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Reuters - Just a few on Twitter do all the tweeting: study

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Just a few on Twitter do all the tweeting: study

Friday, Jun 05, 2009 5:45AM UTC

By Erin Kutz

BOSTON (Reuters) - A tiny fraction of those who use the fast-growing social network phenomenon Twitter generate nearly all the content, a Harvard study shows.

That makes it hard for companies to use the micro-blogging site as an accurate gauge of public opinion, the Harvard Business School study showed.

Twitter Inc is a social networking website in which users post messages of 140 characters or less -- known as "tweets" -- that can be viewed by other users who elect to follow them.

The Harvard study examined public entries of a randomly selected group of 300,000 Twitter users. The researchers studied in May the content created in the lifetime of the users' Twitter accounts.

It found that 10 percent of Twitter users generated more than 90 percent of the content, said Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, who led the research. More than half of all Twitter users post messages on the site less than once every 74 days.

The median number of lifetime "tweets" per user is just one, according the research.

Companies are increasingly turning to Twitter to improve their understanding of how consumers view them, he said.

But some users are far more active and vocal than others, limiting information gleaned from messages on the site, said Piskorski, an assistant professor of strategy at Harvard Business School.

"If you're trying to get what a representative cross-section of the public is thinking, you're probably better off staying away from Twitter," he said in an interview.

Piskorski said Twitter could still be useful in responding to specific customer concerns. It can also be effective marketing, as companies with Twitter accounts can advertise sales and deals to users who follow them on the site.

JetBlue Airways Corp, Comcast Corp and Dell Inc are among companies with Twitter accounts.

JetBlue provides information on Twitter such as announcements of terminal changes at airports and tips on how to pack and directly answers customers' questions. Dell uses Twitter to point customers to discounts. Comcast's account largely responds to customer gripes.

"Enough of our customers are talking about their interactions with us that we get a decent sample of what's going on a daily basis that we wouldn't necessarily get from other long-term studies," JetBlue spokesman Morgan Johnston said in a telephone interview.

Unlike other social networking sites like Facebook.com, men are almost twice as likely to follow other men on Twitter than they were to follow women, according to the study.

Women were also more likely to follow men than they were to follow other female users.

Piskorski said the study did not indicate whether this was because women were asked less often to be followed or because women are more selective in accepting followers.

Follow up research to these findings will likely be released later this month, he said.

According to recent data compiled by Nielsen Online, which measures Internet traffic, Twitter's website had more than 7 million unique visitors in February, compared to 475,000 in February 2008.

(Editing by Jason Szep and Eric Beech)

CNN - Actor David Carradine found dead

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Actor David Carradine found dead

American actor David Carradine has been found dead, hanging by a nylon rope in a hotel room closet in Bangkok, Thailand, according a Thai police official.

His personal manager, Chuck Binder, confirmed his death but gave no details.

The rope was believed to be from the hotel room curtains, Bangkok Police Lt. Col. Pirom Chanpirom said.

He said investigators found no sign of forced entry into Carradine's room.

An autopsy was being conducted at a Bangkok hospital, but no results will be available for another day, he said.

Police provided Carradine's family with the same information about their investigation, said Tiffany Smith, Carradine's personal co-manager. Smith said that she was "in complete shock" and that suggestions that Carradine took his own life are unbelievable.

"Knowing David, he would never commit suicide," and his death comes at a time when his "career is on a roll," she said.

Carradine was in Bangkok for filming of the movie "Stretch," being produced by a United Kingdom-based company, she said. He was the only American cast member.

Carradine, who became famous in the 1970s when he starred as traveling Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine in the television series "Kung Fu," was 72.

Modern audiences may best know him as "Bill" in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" films. He earned a 2005 Golden Globe nomination for his role in the second movie in the two-part saga.

His career included more than 100 feature films, two dozen television movies and theater work, according to the Internet Movie Database.

Carradine made appearances in television series including "Gunsmoke" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." His first starring role in a series was as the title character in "Shane" in 1966.

He worked with such directors as Martin Scorsese in "Box Car Bertha" in 1972 and Robert Altman in "The Long Goodbye" in 1973. iReport: Share memories of David Carradine

Carradine was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role as folk music legend Woody Guthrie in the 1976 movie "Bound For Glory," according to a biography on his official Web site.

