Weekly Links #17

Here is a weekly selection of important information bits, thoughtful opinion pieces and interesting analyses from the digital and technology world. Published every Thursday.

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• @MedievalReacts and the Weird, Money-Making World of Parody Twitter Accounts
  
  These casual parody Twitter accounts you are following? They might be part of a big semi-professional network with millions of followers and significant money-making potential. A very interesting interview with the person responsible for the @MedievalReacts account.
• Europe’s Antitrust Chief Confirms Google Shopping Objections, Launches Formal Android Probe
  
  This probably is less dramatic than what it has been described as by European politicians and media outlets. The procedure will take years and it mainly seems to be about Android and Google Shopping (I was not even aware this service still exists). Also, Google indeed is pretty powerful, so having an entity looking a little bit closer should not be a bad thing.
• Yik Yak Makes Inroads as a More Serious News Service
  
  Until now Yik Yak has only made headlines as yet another anonymous gossiping app popular among young U.S. students. But it looks as if the service might have serious potential as platform for local citizen journalism.
• The Sharing Economy Is Getting ‘Very Big, Very Fast,’ Says PwC Study
  
  Here is the most surprising result from the survey: Out of a thousand interviewed consumers, “43 percent of consumers expressed that owning today feels like a burden”. I totally can relate to this sentiment, but I did not expect that so many others do.
• Is Your Job ‘Routine’? If So, It’s Probably Disappearing
  
  Good and bad news: Routine jobs are definitely disappearing at a fast pace. However, lots of more advanced types of jobs have been created during the past 15 years. So what really needs to happen is a change of education so the skill-set of workers follows the supply of jobs.
• Schools in Finland will no longer teach ‘subjects’
  
  That might be one way to achieve what I mentioned in the comment to the previous link.
• Look and Feel and Feel
  
  This post is great because it managed to open my eyes to something that I was not fully aware of before: The difference between Twitter and Instagram is that browsing Instagram can lead to happiness, whereas browsing the Twitter Timeline tends to bring ambivalent or negative emotions. Someone on Twitter is always pissed or outraged about something/someone.
• What Are They Thinking? The eight principles for transforming Axel Springer
  
  In German web circles, Axel Springer is not very popular. The media giant is aggressively trying to rewrite the laws of the digital world in order to get ahead, no matter what the side effects are. But internationally, the company is pushing forward with an intelligent, future-minded strategy.
• Past the point of Peak Telephony
  
  Not a reality for everyone yet, but yes, the tendency is clear: Traditional telephony is dying.
• BlaBlaCar Acquires Its Biggest Competitor Carpooling.com To Dominate European Market
  
  Put in the bigger context of smart mobility, this is a significant acquisition, which will improve network effects for both passengers as well as drivers throughout Europe. Also notable that a French company is on the way to become a huge player in this space.
• Blow To Internet.org As Indian Internet Companies Begin To Withdraw
  
  This is remarkable. Indian partners of Facebook’s Internet.org initiative reconsider their stance because of the threats to net neutrality.
• Microsoft + iPhone
  
  Some years ago this was unthinkable: Microsoft has fully embraced the iPhone and is offering more apps for the device than one can imagine.
• Amazon Echo enters the smart home with support for WeMo and Hue
  
  Even though I made clear in this post that I want a smart home personal assistant that is not from Amazon, the evolution of the Echo is exciting.
• Segway bought by Chinese rival Ninebot
  
  The Segway is now Chinese-owned.
• Bangkok transforms into tech hub
  
  Unfortunately there is a lot of uncertainty in regards to Thailand’s political stability. But I can see why Bangkok is getting increasingly popular as a tech hub.
• The noise in our head (and artificial intelligence)
  
  Seth Godin manages to put into very few sentences what I tried to explain here in a much more cumbersome way.
• Musk and Gates on superintelligence and fast takeoff
  
  Elon Musk and Bill Gates really are on the same page when it comes to how they view artificial intelligence.
• Working Remotely From A Tropical Island in Thailand
  
  I worked remotely from that very island for 6 months in 2010/2011 and would do it again. Inspiring post for startups and smaller companies who want to do something new.
• The Credit Card Obsessives Who Game the System—and Share Their Secrets Online
  
  About an online “subculture” that you maybe did not know exists. Or you did, still good read.

And recently on meshedsociety.com:

• Do you make a lot of predictions that turn out to be wrong? Then be afraid of Staked
• Apple’s app review process is extremely unpopular, and yet it works so well for the company
• The Apple-fueled Smartwatch hype and the “good times” for surveillance