There is a great, detailed article about the app that you can check out called This Creepy App Isn’t Just Stalking Women Without Their Knowledge, It’s A Wake-Up Call About Facebook Privacy [Update] that explains how it works etc., but the principal message is watch what you post and who can read it. Too many people are naive about putting their information online and they don’t seem to check their privacy settings and ensure they don’t plaster contact info, locations, etc. everywhere online.

What creeps me out is that the site homepage wording seems to imply that the ‘check ins’ are related to the app/by consenting users of the app itself, instead of highlighting that these people don’t know that the information they’re using on other sites (e.g. Facebook) is being pulled into this app. Of course people are responsible for their own safety, but this seems just plain unethical.

I’ve been leery of Facebook Places and have NO desire to use Foursquare or any other check in or location based tool, but many people don’t seem to have the same qualms, nor think about the implications while they merrily provide the world with information on their every move.Kudos to Foursqaure, though, they’ve banned the application and have stopped the app developers from accessing Foursquare user information – a small victory!

It certainly is the ugly side of social networking; despite the fantastic access to information and the potential for knowledge sharing, there is such a thing as too much information! You don’t want to become a target. So check those privacy settings NOW, and educate yourself.

Be safe out there.

Geraldine

*I’m trying to locate information on this – I saw it on the news recently but haven’t been able to find any info about it – I’ll update you when I find the name and some more concrete details.

The series of concerts, as well as ‘behind the scenes’ rehearsals and interviews, is being recorded for a TV series coming out in September, to be screened on APTN. The performances are free and taking place twice a week (roughly) for the month of March. You can get a full schedule on the Hundred Years website.

The studio space itself (located at the Ironworks studios at 235 Alexander Street) houses a collection of incredible native artwork, from tapestries to masks and paintings and the cafe atmosphere provides a perfect forum for the musical talent being showcased. It’s well worth stopping by to get the full experience; you just have to be prepared to be on camera. The name of the project comes from a prophecy by famed Metis leader Louis Riel who, in 1885, stated,  “My people will sleep for a hundred years, and when they awake it will be the artists who give them their spirit back.”

If you’re a music lover in Vancouver, I highly recommend checking out The Hundred Years Cafe. You can like the project on Facebook or follow it on Twitter for more updates.

Geraldine

I think, for me, it boils down to two contenders: concerts and travel.

I love going to concerts and am still not tired of the novelty of seeing bands that I have loved forever LIVE! Having grown up waaaay down south, where very few bands, expect those with a giant budget, dare to go, I missed out on so many shows I would’ve loved to have seen, and so now I’m making up for lost time and cram in as many live shows as I possibly can, whether the budget really allows it or not )There’s something so magical about the energy of the crowd and the almost surreal quality of hearing something done live that you’ve listening to hundreds and hundreds of times on a recording.

Then there’s travel. I would never, ever say ‘no!’ to exploring new places, seeing new sights, meeting new people, savouring new foods, and experiencing different cultures. Not only does it fuel my imagination and allow me to explore one of my passions, photography, it also often changes my thinking or gives me new insights or allows me to understand someone better.

To quote Mastercard: Priceless.

One of the issues I find these days is that people really just don’t seem to have any listening skills, nor do they actually read all of what has been written. I have experienced both of these problems many times. For example, in my classes I can repeat instructions several times and put them in writing, and students still do not listen properly and end up doing the wrong thing (to their detriment). And I’ve also written very clear, well structured business emails (after all, it’s my profession so I have to show I can practice what I preach!), and still I get a response that indicates the person has not properly read anything I have written.

Sigh…

So what can we do about it? Unfortunately we can’t control others (oh for such a power!), but we can keep ensuring we construct well organised and thought out messages, and allow for feedback and questions. Sometimes, too, all it takes is a deep breath and a lot of patience. Something I learned a long time ago, because of the torture I experienced from certain teachers, is that if someone doesn’t understand something and they ask you to explain it again, explaining it in exactly the same way will not help, because the person did not understand you the first time.

We also have to be aware that communication is a process, a cycle from sender to receiver and back again, so we have a responsiblity to others to listen to them carefully and to read things slowly and with attention. This can save us time and unwanted issues.

So, it takes practice, patience, and sometimes, a healthy sense of humour to stay sane and ensure you overcome any barriers to communication to get your message understood and get what you want.

Geraldine

It got me thinking., yes, if you want to monetize (blegh, I hate these kinds of poncey terms) or advertise or draw in clients using social media, then there are things to do and things to avoid with social media, but for someone like Wil Wheaton, is there really a wrong way to do it?

