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Meet CiviliNation Advisor Mikah Sellers

January 11, 2013 by CiviliNation

Mikah Sellers is a marketing executive with 10+ years experience at the intersection of marketing and technology. He currently serves as the Vice President of Marketing for Levick Strategic Communications, a leading public relations firm headquartered in Washington, D.C.

Prior to joining LEVICK he held a variety of marketing, leadership and consulting roles at ePartners and Doceus, where he worked on high-profile projects for Fortune 1000 and nonprofit clients including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Maggie Moos International, Schlotzskys, the Chamber of Commerce, and Magazine Publishers of America, to name a few. Mikah also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, where he teaches in the Master of Professional Studies in the Technology Management program.

Mikah earned an M.B.A. and an M.A. in Communication Arts with a focus in advertising and public relations both with distinction at the New York Institute of Technology. Sellers also earned an M.S. in Internet Marketing at Full Sail University. He has also completed graduate coursework at Gonzaga University in organizational leadership, conflict resolution and human relations.

CiviliNation: You’re the Vice President of Marketing at LEVICK, a public relations firm located in Washington D.C. and New York City. Based on your experience, has technology increased the number and severity of reputational attacks against companies and organizations?

Mikah Sellers: Technology has made it far easier to attack someone with relative anonymity, and to inflict massive damage in a very short period of time. In the past, if you were the victim of an act of libel or slander it was pretty easy to track down the source and ultimately clear your name. Today a tweet goes global in seconds, blog posts are reposted, shared, liked, favorited in minutes. Content spreads virally so fast that it is virtually impossible to completely contain it even if you’re an expert in digital and social media. 

CiviliNation: What is your response to people who claim that online reputational and privacy attacks against adults are rare and not something that most people need to worry about?

Mikah Sellers: They are living in a fantasy land. The relative anonymity that the Internet provides makes it easy for someone that is jealous, angry, or infatuated to create havoc in your life in a matter of moments. Repairing that damage could take years and cost a small fortune. 

CiviliNation: Do you believe that social networking and other websites have any social or ethical responsibilities to help stem privacy violations and online attacks?

Mikah Sellers: No. Facebook has recently been a part of a number of controversies surrounding cyber-bullying and reputational attacks. Social networks need to craft terms of use agreements based on common sense and values that protect 99.99% of their users, not the .01% of cyber-predators that rely on first amendment arguments to protect their ill-advised actions.

CiviliNation: Why do you think there is a frequent lack of understanding by law enforcement and the legal system about the depth and breadth of the problem of online attacks and cyber bullying against adults?

Mikah Sellers: The simple fact of the matter is that the law has not yet caught up with societal or technological changes. There is a real urgent need for the highest courts to review our laws and reflect on these new forms of media.

CiviliNation: What role do you believe the law should play in helping reduce online attacks and privacy violations?

Mikah Sellers: If there was less ambiguity around the laws governing online behavior and stricter enforcement of existing (or future) laws people would think twice about their actions. I also feel that our current system of laws does not account for cross-border issues; many reputational attacks have an international component to them in terms of prosecution. Once it is determined that something took place offshore prosecution becomes increasingly more complex if not impossible.

CiviliNation: What three recommendations would you give companies and people to help protect themselves online?

Mikah Sellers: First and foremost, set up some form of monitoring even if it’s just Google Alerts. If you’re attacked online respond after careful thought and consideration – never in the heat of the moment when you’re angry – always enlist a sounding board to make sure your response is measured. Put strategy before tactics – carefully plot out your strategy and supporting tactics and recruit third-party allies in advance. Be prepared before you launch any counter-offensive. Don’t fall into the trap of acting like your attacker. Calm, cool and collected wins the day.

 

Filed Under: Cybercivility Tagged With: Cybercivility

Meet CiviliNation Advisor Arthur Bushkin

January 8, 2013 by CiviliNation

Arthur Bushkin is a writer, philanthropist and social activist whose principal cause is “harnessing the power of technology for social good.” He founded the Stargazer Foundation, which operated between 1999 and 2012, and provided free technology support to nonprofit organizations.

In the 1960s, he was present at the creation of what became the Internet, working with and consulting to the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in the Defense Department. In the 1970s, he was the Director of U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s Privacy Initiative, where he was instrumental in passage of the Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978 and served as the principal U.S. Delegate to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) on Information, Computer & Communications Policy. In the 1990s, he was President of Bell Atlantic Video Services (now Verizon) and pioneered the creation of video-on-demand and other aspects of the Web.

He has both a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and taught computer science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Wellesley College.

CiviliNation: You have the rare distinction of being able to say you were present at the creation of what became the Internet. Tell us about that.

