How EDiscoveryMap’s Monique Altheim Kept a Global Audience Informed in 2012 on Privacy, Ediscovery and Social Media

A short recap of EDiscoveryMap’s Monique Altheim‘s activities in 2012 to help keep her global readers informed and up to date in the areas of Privacy, Ediscovery and Social Media:

•  She spoke on or moderated 11 panels at conferences, from Washington D.C. and  L.A. to Brussels, Belgium, Prague, Czech Republic and Punta del Este, Uruguay.
• She attended another half a dozen conferences related to Privacy, Ediscovery, Social Media, Cloud and Big Data.
• She posted daily updates on her LinkedIn, Google+ Page and Facebook Page. The Facebook Page reached readers from the U.S., Canada, Belgium, Brazil, United Kingdom, Mexico, Iran, Italy, New Zealand, Malaysia, Sweden, South Korea, Germany, Spain, Israel, Argentina, Congo, Jamaica and Netherlands. The Linkedin posts reached readers from the U.S., Canada, Belgium, Spain, France, U.K., Italy, Netherlands,Ireland,Austria,Bulgaria, Sweden, Hungary, Poland,Russia, Estonia,Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Portugal,Norway, Switzwerland, Luxemburg,Finland, Ukraine, Estonia, Uzbekistan, Malta, Turkey, Cyprus, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Columbia, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, India, China, Japan,Malaysia, Nepal,Singapore, Taiwan and Kenia.
• She tweeted thousands of Privacy, Ediscovery and Social Media tweets via her three Twitter handles @moniquealtheim, @EDiscoveryMap and @EUdiscovery
• She posted more than 80 blog posts on her blog EDiscoveryMap. The blog has a global readership from the U.S and Canada to Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. EDiscoveryMap reaches on average, viewers from about 55 countries worldwide.
• She created and posted half a dozen power point presentations on her SlideShare site. The slides averaged, to date, about 7,000 views world wide.
• She continued her daily publication of the EDiscovery and Data Protection Daily.
• She created 10 privacy/ediscovey/social media related videos, which she uploaded on her EDiscoveryMap YouTube Channel.  Her privacy, ediscovery & social media videos were watched from the U.S, Canada, Israel, Morocco, Poland, Ireland, Ukraine, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Netherands, Czech Republic, Uruguay, South Korea, Hong Kong and India.
• She co-authored the E-book “E-Discovery Legal Issues Guidebook”,  published by PenTest Magazine.
• She updated her information sharing mobile app for iPhone/iPad and Android devices a few times, working on constantly perfecting it and also added a privacy policy to it. The app has been uploaded from the U.S. & Canada ,Europe, China, Japan, Taiwan, India, the Middle East and South America.
• And finally, in a search for continuous improvement of her knowledge of privacy and data protection, she earned the additional certification of CIPP/E (Certfied Information Privacy Professional/Europe).

Wishing all a Happy 2013, and looking forward to continue to share information this coming year via old and new channels and platforms.

Are Facebook Users Giving up their Expectation of Privacy in Return for an Expectation of Imaginary Connection?

