"Google" Yourself

   goo·gle

verb, often capitalized \ˈgü-gəl\

goo·gledgoo·gling 

Definition of GOOGLE

transitive verb

: to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web

Origin of GOOGLE

Google, trademark for a search engine

First Known Use: 2001

Source: Merriam-webster.com

A few days ago I visited Dr. Google for a routine checkup of my online persona. Though he didn't find cavities or other serious problems, Dr. G did find a few random "tracking devices"---one clearly Russian-made---keeping tabs on my online activities. More on that in a minute.

If you haven't done so before, now is the time to check how common your name is in the online world. When I started law school in August 2010, I Googled "Cory Clements" and quickly found that it is a fairly common name. That's when I decided to add the middle initial S. to my name on my various profiles across the internet, and I have had a unique online name ever since. But in reality, there's a good chance that I didn't even need to add my middle initial, since none of the other Corys is very active in the online community. If your name is fairly common, you should consider adding your middle initial or something similar---particularly if one of your name buddies is active online. Just don't try something cutesy like changing your first name to Captain. Also, make sure to be consistent. 

Some of the sites that I found by Googling myself were quite useful. For example, I saw that my Klout score (34 43 as of this posting) is higher than Greg Israelsen's (33 40 as of this posting). And both our Klout scores are higher than the score of our beloved J. Reuben Clark Law School (21 as of this posting). (I started writing this post two days ago and since then I jumped nine points and Greg jumped seven points). I even have screen shots to prove it.

I'm the red line and it's visibly higher than Greg Israelsen's blue line.

Ignore the taller, blue bar to the right and focus on the higher, red line in the center.

And the Russian website is actually quite flattering, considering that it portrays me as a celebrity. 

StarsFeed.com Thinks I'm a Celebrity

I decided to drop them a note to show my appreciation:

To all my Russian-speaking fans,  

I just want to say thank you for your love and support. But I also have to say that I am astonished to be listed with some of these celebrities. Omar Epps, now that's something I can understand. He plays a great role on House as Dr. Foreman. Dr. Foreman once was a medical student, and that's similar to being a law student I suppose. Barack Obama, I can see that one too. Now that he is Campaign Obama, he's definitely got celebrity material. He was once a law student, too. Then he was a lawyer, a law professor, a senator, and now President of the United States. Justin Timberlake, though? That man is on a completely different level than me. He can sing, he can dance, he can act. But can he do law school? We'll never know! Oh yea, and how did Ryan Seacrest make the list? And who is Team Coco? I don't even know who (or what) that is, but it sounds like evidence that this site has a fairly low bar for considering someone a celebrity.  

Thanks again for recognizing my "celebrity qualities." 

Best regards, 

Cory S. Clements 

So if you haven't done so for a while, give your online-self a checkup by Googling yourself. Sign out of your Google account, set the location to somewhere other than your actual location (I entered Washington, DC, for example), and search for your name. Oh yea—make sure you put quotation marks around your name before you hit search (i.e., "Cory S. Clements" not Cory S. Clements). Your results will be much more accurate. After searching through the random links that appear, you may be surprised, or even a bit flattered (like me), at what you find. Here are a few of the random treasures I found:

a partial list of websites that are randomly tracking me:

• A site called Topsey re-posts my tweets and cascades them if there is more than one tweet in a day.

• A site called crowdreel.com has saved a spot for me, just in case I ever decide to post photos there.

• A neat Twitter statistics site called Twitter Counter shows that something significant must have happened on January 11th.

• A site called GooglePlus Friend's List shows that charles timothy has me listed in a circle called "funs."

• A link to my page on Klout. I wonder if talking about and linking to Klout will actually increase my Klout score.* Even though I have no idea what a Klout score signifies. Imponderables . . . 

• A site called Mirror.me Labs is a Google+ web-crawler that shows my friend circle from Google+.

• A Russian site called Starsfeed re-posts all of Cory S. Clements's Celebrity tweets in Кыргызча.

• A site called iPhone Sleeve Case sells iPhone sleeves and cases (go figure!). If you click reviews, you'll see that I authored the second review in the list. The problem is that I wrote the review for Amazon.com. My review got hijacked.

