The Next New Thing

My opinion of the next new thing, includes something from the social media perspective, I call it the hook up. I know what you're thinking, another dating site but it nothing has to do with that. Instead, let me ask you this, have you ever been in a position where you felt that if you only knew then what you know now your life would be totally different? The hookup makes thousands of attempts to do this for you by scanning the web for information in relation to your interests. Then it takes that information and sends you this information either by mail or email of all the things to come that you didn't know about but now you do. Let's face it the internet has too much information available to you but who has time to sit in front the computer for 2-4 hrs at a time to research which stores has the best deals between Walmart, K-mart and Costco. The purpose of this is to find inside information, what do people know that I don't and expose it, in other words "whose got the hook up". This can help society in a way that makes us more aware of the benefits that life has to offer and put the people in power that doesn't want us to know to shame.

P2P File Sharing

In the world of technology, multimedia content has always been susceptible to illegal duplication. For example, those of you who were aware of the dilemma heard about a company called Napster. Napster was the first in my opinion to get the word out there to the public about an idea called P2P file sharing. As you might now conclude, you hear very little about Napster - put two and two together- after this secret was out. Since this happened, this raises the question, what exactly is P2P File sharing?
Let me explain first what is file sharing to begin with. File sharing is simply, making digitally stored information (like books, software, music and movies) available for others to access over the Internet. For example, a Web Page is a form of file sharing because it's your digital information and makes its contents available across the Internet . Another example of file sharing, which is also one the most common ways today, by using peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. This raises the next question, what is peer-to-peer file sharing? Peer-to-peer file sharing is a system of sharing files directly between network users, a without the assistance or interference of a central server. What this means in English, is that you and I both have computers, you decided to share a movie (The avengers :)) with me, but your too far away transfer the file from your computer to my computer via USB. So we transfer the movie file by letting our computers talk to each via the Internet. What this means is that it makes your movie available to me through P2P application (bitlord, lime wire, kazaa) and I can download it directly to my computer. A few examples of P2P File sharing includes spotify, gnutella, Skype, VoIP, edonkey and many many more. Many might ask what's wrong with P2P file sharing if I am the owner of the digital file? Well, I can give you 1.5 million dollars worth of reasons, which is the same amount that is being held against Jamie Thomas-Rasset for downloading 24 songs from Kazaa. According to the case, "earlier this year a U.S. District Court judge found the $1.92 million penalty against Thomas-Rasset to be "monstrous and shocking" and "gross justice" before lowering it to $54,000, or $2,250 a song."(Kreps, 2010) - this is still too much in my opinion, given that most songs sold on itunes are for $1.29.

     The moral of the story is this ladies and gentleman, it's wrong and don't be the person in her situation . Pay things the good ole fashioned way, with money and stop trying to cut corners. Be creative and do the right thing.

References

Daniel Kreps (2010, November 4) Minnesota Mom Hit With $1.5 Million Fine for Downloading 24 Songs from http://www.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~rhein/baruchnewmedia/baruchnewmedia.com/w/images/3/35/IllegalMusic.pdf

Privacy & Confidentiality

           Over the past 2 decades, technology has increasingly affected all ways of the modern day professional. We are now at a place where most of our communication is being done through email, meanwhile, the increasing trend of professional journals moving away from printed formats to being exclusively online is staggering. New media has become a new way of life, so to speak. Since nearly all information is stored electronically, whether it's a presentation, phone numbers, sensitive documents, we've become more dependent on upon the technology to "intelligently" perform in a professional environment. However, there is always two sides to a coin and due to the increased speed in communication and information exchange also has great potential for violation of some of code of ethics.

          Let's take a look at Facebook for example, at one point we were able to post any picture or comment to the  public. This proved to be a problem for users because some thought it was cute to let everyone know your entire life story. This is good news for stalkers, groupies, psychos, your exes but bad for the average user like you and me. Facebook is continually making efforts to limit this but my question to you is who is in charge of securing all of our personal profile information. if you think that's scary watch this little clip:

Let's face it ladies and gentleman, Facebook is not  the social media engine you thought it was meant to be. These issues are dangerous and can be possibly used against us. This invasion of privacy is starting to sound more like a wicked plan or trick to use the fear of the public from 9/11 as a way to "fight terrorism". Wouldn't you feel a bit uneasy that someone, somewhere has your pics, status updates, birthdays and places visited on a database. After watching the video, talk to me, honestly,

about how you feel about the direction America is going and what do you think you might do to prevent this future catastrophe from happening. Deuces.

Creativity and New Media

     I created an avatar in Second Life that I was honestly not pleased because I wanted something that is complicated but unique at the same time. However, I did not disappoint, I did find a video that I would like for you to see in tribute to the king of pop Michael Jackson. Then see the Second Life version of Michael Jackson performing my favorite song, Smooth Criminal. It's amazing to look at the details of every move he makes is almost exactly just like the original. Hope you Enjoy peeps!!!

