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    • New Ways to Personalize Your Online Experience
      by Austin Haugen on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 1:04pm
      UPDATE on Monday, April 26, 2010: Read our latest blog post for answers to your additional questions about personalized web tools.


      Published on Wednesday, April 21, 2010:
      Today, we're meeting with developers and entrepreneurs from around the world for our f8 conference to talk about new ways for people to connect with friends online and share what's important to them.
      ...
      Earlier we announced the next version of Facebook Platform that puts people at the center of the web. As part of that, you'll begin seeing more social and personalized experiences on other websites that are using the following new tools—called social plugins—that we introduced today:

      Like


      Already on Facebook, you can show your friends that you're interested in their status updates, photos and links by clicking "Like." In fact, the average user clicks "Like" on nine pieces of content each month.

      You'll begin seeing "Like," or in some cases "Recommend," buttons appearing on popular websites spanning a variety of industries, including NYTimes.com, IMDb, CNN.com, TIME.com, LIFE.com, Fandango, NHL.com, USA Networks, Levis.com, Univision and ABC.com.

      For example, if I like a pair of jeans on Levis.com, my action will be shared with my friends on Facebook, where they can comment on it. I can also see which of my friends like the jeans on Levis.com.


      In other cases, I may want to create a more lasting connection to something, such as a book, band or movie. So, if I like the movie "The Godfather" on IMDb, it will be added to my profile as an interest on my "Info" tab. Once the connection is made, "The Godfather" page can send me updates through News Feed, and it will appear in search results.

      If you decide you no longer like something, you can always remove the connection or "unlike" the content on the original site. You're always in control of the things you connect to or like.

      Activity Feed


      The Activity Feed surfaces the actions your friends are taking on a website. CNN.com is known for bringing you breaking news coverage, but imagine experiencing this news in a more personalized way, and seeing a stream of friends' activity.

      When you're logged into Facebook and visit CNN.com, you will instantly see the articles and topics your friends are sharing, recommending and commenting on via the Activity Feed.

      Recommendations


      Recommendations help make sites more relevant to you by highlighting content based on the top "Likes" across a site. Think of it as a people-powered "most popular" list. For example, if logged into Facebook, you can visit NHL.com and instantly see the articles, game summaries and NHL recaps people are liking and sharing with their friends most often, in real time.

      Visit a site tour of these new features and view more examples in this photo album.

      Once you start taking actions on other sites using these new tools from Facebook, the sites will become more relevant to you and your friends, as you find and share what matters to you. Content will only be shared to Facebook if you take a specific action, such as clicking the "Like" button on an external website.

      It's important to note that none of your personal data is shared with a site when you view these new features, and they will only be visible to you when you're logged in to Facebook. Also, none of these features impact or change Facebook's advertising programs or policies.

      We're already working with more than 75 websites from 10 countries to make the web faster, smarter and simpler. Keep an eye out for personalized experiences on even more of your favorite websites in the future.


      Austin, a product manager for Facebook Platform, is liking finding his friends in more places online.
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    • Topics: Social Plugins, Platform
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    • Answers to Your Questions on Personalized Web Tools
      by Austin Haugen on Monday, April 26, 2010 at 11:17am

      We've had an amazing response to our announcements from last week as more and more people engage with social and personalized experiences on other websites and services. We've also heard many questions and wanted to answer the most common ones here to explain in more detail how a new set of tools—called social plugins—work.

      Using social plugins, websites everywhere can give you more ways to experience the web with your friends—from letting you form connections on these sites with your favorite movies or restaurants to showing you the most... popular content based on what is being shared among your friends. Rather than seeing popular stories, products or reviews from people you don't know, you'll now see content that matters to you the most—from your friends—prominently displayed.

      These new plugins, introduced on more than 75 sites and services last week, offer you the same control over what you can see and what you can share as you already have on Facebook. Our highest priority is to keep and build the trust of the more than 400 million people who use our service every month. To do so, we've developed powerful tools to give people control over what information they want to share, when they want to share it and with whom.

      For more information on some of the websites currently using social plugins, visit the Facebook Platform showcase. Answers to more questions are also available in our site tour and Help Center.


      What are social plugins?


      Social plugins are simple tools that can be "dropped" into any website to provide people with personalized and social experiences. As we announced previously, you will start noticing these new tools on other websites in a few different formats:
      • "Like" or "Recommend" buttons: Click to publicly share and connect with content you find interesting.


      • Activity Feed: What your friends are liking, commenting on or sharing on a site.


      • Recommendations: Most liked content among your friends on a site.

      How do the plugins work?


      While these buttons and boxes appear on other websites, the content populating them comes directly from Facebook. The plugins were designed so that the website you are visiting receives none of this information. These plugins should be seen as an extension of Facebook.

      You only see a personalized experience with your friends if you are logged into your Facebook account. If you are not already logged in, you will be prompted to log in to Facebook before you can use a plugin on another site.

      At a technical level, social plugins work when external websites put an iframe from Facebook.com on their site—as if they were agreeing to give Facebook some real estate on their website. If you are logged into Facebook, the Facebook iframe can recognize you and show personalized content within the plugin as if the visitor were on Facebook.com directly. Even though the iframe is not on Facebook, it is designed with all the privacy protections as if it were.


      What information about me does Facebook share with the websites hosting social plugins?


      None of your information—your name or profile information, what you like, who your friends are, what they have liked, what they recommend—is shared with the sites you visit with a plugin. Because they have given Facebook this "real estate" on their sites, they do not receive or interact with the information that is contained or transmitted there. Similarly, no personal information about your actions is provided to advertisers on Facebook.com or on the other site.


      How do I recognize a Facebook social plugin on another site?


      You'll recognize them by the branding in the footer that resembles similar features on Facebook—the "f" icon is next to the phrase, "Facebook social plugin." The phrase is a hyperlink to a landing page describing the product.


      What am I sharing when I click a Like or Recommend button on external websites?


      The Like and Recommend buttons on other sites work in a similar way to the "Share" buttons from Facebook and other services that you've likely seen on the web for years. These buttons enable you to publicly express your interest in some piece of content with a simple action, similar to how you might rate a restaurant or movie on a site today. Nothing happens unless you choose to click the buttons, and you must be logged into Facebook before you can use them.

      When you click "Like" or "Recommend," the button turns darker to indicate that you like or recommend something and are making a public connection to it. Back on Facebook, a story will post to your profile and may appear in your friends' News Feeds in the same way as if you had liked something on Facebook. You can click "Like" again if you wish to remove the like.

      Your likes and recommendations also may appear to your friends on the website where you clicked the button and elsewhere through other Facebook social plugins appearing on websites—such as Activity Feed or Recommendations. Some sites may also give you the option to add a comment when you like or recommend something.

      In some cases, when you create a connection to a real-world entity, such as a book, movie or athlete, your likes and recommendations become a part of your profile in the same way as the connections you make with Pages on Facebook. They will appear in your "Likes and Interests" section of your profile, and you may receive updates from that connection in News Feed.

      For more examples of how the Like buttons and other social plugins work on different sites, read our previous blog post.


      Will people beyond my friends see what I like or recommend?


      Yes, you should consider the likes and recommendations you choose to make to be public information, much like when you comment or write a review on any website today or connect with a public Facebook Page. Based on feedback we've received, though, we are updating the social plugins we announced last week—Like, Activity Feed and Recommendations—to only display your friends' names and profile pictures and to show the likes and recommendations from people who aren't your friends in an aggregated format ("10 people like this").

      When a like makes a connection in your profile, you can control who can see that in your Facebook profile by editing your "Friends, Tags and Connections" settings on your Privacy Settings page. Remember that even if you limit the visibility of a connection, it remains as public information and may appear in other places on Facebook.com or be accessed by applications and websites.

      Depending on the connection you made, you can remove a connection completely either by going to the "Info" tab of your profile and editing your "Likes and Interests," or by returning to the web page where you liked something and unliking it.


      Why do some of the things I like from other websites appear in my "Likes and Interests" section of my profile, while others don't?


      Social plugins are a common set of tools from Facebook to bring social and personalized experiences to other websites you visit. However, each website may choose to implement them in different ways.

      In some cases, your likes and recommendations become a part of your profile in the "Info" tab in the same way as the connections you make with Pages on Facebook. This occurs when you like or recommend a real-world entity, such as a book, movie or athlete, where it makes more sense to form a lasting relationship.


      Why do I see some of my friends' names and thumbnails of their profile pictures on other sites?


      Social plugins personalize your experience on others sites based on your Facebook friends. When one of your friends has chosen to like or recommend something on a site and you are logged into Facebook, you may see that fact appear along with a small thumbnail of your friend's profile picture.



      This is personalized just for you. Every Facebook user who comes to a site will have a different, personalized experience based on who they are friends with on Facebook. This is similar to how your home page on Facebook.com works, where you see a News Feed unique to your network of friends.


      Are there any new privacy controls for social plugins?


      These new features follow the same privacy settings as those we already had in place on Facebook. For example, you can control how information is shared on Facebook.com on your Privacy Settings page under "Posts by Me," and you can change which connections are visible on your profile under "Things I Like." For both, you can set controls to "Everyone," "Friends and Networks," "Friends of Friends," "Only Friends," or "Customize" to use Friend Lists or to include or exclude specific people.

      Remember that, even if you change your settings for what is shared or shown on Facebook, likes and recommendations made on other sites become publicly available information, similar to a public comment on a website. Only click the Like or Recommend buttons if you want to share your likes and recommendations publicly.


      How is this different from the "Log in with Facebook" or "Connect" features I see across the Web?


      If you want to interact more deeply with a website, on some sites you'll see ways to login or sign in to that site using your Facebook information. This capability has been available since July 2008 and was previously called Facebook Connect. It provides you with ways to share your information with other websites and find your friends. In these cases, you are establishing a relationship directly with these websites and sharing your information with them after you choose to sign in; this includes your data from social plugins.


      Why does a blue bar appear on some sites telling me it's being personalized by Facebook?


      Separate from our social plugins, we have established a small pilot program with an exclusive set of partners—Microsoft Docs.com, Pandora and Yelp—to offer personalized experiences as soon as you visit those services. These partners have been given access to public information on Facebook—such as names, friend lists and interests and likes—to personalize your experience when you're logged into Facebook and visit their sites.

      When you first visit any of these three partner sites while logged into Facebook, you'll see a blue bar appear at the top of the site letting you know that your experience is being personalized. You can learn more about it, remove the personalized experience or click "x" to remove the bar. If you don't want your experience personalized on this limited number of sites, you can opt out by going to "Application and Websites" on your Privacy Settings page and editing the "Instant Personalization" setting.



