Liveblogging: Danah Boyd (Micosoft Research) SXSW Keynote
- Posted by Chris Crum in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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I’m sitting here in the exhibit hall at SXSW getting ready for the opening remarks keynote, which is getting ready to get underway. It will be delivered by Danah Boyd of Microsoft Research
Her SXSW Bio: One of the world’s foremost authorities on social networks, boyd works at Microsoft Research New England and also serves as a Fellow at the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
Note: Please forgive he typos that are sure to occur in this liveblog. Also keep in mind that this is paraphrased.
Liveblogging starts:
02: 08 She takes the stage.
2:09 Humbled to be here.
SXSW first and foremost about the people…passionate about what they’re doing. there’s a lot of trouble that goes on but that’s part of the joy.
2:10: Have a good time, but avoid the tequila….
I’m a social media researcher….spend most of my time trying to understand how people use social media in their daily lives. reflecting how to make that material public. blogging for 13 years. believe in being an activist.
What keeps me up at night is how social media transforms society.
Goal: sit back and think about a specfic set of puzzles. All of you are seeing how these tools are shaping society….
Intersection of privacy and publicity.
2:12: privacy isn’t dead. people very much care about it online and off. what privacy means may not be what you think. it’s about control…understanding a social setting. and context. how to behave. understanding what the architecture will let you do….
people feel they don’thave control and they feel violated.
Recent privacy fail: Google Buzz
A lot of people will lvoe buzz and use it, but it doesn’t mean that google didn’t mess up in terms of privacy.
They’re aking a hit.
2:14: Gives background of how buzz works….
2:15: NOthing the buzz team was technologically wrong. there were all sorts of opt outs….shows a slide referencing "F— you Google" …
Deconstruct what acutally happened:
2:19: Talking about engineers looking at "ASL" in chat rooms…there’s something radically different than responding than going into their profile and looking.
Ask users to share with their friends….It’s not the idea of getting that info. it’s the ritual of letting them know how the info will be acquired.
Google managed to find the social equivalent of the uncanny valley…
Personal networks are when you talk to people about what they spend time with
Personal - listing contacts, etc.
Behavioral - networks with people in the same room.
What Google did was collapsed these…
Just because people put material in public doesnt mean it was all meant to come together and be aggregated.
 
What they did wrong:
1. Google got in trouble by integrating a public facing system inside of one of the most intimate (gmail)….juxtaposing private with public…a lot of users believed google was exposing their private email..this was never technically the case, but it created confusion. people flipped out. google had to spend a lot of time and pr…
2. GOogle assumed that people would opt out if they didnt’ want to participate. gives google benefit of the doubt, but cant help but notice that more companies think its ok to expose tremendously and then back pedal…
Easier for users to flip out rather than to actually go and undo things…
I kept meeting users who thtought if they opted out, it would cancel their gmail account.
You need to ease them in. give them a way to understand…
THey "foolishly" told users what they wanted to hear rather than asking them what they wanted to hear.
Just because people want something publicly accessible doesn’t mean they want it publicized.
Shows slide of Onion article mocking Google
2:23: We see gossip being spread in all sorts of ways. We don’t always navigate privacy with people so well…we hold the architcture around us accountable. The Walls have ears. there is always the possiblity of eavesdroppers.
Talks about being in a cafe…public place, but you expect certain types of people to show up. you expect people from the community but not your high school cheerleading team. When people asses a situation, they develop menal models…they need to know so they know how to "best behave".
online environments are not nearly as stablized…we’re still trying to work through what we can trust in terms of architecture and people.
02:27: Digital architecture doesn’t just have ears. also has a mouth. people aren’t good at managing when the system changes the rules on them.
Recent privacy fail number 2: facebook’s privacy changes in december
Gives a rundown of all of that.
02:28: Asking non techy users: tell me what you privacy settings are? I have yet to find a single person who actually knows. That’s not Good knows. Facebook is known for privacy.
