Week 6 Participation - The End

Wow, I can’t believe it is the end of the semester and graduation is here!

This class has been very insightful and it has been a pleasure learning along with my classmates who all had valuable input. I wish the best of luck to everyone in their future endeavors! You can always reach me at ada03d@fsu.edu or through my produsage blog at http://tallahassee365.wordpress.com.

This week I completed the following tasks for class participation:

• Posted four blog entries (this makes five).
• Read all my classmates' blogs and the official class blog, and posted comments on six separate entries.
• Read week six discussion board content and contributed 22 comments.
• Looked at all my classmates produsage projects (we are an impressive bunch!)
• Checked out suggested Web 2.0 tools: CiteULike, Stumbleupon, and Technorati. (Even referred CiteULike to some of my coworkers because I liked it so much!)
• I also checked out some other Web 2.0 tools that were not suggested but that I wanted to know more about, such as Tumblr and Skout.
• Worked more on my produsage project, as it will continue beyond this class, including daily blog posts, Facebook posts, and research into local events and activities. Today is day 10 – only 355 more days to go, LOL!

Mobile Phone GPS Dating Apps

This morning I found this article on CNN, "With new GPS dating apps, it's love the one you're near," which talks about a new class of GPS-enabled smartphone apps based on connecting single people for dating through proximity and location. These apps seem to echo some of the same basic concepts of Foursquare which we discussed last week.

There are now at least three phone apps (Skout, Grindr, and StreetSpark) that provide you with a menu of singles who are registered on the app that are close to you at any given point in time. Each single person provides a picture of themselves to help other singles identify them. The idea is to send messages back and forth to break the ice, or you can just walk up to that person and see if you click.

In my personal opinion, this seems dangerous and scary for the fact that you don't know what other kinds of people are using the app. But, on the other hand, everyone says in order to find a love match you have to "put yourself out there." I'd like to hear others thoughts on these kinds of applications.

Tumblr

One Web 2.0 tool that we haven’t talked about yet but which I am seeing catch on in popularity is Tumblr. From what I understand, Tumblr is a micro-blogging platform that allows users to post text, images, links, quotes, audio and video.

Like Twitter, you can “follow” other tumblelogs and their updates appear in a real-time stream on your Dashboard. You can also “like” or “re-blog” posts.

Tumblr really seems to stress their ease of use and claims to be the “easiest way to blog,” but I’m not really clear on what the major differences are between Tumblr and other blog sites yet.

Check it out!

FBI Threatens Wikipedia with Legal Action

According to the CNN article "FBI to Wikipedia: Remove Our Seal," the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has threatened Wikipedia with legal action if they don't remove the FBI seal from their site. The seal is featured in an article about the FBI.

The FBI says that Wikipedia must remove the bureau's seal because the FBI had not approved use of the image. They claim that "the inclusion of a high quality graphic of the FBI seal on Wikipedia is particularly problematic because it facilitates both deliberate and unwitting copying and reprinting of the seal's image."

Wikipedia has responded to the FBI with what has been called a "whimsical letter" telling them that they are "off their rocker" and that Wikipedia is prepared to argue their case in court.

What do you think? Should Wikipedia take down the seal?

Week 6 Prompt Response

Wow, I can't believe in just a few short days this class will be over and I will be graduating from Florida State University. I feel like I just got acclimated to being a student again and now it's all over.

In response to the prompt, I have learned a lot in just a few short weeks. When we started, I felt like I was pretty well-versed in social networking utilities, but this class has really expanded my horizon to include tools that aren't completely "social" per se, but are still based on user-generated content.

Just to name a few tools that I've now added into my repertoire are CiteULike, Diigo, Librarything, Ning, Technorati, Second Life and Wikispaces. Through our class produsage projects I also got to see a wide variety of the application of these tools.

I had the most fun creating my own produsage: The Tallahassee 365 Project. I find myself daily looking for things to add, events to post, etc. I'm sure the novelty will wear off at some point but so far I've really enjoyed the project. This was a good way for me to end my master's degree--doing something I liked, rather than a project I hated.

Professionally, I'd really like to starting creating a statewide wiki that can be used by people working in the suicide prevention field to report to my office what kinds of activities are going on in their local communities. I know this seems like something that could be done via email, but a wiki could aggregate the data, be updated all the time, and generally save me a lot of time and effort.

I look forward to learning about even more Web 2.0 tools and how I can integrate them into my daily life in the future.

Week 5 Participation

This week I completed the following tasks for class participation:

• Completed all week five assigned readings.
• Posted three blog entries (this makes four).
• Read all my classmates' blogs and the official class blog, and posted comments on eight separate entries.
• Read week five discussion board content, contributed eight comments, and posted my produsage project.
• Listened to class WebEx recorded session since I couldn’t make the actual meeting.
• Experimented a little with suggested tools: Librarything and Second Life.
• Created produsage project and wrote accompanying paper.
  

