So with the Living and Working on the Web module during to a close, I have created a prezi to sum up my experiences of the module and express my thoughts on what I have learnt over the course of such an interesting and extremely useful module.
Double click on the screenshot below to access my prezi.
Open Access Week 2014
This weeks’ topic was a really good topic to round off a very interesting module. If I am being honest, I had never even heard of or considered the Open Access debate, so it was great to learn more about it and in fact, to understand just how important it is not only for university students like myself, but everyone.After researching around this topic through watching instrumental videos and reading resources on OA, I collated my research on whether ‘Open Access should be available for all’ using Prezi which was new to me.
After finally getting to grips with prezi, I set about constructing my presentation to feature and focus on the advantages and disadvantages of granting OA to everyone – I was particularly interested to read about just how expansive the advantages of OA were, such as distributing research materials to developing countries. I concluded my presentation with my own thoughts on OA, principally that it has the potential to educate and therefore empower others and it should consequently be accessible to all.
On the whole, my post received some really great comments and I enjoyed responding to the questions. I found that this week reading other students responses to OA was very interesting and I learnt a lot from their differing angles on the topic. Anna’s PowToon for instance, educated me about the affects of Spotify ( a form of OA in the music industry), and how it had reduced piracy, and this enabled me to respond to a question posed by a student from #MANG2049 on how OA affects creative industries.
A comment from another #MANG2049 student, Elisha also challenged my views on what I had written this week as I had initially mentioned in my disadvantages of OA, that it is not economically viable. However, she rightly pointed out that publishers like Springer, fund authors in aid of OA, which obviously results in OA being much more economically viable.
The comment I received from Nam was also interesting this week, as he pointed out that I had focused on the aesthetics of my blog rather than considering the benefits and disadvantages of OA for content producers. I do agree with him, as I was intent on making an aesthetically pleasing post as it was my final blog and therefore experimented with prezi, however, I still feel that I answered the question well – whilst I did heavily focus on the benefits of OA for everyone rather than the content producer specifically. Nevertheless, I received some very positive comments from fellow students and was pleased with the debates we entered into on the topic as they furthered my knowledge on the subject.
Here are my comments this week on Pippa’s and Catherine’s blogs’.
Pippa’s blog:
http://pippaedavies.wordpress.com/2014/12/07/open-access/#comments
Catherine’s blog:
GENERATION OPEN . . . The advantages and disadvantages of open access!
For this week’s blog post, I have decided to try something a little different and create a Prezi for the first time, in an attempt to respond to the topic in question. Here’s hoping it loads successfully…
http://prezi.com/gvwefbxr8ppf/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
In the meantime, here is a great visual from the Australian Open Access Group on the benefits of Open Access:
Image sourced from: http://aoasg.org.au/
This weeks topic has been, without doubt, my favourite topic to research and think about during the module so far. I have really enjoyed researching and considering the ethics behind businesses using social media as a platform to enhance their popularity.
My own research highlighted the ways in companies manipulate social media in order to promote themselves through a number of ways such as false and unreported endorsements and how often social media is used as a means of self-promotion. My comments on Coca-Cola joining the social media trend for the ALS charity were controversial with my coursemates as I implied that Coke were simply jumping on the trend to appear ethical and gain popularity. However, I still stand by this view and believe that in addition to remaining current and up to date, social media also allows companies to promote a delberately manipulated and positive image of themselves to their clients, which consequently raises the issue of ethics.
The posts my course mates created in response to the topic were equally really interesting and I found the differing angles they took on the topic to be really thought-provoking. Reading Din’s blog was interesting as I found that we had taken very similar approaches to the topic and had both agreed that companies can invade your privacy through their monitoring of online behaviour which is therefore unethical. However, I had not considered those who create dishonest Youtube videos as unethical prior to the topic and reading Din’s blog, yet I will think much more carefully about the purpose of clips more in the future.
Adam’s blog was also great and I was intrigued to read of how companies had even used natural disasters as an excuse to promote their products or services with particular reference to Urban Outfitters offering free shipping in the wake of a storm hitting America. This seems absolutely ludicrous, but yet Adam’s blog and link to Buzzfeed showed that is in no way uncommon for businesses to manipulate such situations. Coupled with my research on brands such as Wal-mart and Coca-Cola, this week truly opened my eyes to the ways in which businesses truly use social media, and ultimately the fact that their use of the platform is often dishonest and unethical.
