This Course in a Nutshell

It is evident that the electronic era that is present in culture now, offers a variety of ways to acquire information that best suits your interests. With this era, individuals are able to connect with people from around the world and gain their knowledge. As such, there are many risks that are unidentified when using internet interfaces, such as wiki’s, search engines, bookmarking websites, and social networking sites. By using these types of technologies members are able to acquire knowledge which they believe are their desires. As a result, individuals are susceptible to many of the implications that these types of social mediums have. With the ability to gain “personalized” knowledge users are blind to the fact that much of it is the interests of corporations. Instead of having the ability to choose from an endless amount of information, members are often given options from corporations that offer it. As such, individuals are choosing “personalized” information that is circulated by those in power.

Measures Taken

As mentioned in my previous blog i rarely go on social networking sites, though i do take a few measures so that certain things about myself are not diclosed. On my personal page i have taken off my birthdate and certain pictures of myself so that people searching for those types of things cant find them. By taking off pictures i reduce the risk of creating a false identity of myself. Many of these social networking sites are used as photo blogs where individuals can share there nights out. By doing this, you reveal yourself at a very immature state where your behaviour does not relfect the type of person you truly are. I take off photos for this reason, i dont want my employer or friends and family looking at my page and seeing myself as drunken idiot. The other measure i take is hiding my birthdate, i find that alot of the ads on Facebook and pop ups have to do with my age. For instance, contacting highschool friends and promotions for various gambling sites. Through these measures i believe i can slow down the inevitable, but at least i slow it down.

Privacy Issues

Throughout this course i learned various reasons why individuals must be careful with what type of information is being offered through there social networking sites. Personally, I do not use social networking sites such as Facebook on a regular basis. On my personal page i dont offer much information about myself or post pictures of me and my friends. One of the concerns i have about Facebook is that it operates on self disclosure. Really, users have to be careful with what type of information that is posted and what types of pictures are being shown. If there are pictures that question your integrity as a person, people such as your employers or family and friends may develop a false understanding of you.  Personally I have not encountered any privacy issues with social networking sites, and i dont believe any of my friends have either. But, by doing the course readings i remember it noted that a cop had approached kid for something stupid he was doing, beside him stood his friend. The cop asked do you know this person? and he said no. Days later the cop went on facebook to see if the two were friends and he found out that they were. Instead of the one friend that was being stupid getting the ticket, now both had received one. This is just an example of how social networking sites show certain information that you may not want other individuals to see. To restrict this type of problem from happening certain privacy measures should be taken.

Google Search Words

Obviously i didnt have the opportunity to log any of my search words since im doing a few of my final blogs hours before the deadline. Although i didnt get a chance to do it i really believe that i search for many of the same things over and over again. In past searches there has been instances where i look for natural remedies to fight off an irritating cold, or look for some updates in the sports world, and even seek lyrics to certain songs i like. Just by stating some of these searching habits corporations are probably able to market certain products or companies to me. From an outside perspective, i believe that searching for natrual remedies to fight off a lil sickness is one way they can use that information to market to you. There are tons of natural pills or supplement companies out their that are in dire need of getting their products noticed. If marketers were to look at keywords such as this they would be able to easily advertise to these users and have a chance at gaining customers. As for looking for sports updates I often find pop ups for various sport magazine subcriptions or insider informations on the internet. Basically, I believe that marketers are able to use alot of our keywords to contact us through those irritating pop ups. They may be irritating but in a way they are completely personalized so they do catch some interest. I think this is where corporations can really understand and construct a specific market of people just by anaylzing search words internet users use.

The keyword i searched for was “hockey”. This is a very broad term which i thought would allow for many different things to come up through these various search engines. Each specific search engine differed from what type of information was being offered. The most obvious result was NHL.com . Where differeces began to be apparent were with certain results such as, hockey rumors, wikipedia definitions of hockey, ticket purchasing, and other hockey conglomerates.  Google offered the most variety for that specific keyword, they offered various different news entities along with videos. The other two engines i used were yahoo.ca and msn.ca, these two searchn engines offered less specific results to the keyword hockey. They offereed things such as ticket information and other things that would be less significant when your trying to acquire the most information you can regarding “hockey”.

Learning from 2P26

This course has really opened my eyes to many of the concerns our technological society has. When i think about the creation of knowledge in our society, now i think about social media and how it works to construct many of our beliefs and values in todays society. Technological advances in the electronic era were in, has allowed individuals to come together and work at developing meaning. Specifically, Wikipedia has opened my eyes to the possibility of collaborative efforts in obtaining knowledge. All across the world individuals have the oppotunity to access the internet and Wikipedia. There are obvious concerns with Wikipedia as any individual is able to edit or add information, so questions of credibility arise. Obtaining or searching for information can be done through search engines and various bookmarking sites. With these types of tools users can search for anything they want and when they want. There are some cocerns with this type of knowledge seeking, much of the time who ever pays the most money to google will appear at the top of pages for many search results. In other words, relevance of information is at question, but also the so called “democracy” that the internet has said to offer seems to relfect a much more bias towards the powers in society. Other concerns include the circulating of information. Social networking wbsites do much of this by obtaining personalized information of individual users. When somone joins sites, such as Facebook, they often give consent to third parties using their information. The obvious concerns with this, is that there are certain things that should stay private and should not be revealed corporate marketing and advertising.

