Tech News Stop - Sharing by Wasim Akhtar

::::Dustin Moskovitz, facebook co- founder, creates a social network made for work::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337630844_temp.jpg" border="0" align="left" /></div>Facebook's success has spawned a multimillion-dollar boom in social networking. There are networks for photo-sharers, for children and for workers inside companies. Yammerand Jive, for instance, promise to energize employees and increase their productivity by enabling fast information sharing.  Dustin Moskovitz thinks this is a bad idea that won't fly.  "The first time I looked at Yammer, I thought I was on Facebook," he said. "Work is not a social network, with serendipitous communications and photo collections. Work is about managing tasks, and responding to things quickly."  Moskovitz does know a little bit about running the operations of a fast-growing company. He helped found Facebook along with Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin and Chris Hughes while at Harvard in 2004. His job was to make sure the computers straining to run Facebook's expanding network never went down.  After leaving Facebook in 2008 with enough equity to make him one of the world's youngest billionaires, Moskovitz, now 27, works on his own version of company management software for the networked age. He calls it Asana.  Asana is task-based software, a shared to-do list for the company. Work is assigned and completed by a potentially unending set of teams created on the fly. Asana is a Sanskrit word meaning "easeful posture." Yoga practitioners think of it in terms of complex poses done effortlessly. "You should read a lot into the name," Moskovitz said.  Tasks can be named and assigned across the company, then shut down or subdivided as the work progresses. People can rank, or have others rank, which of their jobs need attention soonest. If a company wants, anyone can look in on anyone else's work, offering help and criticism. "We think of email, in-person meetings, and whiteboards as our competition," said Justin Rosenstein, Moskovitz's co-founder at Asana.  Like Moskovitz, Rosenstein came from Facebook, though he stopped first at Google where he built an early system for engineers to organize their work. At Facebook, he helped invent the "like" button and ran Facebook's Pages project, which is a way for brands and celebrities to build networks. He was frustrated, he said, building "an enormously ambitious project, and losing a lot of time around coordination."  Moskovitz, who was used to working one on one, was by then managing 200 engineers. His solution was something called "Tasks," which is similar to what became Asana, but it was mainly for engineers. Eventually the two men decided that helping whole companies get things done might be something important that they were good at doing, and they left Facebook to start Asana.  Moskovitz is uncomfortable with his outsize wealth. It remains a complex legacy of the Facebook years, he says. What he finds far more interesting to talk about is the ambition derived from having built something so big. "You learn what an enterprise is capable of. Everything else measures against that," he said. "One of the purposes of life, and selfishly what makes people happy, is building things that are impactful."Moskovitz left Facebook on good terms. He socializes with Zuckerberg, who still gives Moskovitz credit for building much of Facebook.  Asana was released and tested on only a few companies in February 2011, then more broadly last November, with several thousand users. The company has not revealed the size of its user base, but said it had been growing rapidly.  Asana will compete with corporate networking products from fellow startups like Jive Software and Yammer, as well as the offerings from big companies, like Chatter, which is owned by Salesforce.com, and Socialcast, owned by VMWare. These corporate social networks are now used by millions of employees.  Privately held Asana has a small fraction of that. Early adopters of Asana include Foursquare, a location-based social network, and The Sacramento Bee, where it is used in the online news department. "Having all the jobs you have to do in one place definitely speeds up the amount we work, though," said Sean McMahon, director of digital media at The Bee. He still likes to oversee his employees, though he can do it with a lighter hand than in the past.  Managers will probably have to learn new tasks when they use corporate social software. "Businesses are in the midst of a retooling because of cloud computing, social media, mobility and lots of data," said Tony Zingale, chief executive of Jive Software, the largest of the corporate social networks. "Groups are starting to make decisions, and information to them has to be filtered and personalized."  Rosenstein, Asana's co-founder, says people will have to learn to work independently. "Each company will have to develop its own conventions," he said. "I spend a lot of time developing people, setting a vision, and explaining why we do what we do." For the faint of heart, Asana does offer tools for centralized management.  For the bold, there are outcomes like Asana itself, where everyone can name and assign tasks to anyone else, or kick them back to the originator if they don't like what they were assigned.  Both Moskovitz and Rothstein say their job titles simply are "Asana," as are the titles for their 22 colleagues. Pay, however, still varies widely, depending on qualifications and how early someone joined the company. Moskovitz pays himself $33,280 a year, which his lawyers have advised him is legally less risky for the company than a salary of $1 a year.The title sharing is a pragmatic attempt at company building. "It wasn't uncommon for people to call themselves Googlers or Facebookers, so we just took it further," Moskovitz said. "We brought in people who could all be managers elsewhere. If one person was named the manager, the rest would leave."  For a company full of young, successful people that is run by a billionaire, Asana is a remarkably hard-working and down-to-earth place - all the way down. It is on the ground floor of a building that looks out on a parking lot of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.  Instead of the fancy pool tables found in Google or the open bars and expensive murals at Facebook, on the floor is a single game of the 1960s hit Twister - a social game, and one particularly suited to a young and flexible workforce.   

