I think this TED Talk by Iqbal Quadir is a poignant and powerful reminder that connectivity equals productivity. For those of us who use the web and smart mobile devices daily, it’s easy to forget just how much these enable greater productivity, even if some of our time is spent on more trivial or entertaining activities.

In this inspiring, embedded video, social entrepreneur Iqbal Quadir tells how his experiences as a kid in Bangladesh, and later as an investment banker in New York, led him to start a mobile phone operator connecting 80 million rural Bangladeshi.

In the process, he became a champion of bottom-up development, rather than giving increasing amounts of aid money to top down development, which seems not to be working very well, if at all. In fact, he maintains that it only empowers authorities to maginalise citizens. Even in countries that have grown rich from oil reserves, autocratic regimes have grown hugely wealthy, while poverty among citizens remains entrenched.

Enter Iqbal Quadir. Not long ago in Bangladesh, only one in 500 people had access to a telephone. Quadir points out that “Vasts amounts of wasted time results. The only way people can depend on each other is to connect to each other, which leads to productivity.”

Watch the video to find out how he overcame the significant hurdles involved in what turned out to be a massive connectivity project and business. How could poor people afford to use mobile phones? Who would invest in such a project in such a poor country? This video is a must see.

via Entrepreneur

Technorati Tags: business, connectivity, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, mobile, TED, video

Google has actually had real-time search for a while now, and has been improving it periodically. You may have read my previous post from May comparing 10 different real-time search engines, which included Google’s offering.

To recap, as they say in the embedded “How to” video, Google Realtime allows you to search real-time content from across the web. Sources include news stories, blog posts and social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz and Friendfeed. The real-time stream constantly and automatically refreshes, feeding in live content as it’s posted to the web.

Google Realtime features now include:

• The ability to look back in time to view updates from the past.
• The ability to refine your search by location – by town, state or country.
• The ability to browse a conversation (on Twitter for instance), to see how it developed over time.
• The ability to set up Google Alerts for real-time updates.

Personally, I really like the addition of being able to refine search by location. As in my previous real-time search engine comparison post, I searched under a favourite topic of mine, cleantech, and then refined the search just to Australia.  It came up with some interesting and useful results for me. I’ve previously said, as it’s not a new feature, that I also like the ability to be able to search historically. This remains true.

What are your thoughts on Google Realtime Search? Have you found yourself using it yet? Is it useful enough for you, or do you use another real-time search engine? Do you use real-time search at all?

Check the embedded video for the full set of new features in more detail and how to use them.

Thanks @warlach via @andrewsayer for the heads up this morning.

Technorati Tags: Google, real-time, search, video

In Silicon Valley just a few hours ago, Facebook held a event to announce the launch of the much anticipated Facebook Places. The embedded video is a full launch video replay from the live event, if you’d like to see what was said by Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook Places team and various partner companies.

For international users, it should be noted from the outset that Facebook Places will only be available in the US at first. Users outside the US will be able to see US Places posts on the web.

Amongst others, partner companies include Gowalla, Yelp and Foursquare. A representative from Gowalla detailed how Gowalla posts will be integrated into Places via the Places API. You can choose to attach an image to a post, as you can in Gowalla now. You’ll also be able to see Gowalla stamps in posts.

The Foursquare representative was less specific about how Foursquare will be integrated, to say the least. In fact you’d have to say he looked a little less than enthusiastic about the whole thing. But hey, how can you refuse to participate in having access to a location-based service that has access to a user–base of more than 500 million users, right?

It was explained at the launch that it is hoped that Facebook users will begin to discover serendipitous moments by checking in to places and finding that other friends are at the same location or nearby.

At first, Facebook Places will only be available on the Facebook application for iPhone and can also be accessed by “advanced mobile browers” (meaning those supporting HTML 5 and geolocation) at touch.facebook.com. Mark Zuckerberg said at the launch that there are not Android or Blackberry apps available yet. There are plans for these but no timeline.

In fact, Zuckerberg stated that there are quite a lot of things they aren’t doing with Places yet, including integrating Places with Facebook Events, which seems like a very obvious thing for them to do, especially as they have recently acquired Hot Potato. Zuckerberg said that they want to get things right before launching additional apps and features.

Facebook Places seems to be quite focused on including images and being able to tag friends who are with you when you check–in. You can also post a text update along with your check-in, as you can with most other location–based services.

