Speaking at the Merging Media Access 360 event was Scott Dodson, one of the top three “Gamification Gurus” in Seattle, and Rochelle Grayson, CEO of Vancouver based BookRiff, who focused on measuring social media’s real dollar value. Splitting the day into two sections, there was a practical focus to the event—which is quite different then most events that are in Vancouver.

After listening to the morning topics of measuring one’s social media efforts and a discussion on gamification in the afternoon, the workshop shifted to case studies. The audience was engaged throughout the event,  and once the case studies came along, the environment was filled with great ideas and problem solving. If you weren’t able to make it, here is a brief recap of what you missed.

Last week, there was an uproar when the topic of employers asking job seekers for Facebook login information during interviews was brought to public attention. Now, Facebook itself has stepped in with a firm stance.

The social network is warning employers not to demand the passwords of interviewees, noting that it is an invasion of privacy - and that legal consequences are plausible. Facebook cautions companies to steer clear of requesting personal social media information.

The big data bandwagon is a popular one to jump on these days. Recently, big data's lure swallowed former editors Marshall Kirkpatrick at Read Write Web and Ben Parr of Mashable, who are attempting to visualize big data in various formats.

A Canadian company called Recoset creates sophisticated, predictive, and machine-learning applications. Techvibes editor Knowlton Thomas even proclaimed that Twitter has changed Canadian politics forever due to its real-time nature in predicting elections.