#UOSM Ethical issues raised by educational and business uses of social media

“Discuss the ethical issues raised by educational and business uses of social media”

By the end of the year 2013, almost 40% of the world’s population were online and this number is just keeps increasing (Kelion, 2013). Just imagine that 2.8 billion of people (roughly every third person) are online nowadays. In the business world, this number is also quit big, as 30% of the EU enterprises use social media (e.g. social networks, blogs, wikis, etc.), 73% of which use it to build their profile online, and advertise their products, see Figure 1. However, the educational sector doesn’t stand behind these numbers, on the contrary, even overpasses, as it was provided from fifth annual CASE/Huron Education/mStoner social media survey, conducted in January 2014, Educational advancement staff uses nearly all kinds of social media in order to communicate with students, parents and alumni (Russell, 2014), see Figure 2.

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

After this impressive numbers a fact that ethical issues in this ocean of social media is inevitable. However, a question may arise in your mind whether aren’t we free in expressing our thoughts both online and in life, based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1947), Article 18, which states that: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thoughts, conscience and religion” (Lauterpacht, 1948)? The answer is: “YES, certainly you are!”, BUT it is a subject of limitations when it clashes with the rights and freedoms of others (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 29) (Lauterpacht, 1948). In a simple way, you can say and write whatever you want, when you want, until it clashes with the rights of others, whether it is religions, race, gender, etc.

Article 18 - Source: http://anotherbrickinwall.blogspot.co.uk/2012_04_01_archive.html

Article 29 - Source: http://dagdok.org/uploads/pics/Religionsfrihet_01.jpg

Here are few examples ethical issues happened online:

• In business world: 13 members of Virgin Atlantic’s flight crew lost their jobs after Facebook comments where they have labelled Virgin Atlantic passengers as “chavs” (Steview, 2008).
•  In education world: A teacher being fired from school for putting a photo on Facebook where she was holding a glass of wine and a mug of beer (Reporter, 2011).
• Moreover, well-known example of Paul Chambers being arrested and later on fining for Tweeting a joke that he will blow the airport for not working (BBC News England, 2012).
• And we could continue this list as much as we want.

In order to avoid this kind of ethical issues online, more and more companies make it possible to flag/report the defamation on social sites (e.g. “Report” button on Facebook). Furthermore, Twitter itself has announced that it will censor the messages country by country, in other words, block “offensive” messages (Moran, 2012).

To sum up, I just want to state that the problem of ethical issues faced every day by us will grow at the same speed as the Internet does. I personally think that this problem is inevitable, but the social media is not the cause of it, because it is just a way for us to communicate, so called “bridge” across countries and nations. WE are the people who fill in the content of the social media, and so WE are responsible for any consequences that emerge from it. 

References

BBC News England, 2012. Paul Chambers 'blow up' airport tweet appeal judgement reserved. [Online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-18607798 [Accessed 23 March 2014].

Kelion, L., 2013. UK jumps up internet scoreboard as digital divide grows. [Online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24426739 [Accessed 23 March 2014].

Lauterpacht, H., 1948. The British Year of Book International Law. Oxford: Oxford Press.

Moran, L., 2012. Twitter sparks free speech fury by announcing it will censor messages country-by-country. [Online] Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2092606/Twitter-sparks-free-speech-fury-announcing-censor-messages-country-country.html [Accessed 23 March 2014].

Reporter, D.M., 2011. Teacher sacked for posting picture of herself holding glass of wine and mug of beer on Facebook. [Online] Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1354515/Teacher-sacked-posting-picture-holding-glass-wine-mug-beer-Facebook.html [Accessed 23 March 20114].

Russell, P., 2014. Survey Results Indicate Social Media's Impact on Educational Advancement Continues to Grow. [Online] Available at: http://www.case.org/About_CASE/Newsroom/Press_Release_Archive/Survey_Results_Indicate_Social_Medias_Impact_on_Educational_Advancement_Continues_to_Grow.html [Accessed 23 March 2014].

Steview, S., 2008. Virgin flight crew fired for insulting passengers via Facebook. [Online] Available at: http://www.thetechherald.com/articles/Virgin-flight-crew-fired-for-insulting-passengers-via-Facebook/3032/ [Accessed 23 March 2014].

