Sunday, October 16, 2011

Well  - sounds of a throat clearing - once, then once again.  "Is my face red" I stated declaratively.

This post has to be post #2a because I only, maybe, partially answered post question #2 correctly. If you remember, in post #2 I boasted about my background in IT Education from back in the 1990s and into the early 21st century. I seem to remember mentioning having seen the coming of Facebook.

For this, I can't even blame the caffeine.

Well - I didn't feel that solid in my answer but at the time I must have felt solid enough to make the post.  That was until I got to class and took a closer look at my notes.  Wow - not even close.
It's Tweeter *%#! not Facebook.

I never saw Tweeter coming. Ok, I never saw Facebook coming either, at least not specifically.  I never even saw a way you could track tweets coming but I knew someone would find a way to make money from all the info being stored on all those servers.
I have a Tweeter account and have for maybe close to a year. I have Tweeter for Dummies but haven't used either one.  No one Tweets me, I wonder why.

So here goes Post #2a - first, I have mixed emotions about the type and amount of tweets' data needed to create the tweets usage map shown to us in class. 
Although I did find it fascinating to see the similarities in behaviors of people from different parts of the world. It was as if I was watching a worldwide human pulse as the images on the screen grew larger and smaller, darker or lighter, depending on the Tweeter usage around the world.

As a means of understanding the emotional aspects of people using Tweeter, based on time of day, day of the week, and the context of the message this information could be good research material for the Social Sciences, such as Sociology.  As an American citizen keen on Privacy I always feel uncomfortable signing my personal privacy away to use a product - no matter how cool and versatile it may be. 

So no, I didn't specifically see Facebook or Tweeter coming but I certainly was part of  conversations focused on the hopes and the fears that the collectivism of the Internet could bring.
Anyone read a Brave New World recently?

Monday, October 10, 2011

Hello and welcome back!

I'm starting to feel the wind in my hair as though I was running with the White Queen on the chessboard, running faster and faster ....... whew, sorry, not sure if it's the caffeine or the excitement of doing something new (at least for me) - probably a bit of both.

Except for becoming a follower of myself and not yet, having figured out how to make myself go away I feel I am catching on to the functionality of the blog.

My second assignment for the Public Relations & Social Media (PRSM) class is to blog on the statistics shown to us in class on 10/3.

I was surprised by some of the statistics but not really.  For me the surprise really was that I was surprised at all.  The internet and Facebook has been growing expediently.  As one who worked in the field of IT education from 1995 to 2001 this is what was expected of the internet; it is amazing and a little overwhelming to see it as a pie chart that encompasses the world (minus Africa).  lol
Facebook has also grown expediently and continues to do so in new and unexpected ways.
Can anyone say HBO.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Hello and hello again - wow, what a long hard road it has been to post to my blog.
As a first time blogger I am just thrilled to find a page with a publish button!

My first assignment in my Public Relations and Social Media class is to set up a blog and post on the new Facebook privacy settings.
Did it, did it and here it is.

I found some of the Facebook privacy settings to be of interest. I found the information about being tagged and who can then see your account helpful, as well as how to chose an audience for my postings. This exercise made me very aware of how much I have taken for granted about Facebook and just how complacent I have been about a very public profile of myself.

As one working in the fields of domestic and sexual violence I feel these new privacy setting options will be of value to victims/survivors of dv and sa and their families.

I did disable the following two functions:

Invitations to participate in research about Facebook and weekly website updates for admins

I am concerned that the invitation would be generated based on mined info and that the weekly updates to admins is also a data mining function. It may be pie in the sky to think I can limit such activities but I can try at least.

Also, looking at the privacy settings prompted me to reset my security settings.

May all sentient beings know Peace,

Paula