In December, Facebook made a series of bold and controversial changes regarding the nature of its users' privacy on the social networking site. The company once known for protecting privacy to the point of exclusivity (it began its days as a network for college kids only - no one else even had access), now seemingly wants to compete with more open social networks like the microblogging media darling Twitter.
TED Talks: While news from Iran streams to the world, Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics.
Without much surprise there has been significant movement within some of the social networks over the course of the last year. Brian Chappell from Ignite Social Media has put together a comprehensive report based on data from all major social networks existing on the web.
The power of collaborative effort, especially relevant to us Pittsburghers. People can report on the road and snow conditions on streets close to where they live.