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One man was killed and another was shot this month at parties in Charles County, and the sheriffs office said news of both parties was spread through social networking, which has been leading to trouble.

Across the nation and even here, the sheriffs office said in a statement, police are responding to more and more reports of parties that get out of control because the party is posted on social media.

The sheriffs office urged parents and teenagers to recognize that social media has changed the way people party. It said addresses of parties are forwarded to friends, who send the information to additional friends.

Soon, hundreds of uninvited people show up and in some instances violence has broken out, according to the sheriffs warning.

It may be tempting to go to one of these parties, the statement said, but those who do could be placing themselves in a dangerous situation.

The man who was killed, Jerry Adam Gilchrist, 18, of Cheltenham was involved in an altercation at a party July7 in the Indian Head area, the sheriffs office said. He died at a hospital, which reported that he had suffered blunt-force trauma, the sheriffs office said.

In the second incident, the office said, uninvited guests showed up at a party after learning about it through social networking. After an argument, there was gunfire and a 19-year-old was wounded. An arrest has been made, the sheriffs office said.

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Charles County authorities link party violence to social media

The social networking spent $960,000 on lobbying in the second quarter of 2012, the first time it has come close to spending seven figures in a single quarter.

Facebook has once again significantly increased its budget for wooing politicians. The social network giant spent $960,000 on lobbying in the second quarter of 2012, the transition quarter during which the company went public. This is up exactly 200 percent from the $320,000 the company spent in the first quarter of 2011, and up 47.69 percent from the $650,000 it spent in the fourth quarter of 2012.

As you can see in the chart below, Facebook has been lobbying since 2009 but only cranked up the gears last year. In fact, 2011 was the first year Facebook spent more than $1 million for lobbying. To put the latest numbers into perspective, Facebook spent almost $1 million this past quarter alone, and in the first half of 2012 ($1.61 million) it has already blown past its total 2011 expenses ($1.35 million):

Facebook's 16-page lobbying report for the second quarter of 2012 (PDF) lists the following specific lobbying issues:

In summary, Facebook lobbied lawmakers on advertising, cybersecurity, employment, patents, privacy, taxes, and IPO issues. There are many reasons why Facebook's lobbying is increasing: the improving U.S. economy, the upcoming 2012 presidential election, as well as the various Internet-related bills making their way through Congress.

As all technology companies of Facebook's size, the social network will continue to friend Washington, D.C. as long as it has a list of items it wants help with. Working with the government is one of many ways Facebook is working to protect its interests, and in some cases, the interests of its users.

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Facebook breaks its lobbying record in Q2 2012

LONDON (Reuters) - The International Olympic Committee will sail in to unchartered waters next week when the Games open in London, at the mercy of the millions of fans around the world on Facebook and Twitter who will give instant reaction to everything that unfolds.

The explosion of social networking offers huge opportunities to the IOC, but with much of its revenues dependent on the billion-dollar deals agreed with broadcasters, the body overseeing the Games will also have to protect those long-held rights.

Fans inside a stadium will be allowed to use their smartphones to film Usain Bolt on the track or Michael Phelps in the pool, but they will not be allowed to upload it to Facebook in a ruling that may surprise many tech-savvy fans who now upload clips on a regular basis.

Anthony Edgar, head of media operations for the IOC, freely admits that he does not know what to expect in London following the explosion of social media, with some 900 million people using Facebook in 2012 compared to the 100 million who used the site just four years ago at the time of the Beijing Games.

"Yes you can't hold a camera when you're running down the 100 meter straight and do an exclusive broadcast. That's for the broadcasters," he told Reuters in an interview. "But you can certainly talk about it. You can certainly take photos of it. And you can certainly write about it.

"We're having to deal with things now that didn't exist in Beijing, with a voice that wasn't so loud in Beijing. Everyone is allowed to film who goes into a venue ... but it's for personal use only."

YOUNGER AUDIENCE

Ian Maude, an analyst in online media at the British-based Enders Analysis firm, said he thought it could pose a huge challenge to the social networks and IOC, as many fans will not know the rules.

"Everyone has a mobile phone which is also a video camera these days and they're going to want to record the moment for posterity," he said.

"I think there will be an issue with people not realizing the rules but also some people could think about how much they've paid for those tickets and they may not care about the rules anyway."

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Social media throws up new challenge to the Olympic Games

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Apartment Guide, a leading resource for apartments for rent nationwide, today earned victory in the Atlanta market Social Madness competition, a matchup of Atlanta-based companies vying to show leadership in social networking influence. By beating 10 large company category competitors in the Atlanta market, Apartment Guide now moves on to national bracket competition, potentially facing companies such as FedEx Corp., Target and Southwest Airlines for the honor of being named the organization with the most social influence.

Were pleased to have come out on top in the Atlanta competition and hope to further validate our emphasis on social media as a key business driver when we compete in the upcoming national phase, said Arlene Mayfield, Senior Vice President, PRIMEDIA and President, Apartment Guide, Rentals and Homes divisions. Social media tools are highly effective for extending our advertisers reach, driving more qualified leads and facilitating faster filling of vacancies, and this is why weve embraced the technology so wholeheartedly.

