Tag: digital world

Facebook – an overview

Facebook- A Breakthrough in Digital Media:

Communication and Networking drive the world and make it a better place to live in. Gmail was a solid platform for official communications between colleagues and clients. Friendster , Myspace were the platforms for communicating with peer networks and the outer world.  These sites were used by many people across the world. But people felt a need for a global social network with unique features and ease of accessibility. 

Facebook was launched in the year 2004 and it created a buzz amidst the people. Initially it was introduced as a platform for students to connect with their friends and share images. Then slowly the platform was made available for everyone across the globe. By the year 2008 it surpassed the number of users of Myspace. The user experience , UI and UX design were the prominent reasons for the success The launch of Facebook was undoubtedly a breakthrough in Digital Media. 

Fig 1: shows the growth in numbers of facebook users over the years

Today, the active number of monthly users in Facebook are around 2.3 Billion. India has the most number of facebook users.Every teenager and youth would most probably have an account on facebook. According to statistics, the number of people between the age 20-30 years accounts for the major percentage in the usage of Facebook. As consumers we all would have doubts regarding the way this pioneer platform works. Let’s understand the same in the upcoming paragraphs. 

Facebook – Backend Story:

The Facebook site was developed with PHP and later on they developed a compiler named Hiphop which will transfer the PHP code to C++ code.This was mainly done for improving the code efficiency. It was developed by engineers of Facebook. As expected the compiler was 5.5 times faster than the conventional PHP engines.

As the number of users increases over the years , the data to be processed increases at an enormous rate. For example if a user searches for his friend with a particular name , there would be multiple users under the name. So to reduce the efforts of the user facebook has to filter out them based on criterias like location , school, place of work etc. It is a difficult task to be processed as the amount of data involved in it is huge. Facebook uses open source software named Hadoop for processing the information. 

Initially facebook had features of users sharing images with their friends. It also had an option of tagging people while sharing pictures. This option helped users to get connected to their old friends , friends of their friends. Facebook uses Haystack to store all these images uploaded. Haystack has a separate server and storage system for storing the images uploaded. The image uploaded by the user is uploaded to the server with a separate index and stored in the storage space.

Facebook Algorithm:

The news feed of Facebook initially showed the posts , updates and stories shared by the friends or connections of the user. Due to the rapid growth in the number of users , it started to provide options for brand advertising and marketing.Gradually they started advertising for brand values which made the news feed flooded by irrelevant advertisements to the user. This led to the reduction in the number of users  substantially. Users in exasperation started to switch from facebook to other social media platforms. Emerging social media platforms like snapchat , telegram started to capture the market at an expeditious phase.

Then facebook came up with algorithms which put out the newsfeed in such a way that it is relevant to the user’s interest and likes. Users were given the chance to remove the ads which do not captivate them. Facebook Algorithms studied the behavior very closely.  It observed the user interaction according to the post content , time spent on the post , likes and shares of the post. Based on these observations , the newsfeed of each user was curated. Apart from this facebook conducted user surveys where various questions were asked to perceive the user behaviour better. Personal choices were given preference to please the users. 

Facebook algorithms run neural network models and filter the post which will not catch the individual’s attention. Then they began to give a score to every post in the filtered category. The posts were shown on the individual’s newsfeed according to its score in order of highest to the lowest. By this way the users got a feel that their time on facebook is utilised in the right course.

Facebook stellar marketing :

On the flip side , Facebook has to maintain the reach they have promised to the business pages which pay them. Hence the algorithms were designed in such a way that the user analytics is useful for both sides. Thus it will turn out to be a win-win situation. It helped brands to understand the time map of user engagement according to the geography and days of the week. When the post timings of brands aligned with the time map suggested reaches were promising.

Video contents were more promising when compared to images and articles. But video contents which are long and elaborate were not played fully as the people lose interest in the midst of the video. Hence Facebook suggested brands to do simple , attractive and short videos to attract consumers. Live videos of launching and product showcasing were recommended to small business owners. People were excited to know that they were a part of the product introduction of their favourite brands which made them feel a step closer with the brands of their choice.

