Using social media for marketing is a hot topic at the moment. This article caught my eye as one view on how this can all fit together.

The Five Essential Elements of Effective Social Media Marketing | Copyblogger

Thanks to George Siemens for the link.

Even though this article uses the term “web 3.0″, it’s still worth reading. The idea of moving from specific “cloud computing” implementations to a more generic and pluggable approach is a neat idea. Using ruby as a scripting language for “agents” and Erlang for the infrastructure seems a good balance, too.

InfoQ: Vertebra: EngineYard’s Next Generation Cloud Computing Platform

Sometimes it seems as if the practical difficulties of implementing mobile video outweigh its value, but it begins to look as if some operators and media providers have got it together enough to offer a somewhat compelling service. At least they seem to have gathered a creditable number of subscribers.

Mobile TV gathers momentum – International Herald Tribune

I’m currently pretty interested in how to model (and ideally predict) certain aspects of human behaviour, so I was particularly attracted to an article from the BBC about some information derived from recording the movement habits of a large set of mobile phone users.

Mobile phones expose human habits

It seems that alternative product outlets are good news, particularly ones which involve interaction with users. As a first-hand example of this, I spent this last weekend at a games con demonstrating board games and card games by just playing them with passers-by. Once someone starts playing a gem and getting emotionally involved, they are far more likely to consider purchasing it and associated products..

Mötley Crüe Song Sells More on Xbox Than On iTunes

Xiaoming Wang wrote a short article examining the value and use of the Business Analyst role in agile requirements.

Agile Requirement Management | Simple^4 Xiaoming Wang