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<br /> Did you always long for an <keyword id="2073152" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="India-focused-Wikipedia">India-focused Wikipedia</keyword> that would provide all relevant information about the country? Well, you are there, almost. A couple of days ago, the <keyword id="44734" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indian-Government">Indian government</keyword> has launched <strong><a href="http://vikaspedia.gov.in/index">Vikaspedia</a></strong>, a multi-lingual portal that enables access to crucial information across six key areas – <keyword id="6355165" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Agriculture">agriculture</keyword>, <keyword id="6354750" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="health">health</keyword>, <keyword id="6355445" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Education">education</keyword>, <keyword id="6356140" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="social-welfare">social welfare</keyword>, <keyword id="6357014" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="energy">energy</keyword> and <keyword id="6391682" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="e-governance">e-governance</keyword>. The site also features a handful of <keyword id="2073193" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="G2C">G2C</keyword> (<keyword id="2073195" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Government-to-citizen">government to citizen</keyword>) and <keyword id="2073194" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="G2B">G2B</keyword> (<keyword id="2073196" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Government-to-business">government to business</keyword>) services besides discussion forums, impact stories/case studies, <keyword id="2073160" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Learning-resources">learning resources</keyword>, mobile app downloads, and news &amp; events.<br />
 <br /> <keyword id="2065138" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Vikaspedia">Vikaspedia</keyword> is currently available in five languages including Hindi, English, Assamese, Marathi and Telugu. But going forward, there are plan to make it accessible in all 22 Indian languages.<br />
 <br /> The portal is a part of the <keyword id="2073165" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="India-Development-Gateway">India Development Gateway</keyword> (<keyword id="209592" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="IDG">IDG</keyword>) initiative, aimed at offering information and ICT-based knowledge products and services in the <keyword id="2073167" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Social-development-domain">social development domain</keyword>. IDG is being run by the <keyword id="260126" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="department-of-electronics">Department of Electronics</keyword> and <keyword id="6363148" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="100" keywordseo="information-Technology">Information Technology</keyword> (<keyword id="382618" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="deity">DeitY</keyword>). Vikaspedia has been developed by the <keyword id="64489" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Centre-for-Development-of-Advanced-Computing">Centre for Development of Advanced Computing</keyword> (C-DAC), Hyderabad.<br />
 <br />
So how does Vikaspedia bring value to our everyday life? Since it is a government-run information portal and not a crowd-sourced Indian Wiki, don’t expect to find interesting ‘Leaks’ here that will give you an insight into State documents and policy-making. But this one promises to be better than the run-of-the-mill government repositories.<br />
 <br /> For one, authorities say it is part of the initiative to <keyword id="2073175" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Democratise-information">democratise information</keyword>, leveraging the power of the Internet. And that claim is true to some extent. Earlier, fast, hassle-free access to real-time and crucial data was quite unthinkable and people had to pay for it as well. But from now on, most of it will be made available for free. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the paid <keyword id="6356198" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="RTI">RTI</keyword> (<keyword id="55120" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Right-To-Information">Right To Information</keyword>) services will be scrapped any time soon. But with Vikaspedia in place, one can access the essential information for free.<br />
 <br /> Moreover, the portal gives you a fair idea of what’s currently happening in the e-governance space. The section on ‘Mobile Governance’ is especially relevant, given the fact that India has around 110 million mobile Internet users, out of which 25 million are in <keyword id="6355185" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="rural-india">rural India</keyword>. In fact, 70% of rural India’s active Internet population access the Web via mobile phones while 42% of rural India’s users prefer using the Internet in local languages.<br />
