Next New

I've had an idea for awhile now that I wanted to implement as a new media. It's an app that collaborates with the existing maps app, Waze and allows you to find food/hotels/things to do along the way of your road trip. There were so many times I tried looking for things that were along the same route I was on and for something to give me suggestions on things to do in the area as passed by. Eventually, I would find somewhere to eat or pull over, but it would be after endless scrolling and web searching. It's been a hassle and super stressful to find somewhere along the way and every time I thought I found somewhere, it would be another 20 minutes after exiting the highway. I thought it'd be efficient to combine Yelp, Waze, and TripAdvisor into one to make it more convenient while on the road.

Wiki So Far

I haven't contributed to our class wiki yet. However, after looking over the topics, I've researched for the topics "Love" and "Recruitment." As corny as it sounds, I wanted to do "love" because I have always been interested in horoscopes and how different signs get along with each other. Maybe it only applies to me, but I find horoscopes so true and fascinating. When I look for advice in the love area, I always turn to horoscopes and signs because I feel like they truly explain how a person is and why. I also decided on recruitment because I am in the Human Resources field. When I first got into the field, I found it super cool deciding who is qualified enough to have an interview and who wasn't. I was able to use my judgement in screening resumes and pulling appropriate candidates. In this section, I will discuss what recruiters usually look for and certain tips that could help people going for interviews. I think this would be useful for our class because we will all eventually look for our full-time positions and it will be information they could take with them for a long time.

P2P

File sharing is allocating, public or privately, computer data or space in a network. The levels of access privilege can vary amongst people and allows the convenience of multiple people to view the same data. This allows them to modify it, write to, read, copy or print the information on the shared network. Users are allowed personal space for them to store data that they do not want other users to have access to.

            P2P, or peer-to-peer file sharing is the sharing of digital content such as eBooks, music, movies, and video clips between two people over the P2P network. The person who hosts the content shared is called the seed and the receiver is called the leech. The two roles can interchange and allow you to “give and take” during the process. However, there has been a lot of controversy and trouble that comes along with P2P file sharing. In an article in the New York Times, written by Eric Pfanner, he discusses the ongoing criminal violations of copyright law that occur over these networks. There has been an increase in piracy among popular file-sharing services such as the Pirate Bay and RapidShare. In an effort to try to stop piracy, some sites have been starting to charge users if they want access to these digital files, so they can track down the users.

            A popular P2P file sharing client program is called LimeWire, which allows users to share music to other people and download songs they don’t already have. Another example is called iMesh, which allows the sharing of media and files, available in nine languages. Lastly, Kazaa has been a P2P file sharing application that allows the sharing of MP3 music files and other types, such as videos, applications, and documents. 

Creativity and New Media

I have decided to create an account with Second Life since I've never heard of it until now and curious as to what it was. It was super easy to join with just an email, username, password and date of birth. Once I downloaded the program, it logged me right into a virtual world where I chose the avatar I wanted. It led me to this "#1," as shown in my screenshot, to show me what keys to use. I'm able to run around in this online world with other people who could be from absolutely anywhere. I find this similar to a game I used to play called Sims. It was similar in where you create an avatar and create your own life and connect with other people. 

HW Creativity

As technology continues to thrive in our society, it has become easier for user-generated sites to "create, share, and distribute content on the Web," according to authors of "YouTube Traffic Characterization: A View From the Edge." These sites include Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr and more. New media has allowed us to share content with other users and view what others have posted. The article gives us an example using Facebook and MySpace as places where people with similar interests and thoughts can come together and form social groups. It has become easier for people who may not be "technically savvy" to also take part of these because new media stresses convenience and easiness for people all over the world.

New media has given people of different interests the opportunity to further their knowledge or perhaps learn a new skill. YouTube has an average of 65,000 new video uploads a day where the categories can range from sports to cooking channels. You can find just about any type of video on YouTube. We are able to take information from several domains and create anything we want. In a Forbes article by Greg Satell, he discusses how new media has allowed for creativity in the marketing field as an example. Using the web has also served as a place to conduct research on what the biggest trends on and what people are most interested in.  Marketers can endlessly search for people of the same interests as them to adopt their techniques, approaches and philosophies.