Arthur Bushkin: During the summer of 1967, I was the third person in the 3-person office of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in the Department of Defense. Then, for the next two years, I was a consultant. At that time, ARPA funded almost all of the research nationally in what was to become the ARPAnet, which then became the basis for the Internet. Besides helping to facilitate the creation of the ARPAnet itself, my primary responsibilities centered on helping to develop policies related to the use of the new, interconnected technologies. The best known example at that time was the development of national policies relating to the privacy and security of information, whether personal, corporate, or national security.

I was involved in many aspects of the Internet throughout my career, and in 1992 I was hired to become the President of the newly created Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) Video Services division. We had developed a server-based service that we called Video-on-Demand (after what we thought would be the lead application). We were the leader in this new service, and we were also developing various shopping and learning applications, besides movies, as well. The Worldwide Web had not yet become a term of art, primarily because the software that was to become the browser had not yet been standardized. In addition, the legal and regulatory structures were not yet in place for integration of what was to become the Web (e.g., cooperation between wireless and wireline carriers). Of course, nowadays, various distinctions are no longer relevant, and everything is just called the Internet, despite that the Web, for example, is technically a layer on top of the Internet.

“Chart the history and growth of information technology and you’ll find Arthur Bushkin at pivotal moments, starting with the birth of the Internet.” – MIT Technology Review

CiviliNation: At the time, did you anticipate how life-changing this technology would become?

Arthur Bushkin: I do not believe that anyone, regardless of the time period, was able to anticipate how life-changing this technology would become. This was true for the 1960s, the 1990s, and the current day. Yes, some people, whether technologists, business people, or entrepreneurs, foresaw some aspects of the possible future, but at no time in my 50-year career did I ever meet anyone who accurately foresaw the enormity of the impact.

CiviliNation: In the 1970s, you led President Carter’s Privacy Initiative and were the principal U.S. representative at the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development on information, computer, and communications policy. What were the main areas of concern back then and how do they differ from the main issues surrounding technology use today?

Arthur Bushkin: By the second half of the 1970s, issues related to the privacy and security of information dominated the public policy discussions of the impact of the networked technology. Of course, they still do, but now we have broader discussions of economic impact, education, democracy and freedom, and so on. Back then, the assumption was that government policy needed to address these issues, and that a solution was possible domestically and that differing national policies could be harmonized internationally. Now, there are many more interrelated issues, technologies, and actors, and simple solutions are simply not possible.

CiviliNation: You’re quite outspoken in your belief that the discourse between our political leaders needs to become more civil. Why are you so passionate about this?

Arthur Bushkin: I believe strongly that all public discourse needs to be more civil, not just between political leaders, but also among the general population. And, add to civility, the need for discourse to be informed. Now that everyone has the ability to publish an opinion on anything that does not make simple solutions more possible; it makes them less possible. And when our political leaders repeat simple slogans, responsible public policy is not possible.

CiviliNation: Do you believe that social networking and other websites have any social or ethical responsibilities to help stem privacy violations and online attacks?

Arthur Bushkin: As a general statement, whether desirable or not, there is a practical limit to the ability of any Web site or communications carrier to monitor its users. Yes, there are undoubtedly egregious behaviors that can be blocked or deleted when detected, and yes, organizations need to adhere to responsible policies, whether self-imposed or government-mandated. However, the users or citizens of any community must accept that they, too, have a responsibility to behave civilly and to identify the inappropriate behavior of others.

CiviliNation: What are three recommendations you can give people for making the Web a more positive and embracing environment for everyone?

Arthur Bushkin: First, be positive and tolerant yourself. Second, be informed and discerning on the issues and the behaviors of others. Third, expect the same of others, whether public officials or your connections on social media. We’re all in this together, and we all are part of the solution.

 

Filed Under: Cybercivility Tagged With: Cybercivility

Meet CiviliNation Advisor Daniel J. Solove, Law Professor and Internationally Known Privacy Law Expert

January 4, 2013 by CiviliNation

Daniel J. Solove is the John Marshall Harlan Research Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School and an internationally known expert in privacy law.

He has consulted in high-profile privacy law cases, contributed to amicus briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court, and testified before Congress. He writes in the areas of information privacy law, cyberspace law, law and literature, jurisprudence, legal pragmatism, and constitutional theory. He is the author of the books Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff Between Privacy and Security (Yale University Press forthcoming 2011), Understanding Privacy (Harvard University Press 2008), The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet (Yale University Press 2007), The Digital Person: Technology and Privacy in the Internet Age (NYU Press 2004), in addition to several textbooks and numerous articles and essays, which have appeared in many of the leading law reviews.

He received his A.B. in English Literature from Washington University, where he was an early selection for Phi Beta Kappa, and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

CiviliNation: You’re one of the world’s leading experts on privacy and privacy law. In your view, has the risk to online personal privacy become greater in the past decade?

