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A social network that attracted attention last year for its strong privacy features has quietly disappeared off the Web.

The death of Syme, which appears to have gone offline some time in the past few months, is testimony that even in a booming market like social networking, there will be winners and losers.

Syme allowed its users to chat and share content over a fully encrypted network. The site launched not long after Edward Snowden blew the lid off the U.S. governments aggressive surveillance tactics, which created an appetite for greater security and privacy on the Web.

The website is no longer running, Syme co-founder Louis Mullie said Friday in an email. He and his fellow co-founders didnt respond to messages seeking further details.

The site appears to have been operating on Aug. 29, judging by a snapshot taken by the Internet Archives Wayback Machine.

Symes most recent tweet was in April, when it said it had addressed the Internets Heartbleed security bug.

Syme may be eventually revived in some form, as the open-source code to the platform was released on Github. We hope the project does live on, Mullie said in his email.

Syme had Facebook-like elements, allowing people to post status updates, photos and files, but all content was encrypted in the browser before it left a computer. Mobile apps for iOS and Android were planned but apparently never released.

Its downfall is a shame, in part because enabling end-to-end encryption for consumers is a tough challenge, and one the company hoped to achieve.

The overarching goal of Syme is to make encryption accessible and easy to use for people who arent geeks or arent hackers or who arent cryptography experts, said co-founder Jonathan Hershon late last year.

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Syme, a social network that promised Ello-like privacy, has gone dark

ROLLA, Mo. Contrary to the notion that social networks are time-wasters, they could improve project management and the spread of specialized knowledge in the healthcare sector and possibly other large organizations, according to new research from Missouri University of Science and Technology.

In their analysis of how information is shared on social networks, three Missouri S&T researchers explain how the creation of a specialized network could improve the way information is shared via web-based knowledge management systems (KMS). Many large organizations use knowledge management systems to capture, retain and communicate project results and staff knowledge. Such systems can also prevent knowledge drain and provide training as lessons learned following specific occurrences and the resolution of particular problems the staff face, the Missouri S&T researchers say.

In their paper titled Improving Knowledge Sharing in Healthcare Through Social Network Analysis, published recently in the International Journal of Collaborative Enterprise, Drs. Elizabeth Cudney, Steven Corns and Suzanna Long of Missouri S&Ts engineering management and systems engineering department examine a process for creating a social network to improve information- and knowledge-sharing for a large healthcare organization.

They discuss the development of a KMS using social network analysis to see how this combination of KMS and social network might improve methods for organizing and sharing knowledge within the organization. Through their research, they identified those in the organization who are perceived as early adopters of process improvement methods and mapped out a potential social network through which those early adopters could share their project information with others in the organization.

This allowed them to understand how changes to the work environment and procedures were perceived. The results from this preliminary work then allowed the team to devise a Likert-style questionnaire, a common survey instrument named for American administrator and organizational psychologist Rensis Likert who worked at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the 1940s. This questionnaire was then given to all users to help the team assimilate a broad perspective on how social networking affects knowledge sharing.

Cudney, Corns and Long performed social networking mapping and analysis to characterize the relationships between the various key players essentially the most influential and knowledgeable individuals in the organization and the knowledge links between them. They found that improvements to knowledge-sharing could be made if individuals identified by many members of staff were to form a tight, core network of their own. This would rapidly increase the ability to disseminate information on projects because this core of individuals would all have many people in their own networks.

They also found that improvements in KMS abound if the early adopters also form a core network as they could disseminate new ideas much more rapidly too. An additional conclusion from the work is that if technical assistance is provided early this better facilitates the creation of connections for sharing information and networking opportunities. The team adds that as with education, a higher level of engagement and stimulation makes the system that much easier for the personnel involved to benefit from the information in the system.

While these recommendations apply specifically to this healthcare organization, these recommendations are applicable for improving knowledge sharing in any large organization regardless of industry, Cudney says.

The Missouri S&T researchers are continuing their study. The next step, they say, is to create an actual internal social network for the healthcare organization theyre working with and to implement recommendations for sharing information through the social network.

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Social networks can strengthen knowledge-sharing

Leading news organisations of the country, Bennett and Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCL) and Kasturi & Sons Ltd, released their social media diktats over the past one month and caused much debate. The policies are aimed at regulating the use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter by journalists on their rolls. While some called the guidelines necessary, since the medium is new and evolving, others cried hoarse over their 'restrictive' mandates.

A quick comparison with global news majors, however, reveals that Indian media houses have a lot of ground to cover. Almost all major global news agencies like Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters, and the British Broadcasting Corporation have detailed social media policies in place for the last two to three years. Also, the policies of Indian news outlets are relatively raw when it comes to how their employees can use social media to disseminate as well as gather news.

This could be due to the fact that social media is only now becoming prominent in the country, in contrast to the West. Also, there have not been many high-profile incidents where organisations have landed in serious trouble or have been embarrassed by what their employees have shared on social media.

More Indian news organisations are expected to come up with social media policies in the future, according to experts. And existing social media policies will also get significantly tightened since content posted on these sites has unforeseen legal, economic and social implications.

The managements of news organisations now understand the reach which social media has, says Mahesh Murthy, founder and CEO of digital media agency Pinstrorm. "The thought process is not restricted to the main handle of the organisation but also of the individual journalist." But, organisations can't claim a stake to the personal accounts of journalists, he adds.