If you are like me, you post on Facebook in leaps and bounds.
I have periods of silence, followed by bursts of sharing of photos, links to articles and status updates.
During one recent prolific posting period of two weeks, I noticed that none of my posts had generated any reaction whatsoever: not a single “like”, not a single “comment”.
I was devastated. I had become invisible and ignored. I had become a Facebook outcast. I felt like I had stopped existing.
I feverishly scanned my 30 something posts since the last sign of human recognition, and started to wonder whether I had made a faux pas somewhere along the line.
Had I posted something too racy? Something too controversial?
Had I posted too often? Where my posts too boring, too irrelevant?
Had all my Facebook friends blocked me? Had Facebook censored me?
Then by chance, as I was talking to one of my close Facebook friends over the phone, I learned that he had just not seen any of my posts for the last two weeks. This started me thinking: what if none of my 180 Facebook friends had seen any of my posts either? What if the simple reason for the lack of engagement was that I had become literally invisible on Facebook? I decided to conduct a little poll among a random list of a dozen or so Facebook friends and tagged them in a post with the question whether they had seen any of my posts for the last two weeks. The response was overwhelming: none of my friends had seen them. Except for a couple of more sophisticated Facebookers, who had a gazillion friends and availed themselves of all sorts of filter tools and therefore might not have seen my posts due to their own decision of filtering me out, the majority of my Facebook friends were just regular folks with a manageable load of updates to sift through, who genuinely liked to find out what their friends were up to, without any filters whatsoever.
That could only mean one thing: something in the Facebook machine had decided that whatever I posted should be invisible to the majority of my Facebook friends. My invisibility was not caused by me, nor by my Facebook friends.
While, in the end, I succeeded in resolving a technical glitch that seemed to have caused my total invisibility, this rather painful experience started me thinking about the importance of visibility or reach on social media. No matter how fascinating, original or groundbreaking the post, if no one sees it, what exactly is the purpose of posting it?

I was reminded of the age old question of when a tree falls in the forest, but no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

A lot has been written about privacy, or rather the lack of it, online and especially on the social media sites. The common wisdom, at least in the US, is, that in exchange for the privilege of using sites like Facebook, one gives away one’s private data for monetization purposes by those sites. The user gets to use the platform in exchange for his/her data that the platform provider gets to use. Translated into legal terms, one could say that the user of a social media site like  Facebook gives up his/her “expectation of privacy” for an “expectation of connecting with friends”. Except that in the case of Facebook (and probably other sites as well), this exchange is seriously flawed.
When you talk within the physical walls of a room, you are immediately aware who you are talking to and how wide your reach is: your audience is right in front of you.
When the average Facebook user posts something on Facebook, he/she assumes that all his/her friends on Facebook are able to see that post.
What the majority of Facebook users do not realize is that, according to a recent study, the average post is only visible to 12% of one’s Facebook friends. Facebook’s secret algorithms decide which post is seen by which friends. When you subtract from the 12% visibility all the friends who do not regularly check their news feed, or do not get notified of new posts and also subtract from the 12% the more sophisticated Facebook friends who have siloed  their friends into lists and groups and who have not included you in any of those and you are left with a very puny audience indeed.
The average Facebook user has 150 friends. The average Facebook user is also led to believe that all his posts will be visible to all his 150 friends. In reality, the average Facebook user’s post is visible to a maximum of 10 to 15 friends.
If the new paradigm is the exchange of private information for the opportunity to connect with friends, then social media sites like Facebook are not only not keeping their end of the bargain, they are also misleading their users concerning the exchange.
The agreement between the Postal Services and the users is that the user writes down an address and glues the required stamp on the envelope and the Postal Services delivers the letter. If the Postal Services would only deliver 12% of the mail you sent, you would righteously be outraged and start a law suit: you have a right to expect that each letter that you put the appropriate stamp on, gets delivered (or at least almost each letter, taking into account inevitable mistakes in delivery). Otherwise, you should only have to pay 12% of the stamp value. The same logic should apply for each status update on Facebook: with each status update, you give away private data that Facebook monetizes. You have a right to expect that each update gets delivered to its intended audience: your Facebook friends, at a minimum (unless you set your privacy setting to “only me”). By limiting the amount of your Facebook friends who can see your posts to 12%, Facebook is not keeping its purported end of the bargain. The whole concept of Facebook is built on the idea that one can share information with one’s Facebook friends. Facebook does not inform its users that they will only be able to share with at most 12% of their friends. The average Facebook user has a rightful expectation of reaching all his/ her Facebook friends with each update. Facebook monetizes 100% of all user’s updates, but gives only 12% of friend connection in return.
To add injury to insult, Facebook now plans to charge users who want more than 12% of their friends to see their posts on their news feeds, a few $$ per post with their new “Highlight” program.
To use the analogy with the Postal Services: this is the same as if the Postal Services would announce that if you want more than 12% of your letters to be actually delivered, you must pay a hefty premium ( on top of paying for the stamp). Otherwise, you can just continue to write the letter, pay for the stamp, send the letter, but sorry, only 12% of those letters will be delivered.
As far as I am concerned, I did a simple math exercise: I have around 180 Facebook friends. 12 % of 180 is 21.6. Out of the 21.6 friends who might see my post in their feeds, at least a couple will be too busy to check their newsfeed regularly and another couple will not have me included in the lists or groups that they do check. I am now down to approximately about 15 friends who might see my post. Out of those, maybe half will be inclined to occasionally engage with my posts. After making a cost/ benefit analysis of the time and effort it takes me to post, and the loss of privacy I experience by having each post monetized to third parties on the one hand and the benefit of connecting and sharing with a very small audience of maybe 15 Facebook friends on the other hand, I have come to the conclusion that the ROI is just not there for me.

