UBelong Club

An Invitation from the Undergraduate Academies!

Amy — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:47:54 +0000

Dear UB Student,

Welcome to the University at Buffalo! We are glad that you will be joining us this fall and excited that you are already a part of the UB community!

You are invited to join UB’s Undergraduate Academies, Living and Learning Community and:

gain an appreciation of civic involvement through our Civic Engagement Academy;
raise your awareness of global issues through our Global Perspectives Academy; or
build a foundation in research through our Research Exploration Academy.

There are three components to the Undergraduate Academies: a Seminar course, Residential Community, and lectures, excursions and events. We believe it is important to allow students flexibility in choosing their level of involvement. This means that if you are only interested in participating in one of these components, that is ok! We like to say that you can sample a little or participate in a lot; it’s up to you! The great thing about the Academies is that you have the ability to structure your own experience!

The Academies experience will complement any major! The Academies offer you an opportunity to:

Join a community on campus that allows you to benefit from a large university’s resources with a small community feel.
Live with other Academy students in a residential community located in Richmond Hall (UB’s North Campus).
Experience a unique environment that integrates learning opportunities inside and outside the classroom.
Experience lectures, workshops, excursions, films, and guest speakers focusing on themes relevant to civic engagement, global perspectives, and research exploration.
Enroll in an Academy seminar and explore the topics of Civic Engagement, Research Exploration, and Global Perspectives with distinguished faculty in a small classroom setting.

To participate in the Undergraduate Academies Seminar, Residential Community and/or events and activities, please complete the online application at: http://academy.buffalo.edu and select apply today!

Again, welcome to UB! We are excited for you to begin your collegiate career this fall! If you have any questions about the Undergraduate Academies living and learning communities, please contact the Academies office at academy@buffalo.edu or (716) 645-8177.

Sincerely,

Hadar Borden Danielle Vegas

Administrative Director Program Coordinator

** ** ** ** ** **

Keep up with the Academies on Facebook and Twitter!

Our thoughts are with our friends in Mumbai…

Amy — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:03:19 +0000

India: Terror attack kills 17, wounds 81 in Mumbai

By MUNEEZA NAQVI – Associated Press,RAJESH SHAH – Associated Press | AP – 19 mins ago

Wreckage of motorbikes lie at the site of a bomb explosion outside Opera House in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, July …

MUMBAI, India (AP) — Near-simultaneous bomb blasts rocked three busy neighborhoods during evening rush hour in India’s busy financial capital Wednesday, killing 17 people in what the government called an apparent terrorist attack on the city besieged by militants nearly three years ago.

Blood-covered bodies lay on the streets and people hugged and wept. Others carried the wounded to taxis. Crowds gathered in the blast areas as police questioned witnesses, and bomb squads inspected the undercarriages of vehicles searching for clues and other explosives.

Motorcycles were charred, shopfronts shattered and a bus stop ripped apart. A photograph showed victims crowding into the back of a cargo truck to be taken to a hospital.

The first blast struck the Jhaveri Bazaar at 6.54 p.m., tearing through the famed jewelry market. A minute later, a second blast hit the busy business district of Opera House, several miles (kilometers) away in southern Mumbai. At 7:05 p.m., the third bomb exploded in the crowded neighborhood of Dadar in central Mumbai, according to police.

Because of the close timing of the bomb blasts, “we infer that this was a coordinated attack by terrorists,” Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said.

“The entire city of Mumbai has been put on high alert,” he said. “I would appeal to the people of Mumbai and people all over the country to remain calm and to maintain peace.”

An eyewitness at Jhaveri Bazaar described two motorcycles exploding in flames and saw at least six bodies.

“People were shouting ‘Help me, help me,’” the man told Headlines Today television.

Another witness showed cell phone clips of several bodies sprawled across the street to the NDTV news station.

Prithviraj Chavan, the top official in the state of Maharashtra, where Mumbai was located, said the blasts killed 17 people and wounded 81 others. Chidambaram said the toll was likely to rise.

The blasts marked the first major attack on Mumbai since 10 militants laid siege to India’s financial capital for 60 hours in November 2008.

That attack, which targeted two luxury hotels, a Jewish center and a busy train station, killed 166 people and was blamed on Pakistan-based militant groups. The attacks escalated tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals and prompted them to suspend peace talks, which have since resumed.

Pakistan’s government expressed distress on the loss of lives and injuries soon after Wednesday’s blasts were reported.

Some media incorrectly reported the blasts happened on the birthday of Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving gunmen from the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Kasab, who was sentenced to death in Mumbai, was born on Sept. 13.

