(credit TED)

I personally think that this is a great talk! I've been chirping on the internet is a wealth of resource but we must remain vigilant and cautious of our day to day activities.  Take a look and i find it amusing that he managed to hack the hackers, some very good points!

Morgan

(Credit CNET)
Leading data broker Acxiom's free AboutTheData.com service offers a glimpse of the ad-targeting information the company has collected about you. But opting out of targeted ads may not be so simple.

check it out:
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57602772-285/find-out-some-of-what-one-big-data-broker-knows-about-you/

Morgan

Ok, so recently I gave a presentation to my school based on my time at HKUIBWSC13 and how much I enjoyed it!! However I also made sure that I included some things that could be useful in their won lives particularly when it comes to online security and their own digital footprint.

One issue that frustrates me in this blinding world of social media and online content is the fact that in this digital age there are still people being taken advantage of! I mean my generation; we are all technologically literate and are natives to this new environment, and yet still so many people don't know how to look after themselves. Perhaps it is because they don't fully understand the implications of their own actions, the online realm is an open forum and this has soo many benefits that I will likely speak of at a later date, since the internet is open and fully public this means most of your data is also public and people need to be better educated and more aware of this fact.

Especially looking through facebook, I see pictures/statuses/comments from people that are provocative or are just general something that you don't want public! a good rule of thumb is to only put up things that you feel your grandmother would be ok with. Social media is a new phenomenon with a lot of influence and it is becoming increasingly so but I feel that most of the problems can be solved with a good dash of common sense! like only adding people you know in person and that you actually trust not just some bloke from down the road or configuring your facebook settings appropriately.

Everyone knows the "check-in" feature on facebook and it lets people know where you are and they could potentially stalk you but I mean that is not so bad, they are your friends right? I am more concerned by the data everyone leaves behind unknowingly just by using the internet, for me I have let lose around 70 pieces of information about myself just by signing up for things online. For some that is a problem but if you are aware you can reduce the risk via things like a "junk" gmail account or something like that and sign up for less important things through it. Check out your digital footprint at https://www.myshadow.org/

Although cliche here is the most creepy thing that I have found, Creepy... creepy like in the screenshot above is a python based geo-location tool that can be used to track people by assembling public data made available by the person in order to pinpoint their current and past locations. So how it works is if you tweet or upload flickr photos on the go more often than not it geo-tags the photo, attaching an exact location to the photo but this data can be accessed by others publicly. Creepy picks up the little crumbs of data and then uses them to show exactly where in the world the person is and where they are based on their tweets and photos. This is really concerning and is creepy... however doing things like turning off gps on a smartphone or similar device will prevent this. However it still remains too easy to learn all about people from publicly available information.

Internet and social media issues are something that we need to monitor as we go into the future, particularly as technology becomes an ever increasing part of our lives!!!

just think,
Morgan

Other people ran websites during the conference and uploaded material post conference, below are some links worth checking.

http://blogs.ibo.org/alumni/

http://ibstudentconferencehku2013.weebly.com/

As I am sure you can tell from all of the excited posts and tweets I had throughout the conference it was an amazing experience that I feel very fortunate to have had. I will be posting a few more things about the conference soon and to do with iResponsibility. I have just been flat out catching up at school! But none the less it has been amazing experience that I am glad to have been able to share with you! just after the conference ended I reached two thousand views on this website.

For the most part I will be using the GAT (Global Action Team) part of the website from now on. This is where I will keep whoever is still interested up to date with what I am doing as a result of the conference. At this stage I am looking to raise awareness on what people can do to best protect themselves on social media and the internet, this will firstly be done through a presentation I should be doing at my school.

There is however one slight change of plan, After the conference I realized how fortunate I was to listen to such powerful speakers! This is an opportunity I want for my school and local community since we don't really hear from speakers that inspiring. So as a result I am planning to organize a TEDxYouth event  where i can hopefully gather some great minds and inspirational people.

