Physical printed media may be making a comeback, knock on wood.

    Social media and everything online is the future, right? Well, according to this TechCrunch article from December, Instagram is thinking of taking a step back in time and offering their own printing services to transfer your favorite square, filtered snapshots onto physical "things" like paper, wood, glass, or canvas. This service is currently available from other websites, but not directly through Instagram. The problem with our recent online lives is that much of the stuff we create calls the cloud or hard drive home. It is rare if any picture taken on a iPhone makes it to a glossy or matte photo print that is safe from something traumatic that may happen on the inter-webs. 

Printing Instagram photos can also be a huge money-maker for the Facebook-owned company during holidays and birthdays. There is undeniably something more personal than tagging someone in a photo online, or writing them a message on their Facebook wall, or an e-card, and it is a physical card with a picture and a hand-written message. Around these times of the year, a picture capturing a special moment can be mailed to someone on a card, or make the picture the gift itself on a piece of glass or wood. This is a huge opportunity, not just for Instagram, but for any social media website who can find a way to make their intangible product a physical reality.   

Social media and the deceased, what's the protocol?

A decade ago, when someone passed away their online presence pretty much went away with them. Today, this is not the case at all. When someone dies, their tweets, Facebook posts, any photos they have posted online, and videos remain on their social media accounts like a living memorial to that person's life.

For the people who are closest to someone who has passed away, the question of who now owns, controls, and has access to all this information is brought up. Even in our local region, situations like this are making news.

In Wayne County, a man whose wife passed away on Valentines day left him videos on her Facebook account for him to view after her death. Facebook's policy on so-called "memorialized" accounts is that no one is allowed access to them when they receive a valid request that the person has died; they can only be deleted by a family member's request. This poses a problem for situations just like the one in Wayne County. Should it really up to different social media sites how a deceased person's information is dealt with? What if the person left a video will on Facebook, and their spouse needed to view it to fulfill their loves one's final wishes?

Death is a very serious and personal issue, and in my opinion, should really be left to that person's spouse, or a close family member to deal with the still-living memories of that person on social media, not a giant internet company. Whether they choose to keep the accounts open and viewable to friends to post farewell wishes, or view private videos and photos before deleting the account, it should be up to them. If a universal law or rights for this new situation is passed, many difficult situations of ownership of content on social media can be solved.

To view the story posted on February 23, 2014 visit:  http://bit.ly/1o48rU1

LinkedIn vs. Twitter & Facebook

Everyone seems to forget about LinkedIn due to the massive popularity among other social media networks including Twitter and Facebook. These two social networks have been in control of the marketing and media world, especially in the United States. However, LinkedIn has made the decision to further expand into China. On a side note, Twitter, Facebook, as well as Google are all generally blocked by China's government. As a result of LinkedIn's growing presence in China, LinkedIn has already acquired approximately four million new users. 

The new Chinese-language website aims to broaden the LinkedIn business world. "Our mission is to connect the world's professionals and create greater economic opportunity—and this is a significant step towards achieving that goal,” Derek Shen, LinkedIn’s president of China, wrote in a blog post. In addition, Shen wants to continue upgrading the technological world at the same rate and pace of the business world. Because of China's hands-on government, this could become very difficult. 

Due to China's strict government regulations, censorship will definitely come into play. The company must regulate and censor any content from the users in China. Any information outside of China will not be censored. The creation of the Chinese website makes it much easier for the Chinese government to control the content of their users. Traditional LinkedIn users do not typically or traditionally censor content. However, this massive expansion into a huge business-oriented economy is a major step forward for LinkedIn. 

In my opinion, social media networks like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook all can not only serve as personal profiles, but as well as business profiles, professional portfolios, and any other business-oriented utility. LinkedIn's expansion into China really sets them apart from Twitter and Facebook, especially in the business world. In general, this is LinkedIn's opportunity to finally become the definitive professional publishing platform.

For more information, here's the link to the whole story.
http://qz.com/180755/linkedin-is-doing-what-facebook-google-and-twitter-cant-expanding-in-china/

Facebook's new gender options provide trans* recognition

New gender neutral options on Facebook provide more options
to its trans* community users, among others.

