What is so great about YouScrobble is that it takes flaws of both YouTube and Last.fm and improves upon most of them. While you can find almost any song to listen to on YouTube, you can’t download them and the page for each video is often unorganized and has a lot of irrelevant information in regards to the actual contents of the video clip. Last.fm provides artist biography’s and other information on each musicians website, but often all songs are not offered for a free download.

YouScrobble has essentially taken on the mentality that most people steal their music anyways, so why not give them a legitimate platform to do so?

Here’s the YouTube video for the song I downloaded by a duo named Wallpaper. While it has great sound quality, it only cost the group $11.82 to produce this music video.

Fans are given a budget of 1,000,000 euro. Artists on Last.fm are assigned a booking price and players are allowed to pick a line-up of 15 acts for their festival. Artists also have “buzz points” which are accumulated when their name gets mentioned anywhere online and when their songs are played on Last.fm. At the end of every week the user’s buzz points are calculated and the more they have, they better off their festival is. User’s can also create leagues and pit their festivals against their friends’. The person who collects the most buzz points wins tickets for themselves and three of their friends to an undisclosed European music festival which includes VIP access at the festival.

Sounds awesome, but I couldn’t help but feel jealous of our friends across the pond. With tons of music festivals here in the States, which always draw huge names, why not give us Yanks our own version of the game? Not only is there the draw of winning a cool prize, but the whole concept of the game sounds like a lot of fun. While we could join in the fun, the top artists who have the most “buzz points” would surely differ between American and European audiences. Ah well, such is life.

Recently, hospitals have started incorporating social media in how they reach the general public. Organizations that cater to a younger audience, like Planned Parenthood, have been using social media for quite some time now.  It was only a matter of time before their counterparts caught up to them. According to this article 410 hospitals nationwide are using social networking sites, be it Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. These hospital organizations are using these sites as tools to reach out to the general public to establish a stronger relationship with the people they serve. No only can people tweet health questions they may have to their local hospitals, but hospitals can reach larger audiences with public health concerns. Patients can also watch live surgeries on YouTube, which may ease some patient’s concerns on their upcoming medical procedures. Being able to follow a local hospital on Facebook or Twitter allows people to have constant information in relation to their health and the health of their families. With growing concerns over lack of healthcare in the United States, hospitals may use social media outlets to reach their patients and answer their questions on such a complicated issue.

Sites like grouploop.org offer online support groups to young adults who have been diagnosed with cancer. A hospital using social media will be able to connect it’s patients to online communities like grouploop where people can share their experiences with others in similar situations.

Hospitals in Connecticut that use social media include Backus Hospital in Norwich, Bridgeport Hospital, Danbury Hospital, Greenwich Hospital, Hartford Hospital, and Yale New Haven.

Here’s a clip from William W. Backus Hospital’s Cancer Survivor Day

Wooster Collective

What is so important about the street art community is that many times the art does not translate through just a picture. Many of these public art pieces can be some type of performance art or interactive with the public. This builds off the idea that art is not just for an elite class of people, but should be enjoyed by all. This new era of creativity can be facilitated by social networking sites, especially in cases like this…

The Schiller’s are also curretly in the process of creating a Wooster Collective iPhone app.

Then I came across a couple of columns from the New York Times blog At War. A post from September 8, 2009 chronicles the complicated nature of the relationship between the Pentagon and the internet. While they do have issues of security to think about, the military has been known to shut down soldier’s blogs. One solider’s blog was shut down after he poked fun at one of his superiors for pressuring the solider to take a promotion that he didn’t want. In 2007 The Army enacted a rule that requires all troops to submit all blogs and other writings that would be published on the internet for review. Now the Pentagon is expected to release a statement within the next week or so giving it’s stance on whether it will allow troops to use social networking sites.  Since the Pentagon has started to use social networking very regularly (tweeting things like: Do you have DIRECTV? Do you want to see the Pentagon Channel on DIRECTV? Then let them know!), there is an assumption that it will also allow troops to use sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

Now obviously there is a concern about troops leaking important location information and or even troop movement. While these concerns are valid, shouldn’t we give our troops a little more credit? Shouldn’t they know what information is okay to divulge and what isn’t? The Pentagon probably feels the need to have some kind of policy regarding social networking as a way to cover their asses. Imagine if a security issue were to arise? The blame would promptly fall on that of the individual soldier and maybe his commanding officers, not the higher-ups.

The military has come a long way in allowing troops to use social networking and should see that troops will probably not send out sensitive information out into an environment where (most likely) anyone can see it. Soldier’s may want to use these networks as a way to escape from their everyday lives overseas or to send out messages to loved ones and friends. They may even want to stay on top of current events or interests they have outside of their military duties.

Soldier’s blogs, while they may not be painting their superiors in the greatests of lights, allow viewers to see what actual everyday life is like in wartime. The Pentagon must not forget that with the internet, there is a huge democratization of information. If people don’t read about the soldier’s lives as events unfold, they will find out eventually. A former Army intelligence officer may have said it the best, “If you restrict it to much, the only ones blogging will be the ones who don’t care about the rules.”

Here’s where I get lost. While Gelato is breaking down geographical barriers, like many of these sites do, what’s the fun of dating someone when you know exactly what they’re doing all the time.  Think of what a couple’s first real-life conversation would sound like…

Dater #1:  So I got promoted at work yesterday…

Dater #2: Yeah, I read your Tweet about it.

Dater #1: And I forgot to mention that I just got the new Pearl Jam album. It’s really good!

Dater #2: Yeah I saw that you listened to it on your last.fm

Talk about taking the wind out of someone’s sails and all the fun out of actually dating. Sites like this take all the mystery out of one’s significant other (and could possible fuel the fire of an extremely jealous lover). Gelato could be leading people in the direction of abandoning actual social interactions at all costs. Pretty soon people might be meeting, dating, and getting married over the internet. Sounds like my idea of living happily ever after.

Another problem that came to my attention was that people might become married to the idea of finding a match whose interests completely mirror their own. The saying , “Variety is the spice of life,” may become an archaic way of thinking with Gelato. One might become overly picky when searching for that special someone. This is how I picture a user’s inner dialogue going, “Wow, this person is awesome! We like all the same books, movies and music! But wait, they like Nickelback? Dealbreaker!”  With Gelato, no longer will opposites attract.

This week the music-lovers social networking site, last.fm has announced they will begin delving into the world of broadcast radio in a select group of cities. Beginning October 5th, CBS radio listeners in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco can hear last.fm's radio broadcasts.

Last.fm will heavily rely on their user-generated charts on their website as a mechanism to determine their playlists. Right now a typical Top 40 radio station’s playlist would include tracks from artists like Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Drake, and Taylor Swift. Currently on last.fm, the most played tracks come from the likes of Muse, Kings of Leon, MGMT, and the Artic Monkeys. While some of their top songs can be heard on Top 40 radio, it should be nice to hear a broader spectrum of music on mainstream radio stations.