      These partners were carefully chosen, reviewed and are contractually required to respect people's privacy preferences. Additionally, they are required to provide an easy and prominent method for opting out directly from their website and to delete data if people choose to opt out.

      We hope you'll give these new social and personalized experiences a try to see what's possible when you're friends are with you on the web.


      Austin, a Facebook product manager, is helping you bring your friends with you around the web.
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    • Topics: Platform, Social Plugins
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    • Kenyan Refugees Find a Home on Facebook
      by Oscar Raymundo on Friday, April 30, 2010 at 3:59pm
      The following is part of our "Your Stories" series on different ways Facebook is used across the world. If you have a story you'd like to share with us, please submit it here.


      The last days Abdi Mohamed lived in his homeland of Somalia were spent in fear. Weeks earlier, in 1991, civil war had broken out across the African country, bringing violence to his doorstep.

      ..."The situation was bad," Abdi recalled. "I escaped with my dear life after the warring militia looted everything I owned."

      Searching for safety, Abdi traveled for days through what the U.N. deems one of the most dangerous regions in the world. He arrived at the Kenyan border, where a branch of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) soon transferred him to the Hagadera refugee camp in Northern Kenya.

      At Hagadera, now home to 135,000 refugees, Abdi began working for CARE International, one of the more than 20 world relief organizations there. He started as an elementary school teacher, then became a store clerk distributing food.

      Because of his work, Abdi was one of the lucky few to have an Internet connection in a part of the world where coverage is rare. He became a crucial link between refugees in the camp and those who had left.

      "People who had left were always sending me e-mails asking me to update them on what was going on," Abdi said. "Once out, it's difficult to keep in touch with the people back in the camp."

      Abdi turned to Facebook in 2008 to help him reach out and connect Somali refugees from all over the world who had spent time at Hagadera. He created the Facebook group "HAGADARIANS ON FACEBOOK," which has grown to 400 members.

      When the group began, only a few of the refugees were aware of Facebook. But once they heard about the group, they flocked to Abdi for help in opening an account so they too could connect with current and former refugees around the world.

      "It became the best forum to keep in touch considering the prohibitive prices they used to pay for calling their friends from the refugee camp," Abdi said.

      "HAGADARIANS ON FACEBOOK" has become the place to get the latest news and updates on the refugee camp –from how the camp observed World Refugee Day to a Human Rights Watch report on police abuse of refugees in Kenya. With a simple Wall post or comment, group members can share their news or join a discussion.



      The discussion board is particularly active. Current and past residents discuss topics such as relief efforts, life in the refugee camp, resettlement in a third country and ways in which peace may be restored to their respective homelands.

      For his part, Abdi, who left the camp last year to attend university in Canada, is focused on attracting more former Hagaderian refugees now living around the world. His goal is to form an international coalition, powered by social media, to raise awareness about issues such as the poor living conditions in the camp and the exploitation of refugee labor.

      He already has noticed a member-driven effort spring up in recent months—a proposal for raising funds to deliver school supplies to a refugee-funded school in Hagadera. While logistics made that plan too difficult to complete, Abdi remains hopeful.

      "The will is there," Abdi said of the group's members. "I am optimistic that we can at least do something to give back to the community."


      Oscar, a San Francisco-based freelance writer and contributor to the Facebook Blog, remembers the day in elementary school he first learned about the U.N.
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    • Topics: Your Stories
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    • 'Facebook Fairytales': Waiting for Baby
      by Emily Liebert on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 1:54pm
      The following is the third in a series of excerpts we're publishing from the new book "Facebook Fairytales: Modern-Day Miracles to Inspire the Human Spirit." This chapter tells the story of how one couple's struggle to have a baby led to an adoption facilitated through Facebook.


      It was only three weeks after Melissa Segal had moved to Washington, D.C., in August 2001, that she met Seth Edlavitch at a barbecue for a local volunteer organization. Four years later they were married. And shortly after that, the couple began pursuing their mutual... dream of starting a family.

      Given that they were in their mid-thirties, Melissa and Seth made the decision early on to try to conceive naturally, but agreed that if it wasn't working after a few months, they'd seek out a fertility specialist. Melissa's proverbial biological clock was ticking, and since they wanted more than one child, they knew time was of the essence.

      Six months passed, with Melissa tracking her ovulation cycle religiously, but the outcome was never positive.

      "It'll be fine, "Seth assured her. "It'll happen for us eventually. "

      But Melissa wasn't convinced. "Every time it doesn't work, I'm devastated," she explained. "And I don't want to continue to endure the disappointment month after month."

      Seth understood. After all, he acknowledged, it wasn't his body.

      So, in January 2006, eager to expedite the process, Melissa made a call to the fertility center. And, after a thorough evaluation, the couple was told that while Melissa's tests were all normal, there was an issue on Seth's end, making in vitro fertilization (IVF) their only feasible option.

      Melissa and Seth were undaunted. Their goal was to become pregnant, and even though it meant a succession of procedures and shots for Melissa, often administered by Seth, they were ready to tackle the process together.

      Fortunately, everything went smoothly. Melissa stimulated above average from the hormones, fourteen eggs were retrieved, five of them fertilized into perfect embryos, and two were transferred into Melissa's uterus. All they had to do was wait a couple of weeks for the good news.

      About two weeks after the transfer, the call came in from the nurse at their doctor's office. Melissa, a teacher, sat at the front desk at her school, with the landline on speaker and Seth on her cell phone.

      "Congratulations! You're going to be parents!" the nurse announced.

      Everything was finally coming together for Seth and Melissa.

      Over the course of the following weeks, all of Melissa's tests indicated normal progress, and when it was finally time for the ultrasound, they were both beyond excited. As Melissa lay on the examining table, the doctor probed her stomach.

      "There are two heartbeats, "he said. But then he cautioned,

      "One is strong and the other is faint. Chances are you'll have one healthy baby. "

      How could they argue with that? One healthy baby was all they'd wanted.

      Another week passed, and Melissa and Seth headed back to the doctor for ultrasound number two. This time, as the doctor leaned in to look at the screen, his eyes widened and he whispered something inaudible to the technician. Melissa and Seth's hearts raced in unison. Was there something wrong with the baby?

      "Wow! You're having identical twins," the doctor declared. "And there is still another heartbeat there, as well." Three babies!

      "There better not be four the next time we come in," Seth joked, though he was confounded more than anything. Two he could handle. Three at one time—he wasn't so sure.

      But by the third ultrasound, the other embryo had reabsorbed, and Seth and Melissa were simply thrilled to be carrying identical twins with strong, healthy heartbeats. Life was good.

      And it continued to be good, despite some routine bleeding and a trip to the emergency room, which confirmed that not only were the twins doing well, but that Melissa was carrying two boys!

      At twenty weeks, Melissa was waddling around her classroom—measuring, looking, and feeling seven months along—unaccustomed to any extra weight on her five-foot two frame. It was a Tuesday, and, just like any other day, she made her way around the room, tidying up after her students. As she continued her cleaning, suddenly there was pain—intense pain in her stomach and back, followed by a trip to the doctor.

      "The heartbeats are fine," he confirmed. "Your back probably hurts because you're so big."

      Melissa breathed a sigh of relief.

      Two days later, though, she had another scare when her mucus plug came out.

      "Normal," the doctor reassured via telephone. "If you want to come in, you can, although there's nothing to be worried about."

      But Melissa wasn't taking any chances, and on Friday of that week—to set her mind at ease for the upcoming weekend—she visited the doctor's office once again to make sure everything was still moving along as planned.

      "The heartbeats sound good," the physician on call encouraged her. "Let me just do a quick internal exam, and then you'll be on your way."

      As Melissa waited, pleased to be doing anything positive for her babies-to-be, she let her mind wander to the happy times she and Seth would spend with their two sons. But her daydream was quickly interrupted.

      "Crap," the doctor said, as a dark shadow cast over his face. "You're two centimeters dilated and eighty to ninety percent effaced. You are in labor. You have to go right to the hospital."

      In a panic, Melissa called Seth. He was an hour away and it was raining heavily outside. Melissa's friend would have to pick her up and take her to the hospital, they decided, and Seth would meet them there.

      At the hospital, medicine was immediately administered to stop Melissa's contractions, but it was too late. She was going into premature labor and the babies would not survive.

      "How are you going to get them out?" Melissa cried, overwhelmed with alarm.

      "You're going to have to deliver them," the nurse told her. "I'm so sorry."

      Besieged by fear and in a haze of confusion and sorrow, Melissa had no choice but to deliver two beautiful baby boys, whose lungs were not developed enough for them to live.

      And by three-thirty in the morning, it was finally over. Exhausted and grief-stricken, Melissa was wheeled to her room, where Seth climbed into bed with her so they could finally cry together, alone at last.

      Holding Melissa in his arms, Seth said, "This was horrible, but we're going to get through this. In a year from now you will be pregnant again."

      It was the end of their pregnancy, but not the end of their desire for a family.

      With Melissa's uterus 80 percent scarred, they knew they had a tough battle ahead, but they weren't intimidated. And exactly one year after their initial IVF cycle, they started the process again.

      For some reason, though, Melissa no longer responded to the hormones, and it took three attempts to get just two good embryos, which they transferred. The unfortunate result was a chemical pregnancy—essentially a false positive. They tried one more time, to no avail.

      Perhaps it's my body, Melissa reasoned. And so they decided to take a nontraditional route. Melissa's sister, a physician, offered to be their surrogate and carry the baby for them. It wasn't your run-of-the-mill approach, they knew, but Seth and Melissa were willing to try just about anything. Melissa's sister would be implanted, as would Melissa. It was a possibility that they could be carrying Melissa and Seth's children at the very same time.

      But disappointment reared its ugly head again when it didn't work for either of them. And one more go of it—with Melissa's sister as the sole carrier—didn't produce either.

      It was the summer of 2008. Seth and Melissa had ridden a two-year-long roller coaster with nothing to show for it, and their spirits were down.

      "All I want is to be pregnant," Melissa told Seth repeatedly.

      "What you really want is to start a family," he pointed out. Melissa agreed with Seth, and they mutually decided to explore adoption.

      Neither of them knew much about it, but they were focused on doing something, anything, to make their dream of having a baby come true. So they attended a seminar, researched independent versus agency adoption, and settled on pursuing a combination of both—placing ads and sending applications to two agencies they felt comfortable with.

