The British
charity Comic Relief hosts a bi-annual fundraiser called Red Nose Day that
encourages sponsors to do something funny. When the event rolled around on
Friday, UK parliament member Fiona MacTaggart thought she'd base her donation
off of retweets — but as the BBC reports, she didn't expect the reaction she
received. "I'm a bit Twitter naive," she said. Her offer to donate £1
for every retweet before 9 PM that night ended with an obligation to donate
£14,268 (about $18,403).
While the
response was unexpected, MacTaggart was mostly prepared; "I had already
planned to give Comic Relief 10,000 pounds," she told the BBC. This
isn't her first time donating to Comic Relief, and she intends to pay the full
amount promised on Twitter. Stunts like MacTaggart's aren't uncommon on social
sites, but it's the follow-through that counts. [Source]
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happening in the ever changing world of technology
According
to a report from CNET, Twitter might be preparing to launch a new
standalone iOS music app as early as the end of this month. The report cites “a
person familiar with the matter” and claimed Twitter would use technology it
acquired through its purchase of music discovery service We Are Hunted to provide a
music service dubbed “Twitter Music.” CNET says the service will provide
customized content suggestions based on who users follow on Twitter. It would
also apparently integrate with SoundCloud and carry Twitter branding unlike the
company’s recently launched video sharing app Vine:
Twitter
Music suggests artists and songs to listen to based on a variety of signals,
and is personalized based on which accounts a user follows on Twitter. Songs
are streamed to the app via SoundCloud.
The
report provided a breakdown of how the app works, explaining that it will offer
suggested songs and artists based on Twitter followers, links to songs people
are listening to through the hashtag #NowPlaying, and popular and emerging
tracks for trending and newly popular artists:
Twitter
Music uses four main tabs. ‘Suggested’ recommends songs and artists based on a
user’s follower graph — artists they are following, and artists that other
people they follow are following. #NowPlaying brings in links to songs tweeted
by people you follow who tweet using that hashtag. [9to5Mac]
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or Subscribe to me on facebook
or YouTube.
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and blog
to keep yourself updated with what is happening in the ever changing world of
technology
Remember
in kindergarten when your teacher shunned construction paper and scissors and
set you loose on a computer armed with a dog-eared guide to Ruby on Rails? No?
Neither do I.
But
some of Silicon Valley’s biggest names are teaming up to encourage schools to
add computer programming to their curriculum. Code.org, a new non-profit, rolled out a short film on Tuesday that features Bill Gates, Mark
Zuckerberg, will.i.am, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, and other high-profile
entrepreneurs talking about the importance of coding.
According
to the nonprofit’s stats, 1.4 million computer science jobs will be open over
the next 10 years and only 400,000 American graduates are expected to be
qualified enough to fill them. Free educational tools are available, but Code.org is
advocating for a systemic change that puts coding in the classroom.
The inspiration
Code.org’s
mission isn’t just to train kids to become tech workers, says Ali Partovi, the
nonprofit’s director, though the video showcases some of the perks that come
with working for a tech giant (copious amounts of free food, a fun atmosphere,
and video games).
Partovi
says he and his brother Hadi, who founded Code.org, feel fortunate to have been
exposed to computers when they were 9-year-olds. That experience led them to
work in tech—Hadi as an angel investor and founder of Tellme and iLike, and
Partovi as a co-founder of LinkExchange. It also gave them confidence, Partovi
says.
“Any
child, in their early, formative stages, if they’re exposed to computer
programming, they become more creative, more confident,” he says. “If there’s
something they wish they had, they can create it. That feeling of empowerment
is really valuable to people, no matter what they do with their lives.”
Hadi
Partovi had batted around the idea of a foundation for years, but the death of Steve Jobs in October 2011 spurred him to action.
“Suddenly
there was this terrible realization that one of the most visionary figures of
Silicon Valley had just passed away,” Ali Partovi says. “That moment made it clear
we can’t just wait around; we should just do this.”
The next step
The
video that splashed across the Internet on Tuesday was just the first step for
Code.org, Partovi says. The nonprofit screened it for high school classes to
test its success, and more than 50 percent of students surveyed after watching
the video said they wanted to take a coding class.
One
common misconception about coding, Partovi says, is that it’s only for geeks.
NBA star Chris Bosh and Black Eyed Peas front man will.i.am appear in the film
to emphasize that not every coder is a tech entrepreneur.
It will
take years to change school curriculum and make computer programming classes
taught by knowledgeable teachers a nationwide standard. While Code.org works on
changing policies, Partovi says the organization is enlisting the help of
expert engineers and programmers to offer advice and answer questions at
after-school coding classes. To volunteer, visit Code.org.
“To be
able to actually come up with an idea and then see it in your hands and press a
button and have it be in millions of people’s hands, I think we’re the first
generation in the world that’s really had that kind of experience,” Dropbox
founder Drew Houston says in the video. “It’s the closest thing we have to a
superpower.” [PCWorld]
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circles on Google+ or Subscribe to
me on facebook or YouTube. You can also
check my website and blog to keep yourself
updated with what is happening in the ever changing world of technology
