[HN Gopher] Chan Zuckerberg Initiative sunsetting science resear...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Chan Zuckerberg Initiative sunsetting science research platform
       meta.org
        
       Author : nefitty
       Score  : 168 points
       Date   : 2021-10-31 05:19 UTC (17 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (cziscience.medium.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (cziscience.medium.com)
        
       | ChuckMcM wrote:
       | Well clearly they couldn't afford to by meh.com :-)
        
       | leeoniya wrote:
       | is this effectively the closing off of apis that can be used for
       | conducting unfavorable research on facebook's data?
        
         | threatofrain wrote:
         | CZI's Meta was a competitor to Google Scholar. The data is a
         | bunch of information on academic journals.
        
           | leeoniya wrote:
           | ah, too many Metas to keep track of in this new metaverse
        
             | sharken wrote:
             | And if it wasn't enough, there is a new Matrix movie out
             | soon.
             | 
             | On a more serious note, it's not likely that the Meta name
             | will have any bigger impact than Google and it's Alphabet
             | branding.
             | 
             | I don't see Facebook.com going away, just the amount of
             | links alone will keep it alive for many years to come.
        
               | duud wrote:
               | I disagree. Alphabet has no clear connection to their
               | current or future business plans. They don't even own
               | alphabet.com. Meta on the other hand is the best possible
               | metaverse name and was announced alongside a $10/billion
               | year VR budget. It was a smart rebrand as Instagram and
               | WhatsApp have just as many users as FB and Oculus (now
               | Meta) may soon too.
        
               | Talanes wrote:
               | > _Meta on the other hand is the best possible metaverse
               | name_
               | 
               | It's not like we all use search.com. Having an on the
               | nose name doesn't necessarily mean having a good one.
        
               | duud wrote:
               | Meta is more open ended than search.com. It could just as
               | easily be a bar or art gallery as a $100 trillion dollar
               | virtual empire. You are right that a great name can only
               | take you so far, ultimately you have to have a
               | competitive product.
               | 
               | Fortunately for Meta they already have a market leading
               | VR product and a $10 billion annual budget to maintain
               | that lead. As someone who has spent several thousand
               | hours studying names and recently bought FB stock, I am
               | delighted with the change.
        
           | zozbot234 wrote:
           | Meta.org was effectively a database index of scholarly
           | authors, citations and topics, as opposed to full text
           | search. A more modern effort along these same lines would be
           | Scholia https://scholia.toolforge.org/ based on the openly-
           | available Wikidata knowledge graph.
        
       | supermatt wrote:
       | we made a tool to help researchers, but now the husband of the
       | founder likes the name so we are shutting down so he can use it
       | to avoid the negative publicity associated with his companies
       | current name.
        
       | teruakohatu wrote:
       | Has Facebook applied for, or acquired, trademarks on the use of
       | Meta?
        
         | NiceWayToDoIT wrote:
         | I don't understand how can you trademark common words, even in
         | the case of Apple? Is it difference between Apple and apple?
        
           | impulser_ wrote:
           | Because it doesn't really matter. Its not like you can't use
           | the word Apple anymore. You can even use it in your company
           | name if you aren't making computer goods/services.
        
       | gondo wrote:
       | So basically moving to a different domain and freeing up space
       | for FB Meta.
        
       | benatkin wrote:
       | It seems they're effectively giving it to Meta.com for free, by
       | shuttering the similarly named site. The reasoning makes sense,
       | but it's too convenient. I'm sure they got advice from lawyers
       | though. They have plenty.
       | 
       | Eventually meta.org will probably be sold to meta.com, but the
       | price will be lower because it isn't in use.
        
         | dannyw wrote:
         | CZI is a for profit company, not a non-profit.
        
           | vmception wrote:
           | The long game
        
         | twobitshifter wrote:
         | Meta.com was already owned by CZI. I wonder how much Facebook
         | paid to the CZI for the domain? I assume they'll also have to
         | pay for meta.org.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | josefx wrote:
         | > I'm sure they got advice from lawyers though.
         | 
         | I love how that is the default assumption when international
         | companies often just screw the law outright and then try to
         | obstruct both court decisions and their enforcement for
         | decades.
        
           | benatkin wrote:
           | That's why I said "advice from lawyers" and not "legal
           | advice". It isn't about following the law but managing the
           | consequences.
        