 <br /> “As the rural landscape in India is set to take the advantage of the flourishing <keyword id="2073177" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="ICT-initiatives">ICT initiatives</keyword> pioneered by various institutions, more specifically the <keyword id="775561" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Common-Service-Centres">Common Service Centres</keyword> (CSCs), Vikaspedia offers the much required content and services in local languages that makes the difference in the lives of the people,” the site says. That essentially underlines that Vikaspedia can enter the big league as the information portal supports regional languages and focuses on e-governance services/mobile <em>seva</em> available across the country. The site also features a number of utility apps for free download including <keyword id="1559456" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="ask-an-expert">Ask An Expert</keyword>, <keyword id="2073179" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="SHELTOR">SHELTOR</keyword> (<keyword id="2073180" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Student-HostEL-locator">Student HostEL locator</keyword>) and <keyword id="21785" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="mother">MOTHER</keyword> (<keyword id="2073182" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="MObile-based-maTernal-HEalth-awaReness">MObile based maTernal HEalth awaReness</keyword>), an app for monitoring maternal health.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /> While launching the portal, <keyword id="409418" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="J-Satyanarayana">J Satyanarayana</keyword>, Secretary of DeitY, noted that <keyword id="71187" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Wikipedia">Wikipedia</keyword>, an <keyword id="2073183" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Information-repository">information repository</keyword> built on online crowdsourcing of content, is so popular that it is being used for official and legal purposes. Although Vikaspedia is not in the same space, it will be a single-point reference for the above six fields, featuring content specific to the Indian context.<br />
 <br />
Those still pining for an Indian Wiki will be pleasantly surprised when you find a few similar features even on Vikaspedia. For instance, you can <strong><a href="http://vikaspedia.in/register">register</a></strong> here as a <keyword id="2073188" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Content-contributor">content contributor</keyword> that will allow you to add a new page of content, edit the existing content and create discussion topics. We are still not sure if the portal is open to <keyword id="2073184" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Content-crowdsourcing">content crowdsourcing</keyword> and editing just like Wikipedia does, but this option looks quite suggestive. Registering as a member is a breeze but last we tried registering as a content contributor, an error message came up persistently. Does it mean the feature is not currently available to the masses?<br />
 <br /> That’s not exactly democratising data but we feel that at the initial stage, only authorised institutions/organisations can deliver and edit content, instead of individual contributors. But even then, an interactive repository of developmental data (after all, members can still participate in discussions and provide <keyword id="154361" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="feedback">feedback</keyword>), along with easy access, could just be the first step towards more <keyword id="2073190" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Transparent-governance">transparent governance</keyword> and <keyword id="1857924" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="People-Empowerment">people empowerment</keyword>. Vikaspedia can bridge the <keyword id="2073191" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Knowledge-divide">knowledge divide</keyword> and therefore, the <keyword id="2073192" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Opportunity-divide">opportunity divide</keyword>, which may gradually ensure the economic and social well-being of India’s 1.3 billion-strong population.<br />
 <br />
<strong>Main image:</strong> Thinkstock Photos/Getty Images

This Portal Is
Not An Indian Wikipedia, But Claims It Is Democratising Data For People
Empowerment

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Stephen Lam/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks on stage during the annual Facebook F8 developers conference in San Jose, California, U.S., April 18, 2017.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>The Chinese government has withdrawn its approval for Facebook to launch a new venture in the country.</strong></li><li><strong>The California tech giant had been granted permission to create a subsidiary on Tuesday.</strong></li><li><strong>It said it wanted to launch an "innovation hub" for local Chinese startups.</strong></li><li><strong>Facebook's main social network remains banned in China.</strong></li></ul><p><br />Facebook's plan for a new venture in China has ended before it even begun.</p><p>The Chinese government has withdrawn its approval for the California tech company's plan to launch a subsidiary in the eastern province of Zhejiang, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/25/business/facebook-china.html">The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the matter</a>.