Links – 8th March 2009

My recommendations for the past week include:

• Paul Graham on why he thinks social media has contributed to the death of TV. He makes some good points on the social nature of TV, but I disagree that synchronicity will fade away. TV will continue to prompt watercooler chat around shared experiences. If the watercooler is the workplace, then a show only needs to be viewed the previous evening – not necessarily at the same time. But if the watercooler is Facebook or Twitter, then synchronicity and real-time feedback still matter.

• Penelope Truck thinks we shouldn’t look to grad school as a way of mitigating the effects of the recession

• Adrian Ho looks at the role culture plays in companies and self-organised groups

• Farhad Manjoo doesn’t see Twitter killing Google nor Facebook

• Al Ries writes that consumers only love brands once they know them. In a competitive market, familiarity can be a barrier to switching

• Jeremiah Owyang proposes that companies should look to the social web for opt-in consumer information, which would remove the need for registration forms

• Tom Ewing explores the differences in rating music and films, and wonders what effects this has on accumulator sites such as Metacritic

• A recent study suggests that leaders emerge by talking first and often, but not necessarily making the best points

• And I’ve been adding some great Slideshare presentations to my favourites

sk