Even a Facebook superstar with the maximum allotted 5000 Facebook friends, will only get a maximum reach of 600, and will have no say in who those 600 are, since they will be secretly and algorithmically determined by Facebook.

The only chance of ever reaching a significant audience is to make all your posts public and get hundreds of thousans of subscribers. Or to create a public Page, and get millions to “like” it.

Over time, Facebook has morphed from a site, where one could keep up with one’s friends, to an all-in-one Twitter, Google+, Pinterest wannabe public forum. Personally, if I want to post to those kinds of public fora, I post to Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest.

Where should I go to share with friends?

I am looking forward to reading your comments.

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How EdiscoveryMap Kept You Informed in 2011

A short recap of EDiscoveryMap’s Monique Altheim‘s activities in 2011 to help keep her readers informed in the areas of Privacy, Ediscovery and Social Media:

• She attended nine conferences worldwide (Brussels, Lisbon, Mexico City, Washington D.C., Arlington, New York) related to Privacy, Ediscovery, Social Media and the Internet, to keep informed on the latest developments in those fields.
• She posted ninety two articles on her blog EDiscoveryMap.
• She created a Facebook Page and a Google + Page as new platforms for sharing information.
• She tweeted thousands of Privacy, Ediscovery and Social Media tweets via her three Twitter handles @moniquealtheim, @EDiscoveryMap and @EUdiscovery
• She produced, filmed and posted topic relevant videos on her EDiscoveryMap YouTube Channel and power point presentations on her EDiscoveryMap SlideShare site.
• She created two news aggregator sites: a Summify newsletter, and the EDiscovery and Data Protection Daily
• She ran a social media campaign for the CFP Conference.
• She developed an information sharing mobile app for iPhone/iPad and Android devices.

And finally, she created a new website for her law firm, The Law Office of Monique Altheim.

Wishing all a Happy 2012, and looking forward to share even more information this coming year via old and new channels and platforms.

How To Build Your Own Mobile App in Three Easy Steps: A Thanksgiving Primer

Which professional has not entertained the wish to stay informed and in the loop, without having to spend hours of valuable time scouring the Internet for relevant information on a daily basis?

The daily load of professional newsletters, email subscriptions, RSS feeds, real time Twitter feeds, Facebook news streams, and now Google plus feeds, has become so heavy, that many have expressed the desire to go on an information diet.

I too have suffered from information overload, and in searching for a solution, I stumbled upon a very simple answer: I developed my personal mobile, information management tool in the form of an iPhone/iPad mobile app, which I use on my iPhone.

The “AltheimLaw” app is custom made for my needs and delivers real-time news from a variety of hand-picked sources, including social media sites, video and slide presentation sites, as well as more traditional RSS feeds of news aggregator blogs.

This particular app can, of course, also be installed by anyone who shares my interest in the very specific topics of e-discovery, data protection, privacy, social media, tech and information governance. I also created an Android version for those who use that platform under the name “Monique Altheim Esq.”.

But if you wish to create your own, custom made app to suit your own specific needs, and if you would like to publish it to any of  the IPhone/iPad, or Android platforms, you can do so, without knowing a word of code.