Fig 2: shows the most promising techniques used by facebook for helping brands reach its customers

Freshness of the post played a vital role in the score of the post. In case a brand announces an offer for the first week of the month and the content is shown to the user in the second week due to the algorithm prioritization then it would be of no use to both sides. Hence the algorithm took the recency of the post as a crucial element for providing scores to the post. 

Facebook also had groups to promote small business. These groups recommended brands that are of good quality. A Recent online study proved that Facebook provides the best Return of Investment for the marketers. This is mainly because of the continuous changes in the Facebook algorithms , integration of Instagram promotion to Facebook, Facebook groups etc. 

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How Archives transformed in the Digital era

The Word archive is derived from the Greek word ‘Arkheion’. The word was further referred from ‘Archon’, which meant a magistrate who oversaw the town hall where all the official public documents were stored. The Word Archive came to use for the first time in the 17th century.

Archives are also known as ‘memory institutions’ because they record and preserve memories and form a significant part of culture, community, official and unofficial history of any place or region or state, or any institution. Their function is to collect, store and preserve artefacts and documents of historical, cultural, and legal importance from the yesteryears and the present so that they remain accessible, informative, and useful to future generations. In general, any organization, government institution or individual can build archives. The National Archives, UK has described archives as “collections of records or documents, selected for lasting preservation due to their historical value, significance as evidence, or as a source for research studies”. International Council on Archives (ICA) has defined archives as “documentary result of various human activities conserved for its long-term value”. They further described archives as contemporary accounts created to can provide a true and verified version of past events.

The significance of the archives lies in the orderly collection of crucial source documents accumulated over an individual’s or organizations’ lifespan and preserved, which can serve as evidence or reference for future work. As archives are the repositories housing various historical documents and records of value, archival research is facilitative for scholars and researchers looking for data to assess and facts to study from the original documents. However, owing to the vastness and diversity of ample archival documents and records, archival analysis is a hectic and tedious job. Access to the artefacts and documents stored in an archive is not an easy task and requires permission from the respected authority. In addition, most of the information stored in traditional achieves is paper-based and thus, is susceptible to decay with time. The aforementioned limitation of traditional archives can be overcome by archiving documents and artefacts in various digital formats, which can ensure that the information is preserved for a substantially longer period.

With the advent of newer digital technologies, it became easier and more convenient to store and preserve the information in the digital space. With the assistance of new digital tools and methods, the process of transcending information from the physical world to the digital world became much efficient and easier. 

Digital archiving is an area where the relationship between digital tools/methods and information preservation can be witnessed. It is a blend of the former and current storage of information. Their function is similar to traditional archives, as repositories of elaborated collection of information in various digital formats at a virtual location. This also makes digital archives more accessible and democratic as the physical constraints are eliminated.

Advantages of Digital Archives:

  • The the digital archive allows “anywhere-anytime” accessibility to users ensuring a reduction of time, cost, and money.
  • The redundancy of information stored in digital archives can be reduced, which can promote ease of access.
  • No geographical site is required to build a digital archive, which is cost-effective.
  • The simultaneous requests of access from multiple users can be addressed by creating multiple copies of information stored, which can overcome the issue of bottlenecks encountered in traditional archives.
  • Managing and navigating objects or records stored digitally are easier in digital archives, which allow developing capacity to preserves terabytes of information.
  • Digital archives are less subjected to bureaucracy like traditional archives, which can ensure data accessibility to the general public.

Digital archives are not perfect. Many times due to the digital divide and other constraints, researchers are not able to access the information. Sometimes the information challenges the authority and due to this, the information can be unavailable in the digital archives because of censorship. But there is no denying that digital archives have transformed the way information is stored and processed.  

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E–Waste : the Digital Dark Side

We live in a technologically advanced society where technology is always evolving. Smart phones have supplanted cell phones, LEDs and LCDs have supplanted televisions, and laptops and tablets have supplanted desktop PCs. When a new model of a product is released, the prior one rapidly becomes obsolete, and obsolete things are frequently dumped as waste. These electrical items have reached the end of their useful life and are unwanted, broken, or obsolete. Those who have reached the end of this are referred to as e-waste, which includes electrical devices such as computers, cellphones, televisions, washing machines, refrigerators, and so on.