Mumbai has been on edge since the 2008 attack. In December, authorities deployed extra police on city streets after receiving intelligence that a Pakistan-based militant group was planning an attack over New Year’s weekend. Police conducted house-to-house searches in some neighborhoods for four men who authorities believe entered the city to carry out a terrorist attack, and computer-aided photographs of the four suspects were released.

In March 2010, Mumbai police said they prevented a major terrorist strike after they arrested two Indian men, who, police said, were preparing to hit several targets in the city. In September, police issued a terror alert for the city during a popular Hindu festival.

___

Naqvi reported from New Delhi. Associated Press writer Ravi Nessman contributed to this report from New Delhi.

Final UBelong Club Chat!

Amy — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:38:47 +0000

Thanks to all who have participated in the UBelong Club live chats this summer! We hope you enjoyed all the aspects of the UBelong Club Summer Seminar!

Although the formal programming for the UBelong Club has now ended, please feel free to continue to use this blog as a source for making new UB friends in the remaining days and weeks before you travel to Buffalo.

We look forward to welcoming you to campus in August!

An Invitation from the Undergraduate Academies!

Amy — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:24:05 +0000

Dear UB Student,

Welcome to the University at Buffalo! We are glad that you will be joining us this fall and excited that you are already a part of the UB community!

You are invited to join UB’s Undergraduate Academies, Living and Learning Community and:

gain an appreciation of civic involvement through our Civic Engagement Academy;
raise your awareness of global issues through our Global Perspectives Academy; or
build a foundation in research through our Research Exploration Academy.

The Academies experience will complement any major! The Academies offer you an opportunity to:

Join a community on campus that allows you to benefit from a large university’s resources with a small community feel.
Live with other Academy students in a residential community located in Richmond Hall (UB’s North Campus).
Experience a unique environment that integrates learning opportunities inside and outside the classroom.
Experience lectures, workshops, excursions, films, and guest speakers focusing on themes relevant to civic engagement, global perspectives, and research exploration.
Enroll in an Academy seminar and explore the topics of Civic Engagement, Research Exploration, and Global Perspectives with distinguished faculty in a small classroom setting.

Sincerely,

Hadar Borden Danielle Vegas

Administrative Director Program Coordinator

** ** ** ** ** **

Keep up with the Academies on Facebook and Twitter!

FB in Local News – What do you think?

Amy — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:18:09 +0000

From www.WGRZ.com – Channel 2 News in Buffalo, NY

Facebook Asks Judge To Speed Up Local Man’s Lawsuit

11:27 AM, Jun 3, 2011 | comments

Written byMichael Wooten

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP & WGRZ) — Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says emails and a signed document that form the basis of a Wellsville man’s lawsuit claiming part ownership of the social networking phenomenon are fakes.

Zuckerberg’s statements were included in papers filed Thursday by his attorneys in federal court in Buffalo. The attorneys want expedited access to the original materials, copies of which were filed with Paul Ceglia’s lawsuit, and to examine Ceglia’s computers and electronic media.

“The contract is a cut-and-paste job, the emails are complete fabrications and this entire lawsuit is a fraud,” attorneys for Zuckerberg and his Palo Alto, Calif.-based company wrote.

“Zuckerberg has now declared under oath that he did not sign the contract attached to Ceglia’s complaint and that he did not write or receive any of the purported emails.”

Ceglia’s lawsuit, first brought in 2010 and refiled in April, relies largely on a two-page “work for hire” contract bearing the names of both men.

Ceglia, of Allegany County, says he and Zuckerberg signed the contract after Zuckerberg, then a Harvard University student, responded to his Craigslist help-wanted ad for work on a street-mapping database he was creating. According to the lawsuit, Ceglia paid Zuckerberg $1,000 to work on the street-mapping project and gave him another $1,000 after Zuckerberg told him about his Facebook idea, with the condition Ceglia would get half if it took off.

The emails document discussions about the arrangement, according to Ceglia.

One of Ceglia’s attorneys, Dennis C. Vacco, said he welcomes the Facebook attorneys’ request for expedited discovery but disagrees with their characterization of the documents.

“We’re very happy to see that they agree with us in moving this process along as quickly as possible,” Vacco said.

Facebook’s latest filings include findings by forensics examiners hired to analyze Ceglia’s submissions. One called the work-for-hire contract an “amateurish forgery.”

“Those so-called expert opinions have been provided without examining the actual contract which is at issue in the case,” Vacco responded.