       | mkl95 wrote:
       | > As part of this transition, the technology powering Meta will
       | remain available to the community; we will support access to the
       | Meta application and associated services, including the Digests
       | and API, through March 31, 2022.
       | 
       | So, summing it up, Facebook has just been renamed to Meta, but
       | until March 31, 2022 it will coexist with Meta[.org], which is
       | led by Zuckerberg's wife, who has coincidentally decided to shut
       | her project down a few days Meta was announced.
        
       | jimhi wrote:
       | If it isn't clear, they acquired the Meta.com and trademarks in
       | 2017 with their non profit:
       | https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/23/chan-zuckerberg-initiative...
       | 
       | And today we see the domain points directly to their for-profit
       | company which they may not have paid a "fair" price. I'm sure it
       | wasn't so clearly planned, but it certainly seems like a conflict
       | of interest.
       | 
       | These types of domains can go for 6+ figures which seems like a
       | drop in the bucket for Facebook.
       | 
       | EDIT: I was mistaken. As several pointed out - The initiative is
       | not a non profit at all. The domain is more of an opportunistic
       | move.
       | 
       | I'm still not sure how happy I would be if my company was
       | acquired with the promise of "making my research search engine
       | free to all" only to be shutdown down and used to help Facebook
       | PR problems and market cap 4 years later.
        
         | moksly wrote:
         | I'm not sure 7 or 8 figures really matter to a company the size
         | of Facebook.
         | 
         | I worked in a medium sized municipality in Denmark, and when
         | your budget is 9 billion Danish KR, well let's just say that
         | you treat expenses differently in enterprise, and we were still
         | a small player compared to our bigger partners on the state
         | level who could sign contracts larger than our entire budget
         | without batting an eye.
         | 
         | (I'm not English, maybe batting an eye is the wrong expression,
         | if so sorry!)
         | 
         | I'm not saying it wasn't planned, but it may just be a "happy"
         | coincidence.
        
           | Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
           | TIL Demmark doesn't use Euro.
        
             | dijit wrote:
             | Neither does Sweden: fwiw.
        
           | Thev00d00 wrote:
           | I'm British; we would say "batting an eyelid". So correct
           | usage in my book!
        
             | eutectic wrote:
             | I'm English and I've always seen it as 'bat(ting) an eye'.
             | I don't think I've often heard it said though.
        
             | jjallen wrote:
             | In American English we just say "batting an eye".
        
               | headsoup wrote:
               | That would hurt!
        
               | godelski wrote:
               | It's the same thing. Just drop the "lid"
        
               | jjallen wrote:
               | Yes, I have been wondering what that even means. So many
               | idioms and phrases don't make sense (ignoring the fact
               | that some are historically outdated which is the cause of
               | some of them not making sense)
        
               | bookofjoe wrote:
               | https://www.idioms.online/not-bat-an-eye/
        
               | JohnBooty wrote:
               | Well, then "opening your eyes" would hurt even more,
               | right? But we still say that, and everybody understands.
               | 
               | When we say "batting an eye", "opening an eye", etc it's
               | clear that we're talking about eye _lids_ since the
               | alternative would be very painful and make no sense.
               | 
               | Colloquially, when we refer to "eyes", we're almost
               | always referring to _the facial structure through which
               | the eyeball is visible_ and almost never the literal
               | eyeball itself.
               | 
               | I mean, when you say somebody has attractive eyes, surely
               | it's understood that you're not referring to the
               | spherical ball of goo itself, but rather their facial
               | structure.
        
               | robwwilliams wrote:
               | Try this old idiomatic phrase: "beating the boundary".
               | 
               | Once you have made your guess as to the meaning, then and
               | only then link to Wikipedia for a marvelous explanation
               | from a not-so merry old England.
        
               | webmaven wrote:
               | Basically, it means 'without blinking'.
        
           | blagie wrote:
           | No, but they matter on the other side. If I am selling to a
           | nonprofit to save the world, I'll give a different price than
           | to a for-profit.
           | 
           | There ought to be a meta.com shareholder suit.
        
             | ImprovedSilence wrote:
             | Maybe you would, but most of the "free market" real world
             | out there wouldn't. Or if they did you can be sure it was a
             | tax write off as a loss at least.
        
           | vanilla_nut wrote:
           | Your English usage is spot on. I read your whole comment
           | without batting an eye at any strange constructions :)
        
         | lmc wrote:
         | CZI is an LLC funded by 99% of the Zuckerbergs' FB shares[1].
         | Isn't the domain transfer effectively just an admin exercise?
         | 
         | [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-markzuckerberg-baby-
         | idUSK...
        
