My Facebook Story: An Inside Look at Facebook’s First Privacy Fiasco

On September 5, 2006, I used Facebook�s own platform to rock its foundations and create a revolt that would make international headlines. Since Facebook has asked its users to share their stories in celebration of passing the 500 million user mark, I thought that I would share mine here.

It was the start of my junior year at Northwestern University. Classes hadn�t started yet, but I was on campus several weeks early for my training as a residential and community assistant. The dorms were empty, except for the athletes and the other community assistants (CAs).

I woke up that Tuesday in my sparse and still-undecorated dorm room. The first thing I did � as many young people still do � was to check FacebookFacebook. Back then, it was very primitive; you had your profile, your friends profiles, wall posts and private messaging. You had to actively visit friends� profiles to learn anything new about them.

That all changed on September 5, 2006. On that day, Facebook launched the News Feed, which provided a passive stream of news and updates about friends.

When I first saw News Feed, I didn�t like it. In fact, I hated it, so I decided to let people know. After instant messaging with some friends who felt the same way, I decided to create a Facebook group called �Students Against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook).� In fact, the group still exists and I�m still its admin.

I quickly whipped together an image in Photoshop, wrote up some text, IMed the link to some friends, asked them to share the group and rushed out the door for my community assistant training. I could never have anticipated what that group would become.

I didn�t have access to a computer until lunchtime that day, but I already knew the group was gaining steam. I was eager to log on and see for myself what was happening.

In less than six hours, the group had amassed 13,000 members. In other words, it had gone viral and the irony was that it was thanks to Facebook�s new News Feed. I periodically checked Facebook after that as membership continued to swell. My fellow community assistants were asking about what was going on, with most of them supporting my position. Later that night, several of us were actually standing in front of my laptop, constantly clicking �refresh.�

At almost exactly 2:00 a.m. CT, the group reached 100,000 members. That�s when I finally called it a night.

For the next few days, the protest continued to gain momentum. Media outlets started e-mailing and calling me, filling up my inbox and disrupting my CA training (Time was the first to contact me). The group now had more than 250,000 members and I was getting hundreds of messages, friend requests and wall posts. It was all rather overwhelming.

During the course of that week, I continued to post updates on Students Against Facebook News Feed, linking to the media coverage and refining our message. We didn�t ask Facebook to remove News Feed � instead, we wanted the company to add far stronger privacy features so that we didn�t have to automatically share our break-ups or new photos if we didn�t want to.

Thursday, September 7, was the culmination of the Facebook News Feed fiacso. That day, the group broke 750,000 members � nearly 10% of Facebook�s entire userbase (it had 9.3 million members at the time). The Today Show asked me to come on the air the next day to talk about Facebook and privacy. All the while, I was completing my training as a CA during a beautiful Chicago summer.

Then Facebook made its move. Mark Zuckerberg published a very frank open letter early Friday morning. Here�s how it started:

�We really messed this one up. When we launched News Feed and Mini-Feed we were trying to provide you with a stream of information about your social world. Instead, we did a bad job of explaining what the new features were and an even worse job of giving you control of them. I�d like to try to correct those errors now.�

It was a very honest letter. He apologized for not building in proper privacy controls and said that the team was coding �nonstop� to implement better ones � something that they delivered on just a few days later.

The letter was exactly what I wanted and it quickly put the entire protest to a screeching halt. I soon declared victory on �Students Against Facebook News Feed� and declared that the group�s purpose was fulfilled. The group�s growth immediately stopped, media inquiries quickly disappeared and I never ended up on The Today Show, as the story was now dead.

A week after I launched Students Against Facebook News Feed, I received a direct e-mail from Mark Zuckerberg. In fact, I still have the e-mail thread. While I won�t share our exchanges, Zuckerberg essentially wanted to get my take on the events of the past week and my suggestions for what the company should do for releasing new products going forward. I was thrilled by the gesture. Even now, Zuckerberg likes to bring up our little history.

I ended up with a little notoriety on campuses nationwide, at least for a while. The occasional student newspaper would ask for an interview, and I ended up with more than 2,000 friend requests and just as many Facebook messages. Still, it was just one incident in Facebook�s history; the social network continued to expand, I went on to graduate from Northwestern and the world continued to spin.

Since then, I�ve had time to reflect. If you�ve read any of my op-ed pieces on MashableMashable, you know that my opinion of Facebook News Feed and privacy have dramatically changed. I said as much two years ago in an interview with The New York Times and in one of my first articles on Mashable.

I�m still in awe of just how important Facebook was to my life back then and to the lives of all 9.3 million college students using it at the time. If the protest demonstrated anything, it was that the social network already had a special place in our lives.

