Mediaboss Marketing

ASINA PORNWASIN THE NATION November 22, 2012 1:00 am

The market value of the companies that are the top 25 drivers of Internet traffic is now almost half of the combined market capitalisation of the top 150 telecom operators. They are mainly what are known as "over-the-top" (OTT) companies, that is, service providers as opposed to being purely telecom carriers.

OTT service providers, in particular the top four - Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google - represent 70 per cent of the top 25 and are expanding their dominant position in the communication landscape, said van den Dam. The massive shift in value continues towards the OTT providers as capital markets prize the direct customer relationship and value provided by OTT providers.

This is because dramatic forces are radically altering the telecommunication landscape, confronting communication service providers with both major challenges and opportunities. "It is an era of mobile Internet, data, a mass of applications and the ability to send images and video from everyone to everywhere," he said.

The proportion of mobile Internet subscribers in developing countries, including Thailand, is about 10 per cent, while the ratio in developed countries is around 50 per cent.

Smart phones and tablets - the key devices driving heavy traffic over the network - were sold in large quantities last year, when some 490 million smart phones, 210 million notebooks and 63 million tablets were sold around the world.

Communication service providers in developing countries have proven they can grow and generate high levels of profit from low average-revenue-per-user customers, said van den Dam.

The amount of mobile data, especially video, has exploded, causing significant capital- and operating-expenditure pressures on telecom operators. Mobile video and mobile Web data is expected to account for 90.5 per cent of all global mobile data traffic by 2016.

Future scenarios

He identified four future scenarios: survival consolidation, market shake-out, a clash of giants, and what he called a "generative bazaar".

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Rapid growth of social networking, smart devices causing

Mozilla's Social API allows participating social-networking sites to create persistent sidebar access to their sites. But Firefox 17 also drops support for older Macs.

Mozilla's Social API debuts with Facebook integration in Firefox. (Shown here in Firefox Beta.)

Facebook has accepted a friend request from Firefox and Mozilla's new Social API today, as the browser updates with several security and feature updates after yesterday's Firefox for Android update.

The biggest feature debut in Firefox 17 (download for Windows | Mac | Linux) is the Social API, launching with Facebook Messenger, which allows participating social-networking sites to create persistent sidebar access to their site. Although most new browser technologies depend on entirely on how many developers integrate it, the Social API likely will be different.

To activate it, go to the Facebook Messenger for Firefox site and click "Turn On." It automatically adds Facebook control buttons to the right of your location bar, and makes Facebook's status update and messenger sidebar persistent even when you're not looking at Facebook.com. The Facebook button next to your Home button lets you control and hide the sidebar.

There are only a handful of heavily trafficked social-networking Web sites, and Mozilla is cautiously controlling the rollout. It's an atypical step for the company, but the integration is much tighter than normal. Facebook's integration, for example, obviates the need for social addicts to keep Facebook itself always open. The Social API is an interesting reaction to a more connected Web, but whether it actually will attract people has yet to be seen. Debuting with Facebook, however, means that competitors like Twitter and LinkedIn are likely taking a close look at the API.

Other changes in Firefox 17 include halting support for Mac OS X 10.5, and adding click-to-play blocklisting for add-ons. This will prevent out-of-date plug-ins like Adobe Flash and Apple QuickTime from loading without your permission. Another security change has been to implement the "sandbox" attribute for iFrames, which allows them to run more safely.

You can read the full list of changes for Firefox 17 here.

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Like? New Firefox adds Facebook integration

ScienceDaily (Nov. 20, 2012) As Internet access becomes increasingly widespread, so do related psychopathologies such as Internet addiction and delusions related to the technology and to virtual relationships. Computer communications such as Facebook and chat groups are an important part of this story, says Dr. Uri Nitzan of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Shalvata Mental Health Care Center in a new paper published in the Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences.

In his study, the researcher presented three in-depth case studies linking psychotic episodes to Internet communications from his own practice. According to Dr. Nitzan, patients shared some crucial characteristics, including loneliness or vulnerability due to the loss of or separation from a loved one, relative inexperience with technology, and no prior history of psychosis or substance abuse. In each case, a connection was found between the gradual development and exacerbation of psychotic symptoms, including delusions, anxiety, confusion, and intensified use of computer communications.

The good news is that all of the patients, who willingly sought out treatment on their own, were able to make a full recovery with proper treatment and care, Dr. Nitzan says.

