How web-based social networks has influenced its area ?

Instagram & Twitter

The intensive use of digital social media by social movement actors is an emerging trend that is restructuring the communication dynamics of social protest, and is widely acknowledged to have contributed to the successful mobilisations of recent movements (e.g. Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street). Yet our understanding of both the roles played by the social movement's use of social media and the extent of its impact comes largely from anecdotal evidence, media reports, and the media's own experience of social protest. 

Buying Instagram followers is the quickest way to go from being a social media nobody to a somebody (if by somebody you mean someone with a lot of fake followers and also someone able to publish fake news). Lots of major celebrities have been caught with fake Twitter followers, but the practice persists, and it’s a major problem on Instagram too. Buying followers is incredibly easy – the influencer pays a service anywhere from $10-$1,000 for hundreds of likes, and simply watches their follower count tick up.

A study on Twitter, found a significant imbalance in terms of the size of communities interested in different health conditions, regardless of the seriousness of these conditions. Improving the informativeness of tweets by using, for example, URLs, multimedia and mentions can be important factors in promoting health conditions on Twitter. Using hashtags on the contrary is less effective. Social network analysis revealed similar structures of the discussion found across different health conditions.

Sources :

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00038-018-1192-5

https://hmi.marketing/the-truth-about-influence-on-instagram/

From the earlier history of the Internet

 

                2 technologies from the earlier history of the Internet (before the Web, or pre-1991 period) 

                    - one which has become obsolete and been replaced by more modern things, and 

                    - another which survives to this day. 

                                                                                    The CD

Who uses CD's anymore? And for that matter, VHS and cassette tapes. Thanks to the MP3 and MP4 we don't even need things that go in disc drives to watch TV shows or movies. In fact who even needs a disc drive?

The 1990s are characterised by the dominance of the compact disc and the resulting spike in income in the music industry.  The 12 cm CD transformed the industry and the way consumers experienced music, representing a fundamental shift from analogue to digital technology.While the CD began to lose importance at the beginning of the 21st century, it inadvertently established a digital culture, one that is now embedded in society through streaming and downloads. The 1990s represents a time in history when digital technology and the Internet's ability to support file sharing revolutionised the music industry. 

                 The Fax

    Having experienced a boom in the sixties, the fax rapidly developed among private individuals, and especially in companies, many of which still use it. For legal or HR departments, and for health, real estate or finance professionals, the fax remains the best means of communication to combine efficiency and legal enforceability. It is therefore the preferred channel for sending important documents in complete security and reliability.

    Although email is fast, it is still strictly forbidden to use it to send personal data or official documents in many countries. While this practice is legal via the fax channel.

Admittedly, sales have fallen heavily but "the market is far from having disappeared". In Japan, the fax is still widely used. In Europe too, but to a lesser extent.

It was said to be condemned to gather dust in attics and museums. Twenty years after the arrival of the Internet, however, the fax has not yet retired, even if its horizon has narrowed.

Source :https://www.sudouest.fr/2015/06/28/vingt-ans-apres-l-arrivee-d-internet-le-fax-fait-de-la-resistance-1971883-4725.php

           

Moments from IT History

Sometimes it happens, that an initially promising idea or product fails when launched. It may happen for both obvious and not so obvious reasons, but either way, companies should learn their lesson or they may never recover from the failure. 

This is Week 1 of SPEAIT2021 course and I would like to tell you about three IT-related products that failed.

3D TV

Following the film "Avatar", and its huge success, manufacturers have tried to introduce 3D into the communal lives or living rooms of private individuals. Announced as the new fashion this technologist 'did not have the expected success. In short, at the beginning of 2016 the two groups Samsung and Philips gave up manufacturing these televisions. This was followed by LG and Sony in January 2017.

At the high-tech trade fairs in Las Vegas and Berlin in 2009, the first 3D televisions caused a sensation, and although sales of such devices were initially flourishing, the decline came quickly. According to the GfK institute, 1.3 million 3D TVs were sold in France in 2014, and only 800,000 the following year. At issue: the lack of 3D content, whether on TV channels or in the DVD department. Another concern: 3D glasses are often too expensive, uncomfortable, tiring and incompatible with certain screens. They can be accepted at the cinema for the duration of a film but less so at home, where you often do several things at the same time and leave the television in the background.

Nowadays, the battle is fought on 4K TV or virtual reality (with headphones on).

Source : https://www.boursorama.com/boursoramag/actualites/televiseurs-3d-les-raisons-d-un-echec-41193e253d8bc34a5cbe05ef8a36f031

Google Glasses

Google Glass' dream quickly gave way to disillusionment as early users found that it offered less than it promised - and users became the target of shame from privacy-conscious outsiders. 

This product promised to be revolutionary, changing our habits as the iPhone and smartphones did in their time. Alas, connected glasses failed to find their audience and the project seems to be coming to an end in January 2015.

Google has been able to learn that this technology is not suitable (for the moment) for general public use. On the other hand, professional use is not devoid of interest.

A recent report by Forrester Research predicts that by 2025, nearly 14.4 million American workers will be wearing smart glasses, and it turns out that with Glass, Google initially developed something with a promising technology and in its first effort to introduce it, it failed to understand who could use it best and what it should do. Glass is not a trendy way to hang applications in front of your eyeballs, but a tool.

Source : -https://www.wired.com/story/google-glass-2-is-here/?mbid=social_twitter

              -https://www.contrepoints.org/2017/09/11/298453-lechec-google-glass-sest-transforme-succes

Google ARA

The Ara project aimed to produce modular, mobile, multifunctional smartphones composed of removable modules (blocks). Each module or block has a specific function (digital camera, screen, processor, etc.). The project was launched by Motorola in 2013.

The selling points of the box were that it would be an economical, ecological and customizable device.3 sizes were to be proposed (from 3 to 6 inches) and the modules would also exist in three different sizes. This smartphone project was cancelled on 2 September 2016 by Google.

This suspension of Project Ara is part of Google's efforts to unify its activities in computer hardware, ranging from Chromebook laptops to Nexus phones.

However, manufacturing it would have been a complex and costly process, says Bob O'Donnell, president of TECHnalysis Research, who is not surprised to see Google abandon the project. "It's a failed science experiment and they're moving on," he said.

Source : - https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projet_Ara

              - https://www.lesechos.fr/2016/09/google-arrete-le-projet-ara-211914