Ceglia seeks a 50 percent share of Zuckerberg’s interest in the company, which has more than 500 million users worldwide. In March, Forbes magazine estimated Zuckerberg’s net worth at $13.5 billion.

By CAROLYN THOMPSON

Associated Press

Social Networking Research – What do you think?

Amy — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 13:13:35 +0000

From the June 2011 issue of “Monitor on Psychology”, a publication of the American Psychological Association

Questionnaire

Alone in the crowd

Sherry Turkle says social networking is eroding our ability to live comfortably offline.

By Michael Price

June 2011, Vol 42, No. 6

Print version: page 26

People today are more connected to one another than ever before in human history, thanks to Internet-based social networking sites and text messaging. But they’re also more lonely and distant from one another in their unplugged lives, says Massachusetts Institute of Technology social psychologist Sherry Turkle, PhD. This is not only changing the way we interact online, it’s straining our personal relationships, as well.

Turkle’s new book, “Alone Together” (Basic Books, 2011), explores the ways online social networks and texting culture are changing how people relate to society, their parents and friends.

The book is based on meta-analyses of individual and family studies and her own interviews with 300 children and 150 adults. Turkle maintains that people who choose to devote large portions of their time to connecting online are more isolated than ever in their non-virtual lives, leading to emotional disconnection, mental fatigue and anxiety.

The Monitor spoke to Turkle about her research and what it means for the Facebook generation.

How has social networking through technology changed society the most?

The most dramatic change is our ability to be “elsewhere” at any point in time, to sidestep what is difficult, what is hard in a personal interaction and go to another place where it does not have to be dealt with. So, it can be as simple as what happens when 15-year-olds gather for a birthday party. As anyone who has ever been 15 knows, there is a moment at such events when everyone wants to leave. Things get awkward. It is, however, very important that everyone stay and learn to get along with each other. These days, however, when this difficult moment comes, each 15-year-old simply retreats onto Facebook. Whether or not they physically leave the birthday party, they have “left.”

When teens tell me that they’d rather text than talk, they are expressing another aspect of the new psychological affordances of the new technology — the possibility of our hiding from each other. They say a phone call reveals too much, that actual conversations don’t give them enough control over what they want to say.

Does social technology isolate people from the real world, or augment our personal relationships?

Both. Some people do use social networks to keep up with real friendships, to keep them lively and up to date. There is, however, another trend in which people “friend” people they don’t know or where they are unsure of the nature of their connection. We Facebook-friend people who do not know their commitment to us and similarly, we are unsure of what commitment we have to them. They can, in fact, be more like “fans” than friends. But their presence can sustain us and distract us and make it less likely for us to look beyond them to other social encounters. They can provide the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship, without the demands of intimacy.

How does that reduced intimacy cause problems in our relationships?

We are tempted to give precedence to people we are not with over people we are with. People talk to me about their phones and laptops as the “place for hope” in their lives, the “place where sweetness comes from.” We text during dinner with our families. We text as we drive. We text when we are with our children in the playground. Children say they try to make eye contact with their parents and are frustrated because their parents are looking down at their smart phones when they come out of school or after school activities. Young men talk about how only a few years ago, their dads used to watch Sunday sports with them and during the station breaks or between plays, they used to chat. Now their fathers are too often checking their email during games. The young men I interview sometimes call it “the BlackBerry zone” when they speak of their fathers’ unavailability. For those who would object that it’s the same as reading a Sunday paper while you watch sports, it is not. We give another level of attentional commitment to our devices.

What are some of the benefits of solitude and taking time off from technology?

It’s a great psychological truth that if we don’t teach our children how to be alone, they will always be lonely. When they’re always connected, children, adolescents and adults become dependent on the presence of others for validation in the most basic ways. When people move from, “I have a feeling, I want to make a call” to “I want to have a feeling, I need to send a text,” something unfortunate happens to their relations with others. They start to need other people to feel validated and they cannot approach others as full, individual, differentiated people. Rather, other people are used, as what one might think of as part objects — spare parts to support a fragile self.

In a recent New York Times article, the founder of an online dating site (www.datemyschool.com) summed up the problem of his generation by saying that, “People in the 21st century are alone. We have so many new ways of communicating, yet we are so alone.”

For young people who’ve never really known a world without social technology, how can you stress the importance of preserving a non-networked life?

My guarded optimism about the future comes from the young people I speak with who already complain about having to perform a character on social networks. Living on social networks means performing one’s profile, and indeed multiple profiles, almost all the time. Young people complain of performance anxiety. Between performance exhaustion and the sense that they have never had their parents’ full attention, young people are in fact nostalgic for something they have never had.

