How will web decentralization shape revolution and terrorism?

16

October

2019

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Hello and welcome to my corner of the centralized internet where I get to tell you all about the newest, hippest technologies! Meanwhile, advertisers keep bombarding me with useless ads, companies keep tracking all my data to use for their own profit-seeking purposes or to resell for a quick buck, and China knows when I badmouth them (I’m sorry China, don’t do it, NOO-).

How do I escape this nightmare? Let me introduce you to the Decentralized Web

The regular internet was built with centralized points of control due to technological limitations as well as the need to keep some control over the internet. The purpose of the Decentralized Web is to reduce or eliminate such centralized points of control to have a system that can function when parts are missing, provides better privacy protection, provide more reliable access and make direct buying and selling possible without data collecting middlemen. It works thanks to a combination of peer-to-peer networks under a far faster internet than back in 1980 and block-chain inspired encryption that stores information in multiple anonymous locations (Decentralized web summit, 2019: https://www.decentralizedweb.net/about/).

This system is built to be resistant to meddling by central authority for better and for worse. It keeps your, and more importantly my, data safe. However, this system also keeps the data of terrorists, hate groups and revolutionaries safe.

  • Terrorists already use the dark web as a relatively safe way to communicate (Weimann, 2016: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26297596?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents), and having access to decentralized web technology makes organizing and recruitment that much easier. This is not a good thing…
  • Hate groups will become more able to close off their echo-chambers from outside voices of reason to more easily indoctrinate and radicalize their members. Be prepared for increased domestic terrorism folks…
  • Revolutions happen for various reasons on which anyone can disagree on whether the reasons are morally just or unjust, but it stands to reason that totalitarian regimes will not like the step to web decentralization as they lose control over their citizens, citizens which can now organize in a way they couldn’t before and start to challenge these regi- NO WAIT CHINA, I’M NOT TALKING ABOU-

So yeah, this article’s a bit of a bummer.

What do you think?

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Is Instagram the new beauty standard?

28

September

2019

5/5 (3)

Do you also catch yourself mindlessly scrolling through Instagram whenever you have got some time to spare? Believe me, you are not alone. But have you ever wondered how all these images of other people’s bodies may affect how you view your own body? No matter whether these pictures are your friend’s holiday picture, influencers’ gym selfie, or a celebrity’s beach photoshoot. You may think by yourself: “I wish I looked like her”.

Nowadays, the usage of social media is gradually growing and has already infiltrated into our daily lives. Instagram creates the illusion of perfection which is perceived by many as the beauty standards. In contrary to these beauty standards, our normal non-perfect lives seem somehow abnormal. As a result, some people may resort to drastic measures, or even eating disorders as their dissatisfaction with their body grows to try to achieve these unattainable goals as “beauty standards” (Dakanalis et al. 2014).

As we are scrolling through Instagram or posting pictures of ourselves, negative thoughts about our own body may arise (Holland & Tiggermann, 2016). A harsh comment by someone may result in dissatisfaction with our own body as many of us tend to interpret our social standing through comments or social comparison (Toma et al. 2008). A nice example is a video I encountered a few years ago by Cassey Ho, a social media fitness entrepreneur. Please watch the video below.

 

This video reflected how the comments by others on social media may affect how we feel about our own body. It made me start wondering how much of what we see are real on Instagram. Nowadays, there are numerous apps for altering your face and body as well as beauty filters to cover your imperfections (Fallon, 2014). Many of the pictures we see online are altered to enhance their features before it goes online. Even if I do not want to admit it, I will often find myself comparing to these influencers as well. I believe many followers of these Insta-celebrities do as well and what these followers think, actually becomes the new beauty standard.

This is just how trends work; they are going in and out like a fast fashion. Back in the day, flat chest and slim waist were in and now curvy body, thick lips and big booty are in. What is next? What do you think about the current beauty standard that is defined by altered pictures as the result of the current technology? Are you able to catch up with the current trend or will you rather alter yourself just to fit in? Let me know in the comments below!

