Despite employing a small army of contractors to monitor posts, it’s clear the company is no longer fit for purposeWay back in the 1950s, a pioneering British cybernetician, W Ross Ashby, proposed a fundamental law of dynamic systems. In his book An Introduction to Cybernetics, he formulated his law of requisite variety, which defines “the minimum number of states necessary for a controller to control a system of a given number of states”. In plain English, it boils down to this: for a system to be viable, it has to be able to absorb or cope with the complexity of its environment. And there are basically only two ways of achieving viability in those terms: either the system manages to control (or reduce) the variety of its environment, or it has to increase its internal capacity (its “variety”) to match what is being thrown at it from the environment.Sounds abstruse, I know, but it has a contemporary resonance. Specifically, it provides a way of understanding some of the current internal turmoil in Facebook as it grapples with the problem of keeping unacceptable, hateful or psychotic content off its platform. Two weeks ago, the New York Times was leaked 1,400 pages from the rulebooks that the company’s moderators are trying to follow as they police the stuff that flows through its servers. According to the paper, the leak came from an employee who said he “feared that the company was exercising too much power, with too little oversight – and making too many mistakes”.... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Viking is preparing for a "huge" campaign around the publication of John le Carré's new book, A Legacy of Spies, dubbed "the literary event of the autumn". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-09-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Independent poetry publisher Carcanet Press has paid tribute to poet John Ashbery who has died aged 90. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-09-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Barack Obama published a Facebook post calling the White house out on its decision to rescind the Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Act. “To target these young people is wrong–because they have done nothing wrong,” Obama writes. “It is self-defeating–because they want to start new... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2017-09-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Murray is publishing Jessie Greengrass’s first novel, Sight, in February 2018. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-09-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This week, our top stories examined the debut of Facebook-funded shows on Watch, publishers’ pivots to video and more. The post Best of the week: Facebook eyes YouTube with launch of Watch shows appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2017-09-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook Watch is barely out of the gate, and publishers are already talking to advertisers about distributing branded shows on the platform. The post Coming soon to Facebook Watch: sponsored shows appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2017-08-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Welcome to books this week! First, a couple of stories that you can find only online: THE BIG STORY John Smelcer’s YA book “Stealing Indians” is a finalist for the recently announced PEN Center USA awards. Questions about Smelcer have been raised since 1994, when he was teaching at the University... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2017-08-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook revealed the most talked about video games and consoles on its platform during Gamescom, the German trade fair taking place Aug. 22 through 26. During the week of Gamescom, Facebook said more than 14 million users were behind 29 million interactions (posts, comments, Reactions and... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2017-08-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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And publishers get to keep all of the revenue, says Mark Zuckerberg. The post Facebook Confirms Plan to Help Pubs Sell Subscriptions Through Instant Articles appeared first on Folio:. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2017-08-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Wiley was founded in 1807 and competes in three markets represented by its core divisions of Research, Professional Development, and Education. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-08-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook, giving back publishers a piece of their identities, is letting them display their logos alongside headlines. It's a move meant to appease media partners that feel they've lost the power of their brands when posting articles to social media.On Tuesday, the social network released new... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2017-08-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook introduced an easy way for users to tell when articles in its Trending feature and search originate from publishers. Product manager Andrew Anker said in a blog post that the social network eventually intends to expand these publisher logos to "all places where people consume news on... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2017-08-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This spring, Blossom posted a Facebook video that began with an image of women's underwear and featured seven tidy hacks for organizing your clothes. The post racked up a staggering 382 million views and nearly 12 million shares, making it the most viral video in Facebook history, according to... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2017-08-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When white supremacists plan rallies like the one a few days ago in Charlottesville, United States, they often organise their events on Facebook, pay for supplies with PayPalâ, book their lodging with Airbnbâ and ride with Uber. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2017-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Alphabet's Google is developing new tools designed to boost subscriptions for news publishers. It follows a similar olive branch from Facebook to an industry that has seen the digital behemoths take over the online advertising market.Google's latest foray arrives on three fronts. The first is a... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2017-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When white supremacists plan rallies like the one a few days ago in Charlottesville, Virginia, they often organize their events on Facebook, pay for supplies with PayPal, book their lodging with Airbnb and ride with Uber. Tech companies, for their part, have been taking pains to distance... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2017-08-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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CEO says Facebook is ‘watching closely’ and will ‘take down threats of physical harm’, joining raft of tech companies purging white nationalists and neo-NazisMark Zuckerberg broke his silence on the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville last weekend, writing in a Facebook post Wednesday... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-08-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Media ratings giant Nielsen announced today that publishers will now get credit for digital video content aired on Facebook, Hulu and YouTube. "Through capturing this audience, Nielsen is providing publishers, agencies and advertisers with a better p... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2017-08-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hodder & Stoughton is publishing a new "highly topical" legal thriller from John Grisham this October, The Rooster Bar, inspired by the student debt crisis. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-08-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Late Wednesday night, Facebook announced the roll-out of its TV-like programming slate for its new vertical called Watch, which will feature original shows from dozens of publishers and companies. NASA, Mashable, MLB and more will produce episodic content for viewers to like, comment and keep up... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2017-08-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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