So I finally got to take a break this holiday weekend and watch "The Social Network."
Originally I thought this movie would be boring but I was completely wrong. After the first half hour I felt immersed in the story. I kind of felt a connected to the characters and felt bad for them when something went wrong or when they were arguing.
I thought it was really impressive on how much Mark accomplished in one night creating "facemash," writing all that code while hacking Harvard's servers.
Something I found weird was that in the original plans Mark mentioned that Facebook shouldn't monetize because people didn't like it but now it does have ads. Then the side story between Mark and Eduardo; did Mark really screw Eduardo over because he was jealous that Eduardo got into the "Phoenix Club?" even though Eduardo was part of this project from the beginning and financed it a majority of the way.
Regardless, it kind of worked out in the end; the Winklevoss' and Eduardo got their settlements and Facebook is the success it is today.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
The Next New Thing
I think the next new media will be use of holograms. The world would be equipped with these projectors so people can be with each other without being physically there. This can be used for meeting, classes, and work. People can stay at home and do basically anything any where in the world. The use of holograms can allow someone to be at multiple places at one time. So a person can teach 2 or more classes at a time in multiple places. Another business use of holograms is that it allows you to collaborate and participate with people from other offices. The use of holograms can let people dress their holograms in what ever they want so they can express themselves in a way they would otherwise not. In addition the use of holograms can allow people to test clothes before they buy it.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Our Class Wiki - So Far
So far I've been doing a little research on new nedia and sports. More specifically I've been looking into what type of new media are being used in sports in the game itself and outside of the game to keep their fans up to date. In addition I've been looking into how these leagues use new media express their thoughts and ideas. Lastly I'm looking into how 3rd parties are handling their websites and how they use new media to bring together fans.
So far I've done a bit on research on 3rd parties and how they incorporate blogs, social networks, new feeds and chatrooms to share information and express their ideas. As for the research on the leagues and how they use new media; I found that they have blogs, forums, rrs feeds, twitter podcast and more.
So far I've done a bit on research on 3rd parties and how they incorporate blogs, social networks, new feeds and chatrooms to share information and express their ideas. As for the research on the leagues and how they use new media; I found that they have blogs, forums, rrs feeds, twitter podcast and more.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
About My Term Research Paper
First off let me start off by saying how good it feels to finally finish this paper on eBay.
I did my research by first starting with the scholarly research aspect with http://scholar.google.com/. Next I used google to find some articles to back up a few of my claims like how eBay is looking into implementing web 2.0 so the community can stay connected to eBay all the time. When it came to looking for news articles I used the schools database "LexisNexis" although I felt the results that were generated wasn't that helpful. (maybe my search terms weren't as effective as I thought.)
Something I found in my research is how eBay may change the way people shop. With ease and convenience traditional retailers must adapt or close their doors. Something surprising I learned while doing this paper is the niche markets within eBay. People sold things like old magazines to supplement their incomes. And in some cases those sales generated a nice cushion.
I choose this topic because I'm a frequent user of eBay so I was thinking why not. I would be nice to know more about a company I take for granted. Then again they use me as well to general revenue so... I guess we can call it even. Also in my other CIS class we were talking about whether the Internet helped form communities so I thought I could use some information from there as well in my paper.
My major finding and conclusion was that a majority of people I polled said eBay was a community. Due to the fact that they do more than just provide a service (please refer to my paper for a more detailed explanation).
In my opinion my paper relates to new media in that it shows the growth of old media. In my case we have traditional brick and mortar store (don't really think it's old media) to e-tailers (old media) to newer versions of e-tailing like eBay (new media). I feel eBay is new media because it's internet based technologies that covers 4 of the 5 C's. Communication, collaboration, convergence and finally community.
I did my research by first starting with the scholarly research aspect with http://scholar.google.com/. Next I used google to find some articles to back up a few of my claims like how eBay is looking into implementing web 2.0 so the community can stay connected to eBay all the time. When it came to looking for news articles I used the schools database "LexisNexis" although I felt the results that were generated wasn't that helpful. (maybe my search terms weren't as effective as I thought.)
Something I found in my research is how eBay may change the way people shop. With ease and convenience traditional retailers must adapt or close their doors. Something surprising I learned while doing this paper is the niche markets within eBay. People sold things like old magazines to supplement their incomes. And in some cases those sales generated a nice cushion.
I choose this topic because I'm a frequent user of eBay so I was thinking why not. I would be nice to know more about a company I take for granted. Then again they use me as well to general revenue so... I guess we can call it even. Also in my other CIS class we were talking about whether the Internet helped form communities so I thought I could use some information from there as well in my paper.