 

Sources:

Dakanalis, A., Clerici, M., Caslini, M., Favagrossa, L., Prunas, A., Volpato, C., & Zanetti, M. A. (2014). Internalization of sociocultural standards of beauty and disordered eating behaviours: the role of body surveillance, shame and social anxiety. Journal of Psychopathology, 20, 33-37.

Ho, C. (2015) The “Perfect” Body [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsL7W-GHhJA

Holland, G., & Tiggemann, M. (2016). A systematic review of the impact of the use of social networking sites on body image and disordered eating outcomes. Body image, 17, 100-110.

Fallon, K. (2014). Streams of the self: The Instagram feed as narrative autobiography. In Proceedings of the interactive narratives, new media & social engagement international conference (Vol. 101, pp. 54-60).

Toma, C. L., Hancock, J. T., & Ellison, N. B. (2008). Separating fact from fiction: An examination of deceptive self-presentation in online dating profiles. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(8), 1023-1036.

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How to survive the attention war?

2

October

2017

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„Technology has turned human distraction into its metric of profit.“ (The Economist, 2017)

According to the article, big entertainment companies such as Disney, Facebook (Instagram) and Google (YouTube) are fighting for our limited time and attention, using different well-known methods as recommendation algorithms, digital rankings and an ever-growing amount of choices. Worldwide, the usage of social media increased by 21% in the last year, reaching almost 2.8bn people (Hootsuite, 2017). For many of us, a life without social media is not possible or at least not imaginable.

This TED talk highlights the experience of the computer scientist Dr. Cal Newport who had never had a social media account and who invalidates the standard arguments speaking against quitting social media. Before doing so, he states “I think that I’m actually better off, I think I’m happier, I think I find more sustainability in my life, and I think I’ve been more successful professionally because I don’t use social media”.

So how does he tackle the three most common objections to social media?

  1. Objection: Social media is one of the fundamental technologies of the 21. Century, to reject social media would be an act of extreme bloodism.

Here, the speaker highlights that social media is not a fundamental technology, it leverages some key technologies. Due to the public usage of attention engineering, he categorizes social media as an unsavory source of entertainment with a high addiction potential through which companies such as Facebook try to maximize their advertising profits.

  1. Objection: “I can’t quit social media because it is vital to my success in the 21st-century If I do not have a well-cultivated social media brand, people won’t know who I am, people won’t be able to find me (…), and I will effectively disappear from the economy.”

The speaker states that the market values the ability to produce rare and valuable things and dismisses activities that are easy to replicate and only provide a small amount of value. Consequently, he underlines that the market will reward deep, concentrated work required to build and apply real skills need to produce or create things.

  1. Objection: Social media is harmless, fun, interesting to try, I don’t use it that much, I’m a first adopter, and I might miss out something if I don’t use it.

Finally, Newport emphasizes that social media leads to several, well-documented and significant harms such as the permanent reduction of concentration abilities, increasing psychological damages (e.g., feelings of loneliness, isolation, and depression) and further anxiety-related disorders.

In consequence, he indicates that quitting social media leads to more productivity caused by a higher concentration.

Personally, I agree with his three explanations made above and support the general movement to decrease our usage of social media technologies. Nevertheless, he fails to mention which alternative methods he uses to stay for example in contact with his international friends and connections. Similar to my previous blog post, I think that the usage of any kind of technology (including social media) depends on the individual estimation of personal cost and benefit. Personally, the aspect of cost which he mentions in his third point was not that clear to me before. Moreover, I’m determined that concentration is one of our most important assets and we should be aware how and where we employ it. But what do you think about that? How would you evaluate the cost and the benefits of your personal social media usage?

tl;dr: The success and profit of social media platforms heavily depend on its user’s attention, resulting in the construction of addictive attraction schemes on the platform. Despite the common perception, an (apparently even better) life without social media is possible resulting in a more concentrated, productive and happier lifestyle. Overall this post calls attention to a more conscious use of social media and being aware of its costs.