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::::Torrent ban may result in better file-sharing sites::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337630665_temp.jpg" border="0" align="left" /></div>How old is file sharing?  The internet started as a network that enables its users to share data. All the early versions of the internet provided a mechanism by which users could share files without any centralised server.  For instance, ARPANET, the world's first packet switching network (the most dominant form of data transfer today), funded by the US department of defence developed File Transfer Protocol (FTP) by the early 1970s.  However in the first few decades of its development internet primarily served academic institutions or research laboratories and hence copyright infringement was never an issue.  When did copyright become an issue?  In the mid 1990s a new format of audio started spreading on the internet. MPEG Audio Layer III (MP3) changed the way music was consumed. In this format, songs could be compressed by factors of 10 to 14, assuring quick download and mass storage in personal computers.  In 1997, the Winamp audio player was released and MP3.com was launched offering thousands of free songs by independent artists. These events made the new format immensely popular. The game changer however came in 1999 when Shawn Fanning launched Napster.  Read also: File-sharing sites like Vimeo.com, Torrentz.eu & others blockage sets off torrent of abuse A person downloading music from Napster was getting the data from the computer of another user. The utility became immensely popular with millions of active users. Napster faced several lawsuits and was eventually shut down and later sold.  What is the most common way of file sharing today?  The same period also witnessed introduction of BitTorrent files which enable the distribution of large amounts of data over the internet. The file, for example a movie, is divided into several pieces. A person downloading a movie will download its 'piece-1 ' from 'user A' , Piece-2 from 'user B' and so on.  He/she will simultaneously allow 'user X' to download 'piece 1' and 'user Y' to download 'piece 2'. The file is thus distributed by people who want to download it. Is it legal to download copyrighted stuff through P2P ?  Although it's universally illegal to distribute copyrighted material, enforcement agencies have faced problems in enforcing this. Many experts cite the ambiguity in the interpretation of laws of different countries.  Also the millions of alleged violators are distributed across the world and mass usage of various technologies makes it impossible for companies to file lawsuits against every individual.  With the ever-improving internet, shutting down one utility has typically resulted in the creation of better protocols. 

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::::TaxiForSure.com raises funds from Accel, Helion and Blume Ventures::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337630551_temp.jpg" border="0" align="left" /></div>Serendipity Infolabs, which runs the online taxi booking site TaxiForSure.com, has raisedventure capital funding from Accel Partners, Helion Venture Partners and Blume Ventures.  Though the funding amount is not disclosed, it is in line with angel funding that the company received during its initial days, a company official said.  "We will utilise the proceeds to expand our team, especially marketing, along with widening our base to other cities," Aprameya Radhakrishna, co-founder ofTaxiForSure.com told PTI today.  He also said the company will expand its base to Mumbai and New Delhi by end of this fiscal.  TaxiForSure, started by two IIM-Ahmedabad graduates-- Aprameya Radhakrishna and Raghunandan G, is an aggregator of car rentals and taxis to ensure that customers get an easily accessible, safe, reliable taxi ride.  With this deal, Anand Daniel of Accel and Ritesh Banglani of Helion will join the board of the online venture.  Banglani of Helion Advisors said, "our previous investments in Makemytrip and Redbus have shown us the tremendous potential of the online travel industry. We are excited to back TaxiForSure because they are tackling the next frontier in online travel by organising a highly fragmented industry."  Daniel of Accel Partners also said the fund house sees a great deal of opportunity in this space.

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::::Google Given Weeks to Resolve EU Antitrust Probe::::

<img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/xphoto_1337630392_temp.png.pagespeed.ic.0i9gVaR5dZ.png" border="0" alt="Image" width="300" height="200" align="left" />The European Commission said Monday that an investigation has determined that Google may have abused its dominance in the search market and offered the company a chance to settle the allegations and avoid formal charges.In a letter to Google chairman Eric Schmidt, European competition commissioner Joaquín Almunia outlined four specific antitrust concerns identified during the EC investigation.The first: Google may be unfairly exploiting its market position by giving preferential treatment to its own services in its search results. The second: The company may have copied material from rivals’ Web sites. The third and fourth relate to search advertising and allegations that Google requires sites “to obtain all or most of their requirements of search advertisements from Google, thus shutting out competing providers of search advertising intermediation services.”These are just preliminary conclusions, but because Google has been pushing for a settlement, Almunia is offering the company a chance to resolve them before the EC pushes ahead with what would inevitably be a protracted and unpleasant probe.“I offer Google the possibility to come up in a matter of weeks with remedies,” Almunia said. “If Google comes up with an outline of remedies which are capable of addressing our concerns, I will instruct my staff to initiate the discussions in order to finalize a remedies package.”Reached for comment, a Google spokesperson said the company has “only just started to look through the commission’s arguments.”“We disagree with the conclusions, but we’re happy to discuss any concerns they might have,” the spokesperson said. “Competition on the Web has increased dramatically in the last two years since the commission started looking at this, and the competitive pressures Google faces are tremendous. Innovation online has never been greater.” 

