Digital Media

Should you be one of those who believe that men are neanderthal, socially awkward hairy animals while women are socially aware, smoothly sensitive beings, then I have some statistics that might increase your estimation of your own superior judgment.

According to research by Brian Solis, sourcing his data from Google's Ad Planner, the majority of functioning beings on almost all social networking sites are women.

Published on Information Is Beautiful, the numbers might create an encouraging belief that if social networking is the future, then the future is female.

Solis's figures suggest that there is only one major social-networking site that is predominantly male: Digg. I know you'll recoil uncontrollably when I tell you that Digg appears to be 64 percent male.

(Credit: Information Is Beautiful)

On the other hand, LinkedIn and YouTube seem to enjoy an equality of fraternity and sorority. While Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, Flickr and MySpace, to name but a few, are all, like the population of Brazil, queendoms.

Perhaps the most extraordinary numbers come from MySpace. Somehow, the rather messy nature of the site, the tradition of an excess of spam and porn, might suggest that this was a male-oriented (slightly sleazy males, some might imagine) haven.

These numbers, however, suggest that MySpace is 64 percent female. Which makes one ruminate as to why the home page currently has so much blue and so little fuchsia.

It will be tempting, indeed, for many to put these figures down to traditional psychological differences between the sexes: women like people and men like, well, peeing in public.

However, one might also conclude that women simply resort to more virtual contact because their real world physical everyday life leaves them rather more dissatisfied than it does men.

Lately there seems to have been much evidence that women are increasingly miserable.

Celebrated and, one might have imagined, happy women such as Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post (The Sad Shocking Truth of How Women Are Feeling) and Maureen Dowd of The New York Times (Blue is the New Black) have lamented the lot of Lot's Wife, Mother, Sister and Daughter.

Might misery be driving women to MySpace?

Blu-ray players are becoming a hot item in the living room, but they have yet to attract much attention in the office, according to a new report from iSuppli.

The market research firm found that 3.6 percent of PCs shipped in 2009 will feature Blu-ray players. By 2013, the company expects 16.3 percent of PCs to sport a high-def drive. During that period, DVDs will still reign supreme.

"BDs won't be replacing DVDs as the primary optical drive in PC systems through at least the year 2013," Michael Yang, senior analyst for storage and mobile memory at iSuppli said in a statement. "They eventually will find success, but during the next five years, that success will be limited in the PC segment."

iSuppli believes that Blu-ray's lack of adoption in the PC market is centered on two main factors: a relatively small number of available movies and the cost of adding a Blu-ray drive to PCs. iSuppli said its findings suggest consumers will be more likely to add Blu-ray drives to their PCs once the cost of those drives decreases.

Although the results weren't ideal for the Blu-ray Disc Association, iSuppli said that they're not uncommon. According to the company, new media formats in PCs have enjoyed success only when the cost has decreased to a suitable level. That success also depends on whether or not consumers feel the technology's value proposition is high enough.

iSuppli cited the 3.5-inch floppy's 15-year lifespan as proof that consumers will use media as long as they perceive value. Currently, those same consumers believe there is more value derived from DVD drives.

Oh, Wikipedia. Have you really become just another political organization?

I only ask because some clever people with nothing better to do have dedicated their bright gray matter to poring through Wikipedia's pages and drawing conclusions. The members of the Augmented Cognition Research Group at the Palo Alto Research Center could probably solve health care over a nonfat latte and a blueberry scone. Instead, they have examined who makes edits on Wikipedia and whose edits are reversed.

It makes for the same kind of dispiriting reading that you might once have expected from a Politburo travel brochure. You see, it appears that a hierarchy has emerged at Wiki Central, one that seems to have a significant influence in what is published and, indeed, what is removed.

These days, there are between 650,000 and 810,00 active editors of the world's most beloved unofficial encyclopedia, figures that suggest Wikipedia activity has plateaued rather than grown. And this has been accompanied by a jostling for authority that reminds one only of, well, Congress. You know, the place where senior senators seem to be able to get away with, well, I was going to say "murder," but that would be inappropriate until proven.

Has Jimmy Wales become Nancy Pelosi?

