Legal, Policies and Ethics

Imagine for a moment sitting in front of a potential employer. You're wearing your favorite outfit and feeling confident about your impressive resume that is sitting in front your interviewee. The first thing you are asked is not for your resume or job experience description, but rather for your login information to your social media networks. Would you do it?

This has been a growing concern in the media as of lately as to whether this is ethical of not. So where is the line drawn whether this is okay or not?

Ethical is one thing, legal is another this is what The Justice Department says "it’s a crime to access a social networking site if doing so violates its terms of service. Giving out your Facebook login does just that."

One person shared their feelings when they were asked to hand over their information. "Feeling that he had no choice -- your privacy or your livelihood? Really? -- Collins turned over his password, but in his words, 'I felt violated, I felt disrespected, I felt that my privacy was invaded. But not only my privacy, the privacy of my friends and that of my family that didn't as for that.'"

Policies are coming out now that ban companies from asking for information like above mentioned. If you have a voice, use it to protect yourself and incite change.



http://amarillo.com/blog-post/karen-smith-welch/2012-04-10/md
http://news.dice.com/2012/03/20/employers-want-facebook-password/

Apps

Every year we read about people who die in car accidents due to texting while driving. What is it about texting that lures so many into texting while driving? I don't know exactly, but I do know that I have to fight the urge to not text when I hear the "bllliinggg" sound on my phone while I am driving. I'm not going to talk about texting while driving, but I am going to talk about the advantages of texting and how it has enhanced our communication.

According to one website texting is a great source of record keeping. If one needs to go back through their texts to look up past conversations they can with the brush of a finger. This has been useful for various reasons including law suits and more.

Another reason that is less talked about and could save you the most money is that texting for most phone plans is less expensive than a phone call.

Convenience is the future and texting is one tool that helps enhance communication. When a phone call is unavailable or would be rude, a quick text can make all of the difference.

There are several new apps that are trying to catch a part of the communication market. Some have come and gone, others are still popping up seemingly daily.

http://www.ehow.com/about_4745121_advantages-text-messaging.html
http://socyberty.com/society/five-benefits-of-text-messaging-in-modern-society/

Search Engine Optimization

Isn't it convenient to get online and within a few clicks of the mouse a person can find out how to do just about anything and learn about everything? One key ingredient to making this search so effective and efficient are hash tags and other methods of tagging.
What is tagging? Tagging occurs when anything is posted on the Internet it is given key words that are related to the message or content of the video or document. Then when someone types words into the search engine that are related, all information about the words that were typed in are then given to the searcher.
This is the basic idea behind tagging however why is it that certain information on the web is views so much more than other information that is very similar in content? There are good ways to tag and there are better ways.
Here are a few ideas of how businesses or individuals can optimize and increase the number of viewer and users of their sites.
According to one SEO expert here are 10 tips to help optimize your site:
1." Find the best key words
2. Discover what your competitors are doing
3. Write very linkable and sharable content.
4. Optimize your title and meta tags.
5. Optimize your heading and sub-headings
6. Use title and ALT attributes
7. Optimize file nomenclatures
8. Tell the search engine what to context.
9. Feed search engines static and XML site maps.
10. Use checklists and validators."
My personal favorite from these tips is the very first one and possibly the simplest, "find the Best key words." It is easy to hastily post something or upload something to the Internet, but if you can take the time to figure out the best key words then the number of visitors to your site will be drastically enhanced.
Perhaps the best advice I heard from doing a bit of research was found on the following website http://www.searchengineoptimizationtoronto.com/ It stated that it doesn't matter what tactics are used to assist your SEO there is no substitute for quality content.



http://www.top10seotips.com/seo_tips.htm
 http://www.searchengineoptimizationtoronto.com/

Collaborative and Distance Communication Tools

How many of you use a land line for your main source of communication today? I don't know the statistics about this but I do know that a growing number of people that I know do not even have a land line these days. What is the reason for this growing trend of not having a land line? I don't think this one page write-up will be sufficient to even try to address this question, but I have a few ideas that I'll throw out here.
Skype is a relatively new service that has been continually upgrading its system to deliver a free service of communication. With a free account log-in, people can call others over the Internet and communicate with audio and video.
What does this mean? This means that instead of paying an arm and a leg for a pre-paid calling card or paying through the nose for a long distance call, you can click and talk for free!
Would you do it? Skype currently has 37.5 million users. 38 thousand new people sign up daily!
Now with the rise in smart phones people can have this application on there phone and then call others for free!
According to the Maryland State Bar Association Inc. Skype has trended upward with users due to the fact that is is easy to sign up and easy to use.
Who knows where communication channels are going for the future, but Skype seems to have a recipe that is attracting people all over.

