The Next New Thing

A type of new media that does not currently exist that I would like to see as the next new thing would be a sort of holographic device paired with virtual reality. Opposed to having the bulky headsets, I think it should be the size of regular eye glasses or even simply a small thumbtack sized projector, and what it can do is act as a touch screen interface without the screen. What it would consist of is simply a holographic screen that users can interact with simply with their hands and finger tips. The plus side of this would be that it eliminates the bulky virtual reality headsets, and doesn't require an external device or a power source. It would be tough to accomplish and create, but if created, can change technology tremendously.

Our Class Wiki - So Far

So for the class wiki, I have done research on RFID and plan what it is, how its related to new media, and then tie it in with privacy, which was my term paper's topic. I have also done some research on piracy and plan to add a little more to the P2P page and create a page dedicated to piracy.

P2P File Sharing

File sharing is the distribution of computer files such as music, movies, and even computer programs, from one computer to another. There are multiple ways to do this, you can either burn what you want to share onto a CD, which in a sense is pretty useless because only one person can really use it, or you can copy it to a USB drive and essentially keep passing on the USB drive to others to copy the file from. Another way is to use software, you can use software such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and even upload files to websites like MEGA.

P2P File Sharing is known as peer-to-peer file sharing, which is when you share files through a network and in a sense, "directly" download files from other people's computers; while not accessing those computers physically. What makes this different from regular file sharing is the sense that, the more "peers" you are downloading from, the quicker your download because you can download different parts of a file from each person, while with standard file sharing, you would only be able to download it from one location and one host.

The most common example of P2P is when you Torrent a file. Torrenting is essentially P2P file sharing, the peers act as the host for the file. One example of a Torrenting client is BitTorrent. In the article on Wired.com, Clive Thompson, talks about how Bram Cohen, the creator of BitTorrent realized that "chopping up a file and handing out the pieces to several uploaders would really speed things up." What this is talking about is having a file get divided into parts based on how peers or seeders are available, and then for the client to download all these different parts, while your Torrenting client works like magic, and pieces your file all together. So this can make doing things like downloading TV episodes, movies or even something like Microsoft Office, much quicker, opposed to relying on download links, which slows it down.

Privacy & Confidentiality

Due to the introduction of new media, privacy and confidentiality have honestly started to decrease even more. Our privacy before the Internet was a lot more; now it is close to non-existent. The way that new media has diminished our privacy is through creations of things such as social medias, smartphones, and even just the Internet in general. The issue with social media is that, now a days people post everything relevant about their lives on their social medias. This makes it very easy for someone to either stalk you or steal your identity. People post pictures of themselves, what their plans are, and even that they're not going to be home for a month because of vacation. Posting all about your plans and what you're doing on a certain day with your life is dangerous because it can lead to someone breaking into your house and stealing from you. With smartphones, they can act as a tracking device, depending on your settings, your smartphone actually keeps track of everywhere you've been. This geo-tracking function on your smartphone keeps accurate logs of where you've been at a certain time and for how long. This loss of privacy can lead people to being paranoid because it makes it feel as if someone is watching you or following you. Lastly, the Internet is also one of the new media's that impact our privacy because of it's function and what people can do with it. If you're unaware of what you're downloading off of the Internet someone can hack into your system and steal information that may be relevant. This constant change of new media and improvements to technology in a sense is dangerous if you're unaware of what's going on, that's why it's highly recommended to keep up with things like this.

Advice to Baruch College

If I were hired to improve Baruch college with the help of new media, I would recommend things such as using Twitter to send out news about campus related issues. For example, because not many people check their emails, if the college uses Twitter to post updates about thing such as job fairs, power saving days where only two elevators are working, or things such as course review reminders, it may be better than using emails. Another thing that would be good is to provide help students with college related issues, again Twitter can come in handy for this. The college can make it so that faculty can assist students with their issues regarding the bursar, registrar, financial aid office or even a issue with BCTC in case these issues do not require meeting with someone in person. It can potentially provide quicker assistance and prevent students from waiting in line for issues that aren't important.

Creativity and New Media

So with new media, people are able to channel their creativity and do whatever they want with it.
For example, I used Second Life to create an avatar and wander the world. It quite wasn't my thing since it was a little weird and since I've used slightly better ones, if games such as Runescape count.

Below are some pictures from my experiences.

One moment that I liked was the flying aspect, since I'm a comic book lover I could think of myself as having super powers!

I found an arcade! Maybe if I gave it a second chance it may be a little better.

