NY mother learns of son’s football death online

Associated Press

HOMER, N.Y — A mother who says she first saw on Facebook that her son had died of a head injury during an upstate New York football game believes authorities should do a better job notifying people during emergencies.

Jacqueline Barden of Oswego tells WSYR-TV in Syracuse (http://bit.ly/sX1hJU) that she got the news about her 16-year-old son Ridge after the game and tried to learn more while waiting to hear from officials, which didn’t happen until the next day.

Ridge Barden was hurt in a helmet-to-helmet collision while playing as a lineman for John C. Birdlebough High School in Phoenix, about 90 minutes south of Oswego.

School Superintendent Judy Belfield says Friday that coaches at the Oct. 14 game had contact information, provided by the family, for only the boy’s grandmother and father.

—Copyright 2011 Associated Press

Article source: http://online.wsj.com/article/AP002963da771e4ec0bc2ccfeafc2de79c.html

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Facebook Horror Stories

While I love tales that involve zombies and vampires, I don’t usually find them scary. The scariest stories, instead, are the ones that could actually happen to me. Like having some sweaty, dirty, deranged dude become obsessed with my Facebook profile and then decide to come pay me a visit. Without even calling ahead! *Shiver.*

This post in the Facebook Follies series will focus on a few horrifying things that have befallen users of the world’s most popular social networking site this month.  Mwah ha ha. Beware…

1. It was a dark and stormy night (maybe). A Texas man was grieving. It was the anniversary of his mother’s death. He turned to alcohol and Facebook for moral support, posting a status update about the darkness that haunted him. Many people “liked” his comment… but not his recently estranged wife. She did not click “like.” He grew angry. He went to her home, drunk, and attacked her, punching her and pulling her hair. “That’s amazing everyone ‘likes’ my status but you, you’re my wife. You should be the first one to ‘like’ my status,” Benito Apolinar allegedly told his wife. He was charged with battery. No word on whether his wife has since de-friended him.
2. Hell hath no fury like a female Facebook user scorned. After Cupid withdrew his arrow from the heart of a police detective, the New Jersey woman that he had been dating took to Facebook to inflict her revenge. Dana Thornton used photos of Michael Lasalandra to create a fake profile and then had him say awful things about “his lifestyle and career.” Lasalandra, being a detective and thus familiar with criminal law, recognized this as a case of possible identity theft. A hearing next week will determine whether creating a fake Facebook profile for someone falls under the state’s ID theft law. (If they were in California, it would be a misdemeanor.) If a judge decides that it is, and she is found guilty, she faces a possible 18 months in prison! The horror, the horror.
3. Stephen King says that ‘alone’ is “the most awful word in the English tongue.” Thanks to Facebook, we’re never really alone. We carry our virtual friends with us always, just a click away tucked in our purses and pockets. We want to make it as easy as possible to reach out to them, so sometimes we keep ourselves logged into Facebook at all times. For a Georgia woman, that meant she came face to face with the man who broke into her car and stole her purse. When the dude used her phone to take a photo of himself (why do thieves always do this?) the photo automatically uploaded to her Facebook account. That’s good, because it means it might make it easier to catch the thief! Though that also means the thief had access to her Facebook account. Not good! For another thief in Chicago, who accidentally left his phone (as well as his jacket and shoes) behind at the scene of his liquor-stealing crime, his automatic sign-in to his Facebook account from his phone was part of his undoing. The police logged in and figured out who he was. They also got confirmation that he was the culprit thanks to a Facebook status update he had left on his wall, “If the cops have my phone, you don’t know me.” Incompetent thieves are far less scary, aren’t they?

For your own personalized Facebook fright, without incurring any criminal charges, check out Take This Lollipop, a DIY horror movie from director Jason Zada, who told me he “wanted to create a roller coaster ride for Halloween.” And if you have any Facebook horror stories of your own, feel free to share them in the comments. If you dare…

 

Article source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/10/28/facebook-horror-stories/

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Facebook to shelve Beluga messenger in December

Beginning next month, Facebook will take steps to close Beluga, the group messaging software it acquired this year and proceeded to replace within the span of a few months.

