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It’s a strategy as old as American politics: You run toward the party base — on the left or right — in the primary and then move to the ideological middle once you become your party’s standard-bearer.
But, the explosion of video-sharing sites like YouTube and microblogging technology like Twitter badly complicate this age-old formula.
A visitor is seen at the You Tube stand during the annual MIPCOM television programme market in Cannes, southeastern France, October 3, 2011. REUTERS/Eric GaillardTake Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. After being dragged to the ideological right during the primary season by the likes of former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum and former House speaker Newt Gingrich, Romney is in the early stages of moving back to the center in hopes of courting electorally critical independents.
Nothing new there. But, because basically every phrase that Romney uttered during the primary (and well before that) is either available on YouTube or Twitter, President Obama’s reelection team has tons of ammunition as they try to hold Romney to some of the things he has said in the past.
On Wednesday, the Obama campaign released a video splicing together Romney’s greatest hits (or, more accurately, misses) from the Republican primary race.
Here’s what senior Obama strategist David Axelrod tweeted out about the web ad: “As the GOP primary season closes, lots of enduring memories! (Put another way, video is the enemy of Etch-a-Sketch.)”
Think about what a sea change that video represents. Ten years ago (or even maybe five years ago), the ability for anyone to quickly and easily upload video and share it was nonexistent. Finding quotes — or images — from candidates in obscure places or at anything other than sanctioned campaign events was virtually impossible.
Given those limitations, it was far easier for candidates to put their primary rhetoric behind them when they became the nominee. To call them on their past contradictions involved a) finding some tape (audio or video) of their remarks, b) convincing a news operation to run it, and c) hope that average voters saw the report. All of those barriers have now fallen.
“Presidential elections reveal the character of the candidates,” said Steve Schmidt, John McCain’s top aide in the 2008 presidential race. “All of the elaborate strategies designed by the campaigns to obscure the positions, core beliefs and character of the candidates from public view will give way under the intense and unrelenting scrutiny of an interconnected, fast-changing social media universe.”
While that brave new world is complicating in the near term for Romney as he seeks to slough off some of the more conservative positions he embraced in the primary, it’s also a potential problem for Obama, who ran on “hope” and “change” in 2008 and, for many, has delivered less of both than they had hoped.
“The interesting way to look at this is that, just as this applies to Mitt Romney, so too does it apply to the president vis-à-vis hope and change and the high-minded rhetoric — and promises — of four years ago,” said a Republican consultant granted anonymity to speak about his party’s nominee. “So it’s an ideological objective for Romney, whereas it’s a where-are-the-results objective for the president.”
Having every public — and even some private — utterances readily available for anyone with an Internet connection makes politicians’ jobs that much harder. Forgetting past positions is nearly impossible, which makes voters forgiving you for them all the more difficult too.
Analyzing the NRSC’s ad buys: As we reported in Afternoon Fix yesterday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has reserved $25 million worth of ad time across six states: Wisconsin, Missouri, Montana, Virginia, Nevada and New Mexico.
In this mix are five Democratic seats and one Republican — a reflection of the fact that the GOP is on offense. The NRSC hasn’t bought yet in its most likely pickup states — North Dakota and Nebraska — nor in the states it is most likely to lose a seat — Massachusetts and Maine. (In Massachusetts, the candidates have reached an agreement that heavily discourages outside involvement, so don’t expect any NRSC spending there.)
Basically, the NRSC is focused here on the most competitive of the 2012 races — Nos. 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10 on our most recent Friday Line.
These are the toss-ups of the toss-ups and are the states where the majority will be decided, with Republicans needing to gain three or four seats, depending on the presidential outcome. And the NRSC is putting down an early marker.
Fixbits:
Jon Huntsman isn’t paying off his presidential campaign debt fast enough — at least as far as his vendors are concerned.
Outgoing Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) endorses Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) in the state’s recall of Gov. Scott Walker (R). Barrett’s primary opponent, Kathleen Falk, got the backing of the AFL-CIO.
Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) raised $935,000 in the first quarter, besting likely Democratic opponent Richard Carmona, who previously announced pulling in $800,000. Flake also has a big cash on hand advantage: $3 million to $1.1 million, but he faces a potentially tough primary first.
Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) raised $2 million for her campaign for Wisconsin’s open seat, her best quarter ever. She has $2.8 million cash on hand as Republicans face another hard-fought primary.
