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Shoes of Prey co-founder Mike Knapp is embarking on his next startup adventure with a new experimental social networking app designed to spark real world conversations and connections with people.

Knapp says he has designed Mottle, a social networking app launched on Wednesday, with one core goal: To drive human connection.

Once you download the app, you login with Facebook and you can see a list of people ranked based on their interests and how close they are to you and also theyre age, Knapp tells StartupSmart.

The only communication possible on Mottleis to send a hello, after which users can speak with each other in a phone chat through the app. Once users hang up, they can rate each other.

People who are inappropriate will have this reflected in their rating, he says.

I wanted a way to be able to have conversations with new people easily, Knapp says.

Its a very experimental app Im hoping that people will enjoy it and use it.

Knapp came up with the idea for it while travelling and meeting different people when he realisedthere needs to be a more meaningful solution to connecting human beings in an increasingly digital and detached world.

Im very interested in human connection and particularly as robotics takes over more jobs and displaces a lot of the economic activity in the world I worry about what will people do, Knapp says.

And talking to each other is something were uniquely capable of doing.

Theres a lot of pain and suffering in the world. My grandmother is in her early 90s and a lot of her close friends have died and having someone to talk to is really important to her.

Knapp believes the app could also be used as an alternative to dating tools like Tinder.

He says Mottle is a low cost way of getting to know someone before wasting time and money on a date with someone you have no real sense of.

I developed it over the last two months pretty quickly and Ive been working on it sort of seven days a week, he says.

Considering the apps experimental nature in getting people to speak to strangers in real life, Knapp says it may be a long journey for people to develop trust in Mottle and see its benefits.

I dont expect it will be a raging success on day one, he says.

However, during Shoes of Preys early days, he says people were similarly reserved about its potential.

When we started Shoes of Prey, people said thats crazy that youre going to design your own shoes on the internet, he says.

Today, the company is a world-renowned brand and it raised $21.3 million in funding last year.

Theres a lot of parallels once you do something the second time, youre familiar with the doubts that can set in and sometimes the hard work thats required to get past certain checkpoints [like registering a business and domain names], he says.

I felt sort of some of the same emotions and feelings [like] youre always doubting is this a good idea? And you talk to people and they think oh, thats a bit strange.

Despite this, Knapp says its crucial to turn up each day and after building Shoes of Prey, he says its exciting to be at the start of a growth journey again.

One learning from Shoes of Prey is dont jump too quickly into being international really work on the core product first, he says.

Knapp hopes the five countries Mottle is available in now will be a good user base to start.

These include Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada and the UK.

While Knapp doesnt have any strong plans for monetising Mottle yet, his aim now is to bring its vision to life and share it with the world.

I want to help people connect with each other [and] to create a sense of community how that translates into a business, Im not sure at this stage, he says.

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Shoes of Prey co-founder Mike Knapp launches social network Mottle, but it won't be a raging success just yet - SmartCompany.com.au

SAN JOSE, Calif.After Facebook's Aquila internet-beaming drone crashed during a test flight last year, the company's engineers realized it would take years before its key strengththe ability to beam internet signals via millimeter wave technologywould be ready.

The reasons for the delay are as much regulatory as they are technical, according to Yael Maguire, the head of Facebook's Connectivity Lab. Speaking at the company's annual f8 developers conference here on Wednesday, he explained that it could take up to 10 years before Facebook can realize the full potential of the drone, which has the wingspan of a Boeing 737 but weighs less than a Toyota Prius. Besides building a reliable plane, the company also has to secure the permits to use the millimeter wave spectrum that will connect it to the ground.

So even as the Connectivity Lab forges ahead on the drone projectit is still testing Aquila prototypes, one of which was on display here (above)it is turning towards other rapid-deployment aeronautical innovations that could help connect more of the 4.1 billion people who Maguire claims don't have reliable internet access.

One of them, nicknamed "Tether-tenna," is a small autonomous helicopter equipped with a tether to a fiber line that can stay aloft for more than a day. It's one of a few tools in Facebook's arsenal to solve the problem that Google, Verizon, and other companies have experienced in their fiber buildouts: delivering fiber to individual homes and businesses is incredibly costly and complicated.

"Connectivity starts with fiber, but it doesn't end there," Maguire said. "Fiber is the backbone," he explained, but it's too expensive and takes too long to expect it to deliver fast and reliable internet in the rural and remote areas where it's needed most. So the idea is that those zones will get wireless links to the closest fiber infrastructure via the Tether-tenna, among other wireless bridges.

Maguire said the Tether-tenna is "just a few years out" from commercial deployment, unlike the 10 years that Aquila will take. It will complement the previously announced Terragraph project, which aims to bring low-cost, ground-based antennas to the rural areas of developing nations. If a Terragraph-served area is affected by a flood or other natural disaster, for instance, the Tether-tenna could quickly step in to fill the void created by the damaged antennas or other internet infrastructure.

