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].