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Social Media Policy for Families

by Michael Sheehan on April 10, 2013

in Family, General, Opinion, Parenting, Social Media, Social Networking

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Quite a few years ago, I came up with some Social Media Guidelines, primarily geared towards businesses. I realized I also seem to write a lot of tips and recommendations for parents on how they can help their kids with social media. That got me thinking. Perhaps, I should come up with a social media policy for families (kids and their parents).

Social Media Policy for Families

Social Media Policy for Families

Below are some ideas, rules and discussion points that you might want to implement with your children as they embark down the path of social media. Of course, you can and should pick the ones that are the most appropriate for you and craft some that are specific to your family values (e.g., “you will not do social media at all until you have your own job and even then, I will be watching”).

These “policies,” guidelines and promises are divided between parents and children. There is some overlap. And honestly, I feel sometimes the best way to approach this is with some humor!

Social Media Policy & Guidelines for Families

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Using Cloud Computing to Test, Develop and Innovate

by Michael Sheehan on April 26, 2012

in Cloud, General, Opinion, Social Media, Tech News

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Are you using cloud computing yet? If so, that’s great. If not, what is holding you back? Do you know enough about it? Do its capabilities confuse you? Have you not found a good use for it? I would guess that you are using cloud computing without even knowing it.

As I work in the cloud industry, I get to see the trends as they happen and what innovative ways people are using the cloud to drive business success. Honestly, I think that developers and companies are only just starting to tap the vast potential of cloud computing. While many of the early cloud adopters of (gasp) 3 years ago most likely now have fully vetted out business plans, products and services that hinge on the elastic scalability of cloud infrastructure, for example, we now are seeing the next round of innovators who are living and breathing the tech industry revitalization via the successes of their peers and colleagues.

red-zeros

And the business possibilities are only growing because of the successes of others. Think about social media, social sharing and community services that appeared a few years ago (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and the like). Also think about longer established product and service delivery sites like Amazon or Netflix. Those have communities tied to them as well. As these services grow, their data store of user preferences, likes, purchases, and interactions grows as well, exponentially, in fact. In order to accommodate this huge influx of social and personal data as well as to build recommendation engines and inter-networking with social data, new technologies are coming to light (think Big Data, for example).

weed-grass-cloud

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Tech News: Android & Apple, PS3 & 3D, LinkedIn Open & iPhone Worm

by Michael Sheehan on November 23, 2009

in Cellular, Consumer Electronics, Gadgets, Hardware, iPhone, Opinion, Tech News

I’m going to try something new here. When you are writing about Gadgets or Consumer Electronics, things happen quickly within the space. While I try to post 1-2 gadget reviews a week, that takes time and often I miss out on quickly discussing things that catch my eye. So, I’m going to embark on a bit of an experiment here.

As I work through the morning, I’m going to watch for different articles or announcements that I feel are important enough to warrant a quick mention and commentary from me. While I can’t guarantee that I will be able to do this EVERY day, I will do my best to do this as regularly as I can. If you like these sorts of things, please let me know via a comments, tweet (I’m @hightechdad) or email (use the contact form). If you think my time should be spent some other way, be sure to let me know.

Without further delay, here are a couple of things that caught my eye today (thus far):

  • Apple And Android Now Make Up 75 Percent Of U.S. Smartphone Web Traffic – “When it comes to the mobile Web, increasingly there are only two mobile platforms which matter: Apple and Android.” HTD: This only makes sense to me and I think it is good that there are two clear cut contenders for the #1 space. The iPhone has reigned here for a while so in order to keep innovation moving ahead, I really hope that the Google Android system gives them a run for their money. I received a lot of traction from my Droid review, so it is obvious that people really want to learn more. It’s almost boiling down to who your carrier is though. For Verizon, go Android (Droid). For AT&T, go iPhone. For Sprint, I don’t think the Palm Pre (Palm OS) is gonna make it so there, I think things are up for grabs, as with Tmobile as well. You can’t bank around a device, but an Operating System does help. Blackberry and RIM are obvious contenders as well, but they need a killer update to stay in the race.
  • PS3 to support stereoscopic 3D – “Sony recently announced to its investors that it will add 3D stereoscopic capability to the games on its PS3 gaming console via a future firmware update.” HTD: Breathing life into the existing gaming consoles out there is critical to any of the big manufacturers. Recently, for example, NetFlix has been added to the Xbox & PS3, and the Wii integration will be coming next year. Immersive 3D gaming via a firmware update is a logical, inexpensive next step to extend the life of these gaming platforms.
  • LinkedIn Finally Opens Platform; TweetDeck to Launch LinkedIn Support – “When developers get their hands on a social media platform, amazing things tend to happen.” HTD: I always thought that 2009 would be the year of integrations. API’s and mashups have been all of the rage. Social Networking companies and those who use API’s of these companies (e.g., TweetDeck & Seesmic Desktop) can capitalize on these content providers opening up their platforms and access to their data. This is an important move by LinkedIn.
  • Latest jailbroken iPhone worm tries filching bank passwords – “The second malicious worm to attack jailbroken iPhones has been spotted in the wild, and is the first to directly target users’ bank accounts.” HTD: If you are going to modify a device’s OS, whether it be the iPhone, the Android OS, or the Xbox (modded users have recently been shut out of Xbox Live), you run the risk of either the company shutting you down, dropping support for you or you opening up your device to hacks or exploits. Just be sure you know the ramifications of what you are doing before you do it. For this issue, just change your default password from “alpine” and you should be fine.

What type of news are you interested in? Gadgets? Social Media? Technology trends? If there is something specific that you like, let me know and I will give my 1-4 sentence analysis of it from a “HighTechDad” perspective. [click to continue…]

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