Rachel Ramsey : Social Spotlight
Rachel Ramsey
Graduated from James Madison University with a B.A. in Media Arts and Design and a minor in Communication Studies
| Welcome to Social Spotlight! When I'm not covering a variety of technology and communications industries - everything from the cloud and VoIP to customer relationship management and data centers - you will find me on social media. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, foursquare, YouTube, Tumblr... you name it, I'm there

WebRTC Expo Demos, Day 2: Live Blog

The second day of the WebRTC Conference & Expo is coming to a close, but the excitement is nowhere near stopping. We're...

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Skype on the Xbox One - the Future Has Arrived!

Curious to know what features Skype has in the new Xbox One? So am I. With the Xbox One, you get an...

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WebRTC Conference & Expo Photos

TMC's WebRTC Conference & Expo Santa Clara 2013 kicked off yesterday to a great start with some jam-packed sessions. Participants include heavyweights...

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Railways See the Benefits of IP Convergence - Customer and Network Operator Perspectives

By Mae Kowalke, TMCnet Contributor

TDM just doesn’t cut it any longer when it comes to rail communications. Railway operations decision-makers the world over are moving from TDM-based rail solutions to a single IP-based communications network that maximizes bandwidth and delivery true multi-tenancy. When it comes to communications, rail solutions in 2013 are all about IP convergence.

“The necessity of an IP network transformation is due to the increasing need to host more services and its ability to converge these onto a single piece of infrastructure to provide a truly multi-service network,” Stefano Pasetti, director of mobile and telecommunications for Milan’s metro rail service provider, Azienda Trasporti Milanese (ATM), said recently in a blog post by Alcatel-Lucent.

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Phybridge PoLRE Review - Power over Ethernet using Phone Wires

Check out my Phybridge PoLRE Review, a suite of three products that let you use your existing phone wiring to deploy VoIP...

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The State of IPX

Although I have written about IP packet exchange (IPX) before, this article by John Tanner of telecomasia.net suggests that it was...

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The State of IPX

Although I have written about IP packet exchange (IPX) before, this article by John Tanner of telecomasia.net suggests that it was...

Full Story »

WebRTC Expo Demos, Day 2: Live Blog

November 20, 2013

The second day of the WebRTC Conference & Expo is coming to a close, but the excitement is nowhere near stopping. We're about to kick off the second round of WebRTC demos, featuring presentations from Alcatel-Lucent, Temasys, TokBox, GENBAND, (Lost network connection, no demo from them anymore) Oracle, Sansay, Zingaya, Mozilla, AudioCodes and many more. The companies only have a few short minutes to wow the panel of judges and audience -- at the end of the night there will be awards given from both. 

For those who are new to this space, WebRTC is all about enabling real-time communications over the Web. There have been a few questions raised this week whether that means just over the browser or embedded within applications.

Taking Instagram to an Entirely New Level with Stop-Motion Video

June 20, 2013

Flip books and stop-motion videos have always really amazed me. It's a tedious process that takes a lot of patience and individual pieces (photos, drawings, props, etc) to come up with an overall creative masterpiece. Twitter's video sharing app Vine has inspired stop-motion videomakers over the past few months as we've seen an accumulation of six-second clips featuring creative animation and stop-motion videos.

Rumors about Instagram joining the world of video sharing applications have been circling around today's Facebook event, but some people are too impatient to hear for sure, and have taken matters into their own hands. An Instagram account by the name of Friends in Faux created a stop-motion video from 1,556 Instagram photos.



Overall, the video took about three weeks to produce. 





You Can Now Tag Photos on Instagram

May 2, 2013

In what is the first major move to make Instagram more like Facebook since the acquisition last year, users can now tag their Instagram photos.

“Photos are memories of the people, places and moments that mean the most to us,” the company blog said. “We have always sought to give you simple and expressive ways to bring the stories behind your photos to life. Your captions and hashtags capture the ‘what?’ and your Photo Map answers the ‘where?’ but until today we’ve never quite been able to answer the ‘who?’”

