Next New

There are many different kinds of new media but there are always room for more. A new media I have in mind will help us on a professional level. Much like dating sites and apps, having one with professionals/recruiters and job seekers would be great. The site or app will match the professional and job seeker depending on the information they have given. They can only interact with each other if both parties agree. Also, professionals can only see those who meet their requirements. By having a match, they can chat or even do an online video interview. In order to filter out scams, each person who signs up for an account will need to provide private information of their identity.  

Wiki So Far

I have not contributed to our wiki page yet but I do have some ideas. I visited the environment category/ section and realized that there are not much information on that page. I feel strongly about the environmental issues and would like to add ways to promote environmental friendly campaigns on social media such as petitions. In addition, I want to add different successful non-profit organizations that promotes and helps the environment. I really hope to contributing to our wiki soon. 

P2P

File sharing is the practice of distributing digital media access electronically in a network such as videos, music, files, data etc. It allows a number of people to view the contents, copy it or download it. The most common file sharing is P2P, also known as Peer-to-Peer. P2P is a network that provides access to contents for anyone on that network. Most contents are a reproduction of applications. Some examples of P2P file sharing sites are PirateBay and BitTorrent.

BitTorrent is one of the most successful P2P file sharing programs. It lets users "upload and download enormous amounts of data, files that are hundreds or thousands of times bigger than a single MP3." In addition, "BitTorrent traffic accounts for more than one-third of all data sent across the internet" (Thompson). This is to show how incredible filing sharing is used. Users can receive free movies, songs and software easily by using P2P.

However, most P2P contents are copyrighted contents and it illegal to share to others, which then causes a privacy problem. Warner Brothers' "The Dark Knight" movie made an antipiracy campaign but still illegal copies were being shared and downloaded by more than millions of users (Stelter). Because the people who post such contents are anonymous, it is hard to do anything about it. In addition, YouTube, that provides live streaming, has encountered many legal disputes from copyrighted owners.

Overall, P2P is a great way find useful contents over the internet for free but the negative alternative is that it causes privacy problems.  

Work Cited

Stelter, Brian, and Brad Stone. "Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Major Hollywood Studios." The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Feb. 2009. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.

Thompson, Clive. "The BitTorrent Effect ." Wired 13.01: The BitTorrent Effect. Wired, Jan. 2005. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.

Privacy & Confidentiality

Privacy is an important subject regarding new media. Once something is posted online, it circulates online forever. It is also important to understand that what is posted online can be viewed by others. People tend to post personal information on social networking sites, giving strangers access to it. For instance, you may post up your birthday, work, school, current location, etc. These information can lead to online stalking in an extreme case. In addition, on Facebook, you may post up a photo of yourself or your family thinking that it is only viewed by friends. However, sometimes, friends of friends may see your posts. Most people do not read the privacy agreement before accepting it and may not be aware of how their information is being used. Privacy and confidentiality can raise many issues for new media sites.  

Advice

If I was hired by Baruch College to use new media to improve the college, I would increase student interaction. We have Blackboard as a way to interact with professors and students from the same section and class. However, we can make a community where only students from the same class but different section interact with each other. This can help increase the amount of people that can help each other with a certain subject. They would be able to discuss the subject/topic online and have video chats to study together. Moreover, an online social community for students would be great too. On this social site, there will be different sections listed for a different purpose such as upcoming events, specific subjects, and even posts on finding roommates for an apartment. All students can interact on this online community. This will bring students to be more involved in their school and make new friends.

Creativity and New Media

New media helps foster creativity. Second Life is a virtual world in which you live your life as your avatar. I created an avatar based on my imagination and creativity. In Second Life, I am able to tell my avatar to do anything I want. What I normally cannot do in real life, I am able to do in Second Life because my avatar does not limit me to my abilities. Below is a screenshot of my avatar in Second Life. I am a vampire that is flying in the sky. By using the new media tool, I am able to recreate myself virtually. 

