Education Week has a nice article that looks at the ethical dilemmas facing students in the digital age. The article profiles Howard Gardner and a team of researchers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education who are looking at how social media is creating new challenges for teenagers. Quoting from the page:
It’s a familiar scenario: A teenager snaps a picture of underage classmates drinking alcohol at a party. The photos go up on a social-networking Web site and land on the desk of an athletic coach or a school administrator. The students pictured are suspended from school or booted off their teams.
Researchers here at the Harvard Graduate School of Education say stories like that one illustrate one of the ways new digital media are raising distinct ethical challenges and temptations for young people today.
“Even though many young people may not be ready to participate in the wider communities that digital media open up to them, there is no controlling information about yourself or others that gets posted,” said Howard Gardner, the project’s co-director.
ReputationDefender Blog was sifting through the old internets and found this quirky piece from kk.org. In a post called Unthinkable Futures, Kevin Kelly and Brian Eno engage in a thought experiment in 1993 to try and predict what the future world might look like. Here are a few of their postulations:
* Everybody becomes so completely cynical about the election process that voter turnout drops to 2 percent (families and relatives of prospective politicians) until finally the “democratic process” is abandoned in favour of a lottery system. Everything immediately improves.
* It turns out that nearly all the conspiracy theories you ever heard were actually true — that the world really is being run by 150 malevolent men with nasty prejudices.
* Smoking is proven to be good exercise for the lungs.
Some of these ideas are silly, others are bizarre and still others have actually come to pass. The entire article is interesting and worth a read, but a few predictions jumped out at ReputationDefender. For instance:
* Ordinary people routinely employ publicists.
This may have seemed like an improbable scenario in 1993, but ReputationDefender works with people everyday who enroll in our MyEdge service, which is Personal PR for the Web. Another ReputationDefender service was spotlighted in the piece when the authors pointed to the need for consumers to take action against data mining agencies and control their privacy.
* Direct-mailing organizations carry increasingly complex and subtle character assessments of their targets. To avoid being deluged by the resulting irresistible offers, people routinely begin buying inconsistent products. This is designed to confuse the profilers.
With MyPrivacy, individuals can remove their personal data from the internet and opt out of data collections routinely performed by companies today. We at ReputationDefender work hard to stay on the cutting edge of reputation and privacy matters.
ReputationDefender Blog recently came across this article at SMEweb.com that underscores the power of reputation in the business world. The piece states that customers will pay more money to businesses and brands that they think well of, improving profitability for firms that are well regarded by the public.
Well over half of consumers will pay a premium to the company they believe has the best reputation, even if they can buy a product or service cheaper elsewhere.
Excellent customer service was cited by almost half of all respondents (48 per cent) in a new CBI survey as the characteristic that most helps a firm build its reputation. Another third (36 per cent) said that products and services always living up to expectations mattered most. Seven per cent said a good reputation was down to being a good employer while four per cent attributed it to brand appeal.
[SNIP]
Among the 58 per cent of consumers willing to pay more to their most highly regarded company, 43 per cent would pay up to five per cent over and above a cheaper price, almost a third (29 per cent) are happy to pay six to ten per cent more, while a one in six (16 per cent) would pay more than a ten per cent premium.
Richard Lambert, the CBI’s director-general, said, “What comes through in our survey is that great reputations rest or fall on delivery. Whether the promise is of quality, fun, value or luxury, the 21st century customer is savvy enough to sniff out and avoid the shoddy or disappointing. Environmental credentials and social responsibility are also becoming increasingly more important to consumers’ purchasing decisions.”
Managing how you are perceived online is especially important in the digital age. Companies looking to improve their bottom line and word of mouth branding should utilize Online Reputation Management to optimize their online presence. ReputationDefender remains the leader in the Online Reputation Management field and our reputation specialists are happy to provide corporations Business Insurance for the Web TM.
ReputationDefender Blog has written extensively about how online activities can affect your personal life. It seems that meme is spreading. This video from College Humor is a perfect example of how our real world experiences are colored by our online activities. Also, as this post points out, you should never let your friends mess with your accounts.
