Social networking available to military

How important is it to be active in a social network? Apparently, the Pentagon decided it’s important enough to issue a new policy that allows anyone on the military’s non-classified computer network to access Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites.

The U.S. Department of Defense researched this decision for months before deciding that it’s important to “maximizing the capabilities” of the Internet, said Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn III in a DoD press release. Still, access to other sites is still denied, such as pornography and hate crime-related.

Photo credit C. Todd Lopez, image from the United States Army Web site.

So what does this mean? Military personnel can now stay in better communication with family and friends. This new access will be better for the military in terms of recruiting. Think about how a soldier can now connect with others through Facebook or Twitter. Through these connections, people who were interested in enlisting might feel spurred to actually do it.

Another site that can now be accessed? YouTube.

These are all nice concessions for our soldiers (as well as everyone else affected by the change). Social networking is good for people, especially for those troops who are overseas and haven’t been home in a long time. I don’t know the full details of the policy, but I wonder what the policy is for troops in high conflict areas such as Afghanistan and Iraq. Is the DoD concerned about accidental information leaks? After all, people can inadvertently reveal information they didn’t mean to, post something they regret later or tweet something their employer doesn’t agree with.

Unless I’m misunderstanding the way the network works (which is likely since I have no military connections).

Someone is always watching

Privacy is taking a real beating lately. Now, there are reports a school in Philadelphia is using the webcam on school-issued laptops to spy on students. So how exactly does one know if the school is spying on you? Well, it helps if the school is dumb enough to use information seen through the webcam.

A class action suit has been brought on behalf of all the students issued these laptops against the school in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District. Apparently, Robbins exhibited in his own home what the school thought was improper behavior and the school’s vice principal used a photo from the webcam as evidence to discipline him. Not the smartest move by the school. After all, that’s like telling the cops you were there when they sodomize a guy on the subway because you had just sold him the drugs. Oops.

I have a webcam that is almost never used, but imagine for a second if it was on and someone was creepily using it to watch me. Now I feel stupid for all those times I sing (probably off key) to music or talk to myself; I’m embarrassed for all the times I’m changing (I thought I was safe with the shades down!); and I’m mad as a result.

Just think, just over a hundred years ago Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis argued for the right to be let alone (aka privacy). Then we became fanatical about it. Now, it’s as if we’ve forgotten all about it. People are willing to bring TV cameras into their lives, to post about the mundane and the personal on Twitter and Facebook, and to broadcast where we are at all times with sites like Foursquare and Loopt.

Who knows? Maybe this privacy thing goes in cycles. Maybe after a few years of having our personal lives constantly invaded society will start to retreat again. But once we let go of so much privacy, can it be taken back so easily?

Facebook strips down…

… its services that is. I know, I know. You were probably picturing that girl you know who likes taking profile pictures in just a bra. We all know that girl. No, Facebook is offering a diet version of the Web site. An unsweetened. A basic plan.

Facebook unveiled Facebook Zero (like Coke Zero or Powerade Zero). It has all the fun of following your friends and (and surreptitiously following people who don’t even realize they’re still friends with you), but it’s free on your mobile device. It’s kind of like Twitter. The page is your news feed and you can update your status. But if you decide to click on a link and go onto Facebook’s page, then your cell phone carrier can charge you.

The company is gambling on the idea that this year (and in the future) people’s use of mobile devices will increase a lot. It’s a good gamble and a “no shit” statement.

You can see the 16-minute presentation given at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at TechCrunch.

Google Buzz crossed the social networking line

A week after Google launched Buzz, the company’s Twitter killer and Facebook rival, something became apparent: people like to keep friends updated, but everyone wants to be able to draw the line if necessary. You might not want your professional colleagues seeing the same things you would send to close friends from high school. Or, you wouldn’t want your wife to find e-mails meant for your mistress. Awkward.

Google Buzz assumed you would want to share everything with your closest friends and contacts. That includes sites you favorite, which can be anything from the silly to the personal to the … private (I mean porn, but I won’t link to any). You automatically follow people from your inbox and they automatically follow you. And everyone can see that list of people. Henry Blodget of Business Insider put it best:

“Put simply, Google just let the whole world peek into your email Inbox, without ever asking you if you wanted it to do that.”

