In his book Cyberspies - The Secret History of Surveillance, Hacking, and Digital Espionage, Gordon Corera present a thorough timeline of espionage form the great nations of the world. From the first code breaker of World War I to the hackers of today. Since all government are good secret keepers the more you go back in time the more you have access to declassified information. For the actual reality, he relies on leak information and extrapolation but it is still very relevant and credible.
According to the BBC journalist, the next war will likely fought not only on terrain but also in cyberspace. In fact the war is already started in someway. All the great nations are equipped with armies of hackers searching for weaknesses, placing logic bombs all around waiting to strike. The link between cyberworld and real world is becoming stronger by the day. The next wave of innovation will likely be in the form of Internet of Thing. All devices connected to the Internet...
By linking our houses, our building, our critical infrastructures to the Internet, we open the door to the script kiddies, the small hackers but also to the state-sponsored hackers. In case of a major conflict between two states it is likely that attacks would be made on domestic and public targets. The overall lack of security in networks puts us all at risk of becoming a target.
As for now, not unlike the arms race of the cold war, every body is planning and looking for weakness but no one wants to make the first move knowing that an attack would like be answer to the Nth level. The cyberworld is still a bit more tricky because of the pseudo anonymity. The attacker must be identified before any reply and that may not be easy to do.
jeudi 30 mars 2017
mercredi 29 mars 2017
Bilan d'un premier billet: Fausses nouvelles
Il y a quelques semaines voyait le jour mon premier billet de blogue.
Étant plutôt discret de nature, j'ai tenté de monter un blogue anonyme mais l'opération s'est avérée beaucoup plus complexe qu'anticipée.
J'ai donc décidé de m'assumer et d'utiliser mon compte gmail.
Initialement, la plateforme Wordpress était mon premier choix. Toutefois, lorsqu'est venu le temps d'ajouter Google Analytics la situation s'est encore complexifiée. Par souci d'intégration j'ai donc tout transféré sur la plateforme de Google: Blogger. Techniquement, j'étais prêt.
Quoi dire maintenant...
J'ai jonglé avec plusieurs sujets avant de m'arrêter sur un qui pourrait être d'intérêt à la fois pour un lecteur et un rédacteur. Après plusieurs tentatives et plusieurs lectures, je me suis arrêté sur les fausses nouvelles.
Qui suis-je sur les médias sociaux?
Une fois mon texte bien rédigé, il ne me restait qu'à attirer des lecteurs. Le problème est que je n'ai aucune présence dans les réseaux sociaux. J'ai créé un compte Facebook il y a dix ans. J'ai fait un profil partiel, mis une photo, navigué un peu dans l'interface et me suis déconnecté sans y retourné. L'expérience avec Twitter est semblable. Ma plus grande activité sur les réseaux sociaux consiste à accepter les invitations LinkedIn que je reçois de mes collègues de la "vrai vie réelle". Ce réseau me permet de garder à jour mon carnet d'adresse.
J'ai donc dû élaborer des publications sur ces trois réseaux expliquant ma démarche académique afin de signaler l'existence de mon blogue.
D'abord sur Facebook où j'ai expliqué la démarche suivi et invité mes relations à consulter mon blogue.
Ensuite un court message sur LinkedIn.
J'ai aussi été alerte aux nouvelles relatives à mon blogue afin de profiter de la recrudescence de l'intérêt pour créer des nouveaux liens. J'ai retwitté et répondu à une nouvelle en prenant soin d'y lier mon blogue.
Pendant la période de 7 semaines observées, le billet a été vu 127 fois.
80% des utilisateurs étaient nouveaux.
Le pic du premiers correspond à la réponse à l'article de RFI Mag.
Les données géographiques sont surprenantes considérant l'étroitesse des mes liens sociaux et la langue utilisée pour le billet.
De toute évidence, ma stratégie de diffusion n'a pas été très efficace. Pour générer du trafic sur un blogue, il faut absolument être actif sur les réseaux sociaux, habitude encore bien loin de ma réalité. Quelques messages ne sont pas suffisants pour créer un impact et attirer des lecteurs en dehors de ma famille immédiate. Un rédacteur actif doit maintenir une visibilité et un intérêt pour les lecteurs sur une base quasi quotidienne. Il doit également créer des liens avec d'autres créateurs et influenceurs afin de partager et élargir les auditoires.
