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That social media is having an impact on television is hardly breaking news at this point. For a few years, Twitter and other social networks have served as a sort of digital, real-time water cooler where viewers convene and discuss TV shows as they're broadcast.

This behavior has emerged more or less organically. Just as with major sporting events and breaking news stories, people naturally gravitate toward services like Twitter and Facebook to post their thoughts about television shows.

Email service provider iContact is holding an interesting contest (we aren't involved, just like contests). Make a short video on why you either like or hate social media and post it before December 5th. Simple enough, and it sounds like a lot of fun too.

If you are looking for a way to do extensive online training on online topics, then consider what Grovo.com has to offer. There are dozens of topics ranging from email etiquette to setting up Facebook ads to using Yammer, Stumble Upon, Google Analytics, Twitter and LinkedIn. While I didn't try out very many courses, it does seem well thought out. Many large Fortune 1000 companies are using the service, too. In this era where training budgets are being slashed and where keeping up with the latest online technology is difficult, this is worth a closer look.

A 2011 study by the National Restaurant Association confirms that consumers who use social media, including apps, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, UrbanSpoon and more, not only dine out more, but are more likely to become return customers. The study divided these techie-type consumers into two categories, based on data from the Association's 2010 National Household Survey: "connected adults," which refers to people who frequently use email and the Internet, and "social media-savvy adults," who use at least one of the following tools: Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and other food review sites, or mobile-phone apps like Foursquare and UrbanSpoon.

No single Web technology has survived longer on life support than the intranet - the broader goal of employee intercommunication and content management, to which enterprises still aspire. Despite an over-abundance of very capable tools over the years, including content management systems and collaboration platforms such as Microsoft SharePoint, the element that companies have lacked to date has been inspiration. It's as if a construction firm had dumped all the best building materials into one big pit: With that much treasure in one place, how come no one builds houses with it?

This year's version of the spark for inspiration comes from social media, and the realization that while a low percentage of employees uses the company intranet, a higher percentage uses Facebook. Coinciding with this week's Gartner Symposium/ITExpo in Orlando, Florida, where "the social organization" is a principal topic, CMS market share leader OpenText's latest Social Communities 8.1 upgrade adds a curious new feature that's sure to get businesses talking: social data mining.

Newsgator announced this week important enhancements to Social Sites, including a connector to its spin-off Sepia Labs' Glassboard.

If you aren't ready to totally give up your Excel spreadsheet to manage your business-critical metrics, then BI vendor MicroStrategy has an interesting solution for you called Cloud Personal. Announced today as a free public beta, you can upload data to their cloud repository analyze it, and share insights with your colleagues.

A video interview of Deloitte Australia's CEO Giam Swiegers goes into some interesting details about how the audit and consulting firm is using Yammer's tool. While the interviewer Leon Gettler clearly was not familiar with the social networking service, Swiegers provides lots of insights in how half of his 5,000 staffers are connecting on up to 150 conversations daily.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will be giving $10,000 grants to Newark teachers who come up with innovative programs as a part of the $100 million fund he set up with the City of Newark last year.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker announced the grants on his Facebook page this morning, signaling what the city hopes is beginning of a long-running process to build a Web tech presence, and improve teaching into the city's school system.

American Web tech companies trying to gain a share of the massive Chinese market bend too easily to government authorities, who demand tighter censorship and self-policing on the Internet, say analysts in a new report.

Voluntary attempts to conform to government demands while maintaining the freedom of speech found in their originating culture, have proven unsuccessful for companies like Google, Cisco, Microsoft and Yahoo, who have made the push into China and other rigidly-policed tech environments. The analysts say the problem is getting worse.