How Flickr Did It Right

One of Chris Brogan's "100 topics I hope you write" that is causing me to think so many times because I don't usually use my FLICKR Account for I think this is only used for Professional Photographers.


  


How Flickr did the right thing for their users.  I guess this is one kind of a social networking that give their users a decent platform to have their own photo copyrights.  This way Professional and Amateur Photographers can upload images without the hassle because they are safe and secured. 


I have only a little idea about Flickr and this is how I believe they "DID IT RIGHT".

Technology That Empowers Me

So much new technology popping out now.  And I am one of the confused user, with all the term used here on an Internet I feel like I am living outside the world.


Heard about VPN or VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK?  Well, it's my first time to hear that in my blogging career.  According to the definition about VPN it is one type of network technology which is used to create a secure connection in case with public networks like internet and private networks one which are owned by big corporations. This technology is used to enable remotely assigned user to connect to a private network securely.  Oh, that is great!  We all wanted to have a privacy in our NETWORKING WORLD.






It is like WAN or wide area network, a VPN can also get connected to multiple sites located far away in distance with each other. One common use of a VPN is to further extend intranet connections to worldwide. Many educational institutes also make use of VPN to connect all campuses in one network. In order to make the network more secure and for a particular user to access private network a user must have a unique identification with a password. Most often a personal identification number (PIN) is assigned to all private network users. The PIN is changed in almost every 30 second interval and informed to user by preferred means in order to maintain security. VPN China is one great VPN and ideal for most other VPN’s in terms of security, greater access to authorized users and in many such other factors.



The Chinese government today has made it almost impossible to gain access to many social networking sites like twitter, YouTube and Facebook and it has also blocked many popular news sites as well from being accessed by a user within the country. These measures were taken to maintain peace and prevent any leakage of disturbing news bad for the country’s stability. The major problem of this decision today is faced by citizens of the country as they are unable to access hassle free internet any more.
However the problem also has a simple solution. Virtual private networks are one of the best solutions to maintain long in distance network connections and are a lot more secure. VPN’s are mainly used by large corporations but the citizens in China are turning towards it fast due to the great list of benefits it offers to users of VPN services
To understand VPN technology better, when you adopt this service you are given with an IP address belonging to the USA or England which means you have the clear permission to access geographically banned internet sites like the BBC and you are thus left with complete internet freedom.

Here in the Philippines we use FILIPINO IP ADDRESS.  And just this month Update July 2012: Hide My Ass adds VPN servers in The Philippines.
HMA, one of the most popular VPN services on the internet has recently updated their server network and added some VPN servers in The Philippines.  The advantage of HMA is that you get access to PPTP, L2TP, and OpenVPN servers in 50 countries (for a total of 264 VPN servers world-wide).  There’s also a money back guarantee, and you’ll save a few dollars every month compared to IAPS.

VPN is available for download online, and will not only give you a new IP, but also hide your old one. This is why virtual IP addresses from a VPN are also known as private or anonymous IP addresses.
VPNs can change your IP, but that's not all they're used for. Businesses, educational institutions, and even the military use virtual private networks to transfer data over long distances. This is because having access to a private network means you can use the public internet to privately surf the web. It's like having your own internet inside the greater internet.
Information is tunneled from your computer or phone to the private server. This means you get complete privacy from other users trying to eavesdrop, as well as private and public organizations that might want to track you for statistics or online profiling. This makes it safer to access private information without interference from third parties. You can see why universities, businesses, and military personnel use this technology for communication.
And if you are fond of watching videos online on stream and view favorite TV shows, by choosing the best VPN you can expect video watching with very little or almost no buffering as VPN improves your viewing and streaming experience and reduces lag and buffering by providing higher net speeds. One major advantage of getting VPN service from the best VPN provider is that you can freely access social networking sites like Facebook , Skype and twitter and be in touch with family and friends all the time.
Source: changeiponline

A Community I Love

I grow up in a barangay (community) that is surrounded by different people, consist of a Christian and a Muslim. For me this is the COMMUNITY I LOVE, regardless of what other people think of my community I can say that I am proud of my place. 


The biggest barangay — 466 hectares—Barangay Bucana is a business and tourism haven. Times Beach, the city’s lone public beach has become a major tourist destination. Sandawa Road and Quimpo Blvd. are major business districts.  Responding to basic public services to its big population and large area has prompted the barangay to spread its wings. Barangay Bucana is the lone barangay that has two Barangay Halls: Barangay Bucana in Quezon Trading Blvd. to serve coastal constituents and SIR Barangay Hall in Sandawa Road to serve inland residents.  The name of the barangay is derived from the Spanish word “Voca” meaning mouth, the outlet of the Davao River, the city’s biggest river.


