Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Tag

A Geek’s Thoughts From the Carrie Underwood Conference

Posted October 4, 2010
Filed under: Cellular / Mobile Phones, Social Media, Video | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
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Last night, I attended the Carrie Underwood conference at the Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Arizona.

One thing I couldn’t help but think during the show was how many people were using their mobile phones to take photos, record video, and share their experiences on social networking sites.

This really doesn’t do it justice, but I took this photo with my own iPhone while at the show (look at all the lights in the foreground — those are mobile phones!):

Ironically, I recently conducted a video interview of Ted Schadler on my Computerworld blog and spoke about this very topic.  Ted is one of the co-authors of the new book, “Empowered”, which talks about four key technologies that are changing the way we do business — social, mobile, video, and cloud.  With what I witnessed in the crowd, I couldn’t help but think Ted was *really* onto something.

To me, it reinforced that it is best to embrace these technologies, not fight them.  Some artists may try to prohibit such behavior, but I think it benefits Carrie Underwood to have also those people uploading pictures and telling their friends about their experience on social networking sites.  Essentially, they are advertising for her and evangelizing her brand… for free.

What do you think?  Would you try to protect your intellectual property from be spread via social, mobile, video, and cloud?  If so, when and how?  If not, why not?

By the way, in case you were wondering, the concert was amazing. 🙂

The Importance of Tagging

Posted May 25, 2009
Filed under: blogging, Social Media | Tags: , , , , ,
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While at INTEROP last week, I met several journalists, analysts, etc. Several of them visited WiFiJedi.com and gave me feedback.  

One piece of constructive criticism was that while the content was good, there was no real good way to find past material.  This individual suggested that I have a tag cloud widget on my blog cross-referencing posts on a given topic.  

Therefore, I have taken this suggestion and placed a tag cloud on the side bar of my blog. I have always had the drop down category box and the search field that appear below the tag cloud.  At the bottom of every post, I have also tried to link to other applicable WiFiJedi.com material.  Have you used these features? Do you like the tag cloud? Please let me know what you think in the comments section.

At any rate, the tag cloud coversation reminded me of one of the sessions I attended at INTEROP titled “Next Generation Search: Social Bookmarking and Tagging” by Thomas Vander Wal.  Here is an oversimplified graphic from the presentation:

Interest –> Culture 

Vocabulary –> Terminology 

Mr. Vander Wal suggested that bookmarking and tagging turn individual interest into a shared culture and how they also turn an individual vocabulary into shared terminology.  

Coincidently enough, that same day I found a Twitter service called Twittersheep that generates a tag cloud of all the terms used in the biographies of your followers.  Here is what it generated from my followers:

What really jumped out at me was how much of a reflection of my background and interests are mirrored by my Twitter followers.  I guess we are attracted to people who persue similar activities.  Go ahead and try it and let me know if you come to a similar conclusion! 

Related Posts: 

Copycat Twitter Worm?

Posted April 17, 2009
Filed under: blogging, Security, Social Media | Tags: , , , ,
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I originally wrote this piece as a guest post for An Information Security Place. However, I wanted to re-post at WiFiJedi.com FRIDAY 4/17 Update: Apparently the behavior described below is tied to a buggy Pidgin plugin. I haven’t been able to confirm that 100%, but thought I should deliver the latest & greatest…

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As most of you know, Twitter was hit with a series of worms this past weekend. They were created by 17 year old, Mikey Mooney, creator of the website StalkDaily.com (don’t visit the site). The original worm seemed fairly innocuous, with messages that were created to drive traffic to the StalkDaily website.

I wrote a Computerworld blog post, where I detailed the original attack as well as provided a list of security recommendations. In that post, I commented that Twitter users should be on the lookout for modified worms, especially as additional details of the original attack come to light.

After Twitter patched the original cross site scripting (XSS) flaw, which exploited the “link” field in a user profile, another variant of the worm appeared. This time, the worm exploited the “color” setting of the user profile. Modifying the worm highlighted that the XSS vulnerability was not limited to a single field and that Twitter would have to institute a comprehensive patch, not a band-aid solution.

The variant of the worm automatically generated tweets with the term “mikeyy”. These were sarcasitic in nature and seemed to be tounge-in-cheek. Examples include:

  • Mikeyy I am done…
  • Mikeyy is done…
  • Twitter please fix this, regards Mikeyy

The general consensus today is that the “StalkDaily” and “Mikeyy” worms have been adequately addressed. However, I am not fully convinced. Four days after the original worm, I am still seeing suspicious behavior. A colleague of mine has a Twitter account that automatically started generating tweets saying “I am not here right now.”

Using a third party iPhone application, TweetStack, I am conducting periodic searches on the string “I am not here right now.” I found that this is not nearly as wide spread as the “StalkDaily” Twitter worm, but has affected at least a couple dozen accounts.

While this could be yet another variant of worm created by Mikey Mooney, my suspicion is that this is a copycat worm created by another party (most likely a Scriptkiddie).

Are YOU still seeing anomalous behavior on Twitter? I would love to hear about it! Please comment below as well as notify the Internet Storm Center if you see anything noteworthy.

Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff – Book Review

Posted April 13, 2009
Filed under: Book Review, Social Media | Tags: , , , , ,
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I would like to offer periodic book reviews on WiFiJedi.com   The plan is to review wireless networking and security books. However, I have been doing a lot of reading about blogging and social media these days. Therefore, this week I am reviewing the book “Groundswell” by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.  

Please let me know in the comments section if you like the idea of book reviews.  Also let me know if you would like them strictly on wireless, or if you don’t mind if they are off topic.  

I originally bought this book based on a You Tube video of the author, Charlene Li, making a presentation under the “Authors @Google” program. I guess the Groundswell sold one more copy of her book…

In many ways, this book reminded me of Jim Collin’s “Good to Great” book. “Groundswell” is very quantitative in nature. There are a TON of in-depth case studies – the book even contains a case index in addition to a subject index.

The book is well structured. It is broken into three main parts and has a logical idea flow of listening, talking, energizing, supporting, and embracing the groundswell. While I liked the structure, it took more time to read than most books due to its academic nature. 

Overall, the authors take a practical, high-level approach to social media. They focus on the people, objectives, and strategy BEFORE they focus on any given technology.

This should definitely be a cornerstone text in any library on Social Media!

Twitter Worm Blog Post on Computerworld

Posted April 12, 2009
Filed under: Cellular / Mobile Phones, Security, Social Media | Tags: , , , ,
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computerworldI have started blogging for Computerworld.  I am serving up content for their Mobile & Wireless space.  

I wrote a post over the  weekend detailing two variants of a Twitter worm – one advertising StalkDaily.com (don’t visit the site) and another highlighting the 17 year old behind the website who goes by the name of “mikeyy”.  

My post details how the worm spreads, as well as provides specific security recommendations.  You can read the post in its entirety at: 

http://blogs.computerworld.com/twitter_worm_still_on_the_loose

I am also excited because I have my first Computerworld comment.  I really enjoy the community aspect of blogging, so feel free to leave comments here at WiFiJedi.com or at Computerworld anytime !