Prime Minister Cameron Threatens Crackdown on Social Media

Posted by Tracy in Politics

The UK’s Prime Minister, David Cameron, has said that there will be a review into whether to turn off access to social media & phone texting during times of civil unrest.

After days of rioting, looting and violence on the streets of Britain, the Government declared that they will be meeting executives from Facebook, Twitter and RIM (who make the Blackberry) to discuss their ‘obligations’.

David Cameron said that he was “struck by how they [the rioters] were organised via social media”.

He said that the Government would be taking advice from the police, intelligence services and industry figures whether it was “right and possible” to cut off social media being used to “spread disorder”.

It is a rapid turnaround for a Government who, only months earlier, had been singing the praises of social media sites when they were heavily utilized to organise the Arab uprisings.

Back then Government officials were chastising political leaders from other countries for attempting to switch off the internet and suppress the flow of information. It appears that when it is in your own back yard, it may be a different story.

Not that any of the rioting or violence should be excused of course, but a knee-jerk reaction that yet again attacks civil liberties and internet freedom appears to be in full effect.

In a moment of mild ironic comedy during the rioting, over in Libya, a spokesman for Colonel Gadaffi chastised Cameron for trying to suppress the uprising of the people who wish to overthrow him.

Back in London, now the rioting has died down after massive police numbers were drafted in, there have been mass clean-ups organised via facebook, twitter and other parts of the web. In some areas people were being turned away because of the numbers.

The speed of the cleanup has meant that some parts of London were remarked to be cleaner than they have been for decades, and shows the other side of social media’s powerful effect.

An appeal has also been setup for Malaysian student Asyraf Haziq. He was filmed apparently being helped after being hit, but was actually having his rucksack lifted of all it’s possessions. The video has been see all around the world after it was posted on Youtube.

Asyraf has had to have surgery on his jaw and police today arrested a man in connection with the robbery.

In a press conference today Asyraf said that his mother was worried about him and wanted him to go home, but he was determined to stay in London and finish his studies. He added,

“Britain is great. Before I came here I was very eager and I haven’t got any ill-feeling about what happened. I feel very sorry for the people who did this. It was really sad because among them were children.”

Londoners have been keen to show that the actions of the few do not represent a whole community.

Over £12,000 has so far been raised in just 48 hours for Asyraf Haziq and his stolen equipment has been replaced via donations. If you would like to donate then go to the site http://somethingniceforashraf.tumblr.com/

Photo: Alan Stanton

Google Enters Social Networking Arena… Again

Posted by James in Google, Technology

Google has entered the social networking arena again with their Google+ service, currently invite only. Will it work this time and can they catch Facebook?

The last time Google tried to launch a social network it was called Google Buzz. Launched with a big fanfare, they infuriated their customers by automatically signing them up.

Even worse, the Google Buzz network had some privacy issues which meant that not only were you automatically signed up, you could also come a cropper when it opened up things to others in your network that you didn’t necessarily want to share. Even the FTC got involved concerned that it may have violated it’s own privacy policies.

What was supposed to be a new phase in Google’s business quickly turned into a PR nightmare and subsequently never got off the ground.

More recently there was the Google +1 button launch (you can +1 this article for instance, you can see the +1 button on the left), which in hindsight can been seen as phase one for their new effort, launched with a small fanfare (no press conference, no speeches, just a blog post) last week called Google+.

It was an invite only affair and it seems at the time of writing, demand has meant that even invites are currently closed.

So, tick one in the box for Google PR. Create demand and (Google) buzz for your new product.

So, what is Google+ ?

At it’s heart is a grouping function that they call Circles (as in social), which allows you to group people into smaller sets of friends allowing a more precise type of sharing and interaction.

They also have something called Hangouts where you can pop into a video chat much like you might in a bar or pub.

With the Huddle feature they add the ability for group messaging across your social circles.

Can it catch Facebook?

Well it certainly has the muscle power to compete and as you can see, this time it’s a well thought out product. It sounds like there are promising signals coming from the 1st users of the system and meanwhile, Facebook are facing problems of their own.

To alot of people, Facebook is a platform for people that they used to know, LinkedIn are people that they do know and Twitter is for people that they would like to know. Will Google+ cross all of these boundaries in one giant leap?