Tells story of teen with abusive father…set up facebook account…found out that her content was made public. is her fear of what might have gone wrong acceptable? 
Big difference between publicly available data and publicized data. I worry about this and who will get caught in the crossfire.
PII vs. PEI PII - personally identifiable information vs. personally embarassing information
02:32: When tech comes along and changes rules, it’s a huge fail
Conversations that happen in social media are public by default, private by effort.
What we see with teens is that they’re thiking through this. THey make conscious decisions.
Critical to realize effected by age, life role, etc.
People make material publicly accesssible, but they dont’ want the world to see it. there are poeple that they specifically don’t want to see it.
02:36 "Making something that is public more public is a violation of privacy."
People can adjust to change, but you have to think about those who get in trouble during the process.
Compares to paparazzi. Shows slides of britney, lindsay lohan and Princess Diana.
Publicity: Twitter has become a space for celebs, micro-celebs, fans of all sorts. 
FB is about communicating with the people you already know, Twitter started out this way, but it’s evolved to follow people who have audiences…
02:39: Issues of intimacy good and bad…cause of trouble for some  celebs. Talks about Miley Cyrus quitting Twitter. Quotes from her rap about it.
Twitter isn’t just for celebs and followers. People all over the globe engage with it as specific kind of public space.
two kinds of trending topics: those that start because of external factors, and those that are generated on the site.
02:41: Trending topics also highlight that not all users are who you think they are. Shows Justin Bieber…in trending topics for 18 solid days. For all the conversations of teens not tweeting….all of his followers not all that old.
Lot of racism and classism on Twitter. Shows slides of white people using the N word…
Many have benefited from speaking in public on social media. It’s easy to take things for granted: the right to challenge authority, the right to be heard, seen, the right to go into public without losing my rights, etc. seek pub of own accord…not what everybody gets. Imagine you just left an abusive relationship, but you’re biggest fear is that you ex will find you….how public are you willing to be?
People kicked out of jobs, military…
Your kid’s teacher: how public is she allowed to be online? Religious? Drinking? ALlowed to be a lover and a friend in a public setting? What we see over and over agin is that we expect the teacher to always be the teacher, but that’s a lot to ask from people.
02:46: Public by default: not the great democratizer. 
Seeking attention, part of what makes engaging online fun. Quotes Jon Stewart The internet’s like Meixcan food. every sites’ got the same ingredients, just different combinations…talks about chat roulette.
02:49: Why do people engage on this site? What you’ll find is heartwarming and heartbreaking. Many there for entertainment, boredom, find pesonal connections, etc. THere are others hoping they might find a celeb.
It’s an odd combo of privacy and publicity…situated in private spaces (bedrooms, offices), but becomes publc. People are having fun geo-locating people who are participating.
CR may be a fad, but the idea of pub andprivacy getting mixed up is not. New rules will complicate the boundaries…
Tech will continue to make a mess of both.
You need to know that there is now magical formula for understanding privacy and publicity.
If you expose people, you may lose you reputation…
For marketers, its an exciting time of publicility, but just because you can see somebody, doesn’t mean they want to be seen by you. And just because you think you’ve interpreted something, doesn’t mean you’ve done it right.
Wants to see more policy grounded in what’s going on. A lot of numbers can be misinterpreted. What we’re measuring isn’t peoples’ sense of privacy. Wanting privacy isn’t about having something to hide. It’s about wanting control…
There are good reasons to engage in privacy and good ones to engage in publicity.
A lot of people are sharing more publicly to maintain other stuff privately.
Think about people’s intentions and what it means to invade their privacy. Make sure you’re creating the future that you want to live in.
Possible Scenarios for Google in China
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After a long morning of travel and SXSW preperation, WebProNews popped in on an interesting talk from writer and tech watcher, Kaiser Kuo (here’s his bio) about what might happen with the whole Google/China situation, which has essentially remained at a stand-still for the past two months, since Google made its famous announcement about a "new approach to China."
