My final blog is dedicated to pink elephants, green dragons and deceptive children. Oh yes, I am talking about prof. dr. Marc Swerts. He is an expert in non-verbal communication and lies. Lies (do you get the irony? J) , Desiree, Kim, Evelien, Maayke and I interviewed Marc about his research. We did this for the course Business Information Technology. Marc has done research regarding children’s awareness of being deceptive. You probably wonder how you get children to lie without making it somewhat unethical… I could tell you, but why spoil the surprise? To make it even more interesting, Marc discusses (among other things) the truth behind the tv-show ‘Lie To Me’, the pink elephant phenomenon, theory of mind, detecting lies as a parent and president Obama.
Watch our interview right here and please leave a comment! Personally, I really liked doing the interview with Marc because he had fascinating things to tell. Special thanks to Marc for taking the time to do the interview and giving us some material of his research to use for our webvideo!
Together with three other students (Lies , Desiree and Kim) I researched the perception of emotions through lyrics and lyrics accompanied by music. This research was done for the course ‘Onderzoekspracticum’.
I will not bore you with all details regarding our research (such as first and second research subject), so I will just state what we did, how we did it and what the results were. First, we selected the six basic emotions. These are happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, fear and surprise (remember those). Consequently, we searched for English pop songs that were relatively unknown and fitted one of the emotions. As you might think, it was hard (if not impossible) to find two pop songs that could be associated with disgust. However, we did manage to find two! Subsequently, we selected ten second parts of every song and wrote down the lyrics.
Design
The design was as follows (I will not describe the generic parts such as introduction and audio test): First, the lyric was shown to the respondent. The respondent had to indicate which of the six basic emotions fitted best. In addition, the respondent had to rate the chosen emotion in how much they believed it was applicable. The second part was actually the same as the first part, except for the addition of music and one extra question (yes, we actually added the song to the lyrics). The extra question consisted of stating whether the respondent already knew the song before filling in the survey.
Test
Afterwards, we analyzed the results. Before I am going to state what these results were, there is one thing I would like you to do. Play the song below this part of text (press the ‘play’button in the media player). Please think for yourself which of the six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, fear and surprise) you believe it belongs to:
NOTE: Due to a so-called 'watermark' the player will first play a three second commercial jingle of the site were I got the player from (podsnack.com). Afterwards, the ten second song will play:
We also used this song in our survey and you probably want to know which emotion is belongs to… Well, read this blog and you will find the answer!
Results
In the mean time, I will continue with the results. The mean age of the respondents was 21.9 years, whereof 10 were male and 38 were female (N-48). All respondents were students are the University of Tilburg. We performed a dependent t-test on two songs of the same emotion and the difference between the two conditions (which were ‘lyrics’ and ‘lyrics with music’). For example, we calculated if there was a difference between the assigned emotion for lyrics in Anger 1 and in Anger 2. Since all respondents also had to rate the degree of which they believed the emotion fitted the emotion, we also have results regarding that. We found significant results for Anger 1, Happiness 2, Fear 2, Sadness 2 and Disgust 1. This means that all respondents rated, for example, the song in Anger 1 as ‘anger’. However, the degree of which the respondents believed it fitted the emotion, differed.
Interestingly, we found some significant differences between man and women. Regarding the first condition (just lyrics) and what emotion fitted that lyric, differences were found for Disgust 1 & 2 and Anger 2. In addition, in the second condition (lyrics and music), significant differences were found for Happiness 1, Fear 1 and Anger 2. The survey itself had no significant influence on the current emotional state of the respondents.
Some of the music we used in our survey was familiar to respondents. The song for Disgust 1 ‘Gives You Hell’ by ‘The All-American Rejects’ was known to 38 respondents. However, this number was rather high and fortunately it was the only high number. The song for Disgust 2 ‘Shallow Be Thy Game’by ‘Red Hot Chili Peppers’ was unknown to every respondent. This was also the song you heard when playing the audio file, so know you know which emotion it belongs to J
Conclusion
Finally, the conclusion. We had a H0 and H1 hypothesis for every emotion. When there were significant differences between both conditions (lyrics and lyrics with music), the hypothesis was rejected. This was not the case for Anger and Disgust. We found that the emotions ‘anger’ and ‘disgust’ were labeled by the respondents as respectively anger and disgust, for both lyrics and lyrics with music. This means we found that there were significant differences in the assigned emotions between the two conditions of either emotion.
All songs
Perhaps you would like to know which songs we used? Well, here they are:
Lets Have A Party by Backstreet Boys
Something Kinda Funny by Spice Girls
Mudshovel by Staind
Missing You by Steve Perry
I Hate Everything About You by Three Days Grace
Here Comes The Rain Again by Eurythmics
Maybe I'm Amazed by Paul McCartney
Shallow Be Thy Game by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Circle Of Fear by HIM
Amazed by Vanessa Hudgens
Gives You Hell by The All-American Rejects
Boris The Spider by The Who
Note that the respondents did not see the title of the song, nor the artists!
Thus, now you a know a bit more about the perception of emotion in lyrics and in lyrics with music. Please comment on my post to let me know what you think, what you expected and which emotion you thought the audio file belonged to.
Computer crime or cybercrime, most of you probably know or have dealt with this problem. People install anti-virus programs to ensure the safety of their data, but what exactly is computer crime? It can actually be described in one sentence: Computer crime is the unauthorized use, access, modification and destruction of hardware, software, data or network resources. However, there is more to it. An example is the unauthorized copying of software, which happened (and still happens) a lot since the popularity of the internet increased.
Criminal exploitation of the internet, is called ‘netcrime’. Examples are copyright infringement and hacking. Large companies protect themselves against cybercrime by using anti-virus programs, virtual private networks, intrusion-detection systems and content filtering/monitoring.
Hacking
Hacking is the unauthorized access and use of networked computer systems. Perhaps you have experienced problems regarding hacking. Here are some important need-to-know terms:
1.Scans: Widespread probes of the internet to determine types of computers, services and connections. The scans are used to look for weaknesses.
2.Sniffer: Programs that search individual packets of data as they pass through the internet. Passwords or entire contents are captured.
3.Spoofing: Faking an e-mail address or web page to trick users into passing along critical information like passwords or credit card numbers.
4.Denial of service: Hammering the equipment of a website with too many request for information. This clogs the system, slows down the performance and might even lead to crashing if the system. Watch this 2 minute video that explains exactly what denial of service is (and learn something extra about the internet):
A computer virus/worm is a program that is able to copy itself and infect a computer. I actually had to deal with viruses several times, most of the time by just formatting my computer. A Trojan is software that appears to perform a desirable function for the user prior to run or install, but steals information or harms the system. I can elaborate in this subject, but fortunately there is a 2 minute video about pests on your PC. Watch and learn:
Software piracy
Again, this is a common problem and many internet users participate in software piracy. Did you know that a third of all software industry incomes are lost due to software piracy? I was wondering what the most pirated software is. Here are two lists from 2007:
Software most frequently pirated by companies
1.Symantec Norton Anti-Virus
2.Adobe Acrobat
3.Symantec PC Anywhere
4.Adobe Photoshop
5.Autodesk AutoCAD
Software most frequently pirated on the internet
1.McAfee Virusscan
2.Symantec Norton Anti-Virus
3.McAfee Internet Security Suite
4.Intuit TurboTax
5.Adobe Photoshop
Computer criminals
As a final word, I thought it would be nice and educational to state some convicted computer criminals. One of them is the Facebook hacker… here they are:
1.Samy Kamar (a.k.a. samy): Pled guilty for creating the ‘Samy Is My Hero’ XSS worm that spread across the MySpace online social network. This happened in 2007 and his penalty was three years of formal probation, 90 days of community service, restitution paid to MySpace and restrictions on computer use.
2.Cameron Lacroix (a.k.a. cam0): Pled guilty hacking into the cellphone of Paris Hilton and attacking the data-collection of the LexisNexis firm that exposed more than 300.000 personal records of customers. This happened in 2005 and his penalty was 11 months in a Massachusetts juvenile detention facility.
3.Ehud Tenenbaum (a.k.a. analyzer): Admitted to cracking U.S. and Israeli computers, also pled guilty t conspiracy, wrongful infiltration of computerized material, disruption of computer use and destroying evidence. This happened in 2001 and his penalty was six months of community service, one year probation, two year suspended prison sentence and a fine of approximately $ 18,000.
4.William Reed (a.k.a. servercancer): Pled guilty to hacking several city emails, sending illegal messages, and is also known as the Facebok hacker. This happened in 2009 and his penalty was five years of probation and ten-thousand dollars in fines and court costs.
5.Jan de Wit (a.k.a. onthefly): Spreading data into a computer network with the intention of causing damage as the creator of the Anna Kournikova Virus. This happened in 2001 and his penalty was 150 hours of community service.
I recently found this very funny video about Twitter. It explains what Twitter is and how it works.
So, please watch it and learn more about Twitter! Also, learn what happens when you realize that all the hundreds of people you follow, aren’t really your friends… have fun!
