National Post

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nparts:

This year’s Sheridan illustration program graduates are part of a new movement. Illustrationism is a collaborative effort that encourages illustrators and admirers to document and share their work through social media. Using the hashtag #illustrationism, illustrations are captured in an ever-growing online platform where the content creates and forms the concept ‘Illustrationism.’ See the grad exhibit for yourself April 19 at 99 Sudbury St. in Toronto. For more, visit illustrationism.com.

Facebook files for US$5-billion IPO
Facebook Inc. founder Mark Zuckerberg wants to change the world, conquer Wall Street and usher in a new dawn for Silicon Valley, just don’t expect him to relinquish any control over his company along the way.

Wednesday afternoon, the 27-year-old Mr. Zuckerberg laid out in black and white his mission statement for how Facebook will revolutionize human interaction on the Internet, in full public view for the first time, as the Palo Alto, California-based company finally announced plans to hold a US$5-billion initial public offering (IPO).

For Mr. Zuckerberg, the filing represents the culmination of a journey that began almost exactly eight years ago when he created a social networking site known as “The Facebook” in his Harvard University dorm room, and has seen him become the target of high profile lawsuits, the subject of a Hollywood biopic and the youngest billionaire on the planet.

If the offering hits the higher end of its range — valuing the company at about US$100-billion — Mr. Zuckerberg would be worth more than $28-billion, making him one of the ten richest people in the world.  Facebook’s IPO also portends to turns thousands of its employees into millionaires, and several into billionaires, and further solidifies the social networking giant as one of the key power brokers in the digital age.

With more than 845 million active users each month, Facebook is the default home on the Web for nearly 14% of the world’s population and one of a handful of companies — along with Apple Inc., Google Inc. and Twitter Inc. — in a position to shape the future of the social Web and reap the benefits of the billions of advertising dollars flowing onto the Internet each year. (Photo: Scott Eells/Bloomberg)

Twitter to censor content in some countries
Twitter announced Thursday that it would begin restricting Tweets in certain countries, marking a policy shift for the social media platform that helped propel the popular uprisings recently sweeping across the Middle East.

“As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression,” Twitter wrote in a blog post published Thursday.

Twitter gave as examples of restrictions it might cooperate with “certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content.”

A Twitter spokeswoman declined to elaborate on the blog.

“Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country while keeping it available in the rest of the world,” the Twitter blog said.

Twitter’s decision to begin censoring content represents a significant departure from its policy just one year ago, when anti-government protesters in Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab countries coordinated mass demonstrations through on the social network and, in the process, thrust Twitter’s disruptive potential into the global spotlight. (Brett Gundlock/National Post)

Facebook Canada unveils ‘Memology 2011′ report
According to Facebook’s “Memology 2011″ report, which was released early Wednesday morning, “Like My Status” or “LMS” was the most discussed item in the status updates of Canada’s 18 million Facebook users this year.

Generation Me, indeed.

It could be worse. Not only did “LMS” top Facebook’s Memology rankings in the United States, but much to the chagrin of English professors everywhere, “TBH” or “To be Honest” ranked No. 2.

Setting aside odd Facebook trends, Canadians devoted more Facebook status updates to the death and memory of the late NDP leader Jack Layton than they did anything else.

Graphic: Follow the tweets of the Occupy movement
The Occupy movement began with a single tweet from Adbusters and has grown to more than 550,000 Twitter posts from around the world. Take a look to see where the hotspots are.

Graphic: Voters care little about platforms, controversies in Ontario election, Twitter shows
If the war of the words online is any predictor of the upcoming Ontario election, this campaign will likely come down to which leader seems most trustworthy, with the party platforms and political missteps virtually ignored by voters.

Words like “lie” and “tax” have stuck to both Liberal Dalton McGuinty and Conservative Tim Hudak throughout the campaign thanks to the parties’ aggressive online attacks, an analysis by the National Post of nearly 200,000 tweets about the Ontario election has found.

Zetas drug cartel targets Mexican social networks with execution
On Saturday, the body of Marisol Macias Castaneda, newsroom manager for a local newspaper in the border town of Nuevo Laredo, Mex., was found in a park.

The 39-year-old, who frequently contributed to local social networking sites under the nickname “Laredo Girl,” had been battered, butchered and decapitated.

Her head was placed on a nearby decorative cement pillar next to a hand-written poster as a warning to others who dare to discuss the crimes of the drug cartels online.

“Nuevo Laredo Live and [other] social networking sites, I’m the ‘Laredo Girl’ and I’m here because of my reports, and yours,” it said.

“For those who don’t want to believe, this happened to me because of my actions, for believing in the army and the navy.”

It was signed: “Thank you for your attention, respectfully, Laredo Girl … ZZZZ.”

The Zs are a signature of the dreaded Zetas drug cartel, a gang founded by military deserters who have become infamous for mass murders and gruesome executions.

So Weiner wasn’t really hacked, he DID tweet pictures of his package on Twitter. Above, Gary Clement’s take.

National Post front page for April 21, 2011

War photographers’ last battle zone
Tweet a revolution, but not an election
Let’s add fact to health debate
P.E.I. man’s posthumous assist

sunfoundation:

GeoPollster and the National Post partner for upcoming Canadian election

The National Post has partnered with GeoPollster to conduct a social experiment in the run-up to the upcoming Canadian federal election on May 2. Foursquare users can register their accounts with GeoPollster Canada. Each checkin will count as a “vote” for their preferred political party.

A GeoPollster Canada page on the National Post site will track the votes by province, city and venue. Each party will have an opportunity to “seize control” of each of those divisions, giving people an idea of where the party stands — at least amongst foursquare users.

(Source: )

Social media networks like Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr have been some of the best ways to stay up to date with the events in Egypt. Here’s our quick guide to using these tools to keep up with developments in the Middle East.

Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

Charting a revolution on 140 characters or less

Tunisia’s so-called Twitter Revolution is different than the Iranian and Moldovan ones that preceded it: Some say Twitter saved lives in Tunisia. There were tweets warning of sniper locations, tweets asking for blood donation, and tweets organizing protests. At least one man, known on Twitter as BulletSkan, says he is still breathing because of the social network. Indeed, in some ways, Twitter was used as a way to navigate the tumult on the ground.

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