How big is social media these days? Big enough to get its own week. This week is Social Media Week, if you hadn't heard, and its taking place in nine cities across the globe. It's a week-long extravaganza of free (or cheap) talks, roundtables, panels, happy hours and other events and we thought we would take a look and give our top five, must-attend events of the week.

Social Media Week is already in full swing, so if you're just getting started now, you've already missed out on a few must-see events, but there's still several days left, so fret not.

• Ignite San Francisco at Public Works: 6-10 p.m. Tuesday
  If you've never been to an Ignite event before, it works something like this: Someone gets on stage and they have five minutes to talk about something interesting with 20 slides that automatically change every 15 seconds.
• Social Media Club SF Game Night at 330 Ritch: 7- 10 p.m Tuesday (alternate)
  If board games, beer, and real-life social networking is your thing, then nevermind going to a talk, grab yourself a brewsky and get to know some folks over classic board games and NES standards like Contra, Excite Bike and more.
• A Discussion on Location-Based Social Apps at Madrone Studios: 5-6 p.m Wednesday
  Moderated by TechCrunch's MG Siegler, this event will dive into the idea of location-based social media, one of the hot topics of 2010 and sure to stick around for 2011. Speaking at the event will be Instagram's Kevin Systrom, Foodspotting's Alexa Andrzejewski and PicPlz's Dalton Caldwell.
• Why Community Managers Won't Exists in 5 Years (and why that's a good thing) at UserVoice: 5-8 p.m Thursday
  If you can get into this one, it's sure to be an interesting conversation. Though the job of the community manager may have been around since the days of BBSes, it's a relatively new job title and already, we're calling for its demise. This one is going to be lead by UserVoice community manager Evan Hamilton, who plans on arguing that his own position will be obsolete in five years. According to the event description, if you plan on hurling any rotten fruit, you'll have to bring your own.
• Snackers Lounge Daily Happy Hour at Library Bar: 5-8 p.m. Tuesday thru Thursday
  If you've had enough for the day and 5 p.m. is quitting time, head over to Library Bar to meet up with the rest of the social media mavens and grab some discounted drinks before continuing with your evening. Who can complain about discounted drinks, right? We're sure the discussion will revolve around the latest in hashtags, social media analytics and Twitter etiquette, among other topics.
• The Future of the Social Web at CBS Interactive: 3:30-4:15 Friday
  Moderated by Mashable's Ben Parr, the panel will consist of The Next Web's Hermoine Way, Ning CEO Jason Rosenthal and Edelman Digital VP of Social Media Michael Brito. What better way to end your week of social media filled fun than with predictions for the future?

For the full list of events, you can check out the social media channel on Plancast or look at the official listing on the Social Media Week website. Of course, like any list of events, we've likely either left something out, passed over a gem or missed out on something entirely, so if you know of some must-see events happening this week in San Francisco, let us know in the comments below...and maybe we'll see you there!

Whatever it is, it's sure to be exciting (right?) and our own Mike Melanson will be there to let you know what happens, as it happens. Come back at 4pm PT/7pm ET for our live blog.

Our friend Robert Scoble plans to offer a live stream from the event.

4:01: The Egg awaits us and we're told "a couple minutes guys".

4:09: @Ev is offering up some stats. Twitter mobile users are up 250%, 370k new signups a day with 16% on mobile.

"The usage on mobile really underscores what we think Twitter is for people...a real-time information network."

4:15: "You don't have to tweet," says Williams, "any more than you have to make a webpage to use the Web." Twitter can be used for content consumption as well. And....Twitter runs into some technical difficulties with the slide projector.

4:17: A lot of people are tweeting, says @Ev - "we're continuing to see unbelievable growth". Says we're seeing up to 90 million tweets a day. 25% of tweets contain links.

@Ev says we're here to talk about Twitter.com - "It's how most people experience Twitter", even though its something the "tech set" misses. Twitter accounts for 78% of Twitter use, with 14% using the mobile website.

4:21: "What we're announcing today is the new Twitter.com" (Cue inspiring video).

4:25: Shows a two-column redesign of Twitter.com.

Some features:
-Click on a tweet on the left and get more context and information in the right column.
-Goodbye Hovercards? Click on a user and get full contextual information.
-Click on a tweet, see full embedded photos and videos

Ev says "We've done deals with 16 video and picture providers...YouTube, Ustream..."

4:30: "This is a complete revamp. This is a new architecture. The entire front-end is re-engineered."

