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  • How not to rank countries in terms of ‘cloud readiness’

    Which countries are top of the world when it comes to “cloud readiness?” According to the Business Software Alliance (BSA), the top 5 in descending order are Japan, Australia, the U.S., Germany and Singapore, while emerging markets such as South Africa, Indonesia, Brazil, Thailand and Vietnam are at the bottom of the pile.

    But wait, what are we actually talking about here? To understand that, we first need to remind ourselves of what the BSA actually is: a lobbying association for software vendors ranging from Microsoft and Oracle to IBM and Apple. Probably best known for threatening small businesses over their use of “pirated” software, the BSA just released its second Global Cloud Scorecard, which purports to rank countries according to the cloud-friendliness of their legislative and regulatory policies.

    In practice, the scoring criteria are … interesting. For example, intellectual property rights are in there. From the BSA document:

    “Providers of cloud computing and digital economy technologies and services, as with other highly innovative products, rely on a combination of patents, copyrights, trade secrets, and other forms of intellectual property protection. Thus, to encourage investments in cloud research and development, as well as infrastructure, IP laws must provide strong incentives for these investments and clear protection and vigorous enforcement against misappropriation and infringement.”

    Presumably Japan’s willingness to do things like arrest file-sharers counted in its favor when the BSA was compiling its rankings. What does that have to do with cloud computing, in reality? Not a lot.

    Overall, the criteria we’re looking at are these:

    • Intellectual property rights: This is a heavily-weighted criterion. The BSA likes what Canada, Russia and India are doing, so they moved up the scale.
    • Data privacy: The BSA is all about “light touch regimes” here, explaining why Singapore, which introduced “broad, principles-based” data privacy laws last year while avoiding too much prescriptive detail, jumped from number 10 to number 5. Korea, which has proposed stricter data privacy rules, comes in for severe criticism, although its number-8 position remained unchanged. The EU, which is revising its data privacy legislation, is urged to bring in “clear rules”, not a “rigid framework”.
    • Security: Here the BSA is talking about both nationally-coordinated security measures (good) and factors such as censorship (bad). Russia’s score apparently took a hit because of internet censorship rules introduced in 2012, for example.
    • “Cybercrime”: This is mainly about legal deterrents to attacks. As such attacks are frequently cross-border, I’m not sure what the value is here, but it is at least theoretically a valid factor when talking about cloud policy.
    • Promoting free trade: Here the BSA seems mainly concerned with countries’ attitudes towards buying equipment from international suppliers, who – surprise surprise – will probably be BSA members. Still, with so much of the innovation in cloud technology coming from the U.S., they may have a point.
    • Infrastructure: This is the most heavily-weighted criterion, and sensibly so. It’s the criterion that makes the most objective sense when talking about cloud-readiness.

    So, how seriously should we take this scorecard? It’s difficult to say. Much of it is sensible, some is debatable and some is laughable – I’m sorry, but no matter how much you’re in favor of intellectual property rights, they don’t have a major effect on “cloud readiness”. For a much more reasonable take on such things, look for rankings that stick to criteria such as computer penetration, infrastructure and GDP.

    Nonetheless, the BSA scorecard does give a good flavor of what the big tech firms want to see when it comes to cloud policy — we can see this stance reflected in concerted lobbying operations around the world, so it is worth understanding.

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  • Do tech stars need a degree? MIT’s Ito says yes, puts sponsor money where his mouth is

    Joi Ito is a busy guy.  The director of the prestigious MIT Media Lab writes and speaks on myriad subjects from emerging democracy to internet freedom. He invested early in lots of interesting startups –including Flickr, Last.fm, Kickstarter and Twitter.

    MIT Media LabAnd now he’s backing a new project that would let corporate Media Lab sponsors fund students’ startups after they graduate, according to this Scott Kirsner story in The Boston Globe.  That means big name companies including Samsung, Panasonic, AOL etc. could pony up money to fund a stipend for MIT graduates to build the company or technology of their dreams.

    This is still early stage. Asked to comment on the report, an MIT spokeswoman said “the program has not yet been approved or funded, so the Boston.com story was a bit premature.”

    Industry-funded academic research projects are problematic. Critics say that private companies use universities, which often are publicly funded,  as petri dishes for their own R&D purposes. Company-funded college research can also lead to squabbles over  who owns intellectual property rights of work done at the school but partially or wholly underwritten by private industry.

    Here’s the crux of the issue from Kirsner:

    “One key purpose of the new fund, Ito explained to me recently, will be to encourage students to finish their degrees before they start companies. “We want students to stay focused while they’re here,” he said. But once they’re done, the fund will provide a six-month stipend to lay the groundwork for their company, and help make sure that the new venture has clear rights to the intellectual property they developed while at the Lab. (In the past, there has been a somewhat vague non-exclusive right granted to students to commercialize technologies that they worked on while at the Lab, Ito said.)”

    The idea of encouraging college researchers to stick around for their diplomas is actually of note. Obviously MIT has a vested interest in its students completing their coursework, but some in tech say this is a waste of time and resources. These skeptics include early Facebook investor Peter Thiel who has funded two classes of Thiel Fellows. These young technologists get money to leave school and pursue their work. His argument is that it’s better for promising talent  just to get to it rather than put in their time at college, running up huge student loan debt.

