Searching for "instagram"

break up Facebook

https://nyti.ms/2LzRzwq

Facebook’s board works more like an advisory committee than an overseer, because Mark controls around 60 percent of voting shares. Mark alone can decide how to configure Facebook’s algorithms to determine what people see in their News Feeds, what privacy settings they can use and even which messages get delivered. He sets the rules for how to distinguish violent and incendiary speech from the merely offensive, and he can choose to shut down a competitor by acquiring, blocking or copying it.

We are a nation with a tradition of reining in monopolies, no matter how well intentioned the leaders of these companies may be. Mark’s power is unprecedented and un-American.

It is time to break up Facebook.

America was built on the idea that power should not be concentrated in any one person, because we are all fallible. That’s why the founders created a system of checks and balances.

More legislation followed in the 20th century, creating legal and regulatory structures to promote competition and hold the biggest companies accountable.

Starting in the 1970s, a small but dedicated group of economists, lawyers and policymakers sowed the seeds of our cynicism. Over the next 40 years, they financed a network of think tanks, journals, social clubs, academic centers and media outlets to teach an emerging generation that private interests should take precedence over public ones. Their gospel was simple: “Free” markets are dynamic and productive, while government is bureaucratic and ineffective.

American industries, from airlines to pharmaceuticals, have experienced increased concentration, and the average size of public companies has tripled. The results are a decline in entrepreneurshipstalled productivity growth, and higher prices and fewer choices for consumers.

From our earliest days, Mark used the word “domination” to describe our ambitions, with no hint of irony or humility.

Facebook’s monopoly is also visible in its usage statistics. About 70 percent of American adults use social media, and a vast majority are on Facebook products. Over two-thirds use the core site, a third use Instagram, and a fifth use WhatsApp. By contrast, fewer than a third report using Pinterest, LinkedIn or Snapchat. What started out as lighthearted entertainment has become the primary way that people of all ages communicate online.

The F.T.C.’s biggest mistake was to allow Facebook to acquire Instagram and WhatsApp. In 2012, the newer platforms were nipping at Facebook’s heels because they had been built for the smartphone, where Facebook was still struggling to gain traction. Mark responded by buying them, and the F.T.C. approved.

The News Feed algorithm reportedly prioritized videos created through Facebook over videos from competitors, like YouTube and Vimeo. In 2012, Twitter introduced a video network called Vine that featured six-second videos. That same day, Facebook blocked Vine from hosting a tool that let its users search for their Facebook friends while on the new network. The decision hobbled Vine, which shut down four years later.

unlike Vine, Snapchat wasn’t interfacing with the Facebook ecosystem; there was no obvious way to handicap the company or shut it out. So Facebook simply copied it. (opyright law does not extend to the abstract concept itself.)

As markets become more concentrated, the number of new start-up businesses declines. This holds true in other high-tech areas dominated by single companies, like search (controlled by Google) and e-commerce (taken over by Amazon). Meanwhile, there has been plenty of innovation in areas where there is no monopolistic domination, such as in workplace productivity (Slack, Trello, Asana), urban transportation (Lyft, Uber, Lime, Bird) and cryptocurrency exchanges (Ripple, Coinbase, Circle).

The choice is mine, but it doesn’t feel like a choice. Facebook seeps into every corner of our lives to capture as much of our attention and data as possible and, without any alternative, we make the trade.

Just last month, Facebook seemingly tried to bury news that it had stored tens of millions of user passwords in plain text format, which thousands of Facebook employees could see. Competition alone wouldn’t necessarily spur privacy protection — regulation is required to ensure accountability — but Facebook’s lock on the market guarantees that users can’t protest by moving to alternative platforms.

Mark used to insist that Facebook was just a “social utility,” a neutral platform for people to communicate what they wished. Now he recognizes that Facebook is both a platform and a publisher and that it is inevitably making decisions about values. The company’s own lawyers have argued in court that Facebook is a publisher and thus entitled to First Amendment protection.

As if Facebook’s opaque algorithms weren’t enough, last year we learned that Facebook executives had permanently deleted their own messages from the platform, erasing them from the inboxes of recipients; the justification was corporate security concerns.

Mark may never have a boss, but he needs to have some check on his power. The American government needs to do two things: break up Facebook’s monopoly and regulate the company to make it more accountable to the American people.

++++++++++++++++++++

We Don’t Need Social Media

The push to regulate or break up Facebook ignores the fact that its services do more harm than good

Colin Horgan, May 13, 2019

https://onezero.medium.com/we-dont-need-social-media-53d5455f4f6b

Hughes joins a growing chorus of former Silicon Valley unicorn riders who’ve recently had second thoughts about the utility or benefit of the surveillance-attention economy their products and platforms have helped create. He is also not the first to suggest that government might need to step in to clean up the mess they made

Nick Srnicek, author of the book Platform Capitalism and a lecturer in digital economy at King’s College London, wrotelast month, “[I]t’s competition — not size — that demands more data, more attention, more engagement and more profits at all costs

 

++++++++++++++++++++
more on Facebook in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=facebook

VR aircraft maintenance

View this post on Instagram

New technology in aircraft maintenance training from rolls Royce… Nay or yay? #aviation #jetengine #compressor #combustion #exhaust #engineering #airplane #thrust #aircraft #aviationstudents #learn #followformore #bees #aviation #aviationstudents #aviationtraining #aviatorshareline #flying #pilots #training #aeroview #wow #knowyouraircraft #aircrafmaintainance #aircraftmechanic #aircraftengineer #aircrafttechnicians #avionics #airframesandengines #virtualtraining #VR #rollsroyce

A post shared by Aircraft Maintenance (@aviatorshareline) on

++++++++++++
more on VR in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=virtual+reality

data interference

APRIL 21, 2019 Zeynep Tufekci

Think You’re Discreet Online? Think Again

Because of technological advances and the sheer amount of data now available about billions of other people, discretion no longer suffices to protect your privacy. Computer algorithms and network analyses can now infer, with a sufficiently high degree of accuracy, a wide range of things about you that you may have never disclosed, including your moods, your political beliefs, your sexual orientation and your health.

