Facebook sparks row by cutting off researchers

WASHINGTON - Facebook has cut off some academic researchers for "scraping" data from the platform, sparking a fresh controversy about the leading social network's transparency to outside experts studying misinformation and abusive content.

The California tech giant acted late Tuesday to block the research from New York University's Ad Observatory Project, citing privacy concerns.

Facebook product management director Mike Clark said the accounts from the project were disabled "to stop unauthorized scraping and protect people's privacy in line with our privacy program."

The NYU project had been at loggerheads for months with Facebook over the program, which used a browser tool to collect data on ads spreading political hoaxes, violence and Covid-19 misinformation.

"Research cannot be the justification for compromising people's privacy," Clark said in a blog post, arguing that the researchers were collecting user names, ads, and links to user profiles even for people who did not install the browser tool or consent to the collection.

But the Facebook move prompted an angry response from researchers and free-speech activists who argued the social network is blocking independent access to its internal tools.

"Over the last several years, we've used this access to uncover systemic flaws in the Facebook Ad Library, to identify misinformation in political ads, including many sowing distrust in our election system, and to study Facebook's apparent amplification of partisan misinformation," said Laura Edelson, the NYU researcher heading the project.

"By suspending our accounts, Facebook has tried to shut down all this work. Facebook has also effectively cut off access to more than two dozen other researchers and journalists who get access to Facebook data through our project, including our work measuring vaccine misinformation."

The row marked the latest clash for Facebook, which has sought to clamp down on third parties with access to private user data while at the same seeking to enable outside researchers to study its inner workings. 

Facebook claims it took the action in compliance with a 2019 settlement with US regulators on user privacy in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal in which data was scraped for political ad targeting.

But critics said Facebook needs more transparency.

"We can't allow Facebook to decide what the public gets to know about Facebook. Independent research that respects user privacy is absolutely crucial right now," said Alex Abdo of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.

"It's essential to figuring out how disinformation spreads on the platform, how advertisers exploit Facebook's micro-targeting tools, and how Facebook's system of amplification may be pushing us further apart."

Matt Bailey of the writers' free expression group PEN America said the action "is part of a larger pattern of Facebook seeking to undercut or silence anyone analyzing the platforms' practices from the outside."

Agence France-Presse

Uber, Airbnb take sharing economy to mainstream with stock listings

WASHINGTON -- The "sharing economy" is becoming mainstream with the anticipated stock listings from services such as Uber, Lyft and Airbnb, signs that the trend is gaining momentum and impacting multiple sectors.

These multibillion-dollar online platforms have already been a disruptive force in many economic segment, and analysts say the public listings may be a watershed moment, likely to fuel even more changes.

The growth in these on-demand services is eroding sentiment for ownership of homes, cars and other goods, and is also shifting the concept of labor and employment, sparking fierce debates on whether the change is good or bad.

Lyft, the large US ride-hailing service and Uber rival, became the first to announce its initial public offering, seeking to expand a firm valued privately at more than $15 billion.

There has already been an explosion of startups for sharing cars, bikes, scooters, housing and more services. The office rental sector is being transformed by co-working spaces like WeWork, now valued at some $45 billion.

"This is just the beginning for the sharing economy," said Arun Sundararajan, a New York University professor who follows the sector.

"I think we'll see large platforms for professional services for certain kinds of health care, and perhaps for alternative energy," he said.

Spending for "on demand" on services such as Uber and Airbnb and other digital platforms rose 58 percent in 2017 to $75.7 billion in the US, with more than 41 million consumers participating, according to a survey by Rockbridge Associates.

Rockbridge founder Charles Colby cautions, however, that the sizzling growth may cool.

"I don't see these firms as the next Amazon or Apple, because they are carving out narrow marketplaces and will start experiencing competition from traditional providers, some of which are quite savvy," he said.

Sharing economy firms have also sparked their share of controversy. Uber and Lyft have faced protests and challenges from traditional taxi operators and some regulators have banned or limited ridesharing. Airbnb has also been curtailed in some markets amid complaints over disruptions in the real estate markets and the hotel sector.

