Bookmarks for September 18th through September 20th

These are my links for September 18th through September 20th:

• Project ‘Gaydar’: An MIT experiment raises new questions about online privacy – The Boston Globe – Using data from the social network Facebook, they made a striking discovery: just by looking at a person’s online friends, they could predict whether the person was gay. They did this with a software program that looked at the gender and sexuality of a person’s friends and, using statistical analysis, made a prediction. The two students had no way of checking all of their predictions, but based on their own knowledge outside the Facebook world, their computer program appeared quite accurate for men, they said. People may be effectively “outing” themselves just by the virtual company they keep.
• Multitasking at Home: Simultaneous Use of Media Grows | Nielsen Wire – So who is sharing their time online with TV? Women age 25 and over and persons 35 and up are most likely to juggle the two media. Further, they tend to be above-average consumers of each platform. Simultaneous users watch 14 percent more TV a day and use the Internet 61 percent more than the average consumer. Clearly, during that expanded timeframe they are exposed to a large number of ads and the opportunity to reach them is greater.
• Media Cache – Britain Lends an Ear to Big Media Pleas – NYTimes.com – What caused the government to change its stance on product placement and file-sharing? Perhaps some British politicians vacationed in France, where the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy has taken a number of steps that were seen, initially at least, as friendly to big media companies.

  These include a phased-in ban on ads on public television, a move that was expected to lift the fortunes of commercial broadcasters like TF1, controlled by an associate of Mr. Sarkozy, Martin Bouygues. As it turned out, TF1 has not benefited, because the recession has caused a sharp fall in ad revenue; meanwhile, the broadcaster faces a new tax to help finance public television, which Mr. Bouygues has said he plans to contest with the European Commission in Brussels.

  Another Sarkozy proposal, to crack down on file-sharing by disconnecting persistent digital pirates from the Internet, has also had a bumpy ride. But a revised plan is set for final legislative approval this week;

• Newspapers Have Not Hit Bottom, Analysts Say – NYTimes.com – . The drop in combined print and digital ad revenue last year, 16.6 percent, according to the Newspaper Association of America, was the worst since the Depression. But it looks rosy next to 2009, when revenue fell 28.3 percent in the first quarter and 29 percent in the second.

  In the last few days, signs of life have been seen from struggling retailers, and the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, and others have speculated that the recession has ended. Media executives, including Rupert Murdoch, have talked about advertising starting to rebound. Last week, shares in several newspaper companies, including Gannett, McClatchy and The New York Times Company, jumped 10 percent or more, to their highest prices this year.

• Democrats Tell FCC to Push For ‘Net Neutrality’ – WSJ.com – Senior House Democrats told the Federal Communications Commission it should do more to stop Internet providers from playing favorites among content providers, brushing aside opposition from Republicans and some large telecom companies.

  Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said at a hearing Thursday that he will put his weight behind a "net neutrality" bill introduced by Reps. Edward Markey (D., Mass.) and Anna Eshoo (D., Calif.). The bill would bar Internet service providers from blocking or prioritizing legal content on the Web.