MXit Lifestyle have released a new instant messenger client for the PC. This is in addition to its existing plugin for Pidgin. MXit explains thats it has been specifically designed for the Windows environment making it faster and more efficient. Some of the features include:
MXit for PC can be downloaded here.
Last year Facebook turned to crowdsourcing to translate Facebook into other languages with great success. Latest statistics provided by Facebook show that over 300,000 people have since participated in the translation process making Facebook available in more than 70 languages.
Facebook have now launched a system that rewards translators who will receive special icons when they reach certain milestones in the Translation application in order to highlight recognition. The awards are grouped in three categories:
The are also various levels for the categories which are based on frequency and accuracy with regard to translating words and voting for the best translation.
A common mistake that companies make when opting for a crowdsourcing model to complete a project is that they forget to provide a rewards system. In a previous blog post “People Participation in Crowdsourcing Platforms” I highlighted direct and indirect benefits of crowdsourcing for the community that are essential to the model’s success. Facebook have provided a key indirect benefit which is recognition amongst peers. Facebook’s success with this crowdsourcing project will continue to evolve and with its ever expanding userbase which has now exceeded 350 million users. Could Facebook be offering rewards via financial compensation next?
Last year I blogged about the Charter for Compassion, the TED prize wish of Karen Armstrong. The aim of the Charter for Compassion was to build a peaceful and congruent world by bringing together the voices of people from all religions and highlight that all faiths share the principle of compassion. An open call was made for people from different faiths to contribute to the charter.
This open call and collaborative effort drew upon thousands of people from over 100 countries in a six week period. Over 150 000 visitors commented on the submissions. The Council of Conscience then sorted through the contributions in order to complete the charter. The charter has been released and can viewed on the Charter for Compassion website.
The website also provides various resources to learn about other faiths and spread the word about the charter. There are various talks on compassion that can be viewed and there are various ways to participate online and offline. Now that the charter has been completed a key element is to spread the word about the charter, so participate by finding different ways to do this on the Charter for Compassion website. A video about the Charter can be viewed below.
If twitter is blocked from your work or school, there are various ways to circumnavigate the problem. However, clever system administrators always stay ahead and try and play catchup to these workarounds.
The latest method I have found makes use of iGoogle and adding a widget called TwitterGadget. It even has integration for Gmail and works perfectly. As long as the TwitterGadget website is not blocked this method should work. If all else fails try out psiphon which is an Internet censorship solution which is a bit more difficult to implement.
Having been a long time Firefox user (and sick of it crashing) I decided to try out Safari out of curiosity. While I was not that impressed by Safari I was by a extension called safari140. This extension allows the user to post the current article been rendered by the Safari directly to twitter to share with your followers.
After switching back to Firefox I could not find a plugin with this functionality. So I decided to write my own Firefox add-on. The add-on allows the user to post the browser URL to twitter. It includes a URL shortener. It can be downloaded here. The add-on does the following:
Once installed click on “Tools” and then “Post to Twitter”. This is the first version and does not mimic the exact functionality of safari140 as it allows the user to post to their twitter account without opening up www.twitter.com. This functionality will be added in a later release. Follow me on twitter: @sdhansay.
MXit users can now make use of its services on a Mac and PC. A vast majority of its users make use of the service via mobile phones. MXit Lifestyle have released Adium and Pidgin plugins and can be downloaded. Adium and Pidgin are both multi-platform instant messenger clients. This means that you can chat using other instant messenger services while using MXit at the same time. I have been using the Adium version for the past week and am happy to say it has been working great. The Adium version does have limitations including:
Crowdsourcing is a topic that has gained popularity in the last few years with companies such as InnoCentive, CrowdSpring and Amazon Mechanical Turk providing platforms for companies to engage with community members to provide innovative solutions which is why I have decided that crowdsourcing will be my topic for “My half time pep talk for 2009“.
Crowdsourcing as defined by Jeff Howe is
“the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people or community in the form of an open call”.
If a company needs a product designed they would define the requirements and have an open call for solutions. The best solution is selected with the winner usually receiving a reward, which is often in the form of financial compensation.