NL DOET (translated as ‘Holland Acts’) is a combination of the Oranje Fonds and thousands of organizations across the country. They motivate everyone to be a volunteer on March 18 and 19th 2011.
I first noticed the advertisements at train stations, picturing (for example) divers playing cards with elderly in nursing homes. Obviously, it were the pictures that drew my attention as I was wondering why these people were doing this. So, I did some research on the internet.
I found that NL DOET is all over the internet: News items, photos, videos and even tweets! However, that is not very surprising as NL DOET is simply another organization that uses social media to reach people and make them act. It is, therefore, fascinating how many people actually do voluntary work as it is not very popular.
So again, NL DOET is a great example of how social media (in this case, Twitter), can unite people to do something good for society. Of course social media also has disadvantages, which I will surely post something about in the next weeks, but for now it is great to look at the bright side of Twitter.
If you want to see photos and videos of volunteer work people have done (or are doing, since it is still March 19th) or just the Twitterpage, check the following links:
On Friday March 11th, the north-east of Japan was hit by a series of earthquakes. As a result, a tsunami was formed that killed over more than thousand people.
Even though I only follow about 25 people on Twitter, I immediately noticed some tweets about Japan. These tweets consisted the question to retweet or send a text message and (for example) 10 Dollars would be donated to Japan.
I believe this to be a fantastic example of good things Twitter can do! The initiative was taken by RedCross (http://bit.ly/ePZd2e). The benefits of using social media to raise money is firstly the amount of people reached. Secondly, it is much easier than to fill in an application to donate money. Just retweet and you practically donated 1 Dollar! Imagine if every Twitter user would do this...
Here are the tweets, of you haven’t got them, please retweet them now!
Red Cross Text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate 10 Dollars to @redcross for Japan
Will donate $1 to redcross.org for every person who RT this MSG #japan #prayforjapan #tsunami or text REDCROSS 90999 $10
Twibbon Support #japan , add a #twibbon now! – http://twb.ly/1AIDHs - Create one here – http://twb.ly/f02AU3
Who knew that Twitter could have such destructive effects on people who tweeted certain messages. Recently I’ve been following these incidents, but it actually started before that. Here are three examples of people who posted a tweet because they felt like it, but afterwards found themselves regretting for what they have done. Or at least some regret it…
1. Police chief (districtschef) Gerda Dijksman
Police chief Gerda Dijksman of the Zuidwest-Drenthe policeforce in the Netherlands has been relieved of her function due to a posted tweet. After two people died in a house (in Meppel), Dijksman tweeted that “it is probably domestic violence”. However, a little while later it appeared that the two people died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Fascinatingly, Dijksman already got warned once before about a PVV-tweet. Dijksman claims she understands her punishment and she apologized to the family of the deceased.
2. TROS and Cornald Maas
The TROS (broadcasting channel in the Netherlands) decided to immediately end their cooperation with Cornald Maas. The cooperation was based on the National Song Festival and the Eurovision Song Festival. This happened because of the following tweet: “The Netherlands has funny export products: Sieneke, Joran van der Sloot and the PVV”. However, this time Maas was surprised himself that the TROS decided to end the cooperation. He claims that his remark, which was tweeted a day after the Tweede Kamer elections, was supposed to be ironic. In addition, he claims that Sieneke, Joran van der Sloot and the PVV were worldwide news items at that time. However, the TROS sticks to their decision and therefore we will not be seeing Cornald Maas in the National Song Festival and the Eurovision Song Festival again.
3. RTV Midden Brabant and Sebastian Wolf
Regional broadcasting channel RTV Midden Brabant (again, in the Netherlands) fired Sebastion Wolf, a programmer, because of a tweet. He tweeted about a certain confidential choice the broadcasting company had to make. Apparently Wolf has been warned before about “recent communication about RTV Brabant to the public”. This statement was taken from Wolfs’ Hyvesprofile. In addition, he also questioned the professional image of RTV Brabant on MSN. A spokeswoman claims that it’s just a logical step. There is no room for someone who discredits the broadcasting company.
And these are just a handful of examples. My advice is to just watch what you tweet, because somethings should not be said! Or at least think about what you tweet. Professionally, this is even more important because you also represent the company. As to what I think, some people deserve to be punished, especially when they have been warned before. Do not underestimate the power of Twitter…
I watch a lot (and I mean a LOT) of series and movies, but none of them are so incredibly good in using social media and the internet for promotion as USA Network’s series “Psych”!
Although not so much in the Netherlands, Psych is incredibly popular in the United States. The series has been renewed for a sixth season, to begin in summer 2011. If you want to know what Psych is all about, check out the link at the end of my post.
