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Crowdsourcing - An Easy Way to Get Things Going

I’m sure that most people have heard of crowdsourcing. But for those who have not. I would like to take a little bit of time to provide some information and let those who are looking to get things going, well, get things going!

The definition of crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining information or input into a task or project by enlisting the services of a large number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the Internet. In layman’s terms, the small investment of individuals into a larger project, task or purpose. Usually in the form of money.

There are different types of crowdsourcing. The main types crowdsourcing that I have are known as idea sourcing and crowdfunding.

Idea sourcing is the harvest of ideas, usually with several people submitting an idea and the person with the best idea being paid for it. This is nothing new as the scientific community and academia have practiced this for a very long time. 

For example. Say you are Joe Scientist and you want to do some research. You submit your idea, hold a conference to propose your theory and hypothesis, and whomever you are attempting to get funding for your research project from, says ye or nay. Very simple. There are countless examples including the reason we do not use Thorium Reactors today. Instead we allow the thorium to lay waste in stock piles that are buried to keep others that are unaware of its dangers out of harms way. We certainly could use it for power production, but we use Uranium instead. The reason for this is because, to put it briefly, war-time politics. Uranium, simply put, will make a very nasty bomb. So of course, with thorium not being as volatile although still highly radioactive. The funding was not possible due to wants and needs of the persons funding it. (The government during WWII).

That settles what idea sourcing is. Let’s move on to my favorite topic and what most entrepreneurs starting out should be looking at. Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet.

Note: did you notice the part, “typically via the internet”? You can do most of this right in your living room.

Crowdfunding is an amazing concept, not much different from idea sourcing, but it is inherently different. Crowdfunding works in a way that many people would think of the stock market. A person, wanting to make a small start up, for example, an entrepreneur, will go to the pool funding area and attempt to get as much funding as possible to meet their needs to start. Now. This is not a GRANT, this is a LOAN. Most of the sites you will see on the web such as the most popular, gofundme.com, are loans, not grants, however, you may find grants available from multiple people who just want to be nice and fund an idea they find cool or interesting. I heard about a person getting funding for free to travel the world and hunt and collect Pokemon on Pokemon Go. Pretty cool, but still pointless to me. Just saying.

But if you are looking to start more business related things in life, these sites can be a great tool to help you get started. Go check them out and put people’s money to use. But if you are going to get funding for whatever you plan to start up. Please be responsible and take note that people work hard for their money. Pay it back as quickly as you can to keep interest down and make people more willing to fund you in the future.

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360 Video

So. Today I am writing about the pros and cons of 360 video.

Obviously. Pros are pretty obvious. First being, it’s just cool. You can capture the entire moment with the click of a button. You can view every little detail in ways that you couldn’t before and so on and so on. Whatever your reason. It is nifty.

However. There are a lot of cons to recording 360 video at the moment. Pictures are definitely a whole hassle at the moment but what about video? Well. For starters. Costs. 360 cameras are pretty pricey even for low end cameras. The cheapest I have seen for personal use is the Ricoh which comes in at a whopping $199.99 which isn’t too too bad for what you get, but it is still pricey. Prices can get as high as $2,299.00 for the Panano 360 Pro. Which in my opinion is pretty awesome. Seriously. Have you seen it? If there ever was a cool camera. It is that one. But seriously.

There are a ton of hurdles when you record 360. One is being. How do you keep yourself out of the video? There are a few ways. But I am not going to get into that right now. Moving video is a pain because of this.

Either way. If you are considering taking 360 video. Be aware. It is a huge problem at the current moment. Don’t try with a regular camera unless you are prepared to do more work than it is worth. But if you are tech savvy and just want to play with it. It is fun for the time being. Hopefully there will be integration of automated products from Adobe or some other source that can remove objects from video, like say, YOU. But until that time comes. I do not see it as a viable video source for now. But again. It is fun and cool as can be.

