Reflections based on the video
by Clay Shirky (shirky.com)
Clay Shriky reveals in his video a very common frustration in the 21st century. Many people talk about it. Many people complain about it. Many people moan, cry, shout, get upset....but do nothing about it. In his video Clay Shirky transforms a problem "Information Overload" into a solution "Filter".... and suggests ways to adapt to the 21st Century.
True, this century is not a walk in the park, but we shouldn't jump off the cliff either..... unless we get a parachute. And there are many models and varieties: Shirky mentions filters in his video, and encourages their use.
I would like to add that there are many techniques available to avoid the need of a filter:
For example I have several email addresses. I don't give everybody the same. My family and friends might have one. My work colleagues another. If I need to register in a website I fear might use my email to send spam I use a different one. That way if that particular address gets spam I can just cancel it. The number of email addresses one can have is only limited by lack of organization. Personally I prefer to merge all accounts to one. That way I do not have to access them individually. Most email service providers allow that.
I ask my contacts not to include me in emailing lists without asking me, and I advice them to use the Bcc field (and not the Cc) if they need to send an email to a long list of contacts. Social online networks, websites and blogs are great to distribute information to many avoiding SPAM. But when using these we need to be aware of another "modern" inconvenience: lack of privacy.
Lack of privacy is often caused by lack of adjusting settings. The example in the video could have easily avoided if the facebook account was set NOT to share certain information such as relationship status. Some social networks are obviously benefited by this lack of privacy. Many people use them because they can access more gossip there than anywhere else. It is up to us to decide.
As Shirky comments in his video, now that the cost of sharing information has gone from a month's salary (to buy a hand-written book) to virtually nothing (Internet) WE are in control. The question is: are we?
Alvaro,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post. I appreciate you also sharing out your own strategies and techniques that you have engaged with. The strategy of having different emails for different stakeholder groups is one which I use too. Also making it a golden rule to separate work and social emails in different areas and not letting them bleed into each other. You highlight using different platforms to communicate, and a blog, twitter feed, or social media tools are a great way, often allowing the recipient control and the autonomy to decide when they want to interact or engage in the communication.
The issue of privacy something we will touch on more next week, is an important one, and yes a good questions are we in control and do we understand the implications of privacy online.... with anything often it is a case of being informed, educated, and then engage responsibility with the information and tools at our disposal.
We live in an online world where now we have to be more ontop and mindful of the importance of choreographing one's online presence, with the correct tools and strategies we can build through understanding the mediums we work with, and using our own human common sense...a positive digital footprint, and we should as educators be modeling and engaging our learning communities to do this too.
A good conversation
kind regards
John