So, what do they do? Here are the best promotions and social media activities:
Gamification
The most prominent promotion, in my opinion, is “gamification”. Gamification is (check Wikipedia) ‘the use of game play mechanics for non-game application (also known as funware), particularly consumer-oriented web and mobile sites, in order to encourage people to adopt the applications.’ That just means USA Network owns a website were non-games can be played. A ‘hub’ if you will, surrounding the Psych series. Here are two screenshots:
The idea is to reward the Psych-fans by giving them the opportunity to get free Psych-items and to make sure that the minds of people are on Psych at least once a day, even when the show it not airing. Well, it works! Many people participate daily (points can only be earned every 24-hours). To even promote Club Psych, creators of the show occasionally add exclusive Psych items (such as signature ones). One can even compete with other players to become ‘The Ultimate Psych-Fan’… (I’ve actually played myself, got totally addicted because I really wanted the have enough points to order some season dvd box-sets… I have them now ;))
The reason why it works, is because it’s slightly addictive. People want to become that ultimate fan and people want to win free dvd box-sets. In addition, extra features are placed on Club Psych such as behind the scenes and interviews. Here's a video about USA Network's Jesse Redniss who talks about Club Psych:
Campus Wars Yes, that one was fun. Due to the fact that more younger (between 18 and 34) people started watching Psych, the marketing department thought it wise to capitalize on their fan base. Ten universities across the country were chosen, loosely based on where Psych-fans seems to congregated geographically. What they did was, the stars of the show (James Roday and Dulé Hill) and a host (writer or creator, etc.) visited the ten universities. During this visit there were Psych themed activities, including a sneak peak at the show’s fall season premiere.
In addition to the live visits, USA Network announced the ‘Campus Wars’. Major colleges and universities had the opportunity to get their college/university named in an episode. In combination with Club Psych, people could create profiles an earn points (by playing the non-games) which were credited to their school. Again, this was a huge success! Check out this video were stars James and Dulé comment on the Campus Wars:
Psych App (iPhone & iPad) This one is even more interesting. It’s called “Psych Vision”. The App provides a connection between the popular social entertainment check-in service GetGlue.
It seamlessly connects fans to social and mobile features, to unlock exclusive Psych content by putting in keywords. These keywords are promoted on the show itself and online. Some other options are to increase the amount of Club Psych points, share their favorite show moments and chat with other fans. The latter by using a new chatter feature. Psych Vision is a social platform.
Twitter & Facebook Finally, social media. Someone at USA Network manages the Twitter and Facebook account of the series. The interesting thing about their Twitter account is that the manager (let’s just call him/her that) actually answers to people and keep them really up-to-date. In fact, sometimes updates about Club Psych, such as the addition of new prizes, were even posted on Twitter before they were posted on Club Psych! In addition, entries for ‘Psych Fan of the Week’ etc. are tweeted. Then Facebook. It’s not as up-to-date as Twitter but still the manager keeps posting interesting messages. I can even remember a contest last year, where as many people as possible had to exchange their avatar for a pineapple-avatar (watch the show, you’ll get it ;)) to win many prizes. You have no idea how many people did that! Neither do I, but I know there were a lot. Especially since the Facebook page has over a million followers.
As you can see, Psych is really into social media and the internet. While many series/movies do “just” one campaign, sometimes involving social media, Psych has been doing it for some time now. Increasing in popularity, social media is actually working really well for Psych. The marketing department really knows their target group and how to reach them. By connecting all the promotions and social media, people are able to participate in so many activities. I don’t know how it’s going to end, but I must say that the creators of the promotions really are creative. Just keep monitoring it, I’m pretty sure an awesome new campaign will turn up soon!
I found this awesome tool, and I thought I should write a blog about it.
The tool I’m talking about is ‘Verify’ and it’s an online tool. You’re probably wondering what it does. Well, Verify is “the fastest way to collect and analyze user feedback on screens and mockups. See where people click, what they remember, or how they feel.” Unfortunately I can’t post screenshots of tests because the designs are (but that’s just a guess ;)) licensed.
Verify goes both ways, you can participate as a guest or actually upload your stuff:
Member As a member, you can upload your designs and let people judge them. For example, you can upload two versions of a website and ask people which one they like most. Or you could upload two logo’s and do the exact same thing. Or you could ask people to take a look at a design and afterwards ask them what they remember, etc. As you might have guessed, the amount of options are huge! This is particularly interesting for companies who want a quick answers to design issues. In addition, some members ask people to comment on why you chose that design or some demographical information. This can be useful for future developments in the company. For example, information about customers.
