Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 13 July 2018
New U.N. panel to
make proposals to
ensure safe digital future
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations is estab-
lishing a high-level panel co-chaired by Chinese
e-commerce billionaire Jack Ma and the wife of
Microsoft founder Bill Gates to make recommenda-
tions on ensuring “a safe and inclusive digital future.”
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at a news
conference Thursday that he sees the United Nations
“as a unique platform for dialogue in our digital age”
and the panel as an expert group to make proposals
to strengthen international cooperation.
In Guterres’ words: “As a global community, we face
questions about security, equity, ethics, and human
rights in a digital age. We need to seize the potential
of technology while safeguarding against risks and
unintended consequences.”
The panel led by Ma, founder of e-commerce gi-
ant Alibaba, and Melinda Gates, who co-chairs the
Gates foundation, includes 20 members.q
This April 26, 2017 photo shows the Twitter app on a
mobile phone in Philadelphia.
Associated Press
Twitter to remove
suspicious accounts
from follower counts
NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter says it will begin removing
suspicious accounts it has locked from its counts of
users’ followers.
Twitter users are likely to see a reduction in their
follower counts in the coming days. For many, this
will amount to a reduction of four followers or less.
But large accounts of celebrities and public figures
could see bigger drops.
An account that’s been locked can’t tweet, like or
retweet posts, and it won’t be shown ads.
The company said Wednesday that the move will
not affect its number of monthly or daily active user
figures. In the first three months of the year, it had 336
million active users.
Twitter has been working to remove fake accounts,
bots and abusive posts from its service.q
Broadcom to acquire CA
Technologies for $18.9 billion
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Chipmaker Broadcom says
it is buying IT management software company CA
Technologies for $18.9 billion in cash.
Broadcom CEO Hock Tan says the move is an im- significantly affected by on TV.
portant building block for the company as it aims to
become a world-leading infrastructure technology
provider.
The offer for $44.50 in cash is 20 percent higher than
the closing price for CA’s shares Wednesday. q
What Twitter’s streaming experiment
means for the future of live TV
you’ll want to watch the
game there. When I used
the Twittercast, there was
a significant delay, usually
around 30 seconds (the re-
sult of a technological issue
called latency).
This means that if you’re
near people watching the
game on television, you’ll
hear their response to a
big play well before it’s
unfolding on your screen.
Moreover, if you have
score alerts delivered to
your phone, you may know
what happens before you
see it.
The roll-out has been a bit clunky, but there’s potential. ‘Bird’ via The need to see sport-
www.shutterstock.com Associated Press
ing events in real time is
Associated Press So why is the NFL letting one of the reasons they
Yet another way to watch Twitter show these games? have been immune to the
television has emerged. Twitter did pay US$10 million changes timeshifting tech-
More than two million for the rights (though re- nologies – streaming, on
viewers watched some portedly was not the high- demand or DVR recording
of the Thursday night NFL est bidder). But a big ad- – have wrought on network
football game on Twit- vantage is that program- schedules of scripted pro-
ter each of the last three mers gather a lot more grams.
weeks, and several million information about viewers In the past, networks have
more used it to watch the that watch on Twitter than tried to use social media
first presidential debate. by broadcast or cable. discussions to encourage
For those who didn’t, here’s Knowing more about who viewers to turn into sched-
how it works: After opening your viewers are and how uled broadcasts. By pro-
moting hashtags or having
they watch can be valu-
the Twitter app and click-
writers and actors live tweet
ing Moments, you click able to advertisers. during the show, they hope
“watch live” to join the live Twitter, meanwhile, is fork-
stream. If you position your ing over millions because to create a media event
phone horizontally, you’ll football has a vast, en- and a conversation around
see a full screen image of gaged fan base, which is a weekly episode.
the broadcast – really no the fastest way to get au- Twittercasts attempt to do
different from watching diences to try something the same, but the 140 char-
any other video. But if you new. acter-limit of the medium
hold your phone vertically, But why would you, the can hamper how much
the live feed is isolated to viewer, want to watch a conversation can actually
the top third of the screen; football game on Twitter? take place. The feed visible
below is a Twitter feed of Well, for one, it lets you when viewing vertically is
hashtags related to the watch if there isn’t an avail- simply made up of strang-
event. (You can also watch able television. ers who have included a
it on a computer screen.) The NFL notoriously guards game-related hashtag.
The live “Twittercast” is the its television rights very tight- To access your own Twit-
latest development I’ve ly, and those who don’t ter community, you have
explored in 15 years of re- subscribe to the Thursday to leave the game screen
searching the changing night game’s license hold- to shift to your home feed.
business of U.S. television. ers – CBS, NBC or NFL Net- The Twitter feed based on
These two events illus- work – lack authorized ac- the game hashtag isn’t re-
trate different potential for cess to the games. ally a conversation – more
Twitter-distributed video. The Twittercast creates a broadcast of thousands
of fans’ reactions, many of
Neither offered a “game-
a subscription-free, any-
changing” experience – where, any-screen option – which are repetitive and
even if used in as mundane banal.
yet. But these two experi-
ments, arriving in quick suc- a setting as sitting with your The debate Twittercast pro-
cession, reveal the future of family on the couch as vided some contrast in this
live TV, which hasn’t been they watch something else regard. There was more to
engage with and was able
the arrival of services like A better viewing experi- to provoke more diverse
Netflix and Amazon. ence? reactions, which made
That’s clearly about to But in its current iteration, it seem like eavesdrop-
change. if you’re anywhere near ping on a lot of different
A deal is struck a TV showing the game, conversations.q