Kuo said right out that he doesn’t have the "inside dope" about what’s happening within Google, but he did give a fascinating history of Google’s efforts in China, as well as a look at some possible scenarios that could play out. Some he listed specifically, include:
Worst Case Scenarios
- Blow up: Google decamps in atmosphere of acrimony
- Google.com blocked, possibly even Gmail, Gtalk, Google Docs, Buzz, etc.
- All google products exit from China (partnerships with mobile companies end)
Moderate (and according to Kuo, most likely) Scenarios
- Google.cn shuttered
- Google.com, Gmail, Google Docs, etc. unblocked
- Google research and development and sales continue to operate in China
- Google continues mobile partnerships
Best Case (and not very likely, but not entirely far-fetched) Scenario
- Google.cn stops censoring and still stays in china
- Pigs fly over a frozen hell scape
The session was not without a sense of humor, but that’s not to say Kuo doesn’t take the situation very seriously. In fact, he appears to be putting much more time into looking at the big picture than anyone I’ve seen (at least those outside of Google itself and the Chinese government).
Perhaps the most interesting part of Kuo’s talk was about how  the wetern media’s attention focuses more on one of two kinds of censorship going on - the "Great Firewall" censorship, where many sites are blocked at the ISP level. He says it’s fairly simple for Chinese Internet users to "hop" the Great Firewall through proxies and VPNs. The other kind of censorship going on in China, according to Kuo, is the kind that really matters. This is "self discipline", which is carried out by Internet companies themselves.
If companies don’t follow through with this kind of censorship, they face the risk of being shut down, having servers seized, etc. Some have been shut down permanently in the past, and others have been shut down long enough that they lost most of their users anway.
"Sad story indeed," Kuo calls it.
As far as the Google situation, "Google is going to have to shit or get off the pot," says Kuo. "The ball is very much in Google’s court right now." Bejing realizes it has nothing to gain by pushing Google on the issue or being openly hostile towards the company, he says.
This week, Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong reportedly had this to say: "I hope that Google will abide and respect the Chinese government’s laws and regulations. But, if you betray Chinese laws and regulations, it means that you are unfriendly, irresponsible, and you will have to pay the consequences." He also said, "What needs to be shut down will be shut down, what needs to be blocked will be blocked."
Kuo says this is just more of the same stuff we’ve been hearing from China for the last 2 months.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said, "Something will happen soon." Days ago, Google gave a congressional testimony saying they still intend to stop censoring results, but as Kuo notes, shutting down Google.cn would be a very involved process with large logistical challenges.
Stay tuned to WebProNews.com for more SXSW Interactive coverage as the event continues into next week. Watch for live streaming interviews with industry professionals at live.webpronews.com.
Nielsen: Online Video Usage Significantly Up YOY
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Glass-half-full and glass-half-empty types, prepare to be split.  New stats from Nielsen indicate that February of 2010 was a great month for the online video industry compared to February of 2009.  Last month was a little bit rotten compared to January of 2010, however.
The chart below shows how the big-picture data categories played out.  "Unique Viewers" and "Total Streams" made the most progress year-over-year, even as "Total Streams" and "Streams per Viewer" slipped the most month-over-month.  You’ll see the YOY gains are generally bigger than the MOM losses, at least.
As for how some specific brands performed between January and February, YouTube lost ground in terms of unique viewers, video streams, and time spent per viewer (-3.4 percent, -10.7, and -3.6 percent, respectively).  Hulu only slid in terms of unique viewers (-7.4 percent), while making small increases elsewhere.
At the same time, Facebook pulled in some more unique viewers (4.7 percent), and is actually coming somewhat close to matching Yahoo in this category.  Also, the CNN Digital Network and Microsoft’s sites racked up big gains on the unique viewers and video streams fronts (20+ percent in both cases).
Finally, on a somewhat related note, WebProNews will be generating some video of our own as we’re in Austin to cover SXSW.  Look for live video in addition to our traditional recorded coverage.
