Questionnaire - Facebook Privacy Issues

I have created a questionnaire to gather some primary, quantitative information about what User's think of Facebook's current privacy standards. I will distribute this questionnaire online and in person to 30+ Users between the ages of 18-35. The questionnaires will be completed anonymously by the User's so that no prejudice will take place when counting the results.

The questionnaire;

1. Do you use Facebook? (If no, please answer the following questions as if you do)

a. Yes

b. No

2. How often do you use it?

a. At least once a day

b. Once to a few times a week

c. Less than once a week

3. Is your Facebook profile...?

a. Completely hidden (not even friends can view your personal details)

b. Partially hidden (only friends can view it)

c. Completely open (anyone can view it)

4. Do you think personal information on Facebook is too easily available to others?

a. Yes

b. No

5. Have you ever had unwanted contact via Facebook?

a. Yes

b. No

6. Do you find it easy to change your Facebook profile privacy settings?

a. Yes

b. No

7. What do you share on Facebook?

a. Everything (birthday, relationships, address, phone number, interests, photos, job etc..)

b. Some things (interests, some photos etc..)

c. Not much (name, some interests)

8. Finally, do you think the availability level of User information to the public is acceptable?

a. Yes

b. No

Academic Paper Topics

I have been racking my brains to try and find a suitable topic for my Academic Paper, it has got to have something to do with a current issue in Computing so I have been looking mainly on the BBC News Technology website.

Originally I had come up with a few ideas, such as;

• The new Samsung Galaxy S, a look into whether or not it's functionality is in fact better than that of the iPhone 4
• Mobile browsing - is it accessible enough for everyone?
• The need for fluent website designs in current times, as monitor screens are constantly changing and increasing in size.

Although I am interested in all of these ideas, I thought I should probably go for something that I feel more strongly about. On the BBC News website I was reading about Facebook, and how the privacy of the User details (i.e. email addresses, phone numbers etc) are sometimes available to others without the User's knowledge. This could be a major issue in social networking and it could be argued that if used properly it is not an issue at all - however not everyone is so computer-literate so again, this could cause problems.

So for the title for my Academic Paper I would like something along the lines of; "Social Networking vs User Privacy".

I do feel quite strongly on the topic, and there is the added advantage that many articles have been written for and against this ongoing, current issue.

Learning Line

Here is my learning line ranging from when I was a child to the present day.

My learning line starts in Primary School, which was cut short when I fell ill (with a number of illnesses) and home schooling was the only option for me. The home schooling continued into my secondary school, until I was able to become half-integrated into a normal school life. My grades were significantly effected by a lack of school tutoring and thus I only achieved a total of 4 GCSE's, albeit good ones.

I then moved on to Witham College as I had some time before my A level courses began, so I achieved my New CLAIT and ECDL level 2 qualifications in the mean time. After that I attended Braintree College to do A levels in Photography, Graphic Design and Art, however this did not work out and I did not complete any of these A levels.

In my time out of college I got myself a part time job in an office, doing general office duties. While this was an opportunity to explore administrative and technical roles within a small organisation, the company owners tended to be a bit unreliable, so my time with them ended within just a few months. I also had a part time job as a retail assistant in Braintree Freeport which was useful for building my customer relations skills.

As going straight into work was not proving to be very fruitful I decided that going back into education would be the next best step, so I applied for a Media B-Tec at Braintree College. I thought this looked like a fun course and possibly something I would be interested in, however once on the course I found that it was not quite what I thought it was, and so I did not achieve this qualification either.

I then volunteered at a local Age Concern charity shop, which was a very fun and enjoyable experience, not to mention that it boosted my confidence in dealing with customers and working as part of a team. My social and sorting skills were practised a lot, and I feel that I learned quite a bit about organisation from working there.

I then decided it would be a good idea to go back to studying at college, so I once again applied to do a B-Tec at Braintree college, but this time to do IT for Practitioners. During this course I found a passion for website development, coding and other computer-related activities, making this course very enjoyable and worthwhile. I came out with the best grades and a real confidence boost, and also the stepping stone that I needed to get into University.

