I want to start off by saying I am against piracy and copyright violations.

As usual the morons in Washington want to censor the internet.  Yesterday Congress held hearings on Bills S. 968 (the Protect IP Act) and H.R. 3261 (the Stop Online Piracy Act). These bills will hold entire websites responsible for any improper copyright violation.  It means that if Google has one link to possible copyrighted material its entire website would be taken down by the US Government.

Who would sponsor such crap? It’s the entertainment industry of course, the same asshats that gave us the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or the inability to purchase music and use it on various devices.

Internet censorship is a big deal. It could kill the internet as we know it. The ability to find information could be seriously jeopardized by these Bills.

The internet isn’t going down without a fight.

Americancensorship.org is creating a protest. In addition major internet companies are fighting this.

AOL, eBay, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Twitter, Yahoo and Zynga delivered a letter to members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives that argues SOPA “pose[s] a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our nation’s cyber security.” On Wednesday, they ran the letter as a full-page ad in the New York Times.

More Information About SOPA

Facebook’s masive computer systems will soon be able to recognize familiar faces. Facebook is changing the process for tagging friends in photos uploaded to the social network, the company announced on Tuesday. In the next few weeks, the system will scan all images posted to Facebook and suggest the names of people who appear in the frame.

Last year, Facebook began rolling the facial-recognition feature out to a test group.Facebook’s more than 500 million users have been automatically included in the database, but the company is allowing each person to choose whether to be identified by toggling a pane in the account’s privacy settings.The tool would still scan that person’s face and figure out who it is, but it won’t display that information. People can still manually tag friends.

How To disable Facebooks Facial Recognition:

1.  Go to the “Account” tab in the top right hand corner

2. Click on “Privacy settings”

3. Click “Customize settings”

4.  Scroll down to “Things others share”

5.  Click “Edit settings” next to “Suggest photos of me to friends”

6 Choose “Disable” or “Enable” from the dropdown

This doesn’t mean that Facebook hasn’t scanned your face and taken biometrics from you. It just means that it won’t use its information to tag you in photos.   I suspect some lawsuits from this shortly.

Over the weekend, one of my web projects surpassed 1,000,000 page views. This is an incredible milestone especially since the website is completely internal with no external web traffic. It means that less than 150 people created all those page views. I couldn’t be more excited about it. It’s a great accomplishment.

I work for a 9-1-1 center as an IT professional. When I arrived 5 years ago documentation and the use of web technologies was in the proverbial stone age. 99% of all documentation outside of a Computer Aided Dispatch System was handled by hand. Most documents were typically typed up, used no graphics, and were printed and assembled into large 3 ring binders. The documentation was then reproduced approximately 40 times and disseminated to 130 people.  The system was extremely cumbersome. It lagged behind for weeks and usually months at a time. People complained constantly about updating, revisions and simply finding out the relevant information in a timely manner. Most edits were a PostIt note attached to a page or scribbles of new information etc.

Everyone in our center knew we had a documentation problem but most were afraid to think about it, let alone work on a solution. Our information was unreliable and was impossible to access effectively, and search quickly for accurate information. It was time for us to enter the information age. Apparently I was náve enough to think I could tackle this large project that no one wanted. I secretly made it my quest.

Our needs

Our needs are as common as any other business. We needed a method to create, edit, delete and track our documentation in a timely manner. It needed to be extremely affordable, easy to use and scalable.

Our Obstacles

Our major obstacles were working with a management team that was extremely technophobic and users who hate change. These are two extremely common problems in most businesses. Don’t let this stop you from tackling a new project using technology. Every technological innovation has had to conquer these barriers. People fear change especially new and anything electronic.

During the first two years of the project we tried a variety of systems to create a documentation system that was web based.  All of them failed miserable. The different systems struggled in two major areas: Creating/inputting content and Management’s ability to approve all information in a timely manner. These two hurdles were very tough to overcome.

I had wanted to try a Wiki system but we had no server, no resources and 99% of my users had no idea what a Wiki was and what it could do for our business processes.

What is a Wiki?

Wiki software allows multiple users to collaborate on interlinked web documents relatively easily using a WYSIWYG editor or a lightweight markup language. The most famous example is Wikipedia, a user-editable knowledge base that has quickly grown into the world’s largest encyclopedia since its founding in 2001.

I thought creating a Wiki was a great way to do the following:

1. Make content creation simple
2. Engage the end user to create content especially since its extremely relevant to their jobs
3. Create an easily managed system of documentation

Inertia is a powerful force to overcome.

Getting a project rolling takes an incredible amount of energy and will power. In spite of a lot of negative pushback, I forged on.  I found a server to install Wiki software. I knew that I had to get the project going and show what a Wiki could do for us to win the hearts and mind of the employees. I knew that I would have to convert people one user at a time. I did this with the sole blessing of my boss and no one else. I began the project having one person with buy off on the project. Like many IT projects buy offs will come as the users become comfortable with change. This project was no different.