Guest As a guest, you can participate in any of the uploads of members. In this case you are the one that drag & drops items across a page, give feedback on designs, choose designs, etc. Again there are many options! The most fun thing as a guest is that you do not have to register (big plus!) to participate. In addition, some test are just fun! This one, for example:
You take a look at a design an afterwards you state how you felt when you saw the design. Awesome, isn’t it? I mean, I like giving feedback on designs so this is perfect for anyone who like to do that also. In addition, you’re really helping the members who uploaded the designs!
Somehow Verify reminds me of Usabilla. Usabilla is also an online tool where members can upload designs and let people judge them. However, Usabilla is actually focused on the usability of designs so that’s the difference between Verify and Usabilla. So if you’re looking for a quick and easy online tool to measure the usability of your design, go to www.usabillla.com
“Twitter is a microblogging tool which is widely used by companies such as Dell, NYT and Google”.
WOW! I had no idea! I always thought Twitter was this simple online tool on which every person with internet (and an account of course) could post insignificant and, quite frankly, uninteresting posts. Apparently people, this is NOT the case! Last week I learned that. To share my newly gathered knowledge, I will elaborate on the ‘return’ aspect of Twitter for companies.
Analyze Twitter So, as I stated before many companies use Twitter to communicate. It’s really a direct and easy way to get to know the target group. However, I am really interested in the return aspect of Twitter:
How can companies manage the effects of their Twitter account and things that are begin said about their products/account?
Fortunately, very smart people developed tools for this. I will name some of these tools, which I think are the best and which are free. As another person smartly stated: You probably need to use more than one tool to get a really good insight into your Twitter account. Here it goes:
Slogan: “Twitalyzer knows who is in your social network and we know where they live, allowing you to be more targeted in your outreach efforts.”
First off, the website looks quite professional and understandable. You can enter your (or a) Twitter username and the website generates an output. Some results are impact score (combination of aspects such as number of followers and relative frequency at which the user posts updates), influencer type (categorization of certain types, such as social butterfly: are very active within their individual networks) and hashtags (most commonly used hashtags). Personally I think that Twitalyzer is a good tool to use as it generated about nearly everything you want to know about your account. Twitalyzer is not necessary for companies. Perhaps that’s why they let people pay since January, because many companies use it. To sum up, very interesting and useful tool!
And that’s exactly what it does. Trendistic lets you fill in a name, word or whatever and generates an output. This output consists of tweets containing the word (or name, etc.), name of the Twitterer (yes, that’s actually a word) and the time of the tweet. Finally, you are able to select a specific time period. Pretty nifty, huh? It’s a very useful tool for a company to check what people say about the company or your product.
3. TweetEffect Slogan “Find out which of your Twitter update made people follow or leave you.”
Again, it’s as simple as that. You enter the username of your Twitteracount and the website generates how many updates you had, how many followers you lost, how many new followers you’ve gained, the overall loss and gain and finally your overall loss or gain by comparing your overall loss and gain. Besides that, the frequency of follower changes is shown and finally (very important) which tweets got you losing or gaining followers. This tool is useful for companies because they can orient themselves on what sort of tweets and updates about certain products/services their followers like or dislike.
By using these tools, I think a company is able to efficiently and effectively check what’s revolving around their Twitteraccount and tweets. In addition, they can alter their tweets, language, etc. to their target group. Finally, a company might even alter products or their services to increase the satisfaction of their customers. Oh yeah, it’s cheap too ;)
IT’S FEBRUARY! And what better way to start this hopefully-not-as-freaking-cold-as-january-month with a first blog post! Well actually, I have to. Not that I mind though, I have done far worse assignments (e.g. doing statistical assignments…). Probably only a few of you know what I am talking about and therefore I will explain myself ;) This blog is an assignment for the course “Business Information Technology” which I take at the University of Tilburg. I am supposed to fill this blog with awesome posts about new media stuff. Since I am very interested in new media (otherwise I am definitely in the wrong class) this must work.
So, what I need from you is to follow me. Very simple and very helpful for my career as a business information technologist (if that is in fact an actual career path ;)). Also, please check out my Twitter-account: http://twitter.com/#!/anne_underscore and follow me there.
I have some ideas of topics for my posts which I will post very soon, such as how well-known companies use new media and what the most annoying things about (for example) Twitter are. Sometimes I will ask people to vote or send in their answers. I would appreciate it if you would participate because every answer is very welcome :)
Well, that’s it. One more thing, if you find an awesome video about new media I will be happy to post it and write a comment.
