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SYDNEY - One hostage the Sydney siege gunman failed to take this week was social media.

After traditional media refused to air or print details of phone calls his hostages made, Man Haron Monis turned to Facebook and YouTube, forcing his captives to use their personal accounts to issue his demands to speak to the prime minister and spread claims that he'd planted bombs around the city.

Those messages never went viral. Not only were social media companies liaising with Australian police to block posts but the broader online community practicised self-censorship to a degree that surprised many experts.

"This was a new situation for us," said a source at one social media company, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the record.

"Even as we tried to track down what was coming from where and whether it was genuine, there were a good deal of people reporting posts and just refusing to pass things on."

Police killed Monis, a self-styled sheikh, when they stormed the Lindt Chocolate Cafe early on Tuesday morning to free hostages held at gunpoint for 16 hours. Police are investigating whether two hostages who also died were killed by Monis or were hit in the crossfire.

The siege, believed by social media sources to be unique in how the hostage-taker used captives to try to disseminate his message for several hours, showed that social media had "grown up", experts said.

The behaviour of most Internet users during the crisis contrasted with notions of new media as a "Wild West" where vigilantes, such as those who spread unverified, and ultimately incorrect, photos on social networking site Reddit Inc of the Boston Marathon bombers, had free reign.

"Here was a guy who had the eyes of the world on him thanks to the live video feed (of the cafe) and he couldn't get a tweet or a Facebook post to resonate," said Stephen Dann, senior lecturer in the research school of management at the Australian National University in Canberra.

"I think the message for others trying the same tactic is that social media is more socially responsible than many had thought."

Link:
Siege unique in live social media updates from hostages

7 Facebook Irritations
Facebook is great if you like stalking your friends and finding out gossip so you can tell all your mates about it in the pub later. But here are the 7 most irritating things about the social...

By: Statosphere

Originally posted here:
7 Facebook Irritations - Video

Is anonymous social networking a flash-in-the-pan trend? A winner-take-all category? Which of the anonymous social networking apps around today are still thriving, and which are practically dead?

These questions come to mind today as one of the leading companiesin the anonymous social category, Secret, revamped its application, borrowing ideas from popular apps like Yik Yak and Snapchat and others in order to introduce new features like location-based posts and disappearing private messages.

Secrets pivot is representative of the apps inability to maintain growth amid an overall decline inanonymous social networking applications, with the exceptions of Yik Yak, Whisper and, more recently, newcomer After School.

For a bit of background before diving in: Oneof the biggertrends amongconsumer applications in 2014 was the rise of anonymous social networking or apps that allowedusers to post publicly to networks without using their real names. Users on these apps sharesecrets, gossip andotherrandom thoughts.

They are different from private messaging apps because their content is visible to anyone who logs in, or anyone in a given geographical region. That is, theyre one-to-many sharing apps, not one-to-one mobile messengers.

Investorsand the media alike debated about the ethics of these sorts of apps, as they often allow for cyberbullying and shaming of public figures andin some cases, even seemed toencourage that activity.

Nevertheless, anonymous social seemed to be carving out a new category for itself this year.

It almost made sense that this sort of activity would emerge in apost-Snowden society where users realized thatsocial networking on more public, real-name networks like Facebook had been tracked by their own government.

Perhaps anonymous social would encourage the same sort of human connection that Facebook once offered, without the drawback of disclosing your true identity along the way?

Read the original:
Few Winners In Anonymous Social Networking, And Secrets Not One Of Them

High schoolers are increasingly aware that those embarrassing Facebook posts or tweets could cost them a shot at getting into their dream college.

The test prep company Kaplan found that only 16 percent of the 403 colleges surveyed found anything troubling in the social media posts they viewed -- a drop from 50 percent a year ago. That decline comes as the survey found more colleges are factoring social media into the application process: 35 percent in the latest survey compared to only 9 percent six years ago.

Wes Waggoner, the dean of admissions at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, acknowledged he has seen cases where social media posts resulted in a rejection letter. But he said students now have a greater appreciation of the damage that a wild party shot can do.

"Students are aware that what they say on social media has an impact on something that's important to them," Waggoner told Adriana Diaz of CBS News.

"As social media has evolved from early versions of MySpace and Facebook to a broad ecosystem of platforms and apps that are a daily part of millions of people's lives worldwide, we're seeing greater acceptance of social media use in the college admissions process," Christine Brown, executive director of K12 and college prep programs for Kaplan Test Prep, said in a statement. "This means admissions officers are increasingly open to what they once viewed as a dubious practice, while teens have come to terms with the fact that their digital trails are for the most part easily searchable, followable and sometimes judged."

In a separate survey of 500 high school students, Kaplan found that 58 percent of students describe their social networking pages as "fair game" for admissions officers. And rather than fearing what a college might see, 35 percent said they felt it could actually help their chances of admission -- with 18 percent seeing social media as a savvy way to promote themselves.

Still, Kaplan said social media still plays only a "peripheral role" in the process and that grades and test scores are the main factors being considered by colleges.

"The majority of admissions officers are not looking at Facebook for applicant information, and even those who are typically do so as an anomaly -- because they were flagged, either positively or negatively, to particular applicants," Brown said. "Admissions chances are still overwhelmingly decided by the traditional factors of high school GPA, standardized test scores, letters of recommendation, personal essays and extracurricular activities. Applicants' online personas are really a wild card in the admissions process."

Don't tell that to Neha Husein, a Hebron High School senior who has applied to 10 colleges including SMU. She acknowledged that she thinks twice before posting anything.

"One wrong tweet can go viral in seconds," Husein said. "You can never ever be too careful, especially when it comes to college and the rest of your life."

Read more:
High schoolers wise up about social media when applying for colleges

Nextdoor.com, a for-profit social-networking site, and the Nutter administration announced a partnership Thursday that will enable the city to communicate directly with Nextdoor's 17,000 local users.

It will allow the city to more narrowly focus its online interactions with residents who belong to the online network.

The Streets Department, for example, will be able to send a notification of a street closing to residents in the affected neighborhoods.

"This offers us a cost-effective method to communicate with residents in a targeted way," Managing Director Rich Negrin said. "It is a powerful tool to target specific messages to specific neighborhoods."

The city's partnership, which gives Nextdoor users unique access to communications from city departments, will increase Nextdoor's value by enabling it to attract more residents to its site.

The city will receive no payment in return.

"It adds value for our citizens," Negrin said. "This enables them to have greater access to services. We think that is enough."

Nextdoor.com is an online social-networking site much like Facebook but targeted to neighborhoods. Individual neighborhood sites are free to anyone who can verify that he or she is an area resident.

Members can use the site to communicate with one another, engage in local online forums, discuss neighborhood issues, and seek recommendations from neighbors for babysitters, contractors, and other services.

See the article here:
Nutter: City and Nextdoor.com to partner free for social networking