The impact is real and I think we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

I have been thinking in how this transformation in the way we use the Internet can also make an important impact in the daily lives of common people in the developing world, particularly in Latin America.

For example, after reading this article about the rise of women in Latin American countries, I thought that it would be cool to figure out a way to use social media to empower women in remote places by providing them with tools to communicate, collaborate and learn from each other.

Many women across Latin America are doing interesting local projects that have great potential to benefit not only their communities but similar communities around the region. Imagine the power of sharing these ideas and collaborating in a social network to make these projects successful.

Add to this idea the participation in the network of women in leadership positions around the continent and I think you a have a winner.

These women leaders would provide an enormous source of expertise, guidance and business savvy which would complement the work being done locally and improve the chances of bringing projects to fruition.

The tools for setting up a network like the one I propose are already available. Sites like Change.org and Ning allow people to create their own social networks and provide many tools for efficient communication and collaboration. In addition, Change.org was created specifically for non-profits to develop their social networks.

Some limiting factors would be the low technology literacy and minimal penetration of Internet access that exist in many countries in Latin America.

However with the introduction of newer devices such as the XO computer developed for the One Laptop Per Child project, the growing availability of mobile smartphones, and the improving network infrastructure in many countries, I think that these limitations will be gradually becoming less of an obstacle.

A network of women conducting local community projects (hyperlocal sites) linked to the growing community of rising women leaders in Latin America seems to me would be an interesting social media experiment with great potential for empowering women.

Anybody ready to work on something like this?

Technorati Tags: Latin America, OLPC, social network

Founding partners of the project include: Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING.

And today “MySpace”, the world’s largest social network, announced that they are joining forces with Google in the launch OpenSocial. The partnership spearheads an initiative to standardize and simplify the development of social applications.

OpenSocial’s three APIs will allow developers to access the following core functions and information on participating social networks, referred to as “hosts”:

* Profile Information (user data)
* Friends Information (social graph)
* Activities (things that happen, News Feed type stuff)
This is a huge development in the social networking space. Developers will be able to write applications once and use the same code (based on HTML and Javascripit) in many of these platforms instead of having to write and port the same application for each network.

This is different from Facebook which uses a proprietary language (Facebook Markup Language or FBML) in a walled-off environment.

It is also a big development for Google who hopes to capitalize on the efficacy of placing ads within the applications themselves. It has recently become more apparent that placing ads in applications within social networks like Facebook is a more effective way of promoting a product that placing ads in personal pages.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Google, MySpace, Orkut, Web 2.0

Nate and Viss are using the hashtag #sandiegofire. Twitter users can enter “track sandiegofire” in SMS or IM and receive notifications whenever a tweet goes out with that tag in it.
Viss is also uploading photos to Flickr.

This is another excellent example of Web 2.0 tools being used effectively by citizen journalists to report breaking news in a disaster situation, similar to what we recently saw during the earthquake in Peru.

Technorati Tags: California fires, Flickr, twitter

The narrative brings us from the times of catalogs and shelves to the revolution of links and universal ubiquitous information sources that is Web 2.0. We are the real links to information.

The first video of Wersch’s view of Web 2.0 is here.

Technorati Tags: information, markup, tags, Web 2.0

Now we learn that Flickr has partnered with Seattle-based Picnick to add photo editing capabilities to the site:

Users will be presented with an edit option on the photo page. Clicking it takes the user to a new Flickr photo edit page, with the Picnik tools integrated via an iframe. After editing, users can add the edited photo to their Flickr account or, if they are a Flickr pro user, overwrite the original.

The new service should be available in the next few months.

Techcrunch recently posted a review of Picnik.

Technorati Tags: Flickr, Picnik, Techcrunch

The next episode of CSI:NY to be aired next Wednesday and known as CSI:NY does Second Life will see one of its characters Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) entering Second Life “to pursue a killer who has killed a Second Life user in a case of virtual stalking gone too far”.

According to Techcrunch,

CSI:NY fans will be encouraged to join Second Life and investigate the case by following a link on the CBS website. CSI:NY will have three options for CSI-related inworld activities. The first option will allow viewers to walk around virtual New York buildings and visit a CSI lab and play forensic games. The second option consists of a game called “Murder by Zuiker,” a unique murder plot which can be solved by users finding clues. The 100 people who come closest to solving the murder will win virtual gifts.

The big tie-in gives new users the ability to become CSI investigators, complete with field kit and tools, and are given a chance to interview suspects and to solve the murder featured in the actual CSI:NY episode. The episode itself will apparently end in a cliff-hanger with the solution not revealed until February.

Amazing! It should be a lot of fun.

Technorati Tags: CBS, CSI:NY, Second Life, social network

I mentioned yesterday that Google was getting ready to launch Orkut 2.0.

Today Jaiku announced that they are being acquired by Google.

With the acquisition of Jaiku Google will gain access to Jaiku phone, IM and SMS applications, and an open API for developers to hack all kinds of new applications.

Very likely the next step will be to integrate Jaiku in an open Orkut environment which could then become a formidable competitor for Facebook and other social networking sites.

And of course, it may also have something to do with the GPhone.

It is turning out to be an interesting end of the year in the Web 2.0 universe.

Technorati Tags: API, IM, Jaiku, Orkut, SMS

Estimated at $46.8 million in 2006, this market will grow to $428.3 million by 2009 “creating a new application segment and establishing social networking as a new communications tool used for many purposes other than consumer socializing.”

IDC identifies three social networking segments emerging:

self-service applications used by groups and marketing campaign teams; brand applications that focus on persistent customer engagement; and enterprise applications that provide more effective ways of working with customers, partners, and other external parties.

Other key findings of the study include:

• The social networking applications market will grow quickly over the next three years and continue to grow, but at a slower pace, after 2011.
• Social networking application vendors will continue to emerge over the next two years, particularly those focused on vertical applications.
• As the market develops, social networking functionality will be built into core communication platforms like email and instant messaging (IM) applications and the market, particularly the enterprise segment, will consolidate.

According to IDC, around 45 % of businesses in the US already use a Web 2.0 tool such as a blog, wiki, chat or forum, and more than 30 % use blogs for internal company communications and collaboration, and to communicate with their customers.

Search Assist is an Ajax assistant pane that drops down to give you suggestions to complete the keywords, as well as related concepts that you might want to try.

The keyword suggestions appear in the search results page, along with related concepts that give users a point-and-click query refinement capability that enables them to explore a subject area they may be unfamiliar with.

As you click on a new concept suggestion you get a new set of results and new concepts related to your original keyword. Exploring further is now simply a matter of clicking on new concepts

Images from Flickr and playable videos are now embedded also in the main results page

Technorati Tags: search engine, Yahoo, ajax