More interesting, Amouranth might become the first Twitch personality to become a social media Adam Carolla in an inflatable kiddie pool.
An Arnold Law of Online
January 18, 2022
I spotted “My First Impressions of Web3.” Interesting. I have been keeping since the 1980s what I call Arnold’s Laws of Online Information. Maybe I will publish a list of these. For now I want to point out this Law:
Online seeks centralization.
The late Robert David Steele and I argued about the Web 3 idea. He believed that online could be distributed, thus breaking the grip of monopolies. I pointed out that online is inherently powered by discrete services which first affiliate (links), then clump, and eventually end up moving toward the Ma Bell model. Break up an online service and what happens? The process repeats itself.
Web3 is an interesting idea, but as “My First Impressions of Web3” points out:
I don’t think it’s on a trajectory to deliver us from centralized platforms…
I agree because it sure looks like this Arnold Law is a keeper. Why? Efficiency, money, power, ego, and control. Saying one thing while the behavior of online charts another course is nothing new.
Stephen E Arnold, January 8, 2022
DarkCyber for January 18, 2022 Now Available : An Interview with Dr. Donna M. Ingram
January 18, 2022
The fourth series of DarkCyber videos kicks off with an interview. You can view the program on YouTube at this link. Dr. Donna M. Ingram is the author of a new book titled “Help Me Learn Statistics.” The book is available on the Apple ebook store and features interactive solutions to the problems used to reinforce important concepts explained in the text. In the interview, Dr. Ingram talks about sampling, synthetic data, and a method to reduce the errors which can creep into certain analyses. Dr. Ingram’s clients include financial institutions, manufacturing companies, legal subrogration customers, and specialized software companies.
Kenny Toth, January 18, 2022
Amazon Twitch Vs Star Amouranth
January 17, 2022
The stars of new media are creating a new twist on the Hollywood studio moguls fight to control the stars of the silver screen. Class Struggle in Hollywood, 1930-1950: Moguls, Mobsters, Stars, Reds, and Trade Unionists documents some of the power struggles. Yep, you can buy it from Amazon, the outfit which is one of moguls, mobsters, stars, reds, and trade unionists-type protagonists in the study by Gerald Horne.
The modern social media spin is that Amazon Twitch finds itself in an uncomfortable old school Hollywood moment. Its “audience” is manufacturing or spawning “stars.” Unlike the digitally inhibited book publishers, Amazon Twitch is now finding it more difficult to corral and manage the streamers. These individuals with fame blasting into orbit with unique insights and talent allow Amazon Twitch to sell ads. And those ads? Pre rolls demand attention before one knows if the Twitch creator is online, doing the BRB (be right back) pause, or just leaving the inflatable pool naked in the digital stream. The ad produces revenue and the person wanting to form a digital bond with the star gets annoyed. Even Amouranth haters have to endure ads in order to post angry emojis and often hostile comments in the starlet’s live stream.
“Amouranth Calls for Twitch to Start Revealing Ban Reasons for Streamers” includes some interesting observations and statements, some attributed to the social media starlet Kaitlyn Siragusa aka Amouranth. (One of her talent is creating video hooks like chewing on a microphone whilst breathing and donning a swim suit and splashing in an inflatable kiddie pool. She is also pretty good at getting media attention and free publicity. Plus she allegedly owns a convenience store. Did you, gentle reader, when you were 29 years old?)
The write up includes this statement:
Amouranth has called for that to change, and soon ?— according to the Amazon platform’s top female streamer, Twitch must change their tune, start being clearer when it comes to explaining bans for suspended stars, and finally “accept accountability” for the site’s rules.
She is quoted in the write up as saying:
“They [Amazon Twitch] do it because they don’t want the accountability of telling you what you did wrong. They don’t want to be in charge of upholding their own policies.”
Before you scoff at her talent, consider the allegation: A large technology outfit which is believed by some to be a monopoly type operation wants the money, wants the control, and does not want to upfront about who gets punished and who does not.
If the assertion is accurate, the social media star’s “situation” could become a flywheel and bump into the flywheel inside the Amazon money machine. Think in terms of one Tour de France racer bumping into another racer’s machine.
