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Though perceived by their supporters to have been unfairly shut out of Facebook, the Winklevoss twins -- who settled their dispute with Mark Zuckerberg for tens of millions -- are moving on, and the latest recipient of their money and talent is SumZero. "These two brothers were the vision behind Facebook," said investment analyst Trip Chowdhry. "That is the converged opinion about Facebook's origins."

Brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss -- famed for their dispute with Mark Zuckerberg over the formation of Facebook -- are trying their hand at the social media space again. They have invested US$1 million in SumZero, a social networking site founded in 2008 by fellow Harvard alum Divya Narendra, who also had a hand in bringing Facebook to life.

The Winklevoss twins sued Zuckerberg, alleging he stole the concept of Facebook from them. Narendra supported the twins in that legal battle, which was eventually settled out of court.

Now the three are collaborating again, although SumZero has little in common with Facebook beyond the fact that they are both social networking sites. SumZero is a professional network for hedge fund, mutual fund and private equity executives. It aims to facilitate contacts among its members, including the sharing of research and thought leadership papers.

The site boasts that nearly every well-known fund is a member, including Greenlight, Pershing Square, and Weiss Asset Management.

SumZero represents a variation on the social networking theme, said Trip Chowdhry, managing director of equity research at Global Equities Research.

While Facebook and other sites of its ilk aim to be all things to all people, vertical sites such as SumZero target select groups of people, he told the E-Commerce Times.

LinkedIn follows this model with its focus on solely on professional ties. Other sites focus on specific verticals or industries; a number of them have proliferated in the health information space, for example.

SumZero stands out in that it has been successful in maintaining itself via a subscription model. It charges $129 per month for the elite membership, a sum that buys two investment ideas each month, live discussions with SumZero hedge fund managers, coverage and analysis on certain issues, and other investment-related opportunities.

"We don't like to compare ourselves to traditional social media outlets," Narendra told the E-Commerce Times.

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Winklevoss Twins Give Social Networking Another Spin

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Internet access is everywhere, mobile and frequent, and social media is attracting younger and younger demographics. According to a study by the Pew Research Center examining the behavior of teenagers online, 76 percent of teens are currently active on social networking sites. Additionally, Facebook has a reported 93 percent usage rate among teens. With this high usage rate demonstrated by the younger population, an enhanced and innovative content moderation system to ensure the safety of those users is needed now more than ever. In accordance with the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Acts rule that children must be older than 13 years old in order for online companies to gather personal information, social media networks are enforcing the strict age limit of 13 and older; however, results from a Consumer Reports study show that an estimated 5.6 million children under the required age limit are on social networks. The current solution for protection relies primarily on human supervision. ImageVision, however, amplifies this approach by offering technology capable of regulating more online material faster, in a cost-effective manner and without compromising accuracy or thoroughness.

Our technology scans for nudity and illicit content in videos and images as well as inappropriate text in real-time, which simply cant be done manually, said Steven W. White, president and CEO, ImageVision. We are able to give social media networks the ability to protect their advertisers and brand with a fast filtering process without breaking the bank, which can ultimately lead to a more enjoyable and safe experience for all subscribers.

ImageVisions advanced filtering solutions ensure the safety of young users joining social networks by discarding inappropriate material in accordance with community terms of service at a faster rate than the human moderation technique that many popular social networks deploy. ImageVisions technology allows social media networks to reduce the need to rely primarily on manual processes. This could help these companies cut their content security expenses by more than 70 percent.

By replacing human moderators, social media networks serve their users more efficiently and slash costs, said White. ImageVision is changing the game in terms of how social media companies moderate content. As the first company to provide automated, real-time filtering of images and video in addition to text, ImageVision sets the new standard for speed, accuracy and volume of content that can be moderated.

Recently securing Series B funding, ImageVision plans to continue enhancing the way content is kept safe and improving the social media experience for young users. Additionally, the funding will be used to increase technology development staff by 33 percent, as well as boost sales and marketing support in South America and the Asia-Pacific region over the next year.

