Four ChatGPT Stories with Implications for All

AI generated art  based on 
Double D artwork by e.

ChatGPT, the language model chatbot developed by OpenAI, continues to create quite a stir. It is also a work in progress. That is, it uses human feedback (feedback from users) as a means of learning. Because it is trained by data from humans, it has been prone to reflect our human biases. 

In addition to being biased, ChatGPT is also inaccurate at times. It is not connected to the Internet and was trained only up till 2021. Therefore, it can actually get its facts wrong as when I recently asked he/she/it to tell me about the Duluth music scene and the best night spots to hear music. One of the places it suggested had been out of business for a couple years. In other words, verify accuracy or you may end up passing along falsehoods.

The number of people experimenting with ChatGPT is quite remarkable. There were more than one billion visits to the website in February alone. That's pretty amazing since this was only launched in November 2022.

Here are some comparisons to help put ChatGPTs growth into perspective, the amount of time it took to reach one million users:

Netflix: 3.5 years
Spotify:  5 months
Instagram: 2 months
Facebook: 10 months
ChatGPT: 5 days*

Here are a few recent stories that caught my eye. I found the last one especially interesting in light of the note above that ChatGPT is inaccurate at times. 

One story is about the bot's ability to pass a medical exam with flying colors. I am guessing it could also pass the bar with flying colors as well. Will ChatGPT be able to offer legal advice to a team of attorneys hired to defend ChatGPT in the defamation case below.

* * *     

ChatGPT AI lists jobs it can do better than humans 

as millions could be put out of work

https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/chatgpt-ai-lists-jobs-it-can-do-better-humans-millions-could-be-put-out-work

OpenAI’s wildly popular chatbot, ChatGPT, is expected to replace 4.8 million U.S. jobs, according to a new report.

Outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas recently asked ChatGPT’s bot a series of questions, including "What jobs can ChatGPT replace?" and in what fields the bot would be most capable of working, according to a press release provided to Fox News Digital. 

RELATED: Surviving AI by Calum Chace Is a Must Read for Those Who Plan to Be Here in the Future

AI could go 'Terminator,' gain upper hand over humans 

in Darwinian rules of evolution, report warns

https://www.foxnews.com/tech/ai-could-go-terminator-gain-upper-hand-over-humans-in-darwinian-rules-of-evolution-expert-warns

Artificial intelligence could gain the upper hand over humanity and pose "catastrophic" risks under the Darwinian rules of evolution, a new report warns.

The newest version of ChatGPT passed 

the US medical licensing exam with flying colors 

and diagnosed a 1 in 100,000 condition in seconds

https://www.insider.com/chatgpt-passes-medical-exam-diagnoses-rare-condition-2023-4

A doctor and Harvard computer scientist says GPT-4 has better clinical judgment than "many doctors." 

Australian mayor readies world's first defamation lawsuit 

over ChatGPT content

https://www.reuters.com/technology/australian-mayor-readies-worlds-first-defamation-lawsuit-over-chatgpt-content-2023-04-05/

SYDNEY, April 5 (Reuters) - A regional Australian mayor said he may sue OpenAI if it does not correct ChatGPT's false claims that he had served time in prison for bribery, in what would be the first defamation lawsuit against the automated text service.

Brian Hood, who was elected mayor of Hepburn Shire, 120km (75 miles) northwest of Melbourne, last November, became concerned about his reputation when members of the public told him ChatGPT had falsely named him as a guilty party in a foreign bribery scandal involving a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia in the early 2000s.

* * *  

*Source: https://nerdynav.com/chatgpt-statistics/

Tech Tuesday: A.I. Is Already Taking White Collar Writing Jobs. Who's Next?

Photo by Yuyeung Lau on Unsplash

In November I was reading an investment update at Zach's when I noticed that the advice regarding a particular stock was not only coherent but straightforward, clear English. Just the facts, but in sentences. In fine print it stated that the paragraph had been written by a machine.

The same kind of thing, converting data into statements, is happening in sports as well. Over 400 articles sent out on the wire services during the last summer olympics were  created by A.I.  