#UOSM2008 Topic 3 - Reflective Summary

So, it is time to summarize on the Topic 3: ways to develop your professional online profile. Unfortunately, I wasn't lucky enough this time with the number of comments on my post, that’s why the great thanks to George Chiverton, whose comment I had pleasure to read. I will try to do my best next time to improve my grammar and be more exact in the references I make and don’t mix meanings up. As there aren't many comments on my blog, I will go for mentioning the important points, in my opinion, from both, my own blog and the classmates’:

• Firstly, relevant to mention that I have enjoyed reading Alysia Wildman’s post, not just because of the content, but mostly because she have applied everything she have mentioned on her blog to her own online professional profile on LinkedIn. I think it’s a much better idea than mine, but still it is never late for me to do it.

• Secondly, one of the new aspects for me was “video CV” and to be honest, I was quite surprised to read about it (blogs of Emma Meheux and Kimberly Fenton). Despite my interest and surprise, I have concluded to myself that this kind of self-branding depends completely on the area a person is searching a job in, so for example, in the area of my interest, IT, it will not be as powerful as in Marketing.

• The importance of having an online professional profile. As it was already mentioned in my blog, “According to the studies, 75% of HR department are checking their applicants online and 50% of them say that it influences their decision (Microsoft, 2013)”. Not having one, and hiding your yourself from others, will cause more harm than help, as employers might think that you are not a social person.

Last but not least, I just want to state that we should focus not only on the social networks, such as LinkedIn. Yes, certainly it provides more broad and deep insight about a person than any other network, with all various sections and subsections to be filled describing the person. However, the networks, such as Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, etc. represent a person’s inner characteristics not visible on the CV: his/her opinions on different topics, worldview, ability to communicate with others and so on. We never know what a potential employer can be interested in, so why not to be ready from different sides?

Reference

Microsoft, 2013. Online Safety Research. [Online] Available at: http://www.microsoft.com/security/resources/research.aspx#reputation [Accessed 7 March 2014].

#UOSM2008:Topic 3 Building your Online Professional Profile

"Discuss the ways in which an authentic online professional profile can be developed"

Picture source: http://www.webdcmarketing.com/2013/11/four-more-linkedin-hacks-for-insurance-wholesalers/

In the modern world, when our everyday life becomes more and more online, the recruitment sector and employers are not the last people who are using online facilities. On the contrary, they have taken the recruitment to the whole new level where there is no need any more to carry your paper CV with you. However, as a person who has joined this trend around three years ago I had two main questions: Why do you need an authentic online professional profile? And, how do you develop one? In this post, I will answer both of these questions based on the research and my personal experience.

Why do you need an authentic online professional profile? For example, “LinkedIn”:

• Well, the first answer could be: Why not? It is not very time consuming, it is accessible to everyone in every language, it is nearly always for free (unless you want to upgrade your LinkedIn) and you also can have your small portion of data on the Internet in this age of online information overload.
• It is easier to find a job, internship, placement, etc. My close friend, a young web developer, has received two job offers via LinkedIn. The point is, he haven't even apply, as they have found him by themselves.
• According to the studies, 75% of HR department are checking their applicants online and 50% of them say that it influences their decision (Microsoft, 2013). Not having an online profile will cause more questions than answers.

How you develop an online profile:

Better than my words could be just the explanation via picture. Posted below are the pictures that I have scanned from the paper given to me on the Carriers Fair held at the University of Southampton, by ConnectUs recruitment consultancy. However, I will still point out the most important parts of it, in my opinion:

• Have a professional photo. As most of the HRs deliberately do not want a photo on the CV, an online identity with your photo is the only way they can see you. Remember that the first impression is very important (Hyams, 2012).
• Have at least two or three references that have the most amount of positive feedback about you (Hyams, 2012).
• Whatever you are writing, keep it short and sweet, and obviously provide the keywords that you think describe you and are searched by the employers.
• Join groups, both on local and international level. Just creating a profile is not enough, join the discussions, share links and news, increase the number of connections and just stand up of the crowd (Direct Connection, Advertising & Marketing, LLC, 2013).