The entire process takes just three steps:

1. Register as a “developer”
2. Build your app
3. Publish your app

Here’s a breakdown of the three steps for two popular mobile platforms: The iPhone/iPad, and the Android .

1. Register as a developer:

The first step is to register as a “developer”. This will grant you permission to submit your app to the relevant store.

Requirements for iPhone/iPad:

• Enroll at http://developer.apple.com/programs/start/standard/ as an individual developer.
• Pay a $99 fee for developing an unlimited amount of apps
• Get a developers’ certificate and create a development provisioning profile at http://developer.apple.com
• Since following all the required steps can be daunting, I recommend following Appmakr’s step by step instructional YouTube videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/AppMakr#p/u

Requirements for Android:

• Register at https://market.android.com/publish/signup
• Pay a $25 fee for developing an unlimited number of apps.

  2. Build your app:

Building an app is very easy, even if one doesn’t know a word of code, thanks to websites like www.appmakr.com

Just click on the “get started building your … version” on appmkr’s home page. You will see three icons, respectively for Apple, Android and Windows. Just click on the one you need.

You  may enter a keyword to start, so that Appmakr can find related icons and RSS feeds for your app, but you can disregard its suggestions and skip this step. It is better to use your own icons and RSS feeds.

The website basically gives you a template to work with, which it then translates into code.

Appmakr has a YouTube site where you can watch 13 instructional videos on how to buid an iPhone /iPad app, guiding you step by step through the creation of your app: http://www.youtube.com/user/AppMakr#p/u

You can test-publish your app to your iPhone to check out whether you like the end product, before you publish it to the App Store.

Once you have finished building your app, you will be able to download the file on your computer.

TIP 1: You will need some basic knowledge of Photoshop or other similar software to adapt your screenshots to the different size requirements for the iPhone and iPad.

The iPhone/iPad and Android have each different image size and file type requirements for the icons and screen shots. For example, the iPhone icon must be 512×512 pixels in .png format.

TIP 2:  Safari cannot download the appmakr files. I used Firefox instead.

If you wish to make the app available for devices using Android, you can transfer the app into the Android (as well as Windows) format by clicking on the appropriate icon underneath your finished iPhone app link.

  3. Publish your app

iPhone/iPad

To publish your app, go to https://itunesconnect.apple.com and click on “Manage Your Applications”. Then click on “Add New App” in the upper left hand corner and follow the instructions.

You should download the “application downloader” software (the link should be on the iTunesConnect site), install it, and then download your app in that program.

When you go back to your iTunesConnect account, you will see that the status of your app is “Waiting for Review”. In the next stage your app will be ”In Review”, until, hopefully, the status will read “Ready for Sale”, at which point your app should be searchable and ready for installation in the App Store.

The entire process takes between one or two weeks.

Android

To publish your Android version, go to https://market.android.com/publish/Home

Follow the instructions to upload your app file. It is as easy as uploading a YouTube file. Within an hour your app will be for sale and downloadable on the Android market.

As between the iPhone/oPad and the Android platforms, the clear winner is Android: It has a much lower registration fee and the publishing of the app is a breeze.

Either way, when you think of the many hours you will save by cutting out most of the noise online through the use your app, it is worth the registration fee and the afternoon you might spend creating it.

While there are other sites that will help you build your own app, Appmakr is the only one that offers it at no fee.

It is also important to update your app regularly, to keep it compatible with changes on the platform. When Apple updated its IOS to IOS5, I had to rebuild my iPhone/iPad App from scratch.

Since my law firm focuses on ediscovery, privacy and data protection, social media and information governance, these are the topics that are covered in my app.

If you want to keep informed on these topics, you can download the “AltheimLaw” app for iPhone/iPad here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/monique-altheim-esq/id454018900?ls=1&mt=8 and the “Monique Altheim Esq” app for Android here: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.appmakr.app296991

Once you install such an app on your mobile device, the latest real-time news that is relevant to you is always available at the click of a finger, during your commute or while waiting online at the post office or the supermarket, during a quick lunch break, before falling asleep or upon waking up in the morning.

