Unfortunately, I started this assignment significantly later than every one else and am facing the consequences because it looks like every one has made enormous contributions to the wiki pages and there’s no room left for any information! However I have done research on the topic I signed up for – Cyber bullying and new media and found an interesting “Guide to Cyber bullying” which had a lot of great information for parents. I added on to the forms of cyber bullying, prevention of cyber bullying, and the resources section. Considering that this page looks pretty much complete, in order to make more of a contribution to the class wiki, I am considering adding a page all about Virtual Worlds. My term paper was about Virtual Worlds and it had a lot of significant information and resources so I think it would be a valuable addition to what the students have already worked on.
The Next New Thing in New Media will be the technology allowing us to interact with digital projections eventually allowing completely virtual classrooms. These types of technologies are only seen in movies, however we are slowly getting there. They are working on a technology that allows for a projection from your iPad and being able to read and interact with the pages on the projection. In the Hunger Games movie, they showed the people creating virtual projections and bringing it into real life, which I don’t think we will be able to do for a long time, however I think the digital projections of things from the computer into 3D form will certainly be in our near future.
File sharing is the public or private sharing of computer data or space in a network with various levels of access privileges. P2P File sharing is Peer to Peer File Sharing in which users can use software that connects in to a peer-to-peer network to search for shared files on the computers of other users (i.e. peers) connected to the network. Files of interest can then be downloaded directly from other users on the network. Typically, large files are broken down into smaller chunks, which may be obtained from multiple peers and then reassembled by the downloader. This is done while the peer is simultaneously uploading the chunks it already has to other peers. Napster, LiveWire, and BitTorrent are only a few of the examples of this P2P File Sharing technology. Although these creators and their consumers may have found their loopholes around the rules per say, they have also forced companies to push themselves and come up with new lucrative ideas for their businesses to still thrive among these illegal competitors. As described in the article “ONLINE PIRACY AND THE EMERGENCE OF NEW BUSINESS MODELS” by David Y. Choi, some new business models and model adoptions in response to these P2P File Sharing technologies have been Video on Demand by Comcast, Newscorp, Disney, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Internet Protocol (IP) TV Infrastructure by Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and AOL. Piracy is a huge problem in the entertainment and music industry because their talents are not preserved, and their industry has lost a lot of their sales from this. Many stores who sell CD’s have closed down, and even Blockbuster which was very successful a few years ago has now had to come up with new methods of business to stay afloat. In response, companies like Netflix have used this opportunity to jump in, as well as iTunes which has recently become very popular with shows such as “The Voice” encouraging people to contribute to these artists’ talent with only $1.29 per song rather than downloading it. The article mentioned earlier very well states, “Online piracy has had and is likely to continue to have a large impact on the fast changing media and software industries. We observe that online piracy impacts the industries through the following processes: It (1) pioneers the use of new technologies; (2) provides the business world with invaluable market insight; (3) contributes to new market creation; and (4) evolves into legitimate and innovative business models. ” File sharing presents many conflicting issues, however it does not have to be a damper on business opportunities, especially for those entrepreneurial-minded individuals who present unique business opportunities brought on by online piracy and the BitTorrent technology.
Privacy and Confidentiality are both extremely important when it comes to the New Media world. Facebook in particular has had many issues with this because of their use of their customers’ social network information for marketing surveys, statistics, and much more. Google also uses your internet usage data to cater advertisements to your liking. Now that Facebook has bought out Instagram, many people are worried that even their pictures may be used and won’t be private. This is why every website has to provide privacy settings for any website with personal information such as e-mail addresses, name, school, preferences, etc because even though you may only have your friends on your page, other people may access your information. People always say “nothing is private once you put it on the web” which is partially the truth. When I search my name on Google, I can find my profile picture from Facebook, Linked In, as well as this New Media Course Wikipedia. Privacy is very important to people for many different reasons, some might just not want people to know about them or who they are, some are just paranoid, some are applying to med school or law school who look down upon social network websites, and some might be trying to get an important job and don’t want their future employers to have a biased view of them from their social network. Beyond just Social Network websites, every site has to have a privacy and confidentiality statement, especially for plagiarism of any text, as well as copyright items, etc. The music industry is very subject to this issue because people are able to download music from almost any site today, and it is very detrimental to the sales of their talent. There are many controversial views on this topic, however at the base of the argument we know that illegally download music is technically breaking the copyright rule. There has also been recent restrictions on the internet, bringing up a huge uproar from websites against this restriction of their freedom on the web. This is also an issue of privacy because at the end of the day, the government can access any one’s information from online data, in as they would say “national security purposes.” These issues are extremely important to the world of New Media, and will continue to be as people’s information continue to be so easily accessed by the public.