Picture Source: http://ritasambu.com/projects.html

And finally, don’t just copy your paper CV, but give a bit more information about yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, interests, etc. In LinkedIn you are not limited to two pages of paper as it is in the real world (Guardian News and Media Limited, 2013).

Last but not least, just a quick advice for the post readers: be as authentic and correct as possible in showing your identity! We all have to accept that during the creation of our own profiles, both online and on paper, we often do embellish a little bit the stories about us. It is completely normal, but to the some extend. I personally do remember that on my first CV I have specified various programming languages that I have pleasure to code in without specifying the degree of knowledge for each. I had a very unpleasant situation when during one of the telephone interviews I was asked the very deep questions of one of the programming languages I have specified, that was quite a lesson for me.

Word Count: 620

References

Direct Connection, Advertising & Marketing, LLC, 2013. Four More LinkedIn Hacks for Insurance Wholesalers. [Online] Available at: http://www.webdcmarketing.com/2013/11/four-more-linkedin-hacks-for-insurance-wholesalers/ [Accessed 8 March 2014].

Guardian News and Media Limited, 2013. Why online CVs are essential in your job search. [Online] Available at: http://jobs.theguardian.com/article/4290335/why-online-cvs-are-essential-in-your-job-search/ [Accessed 7 March 2014].

Hyams, C., 2012. Personal Branding on LinkedIn: 10 Mistakes to Avoid. [Online] Available at: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/11/09/personal-branding-on-linkedin-10-mistakes-to-avoid/#WByq6jGKiFd0UI49.99 [Accessed 7 March 2014].

Microsoft, 2013. Online Safety Research. [Online] Available at: http://www.microsoft.com/security/resources/research.aspx#reputation [Accessed 7 March 2014].

#UOSM2008 Topic 2 - Reflective Summary

Picture source: http://brandconfessions.com/profiles/blogs/5-tips-for-managing-your-social-media-identity

It is time to summarize the second Topic of the module Living and Working on the Web. The first thing to be mentioned is my mistake of misunderstanding the topic’s question (thanks to George Chiverton for pointing at it). The question was to describe the pros and cons of having more than one online identity, when I have gone a bit differently by explaining the pros and cons of just having an online identity. Having read others comments and blogs I have came up with the following notes:

·     Online identities help you to communicate with others, share information in real time and helps to develop your personal employability (Cosmato, 2013).

·    However, it also reduces a very valuable face-to-face interaction between people, takes a significant amount of your personal time (Cosmato, 2013) and increases a possibility of identity fraud (Ibraz, 2010), which as I've later read from the blog of our classmate, Joy Isaac, it is referred as “Catfishing”.

(http://joyisaac.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/online-identity-privacy-and-security/).

·  Furthermore, quite interesting was the blog of our classmates, Alysia Wildman. The differentiation between Anonymity and Authenticity is quite important, as the former depends on a user and could be performed in various ways, via a specific software or just frauding your identity, and the latter “creates an online version of your life that relies on your true identity in order to function” (Masters, 2011).

To sum up, I just want to repeat that, despite disagreeing with this trend, I do have more than one online identity in order to be aware of all events and let others get in touch with me, especially when you are studying abroad. After the research on this topic both online and within myself, I have came to the opinion that it doesn't matter at all how many online identities do you have and in which social networks. The thing that does matter is how wisely and purposefully you use it.  

“Your entire life is online, and it can be used against you. Be vigilant!”

Quote source: www.youtube.com/embed/F7pYHN9iC9I

References

Cosmato, D., 2013. Love to know social networking. [Online] Available at: http://socialnetworking.lovetoknow.com/Advantages_and_Disadvantages_of_Social_Networking [Accessed 22 February 2014].

Ibraz, A., 2010. Fundamentals of Computing. [Online] Available at: http://mason.gmu.edu/~aibraz/disadvantages.html [Accessed 22 February 2014].

Masters, A., 2011. The Independent. [Online] Available at: http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/09/19/identity-on-the-internet-the-pros-and-cons-of-anonymity/ [Accessed 2 February 2014].