    That’s a premise that Upstart, founded by Google veteran David Girouard, for example, finds troubling. Upstart invests in promising graduates of specified schools in return for a percentage of their future earnings. Again, you have to graduate to get that Upstart money.

    Whatever happens with Ito’s new project, it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

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  • Report: Samsung planning $100 LTE smartphone, possible JV, for India

    A fast LTE network isn’t very useful if there aren’t devices to use it. That obvious point may be why Reliance Industries (RIL) is set to “shake up the Indian telecommunications market” according to the Times of India. The publication’s sources say that RIL is close to striking a deal with Samsung for a low-cost, entry-level handset with LTE support.

    The article, which I found by way of Sammy Hub, suggests that Samsung has agreed to create an entry-level smartphone priced at or near $100, the cost of which can be financed at no interest. This puts the target price near that of a Samsung 3G phone in India. Cheap voice, text and data plans for the LTE phone would then begin as low as as low as Rs 100 ($1.83) per month, although that’s likely a very limited plan.

    But the development may have broader implications as well, with one Times of India source suggesting a bigger role for Samsung:

    “Samsung will not be just another vendor to RIL supplying handsets as it was when Reliance Infocomm was launched in 2002. They are seeking a much broader role. A possible joint venture could also be in the offering.”

    If true, that could give Samsung an even more prominent foothold in the populous nation and make it more difficult for both other LTE Android handset makers as well as Apple, to build up market share in the country. It’s still too early to make that call, however, as RIL isn’t expected to officially launch the LTE network until late this year (although a soft launch is expected in Mumbai and Delhi by mid-year.)

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  • Partnering with the People of Yemen

    Yemen Students

    (by USAID)

    Editor’s Note:  On March 7, Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns led the U.S. delegation to the Friends of Yemen ministerial meeting in London, United Kingdom. This meeting reaffirmed the international community’s continued support for the people of Yemen during their historic transition process, including the upcoming National Dialogue and, ultimately, national elections in early 2014.  The United States is committed to the Friends of Yemen process and its goal of supporting Yemen as it endeavors to achieve meaningful political, economic, and security sector reform. As part of this commitment, Rashad Hussain, Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, recently traveled to Yemen.

    As a part of our on-going efforts to deepen and expand partnerships with Muslim communities around the world, I recently visited Sana'a, Yemen. I heard first-hand from Yemeni government officials, civil society, and religious leaders about a variety of issues, including the country’s political transition and National Dialogue, U.S.-Yemen cooperation, and U.S. engagement with Muslim communities around the world. I was impressed by the passion and optimism of Yemen’s vibrant civil society, and by the determination and sincerity of its people. There is so much more happening in Yemen than what is conveyed in news headlines that I wanted to share some of my observations.
     
    Just before my arrival, the government announced that the National Dialogue would officially begin on March 18. I spoke with a broad array of civil society activists about their goals and concerns about the National Dialogue.  I encouraged the full and active participation of all parts of Yemeni society in the National Dialogue, and highlighted the important role that civil society plays in ensuring the Dialogue’s success. 

    read more

  • Facebook Updates Its Developer Payment Policy

    Are you a new developer hoping to cash in on Facebook games? If so, Facebook has made some recent changes to its developer payment registration that you will need to be aware of.

    As part of its weekly Operation Developer Love update, Facebook says that it has updated its policy for developer payment registration. The social network says that any developers must now present verification documents if they use a bank account outside the U.S. or Europe. The same applies to those who have Facebook pay out to a PayPal account.

    The change in policy isn’t immediate as Facebook is giving developers until April 22 to gather the necessary documentation. After that date, developers will not be able to accept payments until they present verification documents. For those who don’t want to submit verification documentation or can’t, Facebook encourages them to switch to a “qualifying bank account.” Hit up Facebook’s help center for more information.

    In other news, Facebook has re-opened the apps process to the Preferred Marketing Developer program. The new round of entry features two updates that developers will need to be aware of:

  • In order to focus on high-potential candidates who have proven success working with clients on strategies in-line with our owned, paid and earned media narrative, we are moving to a referral based system where candidates will have to be referred by either a Facebook or Ads PMD employee.
  • We have also announced new requirements for the PMD badge, pushing candidates and members towards deeper integrations across Pages, Ads, Apps and Insights.

    • Check out Facebook’s PMD Badge page for more information.

    March 2013 Breaking Changes also went live last night. Developers will need to make sure that their apps comply with the following changes:

  • No more accessing mailbox FQL tables without a user session
  • Removing apps from /me/accounts/ and page_admin FQL table
  • Removing redirect to docs when hitting graph.facebook.com

    • As for the weekly bug report, Facebook says that 217 bugs were reported this week, and 24 were fixed. Forty-eight bugs were accepted for further review. Check out the blog post for details on the latest bug fixes.

  • Hope Solo 911 Call Audio Released

    Hope Solo, the Olympic gold medal-winning goalkeeper for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, rose to prominence for her goaltending skills, but gained infamy last year after marrying her fiance Jerramy Stevens the day after a violent pre-wedding party incident involving the couple.

    Stevens, who has a history of arrests, was arrested the night before the wedding for fourth-degree domestic violence assault, but was released due to lack of evidence. The police report stated that Solo and Stevens had been arguing before a “physical altercation” occurred involving eight people.

    This week, the 911 call that night from Solo’s brother, Marcus Solo, has been released. The call reveals that the partygoers had, indeed, been drinking and that a stun gun had been involved in the fight.