And just one last thing. Do yourself a favor: Check out Amanda Ellis's blog for great advice on how to manage your online persona. I have also read her book—The 6Ps of the Big 3 for Job-Seeking JDs: 60+ Ways to Get Hired Using Social Networking—and I highly recommend it to every law student or lawyer. It is a great resource for understanding how to interact with the "Big 3" social-media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Source: Amazon.com

The 6Ps of the BIG 3 for Job-Seeking JDs: 60+ Ways to Get Hired Using Social Networking [Paperback]

Amanda C. Ellis (Author)

5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews) | Like(0)

Price: $27.95

In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

*[UPDATE Feb. 25, 2012 at 10:19pm]: My Klout score is now 45. I improved it by 2 points over the past day! Question answered. 

Misnomered Service Providers

    mis·no·mer

noun \ˌmis-ˈnō-mər\

Definition of MISNOMER

1

: the misnaming of a person in a legal instrument

2

a : a use of a wrong or inappropriate name

b : a wrong name or inappropriate designation

— mis·no·meredadjective

Source: Merriam-webster.com

Lately I have been thinking about different service providers whose names are really misnomers. One example readily comes to mind: WebDirect. What is WebDirect? It is a pointless third party you have to go through to publish any web content (or send any email to the student body) at BYU Law School. WebDirect's Mission Statement?

"The J. Reuben Clark Law School WebDirect webpage delivery service is designed to provide professional quality webpage consultation, design and editing services for the faculty, administrative and student organizational needs of the law school." 

This is a commendable aspiration. But as far as descriptions of WebDirect go, nothing could be further from the truth. The service does not provide consultation: it exerts absolute control over all things web-related at the law school. The only part of the name that is accurate is Web, as in website (and it's often a stretch to say that this part is accurate). Other than that, Direct is a complete misnomer. I have started calling the service WebIndirect, WebMisdirect, or WebRedirect. You literally cannot publish any of your own content for a student-run organization. You have to tell WebDirect what you want to publish, and then you wait for WebDirect to go about doing the very thing that you yourself could have done.

Take for instance the BYU Law Review's "new website." It has been stuck in limbo since the school year started in August 2011. It is a useless bare-bones website: no current articles, no archived articles, no masthead, no news, no information about the write-on competition coming up in a few months, etc. The BYU Law Review's "old website" is a lot more useful, despite being more than a year outdated. You can find the then-current issue; archived issues, including every issue published since the journal started in1975 (except, of course, you cannot find any issue published after Volume 2010, Issue 5—i.e., the eight, almost nine, most recent issues); the then-current masthead; archived mastheads (2000 through 2010); the then-current law review bylaws; subscription information; information about ordering back issues; information about requesting permission to reprint any Law Review piece; and submissions information. Here we are now with two websites. One has very relevant content (though only old content) on an old web design, and one has almost irrelevant content (in that it has neither new nor old content) on a new web design. WebDirect has somehow managed to obfuscate the idea of improving technology.

Another example of a service provider whose name is a misnomer is BYUI Connect. BYUI Connect is a website BYU-Idaho maintains for its alumni to remain connected and to make new connections. I recently had a frustrating collision with the site’s use of outdated technology on its seemingly new web design. And yes, I am a BYU-I alumnus. The Alumni Association had asked me to update my profile, so I tried to log on to the site. No luck. I forgot my password. Not to worry though—the newly updated site has the "I forgot my password" option. I had to enter my social security number, last name, date of birth, and gender (on the off-chance that I stole the person's identity but did not know his or her gender?). I also had to fill out a reCAPTCHA.

I hit the Next button, and this is what I got: 

Did that really just say, "You cannot reset your password because you have not selected a security question and created a secret answer. Please contact the help desk."? Well, I now wish I would have done what any rational person would do if he or she has ever had to "contact [a] help desk": give up; take the blue pill; end it quickly before the painful experience even begins.

Morpheus Offers Neo the Red Pill and the Blue Pill. The Matrix (1999).

I chose the red pill. 

In other words, I clicked help desk. But I wasn't expecting what came up next: 404 Error: Page not Found (?!). 

At that point it seemed fairly reasonable to click Launch AskBYUI (Live Chat). There was no obvious phone number for the help desk. This next screen shot shows the proportional size of the Live Chat window compared to the rest of the blank space in my web browser:

After quite an eventful chat, I still cannot log on because the help desk could not actually help me. That means I cannot connect with my fellow alumni. BYUI Connect is therefore more accurately named BYUI Disconnect. 

The following is a word-for-word transcript of my chat session with two students (presumably) at BYU-I. Enjoy!

