To all of our readers, clients, colleagues and friends, we wish you the best this holiday season and a happy 2010.
[...]To all of our readers, clients, colleagues and friends, we wish you the best this holiday season and a happy 2010.
[...]In our newspaper study, released earlier today, we developed a formula we call the Twitter Interactivity Quotient (or Twitter IQ for short) as a way of measuring how newspapers were using their accounts. If tweeting, which consists of original tweets, responses to tweets, and retweeting others’ tweets, is viewed [...]
Twitter was seemingly everywhere in 2009, with sports stars, celebrities, politicians and journalists using the micro blogging platform to promote everything from themselves to their employers to the issues they advocate for. After several years of assessing the general online presence of the top 100 U.S. newspapers, this year [...]
The Bivings Group is proud to announce, after much difficult deliberation, that Critical Exposure has won the TBGives $10,000 web consulting prize.
Critical Exposure uses the art of photography to teach DC youth imperative lessons about art and community [...]
Two panels here at The Bivings Group have pored over more than 50 submissions from fantastic non-profit organizations all over the Washington, D.C. area and narrowed our search down to six finalists.
Due to the heavy competition between all of the applicants and the excellent qualifications of our six finalists, [...]
Yesterday on Twitter I started seeing links pop up to what looked to be a URL shortening service run by the Republican National Committee – www.gop.am. The site has “gop” in the URL and has branding consistent with the main RNC site – www.gop.com. So it seemed reasonable [...]
During the UN Climate Change Conference held in Copenhagen this week, Google unveiled an advanced Google Earth prototype that allows satellite imagery to show and measure the progression of deforestation in regions around the world. Google teamed up with software experts Greg Asner, from Carnegie Institution for Science, [...]
During last year’s election cycle, I worked as the Online NewsHour’s associate editor for the Vote 2008 site, and while the site and show changed considerably during my year and a half there, bold revisions on the site today (and soon, the show) demonstrate an invigorated energy at the [...]
Congressmen Tim Ryan (D-OH) launched his own custom social network yesterday, using the Ning platform. In and of itself, this isn’t particularly notable. Lots of politicians have launched their own Ning networks. However, in every case I know of the focus of the socnet [...]
The Bivings Group would like to thank all of the non-profit organizations that submitted applications for TBGives’ $10,000 web consulting award.
We’re happy to report we received over 50 applications from worthy businesses small and large from across the Washington, D.C. area.
Our judging panels are currently reviewing [...]
“Somewhere down in the Flatiron, out in Brooklyn, over in Queens or up in Harlem, cabals of bright young things are watching all the disruption with more than an academic interest. Their tiny netbooks and iPhones, which serve as portals to the cloud, contain more informational firepower than entire newsrooms [...]
The Bivings Group powers the Personal Democracy Forum website and is proud to run Twitterslurp, a Twitter hashtag aggregator tool being used by those attending and monitoring this year’s European Personal Democracy Forum Conference, currently being held in Barcelona.
Use #pdfeu to join hundreds of attendees of [...]
In 2006, a popular study by experts at Duke University and the University of Arizona concluded new technologies have been making loners of us since 1985. Earlier this month, this theory was challenged and perhaps debunked. New technologies actually [...]
Internet Explorer 6 is the bane of web developers existence. The browser doesn’t support web standards that have become common the last few years, and making sites work in IE 6 adds significant time to the web development process. Despite the release of IE 7 in 2005 and IE 8 [...]
As most probably know, Twitter is in the process of launching a version of the widely used retweet on its own platform. The move has caused some controversy, as the way retweets has been implemented by Twitter is much different from the unofficial protocols that Twitter users developed organically [...]
Our client, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), is the nation’s first and largest group dedicated to helping the Troops and Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With today being Veterans Day, you won’t be surprised to know that today they have a great [...]
New media journalists around the globe face technological barriers and increasing dangers when reporting from within the boundaries of protective governments. A new site by Global Voices Advocacy maps and tracks journalists who have been threatened or arrested and aggregates the information into a robust map database with real-time [...]
If you’ve used Twitter for awhile, you know that judging the influence of a Twitter user by their number of followers is a dicey proposition. Lots of Twitter users are obsessed with their number of followers, and work to inflate their stats in ways too numerous to mention here. The [...]
