The Next New Thing

Over the last few years we've been watching a trend of more and more people using social media sites. With the creation of Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google Plus, and many more, there is a reliance and dependence of social media sites. I believe the next step would be a platform that combines all of these sites. From one website, I'll be able to access my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google, Email Accounts. This would simply the web and allow people to sign into one site and have access to all their other info. It would provide a simplicity that people are in need of.

Our Class Wiki So Far

For my wiki assignment I've taken on the role of layout editor. Additionally, I am hoping to add data on the usage of social media in education. After conducting a lot of research for my term paper I've unearthed much information regarding the usage of Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites in education. I am hoping that the research I've conducted can be helpful data in building the class wiki.

P2P File Sharing

File sharing is a method online users can use to share files online. There is a database full of information and users can share their files. A great example of a file sharing site is dropbox. Users use dropbox to store their data online and to share it with their friends.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) on the other hand, is file sharing 2.0. The files aren't stored on one particular computer. They are stored on many different computers and when you want to download a file you can access the data from a network of different computers. This allows the file to be transmitted faster and allows access to the file at all times. Some P2P sites include Kaaza, Limewire, Napster, and BitTorrent. According to the article "File Sharing Joins the Mainstream" BitTorrent is one of the most popular P2P sites. In fact it is responsible for 40-50% of all internet traffic. The question that remains is the legality of these sites and most of the files that are being transferred are illegal and pirated.

Privacy and Confidentiality

New media has opened the doors for Privacy and Confidentiality issues. Social media site store all of people's private information on a server. Even if you set your accounts to a privacy setting hackers can still get into it. A good hacker can break into Facebook's servers and access your private information. It is important to consider this when you post something online. Even if you delete it - will it ever truly be deleted? We should be aware of these issues online and be careful not post anything too personal online.

Advice to Baruch College

There are many ways Baruch can improve its usage of new media to foster a more creative and efficient learning environment. It would be helpful if Professors used group Facebook pages to communicate with students. It is a great place to have an open forum discussion and allow all students to collaborate together. Additionally, Twitter could be used to have class discussion and for students to ask their professors questions regarding the material. All in all, these forms of new media can be used to foster a better learning environment. We can use Facebook, Twitter, and even blogs as a more efficient and productive communication and learning environment compared to Blackboard.

My Term Paper: Facebook

I've noticed how much Facebook influences our daily lives. With over 800 million users, Facebook is the most visited site in the world. I thought it is important for us to understand how Facebook has shaped the world we live in. How does it interact with politics? How do businesses use it for their advantages? Does it affect students and their education? I went about doing research by searching these topics on Google, Google Scholar, Factiva, and Bearcat Search. I found a collection of studies and articles that were very enlightening.

One of the most interesting facts I discovered is: that people who are social in real-life tend to be more active and social on Facebook. I've always thought that it was the less sociable people who were more social on Facebook.

It was an interesting topic learning how Facebook interacts with each of our lives and changes the world.

Creativity and New Media

For this project, I used a website, Wordle, which creates word clouds from any text or web link you would like. You are able to play around with the layout, the fonts, and the colors used in the word cloud. The site allows you to save your work onto an online gallery to share with friends, family, and the world. I created a word cloud using the link to my blog, so the subject of my Wordle is new media and it incorporates many words that I've blogged about into a picture.

Creativity

New Media promotes creativity in many unique ways. There are so many different ways for people to express themselves via new media. A second life avatar can represent a person designing a new image for themselves. As I mentioned in my last blog entry, people design worlds and islands in Second Life that are extremely creative. It is an art of its own. We all have great ideas everyday - new media provides us with a method expressing these ideas. Take the jk wedding dance, Jill and Kevin had a creative idea for a wedding march. Through the use of YouTube they were able to share their wedding dance with the world.

Mashups, are another way people use new media for creative ideas. People remix videos and songs all the time. The article "Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?" discusses how many companies will not consider mashups a copyright infringement. In fact many companies, such as Nickelodeon, find these mash videos entertaining and amusing.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds are social media sites such as Second Life that create a simulated world for the user. In many ways these virtual sites are very much 'real.' Users can create avatars and buy/sell products. People can go to the gym, buy real estate and build developments, in short, it is a life that takes place inside a computer. The article "No Budget, No Boundaries: It's the Real You" discusses how there are businesses that make profits selling products in virtual worlds. Stiletto Moody, is a shoe company that designs and sells shoes in the virtual world Second Life. Virtual worlds can be used to promote businesses and create new jobs in the economy. Additionally, Second Life can be used in business training. Businesses can create a simulated scenario in which employees need to resolve a problem. The article "Avatar II: The Hospital" discusses how hospitals can use Second Life to create simulated scenarios to train medical staff on how to treat patients.

Second Life and other virtual worlds do have some cons. People use Second Life as a place to escape the real world. They may not be happy with all scenarios in their lives so they use Second Life as a place to express themselves and develop into what they wish they were. It fosters an environment for people to escape their troubles instead of confronting them.

Something fascinating about Second Life that I wanted to add is that it does promote creativity. People create worlds or scenes in second life that can be very extraterrestrial. A photography professor of mine, Joel Lederer, felt that these environments needed to be documented. He embarked on a project in which he "photographed" (through screen shots) different views of this world in Second Life from different angles. It really showed the creativity of people and how they used Second Life to create fascinating worlds. (His project is titled "The Metaverse is Beautiful")

Blog About Twitter

Twitter is a great way for people to have a discussions. People can discuss opinions, thoughts or experiences and others can reply to the tweets. One way the discussions are kept short is the limit of 140 characters per tweet. Though it is short, it helps drive the point quickly and simply.

