Welcome to Twitter @Pontifex

By The Canadian Press - Monday, December 3, 2012 at 7:20 AM - 0 Comments

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI will start tweeting in six languages from his own personal handle (at)Pontifex on Dec. 12.

The Vatican said Monday the pope will be using a question and answer format in his first Tweet, focusing on answering questions about faith — in 140 characters.

The pope sent his first tweet last year from a Vatican account to launch the Holy See’s news information portal. The Vatican’s communications adviser Greg Burke told a press conference that the handle (at)Pontifex was chosen for the pope’s personal account because it not only means pope in Latin, but also bridge-builder, suggesting unity. How often will the pope tweet? Burke said, “as often as he wants.”

Here’s how Twitter greeted the news:

Welcome to Twitter, @Pontifex

Storified by Maclean’s Magazine · Mon, Dec 03 2012 04:32:10

Facebook: like it, or not

By Chris Sorensen - Tuesday, November 27, 2012 at 2:24 PM - 0 Comments

Steven Senne/AP Photo/The Canadian Press

Facebook’s latest tweak drew a predictably negative response from users. The popular social networking site now automatically creates a “couple’s page” for any two users who declare themselves in a relationship with one another. Facebook includes relevant photos, status updates and back-and-forth conversations. It’s all information users have already agreed to share, but in a new and sappier context. Critics described the move using words like “retch,” “cringeworthy” and “way off the mark.”

It’s become a familiar dance: each time Facebook launches a new feature or changes an existing one, users complain it’s not what they signed up for. And now, eight years after Mark Zuckerberg created the site in his Harvard dorm room, deep-pocketed advertisers are also learning how it feels to be subjected to Facebook’s tinkering. Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, recently took issue with Facebook’s efforts to suddenly charge the team thousands of dollars to reach fans of the Mavericks’ Facebook page. “FB is blowing it? This is the first step,” Cuban wrote in a post on Twitter, threatening a boycott. “The Mavs are considering moving to Tumblr or MySpace as primary site.”

The high-profile criticism comes at a time when Facebook needs paying customers like Cuban more than ever. With its stock still trading nearly 40 per cent below last spring’s IPO price of $38 (it has been as low as $17.55), investors are searching for evidence that Facebook will live up to its promise of being an unparalleled online money-maker. A key concern has been the growing number of users who access the site from their smartphones or tablets, where Facebook has historically had no room to place advertising because of the small screen sizes. Continue…

The @ pack of Parliament Hill

By Mark Blevis - Tuesday, November 27, 2012 at 7:00 AM - 0 Comments

Tyler Shute

1. Justin Trudeau, @JustinTrudeau: The young Trudeau was a popular online entity even before he announced his leadership candidacy. You could say it’s integrated into his routine. So, it was no surprise that his online properties were just as much a part of his announcement as the party in his home riding in Montreal. Expect digital to play an important role in his effort to build Liberal energy.

Read more about Justin Trudeau later today when The Maclean’s Power List goes online.

2. Tony Clement, @TonyclementCPC He made a name for himself on Twitter early on. His style and tone, sharing both updates on official duties and reflections on his life, earned him a bipartisan reputation as a relatable politician. His approach has allowed him to make mistakes and be (generally) forgiven by his online community. Expect dry humour.

3. Carolyn Bennett, @Carolyn_Bennett She’s among the most active MPs on Twitter. Combined with regular Facebook town halls, she’s built a strong following. Bennett is above average in her number of retweets, making her an effective amplifier of ideas and news she feels her community should know.

4. Elizabeth May, @ElizabethMay Largely shut out of debates in Parliament, the Green party leader makes up for it with Twitter, using it to oppose the omnibus budget. She has the most engaged Twitter community of any MP, and her 2,086 replies to tweets last summer led all MPs.

5. Jason Kenney, @kenneyjason He can be extraordinarily partisan on Twitter, but occasionally dials it back. He recently shared a photograph of his grandfather—one of the more relatable moments in his Twitter stream. Don’t expect much engagement. He views it as a broadcast channel.

6. Paul Dewar, @PaulDewar Though he doesn’t tweet as often as others, Dewar offers a balance of partisan tweets and those announcing events and activities. He’ll need to do even more in his capacity as a reliable member of the NDP front bench to help his party strengthen relations with Canadians.

7. Olivia Chow, @oliviachow It’s easy to say her online profile was elevated because of Jack. That would discredit her own efforts to efficiently build her online personality. The question is, will Toronto municipal politics lure her away from Parliament? Watch Twitter for the answer.

