A female blogger jailed by Cuban authorities for ?abuse of authority,? has now left her prison cell and is back in the comfort of her own home, according to a CNN news report. Dania Garcia was taken into custody by police on April 20th and has remained in prison for supporting a group of Cuban dissidents called Ladies in White. The 23 year old blogger made common cause with women who campaigned to have their husbands, sons and other family members released from prison and to pressure authorities into stopping political arrests and show trials. Ironically, this open support of dissenters landed Garcia in prison with a 20 month sentence. Cuba?s Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, an independent body, however, has confirmed that the young blogger has been released from custody.</p> <p>But opposition bloggers in Cuba are not out of the woods yet and they still face regular persecution for criticizing the country?s one-party communist regime. For example, bloggers reported that when the Ladies in White held their protest in order to convince the government to release political prisoners, pro-Fidel Castro and communist supporters disrupted their protest by marching in the same area and drowning out opposition voices with slogans such as ?this street belongs to Fidel.?</p> <p>Bloggers are playing an increasingly important role in calling for authoritarian countries to turn to democracy, but they are starting to face stiff competition both in the blogosphere and in the world of social media from their opponents. While opposition supporters and people critical of governments were usually the first to take their message to the Internet, many of the most authoritarian leaders?including Venezuela?s Hugo Chavez?have embraced Web 2.0 technology, in order to justify their own repressive regimes.

Facebook might have some reason to start worrying, now that a new poll suggests that the number of Americans familiar with Twitter and those who actually use the micro-blogging site has grown exponentially over the past year. Nearly nine out of 10 Americans (87%) know what Twitter is, representing a dramatic change from last year, when just 26% had actually heard of the micro-blogging service. The Edison Research poll also found that Twitter users in the United States tend to be highly educated, with the majority having at least one college degree and earning an annual salary of $50,000 or more.</p> <p>Especially significant for those companies that make use of Twitter and other social media when marketing their brands, goods and services is the finding that Americans are far more likely to follow this corporate information on Twitter than on Facebook. While more Americans use Facebook to post personal status updates on developments in their own lives, Twitter has become what some are calling a ?broadcast medium.? Forty percent of Twitter users turn to the site to keep up to speed with companies offering their favourite brands and products.</p> <p>Tom Webster serves as Edison?s vice president and he explained a unique aspect of his firm?s research on Twitter users in the US. The company found that the micro-blogging site was more popular among African Americans than any other demographic group. This might be explained by the fact that mobile web technology has also grown rapidly in popularity over the past year.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most important responsibilities of content writers, and it shows how different writing for the internet can be from producing content for print publications. But SEO content writing goes far beyond simply sprinkling articles at random with keywords that the freelance author believes defines a given site. One of the best ways to draw in audiences is to examine the popularity of given keywords and then judiciously include these in a piece. When Internet users search for current events coverage and go to Google News for the most up-to-date information, they must first type in their keywords, in order to narrow down their search; this is a dramatically different way from which news was read in the past.</p> <p>A content writer should aim to find a unique angle to a given news story, while ensuring that keywords which define the given topic are present in the piece. The only way to stand out in Google News?especially when hundreds of sources cover the same story?is to provide that unique angle, coupled with the most popular keywords. For example, Britain?s historic parliamentary elections have made headlines throughout the world and while it is a hugely popular story, content writers must throw in unique keywords to stand out and actually ensure that news seekers find their website among the crowd. Talking only about the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats won?t do the trick, but adding the names of the small nationalist parties in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, or highlighting the Green Party victory in Brighton will attract niche audiences and ensure that even small to medium websites make it to the top of the Google News Index.</p> <p>Content writers should also keep keywords and SEO in mind when adding photos to an article, as Google indexes these as well. It is important to add meta tags to each photo, as well as a caption and description containing keywords that fit the given article.