I've been looking at articles and books on Artificial Intelligence lately, many which note how white collar jobs will be vulnerable to these thinking machines. (Assuming that organizing data into sentences is thinking.) On Wall Street no one is looking for poetry. Neither are sports gamblers. It's all about the transmission of information. The words help identify what the numbers refer to, but the machines have few ambitions to dress up their prose in order to obtain a Pulitzer.

Machines have been replacing humans for decades, which is why the subject keeps coming up regarding how we're going to take care of the dispossessed. We're not doing the greatest job now, but what happens when unemployment is 10X what it is today?

According to this article in Fortune the robots are already replacing people in ways we have not yet noticed. Annual report writers, financial analysts, online marketing, programatic advertising, anesthesiologists, diagnosticians and even physicians have already been pushed aside by thinking machines to some extent.

Ten years ago some kid graduated college thinking his internet marketing degree was going to be his ticket to wealth and Caribbean vacations. Little did he know that in fifteen years the skills he learned would be obsolete.

If there's any secret to survival in today's topsy-turvy work environment, it seems we need to teach young people how to think, and to be vigilant about staying current with the changes taking place in their career field. 

* * * 

Meta, formerly Facebook, says it is working on an A.I. computer that will be faster than any in the world. How will it be used? According to this article it will be used to train other A.I. robots. Interesting. Will it teach the machines how to think? Or will it indoctrinate?  Is Meta's A.I. going to train up an army that will serve on behalf of the Haves or Have-Nots? 

Oh well, much more can be said but we'll save that for another space in time.

Related Links
Surviving AI by Calum Chace Is a Must Read for Those Who Plan to Be Here in the Future
Interview with David Asch Offers Insights On A.I.
Top 14 Artificial Intelligence Applications in 2022

*This blog post was not written by an A.I. 

Most Popular Blog Posts of 2021 at Ennyman's Territory--Chiefly Dylan, Though Other Themes Emerged

County commissioners made a 
proclamation on Dylan's 80th birthday.
By year's end he was on tour again.

It's that time of year again, a time for looking back at the year now past in order to prepare for the year ahead. Once again, the Grateful Dead have given us a few lines to describe our mutual experience of these past two years. I'll select this one: "What a long strange trip it's been." 

Clint Eastwood's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly comes to mind as well. As regards Ennyman's Territory....

The Good: I didn't quit at the end of 2020 when I became depressed about it all I was greatly encouraged by a few reader friends who seemed surprised that I would even consider quitting. 

Also in the "Good" category... the blog passed the 3 million pageviews milestone in November. Thank you. You (readers) are the reason I keep trying to produce content that is interesting, thought-provoking or relevant. 

The Bad: These are intertwined. This spring I found myself in a predicament. Facebook began banning my blog URL so that I could no longer share my blog content there. The stated reason: violation of community standards. When I dug into this and attempted to get a clarification, I could not reach a human being, but did get an explanation. Supposedly, the Facebook "content police" said I was a Bot, the implication being that because I posted regularly every day since 2007 I must be a machine. 

Two days later I was also banned on Instagram, which is owned by FB. On both Facebook and Instagram I could still read others' posts, but on Instagram I was unable to "like" the artwork of the artists I followed there, nor could I post any of my own photos.

The Instagram situation resolved itself in about six to eight weeks, but Facebook was still a thorn. It was suggested I go to the forums on Facebook and take up my case there. Over a period of a month I made a couple attempts to interact with a Facebook human, and by summer had a breakthrough. A Facebook staffer responded to my "problem" and said my blog links were being blocked because either (a) I was perceived as a spammer, or (b) someone reported me. 

When I pursued this so as to learn who made the accusation or why, the person replied, "This discussion is closed."  

The Ugly: Well, since 2010 a primary subject for my blog content had been the local Twin Ports art scene. Few, if any, of the artists who followed my blog on Facebook were also followers on Twitter. Because the people I wanted to reach through my blog were not accessible, my motivation was undercut. Incentives matter, and I lost my motivation to go over-the-top to cover what was happening. 

In truth, two years of pandemic has caused a very definite curtailment of art openings and events... Artists are still making art, and sharing on social media, but it is a very different social experience from the evolving scene of the past dozen years.

The Workaround: For what it's worth, this fall I shut down my ennyman.com blog and created a springboard so that when I post ennyman.com on Facebook, the reader gets forward to the most recent blog post at Ennyman's Territory. It's clumsy, but it works. (Thank you, Cirina.)