If you were to ask someone who uses social media frequently, they would most likely tell you that sites like Facebook and Twitter seem to make changes every day. Formats to profiles, the layout of the site itself, even the logos of sites can change in a heartbeat; it comes from having a platform that needs to adapt and adjust so often to a changing environment. Recently, Facebook made one such change that works in the favor of a large section of its user base. Until recently, when someone signs up for a Facebook profile they would have had two options for gender: male and female. These would be reflected both in their profile and in other, smaller ways across the site: write on Bob’s wall for HIS birthday, send Marie a gift for HER anniversary, things like that. After the most recent change, though, Facebook has now made gender neutrality an option for its transgender, genderfluid, and other nonbinary users (users who may not fall under the traditional “male” or “female” identity). Allowing the input of a “custom” gender makes it so users can now identify themselves to their friends as a transgender male or female, bigender, gender questioning, and a number of other options. The change may not seem like all that large of one, but for those whom it affects it makes a great deal of difference. Now those who do not fall under a binary umbrella can accurately and authentically express their identity, and maybe help raise awareness of the trans* community as a whole. If you'd like to read more: http://on.mash.to/1eKxPc6

Hackers can be Heroes

The article this blog is based upon was posted on February 11th and can be found at mashable.com

The term “hacker” automatically has a negative connotation, but Christian Lopez Martin turned his name “hacker” into “hero.”

Martin is a self-identified freelance security researcher and as such, he found an intense bug in the coding of mobile Instagram. The bug would have allowed strangers to view users’ personal photos, but Martin brought his work to Facebook and they have since corrected the problem.

Martin reported the problem through part of Facebook known as the White Hat Program, which is known for compensating the security researchers that show responsibility. The minimum payment is actually $500 whereas Martin was able to receive a number within the four-digit realm due to the “severity and creativity” of the bug.

Apparently the fix time on the bug was six whole months, but the majority of the problems were resolved only a month after Martin brought it to their attention. The article urges that “given the fact that Instagram rolled out private messaging in December, it seems as though Instagram dodged a bullet when Martin brought the bug to light before the new feature was introduced.”

I actually question if security researchers like Martin, look for companies that are launching something new or even just ones that are well off and then plant their own bugs to which they can provide the solutions to and receive compensation. I can only imagine that if they are smart enough to find and stop a bug, they can make one. 

Facebook Knows About Changes To Your Relationship

     Facebook knows about the changes in your relationship - before you even tell the website.

     We all know Facebook collects personal data. The company tracks our locations, how often we post, what we post, what websites we visit, etc. What you might not know, perhaps, is that Facebook tracks our relationships. Now, according to an article posted Friday on mashable.com, Facebook can predict the status of our relationship before its public.

     Facebook has been collecting data about our relationships since 2010. They now have enough metrics, they say, to predict when a relationship will start, when it's at its peak, and when it will end, all based on the amount of times we post on our significant other's wall.

     I always knew to be cautious about what I post on Facebook, and I knew that Facebook collected some personal data. I did not know that Facebook stored that data, however. It's a big leap, at least in my mind, from keeping data that's relevant to website metrics and storing data for extraneous studies. I can't think of anything useful that would come from Facebook knowing about our relationship statuses - they aren't a part of our relationships, so why should they care what our personal relationship statuses are? I think this is the new beginning of 'privacy' on the Internet: everything we post, no matter how inconsequential, will be used for new "studies" that are actually just invasions of our privacy and personal lives.

If you want to read the mashable article it can be found here.

Will Facebook's App Paper Survive?

Facebook recently released it's much hyped app called 'Paper.' This app collects news feeds from your Facebook timeline and is laid out like a magazine. Sound familiar? Well it may for some of you who know of another app called 'Flipboard' that allows people to choose what news they want to read and collect. Facebook has already been accused of stealing the name of this new app and is now receiving criticism for copying Flipboards layout.


