Mediaboss Marketing

Social media is on the rise. Whether it’s a new app running on the Facebook platform, or an entirely new social networking service (like Google+), it seems 2011 is the year when social media really shined. This is well-exemplified in how social media played a big part in a handful of issues that were relevant on a global scale — like the Arab Spring, Occupy movements, and national elections in some countries.

James Craven, managing director of Tech Wire Asia’s parent company Hybrid News, points out how 2011 “will be remembered as the year when social media gave voice to some of the world’s most disenfranchised people,” in the final session of the World Bloggers Summit in Malaysia.

In this Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012 photo, Syrian protesters wave a revolutionary flag during a demonstration in Idlib, Syria. President Bashar Assad's government vowed Sunday to continue its crackdown on a nearly 11-month-old uprising that has become one of the deadliest of the Arab Spring.(AP Photo)

While social networks and applications have existed for almost a decade now (even further back, depending on how you define “social media”), it does seem that it was last year when social media users really tested the mettle of social apps and services. 2011 meant “heady times for social media and Asia’s politics scene.” In Singapore, for example, the use of social media has given marginal or independent politicians a voice. Twitter and Facebook also played a big part in the Arab uprisings in that year.

But it’s not always a bed of roses for social networks in the region, given concerns about censorship and control of information. We know that China is notorious for its censorship policies, to the extent of establishing its so-called Great Firewall of China, through which all (legal) information flows. Other countries have likewise followed suit, to some extent, like Thailand and India, which have been in approval of Twitter’s plan to selectively censor tweets.

It’s still a challenge, both for social media users and those who run the social networks. Even with China banning Twitter and Facebook, the country has one of the most active social networking scenes, and users have perhaps adjusted to the strict information regime, and are making sure their voices are heard without necessarily offending those in power. Is the spirit of social media still alive in this sense?

For those intent on better-harnessing the power of social media in their organizations — whether political or not — James gives a few tips, which include transparency, engagement, relevance, and an understanding of the nuances of each social networking application. Blogs are given a particular highlight, because of the wide misuse by organizations as mere PR outlets rather than journals that present personal views and standpoints. (You can check out a few soundbytes here.)

In the end, the rise of social media opens up more questions and challenges than answers. “[T]his watershed represents a whole new world of challenges, and a whole new range of opportunities for the flow of information in a truly global online social village.” Let’s take these as opportunities to learn and to shape our world — virtual or real — for the better.

Recommended for you

February 14, 2012

February 1, 2012

February 2, 2012

May 17, 2011

January 11, 2012

Read more:
The rise of social media in Asia

BRUSSELS (AP) — A European Union court ruled Thursday that social networking sites cannot be compelled to install general filters to prevent the illegal trading of music and other copyrighted material.

The decision is a victory for operators of social networking sites in the EU, but a setback for those who seek to protect copyrighted material from being distributed without payment or permission.

It also comes as protests are growing in Europe against ACTA, the proposed international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which is meant to protect intellectual property rights.

In Thursday's decision, the EU Court of Justice, which is based in Luxembourg, ruled that requiring general filters that would cover all the site's users would not sufficiently protect personal data or the freedom to receive and impart information.

SABAM, a Belgian company that represents authors, composers and music publishers, filed the lawsuit leading to Thursday's ruling. In it, the company objected to the practices of Netlog NV, a social networking site, saying users' profiles allowed protected works to be shared illegally.

Michael Gardner, head of the intellectual property practice at London law firm Wedlake Bell, called the ruling a further blow to copyright owners because it appears to rule out forcing operators of social network sites and Internet service providers — at their own expense — to impose blanket monitoring and filtering aimed at stopping infringements.

In November, SABAM lost a separate case in which it sought to require Internet service providers to install filters that would prevent the illegal downloading of files.

Gardner said the ruling would not stop copyright owners from seeking more limited injunctions against social networking sites or Internet service providers, but he said the injunctions would have to be more "proportionate" in scope and effect.

"Under EU law, there has to be a balance between the interests of copyright owners and the rights of privacy and freedom of expression," he said. "So far, the courts seem to have rejected the draconian solutions urged on them by the rights owners."

Mark Owen, head of the intellectual property practice at London law firm Harbottle & Lewis, said the new ruling shows how difficult it can be to protect intellectual property.

"As clouds continue to gather around Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and other attempts to control online use of copyright works, today's ruling from the European Court provides a useful illustration of the practical challenges enforcement poses," Owen said.

____

Satter reported from London. Follow Don Melvin at http://twitter.com/Don_Melvin

Read this article:
EU court: Web sites need not check for IP breaches

Copyright holders cannot force social networking sites to install filters to prevent illegal file-sharing, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Thursday.