Behind the screen

The Internet is a free and liberal space that many individuals use on a daily basis and a growing part of a normal social life. But while technologies such as Facebook have numerous advantages, some patients are harmed by these social networking sites, which can attract those who are lonely or vulnerable in their day-to-day lives or act as a platform for cyber-bullying and other predatory behavior.

All three of Dr. Nitzan's patients sought refuge from a lonely situation and found solace in intense virtual relationships. Although these relationships were positive at first, they eventually led to feelings of hurt, betrayal, and invasion of privacy, reports Dr. Nitzan. "All of the patients developed psychotic symptoms related to the situation, including delusions regarding the person behind the screen and their connection through the computer," he says. Two patients began to feel vulnerable as a result of sharing private information, and one even experienced tactile hallucinations, believing that the person beyond the screen was physically touching her.

Some of the problematic features of the Internet relate to issues of geographical and spatial distortion, the absence of non-verbal cues, and the tendency to idealize the person with whom someone is communicating, becoming intimate without ever meeting face-to-face. All of these factors can contribute to a patient's break with reality, and the development of a psychotic state.

A changing social landscape

Dr. Nitzan and his colleagues plan to do more in-depth research on Facebook, studying the features and applications that have the potential to harm patients emotionally or permit patients to cause emotional harm to others. Some psychotic patients use the Internet to disturb people, abusing their ability to interact anonymously, he says.

Because social media are now such an important part of our culture, mental health professionals should not overlook their influence when speaking to patients, Dr. Nitzan counsels. "When you ask somebody about their social life, it's very sensible to ask about Facebook and social networking habits, as well as Internet use. How people conduct themselves on the Internet is quite important to psychiatrists, who shouldn't ignore this dimension of their patients' behavior patterns."

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Are social networking Internet sites a factor in psychotic symptoms?

Thousands of vulnerable children are targeted through social networking sites, deputy children's commissioner warns Report says it is 'rare' for abuse cases not to involve technology including mobile phones and computers Labour calls for Facebook to be grilled by Parliament

By Matt Chorley, Mailonline Political Editor

PUBLISHED: 05:04 EST, 21 November 2012 | UPDATED: 11:58 EST, 21 November 2012

Gangs of child abusers use Facebook and other social networking sites to trawl menus of potential victims and plan sickening sex parties, a devastating report warns today.

Naive young people are wandering round in the thicket of the internet, which plays a central role in grooming and planning abuse.

Sue Berelowitz, deputy childrens commissioner for England, claimed groups of men use menus of girls and warned that it was rare to find abuse cases where technology such as mobile phones and computers were not in some way connected.

The interim report by the deputy children's commissioner Sue Berelowitz warned Facebook is used by gangs to arrange 'sex parties' where children are abused

This includes encouraging girls to swap sexually explicit images on mobiles, adults grooming children on social networking sites such as Facebook, and the viewing of extreme or violent pornography and discussing it during sexual assaults.

Children groomed online are taken to parties, where they are drugged or plied with alcohol so that they did not know what was happening to them, the study found.

This made it impossible for them to identify the perpetrators.

Excerpt from:
How Facebook and social networking sites are used by child abuse gangs to groom victims for 'sex parties'

Nov 21, 2012 11:23am

A group of pro-Palestinian hackers apparently managed to break into the social networking accounts of Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom and has promised to release a drove of the top officials private emails.

Though the Israeli government now appears to have regained control of the accounts, screenshots posted on various news outlets overnight show Shaloms Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts plastered with pro-Palestinian messages. An official at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. confirmed the hacking incident.

A group calling itself ZCompanyHackingCrew (ZHC) boasted about the hack on Twitter and claimed it had also accessed Shaloms personal email account where they stole his contacts, docs [documents], and some other interesting stuff. The group said it plans to release them online very soon.

ZHC specified that it is not part of the loose hacking collective Anonymous, which has declared its own cyber war against Israel.

READ: Israel Combats Cyber Attacks During Gaza Offensive

This morning ZHC taunted Shalom on Twitter, asking, How was your day Mr. Vice Prime Minister?

The messages purportedly posted by the hackers have been deleted from Shaloms Facebook and Twitter and the Deputy Prime Minister has apparently not made public statements with either account since the incident.

Shalom did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this report.

Originally posted here:
Israeli Official's Social Accounts Hacked