My major finding and conclusion was that a majority of people I polled said eBay was a community. Due to the fact that they do more than just provide a service (please refer to my paper for a more detailed explanation).
In my opinion my paper relates to new media in that it shows the growth of old media. In my case we have traditional brick and mortar store (don't really think it's old media) to e-tailers (old media) to newer versions of e-tailing like eBay (new media). I feel eBay is new media because it's internet based technologies that covers 4 of the 5 C's. Communication, collaboration, convergence and finally community.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Privacy and Confidentiality
Privacy and confidentiality go hand in hand with new media. This is because new media allows people to come together and share anything they want to anybody they want. The question is where to draw the line. Since this is subjective, the line would be different for each person.
We first look at privacy and how it’s related to new media. Everyone wants privacy but they post all their information on the Internet. Some people feel that having stricter privacy setting will make them feel safe but there are so many ways around this. An employer can just look at your profile though your friends account. Another thing someone can do is save the information and sends it to others. There is a trade-off between privacy and the use of new media, especially social networks. Having a high privacy setting may allow you to have some control of who sees it but you also miss out on those who you might have met if it was on a public setting.
People want confidentially as much as they want privacy. Although, I feel companies handle this sufficiently. When it comes to sensitive data they use encryptions to makes the site secure. On top of that companies normally have privacy and confidentially agreements that state what they can or can’t do with your data, not that a lot of people read it. You might be thinking what does this have to do with new media, but when you register for these websites, social networks etc., you still have to provide this type of information.
Advice
Before we get into how we could use new media to improve the school we should look at a brief definition on what is new media. New media is constantly changing from the increase in technology so it's hard to define. But if I was to sum it up it would be a type of technology that allows people to come together, share information and work together.
Following the corporate idea of using Twitter to update their stakeholders, the school can create a Twitter account to update the students on closing, holidays and other emergencies. This will create a conversation between the initial school and the questioner, but then others can help and reply to others as well, lessening the burden on the faculty replying to the students. The next thing the school can implement is some type of internal peer-to-peer system where students can get access to applications, class notes, lectures etc. Having all the information on some server reduces the paper usage from printing all things that would eventually be outdated and reprinted. This follows the idea of just-in-time production. Another thing the school can do is create some type of customizable forum. The forum itself will contain subsections that will contain everything from classes, to student organizations, to departments etc. In order to post within each subsection the moderator will have to set the settings on who's able to post what within each section. For example the "Careers Center" might let all students post withing their subsection. Then the professors might only allow his/her students post within that section. Now end users can customize how they want to see the information on the forum. For example a person might put all the "discussion board" threads form all their classes on the homepage because there are frequent updates. Then the user might put new assignments on the top corner so they can see all the new work without missing the deadlines. I feel this is a good thing because this allows students to get all their information in one place. An added benefit would be to make this viewable through various devices this way people can have access to the information whenever/wherever.
Following the corporate idea of using Twitter to update their stakeholders, the school can create a Twitter account to update the students on closing, holidays and other emergencies. This will create a conversation between the initial school and the questioner, but then others can help and reply to others as well, lessening the burden on the faculty replying to the students. The next thing the school can implement is some type of internal peer-to-peer system where students can get access to applications, class notes, lectures etc. Having all the information on some server reduces the paper usage from printing all things that would eventually be outdated and reprinted. This follows the idea of just-in-time production. Another thing the school can do is create some type of customizable forum. The forum itself will contain subsections that will contain everything from classes, to student organizations, to departments etc. In order to post within each subsection the moderator will have to set the settings on who's able to post what within each section. For example the "Careers Center" might let all students post withing their subsection. Then the professors might only allow his/her students post within that section. Now end users can customize how they want to see the information on the forum. For example a person might put all the "discussion board" threads form all their classes on the homepage because there are frequent updates. Then the user might put new assignments on the top corner so they can see all the new work without missing the deadlines. I feel this is a good thing because this allows students to get all their information in one place. An added benefit would be to make this viewable through various devices this way people can have access to the information whenever/wherever.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds
There are numerous ways to use virtual worlds, either for professional reasons or just for fun. In the article Avatar II: The Hospital moderators use Second Life as a training ground to prepare their nurses for the worst case scenario. Other professional uses include developing virtual worlds on private databases where employees can use their avatars go to meetings. Some people turn to virtual worlds just to enjoy themselves and reinvent themselves in a virtual world where anything they want they can have. In the article No Budget, No Boundaries: It's the Real You Eric Spangenberg, a consumer psychologist, mentioned that a virtual world is "the newest manifestation of how people live vicariously: if I can't afford a Bentley, my avatar can."