Of course, flying helicopters (even pilot-less ones tethered to the ground) costs much more than flying a fixed-wing craft like the Aquila. Maguire claimed that the Terra-tenna and other projects will improve the price, performance, and speed of internet connections, but one thing Facebook hasn't talked much about in its infrastructure unveilings is the profitability of its designs, other than to say they're part of the company's general mission to connect more people to the internet.

And even as Facebook continues to experiment with planes, helicopters, and Terragraph (which is now in testing mode here in San Jose, just a few blocks from where Maguire was speaking), it still cannot avoid the need to build more fiber. So it is doing that, too: a recently announced project in Uganda involves building a 448-mile fiber line to provide backhaul connectivity covering more than 3 million people.

But perhaps more than any technical or regulatory challenge, the company's mission to deliver better internet access to underserved areas is also threatened by broader social and economic factors. By some estimates, more than two-thirds of the world's population will live in cities by 2050, up from just over half today. So many of those 4.1 billion people without access will simply move to better-connected urban areas over the next 10 years, before Aquila and Terra-tenna get the chance to really soar.

The rest is here:
Facebook Really Wants to Beam Internet From Planes - PCMag India

SAN JOSE, Calif.In true Silicon Valley tradition, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off the company's annual developer conference on Tuesday by sharing his vision for the future of the world's largest social network, but not before acknowledging that Facebook's new features sometimes fall short.

Zuckerberg took the stage here one day after a Cleveland man, 37-year-old Steve Stephens, posted a video of himself on Facebook announcing his intent to commit murder and then shooting and killing an elderly man.

"We have a lot of work, and we will keep doing all we can to prevent tragedies like this from happening," Zuckerberg told the audience. Facebook has often been criticized for how it polices its live videos, which have featured footage of other controversial shootings in the past. On Monday, the company said Stevens's account was not disabled until two hours after it first received notice of inappropriate content, and pledged to quicken its response times.

But even as it acknowledges missteps in how it filters the billions of photos and videos on its platform, Facebook appears to have no plans to pause the stream of new ways for people to share them, especially if you own an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. Starting today, you can download a beta version of the new Facebook Spaces, a one-stop app for sharing photos, videos, and other content with friends online.

Designed to be used with the Touch controllers, Spaces lets you create an avatar of yourself, complete with custom eye colors, hairstyles, and facial features. The avatars can then create and enter virtual rooms with other avatars that your friends create, joining in activities as diverse as playing tic-tac-toe (by drawing your own 3D game board with a virtual marker) to putting yourself in the middle of a 3D video.

"We're all about extending the physical world online," Zuckerberg said. "Augmented reality is going to help us mix the physical and digital in all new ways."

Zuckerberg has been extolling the social capabilities of VR for more than a year, including offering an early demo of what became Spaces at last year's gathering of developers for the Oculus platform. While Spaces itself is in an early beta, and only available to the tiny subset of tech early adopters who own expensive Rift headsets, it's clear that VR, not text-based status updates, is the way of the future for Facebook.

Still, there are a few ways for people who don't have a headset to participate in Spaces. You can make video calls via Facebook Messenger directly from Spaces while you're in VR, and your non-VR friends can even experience many of the same photos and videos from within their Messenger app, including 360-degree videos and 3D drawings.

On stage in San Jose, Facebook's head of VR, Rachel Franklin, made it clear that Spaces is a "very early version" of what she hopes will eventually be a new way for people to connect online. Franklin, who was previously executive producer of The Sims, noted that Spaces can already access Facebook's entire library of 360-degree videos. She said the company plans to expand it to other VR platforms in the future, although it's unclear when it will come to cheaper and less powerful headsets like the Samsung Gear VR.

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Facebook Brings Social VR to Oculus Rift - PCMag India

A photograph posted by the Italian Embassy in Tripoli on Twitter of an apparently fuel smuggler has sparked the anger of a broad spectrum of Libyans.

The Embassy tweeted the photo on Friday with the comment: " The future of Libya: its youth and its resources. One Libya."

The photo showed a young man standing on a fuel truck while flashing the victory sign with for sale written on the storage tank. Several social media users labelled the photo as an insult to the Libyan people because it does not reflect the tweet and could have a negative meaning.

The reactions to the tweet varied between those who demanded the Embassy to mind their own business and focus on their diplomatic work and others who said that the Embassy was busy tweeting on the Libyan issue, while no visa had been issued for the applications sent since it resumed its work from Tripoli.

Other users downplayed the tweet as a joke and viewed it from a different angle saying that it was not an irony of Libyans.

