Sam Horstcraft

As a second year student studying a maths based degree, the issue of open access is not one that I had known about before this topic but will affect me a lot next year for my dissertation. I’ve found that open access can make a massive impact in many areas mainly including students who are studying for degrees and struggling to find free/open articles to use and the developing world. Continue reading →

Encircled around the edge of the £2 coin is the phrase “standing on the shoulders of giants” or in simpler terms: “building upon what others have already done”. Photo Credit This is a phrase most applicable to research where for century’s scientists, researchers and innovators have used each other’s work to enhance their own, come up with new ideas and challenge traditional views. Continue reading →

Unlike in the previous topics, this one was very broad with people choosing from a whole range of topics. Personally I chose to focus on social media plagiarism. This topic I feel can be summed up with a gif I found on twitter. .@EarthBeauties @WAKEUPPEOPL3 pic.twitter.com/qzLxVqswi4 — PicPedant (@PicPedant) April 27, 2016 It shows the number of different accounts tweeting exactly the same photo with exactly the same caption. Continue reading →

(Credit Forbes) Through the rise in popularity of both Facebook and twitter people creating original content such as videos and images has become the backbone of social media. This has given rise to social media marketing where firms advertise through social media either by themselves through posts or through paying others to post links to their websites. Continue reading →

Through my own research and by reading many peoples blog posts (especially: Holly’s, Rofini’s and Stuart’s) I have learnt that your online profile is very wide ranging and has a major impact upon your job prospects. The main thing I learnt is to brand yourself as companies do as this is a great base to develop your profile further. Also my infographic sums up the key steps to a good LinkedIn profile. Continue reading →

With attention spans shortening and everything moving to the internet having an online profile is becoming a necessity in today’s world. Making your profile “authentic” and “professional” can bolster your chances of getting a job in today’s increasingly competitive environment. Definitions courtesy of google. Continue reading →

It’s clear from reading everybody’s blogs and comments on the issue of multiple identities that it is difficult to come up with a clear answer. There are some convincing arguments for such as employment reasons or verifiability and some persuasive arguments against such as anonymity and personal freedom. However it’s clear to see that all of these points have 2 sides to them that one person may see as a positive and others may see as a negative. Continue reading →

Photo Credit The main reason for having multiple online profiles is anonymity as who needs 2 Facebook accounts for themselves unless 1 of them isn’t actually them. For people suffering from mental illness the anonymity that multiple accounts provide leads to them being able to interact with people without the stigma and repercussions that may come with mental illness (Sokratis Dinos, 2004). Continue reading →

When I read that the topic was on digital visitors and residents, of which I knew nothing about, I immediately jumped to the assumptions that residents use the internet more than visitors. This, as it turns out, is right but I had no idea the depth of the topic and through my own research and reading other people’s blogs I have learnt a lot from it all. Continue reading →

Topic 1: Digital Residents and Digital Visitors The concept of the “digital residents” and “digital visitors” continuum (White, 2011) is, in my opinion, a much better summation of people’s digital involvement than the previous “Digital Natives” and “Digital Immigrants” (Prensky, 2001). A digital “resident” can be seen as an active user of most internet aspects, such as social media posting, content creation, shopping, banking, blogging, etc. Continue reading →