Shows an endless scrolling left-column, meaning you can continually scroll through your stream of tweets.

The new Twitter.com will be launching today for a subset of users and will be launching worldwide. It will be an incrememntal roll-out.

Biz butts in - and says that "If the Ev of six months ago were standing here, he would be passed out on the floor" and we should be happy because he's acting so "leadership-y".

Ev says "It's all about speed, responsiveness and discovery."

4:35: Let the Q&A begin.

Q:How long will it take to launch?
A:"Stability is our number one priority...we're not on a firm time frame."

Q:Scoble asks if the list feature will change at all.
A:Lists are easier to access, navigate, as part of redesign. "Right now you have to click on a name and it takes you to a completely different view. Now...it integrates this into the workflows." List limitations are unchanged.

Q:Maggie Shields from the BBC - Did you test externally?
A:Yes. Starting as early as May, June, had weekly user tests. "We've been continuously testing until now."

Q:Ben Parr from Mashable - What influence did mobile apps have on this?
A:We launched iPad app 10 days ago. They were in parallel development, which is why they're similar looking. "We designed device specific experiences."

What about monetization? Ev says the new design will cause more engagement, with videos and other links directly embedded. The opportunities are tremendous compared to the current site, they say.

Is Twitter expecting this to increase use of Twitter.com? The answer is "Yes."

4:46: Twitter has updated its site to include a new product page.

Q: Will more pageviews kill Twitter?
A: @goldman says the redesign involves a new architecture design as well, so it will handle increased traffic. "We think this is both a product enhancement as well as a stability enhancement." It's a "significantly different" architecture.

Q: Are there new team features?
A: Not in this release.

Q: SearchEngineLand asks if there are any changes in search we'll see.
A: Search is much more integrated overall. It's a "onebox" - you'll see a search pane that has real-time results, but also top tweets and people that match, as well as other things.

"This does not take down Google," says @goldman. "We haven't talked to advertisers yet."

Twitter has introduced a new logo

4:55:That's all she wrote, folks. The Q&A is over and the new Twitter.com should be rolling out for select users.

Update: The video is now available:

While LBSN users notify their personal networks where they are physically located by checking in to the service (and earning virtual badges in the process), EBSN users earn their virtual rewards by also using check-in mechanics, but without actually being physically present at a location.

We see from studies and personal experiences that recommendations from social networks do influence our television viewing habits. Combined with the abundant, on-demand nature of information available on the Internet, it's easy to understand how the changing content consumption habits - from the day after to the day of - have affected the media industry.

While much of the demise of print news media can be attributed to these changing habits (and explained nowhere better than on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart), it has actually had the opposite effect on live television event broadcasts. Here is audience data from some of the most widely-known live-broadcast sports and entertainment events from this year.

• Golden Globes (January): This year's television audience was 17 million, 14% higher than in 2009.
• Grammy Awards (January): Almost 27 million viewers tuned in, a 35% increase over last year's broadcast and the highest TV ratings for the event since 2004.
• Super Bowl XLIV (February): This became the most-watched television program in U.S. history, beating the finale of the TV show "M*A*S*H" with a total audience of over 150 million and an average of over 106 million viewers.
• Academy Awards (March): The Awards had over 41 million viewers, up 14% over the 2009 Oscars.
• NBA Finals Game 7 (June): The deciding game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics pulled in a viewership of over 28 million, the largest basketball audience since 12 years ago, when Michael Jordan won his last of six NBA championships
• World Cup Final (July): The finals between Spain and Netherlands became the most-watched soccer game in U.S. history with over 24 million viewers, topping the previous record of 19 million viewers during the United States' match against Ghana in the elimination round only weeks earlier.

Some might argue that there are better explanations for this renewed interest in live television programming. The economy, for instance, means people stay home more often for entertainment purposes. Or it's due to a wide range of content quality: the offensive-minded Super Bowl match-up; the popularity of Lady Gaga for the Grammys and Avatar for the Golden Globes and Oscars; the deciding game of a classic NBA finals match-up; the final of the World Cup, the most-followed sporting event in the world. But the fact is most of these events are leveraging social media hubs like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube more and more as part of their tune-in marketing campaigns to engage with fans and would-be viewers.