8. Marc Garneau, @MarcGarneau At one time, the Liberals’ industry critic was little engaged in digital culture. That’s changed. Garneau is among the more active and engaged tweeting MPs—two-thirds of his tweets are replies. If he joins the leadership race, Twitter will be central to his campaign.

9. James Moore, @JamesMoore_org Another early adopter, Moore is a lover of gadgets that let him stay connected. His tweets range from biting partisanship to recently bidding farewell to his dog Oakley, thanking him for a lifetime of companionship. He tweets and retweets a lot, but rarely replies.

10. Denis Coderre, @DenisCoderre Simply put, he’s a tweeting machine—an active tweeter and retweeter who also replies to tweets. A lot. His live-tweeting of Montreal Canadiens hockey games is legendary. Rumour is Coderre may leave Ottawa to run for mayor of Montreal. Expect to learn about it on Twitter first.

Mark Blevis is a digital public affairs strategist with Fullduplex.ca

@NYTOnIt Twitter account suspended after real New York Times complains

By Emily Senger - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 at 11:17 AM - 0 Comments

The Times Is On It, a popular Twitter account that points out the sometimes obvious trend stories reported by The New York Times, was shut down after a complaint over a trademark violation from the paper.

The real New York Times concern with The Times Is On It, which tweets at @NYTOnIt, was with its avatar, which used a version of the letter “T” from The New York Times.

A spokesperson for the Times confirmed that they had, indeed, made a complaint and Twitter removed the account late Monday.

But, much to the joy of fans, the now avatar-less account made its reapperence Tuesday morning, shortly after 7 a.m. with this tweet:

GUYS, I think it’s time for an avatar contest. Anyone want to be ON IT? facebook.com/nytonit/posts/…

— The Times Is On It (@NYTOnIt) November 20, 2012

The decision to reinstate the account came after the account’s creator, who identified himself as New York blogger and lawyer Benjamin Kabak, posted this statement on Facebook late Monday:

“Twitter has suspended my account over a claim from The Times that my avatar violates a trademark. I say fair use. Right now, I’m waiting for Twitter to process my request to fix the problem so I can get the account reenabled. But feel free to spread the word over how the country’s largest newspaper feels threatened by a small Twitter account right now.”

The @NYTOnIt account was named one of Time magazine’s 140 best Twitter feeds of 2012 and it has more than 20,000 followers.

Now those followers can get back to giggling as @NYTOnIt pokes fun at The New York Times trend stories. For example:

GUYS, there are *gasp* fake profiles on Facebook, and The Times is ON IT. nyti.ms/TDt1ut

— The Times Is On It (@NYTOnIt) November 13, 2012

GUYS, women enjoy wearing pantyhose again, and The Times is ON IT. nyti.ms/SFsw43

— The Times Is On It (@NYTOnIt) November 11, 2012

GUYS, teenagers have messy bedrooms, and The Times is ON IT. nyti.ms/X62BZs

— The Times Is On It (@NYTOnIt) November 2, 2012

Is Israel violating Twitter’s Terms of Service? (and other stupid questions)

By Jesse Brown - Friday, November 16, 2012 at 1:05 PM - 0 Comments

Israel and Hamas, whilst lobbing rockets at each other, are also engaged in a social media flame war. Each side is live-blogging, live-vlogging, and live-tweeting the escalating conflict. By now, this should surprise no-one, but punditry is agog: Jon Mitchell at ReadWriteWeb calls the IDF’s gamified blog “atrocious” and “horrendous,” Katie Notopolous at BuzzFeed calls these Instagram self-shots of Israeli soldiers “surreal,” and Jeff Sonderman at Poynter asserts that the Israeli military has “become its own media.”

Pundits, please. War is atrocious—the IDF’s blog, which gives users silly virtual badges in return for sharing its messages—is just tasteless.  The “surreal” Instagram pics, many of which seem to have been taken before the current conflict, depict teenage soldiers performing mandatory service and trying to relax while knowing that at any moment they may have to risk their lives. As for the Israeli military “becoming its own media,” let’s be clear: propaganda and war go hand and hand. There’s nothing new about the IDF telling their side of the story through every available means. That doesn’t mean that they have become the media. Verifying, analyzing and balancing this account remains the work of journalists, professional or otherwise.