Sources

Hootsuite. (2017). New Research Reveals Global Social Media Use Increased by 21 Percent in 2016. Retrieved 2 October 2017, from https://hootsuite.com/de/newsroom/press-releases/digital-in-2017-report

The Economist. (2017). The battle for consumers’ attention. Retrieved 2 October 2017, from https://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21716460-forget-long-tail-battle-consumers-attention

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[GONE WRONG] 13 SECRET HEADLINES FACEBOOK WANTS TO STOP. NUMBER 5 WILL BLOW YOUR MIND! 5/5 (1)

1

October

2016

The art of clickbait.

You clicked on the link, didn’t you? How do you attract clicks on your post in a world that is moving so fast that you don’t have time to read everything? Create a title for you article that is too good not to click. Enter clickbait, fishing for your clicks by creating purposely false titles. Clickbait can be described as “web content that is aimed at generating online advertising revenue, […] relying on sensationalist headlines or eye-catching thumbnail pictures to attract click-throughs and to encourage forwarding of the material over online social networks.”¹ Clickbait is probably one of the most hated categories of posts on social media.

Screen Shot 2016-10-01 at 13.41.22BuzzFeed and Upworthy are known to use clickbait titles to drive in views and ad revenue. (Screenshot of BuzzFeed taken on October 1st, 2016)

Facebook recently introduced a new algorithm that aims to stop these kind of ‘headlines’ to appear in your newsfeed. They already tried to limit the amount of clickbait appearing in your newsfeed in 2014², but apparently those clickbait sites still found a way around it. In 2014 Facebook announced that they would start looking at the amount of time spend reading the article, and the amount of likes given, to determine whether the article is clickbait or not. The new algorithm will will weed out misleading and exaggerated headlines the same way that email spam filters weed out fantastic offers to help Nigerian princes recover their lost fortunes. The new algorithm will de-prioritize posts with headlines that “(1) withholds information required to understand what the content of the article is; and (2) exaggerates the article to create misleading expectations for the reader.”³. Facebook employees analysed tens of thousands of headlines, and flagged those that intentionally withhold important information and those that use exaggeration to mislead the reader as “clickbait”. From there, they built a system that looks at the set of clickbait headlines to determine what phrases are commonly used in clickbait headlines that are not used in other headlines. This is how many self learning systems work. You show them a set off correct items and a set of incorrect items and the software itself can figure out if a new item is correct (no clickbait) or incorrect (clickbait).

Facebook wants to get rid of the clickbait articles in order to show people the stories most relevant to them. When your whole timeline is full of clickbait this ruins your user experience and you will probably not return to Facebook very often anymore which is bad for Facebook.

So hopefully no more:

in the future.

 

¹https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickbait

²https://www.cnet.com/au/news/facebook-nixes-click-bait-headlines-in-users-news-feeds/

³http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/08/news-feed-fyi-further-reducing-clickbait-in-feed/

Read also:

FinTech: How to get the best exchange rate when traveling abroad. 5/5 (1)

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Snapchat: A Platform Mediated Network success story

29

September

2016

4/5 (1)

 

Snapchat was launched in September 2011. It is a mobile app you can download to your iPhone or Android smartphone, which you can then use to “chat” with friends through photos, videos and captions (so called “snaps”). An unique feature of Snapchat is that these photos or videos are “self-destructing”. After a few seconds after it’s been opened by the recipient, it gets deleted instantly (Moreau, 2016).