           | mike_d wrote:
           | If CZI were a non-profit they would have lost that status
           | with this transaction. Per the IRS: "activities should not
           | serve the private interests, or private benefit, of any
           | individual or organization more than insubstantially."
           | 
           | They may have exploited the generally held assumption of
           | being a public benefit organization to gain an advantage in
           | the sale of the domain. For example if the Gates Foundation
           | approached me about one of my domains and it later ended up
           | in the hands of Microsoft, I'd be quite upset.
        
             | whoknowswhat11 wrote:
             | Absolutely false on the loss of status. Folks quoting law
             | here on HN tend to ironically be wrong about how things
             | work.
             | 
             | If you can afford some lawyers this is routinely done at
             | varying degrees of morality and fairness.
        
               | KennyBlanken wrote:
               | Acquiring a major asset with a 501c3's funds and then
               | selling it to a director or officer below market value is
               | very clearly private inurement and absolutely should
               | result in their "charity" getting its status revoked.
               | 
               | If you have evidence otherwise, present it.
        
               | whoknowswhat11 wrote:
               | Have you presented any evidence whatsoever? None? Ahh.
               | Very illuminating!
               | 
               | Let's be crystal clear here. While theoretical options
               | exist for a charity to have its status revoked, in
               | practice the IRS has not been able to use this authority
               | except in the most narrow circumstances.
               | 
               | For example, a director of a hospital chain buys property
               | for below market value, and the minutes say - "property
               | worth $100M, to scam the IRS we will sell it for $1M".
               | That's as clear cut as you can get it. The problem was -
               | the blowback political and public impact in shutting down
               | a major university, a hospital chain, the AARP, the NYSE,
               | the animal shelter etc was just too high for the IRS to
               | exercise this "death penalty" option. In theory the rule
               | existed, but in practice it wasn't usable.
               | 
               | This is an issue generally with nonprofits, even when
               | they do wrong, it can be very hard to go after them for
               | political and other reasons. Steven Miller, acting
               | commissioner of the entire IRS, lost his job pointing out
               | that many tea party groups were political in nature.
               | 
               | As a result, the IRS came to a solution, called
               | intermediate sanctions under Section 4958. This is
               | actually a great solution. The insider who cheated the
               | public is the one who has to pay in contrast to your
               | demands that an entire nonprofit be shut down and
               | thousands lose their jobs, and all the harm closing a
               | hospital might cause.
               | 
               | They still claim they can revoke status and they can
               | (maybe). But in practice even in blatent cases, this is
               | rare / very unlikely because you punish the public
               | relying on the charity, the employees etc, and revoking
               | the status does nothing to get the $ back from the person
               | who got the sweetheart deal.
               | 
               | You can read about it on the IRS's website if you care
               | to:
               | 
               | https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-
               | organiz...
               | 
               | Separately, plenty of nonprofits sell major assets to
               | related for profits or even turn into for-profits. And as
               | I said, if you hire some attorney's and are not complete
               | idiots, the IRS generally does not act, even when things
               | get pretty close to the line.
               | 
               | I'm noticing more and more of a sort of "reddit" style of
               | comment on HN. Very strong held, demanding, providing no
               | evidence or speaking pretty clearly without any
               | profession or other background in a field. It's eye
               | rolling frankly. If anything, insider deals have
               | unfortunately been increasing pretty dramatically in the
               | last 5 years because IRS enforcement staffing for things
               | like exempt entities, especially after tea party issues,
               | has fallen through the floor. So right now we have
               | horrible abuses occurring (syndicated conservation
               | easements come to mind as a total scam in my book).
               | 
               | Remember, the IRS is something like a year behind even
               | getting to their tax exempt mail. Check the notice here
               | for period after which they may not have even looked at
               | anything.
               | 
               | https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/tax-exempt-
               | organiz...
        
             | jefftk wrote:
             | The Gates foundation is a 501c3, not an LLC.
        
         | neximo64 wrote:
         | When you sell its not yours anymore. You could keep 5% as
         | "schucks insurance" if youre unsure youre being tricked.
        
           | bookofjoe wrote:
           | "Owning something means you can sell it."--anonymous
        
         | cma wrote:
         | > The initiative is not a non profit at all.
         | 
         | Since his wife is involved it still seems like corrupt self-
         | dealing. What kind of public corporation owns a "Wife-Founder
         | Initiative"? Are these monarchies?
        
