MySpace Sept. 21 unveiled MySpace Sync, an opt-in tool that lets users post their status updates to Twitter and vice versa. In beta and rolling out to users over the coming weeks, MySpace Sync will allow any U.S. user to make any update created on MySpace appear on their Twitter pages. Conversely, a tweet posted to Twitter will appear within their MySpace status and mood feed. MySpace Sync is a shot at Facebook, whose 300 million worldwide users dwarfs MySpace’s 130 million users.
– …
In beta and rolling out to users over the coming weeks, MySpace Sync will allow any U.S. user to make any update created on MySpace appear on their Twitter pages. Conversely, any tweet posted to Twitter will appear within their MySpace status and mood feed. Sync is clearly a competitive stab at leading social network Facebook, whose 300 million worldwide users dwarfs MySpace’s 130 million users.
–
MySpace Sept. 21 unveiled MySpace
Sync, an opt-in tool that lets users post their status updates to popular microblog
service Twitter and vice versa.
In beta and rolling out to users over the coming weeks, MySpace
Sync will allow any U.S. user to make any update created on MySpace …
MySpace has both announced and open-sourced a new technology known as Qizmt, an internally developed framework for distributed computation based on the MapReduce framework.
– MySpace has both announced and open-sourced a new technology known as Qizmt, an internally developed framework for distributed computation based on the MapReduce framework.
Created by the Data Mining team here at MySpace, Qizmt can be used
for many operations that require processing large amounts …
Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, along with blogs, wikis, RSS feeds and other messaging and collaboration tools, are finding their way into the workplace as enterprise applications. Analysts from Nielsen Norman, IDC and Gilbane say front-line workers are leading the charge, forcing senior management to go with the flow or stem the tide. The Facebook Generation wants to network with colleagues to communicate and collaborate.
–
Despite hype surrounding the use of wikis, blogs, social
networks and other tools in the workplace, social software in businesses is
still more of a grassroots effort led by frontline users than it is a
company-wide collaboration practice, according to a new Nielsen Norman Group
st…
Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have all been banned by the Marine Corps for one year, and the Pentagon is reviewing social network site use. Altimeter Group’s Charlene Li and Gartner analysts wonder why governance of these Web services is not being practiced in lieu of a blackout. They believe such sites can be used to keep soldiers connected with their families and promote peace in the communities in which the soldiers serve.
–
The dominoes are falling on government use of social
networks, but industry analysts are exasperated by the U.S. military’s
inconsistent policies for using sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.
The U.S. Marine Corps issued an order Aug. 3 banning the use of Facebook, MySpace…
Social networking websites, texting and e-mails are undermining community life, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has warned.
Archbishop Vincent Nichols said MySpace and Facebook led young people to seek "transient" friendships, with quantity becoming more important than quality.
He said a key factor in suicide among young people was the trauma caused when such loose relationships collapsed.
"Friendship is not a commodity," he told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
He added: "Friendship is something that is hard work and enduring when it’s right".
‘Transient relationships’
Archbishop Nichols said society was losing some of its ability to build communities through inter-personal communication, as the result of excessive use of texts and e-mails rather than face-to-face meetings or telephone conversations.
He said skills such as reading a person’s mood and body language were in decline, and that exclusive use of electronic information had a "dehumanising" effect on community life.
"Facebook and MySpace might contribute towards communities, but I’m wary about it"
Archbishop Vincent Nichols
Archbishop Nichols said that social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace encouraged a form of communication that was not in his words "rounded", and would not therefore build rounded communities.
The Archbishop also warned of the danger of suicide among young people who threw themselves into a network of friendships that could easily collapse.
He said young people were being encouraged to build up collections of friends as commodities, and were left desolate when these transient relationships broke down.
"Facebook and MySpace might contribute towards communities, but I’m wary about it," he told the newspaper.
"Among young people often a key factor in their committing suicide is the trauma of transient relationships.
"They throw themselves into a friendship or network of friendships, then it collapses and they’re desolate.
"It’s an all-or-nothing syndrome that you have to have in an attempt to shore up an identity; a collection of friends about whom you can talk and even boast." </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Yahoo this afternoon will let users opt-in to try a beta test of its new home page, which integrates Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and 60-plus other Web services and content sites. This application development plan is geared to get users coming to Yahoo and staying there, with Yahoo serving users contextually targeted ads to reverse its flagging fortunes. Yahoo’s opt-in seems timed for the company’s second quarter earnings call, for which analysts do not have high hopes.
–
Yahoo July 21 will begin to invite its millions of users to test its new home page, a lively
rethinking of one of the most popular Web destinations that lets users
integrate their Twitter, Facebook and other popular Web feeds.
Yahoo, which will duplicate the new home page for mobile…
The Jonas Brothers are hosting the 2009 Teen Choice on FOX and they want you to have some fun challenging them to some thrillseeking dares.
The JoBros are now accepting dare challenges submitted by their teen fans via MySpace video uploads.
Come up with an original idea for a dare, submit a 15-second video, and you [...]
The woman at the centre of a high-profile online bullying case was exonerated by a US judge today – despite having previously been found guilty of computer crimes that led to the suicide of her teenage neighbour.