    For her part, Solo married Stevens just hours later and told the police that the incident was due to “unknown” men at the party. She has maintained since that time that Stevens did not and would not hit her.

    Hope Solo97 days ago

    My beautiful husband & i happy as can be! Let me set the record straight!!! Jerramy has NEVER treated me poorly! The truth always prevails! See more from Hope Solo: http://say.ly/Wco4Gaq

    Powered by socialditto  1,000+ likes ·  834 comments

  • What’s Worse — Glass Ceilings or Glass Cellars?

    Benevolent sexism. Motherhood penalty. Dominant negotiation paradigm. These were some of the ideas discussed at a conference on gender and work hosted by Harvard Business School last week. According to the academic presenters, all three contribute to ongoing discrimination against women in the corporate world. And they have the research to prove it.

    In one example of benevolent sexism cited by Lawrence University’s Peter Glick, a group of junior female Wall Street law firm associates received more narrative praise than their male counterparts but lower numerical ratings. The implication is that bosses were too nice to openly criticize the women and, as a result, those employees didn’t get the feedback they needed to improve or advance. Both HBS’s Amy Cuddy and Stanford’s Shelley Correll outlined the disadvantages faced by employed mothers, including a 5% per child wage penalty (PDF), while Hannah Riley Bowles of Harvard’s Kennedy School and Laura Kray of the University of California, Berkeley explained(PDF) why associating negotiation with the hard-nosed, quantified division of resources makes it seem like women are worse negotiators. Compelling stuff.

    Recently, however, an HBR reader introduced me to three very different terms related to gender and work: Apex fallacy. Glass cellar. Feminine imperative. All of these, he argued, are contributing to a “war on men” in the workplace. This was an issue I’d asked about in my essay called “The Silent Sex” in the March issue of HBR. The apex fallacy is the idea that we use the most visible members of a group to make generalizations about the entire group; i.e. we see prominent men at the top of the pyramid and think all men are doing well, when, in fact, there are a great many at the bottom of the pyramid too. The glass cellar refers to that lowest tier of hazardous or poorly paid jobs (think firefighters, truckers, lumberjacks, coal miners and construction workers) that are mostly held by men. (As National Organization for Men president Warren Farrell noted in this post, of the 25 “worst” professions as determined by the Jobs Rated Almanac, 24 have a workforce that is 85% or more male.) And the feminine imperative is described by bloggers as the tendency for women to define social rules and morality to meet their own needs. Less research and data here than at last week’s conference, of course, but certainly food for thought.

    So who’s right? The feminists and gender studies specialists who study how organizational structure, systems and cultures continue to keep women down? Or the men’s rights activists and writers who claim that men are now the ones being devalued and put at a disadvantage, at least in some contexts?

    In my years as journalist, I’ve heard stories about both traditional discrimination and the reverse; about women who have been passed over for promotions and those whose contribution to organizational diversity has helped them leapfrog more qualified men. I know the statistics on leadership: women are greatly underrepresented. But what’s the view like today from the middle manager’s office, the R&D lab, the IT service desk, the call center, the assembly line, the retail store floor, the college classroom? As the mother of both a boy and a girl, whose future do I have to worry about most?

  • Here’s what cell phone coverage looks like for SXSW

    Austin is ranked sixth out of U.S. cities when it comes to mobile download speeds, based on data collected by Root Metrics, the company that provides crowdsourced cell phone coverage maps. Averaged across the four national carriers Austin download speeds reach 12.3 Mbps, which is pretty zippy for the host of SXSW. Of course, with 25,000 people expected to converge on the Texas capital starting tomorrow for the interactive festival, those speeds will fall precipitously.

    sxsw-comparative2

    As most people are aware, more users mean slower speeds on cellular networks, as there are only so many airwaves available for cellular transmissions and only so many bits that equipment vendors can cram in to those hertz. While Wi-Fi offload will help, as will bringing in more cell towers, the truth of the matter is the network will be stressed. Unfortunately, stressed networks also mean your battery will drain faster, so pack that extra battery.

    But how stressed? That’s the question GigaOM and RootMetrics wants to answer. When a tech savvy population toting the latest mobile tech hits a 4G city with good speeds, what happens? So the company is asking attendees to download its app (as a bonus once it’s downloaded you not only send information to RootMetrics about your experience, but you also get the coverage maps that can come in handy when you hit a dead zone) and tweet their service quality to @rootmetrics with the hashtag #SXSW.

    rootmetrics-sxsw-down-up-speeds

    So grab the app on iOS or Android, and go out there and party like it’s SXSW. We’ll publish the results afterward, so you can see exactly what happens when cell networks meet the geek hordes.

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  • Hugo Chavez Was No Outlier

    With the passing of Hugo Chavez, it is important to understand the place of Chavez in the political history of Venezuela and of all Latin America. We should not think that socialist movements in Latin America will die simply because Chavez has died. He often pointed to Simon Bolivar, Venezuela’s early visionary and leader (1783-1830), as the model for his political philosophy: Latin America must achieve a united independence from foreign powers. For Chavez, this meant not only political independence but also economic independence. It meant nationalization of foreign-owned corporations and distancing Venezuela from the USA, which in the past had often been involved in the internal politics of Latin American nations. It also meant assisting other Latin American nations financially with the wealth from Venezuela’s oil exports. Dramatically, it meant reaching out to nations around the world and establishing new economic relationships, especially with socialist leaders in Cuba and China.