http://www.msba.org/departments/commpubl/publications/bar_bult/2009/april/techtalk.asp
http://skypejournal.com/blog/category/statistics/

Viral Videos

What is it about certain videos that cause thousands or millions of people to view them, comment on them and forward them to others? What cconstitutes a "viral video?"
According to an online article "What makes an online video 'viral?'" a video is counted as viral if it receives over seven million views in a three to seven day time period. This article points out that many people today throw the term "viral video" around loosely without properly understanding it.
Today some people seek to create and film viral videos hoping that they will strike an interest in the eyes of millions. Though many are filmed with hopes to become "viral" they never make it big. I think the best videos that become "viral" are filmed randomly or capture a unique phenomena or occurrence.
Anyone can look up the top "viral videos and see that most are not professionally filmed rather they are random and unique or ones that many people can relate to. People like things that they can relate to and "viral" videos tend to follow that trend.
According to videoproductiontips.com Dynamic Logic studied "viral"videos and developed an acronym for what makes videos "viral"
LEGS stands for Laugh, Edgy, Gripping, Sexual. The more components that a video contains helps the video go "viral." The above mentioned website also ads a few more categories: Unusual, real, something people can relate to, compelling, joy inducing. If you are seeking to film the next "viral" video then I would say go out and do fun things, hang around unique people and always have a means to film your experiences. Life is funny, just be yourself and capture those moments.


http://socialtimes.com/what-makes-a-video-viral_b61409
http://videoproductiontips.com/what-makes-a-video-go-viral/

Location Based Programs

Facebook has recently come out with a new setting that allows GPS to track where you are when you make updates or tag yourself in photos. Here is what here is what SunSentinal.com had to say about it.
"It's great for smart phone users who want to know where their friends are at any given moment. Some of them already use Foursquare and GoWalla to "check in" to restaurants, bars and other hot spots. But users who are concerned about privacy must proactively change their settings to opt out."
I find this comment consistent with my thoughts about the issue in that I do care about privacy issues and I don't necessarily want that much information floating around. It seems like it would be an on-going task to keep my location at bay, but for those people who are wanting to see where there friends and family are then it would be fun and one more thing to stock people with using the Internet.
Location based marketing is now helping telecommunication companies to send out more relevant information for their customers because they will know your location. Once again privacy is one thing that is a hot topic in relation to this topic.
The more intrusive technology becomes the more I cant help but think how long will it last? When will people become so sick of being bombarded with advertising and marketing pitches and advertisements? I wonder when people will see the value of "less is more."
I do see a slim value in location based programs, but I don't quite think that the benefit outweighs the cost.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2010-08-28/news/fl-slcol-facebook-places-settings-20100828_1_mafia-wars-facebook-users-gowalla
http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/9540.html

Traditional Media Views

Inquirer Technology said that people of this generation will spend roughly 10,000 hours on social media sites before they reach adulthood. What will this mean for traditional media, social media and other forms of advertising, marketing, social networking and more? This article was based on a college in the Philippines who explored this topic more in depth. It particularly stood out to me because I find it easy to think that the internet revolves around me. Not literally, but it is a fascinating reminder that people across the globe can read my work, click through my pictures and send me a brief message or email if they so desire.

If people are estimated to spend around 10,000 hours on social media sites, what are the repercussions? This could lead to anti-social behavior that could completely change traditional media in that it is at risk of being completely ineffective. This is one area of concern but also of discovery. What will the next wave of media be? How will it be distributed?

Social media has already changed the face of information distribution. In one article it talks about reports of people disclosing important information of people in need of help during natural disasters. When phones are down, electricity is out, people can still fill the ocean of information with new updates and information.

There are so many new ways for distributing information it possess an interesting question of where is it all going? What is the direction it is going? Will it last?

http://technology.inquirer.net/7499/technology-seen-as-shifting-power-of-traditional-media-to-people/

http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=27616&lan=en&sp=0