My comments on other blogs:
Ethics in businesses’ use of Social Media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook is something which often gets overlooked. For instance, using myself as an example, I rarely consider the fact that whilst browsing websites, adverts for other sites I have visited (see below) will appear in the sidebar. However, this is of course a deliberate move by companies and advertisers, and the monitoring of online behavior and ‘behavioral targeting’ is in fact an invasion of privacy and therefore unethical.
Here is an example of ‘Behavioral targeting’ OR advertising in my sidebar, on a completely unrelated website.
Another ethical issue we should be aware of is the fact that ‘temptations still exist for advertisers to fake their endorsements and literally purchase favorable commentary’ (Barry 2014). This has been the case on both TripAdvisor and Amazon recently where teams of writers were employed to boost products ratings and slate others.
A further issue is that of unreported endorsements in companies use of social media and advertising, which also brings with it ethical implications. All compensations given to bloggers and tweeters, in order to promote a company and their products must be disclosed. An example of unethical endorsements happened in 2006, when Wal-Mart received negative publicity when its PR agency…supported two bloggers road tripping across the U.S. writing positive stories about Wal-Mart’ (Vinjamuri,2011), whilst being funded indirectly by Wal-Mart, which is obviously unfair and biased.
In order to counter this and to add transparency, Native Advertising is ‘perhaps the biggest trend in advertising’ (O’Brien,2014) right now, and involves companies sponsoring product write-ups / features, but with a clear indication that they have paid for the content, as demonstrated below:
ELLE native advertising example for Acme Apparel
A final ethical issue raised by companies use of social media in business, is the fact that businesses jump on the back of social media trends to promote themselves. A fabulous example of this was Coca-Cola joining the ALS ice bucket challenge trend. Whilst this seems very charitable and ethical of them, the video of their Senior Vice President taking part in the challenge is littered with company branding, which therefore makes it yet another publicity stunt for Coke, and sadly takes away from the worthy cause that is ALS.’Companies that join [the trend now] risk the appearance of using the attention built by thousands of participants for profit’ (Abbruze, 2014) and this is in my mind how this advert appears, whilst it undeniably still raises money for a great cause.
To summarize, the main ethical issues raised by companies using social media are:
Sources:
Abbruzzese, J. Coke Jumps on the ALS Ice-Bucket Challenge,(2014) Mashable. Available at: http://mashable.com/2014/08/15/brands-have-discovered-the-als-ice-bucket-challenge/ Accessed: 23/11/14
Barry,J. 7 Ethical Dilemmas Faced in Social Media Marketing (2014) Available at: blog.socialcontentmarketing.com/7-ethical-dilemmas-faced-in-social-media-marketing/ Accessed: 23/11/14
O’Brien,J. 4 Native Ads and the Media’s talking about, (2014) Mashable. Available at: http://mashable.com/2014/09/30/native-ad-campaigns/ Accessed: 23/11/14
Vinjamuri,D. Ethics and the Five Deadly Sins of Social Media, (2011) Forbes. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidvinjamuri/2011/11/03/ethics-and-the-5-deadly-sins-of-social-media/ Accessed: 23/11/14
Video from:
Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola’s Wendy Clark accepts the ALS #IceBucketChallenge. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JRG9sKDd2k&feature=youtu.be Accessed:23/11/14
Images from:
Moses, L. Hearst is the latest publisher to jump on native ads trend. Adweek. Available at: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/hearst-latest-publisher-jump-native-ad-trend-149790 Accessed: 23/11/14
Screenshot of my own translation search from Wordreference.com Accessed: 23/11/14
I really enjoyed this week’s topic given it’s relevance for final year students like myself who are looking to kick-start their post-university careers, and interact with employers online.
In this week’s blog, I considered the benefits of firstly using LinkedIn to create a professional presence online and then looked at how Twitter is emerging as a social media platform which facilitates interactions with employers on all levels from companies. I provided a list of top tips which I had collated from researching further on how best to use Twitter and LinkedIn for a professional purpose and for the first time, I embedded a video into my post which I felt really clarified my discussion of why students should use LinkedIn.
