more creative minds than mine out there at the labels. The new world of marketing is all about social media and tapping into its potential. The point is this: Labels will die if they don't start innovating new ways to stay alive.

The Top 50 Tweeples

Sarah Evans is compiling a list of the Top 50 People to Follow on Twitter. You can give your input here.

The contest has generated a lot of chatter on Twitter so far with over 600 participants and over 1,000 people nominated. Peter Shankman of HARO and Mashable have promoted it.

Looking for someone to nominate? Look here.

YouTube: Making Cheating Viral

I knew this would happen. Not to boast, but I did. Drudge linked to a story from The Chicago Sun-Times on how kids are spreading cheating tactics through YouTube.

From the article:
‘‘I know it’s not a good thing to cheat,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s academic dishonesty, blah, blah, blah. But I think everyone has at least done it once.’’

Kiki’s video is one of several dozen on the popular Internet site YouTube that show detailed ways to cheat on tests. Students no longer conceal answers in the sole of a shoe or the underside of a baseball cap’s bill. In the age of continual access to the Internet and laser-precision printers, cheating has gone high-tech.

And some techniques, like Kiki’s, come with a guarantee.

‘‘This is 98 percent effective,’’ she said. ‘‘Hopefully, any of my teachers don’t see this video. It would be very awkward.’

While this is a resource for students to discover new ways of cheating, it should also be a valuable resource for teachers. This is the information age, where you can learn about anything you want with a simple Google search.

The video below has over 2 Million views. With all the time that this kid spent making the video, he probably could have just studied and would have ended up knowing the material just as well without cheating....