Carnival adds Scrapblog to its social networking features

Scrapblog, a website for creating and sharing multimedia scrapbooks, announced Tuesday it has partnered with Carnival Cruise Lines.

Cruisers can create Carnival-themed online scrapbooks using digital photos, videos and audio on Carnival's social networking site, CarnivalConnections.com, which began in 2006. The site allows guests to connect with other cruisers and share vacation experiences.

Click here to see some Carnival Scrapblogs that some people already created.

Miami-Dade County government website caused computer problems

UPDATE: 1:15 p.m. 6/12/08 -- Site seems to be working fine now. The area that was causing computer problems was the transit page, but its still unclear as to why. Below is the original post from yesterday:

Stay away from Miami-Dade County government websites today. I just received the following message from one of the top people in The Miami Herald's tech department:

"The Miami-Dade County government website appears to be compromised and is serving up viruses to unsuspecting visitors. 

We are not completely aware of the extent of the damage but until this matter is resolved please avoid visiting -www.co.miami-dade.fl.us-  or -www.miami-dade.gov-"

I'm not about to test out the site myself to see if I get a virus, so I'm just passing along the warning. I'll update this post when I learn more or if it is safe to go back on the site.

Explore Walt Disney World in 3D on Google Earth

Want to know what Walt Disney World looks like, but you've never been? Or maybe you're like me and have the urge to run out of the office and go now....  but you can't cause that would get you fired.

Well the Walt Disney World Resort is now on Google Earth in 3D. As a Disney nut, take my word when I say how shockingly accurate the details are in this 3D world. It's not totally perfect, but it sure is close. Not only are the paint details on every building spot-on, but when you walk by the gift shop at the Snow White's Scary Adventure ride, you can see Grumpy sweatshirts on sale in the store.

There are also some neat hidden gems -- I found a random couple dressed like a prince and princess on the back steps of Cinderella's Castle.

But this world is much more than a place to browse the resort. It's one big interactive travel-planning tool. You click on a ride, you can get more details on the ride from Disney, along with as Wikipedia links and photos. If you want to stay at a hotel, you can tour the outside grounds and click links to get more information at the main website. (Sadly you can't actually go in the rides. The Space Mountain building was empty inside, but you can see a promotional video for the ride.)

Here's how you can check it out for yourself:

• Download Google Earth 4.3 by visiting www.disneyworld.com/3dparks
• Launch Google Earth and search for "Disney World" (or just zoom into Orlando)
• Click on the gold Mickey Mouse ears to open an information window, and then click the button that says "Show Disney World in 3D"

Disney reports it took eight photographers a total of 10 days to shoot all the visible surfaces of Walt Disney World. A total of 100,000 photos became the base of 1,500 3D models in the virtual world.

Moli.com social network targets small businesses

When it comes to integrating business and social networking, most sites I've come across tend to revolve around professional contacts and resumes, like LinkedIn.

But Moli.com -- a social network based in West Palm Beach -- is targeting small businesses by offering them a resource center and the ability to connect with other businesses.

When it first launched, the site was marketed as a place to manage multiple profiles for your social and professional life, but separates them with different privacy settings. The small business center is just another addition to encourage the busy start-up entrepreneur to manage their life and work on one network.

A free account comes with a URL and search engine optimization abilities. Of course these sites are not super professional. The target user is someone with 10 or less employees who doesn't have the resources to make a site from scratch. The idea is to get started on a site like this, use the resources, connect with others, and eventually take your business to the next stage.

You can read my full story here.

Getting chummy with the Chumby

If you love online widgets, Wi-Fi and wacky gadgets, you'll love the Chumby. Using your home's wireless network, it sits on your counter and scrolls through all sorts of neat things on the Internet. You go on the Chumby.com site to tell it which widgets (aka web applications) you want to show up on the screen - and it can be anything: check weather, get Facebook status updates, watch YouTube videos, play games, listen to music, get alerts when you have e-mail, show off photos... there are more than 500 widgets for this. Check out some of the features in the video below, or read my review in today's Miami Herald.

The fact that people are making new widgets for this is what makes it great, because there's always something new you can put on the screen. It's easy to use and understand, even for the non-techy person, and it's not too pricey at $180. It makes more sense to put this in a room where the computer isn't in, like a kitchen or in the living room.