During the local market phase lasting from June 1 July 16, Apartment Guide garnered 6,507 votes earned through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn activity and direct votes during competition. In total, 127 companies competed in the Atlanta market. In moving on to the national phase, the company will be one of 64 entrants, seeded according to total points earned during the local rounds. The national competition consists of seven weeks, from July 24 Sept. 10. Head-to-head matchups based on seeding (#1 seed vs. #64 seed, #2 seed vs. #63 seed, etc.) will take place each week for the first five weeks, as the 64-company field is narrowed to two finalists. The two finalist competitors will participate in a two-week final round, with the company receiving the highest vote total from the start of local competition through the end of the final round being named the victor.

We encourage all individuals connected to us through social channels including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to cast their votes and show their support, said Mayfield. Well face intense competition from well-known organizations, but we know our social presence is strong enough to help Apartment Guide prove worthy of inclusion among industry leaders.

The Social Madness competition is presented by Capital One Spark Business. The 43-city local and national promotion, designed to measure the growth of companies social presence,involved thousands of companies in three categories based on organization size large (500-plus employees), medium (100-500 employees) and small (fewer than 100 employees).

About Apartment Guide

A 36-year apartment industry expert, Apartment Guide helps millions of consumers nationwide find an apartment through innovative Internet, mobile and social media solutions. A trusted brand, it is a primary apartment search resource, offering potential renters content-rich apartment listings and information. For more information visit http://www.apartmentguide.com or http://www.listonapartmentguide.com.

About PRIMEDIA

PRIMEDIA helps millions of consumers nationwide find apartments, houses for rent or new homes for sale through its category-leading web sites and mobile applications, including ApartmentGuide.com, Rentals.com, RentalHouses.com and NewHomeGuide.com. PRIMEDIA continues to simplify the consumer home search and drive leads that result in occupancies for property management companies, landlords, new home builders and real estate professionals. PRIMEDIA was acquired by TPG July 13, 2011. For more information, visit http://www.primedia.com .

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Apartment Guide Wins Large-Company Category of Atlanta Social Media Competition

A Social Network Free of Ads

The dominant social networks cater too much to advertisers, says the man behind a Twitter-style network that users would pay for.

Social networking is too important to the future of the Web to be reliant on the advertising industry. That's the argument put forward by the founder of an effort to create an open, ad-free social network closely modeled on Twitter but supported by fees from users.

Dalton Caldwell, who founded one of the Web's earliest successful social networks, Imeem (see "IM-based Social Networking"), and sold it to MySpace in 2009, announced the project, App.net, last week to widespread interest from Web startups and developers. Caldwell has decided to divert the efforts of his current startup, Mixed Media Labs, to begin work on the project, and wants to raise $500,000 in donations to fund the rest. The project has already secured over $65,000 towards that goal. Donations have come from people paying the $50 annual member fee the service will charge, or larger amounts for the access that software developers need to build apps on the service. Mixed Media Labs received $5 million in investment funding in 2010 and originally worked on tools to help creators of mobile apps market them online.

Caldwell thinks the ad-supported business models adopted by Twitter and Facebook have encouraged those companies to create closed arenas that not only do a disservice to users but also choke online innovation. "Twitter created as fundamental a technical innovation as e-mail and HTML itself, and they totally blew it," says Caldwell. He draws an analogy with the early days of the Web, when Netscape got the medium started by releasing the first mass-market Web browser. "If Netscape had decided to build a proprietary ecosystem and become a media company supported by advertising, we wouldn't have the Web we do today," Caldwell says.

Caldwell's move was inspired by the positive response to a blog post he published this month lamenting recent moves by Twitter to restrict access by third-party apps and companies to its members' data. Many of Twitter's features and early traction came when the company adopted ideassuch as hashtags and retweetsthat originated with its users, and when it let outside software developers tap into the network, which yielded the first desktop and mobile clients for Twitter. But in 2011 the company announced that it intended to provide the main, if not only, ways of accessing the service, and has increasingly restricted what outside developers can do ever since.

That appears to be motivated by Twitter's need to establish its ad business, which relies on inserting paid-for messages into a user's update stream. That creates an incentive to build a closed network that keeps users locked in to the main Twitter site, and puts their needs second, says Caldwell. He says the dynamic also afflicts Facebook. "They're doing exactly the right thing for advertisers. If you're not an advertiser, they're not building it for you." Caldwell says that offering a service paid for by users creates a clear, uncompromised incentive to do what's best for them. He says the success of companies such as Dropbox and Evernote shows that people are willing to pay for online services. He also points out that more established communication networks such as the phone system have long gotten their revenue directly from their users.

The exact design and features of App.net will be shaped by feedback from supporters, but the basic form is intended to be similar to Twitter. Users can publish updates and subscribe to those of others to build a personalized real-time feed of content.

He acknowledges that he and many of those most excited by his project are "nerds," but he contends that many people outside the tech community are leery of the increasing efforts of Twitter and Facebook to position ads around their socializing.

However, some who agree with his analysis question Caldwell's solution.

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A Social Network Free of Ads