Smooth Criminal Concert

Smooth Criminal Second Life

Creativity

    Beauty is in the eye of the beholder? This holds true in the way we think ourselves, whether you look at yourself in the mirror or you see yourself on a more deeper level, it's evident we have a gift creativity waiting to be unlocked. However, how do we develop this sense of creativity that lies in eye of every beholder?
    New media acts as a catalyst in our creative thinking to birth fresh ideas like the iPad, Facebook, Twitter, the Internet and several more. For example, a way new media fosters creativity is through mashups. Let me explain, have you ever heard of remix of a song that sounded sometimes better than the original song? You might have noticed a two or more people in the song especially if they never sung a song together basically "mashed" together to make the song seamlessly sound in sync. Here's an example of a video mashup, the first video is Crank That by Soulja Boy, the mashup is the 2nd video involving Disney characters.

Soulja Boy by Crank That

Winnie the Pooh Mashup

     Although this mashup parody is interesting and funny to see, Disney's legal advisers are tolerating this kind of misuse to their prized characters. Why you ask? In my opinion, it's all politics. This mashup was created five months after Soulja Boy Crank That first came out. In order for people to become more aware of the Winnie the Pooh cast and make more money due to the songs' success and popularity, it's a win-win situation. According to this " the song hot No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this month" (Barnes, 2009) I don't see why not take the opportunity.

References

Brooks Barnes (2007, September 24) Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of it's Critters. But Why? Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/media/24crank.html

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

     Have you ever imagined a place that you never been? Or wanted to relive? Maybe, you wanted to recreate that experience for you to reminisce on or to share your experience with others who hasn't been there. If you can relate to this feeling of nostalgia, than your in luck because in our world today, we provide plenty of online software for those users that are interested to have a chance to recreate this "life".
     An example of modeling reality using virtual worlds is a program called Second Life. One of the different ways that this program can be used to create virtual worlds is to recreate a Chelsea hotel involving a murder in room 100 in 1978. "Michael Brown, an Internet technology support manager and singer-songwriter living in rural southwestern Pennsylvania" (Knafo, 2009) came up with the idea to recreate his view of this hotel. Here's his perspective of his reality of the Chelsea:

Michael Brown

     Did you notice the details of even the painting on the right hand side of the picture? If not, it shows a picture of a hotdog-looking dog with "Chelsea Dog" tattooed on it's side. If you think that's something then I bet you wouldn't believe that politicians uses Second Life also. Let me explain, a Linden Labs worker was at a congressional subcommittee hearing that was broadcasting simultaneously in the company's own Second Life virtual world on a projected screen. The reason for them using Second Life in their presentation were to highlight a few questions like: Can Second Life be used to launder money? Is it safe for children? Can you make any money from this world? Basically, politicians are using Second Life as a tool to figure out if it's possible to enact criminal activities without out anyone knowing. Here's an example of a person in Second Life of a political party:

As you may already know there are pros and cons to virtual worlds. A few pros are:

• You escape the realities of this world for something more fulfilling to you.
• You can use virtual worlds to get a picture of how you may want design a place.
• You can use virtual worlds to fight crime by create scenarios in virtual worlds.
• It's a great way to bring people together and collaborate with each other.

A few cons are:

• Security flaws 
• People can become more anti-social by living on Second Life 24-7.
• Subject to terrorist plots by recreating environments and planning how to bomb them.
• Can also be easily distracted while in virtual worlds.
• "Launder Money" (Musgrove, 2008).

     As you already figured, it's something about virtual worlds that has a way to foster creativity. Based on these two images you can see that all you really need to create your own world is an imagination. Even blind people who haven't seen before, too have dreams that cannot be explained. Where does this come from? So as you can see this idea of thinking of something and creating it into existence is something is innate in all of us. I mean God spoke light into existence and we're created in his image are not? So think t your self for a moment, have you ever felt that if you knew now what you didn't know then, boy would things be different. Marrying that man that you knew was wrong for you, not having that child at a vulnerable age (God knows you love them), overcoming the anxiety of people telling you are not good enough, failing that test and the list goes on. One thing I think we all can agree on is that we all have problems and that we've made mistakes as a result of it and only if we had a Second Life I would be better off or so we may think. 

     With technology currently improving year after year after year we have to ask ourselves the question concerning virtual worlds, what will it look like? In my opinion, virtual worlds in the future may have such an impact in that we won't be able to distinguish between the two of reality and fiction because the virtual worlds are being built right before your very eyes. Look at Facebook, we have some people who live on Facebook for hours (You know who you are) and you can't get in touch with them physically face-to-face, only online. Look at reality TV shows as another example, these shows couldn't be any further away from the truth of reality but our minds gain weight on the lies they convey to us and try to implement those same misunderstood principals in own lives. If you ask me, virtual worlds are just the beginning when it comes to what people can think of. People are currently working on a 3-D printer. We are making imagination a reality but is it good for us? Let's see in the next 40 yrs.