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::::Microsoftâ€˜s New Social Network, So.cl: Itâ€˜s Like Google+ For Wonks::::

<img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/xphoto_1337629409_temp.jpg.pagespeed.ic.G1YFHr7xz_.jpg" border="0" alt="Image" width="300" height="200" align="left" />File this in the "we-try-it-out-so-you-don't-have-to" category. So.cl is a derivative social network that may be useful to students, but it won't fly elsewhere.Over the weekend, Microsoft quietly launched an experimental social network called So.cl. It's a mix between Google+ and Storify. Users are encouraged to search for information about a particular topic, then compile the best results - textual content, images and videos - into a single post. So.cl is initially targeted to students. It may end up being useful to that market, but it's unlikely to get traction as a mainstream social network. Here's why...<div id="more" class="asset-more" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; clear: both; text-align: left">Microsoft is calling So.cl "an experiment in open search," in that anything you search for on the network is viewable by other users and made available to third party developers. That description makes it sound like a direct competitor to Google+, which was Google's attempt at combining search with social networking. It certainly has similarities, but So.cl is ultimately an academic tool moreso than a social one.To get started, you can sign up using either your Facebook or Windows Live profile. Microsoft had little choice but to leverage Facebook's social graph, given that hardly anyone uses Windows Live (Microsoft's ID platform). Sure enough Facebook gave me a good leg up into the So.cl network, enabling me to auto-follow over 50 people.<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px">The Features</h2>When it comes to using So.cl and finding value in it, the flaws become obvious. The Storify-like aggregation feature in So.cl is nifty, but everything else has been done before in hundreds of other social networks: posting, commenting, tagging, liking, sharing (two options: to Facebook or email!).The attempts at innovation in So.cl seem forced. An option labeled "riffing" is supposed to be "a new way to interact and improvise with content" - but in reality, it simply means to re-share a post and optionally add your own comment or content.<img src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/files/socl_astronomy.jpg" border="0" />It is nice that you can add extra content to a post and I can see this being useful in an educational setting; for example a student in a science class adding more data to a thread about an astronomy topic. But this isn't something people need or want in a mainstream social network. When it comes to re-sharing, all most people want to do on a social network is paste that inspirational quote or solar eclipse photo to their profile page - so their friends can see it too.Another noteworthy feature in So.cl is something called "video parties." This is basically a video playlist with a chat area - kind of like YouTube's playlists. It's probably the most innovative feature in So.cl, but that isn't saying a lot. The reality is that Facebook or Google+ could easily replicate it, if they wanted to.<img src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/files/socl_katyperry.jpg" border="0" /><h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px">The Verdict</h2>So.cl is a largely derivative product and there's no way this is going to go mainstream. What slim chance it had to capture the imagination of a public that is already using Facebook (and may or may not be playing around with Google+), was dashed with the decision not to have a mobile component. As Robert Scoble rightly pointed out: "we're in the post-PC world now. Why didn't you start with just working on mobile? That would have been at least interesting."I can see why So.cl is PC focused, with its reliance on aggregation and multimedia elements like "video parties." But that doesn't change the fact that any social network launching in 2012 that isn'tmobile-based, is most likely doomed to fail if it wants to reach a mainstream audience.So.cl comes from Microsoft's FUSE research group and the resulting product shows its academic roots. It may become a useful tool for students, with its focus on aggregating topical content. But So.cl won't get any traction outside the education sector. It's too unoriginal and wonky.</div> 