ImpactWatch Social Media Monitoring and Measurement – an Interview with Hannah Del Porto
Internet marketer Murray Newlands recently picked the brain of our very own Hannah Del Porto, who is one of the experts on our ImpactWatch media monitoring team. You can read the interview here.
As you probably know by now, CNN launched a redesigned website yesterday. While I like the look and feel, the thing that really strikes me about the new homepage is how little of it is devoted to news. As you’ll see in the screen shot above, [...]
It has been a tough year for a lot of people. Non-profits have been hit particularly hard by the economic downturn, as folks who are normally very generous simply don’t have the resources to help out financially.
In an effort to help out in a small way, [...]
In the past we have profiled the innovative work of people like Adrian Holovaty who does some exciting things through programming that allow data to tell their own stories. For instance, he set up the Campaign Tracker for the Washington Post, and he is now running his own [...]
CNN is launching a new version of its website on Monday and previewed the site to select reporters yesterday. Techcrunch has the full breakdown and a slew of screen shots.
It is pretty much impossible to tell anything from the screen shots, but I’ll not [...]
I’m at the CIO Perspectives Forum here in DC today, and I participated in an interesting lunch discussion. This discussion focused on how organizations can better manage the content that they generate. There were several interesting issues brought up – of which a few I’ll mention below.
First, what constitutes [...]
The Bivings Group is proud to work with the Washington Area Women’s Foundation, which held its annual leadership luncheon Tuesday. The luncheon featured more than 1,000 guests at Washington’s Grand Hyatt to recognize the supporters and partner organizations [...]
The Bivings Group’s Director of Client Services Andrew MacDowell will be speaking at the Association of American Political Consultants conference Monday to address the success and strategy behind social action networks such as the one built around the Pickens Plan.
The conference, [...]
I’m not breaking any news here by telling you that the Republican National Committee launched a significant site redesign yesterday. After spending some time going through it, I have mixed feelings about the new site. While I admire the boldness of what they are trying to [...]
The Federal Trade Commission Monday released revised regulations holding bloggers responsible for disclosing any freebies or payment associated with their writing.
“The post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement,” the FTC said in a statement. “Thus, bloggers who make [...]
This WSJ article covers how start-ups are document there experiences using Twitter. It features a quote from TBG’s own David Murray. The relevant section of the article is below:
Over the next few months, Mr. Callahan’s Twitter stream and blog documented, blow by blow, [...]
“Usability” is a word used ad-nauseum in the web development world. Since most of us spend all day navigating and constructing sites, it’s easy to assume just about anyone can be an expert in usability if they’re even half aware of what makes a good or bad site.
Smashing Magazine, however, [...]
This is a great video that throws out random facts about how the Internet and technology are changing our lives. A couple to whet your appetite:
The average America teen sends out 2,272 text messages each month. There are 240,000,000 televisions in the United States. 2,000,000 of those are in bathrooms. 40,000,000 people [...]As social networking sites and technologies have flourished over the last few years, there has been much discussion about privacy today. It is not that uncommon for people to provide updates about their personal lives on their Facebook accounts or Twitter feeds. They talk about if they are sick, have [...]
“…the news industry doesn’t suffer from a shortage of ideas or possible revenue models, it suffers from a different but more acute malady: being an institution during a time of disruptive change.” Stop Giving the Newspapers Your Advice – They Don’t Need It
[...]Associate, Client Services Division
We are hiring a project manager in our Client Services division to help us manage the web programs of some of our clients. We’re looking for someone who has a passion for the web and social media, knowledge of Drupal/Wordpress and two years of relevant job [...]
It is day two of the O’Reilly Gov 2.0 Summit, and I had an interesting conversation at lunch with a person who works in a well known US federal agency. I’m not going to share this person’s name or agency since I don’t want this person to get unwanted [...]
I attended the O’Reilly Gov 2.0 Summit today and enjoyed listening to many of the insightful speakers. One of them was Clay Shirky; who is popular on the tech conference circuit.
He talked about how organizations have tried to harness their community members to use the data and services [...]
Was opened last night in time for the O’Reilly Gov 2.0 summit and expo here in DC. The apps store has both web-based and mobile phone applications. One that caught my eye is the Are You Safe? Washington, DC, iPhone application. Kind of like walking around the [...]
