Facebook relations visualized Hello there! If you enjoy the content on Neuroanthropology, consider subscribing for future posts via email or RSS feed. Paul Butler, a data infrastructure engineering intern at Facebook, was searching for a way to visualize the international relations being enacted on Facebook. A high resolution version of the map (3.3 mb) can be found here. I defined weights for each pair of cities as a function of the Euclidean distance between them and the number of friends between them. The map is fascinating on a number of levels. Some of this inconsistency is likely a result of simple patterns of urbanization; not only would Internet users (and Facebook users) be disproportionately gathered there, but Butler’s method seems to rely upon city-to-city weighted relations, possibly exacerbating what would already be a likely rural-urban disparity. But even given this possible source of anomaly, some countries do seem to stand out even given their population densities (or be surprisingly dim).
Facebook could face €100,000 fine for holding data that users have deleted | Technology Facebook could face a fine of up to €100,000 (£87,000) after an Austrian law student discovered the social networking site held 1,200 pages of personal data about him, much of which he had deleted. Max Schrems, 24, decided to ask Facebook for a copy of his data in June after attending a lecture by a Facebook executive while on an exchange programme at Santa Clara University in California. Schrems was shocked when he eventually received a CD from California containing messages and information he says he had deleted from his profile in the three years since he joined the site. After receiving the data, Schrems decided to log a list of 22 separate complaints with the Irish data protection commissioner, which next week is to carry out its first audit of Facebook. Among the 1,200 pages of data Schrems was sent were rejected friend requests, incidences where he "defriended" someone, as well as a log of all Facebook chats he had ever had.
Géographie des réseaux sociaux : approches cartographiques Retour à la lettre d'information n°8 “Au niveau mondial, les internautes passent plus de temps sur les réseaux sociaux, de type Facebook ou LinkedIn, que sur leurs e-mails. Sur les marchés émergents, comme l’Amérique Latine, le Moyen-Orient et la Chine, le temps moyen hebdomadaire passé sur les réseaux sociaux est de plus de 5 heures, contre 4 heures passées à l’envoi et la réception d’emails. Les plus gros utilisateurs de réseaux sociaux sont la Malaisie (9 heures par semaine), la Russie ( plus de 8 heures) et la Turquie (près de 8 heures)”. I. A. Si l’on procède à une recherche d'images sur Google avec l'expression: “cartographie des réseaux sociaux”, on découvre des représentations extrêmement nombreuses et variées. Mais dernière cette volonté de se repérer, de se situer, se cache une volonté économique de “marquer son territoire”, de se faire connaître, bref accroître son e-réputation. B. 1. Plusieurs planisphères permettent de visualiser le développement des réseaux sociaux. 2. 3.
How the new Facebook buttons are watching you Where’s the only button we actually want: dislike? At f8, Facebook’s developer conference, they’ll be announcing a bunch of new buttons that will join the 905,000 websites that already use “Like” buttons. Now you’ll have “Read,” “Listened,” “Want,” and “Watched.” buttons. But did you know that social buttons track you at each site you visit, even if you never click on them? This means that data on your visits (what sites you’re on and when, plus your IP address and cookie ID’s) all go back to Facebook’s databases. Check out the infographic below for stats. Facebook social buttons have taken the web site markets by storm in the last year, increasing their penetration for the top 10,000 sites (by how many visitors they get each month) from about 3% (300 sites using the Facebook buttons last September) to over 15% today. The takeaway: Social buttons are more than a means of sharing. Try Abine’s Do Not Track Plus today and regain control over your online privacy. www.DoNotTrackPlus.com
Revealed: Air Force ordered software to manage army of fake virtual people By Stephen C. WebsterFriday, February 18, 2011 15:07 EDT Update (below): HBGary Federal among bidders These days, with Facebook and Twitter and social media galore, it can be increasingly hard to tell who your “friends” are. But after this, Internet users would be well advised to ask another question entirely: Are my “friends” even real people? In the continuing saga of data security firm HBGary, a new caveat has come to light: not only did they plot to help destroy secrets outlet WikiLeaks and discredit progressive bloggers, they also crafted detailed proposals for software that manages online “personas,” allowing a single human to assume the identities of as many fake people as they’d like. The revelation was among those contained in the company’s emails, which were dumped onto bittorrent networks after hackers with cyber protest group “Anonymous” broke into their systems. Government involvement Update: The contract has since been taken off FBO.gov. Manufacturing consent “That’s me.
Exclusive: Military’s ‘persona’ software cost millions, used for ‘classified social media activities’ By Stephen C. WebsterTuesday, February 22, 2011 17:49 EDT Most people use social media like Facebook and Twitter to share photos of friends and family, chat with friends and strangers about random and amusing diversions, or follow their favorite websites, bands and television shows. But what does the US military use those same networks for? One use that’s confirmed, however, is the manipulation of social media through the use of fake online “personas” managed by the military. These “personas” were to have detailed, fictionalized backgrounds, to make them believable to outside observers, and a sophisticated identity protection service was to back them up, preventing suspicious readers from uncovering the real person behind the account. When Raw Story first reported on the contract for this software, it was unclear what the Air Force wanted with it or even if it had been acquired. ‘Classified social media activities’ Mystery bidder Privacy? Copyright 2011 The Raw Story Stephen C. Stephen C.
www.readwriteweb.com/archives/obama_meets_with_the_real_leaders_of_the_world_pho.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29 What does the President of the United States say to the unelected leader of a teaming populace fast approaching the equivalent population, but half his age? Thanks for following me on Facebook? Watch out for Zynga, I don’t trust them? Barack Obama met yesterday with CEOs from Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Google, Yahoo and other leading tech companies (but no Microsoft, ouch) to discuss global media disruption, OTA installs for the Bohemian Grove iPad app and the risk of inflation in Farmville. Who knows what they talked about? Cheers!
Pentagon Wants a Social Media Propaganda Machine | Danger Room You don’t need to have 5,000 friends of Facebook to know that social media can have a notorious mix of rumor, gossip and just plain disinformation. The Pentagon is looking to build a tool to sniff out social media propaganda campaigns and spit some counter-spin right back at it. On Thursday, Defense Department extreme technology arm Darpa unveiled its Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) program. It’s an attempt to get better at both detecting and conducting propaganda campaigns on social media. SMISC has two goals. First, the program needs to help the military better understand what’s going on in social media in real time — particularly in areas where troops are deployed. This is more than just checking the trending topics on Twitter. Not all memes, of course. More specifically, SMISC needs to be able to seek out “persuasion campaign structures and influence operations” developing across the social sphere. What exactly SMISC will look like it its final form is hard to say.