PRIVATE CARS VANISHING?

In transportation, some analysts argue the sharing trend is moving at a breakneck pace that will radically change urban landscapes, in line with the vision of firms such as Uber and Lyft to sharply reduce the need for private vehicles.

Tech research firm RethinkX predicts that the number of cars in the United States will drop by more than 80 percent by 2020 and 95 percent of travel will be using on-demand autonomous electric vehicles.

By gaining access to capital on Wall Street, sharing economy firms may be able to grow even bigger and flex their power more in disrupting traditional kinds of services.

The IPOs suggest that the sharing economy "is ready for prime time," said Saif Benjaafar, director of the University of Minneota's Initiative on the Sharing Economy. 

"Lyft and Uber have demonstrated the operational viability of the business model: the ability to execute at scale and in different markets. What remains to be seen is to what extent these operational capabilities can now be leveraged to achieve financial profitability."

Benjaafar noted that Uber and Lyft have piled up huge losses while Airbnb has been profitable, they revolve around the same concept.

These firms "demonstrated the viability of businesses built around the concept of trust among strangers," Benjaafar told AFP.

"They also showed... how rapid growth can be achieved by being asset-light, and instead tapping into existing assets with excess capacity, and relying on an independent and contingent workforce."

WORKER ANGST

That feature -- the contingent workforce -- is one of the main targets of criticism of the online platforms.

These services upend the notion of traditional employment: backers say this leads to more flexible work arrangements and entrepreneurship, while critics argue it destroys the benefits and security available in most conventional jobs.

A 2018 study by the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment found that most ride-hailing drivers worked full time and supported their families from that income.

The study also found 44 percent had difficulty paying for work or vehicles expenses, and that most wanted an organization to demand improvements in wages and working conditions.

While many see advantages in the flexible work, on-demand drivers must find other ways to get needed benefits such as health and unemployment insurance.

Sundararajan said one of the main challenges for the sharing economy will be what happens to the "social safety net" which includes benefits such as health insurance, sick leave and retirement.

He said the current social contract established in the 20th century revolves around traditional employment.

"In 20 years when we look back at this, if we can do a good job of refashioning our social safety net to be tailored for this new economy, that is going to be central to whether we see this transition as good or bad," Sundararajan said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

6 tips on how to shift into a marketing mindset

Business Mentor's note: Ralph Layco is the Chief Marketing Officer of SAM Holdings, Inc. He also consults for the Department of Tourism-Region XII. He recently finished his continuing studies course in Integrated Marketing at New York University for Spring- 2015. Offered an internship and possible career in New York, he returned home because of his advocacy to help the country in his ways. He’s a marketing nerd, and spends his day remote managing his team from a coffee shop. He believes in the power of great ideas. He believes that our itch, if we look closely enough, is a clue to a possible business breakthrough. He supports the movement of empowering young people to entrepreneurship and fulfilling their passions that’s why he organizes seminars where he can advise business owners and budding entrepreneurs)

MANILA - How many times have we sat down late hours in the office, drained and tired after a marketing strategy we worked on didn't do well as planned? Low sales, slow return of investment, bad conversions--these are very haunting metrics.

Others see marketing as a "spray and pray" game, others nail it, but easily give up after consecutive failures and analysis by paralysis.

It’s understandable. "Maybe it’s not my skill, maybe I’m not born a marketer, maybe I need to retire from marketing, and move to accounting," you might think.

With numerous marketing tools up to our arsenal, what gives?

How about we try social media? How about we do the massive leafleting at the high traffic area nearby the entrance of the mall post-office hours? Or how about spending a huge amount of money to an advertising campaign we’ve desperately thought of after sales slump and see how that works out?

The thing is, we only know so much. Here’s the good news and the bad news.

Bad news: There’s no perfect formula to marketing. Good news: I will introduce you to something that can be game changing.

In marketing, it’s not what you do, it’s how you think.