Another social media application is Facebook. Launched in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, more than ten years later it reported a revenue of 17.93 billion US dollars and an accumulated net income of 3.69 billion US dollars over 2015 (source: Statista). Like Facebook Snapchat is charging no costs to users. But a big difference lies in the fact that Snapchat didn’t had a clear business model. Years after the launch, people had no clue were Snapchat was planning to make money with. Therefore it was a big surprise that it had turned down a 3 billion US dollars offer from Facebook (Fiegerman, 2014), because Snapchat didn’t earned a dollar yet. At Snapchat they could only dream of revenues like Facebook had.

So why did Evan Spiegel, founder of Snapchat, refused this offer? The answer lies in the power of the network. Nowadays almost everybody has a smartphone and carries it everywhere at all time. Users are able to download Snapchat for free, making it very accessible. This resulted in a large user base of 200 million users. Compare that with other big social media platforms as Instagram (300 million), Twitter (302 million), LinkedIn (364 million) and Facebook’s (1.4 billion), and everybody will agree that Snapchat created an interesting and promising network (source: Investopia). The users of snapchat use the app a lot. Snapchat reported 100 million daily active users worldwide in May 2015 (source: Statista). The network is an essential part of the success of Snapchat and provide us with a good example of the network effect. The network effect is a phenomenon whereby a service becomes more valuable when more people use it (source: Investopedia).

After acquire such a large user base, Snapchat improved their app and service in such a way that money could be made. In an effort to move beyond just messaging, Snapchat introduced a new featured in early 2015 called “Discover”. After this update, the platform of Snapchat provides two services. First, there is the possibility for people to send each other snaps. Here users rapidly switch between the role of sender and receiver. Secondly, snapchat makes it possible for media publishers to send content to their large user base, using Discover. Here the role of sender and receiver are changeless. Discover allows media publishers to have daily content featured on the app. In this way Snapchat can make money, using the user base they built up.

Only a short time after Snapchat has launched Discover, it has been asking some top brands to pay $750,000 a day for placement (Adweek, 2014). In May 2015, only months after launching Discover, Snapchat was valued at 16 billion US dollars (Kosoff, 2016). Snapchat only provides the network, which illustrates the power of their network and Platform Mediated Networks in general.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Fiegerman, 2014:
http://mashable.com/2014/01/06/snapchat-facebook-acquisition-2/#S_oEAssOXmqj
Moreau, 2016:
http://webtrends.about.com/od/Iphone-Apps/a/What-Is-Snapchat.htm
Adweek, 2014:
http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/snapchat-asks-brands-750000-advertise-and-wont-budge-162359
Kosoff, 2016:
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/03/why-snapchats-valuation-is-better-than-it-looks
Investopedia:
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/061915/how-snapchat-makes-money.asp
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/network-effect.asp
Statista:
https://www.statista.com/topics/2882/snapchat/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/277229/facebooks-annual-revenue-and-net-income/

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Social Networks Stimulate Exercising

8

October

2015

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Yearly millions of dollars are invested in promotional ads and social media campaigns to get people exercising in the United States. The country is dealing with obesity among its inhabitants and even though there is so much money going on in campaigns, still 43% of the Americans are not exercising enough.

A research from the University of Pennsylvania has shown that social networks help to motivate exercising more often. One group of people got divided into smaller groups with so-called ‘health buddies’ and they could keep track of each other’s progress. Whenever one of their buddies signed up for a yoga class, the others got an email notification about this. In the other main group of the experiment people got shown promotional videos that should help to keep them motivated and tell them about the importance of exercising.

The results showed that the group that was shown promotional videos only had a short term effect on their motivation, but they would lose this motivation quickly. In the groups with the health buddies participants became more motivated over time. It must be noticed that in this research the participants only had to deal with positive signals from each other. In regular social networks there are usually mixed signals, positive and negative. This could be someone taking a yoga class but also someone posting they are at McDonald’s for instance.

The power of social influence is not new and was well known before the start of the trial. For now researchers are not sure yet why social networks manage to stimulate exercising. In their new research on this they are trying to find out whether it is competition causing this or the friendly social support people get from the health buddies. Which of the two options do you think that keeps people motivated?