#UOSM2008 Topic 2: Online identities, Pros and Cons.

Question: "Discuss the arguments for and against having more than one online identity".

Picture source: http://brandconfessions.com/profiles/blogs/5-tips-for-managing-your-social-media-identity

I personally don’t think that Licklider (1963) could imagine that his idea for connecting several computers to make it easier to pass scientific and military information will grow later into this enormous network called the Internet. Demanding grows in popularity of online activities has lead people to create their “digital identities”. However, what is this “Digital identity”? This term is used to describe personas that individuals use across social networks in which they are represented (Williams et al., 2010).  However, how smart is it to have your information be constantly available online and what are the pros and cons of this situation? Below you can find a list of both, my personal and public opinions on this question:

Pros:

• The first and the most important one is obviously the communication. Social networks allow people to communicate from anywhere to anyone, in any numbers.
• Let’s not forget about online identities created in LinkedIn, which helps a lot people find jobs, share knowledge and companies to advertise and promote themselves. One of my friends got his job offer via LinkedIn, the company found him itself.
• Real-time information sharing and News cycle speed have increased, you get news about others and the events much faster (Cosmato, 2013).

Picture source: http://gearpatrol.com/2009/06/17/be-a-better-man-in-30-days-day-16-know-how-to-manage-your-online-identity-image/

Cons:

• The face-to-face connection is losing its weight. I still do remember my first day in the UK, when I was coming back to my accommodation and there were two teenage girls in front of me, and they were going to say goodbye to each other. I was quite surprised to hear: “See you on Facebook” instead of “See you tomorrow/later”.
• Time-waster. As it can be understood from the name, the vast majority of people do use social networks wisely (Cosmato, 2013).
• Identity fraud. This can happen as anyone can create a false identity and pose as someone else (Ibraz, 2010).

Picture source: http://brandconfessions.com/profiles/blogs/5-tips-for-managing-your-social-media-identity

What is my opinion? This might sound strange to hear this from a young person who considers himself a “Digital Resident” of the Web and a person whose major is in Information Technology in Organisation, but I will be honest and say that I’m quite against putting your entire life online to be visible by others. Yes, online communication is good, it removes borders between countries and nations; Yes, it allows people to share their happiness and pain with others and Yes, those who are afraid to speak in public can have their freedom online to express their opinions as they want. However, all of these, and more, must be to some extend!

If my young cousin spends his whole time online and doesn't know who is Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, George Washington, Shakespeare, etc., this is not acceptable; if people spend more time online rather than with those who dedicated their lives to you (relatives, parents, etc.), this is not acceptable; if people know more about you than they should and can use this against you, this is not acceptable.

I saw this video below nearly one year ago and always used it as an argument when we debate with my friends on this topic. It does worth watching it. And I will just summarize with the last words from this video: “Your entire life is online, and it can be used against you. Be vigilant!”

And last but not least, as an IT person I would be happy to share information about some useful and free softwares and techniques that can help you remain anonymous on the Internet:

• ToR – The Union Router (https://www.torproject.org/), is basically a free software network that uses a set of relay nodes to hide the original source of the traffic (Murdoch & Danezis, 2005).
• Use anonymous VPN/Proxy service (http://www.hidemyass.com/), such as HideMyAss, which similarly to ToR will hide the source of the incoming data (Joel & Charlotta, 2010).
• And finally, spoof your IP source address, which in a more understandable way means changing your IP address .

REFERENCES

• Cosmato, D., 2013. Love to know social networking. [Online] Available at: http://socialnetworking.lovetoknow.com/Advantages_and_Disadvantages_of_Social_Networking [Accessed 22 February 2014].
• Ibraz, A., 2010. Fundamentals of Computing. [Online] Available at: http://mason.gmu.edu/~aibraz/disadvantages.html [Accessed 22 February 2014].
• Joel, P. & Charlotta, W., 20010. Network anonymity. Project. Sweden: Information Security Course Linköpings universitet.
• Murdoch, S.J. & Danezis, G., 2005. Low-cost traffic analysis of ToR. Security and Privacy, 1(1), pp.183-95.
• Williams, S., Fleming, S., Lundqvist, K. & Parslow, P., 2010. Understanding your digital identity. Learning Exchange, 1(1), pp.1-6.