(Credit: CC KerryJ.com/Flickr)

The researchers seem convinced that editors who make more than 100 edits per month are less likely to have their entries reversed than those who contribute fewer. The group that contributes more than 1,000 edits per month (when was the last time these people saw the sky?) are enthusiastic about acting as the factual bible-writers of our time, to say the least. Between 2005 and 2008, their average number of edits has increased from 1,740 to 2,095.

The boys from Palo Alto seem to believe that those in the editing oligarchy rarely have their contributions deleted, or reverted, as seems to be the parlance. However, those who occasionally take a step away from their normal lives to make an entry are far more likely to have their contributions incised.

The researchers, led by Ed H. Chi, concluded: "We consider this as evidence of growing resistance from the Wikipedia community to new content, especially when the edits come from occasional editors."

It seems, from the Palo Altans' brightly colored graphs, that elite editors only have their work questioned 1 percent of the time, whereas occasional editors can now expect a 15 percent deletion rate.

Oh, Lordy. It's just like the Senate, isn't it? The bigwigs know best, control the most important committees, and generally swan around in limos with the finest companions of the day and night. All the while, the junior senators toil for influence, beg for their voices to be heard, and dream of becoming senior senators.

The Guardian newspaper offered this plaintive quote from a frustrated junior editor, Aaron Schwarz: "There's no place on Wikipedia that says: 'Want to become a Wikipedia editor? Here's how you do it.' Instead, you basically have to really become part of that community and pick it up through osmosis and have the tradition passed down to you."

Oh, why can't people find a more beautiful way to organize themselves? This is the only knowledge our children will ever have. I mean, we don't really expect any of them to read books on a Kindle, do we?

A few days ago, the Pew Research Center released a report that Americans are looking online to fight the recession. On Tuesday it added that most of us are doing that via wireless Internet.

The results of the center's Internet & American Life Project survey show that 56 percent of adult Americans have accessed the Internet via wireless means, such as a Wi-Fi laptop, a mobile device, a game console, or an MP3 player. The most popular way people get online wirelessly is with a laptop computer, numbering 39 percent of some 2,200 survey participants.

The report also revealed the rising levels of Americans using the Internet on a mobile handset. Almost one-third (32 percent) have used a cell phone or a smartphone to access the Internet for e-mailing, instant messaging, or reading news.

For comparison, only 24 percent of Americans had done this by December 2007. Now, in a typical day, nearly one-fifth (19 percent) of Americans use the Internet on a mobile device, up substantially from the 11 percent level recorded in December 2007.

The cell phone's main purpose as a voice device has changed substantially. According to the report, in 2009, 69 percent say that they have used the cell phone for at least one of the non-voice activities.

These activities include text messaging, taking a picture, playing a game, accessing the Internet, recording video, instant messaging, playing music, getting maps or directions, and watching video. Back in 2007, only 58 percent did this.

The usage of of non-voice activities on a typical day has also increased from only 32 percent in 2007 to 44 percent in 2009. Half of Americans now think that the ability to access the Internet via their mobile devices is vital to how they stay in touch with people.

These changes in the way we access the Internet are hardly surprising, especially with the proliferation in recent years of smartphones that come with advanced Internet capabilities, such as the iPhone or the Palm Pre.

Personally, I read most of my e-mails via my iPhone 3G and I use it mostly for non-voice purposes. How about you?

Rachael was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003. After surgery and beginning the onslaught of radiation therapy, she went online to search for information--"lurking," she calls it. What she found was much more than scientific information about her disease.

"Here was a community of ladies who had been there, done that," she said. "A real treat when you are overwhelmed and stressed to your limits."

Now, six years later, Rachael (who for purposes of anonymity prefers not to use her last name) is an active member of health information site WebMD. She checks in several times throughout the day and has written literally thousands of posts on medical information, personal experiences, or simple consolatory messages.

She's also just one the 61 percent of American adults who look online for medical advice and information, according to "The Social Life of Health Information," a report released Thursday by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project and the California HealthCare Foundation.

This report shows that more Americans are reading commentaries about medical issues, consulting rankings or reviews of doctors, or listening to health-related podcasts.