Alas, it's time for the Ten Most Popular Blog Posts of 2021 at Ennyman's Territory. Drumroll please........

10

Artists Take to the Streets... To Make Snow Sculptures. Plus a Link to Art in February

9

Michael Lewis' Tribute to Coach Fitz

8

San Francisco's School Renaming Spree Would Be Funny If They Weren't Serious

7

French Artist Claude-Angèle Boni Explains Two Dylan-Inspired Treasures

6

Bob Dylan's Shadow Kingdom: Swoons for Many, a Letdown for a Few

5

Official Poster and Finalized Schedule for Duluth Dylan Fest 2021

4

Dylan On Loneliness: References A-Plenty, Sorrows Run Deep

3

Mr. Dylan Spent Some Time Watching the River Flow During the Pandemic (Milwaukee Concert Review & More)

2

Dylan Lines in 4/4 Time: A Trivia Contest for the Super Fans

1

Winter Dance Party: 62 Years Ago Today Bob Dylan Saw Buddy Holly Here at The Historic Duluth Armory

The Armory board had something to shout about in 2021.
After 20 years of preparations, the dream of a renovation
took another step forward. Story here.

Thank you to everyone who has visited these past 14 years... 

May your 2022 be our best year ever.

Who owns the Information Highway? Here's what they were debating in 1994.

While cleaning out old files and folders from my garage I came across a fat folder of articles I'd photocopied during the early days of the Internet.  In about 30 seconds I surmised that there were some good seeds for stimulating those little grey cells we use to process ideas. The very first of these was an article by Kevin Cooke and Dan Lehrer of The Nation that appeared in the January/February 1994 edition of the Utne Reader. The piece was titled Who will own the information highway? 

The authors begin by sharing a story about Croatia, with a callout that reads, "Direct access to information is 'inherently politically subversive,'' says one longtime Nethead." The Croatian, who maintains a bulletin titled Zagren Diary, said his only link to the outside world is via email. (The article calls it electronic mail.) Kat explains that the Croatian government owns all the media there and they are prosecuting a group of journalists for treason.

The authors then note how the Russian Internet became a source of information about what was taking place during the 1991 coup. Likewise, students in China used the Internet to get the word out about what was happening there during Tiananmen Square. Reporters in China were gagged, but online newsgroups had the stories.

* * * 

The article segues into the power of the Internet, "the most powerful computer network on the planet because it is the biggest." How big? (And this is hilarious.) "It encompasses 1.3 million computers with Internet addresses used by up to 30 million people in more than 40 countries."

Can you imagine what they would have said if told that a single company in less than 30 years would have 2.8 million active monthly users by 2021? The authors correctly predicted that technology would be developed to make it easier for people who weren't nerds to get online. 

They also correctly put a spotlight on an issue that is still unresolved today. Who should control the Internet? Some argued that the Internet should belong to private businesses. The authors had issues with this. "By giving the private sector unregulated and monopolistic control over the Net's electronic connections, the government would in effect allow megacorporations like AT&T and Time Warner, who own the cable lines and manage what flows through them, to call the shots in the future."

Mega-big... like Apple (controlling what can be downloaded from iTunes) and Amazon (free to ban books that are not PC) and Google (free to harvest more data about you than you knew even existed) and Facebook (ditto).

In 1994 there were many voices raised expressing concern over censorship, and others expressing concerns about users being monitored. It doesn't seem like things have really changed.

The article ends with a confident declaration that issues related to access, pricing, censorship and redress of grievances would be resolved within five years. 27 years later and I'm personally a little less than optimistic.

* * * 

Hard to believe that Amazon was just a twinkle in its founder's eye back then, that Google would not appear til five years later, and that Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg was only a 10 year old kid at that time. Like, who would have thunk it?

C'est la vie.

I Violated Community Standards -- Am I Doomed?

Very strange. Years ago I was encouraged to set up a "business account" on Facebook for Ennyman's Territory. The only thing it did (once set up) was to have Facebook constantly remind me I would have more traffic if I advertised (i.e. Paid Facebook Money). I never "pushed" the page to be liked, but have a few followers even though I do seldom post there.

