Group items tagged

Prop 8 maps, a mashup of Google Maps and Prop 8 Donors, shows the names of those who contributed money to the passage of California's Proposition 8, which prohibits same-sex marriage. The mashup also shows the streets where these people live. This kind of mashup is useful, but to some, it's also intrusive and scary. While these contribution records are public record, the idea that your name and mapped street are online could be considered unnecessarily invasive. The mashup offers great information, but is the backlash and privacy invasion worth it? This particular mashup, while not on a news site, raises questions about when and how journalists should use this type of online application.

Ignorance is bliss!

IT professionals are under pressure from upper level executives to open the floodgates to the latest Web-based platforms, relaxing Web security policy, according to a new survey of 1,300 IT managers. The survey, conducted by independent research firm Dynamic Markets Ltd., was commissioned by Web, DLP and email security vendor Websense Inc. Dynamic Markets conducted interviews with IT managers in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, the U.K. and the U.S. Nearly all those surveyed said they allow access to some Web-based services, such as webmail, mashups and wikis. But more employees are turning to online collaboration platforms; some are turning to Google Apps, which are integrated with Google's Gmail platform, and others are turning to popular social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook. Some users are bypassing Web security policy to access the services, according to 47% of those surveyed.