    Chavez was not advocating a new and original political agenda. Nationalistic sentiment was strongly rooted in Latin America’s past. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, the economic doctrine of “dependency theory,” promulgated by the economist Raul Prebisch, supported autarky or economic independence, placing restrictions on imports and foreign ownership. If economic forces were left to themselves, economic forces would victimize the peripheral nations, while the developed nations at the “center” would gain all the benefits of trade and development. Latin America should be for Latin Americans. This protectionist position allowed the growth of domestic monopolies that became increasingly non-competitive. This position also meant that governments were continually intervening in markets with price-setting and regulations, as well as with government ownership. For example, in 1975, a socialist president of Venezuela, Carlos Perez nationalized the oil industry, and used oil revenues to create more government-owned industries, here again causing inefficiencies. However, for many the costs of government intervention seemed to be worth the price. Today, one can view the widespread nationalization of many activities by Chavez in the same way. One can also see his continual intervention in markets, from banking to retail, as motivated by the same belief that government knows best, and that markets are not to be trusted.

    For Venezuela, autarky had long meant creating economic ties with other Latin American nations. The Andean Pact included Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The trade and investment agreement sought to stimulate the economic development of the region as a whole, using this domestic strength in place of the foreign trade and investment that could lead to both political and economic exploitation. In 2005, Chavez supported an oil pipeline project that would link Venezuela’s oil to Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina. Many questioned the economic viability of this pipeline, but for Chavez the investment had political objectives in terms of the Latin America vision. Chavez contributed 70 per cent of the start-up costs for a new Latin American news channel, Telesur; other investors included Argentina, Cuba and Uruguay. Related to its foreign exchange crisis of 2001, Argentina had borrowed substantially from the IMF and other international lenders. Chavez lent Argentina enough capital to pay off these loans.

    Throughout Latin America, the distribution of income and wealth had long been more extreme than in other regions of the world. In elections, it was not surprising that some leaders would advocate policies of income redistribution to gain voter support. People who were not well-off looked to the government to assist them in their daily lives. Most dramatic perhaps was the rise of Juan and Evita Peron in Argentina. Their “Peronist” political platform spread throughout the continent. While the Gini coefficient, which measures inequality, is in the range of .30 to.35 for European nations, the Gini coefficient in Latin American nations still ranges from .45 to far in excess of .50. For Chavez, the deep concern for the needs of the poor was rooted in these realities. Price ceilings for food, medical clinics for the poor, subsidies for gasoline, assistance for housing, and education for the poor all were part of his traditional socialist vision. The rich would have to pay. This belief that the political system had to be changed to achieve social justice for those less fortunate also led to the widespread Catholic movement “liberation theology”. Many priests concluded that they had to support political change in order to attain better economic outcomes. It would be foolish to think that this socialist movement will die with Chavez.

    Chavez extended his support for a new social and economic order to assist leaders in other nations who shared his vision. He appears to have provided aid to the guerrilla movement in Colombia, to Sandinista Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, to Ollanta Humela in Peru, and to Evo Morales in Bolivia. His most substantial and long-standing aid relationship was with Raul and Fidel Castro in Cuba. Chavez exported oil to Cuba in return for medical personnel to work in his clinics for the poor. In this context, he was pleased to develop new economic ties with China.

    We can expect that in Venezuela a strong movement will continue to support the objectives advocated by Chavez, and so too his policies and programs. The movie of Oliver Stone, “South of the Border” presents the Chavez vision in the context of Latin American socialism. Even if new leadership tried to replace what he has done and tried to shift to market freedom and private property, many years would have to pass before the actions of Chavez could be eliminated. Consider his very many nationalizations and his appointment of government bureaucrats to manage them. The difficulties in reversing these, with privatizations and with a return of foreign investment, would be a slow process.

    For all these reasons, change towards free markets and private property and open dissent will not come quickly or easily in Venezuela. We may expect ongoing conflicts. It will be important for those who support free markets and private property and free elections and good relations with the USA to participate in the reconstruction of Venezuela with sensitivity and generosity and commitment.

  • AOL’s CEO to haters: Our content strategy was right after all (and Patch is fine too)

    Media companies live a fraught existence but, even by that standard, AOL walked closer to the valley of death than most. A year ago, most observers (including us) believed AOL was in permanent decline and that its content empire — including its money-losing local sites — was an incoherent mess.

    Today, AOL has mostly bounced back and its CEO Tim Armstrong, who survived an ugly proxy fight last year, seems to feel vindicated. At the Paley Center for Media in New York on Thursday morning, he explained why he bet on a content strategy to turn the company around.

    “Silicon Valley is a pig pile ..  Everyone is putting out the same services, the devices have become more commoditized and the platforms are the same,” said Armstrong. He added that, over time, content is what will differentiate the platforms and that AOL’s strategy is to be the content “arms dealer to Silicon Valley.”

    To achieve this, AOL is pushing forward with an expensive video strategy that involves, in large part, turning the Huffington Post Live into a new type of cable channel. Armstrong says he sees AOL’s video ambitions as a “Clay Christensen type disruption” and that its potential will only expand as mobile technology improves. He added that AOL will also rely on its cable partnerships to feed the appetite for content.