Instead, each day after publishing my post for the day I would share on Facebook and Tweet it. I have a modest following on FB and 4K+ Twitter followers, so the ritual of writing and then sharing on these social media platforms worked for me. Until this happened about a month ago:

>>>>People who recently visited your page, Ennyman's Territory, recommended changes to the information on your page.<<<<<

This is so bizarre that it defies comprehension, and I have been unable to find a human being at Facebook who can help me beyond their Bots who now tell me I am Spamming.

Is it spamming to write something once a day and share it? I don't put it on everyone else's wall. That would be spamming. I just put it on my own, or used to

Did someone really complain? Or was it an A.I. Terminator that flagged me.

Then I received these notes from Michael Johnson and Lois Sandy Marshall:

Michael John

Yup, I just confirmed that facebook won't let anyone go to your blog by clicking the link on your Ennyman's Territory page, nor would they let me post the link here as a comment. I clicked through their reasons 'why' and found they said it violated the Community Standards / rules against spam. I contested the decision and now it sits a couple posts above this one with a red oval around it (not sure if anyone can see that but me).

Lois Sandy Marshall

Well, cousin, I tried to post your 3/18/21 blog on my own page. Here is what I got:

This URL goes against our Community Standards on spam:

pioneerproductions.blogspot dot com

I registered a disagree with the decision. (BTW, I can post your blog by using the word "dot" instead of . in your URL.)

So it was not the action of posting my blog daily, but Ennyman's Territory itself that was the problem, the trouble, and I the despicable violator of community standards, ostracized like a mad cur, a slimy swamp rat, scaly cold-blooded reptile, a poisonous pillock, gorbellied miscreant, a rank compound of odious smells from a pile of plague sores....

OK, methinks I got carried away.

What happened next surprised me even more. I AM UNABLE TO LIKE anyone's posts on Instagram. I have been following a number of local and international artists, really enjoying the creativity and letting them know by tapping on the Heart.

Every time I attempt to "Like" by touching the Heart icon, I get this message:

Try Again Later

We restrict certain activity to protect our community.

Well, it's obvious what's happening on Instagram. Facebook owns Instagram, and once flagged as a troublemaker on Facebook, it was only a matter of time before I was handcuffed on Instagram. It only took roughly a week, if that.

Funny thing is, I can still post photos and share on Instagram. Why can't I interact with people there? I am isolated... kicked off the island.

I still like to look, though without a handshake it feels like I'm just a lurker. So be it.

Online Advertising: Was Facebook Caught with Its Pants Down?

For nearly a decade Bob Hoffman, the Ad Contrarian, has been beating the drum that digital advertising is a shady region awash with fraud. Even so, like a shiny new toy businesses have poured billions of dollars into the coffers of its advocates (ad agencies) and platforms, especially Facebook, YouTube and their ilk. 

So it came as no surprise (for me) to read this story a friend sent by Natasha Lomax on MarketWatch titled Facebook knew for years ad reach estimates were based on ‘wrong data’ but blocked fixes over revenue impact, per court filing.

Evidently, internal emails were unsealed in a recent court case that COO Sheryl Sandberg knew in 2017 that there were problems with a free ad planning tool that Facebook provided for marketers. And the more you look the more you may not want to see. The Lomax article goes on to say, "The filing also reveals that a Facebook product manager for the “potential reach” tool warned the company was making revenue it 'should never have' off of 'wrong data'."

According to Lomax, "The unsealed documents pertain to a U.S. class action lawsuit, filed in 2018, which alleges that Facebook deceived advertisers by knowingly including fake and duplicate accounts in a 'potential reach' metric." 

The point here is not to suggest online marketing is a waste of time and money. It's practically a marketing maxim that you put your storefront where the people are. ("Location, Location, Location.") On the other hand, I built my career from another rule of thumb: You can't manage what your don't measure. And a lot of what is being sold simply doesn't measure up. 

This is why I wrote this article about Data Analytics: The Three Most Important People in the Room. 

In that article I cited an article an opinion piece in The Drum, in which Chris Kelly argues that although digital ad spending grew by 20% year-over-year again, analyzing the impact of this spending has not matured enough to justify the growth in spending. I concur.

