1.22.2016
Good to Know: If you’re in the Northeast U.S. (NE), here’s what you need to binge watch on Netflix while taking cover from #WinterStormJonas. And if you’re not in the NE, then lucky you!
THE SKINNY
When You’re Not Captain Planet …
Turns out that sending that one line e-mail is bad for the environment – right up there with printing multiple pages … Single-sided.
What Now?
Social media researcher Danah Boyd is making the case at this year’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Boyd says it’s easier for people to associate cutting down trees for paper and delivery trucks’ exhaust emissions with things that are probably destroying the environment. But, it’s hard for people to wrap their heads around their online activities’ environmental impact.
It’s Not Much Ado About Nothing …
People’s online information is stored in the “cloud” aka a network of Internet servers located around the world, and these servers eat up a ton of electricity.
What Are We Going To Do About This?
Already, tech companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook are letting us know what their doing to remain environmentally friendly. To go one step further, Boyd suggests “branding apps and tech services with the same sort of certification that the U.S. Green Building Council provides to eco-friendly structures.”
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
When Hate Doesn’t Drive Out Hate …
Facebook is encouraging its users to fight hate speech with positivity. The company’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told an audience at Davos that countering negative comments with positive messages is the way to go. It’s what she calls “the Like Attack.” The platform’s got some other things up its sleeve to combat extremists and terrorism (e.g., partnering with the U.S. government to urge college students to kick off anti-terrorism campaigns, teaming up with the German government on id-ing and taking down hate speech, and playing Switzerland with its News Feed algorithm when it comes to hate speech v. positive speech).
That’s Different…
Home-sharing service AirBnB is getting serious about its intentions with cities all across America. The company’s so serious that it’s asking the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a group of political heavy-hitters, to impose taxes on its service. No joke … the company says it’s already paying about $42 million in taxes to 16 cities and is prepared to do the same with 50 of America’s biggest cities. AirBnB legit wants show cities that it’s committed to making things right and paying their fair share. Hotels and home-sharing platform AirBnB have been at odds since day one. Unsurprisingly, hotels aren’t buying it.
When You Have A Rough Week …
Twitter and Square’s stock took a dive this week along with the rest of the stock markets. Each company’s poor performance bumped their CEO Jack Dorsey down a notch from billionaire to millionaire status. If that’s not bad enough, now rumors are cropping up again that the micro-blogging site may be up for sale. Oy!
THE STREETS ARE TALKIN’
The Facebook Sports Stadium is a thing now for all you social media-loving, sports fans. The feature will let you keep up on posts and comments from your friends, celebs, and journalists on the latest sporting events. Just in time for NFL playoffs and March Madness.
Happy Birthday, WeChat! The Chinese mobile messaging app turns five. It’s been through a lot in that time. We’re talking an upgrade from just simply chatting with friends to being able to buy stuff, watch videos, and make voice/video calls, etc.
Lots of Twitter rumors. Reports are saying the platform is thinking about expanding its 140-character limit to 10k characters. In the meantime Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, has already confirmed its plans. The Chinese site is expanding its character limit to 2k.
Switzerland could be the new hot spot for early-stage startups.
Indian e-commerce company Snapdeal could be going public in its home country.