Deception is a complex phenomenon and an incriminating cognitive process, which makes it interesting to study. This is why Anne, Kim, Desiree, Maayke, Evelien and I have interviewed Marc Swerts. Marc Swerts, who is professor at the University of Tilburg, has recently studied the deception by children.
Adults are more aware of social aspects than children, and use non-verbal communication in a very conscious manner. The Clinton–Lewinsky affaire is an interesting example to analyze, but also Barack Obama's speeches show his skills in concealing thing that are not completely true. The analysis of lying adults is also used by the tv-program 'Lie to me'.
The ability to deceive is the ability to understand that someone's perspective of the world can differ from you own perspective. This is called Theory of mind, and young children don't have this ability yet.
Marc Swerts has investigated children's awareness of being deceptive with the use of a game. The game is about a prince and a dragon. The game evokes children to lie spontaneously about the hiding place of a dragon, in order to protect the prince. It is interesting to see whether and how lies can be detected in children.
Watch the entire interview and the results of the study:
vrijdag 6 mei 2011
Children's awareness of being deceptive
woensdag 27 april 2011
How to attract visitors to your blog
Together with many other bloggers, I'm looking for ways to optimize the number of visitors on my blog. I have been posting for a few months now, and I therefore think I'm able to share some tips with you. I will reveal some of the tactics that I found to be helpful.
- Choose topics that attract people and stay on that topic
- Keep it short and to the point
- Tag your posts
- Think of an interesting title for your blog or tweet
- Spread the word and test different titles among different social media
- Use images, links and video's in your blog
- Include (multiple) common hashtags in your tweets
- Write posts often so the readers won't forget you
Blogging goals
Obviously, there are many more tactics that can be used. It also depends on the type of blog your writing. I think there are two major goals to write a blog: for personal of commercial purposes. Personal bloggers write to enjoy themselves and other people who want to read it. Commercial blogs are interested in attracting a greater group of people. These blogs need to record their visits and actively attract visitors.
If you want to draw the attention of people around the world, it is wise to write posts so that search engines will pick up your blog. Googles takes three factors into account when providing search results: crawling, indexing and presentation.
The fact that 'Googling' has become an official verb, has proven that it is a widely performed activity. Therefore: write SEO-friendly content. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a web page in search engines via the un-paid ("organic") search results. Just a few tips and tricks:
- Use popular but relevant keywords
- Don’t use too general keywords, but also not too specific.
- Don't worry about plurals; search engines don’t read them
- 6% to 10% of your text should be keywords
- Use links and headings: they have more value to search engines
There are many more tips to be found on the internet, such as on SEO SERP guide, ReverseDelta, Marketingfacts or simply Google's guidelines for webmasters.
My personal experience is that it doesn't help to invite people to leave a guest post. I also linked my blog to Hyves but that wasn't a big success. The majority of the traffic comes from Twitter. Surprisingly, LinkedIn is also a popular entrance, which additionally has the highest 'Time On Site' in Google Analytics. I think the best tip is to write about a hot topic, but keep it specific. The majority of my organic visitors came from the search term 'ipad 2 magazines'. I think also the many links in my posts have contributed to the number of organic visitors. In total, this has resulted in 37 organic visitors (which I'm pretty proud of :))! In these few months my knowledge about attracting visitors has grown, however, there’s still a lot more to learn.
donderdag 21 april 2011
Reasons for online dating
Online datingsites are websites where people can present themselves in order to find a potential partner. If someone likes an other person on the website, they make contact online. If they continue to like each other, they might decide to organize an offline meeting.
It is usually necessary to pay for membership, which makes these sites more reliable. No one will access the site just for fun. A big advantages of online dating is that the system will search for a partner that matches best.
Various datingsites
A huge amount of dating sites have settled on the internet. There are many general datingsites, but also numerous 'special interest sites'. These sites are intended for people with certain preferences. For example, if you are concerned with nature you can go to Green Singles. If you're interested in horses you can go to Equestrian Singles. When you are looking for a Christian partner you can go to FunkyFish, for students there is Matchstudents, for coloured people there is Black Singles and for Jewish people there is Jdate. You can even find your own Russian woman at Anastasia Date, find a plus size single at Large and Lovely or look for a wealthy partner at Wealthy Men or Sugardaddie.
Name any preference and there is a dating site for it! I wonder whether there are enough visitors for all these websites but I guess there are, since these websites still exist.
Reasons
But why are all these sites so popular? People make use of online datingsites for several reasons:
- It's appealing to search in a big pool of potential partners
- The privacy and anonymity of a dating site
- An efficient and easy way to find a date
- Easier to find someone with the same interests
- The only possible way left to find a partner (for older people)
I have never tried it myself, but I think it’s a good way to meet new people when you are looking for a date. Datingsites often have a negative image, which I think is not very fair. For many people it is a great way to meet their significant other.