Regular readers of the ReputationDefender Blog will be familiar with the teacher who was fired for her MySpace photos. Now ReputationDefender has learned of another cautionary tale for professionals in the digital age. A Cheerleader for the New England Patriots was sacked from the cheer squad following inappropriate photos on her Facebook account. Quoting from the MyCrimeSpace write up:
It seems that the 18-year-old Davis attended a college Halloween party. When one of the attendees passed out he received the age old tradition of being drawn on with Sharpies. Some of those drawings included swastikas and crude depictions of male genitalia. Davis made the no so smart move of posing with the victim with a Sharpie in her hand and posted the pictures on her Facebook. The Patriots organization didn’t particularly care for her behavior and released her.
Ensuring that your digital self is an accurate reflection of your real world self is a primary goal of Online Reputation Management. ReputationDefender offers Life Assurance for the Web TM by providing peace of mind to its customers. Proactively taking control of your personal brand online and controling your internet reputation are necessary steps in a connected, digital world.
Executives, Geeks and Techies relish showing off their new toys and gadgets. Cell phones have always been a status symbol; from the cinder block Goliaths of the 1980’s to the small, sleek smart phones of today. Workers of the world relish flashing their cutting edge communications equipment complete with bluetooth and touch screens and killer mobile apps. Some professionals even holster their phones on their hip like a gunslinger from the old west, looking to be the fastest REPLY ALL in town.
But despite all the attention paid to smart phones and mobile devices, many working professionals do not pay attention to their internet reputation. Many doctors, lawyers and senior executives would benefit from the cutting edge products and proprietary methodology developed by ReputationDefender. CEOs, board members, and businesses of all sizes have a vested interest in presenting an accurate image of themselves online.
Some professionals wrongly think that their advertising and PR departments can ensure a current and complete picture of a brand and its executives online. Others falsely assume that their SEO and SEM teams will take care of the online channel with ad words and link campaigns. In order to monitor, manage, optimize and control the Online Reputations of brands and executives, companies and professionals should turn to professional and reputable Online Reputation Managers. ReputationDefender is the recognized market leader in ORM and invented the space over two years ago. ReputationDefender employs a holistic, labor intensive approach to help project an accurate account of who our clients are online. Just as employees have a responsibility to present a professional image online, so, too, do businesses. ReputationDefender offers brands and corporations Business Assurance for the Web TM. Ensuring that customers, clients, media and prospective hires find relevant information related to a corporation or brand name when Googling them is the goal of an Online Reputation Management Campaign.
Forward thinking Businesses can inquire about Reputation Management from ReputationDefender here.
Twenty-two percent of employers say they use social networking sites when evaluating job candidates, and an additional 9 percent intend to do the same soon.
[SNIP]
“We can also learn a little about the candidate’s culture fit and professionalism,” says Kelly Vergara, executive director of human resources at digital marketing agency Resource Interactive. “We screen for culture above all else, so this is important.”
Thirty-four percent of hiring managers chose not to hire a candidate based on what they found in profiles.
So what are professionals, job seekers and business owners to do? Apart from working with Reputation Specialists at ReputationDefender, individuals should take the time to control their personal brand online.
One the most effective ways to get noticed in a professional manner in the search engines is to create a web page with your name as the URL. People can do this themselves, but even in a technically savvy world, many employees may not have the time, skills or knowledge needed to register, write and code their professional home page on their own.
That’s where LookUpPage comes in. LookUpPage is a fast and easy way to create an information rich professional page that will rank well in the search engines, ensuring that others find quality and up to date information about your skill sets and accomplishments. LookUpPage is simple to use and effective for executives and professionals who want to be visible on the internet.
Working in the Online Reputation Management Industry is truly exciting. The fact that media and individuals are increasingly interested in our growing field makes my job at ReputationDefender incredibly rewarding. RD is the second segment in this video and in the intro, you can catch a glimpse of our office (complete with Foosball Table).
ReputationDefender is the market leader in Online Identity Solutions. The video below highlights MyEdge, which helps people control their Google results for as little as $99, but ReputationDefender also offers MyReputation, MyChild and MyPrivacy to help people and companies effectively manage their online presence. ReputationDefender lets individuals and brands proactively protect their reputation on the internet. Businesses especially can benefit from the Business Insurance for the Internet TM that ReputationDefender provides.
ReputationDefender Blog has learned that the United States Chess Federation is suing a board member over stolen email and defamatory posts made online. Quoting from the New York Times:
The United States Chess Federation, the nation’s governing body for the game, has sued one of its board members, claiming she unlawfully gained access to e-mail between some members of the board and a lawyer hired to investigate accusations against her and her husband.