Daniel Solove: Absolutely. Companies are gathering and using more personal data.  The government is doing so as well, and new surveillance technologies are being developed to make one’s mind spin.  And we are also invading each other’s privacy via our online postings – and creating risks to ourselves as well.

CiviliNation: What is your response to people who claim that online reputational and privacy attacks against adults are rare and not something that most people need to worry about?

Daniel Solove: They aren’t rare. They are frequent enough that reputation-protection companies such as Reputation.com have developed into very profitable and successful businesses. I read countless stories about attacks.  They are serious, and in some cases so severe that they have resulted in violence and even suicide. It is certainly true that most people will not be victimized, but a significant number will be. Most people won’t be killed in a car crash, but enough will be that we should take steps to improve car safety.  The same goes for reputational and privacy attacks.

CiviliNation: Do you believe that social networking and other websites have any social or ethical responsibilities to help stem privacy violations and online attacks?

Daniel Solove: Yes.  If you make a product that people can use to harm themselves or others, then you should do whatever you can to make sure that people use it appropriately and safely.

CiviliNation: Why do you think there is a frequent lack of understanding by law enforcement and the legal system about the depth and breadth of the problem of online attacks and cyberbullying against adults?

Daniel Solove: I think that part of the reason is that people can’t believe it.  If they immerse themselves in the issue and read the comments and see the attacks, it is quite eye opening.  There are a lot of very crude, cruel, and downright evil people out there – or perhaps more accurately, there is this very ugly side to many people. We just don’t see this side of people in our face-to-face encounters. But your co-worker who seems so quiet and polite in person can be seething with hate, bigotry, misogyny, maliciousness, and cruelty.  It comes out online, when people think they are anonymous. This fact should be no surprise, as with every politician and celebrity caught in a sordid scandal, we say: “Gee, I thought I really knew this person, but I was wrong.”  So I think people just don’t realize how many other people have this Mr. Hyde side.  Of course, most people don’t have this ugly side, but a surprising number do, and it can be hard to wrap one’s mind around it because doing so can be a bit frightening and alarming.

CiviliNation: What role do you believe the law should play in helping reduce online attacks and privacy violations?

Daniel Solove: The law should definitely play a role.  Precisely how is a very complex question, as the law must balance privacy, speech, and other interests.  I explore this in my book, The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet, which I’ve made available for free online.

CiviliNation: What three recommendations would you give adults to help protect themselves online?

Daniel Solove:

  1. Google yourself frequently.  Don’t be bashful and think it is vain.  You can’t protect yourself if you don’t know what’s out there about you.
  2. If you find anything about you or your family members that is problematic, try informal means first to address the problem.  Ask whomever posted it or the websites to please take it down.  Be nice about it, because angry demands often make the poster want to retaliate.
  3. If it isn’t taken down, then reach out to services like Reputation.com for help, or contact a lawyer.  Rarely will legal action help, as the law is slow and clunky and needs a lot of reform, but a lawyer can do things short of legal action that might help.  Often, the threat of legal action is enough to fix the situation.

 

CiviliNation: In addition to teaching at George Washington University Law School, you also run TeachPrivacy. Tell us about your company.

Daniel Solove: Through TeachPrivacy, I develop privacy and data security training for various organizations – hospitals, schools, businesses, etc.  This training is used to provide basic education to employees, students, faculty, doctors, etc. about how to protect privacy and security – and why doing so is important for clients, customers, patients, students, etc.  Most privacy and data security incidents are caused by simple human mistakes, so education is essential to prevention.  My training is computer-based, and consists of videos and interactive modules (quizzes, activities, and games), and I believe good training involves concrete stories and examples, and it must be engaging and memorable.

 

Filed Under: Cybercivility Tagged With: Cybercivility, Law

Calling Me a Douche Isn’t the Solution, Says Michael Sommermeyer (Guest Post)

September 20, 2012 by CiviliNation

CiviliNation occasionally publishes guest posts from individuals who want to add their voice to the discussion about online discourse and cybercivility. While the publishing of these posts should not be considered an endorsement by the organization, we welcome people’s contributions to this important topic.

Michael S. Sommermeyer is a public relations strategist who currently provides community relations and outreach planning for the State of Nevada Foreclosure Mediation Program. In 2007, he was responsible for media planning for the Nevada v. O.J. Simpson trial. He is an author and former television news anchor. He can be reached via email at michael.sommermeyer@gmail.com. The thoughts expressed here are those of Sommermeyer alone.

               ——————–

Apparently I am a Douche. I obtained this moniker during a discussion with someone on my personal Facebook page after we had a difference of political opinion. My new title actually followed a previous exchange where the person labeled me an “Ignorant Tea Bagger.” I’m not sure whether “Douche” was therefore an improvement or an attempt to hit me even harder below the belt.

