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As weve mentioned a number of times, Twitter has been gradually tip-toeing further and further into the media business for some time now. It has already become a real-time newswire for many, a source of breaking news and commentary on live events, and now with the launch of curated hashtag pages like the one it launched late last week for a NASCAR event it is showing signs of becoming a full-fledged editorial operation. It may not be hiring investigative reporters, but the areas of overlap between what it does and what media companies do is growing, and so is its attractiveness to the advertisers that media entities desperately need to hang onto.

The NASCAR page may not seem like anything to be concerned about, since it appears to be just a typical grouping of tweets collected by hashtag. But there is editorial control behind it as well as algorithms, with an editor choosing which messages including photos, videos and commentary from NASCAR insiders were highlighted during the event, and which streamed by unacknowledged. And Twitter has made it clear that this kind of effort is not aimed primarily at brands (although it almost certainly will involve them at some point) but is intended for events. In other words, for the news.

Its easy to imagine a similar page constructed around a revolution in Libya, or an earthquake in Japan, or virtually any other news event. Would that be something that media companies could use to their advantage, or a competing service, or both? In some ways, it could be a much better, crowd-sourced version of Google News. Twitters efforts have at least one editor for a mainstream media outlet concerned for his job, and that of others like him in a blog post, Ross Neumann of Reuters says:

Twitter revolutionized journalism once before, and news organizations responded with the social media editor. Now it seems that the social media editor, the reaction to disruption, could be a victim of it.

Is Twitter trying to put media companies out of business, or even social-media editors? Probably not, at least not directly. But in a way, its formal intentions dont really even matter it could easily wind up doing so by accident, in the same way that Craig Newmark accidentally decimated one of the main cash cows of the media industry when he disrupted the classified advertising business. That wasnt his intention at all, but he accomplished it nevertheless.

Twitter clearly sees itself as a partner for media companies, which is probably part of the reason that CEO Dick Costolo often denies that the company is a media entity at all. And theres no question that using Twitter has been a boon for the media it allows reporters and writers to reach a much broader audience, it enables them to build their personal brand through direct engagement with readers, and so on. And new hires like editor Mark Luckie describe their jobs as helping media companies do that better:

@knash99 @AnnaTarkov I'll come up w/creative ways journalists use the platform, increase engagement and elevate Twitter use in newsrooms.

Thats all well and good, but there comes a point where a partner can start to look like a competitor if you tilt your head the right way, and I would argue that Twitter is nearing that point. Facebook is also a partner for media companies who use it to host their comments, or have brand pages there, or rely on the social network to promote their work through frictionless sharing apps. But at times it can seem as much like competition particularly for users attention as it does a partner.

Thats part of what I think blogging pioneer Dave Winer means when he warns that media companies should not see Twitter as their friend. To the extent that Twitter is offering news consumers of all kinds access to the information they want regardless of whether that information consists of user-generated content or links to other media outlets it is a competitor. And to the extent that it can offer better curation or aggregation or filtering or targeting of that content, it will win.

And that kind of targeting isnt just a threat to the information-management or journalistic aspects of the traditional media industry, as is every other digital-native media source such as The Huffington Post or Buzzfeed. It is also an arrow that is directed at the heart of the financial underpinnings of the traditional media business namely, advertising.

Link:
Why traditional media should be afraid of Twitter

11-06-2012 15:28 Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites can be used to make friends, plan events, and maybe even find a relationship... if you know how. We got a great student video asking how a social awkward student can use social media sites to make friends. Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks and John Iadarola give him advice on how to use facebook to make friends... and whether that's even the best way to go about it. Do you think Jonathan should focus on using sites like Facebook and Twitter to plan events and find friends in college? Or should he use more traditional means like clubs, parties, etc? What advice would you give him? Have you started any real friendships or relationships online? Let us know! And if you liked this video, hit that Share button and "like" it as well! 🙂 Subscribe to TYT U for more ? Submit a video to TYT U! We love hearing from students and faculty Follow us on twitter! ?

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How do You Use Social Media to Make Friends? - Video

Social networking site LinkedIn has revealed details of attempts to increase security in the wake of 6.5 million usernames and hashed passwords being published on a Russian hacker forum.

A blog entry by director Vicente Silveira revealed that LinkedIn has not received any reports of unauthorised account access in the wake of the security breach.

The company also revealed that passwords of the service's users are now salted as well as hashed. "That transition was completed prior to news of the password theft breaking on Wednesday," Silveira wrote.

Ty Miller, chief technology officer of penetration testing firm Pure hacking, said that although the salting of password hashes has been around for a long time, "we find that many Web applications either do not hash their passwords at all, or use common hashing algorithms, such as MD5, without a salt".

"Social and professional networking sites such as LinkedIn are major targets for hackers," Miller said. "Combining this with the complexity of these types of web applications, the chance of a critical vulnerability being present is likely. This means that a defence-in-depth approach should be a necessity for LinkedIn, which includes protecting passwords with strong cryptographic methods."

