Categories
-Cross Currents 10.5 Human Questions for a Computer Age 13.4 E-Commerce Ethics 7.4 No Secrets: Computers and Privacy 8.7 Social Networks

Sharing is Caring—or Is It?

The concept of sharing is everywhere on the Internet. In this thought-provoking Huffington Post blog post, Bianca Bosker asks whether Facebook and other companies are using the term to manipulate our feelings and extract information from us.
huffingtonpost.com/bianca-bosker/the-insidiousness-of-sharing-why-we-share_b_1728550.html

Categories
-Cross Currents 13.3 E-Business 2.0: Reinventing Web Commerce 13.4 E-Commerce Ethics 7.4 No Secrets: Computers and Privacy

The Never-Ending Sales Pitch

If you’re tired of ads now, just wait ’til your smart phone gets a little smarter. It may soon deliver sales pitches to you based on your location, the weather, nearby friends, the contents of your last Facebook post, or just about anything else it can link to you. As your privacy slips away, your cash becomes an easy target for savvy tech companies.
huffingtonpost.com/bianca-bosker/the-age-of-continuous-consumption_b_1833454.html

Categories
-Context 10.1 Online Outlaws: Computer Crime 10.2 Computer Security: Reducing Risks 7.4 No Secrets: Computers and Privacy

How to Avoid a Personal Digital Meltdown

Wired writer Mat Honan recently lost just about everything he had stored on his computer and in the cloud. He literally watched while a malicious hacker wiped out his digital world.
This NPR story suggests five things you can do to avoid his fate.
Mat’s Wired article describes the hacker attack in detail.

Categories
-Context 10.3 Security, Privacy, Freedom, and Ethics 4.6 Software Piracy and Intellectual Property Laws 6.4 Multimedia Authoring: Making Mixed Media

Remix this Post!

Was Bob Dylan a creative genius or a thief? What about Steve Jobs? Or that kid down the block who posts cut-and-paste videos on YouTube? In this entertaining short TED talk, Kirby Ferguson argues that every creation is, to some degree, a remix. Do our intellectual property laws need to change to embrace, rather than outlaw, remixes?
ted.com/talks/kirby_ferguson_embrace_the_remix.html

Categories
-Context 10.5 Human Questions for a Computer Age 8.7 Social Networks

What Good is Facebook?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57485559-93/facebook-touts-relaunched-facebook-stories/
If you’ve ever asked—or been asked—that question, you might be interested in facebookstories.com, a web site designed to provide answers through stories about how Facebook changes lives. This CNet story provides an overview and a link to the site.