Rogier Noort, Author at Rogier Noort

PRISM is real, probably. NSA taps big networks.

The PRISM message fluttered by on Zite. First once, then twice and then a third time. Now it was interesting.

According to the first report on Techcrunch it was The Washington Post who released the news, and I quote both TC and TWP; “The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time,”.

Well.., ain’t that something.

Mashable picks up on the story, they post the denials of Google, Apple and Facebook. Here, Alex Fitzpatrick does a nice job in dissecting these denials and after reading the post you are not left with an over abundance of trust in these statements.

The post on The Next Web keeps us informed on new statements from companies who are allegedly involved in this secret project. They also have a post with “what you need to know about PRISM“.

Now.., I don’t know about you, but if I was the US government (or any other for that matter), I’d want access to all that data. It’s just too rich a treasure to ignore. A project like PRISM makes total sense. And Facebook’s new query engine Presto is certainly a step up for them.

Even I wrote about privacy and sharing everything.

Denying PRISM Involvement

Of course companies deny their involvement. It’s a secret project run by the FBI and NSA. It goes without saying that nobody would ever confirm their involvement.

Firstly it would destroy their business, secondly it would (probably) violate strict non-disclosure agreements and thirdly.., it would spark the biggest (digital) revolution of our time.

In the comments on the TC post there is some scary stuff to read for you. Ranging from, “who cares, I’ve got nothing to hide”, to people reminding us of the Holocaust and the use of government data to locate Jews (oh, and IBM helped with computing the logistics, so unethical involvement is nothing new).

Until

I have nothing to hide. Really. But, that’s not the point. The problem is not that some government or some company has all this data. The problems begin when they start using it against you. And history taught us that it’s only a matter of time before this happens.

There is no dark side of the Moon.., in fact.., it’s all dark.

Establish Yourself Through Blogging

I was asked by a friend whether or not he should blog. I said, ‘yes’. He asked, ‘why?’.

So, I wrote this blogpost to answer his question, because that’s how we roll.

Strangely enough I had to think about this. It’s not like I don’t know, but to sum it up in a coherent list just makes you go.., hmmmm.

Thusly, here are a few reasons why you should blog.

Subject Matter Expert

Your knowledge is a precious commodity, but people need to know what you know for them to accept you as an expert. Writing articles for your blog can provide just that.

On-Line HQ

Having a place to call your own provides you with flexibility to change or improve your representation at will. Also, any content (you create) placed on your blog belongs to you, no matter what. Your site cannot be cancelled for making a small mistake and you never have to agree to any terms of use.

It’s the best place to direct people, because it will always be there.

Just make sure you have your own hosting. Tumblr, Blogger or WordPress.com do not provide this (WordPress.org does).

Network

Ideally you create a community around your blog. Visitors who comment or share your content are part of your community. By following up on them your network can grow.

You can direct new contacts straight to your blog, instead of a Twitter account or Facebook Page.

Own Your Brand

Personal branding remains a powerful tool in your arsenal. By setting up a blog (or your own homepage) you can establish your own style which you can use throughout various social media, emails, presentations or anything else with your name on it.

Creating a strong and recognisable brand is well worth the effort.

Solve Problems

This is more about what to write, but in the interest of adding value to your blog, helping people should be your goal. Providing articles which are genuinely helpful, without asking anything in return, will establish you as a trustworthy source of information.

People respond well to that.

Creative Outlet

Especially when you enjoy writing and spend enough time on your blog to get a good flow going. The rewards go beyond providing great content. The satisfaction of producing a good (looking) post can be significant. Also, remember that each post demands at least one image.

Using images created by you tackles any copyright issues you may encounter.

Educate Yourself

In the ever lasting quest for new (and better) content you have to keep developing. Always finding new subjects to write forces you to think creatively and learn new things.

Why blog from Rogier Noort

You Do Not Have To Share Everything

One of the great fears of social is the idea that you have to share everything. Well, you don’t.

Also, people who do share everything are rare, and it might be a good idea for them to stop doing so.

Unable to Lie

In the movie “The Invention of Lying” Ricky Gervais’ character is a few minutes early to a date and Jennifer Garner’s character is triggered to say “Hi. You’re early. I was just masturbating”.

Well, that was a nice shocker and apparently she said it because she can’t lie. But, she was never asked what she was doing upstairs, she just volunteered this information for no reason. She chose to share it.

In my opinion this was as useless (and gratuitous) as the strip scene in Star Trek Into Darkness.

They did not have to share this with us, it did not add to the story. We would have enjoyed these movies just fine without it. Then again, it’s not worth writing numerous blogposts about the subject either.

For You Personally

The habit of sharing everything might be fun for some. And on the receiving end it might even be interesting to some. But it can be risky.

Your privacy is largely determined by how much you share on-line. And it’s not just embarrassing stuff you have to worry about.

Future employers can easily check you out on-line, and they do. And they do let what they find way into the decision to hire you or not.
And then there is real valuable information, like your credit card. Believe it or not, people actually post images of their new credit card on-line.

Anything you say can and will be used against you.

For Your Company

Reputation is a precious commodity. Whether it’s street cred for some kid, or the credibility of a bank, in some cases the loss of reputation can have unimaginable consequences.

A company needs to protect it’s reputation with vigour. Deciding what to share and what not can be crucial and sometimes the line is blurry at best.

When in doubt, do not share.

A basic rule is that any information you share must serve a need. It must benefit a customer or a partner, help them solve a problem. A band aid for a pain.

This does not mean you have to share all the knowledge your company has.

It does mean that you can truly help people, and that you can control the conversation about your company.

Yes, by actively participating on social you decide what people read, what the conversation is about.
If you are absent, people will discus your brand anyway, but on their terms, not yours.

Inside Your Company

The need for silos within a company may always exist. And that’s OK. There are always certain aspects, like personnel or legal information, that can’t be shared with all employees.
This is not a problem, because most of that information is not critical knowledge for the day to day work routine.

What you do need to share is exactly that knowledge that is needed, or can be needed, by employees (and managers) to progress their daily work.

The fact that person A knows some process very well can be very useful to person B, who might be just before or just after this link. Having access to the information about every link in the chain can help an employee change something within their link in order to improve the workflow of an employee in the next link.

If these two employees never talk, or never share information they’ll never know. It’ll be up to a manager who sees both links to come up with these solutions.
You’d need one heck of a talented and multitasking manager to see and know everything down all links and then improve on them.

It is much easier, and probably more effective, if employees can do this themselves.

Having policies in place to guide employees on the correct behaviour is a best practice.

Not Everything

So, no, you do not share everything, you really don’t have to.
Whether it’s personal, or corporate a lot comes down to common sense.

If you wouldn’t share it with somebody in person, or shout it out loud on a birthday or mention it in a meeting.., you probably don’t want to share it on-line.

Take 10 seconds and think before you hit the send button.

I shared over 1600 photos on Flickr. All personal. And I regret none of them.