a rising problem with people making anonymous statements that defamed companies, and people sharing confidential information online.
the new team would ensure there was “nowhere to hide in cyberspace”.
a story from six years earlier about United Airlines going bankrupt was voted up on a newspaper website. This was later picked up by Google News and eventually the Bloomberg news wire, which published it automatically as if it were a news story.
trying to get Internet Service Providers to give out details of customers who had made comments online
shares in American firm United Airlines fell by 99 per cent in just 15 minutes after an outdated story that the firm had filed for bankruptcy was forced back onto the headlines.
the numbers of disgruntled employees looking to get their own back on employers or former employers was also on the rise.
could stifle free speech, and the ability of people to act as whistle-blowers to expose actions by their employers.
Is it possible to have accountability AND anonymity? Must these be mutually exclusive?
This is known as the ‘Streisand effect’ online, after a case where singer Barbara Streisand tried to suppress photos of her California beachside home from a publicly-available archive of photos taken to document coastal erosion.
Nightjack. This was the guy who was blogging on the front line about police work and he was forced to stop this story because he was unmasked by The Times
If you allow a lot of anonymous debate by people who are not regulated, you can get it descending to the common denominator. If you allow people to register with an identity, even if it’s not their real one, you bring the level of debate up.”
There was one case a couple of years ago that we just keep referring back to where a defamatory comment was made and it wasn’t taken down for a period of time. Because of that the host of the website was held to be liable.”
the ‘Wild West’ era of the internet was in some ways coming to an end, with firms starting to crack down
I think companies are still grappling with whether it’s better to take it on the chin and hope people don’t see the comments, or on the other hand cracking down on everything that’s particularly damaging that’s said online. Maybe this is set to change.”
While this article starts out about a lawfirm in Birmingham UK that is going to "track down people who make anonymous comments about companies online" it becomes an amazingly poignant article on the very nature of the Internet today and the push pull between anonymous commenting and accountability of the commenter. Push pull between free speech and online identity and brand protection.
One person in this article claims that this sort of thing is the sign that the "wild west" of the INternet is coming to an end. Oh dear, I hope someone invents a new one if somehow anonymous commenters are now going to risk such!
Also love the article's discussion of the Streisand effect wherein Barbara protested the sharing of some photos of her eroding beachfront which caused a stir and more people looking at the photos than if she had left it alone.
This article is going to be a must read for Flat Classroom students and would be great for college-level discussions as well.
harleston County School District may soon be investing in the iPod touch as a learning tool for students.
"Everything from vocabulary, to e-book reading, to art, to science," said CCSD Media Services Coordinator Connie Dopierala.
CCSD hopes to invest in a set of 40 iPod Touches for every school in the district, at $150 each. Students can learn math or grammar on inexpensive application programs.
"We can download a 99-cent app and load it on all 40 iPod Touches or however many, and that's very cost-effective with taxpayer dollars," said Dopierala.
I'm not sure how the licensing is working for them. I didn't think you could have one app and share on 40 ipods, but that is what the Charleston County School District says they are doing.
From the article:
""Everything from vocabulary, to e-book reading, to art, to science," said CCSD Media Services Coordinator Connie Dopierala.
CCSD hopes to invest in a set of 40 iPod Touches for every school in the district, at $150 each. Students can learn math or grammar on inexpensive application programs.
"We can download a 99-cent app and load it on all 40 iPod Touches or however many, and that's very cost-effective with taxpayer dollars," said Dopierala."
For study purposes you can create a fake Facebook profile. Usse this for historical figures, teaching digital citizenship, authors, people in literature. Who you'd like to be in 10 years! Cool assignment.
A first-grade teacher was suspended Thursday following alleged comments on her Facebook page in which she said she felt like a "warden" overseeing "future criminals," according to a district official.
"This is not first time I've heard something like this from a teacher," Best said. "Overall, I think we have really good teachers. But there's also a significant population of teachers here to collect the paycheck and don't have the best interests of the students in mind."
"There might be others (who share the sentiments of the online remarks) but all I've dealt with have shown no signs like that," said the Rev. Barry Graham, assistant pastor at Canaan Baptist Church
Graham, whose congregation works closely with the school and recently awarded 130 honor roll students there, recognized that "any one of us on a bad day could lash out."
Yes, any one of us can have a bad day and lash out. But, if you are a teacher, you are held to higher principles and practices. Don't do it! Find something good and post online about that. The good can be contagious, too!
If you have no idea what network-centric grantmaking is and you write grants or work with fundraising - this blog post is an important read for you. (Buy Beth's book - the networked nonprofit - it is great.)
Themes as per Beth:
These themes include:
1. Listening to and consulting the crowds: Actively listening to online conversations and openly asking for advice.
2. Designing for serendipity: Creating environments, in person and online, where helpful connections can form.
3. Bridging differences: Deliberately connecting people with different perspectives.
4. Catalyzing mutual support: Helping people directly help each other.
5. Providing handrails for collective action: Giving enough direction for individuals to take effective and coordinated action.
Another great local press coverage of how our amazing Flat Classroom teachers are collaborating. This is a story that our communities are hungry for. Social media is great but social learning is transformational. The best teachers are attracted to the Flat Classroom projects - apply now at www.flatclassroomproject.net
"Big news for little people" this website is targeted news for kids aged 7-14 and may be something you can use in your classroom. What a fascinating discussion you could have about July 13th's topic the "crazy basketball court."
Another free place to give tests and exams online. Let computers do what they do best. What I do is IF I have a few multiple choice, etc. I may do them online BUT I also do other ways of assessment with my test. I just don't think the bubbles can get it all. That said, if you have to do it, you shouldn't have to grade it unless it is open answer or essay and this is a free tool to help you.
Some major computer science programs at top universities are seeing a slight uptick in the number of women going into the programs. Citing statistics from Harvard (up from 13% to 25%) and MIT (a 28% jump in 3 years), and Carnegie Mellon (from 1/5 in 2007 to 1/4 last year.)
Most think it is the economy although some attribute programs to get more women interested in the programs.
According to Picasa, If you’ve signed up for Google+ photos up to 2048 x 2048 pixels and videos up to 15 minutes won’t count towards your free storage. (hat tip to Greg Grothaus)
To add people who have added you to their circles, but you haven’t add them, go to the “People who’ve added you” tab and select “Not yet in circles” from the sort menu. All the people not in your circles will be listed first (hat tip to Owen Prater)
Right click on a circle and select “View circle in tab”. This is a terrific way to see who’s in a circle and allows you to do neat things like drag all the people inside it to another circle.
If you have a lot of Circles and/or a lot of people in your various Circles views (e.g. “People in your circles”, “People who’ve added you”, etc.”), Mac users can use the pinch functionality to make the Circles section smaller so you can view all of your Circles.
Order of Circles in Left-Hand Nav: Default Circles appear first in this order – Friends, Family, Following, and Acquaintances. Then your personal circles are arranged alphabetically. You can rename any of the circles, including the default ones, and renaming a default one makes it part of the normal alphabetized list. Put an underscore in front of one that you want at the top of the list. You could also delete the default circles and start over in the order that you want.(hat tip to Donna Fontenont and Joe Hall)