Things get sillier. Mike Isaac at AllThingsD wonders whether Israel’s declarations of war are “within the bounds of the Twitter and Facebook Terms of Service.” The Atlantic actually engages with this question, pointing out that the Alqassam Brigade’s tweeted supervillain promise that their “blessed hands” will find Israeli soldiers, who have “opened Hell Gates” on themselves, might also be a TOS violation.  (The Alqassam Brigade has yet to tweet back “OMG GTFO!!”).  Others have taken up the question as well, and the idea that Twitter and Facebook should ban the war messages of one side or another is gaining momentum.

The only shocking thing here is how quickly some voices, otherwise bullish on free speech online, are suggesting that information be blocked from their sensitive eyes. Both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict have maintained for decades that the mainstream media is hopelessly biased in favour of the other.  At the very least, the level playing field of the Internet equalizes this part of the fight. Through social media, without editing or varnishing from newsroom interlocutors, the words and pictures issued from both sides are offensive, shocking, manipulative, saddening, graphic, bizarre and awful as this endless war itself.

Follow Jesse on Twitter @JesseBrown 

Photo-sharing app Instagram spreads its wings to the Web

By The Associated Press - Monday, November 5, 2012 at 3:11 PM - 0 Comments

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Instagram, the photo-sharing app that was created for mobile phones, is expanding to the Web.

The service, which is owned by Facebook Inc., said in a blog post Monday that it will be launching Instagram profiles on the Web over the next few days.

Previously, users’ profiles existed only on Instagram’s mobile applications accessed on the iPhone or Android devices.

Now, users will have a website with a profile photo, bio and a selection of the snapshots they’ve recently shared on Instagram.

The layout of the Web profiles is reminiscent of Facebook timelines, except with little text and no ads.

Users will have a large cover image that’s a collage of their old Instagram shots.

Their profile photo is on the right side and their snapshots cascade down the page.

Justice ministers form working group to look at consequences for cyberbullying

By The Canadian Press - Thursday, November 1, 2012 at 5:54 AM - 0 Comments

REGINA – Canada’s justice and public safety ministers say they’ll work together to see what more can be done to stop cyberbullying.

Shirley Bond, British Columbia’s justice minister and attorney general, said the ministers discussed the issue extensively at a two-day meeting in Regina.

“We’ve agreed to a working group, an ad hoc working group, that will contemplate whether or not there are gaps in the Criminal Code that would allow us to look at some further consequences,” Bond said Wednesday evening.

“Some consequences exist under the current code, but our concern is are there are gaps, can we look at this differently, are there revisions?”

Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson agreed.

“I did point out that certain intimidation and threats, that sort of thing, are covered by the Criminal Code. But we’re pleased to look at that area,” Nicholson said after the meeting.

“It’s a serious issue and one has got a lot of Canadians worried and rightly so.”

The issue garnered national attention recently after B.C. teen Amanda Todd took her own life earlier this month after a protracted period of online victimization.

Last Friday, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police urged Ottawa to bring controversial Internet surveillance legislation back online. They argued investigations involving cyber and cellphone technology are being hampered by antiquated laws.

They say Bill C30, the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act, would enable officers to follow the electronic footprints left in crimes by compelling telecommunications companies to quickly provide basic Internet subscriber information.

It would also help officers intervene in cyberbullying and make it a crime to use social media to injure, alarm and harass.

Noted on Twitter: People tweeting photos of other people raking

By macleans.ca - Sunday, October 21, 2012 at 7:57 PM - 0 Comments

Noted on Twitter: People raking

Signs of autumn: Tweeted photographs of leaves and rakes and so on. Some general themes from the Twitterverse:

Storified by Maclean’s Magazine · Sun, Oct 21 2012 16:54:11

Google’s 3rd-quarter earnings leak early, send stock plunging

By The Canadian Press - Thursday, October 18, 2012 at 4:59 PM - 0 Comments

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Google Inc.’s stock plunged suddenly on Thursday afternoon after a contractor prematurely released the search company’s third-quarter earnings report.

The stock fell $68.19, or 9 per cent, to $687.30 before trading was halted to give investors a chance to digest the results. The company’s quarterly performance fell well short of analyst estimates. Google’s report had been scheduled for release after the close of regular trading Thursday.

Continue…

Facebook: Still free, always will be, but feel free to pay up to ‘promote’ your posts

By Barbara Ortutay, The Associated Press - Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at 8:00 PM - 0 Comments

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Facebook has long declared that it’s “free and always will be.”

