miércoles, 19 de enero de 2011

Preguntas Twitter

1. ¿Para qué se utiliza este sitio?


"Twitter es un sitio web de microblogging que permite a sus usuarios enviar y leer microentradas de texto de una longitud máxima de 140 caracteres denominados tweets. El envío de estos mensajes se puede realizar tanto por el sitio web de Twitter, como vía SMS (short message service) desde un teléfono móvil, desde programas de mensajería instantánea o incluso desde cualquier aplicación de terceros, como por ejemplo Turpial, Twidroid, Twitterrific, Tweetie, Facebook, etc.

Estas actualizaciones se muestran en la página de perfil del usuario, y también se envían de forma inmediata a otros usuarios que han elegido la opción de recibirlas. A estos usuarios se les puede restringir el envío de estos mensajes sólo a miembros de su círculo de amigos o permitir su acceso a todos los usuarios, que es la opción por omisión." (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter)

2. ¿Lo habían usado algunas vez? Y si es así con qué frecuencia lo usan?

Nunca he utilizado Twitter.

3. ¿Conoce algún sitio similar y cuál?

Entre los sitios similares a Twitter se encuentran identi.ca, bentio.com, Jaiku, NotePub, Qaiku y Google Buzz.

4. ¿Cree que es un sitio seguro? ¿Y por qué?

Creo que Twitter es tan seguro como cualquier otra red social; si el usuario es cuidadoso respecto a la información que provee y las páginas que accede, no será un problema el que la utilice. Aunque Twitter contiene perfiles con links peligrosos (virus, por ejemplo), un uso adecuado de la página puede prevenir cualquier daño al usuario. Como muchas otras redes sociales, Twitter vende su información a terceros e informa a sus usuarios al respecto. Esto significa que el usuario debe estar dispuesto a concederle este derecho cuando cree su cuenta y de este depende cuidar la información y los tweets que publica. Creo que la seguridad de una red social como Twitter está basada casi por completo en el usuario (si crea una cuenta o no, si cuida la información que publica tras crear la cuenta y si sabe protegerse de virus y perfiles peligrosos).

5. Investigue cuántas visitas recibe diariamente.

"Twitter is now averaging 15 million per month, or around 500,000 each and every day." Taken from: http://www.tgdaily.com/software-brief/52284-twitter-on-pace-to-reach200-million-users-by-201 1

6. ¿Cuál es la historia de éste sitio?

"Invention

Twitter's origins lie in a "daylong brainstorming session" that was held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo. While sitting in a park on a children’s slide and eating Mexican food, Jack Dorsey introduced the idea of an individual using an SMS service to communicate with a small group.[12] The original project code name for the service was twttr, inspired by Flickr and the five character length of American SMS short codes. The developers initially considered "10958" as a short code, but later changed it to "40404" for "ease of use and memorability."[13] Work on the project started on March 21, 2006, when Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 9:50 PM Pacific Standard Time (PST): "just setting up my twttr."[14]

[W]e came across the word "twitter," and it was just perfect. The definition was "a short burst of inconsequential information," and "chirps from birds." And that’s exactly what the product was.

—Jack Dorsey[15]

The first Twitter prototype was used as an internal service for Odeo employees and the full version was introduced publicly on July 15, 2006.[6] In October 2006, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Dorsey, and other members of Odeo formed Obvious Corporation and acquired Odeo and all of its assets–including Odeo.com and Twitter.com–from the investors and shareholders.[16] Twitter spun off into its own company in April 2007.[17]

Reaction

The tipping point for Twitter's popularity was the 2007 South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. During the event Twitter usage increased from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000.[18] "The Twitter people cleverly placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways, exclusively streaming Twitter messages," remarked Newsweek's Steven Levy. "Hundreds of conference-goers kept tabs on each other via constant twitters. Panelists and speakers mentioned the service, and the bloggers in attendance touted it."[19]

Reaction at the festival was highly positive. Blogger Scott Beale said that Twitter "absolutely rul[ed]" SXSW. Social software researcher Danah Boyd said Twitter "own[ed]" the festival.[20] Twitter staff received the festival's Web Award prize with the remark "we'd like to thank you in 140 characters or less. And we just did!"[21]

The first unassisted off-Earth Twitter message was posted from the International Space Station by NASA astronaut T. J. Creamer on January 22, 2010.[22] By late November 2010 an average of a dozen updates per day was posted on the astronauts' communal account, @NASA_Astronauts.

In August 2010, the company appointed Adam Bain as President of Revenue from News Corp. Fox Audience Network.[23]

On September 14, 2010, Twitter launched a redesigned site including a new logo.[24]

Leadership

As CEO, Dorsey saw the startup through two rounds of funding by the venture capitalists who back the company.[25] On October 16, 2008[26] Williams took over the role of CEO, and Dorsey became chairman of the board.[27] On October 4, 2010, Williams announced that he was stepping down as CEO. Dick Costolo, formerly COO of Twitter, took over Williams' position. Williams will stay with the company and “be completely focused on product strategy.”[28]

Growth

Twitter had 400,000 tweets posted per quarter in 2007. This grew to 100 million tweets posted per quarter in 2008. By the end of 2009, two billion tweets per quarter were being posted.[citation needed] In February 2010 Twitter users were sending 50 million tweets per day.[29] By March 2010, Twitter recorded over 70,000 registered applications, according to the company.[30] In the first quarter of 2010, 4 billion tweets were posted.[citation needed] As of June 2010, about 65 million tweets are posted each day, equaling about 750 tweets sent each second, according to Twitter.[31] Twitter has experienced rapid growth as noted on Compete.com, Twitter has moved up to the 3rd highest ranking social networking site in January 2009 from its previous rank of 22nd.[32]