The three people you need in the room, therefore, are the Cheerleader, the Skeptic and the Judge. All too often the Cheerleader will do everything possible to keep the Skeptic out of the room because the case they're making is a snowjob. 

On my shelf here is a book whose title I really love: How to Lie with Numbers. It happens every day, in Washington, on Wall Street and in board rooms across the country. And yes, it even happens at Facebook. 

In my first Marketing Matters column for Business North (2018) I wrote a story titled Internet Marketing: Five Considerations. One of these five considerations was the matter of auditing. Both radio and television have third party auditors that collect data to assist advertisers in understanding the reach of what viewers are watching and listeners are tuning in to. If you are a business, who is doing this in the digital realm? 

At that time I wrote: This is the dark side that has Ad Contrarian Bob Hoffman, an ex-ad agency CEO, up in arms. On his blog he makes a point to skewer the lack of policing that takes place in online machinations. In his book BadMen Hoffman writes, “Online advertising has two very compelling advantages for agencies: it is lucrative and largely incomprehensible.”  

Hoffman believed the ad fraud problem was estimated to be $60 billion, though I would have no real clue as to how to even guess, any more than how much gambling there is in Las Vegas or jelly beans in a Mason Jar at the fair.

At the time, Hoffman wrote, Procter & Gamble became so disillusioned about the effectiveness of their own online spend that last year they cut their digital advertising by 200 million dollars, with no visible negative side effects. In fact, a Wall Street Journal headline declared, “P&G Contends Too Much Digital Advertising Is a Waste.” The March 1, 2018 Adweek headline that same day read, “When Procter & Gamble Cut $200 Million in Digital Ad Spend, It Increased Its Reach 10%.” Something’s happening here, but it ain’t quite exactly clear.

As the saying goes, Buyer Beware.

Related Links

Facebook Really Doesn't Want You To Read These Emails

Data Analytics: The Three Most Important People in the Room

Bob Hoffman's Ad Contrarian Blog

Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple and Other Finance-Related Anecdotes

I recently received an email that said Amazon sold 20 million items in 1999 and generated an annual revenue of just over $1.6 billion. Two decades later, in 2019 Amazon, sold over 175 million products in a single day (Amazon Prime Day) and the revenue for the year was a whopping $280.5 billion. Said differently, in 2019 Amazon was generating more revenue every two days than it was making in a full year back in 1999.

When Amazon became a publicly traded company in May 1997, you could have bought shares for $1.50. For $150 you could have owned 100 shares of Amazon stock. Currently, the price of Amazon stock (AMZN) is $3,292 per share, but that does not mean your initial 100 shares  ($150) would be worth $329,200. The company had several stock splits while it was in early growth mode and you would actually now have 12 times that amount or nearly four million dollars. 

You don't have $150 to invest in the next Amazon? You probably spent more than that on Amazon Prime in a couple years or your cable bill in a few months or eating out (before Covid).

* * * 

There really aren't that many Amazons, are there? Ummm...  Actually, there are more than you think.

For more on this topic, read my story in the Data Driven Investor on Medium.  It includes an important reminder about risk.

Here is the Friend Link. 

* * * 

Digital Marketer Eagan Heath Shares How His Company Helps Small Businesses Find New Customers

Eagan Heath explains analytics insights with client.

I met Eagan Heath at my daughter's wedding several years ago. He performed Dylan's Love Minus Zero/No Limit as I walked my daughter down the "aisle" at an outdoor wedding in Morris, Minnesota. This week we re-connected to discuss marketing matters, including the manner in which Facebook and Google use A.I. and how much the marketing playing field has shifted. This interview was a consequence of that discussion.

EN: What is your title and what is Get Found Madison?

Eagan Heath: I just say I'm the owner and founder of a digital marketing agency based in Madison, Wisconsin. We started out serving local businesses by helping them rank on Google with SEO and Google Ads, and we've since branched out into serving eCommerce and B2B companies with paid social media ads, email automation and WordPress websites.

EN: When did you found Get Found Madison and what were you doing up till then?

EH: I started the company in June 2016 after working at Epic as a hospital software project manager.

EN: Where did the idea for your company come from?

EH: I was itching to work for myself and I heard on a podcast that offering SEO services was a great way to start doing that. I did some free consulting for some local businesses while I still worked my corporate job, and after I got them from page 2 to the top of page 1 of Google, I knew I had something valuable to offer.