      By August of 2008, Seth and Melissa were home study–approved, and spreading the word to everyone they knew. They created a blog with a short blurb about who they were and what their life was like, and sent it around to friends and family. Seth also created a flyer that Melissa passed along to her colleagues at school and posted at their synagogue. And, while they got lovely responses— others sharing their similar experiences—there weren't any leads on adopting a baby.

      Shortly after the Thanksgiving holiday, Seth was tooling around on the computer late one night when a lightbulb went off: What if I post the flyer on Facebook? Seth had been a member for a few months and was slowly building connections. He'd heard of the social networking site's viral effect, and decided it certainly couldn't hurt. But he also knew it wasn't possible to post documents on Facebook, so he expertly converted the file to a PDF and then a JPEG, so he could save it as a picture.

      "I put our adoption flyer up on Facebook," he informed Melissa the following day.

      "Great!" she replied. "The more people who know we're looking, the better."

      Two days later, Seth's friend, John, asked if he could post the flyer to his page.

      And, in early December, Seth received a call from John's friend, Jenny, a woman from high school who he hadn't spoken to in twenty years. She explained that she had a construction company nearby, and that Lisa, the wife of one of her employees, was eight or nine months pregnant. They already had three kids, and she knew they didn't have a plan for the baby.

      A few days later, Jenny called Seth at work. She said, "Lisa would like to talk to you, but she's too nervous to call. Could you call her?"

      "Absolutely!" Seth said, trying not to set his hopes too high.

      And that night, beset with frenetic anticipation, Melissa and Seth called Lisa—the woman who could possibly make their dreams come true.

      "I'm really nervous," Melissa started.

      "So am I," Lisa replied.

      Melissa and Seth then told Lisa everything she needed to know about them, and the three decided to meet the following afternoon at a little Starbucks in the Giant supermarket near Lisa's work.

      It had been a sleepless night for Melissa and Seth, who sat chatting nervously the next day, awaiting Lisa's arrival. She was right on time, and after awkward introductions and small talk about their shared obsession with Top Chef, serious discussions began. They covered Lisa's health habits, family medical history, and her reason for placing the child for adoption—for financial reasons, and the fact that Lisa and her husband weren't prepared to start over with a fourth baby. Lisa even showed Melissa and Seth pictures of her three kids, who were happy and healthy.

      When they were finally ready to part ways, Melissa said, "It was so wonderful to meet you. Seth and I definitely want to talk about things. I'm sure you and your husband do as well. "And then she asked nervously, "Would it be possible for us to call you tomorrow?"

      "You can call me later tonight, if you'd like," Lisa offered, smiling warmly.

      Melissa and Seth smiled back. Something just felt right about this woman.

      When they spoke later that evening, it was decided. Both parties wanted to move forward. In a matter of weeks, Melissa and Seth would have a brand-new baby!

      And on December 30, 2008, the day before Seth's birthday, Noah Benjamin was welcomed into the world, with Melissa and Seth in the delivery room by Lisa and her husband's side. Two days later, on January 1, Seth and Melissa finally brought their baby home.

      "It was so poetic starting the New Year with our new son, "Melissa reflects. "Noah means 'rest,' and we feel like after this long journey, we can finally do just that."


      Emily, the author of "Facebook Fairytales," continues to share inspirational stories on the book's Facebook Page.


      Tip: Share your stories here with us about interesting and inspiring ways you use Facebook.
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    • Topics: Your Stories, Facebook Fairytales
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    • Fighting Badware One Story at a Time
      by Maxim Weinstein on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at 8:36am
      Maxim Weinstein is the executive director of StopBadware, a non-profit organization, based in Cambridge, Mass., that works with partners and individuals to fight computer viruses, spyware and other badware. We asked Maxim to discuss ways that people can fight malicious software and raise awareness of its impact.


      Badware is software that fundamentally disregards your choice about how your computer or network connection will be used. Whether it comes in the form of a malicious password stealer, a fake anti-virus program or a program that "forgets"... to tell you it's installing an extra toolbar in your browser, badware is an abuse of the trust that all of us place in computing devices and the Internet.

      At StopBadware, we believe that people and organizations working together can create the attitudes, behaviors, and policies necessary to regain control of our computers from the purveyors of badware. It's time that we, the Internet community, take a stand and say, "Enough! It's time to fight back!"

      But how do we fight back against badware? We need to take the following steps:
      1. Help people understand just how serious the threat really is and how big a role individuals can play in minimizing that threat.

      2. Arm people with the knowledge they need to protect themselves, their computers, and their websites from becoming part of the problem.

      3. Cultivate a community of people working together to define and advocate for those new attitudes, behaviors and policies that, collectively, will keep badware at bay.

      To help us achieve the first step and get a jump on the next two, we have launched StopBadware Stories, a project to collect and share stories about the effects of badware on real people.

      We're asking you to answer, through text, images and/or video, one simple question: How has badware affected your life? Some stories may be funny, others might be deeply moving, and still others may leave us scratching our heads. Collectively, these stories will send the clear message that badware is not just a technology issue, but also a real human problem that requires society's attention.

      Of course, all these stories won't do any good just sitting in a database on our server. To be effective, the stories need to be shared. This is why StopBadware Stories will allow the public to vote on, comment on, and share through Facebook and other social networks their favorite—or least favorite—stories. (To share a story via Facebook, just click the blue-and-white "F" icon underneath "Share this story" on the StopBadware Stories site.) It is also why we are asking people who submit stories to agree to a Creative Commons license that allows anyone to reuse, redistribute or remix those stories for non-commercial use, as long as the author is credited.

      StopBadware Stories is an exciting project, but we can't do it alone. We hope that you will participate, whether by telling your own story, sharing the stories of others or simply spreading the word about the project. If you'd like to learn about other ways that you can become involved in the fight against badware, see StopBadware's Get Involved page. You can also like StopBadware on Facebook for further updates.


      Maxim dreams of a day when organizations like StopBadware are no longer needed.
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    • Topics: Security
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    • Citizen of the World Reunites with Kenyan Classmates
      by Sara Lannin on Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 4:34pm
      The following is part of our "Your Stories" series on different ways Facebook is used across the world. If you have a story you'd like to share with us, please submit it here.


      Many children find starting at a new school intimidating and foreign, but few experience this phenomenon to the degree of Mili Thaker. In 1994, during her transition from elementary to middle school, Mili's family relocated from Charleston, S.C., to Nairobi, Kenya.

      ...Initially rebellious about the move, young Mili soon grew to love her new home. Unfortunately, the family's stay was short-lived, and after only three years she said goodbye to her life in Africa and returned to South Carolina.

      "While in Nairobi, I made so many friends," said Mili, "but at that time, the Internet was not popular in Kenya and we only exchanged addresses and phone numbers."

      Little did she know she would one day regain contact with her Kenyan classmates on Facebook.

      Mili reunites with a Nairobi Academy friend.
      Even if Mili's friends from Africa had tried to remain in contact with her, it would have been a difficult feat. After an exchange program in Finland, a summer in Paris, college in Boston and a brief stint in Rome after graduation, Mili was a citizen of the world more than a resident of one country. However, she found that "despite the many experiences that I had gone through, I frequently thought about my friends in Kenya, wondering what they were doing now and where they were."

      Mili first joined Facebook as a student at Boston University in 2004, but it wasn't until years later—once the site gained international popularity—that she found a group had been created for Nairobi Academy the Kenyan school she had attended.

      "Tons of us reunited because of the group, and now we keep in touch on a weekly basis," Mili said.

      Though she calls New York City her permanent home (for now), Mili remains an avid traveler thanks to invites from her Facebook friends. After visiting former schoolmates at their homes in Australia, she intends to travel widely to visit others.

      For the ability to keep her connected with her internationally dispersed friends, Mili said: "I can't explain in words how grateful I am to Facebook."


      Sara, an intern on Facebook's communications team, is looking for her former classmates from Concord Elementary School in Edina, Minn.
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    • Topics: Your Stories
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    • 'Facebook Fairytales': Heaven Sent
      by Emily Liebert on Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 11:27am
      The following is the second in a series of excerpts we're publishing from the new book "Facebook Fairytales: Modern-Day Miracles to Inspire the Human Spirit." This chapter tells the story of how one family used Facebook to cope with the loss of their daughter.


      On September 23, 1992, Talbot and Michelle Elkins welcomed their second daughter, Jessica, into the world, and the couple from Athens, Alabama—along with two-year-old sister, Emilee—was overjoyed. Four years later, baby brother Michael joined the family fold.

      ...The Elkins considered themselves the luckiest parents on Earth, with three happy and healthy children in their brood. And as the years passed, with Jessica and Emilee developing into extraordinary young ladies, life only got better.

      By fifteen, Jessica was the consummate "perfect teenager," a veritable oxymoron in and of itself. She'd had a steady boyfriend for over two years, who her parents adored, and she was involved in an array of activities, ranging from ballet and jazz to gymnastics, volleyball, and, ultimately, cheerleading—her true passion. Jessica boasted an extensive group of close friends, and was revered by anyone who came to know her, as was evidenced by the 200-plus students who had voted her Homecoming representative for both her seventh- and eighth-grade school years.

      At home, she acted as a second caregiver to her family, changing her brother's diapers and feeding him from the day he was born, and generally doing everything she could to help her parents, who worked full-time in their family trucking business.

      Unlike many adolescent girls, Jessica was also exceptionally close to her mother, whom she'd offered to drive anywhere she'd needed to go from the day she'd received her learner's permit. The two were inseparable. So, on Thursday, December 20, when they embarked on a last-minute holiday shopping spree, it was like any other day for the Elkins gals.

      They hopped from store to store, eventually seeking out a special Pandora ring that Emilee had requested at a jewelry shop in Athens. By the day's end, Michelle was eager to get home to finish up some chores before some minor post-Christmas surgery she'd scheduled for the following week.

      "We have to hurry so I can get the laundry done and clean the house," she said to Jessica. "We've got a lot of things going on before my operation."

      "Mom, it's not like somebody's going to die if this stuff doesn't get done," Jessica said, looking her in the eyes and smiling brightly. "The laundry will be taken care of. I promise. You don't need to worry about the little things."

      Michelle laughed. After all, her middle child was wise beyond her years. How many mothers could rely on their teenage daughter to hold down the fort so capably? she thought, beaming with pride.

      The following morning, while Michelle tied up loose ends at work, Jessica headed to school for the last of her final exams, and that afternoon joined Emilee and her boyfriend at a local Mexican eatery. Jessica couldn't have been more at ease; school was out for the Christmas holiday, and she was elated to be spending the afternoon with Emilee, who was not only her sister, but her best friend.