As a kindergartener I learned the rhyme “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” I’m not sure I buy into that anymore. Lately the aggression and hostility expressed via social media has been more like a gravel pit with the words zipping past   and pelting like pea gravel. Regrettably, the rest of what we learned in kindergarten – how to be kind to others and treat them the way you would like to be treated – rarely penetrates these social spaces.

I recently took a test that measured my political leanings. The results designated me a political moderate. Not a “Tea Bagger,” but a moderate. That designation probably can be attributed to my journalism training and the importance of avoiding the appearance of bias, as well as my personal nature to avoid taking a stand. So, when I do take a position on something that’s important to me,  it sometimes surprises and scares people. In that context, my latest salvo in the social world likely caused this person to conclude I was the aforementioned Douche. Except I really think that is too simple of an explanation.

What we forget in social media is that the exchanges we have  rarely resemble real conversations. The notion that any of these spaces is a salon where ideas are shared and debated is simply untrue. Online social spaces are really just large auditoriums with everyone shouting at the same time. It is hard enough to be heard, let alone have a civil conversation.

Civil discourse requires a modicum of civil respect. My opinion may not be valued or shared by another, but it is still one voice in the room. You can choose to engage me, learn from me, understand me, or just let me shout.  Preferably, I would like others to question me, learn from me, and then, if I am wrong, persuade me to accept their opinion. Unfortunately, this is a rare event.

Some of this failure to listen in social media can be attributed to the rush to “find your voice.” Whether it is through a blog or a Pinterest page, everyone is eager to share themselves. Any attempt at listening is done passively, as in admiring a post, adding a “Like,” or delegating the message to the background so it can be returned to at a more convenient time. When we do attempt to respond, it is in the moment and our mouths often overrun our ability to censor, review, and sufficiently contemplate. In our rush, we shout above the din to be heard, and to stand out, we resort to name-calling.

When I worked at Texas Tech University, one of my public relation duties was to promote its vast Turkish collection. Hidden in the archives is this proverb: “If speaking is silver, then listening is gold.” Those powerful words remind us that we cannot hope to understand another unless we spend more time listening than expressing. We must work on enlarging our ears before we polish our voices.

But once we’ve spoken out in haste, we can’t take back the words. Once a friend calls you a “Douche” in a social space, it becomes personal and awkward. A phone call or email afterward to apologize for anger having gotten out of control seems inadequate.

Social media makes it too easy to rebuke a negative exchange; if we dislike a viewpoint, we just “unlike” the person.  Years of friendship and collaboration on cherished projects can be gone in a click, as happened in my situation. We tend to take our social spaces and make them weak replacements for real interactions. Social media does not allow friends to look each other in the eye, share a disagreement, and work it out. Social media empowers us to stand in the middle of the room and just shout.

And after a while, no one listens anymore.

 

 

Filed Under: Cybercivility Tagged With: Conflict Resolution, Cyberbullying, Cybercivility

CiviliNation’s Picks ~ September 18, 2012

September 18, 2012 by CiviliNation

Firm call on all religions to reject violence as a response to perceived or actual affronts against their beliefs. Speaking after the attacks on U.S. embassy in Libya, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “When Christians are subject to insults to their faith, and that certainly happens, we expect them not to resort to violence. When Hindus or Buddhists are subjected to insults to their faiths, and that also certainly happens, we expect them not to resort to violence. The same goes for all faiths, including Islam.” Secretary Clinton Delivers Powerful Religion Speech After Middle East Embassy Attacks

Wikipedia embraces dispute resolution. The new WikiProject Dispute Resolution‘s goal is to “grow the ranks of editors who are active in dispute resolution, to increase the amount of disputes that get handled properly and resolved, as opposed to getting mismanaged or ignored, resulting in escalation.”

This belongs in the “Even Lawyers Need Social Media Training” category. A Miami-Dade, Florida public defender’s client receives a mistrial after the attorney posted a picture of her client’s leopard-print underwear on her personal Facebook page. Tamara Rice Lave, a University of Miami law professor who specializes in criminal procedure, said the attorney, who was subsequently fired, showed  “shockingly poor judgment.” Lawyer’s Facebook photo causes mistrial in Miami-Dade murder case

Example of successful civil dialogue between people with opposing views. In a guest post on Public Conversations Project’s blog, writer John Backman  describes the experience he had on his Facebook page after posing a series of pro and con questions about gun ownership shortly after the Aurora, Colorado shootings. He noted that “Opening the door to authentic dialogue happens a few millimeters at a time. Initially, the tone and framing of the questions nudged us into restatement of positions. Then, the civility and depth of those restatements allowed others to ask more questions and probe gently. Had the conversation continued, I suspect that probing would have nudged the door open a bit more.” One List of Questions, Three Conversations—All About Guns

 

Filed Under: Cybercivility Tagged With: Conflict Resolution, Cybercivility

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