</p><p>Facebook had said on Tuesday <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-creates-china-subsidiary-ban-censorship-2018-7">it planned to create an "innovation hub" to support local start-ups</a>. The new subsidiary was registered in Hangzhou, according to a filing approved on China's National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System last week and seen by Reuters on Tuesday.</p><p>A Chinese government database showed that Facebook had gained approval to open a subsidiary - but that registration has since disappeared. Facebook could not be immediately reached for comment.</p><p>The decision to take down the approval came after a disagreement between officials in Zhejiang and the national internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, which was angry that it had not been consulted more closely, according to the New York Times.</p><p>The Chinese internet regulator was not immediately available for comment. Other Chinese officials could not be reached outside business hours.</p><p>Facebook's planned venture in China was similar to what it did in other countries: Station F in France, Estacao Hack in Brazil, Tech Hub launch in India and Innovation Hub in Korea.</p><p>"Having a wholly foreign-owned enterprise does not change our approach in China," a Facebook spokesperson said on Tuesday after announcing the venture. "We are still understanding and learning the various approaches on what it takes to be in China."</p><p>"If China blocks this move by Facebook it's another shot across the bow at U.S. tech companies as this tariff battle heats up between China and the Beltway, coupled by the Qualcomm-NXP saga continuing," GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives said.</p><p>Facebook is the latest company to get caught in the crosshairs of rising U.S.-China trade tensions. U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm's proposed bid to buy NXP Semiconductors NV has also got stuck awaiting approval from Chinese regulators.</p><p>Facebook's website remains banned in China, which strictly censors foreign news outlets, search engines and social media including content from Twitter and Google. Its messaging app WhatsApp is also blocked in the country.</p><p>Shares of Facebook pared most of their gains to trade marginally up at $215.34, after touching a record-high earlier in the session. The company is due to report quarterly results after the closing bell.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nsa-hacker-5-ways-to-protect-yourself-online-2018-7">5 easy ways to protect yourself from hackers</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

China has withdrawn approval for Facebook's new venture in the country, where it remains banned

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/UTAustinTX/photos/a.397463076929.177793.245640871929/10153003053261930/?type=3&amp;theater">Facebook/University of Texas at Austin</a></span></p><p class="caption">The University of Texas at Austin is the flagship of the higher <keyword id="6355445" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Education">education</keyword> system.</p></div><p></p></div></div>The growing learning relationship management market got a major new player this week as the University of Texas System <a href="http://www.utsystem.edu/news/2016/09/27/ut-system-partners-tech-industry-leader-develop-next-generation-learning-platform" target="_blank">announced</a> it will further develop TEx, its homegrown learning platform, in partnership with business software provider Salesforce.</p><p>TEx, short for Total Education Experience, last year <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/11/06/competency-based-health-profession-credentials-university-texas-system" target="_blank">launched as a pilot</a> in a competency-based degree program at the system's Rio Grande Valley campus. When TEx 2.0 begins in fall 2017, it will have evolved to a personalized learning platform, a marketplace of courses and programs, and an academic record built on block-chain technology.</p><p>The system's Institute for Transformational Learning, known as <a href="http://utx.edu/" target="_blank">UTx</a>, is leading the development effort. The system opened the institute in 2012 to serve as its <keyword id="94495" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Innovation">innovation</keyword> arm, exploring new ways to offer education and support to its increasingly diverse student body.</p><p>"These kinds of transformational moments are not going to come from the [billions] of ed-tech funding that's coming from venture capital," said Phil Komarny, chief digital officer at UTx. "These transformations have to happen from the inside."</p><p>The system has previously described TEx as a "stack" of technologies and services. For the 2.0 version, the system plans to make that concept a reality.</p><p>TEx is first and foremost a learning platform, Komarny said. It gives faculty members across the system a platform where they can experiment with new models of education, as opposed to having to use systems that may not have been created with competency-based education or other alternative models in mind, he said.