His theater career began while he studied drama at San Francisco State College in California.

He later landed roles on Broadway in "The Deputy" and "The Royal Hunt of the Sun."

Carradine, who was married five times and divorced four, is survived by his widow, Annie Bierman, according to People magazine.

He was the son of actor John Carradine, a character actor who had appeared in hundreds of films, plays and television episodes.

"David's career as an artist did not begin on the stage, though some of his early career was on and off Broadway. His earliest work was as a sculptor and painter," Carradine's official Web site says.

The site also includes an "Art Bio" in which the actor opens up about his life.

"I've always had an especially hard time with everything I've tried to do," Carradine wrote.

"I've made it pretty big as an actor in spite of being terminally shy. ... Invariably, I had huge obstacles to overcome in anything I tried. Had to work against my genes to achieve my dreams."

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Reuters - North Korea's Kim moves to anoint youngest son as heir

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North Korea's Kim moves to anoint youngest son as heir

Tuesday, Jun 02, 2009 11:55AM UTC

By Jon Herskovitz

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has signaled the anointment of his youngest son as heir to the ruling family dynasty as the rival Koreas bolstered their militaries along a disputed sea border on Tuesday.

North Korea, whose increasingly military posturing after last week's nuclear test has prompted U.S. and South Korean forces to raise the alert level, is readying mid-range missiles for test launches, the South's Yonhap news agency reported a lawmaker as saying after a defense briefing.

The news rattled financial markets in Seoul, adding to worries over reports the impoverished state is preparing to test fire a long-range missile that could fly as far as U.S. territory. The main Seoul index closed slightly down.

Analysts believe that Kim Jong-il, whose power base stems from his support for the military, may be using the growing tension to give him greater leverage over power elites at home to nominate his own successor.

It has raised alarm in the region over how far iron ruler Kim, 67 and thought to have suffered a stroke last year, may be prepared to take his latest military grandstanding.

North Korea has asked the country's main bodies and its overseas missions to pledge loyalty to Kim's youngest son Kim Jong-un, various South Korean media outlets quoted informed sources as saying.

"I was notified by the South Korean government of such moves and the loyalty pledges," Park Jie-won, a member of the opposition Democratic Party, said in a statement.

He declined to name his source but Yonhap said Park was among a group of lawmakers briefed on Monday night by the country's spy agency about the succession plans.

Kim Jong-un, born either in 1983 or early 1984, was educated in Switzerland and intelligence sources have said he appears to be the most capable of Kim's three known sons.

Even by North Korea's opaque standards, very little is known about the son, whose youth is a potential problem in a society that adheres closely to the importance of seniority.

"There is a significant link between North Korea's recent military provocations and succession issues," said Lee Dong-bok, an expert on the North's negotiating tactics.

STOCKPILED AMMUNITION

North Korea, which has hundreds of mid-range missiles that can hit all of South Korea and most of Japan, is readying at least three or four missiles for firing, Yonhap quoted the lawmaker as saying after a briefing with defense officials.

The missiles could include the Rodong, which has been deployed since the 1990s, and a new intermediate range missile that can fly 3,000 km, the report said.

The missiles take little time to prepare, while it takes weeks to ready its longest-range rockets.

South Korea's Chosun Ilbo quoted a military source as saying the North had stepped up its military training, stockpiled ammunition and imposed a no-sail order off its west coast waters to prepare for a possible fight with the South.

In Seoul, the navy said it was deploying a guided-missile naval vessel to the same area in the Yellow Sea, close to the disputed border that has seen two deadly clashes between the rival states in the past 10 years.

The navy rarely announces such moves and it underscores the hard line being taken toward its communist neighbor by conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who earlier in the day won support at a meeting he hosted of Southeast Asian leaders who jointly condemned last week's nuclear test.

Many analysts say the North may opt for a skirmish on the sea border as the next step as it ratchets up tension but few believe it would dare put its million-strong but poorly equipped army into direct battle with the U.S.-backed South Korean military.

GUARDED SECRETS

The succession has been one of the most closely guarded secrets in the highly secretive North.

