Need a “crash course” on social networking applications? Or just want a way to explain the social media world to your client (or your mother) in really simple terms?

Go to this OpenCourseWare site for blogs, wikis and new media. Here is the course description:

Innovation continues to occur on the internet at an extremely lively pace. What was once the realm of email, FTP, Gopher, and the Web is barely recognizable a mere 10 years later. Keeping up with the speed of innovation and maintaining a familiarity with the most recent tools and capabilities is handy in some professions and absolutely critical in others. This course is designed to help you understand and effectively use a variety of “web 2.0? technologies including blogs, RSS, wikis, social bookmarking tools, photo sharing tools, mapping tools, audio and video podcasts, and screencasts.

A reader asks: What’s the average time spent on listening to radio per day among people 25-34? Has it decreased over the past 5 years?

Yes, it has. But not as dramatically as you might think. Check this out:

Time spent listening overall has decreased by 3 hours and 15 minutes per week in the past 10 years. That is a lot. But the past 5 years have slowed, with a loss of just over an hour. So the biggest changes in total listening was from 1997 through 2002.

In looking at the demographic of most interest to our reader (thanks for sending such a great question, by the way!), we’ve compiled the data from years of Arbitron reports. Note that 2002 is missing. The trends look a lot like the above chart – steady decreases. Notice also, that men consistently listen more than women. (click on the chart and it gets nice & big!)

A loyal reader asks: I have a client in the tennis business. They want me to find national publications with tennis subject matter on their editorial calendars. I’ve done some Google searching, but I feel like I’m drowning in irrelevant results. HELP ME!

Score 1 for us. We have a great idea.

Check out MRI+, a free database of magazine planning information run by Mediamark Research.

MRI+ is a free digital library of competitive data that serves as an electronic information link between planners and the publishers of major consumer and business publications.

MRI+ consolidates the databases planners use to evaluate magazines at one site:

• Top-line data from the Survey of the American Consumer™
• ABC Circulation Reports
• Advertising Expenditures
• Editorial profiles and calendars
• Subscriber Studies
• Links to Publisher sites

MRI+ is free to registered users.

So here’s what you do.

1. Log in.
2. Go to New Search.
3. Select Consumer Publications in part 1.
4. Select Profile and Editorial Calendars in part 2.
5. Select contains and type ‘tennis’ in the keyword box.
6. Click on search.

And there you have it. A list of publications with tennis on the edcal or in the publication profile along with circulation, and other information.

Of course, you still need someone to apply some judgment, but it’s a great start.