Twitter's usage spikes during prominent events. For example, a record was set during the 2010 FIFA World Cup when fans wrote 2,940 tweets per second in the 30 second period after Japan scored against Cameroon on 14 June 2010. The record was broken again when 3,085 tweets a second were posted after the Los Angeles Lakers' victory in the 2010 NBA Finals on 17 June 2010.,[33] and then again at the close of Japan’s victory over Denmark in the World Cup when users published 3,283 tweets per second.[34] When American singer Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, Twitter servers crashed after users were updating their status to include the words "Michael Jackson" at a rate of 100,000 tweets per hour.[35]

Twitter acquired application developer Atebits on April 11, 2010. Atebits had developed the Apple Design Award-winning Twitter client Tweetie for Mac and iPhone. The application, now called "Twitter" and distributed free of charge, is the official Twitter client for the iPhone.[36]

From September through October 2010, Twitter began rolling out 'New Twitter'. This was an entirely revamped edition of twitter.com. Changes include the ability to see pictures and videos without leaving Twitter itself by clicking on individual tweets which contain links to images and clips from a variety of supported websites (YouTube, Flickr etc.), as well as a complete overhaul of the interface, which shifted links such as '@mentions' and 'Retweets' above the Twitter stream, while 'Messages and 'Log Out' are now accessible via a black bar at the very top of twitter.com. As of November 1, Twitter confirmed that the 'New Twitter experience' had been rolled out to all users. Existing users still have the opportunity to opt out if they dislike the new interface, and go back to using the old-style Twitter. This overhaul did not have any effect on third-party applications such as TweetDeck."
Taken from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter#History

7. ¿Cree que este sitio genera dinero? Investigue cuánto dinero se calcula que gana y como funciona económicamente (de qué gana).
 
Las formas como Twitter gana dinero son:
 
- Venture Capitalism: Buying and selling of ownership in exchange for future revenues.
- E-commerce: Promotions and recommendations of products. E.g. sell sections such as the "Promoted Tweets" for high amounts of money.
- Mobile Deals: Handset deals such as saving data business.
- Searching: Streams of tweets send users to Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google sites.
En 2010, se estima que el ingreso de Twitter fue de 150 millones de dolares.

8. Escojan un tema en específico sobre el cuál quieren trabajar: seguridad, privacidad, confiabilidad, funcionamiento (transacciones, operaciones, etc.) efectividad, impacto.

Impacto.

jueves, 11 de noviembre de 2010

Dubai's Islands


1.  ¿Vale la pena, en cuanto a lo económico y ambiental, construir estas islas teniendo en cuenta los costos futuros en todo sentido que tendrá la contaminación producida por el movimiento continuo de miles de volquetas cargadas de tierra, la producida por las embarcaciones encargadas de retirar las rocas y la arena, las diferentes máquinas empleadas para remover tierra o transportarla, las explosiones controladas, y el transporte de, por ejemplo, la maquinaria que se daña (como el generador que fue enviado a Francia para repararse)?
2.  ¿Qué tan ético o correcto es este proyecto, teniendo en cuenta sus costos, magnitud, impacto ambiental y, especialmente, su propósito?
3.  ¿Qué otros retos tecnológicos, además de los problemas que se tienen para sacar las rocas y transportar la arena, deberán enfrentar los ingenieros encargados de terminar las islas en un futuro? ¿Cómo afectarán éstos los costos y el impacto ambiental del proyecto?
4.  ¿Cómo manejarán la erosión en las nuevas islas de Dubai y cómo responderán al incremento en el nivel del mar que se supone aumentará hasta dos metros y a los cambios impredecibles que puede traer el calentamiento global? ¿Qué implica esto para la economía, la población y el medio ambiente?
5.  ¿Qué implica, para el ecosistema marino, la construcción de villas bajo el agua, la creación de un arrecife artificial y la extracción masiva de rocas y tierra (gran parte de las rocas se saca del fondo del mar y se necesita una cantidad abrumadora para crear las islas y la barrera que impide que las olas lleguen al centro de las islas)? ¿Puede esto alterar la estabilidad geológica y ambiental del Golfo?

miércoles, 1 de septiembre de 2010

Humanity's Inventiveness

In the past week I have understood why humans constantly invent new things. It is need that drives our minds; need of an easier, better life. Not having my knife, fork, and spoon has lead me to think of new ways of eating my food without actually changing my diet. It is incredible to see how easily I could find different manners of dealing with my problem. The first and most obvious was that I immediately thought of a new set of utensils that allowed me to eat (chopsticks). After a while of eating with this amazing pair of sticks, I thought of other ways in which I could make my life easier; I discovered that I could cut things with the edge of a plate and I started to serve my food in cups so that I could help my chopsticks with the edges.  Likewise, I began to serve liquid foods (like cereal or soup) in smaller bowls or cups to avoid spilling. It is amazing to see how creative we can be whenever we encounter certain needs (whether they are small or not)...

martes, 31 de agosto de 2010

Silverware is Overrated

Now that the "no silverware" week is almost over, I feel very comfortable with my chopsticks. In fact, I feel so comfortable that I carry them everywhere...today they went to school with me.

lunes, 30 de agosto de 2010

My New Best Friends

I have recently realized that chopsticks and my own hands are my best allies when it comes to eating with no silverware :D

domingo, 29 de agosto de 2010

I Miss the Knife

So far, the silverware utensile I've missed the most is the knife. The spoon and the fork can be easily replaced by chopsticks or cups; unfortunately, it hasn't been as easy to find a good substitute for the knife. Until know, the only solution I could find was the edge of a plate. It has worked all right, but with certain foods it is simply impossible...how can you slice a tomato with a plate? How can you peel stuff? I miss the knife...