A big pro of virtual worlds is that it allows people who are shy or have a certain medical condition to express themselves in a way they normally wouldn't. Meeting can be held in virtual worlds where employees from around the world enter and participate. Another pro of virtual worlds is that it allows people to make virtual prototypes thus reducing the cost of making physical models. For example when you have a meeting about a new building you want built in a certain neighborhood; you can actually construct it there and see how it would look.
Although virtual worlds can be a good thing they can also be used for bad. Since it's located on the internet anyone can basically do anything. When this happens, children might be exposed to material that they shouldn't be seeing. Since virtual worlds are on the internet everything is anonymous which may also pose a problem. People can pretend to be someone they're not and pull off scams without getting caught.
I think virtual worlds foster creativity because services like Second Life allows people to recreate places they've been or want to be. It allows people to recreate situations that they could get into in real life and allows them to find solutions to these problems. Virtual worlds allows people to express themselves and dress their avatars in a way they see fit and lets their avatars go to places they like just to meet people and have a good time.
I think the future of virtual worlds might be something more realistic, where the individual themselves can be involved. This would be practical for training people especially for military like task. I feel that virtual worlds now are more like a video game on a computer because you do everything from a keyboard and a mouse. In the future I think you would be able to go into a room of some sort and you'll be surrounded with holograms and stuff where you can carry out whatever you want to do.
A big pro of virtual worlds is that it allows people who are shy or have a certain medical condition to express themselves in a way they normally wouldn't. Meeting can be held in virtual worlds where employees from around the world enter and participate. Another pro of virtual worlds is that it allows people to make virtual prototypes thus reducing the cost of making physical models. For example when you have a meeting about a new building you want built in a certain neighborhood; you can actually construct it there and see how it would look.
Although virtual worlds can be a good thing they can also be used for bad. Since it's located on the internet anyone can basically do anything. When this happens, children might be exposed to material that they shouldn't be seeing. Since virtual worlds are on the internet everything is anonymous which may also pose a problem. People can pretend to be someone they're not and pull off scams without getting caught.
I think virtual worlds foster creativity because services like Second Life allows people to recreate places they've been or want to be. It allows people to recreate situations that they could get into in real life and allows them to find solutions to these problems. Virtual worlds allows people to express themselves and dress their avatars in a way they see fit and lets their avatars go to places they like just to meet people and have a good time.
I think the future of virtual worlds might be something more realistic, where the individual themselves can be involved. This would be practical for training people especially for military like task. I feel that virtual worlds now are more like a video game on a computer because you do everything from a keyboard and a mouse. In the future I think you would be able to go into a room of some sort and you'll be surrounded with holograms and stuff where you can carry out whatever you want to do.
Twitter: Discussion
The main difference between Blackboard discussion board and an in-class discussion is the limited space. For both BB and twitter your form of communication is through typing while in-class discussions are oral. One more thing about twitter is that it doesn't have spell check (good thing firefox provides this feature in its browser.) Going to a business school, I feel that twitter is both helpful and harmful. I feel in our society we are all short on time so we use abbreviations and slang. Twitter reinforces this. However, schools try and correct this, focusing more on the structure and grammar of English. This is so students are ready and capable of writing professional memos and letters when they go into the workforce.
Posting a tweet wasn't complicated at all. Since all our classmates are followers of each other it's simple to see each others tweets, kind of like a chatroom. Since this was my first time using twitter and I don't follow a lot of people it wasn't necessary to search for tweets made by classmates. It was all on the homepage.
Posting a tweet wasn't complicated at all. Since all our classmates are followers of each other it's simple to see each others tweets, kind of like a chatroom. Since this was my first time using twitter and I don't follow a lot of people it wasn't necessary to search for tweets made by classmates. It was all on the homepage.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Social Networking
Like Evan Williams said in David Pogue's article in the New York Times Twitter? It's What You Make It "Twitter, in other words, is precisely what you want it to be. It can be a business tool, a teenage time-killer, a research assistant, a news source - whatever. There are no rule, or at least none that apply equally well to everyone." With 140 characters to use one can tell the world s/he had eggs and bacon for breakfast or tell the world they opened a business and the first 100 customers eat for free. This technology can be used for more than just chats or updates as well. You can use it for research or send a link and direct another person to some files, videos, pictures etc.
There are so many benefits of having Twitter, in the New York Times article Putting Twitter's World to Use, Claire mentioned "companies like Starbucks, Whole Foods and Dell can see what their customers are thinking as they use a product, and companies can adapt their marketing accordingly." AT&T used Twitter for similar reasons, when some vandals cut one of their fiber-optic cables they used Twitter to update their customers on what happened and what's being done. Another advantage to society mentioned by Claire is Twitter allows people to constantly update their status thus, giving a basic news feed to anyone who want to read it. Lastly I want to mention that even machines can send out "tweets" which can be good and bad.