And it's working. The network effect caused by the interest of the most engaged fans is bringing indifferent audiences that are connected to these fans off of the sidelines and into the viewing experience. The real-time nature of information flow on the Web, along with the ability to extend social connections through Facebook and Twitter, has made it increasingly difficult for people to avoid watching or hearing about live television event broadcasts - or even attempt to try to watch them in a non-linear, time-shifted manner without having the outcome spoiled by social media channels. Combined with the social pressures around participation, additional audiences are being influenced to engage in these events via social networks.

Some recent engagement figures from Facebook and Twitter seem to confirm this. Facebook has shared that about 30% of all status updates on the site during the U.S. versus England match included a World Cup-related term. More impressively, Twitter saw the number of Tweets per second (TPS) it handles top 3,000 as a result of the Lakers beating the Celtics in the NBA Finals. This record was broken a week later on the heels of two World Cup matches that generated almost 3,300 TPS. To put this into context, Twitter's normal activity is 750 TPS, which is a big reason why the service has experienced over six hours of downtime since the beginning of the World Cup.

With live television event broadcasting benefiting greatly from social networking, can EBSNs become the next big opportunity in social media?

More Than Virtual Badges and Threaded Conversations

Even though the most well-known companies in this segment of social networking have positioned themselves in a slightly different manner from one another. At the most basic level, services like Fanvibe (formerly Fanpulse) sporting sporting events, GetGlue by AdaptiveBlue (home entertainment like movies, books and music), Hot Potato (general events), Miso by Bazaar Labs (TV shows and movies) and Tunerfish from Comcast (online video and TV shows) all address some type of live event participation through their services.

As ReadWriteWeb points out in its recent coverage of some of these apps, their current lack of users adversely affects the social value of their respective networks. With Facebook and Twitter already driving the lion's share of social media status updates and check-in functionality becoming a commodity, these EBSNs will need more than virtual badges and threaded conversation capabilities around events to drive adoption.

The solution is partnering with the leagues and organizations behind these events, as well as the television networks with the broadcast rights. Being promoted by the events or built into the digital experiences of the broadcasts is the ideal way to drive mindshare and user growth. For this reason Tunerfish is best positioned of the group to succeed, since it comes out of Comcast, which has the largest television subscriber base and is in the process of acquiring one of the biggest network TV broadcasters in the U.S.

Being part of Comcast helped Tunerfish land its first promotional partnership with HBO when the service went live last month. Owning NBC could bring a lot more of these types of opportunities to Tunerfish. With an iPad app also in the works from Comcast, adding Tunerfish's functionality to the application could automate the check-in process for millions of TV viewers across every television show and network available in the U.S., creating an enviable interest graph.

There is hope for some of the other services as well. AdaptiveBlue, which has been around the longest, probably has the most robust underlying platform. The company leverages semantic technologies to generate social recommendations for its users based on their check-ins and ratings. By covering a broader range of interests than just TV shows and movies, and with strong platform usage resulting from its recently launched GetGlue iPhone app, AdaptiveBlue can create a much deeper interest graph than some of its competitors.

Hot Potato could find early success among sports leagues, as its founding team comes from MLBAM, the digital media arm of Major League Baseball. That being said, MLB, which is the most tech savvy of all the major sports leagues, did announce it has integrated its own check-in functionality into its iPhone app just last week.

Miso's best opportunity for success is tied to the investment it took from Google Ventures last month. With the announcement of GoogleTV earlier this year, Miso should have the inside track in doing for GoogleTV what Tunerfish could do for Comcast - integrating directly into the television guide and discovery experience for set-top boxes.

Over $400 billion in television advertising and on-demand video revenues exist worldwide, according to a recent report published by media researcher Futurescape. As I've mentioned in previous posts and tweets, live TV event programming - such as sports championships and entertainment award shows - will only increase in value to broadcasters as produced series-based programming becomes more accessible on demand in a non-linear viewing experience.

Live television represents the best opportunity for advertisers to find and connect with an engaged audience in the present. Combined with real-time status updates, event producers and advertisers can receive immediate feedback from users on their TV viewing experience. This social feedback loop will be critical in delivering better television programming and advertising in the future.

With nearly half of Facebook users simultaneously watching television while on the site, and Twitter showing its impact during the recently concluded NBA Finals and World Cup, it's those companies' game to lose at the moment as each brings a respective interest and sentiment data set that can add tangible value to traditional TV audience metrics.

For EBSNs to succeed, they will need to leverage Facebook and Twitter's platforms as distribution channels - much like Foursquare did initially - in order to drive utility for its users and interest for their own services. By becoming the interface between users and their Facebook and Twitter accounts, ESBNs have an opportunity to get users to build subnetworks within their respective platforms that are unique and more valuable to those on Facebook and Twitter - something Foursquare is also starting to do with its own LBSN.

