Is social media going to change the world? The makers of this video seem pretty convinced:
But not all of the change is for the better. It looks like authorities in Indonesia have banned bureaucrats from using Facebook. The authorities found that "many government employees did nothing but browse the popular websites during work hours." For better or for worse, as Evgeny Morozov points out on Foreign Policy, there are always ways around bans—in this case, bureaucrats are turning to smartphones. (H/t: Giulio Quaggiotto)
On the upside, the Financial Times ran a piece today on a new social networking site for investors. According to the FT, Covestor.com is:
...a social networking site for traders which they created two years ago, where investors come to show off their track record, ask for advice and share thoughts, a sort of Facebook for traders...To join Covestor Investment Management, users set up an online trading account, and for a small fee – 0.5 to 1.5 per cent of the traded funds – link it to a model manager. When the model manager trades, the user’s portfolio will automatically make the same move seconds later.
So are the traders signing up for this service chumps, or smart folks who have figured out a way around traditional fund management? I suppose we won't know unless it ends in tears. I expect Twitter will be the first to report the disaster.
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