Wiki: fficiency

The use of wikis are beneficially in many areas, big and small, when working on any project or just as a public storage of information. That aspect does not change, wikis provide a centralized location to store and display related information in a potentially organized way.

Not using a wiki means communication must be made elsewhere, email, Facebook, etc. Things that are used for more than said project alone. That means distractions as well as inbox clutter. These are things that a wiki can help remove in the sense that in the wiki the focus will be solely on the project. Downtime in looking for information is reduced as team members should be on the same page as to where things are stored; for example, names to files or names to other information under a label will be universal. No one person will have something different.

Interestingly enough, in this article, a summary of other benefits can be found. But, an interesting quote can be found there as well, saying that the wiki is like fifth member of a 4 person group. An extra member means a distribution of less work.

Essentially, it's a tool about saving time with a bonus of being free to use. So why not use it?

LinkedIn and Branding: Why Not?

LinkedIn should be a very important asset to employees, employers, and anyone looking for a job. It has been a growing company for the past few years and now ranks within the top 20 websites in terms of unique users and traffic (Source).

Partly because they have very little competition in what they are trying to do, that is allow people to look for jobs by skill and employers can hire people based on what they see in your profile. The thing is that's not all that's important about it, that's how it functions yes; however, the greatest thing it can help someone do in this digital age is act as a easy stepping stone to make a digital footprint, one that doesn't involve the casualty and craze of Facebook. That is when getting Googled you exist and appear to be doing things professionally. It lets potential employers see your work without you having to do anything other by than update your profile. And it's free.

With the growing amount of users and growing worth of LinkedIn, it can be expected that more people will continue to join and use it (Source). With that more information about trends and activity within fields will arise and be collected. Being in LinkedIn gives access to that and can demonstrate your involvement in industries, or the very least centralize current information.

QR Codes: What?

QR codes have come a long way from its original purpose of
tracking parts for vehicles and expanded their usage from
conventional bar codes. Due to their ability to encode larger
amounts of data, the limit of potential use for coded information
is raised and the possibilities need to be experimented with to
reach the new limit that QR codes represent.

However, the delivery and placement of these QR codes appeared to be
using a "shotgun" method of simply printing it on anything possible;
from realistic things like magazines and newspapers to the impractical
like billboards where people have no time to bother scanning it and the
code sits there like abstract and out of place decoration (though being
        out of place may be an advantage ). The time it has taken to get results
        from QR codes is vastly being overtaken by the mobile apps market
        according to B.L. Ochtman (source). People know what they're looking
        at and where a QR code is dependent on an app to scan it an app does
        not need an app to use it, obviously, but the point being not everyone
        knows what a QR code is, still.

So then big question, assuming QR codes are still practical and not
outdated, is how to make them more effective. For example, using QR
        code to pay for an item and if necessary using multiple codes for price,
        the recipient of the pay, etc possibly eliminating the necessity for cashiers.

Social Media and Security

Social media today is ever growing at an alarming rate. We use it daily to express who we are,
connect with people: friends and strangers, and anything really. As we put more and more
of ourself onto these medias we hand them the potential to use that information. It has
been controversial for some time and for good reason, as Claire Grogen from Time Newsfeed
says, "metadata isn’t just about numbers and grids: it’s personal" (http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/07/05/this-mit-website-tracks-your-digital-footprint-through-gmail/). We still have our individuality now, but if our social media identity has no security people in general are in danger because one case of a private company successfully marketing specifically to an individual or individuals using information collected by these social medias sets precendent to continue doing so, they then control us; the domino effect of the internet so to speak. One variation of an end result of such a world is portrayed well by this video:

It may be a game but it captures the setting.
For large corporations, it's not about the product, just like how it isn't about numbers;
it's about the delivery, about how they can get you to remember their brand, one way or another.

Well, let's assume that won't happen. What are they doing now to get their brand to stick to people? It's still about delivery, only they do not have the entirety of the social media databases at their fingertips, but Facebook has a page of tips at https://www.facebook.com/help/131834970288134/. Essentially, it's still about knowing the target audience; however, we still have a say, a choice. They don't have the power that these social media databases present, to know for certain that we will be bought by their ads. But, at the very least there is a larger pool with social media than without, more feedback to maintain their digital identity with, granted a larger pool also means that they must take more care with what is said. This, however, is two way, just as representatives should take care of what they say, we as individuals should as well. Freely and perhaps spontaneously expressing nonconstructive comments are often negligible, like in Reddit where often times intelligent and concise are the best comments and overshadow statements of pure opinion, which may be used against you.

I hope to hear what you guys think about my take on social media.