State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin (R) is up with the first ad of the open Maine Senate race.
Rep. Connie Mack’s (R-Fla.) campaign is up with its first ad of Florida’s Senate race, hitting Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) for voting for a stimulus bill that included funding for research on how monkeys — this is not a joke — respond to cocaine.
Former Dallas mayor Tom Leppert (R) has a new ad in the Texas Senate race.
Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) raised $410,000 in the first quarter for his campaign against Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa) in a merged district. Latham has nearly $2 million cash on hand, which is sure to be a lot more than Boswell.
Rep. Aaron Schock’s (R-Ill.) office is fighting back against a report that a contribution Schock solicited from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to a super PAC was legal.
It sounds like Democrat Anthony Gemma will challenge Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) in a primary, and in grand fashion too.
Nevada’s top two Republicans endorse Romney.
The Florida Republican Party gets some egg on its face for doctoring a headline from the Miami Herald.
Must-reads:
“U.S. House Republican freshmen feel heat from all sides” — Thomas Ferraro, Reuters
“Romney’s ambitious agenda for first day in office won’t be easy to achieve” — David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post
“Mitt Romney, a ‘private man in a public world,’ is silent on tales of altruism” — Philip Rucker, Washington Post
“Electing to Sleep Elsewhere” — Jodi Kantor, New York Times
“With nomination in sight, Romney makes appeal to women” — Nia-Malika Henderson, Washington Post
“GOP Redistricting Bolsters Vulnerable House Members” — Neftali Bendavid, Wall Street Journal
Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/how-youtube-and-twitter-are-hurting-mitt-romney/2012/04/12/gIQAiYqXCT_blog.html
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I often still hear: “Yes, Twitter, wonderful, but no business model.” Well, that’s not completely true today, as Twitter might double its revenues in 2012, from $139.5M to $259M. Not bad. Also, not enough, as losses for First Quarter 2011 might still be huge, around $25.8M, according to a Twitter leak. In 1Q 2011, Twitter brought in $23.8 million in revenue and lost $49.2 million. The net loss was $67.8M in 2010.
In 2014, Twitter might make $540M, according to e-Marketer. Maybe Twitter will find a sustainable business model one day. Maybe it will make more money than the billions of dollars that have been lost since its launch in 2006. But at what cost? How much will Twitter have to twist its model to become profitable?
Because if you look at other facts and figures, you realize that despite the losses Twitter has been a huge success…in history. In changing the way people are communicating with each other. In changing the way media finds and delivers their stories. Twitter created a whole new world of communication. It has been a key tool for communication in the “green revolutions” in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Even in Iran, one year before. It was on Twitter that we first had information/noises concerning Bin Laden’s death, or about the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and even about the death of Whitney Houston.
In less than 10 years, more than Facebook and its 800 million users, Twitter has been the “photo impression” of history. A 140-character print. But when historians of the future try to have an idea of the emotional print or the pulse of historic events, they will need to have a look at Twitter’s geo-localized data. We used to know official or media reports in history; we now can have the live feed of what people are thinking, seeing or feeling within a key moment in history. Reuters has worked on a prototype that could analyze Twitter’s flow with specific keywords that could one day help journalists track testimonies, and undiscovered sources in real time.
People have started to think and write in 140 characters, and we begin to see great and exclusive sentences, good words and thoughts spread by writers, politicians and personalities on Twitter. It’s a new way (not the only one, but a viral one) to pace and shape the world’s consciousness. So, that’s one small step for a business success story, but one giant leap for mankind’s tools for expression.
Twitter has become as important as Wikipedia in the evolution of the information of mankind. It has become a more public space, or a new media grammar, than a “need-to-be-profitable” start-up. It belongs to people, all around the world. It can’t be only the property of a company that needs to make a profit. It’s not shameful to make a profit, but when you own a public space that keeps the footprints of mankind’s conversations, it can’t be considered a private company anymore.
That’s why Twitter’s model should be a Wikipedia model. It should be funded by people, and by fund-raising. It needs between $100M and $200M a year to work safely. It’s a huge amount of money (considering the $30M raised by the Wikimedia foundation). But that’s maybe the only model to keep Twitter safe and free for the people. What do you think?
Article source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/benoitraphael/2012/04/12/why-twitter-should-be-the-new-wikipedia/
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NEW YORK — Google is tweaking its social network, Google Plus, to make it easier to use and to distinguish it from rival Facebook.