Au-delà de la stratégie sociale, le contenu et l'approche de rédaction sont également des facteurs de popularité très important. Le texte rédigé ne présentait pas de caractéristiques virales mais plutôt celle d'un éditorial sans fil conducteur avec des messages précédents ou subséquents. Il faudrait plusieurs autres billets gravitant autour de concepts maîtres pour permettre la construction d'une base de lecteurs et de générer de l'intérêt par le partage sur d'autres réseaux sociaux.
L'expérience fut très enrichissante et me permettra de mieux cibler mes actions pour une éventuelle nouvelle initiative.
François M. Tremblay
Étant plutôt discret de nature, j'ai tenté de monter un blogue anonyme mais l'opération s'est avérée beaucoup plus complexe qu'anticipée.
J'ai donc décidé de m'assumer et d'utiliser mon compte gmail.
Initialement, la plateforme Wordpress était mon premier choix. Toutefois, lorsqu'est venu le temps d'ajouter Google Analytics la situation s'est encore complexifiée. Par souci d'intégration j'ai donc tout transféré sur la plateforme de Google: Blogger. Techniquement, j'étais prêt.
Quoi dire maintenant...
J'ai jonglé avec plusieurs sujets avant de m'arrêter sur un qui pourrait être d'intérêt à la fois pour un lecteur et un rédacteur. Après plusieurs tentatives et plusieurs lectures, je me suis arrêté sur les fausses nouvelles.
Qui suis-je sur les médias sociaux?
Une fois mon texte bien rédigé, il ne me restait qu'à attirer des lecteurs. Le problème est que je n'ai aucune présence dans les réseaux sociaux. J'ai créé un compte Facebook il y a dix ans. J'ai fait un profil partiel, mis une photo, navigué un peu dans l'interface et me suis déconnecté sans y retourné. L'expérience avec Twitter est semblable. Ma plus grande activité sur les réseaux sociaux consiste à accepter les invitations LinkedIn que je reçois de mes collègues de la "vrai vie réelle". Ce réseau me permet de garder à jour mon carnet d'adresse.
J'ai donc dû élaborer des publications sur ces trois réseaux expliquant ma démarche académique afin de signaler l'existence de mon blogue.
D'abord sur Facebook où j'ai expliqué la démarche suivi et invité mes relations à consulter mon blogue.
Ensuite un court message sur LinkedIn.
J'ai aussi été alerte aux nouvelles relatives à mon blogue afin de profiter de la recrudescence de l'intérêt pour créer des nouveaux liens. J'ai retwitté et répondu à une nouvelle en prenant soin d'y lier mon blogue.
Fréquentation
Pendant la période de 7 semaines observées, le billet a été vu 127 fois.
80% des utilisateurs étaient nouveaux.
Le pic du premiers correspond à la réponse à l'article de RFI Mag.
Les données géographiques sont surprenantes considérant l'étroitesse des mes liens sociaux et la langue utilisée pour le billet.
De toute évidence, ma stratégie de diffusion n'a pas été très efficace. Pour générer du trafic sur un blogue, il faut absolument être actif sur les réseaux sociaux, habitude encore bien loin de ma réalité. Quelques messages ne sont pas suffisants pour créer un impact et attirer des lecteurs en dehors de ma famille immédiate. Un rédacteur actif doit maintenir une visibilité et un intérêt pour les lecteurs sur une base quasi quotidienne. Il doit également créer des liens avec d'autres créateurs et influenceurs afin de partager et élargir les auditoires.
Au-delà de la stratégie sociale, le contenu et l'approche de rédaction sont également des facteurs de popularité très important. Le texte rédigé ne présentait pas de caractéristiques virales mais plutôt celle d'un éditorial sans fil conducteur avec des messages précédents ou subséquents. Il faudrait plusieurs autres billets gravitant autour de concepts maîtres pour permettre la construction d'une base de lecteurs et de générer de l'intérêt par le partage sur d'autres réseaux sociaux.
