O potencial económico dos Social Networking Sites

Quanto vale um social networking site? Será que estamos perante um fenónemo semelhante ao boom da Internet nos anos 90? Estas e outras questões são analisadas de um ponto de vista económico na Slate Magazine.

O artigo
$1 Billion for Facebook? LOL!
Is the social-networking boom a replay of the '90s dotcom bubble?

By Daniel Gross
Posted Thursday, Sept. 28, 2006, at 11:24 AM ET

The "social-networking" gold rush continues. Last year, MySpace was acquired by News Corp. for $580 million in cash. Now the other big social-networking sites are the subject of rumors, deals, and transactions. Yahoo! was interested in acquiring Facebook for $1 billion, but the company's youthful founders are holding out for more. Warner Music earlier this month cut a revenue-sharing deal with YouTube. In August, Google and MySpace struck a $900-million agreement for Google to sell ads on MySpace.
The Dow's at a record high, youthful entrepreneurs are minting dotcom fortunes, and big media types are talking about "monetizing eyeballs"—close those eyeballs for a moment, and it almost seems like 1999. Back then, big media companies threw huge amounts of cash at the hot new things on the Internet: portals and online news sites that had impressive traffic figures but not-so-impressive profit-and-loss statements. Disney spun off Go.com; NBC created NBC Interactive; CBS helped form CBS Marketwatch.com. The trend peaked when Time Warner accepted the inflated currency of the ultimate eyeball business—AOL—and entered into its disastrous 2000 merger.
So, is the mania for Facebook and MySpace different than the lust for portals and online news sites seven years ago? No, and yes.

in Slate.com - Moneybox

Recenseamento eleitoral no MySpace

O social networking site MySpace.com vai lançar um serviço de recenseamento eleitoral e os membros que utilizarem esta ferramenta recebem, por exemplo, um crachá que diz "Eu fiz o recenseamento eleitoral no MySpace".

Os artigos
MySpace Launches Voter-Registration Plan
By ANICK JESDANUN
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 27, 2006; 7:56 AM

NEW YORK -- The youth-heavy online hangout MySpace.com is launching a voter-registration drive to engage its members in civics. In partnership with the nonpartisan group Declare Yourself, MySpace is running ads on its highly trafficked Web site and giving members tools such as a "I Registered To Vote On MySpace" badge to place on their personal profile pages.
"Young people in this country ... are really engaged in what's happening in their community and want to make a difference," said Jeff Berman, MySpace's senior vice president for public affairs. "The key is to make it easy for them to get engaged. By putting these tools on MySpace and putting it in front of their eyes, you make it far more likely they will use them."

in The Washington Post - Business

MyBallot Box
MySpace launches a new effort to bring the benefits of social networking to voter registration.

By Andrew Romano
Updated: 8:19 a.m. ET Sept. 28, 2006

MySpace.com has a knack for making comedians (Dane Cook), rock bands (Arctic Monkeys) and scantily-clad models (Tila Tequila) cool. But now the social-networking colossus is setting its sights on a slightly squarer property: the ballot box. On Wednesday, the site will begin steering its tens of millions of members to myspace.com/declareyourself, a new in-house page where they can register to vote and—with a single click—tell their entire network of friends to follow. It's Rock the Vote goes viral. "Putting the simplest voter registration tool on a platform that already reaches 54 million unique monthly visitors is a huge step in promoting civic engagement," says Jeff Berman, MySpace's senior vice president for public affairs. "This is where people are spending their time. The potential is enormous."

in Newsweek

O futuro da Internet em debate

"Que Internet teremos em 2020?" foi a pergunta colocada a 742 especialistas das áreas de computação, política e economia por um relatório do The Pew Internet and American Life Project.

O artigo
Internet's future in 2020 debated

The internet will be a thriving, low-cost network of billions of devices by 2020, says a major survey of leading technology thinkers.
The Pew report on the future internet surveyed 742 experts in the fields of computing, politics and business.
More than half of respondents had a positive vision of the net's future but 46% had serious reservations.
Almost 60% said that a counter culture of Luddites would emerge, some resorting to violence.
The Pew Internet and American Life report canvassed opinions from the experts on seven broad scenarios about the future internet, based on developments in the technology in recent years.

in BBC News - Technology

O relatório
The Future of the Internet II

A survey of internet leaders, activists, and analysts shows that a majority agree with predictions that by 2020:

