IMS is #1!

My great grandfather used to manage one of the most famous store in the 1950's in Marseille: la maison Raphaël. They were selling phonographs and the old vinyl records that go with them. Things are quiet different nowadays!

Apple Inc. and the Itunes Music Store, launched in 2004, have sold more than 8 billion songs. According to Le Figaro, Apple Inc. is the number one selling company in the USA with some 25% of market share.

Not only is it the number one for online selling, far beyond Amazon and its 9% of market share in the USA, but it is also selling more than Walmart and Best Buy put together. This is a sign of a new way to consume. Goodbye physical support, hello digital. Nothing new from the last years, but Apple Inc. is planning on increasing its influence on music. Indeed, a keynote (with or without Steve Jobs?) will be held in San Francisco, and the only topic tackled will be music according to french website Mac4ever.

A new version of Itunes should be released (the 9th!), with some 'social content', making easier to share music with friends, to tweet about the latest music you're listenning to. A new way to confirm its rank of number one.

Meeting next September for more details.

Media failure / Solidarity Success #Marseille

An important fire burnt some 1,300 hectares at the East of Marseille (my hometown in the South-East of France). Marseille is the second biggest French town, with almost 900,000 inhabitants, surrounded by hills and 40km of coast. It is expending right now, with many important projects for its development. Marseille has been chosen to become the European Capital of Culture in 2013 (www.marseille-provence2013.fr). The World Water Forum 2012 will be held in Marseille. So Marseille is attractive, developing at a good pace despite the world crisis, but stays really traditional in some ways.

Yesterday night and this morning (from 11pm to 6am) during the fire, nor LCM (the local television), nor La Provence (the main newspaper) were able to provide information about the neighborhood evacuated or the zones threatened by the fire. Only the solidarity between the inhabitants has allowed to share news. Once more, the chats, and the different social networks have been the ones where to find some news. Many of my facebook friends have given precious information. People were uploading and sharing pictures of the fire, while the newspaper, on its well-followed website was not posting anything. On Twitter the hastag #Marseille has become the one to follow. Many tweets were RT (retweeted) to spread the word of the places evacuated. Have a look at this graph showing how much the word 'Marseille' was used the past week:

La Provence posted an article today (in French) explaining how they provided news to the population all-night long, praising its real-time (sic) sharing of the news, creating many reactions from the readers. Nevertheless, let's hope this tragic event will help the local journalists realize how much we depend on them, and let's hope we'll have a more performant news chain, using the modern tools of media.

#moonfruit & Twitter Promotion

You must have seen #moonfruit in the Twitter trending topics on July 1st, and wondered what the heck it was. This all about Twitter Promotion. Moonfruit, a UK company, allows to create your own blog or website, and wants to make the buzz. Twitter with it's growing frequentation, accentuated with the recent events in Iran, or the death of Michael Jackson, also attracts business companies. Recently, Dell was declaring to make $3 Million from Twitter-Related sales (article from the NY Times here)

As a consequence Moonfruit has decided to get involved on Twitter. But how they got on the trending topics, which are the most tweeted words? It's pretty easy. They paid for it; not cash but Apple MacBook Pro. Check out on their website. A computer everyday, for ten days, to random people tweeting about #moonfruit. Pretty smart idea, or great way to attract the attention of everyone. To know more about moonfruit, you can follow them on Twitter, obviously. They are @moontweet. And if you want to understand why a word or an expression is appearing in the trending topics, you can read this website: http://www.whatthetrend.com/

And for the story, no I'm not writing about moonfruit to get a free computer! I'm a free and independent blogger!

#moonfruit, #moonfruit, #moonfruit, #moonfruit, #moonfruit, #moonfruit, #moonfruit, #moonfruit, #moonfruit, #moonfruit, #moonfruit...

Bethpage Black, or how to take advantage of new media and technology for a tournament.

US open Golf Tournament has just seen the victory of American Lucas Glover. It his first victory in a major golf championship. It is not the only 'first time' in this tournament. Indeed, the 109th US Open has seen the introduction of technology, not to improve the irons or putters used by Woods and co. but to improve the communication with the audience and accentuate the buzz around the tournament.

First, the United States Golf Association, in association with IBM, has created an iPhone application. People can easily follow what's going on with the latest news updates, and watch live video of the tournament. The fans can also follow the real-time scoring updates of the golfers and the tee times, useful to know who will make the cut or when your favorite player will start his round. You can also have a course overview, to know why the 15th is such a difficult whole on Bethpage Black, or read a quick biography of the 100+ players.