Starting November 11, users of the service will no longer be able to use the software to send messages to others, however they’ll still be able to access them. The company is offering users a way to grab an archive of all their chats for posterity’s sake, through that tool is not yet functional. On December 15 the service goes dark for good.

The shutdown news comes in conjunction with the fact that Facebook’s Messenger app is now offered worldwide in 22 languages, on iOS,
Android, and BlackBerry.

“Now that Facebook Messenger is available everywhere, we’ve decided to stop offering Beluga as a separate service. You can keep using Beluga for now, but we’ll be phasing it out over the next few weeks,” the company wrote on its site.

Facebook acquired Beluga in March, rolling out its own, nearly identical group chat application less than five months later using the same team that made Beluga. At the time of the acquisition, a Facebook representative told CNET that “nothing is going to change for Beluga right now” and that the two apps would remain separate.

Facebook has shelved a number of companies it’s acquired over the years, including Drop.io, Divvyshot, and Hot Potato. Of note, Facebook continues to run FriendFeed, a startup it purchased near the end of 2009. FriendFeed co-founder Bret Taylor is currently Facebook’s chief technology officer.

Article source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-20127275-2/facebook-to-shelve-beluga-messenger-in-december/

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Social Malice: One In 60 Facebook Posts Are Malicious

(click image for larger view and for slideshow)Here’s what social networking looks like on the dark side: one in 100 tweets today are malicious, and one in 60 Facebook posts are as well.

Facebook users are the least confident in social network security, with 40% confessing they feel unsafe on Facebook, while 28% feel that way about Twitter, and 14% on LinkedIn. But that doesn’t mean LinkedIn won’t eventually become a big target for cybercrime: “When you look at the actual damage that could be done to a business” by hackers targeting LinkedIn accounts, it’s high for business disruption and employee misinformation, for example, said Daniel Peck, senior research scientist with Barracuda Labs, who Thursday at HackerHalted in Miami shared Barracuda’s latest data on malicious activity on Twitter, Facebook, and on search engines.

According to new Barracuda survey data of social media users, LinkedIn is the least-blocked social network by enterprises, with only 20% of organizations preventing their employees from using LinkedIn from work. That’s in contrast to Twitter (25%); Google+ (24%); and Facebook (31%).

Peck predicts that LinkedIn definitely will be a target for badness. “I think there will be a lot of social attacks there,” he said.

Interestingly, most users say the important factors to consider when joining a social network are security (92%), that their friends use it (91%), privacy (90%), and ease of use (87%). More than 90% have received spam over a social network, and more than half have experienced phishing attacks. More than 20% have received malware, 16.6% have had their account used for spamming, and about 13% have had their account hijacked or their password stolen. More than half are unhappy with Facebook’s privacy controls.

Meanwhile, Barracuda counted 43% of Twitter accounts as “true users” with real followers and regular tweets, and 57% as “not true users”–either spam bots or inactive accounts.

Attackers abuse Twitter in much the same way that they engage in search-engine poisoning, according to Peck, casting a wide net and hoping to get more eyeballs. “Facebook manipulates trust more–your friends are people you make eye contact with,” he said.

Read the rest of this article on Dark Reading.

Sensitive customer and business data is scattered in hidden corners of your infrastructure. Find and protect it before it winds up in the wrong hands. Also in the new issue of Dark Reading: The practical side of data defense. Download the issue now. (Free registration required.)

Article source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/client/231901895

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Egypt’s activists post wills on Twitter

Cairo: In keystroke bursts of poetry, defiance and humour, Egyptian activists are posting their wills on Twitter. The electronic missives, vibrant with immediacy and edged with wit, specify how organs should be donated and small sums of money spent.

One activist asked that his picture not be posted on Facebook so as to spare his mother pain. Another sought to calm the country’s deepening sectarianism by arranging for a grave in a cemetery shared by Christians and Muslims.

“Bury me in the grassy island in [Tahrir] square,” wrote protester Metry Ghebreyal, conjuring up the hallowed ground at the epicentre of the uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak in February.

After the recent deadly clashes between soldiers and Coptic Christian protesters, activists fear their peaceful revolution is slipping into a dangerous phase. The ruling military council has expanded martial law and has pushed back the timetable to hand the nation over to a civilian government.