The next step in this quest was finding the right software.

Finding A Wiki

Wiki software allows multiple users to collaborate on interlinked web documents relatively easily using a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor or a lightweight markup language. The most famous example is Wikipedia, a user-editable knowledge base that has quickly grown into the world’s largest encyclopedia since its founding in 2001.

Wikis are an excellent choice for creating complex documentation, since pages and topics can be very easily linked together to make a navigable document structure. Typically, built-in search functionality allows needed information to be found quickly from within the archives. Among the other benefits of a wiki are version histories, in which copies of previous edits to a particular page are saved in case anything needs to be rolled back or recovered. Some systems allow the creation of fine sets of permission structures to ensure that only those who are allowed to view and/or edit certain sections are able to do so.

Beyond documentation, wikis can also often be a good choice for collaborating on single standalone documents, particularly if those documents need to live online. However, some wiki systems have export features as well that allow you to convert an online wiki page into a PDF, text file or other portable document format.

http://www.wikimatrix.org/ Compares wiki formats

Ultimately I decided to use MediaWiki.  Creating a Wiki has made our documentation much better. Our wiki has been recognized and featured as important training/documentation innovations by Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) and classes featuring the How To’s at APCO’s International Convention in Las Vegas in 2009.

I think our Wiki has become a success. It didn’t happen overnight but it is happening after all 1,000,000 page views can’t be wrong.

Our Wiki Information:

-Went Online February 25, 2009

-2800+ Wiki Entries

-10500 added Documents (Images, Spreadsheets, videos)

-130 Users

Our Server is an HP DL380

1 CPU Intel Xeon 3.08 Ghz

1 GBs of RAM

Raid 5 (3) 146 GB 10k RPM Drives.

Lately I have seen a lot of facebook updates with something like:

“FYI EVERYONE – There’s a site called spokeo.com and it’s an online phonebook that has a picture of your house, credit score, profession, age, how many people live in the house. Remove yourself AND ANY AKA OR SPOUSE by the Privacy button on the bottom right. (passing along, scary stuff!) I have personally checked it out …. and it is really there! CUT PASTE AND REPOST!!!”

Here is the real scoop about Spokeo.com.

It’s a paid/subscription based search engine that aggregates data pertaining to individual names, email addresses, phone numbers from online public sources that include phone books, real estate listings, government records, profile entries from websites  like Facebook, MySpace, Amazon, LinkedIn, Flickr and others (Spokeo claims more than 50 sources of data). The site has been online for over a year.

There are other websites that do the same exact thing- people search.  (Pipl, ZoomInfo, and Intelius.)  This is data that can be gleaned by using Google.  Do a simple Google Search of your name?  See what comes up? It’s especially interesting if you have a unique name?

Many people are shocked to see how much information is available with a quick simple search.  You address, marital status, children, credit score, guestimated income (unless you’re a public employee), religion, hobbies, friends, family, personal photos and even a satellite image of your home (Hell my garage door is open on my house).

This is scary information that the average person thinks is being leaked.  The truth of the matter is this is all publically available information and most is easily accessible with just a few clicks by anyone with or without using Spokeo to find the data.

My point is by removing yourself from Spokeo doesn’t delete the data off the internet.  It doesn’t take you and your info back into obscurity. This data has always been available it just now less effort and more cost effective.

So here is my IT/Webmaster/Online Marketing insight into this.

I believe this to be a very smart viral social media marketing campaign.  By stirring up emotion and fear the social marketers have been able to get millions of people to visit their website to remove their “personal” information through the use of fear.  Did it get you to go to Spokeo.com? After the fear subsides they hope that you get curious about someone like an ex girlfriend, boss, coworker etc and subscribe to their service.

This is an evil example of brilliant social media marketing.

Now the scary part…

This data isn’t verified. It may or may not be accurate.  The search engine goes out and gathers information it finds around your name.  I strongly suggest that you don’t rely completely on their information.

My take on opting out…

If you opt out of your information, you are validating their data.  You are telling them that yes this person exists and this information is correct.  If it wasn’t correct or related to you why would you want to delete it?

Macquarie Private Wealth adviser David Kiely

Being an IT person I have seen a lot of disturbing things people have viewed at work while surfing the internet. I have seen porn. I have discovered people’s sexual orientation. I have seen it all.

Macquarie Private Wealth adviser David Kiely was caught on live television looking at semi-nude pictures of Australian model Miranda Kerr on his computer.

Here is a video of an employee being caught on National TV in England. Its on the left side of the screen

Be sure the safest rule is that we should not dare to live in any scene in which we dare not die.

Lewis Carroll

My point is simple.

Don’t ruin your reputation and your career, you will get caught by your IT staff.  Save it for your own personal computer.