And really, who cares?

I do believe you need to be sensible when using social media – the list of stories of people getting fired or getting into trouble is now endless, but you have to be pretty careless and quite frankly, a little dumb, to get caught, but beyond that, if you are running your own social media profiles and your main intent is to connect with people, share knowledge and perhaps gain clients, is it really that complex a system? And what designates someone a “social media maven” (besides them calling themselves that)? I’m often surprised too when I read the tweets of all the so-called ‘Twitterati’ (both locally in Vancouver and elsewhere). They’re very often boring, bland, or just plain arbitrary, and I wonder – how did they make it big and become ‘the’ person to follow?

Take Guy Kawasaki. I get he’s some kind of guru or something (self proclaimed?), but very often his tweets are incredibly boring and yet there is a flurry of retweets and everyone oohs and aahs. Granted, although the same thing seems to happen with the Mashable tweets, I do actually find these very interesting and ahead of the game with tech news etc, and often the links posted are informative and point to quality articles and posts. Sometimes, however, particularly with local Vancouver tweeters, I read what they’ve posted and the interactions they have with others and I think ‘remind me why I’m following you?!’

Now of course I am by no means claiming that I am some champion tweeter or that what I have to say is brilliant or life changing, and I do get the fact that I don’t have to follow these people or even engage on Twitter, but I really feel that if I stop and think about something and realise it has no appeal to anyone, or really is just for the sake of it, I tend not to post, and rather spend some time listening instead to what others are saying (the old adage about not having something nice to say and all that….). I also have never proclaimed to be a social media guru/maven/expert or any other bold title out there. I am a social media enthusiast and advocate, but let’s put it in perspective. It’s really not rocket science.

Live long and prosper, Wesley.

Geraldine

Geraldine

The basic premise is the idea of keeping the reader paying attention by throwing in textual curve balls: seemingly incongruous stories/examples/subject changes that then eventually tie in to the main idea of the article. I agree that this can be a great way to write a more interesting article, though you have to be very careful that your disconnectors don’t go off on too far a tangent without returning to the point you’re trying to make, leaving your readers in the proverbial soapie coma…

You can read the full article, “Why disconnectors in copywriting are critical in keeping your reader awake” on the Wordtracker site. Let me know your thoughts.

Geraldine

I recently came across Inbound Writer through a friend. I’ve shared my brief thoughts on it with the students in my Writing for the Web class blog, but it’s worth repeating here…

Inbound Writer bills itself as the “first social writing application”. It combines a keyword search tool, SEO prompts, a text editor and social media platforms. As a writer, I’m not sure how I feel about it. It comes across as a DIY writing with SEO tool, which is most definitely useful, but what concerns me is the impact of something like this on the quality of the writing. The number one rule of SEO, as far as I am concerned, is that you still need to write for people, not search engines, and although I’m sure this tool is useful in many ways, I don’t think it can or should replace a writer.

Maybe I just feel that way because I don’t like the idea of an app taking my job?

Geraldine

Much cloud computing storage is based in the US and is therefore subject to the Patriot Act. Although I don’t usually share folders, I do adore Dropbox, and store my teaching and work files on there. While I am not scared of any of the information I have on there in terms of getting myself into trouble, I would like to be sure it is safe and that it won’t be taken and used without my permission, knowledge, or any compensation. The issue of online privacy and safety continues to be a huge issue, and there does not seem to be any definitive way to know your information is safe.

As I’ve heard it said, “I have read the terms and conditions” is the possibly the world’s biggest lie, so how careful are we being with our information really?

Food for thought. Or the cloud?

Geraldine

With the lull over the summer coming to a close, it looks like it’s going to be a busy last few months of 2011. I’m going to be giving a seminar mid-September for SITE BC on Technical Report Writing. As described on their website,  “SITE BC (The Society of Internationally Trained Engineers of British Columbia) is an independent non- profit society founded in 2004 to represent the interests of British Columbia’s Internationally Trained Engineering community (ITEs).” I’m really looking forward to talking to their group about some of the fundamentals of writing technical reports.

I find when I talk to professionals in various industries, their complaint is the same: many people don’t know how to write or organise documents in a professional manner. Part of this issue that I have encountered is that of reader-unfriendly, jargon-loaded language and an overly formal tone. I will be addressing these issues, along with how to effectively  integrate graphics into a document, which I hope will be useful for the engineers.

Fall also promises more teaching, more writing projects (collaborating with my great graphic design partners at Spectramedia), as well as a workshop series with Dina Grskovich of DMG Strategy, so it’s going to be a busy one!

Watch this space for more details.

Geraldine