Thursday, November 05, 2009
Some Privacy Please, Facebook
In 2006, more than 700,000 people signed an online petition to prompt Facebook to be more strict with its privacy issues.
Currently there is an application running with Facebook called Beacon. Beacon is program that shares with users the websites you have been to and even the purchases you have made.
Obviously this could be a problem. If you are friends with someone on Facebook, and bought them something, they could be alerted and the suprise blown, instantly because of Beacon.
"One of the reasons Facebook is popular is that it makes it so easy for users to follow their friends' activities" Says Andy Carvin, NPR's senior product manager for online communities.
This program Beacon, was protested against and petitioned by as many as 50,000 Facebook users. Facebook took a stand and made this program optional with a check box, but there is still way that it stay active anyway.
I personally use Facebook, and I agree, it makes it extremely easy to follow your friends and see what they are doing. I haven't had issues with the privacy policies, but I can certainly see where people do. Facebook is just the start of privacy issues on the internet.
Google currently saves every search ever done, forever.
Beacon "may collect information on non-Facebookmembers." Any computer that is used to log onto a Facebook profile instantly becomes a tracking number for Facebook computers. Facebook says it deletes all this information received in this way ... but we will never know.
Labels: Beacon, facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, social networks
Social Networking, Social Media
Is Facebook the "Web’s dominant social ecosystem " now that it has more than 200 million users?
- Brad Stone, “Is Facebook Growing Up Too Fast?” March 29, 2009.
- PEW Internet & American Life Project, “Social Isolation and New Technology,” November 2009.
- Sharon Gaudin, "Study: 54 Percent of Companies Ban Facebook, Twitter at Work," (WIRED, October 9, 2009.)
- "Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg Interview"
- Clay Shirky: "How social media can make history." (TED Talks, June 2009.)
Labels: social media, social networks
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Morozov on Moldova's Twitter Revolution
Evgeny Morozov, is a "Yahoo Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University." He writes about the effect of the internet on politics. Check out his blog net.effect which is hosted by Foreign Policy magazine.
There was a political uprising in Moldova in April of 2009 [read: Ellen Barry, “Protests in Moldova Explode, With Help of Twitter,” 2009.]
Check out Morozov's analysis of this rebellion: Moldova's Twitter Revolution followed by two updates: #1 "More analysis of Twitter's role in Moldova," & #2 "Moldova's Twitter revolution is NOT a myth."
Evgeny Morozov gave a TED Talk on "How the Net aids dictatorships" in July, 2009.
Labels: Digital Democracy, Moldova, social networks, Twitter
Monday, November 03, 2008
Facebook Founder Interview 2007
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg interviewed by John Battalle at Web 2.0 Summit, October 17, 2007.
Labels: facebook, social networks
Monday, September 10, 2007
Too Many Creeps? Try Private Social Networks
According to Wall Street Journal reporter Rachel Dodes ModelsHotel.com is an exclusive social networking sight for the professionally beautiful:
Just as models can get into the most exclusive night clubs, now online social networks may increasingly have their own "digital velvet ropes" to limit access to their preferred market.
ModelsHotel was created by a male model named Jesper Lannung. According to the Wall Street Journal, Lannung convinced one model to join "by assuring her that his site is similar to other social networks, 'but without the creepy people.' "
Source: Rachel Dodes, "Can Models Find Bliss Beyond a 'Digital Velvet Rope'?" Wall Street Journal, 09/10/07
This is an example of a professional social networking site, a "micro community" that will sell access to make money and then try to sell that exclusive clientele to advertisers."There, the thin and beautiful can post pictures, videos and information about themselves, find romantic matches and get deals on everything from cosmetic dentistry to clothes. Unlike other modeling-focused sites, ModelsHotel is for professional models only. No poseurs. No voyeurs. No exceptions.
"Our site is a digital velvet rope," says Mr. Lannung, who has rejected more than half of the more than 2,000 people who have attempted to register so far.
It's this promise of exclusivity that is drawing sponsors to the site.
Among its high-profile marketing partners: eccentric fashion design house Heatherette, Diesel jeans and luxury jeweler Piaget.
Just as models can get into the most exclusive night clubs, now online social networks may increasingly have their own "digital velvet ropes" to limit access to their preferred market.
ModelsHotel was created by a male model named Jesper Lannung. According to the Wall Street Journal, Lannung convinced one model to join "by assuring her that his site is similar to other social networks, 'but without the creepy people.' "
Source: Rachel Dodes, "Can Models Find Bliss Beyond a 'Digital Velvet Rope'?" Wall Street Journal, 09/10/07
Labels: social networks