Content writing for personal, professional and business websites can be a challenging task, and just because someone has years of experience in print journalism does not mean that he/she is prepared to write effectively for the web. A new book entitled Audience, Relevance and Search explores the factors that make content writing stand apart from traditional journalism. One of the biggest differences is the nature of an online audience. In print journalism, readers hand over much more control to authors, as they absorb the contents of a book in isolation from other material. In other words, it?s much easier to click your mouse and browse away from one website to another in search of a more compelling read than it is to do this with printed articles or books.</p> <p>As such, content writers must be prepared to write in a fresh and engaging manner if they are to stand out from the crowd. It is estimated that an average reader can scan around 250 words per minute. Audience, Relevance and Search suggests that online readers spend 82% less time going through any single article than they would with printed material. As such, content writers must be able to convey key information to readers who will likely spend less than a minute reading their work before moving on.</p> <p>The web is not generally the place to publish long-winded, elusive philosophical prose. Online readers are looking for nuggets of information that they can glean quickly. The first few sentences of any article must clearly indicate what the content writer is arguing and provide an incentive to read on.</p> <p>But there is another even more significant difference between online freelancers and print journalists?content writers must not only keep the whims of human readers in mind, but also the algorithms of online search engines. An article, blog post or any other material written by content writers must come up prominently in search engines if it is to be found at all by readers. As such, sprinkling popular keywords throughout the article is as much a duty of a skilled content writer as is writing in a clear, concise and compelling manner.

Researchers in Korea published a study this week, in which they argue that Twitter is not really a social networking site after all, but rather a news organisation, much like some of the biggest names in the industry. As a micro-blogging site, Twitter has always been ranked with social networking competitors, like Facebook and MySpace, but does it really make more sense to compare it to CNN or the New York Times? One of the biggest factors that sets Twitter apart from Facebook and MySpace is that communication is often a one-way channel. While on Facebook, users receive status updates from their friends once they have added each other, Twitter allows for celebrities to pass on information to millions of users, without ever adding anyone. As such, people quite literally ?follow? the news on Twitter, without actually reciprocating and offering their source information of their own material.</p> <p>Korean researchers see Twitter users as subscribers and much like those who order the New York Times to keep up with major developments. The key difference, however, is that Twitter allows users to filter the news they receive around personalities and topics. This may very well be the future of how people read the news. Twitter users also tweet in order to offer breaking news, and people use their networking of followers to spread the (digital) word on events or developments that are close to their heart.</p> <p>Timeliness is also an important reason why Twitter might be seen as a news organization. Like CNN, BBC or the Times, news spreads quickly on Twitter and most re-tweets of breaking news occurs within minutes of the original tweet. In fact, researchers found that 35% of these re-tweets are broadcast less than 10 minutes after a story has made headlines for the first time.

A technology blogger based in California got an unexpected knock at his door, when local police decided to raid his home after he published a blog entry on a brand new, unreleased iPhone. Jason Chen edits the technology website Gizmodo and he decided to write a blog entry on a new iPhone, after being contacted by an unnamed individual who had reportedly found one lying around in bar. Gizmodo paid $5,000 for the unreleased iPhone and proceeded to publish several blog posts reviewing the device. The 4G Apple product has since been returned to its manufacturer, but California police are continuing to investigate how it got into the hands of a technology blogger in the first place, and whether or not a felony was committed.</p> <p>The state?s laws determine that anyone who finds lost property but ends up keeping it has committed a theft. But what complicates the matter is the question of whether police acted appropriately by raiding the blogger?s home and seizing his computer, digital cameras and credit card bills. Police have yet to search Chen?s computer, but may still have to wait, as there is controversy about whether or not authorities have the right to search and seize the property of a journalist who did little else but write an article based on unpublished information. California has a so-called ?Shield? law which offers journalists protection in their trade. This incident shows more than anything, that bloggers are increasingly perceived as journalists and are accorded the same rights as those employed by the largest news organizations

Facebook?s founder and chief executive office, Mark Zuckerberg, finds himself in the midst of a major controversy, after a blogger from the New York Times claimed that he had no regard for issues of privacy on the world?s largest social networking site. Nick Bilton works as a technology blogger for the Times and he decided to ?out? Zuckerberg in a tweet earlier this week. Bilton was apparently interviewing an unnamed Facebook employee when he asked how Zuckerberg feels about issues of privacy?a concern which has long dogged the social networking giant. The employee reportedly laughed out loud and said: ?He doesn?t believe in it.? Despite the potentially damaging nature of this accusation posted on Twitter, Facebook seems slow to respond to requests from bloggers that Zuckerberg clarify how he really feels about privacy.</p> <p>What is clear, however, is that Facebook is taking inspiration from Twitter by making more basic information public by default, whether the user agrees, or not. For example, a change introduced last December means that a given user?s list of Facebook friends, as well as any causes, groups or businesses that he/she is a ?fan? of would be broadcast to the general public.</p> <p>But there is another prickly question as well in this privacy controversy: did the New York Times blogger contravene the basic rules of journalism by revealing information that was given to him ?off the record?? Bilton disagrees, and noted that when an interview subject indicates that something is off the record, the journalist is permitted to publish this information, as long as it is not attributed.