      Midway through lunch, though, Jessica's celebratory feast took a turn for the worse. She announced, "I'm not feeling so well. I'm going to sit in the car until you're done."

      "Are you sure you're okay?" her sister asked, concerned. "Go rest, and we'll be there soon."

      Emilee dialed her mother immediately. "Jessica is sick. She just left the table and went to sit in the car."

      "Hurry and get through eating, and go check on her," Michelle urged.

      "Sure thing, Mom. I'm sure she's going to be okay."

      But by 1:30, back at the car, Emilee wasn't so sure anymore. She called Michelle again, somewhat frantic. "Mom, Jessica is crying a lot. She says she's aching all over."

      "Let me finish what I'm doing here. Take her to the house, and I'll be there as fast as I can," Michelle instructed, hurriedly attending to her outstanding tasks.

      An hour later, Michelle was home at Jessica's side, where she lay in bed, overcome with pain.

      "Listen, sweetie, we're going to take you to the doctor and see what's wrong," she soothed, stroking her daughter's forehead. It was the Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend, and Michelle knew that most private practices would soon be closed.

      As Jessica continued to weep, Michelle drove her to the closest physician's office, not more than three minutes away. Much to their dismay, however, when they arrived, there was a note on the door: WE ARE NOT TAKING ANY MORE PATIENTS FOR THE DAY.

      "I'm calling your pediatrician," Michelle said, helping Jessica back to the car for their twenty-minute drive to Decatur.

      She probably has the flu, Michelle told herself. There's nothing serious to worry about. Still, her maternal instinct was telling her to make sure.

      At the pediatrician's office, Michelle sat next to her daughter as she was prodded and probed. Jessica was given a throat culture, which made her sick to her stomach, and a flu test, the result of which was positive. Michelle's relief was tangible. The flu was no fun, but it was certainly manageable.

      With the doctor's recommendation of "liquids and plenty of rest," and a prescription for Tamiflu in hand, they drove home to put Jessica back in bed, where she'd recuperate for the next few days.

      But things didn't go exactly as planned. Jessica continued to vomit routinely, and Michelle and Talbot were worried that their daughter wasn't ingesting the medicine she needed to get better. They also feared that she would become severely dehydrated.

      Michelle called the doctor to explain the situation.

      "Don't give her anything else by mouth—no water, nothing," the pediatrician on call advised. "Just try to get her through the night and keep her as calm as you can. The flu has to run its course. You're in for a rough couple of days."

      Michelle was comforted again. We'll just watch her closely through the night and keep her siblings out of the room, so they don't contract this too, she reasoned.

      And that's just what they did. Talbot checked on his daughter every few hours, and, by Saturday morning, it seemed that Jessica was doing a little better.

      Michelle quietly went about her ironing, continuing to tackle the household duties she fretted would accumulate while she was in the hospital for her surgery. She knew Jessica would do whatever she could to assist, but she didn't want her to have to, especially when she'd be recovering from a bad bout of the flu.

      "Mom! Mom!" Jessica's voice interrupted the silence.

      "I'm coming, baby. I'm on my way." Michelle called out, rushing to her ailing daughter's room to find her sick to her stomach yet again. "Let's get you back into bed," she said once the vomiting had ceased. "You're going to feel better real soon."

      As she helped Jessica—wearing only a short nightshirt and underwear—roll onto her side, Michelle spotted a quarter-sized bruise on the side of her hip.

      "Jess, did you run into something and hurt your hip? How did you get this bruise?" she asked, motioning to the mark.

      "Mom, I haven't done anything. I don't know how I got it," she replied faintly.

      Michelle began to examine her body. There were small purple spots everywhere. "I'll be right back, baby. I'm going to call Daddy."

      Hastily, she dialed Talbot, who'd run into work to pick up a FedEx package—a special gift for Jessica's boyfriend that had arrived at the last minute. "There's something more going on with Jessica than the flu. Hurry home."

      Within the hour, Talbot and Michelle were rushing their daughter to the hospital while she fell in and out of consciousness in the backseat. Forty-five minutes later, in the emergency room, the doctor finally arrived, checked Jessica's vitals, and asked a series of questions. The doctor then stepped out of the room to confer with a colleague, and when he returned twenty minutes later—wearing gloves and a mask—he had tears in his eyes.

      "We're going to have to move her to a children's hospital in Birmingham," he said.
      "That's two hours away!" Michelle was troubled.

      "We're almost certain that she has meningitis. We're starting her on the strongest antibiotics we have to help her fight this. Anybody that's been around her also has to go on antibiotics." His voice cracked. "Mr. and Mrs. Elkins, your daughter is very sick. Sometimes kids don't pull through this."

      Michelle began sobbing as Talbot comforted her in his embrace.

      "We're going to do everything we can to save her."

      Paralyzed with shock and pain, Michelle and Talbot drove the two hours to Birmingham, while Jessica was transported by helicopter. Once they'd arrived, the nurse handed Michelle her daughter's ring.

      "We had to take off all her jewelry, so you hold on to this," she said, offering a sympathetic pat on the arm. Michelle slipped the ring onto her finger and began to cry. What was going on? Jessica had the flu. Just the flu. Not meningitis. Not something that could take their sweet baby away.

      By the Sunday before Christmas, in the Intensive Care Unit, Jessica was diagnosed with pneumonia, and as her condition worsened, doctors were forced to insert a breathing tube down her throat, in order to give her lungs a chance to rest.

      The following day, her kidneys began to fail, and it became clear that they could very well shut down altogether.

      As Michelle and Talbot road the roller coaster that had become their life—and the life of their fifteen-year-old daughter—they tried desperately to hold on to their faith.

      On Christmas Day the Elkinses' immediate and extended families gathered at the hospital for lunch. Michelle wept inconsolably, terrified that her daughter might not live to see her sixteenth birthday.

      Later that afternoon, the Elkinses listened intently as a dozen hospital staffers discussed Jessica's fate—how they could wean her off the breathing tube, if they could wean her off it at all.

      "It's going to be a long process," the doctor said, furrowing his brow.

      A long process we can deal with—just don't let her leave us, Michelle prayed, leaning down to stroke her daughter's ice-cold face and warm her frozen appendages. She was all too aware that one of the consequences of meningitis was a loss of limbs. But that was the least of her worries. All she wanted—needed—was for her precious baby girl to endure.

      Minutes later, though, Jessica's blood pressure began to spike, shooting up and down like a yo-yo, and, all of the sudden, there was little movement in her once-vibrant eyes. The doctors hurried in, asking Michelle and Talbot to remain outside for what seemed like the longest and most agonizing wait of their lives.

      "She's started suffering mini strokes," the doctor finally reported. "The left side of her brain has been severely damaged." As Talbot and Michelle processed this heartbreaking news, Jessica continued to experience more strokes, leaving her brain entirely inactive.

      Over the course of the next twenty-four hours, 400 of Jessica's friends gathered at the hospital to bid farewell to the "perfect teenager" they'd once loved and admired.

      And, by the afternoon of December 26, 2007, Talbot and Michelle had turned their beloved child over to the arms of God, where they believed she'd spend eternity, safe and happy.

      The grieving process that followed was fraught with pain and anguish for the entire Elkins clan. The members of their community and beyond rallied around them with unconditional support. Jessica's friends designed a T-shirt in her honor, to raise money for meningitis awareness. Their friends donated money to ease the burden of medical expenses, and organized a walk that brought in over $10,000. There were also two college scholarships formed in Jessica's name.

      Perhaps the most touching acknowledgment of all, though, was when the city of Athens, Alabama, declared September 23, Jessica's birthday, "Meningitis Awareness Day"—a designation the benevolent teenager would have been proud of.

      Despite the outpouring of support, Michelle and Talbot needed to find their own ways to mourn their unthinkable loss. Michelle began attending meningitis conferences and championing her new cause as a means of managing her heartache. She knew Jessica would want her to help save the lives of others. Talbot took a different approach. He turned to Facebook, the social networking site his daughter had been entranced by, and—with the help of his brother, Keith—started a Facebook group called "In Memory of Jessica Elkins."

      Within the first six days, the group had attracted over 1,000 members. Encouraged, they also designed a "cause page," which read:

      This is a public awareness site to urge parents to vaccinate their children in memory of 15-year-old Jessica Elkins, of Athens, Alabama, who died of bacterial meningitis on December 26, 2007. The purpose of this cause is to help spread the word about the dangers of meningitis, and to educate parents on available vaccines that may help save their child.


      Overseeing both groups became a coping mechanism for Talbot, who, today, provides updates to nearly 6,000 members, collectively, across the globe.

      What's helped him the most, however, has been the practice of sending daily Facebook messages to his daughter—even though said messages will never be answered—and to communicate, as well, via Facebook with her many friends.

      "I've been writing Facebook notes to my daughter every day for two years," Talbot confides. "And I'll never stop. It's my way of keeping our connection alive and maintaining my faith."

      Michelle, who's now a Facebook member as well, and, to this day, wears Jessica's ring, recounts the tender tale that has, in part, allowed her to persevere: "A few years ago, Jessica attended a church function with her youth group. Recently, I found out that on that trip, while chatting with friends, my beautiful daughter spoke these words: 'I just can't wait to get to heaven—to see what it's like there.' "

      Michelle pauses, smiling wistfully. "All this time, I've known where she is, and how she is, but to know she couldn't wait to get there has afforded me a true sense of peace."


      Emily, the author of "Facebook Fairytales," continues to share inspirational stories on the book's Facebook Page.


      Tip: Share your stories here with us about interesting and inspiring ways you use Facebook.
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    • Topics: Your Stories, Facebook Fairytales
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    • Building the Social Web Together
      by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 10:44am

      Facebook has always focused on building ways for people to connect with each other and share information with their friends. We think this is important because people are shaping how information moves through their connections. People are increasingly discovering information not just through links to web pages but also from the people and things they care about.

      This flow of social information has profound benefits—from driving better decisions to keeping in touch more easily—and we're really proud that Facebook is part of the shift toward more... social and personalized experiences everywhere online.

      Three years ago at our first f8 conference for developers, I introduced the concept of the social graph, which is the idea that if you mapped out all the connections between people and the things they care about, it would form a graph that connects everyone together. Facebook has focused mostly on mapping out the part of the graph around people and their relationships.

      At the same time, other sites and services have been mapping out other parts of the graph so you can get relevant information about different types of things. For example, Yelp maps out the best local businesses and Pandora maps out which songs are related to each other.