Just chilling down by the docks.

Creativity

New media has resulted in people being more creative. It allows people to express themselves in a magnitude of ways. For example, people can now either make and share a video on YouTube, use Twitter to tweet something that's on their mind, and also make mashups of songs that they like listening to and remix them so that they hear a completely new song. In the New York Times article, "Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?" by Brooks Barnes, it is mentioned how Disney has possibly allowed, or what is interpreted to be allowed due to not taking any action on the matter, a user to make a mashup of a song called "Crank That" by Soulja Boy, and take clips of scenes from Winnie The Pooh. A mashup is pretty much taking snippets of TV shows, movies, or animated shows, and then combining the snippets to make it seem that a song is being sung through them.

Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

The way virtual worlds can be used is endless. You can literally do possibly anything and everything with them. For example, you can use them for business meetings incase that people can not meet physically. In the CNN article, "Going to The Virtual Office in Second Life," it is mentioned how more than 1400 companies use Second Life, a virtual world created by Linden Lab. Second life is a virtual world that allows these companies to conduct training and meetings without having to physically meet. It helps save costs as it cuts back on lease agreements for buildings.
The pros are that it helps with connecting people, so communication becomes easier. Virtual worlds can lead to people from different ends of the continent in interacting with each other. Another pro is that it can help with people becoming whoever they want to be, so it can help someone who is shy in real life become someone else online.
Cons of this are that it limits human interaction, and leads to people not being truthful. As previously mentioned, someone can act as someone else in a virtual world which is deceptive. At the same time, it is not easily accessible to everyone, because someone who does not have internet access cannot access a virtual world.
Virtual worlds can foster creativity in the sense that it allows people to do the extraordinary. For example, the WSJ article, "Avatar II: The Hospital," it is mentioned how virtual worlds are used to train nurses on making quicker decisions. This is creative because it actually puts a nurse into a stress test without risking patients lives.
I think the future of virtual worlds will be used more often than now. I think they will become more integrated in schools, as architects in training can use them to design buildings, and because medical schools can use them to conduct virtual surgeries and learn more about the human body. So essentially, virtual worlds can lead to great help in the real life.

Blog About Twitter

A twitter discussion compares to a Blackboard discussion in the sense that both consist of the basic, people communicating with each other, and that both can be set to private, so that only certain people are able to view them. Both Twitter and Blackboard can be used as mediums for people to share their viewpoints, and then have others read it and comment on it whether they wish. A difference between Blackboard and Twitter is that, on Twitter you tweet your thoughts, but you are limited to 140 characters, so you have the option of tweeting your thoughts concisely in the given limit, or tweeting multiple times. On the other hand, in Blackboard, there is no limit on how much you can type (at least that I have experienced), unless specified in instructions, and because of this you can put a lot of detail in your post at once opposed to having to break it up into segments. Another difference between Twitter and Blackboard is that, Blackboard has a nicer user interface in the sense that all the posts are visible at once, opposed to Twitter, if many people are retweeting something, you have to go a wild goose chase.
You can say that Twitter is like an in-class discussion because it allows people to voice their opinion and then get feedback on it or hear someone else's opinion. One major difference is that an in-class discussion is a lot more organized than compared to Twitter. It can get pretty chaotic when you have 30 people retweeting multiple tweets that may get controversial. But in a class discussion it is easier to organize as you can give people time and a fair chance to express their ideas.

