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FOI Topics and Links of the Week

March 8th, 2010  |  by Jennifer  |  published in Facebook, Future of the Internet, cloud, cybersecurity, ubicomp  |  3 Comments

A roundup of happenings that bear on the issues in The Future of the Internet –
Canadian Android Carrier Forcing Firmware Update. A Canadian carrier wanted users to download a firmware upgrade that fixed a glitch prohibiting users from dialing 911, so it made the upgrade mandatory. Seems reasonable. But it bundled in an [...]

The mysterious world of Facebook apps, cont’d

October 4th, 2009  |  by elisabeth  |  published in Facebook, Future of the Internet  |  1 Comment

Thanks for all the great comments (here, and in replies directly to JZ on FB and Twitter) on why Facebook apps haven’t taken off the way, say, iPhone apps have. I thought I’d try to summarize some of the dominant themes to think about whether the problem is inherent or created by Facebook itself.
1. [...]

The mysterious world of Facebook apps

September 27th, 2009  |  by elisabeth  |  published in Facebook  |  9 Comments

CIO.com offers a fascinating article on the Facebook economy and how much app use has plummeted since a Facebook user interface redesign de-emphasized outside apps. I’d noticed that, too, and wondered what Facebook was thinking in stripping the site down so much (or Twitterizing itself, depending on how you look at it). The [...]

Facebook’s privacy storm

February 18th, 2009  |  by jz  |  published in Book, Facebook, Future of the Internet, Web 2.0 platforms  |  12 Comments

Some thoughts on the Facebook terms of service privacy storm:
Facebook and other social networks have an especially tricky time in this zone, since so much user data is relational.  You upload a photo of you and me; I tag it with your name.  I leave Facebook — does your name disappear from the photo since [...]

iPhone and Facebook apps and exploits

November 14th, 2008  |  by elisabeth  |  published in Facebook, Future of the Internet, iphone  |  1 Comment

Apple continues to exercise its control over the iPhone platform, recently rejecting an app for using too much bandwidth. CastCatcher was a radio streaming app, which had been approved in several previous versions; the latest update was rejected for violating the TOS provision limiting bandwidth use. The developers are upset—they say the updated version didn’t [...]

Scrabulous returns as Wordscraper

August 1st, 2008  |  by jz  |  published in Facebook, Web 2.0 platforms  |  Comments Off

document.domain = “futureoftheinternet.org”;The makers of Scrabulous have apparently relaunched it as “Wordscraper,” a word game that can support a variety of rules, and whose tiles no longer look so much like Scrabble’s. Players can themselves set the rules to simulate a Scrabble game — but that would make the infringement that of the [...]

Facebook removes Scrabulous, sort of

July 29th, 2008  |  by jz  |  published in Facebook, Future of the Internet, Web 2.0 platforms  |  1 Comment

The NYT is blogging that Facebook has removed Scrabulous.  Trying to get there through Facebook shows:
Scrabulous is disabled for US and Canadian users until further notice. If you would like to stay informed about developments in this matter, please click here.
The app is apparently doing IP geolocation to see whom to turn away; when I [...]

Will the ax fall on Scrabulous?

July 27th, 2008  |  by jz  |  published in Facebook, Future of the Internet, Generativity, Web 2.0 platforms  |  2 Comments

In 2006, two guys from India came up with Scrabulous, a Scrabble-like game that took off only after it was transformed from a standalone Web site into a Facebook app.  Hasbro, holder of the Scrabble trademark in North America, noticed, as did Mattel, holder of rights elsewhere, and asked them to take it down.  They [...]

Do they long for the days of Windows?

July 26th, 2008  |  by jz  |  published in Book, Facebook, Future of the Internet, Generativity, Web 2.0 platforms, iphone  |  3 Comments

Macworld is reporting that some iPhone application developers are having a difficult time adjusting to having to distribute their software only through Apple.  They’re apparently too afraid to go on the record (!), but:
As developers update their applications — including bug fixes — it can take up to a week for a new version to [...]

DVD Rippers and Tolerated Use

July 16th, 2008  |  by bballou  |  published in Facebook, Future of the Internet  |  1 Comment

A new study by Future Source Consulting reports that 1/3 of US residents have copied a DVD in the past six months. This number, high as it is, might not be surprising. What is surprising is how little action the television and film industries (at least in comparison to the recording industry) have taken in [...]

RSS Tweets from Z

  • A new kind of patent police http://bit.ly/dlmAnH
  • Who controls the historical record in the digital age? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kpur7yJ7EE
  • This week's roundup of news relating to Future of the Internet topics: http://bit.ly/9qRwjf
  • An amazingly generative 2-player adventure game - http://bit.ly/ayjdZ7 (introductory slideshow)

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