EN: You have some great testimonials. When you started you had no track record. How did you establish your credibility initially?

EH: SEO is different than most service businesses because people can tell immediately whether you're good at what you do. I focused on ranking for phrases like "SEO Madison WI" or "SEO company in Madison, WI" so people could see I knew my stuff. Prospects often comment that they found me through good and that I seem to know what I'm doing.

For the first clients, referrals were huge, so I developed relationships with local website companies who referred me to their clients and transferred a lot of trust thereby.

EN: A lot of people fallaciously think that “if you build it they will come” when it comes to putting up a website. Would you care to comment on this?

EH: Great question. I think too many small businesses think of their website as a brochure when what they really want is a lead generation machine.

What you actually need to do is plan out how you'll get the right people to your site so they'll contact you or buy from you.

Luckily, there is a pretty short list of places most people go on their devices, and we can reach them at every one:
• Search engine
• Social Media
• Email
• Browsing a website like news, sports, a blog, etc.

EN: I think one of the most fascinating features of data analytics is learning at what point potential customers fall out of the sales funnel. How does Get Found Madison help in that?

EH: Agreed. I've gotten concise about pitching the value of online marketing to skeptical small business owners over the years, and it comes down to:
• The targeting is better
• People's attention has shifted online, so that's where they are
• You can more easily measure the results
• You can test faster and with a smaller initial budget
• As a result, you can acquire customers cheaper online than offline

For a local business, the funnel looks something like this:
• Impressions
• Clicks
• Contact form submissions
• Sales

We measure the results and provide our clients with the data on the first three, and help them to track that last one in their CRM.

For an eCommerce business, it might look something like:
• Impression
• Click
• Email list sign up
• Email open rate
• Email click rate
• Purchase

"Checkmate."

EN: You have a small team but a wide array of skills and services. What are the services that your Madison customers have found most useful and compelling?

EH: We are about to launch a new brand called Caravan Digital (freshly named this week) that will market to and focus on eCommerce marketing. The reason we're doing this is because we can cleanly report on dollars out vs. dollars in on ad spend and because eCommerce is the present and the future.

While I'll always have a place in my heart and mind for SEO, the reality has been that we can drive stronger results faster and with better reporting with Facebook Ads for eCommerce companies. We have a client right now who has spent $23,000 on Facebook ads and made $467,000 in sales as a result. It's hard to get 2,000% returns like that anywhere else.


Related Links
GetFoundMadison
Data Analytics: The Three Most Important People in the Room
Can Local Retailers Compete Against Amazon?

Wow! I Said Something Wrong on Facebook. Four Times In One Day!!!!

"Oh Wow!" -- Photo by okeykat on Unsplash

My grandson was here this weekend. It's been truly a joy to see him grow. His vocabulary is quite astonishing, though I am not surprised. His parents read to him every night.

I mention Wally because during his visit here this weekend he kept saying the word "Wow!" It was so much fun to see and hear him use this expression to describe every new thing.

Tonight, I had a "Wow!" moment. It had to do with being censored by Facebook. Maybe "censored" is the wrong word. I shared an article from Reason magazine titled Stop It With the Coronavirus Curfews Already, subtitled Self-imprisonment orders from panicky politicians are not a prudent way to flatten the curve.

Reason offers a Libertarian slant on the news, an attitude that less government is better than more government. What I like is that it offers an original perspective that differs from Left and Right, and differentiates itself from the party politics that dominate the national stage.

Just by sharing a different perspective I'm told that I have "violated community standards." Sheesh.

And CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? This comment was also cited for violating community standards. I'd written a review of Andy Messerschidt's impressive iconography currently on display at the Duluth Art Institute.

NOW THIS IS EVEN MORE WOW!
Facebook says my review of the book Baseball Haiku is a violation of community standards. What? Because I used the word Japanese to describe the Haiku art form? Or was it something else?

All these Violation Of Community Standards announcements occurred today. The three above occurring in the last hour. The first one that triggered an alarm for them was the following. (Tell me this is not strange.)