We were a bit behind in updating our blog to the latest version of Wordpress, so we spent some time today getting caught up. As part of the upgrade we installed the Wordpress Mobile Edition plugin, which automatically creates a mobile version of your blog that is displayed to [...]
I’m not sure why Twitter makes it difficult to manage followers within their own site, but fortunately there are several 3rd party options available. I’ve been playing around with these applications, and a lot are a waste of time in my opinion.
However, the ones below, are the few that I [...]
Techcrunch features an excellent article today that discusses how the integration of Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook, etc. reactions into comment threads on blogs can kill the conversation by dramatically increasing comment volume. Here is the key point:
Instead, there is endless, pointless repetition; conversations emerge, peter out and then re-emerge 50 [...]
Twitter Yields Uneven ROI for News Organizations Using Automation, Curation, Interaction
Poynter looks at the different approaches news organizations are taking as they experiment with Twitter. My take: we’re in the early days here and still a ways away from establishing best practices for how the media should and [...]
The Bivings Group this week launched OurIdaho.com , a site by the Idaho Freedom Foundation aimed at increasing government transparency in Idaho by displaying the state’s expenditures.
The site is broken into state expenditure records and employee salary records. State expenditures are documented [...]
On the heels of an overhaul of their print product back in October, the Los Angeles Times launched a redesign of their website a week or so ago. I like the new www.latimes.com a great deal from a usability standpoint. The new sites prominent, simplified horizontal [...]
So you’ve set up your Facebook Fan Page or Twitter profile and now you’re stuck wondering what to post.
They say content is king, and this holds true. You would be doing yourself a disservice by simply posting content without taking some time to [...]
Over the years, we’ve attempted to use Customer Relationship Management systems such as Salesforce and Sugar CRM internally as a way of tracking our own sales process. Our needs on this front are pretty straightforward, so both Salesforce and Sugar CRM seemed like way more [...]
Here at The Bivings Group, we’ve dealt with a myriad of requests for mass emailing services, tools and strategies to help our clients make the most of what is the most powerful weapon in online advocacy. Based on our research and testing, here are some best practice tips for [...]
Efforts to boost robot-to-robot cooperation took a giant step during July’s International Joint Conference in Artificial Intelligence, when roboticists around the world decided to start with human-to-human cooperation.
The science of developing robots, though narrow, was surprisingly fractured until the development of the Robot Operating System (ROS).
“Each robot is [...]
In yesterday’s Washington Post, there’s a good article by Alec McGillis about the power of senators from sparsely populated states.
Toward’s the end there’s this: “And then there’s the Senate’s age-old distortion of distributive politics, in which goodies are doled out on anything but a per-capita basis. California, Illinois, New [...]
This post is a bit different from the usual on The Bivings Report. But I’m a big believer in transparency in government, and watch with interest what ProPublica, a new non-profit investigative newsroom, is up to. It’s an important experiment in contemporary journalism. ProPublica has been keeping tabs on [...]
Late yesterday, ESPN basketball reporter Ric Bucher sent out the tweet above in response to a set of social networking guidelines put out by the network. The new guidelines prohibit reporters from maintaining personal websites or blogs containing sports content, require that employees get [...]
Yesterday, IZEA launched a service called Sponsored Tweets, which allows advertiser to pay well followed Twitter users, such as reality show star Kendra Wilkinson, comedian Carrot Top and web celebrity Chris Pirillo, to send sponsored tweets out about their product or service. In a [...]
When putting together navigation elements on the sites we build, our number one priority is presenting users with clear choices so they can quickly find what they are looking for. On the web, usability is branding. John Graham-Cumming points to a great example from Network Solutions of how not [...]
The proposals are in. They include some great designs; features that meet requirements; and maybe even some novel ideas. Budgets get compared, references checked, and a selection is made. Yet all is not well. Several months down the road, after the new site’s public launch, problems arise [...]
While getting my much needed cup of coffee this morning, I overheard a lady behind me say something along the lines of, "What about this Twitter thing… how can we use it to market us?"
I didn’t listen to the rest of the conversation, as my [...]