Click here to read the full review or see what it looks like in the video below.

Online news guru comes to Hollywood-based DailyMe.com

The former editor-in-chief of Yahoo! News has been hired as president and chief product officer at DailyMe, an online provider of personalized news, headquartered in Hollywood.

Before working at Yahoo!, Neil Budde was the founding editor and publisher of The Wall Street Journal Online.

"I believe the news aggregation space is one of the most exciting and potentially lucrative on the Web today, serving a huge and growing audience that continues to migrate to online news providers," Budde said in a statement. "While this space has a number of existing competitors, they are not yet delivering the kind of experience -- including true customization and community -- that consumers want today."

DailyMe.com is a free service that allows users to personalize, schedule, share and choose the delivery format for their news. Users can select content by choosing from topics, sources, keywords, personality profiles or a combination of these methods.

DontDateHimGirl.com launches Facebook application

Miami-based DontDateHimGirl.com has launched a Facebook application called the Love Inspector.

If you've never heard of DontDateHimGirl.com, basically it's a place where you can search for men that are really bad eggs, according to other women, or write up your own warning to the world.

The application itself really isn't that much different from visiting the site. It shows recent articles about relationships and lets you search for men that have things written about them. I added the application to my profile to see what it was like, but as of now there's nothing that displays on my profile except for the word "Hello." (Which leads me to believe they aren't finished with it yet.) You have to click on the main applications page to access the application.

I don't see the usefulness of this application considering it's not really an application, but rather just a glorified link to the main site.

If the company did create something to display on a Facebook profile, what do you think it should be? Or do you think an application even works for a site like this?

Debate over what is online "community" at WeMedia Miami

I spent part of yesterday at WeMedia Miami over at the University of Miami campus, where journalists, bloggers and tech heads from all over gathered to talk about digital media. Pictured here is Jeff Nolan, vice president of Business Development at NewsGator. He talked about ways publishers are using widgets and RSS feeds to reach audiences.

There were several sessions going on at the same time. So unfortunately, since there is only one of me, I had to place my bets and pick only some of the topics to attend. Herald reporter Oscar Corral attended one about digital media and the presidential campaigns. You can read his story here. Some sessions ended up being snoozers, but a few prompted some interesting discussions.

The most interesting conversation I heard came from a forum about social experiences in business. The panel was putting me to sleep, plugging their own organizations and blogs... and just as I was about to pass out, an audience member told the panel he doesn't Twitter, and no one he knows Twitters. And apparently there was a Twitter going on for people at WeMedia, but he didn't even hear about this (nor did I). How are people supposed to know about these things, he asked. Because obviously a little clique within the WeMedia conference knew about this Twitter account that was being talked about at this session. And in regards to social networks, he followed with, "When do they become little clubs, and when do they become communities?"

The response from panelist Elisa Camahort Page, co-founder and COO of Blogher, was no one really knows it until "you just get exposed."

Kaliya Hamlin, founder of Unconference.net, said "It doesn't make sense to Twitter into a vacuum if none of your friends are on Twitter." She added that you have to choose which type of community works best for you -- "it's not about trying to be in everything."

Jeff Nolan (also at this panel) brought up how many people just throw the word community around at conferences like this, and it loses it's meaning. To him, it makes more sense to call such things "groups."

But that got other panelists like Hamlin worked up. She argued that groups are way different from communities.

So another audience member chimed in: Can you define community?

And they couldn't agree on a definition. If anything, the discussion got pretty heated. Would you call the Facebook group "PINK Victoria's Secret" with 346,000 members a community, or do you have to be part of an group of mommy bloggers that go to blogging conferences to be a community?

One of the smartest comments of the session came from yet another audience member. She said she worked in public relations and helped corporate clients get into online social spaces. She said it is our duty as tech savvy people in this industry to spread the word to others in the corporate world about what is going on. It's not about just doing what everybody else is doing.

And she's right. It is our duty to explain how it works to others and have discussions about what works and what doesn't. It's our duty to not assume companies know how to Tweet on Twitter. And if every company just made a Facebook group to get an audience because that's what every other company is doing, is it effective? Or is it a waste of resources?