The initiative doesn't stop here. Indeed, the organisators have created a twitter page in addition of the official website. By following, @usopengolf you have the weather broadcast expected on the course, or any last minute change for the tee times. It has been very helpful this weekend, because of the heavy rains that felt on Long Island. The Twitterer posted pictures, of Tiger putting for a birdie, or the crowd following Phil on the 9th. A true insight of the tournament.

It is not the only insight you could have. Ian Poulter, an English golfer, has also created a Twitter, and informs people of his feelings regarding the tournament (hopefully, not while he's playing!!). Golf is surfing on the new media and technology, and taking advantage of them. And it's working, @usopengolf had almost 4,000 followers for the 4-day event, Poulter has more than 86,000.

So to quote @usopengolf: "Congratulations to Lucas Glover, and thanks for following us for the 109th U.S. Open!"

#Iranelection #Tehran

Jack Dorsey (co-founder of Twitter) was recently explaining (read my article) that Twitter could be a powerful tool for Democracy, helping rebuilding Iraq. His enthusiasm to use social networks to gather a People, is being picked up in a neighbour country, Iran.

Since Friday, and the controversial presidential elections held in Iran, opponents to re-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have prostated in the streets of Tehran. Among those protestors undoubtedly stand some twitteres. Twitter is becoming inevitable to get information of what's going in Iran. The Iranian government filters websites, jams BBC satellite that broadcasts Persian TV and so on. As a consequence, journalists, and correspondents in Iran can't work, and transmit information (mainly to the western countries), fostering a flow of tweets coming from Iran. Journalists use those tweets, after confirmation they really come from Iran (with geolocalisation) to provide news in their countries. You can also find pictures from the events in Tehran on Flickr.

#Iranelection and #Tehran are among the most popular research and topics on Twitter. That also lead Twitter to postpone a maintenance operation scheduled June 15 at 9:45pm Pacific time, which would be the following day, 9:15am in Iran. Twitter in its Press Release, claimed the fact Twitter was used as an' important communication tool in Iran'.

Are those events the sneak peeks of what the web 3.0 could be? The integration of social networks in the political world? Or is just Twitter accentuating the buzz around its growing success and making a marketing 'coup'?

Is the British Press better than the American?

Everyone is claiming it is the end of Newspapers. Recently, the San Francisco Chronicle has laid off half of its staff. Two months ago, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer printed its last edition. The Philadelphia Daily News is becoming part of the Philadelphia Inquirer. But this is in the US. 

Indeed, in 10 days, the British newspapers, the Daily Telegraph has increased of 100,000 its number of readers. It is now printed at 900,000 copies. This is linked to the recent scoops dealing with the MPs’ expenses scandal.

But at the same time, as said before, the Health of the American press is fragile. 15,000 journalists have lost their jobs overseas. And according to French radio, Europe 1, American Newspapers are losing between 2 and 10% of their readers yearly. Most likely, American readers can reproach the propaganda published on the war in Iraq, the New-York Times reporting the use of WMDs in Iraq for instance. Similarly, a reporter of USA Today recognized making-up most of his scoops. Those stories have damaged the image and the credibility of the press, while the British press opens the debate, denounces, with proofs, and doesn't give any moral lesson.

The model of the Daily Telegraph is quiet similar to the one used by most newspapers now, journalists work for both the newspaper and the newspaper-website, one completing the other.

Or how an economically healthy press is linked to a valuable press.

Hoax on Prop 8?

Today a Tweet was posted, indicating that Prop 8 (which repeals same sex marriage in the State of California) was overturned. the Tweet was quickly RT (read ReTweeted) by others. Unfortunately for same sex marriage defenders, this is not the case yet. Indeed the 'patient zero' tweet was referring to a LA Times online article of May 16, 2008... A rumor that the rumor (about overturning Prop 8) was wrong started to spread, but the harm was done, and exacerbated by the LA Times itself, which had ReTweeted its own one year old article! 

Nevertheless, this hoax, or unfortunate mistake, no one knows, is a good warning against the excessive use of the Internet as a reliable source. We must be careful to what we read and never take what is written for granted. A good booster shot, all things considered.

Get check some more news about Prop 8: Stop8.org