Battle of the Giants

Image via CrunchBaseThroughout the development of modern technology, there have been products and services that have come and gone. Some have transformed into other products and some companies have gone in a completely different direction. Companies like IBM, Borland, Lotus, WordPerfect, WordStar and Netscape are have played a part in software and hardware development over the course of the past few decades. There have also been some memorable battles, with companies vying for supremacy and copyright. Lotus sued Borland claiming that the Quartto Pro had the same "look and feel" of 1-2-3. And then there was the browser wars. Microsoft's dominance in PC operating system software settled many battles by introducing MS Office. I was a committed WordPerfect user but when over to the dark side by sheer force (I still look for the Reveal Code screen).

It look as if a modern battle is brewing. Facebook is set to release an email service. Some are saying that this would be the death of other Web-based email services like Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail. As Facebook has 500,000 users across the world, a Facebook email could take a bite out of the market. Not being a Facebook user, I hope that loyal Google followers support Gmail as Google is known to abandon under-utilized applications. I do not see this happening as many thousands, including myself, have chosen Gmail as my primary email provider. Google, on the other hand, has tried to get some social networking into their suite of products and has failed. They claim not to be completing to Facebook.
I think that the result of this battle would be that Facebook users will have access to an email program and that Google will lose some of this Gmail users, but provide other services to tempt users to stay. Gmail is one of Google's primary services and I don't see it going away or there will be some very angry people and lost credibility in Internet services.

No matter how it works out, I think that the clear winners will be the users of FaceBook and Gmail.

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Textbooks' Coming of Age

Image via WikipediaI have been teaching for over 25 years and one of my biggest frustrations is textbooks. Not only are they costly for the student but they are almost out of date by the time they are printed and not a valuable reference to the student after graduation. New academic textbooks are a $4.5 billion industry and the used textbook market is pegged at $4 billion.

A new company called BookRenter.com is trying to capture some of that market by making books available to students who send them back after they are done. Not a bad idea but there is still the problem of the currency of the materials. The only way to go is digital. With digital books, students will be able to read materials that is more relevant, the prof can select part of one text and part of another, and there is no paper to waste which should keep the tree-huggers happy. It's a win-win all around.

Digital book, newspaper and textbooks have been slowly making their way into our lives. Currently you can get a digital copy of your daily newspaper, your favorite best seller and an e-copy of an academic textbook usually accompanies the physical copy. I think that print media is slowly disappearing and evolving into digital content. Steven Ballmer said that he believe print media will disappear in 10 years. Futurist Ross Dawson said that newspapers will cease to exist in the US within seven years followed by Britain and Iceland in 2019, and Canada and Norway a year later.

I think we have an obligation to teach students how to read digital content. It involves a different set of skills than reading printed text. Modern kids are considered digital natives because they are in tune with FaceBook and Twitter but that does not mean that they know how to use digital technologies to educate themselves.

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The Dangers of Social Networking

There has been much talk in the media lately about privacy issues with regards to social media but there are many other risks associated with this Internet phenomenon. There is no doubt that social media sites can be fun and are a great marketing tool but just as in real life, these sites attach those who would like to illegally profit or hurt users for their own gain or for misguided motives.

Image via CrunchBaseWhat also seems to be emerging is a couple of stigma's associated with being a Facebook user. Two recent studies have found that students who use Facebook have lower grades than non-users. One study was performed by a psychologist at the Open University of the Netherlands found that Facebook users have 20% lower graders as compared to non-users. Another study at Ohio State University found similar results claiming that Facebook users have significantly lower grade then non-users. As with all research, I'm sure that there was some confounding variables in these studies and both make the statement that Facebook was probably not the direct cause of lower grades but the distraction of playing games, chatting with users and reading updates could have distracted students from their studies.

And then there's a study from the University of Toronto that found Facebook users to be narcissistic. The study examined 100 students and found a direct correlation between the amount of time someone spends on Facebook and how narcissistic he or she is. What the study was  unclear on is whether narcissistic people are more likely to use Facebook or if Facebook plants narcissism into their personalities. The study also found that many Facebook users have low self-esteem. What this indicated that Facebook users are not getting the attention they want in the real world so they turn to Facebook for acceptance. I hope some one does a similar study on Twitter and I'm sure that the narcissism scale would be through the roof for most Twitters.

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Location! Location! Location!

Location! Location! Location! So has been the cry of realtors when buying a house. It's all about the location. Now it seems that some people are using Internet technologies to identify their personal location. Location services have been around for a while with online services like FourSquare, Yelp, and Gbanga. Now with the addition of Facebook's Places, use of location-based social networking will escalate.  Therefore, not only will you be able to tell everyone on the Net everything about you, but now you will be able to indicate where you are, minute by minute. Some stores and other organization have used location-based services as a marketing tool. For example, go to your favourite coffee shop, register that you are having a coffee, repeat 4 more times and get a free beverage on your next visit. Sounds fun?

