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Geeky media: Tom Standage

Part of series on journalists, STEM specialists, authors who explain technology in sports, autos, healthcare and other aspects of life and work. I look forward to watching/reading/hearing their stuff. Many in this list have come recommended by readers – so please nominate others.

This time it is Tom Standage at The Economist. I enjoy reading the magazine’s Technology Quarterly and Mr. Standage as Deputy Editor certainly can take some credit for it.

He is also responsible for the newspaper’s digital strategy and the development of new digital products, including Espresso and Economist Films. He joined The Economist as Science Correspondent in 1998 and was subsequently appointed Technology Editor, Business Editor and Digital Editor. He is the author of six history books, including “Writing on the Wall” (2013), “The Victorian Internet” (1998) and “A History of the World in 6 Glasses” (2005). He studied engineering and computing at Oxford University and has written for other publications including the New York Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Wired, taking a particular interest in the internet’s cultural and historical significance.

 

Delta celebrates its employees

Delta had a 55 hour Facebook Live show which recognized every one of Delta’s 80,000 employees. From Adweek

“Delta also scoured the world—or just its travel hubs across the world from Atlanta to Seoul—to find over 430 actors, athletes, comedians and Delta business leaders to participate in the stunt. “

The Digital Transition of Presidential Power

On Twitter, for example, the handle @POTUS will be made available to the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017. The account will retain its more than 11 million followers, but start with no tweets on the timeline. @POTUS44, a newly created handle maintained by NARA, will contain all of President Obama’s tweets and will be accessible to the public on Twitter as an archive of President Obama’s use of the account.

On Instagram and Facebook, the incoming White House will gain access to the White House username, URL, and retain the followers, but will start with no content on the timeline. An archive of White House content that was posted to the Obama White House Instagram and Facebook will continue to be accessible to the public at Instagram.com/ObamaWhiteHouse and Facebook.com/ObamaWhiteHouse. Facebook accounts for President Obama and the Vice President and the Instagram accounts belonging to the First Lady and Vice President will be moved to new “44” usernames and preserved by NARA.

Whitehouse.gov

Twitter’s NFL Live Stream experiment

When Twitter streams its first N.F.L. game on Sept. 15, it will get to assess whether its vigorous pursuit will pay off — and whether live streaming can viably be a linchpin of its future.

For Twitter, the bet on live streaming is crucial to turning itself into a mainstream internet destination after other efforts have failed. Live streaming could finally broaden Twitter’s appeal, attracting an even wider audience. And perhaps more important, live events would be another way to sell video ads. If streaming football or basketball games on Twitter’s mobile apps and on desktop computers, along with other platforms, draws viewers, the company could sell more video ads, which typically command a premium.

New York Times

Photo Credit

3.57 degrees of separation

“How connected is the world? Playwrights [1], poets [2], and scientists [3] have proposed that everyone on the planet is connected to everyone else by six other people. In honor of Friends Day, we've crunched the Facebook friend graph and determined that the number is actually 3.57. Each person in the world (at least among the 1.59 billion people active on Facebook) is connected to every other person by an average of three and a half other people. The average distance we observe is 4.57, corresponding to 3.57 intermediaries or "degrees of separation." Within the US, people are connected to each other by an average of 3.46 degrees.

Our collective “degrees of separation” have shrunk over the past five years. In 2011, researchers at Cornell, the Università degli Studi di Milano, and Facebook computed the average across the 721 million people using the site then, and found that it was 3.74 [4,5]. Now, with twice as many people using the site, we've grown more interconnected, thus shortening the distance between any two people in the world.”

Facebook Blog

BTW Facebook tells me I am slightly better than average with 3.28 degrees of separation, though not as connected as its COO Sheryl Sandberg who clocks at 2.92

How Facebook unified communications

“I said years ago that I don't want to call phone numbers; I want to call people.

Facebook Messenger lets you do just that because you can send a communications request to anyone on the platform without needing or knowing their phone number. Facebook Messenger has essentially become the white pages of the smartphone age.”

And it has over 800 million users

ZDNet

Digital SOTU

CNN says President Obama’s speech this evening at 9 pm et

“…is likely to be a combination of a valedictorian's look-how-far-we've-come rhetoric and calls to action directed not at Congress but at the voting public on issues near to Obama's heart -- and extending beyond his increasingly-limited time in office”

But as the White House Office of Digital Strategy describes at Medium it will also reflect the state of the digital nation

“For the first time, this year SOTU will be available to stream on-demand on Amazon Video, in addition to on wh.gov/sotu and our YouTube channel. And beginning Wednesday through the end of the week, Amazon will make the speech available across all devices for Americans to watch the State of the Union in the same way we’re used to consuming video content in 2016. So, for those who’ve cut the cord from cable and network TV: Whether you use a smart TV, web browser, mobile device, or tablet there’s a way for you to watch the President’s speech as it happens and on-demand.

And as in past years, you’ll be able to watch video excerpts released in real-time on Facebook and Twitter. From live GIFs on Tumblr to 6-second videos on Vine and photos on Instagram, we’ll build on previous efforts to connect with users across a range of social media sites and make the experience of the speech appropriate to each platform.”

Here is a teaser from the President of what we will hear in his last SOTU

 

 

Atos’ “zero e-mail” campaign

Atos isn’t the only business trying to increase productivity through social networking, but it’s the only big corporation that’s tried to more or less banish e-mail among co-workers. The $12 billion-a-year company says its internal e-mail volume has fallen 70 percent since 2011, to an average of six messages per person each day. Switching to social networking “has changed how we manage and collaborate,” says Mareine. Although there’s no evidence that Atos’s “Zero E-mail” campaign contributed to the 60 percent jump in the company’s operating margins over the past four years, executives say it’s dramatically improved efficiency. Atos is now pitching BlueKiwi to IT-services clients.

BusinessWeek

 

Slack off email

The app tackles this by creating what Butterfield called "lateral transparency" within the company. Slack works just like other messaging apps like iMessage or Skype, but its messages are public inside the company.

"Using Slack, you can have a look at what's going on across the organization. So if you work in the marketing team, you can see what the sales people are dealing with," Butterfield said.

Messages regarding compensation reviews or issues dealt by human resources can be sent privately. But Butterfield said the app is not a substitute for email.

"Slack is for internal communication. As the CEO, I do this stuff, I have to deal with investors and partners," Butterfield said. "I spend a lot of time on email actually."

CBS News

 

 

Facebook’s Data Trove

The new rules reflect Facebook’s shifting attitude toward third parties using its data, considered one of the world’s richest sources of information on human relationships. In 2007, with great fanfare, Facebook founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg invited outsiders to access to Facebook’s “social graph,” the friend lists, interests and “likes” that knit Facebook users together.

Facebook said it reversed course after users raised concerns about their data being shared with outsiders without their knowledge.

The new rules don’t “make it harder for developers to build social experiences,” said a Facebook spokeswoman. The rules “simply require them to do so in a more privacy-protective way.”

Other social networks, including like LinkedIn Corp. and Twitter Inc., also have restricted access to their data in recent years. But Facebook’s changes have generated more controversy.

WSJ