Qik: We talked a few weeks ago about lifecasting and tools such as Ustream that allow users to stream live videos from their computers, so the next logical step would be live streaming from a phone. Qik is a mobile video platform that can stream live video to the Internet right from a cell phone. Now anywhere you go, you can share your experiences live at the click of a button with any friends or strangers that happen to be tuned in. The service can be linked into e-mail, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, and there are already mobile apps available for Android phones.

Past Words of the Week
Posterous, Ning, API, Lifecasting, Crowdsourcing, Meme, Social bookmarking, Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

Posterous: Posterous is a site that allows anyone to post any item of interest to the Web at any time, then provides the user with a custom URL that they may then share via their social networks. Acting as a sort of hybrid of a blog and Twitter, all a user has to do is send an e-mail with an attached photo, video, MP3, or other file, to the generic inbox. The site instantly responds to the user’s e-mail with a custom URL that will host whatever file that was sent. Similar to services like TwitPic, Posterous users’ information can be shared instantly and publicly.

Past Words of the Week
Ning, API, Lifecasting, Crowdsourcing, Meme, Social bookmarking, Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

Ning: Ning is a site that allows anyone to create a fully functional social network for as little as $20 per year. This is a great tool for people who share similar hobbies, interests or ideals to get together on the Web. With features such as groups, photos, chat, RSS feeds and forums, along with each member’s unique profile, a Ning network has many of the same capabilities of the social networking giants Facebook and MySpace. Ning is also a creative tool for companies to use to disseminate information and recruit new employees.

Past Words of the Week
API, Lifecasting, Crowdsourcing, Meme, Social bookmarking, Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

API: API (application programming interface) is an interface that allows one software application to interact with another. In social media, the API is what allows sites like Twitter to be used through desktop applications such as TweetDeck or mobile applications like UberTwitter. Shared APIs also allows users’ Twitter updates to display on their Facebook page, and vice versa, and it’s how YouTube videos are able to be embedded on other sites and blogs. As long as developers can take advantage of public APIs, the number of new social media tools and apps will continue to increase, and the capabilities of the most popular networks will continue to amaze.

Past Words of the Week

Lifecasting, Crowdsourcing, Meme, Social bookmarking, Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

Lifecasting: One of the newest trends in social media is lifecasting. Lifecasting is defined as the continuous broadcast of a person’s life through digital media, specifically the Internet. Thanks to sites like Justin.tv and Ustream.tv, anyone with an Internet connection can do this. Users can choose whether or not to interact with their viewers, and some even stream video of themselves sleeping. Even celebrities, such as NFL player Chad Ochocinco, have gotten into lifecasting, offering fans a glimpse into the everyday life of public figures.

Past Words of the Week
Crowdsourcing, Meme, Social bookmarking, Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

Crowdsourcing: Crowdsourcing is a combination of the terms crowd and outsourcing. In social media, crowdsourcing is when someone uses his or her network to find a quick answer to a question. This can be anything from a reporter looking for source information to a traveler searching for a great restaurant in an unfamiliar city. This is yet another demonstration of the power of social networks, especially Twitter, to provide valuable information of any kind in real time. Depending on the size of your follower list, one simple question can yield dozens of responses in a short period of time.

Past Words of the Week
Meme, Social bookmarking, Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

Meme: If the definition of an Internet meme seems ambiguous, it’s probably because it is. A meme is any idea or thing that can be spread from one person to another. On the Internet, this can be anything from a video or photo that has gone viral to a chain e-mail or those ubiquitous questionnaires on Facebook. In PR and marketing, memes are seen as an inexpensive way to create buzz for a product or service, especially those that aren’t getting much attention in the mainstream media.

Past Words of the Week
Social bookmarking, Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

Social Bookmarking: Social bookmarking is a way for users to manage and share bookmarks of websites on the Internet without being tied to one computer’s browser. Bookmarks can be tagged and sorted into categories, and descriptions can be added to the bookmarks to let others know what the bookmark contains. The most popular social bookmarking site is Delicous. With a free account, users can share their bookmarks with others through a public page and browse links shared by others. Delicious also offers extensions for browsers that let users bookmark and tag any URL straight from the site being visited.

Past Words of the Week
Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

Trackback: A trackback on a blog is a notification that a particular entry has been linked to by another blog. This lets the original author know who is reading his or her post, adds legitimacy to the post by showing relevance, and provides readers with additional sources of information on that particular topic. Trackbacks generally appear at the bottom of the post, near the comments section, and provide a snippet of the linking post. Trackbacks are a great way to foster good will between like-minded bloggers, and they allow each blog to benefit from the other’s traffic in both the short and long term. Also, your site’s SEO will be improved by having inbound links present in several different locations on the Web.

Past Words of the Week
Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

Twitter Grader: We have discussed many ways to monitor how Twitter activity is spread and what impact it can have. But how does all of this reflects upon the user, and how does the average tweeter stack up against his peers? Twitter Grader uses a combination of traits to apply a grade of 1-100 to any Twitter user. Factors such as number of followers, strength of followers, update frequency and amount of retweets are used to create a score, which is then compared to other Twitter users. That is, a user with a grade of 85 has a higher score than 85 percent of the users who have been graded.

Past Words of the Week
Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags