Politics and Web 2.0: Gay Man Touches Boob

I still hate the phrase Web 2.0.  I think we will look back 10 years from now a say, “Oh, that wasn’t 2.0 that was Web 1.5…”  I digress.  Social networking sites are starting to rear their ugly head when it comes to crippling political candidates.  The digital dirt of Gen Y is growing like a landfill in New Jersey, and it is totally going screw many, many other politicians in the future.

Take Ray Lam, gay activist, New Democratic Party Candidate in British Columbia’s legislative election.  He has withdrawn from the race because of the below photo that was discovered on Facebook. 

Everybody know that gay guys, are boob guys.  So, in my opinion, he had no reason to step out of the race.  He was just having a little fun.  Rumor has it that the party is now looking for a non-gay (perhaps anti-gay) penis toucher to put forth as next their nominee.

Be an Expert: HelpAReporterOut.com

I just came across this great website that offers a unique way to spread your digital dirt for the benefit of publicity.  It’s called HelpAReporterOut.com  developed by a gentleman by the the name of Peter Shankman.  It is a very simple interface for reporters and “experts” to meet up and share information. 

Basically experts sign up for a twice-a-day email alert that lists journalists in need of an expert on a particular subject.  If you happen to be the an expert in the domaine they require you just email them back and they can contact you for their story.  

I signed up about a day ago and I’ve received three emails with reporters/publications looking for expert advice, but there were no topics that I could consider myself an expert on.  One day I guess.  

If in fact, one day, I do find a topic that I am an expert on, say communications, then I will have the opportunity to spread my Dirt like no tomorrow.  How cool would it be to have a magazine article quote me, Daniel Petre, as an expert? Digital footprint here I come!

 

 

Below is a list of example from Peter’s daily emails:

 

 

************INDEX*************** 

#URGENT

0) Student Pilots (Associated Press)

0.1) Residential Real Estate Investors (Washington Post)

0.2) researchers applying for NIH grants (Major Biz Pub)

 

0.3) need a fashion stylist (National Mag) 

0.4) Creative Campaigns (PR Week)

#BUSINESS AND FINANCE

1) 10 ways to save $1k (Ladies Home Journal)

2) Becoming a syndicated news producer (Broadcast Media Trade Mag)

3) Silver lining to the Pink Slip (Blog)

4) Careers with a Bad Name (Freelance)

5) Reinventing Yourself After Losing a Job (Article/Presentation)

6) Pizza industry news and information (Web site)

6.1) Looking for teens and young adults (Book)

VisualCV.com: a great new tool to expand you professional digital footprint

I just came across a great resource for expanding your active, and positive, digital footprint for the purposes of job hunting.

The website, VisualCV.com, provides a network for you to really bring your experience and expertise to life.  Yes, it is another site to maintain, but it does serve an important role among your existing social networks and professional sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Friendfeed, Twitter, etc.

I found VisualCV through a webinar.  Save an hour of your life and just read the details below.  The presenter, Karen Masullo, noted that the key to Web 2.0 and job hunting is transparency in the tools you use, and the information you communicate with those tools.  “You are brand you” is what she says (cute right?) so it is important to be aware of the way you are representing yourself online.

I have outlined similar steps before, but these are much clearer and more action oriented:

1) Search yourself (on Google, Yahoo, and so on).  Find out what Dirt is out there on you.  Is it positive or negative?  It is too personal, or not personal enough?  Also make sure to search nicknames, alternate spellings of your name, your email address, and even you social security number (I added that last tip).

2) Create new valuable content to push down the bad search results (if they exist).  She says you need a sound “organic search strategy [SEO].”  Duh.  Easier said than done.  I think she means this: where ever you are creating an active footprint online, you need to use terms that relate your area of expertise so you get credit for them in organic search.  Linking those closely to your name should do the trick (I think so anyway).

3) Market yourself:

• Have a 90-second “elevator speech” prepared [in writing] and make sure you are communicating what makes YOU special
• Have a VisualVC (I think she threw that in there because, well, it was a VisualCV.com webinar)
• Have a LinkedIn profile
• Keep a blog (um, check)
• Use Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook, etc, etc, etc.  I think she means to say here: “have a freakin’ presece online.”

So what is a VisualCV?  It’s a neat little way to keep your professional experience up to speed for everyone to see.  She calls it a “perminate professional archive of your work history.”  Check mine out here!  You should update it often, even every few days.  You might be thinking, “isn’t that what LinkedIn is for?”  That’s what I thought too.  But she delineates between the two: LinkedIn is for networking and highlighting your overall experience, education, and so on.  A VisualCV is for keeping a running tab on your work.  AND it is more visual, as the name suggests.  You have the opportunity on VisualVC.com to add video of your work, PDFs, letters of recommendation, association and corporate logos, etc.

The important thing to note is that you need to tie all the pieces of your professional digital footprint together.  Links to and from LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and you VisualCV are important because each should serve a different and specific purpose.

Blatantly obvious tip that you should have learned in high school (unless the internet didn’t exist then) is to have an email address that resembles  Firstname.Lastname@whatever.com.  Not dannyiscuteandsexy@smalltinyanimals.com

“Sexy Babes” and “Sexting”

I was checking out my blog stats a few moments ago and I noticed a reoccurring reference site:  http://sexbabes.wordpress.com/  They have put a link back to my blog post on “Sexting.”  (My most popular post with a few hundred views.)

I bet the creeps that check out Sexy Babes were sorely disappointed that I didn’t have a half naked women in my blog.  But the video of Katie Couric on the other hand….

Facebook: “we gave you a choice…”

UPDATE to my UPDATE on my post “Your Facebook profile Isn’t Yours“ from a couple months ago about Facebook’s privacy policy.

