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éléments par Zak Thomas

BetaNews.Com

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  MIT wants to use your Tweets to solve society's problems

  Publié: octobre 6, 2014, 1:20pm CEST par Zak Thomas

  

  Twitter is handing MIT full access to its real-time public stream and archive, as well as $10 million over five years to help with its research into social patterns across the media. The data MIT gathers from a variety of media platforms will be used to reveal interaction patterns and shared interests between users, while it develops new collaborative tools and mobile apps for public communication and social organization.

  Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter said: "With this investment, Twitter is seizing the opportunity to go deeper into research to understand the role Twitter and other platforms play in the way people communicate, the effect that rapid and fluid communication can have and apply those findings to complex societal issues".

  But this isn't the first time Twitter has handed over user data to researchers; earlier in 2014 it handed eight years of data over to the science community. In 2012 Twitter also teamed up with UK business intelligence and analysis outfit Datasift to carry out market research.

  MIT say the main goal for its new Twitter funded Laboratory for Social Machines (LSM) will be to create new platforms for individuals and institutions to take action on pressing societal problems. Although funded by Twitter, MIT say LSM will have "complete operational and academic independence". Despite the funding from Twitter, LSM's research will be across many social media and mass media platforms.

  "The Laboratory for Social Machines will experiment in areas of public communication and social organization where humans and machines collaborate on problems that can't be solved manually or through automation alone," said Deb Roy, Twitter's chief media scientist and an associate professor at MIT who will lead LSM. "Social feedback loops based on analysis of public media and data can be an effective catalyst for increasing accountability and transparency -- creating mutual visibility among institutions and individuals".

  Image Credit: Flickr (Scott Beale)

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  
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  Google finally gives up pushing Google+ accounts on Gmail users

  Publié: septembre 23, 2014, 9:47am CEST par Zak Thomas

  

  New Gmail users will no longer have to sign up to Google's flagging social network Google+, after two and half years of mandatory social account creation. Users previously had to sign up to Google+ when signing up for Gmail, Google Docs and variety of other Google products.

  Whilst the company still encourages users to sign up for Google+ it now has a "No thanks" button when offering the service during the sign up procedure for its products.

  Above the "No Thanks" button, the text reads: "Help make Google better for everyone by contributing restaurant reviews, videos on YouTube and rating for apps, books and movies in Play Store. To share public content like this, you'll need a public Google+ profile".

  By removing the compulsory aspect of signing up to Google+, it should help the company distance itself from previous blunders, including the unpopular integration of YouTube comments with Google+.

  The move to no longer make Google+ compulsory, could also signal that the company are finally starting to admit that their social network to rival Facebook, has failed to gather the momentum to compete with its biggest competitor. Some media outlets announced the death of Google's social network earlier this year when Vic Gundotra, the brains behind Google+ left the company.

  It was rumored that Google were so obsessed with making Google+ work that Larry Page, Google's CEO, had tied every employee's bonus with the success of its then new social network.

  Like Twitter and Digg, Google+ has also suffered from the selling of 'likes,' which some businesses used to bolster their online presence.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  
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  Goodbye MSN Messenger: Bidding a final farewell to Microsoft's much loved chat service

  Publié: septembre 4, 2014, 9:27am CEST par Zak Thomas

  Like most teenagers growing up in the late 90s / early 00s, MSN Messenger made me realize that there was more to life than having to talk face to face.

  Maybe you didn't want to go to that party, for example, so you could just send your friend a message with some poor excuse about homework. Or maybe you just wanted to sit up in front of a desktop computer until 3.00am, discussing the wrongs and rights of the world through a series of awkward 'lols,' 'brbs' and emoticons. You could even declare your undying love for someone behind the safe smokescreen of your computer by just typing it, which let's be honest, is much, much easier.

  Microsoft announced on 29 August, that it will be switching off its Chinese MSN service, which brings an end to 15 years of an instant messaging platform that changed the way humans communicate across the globe. Most people will be aware that MSN was turned off for most users after Microsoft bought rival Skype in 2013, but you might not be aware that users in China continued to use it. By 31 October 2014, however, all users of the old service will be transferred to Skype.

  Here are some of the biggest headlines from MSN's short but dare we say it, important contribution to instant messaging.

  The early years

  In 1999, MSN was launched by Microsoft to rival AOL's Aim service. It began life as a plain text messaging service, with a manageable contact list. In 2001, with the launch of the now defunct Windows XP, MSN allowed voice conversations and the grouping of contacts for the first time. The service became customizable in 2003, with personalized avatars, emoticons and theme colors.

  Chatroom closure: child safety issues

  But there was a setback in 2003, when MSN closed its chat room services in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and in most of Asia, citing issues of child safety as the reason behind the closure, although some criticized the move, arguing the reasons behind it were actually economical. Research from the Cyberspace Research Center, revealed at the time, that one in five children aged 9 to 16 regularly used chat rooms, with more than half having engaged in sex chat.

  The middle years

  By 2005 MSN was starting to lose some of its charm. Rebranded as Windows Live Messenger, users could now annoy each other by sending giant animated emoticons that took up the whole screen. With Skype emerging as a strong rival since its launch in 2003, Microsoft added audio and video calling capabilities to the MSN package in 2006. In 2008, The "Groups" feature was added, for users to create group conversations.

  The twilight years

  In 2010, MSN became an increasingly confusing service, latching on to a variety of different trends, first launching MSN Video Player, an on demand TV service, which had a few teething problems on launch, most notably, no parental controls. Later that year, Microsoft launched an MSN games channel, providing games and web casts.

  RIP MSN

  But despite all the new features, and attempts to branch out, Microsoft announced the merger of MSN with Skype in 2012 after acquiring the latter. MSN was switched off for most users in 2013, with China carrying the torch until now. MSN had 330 million users in 2009 but, by 31 October 2014 the last Chinese users will be transferred to Skype and MSN will cease to be.

  To take inspiration from Monty Python, MSN will be an ex-instant messenger.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.