The next new media is impossible to predict, but I have a few ideas. New media has permeated almost every facet of modern life, but one area where it hasn't is in the educational system. Students still do homework on paper, sit in classrooms in the traditional style, and Blackboard is seldom used to it's fullest. Elementary and high school education could use a makeover.
Online tutoring organized through schools is a new possibility. A student who has anxiety about attending tutoring at school may be more likely to seek help behind the comfort and security of a computer screen.
Schools force students to wake up at unbelievably early hours for classes that start at 7:15am. Online classes would help to alleviate the terrible hardship that these wake up times cause some students.
My high school used something called a Smart Board, an interactive board that was connected to a computer with a presentation on it. The Smart Board was more advanced than any dry erase board or chalkboard, and allowed the teacher to keep students interested with more bells and whistles than a traditional lesson. My high school was blessed to have these Smart Boards, but most schools don't have them. Every school should have Smart Boards.
I'm sure there are plenty of other ways that new media can be integrated into elementary and high school education; these are just some preliminary ideas. But when thinking about this assignment, I was trying to think of places that have an absence of new media. This area is most certainly one of those places.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Our Class Wiki - So Far
Up to this point, I have not added any content to our class Wiki, but I can describe my research towards this end so far. I plan to contribute to pages on music and new media, including services such as Spotify, Modlife, and cloud storage of music.
Spotify has been widely regarded by the new media community, so research in this area is plentiful. Spotify brings streaming music and internet radio together, allowing the usr to play just about any song on demand an unlimited number of times.
Modlife is a less talked about service, mostly known by fans of the individual bands or people that use it. Modlife allows a musician to bypass the failing revenue model that is selling CD's in the store and create their own revenue streams by distributing their content in just about any way imaginable.
Cloud storage of music is a compelling service offered by some companies, such as Google, Apple, and Amazon. With cloud storage, a person's music collection is mobile, and accessible from any device or computer at any time. Cloud storage is in direct competition with services like Spotify, where the user does not actually own anything.
I look forward to contributing to our class Wiki with this information in the near future!
Spotify has been widely regarded by the new media community, so research in this area is plentiful. Spotify brings streaming music and internet radio together, allowing the usr to play just about any song on demand an unlimited number of times.
Modlife is a less talked about service, mostly known by fans of the individual bands or people that use it. Modlife allows a musician to bypass the failing revenue model that is selling CD's in the store and create their own revenue streams by distributing their content in just about any way imaginable.
Cloud storage of music is a compelling service offered by some companies, such as Google, Apple, and Amazon. With cloud storage, a person's music collection is mobile, and accessible from any device or computer at any time. Cloud storage is in direct competition with services like Spotify, where the user does not actually own anything.
I look forward to contributing to our class Wiki with this information in the near future!
P2P File Sharing
File sharing is a natural occurrence with the existence of the internet and internet communities. Unlike many of the new media things that exist today, file sharing has been a problem on the internet since it's early beginnings, with Napster as the poster-boy example.
File sharing is the simple sharing of one file from one person to another. Technically, the file could be anything, something harmless like a text file of a to-do list. But file sharing is most often associated with the sharing of files that contain intellectual property. File sharing can happen on any scale. On an instant messenger program, for example, one person could share a Lady Gaga song with the person they're chatting with. Alternatively, file sharing could happen on a huge scale, which brings us to the discussion of P2P.
P2P file sharing is a more complex form of file sharing that involves the use of software, most commonly a torrent service. A torrent service searches for other connected computers that host the file you want, and downloads the file to your computer by "seeding" the file from various other users. In the scope of new media, P2P file sharing is something that is impossible to keep under control and attempt to "police." From music to Hollywood, file sharing has extremely detrimental effects.
An example of P2P file sharing is talked about by Brian Stelter and Brad Stone in their New York Times article found here, where they say a German based website TorrentFreak.com estimates that each episode of "Heroes", an NBC show, is downloaded over 5 million times. The site being based in Germany makes the policing of such file sharing even more difficult.
Another example of P2P file sharing is with a simple torrent software where a user can search for just about any type of media and download it to their desktop. This ranges from music, video games, movies, television shows, and more.
File sharing is the simple sharing of one file from one person to another. Technically, the file could be anything, something harmless like a text file of a to-do list. But file sharing is most often associated with the sharing of files that contain intellectual property. File sharing can happen on any scale. On an instant messenger program, for example, one person could share a Lady Gaga song with the person they're chatting with. Alternatively, file sharing could happen on a huge scale, which brings us to the discussion of P2P.