The good thing is that the technology can be adapted to send out messages to you for thing like the security of your home. On the other hand, when you follow a lot of people you could get bombarded with messages. The type of personality you have can make this even worse. I'm talking about those people who can't go a few minutes without checking for updates or one of those who has to read every post someone puts up. (I know way too many people like this.) This will end up consuming your life making it harder for you yo take care of your daily tasks like studying or going out and enjoying the day. At the very least this will reduce the time you have to enjoy yourself.
There are so many benefits of having Twitter, in the New York Times article Putting Twitter's World to Use, Claire mentioned "companies like Starbucks, Whole Foods and Dell can see what their customers are thinking as they use a product, and companies can adapt their marketing accordingly." AT&T used Twitter for similar reasons, when some vandals cut one of their fiber-optic cables they used Twitter to update their customers on what happened and what's being done. Another advantage to society mentioned by Claire is Twitter allows people to constantly update their status thus, giving a basic news feed to anyone who want to read it. Lastly I want to mention that even machines can send out "tweets" which can be good and bad.
The good thing is that the technology can be adapted to send out messages to you for thing like the security of your home. On the other hand, when you follow a lot of people you could get bombarded with messages. The type of personality you have can make this even worse. I'm talking about those people who can't go a few minutes without checking for updates or one of those who has to read every post someone puts up. (I know way too many people like this.) This will end up consuming your life making it harder for you yo take care of your daily tasks like studying or going out and enjoying the day. At the very least this will reduce the time you have to enjoy yourself.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Check Out Social Networking Sites
My first impression of myspace is that its content is targeted for teens. On their homepage it has links to things like television shows, music artists, movies, games etc. Looking closer into myspace you can browse through other public profiles without logging in. The atmosphere seems casual, people taking pictures of anything and everything. You can even find random people throughout the myspace community. Myspace allows their users to be creative and almost anything they want to include in their page is possible.
Facebook on the other hand is a step up in professionalism. Facebook looks plain and the homepage is a basic profile with all your updates. Also on your homepage are the links to various places like photos, videos etc. Facebook increases privacy as well. In order to look at any profiles you have to be a member first. After you become a member you are still limited to what you can view by the owners of their specific page.
Being a first time visitor to friendster I thought it was like a merger between facebook and myspace. The homepage is like facebook showing you updates but the other content is like myspace. Like facebook access to the website is limited to members only. Some unique aspects of friendster is that it allows to create a blog or join a forum.
Finally we look at linkedin; they are a professional network that allows members to get in-touch with professionals and more importantly stay connected. The basic idea of linkedin is for people to create a professional profile so people who want to find you can. When you upload your address book to linkedin your contacts will continue to update even when people move between jobs and change their emails. Linkedin provides a place for professionals in the same industry to discuss things related to their work as well. One last remark about linkedin is that you can search for a professional you met the other day right on the homepage even if you don't have a membership.
Facebook on the other hand is a step up in professionalism. Facebook looks plain and the homepage is a basic profile with all your updates. Also on your homepage are the links to various places like photos, videos etc. Facebook increases privacy as well. In order to look at any profiles you have to be a member first. After you become a member you are still limited to what you can view by the owners of their specific page.
Being a first time visitor to friendster I thought it was like a merger between facebook and myspace. The homepage is like facebook showing you updates but the other content is like myspace. Like facebook access to the website is limited to members only. Some unique aspects of friendster is that it allows to create a blog or join a forum.
Finally we look at linkedin; they are a professional network that allows members to get in-touch with professionals and more importantly stay connected. The basic idea of linkedin is for people to create a professional profile so people who want to find you can. When you upload your address book to linkedin your contacts will continue to update even when people move between jobs and change their emails. Linkedin provides a place for professionals in the same industry to discuss things related to their work as well. One last remark about linkedin is that you can search for a professional you met the other day right on the homepage even if you don't have a membership.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Blogs vs Wikis
A blog is similar to a wiki in many ways. They both allow people to relay some sort of information to those who want to see it. They also both provide a place where people can go to add their two sense on a particular topic. Lastly, they both may provide links, document, and/or images from other sources. A difference between the two is that wikis allow multiple people to post and edit whereas a blog only allows one. Another difference is that a blog allows you leave comments on what you just read while a wiki doesn't.