Here's my problems with location-based services. Now Internet dwellers will not only have a place to post stupid and insignificant 140 character thoughts online but they will also be able to tell us exactly where they are - like I care! The other problem fuels the privacy debate. Have you been watching the news lately? There is more stuff about social networkers available to the public than they may be aware of and now they are going to be telling everyone where they are going, hanging out and vacationing - in real time! Beside coffee shops taking advantage of knowing this, how about other less reputable organizations that would love to know how you spend your day and where you are - spammers and house thieves come to mind.

George Orwell created Big Brother to watch and rule over the people of Oceania in his novel, 1984. In the society that Orwell describes, everyone is under complete surveillance by the authorities. The people are constantly reminded of this by the phrase "Big Brother is watching you". Sounds to me that Big Brother, (aka location services / social networking), is not forcing himself on netizens, rather netizens are voluntarily giving themselves into the folds of Facebookia.

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Google Coming Clean (?)

With all the news of Facebook's privacy issues, Google does not want to be in the same boat. They already have recieved some bad press with the news that they were gathering unsecured WiFi information during their street view data collection process. In attempt to put this faux pas behind them, they are complying with a request from the from the governments of France, Germany and Spain to turn over the data they collected. Let's hope they hand in everything they collected. And even if so, what will happen with it and what can those governments do to Google? Hefty fines and a slap on the wrist? I just hope this sends a message to Google that they are being closely watched and they cannot do anything they want with Internet data.

Coincidentally (I think not!), Google is releasing a paper explaining its corporate security strategy. Entitled Security Whitepaper: Google Apps Messaging and Collaboration Products, the paper describes the company's corporate security policies, organizational and operational security, asset classification, control practices, personnel, physical and environmental security, access control, systems development and maintenance, and disaster recovery efforts.

One thing I can say about Google, their PR with regards to privacy is better than Facebook's poor response to a similar issue. With Google complying with the European countries' requests and making their security strategy (supposedly) transparent, does that make you feel better? Not me! I think? I think Google will continue to make attempts to control everything Internet until the day that the Internet is renamed - GoogleNet!

Facebook News

Facebook has been in the news a lot lately. Today, I came across some articles that I believe could be interesting to Facebook watchers.

1. Facebook CEO, Mark Zukerberg has to date in mind to take Facebook public. Currently it earn $500 to $650 million dollars mostly from ad revenue. It's social plug-in is featured on over 200,000 Web sites.
   
2. Facebook privacy concerns do not appear to be an issue with Canadians as there are over 16 million Canadian Facebook users with close to a million of them signing up in May.
   
3. The organizers of the Quit Face Book Day says their campaign was a success because it convinced 30,000 users to quit Facebook and brought awareness to serious privacy concerns. Do you realize that Facebook's privacy agreement is close to 6,000 words in length. There are 50 privacy settings with 170 options.
   
4. Facebook is driving up the divorce rates. This is not because spouses are finding out things about their partners. It usually because neighbour and friends are reading about the illicit affairs and then revealing the information. Remember, putting something on Facebook is like putting on the front page of the New York Times. Even though you spouse may not get the NYT deliver to the door, the neighbours might be.
   
   and finally  .......
   
5. Former US President George W. Bush has a Facebook page. I guess he needs as many friends as he can get.

Quit Facebook Day

Facebook has been hit hard lately with criticisms of its privacy controls. As customers need to vote with their feet, there is a movement to quit Facebook. Quit Facebook Day is the brainchild of two Canadians, Joseph Dee and Matthew Milan and, at the time of this writing, over 27,000 users have pledged to leaving the social networking Web site. Although this number is quite small, representing less than 0.006% of the 500 million users, it sends a message to the social media giant that people are taking their privacy seriously, as they should.


Here are some Facebook policies:

• "We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services and other users of Facebook, to supplement your profile." They are going to augment your profile with items that you have not sanctioned to be part of your profile.
• "We may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship." They are going to give your information to organizations that they deem responsible (guess that's the way they make money.

Are you okay with the above? I'm not and that it why I left Facebook several months ago. I came across a good article about protecting privacy on Facebook. I would urge all Facebookers to read it - Symantec Tips For Guarding Facebook Privacy.

Facebook has taken notice of the issue of privacy and is trying to address concerns about consolidating privacy controls onto one page, the ability to block others from seeing your profile, and the ability to opt-out of using Facebook platform which delivers games, quizzes and other activities to Facebook users. 

Obviously, "Quit Facebook Day"is not going to bring down Facebook as most users are happy with its privacy settings. Facebook does provide a fun way to stay connected with family and friends but awareness of this issue is important to all Facebook users. 

Trolling for your Information

Two stories caught my eye this week that I found very alarming. The first was about Google intercepting WiFi signals with its Street View cars. Apparently Google was doing more than just taking pictures of your house for its Street View version of Google Maps (see Google Wi-Fi Breach Spurs Calls For Investigation). They gathered network names and computer information from unsecured wireless networks as they drove by. Shame on Google!! For this and many other reasons, you should encrypt your wireless signal. If you don't know how, contact the people who sold you your router or contact your Internet Service Provider.