P2P file sharing is a more complex form of file sharing that involves the use of software, most commonly a torrent service. A torrent service searches for other connected computers that host the file you want, and downloads the file to your computer by "seeding" the file from various other users. In the scope of new media, P2P file sharing is something that is impossible to keep under control and attempt to "police." From music to Hollywood, file sharing has extremely detrimental effects.
An example of P2P file sharing is talked about by Brian Stelter and Brad Stone in their New York Times article found here, where they say a German based website TorrentFreak.com estimates that each episode of "Heroes", an NBC show, is downloaded over 5 million times. The site being based in Germany makes the policing of such file sharing even more difficult.
Another example of P2P file sharing is with a simple torrent software where a user can search for just about any type of media and download it to their desktop. This ranges from music, video games, movies, television shows, and more.
Privacy & Confidentiality
Privacy and Confidentiality have gone completely out the window with new media in our lives. The primary people concerned about this are people who are probably about 20 years old and over. We remember a time before computers and understand how intrusive new media has been to our privacy since it's inception.
However, the younger generation of computer users and new media users consider these conditions of privacy to be the norm. Privacy is of no concern to them. Teenagers willingly post anything they are thinking for the public to see. With services like Foursquare that allow users to "check in" to places they are at, privacy and confidentiality truly mean nothing.
Personally, I am concerned about how privacy and confidentiality in our lives have been eroded by new media. I never "check in" to places and rarely post sensitive information on a social media site. I value my privacy and I think that some parts of my life need to be confidential. As time goes by, I may become a part of the minority in this way of thinking. The very definition of the words "privacy" and "confidential" are changing with the new media world we live in.
However, the younger generation of computer users and new media users consider these conditions of privacy to be the norm. Privacy is of no concern to them. Teenagers willingly post anything they are thinking for the public to see. With services like Foursquare that allow users to "check in" to places they are at, privacy and confidentiality truly mean nothing.
Personally, I am concerned about how privacy and confidentiality in our lives have been eroded by new media. I never "check in" to places and rarely post sensitive information on a social media site. I value my privacy and I think that some parts of my life need to be confidential. As time goes by, I may become a part of the minority in this way of thinking. The very definition of the words "privacy" and "confidential" are changing with the new media world we live in.
Advice to Baruch College
How can Baruch College use new media to improve the college?
Baruch College already uses new media quite well. Various offices use Facebook and Twitter as ways of interacting with students. But I have one particularly good suggestion that would help make the Baruch College website a more manageable place to navigate.
Currently, the school website is huge and it is often difficult to find information. The search function has limited effectiveness. I would suggest transforming the Baruch College website into a Wiki. In doing this, the school allow students to find the information that they needed more quickly and with greater clarity. Instead of 100 links on the homepage to every imaginable location, a Wiki would streamline the website, using a more familiar user interface to help students navigate.
Of course, there would be a small issue of the editable nature of Wiki pages. To fix this, the site would not be a true Wiki for students to edit. The pages would have to be locked. Rather than a collaborative focus, the purpose of a Baruch College Wiki would be in the interest of a more organized website.
Baruch College already uses new media quite well. Various offices use Facebook and Twitter as ways of interacting with students. But I have one particularly good suggestion that would help make the Baruch College website a more manageable place to navigate.
Currently, the school website is huge and it is often difficult to find information. The search function has limited effectiveness. I would suggest transforming the Baruch College website into a Wiki. In doing this, the school allow students to find the information that they needed more quickly and with greater clarity. Instead of 100 links on the homepage to every imaginable location, a Wiki would streamline the website, using a more familiar user interface to help students navigate.
Of course, there would be a small issue of the editable nature of Wiki pages. To fix this, the site would not be a true Wiki for students to edit. The pages would have to be locked. Rather than a collaborative focus, the purpose of a Baruch College Wiki would be in the interest of a more organized website.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Creativity and New Media
Last August, I went to a blink-182 concert. If you don't know blink-182, they're a pop-punk band that was very popular in the late 1990's and early 2000's but then went on hiatus for awhile in the middle of last decade. When they got back together in 2009, every blink-182 fan was abuzz with the news, excited for new music and hoping some great memories could be revived.