Only time will tell and in an ever moving environment, Facebook have hinted that they have a big announcement to make of their own next week…watch this space.

MySpace Sold At A Big Loss By News Corp.

Posted by James in Business, Social Media

The social media website MySpace has been sold by News Corp. to the advertising firm Specific Media for an undisclosed sum, although there are suggestions that it got over $500 million less than it paid in 2005.

MySpace was bought by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in 2005 when it was at the height of it’s popularity and was by far the leading social network. They paid $580 million for the site and it’s millions of users.

Unfortunately for MySpace there were a couple of startups just around the corner which would rapidly steal it’s thunder, it’s advertisers and it’s users. They were Facebook and Twitter.

Speaking from a personal perspective, I looked at joining MySpace around that time but found the site messy, cluttered and confusing; I didn’t use it.

Then along came Facebook which followed Google’s clean design, it was simple, clean and effective; I signed up straight away.

That, in a nutshell was MySpace’s problem. Although it tried to reform (including recently integrating with Facebook connect) and reclaim lost ground it effectively turned into a site that was, in the public perception anyway, predominately centred around music promotion.

Job losses followed and News Corp’s CEO said financial losses at MySpace were unsustainable, hence the sale for a fraction of the purchase price. It is understood however that as part of the deal, News Corp. will take a minority stake in Specific Media.

It is unclear what plans Specific Media have for the site but it is understood that the pop star/actor Justin Timberlake now has a stake in the business and will help develop a strategy.

Anthony Weiner the US Congressman Resigns

Posted by Jeff in Politics

Anthony Weiner, the US Congressman at the centre of a political scandal after posting ‘inappropriate’ pictures on twitter, has resigned today.

He said in a statement,

“I am here again today to apologise for the personal mistakes that I have made and the embarrassment that I have caused”.

He went on to say that the distraction that he has created had made continuing in his job “impossible” and therefore he was resigning.

Anthony Weiner was seen as a high flyer in the Democratic party and was being talked about as future Mayor of New York.

Pressure had been growing on the Congressman after he accidentally published a picture of him in his underwear on his public twitter feed.

He said that his account had been hacked but later changed his story and said that he had meant to send it as a private message to a student.

He is married to Huma Abedin who works as an aide to Hillary Clinton.

Photo: Maxintosh

LinkedIn Hopes To Raise $350 million in it’s Initial IPO Offering

Posted by Clive in Business, Social Media

LinkedIn prices it’s initial share offering at $45 a share today as it looks to raise $350 million.

LinkedIn is a social network aimed at the business professional market and has built up a membership of over 100 million people in over 200 countries, more than half are outside of the US.

The initial public offering is for 7,840,000 shares which will raise $352,800,000 for the company and it’s stakeholders.

LinkedIn will begin trading on Thursday 19th May under the stock symbol ‘LNKD’ in New York and is one of the biggest tech IPO’s in recent years.

The company is part of a select group of tech companies that provide social based services such as Facebook, Twitter, Zynga and GroupOn. LinkedIn are the first to go public and many see it as a testbed for future ‘social’ offerings.

Other, less famous social tech startups that have gone public have struggled to keep their share price above the initial offering and some fear that the LinkedIn price is way above it’s value, citing that it could be another tech bubble.

It will be interesting to see how the market in the following months treat the LinkedIn share price, will they see it as overvalued for a company that made a modest profit or will they recognise the growth the company is rapidly achieving amongst its core membership of influential and monied business people.

Photo: LinkedIn

Lady Gaga Makes Twitter History…Again

Posted by Tracy in Celebrity, Social Media

Lady Gaga has made twitter history again after amassing 10,000,000 (yes that is 10 million) followers. In the world of online one-up-manship Gaga has it all sown up.

In the relatively new world of twitter you may not think it is not such a big deal but it really is some feat. If all those followers lived in one city it would be bigger than London.

Lady Gaga beat off some stiff competition to reach the landmark from that other phenomenon, Justin Bieber. Barack Obama is in third place, at the time of writing, with over 8 million followers.

Lady Gaga tweeted upon reaching the landmark,

“10millionmonsters! I’m speechless, we did it! Its an illness how I love you. Leaving London smiling.”