And it still is — unless you want more friends to see what you have to say.

The social media giant is rolling out a feature in the U.S. that lets users pay to promote their posts to friends, just as advertisers do.

Facebook has been testing the service in New Zealand, where it tries out a lot of new features, and has gradually introduced it in more than 20 other countries. Facebook said Wednesday that promoting a post — such as announcing a garage sale, charity drive or big news like an engagement — will bump it higher in your friends’ news feeds.

“Every day, news feed delivers your posts to your friends. Sometimes a particular friend might not notice your post, especially if a lot of their friends have been posting recently and your story isn’t near the top of their feed,” wrote Abhishek Doshi, a software engineer at Facebook, on Facebook’s news site.

Facebook didn’t say how much it will cost to promote the posts, only that it’s considering a range of prices as part of the test. On Wednesday, though, some users could see $7 as a cost per each update that they want to promote.

The Mindy Promotion

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 at 12:42 PM - 0 Comments

The other day a friend and I were talking about what a great self-promoter Mindy Kaling is. We weren’t talking about her negatively, understand, we just were bringing it up as a fact of her career. The friend, who doesn’t follow TV business reporting (and a good thing too) was still aware that Kaling and her show, The Mindy Project, have been promoted like mad literally since before it was even picked up. She’s in the news, she’s in the columns, she’s the subject of articles and profiles and think pieces about what she means for women, for rom-coms, for leads of colour and leads who aren’t conventionally telegenic.

There’s an obvious comparison here to Lena Dunham and Girls, but the hype for Girls was rather slow-building and, in my experience, followed the extremely positive advance buzz for the show itself. Kaling’s show got respectful but not ecstatic reviews (good reviews for a pilot; most pilots don’t make anyone ecstatic) and she built it into a media event almost on her own before Fox’s publicity machine got rolling.

I was in with the conventional wisdom in thinking the pilot had promise as a a rom-com for TV (or a fantasy Continue…

Updated: Teen can be anonymous in suit over alleged defamation on Facebook: top court

By The Canadian Press - Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 10:09 AM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – A teenage girl allegedly defamed on a bogus Facebook page can proceed with a lawsuit without revealing her name, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Thursday.

The judges ruled 7-0 that the girl is entitled to anonymity to prevent her from becoming a victim a second time.

But the court also rejected her request for a publication ban on the defamation suit, as long as she is not identified in any materials made public.

The case made its way to the Supreme Court after the girl’s family appealed a Nova Scotia Court of Appeal decision.

The girl, known as A.B. in court documents, was 15 when she and her family sought a court order compelling Internet service provider Eastlink to reveal the identity of the person who had allegedly set up the fake Facebook profile about her.

The lower court granted the order, but said she couldn’t proceed with a defamation case anonymously because there is an open-court principle at stake. The appeal court agreed.

That was a mistake, Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella wrote in Thursday’s decision.

“In my view, both courts erred in failing to consider the objectively discernable harm to A.B.,” she wrote.

The Halifax Chronicle Herald and Global Television originally opposed the idea of a publication ban. Global’s involvement in the case ended in 2010.

Abella said there’s no reason for a publication ban on the whole suit.

“She should be entitled to proceed anonymously, but once her identity has been protected, I see no reason for a further publication ban preventing the publication of the non-identifying content of the fake Facebook profile.”

A.B. found the offending Facebook page online in March 2010.

The fake profile used her picture, a slightly modified version of her name, and other identifying particulars. An accompanying commentary made unflattering comments on her appearance and included some sexually explicit references. The page was removed by the Internet provider later that month.

It’s vital to protect the victims of online bullying, Abella wrote.

“In addition to the psychological harm of cyberbullying, we must consider the resulting inevitable harm to children — and the administration of justice — if they decline to take steps to protect themselves because of the risk of further harm from public disclosure.”

She said the interests at stake are clear:

“The girl’s privacy interests in this case are tied both to her age and to the nature of the victimization she seeks protection from. It is not merely a question of her privacy, but of her privacy from the relentlessly intrusive humiliation of sexualized online bullying.”

Court to rule on whether girl allegedly defamed on Facebook should be identified

By The Canadian Press - Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 7:11 AM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Canada’s top court is expected to rule today on whether the identity of a teenage girl allegedly defamed on a bogus Facebook page should be made public.

The case made its way to the Supreme Court of Canada after the girl’s family appealed a Nova Scotia Court of Appeal decision.