The Facebook Data Torrent Debacle

As I logged on to Yahoo this morning to check my email, this little ditty was displayed front and center on my homepage.

A security consultant, Ron Bowes, collected the names and profile URLs for 171 MILLION Facebook accounts (which is a little over a third of total Facebook users), then uploaded the data as a torrent file allowing anyone with a computer connection to download the data. This article provides Q&A for those who may be concerned about their privacy and security risks.

If you’re a Facebook user, does this make you nervous? Are you likely to alter your privacy settings as a result of this data mining?

The Free Problem

In addition to Blogger, another popular blogging website is Wordpress. One of the things I really like about Wordpress is their "Freshly Pressed" page, which is a home page of sorts that features recently updated user blogs on various trendy topics. Today, one of the freshly pressed blogs was Hightalk who had written about the Internet's "Free" Problem.

According to this blog, a recent survey found that 49% of Internet users have tried free micro-blogging services like Twitter, yet 0% of them would be willing to pay for it.

This introduces the Internet's Free Problem-- users do not want to pay for anything that they already receive for free. We have been conditioned to expect certain online services like email, social networks, music, etc. to be provided for us at no cost.

Of course, not all of these free services will be sustainable without eventually asking income from it's users. Just this past month, The Tallahassee Democrat newspaper started charging for online content, and some other periodicals do as well.

What I'm wondering is, if you had to choose between paying for Web 2.0 sites and applications, would you do it or go without? Which ones would you pay for and why?

I would pay for an online email account like Yahoo or Google, but that's about it.

Week 5 Prompt Response

Issues of authorship, copyright, and open access impact my desire, ability and willingness to engage in produsage differently personally and professionally.

Personally, I have minimal hesitancy in engaging in produsage. The materials that I typically produse on a personal level through Web 2.0 applications are just that – personal. I know that if I don’t want people to read or copy my work I can always implement certain privacy barriers so that only myself and select others can see it. However, I can’t imagine that my personal produsage consists of content matter that anyone would actually want to copy. Who really wants to steal or replicate my latest blog update recapping a friend’s birthday party or wedding?

Professionally, I have a great deal of hesitancy to engage in produsage. I am afraid to put my work out there because all too often there are people scavenging the web for papers, professional resources, etc. that they can use or plagiarize and not give credit where it’s due. Since I work in suicide prevention, a little bit of information can be dangerous in the wrong, uneducated hands. For that reason, I am very selective about what I put out there on the web for others to see. The bottom line is that if I don’t think it’s appropriate for public consumption or I don’t want others to copy it, then it stays on my computer.

Week 4 Participation

This week I completed the following tasks for class participation:

• Completed all week three assigned readings.
• Posted four blog entries (this makes five).
• Read all my classmates' blogs and the official class blog, and posted comments on ten separate entries.
• Read week four discussion board content and contributed seven comments.
• Researched online communities for the observations paper and wrote said paper.
• Still checking into outlets for my produsage project and still haven’t made a decision, even though I know the clock is ticking…

Pro-Ams

The discussion board threads this week led me to think about pro-ams in my line of work. As I’ve mentioned before, I currently work in the field of mental health and suicide prevention. Obviously, psychotherapy and the prescribing of medications must be done by a certified professional. However, there is a lot of room for pro-ams to contribute in policy, advocacy, and community mobilization.

Since 100% of my income springs from suicide prevention work, I guess I would be considered a professional. But it was my work as a pro-am that allowed me to become a professional. And isn’t that the ultimate goal? To transition from pro-am to professional, like the tennis player cited in the class text?

Many crisis hotlines employ counselors who don’t have any formal degree but instead have been through intense training programs. This allows the hotlines to employ a lot of counselors at less cost, or no cost at all if they take volunteers.

Our field is also strongly supported by suicide survivors, or people who have lost a loved one to suicide. They have formed statewide coalitions, community task forces, support groups, and they advocate for mental health legislation. These survivors have turned their personal loss and grief into action, and many survivors have educated themselves to reach the pro-am level. They all have their own separate work for non-related businesses and organizations, but ultimately their true passion has become preventing suicide, overcoming stigma, and promoting awareness for the issue.

At first I was skeptical about the pro-am concept because it seemed like having a glorified hobby. But after considering the real-life application to my work, I am more convinced that this is a real phenomena and extremely valuable to the success of my field.

Week 4 Prompt Response

Judging expertise on the web can be tricky. Generally, if I am looking for sound, reliable information, I look at the author and the source. Is the author a well-known, respected professional in the subject matter? Have they been published or quoted by their peers? However, if the source is considered reliable, then I will usually deem the author reliable by proxy. For example, if something is printed in The Economist or The Christian Science Monitor, I take it for granted that the publication wouldn’t risk their reputation by printing bogus material.