There’s not a lot that’s new here, but it’s not really about that, is it? What’s significant is that it’s Facebook launching this location-based service. It’s going to be interesting to see just how many of the hundreds of millions of users start using this regularly. Not everyone has an iPhone or a mobile device capable of using the service, so there will be limited numbers to begin with, but still, Five. Hundred. Million. Users, and still growing.

For a full run–down of the features, check out Facebook’s blog post on the subject.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Facebook Places, Foursquare, Gowalla, location, location-based, Mark Zuckerberg

Well by now you’ve probably seen the trailer for the much anticipated, and apparently quite dark, movie about the founding of Facebook, The Social Network. Now comes a new spoof (there are others) of The Social Network trailer, complete with an excellent parody soundtrack.

The Twit Network trailer relentlessly lampoons Twitter’s flood of minutiae from people’s everyday lives. It begins with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey having a conversation with a friend which goes “I need to create a way to blog that is as random and incoherent as writing on a bathroom wall”. “Why”. “Because normal blogging is tedious and dumb and leads to fully formed ideas”.  I’m sure you get the picture. It’s funny :)

The parody trailer also begs the question, if  The Social Network turns out to be a box office success, will we one day see a feature film about Twitter too?

On a side note, as you can see from the tweet below, which is a quote from the video trailer, Twitter Co-founder Biz Stone seems to think it’s funny too.

via Mashable

Technorati Tags: Biz Stone, Facebook, Jack Dorsey, movie, parody, The Social Network, trailer, Twitter, video

Well, the full theatrical trailer is out for the much anticipated film ‘The Social Network’. The film is based on Ben Mezrich’s 2009 book: The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal (Amazon Associates link). As you can see from the embedded trailer, it stars Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg and Justin Timberlake as Napster cofounder Sean Parker.

It remains to be seen whether the film will be any good, or whether it will be a hit with critics and the public. No surprises for guessing whether Mark Zuckerberg will like it or not! I’ll certainly reserve any judgment until I actually see it. On paper the film seems to have quite a bit going for it so far. It’s directed by (previously Oscar nominated) David Fincher, who has directed such films as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Panic Room, Fight Club and Se7en. According to IMDB, also in pre-production is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. That said, direction is one thing, the writing has to be really good too.

Surprisingly, the film has been chosen by The New York Film Festival to be its opening night film. The New York Film Festival is known for not choosing mainstream American films, so that’s certainly a vote of confidence. The selection committee chair and program director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center apparently said that ‘The Social Network’ is the rare film that “powerfully captures the spirit of its time”.

Going by evidence in the trailer, the film doesn’t shy away from dealing with Facebook’s widely discussed (especially in the tech media) privacy issues. And as an aside, I think the choice of soundtrack for the trailer is brilliant. It’s a version of Radiohead’s Creep by Belgium girls choir Scala.

The trailer certainly does its job of making me want to see it (as if I was ever not going to). How about you, are you going to see it? It’ll be interesting to see just how successful this film will be at the box office. No doubt it will do pretty well as a digital download, torrent or otherwise.

UPDATE: I’ve just noticed that the hashtag #SocialNetwork has appeared as a Promoted Trending Topic on Twitter. Well that should grab the attention of quite a few social media users! I wonder if Sony Pictures will want to run Facebook ads too? I’m not sure Facebook would allow that. Would you if you were Mark Zuckerberg?

UPDATE 2: It appears order has been restored in the wider world. The international version of ‘The Social Network’ trailer has been released, and it includes Radiohead’s original lyric “so fucking special”, instead of the more sanitized “so very special” in the U.S. version; otherwise, the trailer is the same. If I may say, the “so very special” version never seemed right, not even in Radiohead’s sanitized version. And another thing, Trent Reznor scored the film and says “it’s really fucking good, And dark!”. If he says it’s dark, well, it must be dark.

Hat tip to TechCrunch for the international version update.

Technorati Tags: David Fincher, Facebook, Film, Justin Timberlake, Mark Zuckerberg, New York Film Festival, socail media, The Social Network, video

Okay, I like this, it’s good marketing. It’s the kind of marketing people actually like, which is uncommon to say the least.

Following the hugely popular and entertaining Old Spice 30 sec commercial (which really proves that to be viral or contagious it just has to be good), the Old Spice Guy is currently replying to well known people on Twitter with funny, personalized videos. The videos are getting a big kick-along with the addition of a paid Old Spice Promoted Trending Topic.

