Megan's Blog

Final Thoughts on the Course

Megan — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:08:46 +0000

I’ve really, really enjoyed this course. I felt that all the information that we learned about was very relevant and useful in every aspect of life. The internet is such a big part of people’s lives today I think it is very important to educate people on the benefits of the internet and different ways of sharing and creating information. I also think its important to educate people on risks you take when you use the internet. I think like courses like this are on the rise, and will become mandatory in highschool and universities because of the developing ‘information society’. The information we’ve learned this semester was very relevant to the career choice I wish to pursue in business, public relations or human resources. I feel that I have used the information I’ve learned this semester and will retain it to better many aspects of my use on the internet and life in general.

Measures to Maintain my Privacy Online

Megan — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:02:34 +0000

Last year I ran into some issues regarding privacy within my facebook account. Someone whom I was not friends with got ahold of my cell phone number and was sending me harassing text messages. After that I set my privacy settings very high on facebook and made sure that only people that I authorized could see my profile. Also after I heard all the horror stories about employeers firing people or not hiring people because of content on facebook I double checked that my privacy settings were setting relatively high on my SNS. Recently when we were discussing privacy implications on facebook in lecture I reworked my privacy settings to people could not find me on google and other search engines.
I think that privacy is the biggest implication and downfall that SNS websites have, people feel very comfortable posting everything on their profiles without realizing who could be accessing this information.

Privacy Issues!

Megan — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 03:47:25 +0000

I think that the privacy issues that are the most important to me within SNS are the issues that all the controversy as been surrouding lately. These are the issues with the ownership of the information that we post online. Today in lecture we discussed how people can access your information even though you are not their friends. I think that the privacy issues on facebook need to be ajusted with who can view what information without that persons consent. I think facebook users need to understand and read the terms of use and privacy settings before they sign up for the account or post private information on their profiles. I also do not feel that people can not complain about facebook with out fully understanding these terms.
I share mostly all my information on facebook but I make sure to monitor who I have on my facebook account and I have my privacy settings set high. I recently made my privacy settings exceptionally high because of an icident I encountered this past summer that I shared in lecture. I had my privacy settings set at people who are friends of friends can access my information and some random person got a hold of my cell phone number and was sending me harassing text messages. I immediately set my account privacy settings very high and blocked his phone number. I feel that people who have experiences these types of infringments of privacy will be more cautious with what they post on facebook and who can view that information.

Searching and Key Words

Megan — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:42:33 +0000

I’m not a huge internet surfer, I usually just stick to necessary internet surfing such as for research for school courses. I spend most of my time on the internet using my SNS and recently blogging, researching and on Second Life. My keywords might be construed from an outside perspective as someone who is weirdly obsessed with the internet and blogging, as well as someone who is interested in celebrity gossip and MTV. I think someone who viewed my keywords would figure out that I am a student.
The key word I searched was “Synchronized Skating” I think that I expected everything I found on Google, I found Youtube videos the wikipedia article, the SkateCanada website and some team forums. I find that the google searches are sometimes skewed because of sponsers like Wikipedia and Youtube. When I searched on Yahoo I also found wikipedia but I found more information based websites rather than team websites and forums, I am more interesting in the blogs and forums in these searches because I do not need to learn about the actual sport but just whats going on within the world of Synchronized skating, it’s easy to think about when you think about sports bloggers for hockey they are not interesting in finding out what hockey IS but rather what is going on. Through Live.com I found that the sites were similar to the Yahoo sites but there seemed to be more American websites which I do not find useful. Personally I found the Google.com search the most useful out of all of the searching engines.

The Course so Far…

Megan — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:08:43 +0000

I’m actually very impressed with this course so far, I find myself talking alot about the internet and all the things I have learned in this class, as well as relating all my other courses to things I have learned in this class. My thesis for my COMM 2F50 paper relating to blogging and how it can effect the spiral of silence theory. I think that the main thing that I have learned in this class is how social and collaborative media is really transforming communication as we know it. Blogging and SNS has really changed the way people share information and communicate. I really believe that this is just the beginning of what social media and SNS can do to build and create the global network that theorists and mass media have been attempting to create. I really enjoy seeing how far these internet websites can innovate many different aspects of people’s lives.
When it comes to creating, searching and circulating information I have really learned and been able to explore this different ways people can execute discourse and find all type of information.

