On Wednesday, 29 June, the 60th anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI?s ordination, the Vatican plans to launch a new website and social networking portal in an effort to facilitate and improve communication between the pope and the public.</p> <p>The portal, which can be accessed via www.news.va, will serve as a central hub for information from the Vatican. Contributors are set to include L?Osservatore Romano, Vatican Information Services, Radio Vatican, the Vatican Centre for Television, Holy See Press Offices, and Fides Agency, an information service for Pontifical Mission Societies.</p> <p>Initially, the website will be available in two languages: Italian and English. Later this year it is expected that the website will expand to incorporate Spanish, German, French, and Portuguese.<br /> Vatican representatives have told the press that the Pope himself will more than likely launch the new website with the click of a button.</p> <p>One of the primary reasons behind the creation of the new website is the Pope?s desire to send messages to a wider audience via social media ? a media that he has advocated in the past, although never used until now. Messages will be posted to a Facebook page, via microblogging on Twitter, and through video via YouTube, with everything being linked back to the new site.</p> <p>In addition to serving as a portal for improved communications from the Pope to the outside world, according to Vatican representative Claudio Maria Celli, the portal is also to serve as a method for the outside world to communicate with the Pope, as well as improve communications internally between the varying departments of the Holy See.<br />

In an illustration of the increasing influence of social media on business, Virgin America airlines has decided to name one of its new aeroplanes after a Twitter hashtag. The newest bird in the company?s expanded fleet of 39 planes is called #nerdbird.</p> <p>"For all our social media fans and followers, this bird's for you!" Virgin America told their followers on their Facebook page. </p> <p>Virgin America told popular social media reporting site Mashable that #nerdbird comes from the slang used by frequent travellers going from San Francisco California and Boston Massachusetts. They call the flight the ?nerdbird? because it often caters to technology industry guests and personnel. </p> <p>Other Virgin America aeroplane monikers include Jefferson Airplane ? the first aeroplane to be christened in the Virgin America fleet ? and Air Colbert, which is named after the popular American comedian and public satirist Stephen Colbert.</p> <p>To illustrate the effects that using social media in such a way can have, after four days of flights, #nerdbird travellers, and Virgin America fans are still tweeting about it. Flyers update their Twitter followers as they board and leave the aeroplane and many, who have not yet had opportunity to fly #nerdbird yet, are tweeting about their hopes to make the now-popular flight sometime soon.</p> <p>For more information concerning Virgin America and the #nerdbird, look for @virginamerica (their official stream) on Twitter or go to www.facebook.com /VirginAmerica to view their Facebook page.<br />

Google and the British Library have teamed up on an effort put 250,000 out-of-copyright books into digital form.</p> <p>The content from these books, which were written between 1700 and 1870 will be provided online free of charge, providing the public with access to over 40 million pages of content on subject matter ranging from the French Revolution, the invention of rail travel, and the end of slavery.</p> <p>Of course, the project will take a few years, but according to a British Library Press Release, the first items up for the digital process include pamphlets from 1791 concerning feminism and Queen Marie Antoinette; a story about the creation of the first combustion engine driven submarine written in 1858; and the account of a plush toy hippopotamus owned by the Prince of Orange, written in 1775.</p> <p>Once digitised, the British Library and Google Books will provide the content to the public for access ? including reading online, text search for research, and even downloading. The British Library also plans to keep copies stored in a digital vault for safekeeping.</p> <p>Google?s participation represents a part of the Vision 2020 plan, which is the British Library?s attempt to use modern technology and trends to improve public awareness and access to the vast wealth of content they have accumulated over 258 years of public service.</p> <p>This is not the first digitisation project for the British Library; Microsoft and brightsolid have both joined in the efforts in the past. However, that does not detract from the amazing thing that Google is doing here. Content is our legacy and preservation of it is key.<br />

IBM has announced that it is working on a solution that will allow companies within highly regulated industries to include information gained from social networking content in their regulatory compliance reports.</p> <p>In a teleconference held earlier this week, Alistair Rennie, IBM?s general manager of collaborative solutions, said:</p> <p>?[Compliance capability] is fundamental to reducing a barrier that many companies have encountered as they look more closely at using social media for business process integration." </p> <p>The formal announcement for the solution, entitled ?Actiance Vantage for IBM Connections? was given yesterday, at an opening day event of the Enterprise 2.0 conference being held in Boston this week. The solution itself will be available later this year.</p> <p>The idea for the solution began back in early 2010, when the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority issued a guide on the importance of tracking and monitoring content provided via social networking sites. As Rennie points out, social media content is subject to the same rules, laws, and customs as any other content created. He goes on to cite the February 2011 Gartner report, which says:</p> <p>"By the end of 2013, half of all companies will have been asked to produce material from social media websites for e-discovery. So, enterprises need an overall governance strategy for all applications and information, and this strategy should include content created on social media."</p> <p>In addition to the social media content and regulatory compliance solution, IBM has also announced its plans to open a data centre in Japan offering cloud-based social media solutions to companies operating in the Asia Pacific region.<br />