That court ruled that the girl couldn’t proceed with a defamation case without revealing her name.

Halifax lawyer Michelle Awad has argued that the media should not be allowed to identify the girl because it would cause her further harm.

But Nova Scotia’s top court said that is the reality of pursuing litigation in Canadian courts, where the open-court principle is enshrined in law.

The girl was 15 when she and her family applied for a court order compelling Internet service provider Eastlink to reveal the identity of the person who had allegedly set up the fake Facebook profile about her.

The Halifax Chronicle Herald and Global Television argued there was insufficient reason for the courts to grant the alleged victim anonymity and challenged a publication ban on the Facebook postings.

Tony Clement says he presided over own Twitter town hall

By The Canadian Press - Monday, September 24, 2012 at 6:13 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Treasury Board President Tony Clement is dismissing as “hooey” a report suggesting he was not the author of his own tweets during an online town hall last year.

The Canadian Press, citing documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, reported this week that Clement’s staff did much of the tweet composition.

The documents said Clement had employed a “ghostwriter” to create tweets and that some were written before the town hall last December as stock answers.

“The ghostwriter worked with subject matter experts to identify responses to questions and then worked with Clement to determine how to tweet in his voice,” the documents said.

But the minister took to Twitter on Monday to deny the report, saying whoever created the documents got it wrong.

“That’s a bunch of hooey,” Clement wrote. “Docs are wrong. I directed the responses.”

A spokeswoman for Clement said the ghostwriter was used to get the minister’s answers out faster, which she called standard practice for such events.

The 90-minute town hall took three dry runs to plan and the compilation of more than 40 tweets in advance so they could be readily used to reply to questions, the documents showed.

In addition to Clement, the ghostwriter and a moderator, there were two subject matter experts and two communications staff around the table.

Clement’s spokeswoman said the level of preparation was necessary because of the unique nature of the event but the minister was fully in charge.

“He directed the entire tweet chat,” Andrea Mandel-Campbell said.

“When you do that kind of event, first of all, it’s the first time you’re doing it, so you have to have all kinds of dry runs and yes, you have a lot of people in the room.”

How many government officials does it take to screw in a tweet?

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 24, 2012 at 9:45 AM - 0 Comments

Stephanie Levitz discovers how many officials are required to help a minister demonstrate his support for open government and social media engagement.

The two 45-minute chats — one in English, one in French — took more than a month to organize. Three dry runs were held ahead of the main event, with staff even creating bogus Twitter accounts in order to practise using the service. 

More than 40 stock responses were drafted so they could be quickly copied and pasted to reply to questions, while a ghostwriter was engaged to get Clement’s responses out faster. A spokesman for Clement called that a natural practice. ”Use of a moderator (what the department called a “ghost writer”) was a practical decision based on the fact that the minister could respond quicker verbally as the moderator simply typed out the response keeping it within the 140-character limit for Twitter,” Sean Osmar said in an email. ”I should point out too that the minister did take to the keyboard himself for a few responses — he does like to get hands-on sometimes,” he added. Clement was flanked at the Twitter table by two subject matter experts and two other communications staff, in addition to the one moderating the chat and the one acting as his ghostwriter.

Clement may be Twitter king, but couldn’t be mayor of his own town hall

By Stephanie Levitz, The Canadian Press - Sunday, September 23, 2012 at 7:40 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Tony Clement may be king of social media in political circles on Parliament Hill, but he didn’t get to be mayor of his own Twitter town hall.

During an online chat on the subject of open government, the Treasury Board president, who is a prolific tweeter, had a ghostwriter doing most of the work for him.

Last December’s town hall made federal political history as the first live online chat to be hosted by a cabinet minister using the popular microblogging service.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper once took questions via YouTube, but that experiment was never repeated.

The subject of Clement’s town hall was the Conservatives’ recently launched open government strategy, a three-prong effort which seeks to increase transparency around the official workings of Ottawa.

Clement has been a vocal champion of the strategy, as well as for the increased use of social media by politicians to communicate with Canadians.

He’s regularly ranked among Parliament Hill’s top tweeters and lauded by social media watchers as having a natural touch with the technology.

But when it came to formally engaging with Canadians, bureaucracy ground his freewheeling ways to a stop.

An analysis on the town hall obtained by The Canadian Press under Access to Information legislation highlights the struggle facing MPs seeking to use social media tools in a world of tightly controlled communications.