      All of these connections are important parts of the social graph, but until now it hasn't been possible to easily share the connections you make on sites like Yelp or Pandora with your friends on Facebook. And you haven't been able to bring your friends from Facebook to share experiences on these sites or personalize them to you.

      Today at our third f8, we are making it so all websites can work together to build a more comprehensive map of connections and create better, more social experiences for everyone. We have redesigned Facebook Platform to offer a simple set of tools that sites around the web can use to personalize experiences and build out the graph of connections people are making.



      This next version of Facebook Platform puts people at the center of the web. It lets you shape your experiences online and make them more social. For example, if you like a band on Pandora, that information can become part of the graph so that later if you visit a concert site, the site can tell you when the band you like is coming to your area. The power of the open graph is that it helps to create a smarter, personalized web that gets better with every action taken.

      We think that the future of the web will be filled with personalized experiences. We've worked with three pre-selected partners—Microsoft Docs, Yelp and Pandora—to give you a glimpse of this future, which you can access without having to login again or click to connect. For example, now if you're logged into Facebook and go to Pandora for the first time, it can immediately start playing songs from bands you've liked across the web. And as you're playing music, it can show you friends who also like the same songs as you, and then you can click to see other music they like.

      We look forward to a future where all experiences are this easy and personalized, and we're happy today to take the next important step to get there.

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    • Topics: Platform
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    • Connecting to Everything You Care About
      by Alex Li on Monday, April 19, 2010 at 12:03pm

      Facebook has always been about helping people make connections. We started with helping people connect with their friends, and over time we expanded this model to mirror more of the connections you make in your life—including organizations and interests that may not be people. We developed Pages, for example, so you could connect to your favorite celebrities, musicians and businesses on Facebook. All of these say something about who you are and the things you care about.

      What if you could take this one step further, by linking your profile to... Pages about your interests, affiliations and favorite activities? Today, we're adding two features that do just that:

      Community Pages


      Community Pages are a new type of Facebook Page dedicated to a topic or experience that is owned collectively by the community connected to it. Just like official Pages for businesses, organizations and public figures, Community Pages let you connect with others who share similar interests and experiences.

      On each Community Page, you'll be able to learn more about a topic or an experience—whether it's cooking or learning a new language—and see what your friends and others in the Facebook community are saying about this topic. Community Pages are still in beta, but our long-term goal is to make them the best collection of shared knowledge on a topic. We're starting by showing Wikipedia information, but we're also looking for people who are passionate about any of these topics to sign up to contribute to the Page. We'll let you know when we're ready for your help.

      More Connected Profiles


      Some of you added information about yourself, such as your likes and interests, favorite books, music and movies, when you first joined Facebook. But we've noticed that more than three times as many of you have connected to Facebook Pages, such as those for bands, non-profits, universities or anything else you care about, as a way to express yourself. So to make it even easier to display your affiliations, we've improved the profile.

      Now, certain parts of your profile, including your current city, hometown, education and work, and likes and interests, will contain "connections." Instead of just boring text, these connections are actually Pages, so your profile will become immediately more connected to the places, things and experiences that matter to you.

      Here's how it works:
      • Opt-in to new connections: When you next visit your profile page on Facebook, you'll see a box appear that recommends Pages based on the interests and affiliations you'd previously added to your profile. You can then either connect to all these Pages—by clicking "Link All to My Profile"—or choose specific Pages. You can opt to only connect to some of those Pages by going to "Choose Pages Individually" and checking or unchecking specific Pages. Once you make your choice, any text you'd previously had for the current city, hometown, education and work, and likes and interests sections of your profile will be replaced by links to these Pages. If you would still like to express yourself with free-form text, you can still use the "Bio" section of your profile. You also can also use features and applications like Notes, status updates or Photos to share more about yourself.


      • Adding connections: If you want to add more connections to your profile, just click "Like" on any Facebook Page. We've replaced the expression "Become a Fan" for Pages with "Like." Clicking "Like" on a Page adds that connection in the related area of your profile's Info section.

      • Managing and removing connections: If you no longer want to connect to something, you can remove it from your profile at any point. You can either go to the Page itself and select "Unlike" from the bottom left hand column, or you can edit your profile, select the Page and click "Remove" underneath the Page photo. If you want to keep the Page on your profile but you do not want certain people to see it on your profile, you have the following options.

      • Feature certain connections: When you edit your profile, you can choose to feature some of your connections over others. You can drag and drop Pages above or below the fold to dictate which ones are most prominent when friends visit your profile. If you move a Page below the fold, your friends will still be able to see that connection if they click "See More" beside the field.

      • Control the visibility: Within your Privacy Settings under the Account menu, you have a section called "Friends, Tags and Connections." Adjusting the drop-down menus beside each field let you determine who can see those parts of your profile. These visibility settings are a direct response to your requests to be able to hide more information on your profile. Specifically, the most requested feature a few weeks ago was to enable you to hide your friend list on your profile from your friends. As part of today's changes, you can do that.

      Keep in mind that Facebook Pages you connect to are public. You can control which friends are able to see connections listed on your profile, but you may still show up on Pages you're connected to. If you don't want to show up on those Pages, simply disconnect from them by clicking the "Unlike" link in the bottom left column of the Page. You always decide what connections to make.

      Editing connections on the profile.


      We hope Community Pages and your improved profile make it easier for you to learn more about your friends and to express yourself. We're rolling both out gradually over the course of a few days, so you may not see them right away.

      Profiles no longer are a static list of likes and interests. Now, they are a living map of all the connections that matter to you.


      Alex Li, a Facebook software engineer, is now connected to Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven and the violin.
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    • Topics: Community Pages, Connections, Profile, Like
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    • The Role of Sharing in Social Well-Being
      by Moira Burke on Friday, April 16, 2010 at 11:57am

      In his 2000 book, "Bowling Alone," Robert Putnam argues that Americans have grown increasingly disconnected from their friends and family, and that technology—particularly television—is to blame. Since then, social psychologists have engaged in heated arguments about the role of technology in our everyday lives.

      "Bowling Alone" was published well before the advent of online social networking, and Facebook aims to reduce that very isolation Putnam laments by facilitating sharing with the people we care the most about.

      So how well are we doing? A... group of Facebook's data scientists and I decided to measure social well-being on Facebook to find out. We discovered that the more people use Facebook, the better they feel and that those who share and communicate the most with their friends feel even better.


      How We Measured Well-Being


      Our first step in this research was to determine how to measure well-being. Thankfully, social psychologists have perfected this over decades, carefully refining survey questions that tap people's innermost feelings of connectedness.

      We chose common types of surveys measuring two kinds of social capital: 1) "bonding social capital," the emotional support we receive from our closest friends, and 2) "bridging social capital," the new information we get from a diverse set of weaker acquaintances—think of these like a friend-of-a-friend who tells you about a job. We also measured "loneliness," the difference between desired and actual social interactions.

      Each concept was measured with a set of about 10 questions, which, with a little statistics magic to account for individual bias, form a consistent score for each person.

      Last summer, approximately 1200 people on Facebook from English-speaking countries around the world were recruited through Facebook Ads to take a survey of these well-being questions. A computer script matched the survey responses with logged site activity data for the two months prior—such as the number of clicks on News Feed stories, number of friends and number of Wall posts received—and then we analyzed the anonymized data. We looked for wide-scale patterns of activity that correlated with higher well-being scores.

      The results were clear: The more people use Facebook, the better they feel. They have higher levels of both kinds of social capital, and feel less lonely. This holds across age, gender, country, romantic relationship status, and even self-esteem and happiness (two additional factors measured in the survey).


      Sharers Versus Consumers


      But what are people actually doing on Facebook that accounts for their greater well-being? To answer that question, we next looked at two kinds of activities: "directly sharing" with individual friends by sending messages, writing on Walls, "liking" content and even tagging each other in photos versus more "passive consumption" of social news, such as clicking on News Feed stories, reading friends' status updates and browsing photos.

      Direct sharing was linked to better well-being while passive consumption was not. Regardless of how much time people in the study spent on Facebook, how many friends they had, and how many News Feed stories they read, those directly interacting with their friends scored higher levels of well-being.

      Even in this tightly controlled study we can't tell if sharing increases well-being, or if better-connected people share more, or both. But by repeating this study over time, we can tease out the causal direction, and that's exactly what we're planning to do next. About twice a year, we'll survey the original participants again to measure changes in their well-being scores and site activity. With each new wave, we can better control for how well-connected people felt in previous rounds, and then see how Facebook use caused changes in well-being, over and above their initial levels.

      Watch for future updates as later waves of the study are completed. In the meantime, you can read the whole story in an article we presented earlier this week at the ACM SIGCHI conference, a leading human-computer interaction research event.


      Moira, an intern on Facebook's data team and a Ph.D. student in human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University, prefers bowling with lots of friends.
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    • Topics: Research
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    • Announcing the Inaugural Facebook Fellows
      by Greg Badros on Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 8:35am

      Earlier this year, we launched the Facebook Fellowship Program to support Ph.D. students in the 2010-2011 school year who can help solve some of the biggest challenges facing the social web and Internet technology. We received many hundreds of applications from students at U.S. universities, and we were amazed with their talent and range of accomplishments.

      We started this program because the academic community plays a central role in addressing many of our most challenging research questions on topics ranging from cloud and social computing to... Internet economics and machine learning. Identifying the five winners listed below was a difficult process, and in the end we looked for students that had a history of academic accomplishment, represented a diversity of research fields, and were working on topics that are directly applicable to the social web and Facebook.

      Our first class of fellows include students researching crowdsourced online help, the structure of networks, information disclosure, online advertising and data analysis. In addition to the five winners, we chose 22 finalists who each received $500.

      We think all of the winners and finalists represent some of the brightest minds in academia today, and we're looking forward to their continued research. Each fellow receives paid tuition and fees, a $30,000 stipend, conference travel and other benefits.

      Below are profiles of each of the Facebook Fellowship Program winners (in alphabetical order), along with insight in their own words about their areas of research. Congratulations to each of them—we're proud to call them our Facebook Fellows!


      Vinayak Borkar, University of California at Irvine
      Area of Focus: Cloud Computing

      Borkar
      Vinayak is focusing his research on ways to improve distributed computing platforms for data analysis and applied for a fellowship because of the complex data processing challenges Facebook is tackling. Currently a visiting researcher and doctoral student at the University of California at Irvine, Vinayak previously spent 8 years as a software engineer at various software companies and most recently was the co-founder and chief architect of Black Titan Software in San Jose, Calif.

