The Next New Thing

A useful new media for Baruch students would be a new app such as the Facebook but for students. This would be like a social media app for only Baruch students that would allow them to connect and communicate with each other. The app would be right at the palm of their hands and it would allow them to communicate with professors as well. Also from this app, we would be able to get the Baruch academic calender as well as other necessary Baruch announcements. Also students would be able to put up questions or comments they have about certain classes. Students and professors would be able to post up pictures and videos through this app.

P2P File Sharing

1.) File sharing is when digitally stored information is accessible from a provider. For example computer software, or computer programs, videos, pictures, music etc.
2.) P2P file sharing is peer to peer file sharing. This is done by using a peer to peer software and internet access. Peers can basically give each other a variety of files. Basically the user has access to all types of media files.
3.) Computer programs, software's, multimedia such as pictures, videos, disk sharing, etc.

The article on Wikipedia about Digital Rights Management is pretty interesting. It takes us back to the topic about privacy and confidentiality. DRM helps stop online infringement and copyright issues.

Privacy And Confidentiality

Privacy and confidentiality are both very important whether it has to do with new media or some other aspect. A lot of times we are unaware of the fact that we are putting up a lot of our personal stuff online. For example, many times on social networking sites such as Facebook, we put our personal information, but don't put the proper security or privacy settings on our pages. Same goes for other social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter. With the use of Youtube, you have copyrights which prevents people from using other peoples work to claim it as their own. All these measures are taken simply because the internet is so enormous now, you never know where your work or personal information is going. Furthermore, any work that you do put online, such as even a small piece of work such as a poem, maybe used by someone else without using your reference. That poem is your own individual intellectual property and you might not want someone else to share it. Therefore, privacy and security is a major issue when using new media and the internet in general.

Advice

If I was hired by Baruch College to improve their usage of media, I would
1.)  Open up more online courses using blackboard. Blackboard is an awesome way to use technology to instruct courses. For example, our CIS class is an online course. Its easily accessible to all students who are at Baruch and it would maybe decrease the traffic in the college if this was done.
2.) Incorporate more social media websites in courses. For example, instead of writing papers all the time about certain topics, blogging about topics is much more interactive and perhaps students will be more interested in reading the material and writing about it. This kind of change might be much more intriguing and interesting to students.
3.)  This would be a stretch but if we could have virtual classes where the instructor is basically teaching the class online with all the students at the same time on a webcam, class might be more exciting.

Creativity and New Media

I am not much of a creative person but as part of the assignment, I've created my first avatar. It was pretty interesting because I felt like I could create her just how I want to.When you click on the link, please wait for the page to load and click on the play button to hear the voice.


http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?partnerID=symbaloo&scid=5783181&height=267&width=

This is my avatar pet
http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?partnerID=symbaloo&scid=5783141&height=267&width=

This is my friend
http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?partnerID=symbaloo&scid=5783202&height=267&width=

Creativity

The idea of new media itself is very creative. Ten years ago, we could not even imagine some of the ways that media has changed. For example, instead of books and magazines we now have the web and instead of the news sometimes we would rather watch YouTube. Media has drastically changed and one of the ways is that it has become so much more creative. New media allows for people to be themselves.
For example, social networking sites allow people to just be themselves and express themselves in ways that were not possible in the past. Sites such as Facebook and twitter allow people to post their feelings. Even this blog is a creative piece of work because I am expressing my feelings while I am writing here. This creativity also ties people together because people can read and comment on them or just express their own opinions.
New media also allows us to enter worlds that are incredible. For example, new media offers virtual worlds that give people the opportunity to be anything they want to be. In virtual worlds, users also have the potential to be whoever they want to be, however they want to be. Therefore, even users get to use their creative sides. Furthermore, sites like YouTube and even Skype allow users to post videos and share videos that foster creativity. For example, from the article, "Disney Tolerates a Rap parody of its Critters, But why?", we learn that Disney allows YouTube users to make a parody of their characters because it allows for users to utilize their creativity. I personally think that YouTube users do an amazing job fostering creativity because they also market various music videos, songs, and video blogs, etc. As a conclusion, new media allows people to use and utilize their creativity which I believe will only increase as time passes.