           | whoknowswhat11 wrote:
           | Um, they are married and they are his shares? Many people
           | share resources with their partners?
           | 
           | Only on HN is this "corrupt self dealing".
        
             | cma wrote:
             | You can't just do favors for family with the corporate
             | treasury because you own some large part of the shares or
             | even because you have voting control. Minority shareholders
             | have rights. It isn't his piggybank.
             | 
             | Do you think a corporate treasury could be used to directly
             | throw a CEO's daughter a wedding celebration?
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiduciary#Fiduciary_duties_un
             | d...
             | 
             | "The duty of loyalty requires control persons to look to
             | the interests of the company and its other owners and not
             | to their personal interests. In general, they cannot use
             | their positions of trust, confidence and inside knowledge
             | to further their own private interests or approve an action
             | that will provide them with a personal benefit (such as
             | continued employment) that does not primarily benefit the
             | company or its other owners."
        
               | whoknowswhat11 wrote:
               | Yes you can. If you own the shares, you can give them to
               | someone, or to an LLC. That is what happened here.
               | 
               | You may be confusing spending corporate money on an
               | initiative with the stock used to setup CZI (which was
               | Zuckerberg's to do with as he wished).
               | 
               | BTW - in CA which is a community property state, this
               | type of thing is not uncommon - all sorts of trusts,
               | business etc take donated shares (sometimes unsold for
               | tax reasons).
               | 
               | In terms of facebook - worth noting that Zuckerberg
               | controls the voting power.
               | 
               | This came up when facebook "overpaid" for instragram by
               | giving a small company of 13 employees $1B, which was
               | unheard of at the time.
               | 
               | This was a major corporate governance scandal in some
               | circles because the board wasn't consulted. So I read
               | plenty of notes like yours! Outrage!
               | 
               | "CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the company's largest
               | acquisition ever without consulting his board of
               | directors, according to an account in today's Wall Street
               | Journal."
               | 
               | I mention this because you would be amazed at what even
               | companies without voting control in one person's hands
               | will let an executive do if the executive claims it will
               | advance the interests of the company.
               | 
               | Own race cars or teams, lease jets, start a research
               | institute. All allowed in most cases even in other
               | companies (and yes, spouses are often in the mix).
               | 
               | Anyways, there will be another case soon on this - Tesla
               | shareholders (some) are suing claiming Elons plans /
               | purchase of solar and doing the solar energy business was
               | self dealing (Solar City was basically bust, but Elon
               | wanted to move fast, knew and trusted many of the solar
               | city folks, so bought them instead of some chinese
               | company that might have been better on paper). I think
               | the case is weak, but we will see.
               | 
               | The disclosure here that matters potentially is a warning
               | to purchasers of Facebook shares:
               | 
               | "As a stockholder, even a controlling stockholder, Mr.
               | Zuckerberg is entitled to vote his shares, and shares
               | over which he has voting control as a result of voting
               | agreements, _in his own interests_ , which may not always
               | be in the interests of our stockholders generally"
               | 
               | This metaverse thing is going to be another bet not
               | everyone would go along with, and independent investors
               | ALREADY voted Zuckerberg off as board chair - which made
               | no difference as he could ignore their wishes.
        
               | cma wrote:
               | Ok, the way I read it, CZI was a subsidiary. Still, they
               | have to sell the name at fair market value if they are
               | wholly separate companies, letting Google get a bid, etc.
               | if they want to stay above board.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | MildlySerious wrote:
         | I was recently quoted 2m for a 6 letter .com of a dictionary
         | word when I inquired about it.
         | 
         | For a 6 letter .sh, also a dictionary word, I paid 250 bucks.
        
           | dmd wrote:
           | I have a two letter .org but in 25 years of using it as my
           | primary domain name not one financial offer for it has turned
           | out to be in good faith / not spam.
        
             | webmaven wrote:
             | Is it a two-letter word or common abbreviation, or just two
             | random letters?
        
               | dmd wrote:
               | Sadly the latter. 3e.org
        
           | robtaylor wrote:
           | You also now have a XXXXXX.sh rather than XXXXXX.com :)
           | 
           | Good domains on .com or relevant local tld such as .co.uk are
           | worth snapping up.
        