Good article in Reason. It begins: "Now that sports have been effectively canceled, there is apparently a new competition afoot in this coronavirus-cursed country: Politicians vying to see who can impose the most freedom-infringing clampdown in the name of flattening the curve." https://reason.com/2020/03/17/stop-it-with-the-coronavirus-curfews-already/?utm_medium=email

* * * *
Evidently the Pontiff is unhappy when plebes express opinions that fail to align with Papal decrees.

I am honestly Mystified.

OK, so I dig a little deeper and Facebook states this:

We don't allow people to get likes, follows, shares or video views in a way that's misleading to others.
We define spam as things like:

• Repeating the same comment
• Getting fake likes, follows, shares or video views
• Coordinating likes and shares to mislead others about the popularity of something

1. I did not repeat content intentionally or to my knowledge. I only shared something I wanted to share because I thought it interesting. And how many people shared my book review of American Haiku or Andy Messerschmidt's art show at the Duluth Art Institute?

2. I was not looking for likes. I do not care about likes. I did not know one could follow people, only businesses.

3. Who would I have been coordinating with? Especially the book and art reviews. I am clueless as to who else has shared the Reason articles. I have shared articles many times over the years, as most others do. Why was I flagged this time.

* * * *

I'm more surprised than angry, but quite honestly, this seems nuts.

What do you think?

Online Writers and Twitter Users: Do You Pay Attention To Your Analytics?

LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY

As the saying goes, "Life is for learning." They also say "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."

That second statement is bunk. If you embrace the concept of lifelong learning, you'll continuously be looking for new tricks to learn. It becomes your nature.

I've been paying attention to my blogger stats since I started blogging in 2007. Before that I noted my website stats. Having had a career in advertising, I was continuously paying attention to statistics pertaining to lead generation, conversion rates, and the cost of acquiring a new customer.

Maybe that was all fun to me because I like numbers and was always good at math while growing up. Or maybe it was fun because I grew up being a bit competitive and I liked winning. This evolved to what I hope is a healthier motivation to achieve for achievement sake and not to beat anyone.  I don't feel a need to be the best, only to be better than I was.

ALL THIS TO SAY that I learned something new today. 

I've been on Twitter since 2008 when I learned that large numbers of journalists used Twitter for a variety of reasons, including finding breaking news. It's a great way to stay in tune with what is happening on the national and global scenes. And to catch a sense of where others are at on issues, etc. But it's also a great way to share your own stories, articles, ideas and interests. Especially if you're a writer.

What I discovered today is that just as I have access to extensive stats pertaining to my blog (including where my readers are from, what kinds of devices they access the blog from, etc.) there is also a "back room" on Twitter for every Twitter user's analytics. I never knew this.

So, what did I see when I peeked behind the curtain?

Napping on the couch my son's dog Noodles also sleeping.

The Top Interest among my followers is Dogs. 
How interesting because I seldom write about dogs, though there are clues from time to time that I am a dog person.

The Top Language is English.
No surprise there.

Top Lifestyle Type is Online Buyers.
This is strange on one level. I'm still a big advocate for Buy Local, but I get it, I suppose. Maybe.

When it comes to Consumer Behavior, my followers tend to buy Premium Brands. Hmmm.

Mobile Footprint.
Verizon. There was a tie in this category with AT&T. I myself use Verizon as my mobile carrier, though I can't imagine this having a bearing on my Twitter stats.

Then Twitter does a break-out on the Interests into a more detailed set of graphs, and this becomes surprising because I write so much about writing and art that you would think those interests would dominate. Instead, the list of interests most shared with followers is as follows:
Dogs. Weather. Music festivals & concerts. Technology, Education News and general info, Government, Commentary, Tech News, Politics.

At this point I realize that although I Tweet what I blog about each day, I also re-Tweet stories and hit the "Like" button a lot. This means that I've been telegraphing my other interests even when I do not write about them on my blog.

Very interesting.

At the top of your analytics page you can see how many times you've Tweeted in the past 28 days, how many impressions were made, how many profile visits occurred (up 64% this month), how many mentions, and how many followers you now have compared to a month ago.

STILL MORE DATA
If you want to go deeper, you may. My TOP TWEET this month, based on Impressions was a Tweet about my interview with Medium writer/ publisher Nicole Akers. 
You can also find your Top Mention and Top Follower, as well as Top Media Tweet for each and every month going back as far as you want to go. My Top Media Tweet for November was about my interview with author Paul Thomas Chamberlin, author of The Cold War's Killing Fields.

