Research and Best practices eNewsletter

Research

Minorities Fuel Twitter Growth (01/01/2011) – Thirteen percent of U.S. adults online use Twitter, according to a study from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. Minorities are likely to play an increasingly important role in the service’s expansion, as 25% of online African Americans tweet, compared with 9% of non-Hispanic white Internet users, the study finds. http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Twitter-Update-2011/Main-Report/Main-Report.aspx

Australia’s Digital Economy Strategy (05/2011) – The National Digital Economy Strategy identified eight goals to measure the country’s progress in becoming one of the top digital economies by 2020. The goals for 2020 include: increased telehealth, broadband and teleworking, expanded educational online services, and improved government Internet services. http://www.nbn.gov.au/the-vision/digitaleconomystrategy/

Internet traffic to quadruple by 2015 (06/02/2011) – CISCO’s annual Visual Networking Index Forecast suggests Internet traffic will quadruple by 2015 as the number of networked devices surpasses 15 billion. The dramatic jump will occur as a result of four key factors: more devices, people, video and faster speeds. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20067979-93.html?tag=cnetRiver

Best Practices

Utah.gov (launched 06/01/2011) – Utah’s amazing new state website prominently displays a search function built to deliver the most relevant results filtered by location. Besides upgraded search, the site also features community-based information, simplified design for web and mobile devices, and citizen participation tools and real-time trending topics the “collaborate” tab allows users to submit videos, photos and mobile apps. http://www.utah.gov/index.html

Indicators of social transformation (06/31/2011) – SmartBlog article points to 15 indicators of social business transformation that will help make customer engagement more effective, meaningful and sustainable. http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia/2011/05/31/15-indicators-of-social-business-transformation/

Collaboration as a team sport (05/31/2011) – A Harvard Business Review blog finds collaboration works best when people know and trust each other. It lists seven ways organizations can help people get to know each other before working. http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/05/collaboration_is_a_team_sport.html

Macon money – A community-wide social game designed to break down socio-economic segregation in Macon, Georgia, encourages residents from different zip codes to use social media and online communications to find and meet each other. Their reward, Macon Money, is a real-world local currency, which can be spent in participating local shops and businesses. http://www.knightfoundation.org/news/press_room/knight_press_releases/detail.dot?id=380050