An interesting experience with Twitter

I had never used Twitter prior to EPSY 590 ML SU 11, and really saw no point in using.  After this semester I am a big fan of Twitter and I really enjoy the people and things I am following, I will continue using Twitter well after this class ends.  Upon completing our weekly blogging assignments, I would tag the blog entries and post the links to Facebook and Twitter.  Over the past couple of weeks I wrote about cloud computing and twice about augmented reality.  All three of these postings were mentioned in Twitter and I found that to be nice: I had written something that someone felt they would want to mention in a Tweet or their blog.  Yesterday I wrote a blog entry about augmented reality and I received a notice that I had been mentioned, so I went to see what this was all about.  There was a link to a web site in the mention: http://paper.li/cecipf/1293173569.  The site is called:  HypeReality: Augmented Reality News.  I had never heard of this site before, but it is a blog and it is laid out like a newspaper.  Low and behold, in the education section of the site is my blog posting.  My Tweet about this blog entry mentioned augmented reality so this site must have a search defined to find postings on augmented reality.  So I was flattered to see my posting in their blog, I guess this is an example of a mashup?

Throughout the day yesterday I thought about this experience and a concern started bubbling up in me.  Information I posted to my blog is available and open for the world to see, I did not password protect the site.  What this web site did is a very common practice and I am excited that my work was placed on their site.  But the what if questions began entering into my thoughts.  What if I posted something to my blog that was reused by a site I am opposed to philosophically, politically and ideologically?  Would I have ever known that someone reused my work?  How would I get them to remove my posting from their site?  What could the ramifications be for me if someone saw my work on a site I did not agree with?

While in this case it was a positive experience that my posting was placed on this site, it makes me step back and think about how quickly information can be shared and without me knowing about it.  In an era where people are more open with what they share online, maybe it is important to pause prior to posting information to Facebook or a blog and ask, what are the long-term consequences to making my thoughts available for the world to see?