Article continues below

Longing for change

The wills are a distillation of young lives imprinted by social media and longing for social change. They are part publicity stunt, part reflection, offering a glimpse into the desires and frustrations of a movement that inspired upheavals across the region only to find itself mired in an unfinished, often messy, revolution.

Talk of national renewal remains vigorous. But there is disillusionment that after months of protests, razor wire and rifles glimmer in the streets while men with gold-brimmed hats still hold power behind closed doors.

The demonstrations ahead, activists suggest, may become bloody, especially after October 9, when 22 Copts were killed by thugs and troops firing weapons and ramming military vehicles into crowds.

“Death has become so near and we are all ready to die for Egypt,” a group of activists wrote. “You need to publicly speak out against the repression of the military, not just their army trucks and rifles, but also their hypocritical use of the media. Write and write. … This is an open invitation for everyone to document their will.”

Honouring Daniel’s wish

The effort, which has spread to Facebook, is called Martyrs in Demand: Write your own will against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The idea arose after Mina Daniel, a Coptic Christian activist, was shot in the chest October 9. His will asked that his body be carried through Tahrir. Mourners honoured the wish, marching his coffin from the morgue through the busy square and toward the graveyard.

Thousands of people turned out for Daniel’s vigil, and for the funeral processions of other fallen protesters, whose deaths symbolised a nation’s yearning — and yet reluctance — for change.

Egypt is stuck in a battle between those envisioning a new spirit of democracy in the Middle East and those fearful — even resentful — of how such a tremor will recast traditional powers, especially the omnipresent military.

“Do not trust the military and do not think that any good will come from the Muslim Brotherhood,” one activist wrote in his will. “Never give Tahrir Square up. It is the only guarantee that the revolution will succeed.”

Other postings blend the inspirational with the eerily specific: “I donate my eyes and the rest of my body to the injured,” wrote Islam Hafez. “Continue our revolution.”

One protester doesn’t have much money to bequeath, but knows how he would want it spent: “If I die crushed, don’t forget to get vengeance for me. There are 200 Egyptian pounds (Dh123) in my drawer, please take them and buy ice cream for all my followers. They are good people.”

Article source: http://gulfnews.com/news/region/egypt/egypt-s-activists-post-wills-on-twitter-in-hope-of-change-1.920206

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Experts differ on Klout’s clout

Popular social media “influence” firm Klout, took some knocks this week from folks angry about its changes.

The San Francisco-based firm produces a “Klout Score”, from 1 to 100, indicating the (you guessed it) clout of folks across the social media talk-o-verse of Twitter, Facebook and sundry settings for our current era of computer-assisted solipsism. “The Klout Score measures influence based on your ability to drive action,” says the firm.

But due to a tweak this week in the formula the firm uses to calculate its scores, some folks saw their numbers drop 10 to 20 points in a widely-lamented leap.

“The problem is that Klout’s new scoring method is neither more accurate nor more transparent,” said BrandCapture‘s John McTigue, in a commentary critical of the change. “They have, in fact, made a serious mistake in attempting to redefine influence and may soon be paying a price…”

Well who cares? Some complained that the scores may affect decisions by employers on whether to hire someone, making the changes a serious matter.

So, we asked experts who have published on the topic, to comment on whether Klout really had any clout. We started with Morad Benyoucef of Canada’s University of Ottawa:

Q: Is there statistical legitimacy to Klout measures?

A: I think Klout takes a rather simplistic view of influence. They say they measure how much a user’s content is “shared” and “commented” on. They consider the topics being discussed and consider the user’s network of friends and followers. Probably a fine algorithm but it does not measure influence. It measures how much a message with certain keywords travels, where it goes, who initiates it, who resends it and who comments on it, etc.

There is influence when the actions of an individual can induce his friends/followers to behave like him, e.g., in adopting a new technology, in choosing a brand over another, or in voting for a political candidate. Hence if I share a post or comment on it, it does not necessarily mean I have been influenced by the person who posted it. My comment could be contrary to what the initiator of the post intended. Or I can decide to share it with someone because I believe he might be interested, even though I have no interest in it whatsoever.