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::::How Social Video Could Kill YouTube::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337626946_temp.jpg" border="0" width="300" height="200" align="left" /></div>Startups like SocialCam and Viddy, two of the fastest growing social networks for sharing video on smartphones, may be on a collision course with Google-owned YouTube. While initial indicators are far from conclusive, rumblings of a possible market tsunami are afoot.<div id="more" class="asset-more" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; clear: both; text-align: left">From January to March, people spent 10% less time watching YouTube videos online, while users of mobile video apps increased their viewing time by 52%, according to San Francisco-based Flurry, a mobile advertising and analytics platform provider. In March, each active user averaged 425 minutes on YouTube and 231 minutes on mobile video apps.While the numbers are interesting, Peter Farago, vice president of marketing at Flurry, acknowledges they do not prove that mobile apps are taking viewer time from YouTube. That kind of proof would have to come from a statistical study.Nevertheless, Farago believes the numbers are a canary in the coal mine. With increasing processing power, higher bandwidth and high-definition cameras, smartphones are becoming a good platform for capturing memorable moments and then sharing them with friends and family. So, it is certainly possible that people are spending less time watching online video, and more time creating and sharing it. "When you put all that together with a Viddy or SocialCam, which are very cool, fun, editing, sharing tools, you start to get the perfect storm, or the planets align," he said.So what's so special about apps like Viddy or SocialCam? Simplicity. YouTube has a mobile app, but it can be a multistep process to post video. While the steps may not seem difficult, they're enough of a hassle to prevent people from bothering. That weakness is what mobile video apps are attacking. SocialCam, for example, does not require a separate step for uploading. The app automatically moves the video to SocialCam servers, which then shares it based on the user's preferences.This kind of simplicity is only possible from startups that begin and end with the smartphone or tablet. The online world of websites and PCs is so last generation to them. The generational shift from the PC to mobile devices in accessing the Web is the kind of rapid change that can mark the downfall of companies as powerful as Google and Facebook in as little as five years, Eric Jackson, founder and managing member of Ironfire Capital, recently argued in Forbes.In roughly 20 years, the world has seen three Internet generations starting with the Web portals (Yahoo, AOL, Amazon, eBay and Google), then the social media companies (Facebook, LinkedIn, Groupon), and now mobile. Each new generation brings changes that the older generation can't quite adapt to fast enough, Jackson argues. Yes, the seniors can try to buy their way in, such as Facebook paying $1 billion for Instagram, but they are still left with trying to bolt the new platform onto the older platform, which is still driving profits.While older companies struggle to reinvent their legacies, Viddy, SocialCam and other startups remain focused on the technology people are quickly moving to today - in this case, mobile devices. This razor-sharp focus has led to Viddy and SocialCam amassing more than 60 million users. Meanwhile, the previous generation is reaching for the oxygen mask to try to keep up.Of course, with Google's billions of dollars behind it, YouTube, which has a mobile app, has the resources to adapt. However, having money and even millions of users may not be enough to keep up with the speed of change. Just ask Yahoo and AOL.</div> 

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::::Amazon Streamlines Mechanical Turk With Automatic Categorization App::::

<img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337626373_temp.png" border="0" alt="Image" align="left" />The idea behind Amazon's Mechanical Turk is pretty simple - break programming work down into bite-sized chunks, and put it in front of a large workforce that can do the work quickly and cheaply. Part of the challenge of that is making it easy for requesters to create the bites that workers are chewing on. The new categorization app from Amazonremoves some of the hurdles of creating HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks) that ask workers to pick the best category for items. The result could make the crowdsource coding marketplace even more usable and popular.<div id="more" class="asset-more" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; clear: both; text-align: left">Creating a request for Mechanical Turk isn't overly difficult, but it takes a bit of time editing HTML and answering a lot of questions for which first-time users don't have a lot of context - for example, deciding the qualifications for workers, or whether they need to be "masters" to take on a task.Amazon is streamlining all that with the Categorization App by making assumptions about what its users would want, providing suggested pricing and helping to create the form that workers will see.Right now, Amazon is providing an app only for categorization questions. Mechanical Turk offers templates for many more, including image filtering, image tagging, data extraction, data collection and several others. Expect that Amazon will add apps for most of these types of questions in the near future.<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px">Boosting MT Revenues</h2>Obviously, Amazon is trying to streamline the process for creating MT tasks in order to boost its revenue. More tasks means more money. But there's a bit more to it than that.With the Categorization App, Amazon's assumptions all lead to more money per HIT. Users no longerhave to decide what kind of worker to farm tasks out to; rather, Amazon makes that decision, automatically choosing the most expensive (master) workers. To increase accuracy, each HIT will be shown to two users by default, doubling the revenue.Amazon will also suggest a pay level, to ensure that HITs are "priced attractively" to workers. Requesters can change this, but if a significant number of requesters accept the default pricing, that will probably drive HIT prices up over time.<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px">Better Requests</h2>Another reason that Amazon would want to create an app for MT requests is that a lot of requests are not very good. Amazon is in a position to evaluate the existing requests, and has found them wanting.One problem? Too many categories. Amazon says that the maximum number of categories that workers can keep in mind is seven to 10. Yet they see requests with more than 150 categories!The app limits requesters to 10 items. It requires that requesters provide instructions. It's not foolproof, but it provides better odds that requesters will generate reasonable HITs. If requesters want more categories, they need to start from scratch with a custom template.If you're using Mechanical Turk now, what do you think of the Categorization App? Would you prefer to see Amazon simplify the service further, or is it already well-suited for the kind of crowdsourcing that you're doing?</div> 

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