Amouranth is a human, and the products which Amazon offers are not. Amazon’s services are not people to the bits and bytes either. But Amouranth, the talent, is a human, and the human can create some waves. In a phone chat with one of my research team, we identified these momentum enhancers:
- Amouranth can claim discrimination and take her objection to a legal eagle or — heaven help the US government — one of the committees investigating the behavior of the largely unfettered tech giants. Wow, Amouranth testifying and then doing the talking head circuit.
- Amouranth can enlist the support of other individuals who have allegedly been digitally and financial abused by the high school science club management methods in use at some of the other high-tech, “we do what we want” outfits. Are there unhappy YouTubers out there who would respond to a call for action from a fellow traveler.
- An outfit struggling for traction — maybe a BitBucket like set up? — could make a play for these stars and use their followers to kick a video streaming service into gear? What happens if a somewhat rudderless operation in the streaming business embraces Amouranth and pulls off a Joe Rogan-type of deal? Imagine having Amouranth on ESPN as a commentator for a sports event which pulls an audience so small it’s tough to measure? What about Amouranth on the Disney Channel? (Come on, Minnie. Join Amouranth in her inflatable pool. Let an Amazon accountant manage the money from the program’s ad revenue.)
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Net net: Amouranth may be a starlet-type problem for Amazon Twitch. If not managed in an astute manner, a disruption of considerable size could result and travel at the speed of social media. Ad hoc censorship may have a hefty price tag.
Stephen E Arnold, January 17, 2022
Business Intelligence: Popping Up a Level Pushes Search into the Background
January 17, 2022
I spotted a diagram in this Data Science Central article “Business Intelligence Analytics in One Picture.” The diagram takes business intelligence and describes it as an “umbrella term.” From my point of view, this popping up a conceptual label creates confusion. First, can anyone define “intelligence” as the word is used in computer sectors. Now how about “artificial intelligence,” “government intelligence,” or “business intelligence.” Each of these phrases is designed to sidestep the problem of explaining what functions are necessary to produce useful or higher value information.
Let’s take an example. Business intelligence suggests that information about a market, a competitor, a potential new hire, or a technology can be produced, obtained (fair means or foul means), or predicted (fancy math, synthetic data, etc.) The core idea is gaining an advantage. That is too crude for many professionals who are providers of business intelligence; for example, the mid tier consulting firms cranking out variations of General Eisenhower’s four square graph or a hyperbole cycle.
Business intelligence is a marketing confection. The graph identifies specific “components” of business intelligence. Some of the techniques necessary to obtain high value information are not included; for example, running a fake job posting designed to attract employees who currently work at the company one is subject to a business intelligence process, surveillance via mobile phones, sitting in a Starbucks watching and eavesdropping, or using analytic procedures to extract “secrets” from publicly available documents like patent applications, among others.
Business intelligence is not doing any of those things because they are [a] unethical, [b] illegal, [c] too expensive, or [d] difficult. The notion of “ethical behavior” is an interesting one. We have certain highly regarded companies taking actions which some in government agencies find improper. Nevertheless, the actions continue, not for a week or two but for decades. So maybe ethics applied to business intelligence is a non-starter. Nevertheless, certain research groups are quick to point out that unethical information gathering is not the dish served as conference luncheons.
Here are the elements or molecules of business intelligence:
- Data mining
- Data visualization
- Data preparation
- Data analytics
- Performance metrics / benchmarking
- Querying
- Reporting
- Statistical analysis
- Visual analysis
Data mining, data analytics, performance metrics / benchmarking, and statistical analysis strike me as one thing: Numerical procedures.
Now the list looks like this:
- Numerical procedures
- Data visualization
- Data preparation
- Querying
- Reporting
- Visual analysis
Let’s concatenate data visualization and visual analysis into one function: Producing charts and graphs.
Now the list looks like this:
- Producing charts and graphs
- Data preparation
- Numerical procedures
- Querying
- Reporting.
Querying, in this simplification, has moved from one of nine functions to one of five functions.
What’s up with business intelligence whipping up disciplines? Is the goal to make business intelligence more important? Is it a buzzword exercise so consultants can preach doom and sell snake oil? Is it a desire to add holiday lights and ornaments to distract people from what business intelligence is?