A smaller group of so-called e-patients, 20 percent, actively post comments and reviews on different online list-servs, blogs, or message boards. Rachael, for example, fits into this group. "We are beginning to see e-patients turning to interactive features both to help them find information tailored to their needs and to post their own contributions," said Susannah Fox, co-author of the report and associate director of Pew's Internet & American Life Project.

In 2000, 25 percent of American adults looked online for health information. Now, it's more than double and the majority are happy with the results they find, according to the report. Only a small portion of e-patients, 3 percent, say they or someone they know has been harmed by following medical advice found on the Internet.

It seems only natural that more people are turning to the Internet for health information because the entire medical landscape is also beginning to go digital. Hospitals and insurance companies, like Kaiser Permanente, are moving toward entirely paperless digital-only records, and in February, President Obama signed a stimulus bill that gives $19 billion to hospitals to improve their technology efforts.

Also, online health digitization goes hand-in-hand with social networking. Sydney Jones, co-author of the report and research assistant at the Pew Internet Project, points out that "the early Internet provided e-patients online tools that enabled research. Now the mobile, social Internet enables connection and conversation." These online conversations can be with other patients, doctors, pharmacists, and other health care providers.

Even though more Americans are using social networking or looking online for health-related information, the Internet still comes in third (tied with books) for sources that people turn to for assistance. According to the report, people are still going to doctors first and talking to friends or family members second.

"They treat the Internet as a supplement to traditional sources of information," said Fox, "using blogs, podcasts, and other online resources to deepen their understanding of a condition and sharpen their questions for a health professional."

In essence, this is why Rachael was drawn to her online community, she found an enhancement to the traditional information she was getting. "These individuals held out their hands to 'newbies,' gave all shoulders to cry on," she said. "Finding all the members not only receptive, but giving and caring kept me returning."

Those of us who pay to watch online video on our mobile devices are about to be joined by a lot more people.

The number of users globally paying for mobile video and TV services is expected to jump to 534 million by 2014, a five-fold increase from 2008, says a report released Thursday by market researcher Pyramid Research. Much of the recent growth has been fueled by increased bandwidth, lower data costs, and more advanced handheld devices, and that trend will continue.

(Credit: Pyramid Research)

In the report, mobile video includes paid video clips, music videos, TV episodes, TV programming, and online movies that are delivered directly to a mobile device.

In the U.S. alone, Pyramid estimates that revenue from mobile video services will reach $16 billion by 2014. However, much of the demand will come from Europe and Asia/Pacific.

"The availability of improved devices and networks are contributing to a higher level of adoption and spending on mobile video services," says Derek Medlin, senior analyst at Pyramid Research and author of the report. "Pyramid Research believes that a substantial proportion of mobile Net additions in the next five years will come from emerging markets, especially in Asia/Pacific, and will drive a 37 percent growth in total mobile subscriptions from 2009 to 2014."

In the Asia/Pacific region, countries such as Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea already lead the way in the number of mobile video subscriptions. However, Pyramid also forecasts higher growth from India and the LATAM region over the next five years.

"Looking ahead, Asia/Pacific will remain in the top spot, attaining more than 281 million subscriptions by 2014," says Medlin in the report, "although we expect Latin America to grow at the fastest pace, increasing at a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 39 percent from 2009 to 2014."

Companies are likely to challenge the Amazon Kindle by unveiling cheaper, more versatile e-readers, moving beyond books, and striking better deals with publishers, according to a report released Monday by Forrester Research.

"Amazon.com, leveraging its position as a dominant book retailer, has catalyzed the market for eBooks, but that's just the beginning of the eReader revolution," writes Forrester media and technology analyst Sarah Rotman Epps in the report. "Competitors will attack Amazon's market position by launching new features, expanding content beyond books, dominating markets outside the U.S., reducing costs, and improving relationships with publishers."

The eReader market has been hot, notes the report, thanks to consumers who are hungry for portable and convenient media devices. Around 14.9 million U.S. households regularly buy books online. Among that group, 48 percent earn more than $70,000 a year and spend $28 a month on books, half of them online.

