Last month, Twitter CEO and co-founder Evan Williams stated that he "desperately" wanted to retire the company's suggested user list - the list of Twitter accounts shown to new users of the service to help them find interesting people to follow. At the time, he hinted that it might evolve into something more "Twittery and democratic." But now, what was a "maybe" before has turned into a "definitely." Speaking at a conference in Malaysia, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone told reporters that the suggested users list will be "going away" and "in its stead will be something that is more programmatically chosen, something that actually delivers more relevant suggestions."
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the Web, has embarked on a trip through Africa on behalf of the non-profit Web Foundation - which today announced two new projects.
The Web Foundation exists to bridge the 'digital divide' in Internet usage. Only about 25% of the world population uses the Web today, however more than 70% of people have access to mobile or fixed communication devices capable of displaying Web content. According to the W3C, "the gap in Web usage is partly attributable to the lack of accessible or relatable content, and the lack of available training on how to use the Web to its full potential."
Google's Chrome, the fastest major browser on the internet, appears set to launch an official gallery of browser extensions in the very near future. In the latest nightly build of the app an extension logo and a link to a gallery page appear when you open a new tab. Right now that link redirects to Google.com, but we assume the gallery's launch must be right around the corner.
Chrome is deliciously fast compared to other browsers, but the very limited extension support and ecosystem are hard for Firefox-lovers to swallow. Firefox advocates always question Chrome converts about just how fast Chrome will be when it gets weighed down with extensions. It looks like we're about to find out.
Barack Obama spoke to a group of Chinese students tonight at a town hall in Shanghai. The meeting was streamed live, worldwide on the Whitehouse website and on the Whitehouse's Facebook page. He was asked a limited number of questions by the audience and one was about Twitter, which has been blocked in China since July.
Got that? The President went to China, was asked about Twitter and it was streamed live on his Facebook page. How the world has changed.
In a breathtakingly risky move, a former Russian police officer has taken to the Internet in full uniform to detail the corruption, danger, and brutality of his line of work.
In an open video address to Prime Minister Vladmir Putin, Alexei Dymovsky says, "Maybe you don't know about us, about simple cops, who live and work and love their work. I'm ready to tell you everything. I'm not scared of my own death." How much does Dymovsky have to fear? The answer might surprise those of us who are accustomed to the relative freedoms of self-expression.
At a UN-sponsored event today in Egypt, UN officials demanded the removal of a poster that alluded to the issue of Internet restrictions in China.
The poster was an advertisement for Access Controlled, an MIT publication about the so-called Great Firewall of China, one of the first national Internet filtering systems and a policy that has come under harsh international criticism. The poster was being displays at the fourth annual meeting of the Internet Governance Forum in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The purpose of the forum is to support UN mandates regarding the sustainability, robustness, security, stability, and development of the Internet.
There are organizations out there embracing social media with open arms, open hearts and open minds.
But others aren't nearly as welcoming. And if you're working for such an organization, you've probably felt a little like a space alien when you try to advance even the most modest of social media projects: "See, if we had a Twitter feed, then we could monitor customer service issues and resp-" "Twitter?! Why, it's full of viruses, spam, pornography and Ashton Kutcher! Speak to me no more of this apostasy!" Which means you, my friend, are what I've come to call a stranded evangelist: a stranger in a strange land.
Our mission at ReadWriteWeb is to explore the latest Web technology products and trends. We're fortunate to have a great group of sponsors who support this goal. So, once a week, we write a post about them; about who they are, what they do, and what they've been up to lately. Pay them a visit and show your appreciation of their sponsorship of this site. Pay them a visit or tweet them a "Thank you" (see link below each sponsor) to show your appreciation for their sponsorship of this site. You can also start following some or all of our sponsors on Twitter with a few clicks on this TweepML page.
Interested in being a ReadWriteWeb sponsor? ReadWriteWeb is one of the most popular blogs in the world and is read by a sophisticated audience of thought leaders and decision-makers. We have several innovative new features in our sponsor packages that we'd love to tell you about. Email our COO for all the details.
We've added a couple of more events to this week's events guide. You can download the entire event calendar in iCal format or import it into your Google Calendar. You can also import individual events using the link beside each entry. This events guide is a weekly feature here on ReadWriteWeb. We publish it every weekend, as good a time as any to review your conference plans.
Know of an event taking place that should appear here? Let us know in the comments below or contact us.
News reverberated through the developer community that long-time and highly prominent community contributor Joe Hewitt has quit developing the iPhone Facebook application. While Joe said that Apple has the right to do what it wants, he does not agree with its policies and has chosen to move on. Joe posted this tweet in the afternoon of November 11th:
"Time for me to try something new. I've handed the Facebook iPhone app off to another engineer, and I'm onto a new project."
