Week 6 question

Personal comment about the advantages and risks involved in social graph
technologies

The foaf-a-matic web site you visited in exercise 6.3a suggests that you can post the
foaf.rdf code generated onto your website somewhere where it is publically
accessible. It says that if you do, then programs that utilise the foaf RDF may readily
access it.
As a post to your blog, labeled ‘Week 6 Social Graph’ discuss why you might or why
you might not make such a foaf file available to the world at large? Using readings
from this week and other items you may have researched for yourself about ‘Social
Graph’, discuss the pros and cons of this kind of personal data interlinking.

I have been using the internet now for over ten years and I am strongly against publishing any personal information on the web. I believe that people gain a false sense of security from the ever growing social networking websites and creating a FoaF file to try and encourage this behavior is extremely dangerous. Corporations such as Facebook and Google are geared towards making money not to help you gain more friends or become more popular. All the personal information that we put on the web is collected and filtered by algorithms developed by these companies that then filter what we can see. We are then targeted by custom advertising and manipulated by custom filtered search results that these companies think will appeal to us. As Eli Parsers mentions in his presentation Beware online "filter bubbles" | Video on TED.com. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html. [Accessed 18 August 2011]. Google looks at 57 signals coming from your computer and uses them to custom filter search results. In my opinion creating a FoaF file is going to be just another piece of information that Google looks at to try and pigeon hole me into where it thinks I should fit in society.

Below is a diagrammed example of various companies creating a filter bubble taken from Eli Parsers presentation.

Week 5 question

Create a simple embedded Google Maps interface for a web page.

Create a simple embedded Google Maps interface for a web page.
It is now possible to make use of simple functionality of Google Maps without
programming or knowledge of the use of Google Maps APIs. It is simple to embed
and to customise some features of the map such as the markers and the information
displayed in association with the markers.
To undertake this exercise you may need to have some very basic HTML
understanding and have access to a domain from where you can edit and serve a web
page. Some blog services will enable you to implement a Google Maps service. If this
is so where you have established your blog then try to complete the exercise there.
Following is a link to a regular html page that uses the iframe HTML tag that Google
Maps provided to call on and display a map of the location of CQU Mackay.
http://staff.cqu.edu.au/holmesa/MapWeb/map.html Google Maps also links to an
image located within the MapWeb directory of the holmesa staff website (when you
click on the map’s pin icon).
Until recently this used to be harder than it now is. You used to have to join Google
and apply for a key. Now its so simple anyone should be able to do it. Now you only
need the key when using the JavaScript Maps API v2 and the Maps API for Flash.


Below is an example of a the Google map api being used to embedded a Google map into a blog. The map show my home address 5 Parwan Close Riverhills Brisbane.




View Larger Map

Week 4 question

Social media music video project

Referring to either the above website, or another you know of that employs
crowdsourcing, briefly discuss whether or not you think this is innovative in terms of
social media, produsage and crowdsourcing. Refer to concepts introduced this week
in the lecture and course resources. If you use another site be sure to provide a link in
your blog. Also make use of an image if possible. With screen captures, make sure you
note the URL where you sourced the image and, the date viewed, as part of your
caption.

The site that I am choosing to review is the site http://www.hotornot.com/ [Accessed 07 August 2011].

The concept behind the site is that a user can upload there photo where it is then rated on attractiveness by the general public on a scale from 1 - 10 (10 being the hottest or most attractive).

This site would have to be one of the first Web 2.0 crowsourcing sites. Starting back in the year 2000 it is a good example of a site that has evolved in design and features over the years. From its fairly basic beginnings of a simple photo rating system it has evolved into more of a online dating site where you can join up as a member and then potentially meet the people you are rating.

Evaluating the site using the Who What Why and How method. Who the site is targeting is the general population as most people do want to be attractive. The What or goal for the user it to obtain a good overall rating on their looks. Again with the Why the user is trying to gauge whether the general populace finds them attractive, and finally How is by uploading their photo into the online rating system.

Hotornot.com was extremely innovative for its time an lead the way for many spin off and copy cat sites. In 2007 it was sold for an alleged 20 million dollars (Bryce Durbin 11/2/2008 techcrunch.com)

HOT or NOT. 2011. HOT or NOT. [ONLINE] Available at: http://hotornot.com/..
[Accessed 07 August 2011].















References

HotOrNot Apparently Very Hot: Acquired For $20 Million | TechCrunch. 2011. HotOrNot Apparently Very Hot: Acquired For $20 Million | TechCrunch. [ONLINE] Available at: http://techcrunch.com/2008/02/11/hotornot-apparently-very-hot-acquired-for-20-million/. [Accessed 07 August 2011].

