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Silicon Valley's Highest Paying Companies (You'll Be Surprised Who's Number 1)

Where's a good place to make money? If you're in the tech scene, Silicon Valley remains one of the premier spots. The famous Valley is home to such giants as Microsoft and AOL.

But even among the biggies, somebody has to pay the most. Using data from TechCompanyPay, here are the Valley's five highest paying companies based on average employee salary. 

5. Google

Search engine master and maker of Android, this engineer-loving, young and vibrant company pays an average salary of $104,600.

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People are happiest on the weekend (according to Twitter)

People are happiest on weekends, according to data extracted from Twitter.

Cornell University researchers analyzed 500 million tweets from 2.4 million people in 84 countries over a 2 year time span. They programmed an algorithm that determined positive moods (happy, enthusiatic, etc.) and negative moods (sad, anxious, etc.) through keywords.

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Twitter to Double Revenue Next Year

Twitter—which is not a social network—is poised to nearly double its revenue next year, according to a new report by eMarketer.

The real-time information network is on pace to make about $140 million this year (a 210% leap from 2010) and then $260 million next year, an 86% jump. In 2013, Twitter could generate up to $400 million.

The microblogging platform has been slow to monetize but a sustainable business model is finally materializing. However, it is far from globalizing: the report suggests that Twitter will rely on 96% of its revenue this year coming from the U.S. and will still depend on America for as much as 88% of its revenue in 2013.

Twitter has over 200 million users, about half of which are considered "active."

Study: Canadians want to engage with government representatives online

woman on laptop - iStockPhotoYesterday, Fleishman-Hillard released the results of a public engagement survey which revealed that Canadians want to connect more with governments online. Conducted in August 2011 by Vision Critical, the study found that “54% of Canadians would engage more in conversations on government policy if there were ways to participate online.” 

This number was even higher for youth (aged 18-35) at 57%. Youth respondents indicated that they were also more likely to access a government service if they heard about it online – at 46% compared to 37% of overall survey respondents.

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Twitter: 'We Are Not a Social Network'

Michael Abbot, the vice president of engineering at Twitter, spoke at the Mobilize Conference in San Francisco today.

Michael discussed Twitter and mobile, such as how the startup platform is adapting to evolving technologies, namely smartpones and tablets. Twitter is not underestimating the mobile revolution, he said, noting that 45% of tweets now come from mobile devices.

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HootSuite acquires What the Trend

Vancouver's HootSuite announced this morning that they have acquired What the Trend (WTT) - a web service which shares user-defined explanations of trending topics on Twitter.

Branded as “The Front Page of the Real-Time Web,” WTT provides constantly updating, crowd-sourced definitions and explanations for why the topic is trending.

WTT highlights and explains content trending on Twitter in real-time from the web or mobile devices. Editors curate content for specific international markets and, along with users’ votes, determine the most accurate and useful definitions.

WTT will complement HootSuite's social media management system and builds on the recent funding announcement and acquisitions of Twapper Keeper, TwitterBar and Swift App.

Google+ cracks 40 million users; membership up 30% since going public

Unofficial Google+ statistian Paul Allen, who has been tracking the social network's numbers since its inception, has suggested that Google+ is now at about 43 million users, marking an impressive 30% growth spurt since the software company's social platform went public.

Google+ became public on September 20th and saw an immediate spike in user signups. Paul believes there were roughly 29 million users on September 9, a number that swelled to 38 million last Thursday morning, just two days after the public launch.

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Vancouver police host Canada's first virtual town hall meeting to update public on riot charges

Late last week the Vancouver Police Department promised that a minimum of 40 Stanley Cup rioters would be charged by November 1st, with hundreds more charges pending after that. The announcement was made via a virtual town hall meeting.

A first of its kind among Canadian police forces, the video livestream saw VPD Chief Jim Chu and Integrated Riot Investigation Team head Insp. Les Yeo answer questions from social network Facebook and microblogging platform Twitter.

Poorly publicized, the meeting attracted just 200 viewers at any one point, but that's still significantly more than would have attended a physical town hall. Is this the future of town hall meetings?

Four Lessons I Learned From Social Media Week in Vancouver #SMWVAN

Social Media Week descended upon Vancouver for the first time since its conception February 2009 in New York City and it did not disappoint. 30 events were held in 5 short days starting September 19th in which great amounts of discussion occurred, ideas shared, and lessons learned.

aWith the purpose to educate and further advance understanding of Social Media, the week was of great value to those in the Social Media Community particularly those in the business industry. I was personally able to attend 10 events, all of which had different perspectives and offered different insights.

Below I highlight the four major lessons I learned from SMW Van.

Lesson 1: Everyone is trying to catch up with Social Media.

The area has grown so quickly and is continuing to expand at such an incredible rate that it is impossible to be able to understand all of its complexities. The days in which someone could distinguish oneself as an internet marketer are gone. Social Media has outgrown this broad category and has segmented into different channels such as SEO, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and Blogging to name a few.

Independent consulters of Social Media have had success by positioning themselves as a specialist in one platform or another. Examples of this are titles such as a Youtube specialist or a Search Engine Optimizer. Being great at one platform is starting to prove quite effective for individuals in today’s state of the market.

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Does Social Media Curb Or Promote Terrorism And Violence?

This article was originally published on Smedio.

I often say that social media is a powerful monster and with power, comes responsibility. If you use it for constructive means, it pays off. If you don’t get it right, you pay for it. Though it’s hard to believe, social media has been directly or indirectly associated with a large number of incidents related to violence, terrorism and uprisings all over the world.

Whether it’s the revolts in Egypt and Libya, the recent riots in London or the more recent ‘Twitter Terrorism’ in Mexico, social media is now the de-facto trigger for such events across the world. On one hand, it has freed nations from dictators but on the other, it has promoted looting and served as a medium for communal violence.

I don’t think anyone could have imagined that social media would play such an important role in global peace or the lack of it. In this post, I pour my heart out and present my opinion on whether social media curbs or promotes terrorism and violence.

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