Whilst I chose to look at Twitter and LinkedIn, the other blogs posts published by my fellow students have got me thinking on the importance of ensuring that our presence on other social media platforms like Facebook for instance, is professional.
To this end, Sophie’s blog was really useful for highlighting to me the fact that employers are checking content we post on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter rather than just LinkedIn, which I was unaware of prior to this week.
Equally, Catherine’s blog demonstrated through her reading of the PotentialPark Survey (2011) recognised that authentic professional profiles are expected to happen on LinkedIn, but in fact, Facebook is where this actually happens. Which again stressed the importance of a professional Facebook profile to me!
Anna’s blog was also very helpful in clarifying what constitutes an authentic online profile and her use of Prezi was original and easy to follow. Her question ‘have you ever googled yourself?’ encouraged me to do just that and really underlined the importance of creating positive ‘google juice’. This coupled with my own findings that “80% of employers Google job seekers before inviting them into an interview!” bought home the importance of creating a professional online presence.
All in all, this week’s topic has been extremely topical (excuse the pun), but has truly shown me how I can best make my online presence professional and hopefully successfully interact with employers.
My comments:
Anna’s blog: http://annakentmuller.wordpress.com/2014/11/08/how-to-create-an-authentic-online-presence/#comments
Today more than ever, it is vital that we have a professional online presence given that
“80% of employers Google job seekers before inviting them into an interview!” (Joyce, 2014)
This percentage certainly shocked me and got me thinking, what is the best way to create an authentic professional online presence and self-brand ourselves to attract potential employers…
So let’s start with the most obvious platform to attract, interact and connect with millions of professionals : LinkedIn. An article on the Guardian aimed at students explains that ‘a LinkedIn profile is your chance to build a positive online presence for yourself,’ (Burch, 2013) and this is where I personally started when creating my own professional identity.
The video below produced by LinkedIn succinctly summarises how to use the platform to successfully network with professionals in your desired field of work… and humorously reminds us that LinkedIn is not just for old people with heavy briefcases
But is LinkedIn the Best and Only option for creating a professional presence?
Twitter also acts as the perfect platform to connect and engage with companies and industry figures. Twitter is ideal for interacting with companies you are interested in, as its ‘openness…shocases your talents, personality, style and interests'(Hartwig,2013). I personally use Twitter to follow PR and Marketing companies as I am interested in these industries and really appreciate the fact that you can engage with anyone on any level (from intern to CEO) at the company – it’s so vital to build up a rapport!
Moreover, Twitters’ new format and extra features such as pinned Tweets and Best Tweets allow job seekers to paint a more accurate picture of their ‘professionalism, skills sets and interests’ (Le Viet, 2014) and it is understandably emerging as one of the best social networks for both the creation of a professional online profile and for job searching.
Twitter redesign aids job seekers, Mashable 2014
Here are some top tips for creating a professional online profile:
LinkedIn:
Twitter:
Bring all your profiles together via the platform About.me – to really showcase yourself to employers and get your professional profile noticed.
(406 words)
Sources
Burch. K, Students: how to use LinkedIn at uni to help you get a job when you graduate. The Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/education/mortarboard/2013/dec/30/linkedin-tips-for-students-employability [Accessed 9/11/2014]
Hartwig. E, How to Effectively Use Twitter as a Job Search Resource, Mashable. Available at: http://mashable.com/2013/02/09/twitter-job-search/ [Accessed 9/11/2014]
Halzack. S, Tips for using LinkedIn to find a job, Washington Post. Available at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/tips-for-using-linkedin-to-find-a-job/2013/08/01/7c50c418-e0ff-11e2-8ae9-5db15d3c0fca_story.html [Accessed 9/11/2014]
LinkedIn, LinkedIn for Students: Your Career Starts Here. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWp6AN00D_c [Accessed 9/11/2014]
Le Viet. S, Twitter’s Redesign Makes the Platform Ripe for Recruitment. Mashable. Available at: http://mashable.com/2014/04/21/twitter-redesign-recruitment/ [Accessed 9/11/2014]
Joyce. S,What 80% Of Employers Do Before Inviting You For An Interview. Huffington Post. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-p-joyce/job-search-tips_b_4834361.html [Accessed 9/11/2014]
Steimle. J, Top 3 Tips From a LinkedIn Expert. Forbes. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/2013/08/07/top-3-tips-from-a-linkedin-expert/ [Accessed 9/11/2014]
Featured Image: http://pearsonstudents.com/blog/clean-it-up-how-social-media-can-make-or-break-your-job-search/
This week’s topic on the arguments for and against having multiple online identities has been really interesting and has made me re-think my own online identities and use of social media. Through interacting with my course mates and reading their opinions on the issue, my own knowledge of the issue was broadened.
