Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

• The Meanings of the Selfie - NYTimes.com

  • attention seems to be the name of the game when it comes to social networking. In this age of too much information at a click of a button, the power to attract viewers amid the sea of things to read and watch is power indeed.

• A New Twist in International Relations: The Corporate Keep-My-Data-Out-of-the-U.S. Clause - Bloomberg

  • Some companies are apparently so concerned about the NSA snooping on their data that they're requiring - in writing - that their technology suppliers store their data outside the U.S.
  • the language began appearing in contracts over the past couple weeks, and could be an early indicator of things to come as businesses adapt to a landscape altered by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's leaks. Documents leaked by Snowden indicate that the NSA has tapped fiber-optic cables abroad, circumvented or cracked encryption and is massively collecting telephone records and Internet traffic.
  • U.S.-based technology companies face a serious threat.

• The Year Megaplatforms Ruled The Internet

  • 2013 was the year that a major, decade-long internet cycle neared its completion. 2014, at best, will be the very beginning of the next one.

• Do We Want an Erasable Internet? - WSJ.com

  • If the Snapchat model takes off—if other sites and services began to promote the idea of erasability as a competitive feature—the Internet would look very different from the Internet of today. It would be a more private network, one without the constant worry of every ill-considered picture or thought being held up for ridicule by the whole world, forever. But it also might be a less useful Internet, a network on which you couldn't look up an old photo every time you felt nostalgic, or where computers wouldn't always feed you suggestions based on your history, since your history wouldn't be complete.

• Christmas Lights? Electricity Price Index at All-Time High in U.S. | CNS News

  • he seasonally adjusted electricity price index hit an all-time high in the United States in November,

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.