I’m not sure why Google thought this lack of privacy was a good idea. On Facebook, whenever privacy settings become less private my news feed becomes a torrent of “the new Facebook sux” and “stop making changes Facebook.”

Another issue is one that Queerty brought up: Google Buzz might accidentally out you if you’re a closet homosexual. Hope your friends and family are cool with it or that you live in a country where it’s not illegal.

Oh yeah, and Google Buzz has taken Internet “stalking” (normally used playfully between friends on Facebook) into an all too real and scary reality.

A lot of high schoolers and college students might think this is all cool (I know I didn’t care a few years ago), but when you have your personal life (with friends that you drop the f-bomb with and say all sorts of things you would never dare say in public) and a very separate professional life (you know, the people who sign your paychecks or your potential paychecks) a little privacy means a lot.

Obama answers questions on YouTube

The current administration has been great at connecting with people. Anyone can follow the White House @whitehouse on Twitter. There are a number of blogs on the White House official Web site. The White House also has accounts with Flickr, Facebook, Vimeo, MySpace, LinkedIn, iTunes podcasts (all of which are free) and, yes, YouTube.

After his State of the Union address last Wednesday, President Obama agreed to a YouTube interview where he answered questions submitted by YouTube users and voted on. Unsurprisingly, health care was a huge topic. So was banks, help for small businesses, and clean energy. Obama did very well, which isn’t unexpected since the man is good at speaking.

Steve Grove moderates the interview with President Obama

He’s really good a speaking. Obama used the word “hope” a lot in his answer about how to move forward his health care bill. Normally, hope is a great word, an uplifting word. In his answer, the word hope signified what Obama wanted to happen, but didn’t necessarily know was going to happen. It has been said that Scott Brown winning the election in Massachusetts was the final nail in the health care reform coffin. However, a full year after Obama took office, there was no guarantee that the bill was going to pass any time soon.

Another sleight of speech I noticed was in response to help for small businesses. There were many great proposals given, but the fact of the matter is that a large majority of proposals entered into Congress die in Congress. Proposals mean nothing unless Obama is confident that they will pass.

The YouTube interview is worth watching — as are the other videos the White House administration has posted on the Web site, YouTube and iTunes — especially in case anyone out there decides to submit a question the next time Obama does something like this. And he will. One thing about the president is that he truly enjoys reaching out, answer questions and attempting to bring some transparency to the White House.

Following something mobile on a mobile

What?

In many cities food trucks have taken over the streets. NYC (among the many cities) food trucks boast everything from the traditional ice cream to cupcakes, tacos and dumplings. However, since food trucks are mobile, they are usually on the move and difficult to find. Thankfully, social networking comes to the rescue again.

Van Leeuwan ice cream truck

Now, these trucks can use Twitter and Facebook to keep their fans happy. Tweets will appear listing the location of the truck and sometimes a recommendation. For instance, today, Wafles & Dinges is promoting apple cider. Now any time the truck moves people can be instantly updated. It’s convenient for customers, but it’s better for the company because they won’t have to wonder how many people will find them.

You can even be on the streets looking for the truck and get the latest update of where it is. And there are food trucks all around the country. Know your favorite one but not where it’s going to be? Odds are pretty high that they have some sort of social media account to make announcements for your convenience.

One-dimensional device

There are constantly new devices that connect people to one another and there are always new platforms – first there was MySpace, then Facebook and now the age of Twitter is upon us – for people to, as my middle school yearbook reminds me, keep in touch. With apps, smartphones and netbooks it’s easier than ever for people to access all of these platforms when they’re on the go. And the best thing is that one device does everything: you can browse the Internet, make calls, send e-mails and log in to Twitter or Facebook.

So I can’t help but wonder why someone would want to buy an additional device that does only one of these things. It’s a downgrade, it’s a step back technologically speaking. The theory is that the new TwitterPeek is for people who don’t want or don’t have a smartphone that can access Twitter. But let’s face it, for $99.95 for six months and an additional $7.95 a month or $199.95 for lifetime service, you’re probably better off getting a new phone that can access Twitter for cheaper than $7.95 a month or for free.