Virtual Worlds

  Virtual worlds are online communities in which users come face to face with an enviornment similar to the real world. In virtual worlds, which is usually in a 3D format, the users are usually faced with real life situations in which they have to make decisions. Virtual worlds can be used for many different factors. For example, vitual worlds can be used for training or educational purposes. Virtual worlds can also be used for medical, sales, or just recreational purposes.
  There are good things and bad things about virtual worlds. One of the benefits to virtual worlds is that it allows for users to use their creativity. It can also be a very good tool for training in jobs because virtual worlds are stimulated to be a model of what should be done and its similar to real life. So one who is being trained for a job will get the real feel of the job before they start working. Virtual worlds allows the users to get full perspective of what they are looking at. For example, in the article titled "Avatar II", author Stephanie Simon talks about a virtual world which is a hospital with patients all lined up in the emergency room. This allows for nurses to learn how they would deal with patients at that kind of a moment. Furthermore, she explains that this method is used in many hospitals as a training drill so that doctors and nurses will learn how to handle themselves in different situations.
  Another benefit to virtual worlds is that it can help users to improve their moods. For example, in the article "Chelsea, In Room 100, its Sid and Nancy All Over Again", the users create the hotel for themseleves on Second Life, a virtual world, where users are avatars. They create it to their own liking which satisfies them because its not like the actual hotel, but as to what they wish the hotel were like. In return, they feel a self satisfaction. Virtual worlds also allow lonely or shy people to find company online which gives them self satisfaction as well.
  Virtual worlds also have its cons. For example, the world is still a 3D world, its not real life. Therefore, users might fantasize it as a real world where its not. Also, users might behave in ways in which they might not behave in real life. There might be abuse in virtual worlds that might encourage them to get violent in real life as well.
 

Social Networking Sites

I started off using Social Networking Sites when I was in high school. Back then, the coolest site was Xanga, which is pretty much like this site, its a place blogging site. It was a cool site to me back then because to me and my friends, it was known as the online diary where we would blog about our day to day events and just comment on each others blogs. Then it became fancy where we could add pictures and change layouts, and there were even separate sites to create special Xanga layout, so it was a big popular site back then. Eventually, after a year or two Myspace came along and took over the limelight.

I started using Myspace when I was in high school and it was the biggest thing back in 2006. Myspace also had the special layouts you can create, you could write small blogs,put your top friends and list them one to ten. And what seemed really cool back then was right under your profile picture, you could even write a small status, not like the one that's on Facebook, but more like something that described you. Eventually, they even had a program that would tell you who was checking your page the most, and then eventually they came up with the privacy settings which allowed people to block unknown creepers from their pages.

Eventually a friend introduced me to Facebook and I started using Facebook in 2007 which was only for college students back then. I didn't really like Facebook much in the beginning because it seemed boring at first. There wasn't really much to do. But by 2008, they started to add in a lot of new features such as the status updates and the ways you can comment and tag people. At one point, Facebook began taking over I think practically everyone life. The whole like only amplified people more to go on Facebook and its amazing how Facebook has changed the way people view media. I mean its amazing that even employers search for candidates on Facebook. The one thing I wish they would focus more on is their privacy settings.

Twitter, I never really used or liked. I know that many of my friends are undecided about this one do to its limitations. I know that a lot of celebrities like using it though. Right now, I'm using it for my CIS class but who knows, maybe I will get accustomed to tweeting and stick to it.

Blog about Twitter

I personally would have never opened a twitter account if it weren't for my CIS class. The reason why I dislike twitter is because of its words. I realize that it's called twitter for a reason and the updates are tweets but still, 140 symbols including spaces is way to limited for me. And for this reason it would be very difficult to have an informing discussion on twitter. If I have to tweet five times to get my point across, then it just becomes a hassle. Unless you are on your phone all day (which I am not), its very hard to complete a discussion fully there.
Blackboard discussions are a lot more comprehensive and detailed. I feel like a discussion on blackboard would be more informing than one made on twitter because there isn't that limitations on words that you can use. Blackboard discussion board is similar to twitter in the way that its setup where one persons writing is on top of another but you have to actually click on the writing on blackboard to read the whole writing that someone wrote.
A face to face discussion would work best for me because I think I can get my point across most easily by talking to someone. You have that physical interaction that you sometimes need while discussing a certain topic. Therefore, classroom discussions, I feel, is a great way to learn new ideas or catch new points or even to just have a discussion.

Social Networking

Today, a professor of mine was asking the class, "Does anyone remember the times when the internet was not so vastly used?" Practically only five people out of a group of fifty raised their hands, including me. I was just shocked to see that no one could remember when internet, Google and Facebook were not so popular or just did not exist. New media such as Google and Yahoo search engines and now social media such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc has really revolutionized the world. Especially social media has changed the way we communicate with people and now its so much easier to communicate with someone that is across the world from you.

