WHAT.
This made me gag so hard.
JACOB. HERE IT IS FOR YOU TO READ FOREVER.
(I told him this story last night and he screeeeeeamed rull loud..)
(Source: fuckyeahtwilightsucks)
You may have, like me, noticed that Google Maps recently started telling folks that they have street view on all seven continents now.
Obviously the first place to check out is Antarctica. And of course street view in Antarctica amounts to icebergs with penguins. In fact, the little tiny person icon that orients you to what direction you’re facing - that becomes a penguin in Antarctica too.
So there’s this law being debated in Germany right now that would prevent employers from using Facebook (and other strictly social sites) when recruiting. This provision is part of a larger bill aimed at workplace privacy. Employers would still be able to access profiles on professionally aimed social networking sites like LinkedIn.
There are a few things that rile me up about social networking and privacy: 1. People who expect complete privacy online. 2. People who don’t take the steps that are available to protect their privacy. 3. People who then get worked up about the access people have to their information.
And the biggest pet peeve: 4. The fact that people in a position to make a decision about someone else’s future would use public information to disproportionally judge a person’s character and potential. This goes hand-in-hand with the idea that every employee is an extension of their employer. That the employee’s opinions are the employer’s opinions.
I realize that some of these are at odds with each other. I realize that there are perfectly legitimate reasons to use what someone finds on Facebook and other social networking sites to discipline or terminate an employee. However, from stories I’ve heard, it’s more often than not a really classless move. Co-workers using what they see on Facebook to leap to conclusions about a person and then report them. Employers assuming that because a person enjoys XYZ activity, they won’t be professional or respectable at work (or that their experience which otherwise would qualify them for a position is invalidated). Customers who see a personal opinion from an employee and assume that it represents the employer or that it represents the complete context of that opinion.
In this day and age, with all these conversations around privacy controls, we can’t keep the conversation focused on how you control privacy. We have to also have conversations about what someone does with the information they discover. Some may think we do talk about this when we talk about privacy laws preventing companies from selling our personal information. Yet a company responsible for keeping our identifying information in their servers is not the same as other, actual people relating to us using the same information.
Do I think people should be more careful online? Yes. Do I think people who aren’t careful, and then complain when they’re surprised their information is public, are being ridiculous? Yes. But do I think that that same public information justifies any consequences? Unless the person is admitting to or actually committing crimes, then not in the slightest.
We shouldn’t expect The Government to hold our hands and legislate privacy concerns into a nearly forgotten nightmare. We should expect The Government to provide the infrastructure, support, and tools to protect ourselves.Germany’s new bill is taking some interesting steps to drawing that line.
This is why my friend and I started the Mutual Admiration Society. To encourage people to let others know when they’re being awesome even if it’s socially awkward. Because when did earnest compliments and sincere appreciation become taboo?
(via karlsburg)
Sarah didn’t believe me that this is a real thing. So gotta look it up and how else do you try to search for it?
You guys. This is pretty genius. Read reviews here. Most recently he reveiwed Atlas Shrugged, but last week it was Santa Claus and the week before it was Justin Bieber’s wig.
I don’t know if I would have pictured a “young nerdy guy” but I wouldn’t have pictured the actual Ted Wilson (or what appears to be the actual Ted Wilson - his internet page could be a joke too). I really hope it is actually him. It hits so many buttons of endearment for me.
Like this nugget: “At first I was worried I wouldn’t fit in with the rest of the guys [in my band] because they’re so much younger than me, but almost everybody is nice to me and when I’m stoned I don’t really care.”
ETA: Ok on Ted Wilson’s page he says he worked for Rockville Insura-Best, Inc. I did a quick search and the only mention of that company is in reference to Ted Wilson. Unless the company closed without any other mention on the internet, I’m beginning to believe that this is all a playful rouse. I’m a little disappointed, but mostly entertained.
I like reviews and will generally read one on anything, but Ted Wilson’s are kind of the best. There’s tracing paper, crying, time travelers, and Justin Bieber’s Wig. In thinking about the guy who would try to accomplish reviewing everything in the world, I had in mind a young, nerdy guy. Instead, this is his internet webpage. Awesome.
Reminds me a lot of the Hypothetical Library. Both are pretty great ideas.
The ones that got away. The photos missed when you couldn’t get to your camera fast enough or when you simply forgot your camera at home.
Unphotographable is where photos not-taken live.
I have a deep passion for infographics. Infovideos are even better! With some fast pumped-up electro music! About social media!
Interesting to think about in conjunction with this Wired article: The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains.
Pieter Wisse, a photographer out of Rotterdam, has taken on an admirable, ambitious project. Posting 5 active photographers a week for 100 weeks - collecting 500 modern photographers and their work. From around the world. A variety of subjects and disciplines. Above is Dave Hill, photographer #16.
A great way to acquaint yourself with current work and artists, as well as find some new inspiration.
I like social media a whole lot.
I like infographics a whole lot.
I like studying people’s behavior a whole lot.
I like this link a whole lot. (Emphasis is on Twitter vs. Facebook. I like #4, #8 [snapshot above], #9, #17, and #19.)
So Jeff Howe, from @Crowdsourcing fame, came up with what I think is a great idea. Essentially Twitter users - so potentially everyone in the world with internet access - vote on a book to collectively read and discuss this summer. It’s an idea based off of Seattle’s own Nancy Pearl-brainchild, One City, One Book program. You can read the details at Howe’s blog but voting has opened up over at Wired.
Something I really like is that since voting can be so incredibly skewed via Twitter mobilizing, the crowd chose 6 books as finalists - who all happened to be written by dead white Western men. So the editorial board (whoever that may be) added four other books to include female, non-white, and non-Western authors (excluding their addition of Catcher in the Rye but Howe’s admitted that’s the book he’s rooting for).
You can follow the developments on Howe’s blog or on Twitter using the official tag #1b1t. If you don’t know Reddit, vote up the choices you like - down the choices you don’t. Voting closes on 4/26.
Twitter and the Nature of Fads.
“Even a couple years after Twitter came out, it is still being called a “fad,” as it should be. The reason why? Because people want it to be a fad, especially those people who make their bread and butter by writing articles about fads. And why do they want it to be a fad? Because Twitter removes from society the concept of expertise, talent, or the wherewithal to go along the proper channels for publication.”- Twitter Is Cutting the Fad - Urlesque
Which is why it and its ilk have some seriously radical potential. Even being used for profit and self-indulgence, you can’t deny the connections being made. And therefore the power to learn/change/grow.