My hunch is that business intelligence professionals don’t want to use the words spying, surveillance, intercepts, eavesdrop, or operate like a nation state’s intelligence agency professionals.
One approach is business intelligence which seems to mean good, mathy, and valuable. The spy approach is bad and could lead to an on one Lifetime Report Card.
The fact is that one of the most important components of any intelligence operation is asking the right question. Without querying, masses of data, statistics software, and online experts with MBAs would not be able to find an online ad using Google.
Net net: The chart makes spying and surveillance into a math-centric operation. The chart fails to provide a hierarchy based on asking the right question. Will the diagram help sell business intelligence consulting and services? The scary answer is, “Absolutely.”
Stephen E Arnold, January 14, 2022
UK Legal Eagles Circle the Facebook ATM
January 17, 2022
I read “Facebook Parent Meta Faces $3.1B UK Class Action for Breach of Competition Law.” In a blistering rapid response to the Cambridge Analytica misstep, legal eagles have realized that Facebook may have taken some liberties with the notion of market dominance, information collection, and downstream use of those data about its much loved customers.
The article states (once one gets past the pop up ads from everyone’s favorite moguls at the News Corp.):
The suit. If successful, would have Facebook paying $3.1 billion in damages to Facebook U.K. users. The lawsuit was filed with the U.K.’s Competition Appeal Tribunal in London.
From my point of view, the action is a way to get a large, US technology company to output a bale of cash for its behaviors. Although $3.1 billion is a respectable number, Facebook’s approximate daily revenue intake is in the neighborhood of a $100 billion, give or take a few billion. That works out to a week and a half of revenue.
Bad but not that bad. Will the treasured Facebook customers get the money if the class action suit prevails? Sure, absolutely just after fees and other costs. Such a deal and one that will definitely chasten Facebook, Meta, whatever.
Stephen E Arnold, January 17, 2022
Alleged Collusion Between Meta and Google: Shocking Sort Of
January 17, 2022
“Google and Facebook’s Top Execs Allegedly Approved Dividing Ad Market among Themselves” reports:
The alleged 2017 deal between Google and Facebook to kill header bidding, a way for multiple ad exchanges to compete fairly in automated ad auctions, was negotiated by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, and endorsed by both Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (now with Meta) and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, according to an updated complaint filed in the Texas-led antitrust lawsuit against Google.
Fans of primary research can read the 242 page amended filing at this link.
One question arises: How could two separate companies engage is discussions to divide a market? Perhaps one clue is the presence of the estimable lean in professional Sheryl Sandberg, who joined Google 2001 after blazing a trail in economics, McKinsey-type thinking familiar to many today as the pharma brain machine, and then some highly productive US government work.
At the Google she was a general manager. Her Googley behavior earned her a promotion. She was one of the thinkers shaping the outstanding revenue generation system known as AdWords. She added her special touch of McKinsey-ness to AdSense to the Gil Ebaz smart system packaged as Applied Semantics aka Oingo. The important point about applied semantics is that the technology included what I think of as steering or directionality; that is, one uses semantic information to herd the doggies (users) down the trail (consumption of ad inventory. For more on this notion of steering yo8u will want to listen to my interview with Dr. Donna Ingram who addresses this issue in the DarkCyber, 4th series, Number 1 video program to be released on January 18, 2022.
In 2007, chatting at the party helped her migrate from the Google to the company formerly known as Facebook. Ms. Sandberg, Harvard graduate with a chubby contact list, joined the scintillating management team as the social network engineering machine. In 2012, she became a member of the company’s board of directors. She leaned in to her role until some “real” news outfits flipped over the mossy rock of Cambridge Analytica’s benchmark marketing methods.
Ms. Sandberg was recognized by Professor Shoshana Zuboff as the Typhoid Mary of surveillance capitalism. Is that a Meta T shirt yet? He book is a must read. It is called Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. It appeared in 2013 and may be due for an update to include the Cambridge Analytica misunderstanding, the Frances Haugen revelations, and, of course, the current Texas-sized legal matter.
The write up cited above points out a statement from the Google. The main idea is that the idea is “full of inaccuracies and lacks legal merit.”