Millions of tonnes of e-waste are produced each year in developed countries; worse, e-waste from illicit countries like Japan, Malaysia, Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan, and India, as well as developed countries like the US and Japan, should be dumped in underdeveloped countries. That was how it used to be. The cost of processing e-waste in wealthy countries is high. This is owing to the low cost of shipbuilding, which stimulates the export of rubbish to developing countries.

In undeveloped countries, where waste is buried, consuming and ill-equipped recycling facilities, local residents, industrial owners, and labourers are allowed to harvest valuable commodities from this garbage according to their needs. To leave the others behind, the majority of them acquire vital knowledge. To recover important components, acid baths and electrical burns are used. These practices, in turn, produce serious health problems and may injure those who engage in them. Circuit boards, electric parts, mono boards, and cables are likely to include hazardous metals such as lead, mercury, arsenic, copper, cadmium, nickel, zinc, gold, silver, and beryllium.

These metals have been linked to the release of hazardous chemicals into the environment via soil, causing health issues in both animals and humans. Chemicals can most likely be produced on land, resulting in both land and water pollution.

Polychlorinated biphenyl and polybrominated defanel ether, two important components of e-waste, have a dangerous side effect.
They are the leading causes of ozone depletion. These poisons are also stored in food chains and food traps, posing a serious threat to all species on the planet.

Indeed, e-expanding waste’s environmental imprint is a matter of concern. The growing amount of e-waste must be managed by both consumers and producers. Reusable components are found in the majority of electronic materials.

This reusable component contains metals such as copper, aluminium, lead, and iron. A unique eco-friendly procedure should be developed to properly extract this chemical from garbage items.
Both manufacturers and licenced recyclers must promote recycling models. Producers can enter the recycling chain by providing a collecting service and, compared to the unorganised sector, can raise their buyback offer. Consumers have a natural predisposition to see trash as having economic worth, which is where financial incentives to engage in the formal recycling system can be supplied. They should be persuaded to get rid of all of their technological equipment. Many businesses, including as Dell, Apple, and HP, have started recycling programmes. When it comes to trash disposal, the 3R approach, which includes reuse and recycling, can be extremely beneficial.

E-Parisissa is a remarkable initiative for e-waste treatment in India. Every year, Bangalore generates 8000 tonnes of computer waste, which is then sold to scrap merchants. E-Parisia, India’s first e-waste recycling facility, is located on the outskirts of the city and is environmentally friendly. Its mission is to reduce pollution and landfill trash via environmentally friendly recycling of valuable metals, plastic, and glass.

Social Media Giants to be banned in India?

Four ways social media platforms could stop the spread of hateful content in aftermath of terror attacks

 

Is this true that Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram will be banned in India from 26th May 2021?

 

  • In February 2021, the Central government of India came up with  a new set of IT rules and regulations. These rules imply authority over social media by appointment of compliance officials, giving their name and contact address in India, complaint resolution, monitoring of objectionable content, compliance report and removal of objectionable content. As per sources, some platforms have demanded six months deadline to take up this matter in the US Headquarters and wait for their decision . Currently only Koo App has complied with the  new rules and is ahead of the deadline. The question here is what if these platforms do not comply with the new IT rule? If the government plans on banning these platforms, is our individual rights at risk?

 

  • It’s important to know the sub section(1) of section 79 of IT Act. The IT Act gives protection to social media companies and web services by making them “intermediaries”. This means they are not responsible for user content. So here the government means that if any Social Media company fails to adhere to the new rules then they might lose the protection that the  “intermediaries” have.

 

  • As per data cited by the government, India has 53 crore WhatsApp users, 44.8 crore YouTube users, 41 crore Facebook subscribers, 21 crore Instagram clients, while 1.75 crore account holders are on microblogging platform Twitter. Koo has close to 60 lakh users, making it a major social media intermediary under the new guidelines. Many Indian are upset with this news but as of now all the social media apps are working in India so let’s wait for further information.

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