Link:
Italian Embassy tweet sparks anger in social networking sites - The Libya Observer

T.K. Singh Soon after Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh on 30 March 2017 accused Pakistan for using social media to incite youth in Kashmir, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) in response organised a workshop on digital warfare on 1 April 2017 allegedly to instigate younger generations and fuel unrest in Kashmir. The domain of cyber space or social networking sites has been exploited as a major platform for transmitting unwanted information by spoilers to augment militancy in the region. Interestingly, the regular restoration of mobile phone services in February 2017 after a prolong suspension since July 2016 induced locals to conglomerate and swam over the encounter sites to support militants. Considering it as a disturbing trend, a new mechanism on cyber security is essential to address this alarming concern. The union home minister accused Pakistan when Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Saugata Roy, during a parliamentary session in Lok Sabha, asked clarification about the death of three civilian in firing by security forces in Budgam on 28 March 2017. He further stated that the situation in the valley is critical as Pakistanis are exploiting social media as a tool (multiplying force) to incite the innocent youths of Kashmir to storm encounter sites to cover up militants. Rajnath expressed that a new trend has been observed lately in which residents from local areas gathered at the skirmishes site (between security forces and militants) and pelted stones to support the militants flee by distracting the activities of forces. In fact, these hordes of local youths were stimulated by transferring information through social network applications including WhatsApp and Facebook originated/orchestrated from Pakistan. In common practice, congregation of residents in encounter locations and pelting stones on soldiers (disturbing operational duties) to facilitate the militant escaping has been observed recently in several instances. On 12 February locals had suddenly turned up in the street to pelt stones at the security forces while gun fight was going on with Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) at Nagbal in Frisal area of Kulgam district. Similarly on 14 February a mob pelted stones on security forces during an encounter with LeT members in Handwara area of Kupwara. Earlier on the same day, in an encounter site at Parray Mohalla Hajan in Bandipora district, locals had come out and started pelting stones at soldiers helping to escape a militant. On 28 March security forces were attacked by native stone pelters at Nagam village when the former were approaching towards an encounter site at Chadoora area in Budgam district. The information sharing applications in mobile phones help a major role in creating such disturbing activities in the localities. The unexpected gathering of residents in such large scale can be possible only by means of quick communication generated through phone calls, text message or WhatsApp information sharing. Interestingly, this affair has been practicing after the reactivation of mobile network services which was suspended for months after the death of Burhan Wani, Commander of Hzbul Mujahideen (HM) who died in an encounter on 8 July 2017. He was a popular techie (media propagandist) who set the new trend of militancy in Kashmir. As much as he was famous in social media, that much influential was he amongst his followers. He had used social networking system as a powerful weapon than any lethal gun he carried in his life. His funeral was attended by more than two Lakh of people creating a historic memorial service in Kashmir. A widespread protest (popularly known as 2016 Uprising) erupted in several parts of the valley for more than half a year in which about 90 people were died and thousands were injured. As it was misused to emanate violence by ultras, telephone communication and internet services for both prepaid and post paid connections were deactivated from 9 July 2016 to 30 January 2017. Nevertheless, the unrest lingered for various months though the communication network was disconnected. Burhan was succeeded in sowing the new seeds of fresh militancy in Kashmir. After his death, 59 youths have joined militant ranks as disclosed by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in a State Assembly session in January 2017. The figure is according to the official record maintained by the Crime and Investigation Department (CID) of state police. However the data could have been increased by now and even in actual count by then. Some of the recruits are already neutralised including one Basit Ahmed Dar alias Sameer, a young engineering student who joined HM after the influence of 2016 Uprising in an encounter at Bewoora Mirhama, Anantnag District on 14 December 2016. Induction of tech savvy like Basit with engineering background enhanced the social networking prowess of the militant organisation. Meanwhile, to further augment its campaign in Kashmir, the Cyber Team of JuD has conducted a workshop titled Social Media Workshop: An instrument for Kashmir uprise 2k17 at different places including Gujranwala and Sarghoda areas in Punjab, Pakistan. Banner of the events printed texts such as Hybrid Warfare and Pakistan using social media to incite youth in Kashmir (the statement given by Rajnath). Leaked images of the conferences in media indicated that about 20 young techies participated in each meeting in which JuD leaders have given important lectures on digital warfare. To recognise their efforts, participants were issued certificates at the end of the programmes. Quoting intelligence inputs, reports suggested that the new recruit team of cyber army was termed as Team Burhan. In addition, with the support of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), militant outfits including JuD or LeT have generated 15,000 to 17,000 networking accounts to launch fresh turmoil in Kashmir. While the attempt of JuD to foment unrest through cyber space needs a critical surveillance, the current trend clearly indicates that the reopening of internet service in February motivates to congregate locals in the encounter sites. As absolute suspension of communication system is not viable only on the basis of irregular residents-storming-activities, authorities can consider partial disengagement of network facilities in those vulnerable locations during the crucial time of operation. In fact, the positive activation of internet service after a long period shall not be misused, and utilised it meaningfully for promoting harmony and growing prosperity by the peace loving natives of Kashmir. (The author is Assistant Professor at the Department of National Security Studies, Central University of Jammu. ) feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com

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Militancy and social networking concerns - Daily Excelsior