Tech Today: Network of Choice for London Riots

By Tom Loftus

Kerim Okten/EPA
British police officers stand outside a fire damaged building in Tottenham, in north London.

London Riots: Facebook, Twitter or Blackberry? Here’s a claim no tech marketing department wants: the official network of choice for the London riots. In today’s blog chatter, it appears that Blackberry is the, umm, winner. As TechCrunch notes, Blackberry’s instant messenger system has the benefit of being free, fast, most importantly, private. It is the top group messaging app in the U.K., the blog notes and, as a result, “BlackBerrys have become the weapon of choice of Britain’s disaffected youth.” [100gf, TechCrunch, Urban Mashup]

Social Networks Monday: There are plenty of stories on Facebook and Google+ this morning. The Wall Street Journal reports on how companies are increasingly relying on Facebook as a recruiting platform. A number of outlets pick up a report from a study presented at the American Psychological Association over the weekend that show that teens who are heavy social network users have difficulties with reading comprehension.

After spending one month with Google+, Ars Technica declares that Google’s social network has legs: “Features match Facebook in many ways, but it’s the implementation and presentation that makes them starkly different,” the blog’s Jacqui Cheng writes.

PCWorld revisits the debate around Google’s enforcement of “real names”–the requirement that Google+ users sign up their real first and last name and not, say, the handle they go by in Second Life. [WSJ, MSNBC.com, Ars Technica, PC World]

Child Hacks Mobile Phone: At the DefCon hacker conference in Las Vegas a ten-year-old girl showed how advancing the clock on a tablet or smartphone can allow access to saleable data. The hacker, who goes by the handle CyFi, discovered the flaw while attempting to speed up the pace of a farming game. [BBC]

The Web Turned 20 on Saturday: On Aug. 6, 1991, 36-year-old Tim Berners Lee, a physicist at the Cern Facility in Switzerland launched the world’s first web site and server. The site provided information on hypertext and other instructions on how to create a web page. [Wired, Cern]

Anonymous-Affiliated Group Dumps Law Enforcement Data: Hackers released 10 gigabytes of data that they say included the personal information of U.S. law enforcement individuals. The group AntiSec claimed that the information came as a result of a hack into a company that builds web sites for sheriff’s agencies throughout the U.S. [Computer World]

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Facebook.com Director of Marketing, Zuckerbergs Sister, Resigns

Facebook.com Director of Marketing, Zuckerbergs Sister, Resigns

Posted in Facebook on Monday, August 08, 2011, 07:09

Mark Zuckerberg’s sister and Director of Marketing for Facebook.com, Randi Jayne Zuckerberg, has resigned from the company.

In her resignation letter to COO Sheryl Sandberg and Head of Communications Elliot Schrage, Randi explains that she will be leaving the company to pursue her own goal of creating a new social business.

Referencing her initials, the business, called RtoZ Media will “work with media companies to develop their programming in new, and more social ways.”  

The 29 year old also mentioned that her future venture will continue to revolve around incorporating Facebook.com as a central social platform for businesses. She adds “Facebook will clearly be a central element in all of my projects. I plan to demonstrate that ANYONE can do ground breaking media work on the platform. Be assured, I will continue to be a strong, vocal evangelist for the most incredible platform ever created.”

A spokesman for Facebook.com said “We can confirm Randi has decided to leave to start her own company. We are all grateful for her important service.”

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