             | MildlySerious wrote:
             | You're right of course, I wasn't trying to weigh them
             | against each other. The .sh is for a pet project. I just
             | added it to the comment because I happened to have that
             | data point available from around the same time.
        
         | duud wrote:
         | Meta.com is a 7-8 figure domain in this market. This year
         | metaverse.io sold for $175k and meta.so sold for $149k.
        
           | jimhi wrote:
           | The value of domains at these prices are like startups. They
           | are bought, not sold and based entirely on if a company with
           | money wants it badly enough.
           | 
           | I agree on your assessment that it would likely have been 7
           | figures. 8 if they knew it was Facebook.
           | 
           | For reference, I have bought/sold ZipX.com, Pedal.com,
           | Shotput.com, etc
        
             | rnotaro wrote:
             | I don't know how much you sold shotput.com but it's still
             | in sale.
        
             | GDC7 wrote:
             | > The value of domains at these prices are like startups.
             | They are bought, not sold and based entirely on if a
             | company with money wants it badly enough.
             | 
             | Except for used cars, real estate, bonds and stocks...
             | every other asset is "bought and not sold" these days.
             | 
             | Sellers of an asset which is not in the list above don't
             | even have a platform to tell the world that they are
             | selling that particular thing.
        
         | jazzyjackson wrote:
         | I figure they wanted to announce a rebrand and dug around in
         | their box of acquisitions and said "hey, meta.com, neat!"
        
           | datavirtue wrote:
           | Indeed, it sounds like an eighth grade project.
        
         | colechristensen wrote:
         | If you don't want to dislike what is done with "your" company,
         | don't sell.
         | 
         | It often seems like the ability to sell companies isn't in the
         | best interests of a very large number of people.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | cloudking wrote:
       | It's interesting that they were able to secure the @meta social
       | media handle on Twitter but not on their own Instagram platform
       | 
       | https://twitter.com/meta
       | 
       | https://instagram.com/meta
        
         | wavefunction wrote:
         | Presumably the owner of the Instagram handle was not interested
         | in selling it. I suppose Zuckerberg could have seized it but
         | that's a heck of a way to get your rebranding effort going.
        
       | killthebills wrote:
       | Can we just execute the billionaires already? I'm fed up of our
       | world being controlled by these parasitic abusers.
        
       | stemc43 wrote:
       | So everyonene OK with saying sunsetting instead of shutting down
       | now?. Even though its clearly a corporate-speak?. Are we gonna be
       | so easily manipulated?
        
         | KerryJones wrote:
         | This is the standard talk for any part of any program being
         | shutdown (including internally among small engineering teams).
         | Part of the difference is a "shutdown" can be a rough cut-off
         | so people relying on the services don't have much help in the
         | matter, sunsetting is a longer time period that allows you to
         | transition out of using any services.
        
           | wavefunction wrote:
           | I'd prefer "deprecated" which is what the teams I've worked
           | on used. That's an actual programming term as a bonus.
        
             | KerryJones wrote:
             | Pedantically they are similar but not the same.
             | https://nordicapis.com/how-to-smartly-sunset-and-
             | deprecate-a...
        
         | jpe90 wrote:
         | This is very clever satire of the sad state of internet
         | discourse, well done.
        
           | stemc43 wrote:
           | thanks - I put 0 efforts into almost all my post
        
         | seanhunter wrote:
         | I don't think it's corporate-speak. To my understanding the use
         | of "sunset" as a verb comes from law where contracts and laws
         | sometimes have "sunset clauses" ensuring they become defunct at
         | a certain defined point in the future.
         | 
         | From there, "to sunset" something seems a fairly logical next
         | step.
        
           | quotha wrote:
           | Umm, so it will come back up the next day?
        
       | jonplackett wrote:
       | It amuses me that a company literally founded from pinching
       | someone else's idea still surprises people when it acts
       | dubiously.
        
         | moate wrote:
         | Especially when the idea being pinched was _checks notes_ a way
         | to objectify women in a super gross way.
        
       | deltron3030 wrote:
       | I'm wondering how Apple reacts as the owners of Metaio, who were
       | one of the first companies and brands in the AR space starting in
       | 2003 (aquired by Apple in 2015):
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaio
       | 
       | Having the domain is one thing, having the rights to use the
       | brand name another if it's the same niche (which is certainly the
       | case here). Or do rights to the brand name expire once companies
       | get aquired?
       | 
       | If they still hold the rights they could try to block their
       | future main competitor in the AR space..
        
