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Online book self-published by Stacey Pitsillides in 2012 about digital death, a fascinating aspect of digital identity. Covers questions like "What happens when a virtual friend die?". See her website for more of her publications on the topic: http://www.digitaldeath.eu/texts/ License: Copyright:Attribution Non-commercial (I made a literature review on digital death in 2012 for my master in information science and this author really captures the social aspects of digital life in my opinion)

South Africa's National Assembly has today passed the controversial Protection of State Information Bill, despite the legislation being widely opposed and criticised. South Africa's Protection of State Information Bill, known informally as the secrecy bill, has been passed by the National Assembly with a majority vote of 229 to 107.

"Journalists, as 2013 ended, were busy declaring the death of MOOCs, more formally known as massive open online courses. Silicon Valley startup Udacity, one of the first to offer the free Web-based college classes, had just announced its pivot to vocational training - a sure sign to some that this much-hyped revolution in higher education had failed. The collective sigh of relief from more traditional colleges and universities was audible."

"Just as important as learning these helpful tools, however, is unlearning and avoiding the most common pitfalls of common sense. Reminding us of where society is most vulnerable to those, Sagan writes: In addition to teaching us what to do when evaluating a claim to knowledge, any good baloney detection kit must also teach us what not to do. It helps us recognize the most common and perilous fallacies of logic and rhetoric. Many good examples can be found in religion and politics, because their practitioners are so often obliged to justify two contradictory propositions.He admonishes against the twenty most common and perilous ones - many rooted in our chronic discomfort with ambiguity - with examples of each in action"

The 20 fallacies: "ad hominem - Latin for "to the man," attacking the arguer and not the argument (e.g., The Reverend Dr. Smith is a known Biblical fundamentalist, so her objections to evolution need not be taken seriously) argument from authority (e.g., President Richard Nixon should be re-elected because he has a secret plan to end the war in Southeast Asia - but because it was secret, there was no way for the electorate to evaluate it on its merits; the argument amounted to trusting him because he was President: a mistake, as it turned out) argument from adverse consequences (e.g., A God meting out punishment and reward must exist, because if He didn't, society would be much more lawless and dangerous - perhaps even ungovernable. Or: The defendant in a widely publicized murder trial must be found guilty; otherwise, it will be an encouragement for other men to murder their wives) appeal to ignorance - the claim that whatever has not been proved false must be true, and vice versa (e.g., There is no compelling evidence that UFOs are not visiting the Earth; therefore UFOs exist - and there is intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe. Or: There may be seventy kazillion other worlds, but not one is known to have the moral advancement of the Earth, so we're still central to the Universe.) This impatience with ambiguity can be criticized in the phrase: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. special pleading, often to rescue a proposition in deep rhetorical trouble (e.g., How can a merciful God condemn future generations to torment because, against orders, one woman induced one man to eat an apple? Special plead: you don't understand the subtle Doctrine of Free Will. Or: How can there be an equally godlike Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in the same Person? Special plead: You don't understand the Divine Mystery of the Trinity. Or: How could God permit the followers of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - each in their own way enjoined to

Wonderful post, Kim! These are great guidelines alongside which to test ideas.

Interesting and shocking article, we are all consumed with our everyday social networking profiles, but has it ever clicked to you what happens when one kicks the bucket. Is your profile preserved, deleted or it becomes a memorial Losing a friend or family member is painful enough, but imagine the extra, unnecessary jabs when that friend's social networking profile continues to pop up in searches. Or say your friend was particularly wise or witty when posting online, but when you went back to reference something later, the entire record was gone without a trace.

All credit to theSkimm, definitely caught my attention and leaves me wanting to learn/understand further... WHAT TO SAY WHEN THE NEXT EPISODE OF "HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER" WON'T LOAD… Barney blocked. Today, Netflix and a bunch of other big-name websites like Etsy, Kickstarter, and WordPress are protesting to support net neutrality. The sites will be showing a picture of the 'spinning wheel of death' loading symbol - not to make sure you're still breathing, but as a friendly reminder that this could be the future. Refresher: net neutrality is the idea that all content on the Internet should be treated equally, and preference shouldn't be given to sites willing to pay for faster connections. That's not what happens now. There's currently no regulation over how Internet providers treat traffic from different websites. The FCC's been listening to comments on some new rules for monitoring pay-to-play. They're going to stop listening to everyone's opinions next week.

Interesting reading in this Module, esp the article about having an additional anonymous online persona. It's interesting in that reddit not only allows users to register using obviously fake names, but also declines to require any authentication, but still offers it as an option. I participated in the reddit community for about a year, and in that time connected with numerous individuals, most of which I never learned 'who' they were. Personally, I was never harassed, bullied or otherwise hassled, save for one or two PMs from various mods when I had run afoul of their guidelines.

You beat me to it, i was planning on posting about reddit! Yeah, it's anonymous, and it's against its rules to post personal information, but it gets leaked and some people managed to get someone's information by reading old posts and connecting dots. The information you post, as a whole, its your footprint and can be tracked.

You beat me to it too! Reddit is a fascinating experiment. I actually mod a couple subreddits over there, and it's always interesting to read articles about it. In my two or so years on Reddit, I have: --Made friends (and lost touch with) with people from all over the world. --Been cyber-bullied and therefore witnessed exactly how good the moderators of certain subreddits can be. It was taken care of quickly and cleanly. I still love the community. --Seen people get "doxxed" (where their anonymity is broken, and often angry users track down the victim in a rather frightening way). --Seen the outrage the general community expresses at "doxxing", which was heartening. --Seen it used as an amazingly effective social networking and marketing tool. Posts and posters that come across and genuine, informed, and amicable are usually welcomed with open arms, even if they deal with a subject or product Redditors dislike. --Seen it completely backfire as a social networking and marketing tool, which happens when someone uses marketing "tricks" or comes across as anything less than genuine. --Gotten death threats for posting a picture of a squashed coin that made the front page. Reddit can be very weird. --Gotten beautiful, kind, completely random private messages for no reason at all on days where I really need them. Reddit can be very sweet. --Read articles in the Washington Post comparing Reddit to a democratic fiefdom. Sounds about right. --Been exposed to points of view I never would have seen before in my life, simply because of where I live and who I know. It's mind-blowing. The whole website just never ceases to amaze me. Honestly, it sort of reminds me of a MOOC: it's an ever-continuing event where people learn and argue and network.

I found this article interesting to me as it is some how relevant to digital identity and social media. This is an article from magazine The Atlantic that being published on May 2012, by Stephen Marche. At the beginning of the article Marche represents that over-reliance on social networking has turned people isolated by telling a true story about the Playboy Playmate Vickers's mummified body was found a year after she died and in the months before her death, she had not made any calls to her friends or family but kept in touch with the fans from internet sites. Along with the article, Marche represents that social media such as Facebook have made people networked easier than ever, but at the same time it is also making more and more people lonely. Also, Marche has exemplified a social condition, anomie, which is described as a lack of social norms characterized by breakdown of social bonds. Thus this article has provided relevant resource about anomie which has become part of deterioration to interpersonal relationship with social networking.

Politicians are trying to control and regulate something they don't understand. Back to basics is not the answer. Education must create enthusiasm and help people to grow. If you think some stuff in school need to be boring, don't be a teacher!