Twitter Tornado: Weather Channel Interns Take on Tornado Week

April 30, 2013

You’ve marked your calendar for Shark Week, but have you heard of the week dedicated to tornados? In honor of Tornado Week, the Weather Channel is putting the public in control of the winds. More tweets = more wind. Its interns are sitting in a Twitter-powered tornado in the Weather Channel office – every mention of #tornadoweek on Twitter raises speed of the fans in the room, or the “winds” of the storm.

What Do Facebook Likes Have to Do with TV Ratings?

April 24, 2013

Watching TV today has become a multiscreen experience; people watching a show in real-time are simultaneously scrolling through apps like Twitter or Facebook on their mobile devices. Brands are constantly trying to increase their social media presence and interact with their followers, TV shows included. If you are a brand that still doesn’t believe social media has an influence on your business, listen up.

Just because someone “Likes” a show on social media, does that mean they are actually watching it?

Home is Where the Heart is, but Traveling Makes Us Happier

April 10, 2013

Regardless of if you’re flying internationally, road tripping cross-country or sitting in traffic on a Greyhound bus, traveling is always an adventure. Combine the growing number of Wi-Fi networks and Internet-enabled mobile devices with social media accounts and jet-setting travelers, and you no longer have to wonder what that adventure entails.

Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, YouTube and Vine are all outlets that let travelers share their experiences with all of their connections. I don’t know about you, but when I get time off from my everyday life to explore the world, I’m a very happy person.

In Defense of Turning to Social Media to Support Political Issues

March 28, 2013

Before I begin, let me offer a personal disclaimer: “marriage” and “political issue” shouldn’t be in the same category, but as we know, they are.

This week, you may have noticed a pink equal sign on a red background circulating on social media networks. The Human Rights Campaign posted the photo on Monday, which quickly circulated to more than 10 million people on Facebook alone, in response to nine justices in the U.S. Supreme Court hearing arguments over Proposition 8, a law that prohibited same-sex marriage in California, and the constitutionality of DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act), which limits the federal definition of marriage to heterosexual unions.



Facebook Users Can Now Reply Directly to Comments

March 25, 2013

When it comes to commenting and holding conversations in comment sections on Facebook, users can reply to comments as they happen or tag a person in them to ensure people know who and what they’re replying to. Today, the social network introduced a new feature to comments – users now have the ability to reply directly to comments and start conversation threads on pages (not profiles).

“You and your readers will have the ability to reply directly to comments left on your Page content and start conversation threads, which will make it easier for you to interact directly with individual readers and keep relevant conversations connected,” said Vadim Lavrusik, journalism program manager, Facebook, in a blog post. “Also, the most active and engaging conversations among your readers will be surfaced at the top of your posts ensuring that people who visit your Page will see the best conversations.

Happy 7th Birthday Twitter!

March 21, 2013

In 2006, Suri Cruise was born, Italy won the FIFA World Cup, the one billionth song was downloaded on iTunes and Facebook opened up to everyone ages 13 and older. In 2006, I was still in high school and was four years away from creating my Twitter account and sending my first tweet. Seven years ago today, Jack Dorsey tweeted his very first 140-character message.

just setting up my twttr

— Jack Dorsey (@jack) March 21, 2006

Today, Twitter has 200 million active users who send 400 million tweets per day.

Facebook is a Habit - 5 Ways to Cut Down Your Usage

March 14, 2013

hab·it, noun: an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary

Over the past few weeks I’ve caught myself finishing a task and automatically redirecting to Facebook. A few seconds after looking at my news feed, I realize I didn’t come here for a specific purpose and I really don’t even have much to catch up on, but I still visit the site regularly. Sitting at a computer and writing for the Web all day, it’s now second nature for me to click in and out of Facebook throughout a typical work day.

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