Facebook’s solar-powered drone makes first full test flight

Facebook’s solar-powered, internet-beaming plane Aquila is finally ready for takeoff after two years of engineering and scale model flights. As the company reports today, a full-scale version of Aquila made its first official flight on June 28th, staying aloft for 96 minutes while the ground crew tested everything from the autopilot system to the aerodynamics and radios.

The full-size Aquila has the wingspan “comparable to a commercial airliner’s, but weighs only one-third as much as a car” and can fly at 60,000 feet on about 5,000 watts of power, or “about as much as three hair dryers.” While the test flight was obviously much shorter than the two months that Facebook plans to fly the drones in their final version, it pretty much verified the Facebook aeronautics team’s computer models across the board. As the team wrote in a blog post today, the only hiccup appeared to be a structural failure just before landing. The landing itself, however, was also a success. Naturally, the plane was strapped with cameras so it could also help produce its own promotional video:

Although the flight was a success, the team notes a few more challenges for the next test run: namely, will the plane be able to get enough sun to charge the batteries and keep the engines running at night. The team also notes that “for Aquila to succeed, it needs to be an economically viable alternative to current network infrastructure.” Or, in other words, is building and maintaining a fleet of drones going to be more of less expensive than laying fiber optic cable to the remote, internet-less regions of the world? For now though, the team will focus on gathering even more data with more test flights and new aircraft designs.

Facebook Messenger Celebrates Reaching 1 Billion Monthly Active Users

Yesterday on Facebook, the company’s dedicated messaging app, Facebook Messenger, posted news regarding its recent milestone of surpassing 1 billion monthly active users. As The Next Web pointed out, that’s a growth of 200 million users since January, and roughly suggests that 1 out of every 7 members of the population are logging onto Facebook Messenger each month to text with friends and family.

In the message thanking users, the Facebook Messenger team mentioned that the company will be celebrating by debuting the launch of new animated balloons into the chat app. Anyone can try it out by sending someone a traditional balloon emoji within Facebook Messenger to activate the new animation.

On behalf of the entire Messenger team, we’d like to thank the more than 1 billion people who are now using Messenger every month. People use Messenger to connect with the people and businesses they care most about. They make plans, share dreams, send payments, tell jokes, play games, let their loved ones know they’re thinking of them and much, much more. We know that every message is important to you – no matter what you want to say – and we’re grateful that you choose to communicate using Messenger.

To put its growing popularity into perspective, Facebook also released some stats related to its messaging service. According to the company, 22 million GIFs are sent every day (approximately 254 per second), and popular holidays saw a noticable uptick in user messaging, with 300 million flowers sent on Mother’s Day and 360 valentine-related chats sent on February 14. Among a growing, robust list of sticker packs, the app’s most popular remains related to the Angry Birds franchise.

A few of Facebook Messenger’s well-received features — like sticker packs, money payments, and easily-shareable GIFs — will be making their debut in the new iOS 10 Messages app this fall. With the new SDK debuting in the software update, developers will be allowed to create app extensions that allow users to interact with third-party apps directly within Messages. Apple itself has also announced a few new features coming to its chat app, like new bubble effects, handwritten messages, and fullscreen animated backgrounds, similar to Facebook’s balloon easter egg commemorating 1 billion users.

Tags: Facebook, Facebook Messenger
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GOP and industry agree: Tech has a messaging problem

The government and the technology industry agree: They need to do a better job educating the public. During a policy forum hosted by The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) at the Republican National Convention this week, members of Congress and several industry veterans admitted that they have not done enough to dispel myths around technology, nor have they found the proper way to push Americans towards degrees in STEM fields. Congressman Blake Farenthold from Texas said that, “everyone still wants an MBA,” even though you’d probably make more money with a degree in engineering.