    Armstrong also addressed the future of Patch, AOL’s network of hyper-local sites that have lost a spectacular amount of money and been a punching bag for shareholders and media pundits. He acknowledged that “there’s a lot of dead soldiers on the local hill” and that other efforts, like NBC’s EveryBlock, have flamed out. But he thinks Patch still has a chance.

    “The journalism world pounds on Patch,” said Armstrong, but pointed out that the sites have become a fixture of hundreds of local communities and that Patch’s viability should be seen through a long lens. He added that Patch reaches nine percent of the US population but also 20 percent of the country’s commercial markets, and that the sites will be profitable by the end of the year.

    In response to a query if AOL’s content appetite might include Time Warner’s magazine empire which is now for sale, Armstrong demurred. “I’m a fan of the brands,” he said, but added that the economics for such a deal wouldn’t work.

    AOL’s current feel-good moment is reflected in its share price which is outpacing other media companies and the stock market as a whole (red line is the overall Dow index):

    AOL share price screen shot

    Despite Armstrong’s optimism, however, there are still plenty of reasons to be cautious about AOL. The stock’s high-flying performance is driven in part by a billion dollar patent sale and, for now, AOL still has to prove that it can make its content and ad units profitable. As Henry Blodget pointed out last month, AOL’s revenues may be growing for the first time in eight years but nearly all of its profits continue to come from selling copper wire internet connections to dial-up subscribers.

    (Image by EDHAR via Shutterstock)

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  • Rand Paul’s Filibuster Nets Him 40,000+ Twitter Followers

    On Wednesday (and into early Thursday), Kentucky Junior Senator Rand Paul led a 13-hour filibuster – the old-fashioned “talk until you can’t talk anymore” type. Paul, aided by a handful of other Senators, used exactly 12 hours and 52 minutes to delay the confirmation of John Brennan as CIA head. Paul stated that the filibuster was in response to the government’s drone program, specifically a clause that may allow the use of drones on American citizens on American soil.

    And he live-tweeted the whole thing.

    This, combined with the bevy of news coverage, led Rand Paul to gain an incredible amount of Twitter followers.

    But just how many followers has he gained since yesterday? Over 40,000, actually.

    TwitterCounter showed just over 96,000 followers for Senator Paul on Wednesday before the epic filibuster began. And as of the writing of this article, Paul has just over 140,000.

    If you want to raise your influence on social media, it appears that a two-day filibuster isn’t a bad idea.

  • The Showdown Effect Review (PC)

    I know that death awaits me somewhere in the shadows up ahead, moving fast along the floor or dangling from a ledge, embodied by a player who has better aim or is sharper with a bladed weapon.

    I also know that my strength lies in quick movement and slashing with my trusty katana, mainly because most of my enemies move so fast and in such unpredictable … (read more)

  • Apple triumphs over Samsung in latest patent infringement trial

    Apple Samsung Patent Infringement U.K.
    Apple (AAPL) scored another win against Samsung (005930) on Thursday in the latest patent infringement battle between the two companies. A UK court ruled that the iPhone maker did not unlawfully use Samsung’s protected technologies in its mobile devices, according to Reuters. The company argued that Apple infringed upon three of its patents relating to processing and transmitting data on 3G networks, however all of Samsung’s claims were dismissed. The decision comes shortly after a Tokyo courtroom also found that Apple did not infringe upon the company’s wireless technology in Japan. A Samsung spokesperson said the company was disappointed by the court’s decision and “upon a thorough review of the judgment we will decide whether to file an appeal.”

  • Facebook vs. Twitter: How do you like your social news feed, filtered or unfiltered?

    New York Times writer Nick Bilton’s complaints this week about how little engagement his content gets on Facebook sparked a debate about whether the network is deliberately hiding certain types of content in order to promote its paid-reach services — but it also highlighted how much Facebook controls the feed users see, often in ways that they don’t understand or may not even be aware of.

    Facebook is going to be launching some new features for its feed on Thursday, which may include new ways of filtering specific kinds of content and possibly new advertising features. Meanwhile, Twitter continues to show you everything, without filtering or ranking it in any way. Which method is better? That depends on how and why you are using it.

    Much of Bilton’s criticism revolves around what some call the “subscribe” function, which allows users to get updates from others without having to ask their permission. When it launched in the fall of 2011, it was widely seen as an attempt to copy Twitter’s “asymmetric following” model, since Twitter lets users get updates from whoever they wish — whereas Facebook’s model has always been symmetric, in the sense that users must agree to be friends before they can see each other’s updates. Late last year, Facebook changed the name of this feature to “follow,” which made the similarity to Twitter even more obvious.

    Do you want to see everything in your feed?

    twitter bird tweets logo drawing

    As an attempt to copy Twitter, the follow feature seems to be largely a failure — at least if the experiences of Bilton and others who have complained about Facebook’s newsfeed, such as billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, are anything to go by. They say they don’t get much engagement, which makes them question whether their content is even reaching their subscribers, and whether Facebook is tweaking their feed so that certain kinds of updates don’t show up as frequently.

    The last time this topic came up, when Cuban and actor George Takei were criticizing the network because of the lack of engagement from subscribers, a number of Facebook users attacked the company for filtering their feeds and not showing them all of the updates from pages or individuals they were following. Some users said the equivalent of: “If I subscribe to someone, I want to see all their updates, not just the ones that you choose to show me.”