I chose to talk specifically about the positives and negatives of having multiple and single online identities and included varying quotes from contradictory sources such as Mark Zuckerberg and Christopher Poole.
However, I was really interested by the varying aspects that my course mates chose to focus on from this diverse topic. For instance, Dominic’s blog presented the issue of the booming industry set up to manage and clean-up our online identities for $1000/year, which is a fascinating concept. The fact that we need this industry shows just how important the issue of creating an online identity (whether single or multiple) truly is! This blog also presented me the idea that Korea and China allow residents to have multiple identities online but force them to associate each account with a unique National ID number, which made me question whether this sort of system would ever be implemented in the UK…
Anna’s blog with its conclusion that “The best solution is to be yourself. If that makes you uneasy, talk with your shrink. Better yet, blog about it,” was again very thought-provoking and the embedded Buzz Feed video displaying the ramifications of having low privacy settings on social media accounts, added a humorous tone. However, it made me re-think the importance of ensuring that privacy settings are set to a level one is comfortable with – and equally, the importance of with-holding personal, private information to avoid fraud.
Sophie’s blog provided a very similar conclusion to my own, that being, that we should have multiple online identities to suit specific target audiences and also the specific social media platforms we are using.
My comments:
‘Your online identity is the sum or your characteristics and interactions’ (Internet Society) with different websites. The adage ‘on the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog’ created by Peter Steiner referred to a time when our online identity could remain separate from our real lives, however, now many people are pushing for authentic, transparent online identities which truly reflect the user. At the same time, others have multiple identities across varying social networks for different purposes.
So what are the arguments for and against having more than one online identity?
The creator of 4Chan, Christopher Poole argues that ‘individuals are multifaceted – they have to have multiple identities’ (2012), which is reflected in the way that 4Chan is characterized by anonymous users and lack of archive. Others like Martin Clear stress that we ‘have [always] maintained multiple identities and separate circles of acquaintances’ (2014) and states that not all our acquaintances are interested in the same content we share and generate over different platforms. According to him, this is why we set up different accounts portraying different identities, to tailor them for our varied target audiences. Others believe that in order to avoid controversies à la Justine Sacco, we should have many identities or: ‘one for work, another for schools, another for home, another for friends’ (Jarvis 2011).
I was interested to read that ‘as a marketing tool, in order to reach the most valued niche audiences possible, fragmenting your interests into separate social media accounts seems worthwhile’(Casserly 2011), which reflects my personal use of Twitter to interact with potential employers and market myself.
However…
many disagree with multiple online identities, principally the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg who said that ‘having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity.’ (2011) Unlike those who see multiple identities for friends/family/work as essential, he predicts that ‘having a different image’(2011) of yourself for different audiences is short-lived.
Nowadays many people only want ‘online interactions with authentic identities’ (Krotoski 2012) which has seen many businesses, figures in the Communications Industry and celebrities construct single, transparent identities which show a much more human side to themselves, making themselves therefore more appealing.
Having multiple online identities can be dangerous as it leads to anonymity which can in turn, give rise to cyber bullying in the guise of ‘anonymous trolls…attack[ing] people online,’(Jarvis) as users deem themselves to be safe from punishment.