The ultimate benefit in evolving a platform in this manner is that an event-based social network can become the audience- and data-provider to event creators and distributors, as well as advertisers, while delivering better programming recommendations and socially targeting advertising to its users in the process.

Whatever the eventual outcome, it will unfold live.

Photo by gerard79.

To start out the discussion, MacManus pointed out that it was the read/write aspect of the Internet that spawned the growth of social networks like Facebook and Twitter over the last few years. In the Western world, this development allowed users to connect and express their thoughts freely. In China, however, even though the same tools are available as in the West, a lot of them are currently blocked and censored. In addition to this, Ai Weiwei noted that sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, as well as TV channels like CNN, are currently blocked in China.

Even though there are a number of Facebook and Twitter clones in China, Ai Weiwei argued that those companies work within the framework that the Chinese government has set for them with regards to what users can say on these services. Ai Weiwei's name, for example, can never be used on these sites without getting censored. Indeed, said Ai Weiwei, using Twitter in China is "very physical and dangerous."

Translating Twitter

Asked about the reason for Twitter's popularity among netizens, Ai Weiwei noted that services like Twitter and blogs are easy to use, but once he got too popular, his blog was quickly shut down. Even though Twitter has a 140-character limit, Twitter's users in China can easily express in-depth thoughts because the Chinese language allows Twitter users to express 140 words on Twitter and not just 140 characters.

With regards to how Twitter is being used in China, Ai Weiwei noted that the most active Twitter users in China often use the service for political and philosophical discussions.

Jack Dorsey, after recapping the basic history of Twitter and his fascination with maps, and open, public databases, noted that messages on Twitter, even though they are often trivial, do show that "we are human" and remind us that we are all the same. Twitter, which he called a utility, was extended by the user and the developer ecosystem that grew up around it. Internet users across the world can now use it to communicate, talk to their governments, build a business and create political movements.

Ai Weiwei told Dorsey that the "Chinese people think you are some kind of God" because Twitter allows people to express themselves without worrying about censorship.

A lot of the discussion with Jack Dorsey focused on had to do with what Twitter can do to to help its users in China. Ai Weiwei directly asked Dorsey why Twitter doesn't provide its users a Chinese-language version of Twitter. According to Dorsey, it is just a question of time and mostly a technological issue. Given Twitter's problems with scaling the service, making it work for every character set creates some issues for Twitter because of the legacy framework that Twitter established in its early days. Currently, the company doesn't really have the resources to devote to this. Doresey did, however, argue that users already know how the service is meant to work and understand the setup of the Twitter page.

Dorsey also noted that Twitter isn't sure that it really wants to move into the Chinese market, but would like to offer a Chinese translation of its service at some point. Indeed, Dorsey noted that he wasn't even aware that Twitter was blocked in China until just a few weeks ago.

Censorship and Twitter

MacManus then asked Ai Weiwei if the Chinese government couldn't just censor Twitter or force Twitter to censor its service. Ai Weiwei, however, pointed out that Twitter could easily translate Twitter's registration page to help Chinese users. He noted that he isn't asking Twitter to set up an operation in China - he just wants Twitter to make the service easier to use for Chinese users and to translate large parts of the service. The Internet companies in China, as MacManus noted, tend to "self-discipline" themselves and censor their own content. MacManus wondered what would happen to a Chinese language version of Twitter, and if it wouldn't just get blocked and censored just like other international services.

Ai Weiwei noted that a lot of international companies that would like to enter the Chinese market have a responsibility to not give up on basic human rights. While the discussion didn't go into depth with regards to the issues surrounding Google's exit from China, MacManus noted that Google was one of the few Western services that entered the Chinese market, even though it faced a strong Chinese competitor. According to MacManus, leaving the Chinese market was a "brave move" by Google that sends a strong message that these companies are willing to stand up to the Chinese government.

Twitter's Moral Responsibility

Twitter and other technology companies have, said Dorsey, a responsibility to follow basic moral guidelines, and in his view, many technology companies have helped to push the messages of the U.S. government (and other governments) forward with regards to acknowledging human rights violations in China.

Asked specifically if companies do have a moral responsibility, Dorsey said that Twitter - as a company - is focused on opening information as completely as possible and wants to ensure that everybody can participate in the conversations on the service. Twitter, which according to Dorsey was founded around the principles of immediacy and transparency, allows users to create a shared experience among users around the world and create more empathy.

