By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net

SOCIAL networking sites continue to evolve and now shape up for a new career: in the political arena. At Facebook’s News Feed menu, you can identify friends who are attending the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama online.

In the study “Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship” by Danah M. Boyd and Nicole B. Ellison, one of the first recognizable social network site launched is SixDegrees.com (1997), as well as Classmates.com which started in 1995.

Today, social networking sites abound boasting different features, such as multimedia sharing, links, messaging and micro-blogging.

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As I’m writing this, I’m watching the unfolding of a historic event in American history over the Internet. Thanks to CNN.com and Facebook, I can now watch president-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration on the web–wirelessly, that is.

What makes this event interesting is I’m getting this supposed “live” stream from CNN over my wireless connection of 1.8Mbps. There are slight pauses. But so far, my connection is not giving up on me.

To make things more spicy, I can see people in my Facebook network logged on to this CNN Live streaming video in partnership with the popular social networking website. Now, I can chat with fellow Facebook addicts from the Philippines.

One Facebook user says this is going to change how Presidential inaugurations are covered. And the social network aspect of it is simply brilliant. Score one for CNN and Facebook. Another was wondering how many Filipinos are watching this live feed. Judging from the comments that are coming in by the minute (or seconds), a lot. I also found from fellow Facebook friends that this online video streaming service is different from what you see on cable TV!

Agence France-Presse

MELBOURNE — Rafael Nadal reached out to his fans here by launching a blog at the Australian Open, taking questions on everything from what motivates him to whether he has sex during a tournament.

The Spanish world number one said he had always wanted to blog during the tournament, but admits it isn’t easy as his writing skills don’t match his tennis exploits.

“This is my first blog in Australia and I am very thankful to have been given this opportunity,” he said on the posts that appear in Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper.

“I am not going to lie to you, this is not easy for me since I am not a writer,” he said.
Rafa wants to get closer to his fans and feels answering their questions is one way to do that.

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By Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON — Facebook is facing an online protest after removing pictures of breastfeeding mothers found to be overly revealing from the pages of members of the social network.

A Facebook group entitled “Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!” has attracted nearly 85,000 members as of Tuesday and a handful of activists held a rally outside its California headquarters over the weekend.

The organizers of the page, which is hosting a lively debate, receiving more than 10,000 comments, said they launched their “Official Petition to Facebook” after Facebook pulled profile pictures showing women nursing their babies.

“The pictures have been reported as ‘obscene’ and have been removed — their posters warned not to repost or fear being kicked off of Facebook,” the group’s organizers said.

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By Glenn Chapman
Agence France-Presse

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo on Monday began weaving trendy social-networking features into its popular free email service as it vies to be the preferred launching point for Internet surfers.

Yahoo says it is providing tools that lets people use its email service to build interactive communities based on friends and interests.

“Mail is the largest dormant social graph,” Yahoo Mail vice president John Kremer said while outlining enhancements to the service used by 275 million people worldwide every month.

“This is the first time we are exposing that in a significant way.”

A “smarter inbox” puts messages from friends or family in a separate, tabbed file so they don’t get buried under mountains of spam or work email.

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This unexpected reaction from an Iraqi journalist is now getting more hits on YouTube. Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi from Al-Baghdadia television network threw his shoes at President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad on December 14, 2008.

Reports indicated that Bush later laughed off the incident.

By Marjorie Gorospe
INQUIRER.net

SOCIAL networking websites are now venues for people to widen their connections and to reconnect with friends. For some, social networks can help build self-esteem and even make extroverts out of introverts through pictures and blogs.

Social networks have given us the freedom to create our own network of friends. We can create our own profiles, post pictures and connect with friends that have been away or are elsewhere.

I am one of millions of people worldwide who enjoy the freedom given by social networks. During my college years, Friendster has been my way of updating friends about me. For the passed four years, I enjoyed using it until I found that there were three other false accounts in Friendster using my name.

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By Marjorie Gorospe

Director Mae Paner, the person behind an inspiring interpretation of national anthem “Lupang Hinirang,” has come up with another video. This time it’s about the cha-cha.

Taking on the character “Juana,” Paner plays two characters. One is a dance instructor showing the right steps to doing a cha-cha.

The other is a character showing the steps to a different cha-cha, which is a shorter description of charter change.

Instead of showing the right moves, Juana’s alter ego describes how “cha-cha” is done.

Just like the dance, the political cha-cha follows right timing — knowing when to lie-low as public unrest emerges and when to revive the cha-cha to cover up scandals.

In an earlier interview with Paner, she mentioned about upcoming projects of the “convergence team.”

She said that “Juana Change: CHA-CHA” is actually a result of people’s reaction to the Lupang Hinirang video, which is also up on YouTube.

As the video ends, Paner delivers this statement, which is her take on the current state of the Philippines: “Ang mga taong bayan ngayon, mga tanga.. ang mga magagaling nagsipag-abroad na. Ang mga natira na lang dito iyong mga walang magawang sumasali na lang sa Wowowee, tumataya sa Lotto o naghihintay ng remittance abroad [The citizenry are becoming foolish. The smart ones have gone abroad. Those left are often seen joining Wowowee, betting on Lotto and waiting for remittances from abroad].This country deserves people like me.” She then snorts, as if saying that the country has gone to the pigs.

By Glenn Chapman
Agence France-Presse

SAN FRANCISCO — Google and Facebook on Thursday launched rival technology platforms that can be used to infuse websites with trendy social-networking features.

A Facebook Connect service that was tested for months with selected partners is now available to anyone interested in transforming static websites into interactive communities of users.

Internet colossus Google picked the same day to unveil a beta, or test, version of Friend Connect software aimed at “any webmaster looking to add a dash of social to his or her site.”

Online communities and user-contributed content are core aspects of the evolution of life on the Internet and the superstar California companies are evidently jockeying to be the preferred platform for websites.

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By Izah Morales
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines – For the past few days, subscribers to the online social network Friendster were complaining about having unknown people in their friends’ list.

It happened right after the website announced that it was undergoing maintenance.
In a recent blog entry, Friendster explained that the power outage in their outsourced data center in Santa Clara, California caused the downtime.

Friendster said its servers are located in Santa Clara, California along with other 50 companies.

Friendster said it was not the only company that experienced the unscheduled downtime.

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