Using new media, Baruch College can use many new advancements they have never thought of before in addition to their Facebook, Twitter, and iPhone App. These new media resources are very helpful for students, however there are many more opportunities to enrich the students’ academic careers. The college can use new media to build a larger online class selection, which would be extremely beneficial for students who work full time and would like to fit in another class and graduate earlier. Many computer based or even normal classes that can be easily converted to computer based discussions, can be taught online. Considering Baruch College is a business, and commuter school it is a surprise that a lot of classes have not been offered online earlier. Professors can utilize Skype, Blackboard, Wikipedia, Blogs, Twitter, and many more online tools to teach their courses. Baruch College has many extracurricular organizations who work to bring in guest speakers from companies and connect students to professionals in the “real world.” It is a wonder why Baruch’s Starr Career Development Center has not done more of this themselves? The Career Development Center has so much technology to their advantage that they can utilize to connect students to professionals, and do Skype interviews while in school. Students have trouble once they leave the school and they are on their own and the school prides themselves on one of the highest job placement rates. For all the students who are not able to be placed and may not have had a connection in a company, or an Accounting degree, the college should take more of an interest in all of their students’ careers and use new media to expand the opportunities for their students and their hard earned tuition money. Baruch can also begin to utilize e-books for their students so their working students can spend less of their paychecks on heavy old fashioned books, less hours at work, less of their money on Tylenol for their back pain, and more of their time on reading and studying, and save more of their money for Interview clothing, and surviving in expensive New York City. These changes along with many more using new media can make a huge difference to the enrichment of the working, commuting students’ academic careers at Baruch College.
During my college career, I created the website for my sorority, http://www.sigmasigmarhobaruch.com. I created this site through http://www.wix.com. I believe I really expressed my creativity through this website and allowed for the sorority to really gain exposure and credibility through this site. It provides links to our Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages. It also has our Recruitment videos which I created myself under “Recruitment —> Videos.”
New Media has allowed for endless opportunities for creativity across the world. Across all different types of industries, people have used websites especially YouTube and other Social Networking sites to be creative, and express themselves on a business, and personal level. Musicians use YouTube as a medium to sample their music, and make music videos more accessible to the public. YouTube has been used for many different reasons, for people to express themselves and share their lives, and lessons with the world. People teach beauty tips, provide academic lessons, entertainment, and comedy etc. There are also many interesting blog sites, especially one of the most popular for iPhones, Instagram. This app allows users to edit, enhance and share their photos with iPhone users across the world. As described in the article, “A successful failure” by Rob Walker, Twitter was used as a stepping stone for endless opportunities for branding and sales for a simple image. These sites allow for endless exposure, and opportunities to show the world and start movements, or just network and expand a community. New Media allows for one’s creativity to really shine and grow because of all the tools and resources available to them.
