Student Publication

Photo Source: Jose Antonio Gelado (CC BY 2.0)

Rising mobile security threats: how to stay as smart as your smartphone

I love my iPhone. It’s my security blanket and when I leave home without it, I feel like a disoriented, sad, lost puppy,  incapable of making phone calls and telling time. Truth be told, most of us rely on our phones quite a bit. And according to Forrester, “the number of smartphone and tablet owners […]

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Michael Dell’s daughter banned from Twitter for unfiltered postings

Michael Dell, founder of computer company Dell Inc. pays about $2.7 million/year for his family’s security, according to his company’s filings. However, how effective are Michael’s efforts at security? Forbes reports that Michael has now allegedly shut down daughter Alexa’s Twitter after she posted a photo to her Instagram profile of her younger brother enjoying […]

Photo Source: JD Lasica (CC BY-NC)

The most difficult obstacle Olympians face may not be something they can train for

Olympians spend nearly the entirety of their lives training. And yet, no amount of preparation could possibly ready them for the scariest judges of all– the general public. For 17 days, these athletes lay prey to viewers all over the world. The London 2012 Olympics have been no exception. Dubbed the “Social Olympics,” sites like […]

Q&A with Sam Wempe: Social Media Strategies

Q&A with Sam Wempe: Social Media Strategies

Originally from Seattle, Sam Wempe came to UBC in 2007 and has been able to successfully use social media to shape a digital identity he can be proud of. Because of the positive online presence he created for himself, he now works as an Account Coordinator at Invoke Media, a digital innovation agency in Gastown, […]

Google Chrome’s “Dear Sophie” vs the Facebook-free baby: can we find a happy medium?

Google Chrome’s “Dear Sophie” vs the Facebook-free baby: can we find a happy medium?

We all know how annoying it is to go onto YouTube to watch a video and have an advertisement load up before watching. I usually will mute the advertisement, or click the “skip to video” button right away when given the option. But for some reason, when this video came up, I hesitated to click […]

How to boost your Twitter profile- findings from a study of higher education scholars

How to boost your Twitter profile- findings from a study of higher education scholars

Despite the appeal of hashtags (they make everything sound/look cool, #truestory,) I initially rejected the idea of Twitter because I saw it as yet another forum for people to publically document every minute of their lives. Talk about an idle waste of my time, #amiright? And yet, a recent study by G. Veletsianos from the […]

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Apple wants to protect you..by duplicating you?

The struggle for power over personal data between social networking sites and their users is not a new concern.  By now, most people are aware that the way these free services are able to make money is from taking the personal data we provide them and using it to market targeted products from other internal […]

Callum Haywood Knows What You’re Doing And Now The World Will Too

Callum Haywood Knows What You’re Doing And Now The World Will Too

18 year old Callum Haywood knows what you’re doing and has now shared that with the world in creating “We Know What You’re Doing,” a site that had only just gone live yesterday afternoon and has, according to CNN, already seen 120,000 unique visitors and nearly 5,000 likes on Facebook. The site features four main […]

Photo Source: Donald Lee Pardue (CC BY)

Peeked Interest: Is privacy an outdated concept?

We all know how beautiful the UBC campus can be. Nestled close enough to both the mountains and the water—what’s not to love? Darryl McIvor and Frans Kouwenhoven have however chosen instead to focus on those who occupy our beautiful campus in creating Peeked Interest, an online dating site that has stirred up quite a […]

Roberto Luongo on Twitter? a lesson in social media profiling from the man behind the mask/screen

Roberto Luongo on Twitter? a lesson in social media profiling from the man behind the mask/screen

Many of us who use social media struggle with finding the balance between being both anonymous and authentic online. Some of us are too anonymous; refusing to take ownership for the things we say and do. And yet some of us are too authentic, giving away too much of our regular, everyday lives. It brings […]