Dissecting Social Media

Andy Glass

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This is where I am guest blogging about Social Media and how it can be effectively used during natural disasters. Take a look!

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Dear Me,

This course was very different than I had initially expected. I was expecting a large focus on social media and privacy, but we touched on much more than just that. My biggest surprise, and the biggest thing I think I will take away from this class, is understanding how and why we should look at both sides of an argument even if we don't agree with the one. I have tested this outside of class and found that it not only may change my side, but it may also strengthen the original argument. This class brought into view a lot of the great things social media can do as a tool at various levels, as well as the damage it can do such as addiction and bad branding.

I believe morality needs to be strengthened online. If you are moral in the outside world, why not transfer that over to your online persona? The thing people need to realize is our online persona is still us and reflects our thoughts and ideas. We need to always act appropriate and be aware of the power of the Internet

For class on 4/17/12

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Something that not many people think about.

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Maryland Becomes First State To Ban Employers From Asking For Social Media Passwords

Earlier today, a bill passed that would prohibit employers from asking current and prospective employees for their user names and passwords to websites. The state's ACLU chapter initially raised their concern about employers asking for passwords, when  Department of Corrections Officer Robert Collins was asked to provide his account info.  This bill is the first of its kind in the United States and could pave the way for other states to follow suit. I feel strongly that users of these sites are entitled to their privacy when using social media. However, the users must be cautious about what they post. If the user's account is not protected and a post is public, then I feel it should be able to be used against them if the company feels it could be a threat. If the user makes their account private, they should have that sense of privacy because they are taking the steps in being cautious to ensure their posts are only viewed by who they want to view it.

For class on 4/11/12

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Personal Branding

Dear classmates,

According to the Gehl, the most important asset we own is our personal branding. The way we show ourselves off to the public can affect your peer's perspectives on you and it can affect how you look to employers. By keeping control of your personal branding, you can help keep a strong reputable image. It is important to be unique and stand out, but you have to be careful that you do not take it too far and tarnish your image with a mistake. In terms of social media, I believe it can be a very effective tool in helping your personal brand by creating a professional social media profile on sites such as LinkedIn or ever Facebook to support their resumes. However, it could equally be a harmful tool if you do not monitor what you post.

For class on 4/9/12

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Privacy, A Thing of the Past?

On April 3rd 2012, ABC News reported that a Michigan teacher named Kimberly Hester was disciplined because she did not provide her Facebook information to her boss. It started when a co-worker took a somewhat unprofessional yet humorous photo of the teacher, and posted it on Facebook. The taking of the photo and posting of the photo happened off of school property and after school hours. Hester was asked to come into the superintendent's office and was asked to show her Facebook profile. Hester refused to give them access especially since the school district refused to grant her representation from the union. A letter from the Lewis Cass Intermediate School District stated that since Hester didn't comply, the district "would assume the worst and act accordingly".

Privacy is unfortunately becoming a thing of the past. I do feel strongly though that we the users ultimately have control over it. When you own a social media page such as Facebook and Twitter, you represent yourself in everything you post, like, or share. If you post something, you should think of how it will affect you, your friends and family, and even your job. It may not be right for these companies to ask for access to someone's page, however, the user should understand the repercussions of what they post and share. As private as social media may seem, it isn't. The best thing you can do to protect yourself is be aware of your social media persona or don't use social media at all.

Just to put it into perspective of how much privacy you get on Social Media sites...

For class on 4/4/12

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The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.

Dear Mr. Bauerlein,

I do not feel that the title you give to our generation is credible. We may not enjoy fine art and reading as much as we enjoy other things but I do not feel this makes us dumb. Just because we enjoy socializing and having a good time does not mean we don't step up to the plate when hard work is necessary. I feel the knowledge and drive of our generation isn't getting enough credit.

Sincerely

Andy Glass

Dumbest Generation Representative

For class on 4/2/12

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Crowdsourcing Work: Labour on Demand or Digital Sweatshop?

Crowdsourcing is widely becoming more and more popular every day. Businesses are taking advantage of crowdsourcing because it is usually cheap or free, you can enable collaboration by using the wisdom of the crowd, and it is effective in the results you get. People are getting involved in crowdsourcing because it may give them an extra couple bucks for their time, they may want to be part of something bigger, or they just might have nothing else to do. With the use of social media, crowdsourcing is now easier to start and participate in. It may be something simple as a poll on the side of your Facebook page about a relative interest to filling out a survey about your favorite internet game. Things like this may not take much time for a single person to do but when all the polls and surveys add up, it helps the company improve products and services based on popular choice.

Now, even though crowdsourcing seems almost perfect, many people feel it is equivalent to a "digital sweatshop." I strongly feel that this isn't the case. In some situations, you may not get paid for the work that you contribute, but these terms should be made aware to you early on. An argument made in the article is, "You wouldn't go into a restaurant and ask for five different meals and only pay for the one you like. Why should it be ok to work with designers that way?” Debbie Millman President, AIGA. My counter argument is as a chef, you may be just starting out or looking for work. In that case, it may be worth it to you to give out a "sample" of your work (food) in hopes that someone may like it and purchase it. Crowdsourcing is great in my opinion and I will continue to support it.