</p><p>For students, the key word is personalization. In a promotional video, the system pitches TEx as technology that lets students progress through programs at their own pace and along pathways they build with input from coaches and faculty members. During the pilot, for example, the platform powered a biomedical sciences program that let students access course materials and assessments on a tablet.</p><p>Personalization could also apply to administrative features such as course registration. The system has for more than a decade run the UT Online Consortium, a clearinghouse of the online courses and programs offered by its campuses. The system could use TEx to turn the clearinghouse into an online marketplace, Komarny said. Instead of students having to go to the website to look for online programs they find interesting, the platform could learn about students' search habits -- like Amazon or Netflix -- and suggest courses that match their interests.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Netflix</span></p><p class="caption">The program could learn students' interests, like Netflix.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In addition to the biomedical sciences program at the Rio Grande Valley campus, the system is preparing a cybersecurity program from the San Antonio campus to launch on TEx next fall. Other programs are scheduled for 2018, but Komarny declined to list them as details have yet to be worked out.</p><p>Since the long-term plan for TEx is to feature courses and programs from across the system, developers plan to let students track academic progress using block-chain technology, which stores transactions -- in this case, achievements such as credits and credentials -- in a digital ledger.</p><p>The system sees uses for the platform outside higher education as well, but will initially focus its attention on the university and the state, Komarny said.</p><p>Salesforce is working with the university system through <a href="http://www.salesforce.org/" target="_blank">Salesforce.org</a>, its philanthropic arm. The nonprofit organization invests 1 percent of the company's own equity, technology and workforce into education and workforce initiatives.</p><p>While Salesforce.org has worked with a number of universities to build its Higher Education Data Architecture and markets its traditional customer relationship management products to colleges, Allyson Fryhoff, senior vice president of sales, described its work with the Texas system -- building a learning relationship management system -- as the "next generation of partnerships."</p><p>TEx 2.0 will be built on Salesforce's platform, and the company's own software engineers will help build the platform, Fryhoff said.</p><p>College leaders in general aren't sure if Salesforce and other customer relationship management platforms designed for the private sector are the right fit for higher education and managing learning relationships, however. In a recent Eduventures <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/09/12/initiative-fatigue-lack-accountability-preventing-colleges-improving-student" target="_blank">study</a> of more than 200 college leaders, two-thirds of respondents said they may require different technology than what traditional CRM systems provide.</p><p>"We would agree that the vanilla CRM doesn't meet all the needs [of higher education]," Fryhoff said in an interview. "When we think about CRM, normally that stands for customer relationship management. At Salesforce.org, we think of it as constituent relationship management."</p><p>Gunnar Counselman, whose company, <a href="https://www.fideliseducation.com/" target="_blank">Fidelis</a>, provides learning relationship management software and consulting, said Salesforce's presence in the market will change it, though not necessarily for the better.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/salesforce/photos/pb.5634829153.-2207520000.1461261667./10153930513114154/?type=3&amp;theater">Salesforce.com/Facebook</a></span></p><p class="caption">Salesforce employees.</p></div><p></p></div></div>"The reason that we chose not to build our LRM on Salesforce was that Salesforce makes it too easy to build a 'salesy' experience, and our perspective was that if the relationships feel like sales, they won't be developmental," Counselman said in an email.</p><p>In an LRM, by comparison, the student is brought into the system, where they are able to collaborate with faculty members and advisers toward meeting their own goals, Counselman said. That requires more than technology, including mentoring and other support programs, which can be more challenging to build than software, he added.</p><p>Motivis Learning, an LRM provider whose software is built on Salesforce's platform, did not respond to a request for comment. The company <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/09/29/college-america-spins-its-custom-made-learning-management-system" target="_blank">spun off</a> from Southern New Hampshire University's College for America two years ago.</p><p>Counselman said he is still excited to see if the Texas system can deliver on its promises. "This kind of effort is focused on exactly the right things, which is building coherent student experiences that involve relationships, goals, content, credentials and connectivity to the employment market," he said.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/new-research-hands-evolution-fish-fin-rays-genes-2016-9">Scientists discovered something 'shocking' that could rewrite a key part of human evolution</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="s0MjFzNTE6iJnX1xYTFzTNSH8EKFEp4H" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