I believe everything I read on the Internet. I accept the Google search output when I query “Silicon Valley ethics” – Theranos. I trust in the Meta thing because how could two outfits collude? I think such interactions are highly improbable in Silicon Valley, the home of straight shooting.
Stephen E Arnold, January 17, 2022
Big Tech: Back in Front of Informed Elected Officials Again
January 14, 2022
I read “Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Tech Giants after Inadequate Responses.” The write up states:
The subpoenas demand that Facebook, Google, Reddit and Twitter turn over more information about what they did and didn’t do in the lead-up to Jan. 6.
I stopped reading. Here’s what went on in my mind with the same impact as a trailer for “Don’t Look Up.”
ELECTED OFFICIAL INTERROGATES HIGH TECH EXECUTIVE:
Were you aware that your service was used to coordinate activities related to the January 6, 2022, incident in the months leading up to the date?
HIGH TECH EXECUTIVE RESPONSE:
Respectfully congressperson, our system is automated and appropriate actions were taken in real time by our artificial intelligence content moderation system.
ELECTED OFFICIAL INTERROGATES HIGH TECH EXECUTIVE:
What actions were taken?
HIGH TECH EXECUTIVE RESPONSE:
Congressperson, thank you for the question, I will have to obtain specific information after I return to my home office. I will forward that data to you and will answer any questions you have.
ELECTED OFFICIAL INTERROGATES HIGH TECH EXECUTIVE:
What do you know about the use of your platform to coordinate activities on the day of January 6, 2021?
HIGH TECH EXECUTIVE RESPONSE:
Congressperson, thank you for the question, I do not have at this time any knowledge of what our systems or the managers of those systems did on that particular day. I will, of course, gather any information available and provide that to your office.
ELECTED OFFICIAL INTERROGATES HIGH TECH EXECUTIVE:
We did ask for that information, and you did not provide the information. What do you have to say for yourself?
HIGH TECH EXECUTIVE RESPONSE:
Congressperson, I appreciate the opportunity to respond to that question. We did provide information about the January 6, 2021, incident. If that information was not what was needed, I sincerely apologize for the misunderstanding. I am really, really, really sorry. Immediately after this hearing, I will coordinate with my team. We definitely will provide any data available to us from the events which took place more than one year ago. With the hard copies, we will include a selection of tchotchkes, including our mouse pad with color logo, a flashing LED logo pin, and a T shirt for you. Are you a size extra large or extra extra large?
ELECTED OFFICIAL INTERROGATES HIGH TECH EXECUTIVE:
Thank you for your testimony, but it seems familiar to me. My time is up. I yield to my colleague from the great State of California.
Stephen E Arnold, January 14, 2022
Apple: The Privacy Outfit
January 14, 2022
I have avoided writing about Apple’s handy dandy stalker gadgets. Those are some super special privacy centric gizmos, aren’t they? I will, however, point anyone with an interest in Apple’s privacy approach to “Your iPhone Can Secretly Listen to Conversations with AirPods — Here’s How.” Good actors and bad actors may get some surveillance ideas. The article says:
Apple’s Live Listen feature lets you hear someone speaking around 50 feet away.
That’s handy, isn’t it?
Allegedly the system works with AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, Powerbeats Pro or Beats Fit Pro.
For the how to, absorb the information in the article, which includes illustrative screen shots. Yep, Apple is definitely into profits, ooops, I meant privacy.
Stephen E Arnold, January 14, 2022
A Small Reminder: Finding Accurate, Actionable Information Is More Than Marketing Hoo-hah
January 14, 2022
Information retrieval ignites many interesting discussions. In our global environment, factionalism is the soup du jour. Talking about search can triggering dysphagia if a foot is consumed or apoplexy if one’s emotions go ballistic.
To keep search chatter in balance, I recommend “Scoop: IBM Tries to Sell Watson Health Again.” The write up does an non-job of romping through the craziness of IBM Watson and assorted medical windmills. There is one telling passage in the write up which I wish to highlight; to wit:
Big Blue wants out of health care, after spending billions to stake its claim, just as rival Oracle is moving big into the sector via its $28 billion bet for Cerner.
What’s up with IBM Watson in general and health care in particular? Several observations from my snowy redoubt in rural Kentucky, a state which has failed to emulate the business success of Tennessee. Is it Mitch? I don’t know.