However, my preference goes out to meeting in person first. I think online dating is too detached, while dating should be intimate and personal. If I was looking for a date I wouldn’t go to an offline datingbureau, so I wouldn’t do this either with online datingbureaus. Online dating is however far more approachable than offline dating assistance!
dinsdag 12 april 2011
Google Search becomes Social
It was just waiting for the moment that Google integrates a social feature in Google Search. The moment is there. Google recently introduced the +1 (plus one) button in the search results. It is such a feature that when it's there you think: 'ofcourse, why haven't they thought of this sooner!'
The +1 button represents things like "great website!" or "check this out", comparable to the Like-button on Facebook. Your friends or family automatically see your recommendations in their own Google search results. According to Google, your search results will become more relevant with this new feature. They take the ‘+1 stamp’ into account when determining a page's relevance and ranking.
Google experimental
Unfortunately, we in the Netherlands are not yet able to use the +1 button. The button is first tested in the US for a number of users, and will soon be available in other languages. If you can't wait to try it out, Google has been so kind to make this feature available for try out on Google Experimental.
Promote your website
In the future, you can also integrate the +1 button on your website. This is the perfect way to get more organic visitors on your website, since Google is one of the greatest players in online search engines. You can already sign up if you want to install the button on your website. You'll receive an email as soon as it's available.
Google profile
In order to assign a +1, you need to have a Google profile. This way, friends and family can see who has recommended a certain search result. Just a warning: +1's are public for anyone who is socially connected, so be careful with recommendations of 'certain embarrassing sites' ;) Users are able, however, to conceal their +1's on their Google profile.
This profile makes the +1 button less approachable, but is necessary in order to connect to social media. A great advantage is that your own +1's are saved on your account. This way, users are able to retrieve the links they have found and liked on the World Wide Web, at any time.
Read more about the effects and possibilities of the +1 button on the Google Webmaster Center.
maandag 4 april 2011
Find the perfect vacation using social media!
Many people are planning their summer vacation at the moment. I've just booked my own vacation, but perhaps I can interest you with a new tool.
Today, KLM launched an innovative application where you can search for a vacation using personal interests. With KLM Travlr you can use keywords that match your own interests such as shopping, diving or surfing. This makes it fun and easy to look for a vacation, which is adjusted to your individual desires. Furthermore, you can explore destinations that you wouldn’t normally think of.
The content is retrieved from social media such as Twitter, YouTube and Google Maps. The application runs completely on user generated content. In addition, you can share the information you find on social media.
My personal experience
I'm not sure whether I am a big fan of the application just yet. The first time I tried it, the interface was a bit fuzzy to me. When you click on a photograph, the interface jumps to a different screen without any clear connection to the previous one. It looks fancy, but there are too many pop-up windows overlapping. However, after some clicking it became clear to me. My preference goes out to interfaces that take no more than a few minutes to figure out. Today's launched application is still a beta version, so perhaps this is the first possible improvement.
Win-win-situation?
Obviously, a big advantage for the KLM is that they receive a lot of information about potential customers. It sounds like a win-win situation. However, you need to be aware of the fact that KLM keeps track of your personal input. I am also wondering how information is automatically retrieved from social media: can this information be legitimately retrieved from public profiles on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter? I suppose they thought it over carefully, but there are stil some questions on my end..
All in all, I think it's a smart application and I wouldn't be surprised if other travel websites take over this idea soon.
Try it yourself: Travlr Application
dinsdag 29 maart 2011
The Wisdom of the Crowd
Last week, my parents tipped me about a television program of Labyrint (Nederland 2). This turned out to be an interesting topic for my new blog! The program was about the power of a crowd, and how this power is increasingly used on the internet nowadays.
Cow experiment
Labyrint has replicated an early experiment, by which a large group of people had to guess the weight of a cow. The expectation was that the intelligence of a group of people is higher than the smartest person of that group. Requirements are that the group is diverse in knowledge and experience, and that people guess independently.
The wisdom of the crowd was proven by the early experiment. However, the Labyrint experiment failed: the average estimation of the weight of the cow was 552 kilo’s, while the actual weight was 740 kilo’s! How is this possible? Labyrint explains that people might have googled the weight and the study was probably too casual. In addition, nowadays people are not as close to nature and agriculture anymore.. there must be knowledge in the crowd!
Watch the entire tv program:
Crowd sourcing
Foldit is a computer game by which people can collectively help to calculate the development of a protein. This prediction is important because the structure specifies the function of the protein. Foldit is one of the first online initiatives for crowd sourcing. People help each other, mistakes are neutralized this way, and the average is close to the right answer.
Monk is an other example of such an initiative. With this computer program, people can collectively help to decode illegible historical documents.
