Tuesday, July 7th 2009. TECHAFFAIR was fortunate to have attended Michael Jackson’s “INAUGURAL PUBLIC MEMORIAL SERVICE” at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The 20,000-seat facility for MJ’s public memorial was free of charge with swarms of invited media documenting the historic event
But even more intriguing, the millions upon millions of internet users at home, on their computer streaming the event live at CNN.com facilitating an open, interactive forum for adorning fans all across the globe
Michael Jackson will forever be immortalized not only as the King of Pop
CNN claims hundreds of thousands of fans were logged into the Facebook widget (Facebook Connect) and 6,000+ status updates were coming in every 60 seconds (totalling over 6,000,000 status updates) – think instant feedback. Fact check: that was more than during the Obama inauguration
Remember Twitter (and nearly the entire Web) collapsed at the breaking news of Michael Jackson’s death and since then, the impact of new social media including real-time phenomenons such as Twitter; have become intertwined into daily life as a source of communication
One thing is for sure, CNN gets the social data revolution and is utilizing these real-time tools correctly. Perhaps the immediate use of social media in response to the death of Michael Jackson can only be compared to the power that the Vietnam War gave television. Yes, MJ 2.0 is that powerful.
Michael Jackson transcends age, race, religion, borders, and now, music technology. MJ lived and survived through all of the music media transitions: from LP’s, to cassette tapes, to compact disc, to MP3.
Let’s take a brief look at a timeline of the history of music media:
1877 - Thomas Edison
1887 - Emile Berliner invents the gramophone, the first flat record player
1900 – Eldredge Johnson perfects mass duplication of pre-recorded flat record discs
1906 – RCA Victor introduces Victrola model record player, which had variable turntable speed control that accommodated the wide range of records produced at the time
1908 – Columbia introduces the first double-sided phonograph records
1912 – Disc recordings become more popular than cylinder recordings
1924 – Electrical records replace acoustic discs
1928 – The 78.26 rpm speed becomes standard for all phonograph records.
1946 – German magnetic tape recorders are copied for commercial use by AMPEX
1948 – The 33 1/3 LP is introduced by Columbia
1949 – RCA Victor introduces large-hole 45 rpm records. It became the preferred medium for singles
1952 – The Recording Industry Association of America
1955 – 12" LPs become more popular than 10" LPs
1962 – Multi-track analog tape recording begins in recording studios
1963 – Phillips develops compact stereo tape cassettes and players
1982 – The compact disc is introduced. The first CD is released in Japan. It is Billy Joel’s “52nd Street.”
1983 – The first CDs are released in the United States
1986 - CDs overtake LPs as top-selling medium in the United States
1999 – Recordable CD-R discs become available
2000 – Napster is created
2001 – Napster is slapped with a lawsuit by the RIAA
2003 – Apple introduces its online music store iTunes, offering free music downloads at 99 cents per song.
2006 – In February, iTunes sells its billionth song.
2007 – Just over a year later, in July, iTunes crosses the 3 billion songs sold mark
2008 – Present – The digital revolution has just begun…
Talent. Moonwalk. Thriller. 100+ Million Sold. Music 2.0. Technology. Twitter. Enter MJ 2.0.
, using the LinkedIn network as a lens, social construction, the notion of asymmetry, and 
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