The Hindu (published by Kasturi & Sons Ltd) created quite a stir when it barred its journalists from retweeting or sharing articles of rival media companies. The UK-based broadcaster, SkyNews, released a similar policy in 2012. Its latest policy for 2013-14 says, "You should never retweet any content that we would not be prepared to put on any of our platforms."

AFP encourages its journalists to have social media accounts. However, they are not allowed to tweet or share AFP content even after a delay. AP discourages employees from offering views on controversial topics because it may reflect the journalist's bias. AP also tells it staff not to 'friend' or 'like' political candidates because that may create a perception that the agency's journalists are advocates.

This may in some way curtail a journalist's ability to cultivate sources online. But the organisation is erring on the side of caution.

Murthy says one way to solve this issue is to encourage journalists to have both personal and officials accounts like the way they have email accounts. "The official one can toe the organisation's social media policy and the journalist should be free to post whatever he/she likes on the personal account." He adds if the organisation controls even the personal account, it will be more destructive than constructive since the handle will become a tool to broadcast its own stories leading to boring content. "The journalist will drop on the engagement index and the followers may leave, it will only be a loss for the organisation." And, even if a journalist chooses to make a controversial statement, till the time it is from the personal account, the organisation should not care. "That is what freedom of speech is about."

AP also discourages its employees from interacting directly with readers. "Any response we make to a reader or viewer could go public. Email, Facebook messages and Twitter direct messages may feel like private communications, but may easily find their way to blogs and political pressure groups, attorneys and others. In the case of a story or image that stirs significant controversy, the editor is likely the best person to reply, rather than the person who created the content," the policy says.

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Social media policy for journalists lags in India

Search Seizure: A New Fourth Amendment for a New Generation? - Promo
For more information, visit LawJournalTV.com.

By: The American Law Journal

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Search & Seizure: A New Fourth Amendment for a New Generation? - Promo - Video

Theres not a Barney Fife defense to the violation of the Fourth Amendment, the legendary advocate Pamela Karlan once told the Supreme Court. The Court disagreed, and held that a police officer had validly arrested a man even though the warrant he relied on had been revoked months before.

Heien v. North Carolina, a case to be argued Monday in front of the Supreme Court, will tell us whether Barneys loophole is even bigger. Coincidentally, speaking of Barney, this case happened in the hometown of actor Andy Griffith: Mt. Airy, North Carolina, population 10,417.*

On April 29, 2009, Surry County Sheriffs Deputy Matt Darisse parked by Highway 77 working criminal interdiction, a term which seems to mean looking for folks who dont look right. During his shift, Maynor Javier Vasquez drove by, with the owner of the car, Nicholas Heien, asleep in the back seat.

Darisse became suspicious of Vasquez. Its a little unclear, why, though: In court, Darisse reasoned that the driver was gripping the steering wheel at a 10-and-two position, looking straight aheaddriving like a regular person, in other words. Darisse followed the car until it came to a stoplight. At that point, he noticed one brake light was out. He stopped the vehicle.

Under the Fourth Amendment, police who want to stop a car need reasonable suspicion that someone in it has committed a crime. Once theyve made a valid stop, they can pull the driver and passengers out for a frisk; bring in drug-sniffing dogs; or ask consent to search the car without explaining that the driver has the right to refuse. If permission is refused, they can detain the driver and passengers for hours while they seek a search warrant; and if the driver has committed any offense, even failing to wear a seat belt, they can make an arrest.

Thats the scenario in Heien. Darisse asked Heien for permission to search the car; Heien agreed, and the officers found a baggie full of cocaine.

After Vazquez and Heien were arrested, however, their lawyers made a startling discovery: North Carolina apparently hasnt fully revised its automobile code since before the days of break lights. Under state law, a cars only required to have a stop lamp on the rear of the vehicle. Yes, a stop lampnot two brake lights, as Deputy Darisse and most of the rest of us would assume.

As interpreted by the Supreme Court, the Fourth Amendment creates an exclusionary rule, under which an unconstitutional stop is a poisonous tree, and anything that is discovered in a search afterwards is tainted fruit. It cant be used in evidence, and, as then-Judge Benjamin Cardozo wrote, [t]he criminal is to go free because the constable has blundered. There are exceptions; there wont be any exclusion when police make certain kinds of factual mistakesa warrant that was improperly granted by a judge, for example, or clerical errors in the warrant itselfif the mistakes are reasonable and made in good faith.

Heien asks about the next step: What if the police officer has a reasonable suspicion that the driver has done something that turns out not to be against the law? The North Carolina Supreme Court refused to suppress the cocaine, reasoning that the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule wouldnt apply. An officer may make a mistake, including a mistake of law, yet still act reasonably under the circumstances, the justices held.

But theres a slight contradiction here. Ignorance of the law is no defenseeven if someone makes a reasonable mistake. As recently as 1971, the Supreme Court repeated that [t]he principle that ignorance of the law is no defense applies whether the law be a statute or a duly promulgated and published regulation. Dozens of lower-court cases since then have reiterated this warning.

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The 'Barney Fife Loophole' to the Fourth Amendment