Group items tagged

On the subject of the private and public divide of our social media lives comes this news article of a debt collection bank employee found to have set up a fake facebook site for the purpose of tracking the bank's bad credit customers that had gone AWOL. This story is at the heart of the issue of ethics on the internet - do organisations have a right under any circumstances to parade as something they are not?

Blog entry: NU media, source from the socail network sites, how much credt left in the news?

Whilst being amusing, this article also raises interesting points around what level of responsibility internet sites and information providers must take for the accuracy and quality of the information they provide.

Another social network site has been blocked in China which is location-based. When people tried to chick-in to the location Tiananmen Square due to its 21th anniveristy, the link were blocked.

Shutdown of large torrents site in Russia for allegedly distributing illegal content. Not read in detail.

A great industry site with news, discussion and features about web design, web content, Information Architecture etc.

Much has been said and written about Obama's online success during the 2008 US presidential election. But what are the numbers? This is an interesting report that sets the stage for the 2012 elections, which are not that far away. Interesting findings not only concerning the candidates, but also in the role played by the Internet in the voting experience itself. 

Here's an example of how malware is distributed globally - usually via email. This is the latest one reported on the hoax slayer site. This is also a handy site to visit to check the latest online scam or hoax

I found this article interesting as it gives a good description of user control and encouragement - a form of governance - through site architecture. Particularly interesting was the discussion around how changing one button's position increased that button's clicks by 10%.

This article discusses the potential problems managing your reputation and identity online when a person (known or unknown) decides to attack you. As the article reads: "The proliferation of blogs and Web sites can allow angry clients, jealous lovers or ruthless competitors to define a person's identity. Whether true or not, their words can have far-reaching effects" The question to ask is - how do we stop this from happening, and manage it when it does?

High school  teachers in Queensland are questioned because of their profile pictures on Facebook. The fact that they may be really outstanding educators is now overlooked due to the mistake of posting "inappropriate" photos on a very public social networking site. Another example of how Facebook can actually ruin lives. 

CHINA'S President Hu Jintao has set up a microblogging account that has drawn thousands of followers in a country where social networking sites remain tightly controlled.

This is a clear example of a government trying to control the information flow with old techniques (only one CD for all journalists) and how the Internet comes into play to provide electoral information. Interesting to compare vs the 2008 US elections, where pundits and commentators could get info from various sites. Can the Internet change results?

Cybersquatting complaints dropped 9.5% from 2008 when a record complaints were logded. WIPO head mentions drop may just be due to economic climate, and companies limited budget to start litigations. This article mentions even the fifa world cup site lodged a cybersquatting complaint.

Blog from the New Internationalist about the movement taking place in the UK to donate votes for the upcoming elections, called "Give Your Vote". The idea is for UK citizens to donate their vote to someone in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Ghana. These countries were chosen due to the involvement of the UK in all these countries through various ways (ie troops, legislation that has an impact on climate change, trade). In each country they have a sister campaign called "Use a UK Vote". Effectively it is a means for citizens of these nations to voice their opinions. The movement demonstrates global democracy in a sense. A word of warning - if you want to visit the site http://www.giveyourvote.org/ it's not particularly user friendly. Under the heading there are subheadings (however they are invisible).

Interesting post about SPAM and keeping it under control in twitter. Particularly pertinent is the point that as a site/community becomes larger the more SPAM there is - ie, the larger the population, the harder the governance.

Overview found on legal site about the Spam Act. The release covers examples of what the Spam Act is all about, breaches, consequences of breaches and also how companies and individuals can protect themselves (however this is more a sales pitch).

Attacking a person's reputation via the Internet has become a very quick and easy process through sites like Facebook and Twitter. However, the author argues (and hopes) that maybe in time, since bashing of a person's online reputation is evolving into common behavior, it wont really matter anymore - that incriminating photos on Facebook wont have that much of an impact in a few years.

How do you govern a site specially designed to encourage bad behaviour? Do you even want or need to? When does 'bad behaviour' go too far?