It took awhile for them to have new music ready, but last August when I went to see them in New Jersey, it was slated to be the first time anyone ever heard some new songs from them since 2003, the year their last album was released. The August 5th date at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel was the first night of the tour. I saw this as an opportunity to get a lot of YouTube hits for a bootleg video. A "bootleg" video refers to any live music performance not recorded by a professional.
Throughout the show, I was ready for when they'd play some new tunes, and when they finally did, I had my phone ready to record video. The iPhone 4 recorded with surprisingly great audio quality, and that night when I got home I hurriedly did a little editing on the beginning and ends of the video and uploaded to YouTube. I used tags appropriately and took to a blink-182 fan website's discussion forum to show it to some people. Much to my surprise, the next morning the video's view count was in the thousands! I was ecstatic at the prospect that my video had gone semi-viral, or at least as viral as it could get for a topic like this. At the writing of this post, the video has 3,599 views. You can view it here and I also embedded it below.
It took awhile for them to have new music ready, but last August when I went to see them in New Jersey, it was slated to be the first time anyone ever heard some new songs from them since 2003, the year their last album was released. The August 5th date at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel was the first night of the tour. I saw this as an opportunity to get a lot of YouTube hits for a bootleg video. A "bootleg" video refers to any live music performance not recorded by a professional.
Throughout the show, I was ready for when they'd play some new tunes, and when they finally did, I had my phone ready to record video. The iPhone 4 recorded with surprisingly great audio quality, and that night when I got home I hurriedly did a little editing on the beginning and ends of the video and uploaded to YouTube. I used tags appropriately and took to a blink-182 fan website's discussion forum to show it to some people. Much to my surprise, the next morning the video's view count was in the thousands! I was ecstatic at the prospect that my video had gone semi-viral, or at least as viral as it could get for a topic like this. At the writing of this post, the video has 3,599 views. You can view it here and I also embedded it below.
Creativity
Creativity and new media go hand in hand. New media almost forces the user to have some degree of creativity in order to really get something out of it. I particularly enjoyed the article in the New York Times that can be read here, where it describes how the creativity and community of Twitter users in the early days of the website has greatly shaped the features and culture of the site today.
I remember when I first made my personal Twitter, the "retweet" feature was non existent. Like it says in the article, in order to retweet something, you had to copy the text, place "RT" in front of it, and manually post the tweet yourself. This now commonplace feature on Twitter once only existed as an unofficial way of communicating on the site. The creativity of the user base was the driving force behind the feature, and has continued to be all the way to today.
New media most notably fosters creativity with sites like YouTube, with almost all their content being user-generated. Whether someone is trying to create a viral video, making a mash-up, or creating their own short film of some sort, YouTube is the center of creativity on the internet, and it's amazing when you consider the sheer volume of creativity that people have participated in in just a few short years.
I remember when I first made my personal Twitter, the "retweet" feature was non existent. Like it says in the article, in order to retweet something, you had to copy the text, place "RT" in front of it, and manually post the tweet yourself. This now commonplace feature on Twitter once only existed as an unofficial way of communicating on the site. The creativity of the user base was the driving force behind the feature, and has continued to be all the way to today.
New media most notably fosters creativity with sites like YouTube, with almost all their content being user-generated. Whether someone is trying to create a viral video, making a mash-up, or creating their own short film of some sort, YouTube is the center of creativity on the internet, and it's amazing when you consider the sheer volume of creativity that people have participated in in just a few short years.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds
Virtual worlds are a compelling use of technology today. People from all parts of the world that would never have met in the real world can "meet" each other in virtual worlds. Friendships can be built and lives can be changed from the people you meet in virtual worlds. There are many pros and cons to be discussed here.
The first pro is that virtual worlds can be gateways to social interaction for people that wouldn't have been able to do so in their real lives. In this article by Nicole Saidi, she cites Yale Professor Dr. Fred Volkmar as saying "Although not much research is yet available, there is clearly considerable potential in use of new technologies for fostering social skills." The article is about young adults with autism, a mental disorder where social skills can be severely inhibited. However, this same idea can be used to help all sorts of people with social problems.
A second pro is an answer to the question "How do virtual worlds foster creativity?" Virtual worlds represent an explosion of creativity! A person can use their avatar to give them whatever appearance they want. If someone dislikes anything about their appearance in their real life, they can change it in their virtual life. In your virtual life you can create whatever house you want, have any car you want, and use whatever combination of color, decoration, and furnishings you want in each thing. Further, creativity extends to the entrepreneurial nature of some of the virtual worlds, such as Second Life, where users create their own places for people to spend their time.