      Quote: "Large-scale data processing is undergoing a radical change. Innovation in these areas is happening at places like Facebook. I look here for interesting data problems that will push the frontiers of research. On a prior visit to the Facebook office I realized that my research goals coincided greatly with some of the challenges faced by the Facebook developers. I applied for the fellowship to collaborate with the Facebook team, with the hope of solving some exciting real-world problems."


      Parmit Chilana, University of Washington, Seattle
      Area of Focus: Social Computing

      Chilana
      Parmit is pursuing research in human-computer interaction and applied for a fellowship in order to apply her ideas for crowdsourcing help for web applications in a real-world setting. Parmit is a PhD candidate in information science at The Information School at the University of Washington. She previously earned a master's degree in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a bachelor's degree in computer science from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada.

      Quote: "To most people, Facebook is largely a means for staying in touch with friends and social networking. But, I want people to know how powerful this type of large-scale online participation, community-building, and wisdom of the crowds or crowdsourcing is for tackling some important problems in human-computer interaction today.

      For example, in my current work, I'm developing techniques for supporting just-in time, contextual help for web applications where users can point to something within the interface and ask questions about resolving technical issues. What makes this approach unique is that the solutions will be 'crowdsourced' from communities of users. This will allow people to not only learn from each other's experiences, but also to get help more efficiently than using other means, such as searching separate, disconnected help resources."


      Leslie John, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
      Area of Focus: Behavioral Economics

      John
      Leslie is researching new dimensions of privacy and how people decide what information to disclose. She applied for a fellowship to extend her research to the context of social networking. Leslie is a doctoral candidate in behavioral economics at Carnegie Mellon. She previously earned a master's degree in psychology and behavioral economics from Carnegie Mellon and a bachelor's degree in psychology, arts and business from the University of Waterloo in Canada.

      Quote: "I've been doing research at the intersection of psychology, economics, and marketing; my primary focus is to try to understand when and why people are willing or unwilling to divulge personal information.

      With collaborators George Loewenstein and Alessandro Acquisti, I've been finding that people's concern for privacy and propensity to self-disclose can be influenced, both upward and downward, by factors that are difficult to justify. For example, cues that should alert people to a threat of privacy can instead suppress privacy concern, and elicit self-disclosure. Likewise, we've also been finding that cues that should calm privacy concern can instead do the opposite, by rousing privacy concern and suppressing revelation."


      Mladen Kolar, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
      Area of Focus: Machine Learning

      Kolar
      Mladen is studying the structure of networks and how they change and evolve over time. Mladen's investigations cover a wide range of networks—he has looked at how senators' positions and interactions have changed based on their voting records as well as reverse engineered how genes regulate each other over time. Mladen is a Ph.D. student in the machine learning department at Carnegie Mellon, and he is a graduate of University of Zagreb, of Zagreb, Croatia, in electrical engineering and computing.

      Quote: "The main premise of machine learning is that the prediction accuracy should improve as more data become available. Unfortunately, achieving improved accuracy demands complex predictive models, which are often hard to interpret for the purpose of scientific discovery. In my research, I develop flexible statistical models, which can provide insight into complex patterns underlying high-dimensional and noisy data, and efficient computational algorithms for fitting these models.

      The main theme is to trade off prediction accuracy for simpler models that help understand the complex nature of data. Much of my research has focused on models for networks, which are simple, yet powerful tools for capturing relationships among individuals. Networks help us answer some of the fundamental questions of interest, such as: 'What role(s) do individuals play when they interact with different peers?' and 'How do social groups form and dissolve as a response to external stimuli?' "


      Yaron Singer, University of California at Berkeley
      Area of Focus: Internet Economics

      Singer
      Yaron's research focuses on algorithmic game theory and mechanism design. His interest in Internet economics already has led him to found an advertising network for social media, Bidwave, and he plans further work into how to build a platform where people view ads as beneficial recommendations. Yaron is a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at the University of California at Berkeley. He previously graduated with a dual degree in mathematics and computer science from Tel-Aviv University in Israel.

      Quote: "The emergence of online social networks takes Internet economics to new frontiers. With open application platforms and APIs and large-scale network data, social networks bring a new dimension to the web, forcing us to rethink standard solutions inherited from previous models. Researchers and engineers at Facebook are at the forefront of these efforts, constantly pushing innovation forward. The opportunity to be exposed to interesting new problems whose solution may have a significant impact, seems rare and fascinating."


      Greg Badros, a University of Washington Ph.D. '00 and a director of engineering at Facebook, wishes his house understood him better before it talks back.

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    • Topics: Facebook Fellowship
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    • Connecting with Emily Liebert: Author of 'Facebook Fairytales'
      by Matt Hicks on Monday, April 5, 2010 at 11:21am
      At Facebook, we're constantly connecting with interesting people—from experts and researchers to celebrities or visitors to our office. Occasionally, we'll share these conversations on the Facebook blog in our "Connecting with..." series.

      New York-based writer Emily Liebert released her debut book last week, Facebook Fairytales: Modern-Day Miracles to Inspire the Human Spirit," a collection of 25 inspirational stories made possible through people's Facebook connections. I recently talked with Emily about the book and the stories of triumphs and... struggles that most struck a nerve with her. In future blog posts, we'll be sharing excerpts of the fairytales.


      What inspired "Facebook Fairytales" and the writing of this book?


      My inspiration was my fascination with Facebook and how it's revolutionizing modern society. I joined in the summer of 2008, and at first my intentions were purely voyeuristic. I was one of those people who read other people's posts but never updated my own status. Eventually, like the hundreds of millions of other users, I got sucked in, and I really started thinking about the cultural impact of social networking, specifically Facebook.

      It occurred to me that there had to be some amazing stories evolving from these hundreds of millions of connections. I decided that someone needed to write a book sharing these stories and who better than me?


      As you were investigating the idea for the book, did you run across any specific story that provided the "aha" kind of moment that this was really a great idea and something that could be done?


      Liebert
      Initially, when I started looking for stories, I posted a query to my Facebook Wall detailing my idea for the book, and I asked my friends to repost the query. I thought, "Wouldn't it be fitting if I could find all the stories through my own Facebook connections?" And I probably could have. But they wouldn't have been the 25 absolute best or most diverse stories. I did find a couple this way, and they were quite good, but they didn't provide that "aha" moment.

      So I decided to reach out to Facebook's press department to see if users had shared stories with them. They had. Thousands, in fact. Facebook immediately passed along the story of a young mother in Scarsdale, N.Y., Beth, who'd received a kidney from a young mother in Tallahassee, Fla., Cathy, via a mutual friend's status update. Cathy absolutely saved Beth's life even though they were complete strangers, living over 1,000 miles away. And I thought, wow, that's one of those goose bump stories. It was amazing to think that something as simple as a Facebook status update could have a hand in saving someone's life. That's when I started digging some more.

      Through my own online research, along with significant support from Facebook, I was able to find the 25 miraculous stories that made it into the book. Though it was really the kidney donor story and a great romantic story that initially launched the concept.


      Which one was the romantic story?


      The romantic story is called "Summer Love." It follows Roni Tropper and Allen Applbaum, who'd originally met at summer camp when they were teenagers. They'd briefly reconnected in college, but hadn't stayed in touch after that. Years later, they reconnected again on Facebook and now they're getting married.

      What I love about their story is that it's complex. They weathered a lot of ups and downs to be together. Many times, despite the fact that fate seemed to be pushing them together, it seemed that their relationship might not work out. Had it not been for Facebook, it probably wouldn't have.


      Did you find as you were doing the research to discover these stories that any specific themes were emerging?


      I know this sounds simple, but I believe the common theme is happiness. The book features personal triumphs, business feats, and political coups—generally speaking—modern-day miracles. And, in one way or another, Facebook is responsible for infusing happiness into these situations when other prospects seemed dim.
      One way or another, Facebook is responsible for infusing happiness into these situations when other prospects seemed dim.

      The elaborate domino effect of social networking continues to intrigue and inspire me. In today's society, it feels like everyone is super busy and swamped all the time, and I think the stories in this book really remind people that the resilience of the human spirit is powerful. And that when given the opportunity, people do the right thing or open themselves up in a very positive way, as in the case of the kidney donor.


      On a personal level, what were some of the other stories that stood out to you?


      The story "Waiting for Baby" is one of my favorites. It's about a couple, Seth and Melissa Edlavitch, who had been trying to conceive a baby for years. They'd experienced a tragic stillbirth of twins and had undergone multiple IVF (in vitro fertilization) cycles. Melissa's sister had even acted as a surrogate, but nothing was producing the outcome they so desired—to be parents. So they decided to pursue adoption, which can be a very long and expensive process.

      One night on a whim, Seth converted an adoption flyer they'd made to a JPEG and posted it on Facebook. Through the domino effect of social networking, two months later, they took home a baby boy.

      One of the other stories that really resonated with me is called "Heaven Sent." It's not your typical fairytale, because it's about a family in Alabama who lost their teenage daughter, Jessica Elkins, very suddenly to meningitis at Christmas time a couple of years ago.

      Not only were they able to create a cause page and a group on Facebook to help raise money and awareness for meningitis, but the really touching Facebook aspect to the story—and the reason I chose to include it in a book of fairytales—is that Jessica's father has used Facebook as his means of coping with his grief over the loss of his daughter. He was her friend on the site, and for the past two years, has written her a Facebook message every single day.

      It's what helps him get through each day. He also keeps in touch with her friends on the site, which allows him to feel connected to Jessica. So while this may not seem like a "happily-ever-after" kind of story, again, Facebook infused some happiness into an otherwise awful situation.


      Matt, a manager on Facebook's communications team, is becoming a fan of Facebook Fairytales on Facebook.


      Tip: Share your stories here with us about interesting and inspiring ways you use Facebook.
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    • Topics: Facebook Fairytales, Connecting with...
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    • 'Facebook Fairytales': Desperately Seeking Sister
      by Emily Liebert on Monday, April 12, 2010 at 3:58pm
      The following is the first in a series of excerpts we're publishing from the new book "Facebook Fairytales: Modern-Day Miracles to Inspire the Human Spirit." This chapter tells the story of sisters reuniting through Facebook after decades apart.


      It was 1961, in the small town of Dunkirk, New York, on the shores of Lake Erie, when Linda and Buddy Balzer welcomed their first child into the world—a baby girl named Deb. Two years later, their second daughter, Renee, was born.