The lawsuit stems from a running battle in which the aggression of elite-level chess play has manifested itself in the struggle over control of the federation.
In October 2007, the board member, Susan Polgar, and her husband and fellow board member, Paul Truong, were sued by Samuel H. Sloan, a former board member. He accused Ms. Polgar and Mr. Truong of posting thousands of remarks in his name, many defamatory or obscene, on public Internet bulletin boards over a two-year period in an effort to win election to the board.
[SNIP]
While Mr. Sloan’s lawsuit was pending, the federation’s board created a subcommittee to investigate the suit’s claims, and it hired Karl S. Kronenberger, a lawyer in San Francisco, to oversee the investigation. The investigation concluded that Mr. Truong was responsible for the posts.
[SNIP]
In August, Ms. Polgar filed a lawsuit in Lubbock, Tex., against the federation, four of its board members and other members of the federation in which she claimed libel, slander and business disparagement. She is asking for $25 million.
E-venge can happen to any one. Even elite chess players politicking for a position in the United States Chess Federation can resort to slander and libel online. The fluid nature of Identity on the internet means that people have an interest in controlling their online personal brand since it is so easy to destroy.
Following the historic election of Barack Obama, the postmortem for the McCain campaign can officially begin. As Washington insiders and Republican pundits look to see where they can improve in the coming years, people will point to different aspects of the McCain campaign and analyze it endlessly.
We’ve run some internal polling data through the series of tubes and think that this single moment was when McCain lost the election. It was not after the polls closed in California last night. It was when he decided to get extra dramatic during the debates.
Never one to let Virgin Atlantic have all the fun, now British Airways is investigating employees after they posted criticisms of passengers on a now-depopulated Facebook group called “London Gatwick Ground Staff.”
The Telegraph reports that a big complaint was passengers who put boarding passes in their mouths before handing them over to gate personnel–definitely something worth griping about. Customers were also called “smelly and annoying.” (Fliers from the US got a special shout-out for their “stupid American accents.”)
BA promises it “will be talking to the individuals concerned,” but the airline hasn’t gone so far as to say it will fire staff who made the comments. Still, as an airline that created its own social media site and maintains a Twitter account, you’d think they’d already have a policy in place regarding employee behavior online. We’re thinking something like, “Do whatever you want when you’re off the clock–as long as it isn’t completely embarrassing.”
Even though these employees haven’t been terminated, the fact that their online comments are being investigated by their employer is still cause for concern. Regular readers of the ReputationDefender Blog will realize that the content that people post online can have real world consequences (see, for example, the Facebook Bandit, who was sentenced to two years in jail because of his Social Networking Profiles).
Having an online presence that is an accurate reflection of yourself is vital in the information age. With employers, peers and business contacts all forming opinions based on what they find online, effectively managing one’s internet identity is a must. Modern day professionals and students must be proactive and control their personal brand online. The benefits of a strong online presence are immense for individuals as well as businesses. An accurate, relevant internet reputation is akin to Life Assurance for the InternetTM.
Jaunted.com has news today that 13 Virgin Atlantic employees were let go after they disparaged their employer and passengers on Facebook. Quoting from the page:
Fancy a spot of freedom of speech with your tea and crumpets? Jolly good, just watch it when you talk about your employer. A group of 13 cabin crew staff got sacked (I love that word) by Virgin Atlantic after company officials discovered that they had posted nasty things about customers to a semi-private discussion group on Facebook. The fancy-pants airline founded by Sir Richard Branson began an investigation on October 23 after passengers and other staff members came across the postings, which hilariously referred to certain customers as “chavs” and claim that some of the company’s 747s were infested with cockroaches.
It’s a shame to get kicked to the curb just for bitching about your job to your co-workers, since everybody who has ever had a job has done exactly that, but this crew should have known better. Facebook might lull people into a false sense of privacy, since groups are only open to members, but those sophisticated enough to work for an airline should know by now that anything you put into pixels could easily make it into the public domain.
The last point is particularly prescient. Readers of the ReputationDefender Blog are by now familiar with the case of the teacher who was fired over MySpace photos. There are also examples of people being prosecuted in court and having their MySpace profiles used as character evidence against them. In each case, and with the Virgin Atlantic case above, people are experiencing real world consequences that originate with their online activities.