Towards the end of the discussion, Dorsey said that Twitter is just a tool and that it can't change any governments itself, but that it is the users who can use it to change governments.

As MacManus noted during the discussion, it is people like Ai Weiwei that are using these tools effectively. One day, Ai Weiwei noted towards the end of the discussion, we won't need tools like Twitter to change our governments anymore.

Know of an event taking place that should appear here? Let us know in the comments below or contact us.

BlogWell

8 great case studies in corporate social media. Nokia, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, General Electric, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Turner Broadcasting System, Tyson Foods, and Johnson & Johnson share social media case studies at BlogWell New York. Discussions include measuring ROI, managing teams, legal issues, BtoB, working with agencies, and creating great content. This is the best opportunity available for anyone looking to get started or to improve their corporate social media efforts. Get practical, how-to advice, a lesson on tricky disclosure issues, and loads of ideas and examples for just $250. From GasPedal and Blog Council.

19 – 20 May 2009: New York City

Web 3.0 Conference

In turbulent economic times, it is critically important to understand what opportunities exist to make our businesses run better. The emergence of a new era of technologies, collectively known as Web 3.0, provides this kind of strategically significant opportunity.

The core idea behind web 3.0 is to extract much more meaningful, actionable insight from information. At the conference, we will explore how companies are using these technologies today, and should be using them tomorrow, for significant bottom line impact in areas like marketing, corporate information management, customer service, and personal productivity.

ReadWriteWeb readers save 15% with the discount code XRWW.

8 June 2009: London

Corporate Social Networking Forum

Taking place at the Riba in London, England, the Corporate Social Networking Forum lets you learn from global brands that have successfully implemented a social networking framework. Find out what impact this has had on day-to-day business; understand what products and tools are available to incorporate Web 2.0 functionality in your business; and listen to analysts, top commentators, and experts on how social media can improve employee satisfaction and output.

• Evening networking reception
• Discount for early booking (expires May 8th)

14 – 18 June 2009: San Jose

2009 Semantic Technology Conference

Business and government organizations have been pioneering semantics in knowledge-based applications. Increasingly they are now combining semantic web technologies to create even more powerful applications for data integration, SOA, collaboration, and publishing.

What are the big players doing in semantic search? Which startups are challenging them? How does semantic technology change search results? What are the key advantages and new opportunities that semantics provide in both the consumer and business search markets?

Semantic Applications and Use Cases will be presented by product developers and technical experts with semantic solutions in a rich variety of fields including: advertising, biomedical, business process management, chemistry, cloud computing, digital asset management, disaster preparedness, ecommerce, and more.

22 – 25 June 2009: Boston

Enterprise 2.0 Conference

The Entreprise 2.0 Conference is "the one place where business and IT professionals looking to leverage 2.0 technologies and culture can learn from real enterprise case-studies, get a glimpse of the future from thought leaders, demo the leading solutions and benefit from each other's experiences to help their organizations survive - even thrive - in today's marketplace."

22 – 23 September 2009: Singapore

Social Networking World Forum — Asia

This two-day conference hosted by the Social Networking World Forum - Asia features key speakers from social networking publishers, advertising agencies, industry analysts, software developers and equipment manufacturers, pay-TV and network service providers, mobile operators, and more.

• Joint exhibition combining social networking and mobile social networking formats
• Evening networking reception
• Discount for early booking (expires August 21st)
• Free pass for exhibition only

9 – 10 November 2009: Santa Clara, California

Social Networking World Forum — California

This event taking place at the Santa Clara Convention Centre actually consists of three conferences: two days dedicated to social networking, one day dedicated to enterprise social media, and one day dedicated to social TV. Key speakers include social networking publishers, advertising agencies, industry analysts, software developers and equipment manufacturers, pay-TV and network service providers, mobile operators, and more.

• Joint exhibition combining social networking and enterprise social media formats
• Pre-show online meeting planner for delegates
• Discount for early booking (expires September 25th)
• Free pass for exhibition only

15 – 16 March 2010: London

2nd Annual Social Networking World Forum — London

The 2nd Annual Social Networking World Forum takes place at the Olympia Conference Centre in London. The two-day event features four dedicated conference streams:

1. Social Networking World Forum
2. Enterprise social media
3. Social TV World Forum
4. Mobile Social Networking Forum

The event features key speakers from global brands, organisations, social networking publishers and developers, pioneering social media leaders, top agencies, content producers, and more.

