Next week marks the launch of the fourth annual Social Media Week, a global event with discussions about media use. I’ll be covering some of the events here on AiP. We’ll return to our regularly scheduled program on Feb. 20th. The online social world is rapidly developing around us. And there is no longer a [...]

Ed Note: Another flashback from the archives of AiP this Friday, though a sombre one at that. It’s rainy and dreary here in New York City, and my thoughts are a bit dark today. How are social technologies changing the experience of death for those charged with remembering? Death has been referred to as the [...]

And…We’re live! This week, Scientific American Mind launched its Facebook page. Join us here to stay up to date on our latest articles on the mind and brain. Read, share, comment—we are keen for your feedback. Fashionably late, you say? Allow me to take a step back to explain. When I was in journalism school, [...]

I’ve been playing with Google+ the past couple weeks, and my conclusion is this: Yes. If photographers had to chose between sharing images on Google, Facebook, or Twitter, Google is the standout. Two aspects of Google’s new social media network improve on the earlier sites, at least from the perspective of image-sharing: Most importantly, images [...]

A few weeks ago, I was graced with an honorary doctorate in social media from Social Media University, Global. My dissertation has been wonderfully received; I have been given high accolades and several once closed opportunities have opened. I have been humbled by the response and am sincerely grateful that people have been touched by [...]

History is littered with private indiscretions made public—some have just been more public than others: · It is believed the Leonardo da Vinci was a passionate instructor to his students; one in particular remained in da Vinci’s favor for 26 years. · Cleopatra made no secret of the nature of her political alliances, which included [...]

This is “Breast Cancer Awareness” month, the much-hyped recognition of a serious problem that we should be conscious of throughout the year. The associated “pink ribbon” campaign sometimes feels akin to a “Hallmark holiday” sales gimmick, rather than recognition of the pain of breast cancer and need for further research. Carmen Gonzalez just had a [...]

It might be no surprise that immediately after the explosions at today’s Boston Marathon, social media sites became the best way for the public to obtain on-the-scene reports. But notably, it also became the best way for classic news media to report. Even more than that, the long minutes after the news broke showed just [...]

Last week, I and some 200 other attendees of the Global Trends 2030: U.S. Leadership in a Post-Western World conference got a thought-provoking look at the current “megatrends” leading to four possible futures for the world some 10 to 15 years from now. Cutting across all of them is the disruptive influence of emerging technologies—which [...]

The count of exoplanets, those outside the Solar System, now has reached the multi-hundreds, with mucho mas inevitably to be counted. Working through financial troubles, SETI is again searching for intelligent life in the great Out There. So paraphrasing the relevant question posed by Enrico Fermi: If they’re out there, why aren’t they here? The [...]

Want to know whether Modern Family or your favorite TV show will be back next season? Check out that program’s presence in the social media arena, according to the Social TV Summit held Wednesday in New York City. Networks and the marketers that advertise on them are beginning to salivate over the information social media [...]

SAN FRANCISCO—How will ubiquitous connectivity and social media change everything? That, in short, was what a number of luminaries in the tech world addressed yesterday at the GigaOM roadmap conference. Rather than bore you with an extended recap, I thought I’d share some of the most salient nuggets of wisdom. I’ve made every effort to [...]

BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and other instant communication platforms have helped to fuel riots and find missing persons this week in some major UK cities. But these events are only the most recent example of how new technology has greased the wheels of social change.   From the horseback ride of Paul Revere—and for millennia before—people [...]

Social media has scored big successes in helping crowds to gather and communicate online to challenge oppressive regimes in recent weeks, but digital gathering places that are basically public—and the crowd-sourced data they generate—also carry risks. Crowds are forming so rapidly online—the photo-sharing app Instagram reported enrolling one million users in the past six weeks—that [...]

MIAMI—Before a government reports a disease outbreak, cases must usually be counted, verified and assessed—a process that can take days, weeks or months. This delay creates a tension, however, as faster responses are the best hope for keeping a local outbreak from becoming an epidemic or even a pandemic. Overall, bureaucratic diligence and even political [...]

So Superstorm Sandy comes and pretty much knocks everybody on their butts – and then what? Where to go? Shelters? Food? Which streets are open, and which are flooded? Is somebody dropping off blankets or chain saws somewhere? When? According to Julie Macie, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina working towards a [...]

Freelancing is tough. Most of us learn on the job and get a lot of bumps and scrapes along the way. There are success stories, though, and if you can master the basics of Small Business 101 the benefits of being your own boss and managing your own schedule are rewarding. When I look around [...]

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Twitter, both cultural mainstays that suffer at times from  acute alphanumeric ADHD, collided at ultra-high velocity on April 23 to induce an institutional chain reaction. The half life of the “flash crash” stretched a couple of minutes—and then the market came roaring back. But fewer than 140 characters sufficed [...]

I recently saw The Social Network. It’s been out for years, but I usually wait until I can watch them in my living room for free. The take-home from that movie was that Facebook survived—it was the cool one—whereas other social media sites faltered because they didn’t “get it.” I know. It was just a [...]

I just did something that I’m sure is not on any “helpful tips” list for aspiring science bloggers. To write this post, I just copied a title from an academic journal and hit <CTRL> V in the headline field of WordPress. I wouldn’t usually do a cut and paste, but this title brought a big [...]

This January, John Hawks (of his eponymous weblog) and I are moderating a session as part of the education track at Science Online in North Carolina. Blogging in the undergraduate science classroom (how to maximize the potential of course blogs) (discussion) – Jason Goldman and John Hawks This session will mainly feature a roundtable discussion [...]