Week 3 question

Best Job in the World

In 2009 CumminsNitro, a Brisbane-based advertising agency won multiple awards across the international media landscape for their groundbreaking campaign for Tourism Queensland: Best Job in the World. The campaign was unique in the way it harnessed traditional media advertising (positions vacant advertising) and linked this with various kinds of social media interactivity. Through inviting video applications the campaign utilised what Bruns calls “produsage” and others have called “crowdsourcing”. It also made sophisticated use of the viral connectivity that can result from online social networking. Then, once the social media success became newsworthy, the campaign also benefited from the traditional current affairs media attention, amplifying the overall impact and effect. This campaign continues to attract attention through a blog maintained by the successful applicant.

The various types of advertising media used in this campaign was.

• Viral Video
• Online recruitment ads
• Applicant videos
• Online banners
• Branded Twitter
• Branded Facebook
• Youtube Channel
• Online banners
• Website

Out of these media channels the ones that where interactive where application videos, branded Twitter, branded Facebook, Youtube and the main website.

The YouTube application videos became interactive because the general public could view the applications. They could then leave comments and 'Like' the the applications through YouTube.

The Branded Facebook was interactive because the general public could use Facebooks 'Like' feature. Once someone uses the 'Like' feature it spreads through all their contacts Facebook accounts. People can and also follow the Facebook page and leave comments.

Again with Twitter people could follow and leave comments similar to Facebook and YouTube. Twitter can be classed as a scaled down version of Facebook and is commonly used through smart phones. The unique feature of Twitter is that posts (or Tweets as they are called on the site) are limited to 140 characters which means that a message has to be very direct to the point. This helped the campaign keep in touch with its audience through their phones on the go.

Finally all these media chanels where tided together with the campaigns main website http://www.islandreefjob.com/ (last accessed 31/7/11). This became the central portal for each of the media channels mentioned above. The site also had a voting system where the public could vote for the video application that they liked the best.

Below is an example of the site's voting system

Week 2 question

Choose at least two out of the six of the following terms of reference to make further
comments about the site you have been reviewing and the services it offers:
• Trustworthiness (of the site)
• Reputation (of members)
• Ownership (of content)
• Moderation
• Management of content
• User interface and customisation.

Continuing with my review of YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/

The two terms that I am going to apply to YouTube are
Reputation (of members) and Moderation.

The reputation of YouTube members in general is good. The types of members are classed people posting videos and people commenting on the videos. The content that can be posted on YouTube is fairly strict, guild lines of what can be posted can be seen here:
[ONLINE] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines. [Accessed 21 August 2011]. These clean content guidelines helps keep the reputation of the sites and its members clean too. Not all of YouTube members stick to these clean guild lines. There are members often classed as trolls or members that deliberately post provocative or insulting comments on videos to try and get a rise or a return negative response from the original video poster.

The moderation that ties in with the YouTube guidelines occurs on a few levels. Posted videos are scanned buy YouTube filters to catch copyrighted video and music. A member is given a three strikes and you out rule if they are caught violating these guild lines then their account is banned. The videos and comments posted on the site are also moderated by the sites members and can be flagged as inappropriate for the videos and inappropriate (also known as spam) for the comments. Overall the system seems to work quite well and I think has helped the popularity of the site.

Below is an example of a video being flagged as inappropriate

Week 1 question

"Choose a social media site that you are a member of and say why you engage with it and what you get out of it. If you are not a member of any site, choose one to observe and answer the same question regarding the activities that you observe – or, you may choose to say why you do not normally engage with social media. You are encouraged to use your answers to exercise 1.3 to frame your response."

The social media site that I choose is YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/ [accessed 24th July 2011] . YouTube exists for users to post video content in a blog format. The site is free to watch the posted videos but if you want to comment, subscribe to bloggers or post your own videos you must have a YouTube account. People can achieve a cult following and some YouTube bloggers having thousands or even millions of people subscribed to their blog channel. Once a YouTube blogger reaches a certain amount of subscribers they are often invited by YouTube to become a You Tube partner. This is where they receive some of the revenue generated by pay per click advertisements placed next to their videos. The site also uses email notifications that send an email out to all the subscribers every time a YouTube blogger posts a new video.

The main reason that I engage with YouTube it is to subscribe to other YouTube bloggers. These bloggers post videos that I find entertaining. Although I do not post any video content I do comment videos the bloggers that I follow post. Most of the time these comments are not answered but it does give me a sense of being part of a small community.

Below is a screen shot of the YouTube bloggers that I am subscribed to.