To win in a marketplace, all it takes is a positive attitude and a shift of paradigm. To become storytellers than product sellers; To become relationship-builders than transactional purveyors; To be positively tuning in, tweaking (and re-tweaking) until eventually getting it right; To become the most interested person about your target market so you can build your product around their evolving lifestyle, desires and insights.

Thus, I introduce you to #marketingmindset. (I used a hashtag to motivate proper social media index for your commentary about this article.)

Carol Dweck, author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success proposes, “Mindsets needn’t be set and fixed.” Fixed mindset doesn’t make you win in the marketplace, a growth #marketingmindset does. A fixed mindset is to go through business avoiding challenges and failures. A growth #marketingmarketing mindset, on the other hand is one in which your ideas as fluid, a work in progress. When you shift into a #marketingmindset, the challenge of which marketing tools to use becomes simply intuitive and cohesive.

Here are six important tips you can use to shift into a #marketingmindset:

1. Always be ready to pivot

In a nutshell, if your strategies aren’t working, tweak and launch it again until it prospers. Make flexibility and your intent to listen to your market the core strengths of your company. Instagram started as Burbn, a geotagging social network, pivoted after slow user acceptance, and eventually became a photo app. It has garnered hundreds of millions of users around the world ever since!

Our first ideas seldom work. We would need to evolve them after trials and errors. Given enough feedback, we begin to know better.

A person with a #marketingmindset would say, “In executing my marketing strategies, if the results aren’t promising enough, I’m willing to improve on feedback and response. I believe this is the most logical way to get market fit.”

2. Vague? Boring? Reframe!
Marketing is a storytelling game. Here’s a clincher: It’s not just a battle of products, but also a battle of perceptions. Our clients and customers respond to not only with what they see and hear, but also the meaning behind it. The problem is most businesses sell themselves exactly the same way as their competitors! If your business is boring, or a “me-too” in the market, reframe what you stand for.

Take Fitness First for example. They’ve positioned themselves as a complete facility, premium fitness gym in a sea of other competitive gyms. But Fitness First has reframed their business from a widely known "global" fitness gym into a more dynamic brand that is fitness-powered that “gives people ‘fitness-rich’ moments and interactions that form long-lasting habits.” Never has the brand been this exciting.

Reframing is also powerful if you are selling a product. Take advantage of its leadership in the marketplace, whatever that is. Smallest chip, first international donuts chain, largest low-cost carrier, the only Halal-certified, fastest growing, freshest ingredients. Consumer gives instant credibility points to brands that are leaders in a category or concept. If you don’t have a category you can lead in, make one.

A person with a #marketingmindset would say, “If my current brand image lacks the immense potential for my brand, I’m ready to reframe the story according to the current insights of my customers while staying true to our core values.”

3. Put yourself in the equation

Here’s one of your brand’s most competitive advantages: You.

Presently, the trend in branding and marketing is authenticity and I can see it will stay that way. Richard Branson, one of UK’s most serial entrepreneurs is as funky, young-spirited and dynamic as how he projects his series of brands to be.

Stand true to what you truly believe in on how things should be done. Customers respect brands that are committed to their fundamentals. Like how a young team of baristas who operates a coffee shop in Iloilo called Fuel.ph are committed to serve strictly fair-trade coffee from Benguet while at the same time foster communities, not just customers. Or how an online booking company named FlipTrip.ph differentiates itself from the giants like Agoda by promoting tourism and empowering local tourism operators. The founder believes in not just booking rooms as its business model, but also by empowering the local operators to become competitive, visiting them and training them.

Also, it would be increasingly difficult for your competitors to catch up because they can’t replicate your passion and originality.

A person with a #marketingmindset would say, “My brand represents something more than just a product or service. I want my customers to believe in my brand as much as I believe in what we’re advocating.”

4. Stop selling, start resonating

Seth Godin, in his book “Tribes” wrote, “For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.”

Your brand should be a platform of like-minded communities that is basically your selected niche, or your primary target market. Snoe Beauty, a homegrown make-up and personal care brand, has reached more than 50 stores nationwide in just five years because it stays true to its core message of being “fine, fun and fabulous.” The brand is translated by its witty product names; funky world-class packaging that resonated well to its female buyers. When you affirm your market’s longings and desires, accentuate their lifestyle, direct them to the next big thing, and resonate with them, the symbiotic relationship becomes effortless.

