The proof that Facebook is broken is obvious from its very modus operandi | John Naughton

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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ALA 2016: Congressman John Lewis Inspires In Orlando

Fresh off leading a “sit-in” on the floor of the House of Representatives, author and Civil Rights leader Congressman John Lewis spoke to librarians at the 2016 ALA Annual Conference this weekend, delivering a message of hope and perseverance. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook plays favorites with publishers

As Facebook, Google, Apple and Snapchat compete for audiences and advertising, they're providing new outlets for publishers to distribute their news content, but some publishers have been bigger beneficiaries than others. BuzzFeed, CNN and The New York Times are three whose resources, scale and... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2016-06-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #publishers appeared #news content


Facebook Pays Publishers Over $50 Million to Start Using Live Video

Company signs over $50 million in deals with 140 companies and celebrities for Facebook Live content. The post Facebook Pays Publishers Over $50 Million to Start Using Live Video appeared first on Folio:. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2016-06-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #$50 million #live video


Facebook hones a new pitch to jettisoned LiveRail customers

Facebook is offering new video ad services for some publishers that were formerly clients of LiveRail, the programmatic platform it shut down last month. Facebook is offering some LiveRail refugees, premium publishers, a special partnership program where they could tap its rich data and use it... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2016-06-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #premium publishers #programmatic platform #ad technology


Tumblr Is Getting Into Live Video, But It's Completely Different Than Facebook or Periscope

Yahoo-owned Tumblr wants in on livestreaming, and it's taking a different route than Facebook or Twitter's Periscope app. Today the site is launching a live video feature that will let content creators and brands push their clips to Tumblr. But unlike live video on Facebook, Twitter and... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2016-06-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #video player #brands push #huffington post #existing platforms


John Gaustad obituary

Bookseller who transformed the perception of sports writing and set up the William Hill Sports Book awardJohn Gaustad, who has died aged 68, was a quietly spoken New Zealander who revolutionised the British sports books industry. In 1985 he opened Sportspages, a small shop in Caxton Walk, off... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2016-06-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #small shop #good book


How Fusion, Complex and other publishers are using Facebook Messenger bots

Two months after Facebook Messenger opened up a bot platform to outside companies, we took a look at the offerings from four developers -- Fusion, TechCrunch, Betaworks and Complex -- that created bots to interact with Messenger's 900 million users. Two months in, the bots are a work in... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2016-06-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #facebook hasn


How the Ad Council Used Facebook's Atlas to Drive Donations and Volunteers

A recent campaign success story for Feeding America could shed light on how consumers are using devices and which publishers are actually driving traffic. Working with the Ad Council and Facebook's Atlas measurement platform, the Chicago-based nonprofit launched an eight-week digital campaign... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2016-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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News UK is doing 25 Facebook Live videos a week

News UK is ramping up its Facebook Live output from a couple a week to five a day. For the last six weeks, live videos have been largely done by its tabloid title, The Sun, where it blends stunt-style videos, like grown men plunging into ice baths, with highly visual footage, like filling up... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2016-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #week appeared #news uk #live videos


Marketers Are Slowly Experimenting With Audio in Their Snapchat and Facebook Videos

For the past year or so, Facebook has conditioned advertisers and publishers to create video that can be understood without sound, as more clips that play automatically (and silently) when users scroll fill news feeds. With 100 million hours of video viewed every day and the explosion of... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2016-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Intel becomes the first brand to publish on Facebook’s Instant Articles

Facebook, which created Instant Articles a year ago to make publishers' articles load faster, is now giving that tool to brands. Intel is using the tool to post articles from its digital tech-focused publication, iQ. “This is a wonderful move to signal we’re not just an advertiser," Intel's... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2016-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #make publishers #post articles #big advantage #organic reach


Facebook's rise as news source hits publishers' revenues

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism report also finds importance of TV news is waning among young peoplePeople are increasingly heading to social media such as Facebook for news, making it more difficult for publishers to attract and make money from readers, according to an influential... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2016-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #make money #digital ads #business models


‘Between scrappy and slick’: How The Economist is using Facebook live video

The Economist has been experimenting with Facebook Live since January and, along the way, is trying to figure out how to translate its polished journalistic brand to the raw format. The publisher is still looking for that balance between "scrappy and slick," said deputy community editor Adam... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2016-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #facebook live #tv broadcast


How Insider is selling its newfound Facebook video expertise to brands

The rise of social video has changed the game for publishers like Business Insider, which owns a Facebook-based property called Insider that generates more than 1.3 billion video views a month across all platforms. In April, Facebook updated its branded-content policies that opened a path for... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2016-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #business insider #brands appeared #social video #diet coke


Security researcher: Anyone can see links you share using Facebook Messenger

When you use a messaging service like Facebook Messenger, you have a reasonable expectation that what you say is private and secure. But due to a quirk in how Facebook handles certain pieces of information, just about anyone who knows how to use Facebook’s developer API can view links that... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2016-06-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #facebook messenger #security researcher #messaging service #post published


German publishers are pooling data to compete with Google and Facebook

German media's relationship with Google and Facebook has been fraught with tension. In the last nine months, eight of the 10 biggest publishing groups in Germany, including Axel Springer, have been pooling reader data from nearly 1,000 websites to create highly targeted, quality data segments... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2016-06-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #facebook appeared #german publishers #german media #advertising spend


Facebook tests News Feed-only posts that avoid your Timeline

Being able to hide a Facebook update after it posts isn't entirely new, but the social network is testing a way to let users keep things from ever hitting their Timeline. A "Hide From Your Timeline" checkbox will allow you to only publish something i... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2016-06-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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How FloSports used Facebook to grow paid subscribers by 22 percent

FloSports, which covers niche sports like volleyball and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, grew subscribers by 22 percent after changing up its Facebook content and advertising strategy. The company now puts up nearly 400 videos per month on Facebook and has started targeting users based on characteristics... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2016-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #facebook content


Facebook endorsements are good for news sites, but where's the money?

Social media ‘currency’ is all very well, but it doesn’t fund journalismTrinity Mirror regularly publishes the numbers of its Facebook and Twitter followers and likes (example here). Archant has also boasted of its social media success when doing the same.Many journalists find this less than... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2016-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #news sites #twitter followers #trinity mirror


A YouTube billionaire, Motor Trend revs up for Facebook Live

TEN, the parent company of Motor Trend and other sports magazines and websites, plans to produce 20 hours of live programming per month on Facebook. With Motor Trend, this means bringing viewers closer to the action at industry car shows, as well as interviews with top personalities and athletes... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2016-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #facebook live #motor trend