And who does TwitterPeek help exactly? My mom isn’t likely to get a smartphone when all she really needs a cell phone for is making calls to one of five numbers (the house, my dad, my sister, my sister’s house and me). She’s even less likely to use Twitter. Most people who use Twitter regularly are technophiles, people who like new technology. I can’t imagine there’s a very large group who will be willing to shell out the money for a device that only works with Twitter.

Even when it’s free the commenters at TechCrunch seem to dislike the TwitterPeek.

Endless Spiral

Earlier I went through Apple’s available apps and found out there were more than 90,000 apps. Now, things at the Apps Store have gotten a little weird. There are so many apps that there are now apps to find what apps you should get. A little ridiculous?

New to iPhone? Don’t know which apps are worth getting, especially ones that cost a fee? Well there are now apps that can recommend which apps your friends use so you can see which of the 90,000+ are worth a download or worth the price.

I’m not big on apps, mostly because I don’t see a use for most of them. Do I really need to sound like T-Pain? Sure it’s probably fun, but how often would I use something like that? Some of the apps, like ones for Facebook or navigation, are useful, but others are either poorly made or completely useless. I guess the question you have to ask yourself is, do you trust your friends’ taste? Or do you know that you have to take their favorites with a grain of salt?

There really is an app for everything

The apps on iTunes range from the incredibly useful (iKidNY helps parents find child-friendly restaurants, the nearest diaper changing station, etc.) to the useless (Virtual Zippo Lighter is exactly what it sounds like) to just plain fun (the Games category makes up one-third of all the apps on the iTunes App Store.

With roughly 90,000 apps available on iTunes there’s a lot to scroll through, a lot of variety but also a lot of repeats. If you want to Tweet from your iPhone be prepared to choose between a multitude of apps: Twitterific, TweetDeck, TwitterTime, Tweetie. And then there are some that were created for Twitter and Facebook so you can update both with one app.

However, remember that one-third of the App Store? There are 20 categories and Games has, by far, the most apps and the most popular. As of today,  six out of the top ten apps (on both the paid and free lists) are Games. On the free apps list the other four are filled by three Entertainment apps and a Facebook app.

Amidst every I Am T-Pain (which is really just time-wasting fun) and PaperToss (which is something you can play in real life) are a multitude of useful apps that get overlooked. Almost every bank has a mobile banking app. You can track and manage your personal finances. There are apps that let you carry around your own English-to-any-language-you-want dictionary. There’s even an app that’s supposed to let merchants swipe credit cards for secure credit card transactions. The iSwipe Pro Credit Card Terminal would have been incredibly useful for the man I bought a painting from in France who made my fiance and I follow him away from the marketplace and back to his store. After a few minutes of following him down the twisting streets we began to get a little wary that our lives were about to turn into Taken.

For the most part the apps that are available are there to make people’s lives just a little bit easier, putting everything they need in one spot. And the best part about the iTunes App Store is that if what you’re looking for hasn’t been made, you can always create it.

On the go…

In the past day I’ve logged on to Facebook, checked Twitter, text messaged my sister and made numerous calls from my cell phone. This is a part of my everyday life thanks to the technologies available to me. Other people use their cell phones, iPhones and Blackberries to be in touch with others at all times with various applications and now, there is a new device available to technophiles who are addicted to being connected.

Motorola’s new phone has been created specifically with those obsessed with social networking. This is less a phone and more of a small, portable laptop that allows the user to have simultaneous access to a number of features. Despite Motorola’s claim that the new phone, Cliq, is not meant to be like the iPhone, comparisons will be inevitable. However, Cliq can have multiple programs up and open on the same screen, an improvement over the iPhone.

There are people who will undoubtedly find Cliq to be a necessary tool. This new device is Motorola’s way of competing and winning back some of its customers. And at a projected $100, according to The New York Times, it looks like Cliq can do the job.