• Full workshop program within exhibition area
• Evening networking reception
• Pre-show online meeting planner for delegates
• Free pass for exhibition only

Interested in being a ReadWriteWeb sponsor? ReadWriteWeb is one of the most popular blogs in the world and is read by a sophisticated audience of thought leaders and decision makers. We have several innovative new features in our sponsor packages which we'd love to tell you about. Email our COO Bernard Lunn for all the details.

Skip to info about... Calais: Semantic Web API Socialtext: Enterprise 2.0 Adobe: Flash media server Wistia: video for business Mashery: API management services TaxACT: online tax filing Rackspace: cloud computing experts Aplus.net: web hosting Crowd Science: demographic data Eurekster: custom topic portals Our Hosts and Blogging Software: Media Temple and SixApart

Calais

Calais, powered by Thomson Reuters, brings state-of-the-art semantic functionality into your blog, content management system, site or application. Calais 4.0 was released in January, for the first time allowing publishers to connect to the Linked Data web standard. Calais 4.0 goes beyond metatagging and enables publishers to integrate their content with Linked Data assets from Wikipedia, GeoNames, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), Shopping.com and others. Calais 4.0 also lets publishers share semantic metadata about their content with "content consumers" such as search engines, news aggregators, related stories recommendation services and more.

Check out the incredible work being done at Calais and let us know what you think.

Socialtext

Socialtext provides an enterprise wiki platform for organizations who want to accelerate knowledge sharing, foster collaboration, or build online communities.

Socialtext is currently offering a free white paper entitled 5 Best Practices for Enterprise Collaboration. It explains how collaboration solutions (a.k.a. Enterprise 2.0) can "dramatically reduce enterprise cycle times and costs. These results may be critical to survival in difficult economic times, and the right collaboration solution is the easiest, most cost effective way to achieve them."

Download Socialtext's free whitepaper at http://socialtext.com.

Crowd Science

Crowd Science gives online publishers reports on the demographics and attitudes of their audience. We at ReadWriteWeb have signed up to this new service, because demographic data is something we've struggled to get in the past. It's important for any online business to know their audience, so Crowd Science is a welcome addition to the stats armory that most of us in the Internet biz use.

You can sign up to get demographic data by clicking here.

Mashery

Mashery is a platform for web services, allowing companies to manage their APIs using Mashery's expertise. In the Business of APIs conference, Mashery CEO Oren Michels explained to the audience that while APIs are a technology, their use is a business decision. He went on to say that Mashery has helped customers such as WhitePages.com, Thumbplay, Compete.com, and Calais. Check out the white paper Five steps to scaling your business development using web services to discover how you can use APIs for your business.

You can find out more about APIs and their business use at www.mashery.com.

TaxACT

TaxACT is an efficient way to file your taxes online, in either desktop or web-based versions. It offers two ways to enter data: the interview format, or the forms-based entry method. TaxACT also provides its users a highly reliable and robust alerts system to prevent costly mistakes generally caused by omissions or missed opportunities to maximize deductions. Regardless of the TaxACT version, all forms are IRS and State approved. The software was developed by professional accountants and CPAs.

You can see a tour of TaxACT online by clicking here.

Rackspace

Rackspace is one of the world's largest hosting providers, but it's also competing in the cloud computing arena. In October Rackspace announced two major acquisitions: SliceHost and JungleDisk. Slicehost is a popular cloud computing and hosting provider with about 15,000 users, while JungleDisk is one of our favorite online backup services. JungleDisk used to rely on Amazon's S3 storage solution, but it now also supports Rackspace's cloud storage solution. At the same time, Rackspace also announced a new suite of services, Rackspace Cloud Hosting, which combines a hosting platform (CloudSites) with a cloud storage solution (CloudFS), and, in the long run, a tight integration with Slicehost's services.

Click here to explore Rackspace's hosting and cloud computing solutions.

Adobe Flash Media Interactive Server 3.5

Adobe Flash Media Interactive Server 3.5 offers powerful streaming with a flexible environment for creating and delivering rich, interactive, multiway social media experiences to a broad audience. You'll find a superior video experience, with new features such as Dynamic Streaming, DVR functionality, HTTP delivery support, and H.264 enhancements.

Check out the Adobe Flash Media Interactive Server 3.5 to add interactivity and media streaming to your social media applications.