A person with a #marketingmindset would say, “My brand is a platform for my dear customers so they can be freely themselves, enjoying shared interests, fantasies and ambitions. Here, they’ll feel accepted. They’ll feel their part of something bigger than them.”

5. Want to go viral? Be really, really good first.

According to Paul Rand, author of Highly Recommended, “A true social business is based on being the most highly recommended brand.” This digital age has seen the fall of many brands that have been reported by websites for inferior customer service, posted in Facebook as faulty products. The internet has given back the voice of the people. We have a thumbs-up or thumbs-down mentality, and our brands now depend more than ever on the social commentary of our clientele.

Here’s what you can do: make a superior, elegant product or business first. You can even reinvest your marketing budget into improving your business; improve your store design, train on superior customer service, extend your waiting area because your clients are standing because of lack of chairs, offer rewards and incentives in their every visit. Make your brand so extraordinary that it compels your clients to talk about it, share it, and yes, recommend it.

Remember, word of mouth is the holy grail of marketing. You can build your entire strategy plan in designing to court positive feedback. Understand “the science of social proof” and use it to your advantage. Usually, when a lot of people are doing something, it is the right thing to do.

A person with a #marketingmindset would say, “I have to start in making my business extraordinary enough that it’s worthwhile to share. It’s good karma.”

6. Most importantly, have fun!

Marketing doesn’t have to be frightening and expensive. In the contrary, it’s immensely exciting and lucrative! It gives you the opportunity to know your market up-close and fathom what ticks their imaginations. With those insights, you now have an understanding on how to improve their lives with what you uniquely offer. Once provided, it returns to you tenfold.

A person with a #marketingmindset would say, “I am having the time of my life doing this because while creatively marketing my product and services, I also get to reach my fullest potential.”

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Why men aren't allowed in this NYC networking event

NEW YORK - They are bloggers, engineers and chefs -- American women entrepreneurs who dream of emulating the success of Facebook number two Sheryl Sandberg or General Motors CEO Mary Barra.

And to smash through that glass ceiling, they have found a new weapon: speed-dating style networking events. No men allowed.

To shouts of "one, two, three -- change!" and "one, two, three -- switch!" ladies mingle at the first event organized at the annual women entrepreneurs festival run by the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at New York University.

Around 280 women of all ages and professions are given three minutes to get to know each other, swap business information and exchange cards before moving onto the next person.

It is the business equivalent of the matchmakers' speed-dating phenomenon that took off about a decade ago as a chance for the loveless to quickly meet multiple people in the hope of snaring a date.

The room gets increasingly riotous as the session wears on, bathed in the beautiful light of a New York winter afternoon.

Pairs of women group and regroup like members of a ballet company, exchanging business cards as they go.

Some nod and smile, others stifle a yawn, break into laughter or screw up their eyes in concentration before the emcee calls on them to move onto their immediate neighbor.

"We make short... fun, playful videos to boost people's popularity online," says New York-based multimedia artist O Zhang.

"Give me your card!"

Farther away, a woman named Milena, a bit older with a friendly manner, heads towards a young woman who has caught her eye.

"Are you looking for somebody to talk to?" she says, introducing herself as a former technology director about to embark on new projects with Jacqueline Courtney, the founder of website Nearly Newlywed, which allows brides to buy and sell back wedding dresses.

The rules are simple, says Nancy Hechinger, an ITP faculty member and co-founder of the event: three minutes to introduce yourself, your business and your passion in "hopefully semi-controlled chaos".

Sources of inspiration

Rosemarie Gambetta -- a real estate agent who wants to turn her blog www.cheapeatsinc.com about dining out on a budget into an online restaurant guide, mobile app and business -- dreams of rising to the top.

Gambetta told AFP the event was a great exercise without the pressure of meeting a man.

