If you look at the moment when Twitter was founded as a big bang of influence, how does its cosmos look today? Web design studio Information Architects aims to answer that with an enormous visualization of the Cosmic 140 – the 140 most influential users on Twitter.
The map may look a bit chaotic at first, but it’s not. The founders of Twitter are at the very center of the “galaxy;” long-time Twitter users are closer to the middle, and the two circles for each user (the white one and the transparent one) represent list volume and the number of followers. The users are organized around the circle according to category (indicated on the outer rim of the sphere), such as sports, politics, humor and so forth. Additionally, you can see the first tweet of each user on the map.
As hard as it is to determine the exact level of influence of individual Twitter users, the visualization is an amazing sight to behold. It’s huge, complex, and beautiful. Check the entire version, available as a free PDF, here.
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The changes mean more of each user's information is open to the public by default and more information is shared with third parties by default, placing the onus to keep data private on users rather than Facebook.
To make matters worse, critics say, the site's privacy controls are too complex to be effective.
The New York Times this week revealed that Facebook's new privacy policy was longer, at almost 6000 words, than the original US constitution.
It was more than double the length of MySpace's policy and about 15 times longer than Flickr's 384-word policy, the Times said.
Earlier this month more than a dozen US privacy groups filed a joint complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, alleging the changes were in violation of consumer protection law.
US senators have also published an open letter to Facebook urging the site to take "swift and productive steps" to bolster privacy controls for users.
And the technology media has turned on the website as well, with geek bible Wired publishing a scathing opinion piece urging the web community to come up with an alternative to Facebook.
"Facebook has gone rogue, drunk on founder Mark Zuckerberg's dreams of world domination," wrote Ryan Singel.
"It's time for the best of the tech community to find a way to let people control what and how they'd like to share."
Facebook was due to hold what was touted by the media as an "emergency" meeting overnight to discuss the latest controversy.
The site has tried to win back some ground on the issue by announcing new security features to combat malicious attacks and identity theft.
Users who choose to turn on the new features will be notified if their account is accessed from a computer or device they haven't used before, or if the site notices any suspicious activity connected to their account.
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