That being said, not all information on the web needs to come from an expert for it to be useful. I tend to look at reviews for almost everything on the web, and I know that most of the time the reviewers are not subject matter experts. I trust reviewers to give me lots of supplemental information that I wouldn’t be able to get strictly from the original websites. For example, before purchasing clothes from OldNavy.com I always read the reviews to see what kind of “fit” the clothing has; is it true to size? I read movie reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and Netflix before going to the theatre or renting a DVD. And I could spend hours reading a plethora of product reviews on Amazon without ever making a purchase. If the original websites don’t host member reviews, then I can usually look on Facebook and find a page dedicated to product discussion. I also use Wikipedia a lot, despite warnings on how unreliable it may be.

Judging expertise in person is different. When in person, reputation and word-of-mouth tends to bear heavily on my opinion. If my boss or colleague speaks highly of someone then they automatically win points with me. Work history is still important, but I think a strong recommendation can speak volumes for credibility.

So, judging expertise online and in person does differ. I think when searching for official “sources” online I scrutinize the information out of fear that I might quote wrongful data. I also think that many people are distrustful of online information because you can’t see the publisher, and we’ve all heard horror stories about people misrepresenting themselves on the web (reference: To Catch A Predator). However, it seems like many people (myself included) could stand to be more skeptical when judging in-person, because we tend to get swept away by the sensory experience of the actual meeting and have an inherent instinct to trust.

In follow-up to Shirky's chapter about Web 2.0 helping to solve social dilemmas, check out this CNN article.

Chavez claims to help nearly 288,000 Venezualans through Twitter

Are You Digitally Addicted?

Check out this really interesting blog posting from Psychology Today. Here's an excerpt:

"A recent social media addiction study by Retrevo reveals 27% of those surveyed under 35 years old admitted to checking their social media pages such as Twitter and Facebook more than ten times a day. Thirty-six percent of the 35 and under group admitted to updating their platforms right after having sex while 40% in this same age group admitted to updating while driving."

Week 3 Participation

This week I completed the following tasks for class participation:

• Completed all week three assigned readings.
• Posted three blog entries (this makes four).
• Read all my classmates' blogs and the official class blog, and posted comments on 12 separate entries.
• Read week three discussion board content and contributed three comments.
• Read some blogs on Web 2.0 and marketing, including investing in your audiences.
• Researched online communities for the observations paper. Began lurking/participating in said communities.
• Researched possible formats/hosts for my produsage project, including checking out a few leads from my fellow classmates. At this point, I haven’t made a decision though.
  

Has Facebook Changed Your Life?

According to this article, sometime next week Facebook will reach 500 million users. To celebrate, Facebook will launch a visual memorial to all the ways that the social network has changed people’s lives, such as through finding love or documenting natural disasters.

I give kudos to Facebook for being able to attract such an overwhelming following to their social utility, but I also find myself somewhat skeptical to the idea that Facebook has actually changed lives. Our lives are altered by momentous experiences such as being accepted to college, getting married, having children, losing loved ones, being diagnosed with illness, etc. Does Facebook really qualify as one of these life-changing experiences? I’m not so sure. Perhaps there are a handful of people who did fall in love through a Facebook connection or landed a job because of their social networking skills, but I can’t imagine that the majority of those 500 million users would fall into that category.

Has Facebook changed my life? Somewhat. Now, I have an excuse not to travel to my high school reunion because I can stalk all my old classmates on Facebook. Now, when I go out to dinner with friends I have to make sure that I don’t let anyone take pictures of me a martini in hand because those pictures will surely end up tagged on Facebook. Now, I have to monitor my privacy settings in case potential employers or old boyfriends decide to look me up on Facebook. For me, Facebook is a double-edged sword. I enjoy the connectivity, but I don’t enjoy that increasing levels of personal information are floating around in cyberspace for people to access.

Would you say that Facebook has changed your life in a positive way, negative way, or not at all? What about other social networks?

Biologically Wired for Connectivity?

This morning I stumbled across the Sunday Book Review of “Hamlet’s Blackberry” from the New York Times, and was intrigued by the article title, “Born to Check Mail.”

The author, Laurie Winer, comments on society’s “obsessive connectivity and its effect on our brains and very way of life.” Winer in fact, admits to frequently tearing herself away from reading to address the email notification pings on her iPhone. This made me chuckle to myself, as I also frequently pause during reading or my favorite episode of Grey’s Anatomy to make sure nothing new and exciting has popped up on my Facebook wall.

According to the article, these kinds of notifications may actually set off a “dopamine squirt” in our brains. Marketers told us that we need to be connected, but our genetic brain processes may have solidified the need to repeatedly do so. We are literally getting a high from the attention delivered through social connectivity.