The University of Texas system is teaming up with Salesforce to make college courses more like Netflix

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://pictures.reuters.com/Download/Order/0Pkw74nZTPT4dAEt.ke0..m@HP3IniVbYJ4ZQEda17sUSY7rjRhiNqcb@EajPSJYf409859a5fa6">Bob Strong/Reuters</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div>A hacker is trying to sell a database that purportedly contains registration records for voters in all 50 US states, Tech Insider has learned.</p><p>A listing for the database recently appeared on a dark web marketplace called The Real Deal, a popular site many cyber criminals use for buying and selling everything from illegal drugs to zero-day software exploits. The seller, "DataDirect," is offering the records at a "bulk rate" of 12 Bitcoin, or about $7,800.</p><p>The listing contains purported screenshots of the databases, which are .json files, with file names of apparent states, such as az.json for Arizona, and fl.json for Florida. Another screenshot appears to show the information contained on voters, which includes full name, address, date of birth, phone number, date they registered to vote, state voter ID number, political party, and whether they voted in the general or primary elections for a given year going back to the year 2000.</p><p>There were no Social Security numbers present in the data viewed by Tech Insider.</p><p>It is unclear how "DataDirect" obtained the database. When asked, the seller told TI that the source could not be revealed since it would prevent them from continuing to have access in the future. We also cannot fully confirm its contents are legitimate without being given a full look.</p><p>However, a look into the purported California voter shown in the seller's screenshot shows that the data about him is correct: The man's name, age, address, and phone number all match up with what TI could cross-check against public sources.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>The Real Deal</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Furthermore, the file sizes of the state databases seem to match up with how many voters would be in a given state. For example, the California file is roughly 31 megabytes for its approximate 17 million voters. The Washington, D.C. database is much smaller - about 880 kilabytes - which suggests a smaller database keeping in line with its much smaller voter footprint.</p><p>The seller also gave TI a sample with five other voters taken from the Florida database.</p><p>We were able to verify the name, address, and phone number of one voter in Pasco County. Another voter, whose name Tech Insider will not reveal due to privacy concerns, had the phone number of a Florida middle school in the database, which had his name listed as a teacher on its website.</p><p>All of the voter records in the sample, and the screenshot on the seller page, show a line of when they were updated as being in 2014.</p><p>This suggests the database may be of an older variety, though it is only showing up for sale now. It's also not all that clear how valuable this data would really be, since much of the voter information can already be found on a publicly-searchable website like <a href="https://voterrecords.com/">VoterRecords.com</a>. However, it could potentially be useful due to it being a database with a multitude of voters all in one place.</p><p>It's hard to pin down exactly where this database may have come from.</p><p>A large database like this would be a prize to hackers and cyber criminals who can use it for further scams, and there have been hacks on state voting networks in the past, such as one that occurred <a href="http://www.pantagraph.com/news/state-and-regional/illinois/government-and-politics/elections/hackers-hit-state-voter-registration-database/article_c56eaab9-4faa-52ef-9744-7d73b6fffafe.html">in Illinois this week</a>. </p><p>The problem of where it could be from is further compounded by the amount of third-party firms who share and sell such databases. Campaigns will purchase such lists for voter outreach efforts, such as direct mail and telephone marketing campaigns.</p><p>The <span>Election Assistance Commission</span> did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/clear-snapchat-storage-space-iphone-2016-7">Snapchat can take up a lot of space on your iPhone - here's how to clear it</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="xpd2NpNDE63XccerEdV3M5kkGbFsD2AV" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

A hacker is selling a database of all US voters for $7,800 on the dark web

