2009/07/28
TheRegister: Gov geek publishes 5000-word Twitter guide
by Joe Fay
The world was given an insight into how both Twitter and the UK's e-government work today when the national media discovered one of Whitehall's in-house self-proclaimed web geek's guide to using Twitter.
Neil Williams, head of corporate digital channels at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, quietly posted his compact 5,382 word guide to setting up UK.gov Twitter feeds here last week. Highlighting the lightning speed at which web 2.0 can work, by this morning it was plastered all over the papers.
The guide pitches Twitter as "free to use with a relatively low impact on resources (with) the potential to deliver many benefits in support of our communications objectives".
It is, Williams says, "experiencing a phenomenal adoption curve in the UK and being used increasingly by government departments, Members of Parliament, a number of our stakeholders as well as millions of businesses, non government organisations and individuals."
So of course, the government would be mad not to use it. It's not like you're going to be relying on bumping into the first three of these groups walking down Whitehall, or wandering around the palace of Westminster, or on the diplomatic cocktail round. And clearly the rest have given up on boring old newspapers, TV, radio, etc.
Williams advises his colleagues that using Twitter means government depts can present folk with "an informal, 'human' voice of the organisation to promote comprehension of and engagement with our corporate messages".
At the same time, he warns, there are risks associated with breaches of Twitter etiquette, such as "Criticism arising from an inability to meet the demands of Twitter users to join conversations/answer enquiries, due to resource and clearance issues".
Even worse, there is the risk of inappropriate content being unleashed. This of course should be managed through the traditional methods of leaking and briefing-against one's political and departmental enemies.
Still, a credible operation can be up and running for just an hour a day's work from a department's Digital Media team, Williams reckons. That includes "sourcing and publishing tweets, co-ordinating replies to incoming messages and monitoring the account".
That's not all in one burst though. Messages - sorry, tweets - should be spaced at least 30 minutes apart, with a minimum of two tweets and a max of ten. Yes, that's how often and how much you need to show you're human.
We're not sure what the digital media team members will be doing the rest of the time, but we're imagining at least some of it will involve walking down Whitehall, wandering around the palace of Westminster, doing the diplomatic cocktail party round, etc.
We wondered how this sudden brush with fame had affected Williams. We went to his Twitter feed, naturally, but he now appears to be coyly protecting his tweets. His blog is up and running, though, and provides some background; amongst other things, he describes himself as a "lapsed comedy writer". ®
Wired: Hotseat: The Creator of Facebook's Most Annoying App Explains Himself
by Douglas Quenqua
By now, you probably know your Facebook friends' five favorite albums, TV stars, and sodas. Blame Tim O'Shaughnessy, creator of LivingSocial, the site's most-used and most-annoying application ever. We asked him to explain himself.
What inspired the app?
We heard rumors about Facebook's redesign and were thinking of ways to tap into the new stream concept. We wanted something that made it really, really easy for people to form opinions and then share them with everyone.
Do you think people hate you a little for that?
If LivingSocial is showing up in your stream, it's because your friends want you to know more about them. Talk to them, not us.
What do you do with all the data?
We go to marketers and say, "Here are a couple million people into music, and here are a couple million into movies." We're working with American Idol, Green Day, TNT, a lot of large brands.
Do you think folks realize you're making money off their confessions?
I think people understand that if something's free, there's some form of monetization involved.
List your least favorite things about Facebook.
One, apps aren't a part of Facebook on the iPhone, even though they're an integral part of the Facebook experience. Two, I wish Facebook would figure out news. And three, I wish Facebook would just hurry up and buy Twitter so there'd be less noise in the world.
CNet: Network Solutions breach exposes nearly 600,000
by Elinor Mills
Network Solutions is investigating a breach on its servers that may have led to the theft of credit card data of 573,928 people who made purchases on Web sites hosted by the company.
Networks Solutions notified 4,343 of its nearly 10,000 e-commerce merchant customers on Friday about the breach. It affects 573,928 cardholders whose name, address, and credit card number were exposed between March 12 and June 8, said Susan Wade, a spokeswoman for Network Solutions.
Mysterious code was discovered in early June on servers hosting e-commerce customer sites during routine maintenance, she said. The company called in a third-party forensics team to help with the investigation, and the team was able to crack some of the code on July 13, determining that it could be related to credit card data, she added.
Credit card transactions were intentionally diverted by an unknown source from certain Network Solutions servers to servers outside, Network Solutions wrote in an e-mail to merchant customers.
"So we notified law enforcement and began the process of notifying our customers," Wade said. "At this point, we don't have a reason to believe that (the data) has been used, but we are working with the credit card companies," nonetheless.
Network Solutions also is paying to have credit-monitoring specialist TransUnion help the merchants notify their customers according to data breach notification laws in effect in certain states. Affected consumers will get 12 months of free credit-monitoring services.
It's unknown how the malicious code got onto the system and where it came from, Wade said.
Merchants and consumers can get more information on the Care and Protect Web site Network Solutions has set up. "We really feel terribly about this," Wade said.
"We store credit card data in an encrypted manner, and we are PCI (Payment Card Industry)-compliant. Unfortunately, any company operating in our business could have become a victim of this type of invasion," the company said on a blog post on the customer information Web site. "In this situation, the unauthorized code appears to have transmitted information about credit card transactions as they were being completed; it did not involve a vulnerability in the way we store data in our systems."
The breach does not affect Network Solutions' other businesses, which include domain registration, e-mail hosting, and online marketing.