“Twitter and its applications are in constant evolution, as are the conversations that take place within it,” the report said.

“The trick to successfully using the platform is to allow room for this evolution, all while keeping in mind communications objectives.”

The two 45-minute chats — one in English, one in French — took more than a month to organize.

Three dry runs were held ahead of the main event, with staff even creating bogus Twitter accounts in order to practise using the service.

More than 40 stock responses were drafted so they could be quickly copied and pasted to reply to questions, while a ghostwriter was engaged to get Clement’s responses out faster.

A spokesman for Clement called that a natural practice.

“Use of a moderator (what the department called a “ghost writer”) was a practical decision based on the fact that the minister could respond quicker verbally as the moderator simply typed out the response keeping it within the 140-character limit for Twitter,” Sean Osmar said in an email.

“I should point out too that the minister did take to the keyboard himself for a few responses — he does like to get hands-on sometimes,” he added.

Clement was flanked at the Twitter table by two subject matter experts and two other communications staff, in addition to the one moderating the chat and the one acting as his ghostwriter.

A photographer was hired and according to the report, overstayed his welcome.

“There were too many people in the room,” said one comment in the report’s section on lessons learned.

“Efforts should be made to keep the number of participants to essential staff only.”

The chat didn’t happen over the government’s standard Internet connections.

Staff used mobile Internet technology in order to bypass any possible network filters, according to the report.

One of the sticking points among public servants is the lack of access many have to social media tools, with government servers in several departments routinely blocking blogs, Facebook and file sharing sites.

During the Summer Olympics, one department shut down video sites for fear that public servants would spend too much time watching events.

Other tools are blocked for security risks; Treasury Board and the Finance Department fell prey to hackers last year.

Osmar said the use of the mobile Internet connection was in part to test its capabilities.

“We were also testing the feasibility of using these mobile Internet devices for future tweet chats that may occur from different locations, remote events, and international travel,” he said.

“Departmental employees have all the Internet tools they need to carry out their business on a day-to-day basis.”

Overall, Treasury Board staff considered the event a success and were enthusiastic about doing it again, going so far as to suggest the platform be used for scrums, to consult on draft documents and for program announcements.

“Yes, we plan to host more tweet chats in the future, the minister believes it can be an effective way to hear from and speak with Canadians directly on government,” Osmar wrote.

“Stay tuned.”

Rich Kids of Instagram’s champagne posts and caviar hashtags

By Rosemary Counter - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at 5:00 AM - 0 Comments

Instagram

A young woman, slender and stylish, holds three oversized designer purses. Three more sit at her feet. Pouting her lips, she snaps a self-portrait in the mirror. She then uploads it to Instagram—the ubiquitous online photo-sharing service recently acquired by Facebook—with the cheeky caption, “Can’t really decide which Birkin to use today.”

But among the 80 million Instagram users sharing the minutiae of their lives, there lurks an opportunistic voyeur. Since July, an anonymous blogger has been trolling the Instagram site and uploading copied images of lavish lifestyles to Rich Kids of Instagram (a.k.a. RKOI), a Tumblr sensation that has hooked online followers with its sly blend of envy and mockery.

“Anonymity feels good and is in our best interest,” the site’s incognito creator(s) write via the RKOI Gmail account. The Tumblr was born after some boozy online spying on the lives of the über-wealthy. “Everyone enjoys peering into a window of a world that’s not theirs,” (s)he writes. “Some love it, some hate it, but they keep coming back to it.”

Continue…

Can Facebook really solve the organ donor crisis?

By Julia Belluz - Tuesday, September 18, 2012 at 5:02 PM - 0 Comments

(Beck Diefenbach/Reuters)

Just when you thought Facebook couldn’t become any more omnipotent: In May, the social networking giant announced it would allow users to declare their organ donor status on their profiles and link to donor registries in the hopes of becoming “a big part of helping solve the crisis out there,” as CEO Mark Zuckerberg put it then.

At the time, Science-ish mused about the role the social network could play in getting more people to donate. Today the tool launches in Canada, Mexico, Norway and Belgium—that’s 18 countries in total—and we actually have some preliminary data on the “Facebook effect.”

According to David Fleming, CEO of Donate Life America, the initial response after Zuckerberg’s announcement “dwarf[ed] any past organ donation initiative.” In California, for example, 70 people each day usually register online as organ donors, while in the 24 hours following the Facebook announcement, 3,900 Californians did the same. But, according to a new report from the U.S., “the dramatic increase in registered organ donors was quickly followed by a dramatic decline. Within two weeks, the rate of registration of new organ donors returned to previous levels.”