Though Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader have carved out the biggest chunk of the market--Forrester estimates sales for the two units hit the million-dollar mark for 2008--other companies have entered the fray. Fujitsu has released a color e-reader in Japan, while Samsung plans to unveil a touchscreen e-reader in South Korea this year. In Europe, Irex Technologies makes a versatile line of e-readers with touchscreens and Wi-Fi.

The Kindle's limitations also pave the way for newcomers, says Forrester. The Kindle is geared toward reading books, but other content can work on an e-reader, including textbooks, newspapers, magazines, comics, and even blogs. Much of that will fuel the need for larger screens, color displays, and the ability to highlight text and write notes. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has warned not to expect a color Kindle for many years.

Besides color and bigger screens, the competition will try to distinguish itself from the Kindle by offering touchscreens, animation, and eventually video. Forrester expects color displays to be available by the end of 2010, with video following in 2011 or 2012. The Kindle's lack of social networking also is a weakness, says the report, since people who buy books often like to discuss them with others and offer their reviews and recommendations.

There are other areas where the Kindle faces competition, notes Forrester. Amazon's price tags--$359 for the Kindle 2 and $489 for the Kindle DX--are beyond the budgets of many consumers. Even Sony's e-readers start at $299. With a decent Netbook selling for $300, the report says, e-reader prices will need to come down.

The Kindle is a sales hit in U.S. but lags throughout the rest of the world. Sony and other companies, such as Fujitsu and Irex Technologies, are better positioned to gain from higher worldwide demand for e-readers.

Publishers also have a love/hate relationship with Amazon, says Forrester. They love the Kindle as another profitable way to package their content. But they don't like the way Amazon hoards 70 percent of the profits, leaving publishers with only a 30 percent cut. The report expects other e-reader vendors to slice out better deals with publishers.

Overall, the next five years should see even stronger demand for electronic reading devices, says Forrester, with a large portion of that driven by students once textbooks are more prevalent on the portable format. Global demand, which now adds up to one-third of all e-reader sales, is likely to surge as well.

Research company In-Stat also predicts a soaring e-reader market ahead. As more e-readers are produced, their raw manufacturing costs will drop by 23 percent between 2009 and 2013, according to a new In-Stat report. Technology also will improve, the research firm says: today's e-readers use display technology from E Ink, but the future may see OLED screens to deliver higher-quality readers.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is one of the big Blu-ray releases slated for later this year.

Blu-ray detractors and backers, here's the latest status report on the format:

According to Adams Media Research, about 9 million Blu-ray discs sold in the U.S. from January through March--up from 4.8 million units sold in the first quarter of last year.

As Bill Hunt over at The Digital Bits says, those numbers are particularly good considering the ongoing recession and the relatively weak title slate early in the year. He adds that the overall rollout for the format is slightly behind DVD "due to the recession," but ahead of VHS.

Adams is also reporting that there are 10.5 million Blu-ray "households." That figure includes both standalone Blu-ray players and Blu-ray-enabled PlayStation 3s.

Here's what I think: With cheaper Blu-ray players on the way and a better slate of Blu-ray discs on tap for later this year, the format's future appears relatively bright. But detractors will surely point to the high price of Blu-ray discs, as well as improvements in digital downloads and streaming services as continued stumbling blocks.

Comments? Is Blu-ray in good shape or doomed to fail?

(Source: Video Business via The Digital Bits)

Here I am using my two unread newspapers as a thick place mat for my Christmas Eve Chinese lunch, and what should cross my desk: a new Pew study showing that the Internet has surpassed newspapers as Americans' main source for national and international news.

How appropriate--albeit a little sad for this ol' school journalist who still romanticizes about the days when you could truly stop the presses.

(Credit: Pew Research Center for the People & the Press)

Some 40 percent of those surveyed by Pew Research for the People & the Press say they get most of their international and national news from the Internet, up from 24 percent in September 2007. Internet coverage of the presidential campaign--much of it buoyed by social networks--was likely the reason for that recent growth.

(Credit: Pew Research Center for the People & the Press)

TV, however, continues to be cited most frequently as a main source for international and national news, according the study.

Other interesting findings of Pew's News Interest Index are the top news stories of 2008. The economy took the top spot, followed by rising gas prices and the debate over the Wall Street bailout.

Click here (PDF) for more details on the study.