The most visible change is a new navigation ribbon on the left side of the Google Plus page with icons for the most-used features, such as games, photos and your personal profile. Hover over an icon to do specific tasks, such as add photos from your phone or an online album.
You can reorder the features in the ribbon and hide the ones you don’t use often.
The changes, announced Wednesday, are designed to help Google Plus adapt more easily to growth — and to make room for new features in the future.
Google CEO Larry Page has made Google Plus the centerpiece of his effort to tie all of the company’s services together. Google is worried that Facebook has been carving out a competitive advantage by stockpiling valuable information about people’s social circles and interests. The data has given Facebook the means to target ads precisely and deliver content tied to a user’s tastes.
Google said Google Plus has attracted more than 170 million users since its debut nine months ago. That lags Facebook’s 845 million user count, but it’s far greater than Facebook’s tally at that stage in its history.
Google Plus has yet to hold most users’ attention. Visitors have been spending an average of just a few minutes per month on the network, compared with six to seven hours on Facebook, according to the research firm comScore.
The new design could help Google retain users by making the experience more pleasant. The navigation ribbon, for instance, offers users more flexibility than Facebook in customizing a page.
Among the other changes:
• An easier way to build a community around content you post. You can see those who have reposted your photo or link and those who have endorsed it by hitting the “Plus One” button.
• A “Hangouts” icon on the navigation ribbon makes it easier to find and join group video chats, including those with strangers.
• An “Explore” option on the navigation ribbon, which points you to content that’s most popular and talked about.
Google Plus users will see the latest changes this week.
Article source: http://www.freep.com/article/20120412/NEWS09/204120532/Google-Plus-redesigns-site-in-order-to-expand
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From Connecticut to California, concern over a rise in employer demands for access to prospective employee’s social media logins and passwords is leading lawmakers to take action.
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There is pending legislation in at least five states – including Minnesota, Illinois, California, and Massachusetts – and the Maryland legislature just passed its own version of a bill prohibiting the practice.
But as this groundswell grows, questions are rising about whether laws will actually stop employers from seeking out digital information in an increasingly digital age.
RECOMMENDED: Five simple ways to protect yourself from identity theft
“There is a legitimate and growing concern about privacy on the Internet,” says Katharine Parker of Proskauer Employment Law Counseling Training Group in New York, who advises employers on hiring practices and other HR issues. “Is there any privacy on the Internet, should there be, and what laws are needed to regulate it are all questions that are just now being asked.”
Indeed, many experts say that companies do not need to ask for Facebook passwords to get information on applicants or employees. The notion that privacy settings make things on Facebook private ”is not necessarily accurate,” says Ms. Parker.
“Even if you have a lot of privacy settings on Facebook, it’s not private if you have lots of friends,” she says.
There are many ways to get information from applicants’ social media without asking for their password, says Kabrina Krebel Chang, assistant professor of business law at Boston University’s School of Management.
“In many cases, the applicant is Facebook friends with someone already at the workplace,” she notes via e-mail.
There is nothing to stop that friend from showing others in the company the Facebook page. “If there are no direct Facebook friends, many applicants are ‘friends’ of other pages or have liked other pages such as alma maters, interest groups, products, etc.,” Ms. Chang adds.
Human resources departments will simply switch to sending “friend requests” to applicants and presenting this view of the individual during the interview process, says Charles Palmer, executive director of the Center for Advanced Entertainment Learning Technologies at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in Pennsylvania.
“It’s a little less overt and completely legal,” he says via e-mail, adding that he expects “to see more investment into ‘social forensics’ to help weed out the applicant pool.”
The main thing for potential – and current – employees to remember is that any information that can be accessed on a computer is potentially going to be used in a hiring process, says Deborah Sweeny, CEO of MyCorporation.com.
Most people with time and the right knowledge and technology “can access information that’s been posted online, even if it’s been posted to a social media profile that’s been made private,” she says via e-mail. Both employees and employers need to realize that anything they put online, could end up being public, she adds.
For these reasons, some experts think it is not only unnecessary but unwise for companies to ask for social media passwords.
“Once you ask for this kind of access, then you are on notice for anything that you might find,” says Todd Taylor, an attorney with Moore Van Allen who specializes in communication technology. “I would advise against going after information that isn’t already public for the simple reason that if you see something and you don’t act on it, you have the potential issue of a negligent hire down the road.”