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right click-to-enlarge"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Getty Images/Matthew Staver" title_caption="Richard Rosenblatt founded Demand Media in 2006, and stepped down as CEO this past October." class="zoomin" href="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/52a766f86da811b079ecdb00-960/rosenblatt-2.jpg"><span class="click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span><a href="http://www.demandmedia.com/"></a><p class="source">Getty Images/Matthew Staver</p><p class="caption">Richard Rosenblatt founded Demand Media in 2006, and stepped down as CEO this past October.</p></a></div><p></p></div><keyword id="258119" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Demand-Media">Demand Media</keyword>, the Santa Monica firm whose network includes <a href="http://www.ehow.com/">eHow</a> and <a href="http://www.enom.com/">eNom</a>, was valued at over $2 billion when it went public in 2011. Now it is only worth about a quarter of that, and its founder and original chief innovation officer are<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/demand-media-rosenblatt-is-out-2013-10"> no longer with the company</a>.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://variety.com/2013/biz/news/epic-fail-the-rise-and-fall-of-demand-media-1200914646/">Variety reports</a>, it turns out that <keyword id="6355629" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword> was a key player in the company's downfall.</p>
<p><keyword id="258118" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Richard-Rosenblatt">Richard Rosenblatt</keyword> co-founded Demand in 2006 as a "<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-08/demand-media-losing-its-demand">content farm</a>" that would take advantage of search engine optimization. The how-to site eHow would provide easy-to-produce content for targeted ads, and the domain registration site eNom would crank out sites with generic names to serve as homes to only ads.</p>
<p>This collection of 1 million spammy sites was incredibly successful, making $100,000 per day.</p>
<p>Demand eventually expanded its less-profitable content production side by paying contributors around 20 bucks for every post or video they produced.</p>
<p>A quick look at <a href="http://www.ehow.com/how_8675501_pour-finish-cement.html">eHow.com</a> shows that even today, many posts are often quite vague, and on pages cluttered with ads. But at the time, some speculators thought content farming was the future. Yahoo <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/09/yahoo-takes-a-gander-at-demand-media-to-plug-some-holes/">considered buying the firm</a> in 2008, as did AOL.</p>
<p>Soon after Demand went public in January 2011, things started to fall apart.</p>
<p>Google changed its search algorithm in February of that year to keep users from clicking on low quality, spammy pages that found their way into top results. This version of the algo was called Panda, and Google continues to update it. Its refinement scared investors, which included Goldman Sachs.</p>
<p>According to Google, <a href="http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/google-algorithm-updates-2013-list">low-quality sites</a> have "numerous paid links, are mostly empty, contain thin content, and have too many ads." That's basically the definition of a Demand-type content farm. </p>
<p>Later in 2011, Google hit Demand again when it gave up on a $100 million effort to promote TV-style content channels on YouTube, of which Demand owned three.</p>
<p>Demand's network, which includes <a href="http://www.livestrong.com/">LiveStrong.com</a> (separate from Lance Armstrong's organization following last year's scandal) and <a href="http://www.cracked.com/">Cracked.com</a>, got 52.1 million uniques in October, down 35 percent. A full 46.1 million hits came from eHow.</p>
<p>In its third quarter earnings report from November, Demand <a href="http://ir.demandmedia.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=215358&amp;p=irol-newsArticle&amp;ID=1874072&amp;highlight=">continued to blame</a> "declines in search referral traffic and <keyword id="35666" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="advertising">advertising</keyword> demand," for its losses.</p>
<p>Revenue at its domain registration business, however, was up 11 percent from last year. Demand plans to spin it off, <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-08/demand-media-losing-its-demand">reports Bloomberg</a>.</p>
<p>Saul Hansell, who used to run AOL's former content farm Seed.com, <a href="http://variety.com/2013/biz/news/epic-fail-the-rise-and-fall-of-demand-media-1200914646/">told Variety</a> that Demand's dramatic fall over seven years wasn't just Google's fault.</p>
<p>"Using cheap freelancers who don't have the expertise doesn't work. The cumulative effect was that millions of people went to eHow and other sites, and realized they didn't have the answer to their questions."</p>

How Google Decimated A $2 Billion Search Business