So far the video replies are mostly to influential and popular people and blogs, such as Kevin Rose, Ashton Kutcher, Perez Hilton, The Huffington Post, Gizmodo, Alyssa Milano, Jason Calacanis and many others, even to Twitter cofounder Biz Stone. Needless to say, tweets and links to videos are being passed around Twitter at an incredible rate. They are of course being embedded in many blogs too, including this one.

This is one of the best paid campaigns I’ve seen so far on Twitter (and YouTube). The copywriter(s) involved must be having a a lot of fun writing the quick response videos too!

Technorati Tags: Ashton Kutcher, Biz Stone, business, Gizmodo, Huffington Post, Kevin Rose, marketing, Old Spice, Perez Hilton, social media, Trending, Twitter, viral, YouTube

As you can see from the screenshot of the tweet from the Wikileaks Twitter profile below, recent rumors regarding the demise of Wikileaks appear to be false.

In case you are unaware, Wikileaks is an international organisation that publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of sensitive files from governments and other organisations. Amongst many other files, the whistleblower organisation was recently responsible for releasing the following shocking classified US military video footage showing the killing of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded. This video has now been seen by millions.

Technorati Tags: leaks, rumors, Twitter, video, Wikileaks

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage for an interview at The Wall Street Journal’s ‘D: All Things Digital’ (D8) conference recently. Needless to say, the questions focused on Facebook’s much discussed privacy issues.

No doubt you are aware that Facebook has been widely criticised lately for how it’s dealt with the privacy of its users’ information. Facebook has been accused of making privacy settings too difficult to understand for its more than 400 million users. In addition, on launch Facebook forced users to opt-out of the company’s new instant personalisation feature, rather than to opt-in.

It’s when Zuckerberg was faced with questions such as “Do you feel like it’s a backlash or do you feel like you’re violating people’s privacy?”, and “Do you feel like you’re adequately portrayed?” that Zuckerberg starts to look VERY uncomfortable indeed (first video, 3mins 20secs).

It’s clear that many people take their privacy pretty seriously when it comes to what they share on the web. Do you give Zuckerberg credit for facing the tough questions in front of an audience of very prominent and powerful tech and media industry people? Do you think he gives satisfactory answers to the privacy questions?

Technorati Tags: D8, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg

F5F6ZVHBEHK4 (Updated Technorati claim token, sorry for this being here, but it has to be in a visible post)

It’s going to be really interesting to see how this goes. Jack Dorsey’s new startup Square has now launched (just in the US at present) the Square app (iTunes link) that allows anyone with an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or Android phone to make easy credit card sales.

Anyone can accept credit card payments using the app combined with a small cube that plugs into the headphone jack, enabling credit cards to be swiped. The person paying signs their name with their finger on the touch screen and enters a phone number or email. A receipt is delivered via email or SMS.

The funds are settled with merchants each night instead of at the end of the month, and both the application and swiper are free. The app includes an online dashboard and analytics for the seller. The fee charged for each transaction is 2.75% plus 15 cents.

As far as security goes, users will be notified of any unauthourised use immediately, at the time of the transaction. A photo of the cardholder can also be associated with the account onscreen, so the seller can ID the cardholder visually at the time of purchase. The card number is not kept on file with the merchant, although an email or phone number is required for the transaction.

With so many touch screen devices around, and growing by the day, I think this form of mobile payment system has huge potential if it catches on. There are other companies also attempting to get into the mobile payment space too. Dorsey certainly has a track record of being involved in launching a successful start-up, not that Twitter is a profitable company yet, but tens of millions of people are using it.

Square has managed to get quite a lot of attention so far. It’s certainly got mine. I’m keen to try it out but I don’t expect it will be available in Australia any time soon.

What do you think of this new payment system? Do you think it’s something that you would find useful and would use on a regular basis?

Technorati Tags: android, iPhone, square

Further to my previous post about the Gulf oil spill in relation to social media, Google has launched a Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Crisis Response page. Every day a new Google Earth layer is being produced to track the spread of of the oil spill.

In addition, Google is encouraging people to help by volunteering during the crisis and by donating to the Alabama Coastal Foundation.

Interestingly, they are also attempting to crowdsource news by asking people to upload their own videos of the Gulf oil spill as the situation develops. The videos will automatically be fed back to the crisis page.

There is also a Deepwater Horizon oil spill page developing on Wikipedia, with a substantial and growing number of references. No doubt this will become a significant resource as the disaster continues to unfold.

Technorati Tags: Earth, Google, map, YouTube