Reflection

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Anonymity

"Anonymous". To some, it's just a word. To some, an interesting concept. To others, it's a collective. That's right, a collective of people, to be exact. They are a subset of internet culture, and some laugh at them, while others recoil in fear. Wikipedia has a pretty good article on just who or what anonymous is, but to put it in a nutshell, it's a trend that started out as the general idea of posting to the internet with no handle and no way of identifying one's self. The concept stuck particularly to imageboards, and one such image board, 4chan, particularly attached itself to it, perpetuating it even further.

I could wax poetic about Anonymous in relation to 4chan, but that's not the concept I want to discuss in particular...and really, what I'm about to say does apply to them as well, but that's not the context I would like to put it in. There's a certain mob mentality that comes with 4chan and that's another can of worms altogether.

What interests me is anonymity and how it applies to internet social networking sites, such as LiveJournal and Blogger. Or really any blog.

Most people on the internet have a handle they go by, and an email or an AIM screen name or some other identifying piece of information. And most people are content with their internet footprint. Those who don't want too much personal information tend to shy away from any sort of activity, and those who don't care are more active parts in the community. If you don't want something coming back to haunt you, you just don't post it-- it's common sense. (Some still do, but again, I digress.)

Except that now there's this concept of "anonymous". Take LiveJournal for example. Provided that the owner hasn't specified that the journal is locked, or hasn't disallowed anonymous commenting, anyone can go in and post a comment without their name attached to it, just a date, a label-- (Anonymous) in LiveJournal's case-- and sometimes an IP address. Generally speaking, the IP address isn't as useful as it sounds unless the messages are threatening. The average user doesn't have the resources or drive to find out a name and address from an IP alone.

Of course, it's easy to see how a feature like this could be used abusively.

The extent? Is appalling.

Let's take a look at a particular one. This one:

http://rp-anon-meme.livejournal.com/

I'll save a lot of lengthy explanation of what RP and what these people are complaining about by simply stating that if you're not sure what RP entails in this context, it entails co-writing with another (or multiple people) for fun.

It's a hobby, in short.

And yet there are over 21,000 comments, almost entirely aimed at tearing people down for being bad at this hobby. Now, not all comments are destructive, some are positive, but the majority are and that is the intention of this particular community.

Let's put this into perspective here.

Billy loves model trains. He loves watching them go around the track, listening to the noises they make. Billy, however, is not that good at painting model trains nor is he very good at making scenery for them to run in. But he tries, and he enjoys it, and he is proud of his work! Then Billy's roommate, George, invites some friends over...we'll say ten or twenty. All of them also enjoy model trains, so it's a model train lover party. They get there, see Billy's train set and all start telling Billy how shitty his model train set is.

This would not be an acceptable action in most circles.

So why, then do people feel that it's okay when no one knows who they are?

Wikipedia actually has a sub-par article on Online disinhibition effect and this is certainly an extreme form of it. Because people don't fear the retribution that comes with attaching their names to things, we find out just how cruel and spiteful they are, and over what, a hobby? When you combine anonymity and the bullying effect, its results are appalling.

Perhaps we should all start walking around in ski masks so that we never have to be held accountable for our actions at all.

Or perhaps XKCD put it best:

Resume

Stephanie Rainey

12214 Knight's Krossing Cir
6-308B
Orlando, FL 32817
603-660-6210
http://tessenhime.blogspot.com

Objective

To gain professional experience in web design, software development, and tech support.

Skills

• Programming Languages: C, C++, Java


• Hardware: PC repair, maintenance, and assembly, SmartBoard setup and use


• Database: MySQL


• Operating Systems: Windows 98 – Windows Vista, Mac OS9, Mac OSX


• Web Languages: PHP, Perl, HTML, XHTML, CSS


• Software: Adobe Photoshop 7, Adobe Photoshop CS, Adobe InDesign CS, Adobe Illustrator CS, Adobe ImageReady CS, Macromedia Flash, Paint Shop Pro 7, LaTeX, QuarkXPress

Education

University Central Florida
Bachelor of Science in Information Technology
GPA: 2.6
Expected graduation date: May 2010

Projects

Web Design, GHS Charter School
Designed and implemented web layout for the upcoming charter school at Goffstown High School, in Goffstown, NH. Designed for ease of use of parents looking to find information and contact project leaders. Utilized CSS as well as HTML, and minimal JavaScript.