L'expérience fut très enrichissante et me permettra de mieux cibler mes actions pour une éventuelle nouvelle initiative.
François M. Tremblay
mardi 28 mars 2017
Social Media in an Orwellian world
In his classic novel "1984", Georges Orwell presented a dystopian world where everyone was watch at all time by the all knowing Big Brother. This entity controlled the though of all citizen ensuring the good of the society.
The witty writer would have marvel at the social media networks and ubiquity of surveillance in our world. All for the sake of security, all major communications an social tools are subjected to government "spying". The government does not intervene as strongly as in the novel, still it is scary to see how our information can be use against the population.
Often more aggressive than governments are the corporations that profile online users to present the best marketing strategy. Just by looking at the "likes" of someone on Facebook, it is possible to deduce some personality traits. From there a marketer can build a solid profile by looking at the purchases made, items searched in the last month, etc.
With almost every online activities logged, what your are looking for can easily be determined. The catch is that almost everyone willingly grant access to all that information. No one is forced to "post", "search", "like", etc. online. We do it to be part of something bigger. To be recognized by our peers, to be "in". And quite often we like having the right advertisement at the right time. Who cares how they guessed what I need if it save me the hassle of searching.
The witty writer would have marvel at the social media networks and ubiquity of surveillance in our world. All for the sake of security, all major communications an social tools are subjected to government "spying". The government does not intervene as strongly as in the novel, still it is scary to see how our information can be use against the population.
Often more aggressive than governments are the corporations that profile online users to present the best marketing strategy. Just by looking at the "likes" of someone on Facebook, it is possible to deduce some personality traits. From there a marketer can build a solid profile by looking at the purchases made, items searched in the last month, etc.
With almost every online activities logged, what your are looking for can easily be determined. The catch is that almost everyone willingly grant access to all that information. No one is forced to "post", "search", "like", etc. online. We do it to be part of something bigger. To be recognized by our peers, to be "in". And quite often we like having the right advertisement at the right time. Who cares how they guessed what I need if it save me the hassle of searching.
lundi 27 mars 2017
Twitter Chat
I must confess, of all the social tools the most incomprehensible for me was Twitter. Granted, I am not a fan of any social tool, I can still find my way around most of them to find something interesting for me. But Twitter was still a mystery to me. I understood the basic principle that is: someone write a short post to his followers. They can then reply or forward the post.
That was it for me. Beyond that I was clueless.
Not anymore.
Looking for some interesting topics on groups in social media I came across TwitterChat. These are scheduled chats on Twitter where you can interact live with people interested in the chat subject. The chats are moderated by a host and gives the opportunity to meet new people. During the chat you can asked question or reply to others question. The idea is to share and discuss on a specific topic. It is a very dynamic group as it vary from chat to chat.
The tricky part is to find an active TwitterChat. I found an interesting one #contentchat that was having place this afternoon. The chat was moderated by Erika Heald @SFerika and had many participants. Some asked questions while others answered or commented on the post. In all the experience was interesting and I think this kind of social group is very effective by its dynamic nature and heterogeneous composition depending of the subject.
That was it for me. Beyond that I was clueless.
Not anymore.
Looking for some interesting topics on groups in social media I came across TwitterChat. These are scheduled chats on Twitter where you can interact live with people interested in the chat subject. The chats are moderated by a host and gives the opportunity to meet new people. During the chat you can asked question or reply to others question. The idea is to share and discuss on a specific topic. It is a very dynamic group as it vary from chat to chat.
The tricky part is to find an active TwitterChat. I found an interesting one #contentchat that was having place this afternoon. The chat was moderated by Erika Heald @SFerika and had many participants. Some asked questions while others answered or commented on the post. In all the experience was interesting and I think this kind of social group is very effective by its dynamic nature and heterogeneous composition depending of the subject.
mercredi 22 mars 2017
Social media and narcissism
The advent of the social media may have been positive in many respects but it may have some psychological side-effects.
A growing body of evidence point to an epidemic of narcissism in social media. The self promoting social network are the perfect stage for narcissist to thrive in their disorder. So much that many of the most active users of social network present strong trait of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).