According to Mark Bell of Indiana University, as well as a compilation of academics, industry professionals, and media, Virtual Worldsare a synchronous, persistent network of people, represented as avatars, facilitated by networked computers. There are not many clear definitions for Virtual Worlds because of the several different components. Virtual worlds necessitate synchronous communication. They allow for the participants to have a “common time,” a sense of geography and terrain allowing them to have mass social activities regardless of the concept of physical location. Virtual worlds separate themselves from other video games because of persistence – the idea of a real world changing and evolving even when the participant has left. The participant does not switch the virtual world on and off when they sign on to the computer; they simply just enter an already existing world and see what they make out of it for the time they are signed on. Virtual Worlds have many different uses including social networking, gaming, career training, psychology and many more. As described in the article “Going to the virtual office in Second Life” by Mark Tutton, “more than 1,400 organizations — including large companies, educational institutions, government agencies and even the U.S. military — use Second Life to hold meetings, conduct training and prototype new technologies more efficiently.” This offers opportunities to to employees to communicate, share files, and digitally perform daily tasks that may have been more difficult, time consuming, and costly otherwise. Virtual worlds are extremely beneficial in careers such as the armed forces, or NASA because they can experience flight simulations, and train online first before they get out and do the real thing. Virtual Worlds have often been used for psychological means for just that reason, to make a person see and feel what they would be going through, and possibly reduce the fear before experiencing the real thing. This can be life changing for some, and does not necessarily need to be regarding their career. Many people have been able to use Virtual Worlds to give themselves a social life they might not be able to have in real life, such as people with autism. They can use these resources to interact with people and this can help them feel as if they belong to a community. The article, “No Budget, No Boundaries: It’s The real You” by Ruth La Ferla shows how Virtual Worlds can be used for people to find something they are lacking in their real lives. During a recession, users were able to indulge in fancy clothes, and cars in the Virtual Worlds and satisfy a craving for what they weren’t able to attain in their real life. There are many advantages to Virtual Worlds, however everything comes with a price. Tutton showed how Virtual Worlds can have negative sides, “Virtual teams can’t take advantage of the kind of impromptu “water cooler” conversations that occur in a real workplace, where colleagues can share information they may have forgotten to communicate in meetings…lack of human contact can also lead to feelings of isolation.” A person can almost get lost in this virtual world and forget how to interact with humans making it very detrimental to them living a normal daily life. I believe the future of Virtual Worlds is filled with endless opportunities to change the way people work and interact at not only their jobs, but also at home and socially.
Twitter discussions come in very handy if you want to speak about current events or make comments about various topics. For a fast paced conversation, and if you want all of your followers to read something interesting, you just re-tweet it. However, I think for a classroom discussion, it may not be as effective because of the 140 word limit, you are not really able to express your ideas as clearly. It does teach us a great tool of being concise, however I think as opposed to Blackboard discussions and in class discussions, it may not be as useful. It is more fun however ! You are able to interact with all of your classmates in an easier and quicker way. Twitter is almost like a blog, however the simplicity of the tweets makes it a very different dynamic, and allows for an ease in communication.
I chose to compare Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google + because I belong to all four sites. Sometimes I wonder why do I need so many social networking sites? Does it make sense for me to post a picture on Facebook and Twitter and have the same people comment on both? Well the answer is no, they are all different, and serve very different purposes which is why I belong to all four. Facebook is mainly now, with timeline used to group your activities, where have you been going (Check in, and Photos) and who have you been meeting (Adding new friends) and what your plans are for the future (What groups you belong to, what your events list is), etc. Facebook is really my main source of communication with every one I know, from co workers, to college friends, to high school friends, to my family from London. Twitter on the other hand is where I can have a fun conversation about shows that I love, celebrities that I would love to keep tabs on, and just general fun says and quotes from funny users. I don’t interact much with people I know on twitter, but rather interact with business entities, and keep in touch with current events. It’s always first on twitter before it goes viral 🙂 LinkedIn is great because it is used primarily for business networking and building people’s repertoire in front of employers that they may never have gotten a chance to interact with before this tool. You can provide your resume, your skills and anything that may spark an employers’ interest. Google + is not as popular and very recent, however I believe a little more exclusive than some of these sites. It really just helps you put your friends into circles, such as coworkers, college friends, acquaintances, etc. It is interesting however I don’t find myself really utilizing it as much as the other 3 I am more comfortable with. The other night at my birthday party, I found myself checking every one in on Facebook before I even ordered by drink! So it definitely has become a significant part of my life and for good reason, these sites have kept me in touch with all of my friends and family and I appreciate them for that!
kiranwadhwa 