It’s unclear exactly how many STEM jobs there are out there waiting to be filled. Estimates vary from 400,000, according to Erin Egan at Facebook, all the way up to 1.4 million by 2020, according to Code.org. Regardless, it’s clear there aren’t enough graduates with the appropriate degrees to fill those roles. Especially since, as Robert D. Atkinson (president of the ITIF) points out, “everything is becoming a tech industry.” Unsurprisingly, Michael Gallagher, President and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), believes part of the solution is gamification. He argues that when you use a video game style interface, kids stay engaged and learn quicker. But, it will take more than earning badges to hook kids early and keep them interested in science and technology. Representative Michael Turner of Ohio says we know how to teach STEM; our challenge is motivation.

The messaging problem goes beyond promoting STEM degrees, though. The industry is losing the PR war over controversial technologies like GMOs and artificial intelligence. Egan, Facebook’s Vice President of US Public Policy and Chief Privacy Officer, is quick to admit that “we as a technology industry need to be doing a better job” of communicating with the public. She says that people are concerned that robots are going to take all their jobs and artificial intelligence is going to enslave the human race, but those are myths. These narratives make for great television and movies, but they’re simply not realistic, according to Egan.

James C. Greenwood, President and CEO of the trade group Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), latched on to the fear of GMOs in particular. He argued that even many in congress don’t quite understand what a genetically modified organism is. This has led to fear that modified corn is poisoning us or that modified fish will demolish populations of native species, which he claims is simply untrue.

Farenthold argues part of the problem is that both the industry and law makers “have a bad habit of getting into the weeds too fast.” He says that most Americans only need a 30,000-foot view of the issues. So perhaps part of the solution is to keep it simple. As he explained, “you don’t need to understand the blockchain to understand encryption.”

Facebook details a way to offer laser-based internet access

Have you wondered how Facebook might offer high-speed internet access using lasers? The company’s Connectivity Lab is happy to show you. It just published a research paper explaining laser beam technology can deliver up to 2Gbps to remote places. The trick, it says, is to use fluorescent optical fibers to collect the light instead of relying on traditional optics. Since the fibers don’t emit the same color that they’re absorbing, you can shine a brighter light at them (similar to a solar concentrator) and manage an extremely quick turnaround time of under 2 nanoseconds. Combine that with multi-stream data encoding and you get the ample bandwidth that’s normally reserved for WiFi and wired networks.

Facebook says it’s “investigating the feasibility” of shipping laser internet hardware based on this technology, but that may be more realistic than you think. The social network managed this feat using readily available materials that weren’t even meant for the purpose. It’s hoping that other organizations will craft optimized materials that are better-suited, and notes that an infrared-based system might hit speeds of up to 10Gbps. As important as Facebook’s findings might be, they’re only just the beginning.

Source: OSA (1), (2)

Zuckerberg foundation aims to help with SF’s housing crisis

The influx of engineers, employees and entrepreneurs into Silicon Valley has caused area housing prices to skyrocket, pushing out locals and earning the industry some deserved ill-will. Now the nascent Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has turned its attention to the problem, spending the last few weeks meeting with experts. But the endeavor is still heavily in the research phase, so don’t expect it to find a solution to the complex housing crisis soon.

Representatives from the philanthropic group met with housing experts affiliated with local governments, real estate groups and academia, according to The Information. For now, that’s all we know about the initiative’s plans, but at least meeting with multiple groups suggests that this process could serve up a more comprehensive solution than throwing money at the problem. Case in point: as part of its proposal submitted last Friday to buy land for office space adjacent to its Menlo Park complex, Facebook offered to spend $7.8 million on affordable housing in the area. Of course, if the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative wanted to just buy housing, it could buy quite a lot with the approximately $50 million in Facebook shares that make up its funding.

Source: The Information

Facebook and ABC team up for live DNC and RNC coverage

Your options for livestreaming the Democratic and Republican national conventions just got even wider. ABC and Facebook are partnering on 24-hour live online coverage of both the DNC and RNC, whether it’s speeches on the floor or protests outside. And importantly, this isn’t just reusing TV programming onilne — there will be in-depth coverage that wouldn’t be practical in conventional broadcasting. Your comments and questions on Facebook will also influence the coverage.

