social media – Still Water Lab

A chart showing a log-log scatter plot that shows big tech is spending far more on AI than it earns from it. The x-axis shows annual data-center and compute spend in billions of dollars on a logarithmic scale from $25B to $300B. The y-axis shows AI revenue run-rate in billions of dollars on a logarithmic scale from $0.35B to $320B. Seven companies are plotted as purple dots. xAI sits at $31B spend and $0.5B revenue, the lowest revenue point. Oracle is at $60B spend and $12B revenue. OpenAI is at $120B spend and $25B revenue. Meta is at $135B spend and $0.5B revenue, far below all others at its spending level. Alphabet is at $185B spend and $30B revenue. Microsoft is at $190B spend and $37B revenue, the highest revenue point. Amazon is at $200B spend and $15B revenue. A green dashed diagonal line marks break-even where revenue equals spend; all companies sit far below it. A red dashed diagonal line marks 10% revenue recovery; most companies cluster near or below it. Vertical error bars on Oracle, Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft show the estimated range between reported AI revenue and a conservative first-party-products-only floor, with Oracle having the longest bar, dropping from $12B to approximately $1.5B.

What if data centers aren’t about AI?

AI, Digital Curation, Jon, New Media, Still Water / jon / June 10, 2026

Are we building data centers for AI—or something else? Data from the industry suggests a more insidious motive.

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Wrestling with NFTs and TikTok in 2022

Digital Curation, Interarchive, John Bell, Joline, Jon, Maine Intellectual Commons, New Media, Open Art Network, Still Water, Variable Media / jon / January 1, 2023

NFTs and TikTok, two of the biggest digital trends in recent years, came under fire in 2022. Research by Still Water researchers helped to explain their advantages and vulnerabilities in over a dozen venues, including publications from Wired to Forbes and presentations from London to Shanghai.

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Is TikTok a phantom menace?

Jon, Maine Intellectual Commons, New Media, Open Art Network, Still Water / jon / August 15, 2020

Is the US government right to outlaw TikTok because it might share data with a foreign power, or is the security threat overstated? News outlets interviewed Still Water faculty to get a different take on a proposed ban on the popular social media app.

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Preserving the most ephemeral of media

Digital Curation, Interarchive, Jon, New Media, Still Water, Variable Media / jon / April 14, 2020

As more of our work and entertainment moves online, the challenge of preserving websites and social media becomes increasingly urgent. In an interactive discussion on Friday 17 April at 1pm EDT entitled “Web Archiving for Everyone,” the latest guest speaker in UMaine’s Digital Curation program presents new tools and techniques for saving Internet culture for

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How to put your Facebook account out of its misery

Digital Curation, general, John Bell, Maine Intellectual Commons, New Media, Still Water / jon / January 14, 2017

Digital curators often fret about how to keep their data accessible for the long term, but users of Facebook accounts sometimes have the opposite problem. In one of several instances of New Media alumni in the press recently, Digital Curation professor John Bell tells you how to cut the cord without leaving your data hanging.

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