I say it is a simplistic take on influence because of two other points:

(1) Users in a network are not influenced in the same way. They are not identical with regard to the probability that they adopt a certain behavior. For instance, a user’s decision to purchase a product might depend on the proportion of other users who have purchased that product. That proportion is the threshold, and it is different from user to user.

(2) A user’s amount of influence on another user may depend on the relationship between them. My friend will influence me more that someone I do not know.

Q: Are serious businesses really using the scores for any decisions?

A: What kind of decisions? Hiring someone based on their Klout score? Making design decisions based on what influential people are saying? I don’t know.

Klout provides “perks” offered by “brands” to influential users writing about them. Now what company would provide perks (and pay a commission to Klout) to have someone create content about its brand and push it through the network? Any company that believes in “viral marketing” would want to do that. But if it does it through Klout, it would be paying for ‘impressions’ not influence.

Beyoucef notes Klout’s own views:

How can brands use Klout?

Brands can run Klout Perks and use Klout to measure their own success on social media. Klout Perks enable brands to reach and engage with influencers around a Perk. Klout influencers create thousands of pieces of UGC and millions of impressions for a brand’s new product, initiative or campaign. Perks are targeted based on Score, influential topics, location and more. Your brand’s Klout Score indicates how well you are driving action for your company. Monitor your Score to understand which tactics are working and how to better engage your audience.

“They clearly say that they measure ‘impressions’. So Klout (at least for now) is another way for companies to get the conversation started around their products, and to keep that conversation alive, with the added value that it is done by users,” Beyoucef says, by email.

Computer and information systems engineer Kevin Curran of Northern Ireland’s University of Ulster was positive in his views:

Klout is a revolution. There is ‘gasping need’ out there for a tool which can somehow gauge a person’s ‘power’ in cyberspace. Whether Klout becomes the ‘gold standard for influence ranking’ remains to be seen. The concept is brilliant. Someone was always going to discover it. Will Klout be the one to perfect it? We will know pretty soon as first come – first wins in cyberspace.

To truly compare and rank the short infrequent ‘bursts’ from us an individual is as difficult a task to perfect as it is to get a machine to truly pass the Turing test. The main problem here is deciphering between the noise, activity and actual influence. Just because an individual is active and noisy, does not make them influential. The post that their followers are re-posting could be utterly useless to a large segment of society whilst the truly influential post may not contribute to their Klout rank.

(Q: Is there statistical legitimacy to Klout measures?)

A: At the moment, it seems that Klout does a primitive analysis. They mostly Twitter and Facebook activity, retweets, likes, list memberships, unique mentioners and other basic profile signals. The fluctuating score seems to be the source of much sorrow among Klouters. Klout themselves state that influence is relative so it depends on your goal and peers. In fact, the average Klout score is not 50 but rather around 20. Klout claim(s) that the score becomes exponentially harder to increase as we move up the scale so a move from 80 to 85 is much harder than 15 to 20. Klout stated lately that a majority of users would see their scores stay the same or go up but some users would see a drop. They claim this was necessary as their goal is accuracy above all else. That of course is a noble goal. A legitimate question here is whether ‘an imperfect measure is better than no measure at all?’. Akin to the Coca Cola secret formula and the Google Page Rank Algorithm – Klout unfortunately does not release the intimate details of their algorithm.

Klout is for individuals who know how to influence and attract people. In truth, this is a skill that not everyone possesses. The truly great bloggers always come across as people who never sleep. In reality, they probably do sleep very little but they simply know how to continue to feed their audiences and encourage growth. Klout attempts to measure this activity and introduce these ‘Princes of Cyberspace’ to the ‘Captains of Industry’.

The need for a Klout does exist. Marketers simply need information so as to ascertain impact and propagation of their products.

The Klout Perks aspect is truly a potential game-changer in marketing. Using Klout to measure their own success on social media is powerful. Introducing key businesses to the influential individuals in their market segment is a mouth-watering prospect. To some degree, so what if Klout have a certain percentage of ‘misses’ (i.e. including ‘dumb’ individuals with ‘no real influence’ in their lists). Do you not think that over time – these individuals will not be rooted out as a result of the continuous intelligent monitoring of ROI? That is important. The longer Klout exists – the stronger its core algorithm should become. Of course, the race is on to become the defacto measurement tool for behaviour (who would now think they can knock eBay or Amazon from Number 1 position?)

