[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4Cast #282: Social readers fail?

[Editor]

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OPLIN 4Cast

OPLIN 4Cast #282: Social readers fail?
May 16th, 2012

<http://www.oplin.org/4cast/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/social-reading.png>Before 
you start worrying, we're not talking about people who read together in 
"social" book clubs; today we're talking about social reader apps on 
Facebook. These apps let you read news items and blog postings, as well 
as comment on them, without leaving Facebook. Some choose news items for 
you based on your Facebook information or on topics that are trending 
among your friends. Many also share what you've been reading with your 
friends. They've been around for about a year and have been most widely 
offered by newspapers, which use them to boost readership. But now some 
data suggests that their popularity is falling rapidly.

  * How to save social readers from extinction
    <http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/05/14/social-readers/>
    (Fortune/Alex Konrad) "Like a twenty-first century version of the
    loud-mouthed newsy on the corner, readers from the likes of /The
    Guardian/ and /The Washington Post/ allow users to peruse articles
    while sharing their literary habits with friends and contacts on
    Facebook. That's all well and good when you're reading a sober,
    in-depth analysis of super-PAC financing, for instance. But
    broadcasting that diversionary gallery of Lindsay Lohan's evolving
    locks? Not so much."
  * Facebook social readers are all collapsing
    <http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/facebook-social-readers-are-all-collapsing>
    (BuzzFeed/John Herrman) "My brain already associates those little
    blocks of auto-fed stories with second-class content. I mean, I
    /know/ my friends didn't really mean to show it to me. Why would I
    click? And god, why would I sign up for the thing that seems to have
    tricked its way into my timeline? It's an app that broadcasts
    internet illiteracy for everyone to see."
  * Privacy perils of social reading
    <http://www.kurzweilai.net/privacy-perils-of-social-reading>
    (KurzweilAI News) "[Privacy law expert Neil] Richards notes that the
    work of the American Libraries Association and its Office of
    Intellectual Freedom (OIF) offers an attractive solution to the
    problem of reader records. 'The OIF has argued passionately and
    correctly for the importance of solitary reading as well as the
    ethical need for those who enable reading - librarians, but also
    Internet companies - to protect the privacy and confidentiality of
    reading records,' he says."
  * Data shows social readers have mixed results, but aren't
    'collapsing'
    <http://www.insidefacebook.com/2012/05/07/data-shows-social-readers-have-mixed-results-but-arent-collapsing/>
    (Inside Facebook/Brittany Darwell) "Many users have complained about
    social reader applications, mostly those that require users to
    authorize the app and share their activity in order to read any
    article. We recommend developers add clear controls for users to
    decide what to share, when and with whom. There also seems to be a
    lack of explanation of what users gain from enabling this type of
    sharing."

*/Popularity fact:/*

The Washington Post social reader was one of the first available and 
once had 17 million monthly users, but now has less than 10 million.
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