Documentation Lead
Created simple instructions for a number of tasks and presented them in PDF form, uploaded to a special section of the school's intranet. Most documentation was intended for teachers, but was used by students as well, and required knowledge in a number of different areas, in both software and hardware troubleshooting.

Informal Goals for E-Portfolio

That is to say, things I would like to get done by the end of the semester.

• Change the blog's layout to something more personalized but aesthetically pleasing and professional as well.
  
• Update with at least a few technology-related entries, as time allows. This might prove difficult, around the rest of my classwork, but I'd like at least one or two.
• Complete web resume and post it.
  

List to be updated as I think of more things.

Proposal for E-Portfiolio

Proposal for E-Portfolio

I am an information technology student at the University of Central Florida looking to make a mock E-Portfolio for my class. I intend to meet at least three specified goals as to how I want my professional image to look, presented in a web-based format.

Goals

When presenting myself to the professional world, I would like to meet three goals:

• Maintain a look of professionalism


• Showcase my wide range of technological-based talents


• Convey that I am up to date on the latest technological trends

Maintaining Professionalism

It is important for anyone putting themselves out there for employees to see to make sure that they have a clean, professional look, while not seeming too stiff or insincere. This is easily achieved in several different ways, include purposely breaking some conventions of formal writing so that the writing flows and comes off as friendly, including things on my resume such as a small section for hobbies, or in some cases, a small personal biography.

What not to do includes using things like internet smilies and slang (such as :) or LOL) or using a large amount of technical jargon where it is not necessary. A professional resume should be readable and understandable by anyone, whether or not they are up to date on technology.

Showcasing Talents

When presenting myself to an employer, I essentially want to sell myself to them. To do this, I must inform them of what I will be bringing to the company. In order to achieve this, I will want to make some mention of everything related that I am well-versed in, even if the skills are not integral to the position to which I'm applying. Not only might it offer extra incentive to hire a well-rounded professional, but it might also be beneficial for the company, if they do not have to train me in a particular area, whereas they would have to train another application.

Up To Date

In maintaining a professional image in the field of technology, I want employers to know that I am up to date with the latest technological trends and that I am able to quickly accommodate new technology. Not only will an employer also want to be technologically up to date, but they will want someone who can learn anything new in a relatively short amount of time. Furthermore, this provides incentive to employers who may be looking to update their existing technology to the newest. A secondary benefit to this is that it shows that I care about my field enough to keep up with it on a personal basis, rather than just for the sake of my career.

Proposal

As seen in the assignment in which we researched others in our field, the use of blogs (internet journals) is not an uncommon way to present a professional portfolio in the field of technology. I would like to use a blog to create my own portfolio. Doing so will allow me to meet my goals by:

• Allowing me to maintain a professional internet format. Web-based portfolios are very common, and a blog allows many of the same HTML conventions as a website does, while sometimes offering more easy authoring tools.


• Showcasing my talents by not only presenting them on my resume, but by publishing blog entries that, with a simple read through, would demonstrate a wide range of knowledge about technology.


• Show that I am up to date, as not only are blogs the new big thing, but again, in publishing entries, I would be able to show what news I have been following.

While the assignment called for a website, I feel that blog would be much more beneficial to my project. At a future date, if I had the need for a true website, it would not be hard to integrate the blog into it, as many free blog services offer website integration services. It also allows the portfolio to continually grow. Updating a blog is considerably easier than updating a website, and they can be updated from anywhere. Blogs also allow feedback from the community.

In addition, I plan to post entries to the blog to illustrate the concept of how the portfolio can grow. The number of entries will depend on what time allows, between working on other projects.