"Women are not used to selling themselves... you don't want to come off as being too bitchy, you don't want to come off as being too aggressive," she said.

For Denise Courter, who left Wall Street to found www.FiDiFamilies.com, a children's activities website in Manhattan, it was an opportunity to meet "inspirational women".

"So many times, I went to conferences that were men-centric, and this is focusing on women and that is very exciting because we are all able to help each other up the ladder," she said.

Despite high-profile success stories such as Barra at General Motors, only 15 percent of US companies and only 4.5 percent of Fortune 1000 companies are run by women.

Anne-Marie Slaughter, who stirred up a furor in 2012 with an essay in The Atlantic magazine asking if it was truly possible for working mothers "to have it all," opened the 2014 forum.

"It's exactly where we need to be -- encouraging women to start things, to make things on their own," she told AFP.

Slaughter gave up a high-flying job at the State Department in order to take up a role at Princeton University, which enabled her to spend more time caring for her two sons.

"Guys who are entrepreneurs know other entrepreneurs. And I know those networks are very important... because we're still a substantial minority," she said.

Sashka Rothchild, a former chef and founder of Standbuy, a cancer fundraising tool for families, has just had a child.

"I was way out of practice so this is a good way to get back into the saddle," she said.

Katie Boyko, founder of the website DatingbyThreeDegrees.com, also went home satisfied.

"I did a little bit of A/B testing, what's the most concise way to get the message across... everybody is the room was a potential new client," she said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Facebook joins NYU in artificial intelligence lab

WASHINGTON - Facebook unveiled plans Monday on a partnership with New York University for a new center for artificial intelligence, aimed at harnessing the huge social network's massive trove of data.

The California-based tech giant named professor Yann LeCun of NYU's Center for Data Science to head up the project.

"As one of the most respected thinkers in this field, Yann has done groundbreaking research in deep learning and computer vision," said Mike Schroepfer, Facebook's chief technology officer. "We're thrilled to welcome him to Facebook."

Facebook, the world's biggest social network with more than a billion members, is building the team across three locations -- New York, London and its headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

The lab will work on "machine learning," -- a branch of artificial intelligence that involves computers "learning" to extract knowledge from giant data sets.

LeCun, a French-born mathematician and computer scientist, said in a blog post that he was pleased to head up the project with "the ambitious, long-term goal of bringing about major advances in artificial intelligence."

"I am thrilled to announce that I have accepted the position of director of this new lab," LeCun wrote. "I will remain a professor at New York University on a part-time basis, and will maintain research and teaching activities at NYU."

Facebook chief and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg spoke of the plans during a call in October to discuss the company's quarterly earnings.

Zuckerberg said a working group was formed in September "to do world-class artificial intelligence research using all of the knowledge that people have shared on Facebook."

"The goal here is to use new approaches in AI to help make sense of all the content that people share so we can generate new insights about the world to answer people's questions," Zuckerberg said at the time.

He added that one of the goals was "to build services that are much more natural to interact with and can help solve many more problems than any existing technology today."

LeCun is a professor at NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and is the founding director of the university's Center for Data Science.

He is known for creating an early version of a pattern-recognition algorithm which mimics, in part, the visual cortex of animals and humans.

The algorithm helped allow AT&T's Bell Labs to deploy a check-reading system that by the late 1990s was reading about 20 percent of all the checks written in the US, according to NYU.

LeCun's recent research projects include the application of "deep learning" methods for visual scene understanding and navigation autonomous ground robots, driverless cars, and small flying robots, as well as speech recognition, and applications in biology and medicine.

LeCun is set to start the job in January.

Facebook joins other Internet firms like Google and Microsoft in researching artificial intelligence, which could help in delivering improved search results and in new products ranging from video games to driverless vehicles.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Obama praises Filipina nurse in State of the Union address

MANILA, Philippines - US President Barack Obama praised a Filipina nurse, who is considered one of the heroes of the Hurricane Sandy disaster, in his State of the Union address before the joint session of Congress in Washington D.C., Tuesday evening (Wednesday morning, Manila time).

