The Wired Mind: How the Internet Is Changing You

At one point in my life, I considered myself to be an avid reader. Over the years, I have noticed that my reading habits have changed — my literature agenda includes only required assignments and the occasional pleasure novel or "must read" (Malcolm Gladwell, Levitt and Dubner, unread classics). I attributed most of this to a decline in free time,...

Unique Online Charities

One of the most useful (though sadly, often forgotten) aspects of the Internet is the ability to contact with people all over the world, in real-time.  Just this month, I have exchanged email with a friend overseas, bought a Father's Day gift, and done research through an Australian library.  The Internet has greatly increased our ability to do personal things,...

Help Needed with 2008 Newspaper Website Study

In 2006 and 2007, we performed studies that examined how U.S. newspapers are adapting their web programs in the face of an increasingly competitive online news market. These studies looked at the features of the top 100 newspaper websites in an effort to gauge what areas they are investing resources and what areas they are not,...

30 Seconds of Metrics

Advertising in television commercials has been met with some fierce changes in recent years.  With the invention of the DVR system, it seems that more viewers are ‘fast-forwarding' the commercials in favor of watching their program in less time, with less interruptions.

Obviously, there are ways to use DVR systems to measure what commercials and specific parts of programs the audience is most watching (as was mentioned in my American Idol analysis),...

Gadget Floppery in My Lifetime

Inspired by a recent article at Wired Online, which detailed the lamest gadget ideas from the mid-1990s, I decided to make a list of five of the biggest flops in gadgetry during my lifetime.  In addition, the list shows some enlightening reasons as to why each of the products did not ever hit the consumer jackpot....