Common Sense, the savior of the home computer

Talking about all these risks with social media or just plain interaction for a computer can be quite daunting. Of course, the number one rule to browsing the web is to BROWSE SMARTLY. I cannot stress just how much common sense can save you from doing horrible horrible things on social media.

Some examples of common sense in action

• Ignoring suspicious emails from weird "addresses"
• not clicking on links you don't know
• not typing your information on those links you don't know unless you can surely see it is the correct site (the secure lock on the top left corner is always a nice thing to see if this is a legitimate site that YOU HAVE BEEN ON BEFORE)
• not giving out your information publicly unless you feel there are no repercussions to it
• constantly checking your privacy settings on facebook, phone, twitter, etc.
• and I cannot stress this enough, don't go to links that may be "Shady" (In the most PG sense I can put it), and if you must, make sure you have a good anti-virus/firewall and make sure you are surfing safely

And having a legitimate adblocker helps too if you must go on those sites to prevent misdirection

I have had many stories of fellow friends coming to me with bricked laptops or PCs wondering why their computer won't work anymore, first thing I do once I actually get it somewhat functioning again, is to go on the person's browser history and point out the sites they probably got the bug/worm/virus/trojan/rootkit from and how these sites can cause "problems" if you don't have the proper security needed for a computer (this includes Macs too)

In modern society, government officials can fall for this as well, and we have seen it multiple times, until people properly understand the responsibility of a computer and its connection to practically everyone if exposed, well we see better usage of the product, just like cars (unless you live in South Florida). 

Well...This is my final post for the course, I have had a blast learning and having so much fun taking this! I would like to thank Professor Dennen for introducing to the world of blogging, and it is such a nifty tool to talk about whatever you want...I really want to continue this.

E-Government and Security...oh No

Did you know that in the US alone, over 20,000+ serious cyber threats attack governments daily? No? Well now you know..

And Knowledge Comes Power....and Infoleaks!

These leaks and breaks through security can come through many forms, whether it be to gather information, mess with the production of a service, stopping services for extortion , or allegedly influencing the votes of an election, cyber threats and attacks happen more often and more common than you think, even if some are more in "jest" or for political statements. Hacking to a government service can be costly, and with the role of CTOs (Chief Technology Officers) to keep up with the times in terms of security and updates versus a continuously clever group of actors, the battle is never fully "won". What government is doing though is at least taking those steps into helping mitigate the solution through training and hiring of "competent"(allegedly) personnel to handle these breaches. Yet there comes another problem to this. Human Error.

Oh yes....those humans

Human error, especially when it comes to being tricked by "Social Engineering", or influencing one to give away information, whether it come via phone calls, emails, etc.

These CTOs do try to teach the Three As (Access, Authentication, and Authorization) or the Three Ds (Deter, Detect, Defend), but unless a user is truly listening and will not "shirk" off responsibility, these problems can arise in any agencies anywhere up or down the chain!

So how does one fix this? well, the next post may surprise you...Okay, it won't cause I said it earlier, and I mean it is "Duh" seriously people why don't you use it...

Youtube and Twitch, A Streamer's worst nightmare

While stardom is an amazing feeling when streaming as a regular on the world wide web, it can also come at its negatives. With social media, and especially focusing on interacting with the audience, every little tick/noise/distraction/accidental screen opening, can give away more personal information about you. With this personal information constantly being at risk on livestreams (as human error is probably at its highest live than in lets say something one could take the time to write and review), avid fans....or at least users who think they are "Friends with you personally" can take the time to find and stalk your location. This type of incident is not rare, and has happened to the likes of many streamers and major youtube hosts.

Pewdiepie, one of the biggest youtube channels right now had a good video talking about it, and the issue he has with these people, it is 2 minutes and a rather good video of how youtube stars feel. The Twitch Reddit also has had discussions about stalkers harassing the producers virtually, another big issue in the community. Whether it is physical or virtual, those producing run the risk of stalking, especially in the age of internet and access to information, the gathering of information (if you are rather easy-going with it) can be very easy in locating you. Even if you are at your best, you can check some government websites if you have a hunch where the house is, or location of the streamer (which they usually post on their profiles), and look through properties till you find the owner of the household (and with faces constantly being shown or names being given away, these scary occurrences can come true.

