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February 21, 2006

Parents beware: the Internet is the new scrapbook

Some students at East Grand Rapids High School were busted for showing photos on their blogs of themselves with alcohol. The story made the AP and therefore several news outlets.

The Internet's a big place, kid. If you put up a picture of you and your friends, it's fair game. Who's looking: friends, your parents, your teacher, some creep? All of the above.

Back in the day, we'd take pictures with our film cameras (110 anyone?), get them developed and hide the pictures from our parents. Now, those images can be put on blogs and other sites instantly.

Too many adults (and kids) seem surprised that something online can be seen by strangers. Schools and police are taking notice – call it blog monitoring by the government.

I'm all for freedom of expression and freedom of speech, but if you do something illegal and brag about it, know that you can and probably will get caught.

The story prompted this excellent follow-up story by the Grand Rapids Press, with blog tips from a high school blogger:

It is not a good idea to write rude things about your peers in your blog. This only causes drama, and Internet drama is the most unnecessary thing ever invented.
No one wants to see 50 pictures of yourself that you took with your digital camera.

On a more serious note, two students at Dearborn High School were prosecuted for threatening to shoot up the school via a note on MySpace.

Following that threat, the Oakland County (Mich.) sheriff's department hosted a talk about Internet Safety for parents.

And another Michigan community hosted a blogging workshop for "kids and adults 13 and older."

High school students should be able to use the Internet, but not for illegal purposes. I grew up in a small, rural town and the thought of being able to connect to other students in other school districts could have broadened my horizons and those of my classmates. Whether we could have handled it better than today's teens, well, I guess we'll never know.

Posted by at 08:39 AM
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February 14, 2006

I've been tagged

By David Binkowski

Curse you Robert Ricci! OK, so I've been tagged. No, not as in a Technorati tag, as in a MySpace bulletin, fill out this questionnaire so we can learn more about you. Reluctantly, here are my answers.

Oh, and Steve, Robert, Jackie and Melanie -- you're it!

Four Jobs I've Had
* Retail Sales
* Court clerk
* Web designer
* Project Manager

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over
* Caddyshack
* Dumb and Dumber
* Office Space
* Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch
* Family Guy
* The Simpsons (re-runs from the Conan O'Brien days)
* Arrested Development
* The Daily Show

Four Places I've Been on Vacation
* San Francisco
* Mexico City
* Chicago
* Orlando

Four Favorite Dishes
* Any Italian dish with red sauce
* General Tsao's Chicken
* Chicken Pad Thai
* Beef Bi Bim Bop

Four Websites I Visit Daily
* MySpace
* ESPN
* Yahoo!
* Google

Four Places I'd Rather Be
* Any warm weather city
* Any warm weather city
* Any warm weather city
* Ypsilanti, MI

Four Bloggers I'm Tagging
* Steve Rubel
* Robert Scoble
* Jackie Huba
* Melanie Lynne Hauser

Posted by staff at 09:16 AM
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February 10, 2006

University of Michigan hops on the blog bandwagon

The University of Michigan is offering blogs to students and staff, using Movable Type. My first question after I read this was, why? Why provide blogs to students who likely already have one somewhere else?

Then I read this in the Michigan Daily:

Archivists at the Bentley Library hope to preserve some of the postings in order to document student and academic life for future generations. Students may opt to put their blogs up for consideration through the site.

Another positive tidbit is that some university offices are posting notices and announcements to better communicate with students.

Now the negative:

Users of the mBlog service agree to the University of Michigan Proper Use Policy and Guidelines for Reponsible Use of information technology, including respecting the privacy and rights of other users, respecting the legal protection provided by copyright and licensing of data and programs, and respecting the intended use of resources. Users of the mBlog service who do not comply with these guidelines may be asked to remove objectionable blog content. In the event the blog author is not reachable or available to remove objectionable content, content may be removed by the University.

Although the blogs may be censored, I think it's a positive start by the University. It's always a good move to increase communication, and what a great way to create an historical archive. While it's no doubt a blip compared to the number of self-starting bloggers around the U-M campus, more than 500 have been created so far through the U's program. Now, if U-M President Mary Sue Coleman just opened up one of those accounts, things could really get interesting.

Posted by at 09:37 AM
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February 06, 2006

Travel industry embraces blogs; bloggers bite back

More and more tourism bureaus have gotten the message that it's a good idea to be friendly with bloggers. Some, in fact, are very friendly. Some bloggers agree with the practice and others think it's a blow to the blogosphere.

Recently, 25 bloggers who have BlogAds have been invited to Amsterdam by the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions. Gridskipper has an extensive post and a roundup of others.

But bloggers, such as the Beltway Blogroll, think it's a sham:

But curiously, the bloggers just started talking about the trip yesterday -- and not all of them are doing so yet. If they really wanted to be transparent, why didn't the bloggers tell their readers about the trip when the invitation was extended?

What's more, transparency is not sufficient justification for media outlets -- and that's what blogs want the U.S. government to call them -- to accept favors from an agency with an agenda. Bloggers rightly maligned columnists Armstrong Williams and Doug Bandow for taking money from the Bush administration and Abramoff. Now some of the them are guilty of similar arrangements with the government of Netherlands, and they deserve the same scorn.

No one who makes the trip is compelled to write one word, good or bad, about Amsterdam, and maybe some bloggers will return home and say nasty things about the place. But somehow I doubt they will.

The Caribbean Tourism organization has invited bloggers, along with media, to a press conference and networking session at a March meeting in New York.

The Passenger Focus, a watchdog group in Great Britain, is looking for bloggers to write about their subway adventures, in exchange for a free rail pass for a year.

Pennsylvania, Minneapolis and Milwaukee have or plan to use bloggers to spread the word on tourism.

It's a smart move by the travel industry to embrace bloggers. Other travel companies should follow suit, or at least start by monitoring blogs, like Shel Holtz's on business travel, which pulls no punches.

We've discussed freebies for bloggers here before. The blogosphere is full of people who will disagree about free products and what degree of transparency is required -- but that's what makes it so interesting.

Posted by at 07:19 AM
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