Before starting my course at university I had a few spare months, so I decided that to expand my skill set on web design and development I would set up my own small business. The business is Chocolate Sheep Web designs and I have managed to get a couple of jobs which have really helped me to learn new skills and different methods/techniques of coding.

Finally I am now at University doing Bsc Computing. The business is still running as a sideline project, however I am not pro-actively advertising it until my course is complete. I am hoping to learn even more about coding, web design and development and other computer-related topics whilst on this course, and already my social skills are improving greatly.

That's all for my learning line, thanks for reading :)

VARK Questionnaire

Hello! Unfortunately I missed today's lectures and tutorials due to being unwell, but I have perked up a little bit now and have taken the VARK questionnaire. It is my understanding that I am to reflect on the results of the VARK questionnaire for E-tivity 2, which is what I have done below.

My VARK results were;

Visual : 3

Aural : 11

Read/Write : 4

Kinaesthetic: 9

I am identified as a multi-modal learner, preferring Aural and Kinaesthetic learning techniques. According to the Vark website approximately 60% of the population fit into this category.

This outcome doesn't really surprise me as I usually attempt to learn things by either watching other people and then having a go myself, or by listening to examples of how things are done. I respond well to having one-on-one conversations or small group conversations where it is easy to concentrate and discuss subjects that I am learning about.

I also agree that reading/writing is not one of my stronger points, my vision can tend to blur and I easily lose concentration when reading paragraphs of text, which can be very off-putting. Also when writing I can lose track of my own thoughts, leaving me blank minded, confused and often a bit stressed out!

I am not sure that I would have entirely agreed with my score for visual learning as I originally thought I was quite a visual person and I like to learn how things are done by watching and listening, however upon reflection of this I realise that I can't easily visualise scenarios, words or maps etc. and I can now see that Aural and Kinaesthetic learning styles are more suited to my needs.

To help me improve my reading and writing skills I am trying to read more to build up my concentration levels and to try and get my brain used to the mental stimulation in which it has been lacking recently. I will try and read about various books/texts wherever and whenever I can to achieve this, even if it is just on the label of a water bottle.

Improving my visual learning style may not be as easy for me, as it is my concentration levels and mind set that I will have to deal with here, which has always been a bit of a problem for me. Although these problems also apply to reading and writing, unlike with them when I am visualising something I cannot refer to it in a physical form, making it difficult for my mind to lock onto it and figure it out. To try to improve this I will be doing various exercises such as trying to visualise routes on a map, and then driving to my destination from memory, and testing myself with pictures to see if I can remember so many facts (i.e. the lamp was on the left table).

That's all for my evaluation of the VARK Questionnaire, I hope it was okay!

New design for Chocolate Sheep

Well, Chocolate Sheep has had a few different designs now, starting off quite basic (and to be fair the design is still pretty simple, but simple works!), and finally we've reached a semi-final design! (meaning it will probably change again sometime soon hahaha!)

Here is a screen dump of the new design as requested recently:

So, firstly I should say that you should visit the website itself - http://www.chocolatesheep.co.uk, as the screen shot doesn't do it any justice at all! Secondly, please note that the sheep jumps up and down... this is very exciting, really!

Quite a large part of this design was mainly down to the brain of my partner Matt, and originally it was just meant to be a concept design. However I liked the idea so much that I thought "why not use it?" So I did use it, and I still think it's really great.

Eventually we would like to also go into being host resellers, however the current website layout won't easily allow the integration of a User log-in/User Account interface that matches our theme (we have tried but the size of the rainbow is a bit of a disadvantage here). So this is why we may be re-designing the website again eventually so that we can do hosting and whatnot.

Anyway this is just a short update, thanks for reading! :D

SWOT Analysis for University

I have been requested to write a SWOT analysis to analyse myself at the beginning of the first year on my course. I thought it would be a good idea to write some ideas for it into my Blog, just to get some general feedback and to make sure that I don't miss anything out etc.