Miller said that social networking services such as LinkedIn store a wealth of personal information about their users and have a responsibility to implement a very high standard of security, with security measures, such as salting password hashes, implemented as part of application design.

Salting a password makes it less likely an account will vulnerable to hackers using rainbow tables, which are essentially dictionaries of hashes that allow someone to discover what a user's unencrypted password is.

"Salts are designed to ensure that the generated hash is different even if the same password is being hashed," Miller said. "The larger the salt, the more different hashes exist for the same password. This generally means that Rainbow Tables are not a feasible option for cracking salted hashes because there are too many combinations to create.

"This means that attackers have to rely on dictionary-based password attacks, which has to calculate every possible salted hash for each password in the password dictionary. This means that weak passwords will be able to be cracked easily, and stronger passwords are more likely to remain secured."

Rohan Pearce is the editor of Techworld Australia. Contact him at rohan_pearce at idg.com.au.

Original post:
LinkedIn: No account breaches in wake of hack

Skout, which offers a social networking app for iPhone and Android devices, has suspended temporarily access to its teen community, after three cases of alleged rape involving adults posing as teenagers on the network were reported.

The app helps users to flirt, find a date, or discover new friends "at the local neighborhood bar, at a concert at Madison Square Garden or on a bus tour in Barcelona."

Skout said in a blog post on Tuesday that it had set up its teen community for people aged under 18 about a year ago after it found a number of underage users were entering the community meant for people older than 18.

In each of the alleged rape cases, the men are accused of posing as teenagers in a Skout forum for 13 to 17-year-olds, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

A 15-year-old Ohio girl said she had been raped by a 37-year-old man, while in another case, a 24-year-old man is accused of raping a 12-year-old girl in Escondido, California, the newspaper said. In the third case, a 21-year-old man from Waukesha, Wisconsin, is facing charges that he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old boy.

"We actively monitor and screen to ensure that the two separate communities for users 18+ and for teen users are kept distinct and that behavior is age-appropriate," Christian Wiklund, founder and CEO of Skout said in the blog post.

Skout in San Francisco said it uses proprietary technology that continuously monitors activity on the network to identify users whose behavior appears "unusual, inappropriate or suspicious." Users are banned for inappropriate or suspicious behavior, and Skout's location-based apps provide general rather than specific location information, giving each community member the choice to decide if, when and where to meet in person.

"However, it's become clear to us that these measures aren't enough," said Wiklund, as in recent weeks, the company has learned of several incidents involving a "few bad actors trying to take advantage of some of our younger members."

Skout plans to keep its under-18 community shut until it can design better protections.

The company said it was working on building better safeguards, including mechanisms for age verification, and is partnering with a risk management advisory firm to strengthen its current security measures.

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Social App Skout Suspends Teen Community After Rape Allegations

RALEIGH-DURHAM-CHAPEL HILL,NC, June 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Socialworkhelper.com is a free resource directory with an active social networking community of practitioners and students from helping professions. People often envision social workers as a woman going into a parent's homes to take their children away. Although child protection social workers, who include both men and women, are not popular in our culture, they do provide a necessary function in protecting children from abuse and neglect.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120613/CG23557)

Many are unaware that child protection social workers only represent one area of practice within the social work profession. Not all teachers work in elementary schools, and not all police officers work on college campuses. However, social workers, teachers, and police officers are all struggling to provide quality services with limited resources while being understaffed. In the past, media outlets have often reported on the struggles of teachers and law enforcement when discussing today's economy. However, the social work community appears to be far removed from the discussion despite the increased demand for services and child protection issues as a result of the economic recession.

Social Workers can be found in the public sector located in the court systems, schools, public health, corrections facilities, and law enforcement agencies. In the nonprofit sector, you will find social workers as service providers, community organizers, and case managers in the healthcare industry. Social Workers also engage in private industry such as private practices, managed care facilities, mental health, and as employee assistance providers. Most importantly, social workers engage the political process exemplified by the Congressional Social Work Caucus inaugurated in the US House of Representatives by the 111th Congress. Yet, state and local governments have made and are currently proposing even more massive cuts.

Social Workers are finding it necessary to increase collaboration efforts, sharing of information, and ideas to combat the attacks against underrepresented populations and the professionals who work tirelessly to remove barriers to housing, health care, education, food security, and protection. Socialworkhelper.com also uses a Mobile Web 2.0 technology to allow users to access resources, engage in forums, download mobile apps, check network activity feeds, post to Facebook and Twitter simultaneously while updating their status on the network, and much more all from your mobile phone.

If you are a student, professional, or someone working to help improve the quality of life for the poor and underprivileged, please go to http://www.socialworkhelper.com today!

Media Contact: Deona Hooper Socialworkhelper.com, 9102499399, contact@socialworkhelper.com

News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com

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Social Work 2.0