Congress to look at future of Internet control
U.S. lawmakers will delve on Thursday into an international debate on whether to hand more control of the Internet to the United Nations, a move many fear would turn it into a political bargaining chip for censorship and global taxes on Web companies.
U.S. government officials are gearing up for a December meeting in Dubai where delegations from 193 countries will discuss whether the UN should have more say over how the Internet is organized and controlled.
Critics say that, under such a regime, each nation regardless of size has one vote, which could give China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other countries greater ability to isolate their populations and silence political dissidents.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/30/net-us-internet-governance-congress-idUSBRE84T1EC20120530?irpc=932
Harvard prof to chair FCC’s net neutrality advisory committee
The Federal Communications Commission has named an Open Internet Advisory Committee to monitor and report on the effectiveness of the FCC’s network neutrality regime. The committee will be chaired by Harvard law professor Jonathan Zittrain. According to a statement from FCC chairman Julius Genachowski, the new committee will “track and evaluate the effects of the FCC’s Open Internet rules, and provide any recommendations it deems appropriate to the FCC.”
Zittrain is best known for his 2008 book The Future of the Internet—And How to Stop It. The vice-chairman of the committee will be David Clark, author of the famous paper End-to-End Arguments in System Design that many have cited as a predecessor to the modern concept of network neutrality.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/05/harvard-prof-to-chair-fccs-net-neutrality-advisory-committee/
Facebook Promoted Posts: A Step-By-Step Guide
Facebook has started rolling out Promoted Posts for Brand Pages, a new feature that allows businesses to pay for posts to be more predominantly displayed on news feeds.
Earlier this year, Facebook shared the statistic that a Brand Page’s content is only seen by 16% of the fans. Facebook’s slew of ad tools and these new Promoted Posts are geared to help businesses reach and engage more of their fan base.
http://mashable.com/2012/05/31/facebook-promoted-posts-tips/
Why we need to blow the article up in order to save it
Many media outlets — and not just traditional players like newspapers or magazines, but even some newer and more digital-savvy ones — still think of the article or the story as the bedrock foundation of news and journalism. But with so many different sources of content, and so many different ways of distributing it and displaying it, is that really still the case? Author and journalism professor Jeff Jarvis has been writing about this question for some time, and makes the argument thatthe article should sometimes be separated into its component parts in order to be more useful, advice that new-media startups like Circa seem to be taking to heart.
http://gigaom.com/2012/05/30/why-we-need-to-blow-the-article-up-in-order-to-save-it/
Quip: A New iPad Twitter App With A Focus On Conversations
I have often written about the need for developers of third-party Twitter clients to focus on different, fresh experiences aimed at providing a new take on mobile tweeting. On iOS, as I have previously argued, apps like Tweetbot, Twitterrific, and Twitter’s official client have managed to capture a large portion of a devoted userbase split in those seeking a wide array of functionalities, a streamlined interface, or the free price tag. Quip, a new Twitter app by Glasshouse Apps (makers of The Early Edition), takes a unique approach at filtering the typical Twitter timeline by conversations, images, and retweets.
http://www.macstories.net/reviews/quip-a-new-ipad-twitter-app-with-a-focus-on-conversations/
RIAA Accuses Google Of Not Doing Enough To Fight Piracy, But May Be Guilty Of Not Doing Enough Itself
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has once again come out swinging at Google, saying the company isn’t doing enough to fight copyright infringement online. But it may be that the RIAA itself is guilty of that charge.
http://searchengineland.com/riaa-accuses-google-of-not-doing-enough-to-fight-piracy-but-may-be-guilty-of-not-doing-enough-itself-122998
25 years of HyperCard—the missing link to the Web
Sometime around 1988, my landlady and I cut a deal. She would purchase a Macintosh computer, I would buy an external hard drive, and we would leave the system in the living room to share. She used the device most, since I did my computing on an IBM 286 and just wanted to keep up with Apple developments. But after we set up the Mac, I sat down with it one evening and noticed a program on the applications menu. “HyperCard?” I wondered. “What’s that?”
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/05/25-years-of-hypercard-the-missing-link-to-the-web/
Cricket first pre-paid US carrier to offer iPhone; on $55/month unlimited plan, starting June 22
Cricket Communications, a Leap Wireless company, is the latest carrier to offer new Apple iPhone models (the iPhone 4 and 4S to be more specific) in the United States.
On June 22, it will thus become the first pre-paid carrier in the country to offer the iPhone to customers who opt for its no-contract, $55 per month ‘unlimited’ voice, text and data plan for smartphones.
http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2012/05/31/cricket-first-pre-paid-us-carrier-to-offer-iphone-on-55month-unlimited-plan-starting-june-22/
Google, Facebook vie for stake in Vevo
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg are exploring an investment in Vevo as part of a broader partnership with the music-video service, The Post has learned.
Sources say the search giant and the social network have held talks with Vevo — the digital equivalent of MTV — about buying an equity stake as they each compete to land an ad pact with the venture.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/va_va_voom_vevo_30JJ81YpRPgTd3XX96hECJ#ixzz1wTBmi2WE
Oracle Loses (Yet) Another Battle in War on Google
In the waning Java war between Oracle and Google, Oracle has lost another fight.
A federal judge has declined to revisit Oracle’s claims that Google infringed on its patents in building the Android mobile operating system.
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/05/oracle-jmol-denial/
Netflix iOS app update adds new video player, controls, Facebook sharing toggle and more
Recognising that its users are watching more and more of its content from a mobile device, Netflix has today pushed live an update to its iOS app, improving its video player and adding more controls and enhancements.
Netflix’s improved player has been given an updated look for mobile devices, which includes larger and more pronounced player controls and the addition of thumbnails to the scrub bar, making it easier to find a certain part of a film or TV show when scrubbing through content.
http://thenextweb.com/media/2012/05/31/netflixs-ios-app-update-adds-new-video-player-controls-facebook-sharing-toggle-and-more/
Facebook introduces 5 tiers of page admin access
Facebook now offers pages fives different levels of page admin privileges so that businesses can assign roles to different people without giving up full control of their pages.
Previously, all admins had equal access to create posts, view insights, manage applications, respond to fans and edit page settings. The new roles are “manager,” “content creator,” “moderator,” “advertiser” and “insights analyst.” Facebook offers the following chart to break down what each type of admin is authorized to do.
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2012/05/31/facebook-introduces-5-tiers-of-page-admin-access/