Klout perks in some ways (apart from the actual kudos of having a high score) are the currency of Klout. These perks are aimed at the individuals who obtain a certain threshold in their score. Of course, just because one obtains a very high score does not lead to that person being eligible for all perks. No, perks are offered according to location (located based advertising) and actual topics that they are classified as being influential in. Interestingly, the influencers who take the free flight are not be required to tweet or blog about their perk. Of course, they hope you do but it is not a legal obligation. (I wonder if they will track this in future and avoid offering perks to those who don’t say thanks!)

Brands like this as they connect with influencers in their area of expertise. Perks offered to date have been along the lines of tickets, test drives, meals, gadgets. We should not also negate that fact that Klout is also striving to become a reputation system. Reputation systems are extremely valuable. Can you imagine eBay without its reputation system?

Klout also encourages a class system. One of the first online actually. To become ranked higher, one should actually engage only with people who have a relatively good to a higher Klout score. Engaging with people on Klout with a poor score is to be avoided at all costs……

Spamming to cheat Klout has existed from day 2 but the honest way to climb the ladder is simply to create content worth sharing, start discussions and register and connect your networks.

We all care about reputation, and Klout is one of the most prevalent ways to specifically measure personal online reputation currently (others include peerindex). I have a large respect for Klout as they are a first mover in an industry sector that will inevitably create much value.

(Q: Are serious businesses really using the scores for any decisions?)

A: Are serious businesses using it? Yes, but they are all basically dipping their toes in the water. They are ‘casting their bread upon the water’. The reputation system is far from perfected. To a large degree, the only way it can be perfected is by business running trials and then allowing Klout to analyse the outcomes. The network effect is critical for all social networks so the days ahead will show whether the critical mass occurs so that the perks can flow. Again, the perks will flow when the brands arrive. The brands arrive when the influencers arrive. The influencers arrive when the ………

There is an slightly addictive quality to a social network ranking site like Klout. The ability to see a score associated with your ‘influence’ and being able to compare with your ‘friends’ does spur one on to increase it. This seems to lead to more online activity – heartfelt or not – but every post counts! In fact, if Klout did not invent Klout – then I there say that Twitter or Facebook would have invented it…..

That seems like about all there is to say about Klout for now. Hopefully, a Tweet brought you here. That will be sure to improve the ol’ Klout score.

Article source: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2011/10/klout-clouted-by-twitter-fans-/1

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Unthink to Facebook, Google+: “It’s FU time”

Unthink is the latest new social network eager to take on the big boys. Just like others before it, Unthink isn’t satisfied just announcing its existence: the company is making a point to say it will take on Facebook and Google+.

As you can see in the video above, Unthink heavily criticizes both Facebook and Google+. Towards the end, the woman representing the new entrant tells both companies that “It’s FU time.”

On its website, Unthink says it will work with brands that are “forward-thinking, socially responsible, and environmentally conscious.” Users can either choose brands to feature on their profile pages, or pay a $2 annual fee.

Users are unlikely to actually leave Facebook and Google+ for Unthink, but curiosity still managed to kill a few cats. Within the first 24 hours of its launch, Unthink received heavy traffic from all over the world. The company said it had to take its site down and triple server capacity to meet demand.

“We received hundreds of thousands of visitors almost immediately upon launch,” an Unthink spokesperson said in a statement. “We are incredibly grateful to the public for its enthusiastic response, and we apologize for the kinks and delays they have faced. Please rest assured that we are learning from this experience and are working to maximize Unthink’s responsiveness and improve its capacity. Unthink had more traffic in one day than we had anticipated getting in an entire month. The overwhelming demand reflects people’s enthusiasm for a viable alternative to existing social media. People are anxious to join and invite their friends to a site that mirrors real life, empowers individuals, and provides true privacy and true control. We thank everyone for bearing with us as Unthink realizes its full potential.”

Unthink isn’t a startup: it’s a technology company based in Tampa, Florida. Founded in April 2008, the firm is made up of 100 “cutting-edge techies and rebels.” It is backed by $2.5 million in venture funding from DouglasBay Capital.

If you want to keep up with Unthink, you can follow the company on Twitter. I wonder why they don’t have equivalent accounts on Facebook and Google+?

