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HUSKY Vs INTERNET - Team Games - Dual Cast - Part 1 - Video
A study finds that blogging is therapeutic for teens -- and that having an open comments section makes it even more so.
A study (PDF) from psychologists at the University of Haifa, Israel, is garnering some attention with for its findings that blogging can help socially awkward teens. The New York Times ran it in its "Studied" column, with "the gist" boiled down to "Blogging is therapeutic for teenagers." The site io9 ran it under the headline "Science proves blogging is therapeutic -- at least for teenagers." But read past the top findings and you'll find something more surprising, and, also, somehow, more comforting: The teenagers who got the most out of their blogging experiment were those whose blogs were open to commenters.
As the Times explains:
In all the groups, the greatest improvement in mood occurred among those bloggers who wrote about their problems and allowed commenters to respond.
Interestingly, the commenters on the blogs were overwhelmingly supportive. "The only kind of surprise we had was that almost all comments made by readers were very positive and constructive in trying to offer support for distressed bloggers," Dr. [Azy] Barak wrote in an e-mail.
. . .
"People will write in the comments, 'I remember when I was in your shoes' " and 'Don't worry -- you'll get through the SATs!' and it's wonderful," she said. "It really helps put everything into perspective."
For anyone who kept a journal growing up, the benefits of writing are obvious. But the Internet seems like a hostile place for a socially inept teen to open up. Aren't bullies and other trolls going to pounce on these kids?
In a way, the study is a welcome reminder that Internet comment sections have gotten a bad rap. In the defense of people everywhere, the claim is often advanced that the ranks of Internet commenters are not filled with a representative sampling of humanity, but the people who choose to participate. But as this study shows, this is true but it also doesn't go far enough: Bad Internet comment sections aren't even representative of Internet comment sections themselves.
The trolls, the bullies, they go where they can be seen. Some of the most well-trafficked sites on the Internet have the worst commenters. In general, smaller blogs with dedicated readers -- whether personal journals or niche-interest publications -- have lively, thoughtful, and smart conversations in their comments sections.
With commenters like that, who needs friends? And that's precisely the point: They *are* friends -- or at least they are another human, at some other far-off computer, providing the guidance or simply the listening ear that friends provide. Whatever therapeutic powers journaling has, they are amplified by the comfort of a human response.
The problem, of course, is the risk. For a teen going through a rough time, what is the power of one bully? Is the benefit of comments outweighed by the chance someone will use the comments section to mock or tease? The authors of the study recommend that question for further investigation.
Image: Magic Madzik/Flickr.
More From The Atlantic
See the original post here:
Surprise! Internet Comments Can Be Good for Your Health
Many Internet service providers have laid claim to the title of "fastest" broadband speeds over the years. But who's right?
By most standards, it's hard to argue with Verizon Communications Inc. Its FiOS service offers faster Internet service than other major providers—up to 150 megabits per second, compared with the highest advertised from a cable operator of 105 Mbps offered by Comcast Corp.
Probably more important, Verizon consistently delivers more than it advertises, according to a study conducted by the Federal Communications Commission published in August.
Last spring the FCC compared Internet speeds advertised by 13 broadband providers to the actual speeds experienced by a set of about 6,800 users for both upstream and downstream traffic.
[More from WSJ.com: Verizon Crosses Web Lines]
Upstream traffic describes actions like uploading pictures to Facebook, and downstream traffic measures the speed at which content like video is pulled off the Internet.
FiOS's service operated at about 115% its advertised speed over a 24-hour period, the study found, whereas broadband services operated by most cable operators as well as the slower DSL service offered by Verizon and other phone companies fluctuated through the day.
Most of these services saw noticeable dips in their speed between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., some to well below 100% of their advertised speed.
Of the cable providers, Comcast, Charter Communications Inc. and Cox Communications Inc. had the most consistent performance.
New York-based Cablevision Systems Corp. had significantly poorer performance in the study than most other operators, averaging about 50% of the advertised download speed during peak the hours of 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. It claims now that it "has demonstrated significant improvements from the FCC's original data of nearly a year ago."
