In advance of the upcoming NAMA convention and our breakout session on social networking, this Nielsen Online report (pdf) is very timely and interesting.
Now visited by over two-thirds (67 percent) of the global* online population, “Member Communities,” which includes both social networks and blogs, has become the fourth most popular online category – ahead of personal email. It is growing twice as fast as any of
the other four largest sectors (search, portals, PC software and email), according to The Nielsen Company’s “Global Faces and Networked Places,” a comprehensive report published today revealing the new global footprint of social networking.
“Social networking has become a fundamental part of the global online experience,” says John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen Online. “While two-thirds of the global online population already accesses member community sites, their vigorous adoption and the migration of time show no signs of slowing.
Social networking will continue to alter not just the global online landscape, but the consumer
experience at large. This study explains why.”
According to the Nielsen report, Facebook – the world’s most popular social network – is visited monthly by three in every 10 people online across the nine markets in which Nielsen tracks social networking use. Orkut in Brazil has the largest domestic online reach (70 percent) of any social network in these markets.
The report, available today, provides insights into the changing size and audience composition of the global social networking audience and the increasing share of Internet time for which it accounts. The report also analyzes how the major players are faring and what advertisers and publishers can do to take advantage of the social network phenomenon.
Other key findings include:
– One in every 11 minutes online globally is accounted for by social network and blogging sites.
– The social network and blogging audience is becoming more diverse in terms of age: the biggest increase in visitors during 2008 to “Member Community” Web sites globally came from the 35-49 year old age group (+11.3 million).
Thanks to a heads up from the 
Besides the new 
Some of the vaccines are single dose, some require more than one injection – and most are designed for healthy pigs over the age of 3-4 weeks. A number of studies have been done on the vaccines available and what producers can expect when using them. Some of those studies were presented at the 
Dr. Paul Yeske with the Swine Vet Center in Minnesota talked about the effect of different PCV2 vaccine protocols on weaned pig performance to slaughter weight. “We learned that the vaccination for PCVAD is effective no matter which vaccine they use,” Yeske said. The main difference they found was that the single dose vaccines resulted in less treatments overall for the animals. “Certainly anytime we can reduce labor is helpful for producers.”
Dr. Joel Nerem with Minnesota’s Pipestone Veterinary Clinic compared the efficacy of a couple of different vaccines on the market, and once again found very little significant difference between them. “What we found was that the one dose CircoFLEX at weaning was equivalent to the two-dose product we were on,” Dr. Nerem said. But a big difference they did find was in mortality, “The CircoFLEX was the only treatment that was statistically different from controls.”
Porcine circovirus type 2 – better known in the swine world as PCV2 – has become increasingly important for hog producers to control through the use of vaccines. 
After just getting home I saw that my copy of the Jeff Jarvis book, 
The Dixie Deer Classic will end tomorrow but I won’t be here. I finished up my work with the Drive Green Tractor Utility Show this afternoon. 
Anyway, I found an article at the Poynter Institute titled, “
After a busy week of tests and projects, I finally headed out of Brookings to start SDSU’s Spring Break. While I’m not headed to Cancun like a lot of my classmates, I have a week of fun things planned to do, both work and play. While I was on my way home yesterday, I stopped at Schlagel Farms to work on a story about their century old farm. Here is owner of the homestead, Mona Schlagel, at the original site near Raymond, S.D.
Established in 1899, the 160 acres of this plot was established during the Homestead Act. The Homestead Act allowed for a pioneer to own the land they settled on after five years if they built a house on it, plowed the land, dug up a well and actually lived there. The Schlagel family traveled from Illinois to South Dakota to pursue a new life, and in 1906, the homestead was finally theirs. Since then, this plot of land has continued to stay in the Schlagel family. In 2008, they were recognized at the South Dakota State Fair for their century farm.