Today’s Links: Some recent statistics on social media…

While our cities crumble, our virtual worlds thrive…

No. of users on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace
Twitter had 397,000 users in February, while Facebook had 26.6 million users and MySpace had 51.4 million users in May! Keywords: twitter, facebook, myspace

Online video is a mainstream media with significant social and viral spreading power: US survey
The results indicate that online video can now be considered a mainstream media: 57% of online adults have used the internet to watch or download video, 19% do so on a typical day. 76% of internet users age 18-29 watch or download video online. Keywords: video, youtube, statistics

Times Online on Microtrends: Lifecasting
A quick history lesson of lifecasting, from jennicam, to Justin.tv, to Catcam! Keywords: trends, lifecasting, history

WIRED: Clive Thompson on How Twitter Creates a Social Sixth Sense
It’s like proprioception, your body’s ability to know where your limbs are. That subliminal sense of orientation is crucial for coordination: It keeps you from accidentally bumping into objects, and it makes possible amazing feats of balance and dexterity Keywords: twitter, presence, social, media

When Mags Meet The Reaper
A new trend? More magazines end up closing shop. Magazinedeathpool.com, which launched in February, 2006, with the cheery greeting: "The beginning of the end is here." Keywords: magazines, trends, business, web

Pew Internet: China’s Online Population Explosion
There are now an estimated 137 million internet users in China, second in number only to the United States, where estimates of the current internet population range from 165 million to 210 million. Keywords: china, internet, statistics

Kevin

@Biao: Point well made... it's a case of quantity vs. quality (of ideas). Colbert fingered Keen as being an Elitist... I guess that pretty much sums it up. I do see his utility as an anti-hero much needed though. We need people like him to pacify the fanatics and to remind ourselves to pass reasoned judgement. Don't want a second dot.bomb now do we?
biao

Are you referring to Keen's argument that UGC is devaluing the paid media professions? If so then I would disagree. I kinda think Keen is a nut job.

I'm critical of the contest not so much that it doesn't try, but that I think it won't accomplish much. Making a successful web app doesn't require a 24 hour coding contest so much as perseverance, a supportive industry (VCs, IP lawyers) and a healthy dose of failure-tolerance. Ideas are a dime a dozen, it's the execution that counts.
Kevin

@Biao: Long time no see! :)
Hmm, a quick webapp coding contest. I'm going to be a bit critical here... Given light of Andrew Keen's recent debate, it's Singapore's way of churning out cheap labor and devaluing the programming profession. Just like how design contests let companies acquire masses of ideas at a fraction of the cost. It's crowdsourcing at its most sinister.
biao

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