Don't get burned by Valentine-themed spam, and other tech tidbits

I'm a Web TV superstar! (Well, maybe that's exaggerating it a bit.) The hosts of What the 5! interviewed me today on recent news and such as love-related Facebook applications, product reviews, CBSSports.com and getting burned by Valentine-themed spam.

Watch it now!

Facebook NCAA Tournament Brackets created by South Florida's CBSSports.com

If you loved the March Madness brackets application on Facebook in the past, this year CBSSports.com -- based in Fort Lauderdale -- has taken it to a new level.

The company has developed this year's official Facebook bracket application, which in previous years was just done by Facebook. But because CBSSports.com is behind it, the application is able to incorporate more features and content from CBS, such as their NCAA March Madness on Demand videos.

I spoke with Jason Kint, CBSSports.com's senior vice president and general manager, and he said the company launched it early to build on content and community... and smack talk. He said it's more than just having everyone pick teams on Selection Sunday. "You'll see more content than you've ever seen before," he said.

"We're tapping into what we know works on Facebook -- keeping it simple and really capitalizing on viral elements."

CBSSports.com has always had their own bracket game on their official site. But now, they hope to tap into a whole new audience by going directly to Facebook users.

"Facebook brings with it a lot of new users -- a younger demographic with people that aren't necessarily used to going to destination sites," Kint said. "They aren't seeking out destination sites and they live on Facebook."

CBS's interactive team has been doing bracket applications for years. But this year, Kint said a challenge for the team was to be able to create one that can work well with the large scale of Facebook users. They said the brackets will be available to more than 64 million users on Facebook, as well users on CBS Sports Mobile. In 2007, more than 2.6 million Facebook users joined at least one bracket group in Facebook's version of the bracket application.

And if you're lucky enough to be in the Top 10 percent of the top brackets, you are in the running to win $10,000. Or you can just go there now for the sports stories and to see the top favorite and despised teams. Funny enough, the Blue Devils are the top in both. And what's this? The Gators are No. 3 in amount of haters? Aw come on!

How many social networks are you on?

In today's Miami Herald, I have a story about social networking entrepreneurs starting sites that target a niche community, rather than trying to be the next Facebook or LinkedIn. It's the same concept as how a mom-and-pop diner can thrive alongside a mega chain restaurant.

[Read the story here.]

Due to space restrictions, I couldn't include what I learned from an interview with Myfamily.com. It's a social network that has been around before the word "social network" was even uttered in the same sentence as "online." It launched in 1998, and although it has gone through changes since the original version, it has always been a place where a family can set up a password-protected network to share news and media with other family members on an invite-only basis.

Sean Malone, the site's senior director of product management, said there are about two million active users today. The company allows people to create a free family network (with ads on it), or they can pay a subscription that starts at $29 a year for an ad-free network (the subscription comes with other perks).

In that business model, subscriptions are the most profitable. Malone said the Myfamily's subscription renewal rates are close to 80 percent year over year. This month, the site has seen 200,000 unique visitors from Florida.

Malone told me that the company isn't out to battle with Facebook or MySpace: "Myfamily is a compliment, rather than a competitor."

In the story I talk about SplashVision.com, a social network that is run out of Fort Lauderdale but targets the marine-lifestyle community around the world. I got an e-mail about another nautically niche site called TheBoaters.com. They also connect up through applications like Boatbook on Facebook to target people on other social networks. And MySpace annouced today they have opened up its software code to developers.

And that seems to be a common trend among the smaller networks. Get people to come to you by luring Facebook and MySpace users through applications. It's advice that I heard throughout last week's Social Networking Conference in Miami Beach.

How many social networks are you signed up with? I have three that I use the most, and two others that I really don't go on (my college made a social network, but I just don't find myself going on there often unless someone sends a message through it). I rather just use applications on the ones I use the most than have to keep track of an addtional network. But maybe I just haven't yet come across that really nifty niche network to fill a social networking need in my life.

Facebook friends don't let friends become compulsive application invite senders

Remember the old days when you didn't get 15 application invites a day from Facebook friends?

