Introducing the Internet.org App • Hacker News Board

Re: Introducing the Internet.org App

#11

Post by walterbell » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 7:46 AM UTC

quink wrote: post #4

> The Internet.org app will be available first to Airtel subscribers in Zambia and we’ll continue to improve the experience and roll it out to other parts of the world. And by coincidence this is how net neutrality as a concept will not be a thing in Zambia going forward. Screw you, Facebook. Your efforts to lock in the next few billion into an ecosystem controlled by you are utterly despicable. http://i.imgur.com/5R…

It's unfortunate that 7 commercial entities have adopted the internet.org brand. When I read the headline, I assumed this was from the Internet Society, but they are http://www.internetsociety.org .

Anyone know which non-profit organizations have a governance role in internet.org?

Re: Introducing the Internet.org App

#12

Post by spicyj » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 7:47 AM UTC

dm2 wrote: post #5

I guess it's official, Facebook isn't going anywhere and will continue to become more and more part of our lives. They're getting close to the level of Google (which I do trust with my data because they are transparent about most issues before people start asking them to be). http://newsroom.fb.com/pages-directory/ http://newsroom.fb.com/resources-projects/ We can avoid Facebook all we want but one of these days ther…

> I wish they would allow us to restrict what information was given to apps, whether or not the apps "required" it. I never login with Facebook but sometimes check the permissions it asks for, all friends, all info, etc are the norm. I don't want any service to have access to my list of friends, I just don't trust them not to misuse the data or to have the data stolen.

In the new API version announced at F8 this year (which will be required for all apps as of next summer) users can choose upon authorizing an app which permissions to provide, and friends' data is no longer included as it was before.

Re: Introducing the Internet.org App

#13

Post by sgarbi » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 7:49 AM UTC

you want the internet to be widespread? Promote things like long-range wifi and mesh networks.

Re: Introducing the Internet.org App

#14

Post by sparkzilla » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 7:49 AM UTC

First Ebola, now Facebook.

Re: Introducing the Internet.org App

#15

Post by aaronbrethorst » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 7:50 AM UTC

One of my sisters and her husband live in Zambia, where they do public health work. Specifically, he works on malaria[1], and one of the greatest challenges he faces is field data collection. Enabling everyone with a compatible phone to send in data would, I'm sure, be incredibly valuable.

I'm bummed that there aren't any public health tools included in this app. Hopefully they'll consider adding something like that in the future.

[1] Malaria affects almost 1/3 of the country's population annually: http://www.unicef.org/zambia/5109_8454.html

Re: Introducing the Internet.org App

#16

Post by dm2 » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 7:55 AM UTC

sgarbi wrote: post #13

you want the internet to be widespread? Promote things like long-range wifi and mesh networks.

This is a great idea for Facebook! They're in the perfect position to have widespread adoption quickly and the service would be invaluable. Privacy would be key though, they'd have to opensource it and prove to people that it's secure and private.

Re: Introducing the Internet.org App

#17

Post by frik » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 7:55 AM UTC

happyshadows wrote: post #8

Seems like a throwback to the days of the web portal (ala Yahoo.)

yes, like a mixture of:

* original The Microsoft Network (1994-1995) the MSN client that shipped with Win95 (instead of a web browser) that was meant as an alternative to the WWW; or similar limited portal services like America Online, CompuServe that are now obsolete

* portal websites with widgets like Yahoo, AltaVista, MSN (1996+)

* HTML5 web app store (btw. the Mozilla smartphone shown in the video already has an official Mozilla web app store)

Re: Introducing the Internet.org App

#18

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 7:57 AM UTC

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #15

One of my sisters and her husband live in Zambia, where they do public health work. Specifically, he works on malaria[1], and one of the greatest challenges he faces is field data collection. Enabling everyone with a compatible phone to send in data would, I'm sure, be incredibly valuable. I'm bummed that there aren't any public health tools included in this app. Hopefully they'll consider adding something like that…

[deleted]

Re: Introducing the Internet.org App

#19

Post by recursion1133 » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 8:04 AM UTC

dm2 wrote: post #5

I guess it's official, Facebook isn't going anywhere and will continue to become more and more part of our lives. They're getting close to the level of Google (which I do trust with my data because they are transparent about most issues before people start asking them to be). http://newsroom.fb.com/pages-directory/ http://newsroom.fb.com/resources-projects/ We can avoid Facebook all we want but one of these days ther…

Google has a browser called Canary and this http://rt.com/usa/161192-google-facebook-microsoft-nsa-gag/ They have a new language called Dart -- Google's first ever reference to violence. They're nice people, but they've gotten a bit anxiety causing, not like they used to be (blame it on being a large company I guess, but don't forget to think).

Re: Introducing the Internet.org App

#20

Post by wegi » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 8:04 AM UTC

If they want to privde Internet for everyone, why don't they use their money to fund, for example, DTN research? Ah right, then they couldn't collect every move the internet user makes onlne.