Thanks
Morgan :)

 "iResponsibility: how do we engage with the online world" from the conference I can conclude that we do so prolifically weather we realize it or not and even want to or not. My social media journey has been an interesting one, I plunged myself in head first. Even still I'm not sure how much I will continue, do I really need a twitter account? The answer is yes providing I use it in a constructive manner. Twitter like all other social media has given me the power to make a difference, whether it is spreading my own message directly or tweeting someone more knowledgeable for advice. I will be clear, yes social media is a great tool for informal productivity but as to mindless tweets and food Porn (pictures of meals) I'm not so sure... If people care then why not.

Social media has put power directly in the power of the people through facebook and macro blogging and even blogging. Do I like this? yes it is nice, like I managed to share my thoughts and views from the conference with around 1.8 viewers. This would not have been possible conventionally, but it is fraught with dangers. No matter how cliche "with great power comes great responsibility" and this means mindless rubbish, hateful messages and selfies do not fit this model. Social media has opened a world of possibilities to make a difference in the world, I am looking to see how well I can go about using them from now on!

branching off of "with great power comes great responsibility" this is crucial since the internet is so dynamic. The internet gives people power and a voice so it is hardly surprising that the Chinese government struggles greatly with this concept. China and the internet was a key focus at the conference.

From the mouth of social media comes both activism and slacktivisim. Activists are the people who go out to change the world and slacktivists are people who change the world whether they realise it or not. Every like or re-tweet is a form of slacktivisim and slacktivisim contrary to its name is a very powerful tool. Slacktivisim has the ability to spread messages far and wide and make changes to society. It is a tool that I shall endeavour to use wisely as I censor my every click and like but a method I will attempt to harness as i try to make a difference in the modern age.

(few more posts to come despite the end of the conference, I will soon move into the GAT section of the website)

Morgan 

This video summarises the week pretty nicely. I had an absolute blast and it is an experience that I have been so fortunate to have had. The content was great, the city was amazing and the people and friendships I formed where even better! I wish everyone could have an experience like this at least once in their lifetime.

^ABOVE: Gangnam style performed by 160 IB students at HKU IBWSC13 (credit to Mr Smith @ Takapuna grammar)

Constantly we hear that IB students are different to other students. It is highly debatable but after spending a week at an IB conference i can say there is some X-factor that surrounds an IB student. This is not to say that IB students are superior, its just that there are certain qualities instilled in an IB student. Qualities like this become soo evident at events like this: i was talking to the organizer Suhani, she noticed that high levels of critical thinking. Questions asked of the lecturers where precise and meaningful.

Like I have said before this conference is and was an amazing experience for me! A real eye opener into what the world has in store for the future, a world of peace and hope. Everyone got along no matter where they came from or anything like that. Because of the wonderful environment what I like to call magical moments happened: look at the video above, on South Korean independence day we all did an impromptu performance of Gangnam style.

The IB conferences are an experience that I recommend to anyone and everyone! I enjoyed it soo much that my mind is trying to figure out how I can get to the next one! I loved it; the environment and the people where amazing! A huge thank you to all of those involved! :)

Morgan

So as you can tell from my blog and tweets i have crossed over to the dark side. Twitter is something I have always sworn that i would never do! Like why would someone else care how many socks i bought today? but like it or not macro blogging sites like twitter are here to stay! Oddly I have sort of enjoyed my twitter experience so far, I mean when funny or eventful things have happened the first thing I do is tweet. It is mindless but some people may enjoy knowing how many times I have gone to Starbucks and have been stared at blankly due to my wonderful kiwi accent. I clearly mumble a load of codswallop! I really only do subst! substantial blog posts during the day, so it is a nice way to see what I am doing during the day. Twitter has also given me the opportunity to connect and communicate with one of our amazing lecturers Sebastian Linstrom even before the conference!

Blogging has been a really nice way for me to collate my thoughts at the end of the day. Although this is great it also forces me to think critically about what people want to read, Bryan Chen from the conference has notoriously tweeted a picture from the toilets... Thanks so much man exactly wanted to see! My website in particular has been a wonderful tool to share my thoughts back home and even amongst some of the conference attendees! As I type my view count sits at over 1.4K views.

Although I am fully engaged in the online world this week, I am really not sure how much good it really does for people. Information is power and social media is contaminated with many many libraries of Data.

Cheers,
Morgan