Now that 500 million people use Facebook on a regular basis � more than the entire population of the U.S., Mexico and Canada combined. Now we have millions of examples of Facebook bringing families together and tearing couples apart. Facebook knows this, which is why it launched the Facebook Stories campaign in the first place.

This is my Facebook story. What�s yours?

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NASA Uses Space Lasers to Map the World’s Forests [PICS]

Typically, we�d associated terms such as �lasers from space� with global destruction. However, the good folks at NASA have used three satellites and LIDAR laser technology to do something much more interesting � and with much more value for residents of Earth.
NASA scientists have used data collected by the ICESat, Terra and Aqua satellites to create a topographical map that shows the height of forests around the world, from the rain forests of the Amazon to the redwood and sequoia forests of Northern California. They say their efforts have produced a collection and visualization of data that is the first of its kind.
LIDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, uses laser pulses to determine the distance between given objects. It was used in this case to capture �vertical slices of surface features,� according to NASA. Over seven years, scientists collected data from 250 million laser pulses. This data on the Earth�s vertical profile was mashed up with other data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), which gathers information about radiation, cloud cover, changes in the oceans and atmosphere and much more.
Data from a fourth satellite could be added to this set later in the decade to make these maps more detailed. The current data set will help scientists study how much carbon our planet�s vegetation stores and how quickly the same carbon cycles back into Earth�s atmosphere.
According to NASA, we Earthlings are responsible for releasing about 7 billion tons of carbon each year, mostly as carbon dioxide. Of those emissions, 2 billion tons of carbon end up in the ocean and 3 billion tons are later found in the atmosphere. �It�s unclear where the last two billion tons of carbon go,� the NASA site reads, �though scientists suspect forests capture and store much of it as biomass through photosynthesis.�
Figuring out our forests� biomass starts with calculating tree height around the globe.
These maps can also help with scientists working on problems such as forest fires and species of animals indigenous to specific forests.
Here are some images of these maps so far (click for larger images):


What other uses can you image for NASA�s map of our world�s forests? What other kinds of data would you like to see them add to this set?
[img credit: exlibris]
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Time-Lapse Twitter Visualization Shows America’s Moods [VIDEO]

A group of researchers from Northeastern and Harvard universities have gathered enough data from Twitter to give us all a snapshot of how U.S. residents feel throughout a typical day or week.
Not only did they analyze the sentiments we collectively expressed in 300 million tweets over three years against a scholarly word list, these researchers also mashed up that data with information from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Google Maps API and more. What they ended up with was a fascinating visualization showing the pulse of our nation, our very moods as they fluctuate over time.
The researchers have put this information into density-preserving cartograms, maps that take the volume of tweets into account when representing land area. In other words, in areas where there are more tweets, those spots on the map will appear larger than they do in real life.
It will surprise almost no one to learn that there is a general mood slump mid-day and mid-week, when we are most likely to be at work. Our tweets show that we�re happiest in the early morning and late evening; during the week, our mood tends to peak on Sunday morning.
Less predictable, perhaps, is the fact that West Coast tweets were �happier� than tweets from the East Coast. Although West Coast Twitter users expressed emotions in the same cycles as the East Coast users (with a three-hour gap, of course, because of time zone differences), the West Coasters didn�t dip as low in mood as the East Coasters by a significant margin.
For the infographic fans among you, here�s a lovely visualization of some of the data displayed:

You can also check out a cool video below that illustrates how Twitter mood expressions change over the course of a day in the U.S.
We�re pretty fascinated by visualizations like these; what other data or topics would you like to see these researchers tackle next? What use do you think we could get out of the current information they�ve generated?

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Over 55 Percent of Android Devices Now Running Version 2.1

Let�s face it: Android will probably always be fragmented over three or four major versions. Some phone manufacturers are slow to adopt the newer versions of the platform, while some launch their phones with no updating in mind.
Still, as far as fragmentation goes, the recently updated AndroidAndroid distribution chart is looking better than ever, with 55.5% of devices running Android 2.1 and 22.1% are running Android 1.6.
Of course, an alarmingly high 18.9% of all Android devices are running the now quite obsolete version 1.5, while Android 2.2 is now showing up on 3.3% of devices, so an average user�s Android experience can still vary a lot, depending on what device/OS version he or she has.

What does this distribution mean for developers? Well, looking at the chart (above), if a developer wants everyone to be able to use their app, he�ll have to develop for Android 1.5 (all Android APIs are forward-compatible). If he or she wants to develop an app with all the latest bells and whistles of Android 2.1, then approximately half of Android users won�t be able to use the app at all. It�s a continuous race against the clock, but no one said that developing apps for smartphone platforms (especially if you want to develop a cross-platform app) would be easy.
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After More Downtime, We Ask: Can Twitter Truly Scale?