         | aristus wrote:
         | Heh. Ask Apple Records about that. Apple Inc, which publicly
         | admits to being named after the record company, violated their
         | agreement not to get into the music business, _twice_.
        
           | ralfd wrote:
           | > twice
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer
           | 
           | First:
           | 
           | > In 1986, Apple Computer added MIDI and audio-recording
           | capabilities to its computers, which included putting the
           | advanced Ensoniq 5503 DOC sound chip from famous synthesizer
           | maker Ensoniq into the Apple IIGS computer. In 1989, this led
           | Apple Corps to sue again, claiming violation of the 1981
           | settlement agreement.[2] _The outcome of this litigation
           | effectively ended all forays at the time by Apple Computer
           | into the multimedia field in parallel with the Amiga, and any
           | future advanced built-in musical hardware in the Macintosh
           | line._
           | 
           | This is ludicrous! Whatever harm the british Apple Corp had
           | through a computer with a sound chip, this doesn't compare to
           | the hinderance of the Mac.
           | 
           | Second:
           | 
           | > In 1991, another settlement involving payment of around
           | $26.5 million to Apple Corps was reached.[4] This time, an
           | Apple Computer employee named Jim Reekes had included a
           | sampled system sound called Chimes to the Macintosh operating
           | system
           | 
           | I don't agree that putting a system sound in System 7 is
           | "going into the music business".
           | 
           | Interestingly, when Apple got into the music business they
           | won:
           | 
           | > On 8 May 2006 the court ruled in favour of Apple
           | Computer,[8] with Justice Edward Mann holding that "no breach
           | of the trademark agreement [had] been demonstrated".[9][10]
           | 
           | Anyway, after that Apple Inc finally was able to buy Apple
           | Corp out for allegedly $500 Million.
           | 
           | Whatever you think about trademark conflict, it did cost
           | Apple Inc heavily.
        
           | jliptzin wrote:
           | When you have all the money in the world you don't get
           | bothered by petty details like that.
        
       | cblconfederate wrote:
       | I really dislike their appropriation of the word meta, metaverse
       | etc. Can we please have a public campaign to rename it to
       | something like metaface or metabook or metaplasteradsinyoface ?
       | It's a disgrace really. Especially they way that their keynotes
       | failed to mention any of the hundreds of projects before them.
        
         | itronitron wrote:
         | Metastasize seems like a good option, although I'm optimistic
         | that the whole meta move is going to throw FB into remission.
        
         | mxmilkiib wrote:
         | I've seen metaverse-interesred folk somewhere on Reddit say
         | they might move to saying "hyperverse" instead.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | Sure, as soon as you raise enough money to combat their war
         | chest, you can do whatever you want. Otherwise, your dislike
         | bounces off of their teflon-like suit coated with "I don't care
         | about you".
        
           | cblconfederate wrote:
           | The perception that big tech's power is above everyone and
           | the law only helps to make their position more authoritarian
        
             | bmitc wrote:
             | Unfortunately, it's not a perception. It's practical
             | reality.
             | 
             | I'm in full agreement regarding their coopting of the word
             | meta.
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | In this case, money is power and big tech has all the
             | money. The field is tilted in their favor in an even more
             | extreme manner than David v Goliath. No mere mortal could
             | even afford to fight them via litigation. Fighting them
             | legislatively is also Sisyphean as they can afford much
             | better lobbyists.
             | 
             | Sometimes, perception is reality.
        
               | cblconfederate wrote:
               | i was just making a meta comment
               | 
               | but honestly you re describing a system that would be
               | self-annihilating if one has no legal recourse from
               | money. I don't think that's the case or else america
               | would be a bad place for business
               | 
               | The rest of the world doesnt depend on US courts. Apple
               | has lost trademark battles before.
        
       | nbzso wrote:
       | >We did this by mapping biomedical knowledge to help researchers
       | learn a new area or keep up-to-date in a field through precise
       | and flexible feed design, personalized ranking, and surfacing the
       | broadest array of research outputs.
       | 
       | This is it. Moneymaking in 21 century. Surveillance capitalism in
       | its finest. Manufacturing consent with "science" and "there is no
       | other option" narrative.
       | 
       | The next logical step after "collecting" users data and
       | "normalizing" biometrical surveillance is Genetic Capitalism.
       | 23andme is one of this "outlets" of future like Gattaka.
        