There is no longer such a thing as individually “opting out” of our privacy-compromised world.

In 2017, the newspaper The Australian published an article, based on a leaked document from Facebook, revealing that the company had told advertisers that it could predict when younger users, including teenagers, were feeling “insecure,” “worthless” or otherwise in need of a “confidence boost.” Facebook was apparently able to draw these inferences by monitoring photos, posts and other social media data.

In 2017, academic researchers, armed with data from more than 40,000 Instagram photos, used machine-learning tools to accurately identify signs of depression in a group of 166 Instagram users. Their computer models turned out to be better predictors of depression than humans who were asked to rate whether photos were happy or sad and so forth.

Computational inference can also be a tool of social control. The Chinese government, having gathered biometric data on its citizens, is trying to use big data and artificial intelligence to single out “threats” to Communist rule, including the country’s Uighurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic group.

+++++++++++++

Zeynep Tufekci and Seth Stephens-Davidowitz: Privacy is over

https://www.centreforideas.com/article/zeynep-tufekci-and-seth-stephens-davidowitz-privacy-over

+++++++++++

Zeynep Tufekci writes about security and data privacy for NY Times, disinformation’s threat to democracy for WIRED

++++++++++
more on privacy in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=privacy

Gen Z and social media

Under Employers’ Gaze, Gen Z Is Biting Its Tongue On Social Media

April 13, 20195:00 AM ET

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/13/702555175/under-employers-gaze-gen-z-is-biting-its-tongue-on-social-media

The oldest members of Generation Z are around 22 years old — now entering the workforce and adjusting their social media accordingly. They are holding back from posting political opinions and personal information in favor of posting about professional accomplishments.

only about 1 in 10 teenagers say they share personal, religious or political beliefs on social media, according to a recent survey from Pew Research Center.

70 percent of employers and recruiters say they check social media during the hiring process, according to a survey conducted by CareerBuilder

Generation Z, nicknamed “iGen,” is the post-millennial generation responsible for ‘killing’ Facebook and for the rise of TikTok.

Curricula like Common Sense Education’s digital citizenship program are working to educate the younger generation on how to use social media, something the older generations were never taught.

Some users are regularly cleaning up — “re-curating” — their online profiles. Cleanup apps, like TweetDelete,

Gen Zers also use social media in more ephemeral ways than older generations — Snapchat stories that disappear after 24 hours, or Instagram posts that they archive a couple of months later.

Gen Zers already use a multitude of strategies to make sure their online presence is visible only to who they want: They set their account to private, change their profile name or handle, even make completely separate “fake” accounts.

+++++++++++++++
more on social media in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=social+media

and privacy
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=privacy

The Post-LMS World

The Post-LMS World: Social, Simple, Modern, Mobile and Student-centric

 FROM AMBI

By Saad El Yamani     Apr 7, 2019

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-04-07-the-post-lms-world-social-simple-modern-mobile-and-student-centric

My note: the author repeats a LinkedIn post from 2017 https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2017/03/28/digital-learning/

Despite its name, the Learning Management System (LMS) is not about learning. The LMS was originally the CMS—Course Management System.

The LMS succeeds as a core productivity tool for educators because it allows institutions to extend their academic capacity and transcend the constraints of time and space. However, the Learning Management System was never able to deliver on the promise of its new name because it was created for a completely different purpose: course management. Learning doesn’t happen within the digital space of the LMS; it happens beyond its borders.

Today’s generation of students is deeply social and collaborative. They rely on real-time online interaction, collaboration and sharing to feel supported, confident and successful. Having grown up on iPhone, Snapchat and Instagram, this generation expects seamless experiences that are deeply social and collaborative.

In the post-LMS world, learning technology is student-centric in its design because today’s students are vocal, creative and eager to share their blue sky ideals and ideas.

The post-LMS world is also social by nature. in the post-LMS world, learning technology is simple, modern and mobile.

++++++++++
more on learning environments in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2017/07/06/next-gen-digital-learning-environment/

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2016/02/01/trends-tomorrows-teaching-and-learning-environments/

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2017/03/28/digital-learning/

XR haptic gloves

View this post on Instagram

A solution to VR hand presence in a lightweight form factor.⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣The etee VR controllers from a company called TG0 use a proprietary capacitive plastic surface that can detect where a user’s fingers are and how much pressure is being applied.⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣📹: etee.tg0.co.uk

A post shared by Within VR/AR (@within) on

++++++++++++++++++++
More on haptic in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=haptic

Shark Tank 2019

4th Annual Shark Tank Open

Reception:

The #VR #VirtualReality sessions:

2019 Shark Tank Open program

View this post on Instagram

4th annual #sharktank2019 @minnstateedu opening @stcloudstate @scsuvizlab #informediaservices more info @ https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/IMS/2019/04/05/shark-tank-2019

A post shared by Digital literacy at SCSU (@scsutechinstruct) on

1 7 8 9 10 11 18