Yonhap quoted an informed source as saying the request for an oath of loyalty by North Korean officials to the youngest son came shortly after the nuclear test on May 25, which was hailed by the North's propaganda as a crowning achievement in Kim Jong-il's "military first" rule.

In April, Kim Jong-il put to rest any doubt about whom he sees as his second in command when he elevated his brother-in-law Jang Song-taek to a powerful military post, analysts said.

Analysts said they see the energetic and urbane Jang, 63, as the real power broker after Kim who will groom the successor. Jang, who once fell out of Kim's favor, has in recent year's been Kim's right hand man, they said.

(Additional reporting by Kim Junghyun and Jungyoun Park, editing by Jonathan Thatcher)

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'Modern Warfare 2' has a bold plan of attack for gaming

You know that pulse-pounding feeling you get when you're watching an action-packed summer blockbuster? That's the feeling Modern Warfare 2 is shooting for.

And how true its aim is could help determine how high the video-game world flies this year.

Modern Warfare 2, the sequel to Infinity Ward's megahit Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, will be unveiled here today at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo convention, or E3. A rare early look at the game finds that the Santa Monica-based studio is putting the finishing touches on a fast-paced, globe-spanning thriller that makes you the hero.

On one of its seemingly impossible missions, you, as an elite combat specialist, follow task force leader Capt. "Soap" MacTavish as he climbs a sheer ice floe in Kazakhstan. You hear the crunch as the ice ax and crampons penetrate the frozen cliff face. At a gap in a cliff ledge, you attempt a death-defying leap, and just when it looks as if you've fallen, McTavish grabs on and pulls you to safety.

Along the way, you also join in Black Hawk Down-style urban combat in the claustrophobic shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro, infiltration of an Afghanistan cave camp and even wage underwater battles.

All this derring-do leads to an enemy outpost where, outmanned and outgunned, you trigger diversionary explosions and escape in a snowmobile chase rivaling the forest speeder-bike pursuit in Star Wars, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

The objective is to out-Bauer 24, to out-Bond Casino Royale and out-Bourne The Bourne Ultimatum in scope and action. "We want the player to constantly be going through this emotional roller coaster," says Infinity Ward president Jason West.

He and the game's creative team devour films and books and do real-life research on weaponry, tactics and terrorism. Hollywood screenwriters help them polish the plot. And movie-studio-quality artists and animators bring it all to life.

"Some developers are masterful at scripting a sequence," says Kevin Pereira of G4 TV'sAttack of the Show. "Infinity Ward is a master at scripting an experience."

Its predecessor has sold 13 million worldwide since its release in 2007. Analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities says the sequel, due Nov. 10 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, could sell 10 million this year alone, a pace that would surpass hits such as Halo and Grand Theft Auto.

"Modern Warfare 2 is the game people are most excited about," says Geoff Keighley of Spike's GameTrailers TV. "It is the one game to beat in terms of buzz going into (E3)."

A hit like Modern Warfare 2 could provide a quantum of solace for gamemakers, caught in a dramatic moment of their own as they face their first slump after years of record sales.

During March and April, sales of games and systems dropped; it's the first time since 2003 that two consecutive months showed declines. Nonetheless, for the first four months of the year, total sales (games, systems and accessories) are only 4% behind 2008's record $21 billion tally. In 2003, the total was $10 billion.

"We will break last year's record," says Michael Gallagher, president of the Entertainment Software Association, the trade group that operates E3. "This is an industry that did incredibly well in a recession year last year. On the whole we are tracking just a little below last year, and we haven't even had a blockbuster release yet."

Pressure to stand out

Experts say that to extend their five-year growth, makers of games and systems alike need to keep drawing in new, untraditional players while holding on to recent recruits and longtime hard-core gamers.

"Everyone has to try to attract attention and offer themselves as the alternate to spending your money elsewhere, as far as entertainment," says Francesca Reyes of Official Xbox Magazine. "Everyone's under the gun."

Among other projects expected to generate talk at the Expo:

Nintendo, which expanded the game audience by selling 20 million user-friendly Wii systems, is improving its wireless motion-sensitive controller with a MotionPlus accessory. Available separately for $20 on June 8, the add-on, which attaches to the current remote, will also be included in special editions of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 ($60, out June 8) and Wii Sports Resort ($50, out July 26). Also expected is an as-yet-unannounced Wii game aimed at Nintendo diehards. "Nintendo needs to show something new and different for the mainstream masses ... to tap back into that mojo the initial Wii launch had," says George Jones of GamePro Media.