Facebook Makes Austin Expansion Official
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Austin, Texas - which already plays home to tech companies Freescale Semiconductor and Dell - will soon boast a Facebook office, too.  A $1.4 million incentive package we reported on in late February has been approved, and Facebook’s decided to establish a team in Austin as a result.
Grady Burnett, Director of Global Online Sales and Operations at Facebook, said in a statement, "We are delighted to formally announce that Facebook will open an online sales and operations office in Austin.  The area’s world-class educational system and talented workforce give us the means to quickly establish a strong outfit."
"Strong" works out to at least 200 employees, by the way, making the new office a rather significant investment.  It’ll represent a fair amount of growth, too, since Facebook’s actually supposed to hire 200 Texans instead of just relocate a lot of current employees.
Burnett acknowledged, "We look forward to building our team here in Austin and enjoying all the wonderful things the city has to offer."
Finally, in other Austin-related news, don’t forget that SXSW has begun.  WebProNews is on hand to bring you live video coverage along with the usual articles and recorded interviews.  This promises to be a fun (and informative) conference.
Chinese Minister Hints At Consequences For Google
- Posted by Doug Caverly in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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Despite weeks of talks that have supposedly taken place behind closed doors, the Chinese government still seems unwilling to compromise with respect to Google and censorship.  Indeed, it may be growing hostile, as a minister talked about "consequences" today.
The BBC reported that Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong adopted a tough stance during a legislation session.  "I hope that Google will abide and respect the Chinese government’s laws and regulations," he said.  "But, if you betray Chinese laws and regulations . . . it means that you are unfriendly, irresponsible, and you will have to pay the consequences."
As for what those consequences might be, it almost sounds as if China’s ready to force Google out of the country whether it wants to leave or not.  The Chinese official stated at one point, "[W]hat needs to be shut down will be shut down, what needs to be blocked will be blocked."
This is less than good news for anyone who was hoping Google would be able to keep operating in China.  Considering that Eric Schmidt recently said "something will happen soon," it may even represent the end of the road, rather than just another outburst of rhetoric.
Or not.  Investors on both sides have failed to flinch, with Google’s and Baidu’s stocks up about equal amounts so far today.
Google Gives Wave Another Push With Extensions Gallery
- Posted by Doug Caverly in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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Google Wave didn’t do so well when it came out of the gate, and Buzz’s privacy problems stole all of the attention not too long after.  But now that Google’s addressed most of Buzz’s faults, it’s trying to move forward again by rolling out an extensions gallery for Google Wave.
Interestingly, this initial version is still a little rough around the edges in terms of functionality.  Also, there are just 18 extensions listed at the moment, and Google’s suggested design tweaks are on the way.  We’ll let you decide whether the company’s gotten ahead of itself or made a smart move by involving developers and users as soon as possible.
As for what’s available, the extensions represent an interesting mix of useful and fun/frivolous stuff.  One’s called Wave Sudoku, while others function as poll gadgets, phone and video chat aids, and a weather forecast provider.
Anyway, Dan Peterson, Google Wave’s Product Manager, explained on the Google Wave Developer Blog, "The gallery is simply a set of waves containing extension installers (the puzzle pieces).  The first wave, ‘Read me first‘ contains an introduction to extensions and how to use them.  In many cases, those particular waves won’t maintain their read/unread status in Google Wave preview; we’re working on this."
It should be interesting to see how long Google takes to make its tweaks, and how quickly the extensions gallery is populated.
Yahoo Makes Strides In Entertainment Search
- Posted by Doug Caverly in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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If Yahoo has its way, it’ll soon be the place to go for information about movies, TV shows, and the celebrities who star in them.  Yahoo announced several upgrades to its search engine this morning, and they’re all meant to make entertainment-related queries turn up much better results.