The source of the narcissism epidemic is therefor rooted in our parenting habits and social standards with children.
A growing body of evidence point to an epidemic of narcissism in social media. The self promoting social network are the perfect stage for narcissist to thrive in their disorder. So much that many of the most active users of social network present strong trait of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).
While it is possible to make correlation between overactive users and NDP, it is very difficult to determine if the social networks are causing NDP. Considering that the disorder is likely to develop before the age of 7 it seems more probable that social media attract narcissistic people because the structure of the network feed their need of shallow love and self promotion.
The source of the narcissism epidemic is therefor rooted in our parenting habits and social standards with children.
RE: 8 Ways Facebook Changed the World
In February 2014, Kurt Wagner posted an article on the ways Facebook changed the world. The article was interesting even 2 years later.
8 ways Facebook changed the World.
1. Facebook Changed How We Keep in Touch
Facebook is definitely a milestone in the history of human relations. In little more than 10 years, it has become more than a mean of communication but a relation catalyst. People connect and relate to each other through the service. It is part of the life of its user in a way that goes beyond one on one communication. It is the main way of getting news and information on people and organizations.2. Facebook Changed the Way We Share Our Lives
With Facebook came the gratification of being popular, of speaking to an audience. As it takes everything to make the world there is an audience for any kind of posting. Be it your favourite food or your weird hobby, someone somewhere will be interested and will probably comment...3. Facebook Changed the Way We Consume Content
Facebook is working endlessly to present its user with the news and content it would want to see. The more this art is perfecting the less user are exposed to new ideas. In this respect, it's a drawback of Facebook in regard to the widening of everyone horizon. You like baseball, we'll present you more baseball...4. Facebook Changed the Way We View Privacy
This one is tricky... In fact, Facebook did not changed the way we see privacy, it blurred the lines. No one knows what privacy is anymore. Even someone who don't publish specific information on himself can be profiled just by looking at the pages he views and likes.5. Facebook Changed American Politics
While it is still very true that Facebook changed the American politics, the sole influence of Facebook has faded. Other social networks are gaining importance in politics especially Twitter. Still Facebook was a game changer and paved the way to the use of social media to share political views/agenda.6. Facebook Changed the Middle East
The kind of change that came to the Middle East using Facebook is not likely to be seen again because most of controlling regime learned from that and now censors and or monitors the use of social media.7. Facebook Changed the Way People Are Bullied
Because of this new reality, rules have been adjusted to limit the possibility of cyberbullying. Police have more power and tools to manage those crime but the pseudo anonymity of the Internet keeps things sometimes tricky.8. Facebook Changed the Way Businesses Interact With Customers
In 2017 a business (mainly retail and services to the population) cannot exist without a presence on Facebook. It is a privileged way to interact with clients. To manage complaint as well as promoting services of goods.mardi 21 mars 2017
Wikileaks
In the turmoils of fake news and media blaming, one site still keeps bringing the truth.
Wikileaks was build to unveil the the truth about back office deals and hidden agenda of political groups around the world.
It is paradoxical that one of the most respected site and awarded for its transparency and openness about the source is aiming to make state secrets public. In this case, the credibility of the site is its main characteristic. All document posted on the site are thoroughly authenticate by multiple sources. Without this process, the site would lose the trust of its readers and its main goal.Still, it proves that even in an era of misinformation there is a way to promote truth and inspire trust.
Wikileaks was build to unveil the the truth about back office deals and hidden agenda of political groups around the world.
It is paradoxical that one of the most respected site and awarded for its transparency and openness about the source is aiming to make state secrets public. In this case, the credibility of the site is its main characteristic. All document posted on the site are thoroughly authenticate by multiple sources. Without this process, the site would lose the trust of its readers and its main goal.Still, it proves that even in an era of misinformation there is a way to promote truth and inspire trust.
lundi 20 mars 2017
"WireTrump"
More and more the use of social media to promote political agenda is eroding the trust in the online information.
Earlier this month, president Trump accused the previous administration and president of wiretapping his phone line during the presidential campaign. While President Trump maintain the accusation, no proof have been presented. What would follow is a series of public exchanges and requests aiming at discrediting the other party. While it is common place in politics to claim and disclaim all sorts of pseudo fact, in the social world things are generally more subtle.