One of the case studies in “Alone Together” that most moved me was the case of Sanjay, a 16-year-old whom I met for an interview. During the hour we met, Sanjay had put away his phone and laptop. After the interview was over, he took it out and he had over 100 new messages, most of them texts. He explained that some of these were from a girlfriend “in meltdown,” some of these were from a group of friends with whom he was starting a band.

As he collected his technology in order to begin to respond to these communications, Sanjay was clearly overwhelmed. He said, not particularly to me but more to himself, as a comment on his situation, “How long am I going to have to do this?” As we ratchet up the volume and velocity of our communication, we begin to set up a pace that takes us away from each other.

Do men and women use social networking technology differently?

In my own research, I find that men are more likely to be confrontational on social networking sites and women more likely to “stalk” (obsessively check people’s status updates and learn about them) and less likely to bully or be confrontational.

One gender element that did become apparent is that mothers are now breastfeeding and bottle-feeding their babies as they text. Of course, in feeding an infant, so much more is going on than giving nutrition to a baby. There is the emotional exchange on the most primitive level, the feeling of gratifying someone and being gratified in return. A mother made tense by text messages is going to be experienced as tense by the child. And that child is vulnerable to interpreting that tension as coming from within the relationship with the mother. This is something that needs to be watched very closely. It reminds me of something that has occurred to me often as I have done this research: Technology can make us forget important things we know about life.

Do you have any strategies for getting away from technology and nurturing real-life relationships?

I have some basic rules. I think of them as creating sacred spaces around certain activities. No technology at meals. I used to check email before my daughter came down to breakfast, but then I got into a “just let me finish this one last email before I make you breakfast” mode and she called me on it! So, no technology when I’m with my daughter or out with friends.

When my colleagues bring their phones to dinner and place them on the table, I sometimes tease them about the unlikeliness of “epistemological emergencies.” The idea that we should put each other on pause as though we were machines in order to attend to those who are not present has become commonplace. It needs to be examined. I don’t think that is how we want to treat each other.

Also, no technology when I’m taking time for myself in nature. I have a house on Cape Cod and I notice people walk the dunes with their eyes down, looking at their smart phones. I think it is important to teach the next generation the importance of walking in nature, and in the city, and focusing on those experiences. I am concerned about our losing touch with the realities of our physical surroundings. I am concerned about our losing touch with the kind of solitude that refreshes and restores.

Social Networking in the News – What do you think?

Amy — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 17:28:04 +0000

From “Trending Now” Yahoo! News

After his laptop was stolen, a savvy social media user in California took matters into his own hands. Using the app Hidden, Joshua Kaufman was able to take photos remotely of whoever was using his laptop through the computer’s webcam. He then posted the pictures to a Tumblr blog he created, This Guy Has My Macbook. The incident received a lot of attention across social media, collecting more than 4,000 Tumblr followers and 20,000 “likes” on Facebook. Kaufman’s story was picked up by several media outlets. In an interview with Trending Now, he said he created the blog out of frustration, anger, and even fun. After Kaufman’s blog got so much attention, Oakland police investigated and were able to nab the alleged thief within hours of looking into the case. After they learned the man in the blog post photos worked for a cab company, investigators reportedly tricked him into picking them up and arrested him.

UBelong Summer Seminar Topic – What do you think about this?

Amy — Sat, 14 May 2011 16:23:29 +0000

From the LA Times

Teenager who allegedly ranked female classmates’ looks in Facebook list is arrested

May 12, 2011 | 9:19 am

A teenager who allegedly ranked females in a list on Facebook by their physical appearance has been arrested, according to a report from the Chicago Tribune.

The 17-year-old, whose name isn’t being released because he’s a minor, is a former student of Oak Park and River Forest High School in Oak Park, Ill., and the girls he is accused of ranking in the list include former classmates, the Tribune said.

Oak Park Police believe he not only created the “offensive list” but also was responsible for circulating it online, the report said. The teen was arrested Monday at home and is being charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct, the Tribune said.

“The charges were levied with cooperation from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and Oak Park police said there will not be any additional charges,” the report said.

The list ranked 50 female students and in describing them, rated their body parts and used racial slurs. The teen also is being accused of printing out the list and passing it around during lunch periods at the high school on Jan. 14, the Tribune reported.

Officials at the high school told to the Tribune that the list, investigation and arrest have been a “sad and troubling experience,” and that the teenager is no longer a student at Oak Park and River Forest.

Some teachers and students have started selling T-shirts that have the word “Respect” printed on them in response to the list, the report said.