"The owner of an online social network cannot be obliged to install a general filtering system, covering all its users, in order to prevent the unlawful use of musical and audio-visual work," ruled the judge in the case of SABAM versus Netlog.

The court decided that forcing websites to introduce such filters would breach users' right to protection of personal data and the freedom to receive or impart information.

SABAM, a Belgian music management company that represents authors, composers and publishers, took Netlog, an online social networking platform, to court for allowing its users to share music and video clips on its website.

According to SABAM, Netlog's social network enables users to make copyrighted works available to the public without SABAM's consent and without Netlog paying it any fee. In June 2009, SABAM asked the Court of First Instance of Brussels to order Netlog to block the sharing of musical or audio-visual works from SABAM's repertoire and to pay a penalty of €1000 for each day of delay in complying with that order. But Netlog said that such an order would be tantamount to an obligation to monitor all its users, which is prohibited by the E-Commerce Directive.

The Court of First Instance referred the matter to the ECJ, which decided that in order to comply with SABAM's request, Netlog would have to install a filtering system that would examine all of the files stored on its servers by all its users, identify the files likely to contain copyrighted works, determine which of those files are unlawful and then stop them being made available.

Such preventive monitoring could potentially undermine freedom of information, said the court. Moreover, that monitoring would have no time limit, be directed at all future infringements and be intended to protect not only existing works, but also works in the future. This would require Netlog to install a complicated, costly, permanent computer system at its own expense, which said the court, would be an infringement of Netlog's freedom to conduct its business.

European digital rights group EDRI welcomed the ruling: "The European judges have re-emphasized the importance of not overburdening communication tools with restrictive technologies. This is crucial to protect the fundamental rights value of the Internet as well as its economic significance."

In November, SABAM lost a similar case against Internet service providers.

Follow Jennifer on Twitter at @BrusselsGeek or email tips and comments to jennifer_baker@idg.com.

See the original post here:
Copyright Holders Dealt Blow in EU Social Networking Case

ScienceDaily (Feb. 15, 2012) — A team of scientists from the Charité and German Rheumatism Research Center Berlin and the University of Geneva has found a fundamentally new mechanism how our defense system is ramped up when facing a viral intruder. Exploitation of this mechanism in vaccines sparks new hope for better prevention and therapy of infectious diseases and cancer.

"T killer cells" (CD8 T cells) represent an important element of our body's defense system. They have the capacity to specifically identify and kill cells, which harbor viruses and bacteria or form a cancer. T killer cells would therefore represent an important component of yet unavailable vaccines against infections like HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C virus and malaria, and also for the treatment of cancer.

It has been a longstanding observation that there is no match to the overwhelming T killer cell armada, which is triggered when a viral infection invades our body. Scientists had generally accredited this observation to "pathogen-associated molecular patterns" (PAMPs) on viruses and other microbes. PAMPs, i.e. the "foreign look" of viruses, alert so-called "dendritic cells," which serve as policemen coordinating the T killer cell response.

In a report now published in the journal Science, researchers led by Prof. Max Löhning (Charité-University Medicine & DRFZ Berlin) and Prof. Daniel Pinschewer (University of Geneva) describe an additional general mechanism by which viral infection triggers potent T killer cells: "Dying virus-infected cells themselves ring the alarm bells to T killer cells.," Löhning says. Viruses cause infected cells to die, resulting in the release of cell components, which normally are not be visible to the outside -- analogous to an injured individual loosing blood. Such substances, heralding injury when released, are referred to as "alarmins." The scientists found that T killer cells can sense an alarmin called "interleukin 33" (IL-33). IL-33 is contained in cells, which form the scaffold of the T killer cells' home, the spleen and lymph nodes, and is released when such scaffold cells die.

Mice lacking the gene encoding IL-33 failed to form a large T killer cell army upon viral infection. The few remaining cells had very poor fighting skills. Such mice were therefore exquisitely sensitive to several types of viral infections. Conversely, IL-33 could be used to artificially increase the T killer cell army, which was generated in response to vaccination. As Max Löhning and Daniel Pinschewer explain, PAMPs and alarmins apparently have complementary and non-redundant functions in shaping our T killer cell defense: "The "foreign look" of viruses (PAMPs) activates the "dendritic cell" policemen to engage T killer cells. T killer cells, however, remain lousy fighters unless alerted by a cell death in their neighborhood (alarmins)." These new findings could provide a key to effective vaccination against infectious diseases and cancer.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Deutsches Rheuma-Forschungszentrum Berlin, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

W. V. Bonilla, A. Frohlich, K. Senn, S. Kallert, M. Fernandez, S. Johnson, M. Kreutzfeldt, A. N. Hegazy, C. Schrick, P. G. Fallon, R. Klemenz, S. Nakae, H. Adler, D. Merkler, M. Lohning, D. D. Pinschewer. The Alarmin Interleukin-33 Drives Protective Antiviral CD8 T Cell Responses. Science, 2012; DOI: 10.1126/science.1215418

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Read more here:
New defense mechanism against viruses and cancer identified

Though Prototype 2 explains why its main character gains the ability to shoot tendrils from his arms, it never touches on why the virus that gives him super powers also turns him into an unrelatable hypocrite, while removing all semblance of morality. All of it. Just wrings it on out. Every drop.