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Strengths

• I have a B-Tec National Diploma in ICT for Practitioners, so I have a good foundation for the course which I have chosen (Bsc Computing)
• Recently I set up my own business in web design and development, which provided me with valuable work experience and contacts to help me improve my skills in computing, within the course and elsewhere.
• I have a great interest in coding, especially in web design and development and have self-taught skills in using HTML, XHTML, CSS, Visual Basic, C# .net, JavaScript and PHP, so I feel that I will be able to cope well with the level and standards expected of me in these fields.
• Time management and self motivation have always been some of my stronger points, I am confident that I will be able to provide my assignments in a timely manner.
• My partner is a professional developer and is a great mentor for me to look up to when learning about coding.

Weaknesses

• My personality has always been a bit anti-social and I believe this could be a problem when coming to do group projects with fellow class-mates. However I have met some of my class-mates and their attitudes/personalities seem to be much more mature than those I met in College, making them much easier to converse with.
• I am self taught for most of my Computing knowledge and I feel that this could be a disadvantage as I may have missed out blocks of information, potentially leaving me clueless in certain subject areas.
• My experience in coding is limited to certain languages, and I have not any experience in coding with C++ which is what we will be using on the University course.

Opportunities

• At the moment I see University is a stepping stone to a career in web design and development, or for boosting my skills so that I can make my own web design and development company a success.
• Besides making me more employable, I also think that I will make many great friends and colleagues on this course, building my social profile, confidence and business etiquette.
• Time management for projects will be a very useful skill to walk away with from my time at University, as I believe my future career will be based very much on projects which are to be completed within certain deadlines.

Threats

• I can become tired very easily, especially when looking at a screen for too long, and I often find it difficult to concentrate on reading for any moderate length of time. This could be an issue if I begin to struggle with reflecting back on my work, or for reading assignments.
• As I usually use a PC at home, I am not used to using Macs, therefore I may find it takes a bit of time to get used to using these in the University.
• I can be easily distracted in class, so I shall need to be mindful about sitting close to loud fellow students, although so far this has not been an issue on this course.
• I have been hearing a lot of rumours that Degrees are not worth as much now as they used to be, which is worrying as the chances for opportunities in a decent career are decreasing even for those with degrees, potentially making the next few years of study and debt unnecessary and somewhat pointless.

Chocolate Sheep Web Design & Development - Starting Up!

Well, we have just created our new business - Chocolate Sheep Web Design & Development!

Since I've been studying Computing for a few years now, and I'm soon going to be working towards a degree in Computing. I wanted a degree in Web Design but they cancelled the course at the last minute - that's life for ya! So anyway, I have a big passion for web design and development I found, so decided to start doing some work in this area....

I designed the website initially in Photoshop CS2 (Woah I wish I had the money for CS5, it's still too expensive even on a student license so pfffft) anyway back to the main of it...

The name 'Chocolate Sheep' doesn't really originate from anywhere fascinating... well maybe it is quite fascinating, it's my mind! I have been using the name Chocolate Sheep for tv productions in my Media course, and for other random things as well. It's just something random that I came up with when I was very young (14 or something) and it's stuck ever since - that's quite a few years!

So this is where the design started... with Chocolate Sheep. Naturally the site had to have a brown/chocolatey kind of theme, but I wanted something minimalistic. This is why there isn't LOADS of brown chocolately swirls or a poo-ish background colour or anything like that. Just nice and simple little splashes of colour, and I think the blue also works quite nicely.

So yeah, quite happy with the overall design! So I got some (free for now) hosting, from 000webhost.com which has so far been quite reliable - although it was down the other night for an hour or so from what I know.

Well, all I gotta do it wait for some customers to come in - I've done all the free SEO that I can do - blogging, keywords, meta tags, titles, descriptions, blah blah blah. Still not coming up in the search as number one but gotta give it time as Google seems to take its merry time crawling my site... I've got the analytics, apps, webmaster tools etc all set up as well to help me monitor what's going on with the website. I actually had a lot of hits the other day and have been getting great feedback from some forums, so it's all sweet at the moment.

So wish me luck on my campaign to get some nice local business at a price of £0.00 for me! (Oh yeah, got 250 free business cards from Vistaprint today as well!)

Thanks for reading!