A third pro to virtual worlds is their place in business. Businesses have adapted to virtual worlds and have found ways to profit through them. In this article by Brian Hindo in Business Week, he explains how Webkinz, a popular toy a few years ago, were sold with a unique code to be used online in their virtual world to activate an online version of the toy. Several other companies, at least eight, according to the article, tried to follow Webkinz's lead.
With all of the pros to virtual worlds, there are also cons. Virtual worlds can sometimes be so gratifying for a person with social problems that they actually prevent them from being social in the real world. Rather than enhancing their real world social skills, users of virtual worlds can become addicted and more socially inept than ever. Virtual worlds also pose the risk of people lying behind a computer screen. A person can create an avatar of a young teenager and prey on young girls, when in real life that person is an older man who would never dare to do such a thing in person.
What are the futures of virtual worlds? Safety and addiction are probably the two largest problems facing virtual worlds. However, where do we place the blame? The creators of the virtual worlds simply make a platform upon which the users can choose their level and type of use. Do virtual world creators have a responsibility to police the actions of their users? How about a responsibility to encourage real life interaction and combat addiction? These two issues definitely have created a negative perception of virtual worlds that may hurt their continued use in the future. At the same time, with so many positives, such as business models, collaboration, social skill building, and more, it is unlikely that virtual worlds will disappear.
The first pro is that virtual worlds can be gateways to social interaction for people that wouldn't have been able to do so in their real lives. In this article by Nicole Saidi, she cites Yale Professor Dr. Fred Volkmar as saying "Although not much research is yet available, there is clearly considerable potential in use of new technologies for fostering social skills." The article is about young adults with autism, a mental disorder where social skills can be severely inhibited. However, this same idea can be used to help all sorts of people with social problems.
A second pro is an answer to the question "How do virtual worlds foster creativity?" Virtual worlds represent an explosion of creativity! A person can use their avatar to give them whatever appearance they want. If someone dislikes anything about their appearance in their real life, they can change it in their virtual life. In your virtual life you can create whatever house you want, have any car you want, and use whatever combination of color, decoration, and furnishings you want in each thing. Further, creativity extends to the entrepreneurial nature of some of the virtual worlds, such as Second Life, where users create their own places for people to spend their time.
A third pro to virtual worlds is their place in business. Businesses have adapted to virtual worlds and have found ways to profit through them. In this article by Brian Hindo in Business Week, he explains how Webkinz, a popular toy a few years ago, were sold with a unique code to be used online in their virtual world to activate an online version of the toy. Several other companies, at least eight, according to the article, tried to follow Webkinz's lead.
With all of the pros to virtual worlds, there are also cons. Virtual worlds can sometimes be so gratifying for a person with social problems that they actually prevent them from being social in the real world. Rather than enhancing their real world social skills, users of virtual worlds can become addicted and more socially inept than ever. Virtual worlds also pose the risk of people lying behind a computer screen. A person can create an avatar of a young teenager and prey on young girls, when in real life that person is an older man who would never dare to do such a thing in person.
What are the futures of virtual worlds? Safety and addiction are probably the two largest problems facing virtual worlds. However, where do we place the blame? The creators of the virtual worlds simply make a platform upon which the users can choose their level and type of use. Do virtual world creators have a responsibility to police the actions of their users? How about a responsibility to encourage real life interaction and combat addiction? These two issues definitely have created a negative perception of virtual worlds that may hurt their continued use in the future. At the same time, with so many positives, such as business models, collaboration, social skill building, and more, it is unlikely that virtual worlds will disappear.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Social Networking Sites
Every social networking site has a different feel to it. Every social networking site has a different niche. Some of them come and go, but some have established a foothold on their little place on the internet and are here to stay. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are probably the top four social networks, and we'll look at each one, evaluating the impressions they give off when you visit them.
First there was MySpace, and to the amazement of some, it indeed still exists. Admittedly, I did not join MySpace until 2009, when it was way past it's prime and well on the decline. However, I feel I still got a pretty good feel for the site and how it works. MySpace has become largely corporate in nature. The home page is littered with ads for different MySpace pages. In line with this, MySpace is still a good destination to listen to a new band's music, whether they are signed or unsigned. A key feature of MySpace that differentiates it from other social networks is that it is just about 100% customizable. Each person's page is their own "space", complete with their own font, wallpaper, music, and color selections. This kind of customization gives MySpace a bit of a bad reputation in my opinion, since it is often difficult to navigate pages since every single one is different. MySpace has watched it's traffic steadily decline, and may not exist in the near future.
