How my Digital Life got turned upside down

I even made it on TV

As a Computer Scientist, I will let the numbers do the talking for what has happened to my digital profile over the past 3 months… (Note, all stats and data used accurate on 26 Dec 2015)

A Full Brand Makeover

As you can see, I have 515% increase in followers, with a similar 540% increase in total number of tweets.

Here on my about.me page, you can see the brand start to build up with the consistent colour scheme.

This image used in my LinkedIn is also my Gravatar profile image, which tries to make your Profile images consistent to create a ‘Brand’.

Here on my Google+ page you can see the ‘Brand’ appearing again – with an impressive amount of views on my page.

So as you can see, my brand is a lot more clear than it was before.

WordPress Success

My blog was a success, both in terms of outreach and quality. Below are the statistics I will discuss.

337 views on all my posts is fairly impressive for the blogging, with a high visitor number of 112. I have had views from the MANG students in Singapore. But most interesting is the success of me sharing my blog on Twitter – showing the success of my digital profile.

So whats changed?

1. I have begun to actually use Twitter.
2. I have a Gravatar account and have steamlined my online profiles.
3. New LinkedIn profile, new WordPress account, new Google+ account and I have opened up a about.me web-page.

I have broadened my online portfolio from just Facebook and Google – to an array of professional profiles, with a new professional look and feel for my portfolio. I now have a large digital footprint online.

Points Learned

In a sentence:

I am a Digital Native/Resident who now has a single professional online identity with the knowledge that my profile is snooped and spied on, whilst I and others can be guilty of unconscious bias and have an ‘Open’ profile.

I’ve learnt many topics, mainly relating to how I now interact with the internet. It’s changed my views and my actions online.

I have LinkedIn, with 44 Connections because I have been shown the importance of an online profile, as you can see from reading Jamie Blythes’ blog.

As you can see from my research into Social Media discrimination, In my self test and as you can see in my blog post, I can be guilty like many others of unconscious bias. So I have to now make conscious decisions knowing this, to ensure I am not bias to anyone based on any personal variables.

I now have a single node for my online portfolio at about.me/toddlynes. Whilst on these profiles I’ve connected on it, I must be careful online as I have learned from others blogs like Max’s blog. As what I post online can be seen by employers and authorities.

Quantitative reflective change. Feeling more confident in myself and my profiles.

It’s been a journey I’ve enjoyed and I’ve benefited from and will help me in the future.

Dear Deidre…

The face of an Open Internet?

Confused?

You won’t be if you have been following the latest victory in Open Access this year. This is the news that since the start of December 2015, the Sun has removed its online paywall. So now we are free to see the latest addition of Dear Deidre:
Dear Deidre – My girlfriend is a PORNSTAR and a CHEAT

What does this signal for Open Access?

This signals a reversal of claims made saying 90% of businesses content will be behind paywalls. The previous held thoughts was that this would be the future – but this shows that the business model is flawed.

The reality is – if you are made to pay, then people will just go elsewhere for online content. Consumer choice, and the best option will always prevail, we will pick the best value option. In a market Online – where anyone can upload articles, blogs and set up websites. Paywalls are always destined to fail.

Consumer choice will always win.

So Why Make Content Freely Available?

People release content freely for several reasons:

For Status/Recognition. – The more freely available content is, the more people can recognize your work.
Philanthropy:
To make a positive impact around the world. Also applicable to Music, Videos and other Arts.
Hobby/Fun:
Some people just enjoy producing content, i.e. research, making music/videos or programs.

Are there any positives of not making content freely available?

Well, some argue that in the case of research – it reduces the quality of journals. With Gold Access articles being read less and not edited and improved. As argued by Robin Osbourne here.
You can make a similar argument to ‘The Arts’ also, saying that less people would be encouraged to create arts like videos, paintings, music if there was no financial reward.

So the freely available content best applies to research – which a lot of the time, has already been paid for by the taxpayer.

So what does the future hold?

I am not a fortune teller, but as I said earlier – I don’t think paywalls have much of a future. Websites can make enough money through advertising and selling products. Also, their hand has been forced by good quality free content.

But the Open Access movement continues and is looking strong. Some content while free to view, costs to publish I think this is the way forward for research. But in terms of ‘The Arts’ – free access will never happen because of the nature of the arts.

 

 

 

Image Source:

http://www.picstopin.com/500/dear-deidre/http:||i40*tinypic*com|34sqsy0*jpg/

Simpsons ©1999 20TH CENTURY FOX FILM CORP.