Sources

  • http://psychcentral.com/news/2015/10/08/social-networks-can-be-powerful-exercise-motivators/93251.
  • http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/fitness/social-media-can-motivate-people-to-exercise-more/

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Social commerce: where social media meets e-commerce

5

September

2015

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Social_Commerce_Infographic_copy_copy

Most of us are acquainted with the terms Social media and E-commerce, however we might not all be familiar with the growing trend of Social commerce, which has generated 30 billion US dollars sales worldwide in 2015 (Statista 2015). According to Handshake.com (2015), it is how engaging in Social media results into online sales transactions. But why exactly is social commerce so important and what distinguishes it from traditional e-commerce?

Nowadays, strolling through a shopping mall whilst discussing potential purchases with a friend is an increasingly uncommon phenomenon. For multiple reasons (time efficiency, lower prices etc.), people have increasingly chosen to scroll through a list of products before adding a selection to their virtual shopping basket. In the process, consulting others experiences or opinion are largely neglected. Separating itself by increasing the social aspect of shopping, social commerce emerges.

Social commerce provides customers with a great deal more than merely a list of products (also known as traditional e-commerce); it promotes social interaction and user contribution to improve products and consult potential customers. Social commerce allows one to explore products in greater depth by engaging with previous purchasers through reviews and comments. Often, companies will provide rewards such as discounts for liking and sharing their product or service, as it will increase the products range.

“Any social commerce shop should have the capability to; share, like, tweet, comment, review and buy on the platform. Because ultimately it’s about getting people talking and sharing and buying.  Anything less is just traditional e-commerce in sheeps’ social clothing.” – Joelle Musante – Payvment

An example is the recently created Coca-cola Store Facebook page. This page allows potential customers to gain information on the brand, purchase the brand and leave comments on the well-known facebook ‘wall’. The page also publishes posts to trigger people to re-visit the page, keeping them engaged and up-to-date. This differs immensely from the original Coca Cola website where one could merely look up company information and purchase a bottle of coke or the company’s merchandise.

Screen Shot 2015-09-05 at 08.42.55

Snapchat of the Coca-Cola Store Facebook page (2015)

Another example is the “Make the flavor – The Battle” – campaign initiated by Lays chips. In this campaign Lays portrays how to involve customers in the creation of a new chips flavour whilst building a large Facebook community. The fact that consumers like to be involved is clear as daylight: 675.000 flavour entries were submitted resulting in additional sales of 6 million bags of chips that made it to the finals (Klein Schiphorst 2012).

lays_970_387_s_c1_smart_scale

Lays’ “Maak de Smaak”-campaign (2012)

Finally, social commerce increases the value of collected big data. Companies do not only know what people buy but also why they buy it and what their experiences are with the product. This increases the knowledge companies have about their customers immensely.

To summarize, social commerce stimulates social interaction among customers and allows co-creation on social media websites. This distinguishes it from traditional e-commerce. Allowing people to give their opinion on a brand stimulates them to return back to the page, which in return stimulates revenues. During this process, valuable big-data information is collected.

How do you define social commerce? Do you agree on my representation? What is your opinion on the integration of social media and e-commerce? Would you consider it alarming that social media and e-commerce integrate further?

I hope I’ve warmed you up for next weeks topic!

References

Klein Schiphorst, S. (2012). Superfans van Lay’s bepalen de (social media-)smaak. Available: http://www.marketingfacts.nl/berichten/superfans-van-lays-bepalen-de-social-media-smaak. Last accessed 4th Sep 2015.

Reekers, J. (2015). What Is Social Commerce? (And How To Take Advantage Of It). Available: https://www.handshake.com/blog/social-commerce-retail-trends/. Last accessed 4th Sep 2015.

