Category Archives: internet

Quora? Are you sure about what you are saying? Why?

Yes, I am more than sure. I know that you could be surprised about thinking Quora as a Social Marketing tool but it is really a powerful if you learn how to disrupt its potential.

In few words Quora is you personal brainstorming tool. A real powerful tool if you consider that people in Quora are in the main part experts into their sectors.

If you post a question, promote it -asking to Quora suggested experts to answer- and you don’t receive any reply, it means you posted the wrong question! Quora people don’t waste their time answering to obvious or silly questions. So, if this happens, don’t be ashamed but remove it and start thinking what is the mistake you did. In many cases if you spend some minutes thinking about it you will find the answer you were asking for.

But, remember, don’t limit yourself to only asking but start answering the question that Quora will propose to you. Good answers will get you being noticed. And it could be helpful for your CV or for attracting traffic top your social media or blog.

For this reason I suggest you to spend the right time to write your profile when you join Quora. It is important for a couple of aspects. The first is related to the questions that Quora will propose to you: especially at the beginning they will be strictly related to your Bio. The second aspect is directly linked to your social exposure. Don’t forget that Quora is not only a collaborative platform but it is also a precious, “shining” window were you can directly show your expertise and indirectly attract new follower to your social media, blogs or online activities.

Quora is the right tool to create and nurture your personal branding strategy. If you think to be an expert on some topics, go to Quora and show your knowledge there. Because Quora is the best place to find people that are looking for the right answers to their top engaging questions.

Moreover Quora let you connect with experts in all the topics you prefer. Doing this you are able to create your personal web of experts and potential promoters for you or your activity. After a while, I suggest you to actively search the most appropriate questions you like to answers. This strategy will enhance your presence on Quora and allows you to give your best when answering.

Last but not least, don’t be obvious when you answer to a specific question directly related to your business or activity. If you want to promote your activity or your website you need to clearly explain why you think that it is the best solution to that specific question. In few words you have necessarily demonstrate to the questioner (and to all the other experts who are going to read you) why you or your services or website are the first best for his/her needs.

To conclude let me say that Quora is really essential for your Social Media Marketing and you should be really interested to test and include it into your Social Media Strategy!

3 Good Reasons to persist in using Google ncr = no country redirect

Could Privacy Law Limitations kill the Internet Dream?

2 Replies

Is Privacy a fundamental human right? Your personal answer to this question is the starting point to think about the current Internet legislation and to evaluate if the recent legal restrictions on civil rights could represent the “end of the Internet Dream.” A clear and motivated opinion about this issue is a strategic keypoint for all those people who, as me, operate everyday in one of the many Internet branches as consultants, lawyers, programmers, marketing experts, investors or, more often, as common users.

Dan Gillmor, via BACKCHANNEL, has recently underlined that a liberal legislation should not restrict end to end encryption, because it represents the best safeguards for tomorrow’s freedom. A standard use of fragile encryption, imposed by Law, will not only interfere with privacy, but will also heavily tamper with Internet global security.

Image by quotesgram.com

On the other hand, Dan Patterson, via TECHREPUBLIC, has reported two different conversations with UN reporters who affirmed that strong encryption allows privacy and privacy is the corner stone of truth, especially for reporters, because it helps to “validate the veracity of information.”

Consequently, to preserve our privacy in our daily living it would be useful to:

Use Privilege VPN or HTTPS connections when you surf Internet;
Use Encrypted Storage for your data, especially if you cannot avoid using cloud-based services;
Watch the Legislator: contact the MP/Politician who represents you and express your point of view, each time a restrictive Law proposal is under discussion.

As Citizens, the real challenge we have for the next months is represented by the influence we will be able to exercise on new Laws that should find a legal equilibrium between anti-terrorism surveillance and the need of protecting citizen’s personal information allowing the use of VPN/HTTPS connections and Encrypted Storage.

Link

The End of the Internet Dream?

Link

French state of emergency allows website blocking, device search powers

Link

No Common Heritage: Why the Internet Cannot be Regulated Like the Sea

Link

Who’s off the Internet — and why

Online Speech to Text Recognition

1 Reply

It’s fast, it’s immediate and it lets you to write an email or a text in a while, anywhere you are. When you use a mobile, you need to find the right app. For my experience the universal app for this doesn’t exist. It depends on the model of the mobile in general and in particular on the type of the installed microphone. This means you need to test different apps to fins a suitable solution for your specific needs. But usually it doesn’t keep much time.

When you are at home or for more complex works that need to be directly edited on a PC, you usually cannot use any Android app and so you need a similar tool. This is my case.

If you google it, you will find different solutions. Some of them are desktop software that can be installed and settled up in a reasonable time (usually few hours). These software are really accurate and have many tools that allow you to develop complex texts typing just few keys to refine some inaccuracies. The “problem” is represented by their cost that, for some products, is high (… certainly, we are talking about few bucks…).

Instead, a good solution could be the online -speech to text- tools offered by different websites. They are usually free but you need to be obviously connected to the web if you want to use them.

Furthermore the text results generated by these on line tools are connected with the particular model of microphone you installed into your PC. Also in this situation you can find enthusiastic reviews for an on line tool that is completely ineffective for you. And as for Android apps you need to spend some hours to discover what is the best online tool for your needs. Last but not least to use them you need to authorized Flash (sic! yes the nosey Flash…) for managing your audio hardware.

In my experience, after some tests, the best sites offering -speech to text- tools are four:

Speechlogger that is really simple to use and the most versatile as for exporting the “written” text but it works just on the Chrome Browser (version 25 or later) and this is a big limitation when you are fond of Firefox:

TalkTyper that is also complete and it is supported by different browser (Firefox included);

Dictation that is very minimalist as web graphics but it really does what it promises in every browser…;

SpeechPad that is very complete but it requires a free registration to use the -speech to text- feature. There are two big features offered by this website. The first is about that it has a good grade of recognition for speeches in Russian. The second feature is represented by the possibility of using an audio file or an url redirecting to audio files and/or video (but only for YouTube or HTML5audio/video).

Some of the above described websites have a large selection of different languages you can be interested to use. Others have a narrow choice of languages but for the accuracy of the -speech to text- work, could really be what you are looking for.

So, to conclude, if you need a -speech to text- online tool, you have just to invest some hours to find the right website for your needs. When you will start to use these kind of online tools you save a lot of time that before you spent for typing.