[More from WSJ.com: New YouTube Channel is All About Games, Brands]
Cablevision sent The Wall Street Journal what it said were test results in December calculated by the same service that ran the FCC's tests, broadband-testing firm SamKnows Inc., which showed Cablevision's Optimum Wi-Fi delivered 107% of its advertised maximum speed of 15 Mbps during peak hours that month. One of Cablevision's recent ads claims that "Optimum Online download speeds are actually faster than basic Verizon FiOS," but it compares Cablevision's improved December data over a 24-hour period with that of Verizon's from the FCC study last spring.
Verizon said in a statement that Cablevision is comparing its broadband speed to FiOS's slowest tier, at 15 Mpbs download speed, and that Verizon's faster products are superior to Cablevision's. "When given a choice of side by side offers, we are confident the FiOS factor will prevail," it said.
SamKnows didn't respond to an emailed request for comment.
Cable operators point to a PC Magazine study also published last August that surveyed 58,000 people through the website Speedtest.net. It ranked Verizon below Comcast, Cox and Charter—but only because the study combined Verizon FiOS results with those of Verizon's slower DSL technology.
Comcast notes it has tested a 1 gigabyte-per-second broadband service that could top Verizon FiOS. It also says it offers a "PowerBoost" performance similar to many other cable providers that allows for users to experience faster download speeds for the first portion of a file up to a certain size.
FiOS' performance likely reflects its design. Verizon laid fiber-optic cables all the way to the residences of its customers.
[More from WSJ.com: Radical Videogamers Go on Nonkilling Spree]
Cable companies generally wire fiber optic cable to neighborhood nodes, from which coaxial cables run to separate residences and distribute the bandwidth between them.
That means people in neighborhoods effectively share bandwidth, so in evenings, as more people log on, the speed slows.
But the fiber to the home approach is costly to build. Verizon spent more than $20 billion rolling out FiOS, which is available in 14% of the U.S.
WASHINGTON & GENEVA--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- In its continuing efforts to foster an open Internet ecosystem, the Internet Society today announced a 1M USD donation to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This donation, the final installment of the Internet Society’s 2009 pledge of 2.5M USD over three years, supports the continued evolution of W3C as an organization that creates open Web standards.
“The Internet Society’s generous donation has fueled deep organizational change at W3C,” said Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO. “We have strengthened our business model and broadened participation to accelerate the development of the Open Web Platform technology that is transforming industry.”
In 2011, one of the ways in which W3C reached out to new stakeholders was through new Community Groups and Business Groups. A W3C Community Group is an open forum, without fees, where Web developers and other stakeholders develop specifications, hold discussions, develop test suites, and connect with W3C's international community of Web experts. A W3C Business Group gives innovators that want to have an impact on the development of the Web in the near-term, a vendor-neutral forum for collaborating with like-minded stakeholders, including W3C Members and non-Members. In just four months, more than fifty groups have been created or proposed.
“The W3C is emblematic of the inclusive, multistakeholder approach that is critical to the continued development, operation, and use of the open, global Internet,” said Raúl Echeberría, Chair of the Internet Society Board of Trustees. “We look forward to continued cooperation between the W3C and the Internet Society to advance our shared values through independent voices.”
The Internet Society and W3C have closely aligned views and both organizations strongly support the ongoing evolution of the open Internet. Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the Internet Society serves the needs of the growing, global Internet community through championing public policies that enable open access; facilitating the open development of Internet standards and protocols; and organizing events and opportunities that inform and bring people together.
“We look forward to advancing our relationship with W3C and seeking new opportunities to collaborate in important areas, such as Internet governance,” said Lynn St. Amour, President and CEO of the Internet Society. “Strong partnerships among the many diverse Internet-focused organizations that form the Internet ecosystem are essential to ensure the continued development of the Internet as an open platform for innovation, economic development, and social progress.”
An Internet Society and W3C FAQ with additional information is available:
http://www.w3.org/2009/11/isoc-w3c-faq
About the Internet Society
The Internet Society is the world’s trusted independent source of leadership for Internet policy, technology standards, and future development. Based on its principled vision and substantial technological foundation, the Internet Society works with its members and Chapters around the world to promote the continued evolution and growth of the open Internet through dialog among companies, governments, and other organizations around the world. For more information, see: http://www.internetsociety.org.