• A low-cost global network will be thriving and creating new opportunities in a “flattening” world.
• Humans will remain in charge of technology, even as more activity is automated and “smart agents” proliferate. However, a significant 42% of survey respondents were pessimistic about humans’ ability to control the technology in the future. This significant majority agreed that dangers and dependencies will grow beyond our ability to stay in charge of technology. This was one of the major surprises in the survey.
• Virtual reality will be compelling enough to enhance worker productivity and also spawn new addiction problems.
• Tech “refuseniks” will emerge as a cultural group characterized by their choice to live off the network. Some will do this as a benign way to limit information overload, while others will commit acts of violence and terror against technology-inspired change.
• People will wittingly and unwittingly disclose more about themselves, gaining some benefits in the process even as they lose some privacy.
• English will be a universal language of global communications, but other languages will not be displaced. Indeed, many felt other languages such as Mandarin, would grow in prominence.

in Pew Internet & American Life Project

Questões de vigilância e segurança nos Social Networking Sites

As conclusões de um estudo da Computing Which? indicam que os social networking sites (Bebo, MySpace) devem vigiar mais o que os seus utilizadores fazem on-line. Por exemplo, no caso do Bebo, uma imagem pornográfica permaneceu dois dias sem ser reportada.

O artigo
Warnings over social site 'abuse'

Social networking sites such as Bebo and MySpace must do more to police what users do, warns Computing Which?
A study of the sites by the consumer watchdog unearthed pornographic images, evidence of bullying and inappropriate adverts.
It also proved easy to pose as a child as the sites did no age or ID checks.
"Teenage users need to be aware that there is no way of knowing who is behind the face of a 'friend'," said Jessica Ross, Computing Which? editor.

in BBC News - Technology

Dicas para proteger a sua privacidade on-line

Face à divulgação das pesquisas on-line dos clientes AOL, The Electronic Frontier Foundation sugere seis dicas para evitar que informação pessoal seja obtida e divulgada por empresas como o Google, o Yahoo ou o seu serviço de acesso à Internet.

O artigo
Six Tips to Protect Your Online Search Privacy

How to Defend Yourself from Privacy Invasions Like AOL's Search Data Disaster

San Francisco - In the wake of AOL's publicly revealing customers' Internet search histories, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has published "Six Tips to Protect Your Online Search Privacy."AOL's recent disclosure of its users' search logs exposed the private lives of more than a half-million customers.
But all the major search engines -- not just AOL -- record search queries and maintain massive databases that reach into the most intimate details of users' lives. When revealed to others, these details can be embarrassing and even cause great harm.

As dicas
* Don't put personally identifying information like your name, address, credit card number, or Social Security number in your searches.
* Don't use a search engine operated by your Internet service provider (ISP).
* Don't log in to your search engine or its related services. So, if you have accounts with services like GMail or Yahoo! Mail, don't use Google or Yahoo!'s search engines, respectively. Or, use one browser for your searches and a different browser for your other activities.
* Block "cookies" from your search engine.
* Vary your IP address.
* Use web proxies and anonymizing software that mask your IP address and other information that can be used to track you.

3º Encontro Nacional e 1º Encontro Luso-Galaico sobre Weblogs

O Auditório da Reitoria da Universidade do Porto vai receber entre 13 e 14 de Outubro o 3º Encontro Nacional e 1º Encontro Luso-Galaico sobre Weblogs. Inscrições disponíveis em http://shire.icicom.up.pt/3encontro.

O artigo
''Bloggers'' de Portugal e Espanha reúnem-se na Universidade do Porto

Falam-nos de cinema e de amor. Falam sobre política, desporto e humor. Falam de tudo e de nada e até falam do que os outros falam. Chamam-se “weblogs” e é deles que se vai falar no 3º Encontro Nacional e 1º Encontro Luso-Galaico sobre Weblogs que vai decorrer, de 13 a 14 de Outubro, no Auditório da Reitoria da Universidade do Porto (UP).
Da Internet para o Porto, assim se apresenta uma iniciativa “2 em 1” promovida pelo Centro de Estudos das Tecnologias, Artes e Ciências da Comunicação (CETAC.COM) da UP, apoiado pela Licenciatura de Jornalismo e Ciências da Comunicação (LJCC). Depois de duas edições dedicadas inteiramente à “blogosfera” portuguesa (em 2003, na Universidade do Minho, em 2005, na Universidade da Beira Interior), o 3º Encontro Nacional acolhe em si o 1º Encontro Luso Galaico sobre Weblogs, reunindo assim investigadores, utilizadores e interessados em weblogs de Portugal e Galiza que, durante dois dias, poderão trocar experiências e contribuir para o desenvolvimento de uma comunidade de reflexão e investigação transdisciplinar nesta área.

in Ciência Hoje