According to a Press Release on PRNewswire, UPMC Health Plan in western Pennsylvania is set to offer its members the ability to interact through social media, including YouTube, Facebook, RSS feeds, LinkedIn and Twitter.</p> <p>"This provides us with another way of connecting with our members," said UPMC CEO and President Diane P. Holder.</p>

In an article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, it was announced that Neelie Kroes, the EU?s Commissioner for the digital agenda, has decided to tackle the mess that is the EU?s online economy through a five-year plan simply entitled ?The Digital Agenda.?</p> <p>According to the article, the problem lay with the 27 European Union member countries having 27 sets of copyright protection laws governing things like the reproduction and distribution of online films, books and music.</p>

According to a survey conducted last month by Cision and the University of Sunderland, social media is viewed as an important tool by 74% of the UK journalists. However, it was also revealed that many journalists also believe that the UK?s public relations industry does not grasp how to engage with them using social media, with 32% stating that UK PR professionals were poorly-skilled when it came to interacting with the press through those type venues.<br /> Social Media Savvy<br /> In addition, four of every five journalists surveyed (81%) responded that they use blogs as a research avenue when finding new stories, while 40% said they also source stories via Twitter. This is in contrast to the UK?s public relations professionals who are not yet ?social media savvy?. According to Cision Europe?s CEO Peter Granat,</p> <p>?Our study of some of the UK?s most experienced journalists demonstrates a glaring gap between the way the press uses social media to generate stories and the more traditional methods which some in the PR industry still prefer. Many PRs are using social media to great effect ? for example, following and responding swiftly to journalists? requests on Twitter ? and are giving themselves a significant competitive edge as a result.?</p> <p>Listen Up PR Professionals</p> <p>While the usefulness of social media depends greatly on how it is used, what is clear from this survey is that to stay relevant, the PR industry needs to catch up with journalists and their more social-media savvy peers soon or risk getting left behind.

Q&A platforms are becoming quite popular and Weblogs SL, a leading Spanish blog network, is jumping on board ? introducing ?Respuestas? (Answers), a new Q&A platform which will integrate with their specialised publication ?Motorpasi</p>

The UK?s Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has developed a proposal which will update the code for privacy online currently being used by the Information Commissioner?s Office (ICO). If the proposal passes, it would mean that individual users would be able to seek reparation from internet companies which they feel have invaded their privacy. The two parties are meeting today to discuss the issue.</p> <p>Vaizey, a Conservative MP for Wantage and Didcot, has likened his new proposal to a mediation service akin to that offered by the Press Complaint Commission,</p> <p>"One wants at least to attempt to give consumers some opportunity to have a dialogue with internet companies, as they would be able to do if a newspaper had inadvertently published that information," Vaizey says. "There is huge scope for self-regulation."</p> <p>Vaizey goes on to recommend that all ?well-known and legitimate websites like Google and Facebook should be made to sign an updated code of conduct.</p> <p>?Critical momentum could be built up if more well-known and legitimate websites signed up to the code, made that plain on their home pages and allowed consumers to see what that code states."</p> <p>The issue of privacy on websites such as Facebook and services like Google?s Street View have been placed in the limelight due to both companies facing investigation and/or class action suits because of large-scale breaches.</p> <p>While we will not know more until after today?s meeting, in a statement released on Monday the ICO said, ?Whilst we continue to work with our other international counterparts on this issue we will not be panicked into a knee jerk response to an alarmist agenda.?

When is the last time you read a paper newspaper? Are you like many of us and get your information online through Google feeds and social media? If you are, then the anticipated death of news delivered in paper format is nothing new. For us, the question is not will it happen but when. To answer that question, globally-recognised futurist, entrepreneur, strategy advisor Ross Dawson has created the Newspaper Extinction Timeline.</p> <p>The Timeline addresses ?when newspapers in their current form will become insignificant? by country, beginning with the USA where he anticipates paper news to be all but dead by 2017. This is followed by the United Kingdom and Iceland, where the last gasp should occur sometime around 2019. After that, death continues to move around the globe, encompassing every country until the final death knoll is heard somewhere around 2040.</p> <p>To create the Newspaper Extinction Timeline, Mr Dawson used several factors, including global influences like: the falling cost of communications gadgets like tablets, mobile phone, and e-readers; the development of high-performance digital paper; and growing trends in advertising and monetisation for digital news. To establish where particular countries fall within the Timeline Dawson used national influences, like how fast the country adopts new technologies as well as economic and government development.</p> <p>For more information on how the Newspaper Extinction Timeline was developed or to access a download which will provide the Timeline chart, please visit Ross Dawson?s blog, ?Trends in the Living Networks?.