Don't get this wrong, there is plenty of false statements on social network but they don't affect a nation security nor they are officially framed to attack the previous president. By using the social network to manipulate the public opinion, President Trump, bypass the traditional news outlet and flood the public with posts that are both entertaining and political. The negative impact of this strategy is a diminished trust in information in the social network.
We live in a society where information is front and centre of everything. If we cannot trust the news media or our social network (friends, colleague, family, etc.) how to find the truth? It is necessarily somewhere hidden behind some lies.
A survey by Environics found last year that less than 30% of respondents trust the information on social network which not far behind the less than 50% for broadcasting news. Even if we know the information may be false, the message stick if it is repeated. A poll by the news channel WJHL hint at a 25% believing the president. This poll is on a voluntary base and may not well reflect the general opinion. Still 25% is a lot of people backing the president on an accusation for which he has provided no proof.
Earlier this month, president Trump accused the previous administration and president of wiretapping his phone line during the presidential campaign. While President Trump maintain the accusation, no proof have been presented. What would follow is a series of public exchanges and requests aiming at discrediting the other party. While it is common place in politics to claim and disclaim all sorts of pseudo fact, in the social world things are generally more subtle.
Don't get this wrong, there is plenty of false statements on social network but they don't affect a nation security nor they are officially framed to attack the previous president. By using the social network to manipulate the public opinion, President Trump, bypass the traditional news outlet and flood the public with posts that are both entertaining and political. The negative impact of this strategy is a diminished trust in information in the social network.
We live in a society where information is front and centre of everything. If we cannot trust the news media or our social network (friends, colleague, family, etc.) how to find the truth? It is necessarily somewhere hidden behind some lies.
A survey by Environics found last year that less than 30% of respondents trust the information on social network which not far behind the less than 50% for broadcasting news. Even if we know the information may be false, the message stick if it is repeated. A poll by the news channel WJHL hint at a 25% believing the president. This poll is on a voluntary base and may not well reflect the general opinion. Still 25% is a lot of people backing the president on an accusation for which he has provided no proof.
vendredi 17 mars 2017
Most popular media tools
Top 20 social media tool
Social media tools by geographic concentration
Facebook 1,9B active users world wide (social network)
Youtube 1B active users world wide (video)
Whatsapp 1B active users world wide (messaging)
Facebook Messenger 1B active users world wide (social network)
QQ 900M users mainly in Asia (messaging)
Wechat 800M users mainly in Asia (messaging)
Qzone 650M users mainly in Asia (social network)
Google Plus 540M users world wide (social network)
Instagram 500M users world wide (picture)
Kugou 450M users in Asia (music)
Twitter 300M users world wide (microblogging)
Snapchat 300M users mainly in western world (messaging)
Skype with 300M users worldwide (messaging and multimedia communication)
Sina Weibo 300M users mainly in asia (microblogging)
Viber 250M users world wide (Messeging and communication)
Line 200M users in Asia (communication)
YY 150M users in Asia
LinkedIn 100M users world wide (professional social network)
Pinterest 100M users in western world (pictures)
Spotify100M users mainly in western world (music)
Telegram100M users mainly in western world (messaging)
VK100M users mainly in Russia (social network)
mardi 7 mars 2017
A thousand words…
In the fast pace universe, we live in,
every second of attention is important. You want to convey a message to an
audience that is exposed to thousands of words every day. You must catch the
attention of the reader and keep until your message is deliver.
Unfortunately, writing short text is a long
process. Mark Twain once said: “I didn't have time to write a short letter, so
I wrote a long one instead.” But a blog is not a novel, it’s a bunch of ideas
put together without formalism or predefined structure. Yet, it must be
effective.
Here comes the infographic
One way to “jam pack” a blog without the
use of lengthy sentences and explanation is using those nice infographics we
see a lot. There are many tools to help creating very nice picture exposing
visually concept. Most of these tools are online and available freely or at low
cost. Some of the coolest I found are:
·
Visualization tools
·
Word cloud tools
·
Infographics
·
Royalty free pictures
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