Wistia

Wistia is a provider of secure video sharing and collaboration tools for business. The company says that "the use of video in business has grown immensely as cameras and video production have become significantly more accessible. However, sharing and collaborating on this content with your team still has many challenges, including large file sizes, numerous video formats, privacy and security, and lack of collaboration environment." Wistia aims to solve those challenges.

You can get a free 15-day trial of Wistia by clicking here.

Aplus.net

Aplus.net offers a variety of services relating to web hosting - including shared hosting, dedicated server, managed hosting, web design, marketing and online advertising services, search engine optimization, ecommerce solutions, and domain registration.

You can register for Aplus.net here.

Eurekster

Eurekster is developer of the swicki that we use on RWW, a custom social search portal on the topic of your choice (in our case web tech), powered by the community.

People build swickis on all kinds of topics, some people build a lot of them. Alex Holmes, for example, builds really nice looking swickis on topics like the 2008 Election, Ocean Animals and Home Buying.

Our Gracious Hosts and Blogging Software

ReadWriteWeb is hosted by Media Temple and is published using SixApart's MovableType.

If you've ever wondered what RWW looks like behind the scenes, or if you've never seen the MovableType publishing interface - that's it on the left. We recently upgraded to MT 4.23, which is the latest version. We got onto this release as soon as it was available - in fact our contacts at Six Apart emailed the actual code to us before it was up on their website. That's customer service for you!

The companies above pay our rents or mortgages and we appreciate it. We hope you'll stop by their sites and see what they've got to offer.

Have you got a smart company that could use some more visits by the sophisticated readers of a blog like ReadWriteWeb? Drop us a line and let's talk.

Thanks to all our sponsors and our readers for your support!

Flickr Flipper: Looking for an image to go with your post? The Flickr Flipper app lets you browse through Flickr for photos. You can also search for photos from a specific user by typing username: followed by a Flickr user's username.

Digg RSS Reader: Did your post just hit front page? You'll know right away with the Digg RSS Reader. You can keep tabs on all the top stories, or filter them by choosing to view only the News, Videos, or Images. Clicking the links will open the Digg story in your web browser so you can vote for your favorites.

FotoBooth: Ustreamers will like FotoBooth, an AIR app that lets you use your computer's webcam to snap pictures of yourself, add filters or distort them, and then upload them to Flickr with just one click.

Websnapshot and WebKut: Let's call it two for the price of one: Websnapshot lets you quickly take snapshots of a web site by entering in the URL or dragging-and-dropping it from your browser to the app. You can specify whether you want a thumbnail, a browser-sized pic, or a full page snapshot. An auto-save feature lets you save the pictures to the location of your choosing. Webkut goes a step further - you can enter the URL or you can Google for it right within the AIR application, a nice time-saving feature.

Color Browser: Get inspired to re-design your blog! With the Color Browser app, you can create and organize your favorite color palettes. If you're a blog designer, this is a must-have app.

Joomedit: Are you using the open source content management system from Joomla? Then you need Joomedit, a desktop editor that lets you edit, upload, and publish to your Joomla CMS.

SHIFD: Doing research? The SHIFD desktop app lets you save notes, places, and links from the web into the SHIFD AIR application. This content is then available on any device with internet access - whether your desktop, laptop, or mobile phone.

Apprise: The Apprise application is a sample AIR app, which means you can download the source code too. Apprise is an online/offline RSS reader which features importing and exporting of feeds, search, and support for RSS and ATOM.

We would add Google Analytics to this list, but it was covered in our previous post (and besides, isn't everyone running it by now, anyway?). We would have also loved to include AirPress, but sadly, this desktop blogging AIR app has not been kept up-to-date.

An honorable mention goes out to Userplane Desktop, a brandable Adobe AIR app for bloggers in the big leagues. This white label solution can keep your users informed as to your site's news, keeping them engaged even when they're not on the web site itself.

The one thing that's made a big difference for Kareem, his supporters say, has been international attention. Now those supporters are calling for a two week campaign of snail-mail sent to the jail.

Resources

Kareem's primary support group is FreeKareem.org. (Very slow page load.) His crime was in large part denying the truth of Islam, but his supporters say they are primarily Muslims who defend his right to do so.

More in depth coverage of this and other cases can be found at The Committee to Protect Bloggers.

The "Flood the Jail with Mail" campaign is asking you to send a letter or a postcard to Kareem between April 7th and the 21st. You can click on the button below to add a reminder to your Google Calendar.