On Monday, a database hang-up on a long-running query was causing problems for both Twitter.com and the service�s API, which in turn affected Twitter clients outside of the official website.
The site has grown at an incredible rate since its inception, and it�s always struggled to keep up (technically speaking) with user adoption. Ever since its userbase spread beyond the tech elite to more mainstream social media users, the site has been subject to a seemingly unending string of growing pains.
In response to a wave of failures last month during the World CupWorld Cup, TwitterTwitter engineer Jean-Paul Cozzatti posted that the company�s network was improperly configured, leading to downtime and trouble with features.
Cozzatti claimed that the company had doubled the capacity of its internal network, improved its monitoring and rebalanced its traffic to prevent future downtime.
�For much of 2009, Twitter�s biggest challenge was coping with our unprecedented growth (a challenge we happily still face),� he wrote. �But as this week�s issues show, there is always room for improvement.�
Apparently, the improvements made last month were not enough to keep up with user growth and their demands on the service.
Cozzatti posted again today to address Twitter�s issues Monday, comparing the engineering team�s work on scaling the app to �riding a rocket.� To give you an idea of how fast that rocket is soaring through the social media universe, we reported in April that the service had 105 million users. In his post today, Cozzatti said Twitter now has 124 million registered users.
Scalability and uptime are the team�s top priority; in fact, Cozzatti noted, other projects are being put to the side until these problems can be thoroughly solved. He stated that Twitter�s engineers have made more than 50 performance and optimization tweaks since the site�s World Cup woes, including doubling throughput to the database that stores tweets, improving how the app uses memcache and improving page caching of the front and profile pages, which helps to reduce page load time.
Nevertheless, �There are still times when we run into problems unrelated to Twitter�s capacity,� Cozzatti admitted.
Monday�s issues serve as a perfect example. During the database malfunction and restart � which covered a 12-hour period � users were unable to login, sign upor update their profile information and design. �In the end,� wrote Cozzatti, �this affected most of the Twitter ecosystem: our mobile, desktop, and web-based clients, the Twitter support and help system, and Twitter.com.�
While Twitter is getting its own data center this fall and is actively recruiting more engineering talent, the company clearly needs to implement the long-term solutions we�re reading about. To have the cultural cachet of a web service such as GoogleGoogle search, GmailGmail, FacebookFacebook or any of the apps we rely on for day-to-day work and life � and we have the distinct impression that Twitter does, indeed, hope to be part of that cadre � it must first and most importantly achieve an acceptable uptime ratio. All the partnerships, revenue and media buzz in the world can fall a bit flat when the app itself doesn�t work.
That being said, we�re certain Twitter can and will make the needed improvements for scalability, and growing pains are good pains to have.
Are you confident that Twitter can become reliable and stable in the near future? Or do you foresee more significant downtime from this service? What will it take for Twitter to grow as quickly as its users require?
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Linkedin llega al millón en España

La red social profesional Linkedin ha anunciado que ha alcanzado el mill�n de usuarios en Espa�a.
Esto significa que la red social ha duplicado su n�mero de usuarios en el pa�s en tan solo 10 meses. A nivel internacional Linkedin tiene 70 millones de usuarios. La versi�n para Espa�a de la red social se lanz� en el a�o 2008.
Kevin Eyres, director general de la compa��a en Europa, ha declarado que: Espa�a est� adoptando Linkedin con una rapidez incre�ble. Los usuarios espa�oles son, seg�n Eyres, uno de los colectivos m�s din�micos a la hora de crear grupos. Asimismo, tambi�n coment� que: la toma de conciencia por parte de los usuarios espa�oles de las ventajas de contar con una identidad profesional en Internet y de tenerla al d�a, as� como de construir una red de contactos de confianza.
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Shopkick recibe 15M

Shopkick, una empresa centrada en llevar a la realidad la experiencia de compra a trav�s de los m�viles, ha recibido una ronda de financiaci�n de 15 millones de d�lares.
La ronda estuvo dirigida por Greylock Partners junto al inversor individual Reid Hoffman, que adem�s entrar� a formar parte de la junta de la compa��a. Anteriormente la compa��a hab�a recibido una ronda de 5 millones de d�lares.
El CEO de la compa��a, Cyriac Roeding, ha declarado que este verano se lanzar� por fin el producto real de la compa��a.
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Yahoo! y Bing alcanzan a Google