Next is Facebook. Facebook found it's success in being quite the opposite of MySpace in many ways. Though it is also very corporate in nature like MySpace is at this point, Facebook pages for both people and companies all have the same format that is familiar and easy to navigate. Facebook is always refreshing it's users with new features, such as the most recent "timeline" addition, and likely isn't going anywhere any time soon. Facebook learned from MySpace's shortcomings and has developed a superior social networking site.
Third on the list to discuss is Twitter. Twitter is my favorite social networking site. I've been using Twitter for years prior to this CIS class with a personal account, and I've been addicted. Twitter's main draw is the 140 character limit per tweet. Because of this, there is no room for unnecessary information. Updates are quick and to the point. The best part about Twitter is you can keep your timeline to only things you truly want to get updates about. On Facebook, you see old friends from high school posting photos and other updates. On Twitter, this is not the case. You choose to follow whatever companies, sports teams, musicians, celebrities, politicians, and people that you want. Twitter is kind of like a news service to me. Of course, there is no backup or citation for a tweet, so further investigation is usually needed for something important. Overall though, Twitter is an amazingly fast paced social network that is whatever you make it.
Finally we have LinkedIn. LinkedIn is pretty cool because it is the only "professional" social network that is influential enough to be useful. You can upload your resume, fill out your professional details such as education, prior and current employment, and specialties, and add people to your network. Each person you add to your network expands your potential list of contacts through connections. LinkedIn also is useful for finding employment. Many companies post job listings there. I think of LinkedIn as the professional alternative to Facebook. Like Facebook, LinkedIn uses a standard, easy to navigate interface on each user's profile. I look to use LinkedIn more and more as I get closer to searching for work after college.
So there you have it. Each social network has it's benefits and unique features, and there are so many more. Part of the fun is observing how the same person represents him/herself across multiple platforms!
First there was MySpace, and to the amazement of some, it indeed still exists. Admittedly, I did not join MySpace until 2009, when it was way past it's prime and well on the decline. However, I feel I still got a pretty good feel for the site and how it works. MySpace has become largely corporate in nature. The home page is littered with ads for different MySpace pages. In line with this, MySpace is still a good destination to listen to a new band's music, whether they are signed or unsigned. A key feature of MySpace that differentiates it from other social networks is that it is just about 100% customizable. Each person's page is their own "space", complete with their own font, wallpaper, music, and color selections. This kind of customization gives MySpace a bit of a bad reputation in my opinion, since it is often difficult to navigate pages since every single one is different. MySpace has watched it's traffic steadily decline, and may not exist in the near future.
Next is Facebook. Facebook found it's success in being quite the opposite of MySpace in many ways. Though it is also very corporate in nature like MySpace is at this point, Facebook pages for both people and companies all have the same format that is familiar and easy to navigate. Facebook is always refreshing it's users with new features, such as the most recent "timeline" addition, and likely isn't going anywhere any time soon. Facebook learned from MySpace's shortcomings and has developed a superior social networking site.
Third on the list to discuss is Twitter. Twitter is my favorite social networking site. I've been using Twitter for years prior to this CIS class with a personal account, and I've been addicted. Twitter's main draw is the 140 character limit per tweet. Because of this, there is no room for unnecessary information. Updates are quick and to the point. The best part about Twitter is you can keep your timeline to only things you truly want to get updates about. On Facebook, you see old friends from high school posting photos and other updates. On Twitter, this is not the case. You choose to follow whatever companies, sports teams, musicians, celebrities, politicians, and people that you want. Twitter is kind of like a news service to me. Of course, there is no backup or citation for a tweet, so further investigation is usually needed for something important. Overall though, Twitter is an amazingly fast paced social network that is whatever you make it.
Finally we have LinkedIn. LinkedIn is pretty cool because it is the only "professional" social network that is influential enough to be useful. You can upload your resume, fill out your professional details such as education, prior and current employment, and specialties, and add people to your network. Each person you add to your network expands your potential list of contacts through connections. LinkedIn also is useful for finding employment. Many companies post job listings there. I think of LinkedIn as the professional alternative to Facebook. Like Facebook, LinkedIn uses a standard, easy to navigate interface on each user's profile. I look to use LinkedIn more and more as I get closer to searching for work after college.
