How to be a Cyberspace detective...

Christopher Nolan's presentation to our class was very enlightening. Search engines are apart of my daily life, yet I was still able to learn quite a few new things. For instance, databases are not perfect therefore they do not do any sort of screening of theirsearch results. They only search for what you ask for, however the quality of these articles is hard to depict. The tips that Mr. Nolan talked about were definitely very helpful. I have already began using the "+" and "-" signs to include and exclude certain words from my search. My favorite trick hower was typing "site.gov" after your search topic to bring up only government websites. How awesome is it that now you can even choose your language requirements on Google? The internet is constantly surprising me!

Danger of the Public Domain

One very interesting thing that I learned today from Mr. Hardin is about the Sony Bono Act. Former pop singer and Congressman pushed a bill that extended the length of copyright laws. Originally laws extended 50 years after the death of the author; however, the Sony Bono act extended this law for an additional 20 years. Sony Bono was a Congressman from the district in California that included Disney World. Around this time, Walt Disney had been dead for nearly 50 years and all the Disney characters would have been entering the public domain soon. This was a serious issue for the Disney Corporation because once Disney characters enter the public domain they are no longer protected by copyright laws and are accessible for other people. In 2018 Disney will again be in a bind with copyright laws. The question was raised in class wondering what will happen to our beloved Disney characters. Will Mickey Mouse and Tinker Bell lose their protection under copyright laws? Should Disney fight to extend copyright laws even further? I personally believe that based on this example it might be best to simply protect an authors work forever. I couldn’t imagine seeing my favorite Disney princesses being misused or recreated inappropriately.

The Facebook Dilemna...

Facebook is a major part of most college students life. I am a huge fan because it allows me to manage so many different parts of my life. I can recieve notifications from the campus organizations I am involved in. I am able to message people about projects, homework and study sessions. I can also keep up with all my friends from high school as well. My high school friends and I communicate by posting videos on each others wall at least once a week.

Facebook has proven to be a great tool in keeping up with out of town family. Over the past few weeks I have also recieved numerous friend requests from older cousins and relatives and even parents of some of my friends. I can see pictures of my little cousins growing up, weddings I was unable to attend, boyfriends and girlfriends of my friends I have yet to meet. It serves as a great way to stay connected and keep in touch. The best part is I can manage it in my own time frame. Instead of trying to fit in phonecalls every week to thirty or forty family members and friends I can drop a sentence or two at my convenience and check and respond to their answer whenever I get some extra time.

I do feel that the content of Facebook is slowly changing because of the increase of adult and professional users, but it in my opinion is for the better. However, I still disagree that Facebook should be used as a part of a hiring process. Facebook is a social network. When a person is looking to apply to jobs they are trying to impress employers wherever they can. Facebook is a relaxed community connected mainly by friendships. I don't have to impress my family and friends, they know me for who I am. With friends and family I am relaxed. I am a very loud and goofy carefree spirit, but I also know how to buckle down and handle my business. Based on my comments and pictures on facebook all you would see is the fun-loving carefree side, but it should not subtract from my capabilities as a student or as a possible employee.

To read more on facebook in an academic and work environment, check out this article: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1213/p13s01-legn.html