About ImageVision

ImageVision is the leading pioneer in content safety with the firstreal-time platform to filter offensive graphic- and text-based content in user-generated and shared videos, images, URLs or messages. With ImageVision, social media companies, mobile device manufacturers and mobile operators can cost-effectivelyprotect consumers, employees and advertisers from illicit content. Learn more about ImageVision by visiting http://www.imagevision.com/ or join the conversation about clean content on Facebook and Twitter.

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Influx of Younger Social Media Users Proves Need for Enhanced Protection from Illicit Visual Content

Posted on September 19, 2012, Wednesday

KUALA LUMPUR: The emergence of social networking websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, has helped government agencies such as the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) to communicate and promote their services and activities to communities that they serve.

Bukit Aman public relations officer DSP Lai Lee Ching said, the new media had been used to educate young people and the general public in efforts to fight and prevent crime all over the world.

Therefore as an appreciation, PDRM will celebrate the second anniversary of using Facebook as well as the first anniversary using Twitter on Friday via online, Lai told Bernama when contacted here.

She said, the police were using the social network as a platform to reach out to the younger Internet savvy generation, posting updates on high profile cases, tips for crime prevention, and updates on key community policing initiatives.

She also acknowledged the fact that social networks such as the Facebook and Twitter, were great tools for solving crimes and they also created space for police to share information about themselves with the public.

The police use these media connections to keep the public informed about unsolved crimes and post valuable information such as surveillance videos on the web, she added.

Moreover, the younger generation played a vital role in using social network such as Facebook and Twitter, she said.

The social media offers us (PDRM) an outlet to communicate with and educate the public, as well as form relationships with community members and to fight crime, she said.

The Facebook profile page iswww.facebook.com/PolisDirajaMalaysiawhile the Twitter profile page iswww.twitter.com/PDRMsia.

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Social network helps police connect with people

September 18, 2012

Penn State has received another award to add to its collection.

The university was recently ranked No. 1 for its usage of social networking by Unigo, a company that provides university data and information to US News & World Report and USA Today for college guides and rankings, according to Bill Mahon.

Mahon is the current Vice President of University Relations, but will begin a new role as a journalism and public relations professor in January.

Described on Unigos website as the Top 10 schools where the faculty is on Facebook more than you are, the list put Penn State above Yale, Harvard and MIT, which were ranked No. 2, 3 and 4, respectively.

Unigo cited our Facebook page in particular, which now has almost 280,000 followers, Mahon wrote in an email.

Geoff Rushton, manager of the Office of Social Media in University Relations, said the social media department works hard finding ways to use social media to engage a wide audience, which includes prospective students, alumni, potential research partners and the public in general that might be interested in Penn State.

Were using various social platforms to tell the story of Penn State, and to the best of our ability to engage a really wide variety of people who would be interested, Rushton said.

He said the social media office, which now has a staff of four, examines the demographics of social media websites before they start using them to make their presence more successful.

In examining the demographics on Tumblr, Rushton said they found a lot of phrases like geek chic, which he described as young people wearing big thick glasses and embracing an intellectual scientific image as being cool.

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Penn State named No. 1 in social networking

Almost 20 per cent of job applicants say they will turn down a job if they do not have reasonable access to social networking sites.

A survey of 870 employers and employees from recruitment company Hays found 19.7 per cent would reject a job offer if they did not have reasonable access to social media sites such as Facebook.

Hays NSW regional manager Shane Little said the survey suggested that many employees, particularly Generation Y, expected access to social media at work for personal use.

She said the percentage of staff with this expectation would increase over time.

"What we are seeing (is) this more projected feeling among employers and the younger workforce that it is going to become a bigger matter as time progresses, as far as attraction of staff and also the retention of staff," he said.

Mr Little said long ago personal phone calls were frowned upon in the office.

About half of those surveyed already accessed social media at work, with 13.3 per cent accessing it daily and 36.4 per cent checking occasionally.

Employers expectations also seemed in line with their staff over social media access.

Almost half (44.3 per cent) believed that allowing employees access to social media at work will improve retention levels, and a third already gave their staff access to it.

Only 23.7 per cent of employers allowed no access to social media sites.

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Social media access at work a drawcard