So there you have it. Each social network has it's benefits and unique features, and there are so many more. Part of the fun is observing how the same person represents him/herself across multiple platforms!
Blog about Twitter
Which medium for discussion is best: Twitter, Blackboard, or in-class discussion? To compare Twitter discussions to Blackboard discussions or in-class discussions, I think the best way to break it down is by ranking them by ease of understanding.
Of course, an in-class discussion usually provides the most clarity. It's traditional; it's what we all know very well. But are the other ways better?
Blackboard discussions are my least favorite of the three options here. The Blackboard discussion board is not user friendly in my opinion, and it's a bit cumbersome to navigate among several posts, especially within the same thread. I've used traditional phpBB forums before and found them to be much easier to navigate. If Blackboard used that software, it'd be significantly better.
Then we come to Twitter. Short, to the point, and easy to read with hash tag topics like the one we use for our class, #3810NET1A. I've been a Twitter user for a few years now and have had many discussions with a whole slew of different people on it. Twitter is an amazing platform for discussion and, in my opinion, ranks first among the three options we're considering here.
Of course, an in-class discussion usually provides the most clarity. It's traditional; it's what we all know very well. But are the other ways better?
Blackboard discussions are my least favorite of the three options here. The Blackboard discussion board is not user friendly in my opinion, and it's a bit cumbersome to navigate among several posts, especially within the same thread. I've used traditional phpBB forums before and found them to be much easier to navigate. If Blackboard used that software, it'd be significantly better.
Then we come to Twitter. Short, to the point, and easy to read with hash tag topics like the one we use for our class, #3810NET1A. I've been a Twitter user for a few years now and have had many discussions with a whole slew of different people on it. Twitter is an amazing platform for discussion and, in my opinion, ranks first among the three options we're considering here.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Social Networking
There is no doubt that social networking is changing the world. Everyone is on a social network, and even every THING. Corporations, causes, products, artists, entertainers, and just about any division of the aforementioned have a social networking presence. What started as a way to connect with people has evolved into a way to connect with anything.
There are many benefits to this on a societal level. On one hand, you can easily connect to a company with a product question, feedback, or a problem. With increased transparency, products, customer service, and customer experience are all made better. Another aspect of societal benefit is the ease with which one can contact someone. In an emergency, a person is just a click, tweet, instant message, or wall post away. As Steve Chazin is quoted in the Stephen J. Dubner Freakonomics article, " Social networking tools have made it nearly effortless for me to keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues." That article can be found here: Or perhaps the desire to contact someone is purely for the purposes of catching up on an old friendship. A third reason that social networks benefit society is the spread of information. Natural disasters, celebrity deaths, sports news, and more are all brought to people instantly thanks to social networks. The newspaper's stories are outdated by the morning they're purchased. For these reasons (and there are many more), social networks have benefited society as a whole.
As touched on above, corporations have used social networking in many ways themselves. Connecting with customers for feedback and complaints is only one thing. Another huge use that corporations have for social networks is advertising and promotion. Facebook's ad program provides a great way to advertise to particular demographics, based on whatever factors the company wants. There are also promoted tweets and trending topics on Twitter. Corporations can also use social networks to run contests and spread information on their new products or services.
There is also a dark side to social media. Lack of face to face interaction with people has caused a decline in communication skills among the youth. As Hilary Stout writes in a New York Times article, "today’s youths may be missing out on experiences that help them develop empathy, understand emotional nuances and read social cues like facial expressions and body language." That article can be found here. People repeatedly use poor judgment by posting photos that are lewd or inappropriate, which negatively impacts their career chances. There is always the issue of privacy; most of the things we put on social networks are not things that would have been readily shared prior to the internet existing. The bottom line is that social networks come with a responsibility for the users. The use of the social network is entirely up to them, and it is their responsibility to keep their online presence clean.
How might social networks evolve in the future? This is a big question with many answers. We have already seen social networks connect with social gaming, a progression to short, quick status updates with Twitter, and the landscape on Facebook is almost always changing. In my opinion, I see social networks reaching a peak and then leveling out. In other words, their use will remain constant, and the number of new users on Facebook or Twitter will not be so great. Social networks will then be more directly and intentionally competing against each other, as the new users they will get will be taken directly from another social network.