      ...Three years after that, they decided to split up. At the time, nobody really talked about divorce, especially in the predominantly Catholic area where the Balzers resided. It was one of those taboo subjects that parents of the '60s generation generally swept under the rug with the rest of their family crises. And once Deb's mother had been excommunicated from the Church for this very reason, there was even further motive to maintain a low profile.

      By 1972, Deb's father—whom she rarely communicated with—was already remarried with a third child—a daughter, Stacy, whom Deb knew nothing of. Shortly thereafter, Buddy's second marriage ended, and his contact with all three of his girls dwindled. Everyone went on with their lives, the Balzer girls being raised predominantly by their respective mothers—Deb and Renee together, Stacy on her own. None of them spoke of their father.

      Life continued on like this until Deb was fourteen, when her curiosity got the best of her, and she showed up on Buddy's doorstep to confirm he hadn't passed away. After all, she hadn't heard from him in years—anything could have happened—and she had to see for herself that he was alive and well, even if he didn't want a close relationship with her.

      It was then that Buddy informed Deb of his third daughter, Stacy. Deb had only met her twice, when she was still an infant, but from this point on, she knew she had a second sister out there somewhere.

      Because of the era in which they were raised, and the fact that they were so young, Deb, Renee, and Stacy remained apart, leading separate lives into adulthood.

      Twelve years later, on February 15, 1992, Deb received heartbreaking news. Her father had died at the age of fifty-two, and she had been named his next of kin. Now living in Minnesota, just under a thousand miles away from her New York roots, Deb flew home for the funeral, as did her sister Renee, from her family's home in Wilmington, North Carolina. They knew there was this sister, Stacy—eleven and nine years their junior respectively—but they hadn't the faintest idea of how to reach her. Did she even know her father had passed away?

      Deb decided to write Stacy's mother a letter:

      My name is Deb Balzer, and I'm your daughter Stacy's older half-sister—born to Buddy and Linda Balzer in 1961. She also has a sister Renee, who's two years younger than me. Incidentally, Stacy and Renee share the same middle name—Lyn—as does Renee's only daughter, Alex Lyn.

      Maybe Stacy will someday want to know that she has sisters. If so, please tell her that she's welcome to be in touch. We'd love to connect with her after all this time.


      Deb did not receive a response. In her heart and mind, she realized that perhaps Stacy's mother had never told Stacy about her lineage, or that she had two sisters. Maybe she'd been raised by a stepfather and didn't even know who Buddy Balzer was. Not wanting to shake the apple tree, Deb abandoned hope and went on with her life—still with a small void that would likely remain empty.

      Seventeen years passed. Then one day, in early 2009, Deb—a PR and marketing manager for the Animal Humane Society—was sitting in her office at work, deciding whether or not to take the plunge and join Facebook. She'd been hearing about it constantly in the news, and from her colleagues and friends. She had checked out some of the other social networking sites but found they weren't her style. Facebook, she noticed, seemed more closely targeted to her generation. So, she signed up, making sure that her privacy settings were airtight. She just wanted to get her feet wet, not dive in headfirst, and if she could search for other people without anyone being able to find her, that was good enough to start.

      It was the year of Deb's thirtieth high school reunion—one of her incentives for joining Facebook in the first place—and as she searched the site for her former classmates, she came across the name of a girl she remembered fondly—Rosalie Gambino. Rosalie, Deb recalled, had been the first person who'd reached out to her when she'd been a new student at Fredonia High School, and they'd promptly become good friends.

      Deb sent her first "friend request" to Rosalie, and progressed with her investigation. What was the point in being on Facebook, she reasoned, if she wasn't going to connect with people? She was apt to receive nothing more than some quick "catch-up" messages, and that was fine with Deb.

      On the evening of January 22, the eldest sister of three received a note from her former friend Rosalie:

      Deb,

      I got this message from a girl named Stacy Balzer today. She said she's looking for you, but can't find you on Facebook. You can do what you want with it. Let me know if I can help. The message is pasted below.

      Rosalie

      Hello, Rosalie—

      This is going to sound insane, but I did a Web search on Deb Balzer, and found that she'd posted a comment to the Fredonia High School site right after yours, which referenced Facebook. Then I went on Facebook and noticed that she's one of your friends, though I can't find her. Do you know if she deleted her profile?

      I would really truly and greatly appreciate your help! You see, Deb is my half-sister. I haven't seen her since I was about one year old. I've been trying to find her and my other sister Renee for many years, with no luck.

      I would never ask you to give out her information, but could you maybe let her know I'm on Facebook and would love some contact? I really hate imposing like this, but I thought, Hey! Facebook! Networking site! Maybe this avenue could work!

      You really have no idea what it would mean to me . . .

      Stacy Balzer


      Deb read each word repeatedly—her heart sprinting—and thought, I have to find this girl! She immediately searched "Stacy Balzer" on Facebook and wrote to her:

      Hello,

      Are you the daughter of Sheila and Buddy Balzer? If so, I am your sister, Deb, and I would love to hear from you. If I have the wrong Stacy, my apologies.

      Thank you,
      Deb


      Moments later, Deb had her answer:

      Hello, Deb!

      I am :) YAY for Facebook!

      I swear, I cried yesterday afternoon when I found that nice Christmas card you sent me after Buddy passed away. Sorry, but I've never called him Dad, and actually never even knew what he looked like until about seven years ago when one of my aunts died and I was going through her photo albums. At that time I was just too shocked I guess, too hurt, too young to respond. And since then I've tried to find you through the Internet.

      I don't know if you would like a "relationship" or not, but I would love to have my sisters in my life, finally. I feel like we missed out on so many things. Yes, mostly because of my mom and her not wanting me to have contact with Buddy, but I would really, really like to be a part, no matter how small, of your life!

      Okay, here I go crying again! These 30-something hormones are for the birds, I swear!

      Stacy


      Still in shock, Deb called her sister Renee to fill her in. And, before long, Deb and Stacy were communicating, not only via Facebook, but also over the phone. At first, Deb was nervous that they'd have nothing to say. Just because we're related by blood, doesn't mean we're going to like each other, Deb reasoned. But her fear was laid to rest instantly when she and Stacy hit it off like best girlfriends. And, every Sunday for the ensuing months, the three chatted frequently, updating each other on their lives to date.

      In May, having had her fill of the long-distance relationship, Deb decided it was time for a belated reunion.

      "You know, we can sit and talk all the time," she said, during their weekly call. "But wouldn't it be better to get together? Why don't you two come here for a short weekend over the summer?"

      The response from her sisters was favorable, and Deb took her plan one step further.

      "Why don't we make it a holiday weekend? Say, the Fourth of July? If all else fails, at least we can go see the fireworks together!"

      Everyone was in agreement. Stacy would fly in from Montrose, Colorado, on the third, and Renee would arrive the next morning from North Carolina. They could barely wait the two months before seeing each other.

      On July 3, at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Deb waited at the gate, anxious to reunite with the sister she hadn't seen for nearly forty years. And when the door opened, Stacy ran toward Deb, embracing her, as the two laughed and cried simultaneously. That day and night, everywhere they went—from the shops to the Japanese restaurant—they shared their story with anyone who'd listen.

      "We're sisters and we just re-met! No, really, we haven't seen each other in almost four decades. Can you believe it?"

      Back at Deb's house that evening, she showed Stacy family photo albums she'd never known existed, and even presented her with her birth certificate—all of which had been given to Deb when their father had passed away. They didn't discuss what had happened to separate them all those years ago, but they both took solace in the fact that—despite Buddy's absence in their lives—their father had obviously loved them very much.

      The following morning, Deb and Stacy headed back to the airport for a second reunion—at least for Stacy—with Renee. Deb, the mother hen of the bunch, was worried that her sisters might not hit it off, Stacy being more effusively affectionate, and Renee being traditionally more reserved. Not to mention the fact that Renee's non-tech-savvy existence had meant she'd communicated with Stacy less frequently.

      But, as soon as Stacy and Renee met, Deb realized her concern had been unnecessary.

      As they huddled close together, Renee laughed, saying, "I'm the tallest," standing at five-foot-three to Stacy's five feet and Deb's five-foot-two and three-quarters. The three sisters spent the rest of their short time together gossiping, sharing boisterous meals, celebrating with friends at a July 4th cookout, and—on Sunday—catching a matinee of Cirque du Soleil's "Kooza."

      As the weekend came to a close, Deb, Renee, and Stacy were reluctant to part ways. It had taken so long for them to reunite—the last thing they wanted to do was to splinter off again. "Let's do this next July Fourth, too," Renee declared. "It doesn't mean we can't see each other beforehand, but this will be our annual commitment. And you'll all come to North Carolina to visit me and my husband and our kids. Remember, Stacy's not only a sister; she's an aunt!"

      These days, Deb—who has nearly 300 Facebook friends and has opened up her page so anyone can find her—is relishing her role as the oldest of three girls. "We all text each other at least five times a day, even Renee, who doesn't have e-mail!" she reveals. "Truly, the best part of all of this, though, was seeing my two younger sisters hit it off so easily."

      And, when July 4th rolls around again, and again, and again...one thing's for sure—you'll find the Balzer sisters together, no matter where they are.


      Emily, the author of "Facebook Fairytales," continues to share inspirational stories on the book's Facebook Page.


      Tip: Share your stories here with us about interesting and inspiring ways you use Facebook.
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    • Topics: Your Stories, Facebook Fairytales
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    • A New Look for the Facebook Blog
      by Ben Barry on Friday, April 9, 2010 at 3:32pm

      As you visit the Facebook Blog today, you'll notice something different. We've launched a new design aimed at making this blog more visually appealing and helping you discover more stories about what's happening at Facebook—from our latest product launches and company announcements to our ongoing series on product tips and interesting ways people are connecting on the service.

      As we've shared more stories with you over the past year, we realized that our old blog design limited your ability to navigate and discover the most relevant posts. Now,... you'll see more navigational options, prominent sections that feature interesting stories and an easier-to-read font size.

      New features include:

      • Top Stories: As many as three stories featured at the top of the blog highlighting what we think are the most important and interesting stories.


      • Search: Now you can enter keywords in the blog search box at the top of the right-hand navigation to find posts.


      • Most Popular Stories: Near the top of the right-hand navigation, this list features links to the five most popular automatically generated on traffic, comments, likes and the timeliness of a post.


      • Topics: Every post now includes relevant topic tags so you can easily read other stories in those categories. For example, if you want to read all of the posts in our "Your Stories" series that profiles people's real-world experiences on Facebook, you can click that topic tag on a related post or from the archive.