In his speech, Obama mentioned Menchu Sanchez, a nurse at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, as an example to all Americans.

"We were sent here to look out for our fellow Americans in the same way they look out for one another every single day, usually without fanfare all across the country. We should follow their example," he said,.

"We should follow the example of a New York City nurse named Menchu Sanchez. When Hurricane Sandy plunged her hospital into darkness, she wasn't thinking about how her own home was faring. Her mind was on the 20 precious newborns in her care and the rescue plan she devised that kept them all safe," the US president said.

Sanchez was seated between First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, during the State of the Union address.

When President Obama mentioned Sanchez, the First Lady was seen nudging Sanchez and smiling at her.

Sanchez was invited by Obama for her role in saving 20 at-risk infants during the Hurricane Sandy disaster that devastated large parts of New York and New Jersey last year.

She devised a plan to transport 20 at-risk infants at the Langone Medical Center to intensive care units around the city.  She organized the nurses and doctors to carefully carry the babies down eight flights of stairs with only cell phones to light the way. 

Even as her own home was flooding, Sanchez thought only of protecting the babies in her care, the White House said. 

Sanchez was born, raised, and educated in the Philippines and she immigrated to the United States in the 1980s.  

She has worked as a nurse in New York for more than 25 years, and has been at NYU since 2010. 

Sanchez currently lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children, both of whom are in college. - With report from Rodney Jaleco, ABS-CBN News

source: abs-cbnnews.com

Meet the Filipina nurse honored by Obama

WASHINGTON, D.C. -  Filipina nurse Menchu Sanchez will get a rare vantage view of President Obama’s State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday evening (Wednesday morning, Manila time).

Sanchez, a nurse at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, will sit at the balcony as one of the special guests of First Lady Michelle Obama.

She is being hailed as one of the heroes of the Hurricane Sandy disaster that devastated large parts of New York and New Jersey last year.

She devised a plan to transport 20 at-risk infants at the Langone Medical Center to intensive care units around the city.  She organized the nurses and doctors to carefully carry the babies down eight flights of stairs with only cell phones to light the way. 

Even as Menchu’s own home was flooding, she thought only of protecting the babies in her care, the White House said. 

Menchu was born, raised, and educated in the Philippines and she immigrated to the United States in the 1980s. 

She has worked as a nurse in New York for more than 25 years, and has been at NYU since 2010. 

Menchu currently lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children, both of whom are in college.

The other guests of the First Lady include Alan Aleman, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico City.

In high school, Alan watched his friends come of age – driving around town with their new licenses and earning some extra cash from their summer jobs at the mall, knowing that his status prevented him from those activities.

But when he heard about news that the Obama Administration was going to provide Deferred Action for undocumented youth like him to emerge from the shadows, he was one of the first to sign up, the White House said.

Alan is in his second year at the College of Southern Nevada.  He’s studying to become a doctor and he hopes to join the Air Force.  Alan is currently working at Hermandad Mexicana, where he is in charge of final review for DACA applications. 

Also with the First Lady are Cleopatra and Nathaniel Pendleton, whose daughter Hadiya was murdered on January 29, 2013, when she was shot and killed in Harsh Park on Chicago’s South Side.

Hadiya had participated in President Obama’s public inaugural celebration on January 21, 2013.  The honor student and band majorette at King College Prep High School has become another symbol of the victims of gun violence in the country. 

Mrs. Obama attended Hadiya’s memorial service last Saturday.

source: abs-cbnnews.com

Diaspora co-founder dies at 22, report says

Ilya Zhitomirskiy, one of the co-founders of the social network Diaspora, has died at age 22, TechCrunch reported today.

The cause and date of his death were not reported.

Zhitomirskiy was one of four New York University programming students who last year launched Diaspora, which is designed as an open-source alternative to Facebook. Their intention was to build "an open source personal web server that will put individuals in control of their data."

A commercial alpha version was released November 23, 2010. The group has raised more than $200,000 in donations using a fundraising platform start-up called Kickstarter.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57323852-92/diaspora-co-founder-dies-at-22-report-says/