Creativity

New ideas are fostered from existing ideas. When Twitter first started, they did not have lists or retweets. The idea came up only after monitoring users. Also, in 2007, they were reluctant to start the "#" symbol to mark conversations but it became popular and Twitter users adapted on a fast pace. Moreover, Flickr started as an online game and then suddenly changed to a photo sharing media because it has a higher demand based on their consumers. Social media of today let users exchange ideas very easily and let the companies see what they can improve on. Ideas generated on new media leads to an even greater idea from another person. Thus, new media fosters creativity because there is always someone who tries to improve on the current media.

Work Cited

Miller, Claire C. "Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers." The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 25 Oct. 2009. Web. 24 Oct. 2014.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

In today's society, virtual worlds have become quite popular. Virtual worlds can be used for personal, educational, and professional situations. It lets you socially interact with others and do the things you would like to do in the actual/real world. For example, a congressional subcommittee hearing used Second Life for their meeting. They created a virtual world identical to their meeting table in the building. Even though they are not all physically there together, the virtual room environment enhances that feeling. Moreover, Second Life had been used as an educational tool to train medical and nursing students in clinical skills with drills and real life cases they may face. Virtual worlds can foster creativity by having no boundaries as the person you are virtually. You may choose to live the luxurious life you always wanted or do the things you were always afraid to do. You can live a limitless life in the virtual world. However, a main concern is that one can be so coupe up with their virtual self that they tend to forget that it is not real. Some people spend an enormous amount of time on their virtual self when they should be improving on their real self. I think that virtual worlds will grow in the future and more people will be using it. I feel like it will advance on a professional level such as companies will use it for business related scenarios.

Work Cited

Ferla, Ruth La. "No Budget, No Boundaries: It's the Real You." The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 Oct. 2009. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.

Musgrove, Mike. "At Hearing, Real and Virtual Worlds Collide." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 2 Apr. 2008. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.

Simon, Stephanie. "Avatar II: The Hospital." The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 13 Apr. 2010. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.

Blog about Twitter

Twitter discussions are very different from Blackboard discussions or in-class discussions. Both Twitter and Blackboard discussions are done via the internet and in class discussions are done in person. In an in-class discussion, you are physically interacting with others and hearing their voice, which is the most ideal form of communication. In a Blackboard discussion, discussion is made from a single post. Someone starts a post and the comments under it will become the discussion. This creates a thread such that someone can make a comment under the original post or under another comment. On the other hand, Twitter discussion is made by re-tweeting, tagging another person, or using a hash-tag under a certain topic. Twitter is more complicated form of discussion compare to the other two because you cannot directly comment under a post. In a Twitter discussion, you can follow a hash-tag by clicking on it to see discussions by other users. Also, you can re-tweet a post and add a comment for it. Tagging another person to respond to a post of theirs makes a smaller discussion mainly between you and that other person. Therefore, Twitter, Blackboard, and in-class discussion very different from each other. 

Social Networking Sites

There are many different kinds of social networking sites. Four popular social networking sites used today is Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and Tumblr. Although these sites are very similar, I have different impressions of them. Between the four sites, I feel like Facebook has the highest social interaction with other people. It lets you easily interact with other such as using Facebook message. Facebook lets you post pictures, view your friends posts, "like" pages that interest you, create an event and much more. Facebook includes more features than the other three sites. Myspace, on the other hand, is more towards blogging. Myspace lets you make your own unique profile background, add music, and post. Tumblr is very much similar to Myspace. Tumblr lets you post, and re-post other's post. You are able to follow certain people or just something that interests you. Tumblr is mostly used as a blogging tool and posts only things that pertains or interest you. Twitter and Facebook can both be used for networking with professionals. Twitter, like the others, let's you tweet about topics that interest you but the difference lies within the word limit of each post. In addition, for twitter post, you cannot directly comment under the post but instead re-tweet, hashtag, and/or tag the person you are responding to. If you like to keep up with the latest trends or updates, Twitter would be best. 