Social Networks have changed the way we interact with each other and "behave" around each other. People who are on Facebook and Twitter don't only view their friends but they also have access to company pages, artists pages, corporate pages and etc. Recently, employers are also filtering possible candidates for job openings through LinkedIn and searching applicants through Facebook. According to an article by Frank Langfitt called 'Social Networkinng Technology Boosts Job Recruiting", Langfitt mentions how more and more employers are looking into LinkedIn to find eligible candidates. LinkedIn is a social networking website for those who are interested in building their careers. You can put many different attributes on the page, such as what type of job you are looking for, where you got your education from, and what are your qualifications and skills. Linkedin reminds me of an extended resume and just like Langfitt, I believe its a great way for recruiters to look for candidates externally rather than internally. The "dark side" to this is that its a social networking site; if an employer or recruiter reads on someones page that they belong to such an such company,it doesnt mean that it is generally true. Thus, a lack of privacy or honestly lacks in all types of social networking websites.

Facebook is one of the leading social media websites. Its "what are you doing now" status update section is always a favorite of mine because you can write practically anything there. And people usually write all sorts of things there. And now with internet on the phone, we could practically be anywhere around the world updating our Facebook. Virginia Hefferman of the New York Times wrote an article "Being There" about status updates. Just like her sometimes I have difficulty with my status update, because no one wants to really know what exactly I am doing at that point because most likely I am just updating my Facebook. So Ms. Hefferman suggests that the best status is one that is a question,

Whats interesting about facebook is that it changed social networking so vastly. Starting from the Profile status update to the privacy settings, to the advertisements, Facebook is definitely changing around how our future internet world will be like.

Blogs VS Wikis

Compare and contrast blogs and wikis. Comment on the importance of convergence in today's networked world. How can blogs be used for collaboration? Can you think of a new use for a wiki that has not been done yet? 
Blogs and Wiki's are quite similar. Both Blogs and Wiki's are both websites used by people to share information. In blogs, the blogger will usually write information which only he/she can write and edit under their username. No other user can edit that work done by the blogger. Wiki's, on the other hand, is a collaborative website in which more than one user can write,share, and edit information. Wiki's are usually a great source to go to, to get multiple viewpoints on a topic whereas on a blog, you will get only the viewpoint of the blogger. Furthermore, Blogs tend to have more personal writing rather than factual information you might get from the encyclopedia. Whereas, on wiki's it is more than likely that authors tend to write more about informational/factual topics that might come to use while writing a paper.


Technological convergence is very important in today's corporate world. Think about it! The way we run our businesses nowadays would have been unheard of even seven or eight years ago. Now employers are even looking up Facebook and Twitter to see a possible candidate for a job before they even meet the person. Furthermore, technology has allowed us to do so many things on one website and connect with so many people from so many parts of the world at one time. All these advances in technology has made our lives more efficient and in some cases we even know people more closely through technology than by face to face interaction.

According to an interesting article from New York Times article by "Michael Wilson, Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid", we learn that because several people were blogging about the incidents in their  neighborhood, police were able to crack down on some drug deals and other crimes that were occurring in that neighborhood. Sometimes, just writing your feelings and feelings on a blog online, even if anonymous, can help others and you might not even expect it to. I believe this is a way that blogs were used for collaboration because even though they were different people blogging, they were blogging about the same thing so it came out to be useful altogether. Another way that blogs can be used for collaboration is when a blogger writes their post, different users can com and comment on that post and that can be the start of a collaboration.

Something new for wikis could be limiting the amount of people that can edit or put write information on wikis. Wikis are open to pretty much the public and it can always change because so many people can edit and add new information. Furthermore, sometimes wiki's are not a credible source to go to for your information because the references itself are not all that credible. According to the New York Times Article,
"Wikipedia to Limit Changes to Articles on People", Wikipedia now has experienced volunteer editors that will have to sign off any changes that are made on articles about people before the changes are posted online. I think this is an excellent idea because if people change and add information everyday, then that information is no longer credible.

New Media- How has Social Media Effected Children and Adolescents

Hello CIS class. My topic for our upcoming research project is "how has social media effected children and adolescents in our society". I have a special interest in this topic because I have a younger sister that is eight and   a half years old. As I was growing up I had no idea about computers because in each grade they had like four or five computers. Plus, even as I went on to junior high school, research done on the computer was not considered credible. Therefore I did not become familiar with computers till my high school years and learned more as I came into college. In my sisters case, she is already very computer savvy. She always plays games on the computer and has an email address. Sometimes when I go to Facebook, I see kids as young as my sister with a profile. I feel that social media has spread so widely that now even kids are on it and I presume that it is definitely not a secure place for them. My concern for my sister has led me to take this topic as my research project.