* * * *

Well, it's time to break off here and start my day. Twitter has been an interesting experience and is my favorite social media platform besides blogging. It's easy, and has an international reach that is significant. Facebook feels more like a necessary evil. It's useful for staying in touch with your local tribe, and friends at a distance, but it's become a clutterer space where the platform seems keep pushing things at you and you have to swat them aside all the time.

In recent years Quora and Medium became platforms I enjoyed more. Each seems to be a home for writers. Anyone who is writing I consider to be part of my extended family. Are you a writer? Write on!

* * * *
This blog post was stimulated by an article at Social Media Today titled How to Get More Twitter Followers (Without Spending a Dime)

Woman-Made Art and Gift Fair @ Peace Church and Other Arts Related Events

This Friday evening, July 26, the doors will be open for studios and galleries in the Duluth HART District for the monthly Downtown Duluth Arts Walk. You can find a Map and More Details here on Facebook.

On Saturday, the Woman-Made show is again being held at Peace Church. The event is organized by WendyUpNorth.com, a way for the community to buy locally made goods, no re-salers. Wendy has put on more than 60 fairs over the last dozen years, striving to be an agent for good in our local economy. You can learn more about this event on their Facebook page.

Jewelry, ceramics, glass, soaps, garden items, photography, water colors, books, clothing, glass art and more. Susie will have her gift bags, wrapping paper, gift tags. gift boxes. feather quill pens. and honey bee themed baby onesies

Honey Bee Onesies by the Down Home Creator.

SATURDAY

TIME:10 a.m.-3 p.m.

ADDRESS: Peace Church, 1111 N. 11th Ave. E.

For a more complete list of arts and community events,

visit the Twin Ports Art blog.

Tech Tuesday: Miscellaneous Musings on Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and the Current Database Scandal

"Today in the United States we have somewhere close to four or five thousand data points on every individual... so we model the personality of every adult across the United States, some 230 million people."
--Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix, October 2016

As anyone paying attention already knows, Facebook and Cambridge Analytica have been on the hotseat this past week. Initially the focus was on the President's use of private information gather through clandestine means. But as I pointed out last week in my blog post about the social media giant, this is just the way social media works. You give them your information, and they use it to generate profits by selling (or licensing or sharing, or whatever) with marketers who generate precise messaging for their target prospects. It's what they do.

To quote CEO Nix again, "It’s about understanding what matters most to that person - what they care about, what they worry about..."  (Telegraph, Nov. 2016)

* * * *
Using the latest digital technology for political purposes is nothing new. Both POTUS and Hillary were campaigning in the virtual sim world Second Life in 2016. And I recall that President Obama was active on social media during his 2012 campaign.

What I do not recall is any coverage by major media of the Obama campaigns alleged indiscretions when it came to using illicit means harvesting data on Facebook users in 2012. According to this Investors Business Daily editorial opinion the Dems "encouraged supporters to download an Obama 2012 Facebook app that, when activated, let the campaign collect Facebook data both on users and their friends." oh the games people play.

Some people have been jumping all over Cambridge Analytica for breaking the rules FB establishes to protect our privacy, but as marketing people (listen to Ad Contrarian Bob Hoffman) pretty well know, the data is out of the bag. What torques a few folk on some of the forums I've visited is that the Obama campaign not only did the same thing, they even bragged about it. (MIT Technology Review, Dec. 2012)

Here's another 2016 article in MIT Review regarding how Facebook learns about your Offline life, by acquiring info about your from other sources that you were unaware of.

There's so much background noise these days that stories like this tend to get lost in the wind. Until now. It's a mob driven soap opera, and you never can tell how a mob is going to behave.

*Funny, When Obama Harvested Facebook Data On Millions Of Users To Win In 2012, Everyone Cheered; IBD, 3-19-2018
In the interest of airing both sides, there is plenty of forum fodder being widely distributed in all directions, and who knows what the baloney is really made of, but I suspect that at the end of the day everybody knows more about everybody than anybody ever imagined was possible.

"Don't follow leaders, watch the parking meters." --Bob Dylan