There are many benefits to this on a societal level. On one hand, you can easily connect to a company with a product question, feedback, or a problem. With increased transparency, products, customer service, and customer experience are all made better. Another aspect of societal benefit is the ease with which one can contact someone. In an emergency, a person is just a click, tweet, instant message, or wall post away. As Steve Chazin is quoted in the Stephen J. Dubner Freakonomics article, " Social networking tools have made it nearly effortless for me to keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues." That article can be found here: Or perhaps the desire to contact someone is purely for the purposes of catching up on an old friendship. A third reason that social networks benefit society is the spread of information. Natural disasters, celebrity deaths, sports news, and more are all brought to people instantly thanks to social networks. The newspaper's stories are outdated by the morning they're purchased. For these reasons (and there are many more), social networks have benefited society as a whole.
As touched on above, corporations have used social networking in many ways themselves. Connecting with customers for feedback and complaints is only one thing. Another huge use that corporations have for social networks is advertising and promotion. Facebook's ad program provides a great way to advertise to particular demographics, based on whatever factors the company wants. There are also promoted tweets and trending topics on Twitter. Corporations can also use social networks to run contests and spread information on their new products or services.
There is also a dark side to social media. Lack of face to face interaction with people has caused a decline in communication skills among the youth. As Hilary Stout writes in a New York Times article, "today’s youths may be missing out on experiences that help them develop empathy, understand emotional nuances and read social cues like facial expressions and body language." That article can be found here. People repeatedly use poor judgment by posting photos that are lewd or inappropriate, which negatively impacts their career chances. There is always the issue of privacy; most of the things we put on social networks are not things that would have been readily shared prior to the internet existing. The bottom line is that social networks come with a responsibility for the users. The use of the social network is entirely up to them, and it is their responsibility to keep their online presence clean.
How might social networks evolve in the future? This is a big question with many answers. We have already seen social networks connect with social gaming, a progression to short, quick status updates with Twitter, and the landscape on Facebook is almost always changing. In my opinion, I see social networks reaching a peak and then leveling out. In other words, their use will remain constant, and the number of new users on Facebook or Twitter will not be so great. Social networks will then be more directly and intentionally competing against each other, as the new users they will get will be taken directly from another social network.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Blogs vs. Wikis
Blogs and Wikis are two different, yet similar things. To adequately discuss this, it is necessary to break down each individually, and then come back to highlight how they relate to each other.
We'll start with blogs. Blogs have revolutionized the world, most notably in news media. You used to have to be a journalist to report on a story and have it published. Blogs changed all of that. Now, anyone can start a blog and say just about anything they want, on any topic. A person can have a news and opinion blog without a college degree. Or they can have a personal blog that functions as a sort of diary. The possibilities are endless. A key feature is that there is no "editor" aside from the blog writer. For this reason, blogs and bloggers have drawn criticism for being insensitive or inaccurate in their "reporting" over the years.
But there is a good side. Blogs offer a raw, first hand account of many things, from news to personal matters. New blog posts can be made at any time, and can be accessed by anyone at any time. As said by Kathy E. Gill in "How can we measure the influence of the blogosphere?":
But how can blogs be used for collaboration? Rather easily. Through posting and commenting and replying, bloggers establish blogospheres. The bigger the community, and the more active the posting and commenting, blogs go from simple posts to creating stories in themselves. For example, a celebrity can post on their blog an idea for a contest, stipulating that the comment with the most replies will win. With the comments on that blog post, a sort of collaboration towards one person winning that contest develops.
How about wikis? Wikis are massive collaborative websites on any topic, a bunch of topics, or on every topic, like Wikipedia. Users can create, develop, and edit pages on a particular topic, with one person contributing one thing and another user contributing even more. Wikis are the epitome of collaboration in new media. Wikis are often at the top of a Google search results page, offering the most relevant information on the search.
Wikis can be used in so many ways, including in business. As founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales puts it in this article by Gardiner Morse:
I think a good idea for wikis that has not been used yet is in showing timelines of events more clearly, perhaps in a visual way. Wiki pages are traditionally largely text based, and trying to read a timeline of events down a page can be cumbersome. If wikis allowed for a more visual, picture based timeline structure, pages detailing events over time will be much more reader friendly.
So now we have arrived at the central question: blogs vs. wikis, and the issue of convergence. To contrast the two, blogs have authors, while wikis have contributors. In my opinion, wikis are sort of a progression from blogs in that they take blogs to the next level in the collaborative sense. Both wikis and blogs have users that contribute to a topic, though in different ways. The two will always be different, but they are really two sides of the same coin.
