Atwood in the Twittersphere (NY Review of Books) A noted author makes the case for tweeting. “The Twittersphere is an odd and uncanny place. It’s something like having fairies at the bottom of your garden….Let’s just say it’s communication, and communication is something human beings like to do.”

Google, Microsoft, ACLU & Others Push For “Digital Due Process” – No Personal Data Without A Warrant (SEL) “The principles aim to upgrade and enhance privacy protection for individuals using the internet, sending email and storing data in the cloud. Basically these principles seek to apply the probable cause standard and require a judge-issued warrant before law enforcement officials can gain access to private information or data online. This would include search query logs.” I can’t stress enough how important this is. As we live in the cloud, it’s critical the protection we assume we have goes with us. So far, it’s not very clear. It must become so. Good on the companies involved for focusing on this.

Confession #44: My Head is in the Cloud (Tweetage Wasteland) I’m enjoying Dave Pell’s blog, he makes a good point here, one that marketers would be wise to understand and, perhaps, help consumers address. Relates to, and  humanizes, the story above.

Where 2.0: The Big Conversations (O’Reilly Radar) Where 2.0 is a conference focused on location based services. It’s been around for several years. A scan of its major program points is a good indicator of what’s up in this critical marketing space.

What Social Media Ad Types Work Best? (Mashable) I’m not sure this study is defensible, as it was done on two very disparate sites (Allrecipes and Facebook) and who knows how high quality or engaging the actual content was, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

The iTunes App Store Comes to Facebook (Mashable) I’m not really sure why I find this fascinating. As far as I can tell, Apple has blessed this, and given the war its fighting with Google, anything that strengthens Google’s enemy Facebook must be blesssed, for now. I think. Now, the next story is more directly Apple’s doing:

Flash Player To Come Bundled With Google Chrome, New Browser Plugin API Coming (TC) Well, there you have it, another move in the chess battle. For background, read this.

How Clorox uses gaming mechanics in social media — live from BlogWell (SMBC) I believe social gaming techniques will be important to ongoing marketing programs. Interesting that Clorox picked up on this early. This is a 30 or so minute presentation, FYI. You can get the gist from the ppt here, though.

How the Social Media Really Gets Made at Agencies (AdAge) …”the digital ideas get added on to the deck — usually somewhere around Slide 29.”

How Do You Keep Mass Influencers Engaged? An Example from TripAdvisor (Forrester) “TripAdvisor cannot succeed in being a content and opinion destination if reviewers only post a review or two and then never return. Their simple email program suggests one way that feedback can be used to keep influencers influencing.”

—––

If it suits your information consumption goals, sign up for Signal’s email newsletter on the Signal home page (upper right box). You’ll get an exclusive, email only weekly roundup of Signals.

If you enjoy reading FM’s Signal, then you’ll want to come to the CM Summit this June 7-8 in New York City. Join the founders of AdMob, Boxee, Foursquare, and the CEOs of Razorfish, Moxie, GroupM, AOL, as well as top execs from American Express, Adobe, Google, The New York Times, Starbucks, AT&T and more.