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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Publishers' love-hate relationship with Facebook continues. The post Best of the week: Facebook’s Instant Articles are falling out of favor with publishers appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2017-04-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers have live tech video fever. On Wednesday, Bloomberg Technology reporter Mark Gurman will debut “Gadgets with Gurman,” a product-focused show that will feature Gurman showing viewers tips and hacks that get help them get the most out of a product. The first episode, which focuses on... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2017-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As subscription growth becomes more top of mind to publishers, Facebook's fast-loading article feature is losing favor. The post Facebook faces increased publisher resistance to Instant Articles appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2017-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When Fast Company first wrote about Mark Zuckerberg, in the spring of 2007, he was just 22 years old and his young company, Facebook, had just 19 million users. Our magazine cover line, “The Kid Who Turned Down $1 Billion,” seems almost quaint in hindsight, given Facebook’s $400 billion market... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2017-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook Monday announced a host of updates to its video metrics in page insights. The social network said in a Facebook Media blog post that it made the following changes "based on feedback from our publisher partners": Adding aggregate minutes viewed. Simplifying aggregate video views. Making... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2017-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bill O’Reilly has just entered the Nose Pin Zone, where advertisers would have to clamp something over their nostrils in order to not smell the toxic publicity coming from his recent sexual harassment lawsuit revelations. It started with a months-in-the-works New York Times article on April 1,... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2017-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook is giving publishers new tools to attract digital subscribers as the social-media giant tries to ease concerns that its growing power threatens the media industry.In recent months, Facebook has tested "call-to-action" features with select media outlets participating in its Instant... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2017-04-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook is adding email and page like call-to-action units to its Instant Articles format for publishers, and the social network is testing CTA units for free trials and mobile application installations. Product manager Josh Roberts introduced the calls to action in a Facebook Media blog post,... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2017-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Murray publisher Mark Richards has pre-empted a novel about a "psychopathic but glamorous and alluring" Russian assassin, Codename Villanelle, by Luke Jennings. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A couple of years ago, Facebook introduced M, an AI-powered personal assistant for Messenger. The idea behind M is that you could ask it to do pretty much anything -- book flights, cancel your cable service and even find a plumber -- and it'll do it... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2017-04-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Murray has appointed Joseph Zigmond, formerly of HarperCollins imprint William Collins, as senior commissioning editor. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Twitter has been promoting publishers' videos, which has helped publishers find new audiences and make money on the platform. The post In Facebook’s shadow, Twitter cozies up to video publishers with reliable cash appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2017-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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While Canadians are usually known for being nice, Kik is having a bit of fun at Facebook's expense this April Fools' Day. The wildly popular Waterloo, Ontario-based messaging app published a fake blog post today outlining plans to launch Storyz, a feature that lets users share photos and videos... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2017-03-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook Thursday announced several updates related to branded content: enabling more pages to share it; updating its branded content tag to include the word "paid"; and cleaning up its policy and enforcement guidelines. The social network began allowing verified pages to publish branded content... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2017-03-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Blake is publishing a junior doctor's memoir, Your Life in My Hands, that it says captures "the extraordinary realities of life on the NHS frontline" at a time of "unprecedented crisis". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-03-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The social network's latest announcement is good news for publishers, Amazon and Facebook itself, but not so much for Google and traditional supply-side platforms. The post The winners and losers of Facebook’s dive into header bidding appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2017-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Murray is publishing We Have No Idea, a book exploring "everything we don't know about the universe", accompanied by 400 "hilarious" cartoons and infographics. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-03-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Like most publishers, European publishers have Facebook on the mind. The post Digiday research: Three quarters of European publishers prioritize Facebook appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2017-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fresh on the heels of Facebook's header bidding endorsement, Google is moving to add dozens of technology partners and hundreds of publishers to the open beta of its header bidding alternative, called exchange bidding dynamic allocation, or EBDA.Google is expected to start the open beta by early... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2017-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Singer and presenter Gloria Hunniford is publishing a new autobiography with John Blake this October. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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