It made more sense in the original game. Beyond being the scapegoat for a massive chemical weapon cover-up, Alex Mercer was also sort of a jerk. He amorally killed thousands of civilians on his rampaging quest for the truth, becoming the monster the government made him out to be. It made sense and happened somewhat organically, as he felt like the entire world had turned against him. It also makes sense that, at least for the opening minutes of Prototype 2, he would be the villain – he sort of already was.

Above: Flying between buildings is always fun

James Heller, the protagonist of the sequel, starts off with the best of intentions: to kill Alex Mercer. He believes Mercer responsible for the virus that destroyed New York City (now called New York Zero for some reason), among the casualties being his daughter and wife.

But it didn’t take long for the new hero to find out the truth about the virus and its origins, and within a few minutes of the game’s opening, he’d already tried to kill Mercer, failed, been injected with the virus, transformed into a powerful super-mutant, and dropped his vendetta almost entirely. In under an hour, Heller had gone from trying to kill Mercer to joining him in an uneasy alliance against the mercenary group responsible for the outbreak.

Above: He could cut Wolverine clean in half with those

And when we say he was given powers, boy do we mean it. Your character in Prototype 2 starts off 10 times stronger than your character ends up in nearly any other game. Right away, we were running up walls, throwing dumpsters at helicopters and slashing apart waves of enemies. Seriously. Spider-Man? Hulk? They’ve got nothing on Heller. Even Infamous's Cole MacGrath looks weak next to Heller an hour into the game.

In fact, we were so powerful right out of the gate that we had problems picking out which skills were new and which ones Mercer flaunted around in the original.  Some stood out – like being able to infect an enemy with the virus and throw him like a grenade (called the bio bomb), and the addition of deadly tendrils, which work like Spider-Man’s webs to let us zip to locations – but it’s hard to figure out what is and isn’t new when you’re so damn powerful. Could we flying kick a helicopter to death in the original game? Could Alex Mercer slam the ground and destroy everything around him with powerful spikes? We just couldn't remember.

Above: We could turn him into a bio-bomb and throw him for hilarious effect

While that might sound negative, it’s actually a compliment to how well the developers weaved the new powers and abilities into the already successful Prototype mold. Controlling Heller is an absolute blast. The sense of power is damn near unparalleled, and the abilities the game threw our way made for a tremendously fun time. He might not feel all that different from Mercer right away, but he feels different enough to make things feel fresh. It even makes sense within the game’s canon. Both characters are infected with the same virus, and viruses mutate. That explains why Mercer’s powers manifested the way they did, while Heller’s gave him tendrils and “viral sonar,” which… well, lets him send out a sonar pulse that points him in the direction of guys he needs to kill.

One thing that confuses us, however, is that shortly after the game began, we felt like Heller had become an insane killer. In Mercer’s case we bought it, as he was sort of an enemy of the state, so we didn’t mind when we were able to slaughter civilians. With Heller… we just don’t get it. He’s a father, a husband, and once he finds out who is responsible for the death of his loved ones ,he sets off on a quest to avenge his wife and daughter by… killing thousands of wives, daughters, sons, and husbands? 

Above: If you don't feel like using powers you can just punch dudes in the jaw

Sure, the game doesn’t “make” you do it, but it’s impossible to fight a battle in Prototype 2 without insane collateral damage. Throwing a car at a helicopter will usually end with that helicopter landing on a pile of meaty humans. In the hour we played we really couldn’t identify with him because his actions didn’t make much sense to us. Maybe the finished product will fix this by providing additional context, or explaining why he doesn't see this as being an issue.

Or maybe the Prototype formula dictates that the hero needs to be a jerk. We don't know. We didn't really think we'd end up liking Mercer all that much, and here we are pining over him.

Then again, as long as we’re still playing a super-human mutant with the ability to slaughter thousands of people at a time ,we doubt we’ll be complaining. Not so long as we’re having fun, at least.

The rest is here:
Prototype 2’s hypocritical protagonist almost gets in the way of our bloody, murderous fun