My barangay is bounded by the Davao Gulf to the East, Barangay 21 to the North, Barangay 37-D to Northwest for Bucana proper, across the Lt. Edward Bolton Bridge and at the east side is the Agro Industrial Foundation Colleges of the Philippines, a west upgrading area towards Gov. Sebastian Generoso Bridge, then to Ateneo Elementary and High School Campus, east side of Mc Arthur highway then passing three blocks towards Mercado Area then to Times Beach and Muslim Village thru Emar’s Beach Resort, North of Times Beach is the Isla Suerte Area, then to the mouth of Davao River passing the new accretion land, the Malamboon.


BUCANA E-TRIKE
Photo by  ROGER MONTANO BALANZA




During our 23rd Founding Anniversary last April 10, 2012, 
our Barangay captain Robert Olanolan led us in the celebration,   joined by Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and other city officials during its culminating events. Photo credit to ROGER MONTANO BALANZA.

We had so many activities that time, Muslims and Christians join together to have a great salo-salo

Sugbang-isda sa Barangay
Photo credit to ROGER MONTANO BALANZA


Lechonan sa Barangay
Photo credit to ROGER MONTANO BALANZA

A celebration with great laughter and fun.  As in we all are BUSOG!*

I LOVE MY COMMUNITY.


*BUSOG means FULL, SATISFIED

Should My Town Use Social Media?

Before the Philippines was coined as the "texting capital of the world"  now the "social networking capital of the world"  not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.



The Philippines today is using different social media as part of communication and interactive activity.


Photo credit to  ideaover10.com




As we define  Social media includes web- and mobile-based technologies which are used to turn communication into an interactive dialogue among organizations, communities, and individuals.


The question here is, SHOULD MY TOWN USE SOCIAL MEDIA?


Well, I guess YES and NO is my answer.  




YES. Why? The use of SOCIAL MEDIA help a lot of the productivity in the low-productivity Philippines. In this we can easily gain access to the things we wanted. For example; as a housewife having a bank account, it lets us use credit card to buy online.  The vast majority of consumer transactions in the Philippines (even water, electricity, rent) is done in online now.


As for brand awareness, Smart, NescafĂ© and Starbucks are already everywhere (TV, billboards) and even FACEBOOK PAGE AD adds much more to their product promotion.


For emergency assistance: Calling DAVAO CENTRAL 911 we can easily call them for help because of a mobile-based technology we can text or call them 24/7.


Social network penetration is amazingly high in the Philippines, reaching 95%. Facebook is the country's most popular website, more so than Google, and has a penetration rate of 93.9%.


And most of all the communication with other relatives living abroad makes possible because of SOCIAL MEDIA. 




NO.  This attitude towards society translates perfectly into web/mobile social media where privacy is constantly invaded and is a significant part in appropriation of social media in the Philippines.
I think it would also be useful to consider the importance of privacy issues. Here in my town, people are not as focused on privacy issues as folks in the other countries (being one of the biggest hang-ups that Facebook users complain about). 


In fact, in some of the languages of the Filipino people here is no word for "private" (and if there is, not in the same sense). People will literally walk into your room without asking or "invade your privacy" without a second thought. 


This attitude towards society translates perfectly into internet social media where privacy is constantly invaded and is a major factor in appropriation of social media here in the Philippines. 


That being said, would love to see someone go out and research/compare the types of tweets/status updates that are appearing in various different countries. Could be a good pulse on cultural reactions to social media.


Maybe in other hand we can say that we need a SOCIAL MEDIA here in our country but we have to be responsible enough on how to use it positively.   


Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites | July 2012

Here are the 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites as derived from eBizMBA Rank which is a constantly updated average of each website's Alexa Global Traffic Rank, and U.S. Traffic Rank for both Compete and Quantcast.


1 | Facebook
2 - eBizMBA Rank | 750,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 2 - Compete Rank |2 - Quantcast Rank | 2 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Networking Websites | Updated 7/6/2012 | eBizMBA

2 | Twitter
13 - eBizMBA Rank | 250,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 24 - Compete Rank | 5 - Quantcast Rank | 9 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Networking Websites | Updated 7/6/2012 | eBizMBA

3 | LinkedIn
27 - eBizMBA Rank | 110,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 44 - Compete Rank | 23 - Quantcast Rank | 14 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Networking Websites | Updated 7/6/2012 | eBizMBA

4 | MySpace
84 - eBizMBA Rank | 70,500,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 51 - Compete Rank| 62 - Quantcast Rank | 138 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Networking Websites | Updated 7/6/2012 | eBizMBA

5 | Google Plus+
95 - eBizMBA Rank | 65,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *NA* - Compete Rank | *NA* - Quantcast Rank | *NA* - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Networking Websites | Updated 7/6/2012 | eBizMBA

5 | Google Plus+
95 - eBizMBA Rank | 65,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *NA* - Compete Rank | *NA* - Quantcast Rank | *NA* - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Networking Websites | Updated 7/6/2012 | eBizMBA

7 | LiveJournal
303 - eBizMBA Rank | 20,500,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 605 - Compete Rank | 203 - Quantcast Rank | 102 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Networking Websites | Updated 7/6/2012 | eBizMBA

