Youth, Technology and Community

This is a blog post about a workshop that took place on September 29th, 2011

Last night was our 2nd workshop with the Accenture team and we're happy to report that it went really well and we learned SO much!

Here is a quick recap of the workshop, and if you want more information on this content let us know!

We were really lucky to have this communications expert explaining all of the social networking tools that we see these days. The top 4 tools that we think would help any youth looking to promote a bakesale, concert, meeting, party or any event would have to be these:

1. QR codes - Chris reccomends this to create your own

2. Geo-based apps- this is our favourite It's important to note that when using geo-based applications there are some risks attached. Here's an article explaining the risks in geotagging.

3. Business pages - these are easy to use, in fact you probably already have one!

4. Groupon model - this company wants to help you promote your event or business...and maybe get you some cheap cupcakes along the way!

We also learned this fun fact from our friends at Accenture:

"Time spent on social networking and blogging sites accounted for 17% of all time spent on the internet in 2009, nearly triple the percentage of time spent on the sector a year ago"

That was in 2009, can you imagine what that number is now? That really got us thinking about how much time we spend online and what we're doing when we're on there. We wanted to know what our digital footprints looked like!

A digital footprint is the trail you leave behind when interacting online - this can come in the form of anything you do online - browsing, emails, facebook, what you watch on YouTube, comments on blogs, pictures, etc. All of this data that you put online is going somewhere and is providing copanies with a snapshot of you. Once this data is online it's not personal anymore and anyone is able to look at it - this is why it's really important to be aware of what you are doing online.

The following is an exercise to see your digital footprint - if yours is anything like ours you will be quite surprised!

• This game will tell you how much data is being collected on you as you go throughout your daily activities
• Google is a great way to see where you are online- see what comes up when you google your name and your personal email address
• Spezify is a search engine that collects online data on a search topic and presents it visually. This will give you a good idea of what's out there on your search topic in videos, photos, web pages, business pages and much more. Type in your name and see all the information on you that comes up!

After doing this activity we each asked ourselves some hard questions about our online personalities.

1. What am I proud of?
2. What was I surpised to see?
3. Was there anything on there that I was embarrased by?
4. What might I want to change or do in the future to ensure that my footprint accurately represents the picture I want to convey?

We spend so much time online these days and we know that we won't stop using services like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube but it is a good idea to think a bit more about what we're putting on these sites before we do.

Thank you to Accenture, NetGen, the United Way and Youcan for making this workshop happen!

Here is a really great video to give you some more informatin on your digital footprint.