Paper and Flipboard share a very similar tiled design that displays news in a grid pattern. However what separates the two is that Paper accentuates interacting with your friends and timeline. These two apps are also very similar in their navigation with Paper's being slightly more complex. Where both of these apps really differ is in their method of finding and reading news. Flipboard makes personalization its first priority and and discovery second. Also, Flipboard focuses on what the users want by allowing them to pick and choose the topics they want to see. While Paper concentrates on alerting readers with trending topics, interaction with your friends, and using broader themes.


Another difference between the two apps is their emphasis on socializing. It's obvious that Facebook's Paper would put social media at the center of their app, while Flipboard's approach to social media is much more subtle. What I find bothersome is it seems that just about anything you can do on the Paper app you can also do on the original Facebook app so why even download it.

This leaves me with a few questions; was Facebook copying Flipboard? Will Paper survive as a news app? Will apps like these replace traditional news websites? Let me know what you think.



Paper vs Flipboard

Facebook is Stealing Again!

We have all seen the movie The Social Network, the movie that immortalizes the creation of the social media site; Facebook. In that movie we were thrown into the world of Mark Zuckerberg, maker of Facebook, and we witnessed the events that led up to his extraordinary success. Some of those events consisted of blatantly stealing ideas from others and now, in 2014, we are witnessing this again, but in the news.

In an article by Jason Abbruzzese, I learned that Facebook released a new app on Monday called Paper which is the name of an already highly acclaimed app that does essentially the same thing.  The original Paper was created by a company called FiftyThree and has since been named the iPad app of the year in 2012. The app launch brought CEO Greg Petschnigg to publicly ask Facebook to change the name of their app, but Facebook refused and simply apologized for not notifying FiftyThree sooner.

Petschnigg  described Paper as a “computer application software for smart phones and tablets, namely, software for use in writing on smart phones and tablets with either a stylus or finger." While Facebook’s Paper doesn’t allow the user to draw within the app or use a stylus, Petschnigg urges that the similarities are too strong to be ignored.

This is not the first incident of a trademark complaint with Facebook and I doubt it will be the last.  Theft of ideological property is the base of the network, why would they change it now after we allowed it to become a multi-billion dollar company? They seem to have gotten away with every stolen good and the question I am facing is, “how does one even stop an ideological thief if they alter things slightly?”  

The article was posted on February 3, 2014 and can be found at Mashable.com. 

Job Searching Through Social Media: It's All About Being Professional

          Take a good look at your Twitter profile. Is it private or public? Is your profile picture professional, or are you chugging a bottle of Merlot? Are you tweeting about information that is relevant to your future career, or are you tweeting about how much you drank the night before? These are all questions that you need to ask yourself when job searching. Nowadays, employers are strongly utilizing social media platforms to scope out their future employees. However, will your profile make the cut?

                Steinfield goes into detail about what employers are specifically looking for in an employee, based off of their social media profiles. First and foremost, always make sure that you have an appropriate profile picture on all of your social media platforms. Yes ladies, that means no “duck-face” poses! It has been proven that recruiters are “turned off” when they do not see an “appropriate headshot.” Another biggie is to make sure you’re posting about information that actually matters. For instance, if you’re looking to go into the sports field, you will most likely be posting the latest information about sport teams. Recruiters are interested in your trends, and how you interact with others by using social media.

                Another aspect employers are looking for in their future employees is a thorough Linkedin page. Linkedin is a huge networking site, and should be used whether or not you’re a college student or professional. The amount of connections that you can have on Linkedin is incredible, and you must take full advantage of the opportunity. Not to mention, it’s free! Facebook and Twitter are also not just places to post pictures and videos, but they too are just as important for professional networking. Make sure you’re always following powerful leaders on Twitter that pertain to your field of interest; you never know what could happen. Although, once again, you need to make sure you take the proper privacy precautions if you do not want professionals to see certain photos or posts.

                So remember, the next time you’re about to post a picture/video of yourself “twerking” on the wall with you friends, make sure you remember who your publics are. You never know what professional could be watching. Be smart with everything you do on social media.