For class on 3/28/12

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Albert Lin (TED Talk)

Albert Lin discusses to his audience that computers cannot perform tasks that humans can. Such tasks include analysis of an image to find interesting points. However, Lin discusses that the help of humans, and social media and crowd-sourcing tools, computers become much more powerful. I agree with his stand on this. Computers are nothing without the work humans put into them. Computers are a tool that can only become better through use from humans. Social media and crowd-sourcing are two examples of how we can improve the computer to benefit us.

For class on 3/26/12

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Social Media Policy of the NHL

The NHL, in my opinion, has a very lax social media policy compared to other major sports. One rule that I found very interesting is not being allowed to use social media during game days from 11 am until media obligations are met after the game. I feel this was put into place because it keeps the players focused into the game instead of worrying about who is liking a post on Facebook or tweeting them on Twitter. The rationale of it all is the player will be able to focus better, therefore, play better if their mind is in the game instead of social media.

For class on 3/13/12

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"How The Reddit Saved My Life"

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Accidental Revolutionaries

If money wasn't a factor, I would definitely leverage the power of social media for social good. I would create a social networking site where you can join different communities based on where you live which would network you with people who live nearby. This would allow you to gain access and share news and events being held near your city or town. You could even use the wisdom of the crowd to conduct a poll of a theme for a parade, the date of a block party, or even an election. There would also be local job postings and a section where you could sell items locally which could allow easier job searches where the employee can stay close to home. The larger the population of the social community, the larger amount of information can be gathered and shared with other members. Essentially, this site could be your one stop shop for everything related to your living location.

Social Communities have strength in numbers.

For class on 2/29/12

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Customers as Co-Innovators

Example of Hacked Product & What was Done

The hacked project I will be talking about is the jail-broken iPhone. This hack is probably the most common and them most talked about hack. It allows the end-user to install custom software and applications that Apple doesn't approve for their App Store.

Impact on the Company 

The impact on Apple is a loss of money for their applications. Jail-breaking allows end-users to install applications that Apple sells in their App Store, for free. It takes all of the power and control of the iPhone away from Apple, and gives it to the user. Apple even tried to make it illegal to jailbreak the iPhone, but federal regulators declared jail-breaking legal.

Embrace or Fight Hack?

I say that Apple should embrace the hack. They should not be able to control how a customer uses their product after the customer leaves the store with it. Apple states that jail-breaking could damage your iPhone and it voids the warranty. if the customer understands and agrees to these risks, then it is on them if their phone crashes or breaks.

For class on 2/27/12

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Crowd Sourcing

Website: InnoCentive

Role of the Crowd: "InnoCentive is the open innovation and crowdsourcing pioneer that enables organizations to solve their key problems by connecting them to diverse sources of innovation including employees, customers, partners, and the world’s largest problem solving marketplace" (provided by InnoCentive)

What I did: I joined InnoCentive to view various ideas that the organizations and corporations posted to have the users collaborate and create the best solution to the problem. I was unfortunately unable to add my ideas to some of the projects because they are a lot longer and more detailed than most users can contribute to such as DNA & RNA sequencing in a single cancer cell and finding a solution of how to weigh live animals

Tie to Paper: On the positive side, this website allows users to contribute ideas to a greater cause and have the chance to receive a prize. (A win win situation) Some of these problems could help cure diseases or impact the world on a large scale. Instead of having a group of researchers evaluate the problems, it is opened up to the rest of the world and it increases our chances of success. On the negative side, it is very hard to use crowd sourcing sites as your only medium for collaborative efforts. Even though you can reach out to common people, there still needs to be dedicated researchers to the topic, otherwise, you may just have someone who doesn't give 100% or isn't focused about finding the solution as much as they want the prize.

For class on 2/22/12

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Dominos Pizza's viral video.

The quote “When confronting social power you might as well jump in with both feet, because you can’t hide” directly ties in with the Dominoes Pizza viral video. When you post something online, it is out there for everyone you would like to see it, and also the people who you do not want to see it. You cannot hide when posting something on the internet because you are tied to it in one way or another whether it be a post on Facebook with your name on it, or in this case, a video with your faces on it. The video ended up having a larger impact than the two criminals could have possibly expected. They were arrested and charged and fired for the incident but I believe Dominoes faced the most damage. Their stock dropped 10% in one week according to SocialMediaRisk.com and they potentially lost a lot of customers and revenue due to the fact that they would want to avoid said risk of tainted food according to GSQi. I believe now that when some people think of Dominoes for now on, they will think of these individuals. That is not what you want the face of your company to represent. Social Media is a blessing to help the internet by spreading news and ideas but it is also a curse because of the workers posting the video, Dominoes brand was tarnished.

Have a look at the new faces of Dominoes

For class on 2/15/12

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More Information than You Ever Wanted

Even before I read this article, I believed that Facebook and other social media has a chance to damage or even ruin relationships. The biggest reason I believe this is people take Facebook way too seriously. People post anything and everything from status updates, to their location, to their likes and dislikes. Users post so much stuff, that they may expose information about themselves that they didn't necessarily want a certain someone to read. (I think most of us are guilty of this) I believe another reason for jealousy is it is quite easy, to see people's conversations between each other on Facebook. These conversations could cause jealousy if read and/or taken out of context. You could obtain the same effect if you took someone's cell phone and read their text conversations with others. The only reason it doesn't is because we make our text messages private from the eyes of others who we do not want to view. One thing I can thank the article for is reminding me that I need to review what I post online not just for it's content, but for who can view it.

For class on 2/8/12