After two years of blocking access to the popular content provider site YouTube, Turkey has finally decided to lift its ban.</p> <p>The story begins in March 2007 when a video containing what was deemed as offensive content about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding father of the Turkish Republic, was placed on YouTube. Turkey officials asked for its removal; YouTube did not comply. Finally, Turkey took YouTube to court over the matter, where court officials placed a ban on the content provider. Later, the ban was lifted, but other bans followed as YouTube continued to allow what the Turkish government deemed unacceptable to be published. Finally, in mid-2008, YouTube was blocked completely; a block that has remained in effect until now. But while the reasons for the ban being lifted are apparent ? the offensive videos have been removed ? who is responsible for the change is unclear.</p> <p>In a statement made by Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, it sounds as if YouTube removed the videos:</p> <p>??I hope that they have also learned from this experience [?] YouTube will hopefully carry out its organization in Turkey within the limits of law in the future.?</p> <p>However, in its own statement, YouTube claims that it had absolutely nothing to do with the offending video removal:</p> <p>?We want to be clear that a third party, not YouTube, have apparently removed some of the videos that have caused the blocking of YouTube in Turkey using our automated copyright complaint process. We are investigating whether this action is valid in accordance with our copyright policy.?

Monday, Marie Claire?s blogger Maura Kelly, who writes the ?A Year of Living Flirtatiously? blog for the online portion of the magazine, posted a blog concerning overweight people on television; asking the question, ?Are people really uncomfortable watching overweight people making out on TV??</p> <p>A sensitive topic to address, Ms Kelly soon found herself in the middle of furious controversy, writing things like:</p> <p>Yes, I think I'd be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other [?] because I'd be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything,? and</p> <p>?To be brutally honest, even in real life, I find it aesthetically displeasing to watch a very, very fat person simply walk across a room - just like I'd find it distressing if I saw a very drunk person stumbling across a bar or a heroine [sic] addict slumping in a chair.?</p> <p>Her post goes on to tell her readers that she has plump friends in real life and that she would be happy to give fitness and nutrition advice to anyone who needed it. And, if the above is not bad enough, Ms Kelly then opens the door to comment by asking, ?Fat people making out on TV - are you cool with it? Do you think I'm being an insensitive jerk??</p> <p>Since its posting, Marie Claire has received over 28,000 emailed responses. Social media sites have also been buzzing over the blog ? little of it good. Now Marie Claire?s editor-in-chief has stepped in to handle the situation. But one cannot help but wonder, ?What were they thinking??

A couple of days ago, Michael Arrington, a blogger for TechCrunch, published a post where he talked about his recent descent into credit card hell, including his failed efforts to get an American Express card. Ironically, situated next to the post, was an advertisement for the Amex ZYNC card. Users saw it and noted the irony ? and so did someone from Amex?s advertising agency. The agency then sent an email to the TechCrunch sales team asking that the post be removed.</p> <p>?We found this on your site today, obviously not a good thing for AMEX or for ZYNC branding. Are you able to take this down from your site? If so, please do as ASAP. ?If you are not able to monitor this more closely, we unfortunately will not be able to run with TechCrunch in the future.?</p> <p>As a response, TechCrunch not only did not remove the post, but Mr Arrington wrote a new post publishing the ad agency?s response.</p> <p>We say hats off to Mr Arrington and TechCrunch for sticking up for the integrity of bloggers and content providers everywhere. TechCrunch is a highly-influential site and while the existence of any harm created by Michael?s post was questionable (this writer does not see harm in it at all, but rather believes Amex should be grateful for the mention), the very fact that the advertising agency tried to exert control on content is small-minded.</p> <p>Since these activities, TechCrunch has now (rightly) ceased doing business with the (unnamed) agency. Personally, we believe the agency will be lucky if Amex does not do the same.

The search engine giant Google has recently sent YouTubeSocial, a start-up company designed to make viewing YouTube video?s a social activity shared with friends, several email requests asking them to hand over the YouTubeSocial.com domain. In addition to handing over the YouTubeSocial URL, they?ve also asked the company to change their branding and logo and not use any monetisation features (which they are not doing).</p> <p>In response to the requests, David Sanghera told TechCrunch (who also went through something similar in 2006) that while they will eventually agree to Google?s requests, their current strategy is to focus on users and push new features. ?We?re doing this for our users, how are they going to hang out and talk with their friends if Google and YouTube take us away??</p> <p>Currently, YouTubeSocial still serves up YouTube adverts against all of its content which, at least in Sanghera?s eyes, creates a win ? win situation:</p> <p>?The average user spends 12 minutes on YouTubeSocial and recurring users spend about 35 minutes. So people are discovering a lot of content.?</p> <p>So what will happen if/when YouTubeSocial finally reaches that point where they must comply with Google?s demands? According to Sanghera, once the start-up company changes its URL and branding, it will have to begin looking at other video services for content. ?We?re the little guy, so obviously we have to comply.?</p> <p>YouTubeSocial is a part of SocialVision, a company which combines real-time, interactive community building with analytics, control, and monetisation ? providing companies a way to profitably engage their target audiences.