See also:

• Facebook CTO: most people have modified their privacy settings
• Facebook sued for violating wiretap laws with tracking cookies
• Facebook denies patent is used for tracking logged-out users
• Facebook: Releasing your personal data reveals our trade secrets
• Privacy groups ask FTC for Facebook investigation too

Article source: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/unthink-to-facebook-google-its-fu-time/4939

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Facebook joins the Arctic crowd

Facebook’s artistic sketch of its planned data center in Sweden.

(CNNMoney) NEW YORK — — The northern Scandinavian landscape is dotted with fjords, lingonberries and, if you believe some locals, elves. But another sight is increasingly common on the Arctic horizon: data centers.

Drawn by the promise of lower electricity costs, a growing number of tech companies are harnessing the region’s abundant cold air to cool their servers, cutting expensive air-conditioning out of the equation.

Facebook, the latest tech company to take the polar plunge, announced this week that it will build a data center just south of the Arctic Circle in Lulea, Sweden, where the average low in January is 3 degrees Fahrenheit.

The facility, a set of three 300,000 square foot buildings, is the social networking site’s first data center outside the U.S. It’s scheduled to be operational by 2012.

Lulea’s dry, frigid weather “definitely is a big part” of the company’s decision to build there, Facebook spokesman Michael Kirkland said. Using outside air to cool servers is “absolutely beneficial not just from an environmental perspective, but also from a cost perspective.”

Analysts agree. There are “overwhelming financial advantages” to building in the far north, according to Rakesh Kumar, an analyst with Gartner.

Utilizing free outside air can result in “tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions [of dollars], of savings per year” for each site, Kumar said.

Data centers are among the most ravenous energy eaters around. They were responsible for about 1.3% of the world’s electricity use in 2010, according to a recent study conducted for the New York Times by Jon Koomey, a consulting professor at Stanford’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

And it usually takes roughly as much electricity to cool the servers as to power them. Conventionally, data centers have been cooled via chillers: heavy-duty air conditioners that pass air across cold pipes.

“For every kilowatt hour of electricity that goes to the server, there’s another almost one kilowatt hour that goes to cooling and fans and pumps,” Koomey said.

Facebook’s Swedish data center will have company from other tech giants in Scandinavia.

In 2009, Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) bought a defunct paper mill in Hamina, Finland, and converted it into a data center that cools the servers it houses via seawater pumped in from the Bay of Finland.

And later this year, British data center developer Verne Global will open on a former Icelandic NATO base a large facility it bills as the first “zero emissions data center.”

Ragnar Horvardarson, a spokesman for the Iceland Chamber of Commerce, said that the Verne Global facility is Iceland’s first data center, but he’s aware of four more in various stages of development.

It’s not just the brisk air that’s luring Silicon Valley to Scandinavia. Relatively abundant renewable energy options make building there attractive. And for an American company like Facebook, housing servers in Europe can cut down the number of milliseconds it takes a Czech Facebook user to “like” a friend’s status.

Conventional incentives like tax breaks may be at work, too, Kumar speculated: “I wonder if this is perhaps more driven by some commercial considerations than perhaps what’s good for the environment.” 

Article source: http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/28/technology/facebook_arctic_data_center/

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Facebook Tackles Hardware Openness

Facebook’s “Open Compute Project” took a step forward this week with the creation of a foundation that will handle things going forward, as well as more solid plans for how projects will be proposed, evaluated, and supported.

The idea behind the project is to create more openness and collaboration around hardware in order to boost the pace of innovation and provide greater tech accessibility to those who might not be able to otherwise afford it.

Facebook unveiled the Open Compute Project back in April. It is essentially a new way of thinking about data center and server design that Facebook said would be 38 percent more power efficient and 24 percent less expensive to make.

“It’s easy to lose track of what power is about,” Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg said at the time. “We’re trying to foster an ecosystem … and we’re not the only ones who need the hardware that we’re building out, which should make it better for all social applications to do what we’re doing.”

Yesterday, Facebook’s Frank Frankovsky announced that the project now has an official foundation and a group of directors and advisors, including Andy Bechtolsheim from Arista Networks, Don Duet from Goldman Sachs, Mark Roenigk from Rackspace, and Jason Waxman from Intel.