Convergence is a major part in today's world just because it allows people to meet and work together. Through the use of blogs and wikis this is possible with ease and it's of little or no cost. A prime example of convergence and collaboration can be seen in Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid by Michael Wilson. It all started with a group of people watching then they started blogging, and going to community board meetings, followed by complaints to the 68th Precinct until a investigation started that lead to arrest.
Sort of like our class wiki page, a new use for a wiki can be a database with a community of students posting up class notes, practice exams etc. This would be a place to visit to get some materials you might have lost or a place to get some study aids.
Convergence is a major part in today's world just because it allows people to meet and work together. Through the use of blogs and wikis this is possible with ease and it's of little or no cost. A prime example of convergence and collaboration can be seen in Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid by Michael Wilson. It all started with a group of people watching then they started blogging, and going to community board meetings, followed by complaints to the 68th Precinct until a investigation started that lead to arrest.
Sort of like our class wiki page, a new use for a wiki can be a database with a community of students posting up class notes, practice exams etc. This would be a place to visit to get some materials you might have lost or a place to get some study aids.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Project Description
Title: Ebay: community or bazaar?
As of now I plan to analyze how Ebay impacts affect the sales of traditional retailers.
As of now I plan to analyze how Ebay impacts affect the sales of traditional retailers.
Or looking at it on a more “new media” way I can look into how the Ebay community adds to value though the discussion boards and rating of transactions, along with how using customer data enables them to make recommendation to potential buyers and if this strategy was successful. Along with this I plan to weight the pros and cons Ebay has on our society; with the ultimate goal of answering the topic Ebay: community or bazaar?
Describe New Media
How can one describe "new media" well to me new media is a new form of technology that eases the process of publication. Keep in mind this is not limited to what a person wants to tell the world... It's more like what a person has to share to the world whether it be an encyclopedia (which everyone helps put together aka collaboration 1st of 5 C's), an opinion, a song, a video, update of what's going on etc.(creativity 2nd of 5C's). New media is interactive which means it allows people to comment on the original piece or reply to other comments left by others. Since anybody can leave comments (Communication, the 3rd of 5 C's) anytime it creates a dialogue between a group of people with similar interest thus forming a little community of peers (4th of 5 C's) where they can meet occasionally through the web and talk (convergence 5th of 5C's).
Technology that would be considered new media would be anything that's associated with the Web 2.0 movement. This "refers to the second, more social generation of the Internet,"(CNN) where people get, creative, involved, work together on projects and share works they've completed. The most well known Web 2.0 websites are facebook.com, youtube.com and wikipedia.com.
To distinguish new media from old media one must look at how the information is being shown to the audience. Old media refers to print like books or broadcast like TV; the author is basically feeding you information. Now on the other hand new media like blogs allow you to have a say in what you were just told. In the case of blogs you can leave a remark and others would do the same and so on kind of like a good old chat but through text via the Internet. Like what Melissa Gerry said in her article, Celebrity Blogs: The Impact of New Media, "Blogs are having an effect on where and how people are receiving information. Through blogs, people are able to write about topics that interest them and comment freely on what is going on in their lives and in the world around them."
Gerry, Melissa. "Celebrity Blogs: The Impact of New Media." Associated Content (2006): n. pag. Web. 14 Sep 2010. http://www.associatedcontent.com/pop_print.shtml?content_type=article&content_type_id=26280.
Sutter, John D. "English gets millionth word on Wednesday, site says." CNN (2009): n. pag. Web. 14 Sep 2010. http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/06/10/million.words/index.html?iref=mpstoryview.
Technology that would be considered new media would be anything that's associated with the Web 2.0 movement. This "refers to the second, more social generation of the Internet,"(CNN) where people get, creative, involved, work together on projects and share works they've completed. The most well known Web 2.0 websites are facebook.com, youtube.com and wikipedia.com.
To distinguish new media from old media one must look at how the information is being shown to the audience. Old media refers to print like books or broadcast like TV; the author is basically feeding you information. Now on the other hand new media like blogs allow you to have a say in what you were just told. In the case of blogs you can leave a remark and others would do the same and so on kind of like a good old chat but through text via the Internet. Like what Melissa Gerry said in her article, Celebrity Blogs: The Impact of New Media, "Blogs are having an effect on where and how people are receiving information. Through blogs, people are able to write about topics that interest them and comment freely on what is going on in their lives and in the world around them."
Gerry, Melissa. "Celebrity Blogs: The Impact of New Media." Associated Content (2006): n. pag. Web. 14 Sep 2010. http://www.associatedcontent.com/pop_print.shtml?content_type=article&content_type_id=26280.
Sutter, John D. "English gets millionth word on Wednesday, site says." CNN (2009): n. pag. Web. 14 Sep 2010. http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/06/10/million.words/index.html?iref=mpstoryview.
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