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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Vintage Classics will publish a third book by Stoner author John Williams in January 2014.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Instagram's cautious roll-out of its in-stream ads is now underway.U.S. users who open the app in the coming week will see an "educational ad" from Instagram itself, according to a blog post. Confirmed advertisers to follow it are Adidas, Ben & Jerry's, Burberry, General Electric, Levi's,... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2013-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bucharest-based developer Read Forward has produced original ebooks, luxury digital editions of classics and is now moving into education, with fully interactive HTML5 textbooks. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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"City of Night" was not the first overtly gay-themed book but it may be the most unapologetic, a searing screed of life on the edge.I spent part of Wednesday afternoon at UCLA, on a panel to celebrate the 50th anniversary of John Rechy’s novel “City of Night,” newly reissued to commemorate the... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook was already implementing stronger security controls when the U.S. National Security Agency’s expansive surveillance program was revealed in June, its chief security officer said Thursday. The social networking site has continued upgrading its security infrastructure, said Joe... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2013-10-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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For all the improvements Microsoft has made in bolstering the Windows Store's app selection, one insistent question has held back the company's dreams of grandeur: "Yeah, but where's Facebook?" Indeed, the largest social network in the land has been a conspicuous no-show in Microsoft app... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2013-10-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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I say we scramble all the private jets in Silicon Valley and get the "Lean In" book star to D.C. to lean on some pols to open the government again, tout de suite! Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2013-10-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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An excerpt from a forthcoming book on the birth of Twitter reveals surprising new details about the company's founders. Some not-so-pretty. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2013-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Four months after introducing video, Instagram took the natural next step today, telling its over 150 million users their streams would soon include ads too.The company, acquired by Facebook for $736 million in 2012, announced the development in a short blog post it published Thursday afternoon.... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2013-10-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Former Facebook employee Kate Losse says Eggers used her personal story as the narrative for his novel 'The Circle.' Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-10-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Paper making a Book? That would follow logic. But the Paper we're referring to here is actually an iPad sketchbook app and the book? Why, that'd be a product of Moleskine. An update released today to Paper's popular app adds a new 'Make a Book' service which allows users to self-publish their... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2013-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ads for mobile apps are frequently ineffective after the first viewing -- once users install a given app, they rarely have incentives to try the software again. Facebook may have found a way to sustain customers' interest through its new deep linking ad format, however. The approach takes... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2013-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Campaign group Europe-v-Facebook received Facebook's response to complaints about the social networks' privacy policy on Tuesday, but was barred from publishing them by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner. Europe-v-Facebook wrote to the DPC over two years ago alleging that a lack of... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2013-10-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A feature that allows Facebook users to edit their updates after publishing could be utilised to "stitch up" friends, an expert warns. Continue reading at BBC World
[ BBC World | 2013-09-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook’s website and its Android app now will allow users to make changes to posts after they have been published. iOS users, coming soon for you. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2013-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook users, rejoice: You can now edit posts after they've been published. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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If you've ever written "poo" instead of "pool" or "duck" instead of, er, "suck" in your Facebook status updates, then we've got good news for you. At long last, you can finally edit your post after it's been published, a feature that was previously only reserved for the comments. As you can see... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2013-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook marketing specialists Qwaya offer tips on making the most of marketing and advertising for publishers on the ubiquitous social media platform. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-09-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tech companies continue their push to reveal more details about how often the U.S. government collects user information for national security purposes. Yahoo and Facebook have now filed motions with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, asking for the right to publish more... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2013-09-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Smith & Son is to open two new campus bookshops in time for the new academic season next... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-08-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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