So far he's been receiving physical mail. Below are the addresses you can use to send that mail, both the English and the Arabic must be present, so fire up your printer and print this page.

Alexandria
Borg Al-Arab Prison
Room 1 Section 22
Prisoner Abdul Kareem Nabil Suleiman
The Arab Republic of Egypt

In too many other cases, the Western tech community has dropped the ball for people working online but living in different places. See, for example, the terrible treatment by YouTube of Egyptian video blogger Wael Abbas, whose police brutality watchdog videos were deleted from the site by the company.

We hope you'll set up a reminder and take a few minutes next month to send Kareem a postcard.

See below and refresh at will to keep up with the details announced in the call and the quick thoughts on it from our guests. Please add your own thoughts in comments, of course. Update: It was a quick call and is now over. In addition to our notes and commentary below, see our previous detailed coverage of the announcement. I thought the most important part of today's call was the discussion about splintering the OpenSocial standard.

The Call

Wade Chambers, VP of Platforms at Yahoo! opened the call. They will support and implement the community driven industry standards at OpenSocial, just like they support OpenID and other standards like it. Have been extremely impressed by the progress of OpenSocial, the number of containers and developers so far. A more social web will be significantly valuable for users. Not offering any specifics today but will contribute actively to development of specifications.

Progress

Joe Kraus of Google gives an overview of OpenSocial, two major containers have launched apps. Open Social reaches more than 200m users, High5 is launching next Tuesday. The open community needs a solid footing, using standard method - creating a nonprofit foundation. They are announcing intent today. It's goal is to provide a safe harbor for Intellectual Property, to ensure free use forever and prevent too much influence from any single party.

Yahoo and Google have agreed to a patent non-assertion covenant, all contributors will throw in after Foundation is live. Google will give OpenSocial trademark and website to Foundation.

Scott Kveton from OpenID Foundation: "I think this is great - they are doing all o fthe right things with the non-assertion covenant but its another foundation. Its more work for companies to join, etc. So now you have openid, opensocial, oauth is going to have to do something, microformats, etc - this gets pretty complicated IMHO."

Serious Apps Coming Soon, Says MySpace

Steve Pierman, SVP of products at MySpace. Says that specialization based on standards can lead to serious apps, not just "toys and widgets." They want OpenSocial to become the defacto standard for application development.

Questions:

NYT asks to what extent this is an effort to compensate for fears of Google dominance of OpenSocial?

Steve Gillmor says "The problem with Google leading this effort is that their other privacy conflicts create mistrust. Reverse engineering of social graph poisons the data Google collects and contributes to open pool."

Answer from presenters is that this is the next logical step for OpenSocial to take.

Erick Shonfeld of TechCrunch asks why these companies and what about revenue sharing. Joe Kraus says that the whole community is expected to participate but these three companies are engaging in intellectual property protection.

Steve Gillmor says "I wonder if Microsoft was asked to participate in this announcement."

Ars Technica (pronounced on the call, by the way, as A-R-S Technica) asks next question, it's 2/3 new media! Ars writer asks if the Foundation will do anything to protect intellectual property on OpenSocial. Google guy says the primary IP in question is the OpenSocial code, beyond that it's not in scope.

Eric Eldon from Venturebeat asks for numbers of users. Answer: the specification has been worked on a bunch. Orkut will go live with apps next week, too. 200 million users will be reached by all live apps. MySpace says their users are loving apps, so they'll push them wider soon. Wade from Yahoo! says standards will make everything safer.

I asked about splintering of OpenSocial and Microsoft. Answer: diversity of actions is important, no gratuitous differences. App developers say once they have their app running on one it's just hours of work to get it to run on the next platform. Cuts dev time from months to hours. They will standardize extensions as appropriate. Wade from Yahoo! says it's an open standard, everyone is free to join it and should - presumably that includes Microsoft. Gillmor says, "The response to Marshall's question left unanswered why Microsoft was not part of the foundation creation."

And the call is over. Quick call, questions from the NYT and 4 tech blogs!

Gillmor: "The Foundation will accelerate demands for Google to be responsive for privacy violations in their attempt to reverse engineer social network out of their existing user contracts with users. Yahoo will need to address whether this alliance is designed as a poison pill for Microsoft, and if so, why this is a legitimate use of "open" standards for that purpose."

Kveton: "Seems pretty simple. It's a 'good thing' - hopefully others will agree and join in."

Thanks everyone for joining us for the call. What do you think?