RECOMMENDED: Five simple ways to protect yourself from identity theft
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Article source: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2012/0411/Facebook-passwords-why-companies-don-t-use-them-to-see-your-posts
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By Therese Poletti, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — The once-adolescent Facebook Inc. is now showing its age, even before next month’s widely anticipated debut on Wall Street that is expected to value it at $100 billion.
The exorbitant $1 billion price tag the social network agreed to pay on Monday for Instagram, an 18-month-old photo-sharing service, highlights how Facebook is no longer the pacesetter it once was. For Facebook to spend so much for a startup right before its mega initial public offering shows that it is no longer the hot new thing. It’s also feasible it had some competition courting Instagram.
Read about Facebook’s Instagram deal.
“This is the pre-IPO period, and normally companies don’t take dramatic actions like this unless there is an opportunity at hand that they can’t ignore,” said Ray Valdes, a Gartner Inc. analyst.
Click to Play
Users react to Facebook’s $1 Instagram deal
While some congratulated the Instagram team, many gave the news a thumbs down, Emily Steel reports on digits.
Paul Kedrosky, a senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation, a foundation devoted to entrepreneurship, agreed. The deal is “unprecedented in terms of cash-flow usage in the pre-IPO period,” he said. “It suggests to me an urgency that has to do with a nascent bidding war.” Kedrosky said the most likely candidate had to be Google.
Such a drastic move by Facebook
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also signals it will be on the lookout for acquisitions in areas where its own offerings are not as popular with its 845 million monthly active users. Mobile services are likely to be a continued big push.
“They don’t have a hot mobile app,” said Sandeep Dahiya, associate professor of finance at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business “That is the biggest justification for this acquisition.” A huge number of consumers have found Instagram more fun for sharing and editing photos, which they often then also post on Facebook.
Facebook said that as of December, it had 425 million monthly active users who used Facebook mobile products.
Facebook, however, tried to characterize this giant deal as a one-off, and said it won’t be making any more big deals, according to co-founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.
“This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users,” Zuckerberg wrote on Monday on his Facebook Timeline. ““We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all.”
Read Zuckerberg’s post.
Not that anyone believes him.
“Zuckerberg says no in his letter. I think he is wrong, and probably knows it,” said Kedrosky. “What Instagram showed is the precariousness of Facebook’s position because Facebook is admitting that someone in 550 days gets to a size and scope that they represented a potential threat.”
Click to Play
Is Facebook’s Instagram buy sign of bubble?
Facebook is acquiring Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock in what is the social network’s biggest acquisition to date, Dennis Berman reports on Mean Street. Photo: Getty Images.
Stunningly, in its short life so far, Instagram has garnered over 30 million Apple Inc.
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iPhone users, who use the service to share photos taken with their iPhones and make them look even better. Since Instagram became available to Google Inc.
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Android users, last week, over 5 million have downloaded the application on Android devices. Just last Friday, the San Francisco company with about a dozen employees closed another round of venture capital funding that had valued Instagram at $500 million.
Still, $1 billion in cash and stock is a lot for a company that hasn’t made any money yet. Cries of tech bubble resounded on Twitter and elsewhere.
Perhaps it was the fast popularity of the service on Android phones that showed Instagram has legs beyond the iPhone. But the speculation also makes sense that Facebook would only have done such an acquisition while in the throes of readying its IPO if a serious cash-rich competitor like Google was also sniffing around, or had even made an offer.
A spokesman for Facebook said the company would not comment and a spokeswoman for Google declined to comment on speculation.
The next Silicon Valley parlor game is trying to figure out what other startups are also on Zuckerberg’s radar.
“They will be doing a lot more of these,” said Dahiya of Georgetown. “I think the mobile space is their big challenge. [Facebook] is a very real estate hungry app. It’s a challenge of how to get all that functionality onto that screen of a mobile phone.”
Tumblr, the blogging software popular with the under-25 set, is being mentioned by a few pundits as another possible fit.
Some are also throwing around the idea that Pinterest, the community image-sharing site, is another option Facebook might be considering. Pinterest had 18.7 million unique monthly visitors in March, while Tumblr had 21.8 million, according to comScore Inc.
On Pinterest, users create scrapbooks with images according to their interests, and “pin” items to their pinboards that can be repinned by others. Two-year old Pinterest is also growing quickly, but it is also not really a popular mobile app and would not, at least for now, answer that need.
