.. diffusion of mobile retailing is moving rapidly beyond the early adopter phase. A recent study conducted by the Centre for the Study of Commercial Activities (2012) on the mobile shopping behavior of 18 to 25 year old university students found that 91 percent of respondents owned a smartphone. One-in-three said they had downloaded a shopping-specific app, and the majority of respondents said they actively searched new apps weekly

Via Elizabeth Evans, Ryerson University on Building a Smarter Planet

… a new generation of companies is beginning to deploy algorithms that sieve through these data to separate trustworthy borrowers from those likely to default and to price their loans accordingly. Some—like the Hong Kong-based Lenddo, which currently operates in the Philippines and Colombia—do so by scrutinizing the applicants’ connections on Facebook and Twitter. The key to getting a successful loan from Lenddo is having a handful of highly trusted individuals in your social networks. If they vouch for you and you get the loan, your select friends will also be notified of your successes in repaying the loan. (In the past, Lenddo even threatened to notify them—exerting maximum peer pressure—if you had problems repaying the loan.)

Similarly, the U.S.-based LendUp, which hands out short-term loans with high interest rates while allowing its most trusted established clients to move to more attractive longer-term packages, looks at social media activity to ensure that factual data provided on the online application matches what can be inferred from Facebook and Twitter.

Via Slate

The US National Labor Relations Board has ruled that private organizations cannot ban “disrespectful” posts that criticize the employer if those policies discourage workers from exercising their right to communicate with one another with the aim of improving wages, benefits or working conditions.

However, offensive posts by employees who are venting personal feelings rather than taking concerted action to improve conditions are not protected by federal law.

Via NYTimes.com

Today, smart retailers are using sentiment analysis and social listening to keep one step ahead of trends as they develop – identifying which trends have staying power, when to act on them, and how to use them to their best advantage. Some social media trends come and go in a day.

Some can remain unnoticed for years until they spring into public consciousness and everyone realises that the trend had been there all along – suddenly, like the exclusive model of automobile you just bought, ‘it’ is everywhere.

Some trends, like ‘steampunk,’ take decades to build momentum and make the break into the mainstream. Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. What is steampunk and why should you care?

Via Trevor Davis, Building a Smarter Planet blog