ABC isn’t the only one getting cozy with Facebook. C-SPAN, PBS and Fusion have all unveiled plans to use Facebook Live for some of their coverage. However, the ABC deal is one of the most ambitious yet, and suggests that you’ll want to turn to the internet first if you want the most thorough examination of the electoral process. TV news channels can only devote so much airtime to a given subject, while Facebook Live and other livestreaming services make it relatively easy to focus on a single topic.

Source: Variety

Facebook isn’t trying hard enough to increase its diversity

Facebook released its annual diversity report on Thursday and, sadly, little has changed from last year. 52 percent of its US employees are white, 38 percent are Asian, 4 percent are Hispanic and 2 percent are Black, while 67 percent of its global staff are male. New leadership hires did improve to 9 percent black, 5 percent Hispanic and 29 percent women, but the numbers were overall still quite poor. In a blog post, Global Director of Diversity Maxine Williams said this is due to the lack of diversity in the tech pipeline. She states that appropriate representation “will depend upon more people having the opportunity to gain necessary skills through the public education system,” and then said Facebook would pledge more money towards diversity programs. Several critics have since responded to this statement, saying that the problem lies not with the so-called pipeline, but within Facebook itself.

“The pipeline problem is demonstrably false,” said Leslie Miley, a Director for Engineering at Slack who left Twitter last year due to the company’s diversity issues. In an interview with Engadget, he said the issue lies in the company’s own internal hiring practices. Simply donating money to diversity programs isn’t enough, he said. “I think it’s a very poorly done PR job to gloss over the fact that while Facebook may be doing the right things externally, they’re not doing the right things internally.”

Not True @facebook #diversityANDinclusion matters that’s why your numbers aren’t moving https://t.co/PSVGpdmKV5 pic.twitter.com/cReoXYChZT

— Shaft (@shaft) July 14, 2016

The problem isn’t unique to Facebook. Other Silicon Valley companies, like Google and Twitter, have recently reported poor diversity numbers too. Williams said in the statement that “only 1 in 4 US high schools teach computer science” and very few women and minorities have taken advanced placement computer science tests.

But while there is some truth to the lack of diversity in technical fields, the numbers still don’t add up. Recent studies show that Hispanics and Blacks make up around 6 to 8 percent of computer science graduates every year. But out of the number of employees that Facebook employs in technical roles, only 1 percent is Black and 3 percent is Hispanic. Further, the percentage of underrepresented minorities employed in non-technical fields at Facebook is pretty low too — 7 percent are Hispanic and 5 percent are Black.

“There are a ton of opportunities to increase demographic representation in tech companies with the people that already exist in the workforce,” said Joelle Emerson, a chief executive of Paradigm, a diversity consultancy, to USA Today. This sentiment was voiced repeatedly on Twitter with the hashtag #FBNoExcuses, which was created as a response to Facebook’s poor diversity report. Critics slammed the company for not trying hard enough and overlooking qualified candidates who don’t come from prestigious universities or fit within the status quo. Some pointed out that other tech companies, like Intel and Slack, have managed to increase their company diversity substantially, so Facebook’s excuses rang hollow.

We’ve taught almost 7000 girls of color to code since 2011 from ages 7-17! We ARE “the pipeline”! #FBNoExcuses pic.twitter.com/jQ76FytBHQ

— BlackGirlsCode.Com (@BlackGirlsCode) July 15, 2016

Charity Majors, a former Facebook employee, tweeted that while the company implements training about unconscious bias, she still heard many comments during her time there on how hiring diverse employees was potentially “lowering the bar.” Bo Ren, another former employee, wrote a Medium essay on how she studied hard for an interview to get her job at Facebook, but a white male co-worker breezed through the hiring process due to referrals. Kaya Thomas, a 20-year-old software engineer, also wrote a blog post in response to the diversity report, stating that she’s getting tired of being overlooked due to her gender and ethnicity. “According to most tech companies, if I can’t pass an algorithmic challenge or if I’m not a ‘culture fit’ I don’t belong,” she wrote. “Ignoring the fact that underrepresented talent exists shows me that they don’t care about diversity and they don’t want us working in tech.”