Read column “Could Pinterest become the next Napster?”
“The obvious folks are Pinterest, Path, even a Twitter which is the great white whale of social networks out there,” said Kedrosky of potential targets for Facebook. “All these guys who go from being ho-hum to 25 to 30 million users, then they suddenly become another platform that is a threat.”
As fast as social media companies can be built up, they can also quickly lose their luster. Remember what happened to MySpace?
At least Zuckerberg Co. are mindful of what can happen to companies when their leaders take their eyes off the competition, and they appear to be doing everything they can to avoid a similar fate. As growing pains persist, more deals will likely play a role in the company’s future. No matter what Zuck says on his Facebook page.
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Therese Poletti is a senior columnist for MarketWatch in San Francisco.
Article source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebook-deal-making-is-not-likely-over-2012-04-12
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The BlackBerry for Facebook and Twitter apps will soon be updated to include BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) connectivity, Research in Motion (RIM) announced on Wednesday.
The added functionality will allow users to automatically share their Facebook status or Twitter updates with BBM friends from inside the apps, Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM said in a Wednesday blog post. In addition, new versions of BlackBerry Travel, BBM Music, and BlackBerry App World will also be connected with BBM.
The updates will roll out over the next 10 days, and RIM touted the update as helpful for users and developers.
“These updates are great news for developers who leverage the BBM Social Platform to help make their apps more visible and easier to find,” RIM wrote. “It’s even better news for BBM users who are seeking to discover and share new app experiences and content within their BBM contacts.”
More than 800 BlackBerry apps already have integrated BBM functionality, allowing users to chat with their BBM contacts from inside the apps. The new Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v3.0 app and Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones v3.0 include a new “Share with BBM” button that lets users set their latest status updates and Tweets as their BBM personal message.
With the updated BlackBerry Travel v2.5, which requires activation with a data plan, users can easily share their travel status with BBM contacts. The new version of BlackBerry App World lets users automatically show their BBM contacts which apps they have downloaded. BBM Music now includes contact recommendations inside the app, allowing users to more easily connect with others and expand their music collection.
Meanwhile, BBM itself will be updated with a slew of new animated avatars and BlackBerry Tag integration.
For more from Angela, follow her on Twitter @amoscaritolo.
For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.
Article source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2402874,00.asp
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Don’t expect to hear much from the Rangers’ Brad Richards any more — at least on Twitter.
The All-Star center – who signed a big free agent contract this offseason and has seemingly fit in comfortably in New York on and off the ice – and his teammates signed off their Twitter accounts Tuesday evening saying they would not be tweeting during the playoffs:
John Tortorella just laughed when asked if it was team-mandated.
It is certainly a concerted effort, however. Within hours, defenseman Michael Del Zotto, and forwards Marian Gaborik, Brandon Dubinsky and Carl Hagelin had all signaled a Twitter hiatus:
READY TO GO
Ryan Callahan never even stepped foot on the ice for the hardest games of his career. Callahan was in agony last spring as he watched the Rangers lose to the Capitals in five games. It was not the broken ankle that hurt so much as his heart as he watched the season end.
“It’s hard to just sit there and watch your team go to battle and you can’t do anything about it,” Callahan said. “It’s frustrating.”
This year, Callahan is healthy — despite a scare at practice Tuesday when he took a shot to the helmet — and admittedly excited for the Rangers’ first-round series with the Senators to start Thursday night.
“Last year was hard for me, missing the playoffs not being able to be a part of it,” the 27-year-old right wing said. “I am excited for this year.”
THIRSTING FOR MORE
Richards was just 23 years old when he won the Stanley Cup in 2003-04 with the Lightning. He was young and foolish enough to expect to sip from the coveted Cup again soon and often.
“I am in my 30s now and the window is slowly closing,” Richards said. “I got to win when I was very young and I thought I would have a couple more shots at it now. I’ve had one, getting to the Western finals with Dallas (in 2008). I kind of thought this will happen more often, so it makes you appreciate it.
“We have a great team. We’ve done a lot of great work this year and you can’t say next year we’ll be back,” Richards continued. “You never know.”
Added Tortorella, who coached that young Tampa Bay team, “You just never know if you’ll have an opportunity again to do it.