Now my thoughts:
- Answering questions about scientific, technical, and medical questions is less demanding than figuring out what a TikTok message means. Failing in STM is like tripping over a bottle cap in a deserted NFL stadium’s parking lot
- Watson and its cognitive assertions requires training. Training is expensive. Google is working hard to convince itself and others to embrace the Snorkelesque approach. Watson’s method is a bit behind the sail boat’s curve in my opinion. Maybe the training race is over and Watson is in dry dock.
- The crazy assertions that cancer doctors could work better, faster, and more cheaply with Watson by their side resulted in one major event. The flashy Houston medical center showed Watson where the Exit door was located.
What will happen when a group of money people buy Watson? Lots of meetings, some tax planning, and quite a few telephone calls to college friends. Then a flip.
Will Watson health emerge a winner? IBM missed its chance the first time around. Perhaps the company can team with other health care competitors and craft a revenue winner. Will IBM ring up the Google? Will IBM make a trip to Redmond, home of the OS/2 debacle?
Who knows? Perhaps the company will apply some effort to fixing up its lagging cloud business? Again, who knows? Let’s ask Watson.
Stephen E Arnold, January 14, 2022
Easier Targets for Letter Signers: Joe Rogan and Spotify
January 13, 2022
YouTube received a missive from fact checkers exhorting the online ad giant to do more to combat misinformation. Ah, would there were enough fact checkers. YouTube, despite having lots of money, is an easier target for government regulators. Poke Googzilla in the nose or pull its charming tail, and the beast does a few legal thrashes and then outputs money. France and Russia love this beast baiting. Fact checkers? Not exactly in the same horsepower class as the country with fancy chickens or hearty Siberians wearing hats made of furry creatures.
I noted “Scientists, Doctors Call on Spotify to Implement Misinformation Policy Over Claims on Joe Rogan Show.” Spotify is not yet a Google-type of operation. Furthermore the point of concern is a person who was a paid cheerleader for that outstanding and humane sporting activity mixed martial arts. My recollection is that Mr. Rogan received some contractual inducements to provide content to the music service and cable TV wannabe. He allegedly has a nodding acquaintance with intravenous vitamin drips, creatine, and fish oil. You can purchase mugs from which one can guzzle quercetin liquid. Yum yum yum. Plus you can enjoy these Rogan-centric products wearing a Joe Rogan T shirt. (Is that a a mystic symbol or an insect on the likenesses’ forehead?)
The write up states:
More than 260 doctors, nurses, scientists, health professionals and others have signed an open letter calling on the streaming media platform Spotify to “implement a misinformation policy” in the wake of controversy over podcaster Joe Rogan’s promotion of an anti-vaccine rally with discredited scientist Robert Malone in an episode published on December 31st. Rogan has repeatedly spread vaccine misinformation and discouraged vaccine use. The December episode attracted attention in part because Dr. Malone falsely claimed millions of people were “hypnotized” to believe certain facts about COVID-19, and that people standing in line to get tested as the omicron variant has driven record new cases of the virus was an example of “mass formation psychosis,” a phenomenon that does not exist.
Impressive. The hitch in the git along is that Mr. Rogan attracts more eyeballs and listeners than some mainstream news outlets. He is an entertainer, and one might make the case that he is a comedian, pulling the leg of guests and of some listeners. I think of him as an intellectual Adam Carolla. Note that I am aware of the academic credentials of both of these stars.
The larger issue is that these letters beef up the résumé of the publicists working on these missives. Arguments and discussions in online for a whip up eddies of concern.
There are a few problems:
- Misinformation, disinformation, and reformation of factual data are standard functions of the human.
- Identifying and offering counter arguments depends upon one’s point of view.
- Spotify receives content and makes it available. Conduits are not as efficient in modifying what an entertainer does in near real time before the entertainer entertains.
Why not tell Spotify to drop Mr. Rogan? Money, contracts, and the still functional freedom of speech thing.
Will more letters arrive this week? My hunch is that the French, Russian, et al approach might ultimately be more pragmatic. Whom does the publicity for the control Rogan letter benefit?
Maybe Mr. Rogan?
Stephen E Arnold, January 13, 2022
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