Final Blog Write-Up

Obviously I have heard about and read about blogs before this class. I had only constructed one myself previous to this and it was for an entry level English class here at Clemson. Fortunately, I enjoyed writing this one a little more. I think the reason being was because of my interest in the class. For the most part, I was intrigued by the discussions we had in class, even if I was not able to have as much input. I felt as if sometimes I was a little overwhelmed with the lingo, technology speak, and overall knowledge of emerging technologies. However, most of the material was still interesting and even opened me up to doing a little research on my own outside of class time on our class topics. I guess that means that these blogs were a success in the sense that it did spur me to research and converse with others about materials outside of class. So I am glad we did them. I do not think these weekly assignments have attracted me to blogs in general though. Frankly, I do not really like writing about my thoughts and never seemed to see the allure of posting something on the internet for all others to see. In conclusion, I am satisfied with what the blog assignments have done for me, but I probably will not create my own in the future.

Week 11

Yesterday, we had a very interesting guest speaker. Lisa Laskey, works for Clemson. She goes on Jihadist forums on the internet and searches for potential terrorist threats to the country based on what they post online. She has tracked and spoken with many different characters on a number of occasions. She told us many different stories and example of threats who she has helped the D of D, or as she refers to, men in suits, to capture threats of the well-being of Americans. I think the whole class was impressed with the data mining and tracking methods she utilized and showed us during the presentation.