A blog about technology
I enjoy technology and I embrace a lot of it. I've spent some time this week brainstorming on a group wiki how we can revamp our website and a lot of the ideas I've come up with would be implemented with "new technology". So I'm excited to get a few things underway.
But I thought I'd maybe mention a few things that annoy me.
1. It's fleeting and migratory.
Sites become popular and amass these huge followings. But then the interest migrates elsewhere. Myspace was hugely popular and now people seem to be abandoning it for Facebook. Constantly moving around and following your friends and contacts and perhaps even your own content can get to be a hassle.
2. 1 ID and password doesn't fit all.
I try to keep a lot of my user names and passwords the same and sign up with the same email address for a lot of these sites. But then you run into the site that has different requirements for setting up a user name and password. Some allow spaces, some don't. Some require capitalization and numbers, some don't. Then you have sites like Flickr that are tied to your Yahoo ID while Blogger is tied to your Google ID. I don't like being forced to have an account with a certain entity in order to access something. I'm okay with having a blanket Google ID since I use countless Google products but I mostly use Yahoo for my junk type email and have a hard time using it for my Flickr.
3. The corporate IT mindset may not get it.
We've had a lot of issues here with the blanket IT department blocking sites that they deem inappropriate or not work related. They used to block things like Myspace, Facebook and YouTube but not sites like Livejournal. Let me tell you, I could waste a lot of work time using Livejournal for non-work related purposes or CNN or most other websites if that was my prerogative. What they choose to block seems arbitrary. Also, a lot of emails such as the confirmation emails to fully register for a site get blocked in our spam filter. We have a spam folder but nothing ever seems to get actually in there- it gets weeded out before that point. So I tend to use a personal account to sign up with these websites.
Since we've managed to get You Tube, Myspace and Facebook unblocked, one of my goals it to find ways for us to use it for "legitimate" purposes. I'm afraid we'll have to defend it down the line and prove again that we should actually have access to it.
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2 comments:
I think Hastings College has a really active presence in Facebook. You might want to touch base with them about how they did it, what obstacles they had to overcome, etc.
These things that annoy you annoy me too, and I know we're not alone. These are real and pervasive concerns that dog everyone's online lives. Thank you for expressing them so succinctly.
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