Uses of Social Media in Public Transportation (2012)

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44 Glossary of Terms Application—An application, or “app,” is computer software that performs a specific function on a computer, mobile phone, or handheld device. Application programming interface—An application program- ming interface or API is a set of rules and specifications that allow software programs to communicate with each other. Blog—Derived from the term “web log,” a blog is an online journal that is updated on a regular basis. Blogs can be about any subject and usually contain comments from readers and links to other websites. Digital divide—The digital divide refers to the gap between people who have access to information technology and those who do not. Facebook—Facebook is a social networking site that invites its users to create a personal profile, add other users as “friends,” and exchange messages. Businesses, organizations, and government agencies can set up profiles and provide updates for followers and constituents. Flickr—Flickr is a website that allows users to publish and share photographs. Foursquare—Foursquare is a location-based mobile platform that enables users to “check in” to locations by means of smartphone application or text message. Users also can share their location with friends while collecting points and virtual badges. GovLoop—GovLoop is a social network for government employees. Members are invited to create a profile, add other users as friends, and participate in online discussions. Groupon—Groupon is a social-buying company that sells discounted coupons for goods and services to members, who are encouraged to share them with friends. Klout—Klout is an application that provides a composite score to represent a user’s social media influence, based on metrics compiled for Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. LivingSocial—LivingSocial is a social-buying company that sells discounted coupons for goods and services to members, who are encouraged to share them with friends. Mashup—A mashup combines information or features from two or more sources to create a new resource or service. Google Transit is a popular mashup that displays informa- tion about transit routes on a Google base map. Metadata—Metadata is a term for information about a media item, such as a blog post or a photograph, and may include titles, descriptions, tags or keywords, and captions. Microblog—A microblog is a web service where users exchange small elements of content. Twitter, which is the best known microblogging service, limits posts and entries to 140 characters (including spaces). MySpace—MySpace is an online social network that was ini- tially targeted to teenagers but now focuses on artists and bands. As with Facebook, MySpace allows its users to create a profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages. Platform—A platform is a framework or content management system that runs software and presents online content. Podcast—A podcast is an audio digital file available for down- load to a personal computer or portable device for playback. Retweet—Retweet (often abbreviated as “RT”) can refer to a forwarded post on Twitter, when used as a noun, or the process of forwarding another post on Twitter, when used as a verb. RSS—RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a format for delivering web-based content directly to users. Most persons use an RSS reader or news aggregator to subscribe to web feeds or updates. SharePoint—SharePoint is a proprietary software product designed to allow individuals in an organization to share information, manage documents, and publish reports. SMS—SMS, or Short Message Service, is a system for exchang- ing short text-based messages between mobile devices. Social media—Social media refers to online technology that allows people to publish and share content, including text, audio, video, or multimedia. Social network—A social network is an online community that allows users to create a profile, add friends, communicate with other members, and share content. Examples include Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace. Spam—Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages, usually by e-mail. Spam also refers to the e-mail messages. Spambot—A spambot is an automated program designed to collect e-mail addresses from websites to build mailing lists for sending spam. Some spambots post links to online blogs, forums, wikis, and other online forms to increase web traffic and to improve search engine ranking for the linked page. Terms of service—Terms of service are the legal conditions for using a website, social networking platform, or other online services. Tweet—A tweet can refer to a post on Twitter, when used as a noun, or the process of posting content on Twitter, when used as a verb. Twitter—Twitter is a microblogging network that allows members to post updates of no more than 140 characters. Web 2.0—Web 2.0 refers to the second generation of the World Wide Web, which enables people with no special- ized technical knowledge to create, upload, and share con- tent. Examples include Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and Wikipedia. Web analytics—Web analytics is the process of analyzing the behavior of visitors to a website. Widget—A widget is a small block of dynamic content dis- played on a website. Widgets typically display specific information, such as news headlines, and update themselves by means of an RSS feed. Wiki—A wiki is a collaborative website that allows members of a defined community to create, edit, and delete content using a web browser. YouTube—YouTube is a video hosting site where users can upload and watch short videos.