Apparently there is a website to save David’s job while he is on an unpaid leave.

One more word of advice: Don’t Bring Your Virus/Mallware/Worm Infested Computer to me and tell me you were not surfing porn. We both know its a lie.

Working in information technology department of a large 9-1-1 center has all kinds of benefits. One of them is the understanding of how the public switched phone system works and how ill prepared the network is for a major catastrophe. I don’t want to induce panic but there are limitations to what the public switched phone network and 911 call centers can handle. My topic of limitation is cell phone location technologies.

When a caller calls 9-1-1 the most important thing to convey to the call taker is location location location. Many times the caller can give this information but in some cases they can’t. This is where call location technology comes into play.

Information coded inside the call sends location data to the 9-1-1 call taker.

For the past 30 plus years the public has become accustom to the fact that when you call 911 from a land line that your address (Automatic Location Identifier or ALI) and phone number (Automatic Number Identification or ANI) information is displayed for the call taker on the other end of 9-1-1. This has given the public and first responders a level of comfort that even if you can’t speak if you can dial 9-1-1 we will find you. This is true.

Enter cell phone technologies-

Cell phones do not have nor have they been required to keep the same level of accuracy for location.

The FCC released a decision in late 2007 that requires cell phone companies to meet the location accuracy requirements that are more stringent than have been in place. This is known as Phase II or Enhanced 911.

There are two different methods for obtaining location information from cell phones.

The first is a ‘Network-based’ technology that uses Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA). In simple terms it measures the signal travel time from phone to several different towers and uses a formula to determine location. The down side to this is the number of towers that can receive your signal. In urban environment there are many in a rural environment not as many and thus less accurate.

The second technology is ‘Handset-Based’. This means that the phone itself has a gps inside of the receiver. Location is determined by a minimum of three satellites. This works great in the open not so good in the city where buildings etc block the sky. Being indoors also creates a problem. It doesn’t know if you are on the first floor or the 50th floor of a building.

Where the problem lies is in the accuracy.

For network-based technologies the required accuracy must be within 100 meters for 67 percent of calls, 300 meters for 95 percent of calls. For handset-based technologies the accuracy must be within 50 meters for 67 percent of calls, 150 meters for 95 percent of calls. The remaining 5 percent of calls are handled on a’best efforts’ basis. FCC Requirements

To put this in perspective my coworker Joe Borgione of Alpine Geographic put it into a map.

First there is a huge discrepancy in the technology gap as well as accuracy in a real world scenario. If seconds count and you need 9-1-1 services, you should use your land line first and use your cell phone as a last resort. If you have a cell phone I would move to a carrier that has a hand set and is GPS based.

What some of the wireless companies don’t want you to know? If you think ATT Wireless is GPS based because it offers GPS phones like the Apple IPhone, you are mistaken, as ATT use network triangulation to determine location which is the least accurate. Sprint uses GPS based handsets and are far more accurate. With that said a land line is still your best option.

Outside of the Technology there are also other inaccuracies in the set up of 9-1-1.

Cell phone companies claim that they meet the FCC accuracy requirements. But the national operators (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile) have been meeting the requirements on a national average basis. Now the FCC has decided that they must meet the accuracy requirement within the geographical coverage area of every Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). According to Consumer Reports magazine, accurate location information is not delivered at the PSAP level in nearly half of the country. According to a list maintained by the FCC, there are around 6,000 to 7,000 PSAPs in the U.S. Verizon says it has deployed E911 wireless location capability in areas served by more than 2,800 PSAPs. But it has run into cases where cities and counties conflict with one another, each claiming PSAP jurisdiction over the same area. And PSAP service areas vary in size and shape. But the FCC said,’We recognize that geographical variations in service areas can present challenges to the provision of E911 service, but in the interest of public safety, we cannot permit those challenges to justify diminished location accuracy.’ -Jeffrey Krauss CED Magazine January 2008

The next time you need to dial 9-1-1 hopefully you will be prepared with your location information, if not you are at the mercy of technology.

I love the internet for reading.  I really don’t like sitting down and reading a book as I would rather read on the internet. I think its because I think the information in books maybe stale due to its process writing, rewriting, editing and publishing.  The real time of the internet allows to follow things in a more timely manor.

Blogs are a great way to get information that I am currently interested in. I have included a few blogs that I read and they are in no particular order. Enjoy!

Daily Blog Tips @ www.dailyblogtips.com/

I like this blog because the author posts often. The posts generally give me good ideas as far as creating and gathering readers for my blog. The blog gives tips and tricks to improve any blog website.  The other includes a lot of promotion ideas as well as tips and tricks for blogging software.  One of my favorite posts is 43 Web Design Mistakes You Should Avoid. If only all webmasters read and followed these tips.