 

Tangible Progress in Topic 4?

Improvements

As I am given formal feedback on my blogs, I thought I’d see if I addressed these in this weeks edition.

Here are a few points I have been given in criticism of my previous blogs:

Poor grammar, No Links to Images, Improved structure of blog, No clear ending to blog.

I obviously tried to address these, with proof reading of my blog to check for grammactical errors. I linked my images and used licence free images. I also used sub-titles and tried to clear up the structure of my blog also. With a less ‘open-ended’ ending to my blog.

Thoughts on my blog

My blog – on discrimination, has made me wonder whether the fact I am a white male, has helped or hindered me in applications and in professional circles? It also has made me think: Do I really want people to know my thoughts, opinions jobs ect.? Will this affect me in the future when applying to jobs?

Also, it has made me question my unconcious… When put in a situation of hiring, I cannot say I wouldn’t use the unconcious bias as described in the blog.

Thoughts on other blogs

https://holliekinch.wordpress.com/2015/11/16/online-privacy-is-still-important/

I thought she raised good points and importantly – different points. So it was good to see different ethical issues in business raised.

https://bryonykeen.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/i-spy-with-my-little-eye-everything-about-you-online/#comments

I liked the link between last weeks blog and to see progression with the topic of privacy and how it related to the workplace.

image source:
http://media.photobucket.com/user/mani_sos3xy/media/untitled.jpg.html?filters%5Bterm%5D=progress&filters%5Bprimary%5D=images&sort=1&o=127

 

Social Media – A Business Class Weapon of Discrimination

Today, I’m tasked with discussing ethical issues of Social Media in the Education or Business realm. I chose the issue of Discrimination – both positive and negative.

How do Businesses use Social Media?

We know from Mr Blythes’ Blog from last week, 94% of employers have admitted to using social media website LinkedIn in recruitment. Also, 1 in 5 of jobseekers have professional information on their Facebook profiles. Which is also used by recruiters to check the suitability of a job applicant.

My LinkedIn profile – I reveal my University, Ethnicity, Gender, Job. Can this make me a victim of discrimination?

 

 

What is the Ethical Issue?

The issue I’m raising is that of ‘Discrimination’. This is how recruiters can discriminate against candidates by their race, gender, religion, style, marital status, disability and so on…

Although clearly, a recruiter can go on someones LinkedIn page, see that the candidate is black and decide not to recruit the person based on their identity – this is just racism.

But do we discriminate without thinking about it?

A lot of research has gone into this – called Unconscious Bias. Asking whether we discriminate without being conscious to it.
As humans, we process 11 million bits of information per second, but are only conscious of 40 bits. (source) So we make many unconscious decisions each second.

Studies have also shown that people, using information gathered through our lives, place instant judgement on people, whether we try to or not. Here take the Harvard test on Implicit Bias.

So What?

This shows, that regardless of who you are, you will probably be guilty of unconscious bias. UCAS are now going to go name-blind in recruitment to stop racial bias. (source) So it raises questions that with recruitment using LinkedIn, revealing a lot about our identity – how do we know we aren’t being discriminated against? So should Social Media be used by businesses?

Maybe they should just be more careful like UCAS…

 

 

The best video to explain unconscious bias and what it means in the workplace.

 

Image Source: http://media.photobucket.com/user/RobertOak/media/stop_discrimination.jpg.html?filters%5Bterm%5D=discrimination&filters%5Bprimary%5D=images&sort=1&o=33 Licence free on photobucket.

 

 

 

When will the ‘Professional Profile’ become a ‘Professional Lifestyle’?

We are used to the humorous side of unprofessional things we do online, typified by the recent Barclays Digital Eagle Adverts.

It’s tupacaintdead69@hotmail.co.uk…

We are all now, whether we know it or not – building a professional online profile. Only a digital madman would post anything erring on the controversial side. The days of stirring up a hot debate on Facebook with an edgy status are gone. Unless it’s a fashionable Guardian Article slamming the Government, you’re not likely to see much Political fracas online – never mind blatant racism in the Ms Sacco case.

As we’ve discussed on my blogs recently, nothing you do online is deleted. With GCHQ with ‘Project Karma‘, building an online profile of you using your accounts. Where even websites such as Pornhub and other Google searches attributed to you by the spying agency. Where they gather over 60 billion pieces of data about our online habits each day.

This need for privacy and professionalism online wasn’t thought of in futurology, I think one incident sums it up perfectly: Google Glass Bar Fight.
Online, we have a choice to go online or not, but by being recorded by other people and having normal life digitized, we lose our true freedom of expression.

