Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Tue, 2 Jun 2009 16:38:00 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090601/1921425088.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090601/1921425088.shtml comparing mentions of "hired" vs. "laid off" on Facebook wall postings, and noticed a bit of a trend: Who knows if it's really indicative of anything in terms of whether the "worst" of the recession is over, but what I found worth noting was how cool it is that we can even analyze such data. Traditionally, trying to get a sense of whether or not more folks were getting laid off than hired, you were pretty much limited to various official stats that would be released. But thanks to the fact that people now share such things via Facebook or Twitter status, you suddenly can get at least a proxy bit of data. Now, there are obvious caveats, including the fact that the population on Facebook is clearly not a representative sample of the wider population (and, many of those most impacted by layoffs are probably least likely to be on Facebook), so I wouldn't go tossing aside national labor stats just yet -- but it is a sign of the new types of data that can increasingly be built from the fact that people are now sharing status information publicly.

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]]> the-power-of-public-status http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090601/1921425088 Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:43:00 PDT Carlo Longino http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090311/1849084079.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090311/1849084079.shtml he called the team "retarded" in a status update, for letting a player sign with another team. Or the New York City cop, whose update that he was watching the movie Training Day -- which features Denzel Washington as a cop who doesn't play by the rules -- in order "to brush up on proper police procedure" helped a suspect beat a gun-possession charge. Part of the issue is that as people get more and more friends online, even stuff they think is private essentially becomes public. That will undoubtedly have an effect on people's online behavior, and could hamper the growth of social networking and online life-sharing.

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]]> is-nothing-private? http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090311/1849084079 Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:29:00 PST Carlo Longino http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090123/1025413505.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090123/1025413505.shtml "Wife murdered for Facebook status," screams the headline on the BBC News site. "A man murdered his estranged wife after becoming 'enraged' when she changed her marital status on Facebook to 'single'," it goes on to say, after a man in England was convicted of killing his estranged wife who wouldn't respond to any of his attempts to contact her. Apparently changing the Facebook status was the final straw, but to say she was murdered because of it seems like little more than an overly ambitious attempt to craft a really juicy headline. This woman was murdered because her estranged husband went nuts; Facebook was hardly an accessory. While this may not seem like a huge deal, it's these sorts of stories that spring politicians into action against technology, blaming it for society's ills while ignoring the real underlying problems. I mean, if people are getting killed for their Facebook status, surely we need to ban Facebook statuses, right? To protect the children?

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]]> when-reality-isn't-as-interesting-as-your-headline http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090123/1025413505