Lady Gaga had been in the UK to play in the Radio 1 Big Weekend music festival where she turned up fashionably late before appearing on stage, emerging from a coffin to sing ‘Born This Way’ while wearing a fake baby bump.

Other notable twitter milestones have been the first to reach 1 million followers (Ashton Kutcher) and Charlie Sheen hitting a million followers overnight.

Charlie Sheen Replaced by Ashton Kutcher on Two and a Half Men

Posted by Sam in Entertainment, TV

Ashton Kutcher has been announced by Warner Brothers as the replacement for Charlie Sheen in the hit comedy ‘Two and a Half Men’.

After alleged problems with drink and drugs affecting Charlie Sheen, the hit comedy show Two and a half Men was cancelled by Warner TV in it’s eighth series.

Now it is back, and Ashton Kutcher has been named as the new star and replacement for Sheen, filming will start for the ninth series in the summer.

Both Actors are prolific twitterers, Kutcher was involved in a race to become the first person to a million followers, while Sheen garnered around a million followers overnight as his antics became front page news.

Kutcher is married to Demi Moore and is probably most famous for his stint on the 70′s Show and for Punk’d where he played out practical jokes on his famous friends.

Charlie Sheen has gone on to create his own broadcasting centre at his house built around the social platforms, including Twitter and YouTube, that can now have bigger audiences than some TV channels.

There is serious money to be made by people with a large number of followers as companies sponsor them for promoting their products, there is nothing like a celebrity endorsement to get you noticed, especially a subtle one transmitted within a normal conversation.

Photo: Cliff1066

Chaos Spreads Through Bahrain and Libya

Posted by Gary in Politics

After Egypt’s uprising, Bahrain, Libya and other nearby regions are following in various degrees of intensity.

In Bahrain thousands of protesters have re-occupied Pearl Square, the main square in the capital Manama, as riot police and government troops pulled out after an order from the ruling family.

The change of heart by the government has followed violent events over the course of the week as protesters occupying the square were fired upon with live ammunition by security forces.

The protests have mainly been driven by the Shia population in the country who have long complained that they are discriminated against. The ruling elite are from a Sunni background.

The Crown Prince, Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, said in a statement on Bahrani TV that “calm is needed at this time” and offered to hold talks with opposition leaders. At the moment, as far as we know, the opposition parties have refused any such meetings.

In Libya there have been protests against the dictator Colonel Gaddafi in the second city of Benghazi. While in the the capital of Tripoli, there have been organised Pro-Gaddafi rallies.

Gaddafi has been in power now for over 40 years and is not likely to give it up easily, already there are reports of almost 100 people killed in the past few days. Footage from inside the country, leaked onto the internet, show the killing of protesters by snipers.

In the last 48 hours internet access has been cut by the government in an attempt to stop co-ordination and control all possible media channels in the country.

We saw in Egypt how this tactic cannot be wholely successful, google helped to setup a text to twitter service for instance, but can have a major impact.

The seat of Gaddafi’s power is in Tripoli and the next few days will be see if any pro-democracy demonstrations spread there. Only then will Gaddafi’s power really be tested.

Photo: Al Jazeera English

Ping Your Tweets or Tweet Your Ping?

Posted by James in Apple, Technology

Apple have agreed a deal with the micro-blogging site Twitter to promote the music in it’s iTunes store.

They see it as a way to increase the uptake of the ping service which has so far failed to set the world alight.

At the launch of Ping earlier this year Steve Jobs admitted to the AllThingsDigital blog that his company were in talks with Facebook looking to agree a partnership of sorts.

Ironically for many people, apple app developers perhaps, he allegedly said they couldn’t come to an agreement because the conditions were too onerous.

Time will tell if Ping really does manage to make any inroads into the social media arean, it seemed to have the ultimate headstart with millions of iTunes users already linked into the system but it has been a difficult year for Apple.

The halo that seemed to be permanently around Apple’s head over the last 10 years of product launches was dented with problems over the new Apple iPhone 4′s antenna. Users complained of dropped signals and in these days of 24 hour media coverage, in many people’s eyes they did not get the problems addressed quick enough.