At a sentencing hearing in Los Angeles earlier today, Lori Drew, 50, was told that the verdict of a Californian jury would be overturned and she would not face imprisonment for her role in the death of 13-year-old Megan Meier, who killed herself in 2006 after being bullied on MySpace.
Despite having been found guilty on a number of minor counts last November, US District Judge George Wu overruled the jury in the original trial and said that Drew should be acquitted.
Although the ruling was tentative – and the decision will not become final until papers are filed later this week – Wu said he was concerned that the case set a dangerous precedent for prosecuting anybody who broke the terms of service of a website.
The shocking development marks the latest twist in the long-running case – which had been heralded as a landmark test in US law, as the first prosecution over accusations of cyberbullying.
Meier, from Darden Priarie in Missouri, killed herself three years ago after receiving a string of nasty messages from a young male friend she had befriended online. A police investigation discovered that the bully’s identity was fake and that the entire friendship had, in fact, been a hoax operated by Drew – the mother of another teenager who had been friends with Meier.
Reacting to what they claimed was bullying from Meier towards Drew’s daughter, she and a friend concocted the persona of 16-year-old “Josh Evans”, a boy who had recently moved to the area.
“Josh” began exchanging messages with Meier, before telling her in October 2006 that “the world would be a better place without you”. She killed herself soon afterwards.
As details of the case emerged, public outcry over the case grew, and Drew – who initially referred to the hoax as a “joke” – became the subject of widespread condemnation for her behaviour.
But without legislation to specifically address such cases, the incident was seen as a test case for cyberbullying in the US. Despite public pressure, officials struggled to build a case against Drew. Local prosecutors in Missouri failed to take the case forward, eventually leading to the authorities in California – who argued they had jurisdiction because MySpace is based in Los Angeles – to prosecute.
After legal arguments and a short trial, Drew was only found guilty of three reduced charges relating to her misuse of computers, while the jury failed to reach a verdict on a fourth charge of criminal conspiracy.
Last month, however, Judge Wu indicated that he was still considering the defence’s motion to overturn the verdict, after labelling the application of computer crime laws to the case as “weird”.
“Is a misdemeanor committed by the conduct which is done every single day by millions and millions of people?” Wu asked lawyers at a hearing last month. “If these people do read [the terms of service] and still say they’re 40 when they are 45, is that a misdemeanor?”
Megan’s family had argued that Drew should be held responsible for her actions, particularly since they were clearly intended to manipulate a child. Prosecutors had sought the maximum three-year prison sentence and a $300,000 (£183,000) fine.
The woman at the centre of a high-profile online bullying case was exonerated by a US judge today – despite having previously been found guilty of computer crimes that led to the suicide of her teenage neighbour.
At a sentencing hearing in Los Angeles earlier today, Lori Drew, 50, was told that the verdict of a Californian jury would be overturned and she would not face imprisonment for her role in the death of 13-year-old Megan Meier, who killed herself in 2006 after being bullied on MySpace.
Despite having been found guilty on a number of minor counts last November, US District Judge George Wu overruled the jury in the original trial and said that Drew should be acquitted.
Although the ruling was tentative – and the decision will not become final until papers are filed later this week – Wu said he was concerned that the case set a dangerous precedent for prosecuting anybody who broke the terms of service of a website.
The shocking development marks the latest twist in the long-running case – which had been heralded as a landmark test in US law, as the first prosecution over accusations of cyberbullying.
Meier, from Darden Priarie in Missouri, killed herself three years ago after receiving a string of nasty messages from a young male friend she had befriended online. A police investigation discovered that the bully’s identity was fake and that the entire friendship had, in fact, been a hoax operated by Drew – the mother of another teenager who had been friends with Meier.
Reacting to what they claimed was bullying from Meier towards Drew’s daughter, she and a friend concocted the persona of 16-year-old “Josh Evans”, a boy who had recently moved to the area.
“Josh” began exchanging messages with Meier, before telling her in October 2006 that “the world would be a better place without you”. She killed herself soon afterwards.
As details of the case emerged, public outcry over the case grew, and Drew – who initially referred to the hoax as a “joke” – became the subject of widespread condemnation for her behaviour.
But without legislation to specifically address such cases, the incident was seen as a test case for cyberbullying in the US. Despite public pressure, officials struggled to build a case against Drew. Local prosecutors in Missouri failed to take the case forward, eventually leading to the authorities in California – who argued they had jurisdiction because MySpace is based in Los Angeles – to prosecute.
After legal arguments and a short trial, Drew was only found guilty of three reduced charges relating to her misuse of computers, while the jury failed to reach a verdict on a fourth charge of criminal conspiracy.
Last month, however, Judge Wu indicated that he was still considering the defence’s motion to overturn the verdict, after labelling the application of computer crime laws to the case as “weird”.
“Is a misdemeanor committed by the conduct which is done every single day by millions and millions of people?” Wu asked lawyers at a hearing last month. “If these people do read [the terms of service] and still say they’re 40 when they are 45, is that a misdemeanor?”
Megan’s family had argued that Drew should be held responsible for her actions, particularly since they were clearly intended to manipulate a child. Prosecutors had sought the maximum three-year prison sentence and a $300,000 (£183,000) fine.