He was an American war hero. Then he decided to smuggle arms to Israel.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Russia planted anti-Biden stories in US media, per a report from the National Intelligence Council.</li><li>State agents helped produce a documentary that aired in the US in January 2020, it said.</li><li>Officials said it formed part of wider Russian efforts to influence the election.</li></ul><p>A recently released intelligence report has tied US media outlets to Russian efforts to influence the 2020 presidential election in the hope of preventing President <keyword id="99719" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Joe-Biden">Joe Biden</keyword> from winning. </p><p>A March 10 <a href="https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ICA-declass-16MAR21.pdf">intelligence community assessment</a> from the National Intelligence Council, declassified Monday, draws together a range of previously alleged Russian influence operations in one document.</p><p>It says, with "high confidence," that Kremlin influence operations aimed to denigrate Biden, support former President <keyword id="6354484" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Donald-Trump">Donald Trump</keyword>, undermine public trust in the electoral process, and worsen social division. </p><p>The report also said that, in contrast to 2016, there were few Russian efforts to attack any technical aspect of the voting process, such as ballot casting, voter registration, or the transmission of results.</p><p>Instead, the report said, one of the key methods was to use parts of the US media to "launder influence narratives."</p><p>President Vladimir Putin and senior Russian officials "were aware of and probably directed" these efforts, the report said.</p><h2>Accessing the US media</h2><p>The report said that people linked to Russian intelligence were directed to "to launder influence narratives ... through US media organizations, US officials, and prominent US individuals, some of whom were close to former President Trump and his administration."</p><p>The report named two operators: <keyword id="6355101" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Ukraine">Ukraine</keyword> legislator Andriy Derkach, who has ties to Russian intelligence; and Russian influence agent Konstantin Kilimnich. No US individual, show, or network is named. </p><p>During 2020's US presidential election campaign <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/obama-slams-republican-congress-investigation-biden-ukraine-russia-disinformation-2020-5">a GOP-led Senate probe</a> resurfaced <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-and-hunter-biden-ukraine-investigation-explained-2019-9">a longstanding set of corruption allegations</a> about Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden, and their connections to Ukraine. When the report came out, there was no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gop-led-senate-committees-issue-report-on-bidens-ukraine-2020-9">the Associated Press reported</a>. </p><p>Nonetheless, the story blazed across several right-wing media outlets. </p><p>Notoriously, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-post-hunter-joe-biden-giuliani-red-flags-disinformation-2020-10">a poorly-sourced story</a> published by the New York Post alleged that Hunter Biden had communicated with a Ukrainian official about meeting his father. The outlet said it had learned of the emails involved via Rudy Giuliani, then Trump's personal lawyer. </p><p>A separate Department of Justice <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/doj-plans-drop-trump-appointed-attorneys-keep-hunter-biden-investigation-2021-2">investigation into Hunter Biden's taxes</a> continues into 2021. Documents on his dealings in Ukraine and China have been subpoenaed in relation to this.</p><p>As part of the 2020 Russian media influence efforts, Derkach and Kilimnich also "helped produce a documentary that aired on a US television network in late January 2020," the intelligence report said, once again not naming any outlet.</p><p>On January 21, 2020, the pro-Trump outlet <a href="https://www.oann.com/one-america-news-investigates-the-ukraine-hoax-impeachment-biden-cash-and-mass-murder-with-michael-caputo-to-air-this-saturday-and-sunday-at-10-pm-et-7-pm-pt/">One America News (OAN) announced</a> the airing of the first in a three-part documentary series titled "The Ukraine Hoax: Impeachment, Biden Cash, and Mass Murder with guest host Michael Caputo." It was due to air over January 25 and 26, the outlet said.<br /><br />Caputo, a former Trump official at the Department of Health and Human Services, has several ties to Russia including having served as a PR officer for Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-caputo-hhs-trump-loyalist-ukraine-roger-stone-2020-4">as Insider's Tom Porter reported</a>.</p><p>OAN and Caputo did not immediately respond to Insider's query about whether it has had contact with either of the operatives or whether they helped produce the documentaries. </p><h2>Unleashing the trolls</h2><p>The "laundered" narratives in the report were then "heavily amplified" by "Russian state media, trolls, and online proxies, including those directed by Russian intelligence," the report said. </p><p>"These influence actors frequently sought out US contributors to increase their reach into US audiences," the report said. <br /><br />As well as amplifying election-related content, they also stirred conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic and played to allegations of social media censorship - a talking point frequently featured on US rightwing media. They also highlighted divisions in the US surrounding protests for racial justice, the report said. </p><p>The report said that they championed Trump, and "sometimes sought to discourage US left-leaning audiences from voting by suggesting that neither candidate was a preferable option."</p>

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