References

Saki Knafo (2009, May 1) Chelsea: In Room 100, It's Sid and Nancy All Over Again. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/nyregion/thecity/03virt.html?_r=0

Mike Musgrove (2008, April 1) At Hearing, Real and Virtual Worlds Collide. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/04/01/ST2008040103032.html

Social Networking Sites

So you’re new to the Internet and you've been hearing a lot about this Twitter, Facebook, networking nonsense. If you want to communicate with your family and friends using one of these sites is essential to your well-being. However, out the bunch that's out there, which one will work for you? Don't fret, I'm here to lighten the load so to speak and shed some light on the 4 networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Google+) I believe is the most reliable today.

      If you're breathing than you've more than likely heard about Facebook. It's become the world’s answer to global networking in a way that is simple but very efficient.  Facebook takes online communication from the days of sending a regular email or an instant message to personal or corporate promoting of one's life. In my opinion, I feel Facebook stole that idea from MySpace but I'll get on that a little later. Facebook is less about "me" and more about "us" with interactivity being the main draw to the community. For instance, take a look at your Facebook profile when you first login, do you notice that the first thing you see is the news feeds of your friends activity? Keep that picture in mind when I introduce to you another social networking site worthy of the title Facebook's ancestor called MySpace.  

      Unlike most social media sites, MySpace was the first site that had such a public impact on the world. It was seen mainly as the as a hangout spot for the young and hip – no one over 30 need apply. And though MySpace gradually has become more popular with those in their 30s, 40s, and beyond, it is still teen-heavy. MySpace is a place to create a Web site that makes a statement about you, with customizable themes and a music player that can load and play a song automatically when visitors hit your page. By default, your MySpace page is viewable by the public, but you can set the page to be viewable only by your MySpace friends. Over time, MySpace has developed a reputation as a “hook up” site and it has struggled with spam disguised as friend requests and hacked user accounts, but the site has worked to overcome these difficulties with tightened security safeguards and enhanced communication with users.

     Looking at both sites I'm sure you noticed you a lot of similarities and the few differences and in reality Facebook is the son of MySpace. Generally, most users prefer Facebook because you can be nosy and search for people, whether it's your ex or an old time friend. It just works!! However, what if you're looking for something more, something that you can get your voice out to the world anytime of the day at any point in time. Guess what? Twitter is your answer to this problem simply because it does just that. You can use it to get out what you’re currently thinking to the public and those who "follow" you. If someone were to ask me, what do you think Twitter is all about? I would tell them, Twitter is what YOU make it out to be. Think about you can follow people you're interested in, have people follow you and monitor what you're thinking as well you monitor what they're thinking. From that point on you decide what you want to from that point on, you can use this information to promote your business like most companies do. You can use it to create a community of people that all have the same interests as you and you can bounce ideas back and forth. It's also used for learning and engaging with one another, check it what Jeanine Walters had to say about that, "I learn every single day from Twitter. Ironically, some of the learning is how NOT to behave. I absolutely appreciate the community I have found via quick tweets or discovered blogs (like this one!) but I also find doofuses who don't get it every day. I use these "role models" to remind me to continue to see Twitter as a village - not a podium." Whoever said you can't teach old dog new tricks, it still takes a village to raise a child ladies and gentleman.

     To wrap this meeting up I would like to touch on a serious issue that has been disturbing me and a few individuals in my circle. What does Google think it's doing by coming out with Google+? Seriously, I thought them trying to come out with Android cell phones every 3 days were enough for them. Now they have to come and capture the social networking too? First of all, its way too complicated for the average social user. They have so much options and different features for someone who’s trying to simply post information. This is why Facebook and Twitter is hot right now --making hard things simple. Also now, granted, Google's redesign turned it into a weird hybrid of Twitter and Facebook's layout, but it still gets the job done. Second there is a chatting limitation that you cannot freely chat with all the users in your Circles; you can only chat with those who are connected to your Google+ account through your email address. This is one of the big lacking features that Google+ need to pay attention to. Because, chatting has now become an essential feature of social networking sites, so, having such limitations to chatting would cause a block in getting people attracted to it. Overall it's a nice site to look at and Google does have a way of things to look nice but everyone knows looks ain't everything.

     Among all these social networking sites my favorite is twitter, not because I can let you and the world know what I'm thinking but I can also follow what other respectable figures are saying about their life. Whether it's a joke from Kevin Hart or an inspirational quote from T.D Jakes, it works for me. How about you, what's your thoughts?