All four sites, lets you add friends, post, and allow others to interactively respond to your post to start a conversation. Even though, the sites sound similar, they have their own unique usages. Out of the four social networking sites, I prefer Facebook the most because I feel like it provides more than the other sites. 

Social Networking

Social networking is a way to connect with different people on a social level but can also be a way to connect on a professional level. Many companies use social networking technologies such as LinkedIn, "a network of 8 million professionals spread across the world", to find suitable candidates for certain positions. They can use the site to filter out candidates and see their job experiences through their profile as a way of online recruiting. Social networking technology has done recruiters from companies a great deal of help in a more efficient way.

Social networking technologies increase social activity among individuals. They can connect with people they never met with the same interest and develop a friendship. In addition, messaging on social networking sites can help build and maintain strong relationships with others. A very poplar social networking site is Facebook. It allows others to see posts and pictures from their friends list and keep up with current events and activities. If there is a friend you have not talked to lately or is living in another country, sending them a message online is a fast and efficient way of communication. Social networking technologies provide easy communication access, which help others develop socializing skills.

However, the increase of interaction between people over the internet can lead to society no longer engaging in face-to-face contact with each other. Socializing online and in person is completely different. In addition, instead interacting physically, people can video chat with each other. Future generations might not know how to interact with others in person. Another problem to this is that people are occupied with social networking technologies indoors that they may not experience the outdoor lifestyle and environment interaction.

Work Cited

Dubner, Stephen J. "Is MySpace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum." Freakonomics. N.p., 15 Feb. 2008. Web. 03 Oct. 2014. 

Langfitt, Frank. "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting." NPR. NPR, 22 Nov. 2006. Web. 03 Oct. 2014. 

Blogs vs. Wikis

Blogs and Wikis are both web pages that are highly used today. They however have different purposes. Blogs are posts written and created by only one individual on topics that matters to he/she. However, the only way for others to contribute to the blog is by leaving comments. By leaving comments, it helps them contribute to the post and start a thoughtful conversation. On the other hand, wikis are a collaborative web application where the group works together to create the contents. Others are able to modify and edit the wiki web page as they please but some wikis require an approval by the administrators for such changes to be shown in order to test for accuracy.

Many businesses today use wiki as a tool for content management. Information can easily be shared and exchanged among staffs. For instance, Nokia uses Socialtext wiki software to "facilitate information exchange within its Insight & Foresight group". In addition, Yahoo uses Twiki for its development team to overcome the conflict with working from separate locations.

Wikis are cheap and easy to use such that it can be used for different types of data such as spreadsheet, Powerpoint, PDFs, etc. Businesses are experimenting with wiki technology. It is predicted that most workplace will be using wiki. I think that there will be a chance for a more advanced wiki that tailors to the specific usage for each company or even each purpose for the group as more people use wiki.

Works Cited

Gill, Kathy E. "How Can We Measure the Influence of the Blogosphere?" (n.d.): n. pag. University of Washington, May 2004. Web. 21 Sept. 2014

"How To Use Wikis For Business." InformationWeek. N.p., 8 Aug. 2005. Web. 27 Sept. 2014. 

"Wiki." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Sept. 2014. Web. 26 Sept. 2014. 

Impacts of Social Networking

Social networking has taken a substantial role in many people's daily lives. Many have grown dependent on social websites and would feel a withdrawal if they do not have access to it. Social networking websites function like an online community of internet users who interact with others based on a common interest. With information through your profile, outsiders can view and connect with you. However, is social networking affecting us positively or negatively? I believe that it can help us expand our network and develop friendships but sometimes, it can become a distraction from the real world. Unknowingly, social networking affects us physically, socially, and emotionally in good and bad ways. As someone who uses many social networking sites, through researching, I hope to learn in depth the positive and negative impacts social networking has on our lives.