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Geolocation and You

So... What exactly is geolocation? Have you ever noticed that Google, Facebook and a swath of other online services and social media providers want you to share you location? Well... That is exactly what it is. YOUR LOCATION. Anywhere. Anytime.

Don’t get it all wrong. Geolocation is a great way to know where you are as the very definition of geolocation is your position on planet Earth. However, while there may be many pros to geolocation services... There are many cons as well. One being that when you turn on Geolocation services and your Facebook post’s visibility is not set to “Friends Only” or “Friends of Friends”... then any old person can see exactly where you are. And God forbid that your crazy ex boy/girlfriend can see that. Especially when they like to stalk you. (I can’t even imagine that.)

All jokes set aside. What can these geolocation services, that these providers so eagerly want you to turn on, do for you?

Simply put. LOTS! They can do lots and lots of things. One being that if you don’t want to take the extra few seconds it takes to type in “Pizza Hut [City Name]”, for example, you can simply type “Pizza Hut” and it will automatically show you Pizza Huts near you based on your location. Or if you want to see what movies are showing it will do the same thing. It can show you local sales, deals, events, weather, and a plethora of things.

The bigger question is... What is it that it does that is not in your favor? Better yet... What kind of information are you giving to companies like the global giant Google for instance?

Here’s for starters. You are giving them your shopping habits, your route habits, where you work, where you eat, and yes, even where you sleep. I like to say, “where you sleep” cause it gives it that extra touch of creepiness. Google is watching you sleep through your smartphone. (This may be true as Mark Zuckerberg has even been known to cover his cameras on anything that is connected to the internet with black tape. Just a side note. But that is a topic for another day.) Yes. You are even giving out your personal address to them. 

Does that mean a lot since you already give them your address when you sign up for google services when you give them a credit card? Not so much. But... there is a way to avoid such a thing. Google Play Money Cards are sold at most WalMarts, Dollar Generals, or whatever other store you may use and when you use these you can do so anonymously on an account that does not use your name. This means you wouldn’t necessarily have to give up your information for the services you love like Google Play Music and YouTube Red. Back on topic. I wouldn’t want to be teaching you how to be a social media ninja when you are already one. Right? :)

When you use these services. It can be great and it can be terrifying. I already told you how it can benefit you and it is great for business. As a business owner. It is possible for me to gather information about when people are around my business and I can shoot out a message targeted to a specific audience saying, “Come check out our deals!” or “50% Off Storewide!” I can literally target a certain group of people or if I am ninja enough, I can target literally, only you. 

Now. Is this such a bad thing? Not necessarily. Maybe you want to see the deals that may be going on. Most people do. That’s why we look at the ads we get in the mail. Right? (Does anybody besides me read those?) But yet again. Maybe you don’t want the creepy guy/girl stalking you or maybe you don’t want businesses stalking you. Just remember that privacy is dead and you are ultimately responsible for how much info about you you are literally giving away. 

Anyhow. I will leave that for you to decide. Pros. Cons. Do any outweigh the other? Is Geolocation and Social Media a good or bad thing? You decide!

[mediamanagementpieces-blog]

Being Professional Online

Alright. My first blog on here. I am new to this but I would like to address an issue that I see all to often anymore. The issue I am speaking of is people not being professional online.

Whether it is on your Facebook, your Twitter, your YouTube profile, and sometimes, yes, even your companies profile. I have seen way to many people say way to many things, especially at the wrong times. Even the president does it now. And although I may agree with a lot of what he says. Come on. Professionalism is key here.