About the World Wide Web Consortium
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. W3C primarily pursues its mission through the creation of Web standards and guidelines designed to ensure long-term growth for the Web. Over 350 organizations are Members of the Consortium. W3C is jointly run by the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) in the USA, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) headquartered in France and Keio University in Japan, and has additional Offices worldwide. For more information see http://www.w3.org/.
Read the rest here:
Internet Society Board of Trustees Approves Donation to Support W3C Stewardship of Open Web Platform
CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Cook Associates Executive Search (www.cookassociates.com/executive-search), a leading retained executive search firm, today released its first quarterly East Coast Internet and Digital Media Jobs Index, which tracks job creation at almost 350 digital media companies in Boston and New York. Cook Associates found that these two cities employ approximately 30,000 individuals in the digital media sector.
According to John Barrett, a Managing Director in Cook Associate’s Digital Media Practice, “Silicon Valley is synonymous with venture capital, yet the East Coast has also attracted significant venture capital dollars, especially in the explosive digital media sector. Boston and New York have exceptional talent pools that are growing. In addition, many of the largest public players such as Google continue to expand hiring on the East Coast. We found a number of surprises in Internet and digital media employment in New York and Boston. We’ll be following digital media hiring trends as we benchmark industry growth in these cities.”
Index data indicate that New York is home to a larger number of newer companies that have emerged in the past five years. While Boston’s hiring trends will continue to be favorable, Internet and digital media headcount in New York City in the future will likely grow at a faster rate given the current venture investment trends favoring that city. Another proof-point of New York City’s surge in start-up activity is that only 50 percent of NYC-based employees work for a publicly-traded company, whereas 59 percent of Boston-based employees work for public companies, reflecting that many of the older start-ups in Boston have been gobbled up by larger enterprises.
Barrett noted, “Our study focused on identifying those Internet and digital media companies with 10 or more employees. We tallied more than 10,900 digital media employees in Boston while there are over 19,600 in New York City. Despite Boston not being known as a large consumer-driven town, we were surprised to find over 6,400 people employed in consumer Internet companies, about 59 percent of the total for the city. By comparison, New York City has approximately 13,500 employees, or 71 percent of the total, in the consumer Internet sector. Not surprisingly, large national players such as Google, Yahoo and AOL, each have large offices in both cities. Up-and-coming employers in New York include Gilt Groupe, Etsy, Yodle and Ideeli while Boston has Wayfair, Hubspot, Rue La La and Carbonite.”
New York data:
230 Internet and digital media companies who have 10+ employees in New York City
50% of companies are consumer-focused vs. 50% business-focused Top 20% of largest employers in NYC employ 68% of the headcount
Approximately 19,600 NYC-based employees among those 230 companies
50% working in public companies vs. 50% in private companies 71% working in consumer-focused companies vs. 29% in business-focused companies
Boston data:
116 Internet and digital media companies who have 10+ employees in Boston
46% of companies are consumer-focused vs. 54% business-focused Top 20% largest employers in Boston employ 67% of the headcount
Approximately 10,900 Boston-based employees among those 116 companies
59% working in public companies vs. 41% in private companies 59% working in consumer-focused companies vs. 41% in business-focused companies
Cook surveyed only pure-play Internet and digital media companies. Based on its research, the company believes that the businesses surveyed represent more than 90% of the Internet and digital media employees in New York and Boston. Virtually all companies in the survey are currently or were previously financed by venture capital investors. Major digital sub-sectors covered include media/content, social networking, advertising, mobile media/commerce, e-commerce, video, local, analytics and marketing software. Excluded from the survey were digital-focused employees of “traditional” companies and digital ad agencies. Cook’s East Coast Internet and Digital Media Jobs Index is current as of January 1, 2012.
For more information about Cook Associates’ Digital Media practice, please visit http://www.cookassociates.com/executive-search/practice-areas/digital-media---entertainment/ Follow Managing Director John Barrett on Twitter at @jbarrett.
About Cook Associates Executive Search
Cook Associates provides retained executive search services to multinational corporations, early-stage entrepreneurial companies, midcap, privately held and family-owned businesses, as well as venture capital- and private equity-backed firms. The company’s reputation as a trusted business advisor is built on decades of successfully identifying and guiding clients to the right solutions to drive performance and gain competitive advantage. For more information, visit http://www.cookassociates.com.
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