Oh how peaceful Facebook was back then. Now I can't log on without someone inviting me to find out what kind of fruit best fits my personality, or to feed someone's virtual fish, or to become a zombie/vampire/slayer/pirate/Oregon Trail pioneer.

The worst I've seen lately is "Puff Puff Pass" -- someone invited me to add an application that encourages virtual marijuana usage. What? Uggh!

So I ask, please, stop the pointless application invites unless it is an application you think someone would really like. And as a matter of Facebook etiquette, DON'T send application invites to every single person on your friend's list. If you send 5 requests each day to all your friends, it is just like sending spam e-mails. It gets old.

But maybe it's just me. According to a comScore report that measures the usage of widgets, it reported that more than 20 million Facebook users (that's 61 percent of the site's U.S. audience) have engaged with an application in November.

The application named "Top Friends" by Slide -- which lets you highlight friends much like MySpace does -- was the top ranked application during November, with more than 6.2 million engaged viewers, followed by "Movies" by Flixter with 5.2 million and "SuperPoke!" by Slide with 3.6 million.

Next in line was Compare People, iLike, Super Wall, Likeness, Quizzes, FunWall and Graffiti.

But even though I don't like the barrage of invites, I do accept a few and get addicted to some of them. The other day I found myself getting lost for hours in the Movies application. Sigh. Guess there's no escaping it. My Facebook life has become one where people throw virtual sheep at me and co-workers challenge me to Disney movie quizzes. (Which by the way, I scored 100%. Take that!)

Digital experiments in community news

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a Miami-based organization that supports journalism, is launching The Knight News Challenge for the second year. The contest is open to anyone, anywhere in the world, to come up with ideas on digital experiments that can transform community news.

The contest is awarding as much as $5 million this year to fund the ideas, which can use digitally delivered news and information to enhance physical communities and improve the lives of people where they live and work. I wrote about the first contest in May, which concluded with grants to 25 individuals and private and public entities ranging from MIT to MTV.

Although there is a category for commercial applications, most entries must share the software and knowledge created. This year the contest's web site will allow entrants to invite public comment that will help improve their entries. An entry form and more details are available at newschallenge.org. Applications will be accepted through Oct. 15. The foundation plans to announce the winners by the spring of 2008.

New concepts for news

While covering the winners of The Knight Foundation's News Challenge the other day, I came across some interesting studies from Jupiter Research analyst Barry Parr.

In a report on user-generated content strategies for media sites, it states that one half of online users participate in content creation. Also, about one-third of user-generated content users see such content as a differentiating feature on media sites.

There hasn't exactly been a barrage of comments to my story but it seems just having the option to comment makes it somewhat more pleasing to readers that come from the Facebook and MySpace world. And speaking as Facebook addict, I agree. One of the key findings in another of Parr's reports is "One-third of online users are interested in social networking features for media sites." (From the report Social Strategies for Media Sites, published May 9, 2007.) Perhaps there will be a day to come where we can have personal profiles and links to friends and join community events and groups, all on a newspaper's site... it's an interesting thought.

But if you have some new concepts on how to use digital media to communicate the news, check out the details on how to enter Knight Foundation's News Challenge at newschallenge.org.

Growing up CEO

You may recall a story back in September about Weina Scott, a 17-year old chief executive of her own podcast hosting site, Switchpod.com (and she made a cool $40,000 for working 20 hours a week).

It was recently announced that she won the 2007 Growing Up CEO award, which honors young inner-city entrepreneurs, all under 21 years old. It's founded by the not-for-profit organization Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC).

From the release:

Weina Scott, the 17-year-old daughter of Haitian entrepreneurs who had sold rice, flour, and sugar in Haiti before fleeing for their lives to the United States, launched Switchpod.com, a podcast hosting company, with another teenager in 2005.  A year later the company was bought – and Weina and her partner each received $200,000 in stock as well as $40,000 annually to continue to run the company.  “This is the American dream,” says Weina, who has been accepted at both Harvard and Yale. 

I'm told she's going to Harvard. (I don't know about you, but learning her story made me wish I did more when I was 17!)

Growing Up CEO is taking nominations for 2008. If you know of another Weina Scott out there, tell me about it.