This way, small contributions result in big solutions.
Developments
A more recent development is the situation in the Middle-east, where one revolution is followed by the next. People share their knowledge via social media and blogs, and provide varied and detailed information this way. Twitter is an other recent development where organizations can retrieve information from groups of people for several purposes. Micro-blogging can for instance predict movements in the stock market.
I think in the future the power of the crowd should be, and will be, used more effectively. I’d say: exploit that crowd! Especially if it’s also for entertaining purposes (computer game) or informational purposes (middel-east), it is an optimal win-win situation.
zaterdag 12 maart 2011
iPad 2 stimulates digital magazines
Tablets urge the magazine business to be innovative. For a long time, it seemed as if people wanted to keep the experience of reading a printed magazine. This now seems to turn and tablets become more and more important in digital reading.
The iPad 2 is recently launched in the United States and is becoming a new success story. The new iPad is faster, thinner and lighter and has extra cameras to improve videoconferencing. Experts even expect the sales of this iPad 2 to outperform the previous version. It will be available in the Netherlands from the 25th of March. Since the iPad is perfect for reading, it’s about time that magazine publishers nestle in this business!
Most Dutch magazine apps that I find on the internet are for free. There are several virtual newsstands such as Zinio, but there are only few entire app-supported magazines. Last year I went to a seminar about the innovation of magazines for my HBO graduate internship at Label strategic media. One of the spokesmen was from Bonnier, which is a Swedish publisher who was one of the first to publish an iPad app for their magazine. The audience of publishers differed in their opinions whether these innovations affect the magazine business positively or negatively.
On the one hand there are doubts of publishers, who are generally traditional and used to printed magazines. However, they realise they need to anticipate on these new technologies. On the other hand there are doubts of readers about whether they should pay for it or not. Perhaps the magazine business needs to find other ways to gain money, e.g. advertising or special memberships. The iPad 2 is certainly a new stimulus to explore these options!
dinsdag 1 maart 2011
Reality mining
Everytime you make a phonecall, data is collected about you. The phone company keeps track of the duration and frequency of conversations. Perhaps you have GPS on your device and use Google Maps, thus your location can be traced. It is also possible that your internet usage is tracked. Companies can use this data to improve their products and to anticipate on the actions of their users.
Datamining is the direct search for (statistical) relationships within large sets of data, for scientific or commercial purposes. Patterns in datasets can be found to a)classify information, b) detect dangerous activities or c) learn from it. The interest in datamining is increasing, which is particularly due to the growing databases. I never realized datamining was so huge, until we had a guest lecture by Eric Postma last week, in the course Business Information Technology.
There are many methods for datamining, and one of them is Reality mining. Reality mining is the collection and analysis of realtime data of human social behavior. The goal is to identify predictable patterns in human behavior. An example is location mining, by which an organization keeps track of the location of employees with the use of GPS.
According to Technology Review Magazine, Reality mining is one of the "10 technologies most likely to change the way we live".
Obviously, privacy is an issue for these new techniques. It is important to know who receives the data and what they do with it. It is highly undesirable if everyone can access the phone conversations you make! However, if well used, these techniques can have great advantages. It could make life much easier when patterns in live are found and organizations can anticipate on this by, for example, automatically notifying people or automatic privacy settings.
Another example is that researchers of Microsoft are mining cabs to create faster driving paths for online maps. As you can see, the possibilities are endless, if the data is used well!
dinsdag 22 februari 2011
Blackboard 9.1. What's in it for us?
The latest version of Blackboard was launched last week. I was curious what this change has done for us, students. When I Google the new Blackboard, it seems like most changes are for teachers. You can find a nice overview of all the changes on this website. Besides the improved visual interface, there are some improvements for students as well. So, let's review a short outline of the changes:
Groups
Perhaps you haven't noticed yet -I hadn't- but there is a new interesting feature in your menu on the left: Groups. Here you can see in which group you're enrolled within the course. Students can also create groups themselves if the lecturer allows it. You can exchange files, send an email or start a discussion with your group members. You can even change your groupbanner and -color! It’s a pitty that the color combinations look like they've been randomly chosen (not very attractive) but it's a nice extra feature.
Other changes
- The standard display for announcements is no longer 7 to 30 days, but 'all announcements'. A teacher can fill in an expiration date and when the announcement is expired, it is no longer visible for students.
- The tool 'Assignments' replaces the former Digital Dropbox. A big improvement is that you can see which assignment you've uploaded. Assignments can be handed in multiple times (if allowed by the lecturer) and it's possible to hand in an assignment with a group.
Check out the manual of BB 9.1 for further explanation.
Mobile devices
For the English course, last semester, I've studied the desires of students for Blackboard and other e-learning projects. My results showed that most students have internet on their mobile phones, and there was a high demand (63%) for improvement of the Blackboard for mobile devices.