Getting Connected through LinkedIn

http://www.linkedin.com/myprofile?locale=en_US&report%2Esuccess=8YJqzyvdYSu78l4TOAXW5XoliqATHx9fv1-jIc5IrRIT54WXYI-TVcLlmazTJHp5Y1SuzqLdBqqwgzhi66

By navigating through linkedin i realized that it is a great opportunity for businesses to find employees that fit their descriptions. Obviously this site is directed to a more professional audience who seeks employment. With that being said, there are various restictions taken before posting information that may hurt your chances at aqcuiring a job. As i was updating my profile for linkedin i added a photo, as soon as i added it i wondered if it would affect my integrity in the eyes of many employers. The photo does not reveal any wrong doings, though it does resemble a night out partying with the guys. Im not really sure where to stop and end with these types of social networks, what hurts you? im not sure, what will help you? is prolly the privacy settings they have. As soon as i uploaded my photo i was asked if it could be viewed by everyone, or just my networks. Obviously the best way to confine your information is by using settings such as this. In reality, Linkedin offers a pretty useful interface, Im not sure if i would personally use it although having my resume on their doesnt hurt. I guess its an easy way to get your name out there and if your desperate for a job you cant go wrong. I think the odds of getting contacted for a job opporunity is quite slim, thats why i dont think i would use it. I think searching for jobs manually advocates the best opprtunity for you to find employment. But again, it gives you another avenue for possible work.

Presidential pick ‘em at the White House

Thought this was pretty cool Barack Obama is picking his brackets with ESPN for March Madness … I just thought I’d throw this up since it has some ties with one of our tidbits about Barack doing some things differently within social medias …

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/ncaatourney09/columns/story?columnist=katz_andy&id=3991859

Dear Andreasss

Well done my friend I thoroughly enjoyed each of your blogs, your humour was undeniable and your writing unmatchable. But seriously you did a great job, I read pretty much all of your blogs the one i enjoyed the most was the one on delicious. Throuhgout the blog you provided some great insight into your hands on experience with the site, if i were some one trying to pick a bookmarking site id prolly go with delicious even though i myself played around with diigo.  As i mentioned above i really enjoyed your informal tone, i mean when your blogging about bookmarking i dont know how you can make it exciting but you did. So …. good job, you didnt make me fall asleep and i had a few laughs.

Corporate Blogs

The two blogs I looked at was a General Motors and a Delta Airlines blog, both seemed pretty interesting. I think that corporate blogs offer individuals insight into upcoming products, events or promotions. Though specifically through these ads they were outlining new products that should be hitting the market pretty soon. I guess in a way you could consider blogging as an advertising method, or an ad campaign. It allows you to talk about your product and its benefits, wait a second now that I think about it, I wouldnt consider it as an advertising campaign its really just a news feed or an update on soon to be exposed products. Thinking of these corporate blogs as a way of getting your word out there seems to be very effective, it not only promotes your products but it allows individuals to see how innovative your organization is regardless if the product ever hits the market.

Endless Blogging

Moblogs:

I recently found some interesting sites about mobile blogging. What it looks like at the surface is that individuals do this pretty often but mostly through the use of mobile cameras. The website, www.moblog.net illustrates this effort of creating your own mobile blogging interface. What intrigues me about this interface is that if ppl are signed up for this site they can provide news that might not be available to the public hours after its occurence. Just like Prof Tracy showed us in class of that airplane that went down in the Hudson River, its just really cool that ppl can actually capture any moment and individuals can view it globally with the click of a few buttons. But specifically about moblog.net it looks like people are basically updating their statuses, which is interesting and quite convenient for their close friends.

Photoblogs:

Man photoblogs are cool I was just fooling around with this one site and I found myself looking at a ton of photos. Its www.coolphotoblogs.com if you get a chance check it out! Anyway I found this website very interesting because it has its own photoblog awards section where they nominate individuals and eventually pick winners. I think this website offers individuals around the world the opportunity to view different parts of the world that maybe theyll never be able to see.  Not only that but i think photoblogs really attracts individuals who are passionate about capturing photos. Mainly all the photos taken on these blogs look very professional, I think its a great way to your name out there and get noticed.

Videoblogs:

The video blogging website I was looking at was www.vobbo.com, I’m pretty sure Prof Tracy showed us this one. Anyway, fooling around with the site allowed me to figure out how easy it is to post videos through various mediums. For example, right on the homepage it shows you the popular uses. By doing this I think the website attracts more ppl because it really shows you how easy it is for you to upload videos, and literally by any video source you have. I guess the concept around this site is just to connect family or frienda around the world. I dont find it very useful cuz really if you have a webcam why not use skype and have a video conversation or something? Another concern I have about video blogging is your privasy settings, say you wanted to post your wedding video cuz certain ppl couldnt make it do you really want everyone having access to it? Im sure I wouldnt.

Audioblogs:

I think audioblogs are pretty interesting, I was taking a look at audioblogs.com. I think that individuals passionate about music or have a desire to be radio hosts really have the opportunity to get their name out there. Whats cool is that people can comment on the audio blogs and can receive some advice on hwo to better themselves.