Clearly Departed @ www.clearlydeparted.com/

I once worked for Josh, the author of this blog. I have found much of the information he shares on the internet to be well written. I have followed his donloper.com (web designer/SEO blog) for years and I find clearly departed an interesting political blog.  Maybe it’s because we have similar backgrounds but I often find myself agreeing with his point of view. We are both “native Californian’s living in exile.”  Josh beat me to the punch with this blog post Why I am Leaving the Republican Party.  I was thinking of writing this exact post. I love it.

Harvey Mackay’s Weekly Column @ www.harveymackay.com

Harvey Mackay is the CEO of an envelope company. His experience has allowed him to become a Business Advice Columnist and Blogger. Harvey shares incredible insights to common problems of businesses both large and small. I love to read his column and wished he published every day. I would read them all. One of my favorites is The Second Ten Commandments.

How to Make My Blog @ www.howtomakemyblog.com

This blog gives you real steps to increase the value of your blog. It often is information that is for established webmasters to tweak their sites for a little more oomph. I like the post 24 plugins that I currently use on my blog and why you should use them too.  I have found some unique content on this site.  One of these days I will use all this information to create my dream blog.  I have the idea but just haven’t pursued it.

Newspaper Girl @ www.newspapergrl.com

I am going to come clean on this one… I am a recent convert. Back in the day I was reading a popular local entrepreneur blog who would sometimes pimp this blogger.  I tried to read her and found her well…snooty.  I now find her writing more palatable. She has some very good insights into online marketing. I am glad that I have rediscovered her blog and have changed my opinion. She is a local Utah blogger.  I liked this post: Social Media – Simple Steps to Get Started

Mashable @ www.mashable.com

The site claims to be “the social media guide”. I would agree if its social media related they know about it and have written about it. The blog updates quite often. I have seen 30 updates in 24 hours. It almost updates too often. It is a good site to keep up to date on trends.  The site offers how to as well as news. It is one of the best social media sites on the internet.  There are too many posts to pick a favorite. If you are running a web company, marketing company or SEO I suggest following this site.

Michelle Malkin @ www.michellemalkin.com

I love people who expose the truth in politics. She says what a lot of people would like to say but don’t. Yes she is conservative but so am I. She slams idiots when they do dumb things. You have to love that. Right?  She has a lot of great posts. This one is one of my favorites at the moment.  The 8 cap-and-tax Republicans…and the 44 Democrats who voted no I hope to find more time to blog about the retardation of the Cap and Fraud that is about to demolish any economic recovery.  In the mean time follow Michelle and she will keep you up to date with government silliness.

I hope that with this post you find at least one new blog to read.

What if your windows desktop didn’t have to be boring? What if you could do more than create icons and folders? Well now you can? It’s called BumpTop.

Bumptop allows you to organize your computers desktop more like you organize your office. It allows you to create piles of documents, files, pictures music what ever.
It allows you to flip through your document files via the scroll wheel or by clicking those to a grid lay out. Another cool part of this is the ability to see what your documents look like without opening them up. You can make documents and piles bigger or smaller to organize on their importance or usage. The more used files become larger. You can pin things to the walls or even write yourself PostIt note like reminder notes.

Search is different also in that you type part of a file name and the files with those letters illuminate on your desktop. No more bringing up a pop up window and waiting for the search to find the file.

Another cool feature is the drag and drop to post to facebook or twitter or even to email or a thumb drive making it one simple step with automated upload features.

Check out Bumpstop in this video

I don’t understand why windows cannot create a cool desktop in their operating system. The desktop has been unchanged since Apple created the windows desktop in the early 80’s.

Whoops Maybe they do… It appears that Disney has gone green and is recycling their animation.

If you own a website or are a webmaster, it is guaranteed that you have a toolbox full of online tools, services and hacks to do your job. I use a variety of industry tools with some new some old some blue and some used. Most of these tools are used for promotion and monitoring of online success.

Many of you use social media to promote your websites. Twitter is on fire at the moment but soon another fad or legitimate tool will burgeon onto the scene. Due to twitters limited amount of characters long URLs often times don’t fit especially if you include any other commentary. Tiny takes a large URL and creates a shorter and more easily managed and shared URL. Tiny URL’s have become the rage with the Tweets. The site I use is bit.ly.

Most webmaster likes their stats and ability to track success at view them at the granular level. There is now an online tool that tracks the impact of such URLs. If I take this post URL http://www.eransworld.com/my-rants/tinyurl-tracking-tool/ and convert it using bit.ly it becomes http://bit.ly/2twMmw. This services allows you to track clicks and posts in real time. You can even view the history of your URL. This makes it easier to track tweets about your site. You can now track your successful tweet campaigns. I am sure that this tool will spawn a new generations of social media measuring tools.

You can view my test URL @ http://bit.ly/info/2twMmw

Related: How to Feed Twitter Your Blog Posts