I’ve been visiting Digg.com for a long time, and recently I’ve noticed that the volume of diggs for frontpage stories seems to have dropped. The last few months it has just seemed to me that there are a lot of stories on the homepage that have 200-300 diggs, [...]
I’m definitely late to this party, but yesterday Twitter launched a new design for its homepage. This is the version of the homepage users who are not logged in and who are visiting the site for the first time will see.
A shiny new NPR.org revealed itself Monday with a simpler homepage design packed with multimedia features and customizable choices.
Like most major media websites still afloat, NPR.org aims to keep radio content its core but offer up multi-platform, all-purpose news.
The new site is a major improvement to [...]
Twitter 101 - A Guide to Twitter for Businesses
Per Techcrunch, Twitter just launched Twitter 101, which is a starters kit for businesses interested in using the service to promote their company/products. Check out the guide here.
[...]Click fraud, an internet crime perpetrated by people, automated systems and programs clicking on links and ads to increase investor appeal and ad revenue, continues to be complicated to police, and a report released Thursday by Anchor Intelligence shows Vietnam as a hotbed for online scammer activity.
“Nearly half of [...]
Like many others, I occasionally use Compete and Alexa data to compare traffic of websites whose logs I don’t have access to. I know these services are imperfect, but a comparison I ran today of NYTimes.com vs. USAToday.com vs. WashingtonPost.com shows just how anecdotal the [...]
Tim O’Reilly, of O’Reilly Media fame, and the tech guru who came up with the term “Web 2.0,” will be on the Kojo Nnamdi Tech Tuesday show on NPR tomorrow from noon to 2pm. Tim will be talking about his vision for Government 2.0 — a topic that’s receiving ever-increasing [...]
For the past few months, creative strategy consultant Richard Smith has been running a contest in which he asks designers to redesign the U.S. dollar. On July 4th, Smith announced that Kyle Thompson was the winner of the contest (photo of winning design below). I think Thompson’s [...]
When last we left, we talked about how the social web thrives on unselfish communication. I touched a bit on the role of technology, and today I’d like to expand upon some thoughts.
When you hear the words social media what’s the 1st [...]
Normal false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE
/* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
I ride my bicycle to work [...]
We’ve spent a lot of time the last two years updating our company Twitter account, where we share links to interesting stories and quick thoughts. In the process our blog sort of became a place for long form content only. We posted short thoughts and links on Twitter and [...]
The most tweeted about speaker at the 2009 Personal Democracy Forum was danah boyd, who gave a presentation entitled “The Not-So-Hidden Politics of Class Online.” Full video of her 22 minute talk is embedded below. Enjoy.
News and Blogs Versus Twitter at PDF09
Chuck Fitzpatrick from our ImpactWatch team has a great post up analyzing which themes and speakers from the 2009 Personal Democracy Forum got the most traction on Twitter and in the traditional media and blogs. Folks on Twitter were most excited [...]
PdF09 Twitters From the White House to White Flight: Whatever
A great analysis of the trends and topics that got the most buzz at the 2009 Personal Democracy Forum. The data behind the analysis was pulled from our tool, Twitterslurp.
[...]Here is video of Kansas State Anthropology Professor Michael Wesch’s great talk at the 2009 Personal Democracy Forum. The talk is called The Machine is (Changing) Us: YouTube Culture and the Politics of Authenticity, and is a shorter, more politically focused version of the longer Wesch video I [...]
I had five separate people email me this week about the launch of Facebook Fan Box, which is a widget that allows you to integrate your Facebook fan page into your website. The Fan Box shows the avatars of a select number of your fans as well as a [...]
As I have worked at The Bivings Group, I have focused on helping design websites and applications for specific audiences – professionals and adult aged individuals. Many of the clients I have worked with don't need to focus on children, and young web surfers have unique needs.
Recently, I was introduced [...]
Hoping to compete with emerging foreign markets and prevent another major industry collapse, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Tuesday the city’s launch of eight initiatives aimed and drawing and keeping new media technologies in the Big Apple.
“New York City is the media capital of the world, but, with [...]
I spent some time today going through a random selection of the videos of presentations, tweets and blog commentary about the Personal Democracy Forum conference held last week in New York City. Sort of goes from the insightful to the inane to the downright snarky. Kind of expected. But [...]
Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropology professor at Kansas State University, gave an extremely well received talk at the recent Personal Democracy Forum. High quality video of his PDF 2009 talk is not yet available, but below is a longer talk he gave to the Library of Congress entitled [...]
While attending the Personal Democracy Forum, I listened to a panel discussion that included Todd Zeigler of The Bivings Group, Heather Lauer of the Pickens Plan, Roz Lemieux of Fission Strategy, and moderator/Washington Post, Jose Antonio Vargas.
The focus of the panel [...]
Photos by Todd Zeigler
TBG lounge space
TBG’s Anupam Shah and Andrew MacDowell
Twitterslurp, powered by The Bivings Group
More of The [...]
Watch the introductions for The Pickens Plan’s Heather Lauer and The Bivings Group’s Todd Zeigler during their panel discussion at the Personal Democracy Forum conference this week.
[...]Todd Zeigler of The Bivings Group, Heather Lauer of the Pickens Plan and Fission Strategy’s Roz Lemieux discuss how social action networks are changing politics in a panel at the Personal Democracy Forum conference moderated by the Washington Post’s Jose Vargas.
[...]
This week at the Personal Democracy Forum, a tool we created called Twitterslurp was used to track the Twitter conversation taking place around the conference. In an effort to empower other organizations and conferences to use the tool, we are releasing the code behind [...]
Guest post by David Cohn
Michael Wesch gave an amazing talk at PDF that I dare not try to summarize.
I will point to an anecdote that Wesch used to give insight into how our cultural conversation is changing all the time.
The word "whatever" has morphed over the years.
Guest post by Alan Haburchak
The morning of day two here at the Personal Democracy Forum conference was all about online communities, what they mean, how they can be used and what they say about culture and global culture and society today. Randi Zuckerberg (the other Zuckerberg), Facebook's head of [...]
Guest post by Alan Haburchak
The morning of day two here at the Personal Democracy Forum conference was all about online communities, what they mean, how they can be used and what they say about culture and global culture and society today. Randi Zuckerberg (the other Zuckerberg), Facebook's head of [...]
Normal false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE
/* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
Guest post by Jessica Rudis
Two [...]
Normal false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE
/* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
Guest post by Jessica Rudis
Two [...]
Catastrophic battles have already begun and loom large on the horizon between traditional hierarchal powers and the growing trend of lateral power structures, according to the University of Sydney’s Mark Pesce.
Pesce spoke at the Personal Democracy Forum on the reasons hierarchal structures will lose out to hyperintelligent ad-hocracies unless they [...]
Ning’s Gina Bianchini talks to Personal Democracy Forum attendees about working with The Bivings Group on The Pickens Plan’s social action network. Video by Alan Haburchak.
[...]Guest post by Alan Haburchak
It seems like there is a certain generally accepted truth about age and ideology in America: Young people are liberal and vote Democratic while the older generation tends to trend more conservative. There's even that old chestnut usually attributed to Winston Churchill: "If you're young [...]
If you will be in NYC Monday and Tuesday for the Personal Democracy Forum, be sure to stop by our lounge in the sponsor area and to check out our panel at 3:45 on Tuesday, “Beyond BarackObama.com: How Social Action Networks Are Changing Politics.” If you aren’t able to [...]
We started The Bivings Report back in 2001. In its first iteration it focused exclusively on online marketing, and was written primarily by a former employee named Andrew Dimock. Andrew did a great job in those early years of building an audience without much writing support from the rest [...]
Anyone that has been to a tech conference the last few years knows that there is a huge amount of back channel communication that occurs on Twitter. People provide live coverage of the talks they go to. People organize dinner plans. People stage revolts [...]
I’ve been doing web work for over ten years, so I’m sort of jaded about new websites and online initiatives. I’m not easily impressed. It gives me great joy when I run into something truly new and novel, as I did last night.
I happened on the website www.fixoutlook.org, which [...]
I wrote a post a few weeks back that looked at how Facebook and Twitter compare as traffic drivers. What I didn’t mention in my post is that over the course of the last six to twelve months the amount of traffic driven by both sites has grown exponentially. [...]
Todd Zeigler, amatsui, framirez, Allen Rindfuss