“That’s why we tell our guys when you get into these situations you need to try and enjoy it, too.”
Article source: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/hockey/rangers/ny-rangers-turn-twitter-focus-stanley-cup-playoffs-blueshirts-open-thurday-senators-garden-article-1.1059904?localLinksEnabled=false
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Ann Romney’s debut on Twitter couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.
Ann’s first tweet came just moments after Democratic strategist and DNC adviser Hilary Rosen lobbed an insult at Ann Romney, suggesting that the 64-year-old mother of five and grandmother of 16 had never held a job.
“Guess what, his wife has actually never worked a day in her life,” said Rosen, who was being interviewed by CNN’s Anderson Cooper about the “war on women.”
And then, just like that, a familiar name popped up on Twitter: @AnnDRomney.
“I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work,” Ann tweeted.
The Romney campaign confirmed to ABC News that the account belongs to Ann Romney.
The tweet came just as husband Mitt wrapped up a second day of campaigning that all but entirely focused on the “war against women,” packing events with female business leaders and accusing the Obama administration’s economic policies of hurting women.
“I could not disagree with Hilary Rosen any more strongly. Her comments were wrong and family should be off limits. She should apologize,” Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in a tweet.
Top Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod also tweeted his disapproval: “Also Disappointed in Hilary Rosen’s comments about Ann Romney. They were inappropriate and offensive.”
Following the interview, Rosen herself tweeted, “I’ve nothing against @AnnRomney. I just don’t want Mitt using her as an expert on women struggling $ to support their family. She isn’t.”
Rosen kept tweeting, not appearing to back off of her comments.
“@AnnDRomney Please know, I admire you. But your husband shouldn’t say you are his expert on women and the economy,” said Rosen.
Then Rosen offered a welcome message to Ann, tweeting, “oh and @AnnDRomney welcome to Twitter. You will find it a very exhilarating and often unforgiving place!”
Article source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/debuts-on-twitter-to-counter-dnc-advisors-insult/
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BY RANDALL SMITH
In 2008, Gideon Yu, then the chief financial officer of Facebook Inc., began steering some former employees who wanted to sell shares in the social network toward a specific buyer.
The firm, Millennium Technology Value Partners, paid about $10 million to acquire stock from about a dozen former employees of Facebook, according to people familiar with the matter.
Run by two alumni of private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP, Millennium won Mr. Yu’s backing in part by vowing not to make purchases without Facebook’s approval, the people said.
Millennium is one of a handful of managers that specialize in what has …
Article source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303624004577337731199129746.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
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Remember when Facebook was Thefacebook, a site whose access was restricted to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Columbia, and other Ivy League schools? With Facebook Groups for Schools, Facebook has gone back to basics.
On Wednesday, Facebook launched Groups for Schools, which creates school-specific groups.
To join, students must demonstrate that they’re affiliated with the school by providing an associated email address, and only enrolled faculty and students are allowed – no alumni. Moreover, if a student graduates, he or she will be removed from the group.
The primary focus of Groups for Facebook appears to be a social network tied to each school, with an emphasis on sharing files and activities that can be used for classwork. “When you join a group within the school community, you can share files, create events, message other members and stay up-to-date on what’s happening around campus, according to a Facebook FAQ.
There’s also one big privacy change, Facebook said: other students at the school or university can be messaged at any time. Normally, Facebook users must be “friends” within the network before messages can be exchanged.
The service isn’t live yet for all schools; to check, Facebook recommends that interested students visit the About page and search for their school. If the service is live, a message will appear on the left side of the home page.
Like other Facebook Groups, an admin must form the group and invite members. A list of suggested groups will appear at the top of the page. But Groups for Schools exists separately from existing Groups, so that a volleyball club at Notre Dame will be forced to form a new, separate group within the Groups for Schools framework.
There are three kinds of school groups: Open, where anyone can see who is in the group and post to it; Closed, where anyone can see who is in the group, but only members can post and exchange files; and Secret, where only members can see that the group actually exists, and who is in it.
The files that can be exchanged include lecture notes, assignments, schedules and “many other file types” that can be shared with other members of a school group, Facebook said. The maximum size of those files are 25 Mbytes, it said.
For more, check out our slideshow, below: Memeology: The Best of the ‘What I Really Do’ Jokes on Facebook.
For more from Mark, follow him on Twitter @MarkHachman.
For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.
Article source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2402919,00.asp
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