Personally, I am of the same opinion as Martin Clear and I have multiple online identities which I tailor to the desired audience – the content I share on Facebook (aimed at my friends and family) is different to that on LinkedIn for example. However, I firmly believe that regardless of whether one has single or multiple online identities, it is essential to keep in mind exactly why you are using the internet and who the content you generate is aimed at: one always should keep things professional, even in a personal domain…
Sources
Casserly, Meghan. 2011, Multiple Personalities And Social Media: The Many Faces of Me, Forbed, Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2011/01/26/multiple-personalities-and-social-media-the-many-faces-of-me/ %5BAccessed 24/10/2014]
Clear,Martin. 2014, Why should I reveal my ‘real identity’ online? Anonymity isn’t so terrible, The Guardian, Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/15/reveal-real-identity-online-anonymity [Accessed 24/10/2014]
Helft, Miguel. 2011. Facebook, Foe of Anonymity is forced to explain a secret, The New York Times, Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/14/technology/14facebook.html?_r=0 %5BAccessed 24/10/2014]
Jarvis,Jeff. 2011, One identity or more?, Buzz Machine, Available at: http://buzzmachine.com/2011/03/08/one-identity-or-more/ [Accessed 24/10/2014]
Krotoski, Aleks. 2012, Online Identity: Is authenticity or anonymity more important? The Guardian, Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/apr/19/online-identity-authenticity-anonymity %5BAccessed 24/10/2014]
Withnall, Adam. 2013, PR executive Justine Sacco apologies after losing job over racist Aids ‘joke’ provoked #HasJustineLandedYet Twitter storm, The Independent, Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/pr-executive-justine-sacco-apologises-after-losing-job-over-racist-aids-joke-provoked-hasjustinelandedyet-twitter-storm-9020809.html [Accessed 24/10/2014]
Internet Society, ‘Online Identity Overview’. (Video). Available at: http://www.internetsociety.org/online-identity-overview %5BAccessed 24/10/2014]
Steiner, Peter. 1993, On the internet, nobody knows if you’re a dog, The New Yorker, Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you’re_a_dog#mediaviewer/File:Internet_dog.jpg [Accessed 24/10/2014]
As the first week of Living and Working on the Web draws to a close, it is time to reflect on the first thought-provoking topic of Digital Residents and Digital Visitors – the two terms following Marc Prensky’s initial offering of Digital Natives and Immigrants.
Prior to the #UOSM2033 module, the Natives/Immigrants / Residents/Visitors debate was one which I had never actually heard of, yet I have found researching and reading around this topic to be really interesting and pertinent to how I perceive our modern society and our varying usage of the Internet.
I was intrigued to read about the shift from Prenksy’s initially well-received typology of Natives and Immigrants to what White and Le Cornu and many others have deemed Residents and Visitors, and after reading the criterion for both and the fact that age is not a factor for resident/visitor status, I am in complete agreement with this second typology. I have also been fascinated by the issue of a continuum between the status of Resident and Visitor and have found that on reflecting on my own online behaviour, I am in fact a perfect example of this shifting status between the two.
My knowledge of this topic has also been very much extended thanks to reading the extensive and extremely interesting posts that my course mates have posted on the subject.
Anna’s blog post with its very helpful diagram of the continuum between Residents and Visitors was very clear and easy to understand and really consolidated my knowledge of the subject and I liked the inclusion of the embedded video from David White on the issue. The blog post (and Anna’s comment on my blog) also raised the issue on whether one can be successful in both their personal and professional lives on the web to which I answered that yes, one can be successful in both, if one adapts the content and ideas they express to be suitable for the target audience.
Sophie’s post was also very interesting and she used personal examples to clarify what exactly is meant by a Resident and a Visitor. My only comments on this post were the fact that she did not mention that the Resident/Visitor continuum and that one can shift between the two modes of web user. In return, she asked me an interesting question on whether one can ever truly be a complete Digital Resident to which I replied.
I also looked at Deepbim’s blog and enjoyed its concise and personal style and was impressed by his attention grabbing opening sentence – ‘If you are reading this blog then you are more likely to be a Digital Resident rather than Digital Visitor. You maybe a fellow student reading this with Facebook open in another tab.’ For me, this was really effective and I have taken on board the importance of a hooking opener for a blog post.
All in all, I really enjoyed researching this topic and writing my own thoughts. The comments I received from others were invaluable and also reading their perspectives on the same issue was of great interest to me.
Roll on the next topic!
lucyhewsy 