UBelong Summer Seminar Topic – FB in the News

Amy — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:33:23 +0000

Facebook paid PR firm to smear Google

From The Guardian, Josh Halliday, Thursday 12 May 2011

Leaked emails reveal Burson-Marsteller attempted to get USA Today and other titles to write about Google’s privacy policies

Facebook has been caught secretly paying a top public relations firm to plant negative stories about Google in the US media.

Burson-Marsteller, one of the world’s largest PR firms, attempted to get USA Today, the Washington Post and other high profile US news outlets to write scaremongering stories about Google’s privacy policies.

The explosive revelation – which will seriously damage relations between the two technology giants, already bitter rivals – came to light in leaked emails late on Wednesday. Facebook later confirmed to the Daily Beast that it had hired Burson-Marsteller.

Paul Cordasco, a spokesman for Burson-Marsteller, told the Guardian on Thursday that the assignment was “not at all standard operating procedure” and was against the company’s policies. He added: “The assignment on those terms should have been declined.”

Cordasco confirmed to the Guardian that “the assignment” was now terminated and that Burson-Marsteller was no longer working with the social network. Facebook declined to comment when contacted by the Guardian.

Suspicions in Silicon Valley were aroused earlier this week when two high-profile media figures – former CNBC tech reporter Jim Goldman, and John Mercurio, a former political reporter – began pitching anti-Google stories on behalf of their new employer, Burson-Marsteller. The pair consistently refused to disclose the identity of their client.

Goldman and Mercurio approached USA Today and other outlets offering to ghost write op-ed columns and other stories that raised privacy concerns about Google Social Circle, a social network feature based on Gmail.

In their pitch to journalists, the pair claimed Social Circle was “designed to scrape private data and build deeply personal dossiers on millions of users – in a direct and flagrant violation of [Google's] agreement with the FTC [Federal Trade Commission]“.

Facebook’s cover was blown when Burson-Marsteller offered to help write an op-ed for Chris Soghoian, a prominent internet security blogger. Soghoian challenged the company’s assertion that Social Circle was a privacy threat and accused them of “making a mountain out of a molehill”.

Soghoian was stonewalled by Burson-Marsteller when he asked them who their client was. He later published an email exchange between himself and Mercurio.

Cordasco said on Thursday: “Now that Facebook has come forward, we can confirm that we undertook an assignment for that client.

“The client requested that its name be withheld on the grounds that it was merely asking to bring publicly available information to light and such information could then be independently and easily replicated by any media. Any information brought to media attention raised fair questions, was in the public domain, and was in any event for the media to verify through independent sources.

“Whatever the rationale, this was not at all standard operating procedure and is against our policies, and the assignment on those terms should have been declined. When talking to the media, we need to adhere to strict standards of transparency about clients, and this incident underscores the absolute importance of that principle.”

Burson-Marsteller is no stranger to anti-Google stories. In 2007, Microsoft admitted that it had an “ongoing relationship” with the firm, which had been lobbying a number of top UK businesses to raise the issue of Google’s dominance in search.

The company confirmed to the Observer at the time that it worked with Microsoft to launch a new organisation – the Initiative for Competitive Online Marketplaces – that made a series of announcements relating to Google.

In this case, too, Burson-Marsteller did not disclose which company it was working for until challenged.

Google declined to comment.

An Invitation for You from the Undergraduate Academies

Amy — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:27:10 +0000

Dear UB Student,

Welcome to the University at Buffalo! We are glad that you will be joining us this fall and excited that you are already a part of the UB community!

You are invited to join UB’s Undergraduate Academies, Living and Learning Community and:

gain an appreciation of civic involvement through our Civic Engagement Academy;
raise your awareness of global issues through our Global Perspectives Academy; or
build a foundation in research through our Research Exploration Academy.

The Academies experience will complement any major! The Academies offer you an opportunity to:

Join a community on campus that allows you to benefit from a large university’s resources with a small community feel.
Live with other Academy students in a residential community located in Richmond Hall (UB’s North Campus).
Experience a unique environment that integrates learning opportunities inside and outside the classroom.
Experience lectures, workshops, excursions, films, and guest speakers focusing on themes relevant to civic engagement, global perspectives, and research exploration.
Enroll in an Academy seminar and explore the topics of Civic Engagement, Research Exploration, and Global Perspectives with distinguished faculty in a small classroom setting.

Sincerely,

Hadar Borden Danielle Vegas

Administrative Director Program Coordinator

** ** ** ** ** **

Keep up with the Academies on Facebook and Twitter!