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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What if there were an ad that you just couldn't draw your eyes from? It's oddly captivating, almost hypnotic, and it would halt your thumb from scrolling farther down your Facebook feed. There's one such creative format that is only now catching on as the digital world's equivalent of the... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2015-02-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Green spoke before Wi10 booksellers Monday afternoon, thanking them for jump-starting his literary career 10 years ago. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-02-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook is allowing a new ad type in its yearly awards: Instagram campaigns. The Facebook Awards started taking submissions last week, and for the first time, Instagram ads are up for consideration, the social network said. This is the fourth year Facebook is hosting the ad awards, and Adweek... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2015-02-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook continues to do what few digital publishers can pull off: Over each of the last five quarters, the social network has been able to boost revenue even as it sells fewer ads.The ability to raise prices has rocketed Facebook's overall revenue to $3.85 billion in the most recent quarter. In... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2015-01-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Snapchat has introduced a new feature which allows its users to view articles, images, and videos from a variety of publishers inside the company’s messaging application. It’s called Discover, and it’s a major depar ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2015-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Over the weekend a court in Turkey told Facebook to block several pages that had been deemed to insult the Prophet Mohammad. A court order was delivered to the social network with the threat that if Facebook failed to comply, the site would be completely blocked in Turkey. Turkey's banging of... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2015-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The writers reportedly visited 22 schools over the course of one week for their children's book. 'Two' centers on prankster rivals living in the town of Yawnee Valley. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Zuckerberg is asking Facebook users to join him in reading certain titles this year. The next book to be part of the program is Steven Pinker's 'The Better Angels of Our Nature.' Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-01-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook announced yet another tweak to the algorithm that governs its users’ News Feeds yesterday. The social network has introduced a new tool that allows users to flag a post as “a false news story.” The move follows ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2015-01-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Social network will ensure fewer people see posts reported as false by users, but it’s sticking to its policy of being a platform, not a publisherNo, Bill Gates isn’t giving away $5,000 if you share his Facebook photo. No, the Talking Angela app isn’t a front for online paedophiles. And no, an... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-01-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Two words: talent grab.You may not recognize the Toronto-based design firm Teehan+Lax, but you probably know some of the hit products it's behind, like the social publishing platform Medium and the reading app Readability. Now, the firm is closing, as Facebook—in a play for total publishing... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2015-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mark Zuckerberg’s second book for his Facebook book club is The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker (Penguin). The book is currently showing as not in stock on Amazon.co.uk until January 21st, and on Amazon.com until January 24th. The book is showing as available on the Waterstones’... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Says his condemnation of Paris attack was to support freedom of expression but sees ‘tricky calculus’ in countries where that’s restrictedFacebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has defended his decision to condemn the recent terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine on free speech... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-01-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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For the first time, Facebook's Internet.org app has bundled free ebooks with its services, starting in Colombia with 24symbols. The post In Colombia, Facebook Partners with 24symbols for Free Books appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-01-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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NEW YORK, NY -- 14th January 2015: Justo Hidalgo, founder and chief development officer of Madrid-based 24symbols digital subscription reading service, has announced today during Digital Book World Conference + Expo that the company is in a partnership with Facebook for its Internet.org programme. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Huffington Post is the latest publisher to give readers more personalized content on article pages. The post How HuffPo woos Facebook hoppers with personalization appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2015-01-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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12 people died in an attack on satirical French magazine, Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday. At time of writing, the situation in France is still unfolding, and technology companies have been quick to show their sympathy for the victims whilst voicing support for freedom of speech. Google has donated... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2015-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Murray Publishers is to launch a new list this year, focussing on “fresh and distinctive writing” and books that “provoke and entertain”. JM Originals will publish its first two titles in July, and is today opening a competition to the public to launch the covers for the books. The list... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mark Zuckerberg’s selection of The End of Power by Moisés Naím sparks ‘seismic change’ in the book’s fortunes, with 18 months’ sales outstripped in daysHow to be a winner: the books that inspire Mark Zuckerberg and other high flyersWhy would Mark Zuckerberg recommend The End of Power? Facebook... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With 1bn views a day, the social network says that its users are now seeing nearly four times more videos in their news feeds than a year agoYouTube may be the king of online video with more than one billion monthly viewers, but Facebook is aiming to knock Google’s service off its perch in... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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