Continue…

Facebook up from all-time low after Zuckerberg commits to keeping shares

By The Associated Press - Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 4:34 PM - 0 Comments

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Facebook’s stock increased nearly 5 per cent on Wednesday following a disclosure that its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, won’t sell stock in the company for at least a year.

Zuckerberg holds about 504 million shares and options and had been eligible to start selling them in November. The company currently has about 692 million shares eligible for sale. The concern is that if Zuckerberg floods the market with additional shares, prices would go down further.

The stock is still trading at less than half of the $38 that it went for in Facebook’s May initial public offering. It gained 85 cents, or 4.8 per cent, to close at $18.58. That more than wiped out Tuesday’s loss, during which the stock hit an all-time low of $17.55. It had closed at $17.73.

Since the IPO, Facebook’s stock has been down on 45 trading days, up on 29 and unchanged on two.

Facebook revealed Zuckerberg’s commitment in a regulatory filing late Tuesday. It also said that two of its board members, Marc Andreessen and Donald Graham, have no “present intention” to sell stock beyond what they need to cover taxes.

Even without Zuckerberg’s share, up to 1.2 billion more shares could enter the market over the next several months, including those from employees eligible to sell on Oct. 29.

Investors have been concerned about Facebook’s ability to keep increasing revenue and make money from its growing mobile audience.

On Tuesday, Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Devitt cut his target price on the stock to $32 from $38, saying that its mobile advertising revenue is just starting to grow. Morgan Stanley led Facebook’s IPO. Devitt still has an “Overweight,” or “Buy,” rating on Facebook stock.

Doug Anmuth, an analyst at JPMorgan, which was another large underwriter of the offering, also cut his target price on Tuesday, to $30 from $45. He kept an “Overweight” rating as well.

The company, along with the investment banks that led the IPO, is the subject of dozens of shareholder lawsuits. They allege that analysts at the large underwriting investment banks cut their financial forecasts for Facebook just before the IPO and told only a handful of clients. Facebook and the banks overseeing the IPO insist that nothing about its IPO process was illegal or even out of the ordinary.

Facebook to allow employees to sell stock sooner. Read the filing here.

By Erica Alini - Tuesday, September 4, 2012 at 8:04 PM - 0 Comments

Facebook just announced in a SEC filing that it is allowing its employees to sell company shares earlier than Nov. 14, the initial end-date of a post-IPO lock-up. The social media giant’s rank and file will be allowed to dump, I mean, sell shares they own on Oct. 29, four trading days after the company is scheduled to announce its third-quarter financial results. That means an additional 234 million stocks “will be eligible for sale in the public market,” according to the filing.

Interestingly, the document also takes pains to highlight that CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be holding on to its share of the pie for a little while longer:

As of the date of this report, Mark Zuckerberg has not adopted a Rule 10b5-1 Plan and has informed us that he has no intention to conduct any sale transactions in our securities for at least 12 months. Mr. Zuckerberg currently holds in aggregate approximately 444 million shares of Class B common stock as well as 60 million shares of Class B common stock issuable upon the exercise of an option.

Shares of Facebook hit a new low of USD$17.55 today and then closed at $17.73, down over 53 per cent from their IPO price of $38. The twitterverse is going wild with bets that by October of next year they may be plumbing penny-stock territory.

Here’s the entire filing:

The way the cookie Tumblrs

By Scaachi Koul - Thursday, August 23, 2012 at 10:15 AM - 0 Comments

Shortly after the NASA Curiosity rover landed on Mars, an unlikely company jumped on the bandwagon: Oreo. The company posted a picture of a commemorative cookie on their Facebook page, an open-faced Oreo with red icing, complete with rover tracks running down the middle. That post alone garnered more than 21,000 likes. Oreo has a history of glomming on to events completely unrelated to the cookie, like celebrating Bastille Day with blue, white and red icing, or cheering on Pride week with rainbow filling sandwiched between the iconic chocolate wafers. These cookies aren’t for sale, but are a part of Oreo’s “Daily Twist,” a Tumblr blog showcasing Oreos styled after news events. Many brands may struggle with how to use social media to their advantage by engaging users online, but Oreo is getting it right, with clever, shareable photos that make thousands of people click retweet, reblog or like.