The Data Privacy Debate in Social Media Market Research: A Legal Perspective

by Monique Altheim

Greenbookblog.org recently hosted a debate by representatives of research associations and companies engaged in social media research on the subject of data privacy in social media market research. Three major industry bodies were represented: CASRO, MRS and ESOMAR. The debate was spurred on by the recent issuing of new guidelines by ESOMAR, draft guidelines by CASRO and a discussion paper from MRS. The guidelines seek to apply the old, existing market research industry standards and best practices to social media research.

Social media marketing research includes includes netnography, blog mining, message boards, chat rooms, and forum analysis, and web scraping of social media sites. All the guidelines propose that the core fundamental principles guiding face to face, mail and telephone research (see: ICC/ESOMAR International Code of Marketing and Social Research Practice), should also apply to social media market research. The distinction between public and private space that determines the old marketing research guidelines is carried over online. For example, in “private” spaces, where users would expect their comments to be private, users cannot be identified without their prior consent. In “public” spaces, however, content is posted with the expectation that it will be read by the public. Examples are public blogs and comments left on public blogs and websites. Those users can be quoted and identified.

The industry organizations cite the need to maintain the public’s trust, as well as the hope to prevent impending legislation from applying to market research as the main reasons for encouraging self regulation. The market researchers on the other hand claim that with the advent of big data, social media sites and new technologies, the market research profession has changed. Focus groups and surveys are giving way to newer techniques such as analytics, crowd sourcing and sentiment analysis, and now include professionals that do not consider themselves old-school market-researchers and that do not let themselves be encumbered by the self-regulatory restrictions imposed by the old-school market research industry organizations. Why, say the traditional market-researchers, should they be disadvantaged in the market place by cumbersome self-regulation?

Meanwhile, it is important not to lose track of the legal landscape and examine the already existing national and international data privacy legislation, and see how they apply to market-research.

Read more here.

Carlota Perez’s Message of Hope at the Web 2.0 Expo New York

Web 2.0 Expo, the trade show for the builders of the next-generation web, just ended in New York.

As usual since its debut in 2004, the conference offered a rich array of presentations related to the web ecosystem, showcasing innovations and practical advice  in design, marketing, ecommerce, cloud computing and social media.

Out of the many excellent keynote presentations, Fred Wilson’s conversation with Carlota Perez stood out, because it offered a message of hope in these dark economic times:

A Conversation with Fred Wilson and Carlota Perez

In this lively conversation between Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures and AVC.com and Carlota Perez about the current economic crisis, Carlota made a passionate plea for a new way of life.

Carlota believes that it is the technological revolutions that drive positive change. The last technological revolution, which was that of mass production, has led to an economic boom. Today, the new technological revolution is IT, and it has the potential of leading us into a new global “Golden Age”.

“What’s good for IT is good for the world, and what’s good for the world is good for IT,” she said, paraphrasing the famous 1953 remark by GM Chief Executive Charles Wilson.

The old way of life, based on growing consumption of material goods, has become unsustainable, due to the high cost of production and the scarcity of resources.

“For all the people in China and India to live the way we live in America, we would need seven planets.”

In order for IT to realize its potential for global wealth creation, there needs to be a consensus on the necessity to create a new way of life: A “green” life, a sustainable life, with emphasis on consumption of life enhancing services instead of continuous and growing consumption of material goods.

Green societies would create new jobs in areas such as recycling, maintenance, waste disposal, renewal of entire infrastructures, redesign of buildings, and redesign of products to be more durable and more energy efficient.

Only the dinosaurs (a.k.a governments and the old industry) insist on keeping the status quo, she said. She urged leaders in the IT world to become politically involved and called out to leadership to encourage Finance to leave the “casinos” and invest in this real economy instead.

Fred Wilson then turned to the international audience, consisting of VCs, business leaders and owners, entrepreneurs, web developers, web designers, marketers, and consultants and said: “That’s all of you: go out and get it done!”

Facebook’s Newest Changes: Don’t Forget Privacy and Ediscovery!