      • Facebook Favorites: A roll call of links to other popular blogs, site sections and Pages published by us and available from the right-hand navigation.


      • Blog Archive: An archive of our blog posts, organized by topic, date and author.


      We're believers in moving fast here at Facebook, and this new blog is an example of how quickly a new employee at Facebook can have a big impact. This blog redesign was built entirely by new engineers as part of Bootcamp, our six-week training program for new engineers. The blog is powered by the Facebook Notes application, with new design elements and features built on top.

      As before, the Facebook Blog is connected with our official Facebook Page. So if you're a fan of Facebook, you'll also receive News Feed stories when we publish a new post to this blog.

      We're grateful to the more than 8 million of you who are already our fans, and we hope that you'll poke around the newest version of the Facebook Blog. Let us know what you think and what you'd like to see added in the future.


      Ben, a communication designer at Facebook, enjoys thinking about the number 42.
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    • Educating Older Adults on Broadband's Benefits
      by Debra Berlyn on Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 9:38am
      Debra Berlyn has nearly 20 years of consumer advocacy experience and is a leader on online safety issues. We've asked her to share her thoughts about helping older individuals embrace Facebook and other Internet services. Today, she is launching Project GOAL (the Project to Get Older Adults onLine).


      Mississippi Winn has a Facebook profile with 55 friends as well as a Fan Page. Like many people in the United States and around the world, she enjoys all the benefits of having a broadband connection and participating in a social network, including... communicating with family and reconnecting with friends and loved ones. But one thing sets this Shreveport, La., resident apart from your average Internet and Facebook user: She's 113 years old, which makes her the oldest living person in Louisiana and the 11th oldest living person in the world. Yes, Facebook is now an online community of not only the young but also a rapidly growing number of older adults.

      It's clear that having high-speed Internet at home can offer older individuals many benefits: telemedicine and healthcare information, the convenience and savings of shopping at home, entertainment, and of course social networking. Yet, only 35 percent of older adults (age 65 and older) have broadband at home -– and the numbers drop considerably in even older age brackets. That's why I'm excited to announce on Facebook the launch of a new effort to promote broadband adoption by the older adult community. Project GOAL (the Project to Get Older Adults onLine) will work with aging organizations to communicate the importance of getting our older community online.

      For older adults, there are significant barriers to becoming Web-savvy. First, many just don't see the value of the Internet. While most of us have a hard time prying our fingers off our computer keyboards and mobile devices, recognizing the Internet's relevance to daily life is an important part of getting older adults to start adopting broadband. Communicating about all the great things you can do and experience online is one objective of Project GOAL.

      A second reason for lower broadband adoption rates by older adults is a lack of comfort with computers. Older individuals may need help learning how to use technology. While "cutting and pasting" is second nature to most of us, my 87 year-old father thought such a task required scissors and Elmer's glue. Finally, older adults are worried that bad things can happen on the Internet. Offering tools and information regarding online safety, security and privacy for older adults is an important part of any effort to promote broadband adoption for the aging community.

      Government agencies in the United States and elsewhere are committed to increasing broadband adoption. In the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission recently released its National Broadband Plan, which was described as "a bold roadmap for the future of the Internet in America, a plan to connect America to affordable, high speed broadband." Project Goal shares this objective with a special focus on connecting our older individuals.

      Check out Project GOAL's Facebook Page and its Web site at www.theprojectgoal.org. We hope to see a time in the near future when there are many more older people like Mississippi Winn joining Facebook, connecting with friends and family, and surfing the Internet to expand their opportunities.

      Much to her daughter's dismay, Debra Berlyn has been on Facebook for a couple of years. She's still trying to convince her Dad to join.
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    • Topics: Government
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    • Responding to Your Feedback
      by Barry Schnitt on Monday, April 5, 2010 at 9:42pm

      On Saturday, we concluded the notice and comment process for our latest set of proposed changes to Facebook's governing documents. This was the fifth time we've previewed new policies and asked for feedback since we adopted this framework early last year. I'm pleased to report that during the latest week-long process, we received more than 4,000 comments from people around the world, including users, regulators, and online privacy advocates.

      As we announced at the opening of the period, these latest proposed revisions to our Privacy Policy... and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (SRR) were designed to make way for some exciting new products we're contemplating. Because not all of these products have been finalized and many aren't yet built at all, we'll be able to use your comments to help influence our product development.

      In addition to taking your feedback into account as our product teams and engineers are designing and coding, we wanted to respond to some of the common comments.

      For example, some of you commented, in connection with the proposed new Privacy Policy, that you'd like to be able to hide your Friends List. In fact, this is something that people already have the ability to do. We announced this feature back in December, and you can read more about it in our Help Center.

      Others had questions about the sections in the SRR requiring people to provide accurate information and limiting them to one account. These are not new requirements. Facebook has always been based on a real-name culture, and we feel strongly that these policies provide greater accountability and a safer and more trusted environment across the site.

      Still others asked to be opted-out of having their information shared with advertisers. This reflects a common misconception about advertising on Facebook. We don't share your information with advertisers unless you tell us to (e.g. to get a sample, hear more, or enter a contest). Any assertion to the contrary is false. Period. Instead, we enable advertisers to target anonymized demographics and attributes. That is, a company selling boats can target people between 40 and 50 years old who expressed an interest in boating. However, we never provide the advertiser any names or other information about the people who are shown, or even who click on, the ads.

      We also received questions about the proposed new language in the Privacy Policy relating to our plans to work with some pre-approved partner websites to offer a personalized experience when you arrive at these sites. Based on your comments, we think it's important to clarify a couple of points, even though this program has not yet been launched or even finalized.

      First, it's important to underscore that this will be a test with a handful of carefully selected partners to provide express personalization on their sites. These partners will be pre-selected, reviewed, and bound by contracts with Facebook – much like other partners we have worked with in other contexts to deliver unique and innovative experiences. For example, we're working with Yahoo! to integrate Facebook across their properties, AOL to integrate our chat with AIM, and we first partnered with CNN.com to make their broadcast of the Presidential Inauguration more social with the launch of the Facebook live stream application.

      In addition, partners who participate in this test will be required to provide an easy and prominent method for you to opt out directly from their website and delete your data if you do opt out. There will also be new features on Facebook.com to help you control your experience when you visit these sites.

      In sum, the core idea behind this test is to work with partners to enable them to present you with a better, more relevant, and tailored experience when you visit their sites. While we have not finalized these features or partnerships, we think this is an exciting opportunity to make surfing the web a smoother and more engaging experience for people who use Facebook.

      We're committed to building products that advance what's possible for people who want more personalized and social experiences on the Web. We're equally committed to evolving our products and technologies in a way that respects the trust you have put into Facebook.

      As always, thanks for participating in our open governance process and sharing your feedback with us. We expect the new documents to be live on the site in the coming days. Stay tuned for future updates by becoming a fan of the Facebook Site Governance Page.


      Barry is a director on Facebook's communications and public policy team.

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    • Topics: Privacy, Site governance, Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (SRR)
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    • Love Thy Neighbor on Facebook
      by Sara Lannin on Friday, April 2, 2010 at 11:34am

      Meeting the new neighbors no longer requires a Welcome Wagon. Neighbors instead are turning to Facebook to build a greater sense of community online to complement the traditional block parties and neighborly door knocking. Current residents find that they can more quickly share are information, news and events with one another, while former neighbors can reminisce and keep roots in their former communities.

      A Neighborhood Reunion


      ...In April of 2009, while visiting her 24-year-old son in San Diego, Janet Pampuro was surprised to run into an old acquaintance from high school in Salinas, Calif. He told her about the friends he'd reconnected with on Facebook, and insisted she "really needed to get on." Intrigued, Janet enlisted her son's help to set up an account.

      Janet immediately began finding friends from high school, but she was more amazed to discover some of her former neighbors—the playmates she'd shared many of her childhood memories with while growing up on Bruce Avenue in Salinas.

      "By 1966 some key players on the block began to move away", explained Janet, who now lives about 20 miles away from the neighborhood. "I stayed in touch with a few people but didn't know where a lot of them were when I joined Facebook."

      A friend of Janet's from the neighborhood, Patty, created a group "Friends of Bruce Avenue, Salinas, California!" for the old friends to share memories. It wasn't long before many of the former neighbors decided a reunion was necessary. The group used Facebook to coordinate a date, time and location. While a few people still lived near the neighborhood, others traveled from as far away as Phoenix or Sacramento to see each other.



      Janet hosted the Bruce Avenue reunion in August at her father's house, only a few months after she had joined Facebook. "We were all much older but the same old wise guys with each other," Janet said.

      Together, the old friends and playmates walked the neighborhood, pausing to take photos in front of their former homes, reminisce about significant landmarks, and talk with the street's current residents. "We are all back together again and still communicating on Facebook on a regular basis," Janet said.

      Talking Garbage and Lost Pets


      The Hillcrest neighborhood encompasses a small, historic area within Little Rock, Ark. For the area's lucky inhabitants, the "I Love Hillcrest" Facebook Page provides a resource with a clear purpose, stating, "This page is for Fans of Hillcrest to keep up with what's happening in the neighborhood, post photos of the 'hood, and post discussions of the good ol' days or talk about current events." With nearly 2,500 fans, the Page has so far been a resounding success.

      Fans of the page frequently post on the Wall to share a wide variety of news with their neighbors, ranging from upcoming community events to the adjusted holiday garbage collection schedule. The page has become a particularly great resource among owners searching for lost pets, with at least one dog reunited as a direct result of a photo uploaded and shared to the Page.

      Remember When...


      The town of Scottsville is a small historic village in upstate New York, just south of Rochester. For those residents who love their home, or the former residents who wish to reminisce about the past, the group "You know you are from SCOTTSVILLE, NY when:" helps them to connect and share stories about all things unique to Scottsville.
      Band photo from Scottsdale group.

      The 722 members of the group primarily share anecdotes and memories on the Wall—often in a format that fills in the the rest of the sentence prompted by of the group's title. According to group member and Facebook employee, David Swain, who grew up in Scottsville but now lives in California, "It's been really interesting and special to see people from several generations coming together to share memories and post photos."

      David was particularly entertained when he noticed someone had posted a photo of a high school band from the early 1960's. Below the photo, several people had started commenting and mentioned a different band that came a few years later—The Riot Squad. "That was my dad's band," explained David, "it was pretty cool for me to see their name 40 years later, as I've never heard anyone mention the band other than relatives!"


      Sara, an intern on Facebook's communications team, is reconnecting with her former neighbors in Edina, Minnesota.
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