Although we may not always be given the opportunity to travel the world or talk to famous people, new media has given us the chance to do just that. Through videos from YouTube, you can get a live feel of about any country, hear a lecture from someone of your interest, or watch "how-to" videos on just about anything. The creative world is endless and as we are exposed more and more to others' ideas, it allows us to foster our own view of things and share it amongst the Web.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2014/01/27/how-technology-enhances-creativity/#47c358883f50
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxiYXJ1Y2huZXdtZWRpYXxneDozZWNhMDliNzMyMWI5OGJi

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

As technology continues to advance, it becomes easier for individuals to come together through what is called a virtual world. This is a computer-based environment where people can get together using avatars and interact in a "live" mode.

In Dave Itzkoff's article, "I've Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life," he talks about his experience trying to hop bars and see a show in the Lower East Side (LES) of New York City. As we all can relate, the city is packed from front to back no matter which bar you step into on the weekends. However, thanks to MTV, they're experimenting VLES, a virtual LES so you can avoid all the pushing and shoving. He was able to watch the show he initially wanted to see from the comfort of his own house without worrying about smelling like spilled beer by the end of the night. He described it as an in-between of Facebook and Grand Theft Auto. By being a part of this virtual world, he was able to connect with fellow explorers through instant messaging and see the city in a whole new light. A woman he met on VLES said, "there's no way that you're going to go onto a flat Web site or message board and instantly strike up a conversation with somebody who works for MTV or IBM or the president of Harvard, but these things are possible in virtual worlds." Virtual worlds allow for greater opportunity and chance to experience something you wouldn't normally have if you were just walking the streets of LES.

But are virtual worlds going to take over the world of socialization? While this may seem convenient at the time where we don't have to deal with the 3am drunkies on the streets of NYC or pay for the overpriced cab home, it stops us from human interaction and talking face to face with people. The internet could also be a very dangerous place for people to browse, especially when it involves socializing virtually. Many people have been tricked into believing someone was not actually who they said they were. There have been instances where two people have met up after talking on these virtual worlds and one of them ended up being a kidnapper. There are just so many potential risks that come along with virtual worlds and socialization. While I think it's a creative idea, I would rather stick with the old fashioned way of getting dressed up and bar hopping. In Mark Tutton's article on CNN, Surinder Kahai, an associate professor from Binghamton University said, "that lack of human contact can also lead to feelings of isolation."

However, virtual worlds haven't solely created for socializing and creating virtual cities for people to stay inside. Mark Tutton from CNN wrote about their use in the corporate and office life. It has become a convenient way for employees to sit in virtual conferences with each other. This has saved traveling costs and time. With this ability to connect with each other no matter which city, state or country they're in, it has led to collaboration within the team and the spread of ideas. In these virtual worlds, employees can still "hang out, run into someone, and have ad-hoc conversations with people," as said by Kahai.

I think that technology is only going to advance from here and soon these virtual worlds will become a part of our real world. I think that a lot of younger people these days would much rather go for convenience and be technologically savvy. Even dating apps that have emerged are all about meeting people online and people hardly rely on meeting someone randomly.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/11/05/second.life.virtual.collaboration/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/arts/television/06itzk.html

Blog About Twitter

Twitter has become a popular way for people to exchange their thoughts on certain issues, update their statuses and sometimes have ongoing discussions about mutual interests. On Twitter, you can directly comment on other users' tweets or repost their tweet with a reply. However, it is limited to a certain amount of characters per post, so you can only get in about 2-3 sentences depending on length. As compared to a discussion board on Blackboard, it creates a thread for all users to see what others have written/commented and you could either reply to the whole thread or a particular person. There is no limit in length for the amount that you could write and offers options to personalize your font, color, add hyperlinks, or bold/italic font. As per an in person discussion, people can freely express their thoughts on an issue without having to go onto a computer or an app. It's a faster way for people to openly communicate and share their ideas. Usually there is a facilitator and people can go around either raising their hands or continuously voice what they need to say.