Convergence happens all around us more and more. In today's networked world, convergence is very important because it streamlines the huge array of options we have available to us as consumers of new media. The biggest example of this was when Google acquired YouTube (incidentally, blogger and blogspot are parts of Google as well). Google is the king of convergence, in my opinion. Their most recent endeavor, which is neither successful or unsuccessful as of yet, is their new social network, Google+.
Blogs and wikis will always be separate entities, but perhaps one day we will see a major blog site and a major wiki site converge.
We'll start with blogs. Blogs have revolutionized the world, most notably in news media. You used to have to be a journalist to report on a story and have it published. Blogs changed all of that. Now, anyone can start a blog and say just about anything they want, on any topic. A person can have a news and opinion blog without a college degree. Or they can have a personal blog that functions as a sort of diary. The possibilities are endless. A key feature is that there is no "editor" aside from the blog writer. For this reason, blogs and bloggers have drawn criticism for being insensitive or inaccurate in their "reporting" over the years.
But there is a good side. Blogs offer a raw, first hand account of many things, from news to personal matters. New blog posts can be made at any time, and can be accessed by anyone at any time. As said by Kathy E. Gill in "How can we measure the influence of the blogosphere?":
"Blogging can empower a new group of writers to challenge a storyline presented by mainstream media. It can empower them to move from observer status to commentator or even shaper of events. When this occurs, journalists may find themselves being questioned, not the questioner."This perfectly captures the spirit of blogging, and shows how amazing they can really be. The rest of Gill's article can be read here.
But how can blogs be used for collaboration? Rather easily. Through posting and commenting and replying, bloggers establish blogospheres. The bigger the community, and the more active the posting and commenting, blogs go from simple posts to creating stories in themselves. For example, a celebrity can post on their blog an idea for a contest, stipulating that the comment with the most replies will win. With the comments on that blog post, a sort of collaboration towards one person winning that contest develops.
How about wikis? Wikis are massive collaborative websites on any topic, a bunch of topics, or on every topic, like Wikipedia. Users can create, develop, and edit pages on a particular topic, with one person contributing one thing and another user contributing even more. Wikis are the epitome of collaboration in new media. Wikis are often at the top of a Google search results page, offering the most relevant information on the search.
Wikis can be used in so many ways, including in business. As founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales puts it in this article by Gardiner Morse:
Pretty much any sort of knowledge sharing that is enhanced by open, flexible, rapid collaboration, particularly in contexts where people are separated geographically and relationship-building is important. Wikis are great tools for helping people to come to consensus quickly, whether about what to put on a meeting agenda or how best to meet customers’ needs.The rest of Morse's article can be read here.
I think a good idea for wikis that has not been used yet is in showing timelines of events more clearly, perhaps in a visual way. Wiki pages are traditionally largely text based, and trying to read a timeline of events down a page can be cumbersome. If wikis allowed for a more visual, picture based timeline structure, pages detailing events over time will be much more reader friendly.
So now we have arrived at the central question: blogs vs. wikis, and the issue of convergence. To contrast the two, blogs have authors, while wikis have contributors. In my opinion, wikis are sort of a progression from blogs in that they take blogs to the next level in the collaborative sense. Both wikis and blogs have users that contribute to a topic, though in different ways. The two will always be different, but they are really two sides of the same coin.
Convergence happens all around us more and more. In today's networked world, convergence is very important because it streamlines the huge array of options we have available to us as consumers of new media. The biggest example of this was when Google acquired YouTube (incidentally, blogger and blogspot are parts of Google as well). Google is the king of convergence, in my opinion. Their most recent endeavor, which is neither successful or unsuccessful as of yet, is their new social network, Google+.
Blogs and wikis will always be separate entities, but perhaps one day we will see a major blog site and a major wiki site converge.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
My project: New Media And New Music
The title of my project will be "New Media And New Music." It will focus on the way the music industry has evolved over the last decade or so as a result of new media. Record labels have closed or merged, record stores have been reduced to novelty shops, and it is harder than ever before for musicians to make money for their work. How has new media caused or contributed to this evolution? How can musicians embrace new media to harness it's power? What will the future hold for music, musicians, and record labels as new media further advances at the speed of light? These are all questions I will explore as a part of my project for this semester.
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