---

Please wait for a site operator to respond.

You are now chatting with 'Michelle'

Michelle: Welcome to Ask BYU-Idaho, how may I help you?

Cory Clements: I do not know my password and I need to know whom I should contact to reset it for me.

Michelle: You can contact the computer help desk.  Would you like me to transfer this chat to them?

Cory Clements: Please do

Michelle: Their number is 208.496.9000

Michelle: I will transfer it right now.

Cory Clements: thank you, Michelle

Michelle: My pleasure Cory.

Please wait while I transfer the chat to 'Jake Hann'.

You are now chatting with 'Jake Hann'

Jake Hann: Thank you for contacting the Help Desk, this is Jake, how may I help you?

Cory Clements: Jake, I would like for you to help me reset my password. I have not set up a secret question (so the system tells me) and I cannot reset my password on my own.

Jake Hann: I can help you with that, in order to reset your password I need to verify your personal information. I need your social security number, last name, and date of birth

Cory Clements: Well I will give you my information up to anything short of my social security number. I have never used this service before so I don't trust its security yet.

Cory Clements: Cory Clements, 06/13/1985, user name: coryclem

Jake Hann: Unfortunately without your social I am unable to reset a password. If you would feel more comfortable talking to us on the phone you could call us at (208) 496-9000

Cory Clements: I entered my social security into the system when trying to reset my password on my own

Cory Clements: Why can I not reset my own password if I entered my last name, social security number, and birth date?

Jake Hann: They changed campus security in regards to passwords a few years ago. All users now require a security question. Any users who did not set one up are unable to reset their passwords until they have one.

Cory Clements: That does not explain why I cannot create a security question if I know all my personal data and I entered it into the system.

Jake Hann: Security question's are attached to your account. They are a field that is set within your campus profile. If you can log into your account that the security question cannot be created.

Cory Clements: MY user name is the exact same as it is for BYU.edu and I can log in to my account on BYU.edu. Can I set it from there?

Jake Hann: No, our system is independent from BYU.

Cory Clements: By choice or were they unwilling to associate their system?

Jake Hann: I do not know, I could find out, but it would take time to get the answer.

Cory Clements: No matter. Next question.

Jake Hann: Okay.

Cory Clements: How is this scenario helping enhance campus security? I verified that I am who I say I am, but I have to use a third party (you) to help me. And you won't help me unless I divulge my social security number.

Cory Clements: Doesn't that seem more of a security risk than a security enhancement?

Jake Hann: I'm sorry for the delay. I'll be right with you.

Jake Hann: We are not a third party, we are a department at BYU-Idaho, we are in charge of resetting passwords on user accounts. Those three pieces of data are required before the resetting of a password because usernames are changed on occasion, and campus ID numbers were not issued until recently, so not everyone has one. The only way we can ensure we are releasing this information to the appropriate user is by verifying their Social security number, last name, and date of birth

Jake Hann: Sorry about the automated message, it took me too long to type

Cory Clements: Which one was automated? The long paragraph in the middle?

Jake Hann: No, the one that says "I'm sorry for the delay. I'll be right with you."

Cory Clements: Oh, that's interesting.

Cory Clements: well I have a campus ID number

Cory Clements: So you can verify that.

Jake Hann: The password reset system is not designed to accept campus ID numbers at this time.

Cory Clements: So what is the real reason for this security-question anomaly? Technological backwardness? 

Jake Hann: Somewhat, you could blame bureaucracy too. They have wanted to change the system for a while, but it hasn't happened yet. For now we are using the system that was originally set up, which is still using the only information available at that time.

Cory Clements: So my options are the following (and please correct me if I misunderstand anything):

Cory Clements: 1) Give you my social security number

Cory Clements: 2) Guess at my password until I finally figure it out

Cory Clements: 3) Never use this system again

Cory Clements: Correct?

Jake Hann: Unfortunately, that would be a correct analysis of the situation.

Cory Clements: Well, thank you. I do appreciate your compliment.

Jake Hann: You are welcome.

Cory Clements: Well, please send my regards to the bureaucrats at BYU-Idaho. Tell them that this system is atrocious, that their customer service is pleasant, and that I chose option three.

Jake Hann: I will attempt to get the message for enough up the chain, being a grunt and what not. I hope you have a great rest of your day.

Cory Clements: Thank you, Jake. You too.

Chat session has been terminated by the site operator.