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela?s authoritarian president, has taken his message to Twitter, despite having been a staunch critic of western internet-based ventures and Web 2.0 technology. But Chavez, who is more accustomed to giving seemingly endless speeches lasting hours may find the Twitter challenge of writing tweets that are under 140 characters a challenging departure from his earlier style of communication. But Chavez has indicated that he is able to change and in his first tweet he noted that he would ?let loose? in the world of micro-blogging. Chavez managed to attract 29,000 followers within days of signing up for a Twitter account. But just how many of these followers are independent-thinking Venezuelans, rather than party functionaries and activists remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is that Chavez?s supporters and his party plan to ?storm? the world of social networking, using Twitter, Facebook and a range of Web 2.0 technology.</p> <p>Diosdado Cabello, the country?s public works minister, has already admitted as such to the media. Perhaps it is no surprise that Chavez has decided to turn to Twitter, as his popularity has dipped dramatically, due to the recession and extremely high inflation levels. Cabello and Chavez also both think that Twitter has thus far been the domain of those who oppose Venezuela?s authoritarian government. But all this is set to change, now that the regime has jumped on board. Whether the masses of Venezuelans ever become interested in Chavez?s tweets remains to be seen, but Cabello is encouraging supporters to go online regularly and see the Twitter activity generated by ?our commander.?</p> <p>As we reported earlier this year, the number of Venezuelan using Twitter increased markedly to above 200,000, although the opposition has been the driving force behind this development.

A Russian hacker who managed to gain access to 1.5 million Facebook accounts is now planning on making hundreds of thousands of dollars from the fruits of his illegal labour. Known simply as ?Kirloss,? this hacker has decided to charge under a dollar for each of the 1.5 million Facebook accounts in his possession. In fact, in the world of hacking Facebook profiles with more friends are worth a larger sum, although the only way to become wealthy from such illicit ventures is to put a large number of hacked profiles on the auction block. Kirloss is charging anywhere from 25 cents to 40 cents per Facebook profile and technology specialists fear that hundreds of thousands of people who use the social networking site will never know that their personal information is being sold on the internet.</p> <p>What is most worrying is the fact that many of these Facebook users will only discover that their account has been hacked and sold is when they see unusual updates posted to their wall. Kirloss managed to hack accounts by a relatively simple phishing scheme. Thousands of users received bogus e-mails that claimed to have been sent by Facebook staff, asking users to log-in to there account. From here, identities and profiles were stolen with great ease.</p> <p>Technology specialists urge Facebook users to change their log-in password as soon as possible, even if they have no reason to suspect that their account may have been hacked. The damage that a hacker can do, however, is quite severe, as the profiles of entirely innocent users may be used to infect many others and hackers may even include it in fraudulent financial transactions.

While the tabloid press traditionally played a major role in swaying undecided voters during close election campaigns, Twitter is now helping to dramatically transform the United Kingdom?s political landscape and one politician is benefiting from the world of social networking more than anyone else. According to an analysis published in The Guardian, Nick Clegg?leader of the Liberal Democrats?has seen his popularity skyrocket, in part due to his strong presence on Twitter. Clegg seems to have more vocal supports on the world?s largest micro-blogging site than either Prime Minister Gordon Brown or the Conservatives? David Cameron, and this has helped to propel the third party into first place, according to a growing number of polls. Conservatives?including right-leaning printed publications?now fear that Clegg?s Twitter surge may lead to a hung parliament, which would likely keep Labour in power, through a coalition with the Lib Dems.</p> <p>Clegg?s strong performance during the past two debates has given his Twitter followers something to talk about, but so has the increasing criticism that he faces from major newspapers. Many Twitter fans have turned to irony and sarcasm when dealing with Clegg?s opponents. A popular micro-blogger who goes by the name of ?NickCleggsFault,? mused in a tongue-and-cheek manner about how Clegg lived in the same city as a man with a serious illness, but never visited him, nor did he donate his kidney, despite knowing full well that he had an extra one.</p> <p>What analysts do know about Twitter users is that the most avid tend to be quite young and most of them will likely be first-time voters in the UK?s parliamentary elections next week. As a general rule of thumb, younger voters tend to vote for change, rather than for the party in power, which means that they may boost Clegg?s support. What is certain, however, is that for the first time, Twitter will leave a major mark on Britain?s elections and on its politics for years to come.