Linked In

Megan — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:50:26 +0000

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ms07cj

On my Linked In profile, I posted my current job at Pier One Imports as well as posted my past jobs while I was in highschool. I posted these because I feel that these jobs represent my skills and experiences I have aquired. I also posted that I’m a student at Brock University studying Business Communications. I think that this is a great way to make use of social networking and social media, cause it simplifies the process of employeers looking for employees and vice versa. LinkedIn is a great tool for young people especially students because social media and SNS seems to be the new was of communication rather than more conventional and traditional forms of media and communication.

Things that may be potnetially problematic within Linked In is the same problems that appear with many of the SNS websites today. People may not feel comfortable posting where they work and go to school for all to see. Privacy issues and other issues arise within the Linked In website.

blogs, blogs and more blogs.

Megan — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 02:32:26 +0000

Moblog: http://www.moblog.com.sg/blogger/blog.asp?uid=E97BFD5C-56CE-49A9-BA25-2A2E315860C4&bid=327C7176-EAF8-4055-80A4-36EA742BB071

This is my example of a Moblog, this idea of moblog kind of just reminds me of a moblie app on facebook or messenger live. I’m not really sure of what the extent of what is on the blog is directly from your phone. I also thought it was interesting that you can see who exactly can visit your blog which is kinda weird to me, I’m not sure if I’d be cool with people know that I was looking at there blog. I found this particular moblog really pointless, like do you think I can that there’s a window outside your house. It seems like these blogs aren’t as much writers stating there opinions on certain issues and what not, but more so people updating people on the weather outside there house. :S

Photoblog: http://www.photoblog.com/Cipri/2009/02/27/

I liked looking though these photoblogs, and I really enjoyed it! It shows artists and talented people’s photography. I think this is more like a blog because photoblogs are a way of getting opinions and art out there through blogs rather than just personal journals. I think that the idea of Photoblogs is really neat if you are an aspiring photographer.

Videoblogs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kea8nJg4zd0

Ok so this video blog is HILARIOUS, I’ll be posting the link on twitter aswell. Videoblogs, I found really neat as well, where you can be artisting and opnionated as well as use it as somewhat of a journal. “Daxflame” for example is obviously a well known videoblogger and people check in on what he’s been up to of how his day went. It’s really interesting to see how many different media you can use to blog and be proactive on the internet.

Audioblog:

I could really find any examples of Audio blogs… I’m assuming from my search results there much like podcasts. Unfortunately I haven’t experienced pod casts, and i’m not even really sure what they are. The one website I found was hipcast which seemed to be the same type of idea as podcasting i’m assuming, it wouldn’t let me on to browse. I think you may need to download these blogs. I’ll be interesting to find out what they are.

… more to come on corporate blogs!

Blog Creeping!

Megan — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:18:57 +0000

As in Facebook terms, I’ve been “creeping” out some of the other student’s blogs. I looked on Natalie’s blog and read through her blogs, her blogging style seems to be similar to mine, informal, yet still appropriate. I commented on her Nexus blog and from how she had described her graph, she seemed to have a similar graph as mine. I was curious what some other students graphs looked like and they all have the same basic “home friends/brock friends” deal. I was really cool to see how everyone else was blogging and it helped me to understand some of the course material a little bit better. I think I’m going to keep up my “blog creeping.

Checkin’ Out Social Bookmarking!

Megan — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 02:37:48 +0000

I’ve been exploring social bookmarking websites such as delicious, digg and diigo. I immediately took a liking to delicious, I’ve already bookmarked, tagged and organized all my personal websites and school websites. When I compared delicious and digg, I liked delicous much better because I found it easier to navigate and organize my sites. As fo Diigo: LOVE IT! I love having the ability to highlight, bookmark and ‘sticky note’ my websites. I find it especially useful for papers and school work. I think that I am going to stick with delicious for bookmarking though. I searched synchronized skating in both delicious and digg and again found delicious to be more useful for what I needed. I found that delicious showed more blogs and wikis on the subject where as digg showed more information sites. This may be just a conicidence. I think that I will still primarily use a google or altavista search before a social bookmarking search, just because thats what i’m used too. I’m so surprised that these websites are not more popular because I do find them very useful… I’ve convinced my roommates, friends, dad and boyfriend too look into these sites.

Check out my course related sites saved on delicious: ms07cj!

Twitter, Delicious and Diigo

Megan — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:35:32 +0000

Sooooo, I’ve signed up for Delicious and Diigo which dispite my initial thought we’re really easy to get started. I really like the concept of Diigo, especially because I’m a Wikipedia freak. Also with Delicious I’ve been adding more and more sites since yesterday and it’s very convenient, I think that after this class I will definately keep up with Delicious and Diigo. And as for Twitter… not a fan, it just seems so pointless, but I’m trying to keep an open mind. :S