This information led me to think about the vaguebooking phenomenon posted by Vanessa earlier this week. Are vaguebookers actually being compelled to seek attention through biological chemical processes in their brain? Just some food for thought…

Week 3 Prompt Response

I currently work for a small office that is a division of a state agency in Florida. In this environment, an office wiki would be very useful in the following ways.

For one, new employees coming into the office receive an agency-wide HR handbook but they don’t receive any information on policies and procedures within our specific office. A wiki would be a great way to explain simple items like our organizational chart, emergency notification tree, employee roles and areas of focus, how to reserve a meeting room or conference line, etc. Then, as policies and procedures are changed, the wiki could be added to or edited appropriately.

I also collaborate with a large advisory council and hundreds of partners around the state on a regular basis. One major project we have underway is revising the goals and objectives in our statewide strategy. In order to get feedback, I have to email documents out to everyone, ask them to track changes or write out edits, email it back to me, and I then incorporate changes. If all of this were done in a wiki, it would save a lot of time and cost.

As another class blogger mentioned, a wiki would be a great way to keep track of bills, amendments, committee meetings and so forth during legislative session. Right now we use Lobby Tools to track this information, but it would be easier if everything could be maintained in one space for our internal office and we were all consistently up-to-date.

One challenge to implementing these kinds of changes is Florida’s broad public record laws. At times, our office receives requests for all documents, emails, and notes regarding specific topics. The multiple contributors to a wiki would make it difficult to determine specific authorship and extract the needed information for public record. Another challenge I foresee is management being unwilling to relinquish control over the content and information contained in a wiki. Many management officials within my agency are very specific about having complete oversight into agency work projects, content, who does what, etc.

So, although a wiki would be a useful tool, I don’t see it being implemented in the near future. The State has rarely been accused of being an early adopter of new technology (as I type in software from 2003). We will probably only be able to begin thinking about these possibilities when a national agency, or other state agency, starts modeling them.

Week 2 Participation

This week I completed the following tasks for class participation:

• Completed all week two assigned readings.
• Posted three blog entries (this makes four).
• Read all my classmates' blogs and the official class blog.
• Read discussion board content.
• Researched flash mobs, viral communication, and watched some fun, related YouTube videos.
• Searched for information on "pro-ana/mia" communities (as was referenced in Shirky) and other pro-self-harm social communities.
• Looked into Diigo and what it does. Although I know more, I'm still not entirely clear on how to use it, or pronounce it.

For those interested in learning more about Diigo, try checking out this slideshare presentation that provides some background. This web site also provides many related videos such as a "Diigo tutorial" and "Diigo in Education."

It was difficult for me to keep up this week because I spent 5 days in airports and hotels where I was asked to pay $15+ per day for Internet which my budget does not allow. Next week I hope to be overall less research-oriented and more interactive.

Solving Social Dilemmas

Chapter 8 of Here Comes Everybody titled “Solving Social Dilemmas” especially struck a chord with me this week. From the reading, I felt that Shirky was making the point that Web 2.0 facilitates connectedness among social groups that normally would in some way be ostracized or forced to overcome barriers to prosper. Case in point: the list on page 197 citing 6,757 witches and 1,339 vampires. (Who knew there were so many vampires out there?!)

Putting the supernatural aside, I wanted to look into the positive and negative sides of these kinds of online communities and websites linking social groups that would otherwise be underground due to the nature of their interest and content. Through Google searching, it was rather disturbing to find how many explanatory web sites and message boards exist that aid young women in losing weight, promoting anorexia/bulimia, and posting “thinspiration.” As I delved further into these deviant communities, I also found web sites that provided guides for self-mutilation (e.g., cutting, burning, etc.), and even sites that list recommended methods for attempting suicide based on effectiveness, pain threshold, and more. From what I understand, the powers that be will not shut down these kinds of sites because it infringes on the right to free speech. (In Shirky’s YM example, I’m guessing they were able to shut down their message board because they were a private company.) In my personal opinion however, I cannot help but wonder what good could possibly come from these sites that promote self-harm.

On the other side of the spectrum, there are positive outlets to connect these same groups of people. For those who are looking for self-help to overcome anorexia, self-mutilation, and suicidal ideation there are websites which serve as online support groups. In particular, via Dr. Phil’s blog I was linked to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Gallery. This is a website where visitors pick a self-representative avatar and then record their own personal story to be posted on the site. People visit this website to share and listen to stories of hope and recovery. I was impressed that this website allows people to reach out and feel connected but still maintain a level of anonymity. In this example, those with mental illness and their family and friends can overcome stigma and open up a dialogue that may not always be acceptable in real life social settings.

This information serves to reinforce the belief that there are positive and negative sides to every coin and the Internet can be a very dangerous tool in the wrong hands.