I logged on to Facebook today and the top of the page screamed democracy… 

It said:  

On February 26, Facebook announced plans to make site governance more transparent and democratic. Since that time, users and experts around the world have been providing comments on the new documents Facebook proposed to govern the site and replace the existing Terms of Service – the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and Facebook Principles. Facebook has read the comments on these documents and has revised the documents based on this feedback. Now, please vote to let Facebook know which documents you think should govern the site.

To be notified about future proposed changes to the documents governing Facebook, please become a Fan of the Facebook Site Governance Page .

It says that voting started on April 16 at 12:00 pm PDT and ends on April 23 (tomorrow) at 11:59 am.  This is the first time I have seen this “Governance Vote” thing and now have less than 12 hours to actually read each terms of service agreement.  God, there is never enough time for democracy.  I am desperate to be a part of this online nation we call Facebook, but I don’t have the time!  (Note the large dose of sarcasm please.)

The TOS agreement is like at least a thousand words.  I doubt Facebook users are capable of reading something over 140 characters in length (I know I’m not).  I think they are just doing this to one day say, “we gave you a choice. You voted we listened…… Now stop bitching.  ” 

You won this time Facebook.  It doesn’t happen often, so soak it up.

Book Lovers Unite…

… or else we will all be illiterate.  Not really. 

My new favorite site is one called “Goodreads.com“.  It is essentially a social network for book lovers.  An online book club if you will. I always say, “you can tell a lot about a person by the books they read.”  Okay, I’ve never said that, but I think it’s true.  So, to me, this site is yet another catalyst for spreading your Dirt… your literary digital footprint.

I encourge you to sign up.  You can follow your friends, like Twitter, and see what they have read, are reading, or want to read. Like most sites there is a rating system so you can the the WHOLE WORLD know how you feel.  The empowered consumer for sure. I love books and I hope this site encourages others to love them too.

Smart Phones for Smart Advertisers

A few weeks ago I wrote about how Google was using “behavioral targeting” to tailor advertising to specific indivials that would, presumably, be more receptive.  And I thought it was a great idea (especially since it didn’t violate privacy by targeting advertising linked to your name, demographic information, etc).

In another article publicished in the overly Pulizer-Prized New York Times, they discuss how cell companies are leveraging similar tactics for mobile advertising.  Something I am also hugly in favor of. 

Basically moble providers know a lot about their users.  What apps they download, mobile sites they visit, etc.  Plus, GPS allows them to potentially track your location.  Urban Spoon and Yelp for example use your specific GPS location to reccomend resturants and so on.  Quite convienent.  So if they know our location, our intertests, our sex, our age, our everything, won’t we only get the “stuff” that is interesting to us?  I doubt it will ever be that precise, but it’s a nice dream.  We’re still going to get SPAM and other crap that advertisers “think” we want.

But some ethical issue arise from all of this according to the NYTs article: 

“It’s potentially a portable, personal spy,” said Jeff Chester, the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, who will appear before Federal Trade Commission staff members this month to brief them on privacy and mobile marketing. He is particularly concerned about data breaches, advertisers’ access to sensitive health or financial information, and a lack of transparency about how advertisers are collecting data. “Users are going to be inclined to say, sure, what’s harmful about a click, not realizing that they’ve consented to give up their information.”

 

Thoughts?  I don’t think they will ever get to the point where they are going to use, or even need, our “sensitive” medical information to sell products, but who knows?

“This Is Me”

There is a very interesting project being lead out of University of Reading’s OdinLab, called “This Is Me,” which aims

“…to help people learn about their Digital Identities (DI) by producing and testing learning materials for use by individuals and groups. As part of the project we are collecting people’s stories about their DI, and you are welcome to come on in and chat about what it means to you, how you manage your identity and how important other people’s web presence is to you.”

I encourage you to check it out. There are some really hilarious stories about peoples’ digital footprint (a.k.a. DI).  Plus they have a learning center where you can do a few exercises to discover the nation of your DI. Unfortunately the site navigation sucks and and the instruction for the exercises are not at all clear.

I’m quite happy to be discovering a lot  of new resources aimed at educating people on the impact of their Digital Dirt even though I believe at one point or another your digital footprint will bit you in the ass.

Susan Boyle: Dirt Worth Spreading

Susan Boyle, the Scottish woman that has blown the world away on Britain’s Got Talent, is Digital Dirt that is worth spreading. I have watched the clip on YouTube a few times and every time I am delighted. I get an instant smile (and sometimes a little tear in the corner of my eye).  

The imbed code has been disabled on all of the YouTube postings of her BGT performance, but you can view it on this link.

She is the best type of Digital Dirt (in my opinion). A spirit lifting, dream inspiring, self-humbling, and amazing woman.  The question is: is she the biggest YouTube sensation ever?  YouTube views suggest that she is bigger than President Obama and Bush (when he is getting shoes thrown at him from the Iraqi media).  

So often the web is used to spread Dirt that is simply not worth spreading.  And YouTube, the now 7th largest search engine in-and-of-itself, has a profound impact on our digital footprint.  I am just so glad that this time; this one time, it is being used to share a voice and a story that truly is amazing.  I wish Susan the best of luck.

I’m back

After a few weeks of silent blogging (a.k.a. thinking about blogging but not actually doing it because I was too busy), I’m back!

In a few weeks this blog is going to be transformed.  Class will be over and I will be ready to venture into deeper blog waters.  But Digital Dirt will not be forgotten.  I’m not yet sure how I want take the next step in the blog world, but I do know I want to be famous for it.  Not really.  But I do want discuss interesting topics that will engage my readers (the 30 of you each day).  

Take the poll below and vote on what I should be blogging about!!!  All in the interest if spreading Dirt of course.