“We’ve spent the last six months working with many of you to build meaningful structure around the Open Compute Project, solicit tangible contributions to push the Project’s work forward and find ways to start making Open Compute hardware available to anyone who wants to consume it,” Frankovsky wrote in a blog post.

The group also released bylaws and said a full list of initial members is coming soon, though some big names are already signed up: Asus, Dell, Huawei, Red Hat, and Netflix, to name a few.

“A great deal of work remains to be done. We need to continue to grow the community and enable it to take on new challenges,” he said. “We need to ensure that, as the community evolves, it retains its flat structure and its merit-based approach to evaluating potential projects. And we need to keep the community focused on delivering tangible results.”

Yesterday, meanwhile, Facebook announced that it will build a new data center just 62 miles south of the Arctic Circle in Sweden.

For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

Article source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2395468,00.asp

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Libsyn’s OnPublish for Facebook and Twitter Launches In Private Beta

PITTSBURGH, Oct 28, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
Wizzard Media


/quotes/zigman/1477606/quotes/nls/wze WZE
+3.23%



, the world’s largest podcast network,
announced today that it has launched the private beta version of
OnPublish, the first tier of its previously announced Facebook
integration. OnPublish will be included in the libsyn.com publishing
platform in November, and in addition to Facebook it also includes
Twitter support.

OnPublish gives podcast producers the ability to publish audio and video
shows ready for immediate playback directly to Facebook and Twitter from
within the libsyn.com platform.

“The ability to publish to the two largest social networks directly from
within our publishing platform is a very powerful component that we
believe has the potential to help producers greatly expand their unique
audience count,” says Laurie Sims, President, Wizzard Media. “OnPublish
uses Facebook’s proprietary audio and video players to play podcasts and
the new system is working as expected. With this new feature alone we
believe we can increase our unique audience numbers by 50% over the next
two years and grow our subscription revenues substantially as people
spend more time consuming media on Facebook.”

In its effort to build the first ever subscription based podcast network
Wizzard plans to incorporate the same subscription based revenue
generating features via the well-established Facebook Credit System that
is currently used by many of the top games like Farmville and Cityville.
When using Facebook Credits, one U.S. dollar equals 10 Facebook Credits,
which can be purchased online or earned through several services on
Facebook.

The libsyn.com OnPublish Beta Program, initially announced September
21st, is an invite-only program for current libsyn.com client producers.
Wizzard plans to open the beta program to more producers based on
initial feedback and expects OnPublish to be available to all libsyn.com
producers in November.

About Wizzard Media:

Wizzard Media provides podcast publishers with distribution and
monetization services. Our clients include Microsoft, National
Geographic, Harvard Business Review, NPR and more than 13,000 others who
use Wizzard Media products to measure their podcast audience, deliver
popular audio and video entertainment and monetize their content through
advertising and App sales and subscriptions. In 2010, the Wizzard Media
Network received over 1.64 billion podcast requests from approximately
50 million people worldwide through iPods, iPhones, iPads, iTunes,
Androids, Blackberrys, Windows Phone, Zunes and many other devices and
destinations. We are part of a publicly held, Pittsburgh based company
with thousands of shareholders and a world-class team. Visit us on the
web at
www.wizzardsoftware.com/media
, email us at contact@wizzard.tv.

Legal Notice

Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: “Forward-looking
Statements” as defined in the Private Securities litigation Reform Act
of 1995 may be included in this news release. These statements relate to
future events or our future financial performance. These statements are
only predictions and may differ materially from actual future results or
events. We disclaim any intention or obligation to revise any
forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information,
future developments or otherwise. There are important risk factors that
could cause actual results to differ from those contained in
forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to risks
associated with changes in general economic and business conditions,
actions of our competitors, the extent to which we are able to develop
new services and markets for our services, the time and expense involved
in such development activities, the level of demand and market
acceptance of our services, changes in our business strategies and acts
of terror against the United States.

SOURCE: Wizzard Media

        Arthur Douglas and Associates
        Art Batson, 407-478-1120

Copyright Business Wire 2011

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Article source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/libsyns-onpublish-for-facebook-and-twitter-launches-in-private-beta-2011-10-28

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