Weekly News Roundup: Feb. 8-14, 2015

The Twittersphere continues to react to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s Feb. 4 Wired op-ed in which he proposed a plan to treat, and regulate, the internet as a public utility.

Net neutrality supporters and opponents alike gear up as the FCC’s public Feb. 26 vote draws closer.


 

Facebook announlegacy_featuredced this week that they were introducing a new feature whereby users can designate a “legacy contact” to inherit responsibility for their page should they die.

This contact would not receive full access to the deceased’s page – personal messages, etc., would remain private.  However, they would be allowed to write a last post on their loved one’s timeline before the page is memorialized, archive photos and respond to new friend requests.


 

In SXSW news, the famed Interactive conference hosted its first-ever Black Tech Community Meetup last week.  The event was followed this week by their first-ever Latino Tech Community Meetup.  Both meetups were reportedly well-attended and met with enthusiasm from the community.

The events are part of SXSW Interactive’s push to further diversity at the conference and encourage it in the tech industry as a whole.


 

In more Interactive news, the conference has added 12 bitcoinnew featured sessions to the lineup.  The new sessions include a panel featuring the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, on the future of Bitcoin and what the digital currency needs to be successful.

The Winklevoss’ panel becomes even more relevant in light of New York City Councilman Mark Levine’s proposal to make the city the first in the nation to accept Bitcoin payment for city fines and fees, such as parking tickets or court fees.


In strange and entertaining news, we leave you with the fact that on Wednesday, Feb. 11, nearly all of the much-anticipated third season of Netflix’ original smash hit House of Cards was mistakenly uploaded to the site – two weeks before its intended start date.  If you’re not caught up, don’t scroll down…

houseofcards

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