    In a nutshell, this is the fundamental difference between Twitter and Facebook: the former doesn’t apply any filters to the stream of updates users get, apart from those required by law — if you follow a couple of thousand users, as I do, then you get all of the updates from all of those users, and they flow past you in a giant river of undifferentiated tweets, in reverse chronological order.

    Facebook, however, applies all kinds of algorithmic tweaks to a newsfeed based on what some call EdgeRank (although this isn’t a term Facebook uses internally, according to Anthony De Rosa of Reuters), and therefore some updates are more prominent than others, and in some cases updates may never appear at all. Users have control over some of the knobs and dials that will hide or reveal certain kinds of posts, but there is also a lot of filtering that goes on behind the scenes, which makes Facebook a bit of a Google-style black box.

    It’s hard to know what you’re missing

    637885_-top_secret-

    Depending on how you see them, these two different approaches can be a good thing or a bad thing: Twitter’s method is theoretically more transparent and comprehensive, since it is completely unfiltered — but it can also be overwhelming, and the network has worked hard to try and help users cope with this vast stream of content, via things like the Discover tab. Facebook’s method seems a lot more invasive and secretive, but at the same time it can make it easier to cope with the never-ending ocean of content — an average of 2,000 posts a day for each user.

    Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land has a useful analogy for the difference between the two: Twitter is a little like real-time TV news, while Facebook functions more like a DVR that lets you watch things after they have happened (although to some extent the network chooses what to show you, which your DVR doesn’t). They are two very different experiences of a social stream.

    While Facebook users might complain that they want to see everything their social graph posts, the reality is that they likely wouldn’t see everything anyway — unless they sat on their computer all day long reading everything that was posted. Most die-hard Twitter users likely don’t see everything their followers post either, unless they watch the network 24 hours a day, and many use lists (as I do) to try and cope with the volume of content that is posted, or services like Paper.li that allow them to “time shift” that content and catch up with it later.

    In the end, the question hangs not just on how you want to handle that stream of updates from your social graph, but who you trust to do that management for you: in the case of Twitter, you are pretty much on your own, and that can be chaotic — but there is a certain purity to it. With Facebook, you have some tools at your disposal to manage that content, but the network itself also does a lot behind the scenes without telling you much about how it works. Facebook says it’s for your own good, but how do you really know what you are missing?

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  • Why Anti-DDoS Services Matter in Today’s Business Environment

    Although the Internet has been around for a while, the boost in cloud computing has increased the utilization of WAN services. Any organization now using the Cloud or some type of Internet-based service must be aware of the security risks that come with the platform. With the evolution of the modern data center – and the use of cloud computing – has created more targets for attackers to go after. The widespread availability of inexpensive attack tools enables anyone to carry out distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. This has profound implications for the threat landscape, risk profile, network architecture and security deployments of Internet operators and Internet-connected enterprises.

    With the direct increase in cloud services, organizations are utilizing more Internet services and greater amounts of bandwidth. Because of this, attackers are increasing the size and number of their attacks on targeted organizations. In a recent survey conducted by Arbor Networks the size of volumetric DDoS attacks have steadily grown. The truly troubling piece, however, was the report in 2010 of a 100 Gbps attack. To put that in perspective, that is more than double the size of the largest attack in 2009. This staggering figure illustrates the resources hackers are capable of bringing to bear when attacking a network or service.

    Arbor Networks — Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report, Volume VI

    Image source: Arbor Networks — Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report, Volume VI

    Although these attacks have been simplified in deployment – they’ve certainly evolved in complexity. The methods hackers use to carry out DDoS attacks have evolved from the traditional high bandwidth/volumetric attacks to more stealthy application-layer attacks, with a combination of both being used in some cases.

    In working with DDoS-type attacks, administrators must understand the depth of the DDoS problem. Volumetric attacks are also getting larger, with a larger base of either malware-machines or volunteered hosts being used to launch these attacks. Well-known groups, such as Anonymous, have brought a new type of DDoS attack into scope as well – hactivism. As these attacks become more prevalent, IT administrators must have good visibility into the complex threat environment and the true need for a full-spectrum solution. Download this white paper to see how DDoS can affect a business and the true importance for a solid security infrastructure. In this paper, Frost & Sullivan outline the various points in creating an all-encompassing security solution. Key points include:

    • Integrity and Confidentiality vs. Availability
    • Protect Your Business from the DDoS Threat
    • Cloud-Based DDoS Protection
    • Perimeter-Based DDoS Protection
    • Out-of-the-Box Protection
    • Advanced DDoS Blocking
    • Botnet Threat Mitigation
    • Cloud Signaling

    The increase in cloud computing will result in more DDoS attacks on organizations. Since more targets are being presented, attackers may use a myriad of reasons to target an IT environment. This white paper outlines the key points in understanding DDoS attacks and how to strategically protect your environment. In creating a solid security solution, administrators are able to secure their infrastructure both at the perimeter and the cloud level.

  • Coach Dies in Freak Accident Involving Bicycle, Gate

    The Sacramento Bee is reporting that a Rio Linda High School teacher has died in a tragic accident involving his bicycle and an open gate arm.

    The report states that Adams, who was a popular multimedia teacher, as well as a track and football coach at the high school, was riding his bicycle after track practice on Monday, March 4. On his way out of the stadium parking lot he was impaled on the arm of an open metal swing gate.