Statista. (2015). Worldwide social commerce revenue from 2011 to 2015 (in billion U.S. dollars). Available: http://www.statista.com/statistics/251391/worldwide-social-commerce-revenue-forecast/. Last accessed 4th Sep 2015.

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Online Social Networks

2

October

2014

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Nowadays, almost everyone uses online social networks. Many people present themselves through the use of these networks and stay in touch with their own network of friends, family and acquaintances. Not only individuals, but also companies are using these online social networks for different purposes.

The first article is from Boyd and Ellison (2007): ‘Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship.’ This article begins with a definition of social network sites: web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. This article also discusses the history of social network services and survey research that is directly concerned with social network sites. This SNS research focused on impression management and friendship performance, networks and network structure, online/offline connections and privacy issues.

The second article is from Borgatti et al (2009): ‘Network analysis in the social sciences.’ This article reviews the kind of things that social scientists have tried to explain using social network analysis. The potent idea in social sciences is that individuals are embedded in a network of social relations and interactions. Social network theory provides an answer to how autonomous individuals can combine to create enduring, functioning societies. This article organizes and simplifies this body of theory on the basis of various subjects, which are: type of ties, the importance of structure, research questions and theoretical mechanisms.

The third article is from Kaufmann, Li and Heck (2010): ‘Business network-based value creation in electronic commerce.’ This article discusses the circumstances under which value is created in business networks made possible by information technologies. Based on different theories, the article discusses propositions about network formation, demand and stability. In addition, the article discusses multiple case examples of the travel and hospitality industry. These cases function as evidence for the propositions.

The fourth article is from Cheung et al (2011): ‘Online social networks: Why do students use facebook?’ This article explores the factors that cause students to use online social networks (e.g. Facebook). The we-intention, social influence theory, the use and gratifications paradigm and social presence theory are used as theoretical background. The article also discusses five values, which are: purposive value, self-discovery, maintaining interpersonal interconnectivity, social enhancement and entertainment value. The results show that social presence has the strongest impact on the We-Intention to use Facebook. Group norms also have a significant influence on We-Intention to use Facebook. Only maintaining interpersonal interconnectivity, social enhancement and entertainment value are found to be significant.

The mini-cases examples about Best Buy’s CEO Dunn (2010) and Dell written by Strom (2012) show that companies can make good use of online social networks. For instance, they can use it to engage their customers. Dell handles the online social networking better than Best Buy. They even started they own Social Media and Community University to teach their employees about the use of social media.

References:

Borgatti, S.P., Mehra, A., Brass, D.J., and Labianca, G. 2009. Network analysis in the social sciences. Science 323(5916) 892-895.

Boyd, D.M., and Ellison, N.B. 2007. Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13(1) 210–230.

Cheung, C. M., Chiu, P. Y., & Lee, M. K. 2011. Online social networks: Why do students use facebook?. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(4), 1337-1343.

Dunn, B. J. 2010. Best Buy’s CEO on learning to love social media. Harvard Business Review.

Kauffman, R.J., Li, T., and Heck, E. 2010. Business network-based value creation in electronic commerce. International Journal of Electronic Commerce 15(1) 111-142.

Strom, D. 2012. How Dell Trained 9,000 on Social Media. Tom’s IT Pro. (Available at: http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/social_media_training-dell_SMaC_U-social_media_and_community_university,2-330-3.html)

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Mystery of Russian social network

26

October

2013

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In 2006 a young student of St. Petersburg State University (btw, it is my place of study too) established a platform for pupils and students. One year later the web-site Vkontakte.ru (today it has domain vk.com) became the 3rd popular site in the Russian web. Translation of word “Vkontakte” mean approximately the following: “In contact/connection”. As it’s known now, the format of the site was briefly based on the Facebook example, however, it has many differences. 2 interesting financial facts: 1) Vkontakte’s founder, Pavel Durov, had about 2 billion euros in 2012; 2) Vkontakte donated $1 million to Wikipedia after f2f meeting of P. Durov and J. Wales on an IT-conference

A lot of people ask me why I prefer the Russian version of social network. The goal of this post is just to clarify it and explore vk.com for you!
Let’s start

1) First of all, it is Russian. For Vkontakte it was easy to attract new participants as few people knew about Facebook in the Russian Federation, but vk.com became viral after couple thousand registered and today we see about 300-350 million visitors per month. It is very popular in Belarus, Ukrain and in all CIS countries.

