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23 Aug, 2011

Free Advice For Social Media Users In Light Of UK Rioting Jail Terms

In light of prison sentences given to two British men, Protostar Leadership Development, a UK management consultancy is issuing a free 8 page guidance booklet covering everything from cyber bullying to the safe use of Facebook. It hopes that readers will avoid some of the potential risks of using the internet and in particular, social media.

Durham, UK (PRWEB UK) 22 August 2011 — Jordan Blackshaw, 20, and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, were sentenced at Chester Crown Court on  16th August 2011, a week after mob violence struck many parts of the UK. The riots and lootings had prompted prime minister David Cameron to say that those “using social media for violence” had to be stopped (The Independent 17-08-11). As a result of the convictions, many social media users have been reflecting on what this means and Protostar Leadership Development, a UK based management consultancy, is urging social network users to think carefully about the possible ramifications, many of which are far more common than jail terms.

Michael Coates, Managing Director of Protostar Leadership Development, said “While ending up in jail because in a drunken moment you set up a nasty Facebook site, is at the extreme of how social media can impact you, people should be aware of more common issues. Only this week one of my clients showed me the drunken Facebook photos of a job applicant and immediately said that they were not to be interviewed. I was going to push back but the fact that this applicant had allowed the world unrestricted access to their Facebook photos, did show a terrible lack of judgment.”

Monitoring Facebook and other social media for information about potential and existing employees is becoming far more common and individuals should assume that anything they put online might be seen by their employer, customers, potential employers and it would seem, the police.

Coates points out another common error, ” Posting messages visible to everyone, that were intended for an individual is a basic but easy mistake. Whether you are a US politician, sending photos of yourself naked or threatening to blow up an airport because of its closure due to snow, allowing these messages to go public, is inevitably going to lead to major problems.

So why is a Managing Director who spends most days providing executive coaching, sending out this warning cry?  Coates is clear on this one, “One of the fastest growing areas of our business is helping organisations to educate their employees on the perils of using the internet, particularly at work. Whether it be data sticks full of medical records found in a supermarket car park, YouTube videos of doctors sleeping on the job, or bullying colleagues by posting remarks on their web pages, seemingly minor incidents generally end up as PR disasters for the organisations and the end of a career for the individual. Just as some of the rioters probably had a mad moment and didn’t think, each day employees spend time using the internet at work and many will be doing things that could equally end up being a disaster for them.”

To help organisations educate their employees on the potential risks of misusing the internet while at work, Protostar Leadership Development have produced a free 8 page booklet that can be downloaded free here. Registration required.

Coates commented “it won’t stop stupid people from rioting but it might just stop a naive person making a major career mistake.”

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Sales of Media Tablets to Reach 195 Million Units by 2015, Causing Paper Use in Magazines to Fall by 20% and to Half in 15 Years in North America

BRUSSELS, Aug. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Media tablets are on pace to become a ubiquitous, mass-market, consumer product faster than any-other previously released, technological device. The powerful implications of this rapid adoption on publication paper markets is the subject of a new study The Impact of Media Tablets on Publication Paper Markets, published by RISI, an information provider for the global forest products industry.

The market for media tablets – consisting of tablet computers (including Apple’s iPad) and electronic readers (including Amazon’s Kindle) – exploded in 2010. By the end of the first year of availability, over 15 million tablet computers were in use. In North America alone, the size of the electronic reader market almost doubled, with over 10 million in use. Early-on, signs of trouble for the publication paper market became clear:

  • In 2010, the top free app in Apple’s iTunes store was iBooks.
  • A Morgan Stanley inquiry discovered that 42% of US tablet owners will cancel their print newspaper subscription
  • In May of this year, Amazon.com announced that ebook sales now exceed those of printed book sales in the U.S.

“Many graphic paper producers make their living selling paper to the publishing industry, those companies will be greatly affected by media tablets,” explains John Maine, RISI’s Vice President World Graphic Paper and Study Team Leader.  “Significant demand impacts could come as soon as 2012.”

The Impact of Media Tablets on Publication Paper Markets finds that by 2015, most publishing paper end uses in North America, such as magazine, newspaper and book publishing, will fall 12-21% compared to their 2010 levels. This is on top of the massive collapse that occurred during the recent recession. Paper use in North American books, magazines and newspapers could see another 40-50% fall over the next 15 years.

Market declines are also anticipated in Europe, especially for printed newspapers, but the percentage losses in the Western European market will be somewhat less than North America because of a reduced rate of media tablet adoption and fragmented media markets.

The study forecasts the decline by grade and end-use in the Publication Paper Market over the next five, ten and fifteen years, analyzing the effects of e-readers and tablet computers on the North American and Western European markets.  The forecast covers three scenarios: a base case, strong impact case (with quicker diffusion of tablets to the mass market) and a weak impact scenario.

Some key highlights of the study:

(+) The market for media tablets, which consists of tablet computers (including Apple’s iPad) and electronic readers (including Amazon’s Kindle) exploded in 2010. In the first year of availability over 15 million tablet computers reached consumers. In addition, the size of the North American electronic reader market almost doubled in size, surpassing 10 million units. By 2015, almost 200 million tablet computers are expected to be sold in North America and consumers will use them to consume content that was previously found in printed books, magazines and newspapers.

(+) E-book sales have accelerated rapidly since 2008, but only a small fraction of consumers currently read e-books. With the North American e-reader market expected to multiply fourfold over the next five years, there is substantial room for e-book sales to continue rising dramatically. As the graph below shows, the growth so far has been mostly at the expense of printed books.

(+) Print media companies have made great efforts to capitalize on the migration of consumer eyeballs towards digital, and magazine publishers are no exception. While media tablets may have an overall positive effect on readership, paper use in magazines is expected to fall at least 20% over the next 15 years. Newspapers have already faced severe competition from online news sources, and the adoption of media tablets, especially tablet computers, will make browsing news websites and digital editions even more convenient for consumers and advertisers.