Laura Freberg and her celebratory mug

Congratulations to my mother and lead author John Cacciopo for heading to the finish line on their new book!

Here is what I am reading today:

“Why can’t we stop playing this game that started on iPhone and now keeps spreading like wildfire on multiple platforms? Why is it so darn fun? The expert market researchers at AYTM (who aren’t affiliated with Angry Birds creator Rovio in any way) consulted psychologists and dug into boatloads of statistics to find the answers:”

“While social media may be the pervasive form of communicating online today, it’s not without its inherent flaws and dangers. We’ve seen companies made and ruined, as well as the same happen for personal reputations, all because of the behavior that is relayed via social media. While it’s always infinitely easier to give advice than to take it, sometimes what we have to do is take a step back to examine cases as they have happened in order to learn from them.”

“The New Rules of Marketing and PR was originally published in 2007. At the time I was writing it (in 2006), Twitter did not exist and Facebookwas open only to students. So when the original edition came out, I knew right away that things were “missing.” That’s the nature of book publishing in a fast-moving marketplace. (Every now and then I’d get an email from someone saying something like, “Hey, there’s this new service called Twitter. It’s not in your book. Ever heard of it?”)

“Germany aims to shorten the time it takes for information on infectious-disease outbreaks to reach federal authorities from up to 18 days to just 3, after this year’s outbreak of enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli killed 53 people. But the medical community is calling for more action — from more comprehensive disease diagnostics to funding for specialist physician training.”

“How would the events of Sept. 11, 2001, have been different if we had today’s social media tools?  That’s the question many are asking as the country observes the tragedy’s 10th anniversary, including Chicago Magazine blogger Whet Moser who noted several theories on how the day would have been different.

For instance, there’s Washington Post publisher Katherine Weymouth, who makes the following point: “Can you imagine how horrifying it would have been if we had tweets from the victims on the planes or in the offices, or if they had posted to their Facebook pages? “

“Please watch this commercial Budweiser did after 9/11. They only aired it once so as not to benefit financially from it – they just wanted to acknowledge the tragic event ……”