However, when I try to enter the new Blackboard on my mobile phone, it says: Proxy Error. Contact the system administrator. Therefore, I can conclude that Blackboard hasn't improved for mobile devices yet..it even got worse! There is an app called Blackboard Mobile Learn, but it is only available with a Sprint 3G/4G network Android or a Sprint 3G/4G network BlackBerry device, as well as the Apple iPad, iPod touch and iPhone. So that doesn't work for me with my Nokia.
Other results
The results of my study also showed there was a high demand for online reading, discussion groups and an online community. These changes seemed to have been taken into account while they created the new Blackboard. However, students also addressed the interest for synchronous communication and a general message board, which is not present yet. Furthermore, the study showed that bad usability was a major issue of Blackboard. Only 25% of the respondents was satisfied with the former Blackboard. It would be interesting to repeat this study and find out whether this number, but regarding the new BB, has increased.
Also, many teachers use Twitter or other social media in their courses. It could have been nice to integrate these facilities in the newest Blackboard.
Performance issues
The new lay-out is kind of spoiled because of the red text about performance issues that has been there since the launch of BB 9.1. Implementing a new system can cause many problems, which you cannot test in advance. However, the sign says the problems are the highest priority but I think 1,5 week is a long time to be fixed. Blackboard has also become slower in loading time, which is not really desirable for a userfriendly system.
Overall, I think Blackboard has improved a whole lot, but there are still some adjustments to be made.
dinsdag 15 februari 2011
What happens when you DON’T use social media?
Hyves, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, you name it! Can you think of anyone who doesn't use it?
Nowadays it's hard to find anyone who is not a member of a social networking site. Some people use only one type while other people are active on all sites. Some use it occasionally, others use it excessively.
It seems to me that there are more and more excessive users of social networking sites. When I look around, all my friends are active on social networking sites, some more than others.
I consider myself to be a moderate user of social media. I check my Facebook, Twitter and Hyves every now and then, but not on a daily basis.
There are times that I forget to check them for several days or weeks -huh? Yes, there are still people who forget social media!-. But when I do, I sometimes notice that I'm missing out on things. It is however not in my nature (yet), to post personal tweets or to check my Facebook every day. That is actually quite strange, since my study is all about new media. Perhaps I'm a bit old-fashioned in this area, but I don’t need to be a social media fanatic.
It makes me wonder though, can it actually have bad consequences when you aren't an active social media user?
Are friendships maintained through the internet stronger than face-to-face friendships? And are you obliged to maintain your friends via the internet?
I have tried to search the internet for some more discussion but couldn’t find any. Perhaps I’m the only one, or I didn’t use the right keywords ;) When I look at other blogs, I see for instance that Sandra is also struggling with the use of Twitter.
It's clearly important to maintain friendships via the internet. New friendships may arise, or you can interact with your existing friends. I however use this 'maintaining' especially for people I rarely meet face to face. The availability and usage of all the new media makes me feel like people are socially obligated to participate and as far as I’m concerned, that’s not the point! I think it’s up to you to what extent you use it. And if it’s not in your nature, you simply don’t have to. I feel good as an “moderate user” and as long as I do, that’s fine!
dinsdag 8 februari 2011
Are Interactive Billboards the future?
Explaining the title of my blog, this topic is an interesting case. Interactive billboards are the latest innovation to Pass IT On!
‘IT’ stands for ‘Information Technology’, and so I litteraly mean IT. By using IT, companies are able to spread word of their products or services in an innovative manner.
These days, companies are searching for ways to attract consumers by using the newest technology. An interactive billboard is one of these methods. Just Google the term and see for yourself how many articles and info there are to be found about interactive billboards! From an edible chocolate billboard, to colour sensitive interactive billboards.
Check out the video below for another interesting example of a campaign in Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
With this campaign, Dutch authorities created awareness for street violence by making use of the surroundings. I think it's pretty innovative!
After a few days, the campaign got a lot of attention in the media. On Geenstijl.nl, the video was watched 200.000 times a day and generated a big discussion.
It seems like a good way for companies to get more interactive with customers. It also makes the advertisements more fun and interesting. The billboards can communicate with mobile devices, social media and have touchscreens. But will this be the future?
Possible problems that might arise are the high costs and the difficulty to make the billboards safe. Safety is an issue due to the fact that private information is shared and shown. High costs might be a problem because creating huge touchscreens is still quite costly. Since the billboards are public, the expensive billboards somehow need to be protected against thieves.
I am also wondering whether customers will actually use it. However, an interactive billboard is a nice way to attract attention. It can greatly contribute to branding and word of mouth through social media.
But do these benefits outweigh the drawbacks? Will there be interactive billboards on every bus stop and train platform in the future? I'm curious what you think! Use the comment box below for letting me know :)