A lot of youtubers and streamers withold their faces so fans will not know who they look like (such as Youtubers "I Hate Everything", "Pyrocynical (Formerly until another youtuber showed his face without permission)", "GradeAUnderA", and many many MANY more. Some youtubers after a while may feel lax and do a "Face Reveal Special" after so many subscribers, but to the ones who try to prevent as much information from leaking as possible, really have to keep their information away from even the closest of friends on who they are online, unless they want to run the risk of leaks.

It is a dangerous world for youtubers/twitch users and is something that videos on demand and livestreaming don't tell you when one becomes popular enough.

Final week for EME6414 T_T

Well, it has been a fun ride in EME6414, but all good things eventually come to an end.

It was pretty great taking a break from the social sciences that focused on government and land use, and to rather explore the digital world of interaction. Will I continue this blog? possibly. It may be a little more sparse due to my oral exam followed by prospectus arriving very VERY soon, but I may have some more ramblings, and might stretch this more into other topics within the web! I know this week deals with wrap up and privacy, so I figured for the next posts I'll take about safety on the web, especially on social media and web 2.0 services, putting it towards livestreaming and youtube, we have the issue of "Stalkers", when it comes to E-Government we have the issue of "Actors", and when it comes to personal use, we have the issue of "Common Sense"(Wait what...that's mean).

So Long, Farewell. For now T_T

Crowdsourcing into action

Ok, well this is a little off the trail of my usual talk on government processes (or live streaming), but I can't help marvel at what happened in the news today... McDonalds caved into demands from fans of the show "Rick and Morty" and sent the creators of the show, Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland a bottle of "Szechuan Sauce".

This sauce is a "joke" in the fandom, that exploded rather quickly due to the popularity of the show online, with the first episode of the season running a big joke with the main character "Rick" ranting about his passion to get the limited edition "Mulan Szechuan Sauce" no matter how long it will take, Nine Seasons if it had too, it is his series arc! (No seriously, that was said on the show).

Now this was all a big joke, Mcdonald's was never going to bring back the sauce, even though a crowd-sourced petition almost 42k strong signed to bring back this "Mythical" dipping sauce. But....they did, at least for Roliand and Co.

THEY DID IT. THE SERIES ARC IS OVER, WE HAVE SAUCE.

I found this fascinating due to just how much corporations (not just McDonalds) have been interacting to pop culture through various ways other than advertisements on TV and Billboards now. If a grassroots joke just happens to be brought up, or pop culture that brings back nostalgia is expertly crafted, you have some amazing things such as the cutouts Arby's makes or the "Snarky" Wendy's twitter feed that form. These companies interact with the consumer, and sometimes through the magnificent push of a joke that the consumers are producing, listen and create! I feel like at least in corporations sense, we are having a bit of a very fluid and natural interaction sometimes, compared to some advertising cases with a "Forced meme", which just feels unnatural. It is nice that they are doing this, in the end it will help their revenue due to fans loving the brand (and this totally made people love McDonalds again, hell I want the Szechuan Sauce now).

Have you seen ways in which corporations, or really anything entity, interact with consumers who pushed something in a grassroots way, via social media?


Now...lets relate this to government...Well I guess we have This....okay, look, I'm just really excited that on my birthday Rick and Morty Season 3 is happening at 11:30 PM...it's the best show, seriously, best show, 100 years, rick and morty.

Can it be a management problem

Looking into the previous question, I wondered about why we may have slowed down in development compared to our allies...We are one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, but our E-Government system isn't fully utilized...yet. One article caught my eye in Governing Magazine, talking about the management changes that spurred the use of E-Government in the UAE...it was a rather interesting read.

In the article it explored the rise in rankings of the UAE from once 49th to 28th, through its management style in which it is rather decentralized. Meaning that departments can make any services they want as long as it is bound to the common parts that the central government is building for all departments (payment, customer support), which creates a somewhat standard model that allows for sharing of innovation from department to department as it is related that that common part supplied by the central authority to each department (Newcombe, 2014). This plus the increased spending in IT products has skyrocketed, creating a focus for this endeavor on new e-government experiments.

This type of management style is very peculiar to me, while at one hand it works in the UAE, how exactly could this style be fitted into the United States as a whole. While a central core would be nice, how exactly with the CTOs (chief technology officers) and CIOs (Chief Information Officers), handle the semi-standardization of 19,354 "incorporated places" within the United States, not even including technologies at the county and state level? Would this type of standardization be looked at "smaller" in which the state provides this core, allowing for governmental processes that citizens are usually affected by to be easier to function? Or would it be through the county level depending on the density of cities? not each city needs its own e-government system due to its population, or access to technology (as rural areas can be lacking at times). Creating a common theme in technology is not a new thought for the US though, as at least federally is the "Federal Chief Information Officer", in which it is their job to commit to some standardization of federal processes...though again, this doesn't relate to states or cities..

It is a great question, how would you raise participation and development into technologies, would it be through the user or through the management?

Works Cited

Newcombe, T. (2014). The United Arab Emirates: A Rising Star in E-Government. Retrieved from Governing Magazine: http://www.governing.com/columns/tech-talk/gov-clicking-with-the-times.html

International Perspectives of E-Government? Yes Please

Regarding E-Government, there have been loads of articles from the international community and their respective experiments, in fact when it comes to E-Government, the International community is "Top Dog" compared to the United States? How much so?

Well the UN creates an "E-Government" Survey every two years, recording the international community's development of E-government systems, as well as participation. The end result? For the year 2016 the top 10 developing systems and top 11 participative systems are all international countries, The US appeared on both tables nearing the bottom of the top 10 and 11 in 2014, but that was the last time it has appeared, we are currently 12th (UN, 2017). Now why is that? well, possibly due to the some of the advantages that this system can bring compared to some of the safeties the US might possibly have.

These two areas? Costs, and Corruption. While both are still major issues in the US, they both have proved to be serious benefits of an E-Government system. So much so that a study of users interaction and costs done in London found tremendous differences in use and price, with self-service on a website being found to overshadow usage of face to face and call center interaction combined, while doing it at only .25 pounds a visit compared to the face to face 14.65 and the call center's 1.39!

Stories, such as fighting corruption are also prevalent in some countries, with one event in Macedonia noting that e-government tools and regulations involved in making an automated standardization of fees for cross-board licenses applications actually lower in cost due to the account of no corruption involved in the process from a physical representative, just a mouse click.

Two great advantages, and if you think they are worth it...well you are right, it is so great that the top countries embracing the E-Government boom are....

Whelp...I don't think these countries have any cost or corruption issues, except Italy

So for the US to not be one of the top 10 or 11 countries, but rather outside the table is quite puzzling, these are all rich western culture countries (except Singapore, Japan, and to an extent S.Korea) that have all embraced the turnover to these new digital technologies, and the citizens of these countries are active in them!

Does the US have a motivation problem? I would love to hear your thoughts!

If you want to check out this awesome interactive graph showing each countries' e-government index, click here!

Works Cited:

Perera, D. (2008, October 2). Fighting Corruption Through E-Government. Retrieved from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/03/business/worldbusiness/03iht-EGOV03.1.17420751.html

The Economist. (2008, Feb 14). The Good, The Bad and the Inevitable: The Pros and Cons of e-Government. Retrieved from The Economist: http://www.economist.com/node/10638105

United Nations. (2017). UN E-Government Knowledge DataBase. Retrieved from United Nations: https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/en-us/Reports/UN-E-Government-Survey-2016