Could Wattpad be the ‘killer app’ for aspiring writers?

By Jason McBride - Thursday, August 23, 2012 at 9:55 AM - 0 Comments

Andrew Tolson

In 2010, Brittany Geragotelis was an aspiring author nearing the end of her writerly rope. All six of her novels had been rejected by publishers. Her agent had dumped her. She was 31 years old and working as an editor at American Cheerleader magazine. But in October, a digital venture from Toronto called Wattpad asked her if she would promote the company in the magazine. She was, in her words, a “big book nerd,” and Wattpad—an interactive online forum where anyone can publish their own writing, and readers can read, comment on, and even contribute—was compelling. She combed the site’s content and found that paranormal romance ruled. With nothing to lose, she wrote a novel and gave it away, one chapter at a time, for six months.

Within a week, the first chapter of Life’s a Witch had been read a couple of thousand times. By the time Geragotelis finished writing and uploading the entire book, it had been read six million times. Half a year and 19 million reads later, she had a new literary agent and a six-figure deal from Simon and Schuster. Next January, she’ll publish a prequel titled What the Spell?, followed by a sequel in 2014.

Geragotelis’s success is partly the reason you’re reading about Wattpad now. The company was founded in 2006 by Allen Lau and Ivan Yuen, engineers who met while working at a Toronto firm that built apps for the mobile market. Anticipating the explosion in smartphone technology, and the immense growth in social media and user-generated content, they merged those three things in a user-friendly mobile application—a kind of YouTube for writing. The start-up’s timing was prescient: that same year, Sony unveiled its first e-reader, Google bought YouTube, and in June 2007, Apple released the iPhone. Wattpad now has nine million visitors who spend about 2.2 billion minutes on the site each month; 6.5 million “stories”—anything from goth poetry to pop-band fan fiction, available in 24 different languages—have been uploaded. Seventy per cent of its users read and post content on mobile phones, and their average age is about 20.

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Nexopia is an online utopia for teens

By Scaachi Koul - Tuesday, August 14, 2012 at 4:03 PM - 0 Comments

Photograph by Natalie Castellino

Nexopia is one of the few social networks where a young girl still has to write, “I won’t get naked on webcam” on her profile. Girls are accustomed to inboxes full of requests to meet or swap pictures with boys and adult men. Other profiles boast come-hither urgings, like “MESSAGE ME ;).” Here, strangers are friends you don’t know yet.

Although the social network lost members to Facebook in 2009, the Edmonton-based site is experiencing a resurgence in Western Canada. That small but dedicated core audience is due in part to the fact that its users can be anonymous. The site’s slogan says it all: “Because your mom’s on Facebook.”

While a social network like Facebook aims to offer privacy, Nexopia has no such concerns. “Talking to strangers online is a big part of Nexopia,” says 16-year-old Jayden Burnett from Prince George, B.C. “It’s kind of like a gathering of people for a party.”

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Did you Yahoo! that?

By Angelina Chapin - Tuesday, August 14, 2012 at 11:37 AM - 0 Comments

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

For Ted Mirsky, Yahoo! is a party trick. When his friends or co-workers are stumped by a question, the 27-year-old self-described “early adopter” from Ottawa often says: “Hold up, I’ll Yahoo! it,” and pulls out his phone. “Some people get it—and some people go, ‘Huh?! Don’t you use Google by now?’ ” says Mirsky. “It’s a go-to bit of mine.”

While not everyone would consider Yahoo! the butt of a joke—especially not the 700 million who use it worldwide each month to check their email or browse news headlines—Mirsky’s sarcastic gag hits on the company’s biggest problem: people don’t know what it does well. Google does search, Facebook does social networking, eBay does e-commerce. What about Yahoo!? Even former CEO Carol Bartz struggled with the question when hired in 2009. After talking to users worldwide she concluded it was people’s “home on the Internet,” a nebulous description that only confirmed the brand’s identity problem.

Surprisingly, the 18-year-old company still has a stubborn fan base that no doubt feels a mix of brand loyalty and resistance to change. Yahoo! is the No. 1 U.S. site by comScore in 10 content categories, with sports and finance the most popular. Its second-quarter earnings were announced in June and, despite a slide of 4.4 per cent from the year before, revenue is still $1.2 billion. The problem is the future—if the answer to Yahoo!’s identity crisis is that it’s a content company, it’s one that has not shown an ability to innovate. And without that, its continued prospects on the Internet look grim.

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