2) Secondly, it is much, much, MUCH faster than Facebook. Maybe because of fewer visitors or maybe because of the fact that best programmers work in vk.com.

3) Next thing, which is very important for me personally, is the interface and its structure. On Facebook you see chaotic location of advertisement, sponsored news in timeline, groups, much useless offers and recommendations from Facebook. In contrast, on Vkontakte you have well-structured page space. You may see it in the following pictures. I changed the language of my account from Russian to English for you. By the way, Vkontakte has about 70 languages.

Image

Image

4) Search functions are smarter and faster. It doesn’t need to be described. It is a fact.

5) There are no irritating notifications about others activity on Vkontakte. For example, the Facebook wants to inform me about every single action of my friends: she liked picture of unknown for you, Nikita, girl in Instagram; he added somebody to friends and this guy commented the post which you, Nikita, also had commented 389 days ago! I do not really care about it. I know that I may change settings, but it requires time and efforts. However, on Vkontakte you are informed about the most significant things and you don’t miss anything. You may see all this useless information as on FB, but it happens just when you open special tab; default setting is that the platform doesn’t notify you, that’s cool.

6) For me, design is not very important, but I like Vk’s one more than FB’s design.

7) The ONLY thing I like on FB is the system of automatic face recognition in uploaded pictures

8) The last but not the least, for users there is one pleasant point – incredible amount of free music and movies built right into the platform directly or from other sources. You may think it is piracy, but they have quite interesting policy. The administration doesn’t delete anything until the moment a copyright holder asks for deletion of it.

To recap, it is my objective point of view and I am loyal Vkontakte user. This site is more user-friendly, innovative and developing than Facebook.

If you have any question, I’ll be happy to answer

Sources:
[1] http://www.liveinternet.ru/stat/vkontakte.ru/index.html?period=month;total=yesv

[2] http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/vk.com

[3] http://www.forbes.ru/ekonomika/kompanii/69666-kod-pavla-durova

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social network apps “Spooky Halloween Edition”

31

October

2012

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Nowadays we have all kinds of apps make our lives easier. But since we are all doomed to die, some entrepreneurs exploited the social networks by their so-called “after-death” applications.

I will be introducing 2 applications/websites today, I hope you find them a bit spooky =)

First one is http://yes.thatcan.be/my/next/tweet/

Basically what this application does, it analyzes your previous tweet posts, and try to get a sense of what your next tweet will be about. I tried it a few times; it doesn’t seem to work brilliantly. But, the algorithms that can analyze tweets and tell us what they are about evolving as I am writing this blog post. Who knows what future will bring? Maybe we’ll have a built-in small window on our twitter pages that tells us a few things that we might say in our next tweet with 95% accuracy. That would definitely save us sometime, but… Wouldn’t it be scary?

The next application I’m going to talk about is if-i-die

You might have heard about this one but yet lets watch this small funny introduction video

It might be nice to see someone’s last thoughts but i think it might also create some drama or bigger problems between friends. (Not to forget, it would be a great way to prank others. Lets say one of your best friends is using this app and his trustees are two of your closest friends. You report back to the app saying that your friend died, and their farewell message is up. ) Lets hope this app won’t fail as hard as Facebook beacon did.

Some people say we will have holograms of our loved ones in our houses walking around and talking like as if they are not dead. Some people say your twitter and Facebook page might live long after your gone, and post things themselves as if they have their own minds. Some of these improvements in social media are really making me question about where all these are going.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

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