         | jessfyi wrote:
         | Uh meta is (was) just a version of Google Scholar with an
         | emphasis on biomedical publications and better tools for
         | scientists and clinicians to keep track of it all. Not sure
         | that warrants your conspiratorial rant?
        
           | nbzso wrote:
           | Conspiratorial rant? Please. It is question of when, not how.
           | Last time I checked, tracking and surveillance are
           | normalized. People like to participate in "technology
           | experiments". After Snowden what is changed in general?
           | Nothing special. You have listening devices like Alexa &
           | Echo, one web browser - Chrome, Ring, and people love it. So
           | it is very logical, moving forward genetic tech to create a
           | new "market" and people to love it.:)
        
             | lmeyerov wrote:
             | I empathize with your concern, so it may help to understand
             | how modern science works: scientists like these tools and a
             | key (and required) part or their job is to work with them.
             | 
             | Bibliometrics spans multiple scientific fields of research
             | , eg, philosophy of science, and an important practical
             | area that emerged are tools like Google scholar that are
             | one of the key tools to how scientists work today.
             | 
             | A scientist might skim 50+ papers for the background needed
             | into every 1 paper they the write (and many more
             | abstracts), so STEM researchers spend a LOT of time in
             | tools like Google Scholar. Likewise, part of the job of a
             | scientist is to disseminate their results to other
             | scientists, so part of the writing process is to carefully
             | adhere to bibliography conventions explicitly so tools like
             | these can help make your work more accessible.
        
       | greg wrote:
       | I worked on meta.org for a year starting in 2017 soon after it
       | was acquired by CZI. There was no sign that I saw that the domain
       | was ever destined for Facebook.
       | 
       | Uninteresting as it may be, I take the reason for the shut down
       | at face value. From what I saw, meta.org never did as well as was
       | expected, and other competitive services were doing better,
       | notably Semantic Scholar.
       | 
       | To be sure, the exact timing probably had something to do with
       | FB's announcement, and the shared ownership of the two
       | organizations probably helped the domain sale go smoothly.
        
       | lvl100 wrote:
       | People cringe at Zuck but what he's doing is nothing compared to
       | what's happening on the crypto scene.
        
         | LurkingPenguin wrote:
         | People cringe at the crypto guys but what they're doing is
         | nothing compared to what [ Hitler/Pol Pot/Joseph Stalin/Idi
         | Amin/Muammar Gaddafi/Saddam Hussein/Ivan the Terrible ] did.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | jessfyi wrote:
       | Regularly check on meta, saw the announcement, and figured they'd
       | change the name so they can transfer the .org and .ai names to
       | the main company. Didn't expect them to just shutdown the team
       | altogether. With their May/June updates (where they started to
       | track and index beyond just papers) I thought they were actually
       | onto something.
        
       | zorpner wrote:
       | I've no doubt that this is all above-board and legal, but it's an
       | insult to the intelligence of their readers to assert that this
       | is for any reason other than Facebook's name change to Meta.
        
       | jmnicholson wrote:
       | Meta (a great name) was a very promising startup a few years back
       | in scholarly publishing. It had successfully analyzed millions of
       | articles to help with discovery of research. It's a shame it is
       | being shuttered but there are a lot of tools out there now doing
       | similar things and in many cases much much more:
       | 
       | scite.ai (I am co-founder) semantic scholar
        
       | NiceWayToDoIT wrote:
       | It is interesting on the first page of meta.org there is title
       | "Covid-19: Trump's "distraction" by the 2020 election led to
       | thousands of deaths, says pandemic response adviser."
       | 
       | Is that really a science? And does it mean beginning of the war
       | between Truth.Social and Meta (Facebook)?
        
       | pezzana wrote:
       | What a confusing article. Zuckerberg is the name I associate with
       | Facebook. Meta is the rebranded name for the company.
       | 
       | Meta.org is a thing that was supposed to "...give researchers,
       | patient communities, science societies, and research
       | organizations more ways to discover the research they need."
       | Being involved in research I have never once heard of this thing.
       | 
       | What connection does this have to the rebranding of Facebook?
       | It's the elephant in the room that this article lacks the common
       | sense or courage to address.
        
         | _fat_santa wrote:
         | I would assume, if meta.com points to Facebook's corporate
         | site, they will likely want to redirect meta.org to meta.com.
         | They currently redirect facebook.org to facebook.com.
        
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