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  • Social Media Trends for 2012

    There may be new apps and new gadgets to facilitate our engagement with one another and with retailers and other companies, but surely social media will only become a bigger part of our daily lives this year. It will be interesting to watch how companies push new ways of interacting, and what trends develop. At Harvard Business Review , David Armano makes his predictions. Armano is executive vice president of the interactive arm of global communications for Edelman Digital, and he predicts that some social media activities that started in 2010 or 2011 will take off in 2012. Namely: Convergence Emergence. The Cult of Influence. Gamification Nation. Social Sharing. Social Television. The Micro Economy. Read Armano's descriptions for these trends here . And then weigh in, either by offering up your comments , or in discussions with your peers/classmates. What has to happen for these activities to become meaningful trends? What social media trends do you anticipate being a big part of commerce in 2012?

  • Founder of SCVNGR On How Game Behavior Will 'Reshape' Education and Commerce

    Many of us have come to terms with the idea that as we are living our lives in the "real world," we are also maintaining our existence in a virtual world through social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, or even Google and Yahoo. Seth Preibatsch of SCVNGR , a business that builds scavenger hunts for mobile devices, calls this additional living space the "social layer." And now that a lot of people are comfortable with that layer, many are adding a "game layer." In this presentation at TEDxBoston , Preibatsch described how he thinks games are beginning to help steer behavior in education and business:

  • Zynga, Social Networks, and the Future of Gaming

    Mark Pincus believes we are in the midst of a "social media revolution." And he's building a business to take advantage of that revolution. After trying to create his own social media site-- Tribe Networks --Pincus now seems content to build on the success of other networks, namely Facebook. Pincus is CEO of Zynga, which creates social network games like Mafia Wars and Farmville . In an interview with Charlie Rose , Pincus said that there are now 66 million "active users" of Farmville. The percentage of people who pay to play the games, or to add special features, is still a small percentage, but Pincus expects revenue to keep climbing. And he's especially bullish on the future of games through mobile phone apps. Here's an excerpt of Pincus on Charlie Rose: Watch the full interview here .

  • Save the Economy; Save the Earth

    Economics is no game...or is it? Interested students can now take an online course from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro that is a game. Econ 201 is an introductory Microeconomics course. And if you successfully complete the game, you earn credit. Robert M. Brown, Ph.D. , Dean of the Division of Continual Learning at UNCG, explains the game at Campus Technology : The game’s premise is that an alien craft crash-lands on a futuristic, post-apocalyptic Earth. In order to survive and create a prosperous society, the extraterrestrials must learn the basic principles of economics – from scarcity, savings, and investments to trade, foreign aid, and sustainable growth. The game covers the same concepts as the face-to-face micr'economics course at UNCG, but also integrates interdisciplinary concepts from history, ethics, math, biology, and anthropology. Brown calls gaming "problem-based learning," and argues that this course, unlike other intro courses, forces students to apply "newly learned theory." Take a look at the game by clicking here . And read Brown's article in Campus Technology here (HT: Brad DeLong)