When compared to a Blackboard or an in-class discussion Twitter is much different. An in-class discussion is limited by time and people in the classroom. An online discussion can continue "forever." People can check in and provide comments anytime from 5 minutes later, to a week later, or even months later. Additionally, the number of people that can participate in a conversation are limitless. A blackboard discussion, although it is online is not very convient. The site is not very user friendly and in order to comment or reply you need to log into blackboard, check the discussions, and reply in blackboard. Twitter is more universal and mobile. It is more convient and user friendly.

Social Networking Sites

In todays world, social networking sites are very important as they play a large role in communication. Each site is used in different ways to provide the users with different methods of communication for a variety of function. The top 4 social networking sites used today are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Myspace.

Facebook is by far the most popular social networking site used today worldwide. With over 750 million users, Facebook is the most visited website in the world. Facebook is used in a variety of ways. The main concept is for people to connect and keep in touch with friends, share pictures, videos, or websites, and to share status updates. Facebook is a useful tool to learn more about someone. It has become a central location for almost everything people need from IM's to video chats to reading the news. Additionally, businesses have begun to use Facebook to reach customers. Customers can search for information about products and read and provide feedback about a company's products. Facebook has become a vital tool in todays world.

Twitter is also used to share videos and pictures, however, the main function of Twitter is for people to share status updates with people instantaneously. However, the functions of Twitter expand way past people tweeting "just took a shower." People tweet their opinions regarding events and share important information with their friends. Organizations use it to send updates to clients and customers to provide them with the most instantaneous news. Twitter helps news travel faster than ever in todays world.

LinkedIn's main function is to create an environment for the business world to network, maintain connections, and keep your contacts updated regarding your professional life. A LinkedIn profile, opposed to a Facebook profile, is business oriented. It is very similar to ones resume. You can list all organizations you have worked at, your experiences there, your education, and special skills. Additionally, people use the groups function on LinkedIn to help connect with other people and help find new business opportunities. LinkedIn has revolutionized the business world in many ways.

Myspace was created as a social networking site for people to find friends, contact them, and share media with each other. With the rise of Facebook there has been a decline in the number of Myspace users as they are similar in many ways and Facebook provides so many more features.

Today's world revolves around social networking sites. I think the next step from here is for all these advantageous sites to somehow be integrated into one 'megasite' that provides all the various functions in one convenient location.

Social Networking

Social networking has become a wave of the future. As people are using new media it has become increasingly common for people to use social networking as a way to connect and meet people. Today, close to 1 billion people worldwide use Facebook and/or some other forms of social media. Over 15% of the world's population (including people in 3rd world countries) use Facebook. These technologies have presented us with many advantages and disadvantages. People have become Facebook addicts. There is an obsession people have that they are on Facebook all day long. I've reactivated an old Facebook account a few weeks ago. With in 20 minutes of my account being activated I had 4 friend invites from people, and another 100 over the next 24 hours. Additionally, social networking sites have led to cyberbullying and suicides.

However, there are some positive aspects to social networking. In the article "Social Media Technology Boosts Job Recruitment," Frank Langfitt discusses how Facebook, Myspace, and Linkedin have helped recruiters scan applicants for jobs. Recruiters rave how social media is the best thing that has happened to assist them in recruiting. Additionally, the article "How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks' Power" discusses how Obama used social networking in the 2008 elections to reach out to people and push his campaign.

The future of the world lies in social networking. Although there are many negative aspects to it, the positive aspects heavily outweigh it. Additionally. with the number of people using social networking, not using it makes it very difficult to succeed in the business world. The future lies with information at the finger tips of people. Sites such as Facebook allows news feeds, messaging, chatting, video calling and more to people all over the world. It will continue to act as a central point for people to connect and access their information.

Blogs vs Wikis

Blogs and Wikis are both forms of new media. A blog is a public forum created by an individual. Users and readers have the ability to post their comments about a post. Users cannot change or edit previous posts or comments. Bloggers play an important role in conveying news. In fact, in the University of Washington research report "How can we measure the influence of the blogosphere" it speaks about the influence that bloggers play in politics. Politicians use blogs to communicate with people. Additionally, other bloggers posts their political opinions on their blogs. It is a powerful tool that can be used to help a politicians career.

A wiki on the other hand, is a public forum in which multiple users can edit the information. As explained on Wikipedia page on Wikis, wikis are a public forum in which users can add, remove, or change information. All user work collectively to share thoughts and ideas to create a central page of information. Wikis are also a great tool in businesses. As read in the article "How to use Wikis for Business," teams can use wikis to collectively build reports and projects. Each member of the team can edit the page wherever they are as long as they have internet access.

Facebook and How It Changed the World

I plan on doing my research project about Facebook. I believe it is very clear that the creation of Facebook has transformed social media and thereby the world. I would like to study the positive and negative attributes of this change. In order to get a good footing on where to begin my research I began using Facebook less than a week ago. For years, I shied away from Facebook. I felt that I already had a few email accounts to check among the many things to do while online and I didn't want to have something else to constantly check and update. Additionally, I began to realize that if used properly Facebook can be very advantageous. I hope that through my usage of Facebook I can get an understanding of how people act/conduct themselves on Facebook and how they use it. I believe that this can give me an idea on how to continue conducting my research for this project. I am excited about this project and am confident that it will be an amazing learning experience.