It is important to note that for a particular crowdsourcing project multiple submissions are received and the best one chosen with the rest being tossed aside. Are those that submit solutions that are being tossed aside being exploited? They get nothing in return. For the company partaking in a crowdsourcing initiative they get the to select the best and only pay for what they want or deem reputable. A key factor for these platforms to succeed is to continually grow their community base and encourage those that are not successful to try again in other crowdsourcing projects. One of these platforms, TopCoder, has implemented a model that has benefits for both those that win and those that do not.
Developing software often requires hiring software developers to develop software in order to achieve business goals. Software projects are infamous for late delivery and high costs. A company rectifying this impression on the software industry is TopCoder.
TopCoder is a software development house for outsourced projects. What separates TopCoder from its competitors is that the work is crowdsourced to a community of over 180 000 members from over 200 countries in a competition format.
Once a client approaches TopCoder a formal software methodology is used. TopCoder together with the client gathers the requirements. The project is then broken up into modules. TopCoder then evaluates if these modules exist in their module catalogue from previous competitions. If so, there is no need to develop the software again. The community of software developers are then requested to design and develop each module in a competition format. Each module has a set time period that it has to be completed within and the best solution wins a financial prize. The community then assembles the modules into the final project. There are also bug races during the testing phase that is crowdsourced to the community.
The software components developed by the community (in the component catalogue) are licensed with members who developed them earning royalties from the sales. Developers are given feedback from a review board for every submission. TopCoder provides this in the form of detailed ratings and performance metrics are kept to track a developers standing within the community and includes skill ratings and history of submissions. TopCoder also acts as a recruitment centre where companies can find the best software developers from around the world. This week Facebook announced that they were becoming a TopCoder sponsor. The metrics provided by TopCoder acts as a performance measure as to where strengths and weaknesses of the developers are.
It is key for these companies who provide crowdsourcing platforms to continually grow its community base. The challenge is keeping those who try and do not succeed satisfied so that they come back. The benefits to people who partake in TopCoder projects can be classified in two categories; Direct and Indirect.
Direct benefits include:
Indirect benefits include:
Indirect benefits provide members with a view that their time spent on these projects is an investment that could yield future rewards. The TopCoder platform provides members with a chance to show their capabilities and provides a platform to self-market one. This provides an opportunity for companies to see whom they can employ. TopCoder provides feedback on the quality of their work and shows members that people are using their contribution, which spurs participants to pursue perfection.
In the case of TopCoder the company provides more than just benefits to those that win. They have managed to cater for the entire community. In order for these crowdsourcing platforms to succeed their community members will have to have a reason to continually comeback to partake in crowdsourcing initiatives. Financial compensation to a minority will not be enough and indirect benefits have to be provided.
MXit Lifestyle have released an iPhone version of its popular instant messenger application. MXit had previously only been available on Java enabled phones while a PC client is also available. iPhone users who would like to download the app can click here.
MXit claims to have a community of over 12 million users, about 17 million log-ons per day and over 250 million messages sent and receive per day. It was recenty revealed that MXit is teaming up with Nokia and the South African Department of Education to teach learners mathematics.
The app seems to be working fine except when closing the app, it exits to the iPhone’s menu as per normal. However, when I login again the app crashes. Only logging in after it has crashed does it start working again. The interface is what you would come to expect of an iPhone app. The scrolling of conversions is not as smooth as other iPhone messenger apps but not a major problem. Have a look below for screen shots of the app in portrait and landscape mode.
MXit Menu
MXit Keyboard Layout
MXit Menu in Landscape Mode
MXit Keyboard Layout in Landscape Mode
The Board of Innovation are inviting bloggers to partake in the “My half time pep talk for 2009″ blog action. This will take part during the 24 hours of Innovation event.
The idea is for bloggers to share their views about what has happened so far during 2009 about innovation. Bloggers that take part will be allocated a time slot to publish a blog post within a 24 hour time frame. I will be publishing a blog post sharing my views about a topic regarding innovation.
For further information have a look at the Board of Innovation website for further details.
Crowdsourcing is a business practice that has become popular in the last few years. Since the term was coined by Jeff Howe author of Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business