Professionals, Students, Parents, Doctors, Lawyers and job seekers should be aware that others are forming opinions and making important decisions based on what they find online. Monitoring and managing one’s Online Reputation is a must in the digital age. Online Reputation Management is an exciting industry designed to help people from all walks of life present an accurate and current representation of themselves online. The ReputationDefender product suite monitors and protects individuals online and functions as Life Insurance for the Web TM. ReputationDefender encourages everyone to take control of their online identity and be proactive in crafting their personal internet brand.
ReputationDefender Blog found this timely article in the Washington Post that reveals how social networking sites are making voting a shared, online activity during this election.
Because of online video, because of Twitter, because of Facebook updates and MySpace blogs and blogs in general, voting today becomes a collective virtual experience.
On Facebook’s Election 2008 page, users are instructed to click an “I Voted” button to let their Facebook friends know that they made it to the polls.
[SNIP]
Adam Segal, who lives in Maryland, told The Trail via Facebook chat: “I wonder what impact it has on people wavering on whether to vote. For people that have large extended networks of friends it could be even more powerful than the traditional “I Voted” sticker.”
It is clear that the internet has changed the way people communicate, and it looks like social networking sites are also motivating users to get out the vote. This is another example of how new technology is impacting people’s lives in the real world.
ReputationDefender encourages everyone to go vote today!
Media outlets are reporting that the recent suicide of South Korean actress Choi Jin-sil may be linked to internet rumors attacking and slandering the thespian. These rumors, called “cyber-terrorism” by South Korean authorities, alleged that Ahn Jae-hwan, another actor, had taken money from Choi to cover his financial troubles. Ahn Jae-hwan later committed suicide himself, and the internet blamed Choi’s loans as a contributing factor in his death. The Korean Times has more on this case:
South Korea’s iconic actress Choi Jin-sil was found dead at her home in what appears to be a suicide amid [internet] rumors that linked her to the recent death of another actor, Yonhap News reported quoting police Thursday.
[SNIP]
Rumors have since circulated on the Web that Choi had lent a large sum of money to [actor, Ahn Jae-hwan], who was reportedly in deepening debt due to a failing business. Ahn’s financial troubles were seen as the chief factor leading up to his suicide.
Choi sought a police probe into the source of the rumors, calling them groundless. Police arrested a securities company employee this week for spreading the rumors that Choi lent 2.5 billion won ($2 million) to Ahn.
The post about one of South Korea’s most beloved actresses surfaced in an online club for stock investors last month, days after an actor friend of hers committed suicide. The post went on to claim that the dead actor had owed Choi money.
The rumor was copied and spread widely over the next days, with online posters blaming Choi’s money lending for the actor’s death. Choi, a national sweetheart long admired for overcoming adversity, resented and strongly denied the rumor. She said she was “scared that the world distorts friendship.”
Less than two weeks later, Choi was found hanged in the bathroom of her house in Seoul, prompting some in the South Korean news media to point the finger at Internet gossipmongers, who were accused of driving the mother of two to take her life.
The piece weighs internet safety and free speech concerns when looking at how courts are to legislate the future of responsible, free speech on the internet.
Choi’s suicide came at a time when government officials are pushing to introduce new clauses in communication laws to enforce harsher punishment for cyber-insults. The country is also preparing to extend an existing law that requires Web service providers to confirm social security numbers and the real names of users.
[SNIP]
The idea of introducing a cyber-insult law is finding traction in the wake of Choi’s death, especially among the ruling party legislators . . . [but] some worry that new laws could have a chilling effect on free speech.
ReputationDefender Blog has covered the link between anonymous hate speech and suicide before. Internet anonymity is responsible for driving a large part of internet culture, as well as the real world consequences associated with online actions. Interested readers are invited to view the ReputationDefender Blog posts on Meghan Meier and the Chicago Ad Executive for more on this emerging trend. It is clear that as the courts move to establish internet case law, they will have to pay attention to cases like these. ReputationDefender is a strong proponant of free and responsible speech.
![[image via]](http://tintuconline.com.vn/Library/myImages/7/2006/08/Thu%20muc%20moi%20(12)/ChoiJinSil-2.jpg){kind=link}