Embracing Web 2.0 (Part 1)

I am going to start a series on how I embrace web 2.0 technologies on a daily basis to make my life easier. Today I am going to talk to you about Twitter.



Twitter describes themselves as "Social networking and microblogging service utilising instant messaging, SMS or a web interface."

So whats this mean? basically Twitter acts very similar to your status on Facebook. What are you doing? tell Twitter and you can let everyone know instantly.


So why use twitter if you use Facebook? Twitter has many uses that the Facebook status just does not hit on. I like to use twitter for Micro-Blogging, the Facebook mini-feed makes this very difficult, there are a ton of other news feed stories that you would have to filter through... the Twitter feed will only show your "tweets"(Tweet being twitters word for status updates) and not all that other garbage. Twitter also allows you to place a badge on a blog, or a website showing what your current status is (as seen on the right side of my blog). As far as I know Facebook does not allow for this.

I still use my Facebook status because a lot more people are using Facebook rather than Twitter, so what I do is I take my tweets and I convert them into my Facebook status using a Facebook application known as TwitterSync. It is very easy to use, and all it requires is entering your Twitter username, and they handle the rest. TwitterSync does give you the option to add a prepend verb, such as "is", so your status is grammatically correct.

Now heres where it gets fun. :) I can update my twitter status from anywhere(as long as I have cell service, or internet access). I have set my account up so I can send a text message to twitter and it will change my twitter status which will change my Facebook status!! Pretty cool huh? not only that, but Google Talk allows me to send instant messages to TwitterIM which will change my Twitter status. AIM has an IM bot, but it has been down for an extended period of time, and I'm not sure if it will ever work again.

I most frequently change my Twitter status from my IGoogle page which is set to my home page. I will discuss IGoogle further in a future blog post. I change my status with an application known as BeTwittered.

Twitter like all successful web applications allows for third party applications to be build utilizing the Twitter API. This post from Mashable shows 60+ different Twitter tools that you may find useful.

Let me know how you use Twitter.

In the next part of the Embracing Web 2.0 Series I will discuss Feeds, and how incredibly useful they are.

Cheaters or Future Leaders?

In a recent Yahoo Tech blog they discussed how students are using tech devices to cheat. Personally I think we should look at this issue from a different perspective. Read the blog and then I'll explain that perspective a little bit better.

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Original blog

Colleges Battle High Tech Cheating

Tue Aug 14, 2007 12:00PM EDT

So many technologies, so many ways to use them to cheat. There have been widespread reports of kids taking cell phone photos of their exams and sending them to other students via SMS messaging. Other stories cite students using PDAs to keep their notes by their sides during a test, and online paper mills where you can buy a ready-to-turn-in paper on just about anything. Some kids are purportedly so good at text messaging that they can dole out test answers without taking their phone out of their pocket.

As students get more wily about high tech cheating schools are trying to keep one step ahead.

The best known category of anti-cheat devices can help spot a plagiarized paper. There are a number of anti-plagiarism detectors on the market—the most popular being Turnitin—but they all work in a similar fashion. These store huge databases of student papers that have been acquired from numerous sources and compare the paper that's been turned in against the database. Recently Educause ran a comparative review of seven of the most popular anti-plagiarism tools.

But that's just the tip of the creative ways schools are trying to thwart cheating. The New York Times recently covered the cheating on campus story and reported numerous examples of counterattack. "At the Anderson School of Management at U.C.L.A., the building's wireless Internet hotspot is turned off during finals to thwart Internet access." One teacher had his students turn the computers to face toward him so that he could see their screens during an exam. "At Mercer County Community College in West Windsor, NJ, students must clear their calculators' memory and sometimes turn in their cell phones before tests. At Brigham Young University, exams are given in a testing center, where electronic devices are generally banned. In some classes at Butler University in Indianapolis, professors use software that allows them to observe the programs running on computers students are taking tests on." And, according to the article, some institutions even install cameras in rooms where tests are administered.

Lest you think that America is the only cheating culture, check this one out. Even the police get involved: Chinese police detained three people for running a high tech cheating scam involving wireless microphones during the national college entrance exam.

The real question, of course, is why students cheat, and sometimes the best answers come directly from the students. In a CNN interview one student asked to comment on the use of iPods as cheating devices answered, "You can just thread the earbud up your sleeve and then hold it to your ear like you're resting your head on your hand." But that, she offered, doesn't mean you should be banned from using iPods. "People who are going to cheat are still going to cheat, with or without them."

Finally, where there are kids and cheating there's bound to be an academic study. Some of the best work is being done at The Center for Academic Integrity. Who knows, you may be able to get a Ph.D. in high tech cheating someday.

In the interest of proper attribution (a more genteel form of plagiarism), this photo comes from Textually.org.

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In life everyone is trying to get ahead of everyone. Ok maybe cheating is ethically wrong, but who here can honestly say they have never cheated whether it be a game of monopoly, chess, on a homework assignment, or a test.

The individuals using this technology to get ahead are going to be the future leaders of the world some day. Look at the government, and corporate business so much corruption, and underhanded behavior.

Should we reward these individuals for cheating? no certainly not, but before you condone these "cheaters" just remember they are trying to get ahead in life. They have this ambition to be a winner.

Now I in no way encourage anyone to0 go out and attempt to cheat on their next test, or suggest that I will cheat in any way. I just think people should be a little more open minded and understand that the individuals that are creative enough to find a way out of a problem are going to be the senators, and the CEOs of tomorrow.

Moving on to bigger and better things!!

This has been quite the interesting summer. Within the first few weeks after graduation I moved three times. I am currently living at home until I get a better idea of what I am going to do with my life.

Over the past couple months I have applied for internships with many different companies, and a handful of colleges. I have heard back from UAlbany, but had to decline because it was an unpaid internship, and I could not afford it.

I also applied to an organization called Swift Kick. Their mission is to increase student engagement through leadership, technology and community. Within an hour or so of my e-mail I received an e-mail back from Kevin Prentiss one of the co-founders of Swift Kick. Kevin offered me an internship working on a project testing, and helping with the upcoming release of a web application which will be used to help Student Leadership. I am not sure of my exact tasks on this project, but I will discuss them with Kevin early next week!!

I will try to write on here more frequently to keep you up to date on my life!!