    Adams, who was 59, was taken to the hospital where he died after enduring multiple surgeries. According to the Bee, Adams’ students and co-workers filled hospital halls and waiting rooms throughout the night.

    The Twin Rivers Unified School District has released a statement expressing its sadness:

    We are deeply saddened by the death of one of our beloved teachers, 59-year-old Marion Adams, who passed away early this morning after a tragic bicycle accident March 4. Adams was a multimedia teacher and track and football coach at Rio Linda High School.

    His death has had a major impact on our Twin Rivers family. We have had a crisis intervention team at RLHS today working with students and faculty members. These professionals are well prepared to assist us during this difficult time.

    Adams was a 1972 graduate of RLHS and began teaching there in 2004. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and colleagues, and the students who admired him. He will be missed by all of us.

    The Bee states that Adams was an avid sports fan who’s favorite teams were the the 49ers and the Giants. Adams leaves behind a wife, son, daughter, and two grandchildren.

    (Image via Facebook)

  • Matterport Inks $5.6M Series A

    Matterport, a developer of 3D scanning technology, raised $5.6 million in Series A financing. The company is backed by Lux Capital, which led the round, and by Felicis Ventures, Red Swan Ventures, Greylock, and Qualcomm Ventures. The company is creating a “3D camera and interactive viewing platform.”

    PRESS RELEASE
    Matterport, the leader in rapid 3D scanning of spaces and objects, announced today that it raised a $5.6 million Series A financing round to create immersive experiences with interior spaces, starting with your home. Lux Capital led this latest investment round, with participation from Felicis Ventures, Red Swan Ventures, Greylock, Qualcomm Ventures, as well as a number of prominent Silicon Valley angels.

    “Together we are transcending limitations of the physical world by allowing people to communicate in 3D.”

    “We welcome the participation of these investors,” said Matt Bell, inventor of the camera and Matterport co-founder. “Together we are transcending limitations of the physical world by allowing people to communicate in 3D.”

    “Matterport makes the extraordinary look easy,” said Peter Hebert, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Lux Capital. “Using advanced hardware and algorithms, Matterport helps consumers and businesses create accurate, photo-realistic 3D models – quickly, easily and automatically. Beyond initial markets in housing and interiors, the range of end applications is bounded only by the creativity of the Matterport community.”

    Matterport will soon launch the first-ever 3D camera and interactive viewing platform – allowing its community to create virtual models of any indoor space and access the resulting 3D image from a web browser or iPad – anytime, anywhere.

    Matterport’s cloud engine changes the way we understand and view spaces by allowing users to post and share them with the world. Users can freely navigate, measure, tag objects, and pin notes to anything in the 3D image, unlike conventional static photographs. Anyone will be able to explore homes, vacation rentals, or local restaurants remotely, as well as plan and visualize remodels.

    Founded in 2011, the Silicon Valley company launched out of Y Combinator, and raised a $1.6 million Seed financing in 2012 to develop initial versions of the camera hardware and software. The Series A will enable Matterport to scale production to meet market demand.

    Matterport has begun taking pre-orders for their 3D camera. For more information and to join the Matterport community, visit www.matterport.com.

    About Matterport

    Matterport makes it possible for anyone to automatically create 3D models of real-world spaces and share them online. The company serves direct customers and works with strategic business partners to serve a variety of markets. Matterport is located in Mountain View, California.

    The post Matterport Inks $5.6M Series A appeared first on peHUB.

  • Watch Facebook’s New News Feed Event Live

    Today, at 10am PST, Facebook will kick off an event at their Menlo Park HQ. At the event, Facebook says that they will unveil “a new look for the news feed.” You can watch it live below.

    Reports indicate that Facebook plans to debut content-specific news feeds that let users sort by photos, music, and maybe more. Facebook is also expected to put bigger images, including ads, in the new news feed.

  • Unity 4 Early Access Program Available To Windows 8 Developers

    In just a few years, Unity has become a premier game development engine that has encouraged indie developers all around the world to create expansive titles for PC, consoles and mobile. With Unity 4, the engine is ready to take on big budget game development, and Windows 8 is invited along for the ride.

    Unity announced that Unity 4.2 is now available to Windows 8 developers as part of a Windows Store apps early access program. Developers can use the new tools available in Unity 4.2 to create games for both x86 and ARM-based systems. It also supports DirectX 11 so games can take advantage of all the newest technologies available to developers.

    “With the beta of the Unity 4 game engine for Windows 8, the entire Unity community of 1.5 million developers can get started quickly building games for Windows 8,” said John Richards, Senior Director of Windows Apps Marketing for Microsoft. “The number of high quality Unity-based games already created for PC, Xbox and mobile devices is impressive, and we’re excited to see the amazing games the community brings to Windows 8 with Unity.”

    As part of the early access program, developers will be able to port games to the Windows Store platform using the Unity 4.2 beta builds. All registered participants in the beta will receive a two month trial license that will unlock Windows Store app platform support in the Unity toolset.

    It should be noted that any games created for Windows 8 using this beta will not be available for commercial release. It’s meant to help developers get a feel for developing with Unity on the Windows 8 platform. Those who wish to commercially release their games on Windows 8 using Unity 4.2 will want to buy a full license when the public commercial release of Unity comes out. If you can’t wait for that, you can contact the Unity Sales team to work out a deal to publish a game using the Unity 4.2 beta.