Who can forget the McDonald’s guy who got fired for posting disgusting pictures of McDonald’s online? Okay. McDonald’s is questionable at best and you probably shouldn’t being eating there. But that isn’t professional. You can find the article here.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4736078/McDonald-s-employee-fired-posting-gross-pictures.html

And just today. A teen made headlines after being arrested for things he was posting on social media. Namely threats. The teen is 15 years old, male, and from Bossier County. You can find the article here.

http://www.ksla.com/story/36493299/bossier-teen-arrested-after-making-online-threats-to-school

These are prime examples of the level of unprofessionalism that is exhibited by all too many people online anymore. From threats and cursing, to posting every little detail about your life. (eg. TMI.) People keep making more and more unprofessional comments by the second. And it doesn’t end there. There is a swath of articles that I could post links to in this blog all day and night. But that would just serve to make this boring and dull. Well. Some of them are funny. But let’s get to the point. Shall we?

Have you gotten on YouTube lately? Of course you have! Everyone gets on YouTube for one thing or another. There are some interesting things to be found on YouTube. The problem is the mass majority of comments made on there have some racial slur, threat, or cheap joke that everyone finds offensive. And it comes as no surprise.

The problem of unprofessionalism online is largely due to the lack of repercussions for the actions of the people doing it. People have for so long gotten online and posted whatever they want without regards to other’s as well as their own well being being. Here’s why. If you don’t know who I am and if I post something hateful towards you online. How are you supposed to retaliate in any meaningful way? Other than write some more unprofessional stuff back to me either in an email or on the site itself. Really. You can’t.

But what happened today with the teen that posted the threats online is a prime example of what is coming to the world of social media.

To quote the article, and well, the Sheriff, “Today’s arrest can help ease concern for parents,” said Bossier Sheriff Julian Whittington. “Our deputies worked closely with school officials throughout most of the day to quickly investigate these threats and make an arrest.” He also said, ‘We have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to anyone making threats to cause harm to others or damage to property. You will be found, and you will be arrested.”

It looks like the internet is actually getting a Sheriff after all. Pun intended.

For years and years. Accountability has been slowly building up for people’s actions while online. Whether it be the guy who played hooky from work and was caught and fired for going to a party, or the aforementioned teen for threats. Accountability is becoming more prevalent on social media.

I know people are going to start squealing that this is a huge violation of privacy and the First Amendment and whatever else people come up with. And to a point, they would be correct. Only there is one tiny problem with that. The First Amendment only protects your right to free speech. You can say whatever you want. However, and this is the kicker, there is no Amendment in the Constitution of the United States of America that protects you from the repercussions of said free speech.

With that said. Am I upset about the lack of privacy? Kind of. But not so much and here’s why.

1.Yes I believe in privacy, but there shouldn’t be any privacy here at all. 2. I believe in free speech, but I also believe you should think before you speak due to repercussions. Mainly because... let’s see... 1. There is no privacy while in the view of the public. Would you shower outside naked in the middle of the town square? Well... somebody would. But for the mass majority, no, you wouldn’t. 2. Didn’t your parents and grandparents say this a lot when we were all growing up? “If you don’t have anything nice to say, it’s better to say nothing at all.” -Grandma. The people posting unprofessionally are expecting some kind of protection of privacy and/or free speech, while posting publicly online and rather rudely. Duh!

In a book entitled, “What Happens on Campus Stays on YouTube” by Eric Qualman.  A book targeting youth in colleges and universities. (I highly recommend this book to those struggling to get their social media lives in order. Well I recommend this book to all people out there. But mainly those who are struggling.) There are a couple of interesting quotes.

“Once you’ve lost your privacy, you realize you’ve lost an extremely valuable thing.”                                                                                                                          -Billy Graham

And...

“Privacy is one of the biggest problems in this new electronic age.”                          -Andy Grove

I agree with these statements. And so should you. When you post what should be private online where it is public. (Ie. being unprofessional.) You shouldn’t expect privacy. Even if you somehow manage to find a Susan Boil from Futurama in real life. You still probably shouldn’t post it online. Come on Fry. Although that was a good one and ridiculously hilarious. Shame on you Fry.

But seriously. We all want to talk about how the world would be a better place if people got along better by not saying the things they say. Let’s fix the other end of the problem by being professional online.