8 | Tagged
315 - eBizMBA Rank | 19,500,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 447 - Compete Rank | 217 - Quantcast Rank | 282 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Networking Websites | Updated 7/6/2012 | eBizMBA

9 | Orkut
350 - eBizMBA Rank | 17,500,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *NA* - Compete Rank | *NA* - Quantcast Rank | 156 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Networking Websites | Updated 7/6/2012 | eBizMBA

10 | CafeMom
451 - eBizMBA Rank | 12,500,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 127 - Compete Rank | 82 - Quantcast Rank | 1,144 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Networking Websites | Updated 7/6/2012 | eBizMBA

11 | Ning
456 - eBizMBA Rank | 12,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 617 - Compete Rank | 411 - Quantcast Rank | 339 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Networking Websites | Updated 7/6/2012 | eBizMBA

12 | Meetup
621 - eBizMBA Rank | 7,500,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 838 - Compete Rank | 516 - Quantcast Rank | 509 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Networking Websites | Updated 7/6/2012 | eBizMBA

13 | myLife
728 - eBizMBA Rank | 5,400,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 122 - Compete Rank | 391 - Quantcast Rank | 1,670 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Networking Websites | Updated 7/6/2012 | eBizMBA

14 | myYearbook
823 - eBizMBA Rank | 3,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 451 - Compete Rank | 285 - Quantcast Rank | 1,732 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Networking Websites | Updated 7/6/2012 | eBizMBA

15 | Badoo
952 - eBizMBA Rank | 2,500,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 1,596 - Compete Rank | 1,148 - Quantcast Rank | 112 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Networking Websites | Updated 7/6/2012 | eBizMBA


Source Link from ebizmba

4 Ways I Embrace My Audience

There are so many ways I could embrace my audience.  With all the blogs I have the first thing I can do this is by knowing who they are and what their goals might be. In order to get to know them is to have a (1) GREAT INFORMATION/TOPIC to SHARE with them.






This way you will know how to interact with them.  Getting their attention is the best part of it.  (2)  ENGAGING WITH YOUR AUDIENCE sharing stuff that can help them apply or stuff that are familiar to them that they can relate as if they will hug you because it appears that they sympathize with your thoughts.


By this you can give them (3) INSPIRATION through writings you gain friends and the trust with your audience to your blog.  A trust that will help you to become a good blogger.


Well to sum it all (4) COMMUNICATION is the most essential part to have many followers.   It sounds very simple as I am writing, but I know that it is one of the hardest things in the world.


   

Why I Use Facebook

Posted by Unknown In , | 0 comments»

Photo credit to FACEBOOK


Connecting with friends and relatives living abroad made possible by this social network.


Facebook is a social networking site that is enormously popular. And I wonder if the design of Facebook leaves a lot to be desired there are too many choices for things to do on Facebook.  And some applications are making me doubt to use it - WHY? Is it safe to use? I am talking about the FACEBOOK APPLICATION TOOLS here.


STATUS UPDATE
This is a simple thing to do to keep your Facebook profile active. Right at the top of the page there is a place where you can "write something." Usually a comment about what you're doing or thinking, Photo/Video for your wall post, Place where you are into.  Once a day, or even once every few days, is enough. But update it enough to keep your page interesting.






Is this safe if you put all your activities right there just to update your status on FACEBOOK?

Use Groups (a.k.a. Lists in Facebook Terminology)

I have so many groups and pages in FACEBOOK, some are created by me and administered it...



Groups/Pages are a core feature of social networking on the Web. Here you can ADVERTISE your page to make it more known to all  FACEBOOK USERS. But this is a PAID AD, depending on your selection.

How about the GROUP, Is this safe for all group members? I don't have a problem with my SECRET and CLOSED group because I know the person to be added to my group. But in an OPEN GROUP others are using TROLL ACCOUNT.  It is open so we the admins will see to it who are to be added and not to be added.

Add Your Content From Other Sources (Carefully...)

Be careful on what you click for some LINK are just misleading you or bring you to a SCAM.


THINK BEFORE YOU CLICK ...

  
Make sure that you have posted on your wall just to be seen by your friends or if you want it public for your subscribers.


Brighten Up Your Profile With Photos and Videos

This almost goes without saying, but adding multimedia makes your Facebook profile interesting and attractive.


Now...I am using TIMELINE FORMAT.  I suggest if you want your photo to be seen by your friends only do not put it on a TIMELINE COVER because it will appear publicly to all FACEBOOK USERS.  Be safe and on guard, there are some people who are stalking at you, hackers can get it anytime. It states there in your ALBUM that COVER PHOTOS are for PUBLIC.  So with the videos as well.

Search Out the Best Facebook Apps

Best tip here is to find apps that complement your interests.
In my case I have so many interest applications in my FACEBOOK account.

  
I have PinterestFashiolistaGoodreadsTumblrweheartit, etc etc...

This is some applications whom I trust more.  

My advice to all Facebook users is to search the directory for keywords of interest to you. The quality of apps varies greatly and often there are errors.  Be careful on what you CLICK again...

THINK BEFORE YOU CLICK