Facebook Releases Group Chat

In a press conference at Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the social network is releasing Group Chat to its 750 million members.

The multi-person chat feature was inspired by the chat functionality inside Facebook Groups and will be incorporated in the new design of Facebook Chat. Group Chat will be rolled out to users beginning Wednesday.

“Now when your friends can’t figure out what movie to see, you can just add them to a chat and decide together,” Facebook video chat engineer Phillip Su says of the new feature. “To include more friends in your conversation, simply select Add Friends to Chat.”

More than 50% of users on Facebook are active in Facebook Groups, and Groups have an average of seven people, the company revealed Wednesday. The idea, then, is to make Group Chat more ad-hoc and accessible to all Facebook users.
In addition to Group Chat, Facebook is also releasing its highly-anticipated Skype-powered video chat feature Wednesday.

Source: Mashable

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4 Ways Mobile Tech Is Improving Education

Communication centers, computers, laptops, mobile phones and tablets have all been spoken about at one point or another as technologies with promising applications for education.

But mobile phones stand apart in an important way. In United States high schools, 98% of students have access to some kind of smartphone, according to a report by Blackboard and Project Tomorrow.

The United Nation’s International Telecommunication Union estimated that there were 5.3 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide at the end of 2010 — and that a full 90% of the world population now has access to a mobile network. In contrast, only about 2 billion people have Internet access.

Students around the world are increasingly bringing their own mini-computers (or some connected device) to class. Whether this creates a distraction or a boon to learning is debatable, but these four uses of mobile phones in education — and countless others — could one day help prove the latter.

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Source:  Mashable

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2011 Ministry Strategy #1: Digital Content

As we prepare to enter into 2011, I thought it would be useful to begin the new year with a few strategies to assist Ministries in accomplishing our online goals.  These strategies are meant to both establish a foundation and to enhance the strategies that may have already been implemented.

In our efforts to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the majority of Ministries distribute media in the forms of cd's, dvd's, books, handouts, or some other format.  These items are either purchased at the Church, through a distribution channel or through an online store and shipped to the purchaser.

Since we are living in a digital age, Ministries must begin to embrace the times and respond accordingly. Ministries must begin to make the 'Digital Shift' and keep pace with how people are purchasing, receiving, listening, and viewing Christan content. 

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Link Your YouVersion Account to Facebook and Twitter

Posted by Scott Magdalein
@ http://blog.youversion.com

Linking your free YouVersion account to your social networks makes it really simple to use the Bible App to share your thoughts about verses you’re reading, or about how God is speaking to you through Scripture. You’ll always have control over what you share—no surprises in your Twitter or Facebook feed. It’s an easy way you can share your faith with your friends.

And setting it up is really easy. It literally takes just about a minute. Here’s all you have to do:

Click to continue reading.....

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PostPost: A Social Newspaper of your Facebook Feed

Image waking up every morning in your PJs with a cup of coffee and reading your Facebook updates as an online newspaper. With the help of PostPost, the dream is now a reality.

According to Mashable.com, “Data management and rapid application deployment solutions company TigerLogic has just launched PostPost, a real-time “social newspaper” that’s created from the links, photos and videos your friends share on Facebook.”

In essence, what PostPost does is take your Facebook newsfeed, but presents it in a way that is more manageable. PostPost also uses the Yolink search API to help you find context and backlinks within your paper”.

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New Facebook Profiles are Here....

Just in time for Christmas!!

The new Facebook Profile Pages are now available to try out.

According to Mashable.com 'We were expecting the new profiles to go live tomorrow, but it seems they’re up and running now.

That's good news to me.  To activate your new Facebook Profile, simply click on Facebook’s announcement.

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