Google se sigue manteniendo como l�der de b�squedas en Estados Unidos pero pese a eso sigue perdiendo cuota de mercado.
En junio los internautas estadounidenses realizaron 16,4 mil millones de b�squedas, de las cuales el 62,2% se realizaron a trav�s de Google. Esto significa que la cuota del buscador cay� desde el 64,4% del mes de mayo.
Yahoo! sube puestos en la cuota de mercado y se coloca en el segundo puesto del buscador con un 18,9% de las b�squedas, es decir, 0,6 puntos m�s que en el mes de mayo. Bing, por su parte, se coloca en el tercer puesto con un 12,7% de las b�squedas, seg�n los datos que ha ofrecido comScore. Los nuevos m�todos de b�squeda contextual de estos dos buscadores pueden ser la raz�n de su aumento en la cuota de mercado.
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Facebook adquiere Nextstop

Facebook ha adquirido la red social de viajes Nextstop, según ha publicado esta última en su blog oficial.
La startup, creada a principios de 2009, une las recomendaciones sociales con la búsqueda y añade un sistema de reputación y elementos de juego. Fue fundada por una pareja de ex-Googlers, Carl Sjogreen y Adrian Graham, debido a la frustración que suponía encontrar cosas interesantes que hacer en sitios desconocidos.
Según parece los empleados de la startup se unirán al equipo de trabajo de Facebook, que se ha hecho con la gran parte de las acciones. De hecho los fundadores serán product managers en la red social.
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Google invierte 100M en Zynga

Google ha invertido 100 millones de dólares en Zynga, el desarrollador de juegos sociales tan populares como Farmville.
La operación se llevó a cabo hace un mes, aunque ni Google ni la empresa hicieron ninguna confirmación oficial. Otro dato importante es que el dinero no proviene del brazo inversor del gigante buscador, sino que se realizó a través de la propia compañía.
Esta inversión tiene un objetivo principal y es lanzar antes de finales de año Google Games, una nueva división de la empresa dedicada a los juegos sociales que tanto éxito están teniendo entre los usuarios.

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Ideas4all recibe 1M

ideas4all, una comunidad 2.0 para compartir ideas, ha recibido una ronda de financiación de 1 millón de euros.
La empresa había obtenido con anterioridad una ronda inicial de 3 millones, que se invirtió tanto en la comunidad de usuarios como en poner en marcha el plan de negocio. La startup ha firmado varios acuerdos este año, entre ellos el que firmó con Universia.
Los inversores han sido Peter Wood (creador de Direct Line en Reino Unido y posteriormente Línea Directa); Ángel Durández (presidente de la OJD y consejero de Telecinco y Repsol); Stanley Bendelac (fundador de Delvico); Luis Cacho (presidente de Arsys, fundador de Gnoss y presidente de la Fundación Promete); y Mercedes Domingo (fundadora de FunnyDoors).
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Google Discontinues the Nexus One Android Phone

Google has pulled the plug on the Nexus One, its once highly anticipated smartphone. The last shipment has arrived at Google HQ, and once those are gone there will be no more Nexus Ones for U.S. consumers.
The handset will still be sold through Vodafone in Europe and some Asian carriers, and developers will still be able to get their hands on one, but it looks like the Droid phones on Verizon will carry the mantle for Google’s Android mobile operating system. This is the end of the company’s grand experiment with an unlocked consumer handset in the U.S.

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Estadísticas de uso mundial de Internet (idioma,Ubicación,usuarios…)

La idea: pensar mas en negocio "global" que en lo local.(otra cosa será cómo hacer que nuestros servicios/productos llamen la atención y sean competitivos)
El Inglés sigue siendo el idioma mas utilizado en internet.Tan sencillo probarlo como poner una búsqueda en Google en castellano y su equivalente en Ingles. 1.250.000 resultados en español frente a 38.800.000 en Ingles.

 Los idiomas mas utilizados

Numero de usuarios por continentes

Moraleja: dentro de las actual "escasez" de demanda que nos solemos encontrar en nuestro entorno, sería interesante girar "el buque" (lo mas posible y cuanto antes) para no despreciar el potencial mercado en el exterior.
Fuente: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

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KnowEm-crear tu identidad Online en +400 sitios

Muy interesante! Sergio
KnowEm Username Check - Secure your Brand or Online Identity on Social Media: "Search over 400 popular social media networks to instantly secure your
brand across the social web."

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Google TV Ads genera entre 200 y 500 millones de dólares en publicidad

Google TV Ads genera entre 200 y 500 millones de dólares en publicidad: "Recientemente tratábamos a fondo la repercusión y el giro significativo que podría generar sobre la industria televisiva 'Google TV'. Un nuevo formato de televisión inteligente que también podría cambiar el concepto de la publicidad televisiva tradicional.
Esta claro que la batalla por la conquista del mercado publicitario digital tiene nombre propio y sin duda, Google no quiere..."

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