Most observers expect Sony to show a new PlayStation Portable that downloads games rather than using discs. "That will likely be the biggest news of the show," says Jesse Divnich of market research firm Electronic Entertainment Design and Research. "The core gaming market is ready for a new handheld device, (and) digital distribution could stimulate strong sales."

Microsoft is expected to show its much-rumored hands-free game controller technology today. Pachter expects Sony will show something similar. New motion-control schemes that do not require traditional controllers, he says, are "something to show that the other two manufacturers are interested in regaining some share from Nintendo."

Making, selling 'Warfare'

For companies such as Infinity Ward and publisher Activision, generating a blockbuster like Warfare 2 means promoting it like a blockbuster. A teaser trailer was released in April, and an action-filled minute-long trailer was unveiled on TNT during last week's NBA playoffs. "It's a super-high-quality game," Pachter says. "The name recognition helps a ton, and Activision seems focused on making sure nobody misses its launch with this massive marketing campaign."

West concedes "expectations are higher. This could be the first game in the series that many of these people have ever played."

The studio got its start making first-person shooting games based on World War II. While at developer 2015 Inc., West and current Infinity Ward CEO Vince Zampella helped develop Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, a computer game released in 2002 by EA that sold 1.3 million copies.

A year later, West, Zampella and a handful of others formed Infinity Ward; their first game, Call of Duty, won Game of the Year from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences in 2004, as Modern Warfare did four years later (the only studio to win two such awards).

Although the team is being vague about the new game's story line, they will reveal that a new ultranationalist Russian leader named Makarov has risen to power after his predecessor, Zakhaev, was killed in the previous game. "Events that unfolded from your hands in the last game directly affect what happens in the world now," Zampella says.

As this project hurtles toward conclusion, the team has grown to about 100. Eighteen testers will put the multiplayer mode through its paces. And over the two-year development period, three animators focused solely on the hands and weapons from the player's point of view. That is important, says Zampella, because "when you are playing the game, that's there all the time."

GamePro's Jones recalls that Medal of Honor's re-creation of the Normandy invasion was a video game "magic moment" for him. "Infinity Ward understands how to make those moments," he says, "and how to prolong them and make them intense and fun."

Reuters - PM says Qatar still studying stake in Porsche

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PM says Qatar still studying stake in Porsche

Saturday, May 30, 2009 8:7PM UTC

DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar is still considering taking a stake in debt-laden Porsche <PSHG_p.DE>, or other German auto companies, after the carmaker scaled down a bid for Volkswagen <VOWG.DE>, the prime minister said on Saturday.

"This subject is under study," Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani told Reuters when asked about the status of Qatar's interest in a stake in Porsche or other German carmakers.

"From a legal point of view, I can't comment further."

German weekly magazine Focus reported earlier this month the Emir of Qatar was a possible investor in the proposed merger between Porsche and Europe's biggest carmaker Volkswagen.

Porsche, which holds nearly 51 percent of VW's voting stock, was forced in May to scale down an attempt to seize full control of Volkswagen and instead seek a merger whose details are supposed to be worked out by early June but could take longer.

Porsche's 9 billion euros ($12.6 billion) in net debt built up for a VW takeover before car markets collapsed have made its finances a focal point of attempts to strike a deal.

The Emir of Qatar first expressed an interest in investing in the German auto industry in a March interview with German magazine Der Spiegel. Qatari state media said in late April Qatar was looking at German carmakers.

The premier of the German state of Lower Saxony, which has 20 percent voting rights in Volkswagen, said earlier in May the state was open to an Arab investor taking a stake in Volkswagen.

Lower Saxony is currently the second-biggest shareholder behind Porsche.

Qatar's interest comes on the heels of Abu Dhabi's state-controlled IPIC purchase of a 9.1 percent stake in Daimler <DAIGn.DE> for almost 2 billion euros via exchange-listed investment vehicle Aabar <AABAR.AD>.

(Reporting by Dania Saadi; Editing by Sophie Hares)