  • Sycamore Partners Pays $600M for Hot Topic

    Sycamore Partners is paying about $600 million to buy teen clothing retailer Hot Topic Inc. Sycamore will pay $14 per share in cash, a 30% premium to Hot Topic’s Wednesday close price of $10.75 per share. Sycamore Partners acquired women’s clothing retailer Talbots last year.

    PRESS RELEASE
    Hot Topic, Inc. (nasdaq global select market:HOTT) (“Hot Topic” or the “Company”) and Sycamore Partners today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Sycamore Partners will acquire Hot Topic for $14.00 per share in cash, or a total of approximately $600 million. The agreement, which has been unanimously approved by Hot Topic’s Board of Directors, represents a premium of approximately 30% over Hot Topic’s closing stock price on March 6, 2013.

    Lisa Harper, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Hot Topic, said, “We are pleased that this transaction will allow us to deliver positive results for our shareholders. In addition, we are very excited about the future growth for the company and know that Sycamore Partners will provide great resources and expertise to us as we operate as a private company.”

    “We are excited to partner with the Hot Topic management team and all of its talented and passionate employees,” said Stefan Kaluzny, Managing Director of Sycamore Partners. “We look forward to supporting the Company’s continued growth.”

    The transaction, which is structured as a one-step merger with Hot Topic as the surviving corporation, is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of shareholder and regulatory approvals. The transaction requires the affirmative vote of holders of a majority of the Company’s outstanding shares, which will be sought at a special meeting of shareholders.

    In connection with the merger agreement, Lisa Harper and Becker Drapkin Management LP, holders of 8.9% of the Company’s stock, each signed customary support agreements indicating they would support the proposed transaction.

    Guggenheim Securities is acting as financial advisor to Hot Topic in connection with the transaction. Cooley LLP is acting as Hot Topic’s legal advisor. BofA Merrill Lynch is acting as financial advisor to Sycamore Partners and Winston & Strawn LLP and the Law Offices of Gary M. Holihan, P.C. are acting as its legal counsel.

    About Hot Topic

    Hot Topic, Inc. is a mall and web based specialty retailer operating the Hot Topic and Torrid concepts, as well as a new test retail concept, Blackheart. Hot Topic offers music/pop culture-licensed and music/pop culture-influenced apparel, accessories, music and gift items for young men and women. Torrid retails on-trend fashion apparel, lingerie and accessories inspired by and designed to fit the young, voluptuous woman who wears size 12 and up. Blackheart offers an expanded collection of dark, edgy, sexy lingerie, accessories and beauty products. As of February 2, 2013, the Company operated 618 Hot Topic stores in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Canada, 190 Torrid stores, 5 Blackheart stores, and Internet stores hottopic.com, torrid.com and blackheartlingerie.com.

    About Sycamore Partners

    Sycamore Partners is a private equity firm based in New York specializing in consumer and retail investments. The firm has more than $1 billion in capital under management. The founders of Sycamore have a long history of partnering with management teams to improve the operating profitability and strategic value of their businesses. They work with companies they believe have significant growth potential, particularly when given the capital and outside expertise they need to succeed. For more information, please visit www.sycamorepartners.com.

    Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

    The press release contains forward-looking statements. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about beliefs or expectations, are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on plans, estimates and projections at the time the Company makes the statements, and readers should not place undue reliance on them. In some cases, readers can identify forward-looking statements by the use of forward-looking terms such as “may,” “will,” “should, “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terms. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, and the Company cautions readers that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any such forward-looking statement. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the press release include, among others: the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the merger agreement and the inability to complete the proposed merger due to the failure to obtain shareholder approval for the proposed merger or the failure to satisfy other conditions to completion of the proposed merger, including that a governmental entity may prohibit, delay or refuse to grant approval for the consummation of the transaction. Additional risks are described in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 28, 2012 and its subsequently filed reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements included in the Press Release, which speak only as of the date hereof. The Company does not undertake to update any of these statements in light of new information or future events.

    Important Additional Information

    In connection with the proposed merger, Hot Topic, Inc. will prepare a proxy statement to be filed with the SEC. When completed, a definitive proxy statement and a form of proxy will be mailed to the shareholders of the Company. THE COMPANY’S SHAREHOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ THE PROXY STATEMENT REGARDING THE PROPOSED MERGER BECAUSE IT WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. The Company’s shareholders will be able to obtain, without charge, a copy of the proxy statement (when available) and other relevant documents filed with the SEC from the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov. The Company’s shareholders will also be able to obtain, without charge, a copy of the proxy statement and other relevant documents (when available) by directing a request by mail to Hot Topic, Inc., 18305 E. San Jose Avenue, City of Industry, California, attention: Jonathan Block, Secretary, or by calling (626) 839-4681.

    Hot Topic and its directors and officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from Hot Topic’s shareholders with respect to the proposed merger. Information about Hot Topic’s directors and executive officers and their ownership of Hot Topic’s common stock is set forth in the proxy statement for the Company’s 2012 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on April 26, 2012 and will be set forth in the proxy statement regarding the proposed merger. Shareholders may obtain additional information regarding the interests of Hot Topic and its directors and executive officers in the proposed merger, which may be different than those of Hot Topic’s stockholders generally, by reading the proxy statement and other relevant documents regarding the proposed merger, when filed with the SEC.

    The post Sycamore Partners Pays $600M for Hot Topic appeared first on peHUB.