Google and the British Library have teamed up on an effort put 250,000 out-of-copyright books into digital form.</p> <p>The content from these books, which were written between 1700 and 1870 will be provided online free of charge, providing the public with access to over 40 million pages of content on subject matter ranging from the French Revolution, the invention of rail travel, and the end of slavery.</p> <p>Of course, the project will take a few years, but according to a British Library Press Release, the first items up for the digital process include pamphlets from 1791 concerning feminism and Queen Marie Antoinette; a story about the creation of the first combustion engine driven submarine written in 1858; and the account of a plush toy hippopotamus owned by the Prince of Orange, written in 1775.</p> <p>Once digitised, the British Library and Google Books will provide the content to the public for access ? including reading online, text search for research, and even downloading. The British Library also plans to keep copies stored in a digital vault for safekeeping.</p> <p>Google?s participation represents a part of the Vision 2020 plan, which is the British Library?s attempt to use modern technology and trends to improve public awareness and access to the vast wealth of content they have accumulated over 258 years of public service.</p> <p>This is not the first digitisation project for the British Library; Microsoft and brightsolid have both joined in the efforts in the past. However, that does not detract from the amazing thing that Google is doing here. Content is our legacy and preservation of it is key.<br />

?Seventy per cent of all retweets come from the same 15 sources,? says Trapit, a new content personalisation company ? and they mean to change that.</p> <p>Trapit is a new US based start-up company launched last Wednesday. A sister to Siri, an iPhone personal assistant app acquired by Apple last year, the new company is currently being funded by Horizon Ventures, with ten employees working from either Portland Oregon or Silicon Valley.</p> <p>The purpose behind the new start-up is to personalise content streams based upon interests, keywords, and user behaviour. Hank Nothhaft, Trapit?s chief of product officer, describes the service as a ?Pandora for content?.</p> <p>While there are other content personalisation sources out there, what sets Trapit apart is where it gets its information from. Unlike RSS feeds and other content delivery platforms, which tend to provide content from the same group of traditional news sites or popular websites, Trapit also seeks to deliver content from more obscure websites and academic sources; providing content you would not normally get to see. According to the company, they use ten times more content sources than similar services such as my6sense.</p> <p>Trapit also touts its simplicity; saying that it is designed to be easy to use even for the internet illiterate. All that is needed are a few keywords.</p> <p>Currently, the new start-up is in beta stage and accepting a limited number of users for trials.

On President Obama?s Facebook page, his 2012 staff gave the news:?We?re turning a page on the President?s Facebook account. From now in, Obama 2012 staff will use this account to keep you up to date not just on what the President?s doing every day, but on how millions of supporters around the country are building his campaign.?</p> <p>This announcement, as well as one stating that they group planned to tweet more, comes in the wake of a recent study, which revealed that President Obama?s Democratic Party made fewer announcements, and tweeted less than its Republican competition.</p> <p>On the Twitter account, which currently has over 8.7 million followers, the president?s personal tweets will be signed with ?BO? at the end.</p> <p>Of course, the new focus on tweets and Facebook status updates, is in prelude to the 2012 re-election bid ? an attempt to recapture or exceed the level of success the 2008 campaign derived from social media activities.</p> <p>According to campaign personnel, the improved levels of social media content activity will provide new opportunities to make the most of social media content sharing: sharing what the president gets up to each day, providing people with campaign updates, and offering an opportunity to connect with the president?s millions of supporters along the way.</p> <p>To keep up with or join in on the activity, Twitter users can follow @BarackObama while Facebook users can join the almost 22,000,000 who have shown their approval through the Like button and/or made comments on the Wall. Facebook users can also use the Barack Obama page to submit donations to the 2012 campaign.

As social media continues to become the preferred way for content gathering and sharing, mobile applications have become an important part of social media strategy. To that end, Facebook has announced the release of an iPad application.</p> <p>According to technology website TechCrunch, Facebook has had been using an iPad application internally for a while now, but few have actually seen it.</p> <p>?It looks pretty slick. Photos are full screen and [it has a] really nice user interface,? TechCrunch reports one user having said.</p> <p>While third party Facebook applications have been available since the day the first iPad was introduced, this announcement marks the first official application.<br /> Speculation is that Facebook has been holding back on the release of the new application in order to gain an advantage over Apple. This has been fuelled by the recent announcement that Apple will be going with a native Twitter application on their soon to be released iPhone 5 (iOS 5). However, Facebook denies that this is the case, saying that the application is intended to complement Apple devices and is in no way a move for leverage.</p> <p>Whatever the reasons for Facebook?s actions, the new iOS application, along with their developments around HTML5, is good news for users. According to recent statistics, when it comes to content gathering and sharing, Facebook ranks high.</p> <p>While no actual date has been provided as to when the new application will become available, according to the New York Times, it should be hitting the virtual shelves within the coming weeks.

While most people recognise that the key to true website success is original, quality content, that truth did little to stop the rise of content farms; sites which offer low-quality, mass produced content, often plagiarised from other sites with the purpose of bolstering search engine rankings.</p>

Over the next few days, Google will be upgrading their search to respond to more than just typed queries; bringing their smartphone technology to your desktop.</p> <p>In a news conference held on Tuesday in San Francisco, Google announced the advent of voice and image search. Initially, the voice search portion will only be available through the Chrome web browser; however, Google?s executives have said that they hope others will want to implement the technology into their browsers as well.</p> <p>Appearing as a small microphone on the right hand side of the Google search bar, the speech recognition portion of the new service allows users to speak a phrase or ask a question into their computer?s microphone. Although Google has attempted to account for accents, according to testers, the results are somewhat mixed.</p> <p>The image search feature using recognition technology, which applies algorithms to any images, is provided to help determine certain factors; for instance, show it a family photo and Google image search may be able to determine where it was taken. Other uses include helping explain images that become internet memes or artwork.</p> <p>To use the image search feature, users simply drag the image file into the search box. People using the Firefox web browser will also see additional features if/when they install the Google toolbar. It is important to note that facial recognition is not part of the new technology.</p> <p>In addition to the above, Google has also announced a feature called Instant Pages, which is designed to speed up searches. This feature, and others announced on Tuesday, will only be available via Chrome.<br />