A Yahoo representative told WebProNews, "Today Yahoo! Search is unveiling new ways for people to explore information on their favorite celebs and TV shows by providing the most comprehensive and up to the moment entertainment news and content.  With Yahoo! Search’s celebrity shortcuts, people can see news, photos, movies and even the celebrity’s official tweets right on the search results page."
What’s more, "Yahoo! is also introducing a TV shortcut so people can search for their favorite TV shows and see videos, episode lists, schedules and ratings from Yahoo! TV."  And "we are launching new celebrity-related suggestions on the left-side of the Yahoo! Search results page for entertainment queries, with links to results for related people, movies, etc."
You can see an example of how this all comes together below. The results page packs in a whole lot of information, but still manages to not look overly cluttered or messy.
Yahoo appears to have leapfrogged well ahead of Google and Bing with these upgrades.
Facebook Provides Insight Into D.C. Employees’ Jobs
- Posted by Doug Caverly in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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Last week, we reported that Facebook wanted to hire two people in Washington, D.C., and then dissected the official descriptions of the positions as best we could.  Still, the bullet points left a lot unclear, so it’s noteworthy that Facebook provided some clarifying paragraphs today.
Adam Conner was the first member of Facebook’s D.C. team, and a post he wrote for the company’s internal blog was actually promoted to its public blog this afternoon. Conner - who also deserves applause for being a Conan supporter - did a good job of explaining some of his responsibilities and favorite moments.
Here’s one excerpt that reveals just how politically connected Facebook may be: Conner wrote, "The week of January 11-17 was pretty cool, helping to pull together the Global Disaster Relief Page in just few hours.  I went on vacation that weekend and was on the phone in Mexico convincing President Clinton to plug our Facebook page as part of the relief efforts."
As for the more day-to-day stuff, Conner described his duties by writing, "I get to sit in meetings with vaguely important and occasionally actually important people and explain why Facebook is like the wheel or fire and how not using it really isn’t an option anymore."
It sounds like the social network’s well on its way to being omnipresent in Washington, then, especially as it adds two more employees.
YouTube Solicits Ideas For Partner Program
- Posted by Doug Caverly in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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YouTube Partners are, pretty much by definition, some of YouTube’s most important users.  They create original content, don’t violate copyright laws, and have huge audiences.  It makes sense, then, that YouTube is now looking hard for ways to improve its Partner Program.
The hunt has taken the form of a crowdsourced project.  Just as the Ideas Page for YouTube was created not too long ago for the sake of the whole site, the new Product Ideas Page for the YouTube Partner Program covers this single subject. People can submit ideas and vote on which ones they think are best.
It’s an effective process. On the YouTube Biz Blog, Filipe Lima noted with respect to the first effort, "It was a success, receiving almost 3,000 ideas and more than 300,000 votes.  We even launched a few features that directly addressed some of the requests - namely, an HTML5 Beta (there were many HTML5 advocates who participated) and a sneak peek of our new cleaner video page (some desired a ‘less cluttered’ YouTube)."
So now we’ll see where round two takes us.
The deadline for both new submissions and votes is April 12th.  If you have any suggestions, get them in earlier, though, for the sake of giving them more time to become popular.
Google Product Search for Mobile Showing When Items are in Stock
- Posted by Chris Crum in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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Users of the mobile version of Google Product Search can now see if items are in stock at a local store from select retailers. These retailers include: Best Buy, Sears, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and West Elm.
Product listings from these retailers will have blue dots that can be tapped to see an "in stock nearby" link, which takes you to a seller’s page where it will either say "in stock" or "limited availability". In addition, these pages will show you how far away the store is from your location (assuming you have My Location enabled or have manually specified your location).
The feature is available for iPhone, Palm WebOS, and Android users in the U.S. Users can hit the "more" link, and select "Shopping" or find the "Shopping results" section in Google’s Universal Search results when searching from Google.com.
Google offers a form for retailers who are interested in participating in this program. Google says to make sure you have your Local Business Center data up to date and to ensure your Product Search data is in "great shape."