Mike Street, a senior digital and social marketing consultant based in New York City, said he finds it troubling that Facebook couldn’t move the needle on its numbers. “They can post #BlackLivesMatter over the top of one of their buildings, but I want to see #BlackJobsMatter,” he said to Engadget. “Mark Zuckerberg, who never finished college, created an amazing company. But yet when it comes to people of color, we must continue to be the ‘magical negro, LatinX, Trans’ super coder with a 1,000 IQ in order to get a foot in the door.” There are several things that tech companies can do to increase diversity, he said, such as set up internships at historical black colleges and host monthly networking mixers.

FB continuing to perpetuate the pipeline lie provides an excuse to those who don’t want to do the hard work to diversify their staff.

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy) July 14, 2016

“If there’s one thing I could kill in tech, it would be referrals,” said Miley. “That needs to go away. Every study shows that your network looks like you. It’s an amplifier for sameness, to not ever change anything.”

“They refuse to acknowledge that it’s a race issue, that it’s a gender issue,” he continued. “You may not be purposely racist, but when you refuse to acknowledge that the person sitting in front of you who didn’t go to the same school as you, and you’re not taking into account their background and their experience, you’re measuring them against a rubric that people of color will never meet.”

Miley also said it was unfortunate that companies like Facebook and Google were putting so much more effort into increasing the H1B visa cap than into the diversity of US employees. “I fully support the increase in H1B visas. I don’t have a problem with that. But there’s this model with setting up standards of excellence with sponsoring people from China and India, that could easily be replicated in the United States. Don’t tell us you can’t find talent here when you can go 8,000 miles and find talent.”

Spend equivalent amount on #DiversityandInclusion as you do on lobbying for H1B’s cap increase #FBNoExcuses @FWD_us pic.twitter.com/YB94gcjo7H

— Shaft (@shaft) July 15, 2016

“It’s not an Us vs. Them thing,” he said. “These companies jump through all these hoops to make this [immigration] happen. But they don’t want to jump any hoops to change themselves. They go to India and China because the people can conform to what they want. But they’re unwilling to go to Atlanta, Detroit, Memphis, Cincinnatti… because inherently they don’t believe that people in those communities have the skill set to do the job.”

Erica Baker, a fellow Slack engineer, tweeted that if companies can’t get minority candidates to come to them, they should go to where they live. Miley agrees. “Open your offices in more diverse areas. That will change your ratios.” Plus, having tech jobs in a community that’s not typically known for tech is beneficial overall. “When children and teenagers see people doing those jobs, and that they’re well-paid, they want to aspire to that. It’s a virtuous cycle.”

If you can’t get the candidates to come to you, then go to them. Build offices where Black and Latinx candidates want to live.#FBNoExcuses

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy) July 15, 2016

Additionally, when these employees want to move higher up in the organization, they’ll move to the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters, thus diversifying those offices. “Now a strange thing happens when you have diverse people; they hire more diverse people.”

Some of these tech companies did build offices outside of Silicon Valley — like in Boulder, Colorado and Cambridge, Massachusetts — but these areas aren’t particularly diverse. “Why not Detroit?” Miley asks. “If they say ‘the talent’s not there’, how do they know? They haven’t even looked.”

“This Facebook press release and report is an insult to the people who are doing the work of diversity there,” said Miley. “It threw them all under the bus. Like Ren said, if this were any other product in a tech company, two years of no growth would be deemed a failure.”

“They’re not doing anything different,” he said. “All of these companies are not doing anything different. That’s why the numbers aren’t moving.”