Having a professional online profile is very important – you don’t want to offend or put people off from hiring you, where you also want to be able to show off your abilities. But I think that is where the building of the professional profile should stay – in cyberspace. We shouldn’t become enslaved by the vision of a professional image in sacrifice of everyday liberties we take for granted.

So yes, I do think that changing your email account from footymadmatt@live.co.uk to mattbaker@live.co.uk is a reasonable change. So too is creating a LinkedIn profile.
Creating a your own Digital Brand, is a good and effective way of doing this. So simply for me, I signed up to a website to make all of my online profiles have the same photo. This is a first step in creating your online brand – making your pages uniform and unique to you.

Could you be spied on using technology?

But these steps is where it should end, I think the future of wearable technology presents a change. Online we are accountable for what we do online, as anyone can see it. But what we say between friends isn’t. Which raises the question, with all the new technology in wearables coming through, will we now have to behave as we do online in our day to day lives?

An interesting video to dwell on about digital usages.

Image Sources:
http://www.deviantart.com/art/back-To-The-Future-482544203 by Steve Conman

http://www.barclays.co.uk/digitaleagles video screenshot.

http://www.007.info/?doing_wp_cron=1446496646.4138340950012207031250 Copyright by James Bond International Fan Club

Topic 2 Reflection

I started my last blog with the words: ‘Are you a dog?’. In reference to the fact anyone could be anyone on the internet.

The questions raised now are, so if you’re a dog, are you constrained by the leash of society or are you a proverbial ‘wild’ dog, who does as it pleases, where and when it wants? Also – If you say you are a Dog, can I really believe that you are what you say you are?

But this topic itself on digital identity was a chance for me to reflect on my own digital identity and integrity – are my multiple online profiles a real depiction of who I really am? Would someone go on my Facebook and have a good gauge of what I really like and what I am really like?

– probably not…

I am cautious about online security so try to obscure details. I am joining the RAF so try to keep any political or controversial posts away from the internet. It also stops me from speaking my mind sometimes. It leads me to what I said about the personal and professional Facebook profiles – two for two different audiences. While I could benefit in some ways, I still think that having one single profile for all sites is best – keeping a professional image on all sites. This is because if it goes on the internet it never comes back again – so it’s best to limit your identities to one coherent, professional identity you can use and manipulate for the rest of your life.

The links to my comments are linked below:

https://jblytheblog.wordpress.com/2015/10/25/online-identies-what-do-they-claim-about-you/comment-page-1/#comment-6

https://lphenixblog.wordpress.com/2015/10/25/multiple-online-profiles-an-accident-waiting-to-happen/#comments

https://maxcordery.wordpress.com/2015/10/25/the-idea-of-having-more-than-one-online-identity/#comments

Are you a dog?

Anyone worth their salt in the digital identity/privacy world will know the famous New Yorker cartoon shown above.

On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog

This was posted in 1993 – a whole 22 years ago, in the early days of the internet, yet the cartoon could not be more relevant today.

We live in a world where the youth of today are in an identity crisis, Here shows an example of where young people have two Facebook profiles. Which isn’t uncommon, as people have profiles public which is them conforming to what society wants, usually conservative. Then a private profile hidden from family where someone can really express who they are.
I know for sure this is a common thing, at least in the UK, where young people hide profiles from their parents – wary of the judgement they will face when they find out what they really think/do/say.

An academic report on a study of first impressions shows how important they are, so in a world where 3/4 employers check online profiles – do you really want them to see your WKD personal record?

Although, you can’t be sure the profile is who you think it is. Even proved today, its not uncommon to see this as I did on my Facebook news feed:

The problem is there is no way to authenticate who is sat behind a computer. This could, theoretically have been a dog which stole ‘Connor’s’ identity, the only way to track who did it may be an IP address, but you wouldn’t know who is sat behind the screen. Which is a really scary thought.

While online identities are important, I believe the video of 7 steps to online profile is naive in the sense of privacy and identity security. Websites like LinkedIn will help you get a job, comments on youtube videos won’t exactly be too helpful. I believe you should keep personal profiles, like forums, YouTube private, so people can’t easily find information out about you, making it easy to copy your details and piece together your personal information. Eg. you could easily find out answers to peoples security questions by a google search and piece together a picture of someone through their linked profiles. Report on Security Questions

So you could be a dog on the internet, but having multiple profiles can weaken your online security through information exposure. Although socially it can be helpful.

Not even sure if you would have this private or not