#UOSM2008 Topic 1: Digital Visitors & Residents - Summary

                                Picture source: http://dial.myblog.arts.ac.uk2011/12/13/210

So, we have come to the end of the first topic in the module Living and Working on the Web (#UOSM2008). We were given a task to explain the concept of Digital “Visitor” and “Resident” based on our readings and personal online experience. Having read others blogs and comments for my own one there are few things that I need to clarify in order to summarize the topic:

1. First and the most significant one is that I should not mix up definitions as I did in my first paragraph with Prensky (2011) and White (2011), because I just thought that they can be used interchangeably. Apparently it isn't.
2. Secondly, as I have mentioned in my blog, the division of people into 'Residents' and 'Visitors' is not precise and there is a huge gap in the middle. And as one of my classmates (Kimberly) have mentioned in my comments: "this concept forms a continuum to which people can find themselves in between the two, and showing some attributes from each entity". To support this, I can give an example from an article I had pleasure to read and which was sent to me by one of my classmates (Jazmin). This was Horrigans (2007), which had this idea that people are divided into 10 groups according their level of activity online:

                                 
Picture Source: http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2007/PIP_ICT_Typology.pdf.pdf 

In conclusion, I'm still of the opinion that this concept is far too narrow and needs more groups, or even sub-groups to describe the variety of users online. Idea of Horrigans (2007) replicates much deeper insight of this concept (See the picture above).

Overall, this was my first blog, and I hope that people have enjoyed reading it, because I actually, enjoyed writing it :). Looking forward to see the next task.

#UOSM2008 Topic 1: Digital Visitors & Residents

Picture source: http://dial.myblog.arts.ac.uk2011/12/13/210

“Explain the concept of digital “visitors” and “residents” drawing upon your reading and your own online experiences to date in support of the points that you make”.

Because of the rapid growth of the technologies in the past few decades, people have been categorized into two groups. One group consists of people who were born in the digital age and were surrounded by the technologies, such as video games, emails, the Internet, social networks, etc. and are considered the “native speakers” of computers or “digital residents”. In contrast, the other group consists of people who have come to technology later in their life, normally people from the older generation (Prensky, 2001).

There are some clear differences between the groups (White et al., 2012):

Digital Visitors:

• They have defined goals or tasks when they are using technologies, especially the Internet.
• They are quite concerned about personal privacy issues, as they stay relatively anonymous and avoid creating a digital identity.
• For them, online social networking (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) is considered to be banal and time wasting.
• In their opinion, the Web is just a set of tools which can be used only for specific tasks, such as search and retrieve data (/information), communicate via emails, etc.

Digital Residents:

• They see the web as a place where all friends and colleagues gather together.
• Part of their life is spent online.
• They have profiles on various social networks and they feel themselves as a part of the community.
• The distinction between online and offline life is becoming more and more blur for them.

However, is this distinction between people precise and always true? Does it define how well and efficiently they use online sources? Definitely Not!  Data indicates that despite the fact that most of the people over 55 are made up of Visitors there are lots of examples of Residents in that among them. In the same manner, not every young person under 25 is a digital Citizen (White, 2008). The reason for these rule breaking is the fact that it is not important “what” you are using on the web, but “how” you are using it.

As an example in support of these exceptions from my personal life a good friend of mine is studying Computer Science, but he was surprised when I have introduced him well-known websites, such as scholar.google.com, dl.acm.org and ieeexplore.ieee.org for searching online articles and conference papers. At the same time, my parents are far from technologies, but they can easily access the Internet, purchase tickets for bus, planes and trains, book hotels and read news from websites and sources existence of which I don’t even know about.

To conclude, after a research on this topic, I have realised that we, the young generation, as a ‘Residents’ of the web have more advantages than ‘Visitors’, because we are familiar with the language of technologies around us. Our duty is to use these technologies as effectively as possible, because as was stated previously it doesn’t matter what do you use, it is how you are using it.