Social Networking Sites

The four social networking sites I will be discussing are, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and my favorite, Reddit.
Facebook - So I've had Facebook for about 8 years so far. It is definitely one of the most popular social networking sites and relatively easy to use. It gives you the option to share photos, your thoughts, and like things that interest you. You can like groups and pages, along with content that other people post. It also allows you to stay up to date with family and friends, as you can talk to them via Facebook, so it does remove the need to meet with people in person or talk to them on the phone. In general, it is just an easy way to keep friends or family that you do not socialize with close and stay in contact with them.
Twitter - So I'm new to Twitter, I've actually had one before that was just created for free giveaways, but I never actually used it. Twitter is like a blog that is actually limited to 140 words. In a sense it is a place for people to post literally whatever is on their mind. They can follow certain people to get "insider scoops" of updates in their lives, or of people that they share common interests with. Twitter allows you to tweet your views to the world and let others "retweet" them, so that they can it can help spread awareness, or simply share something that they agree with. The one thing I do like about Twitter is their usage of the hastag, or the # sign. The hashtag is pretty much ways for people to "organize" what their tweet is about, and in that sense if many people do use that hashtag, it becomes trending and pretty much becomes top news on Twitter. This is pretty cool and useful because it allows you to find whats happening news without actually looking for news.
Instagram - Instagram has actually become one of the most popular social networking sites in the past couple years. The concept is really simple, it allows you to share pictures and add a caption to them. It allows practically anyone to become a photographer and share their "portfolio" as they can upload whatever pictures they have taken and have people who follow them comment or like their photos. Another cool thing about Instagram is that it actually helps with marketing purposes. Companies will do Instagram promos, where they will give special promo codes, or an individual will promote a company by posting about it.
Reddit - So Reddit is my favorite site, it's actually community that can be thought to be a massive blog. You can find Reddit pages, called subreddits which are pretty much topics, for anything; be it gaming, politics, food, cat videos. It's a massive board that allows people to share their thoughts, content they may have created, or just have discussions. In a sense you can think of Reddit as a larger version of Twitter because they both act as hubs for people to communicate with each other more than Facebook and Instagram do.

Social Networking

Social networking has many uses, it is not only to be thought of as being "social" just because the word is in it. Social networking can be used for recreational, business and corporate needs. Examples of social networks would be Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even blogs. People can use these social networks for recreational purposes to increase their social circle, keep in touch with friends or family that they do not live close to. Another use for an individual would be to share their thoughts by posting them to websites like Facebook or Twitter, and getting replies from many others depending on the privacy settings being used. For business use, social networks can be used for advertising purposes.
Small business can use social networking websites to cut back on their advertising costs because most of these social networking websites are free and will let you create a page for free. Big businesses can also use social networking to not only cut back on their advertising costs, but to also expand on their advertising. They can pay for ad's on some of these websites, and at the same time they can give special promo's to people on these websites which will increase their business.
On the corporate end, it's great for job recruiting due to websites like LinkedIn. For example, Frank Langfitt's article in NPR, Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting, discusses the perks of using LinkedIn for these recruiting purposes. It is mentioned how LinkedIn is a network of 8 million professionals that are all over the world, and Shally Steckerl mentions how he can scout a group of candidates in just half an hour because of LinkedIn.
The "dark side" of social networking is that it changes how people socialize in general. For example, when we traditionally think of socializing, we think of face to face interactions with someone opposed to just talking to each other through a computer or cellphone screen. Stephen J. Dubner of Freakonomics interviews many people in his article, Is MySpace Good For Society? A Freakonomics Quorum. Some of these individuals say that social networking websites were positive on society, while some give negatives. One of these individuals, Judith Donath, gives both the good, the bad, and the ugly. She mentions how the good of social networking technologies is that it allows a larger circle of friends. However, the bad is that it changes how you define a friend because there aren't that many face to face interactions, and the ugly is that it can lead to bullying and emotional stress.
I think these technologies will eventually lead to becoming fully virtual, for example I think Virtual Reality technologies will become implemented and lead to full-sized holograms, so individuals can socialize with their friends without leaving their homes.

Blogs vs. Wikis

Blogs and Wiki's are both vast sources of information. The differences are just the type of information that is available on them. For example, because a blog is short for web log, information can be more biased depending on who the author is. On a blog, the author is able to write in whatever style the author wants regarding whatever topic. In her paper, How Can We Measure the Influence of the Blogosphere?, Kathy E. Gill, describes a blogging as a form of journalism, but not as a newspaper or a television; instead she borrows words from James W. Carey, and calls a blog "our collective diary." A blog is similar to a diary, because usually only the author is allowed to publish their content and write about whatever they want, while viewers are only allowed to comment and provide the author with the input and what they think, which leads to collaboration as it can lead to discussions between the author and reader, or one reader and another or viewpoints.
On the other hand, a Wiki is more of an educational media that is accessible to the public depending on what type of Wiki it is. At times, the public is allowed to add, remove, and edit content for the Wiki. For example, Wikipedia was originally created as an online encyclopedia for many people to edit and contribute content to. In the New York Times article, An Internal Wiki That's Not Classified, the article talks about Diplopedia, a type of Wiki made by the U.S. State Department, it is mentioned that the advantage of Diplopedia is the ease of finding information. Which is exactly what Wiki's are useful for as they provide information and the sources that can lead to someone who is interested to follow up with the sources.
At the same time, Wiki's and Blogs increase networking because they lead to more people interacting with each other. They also help with communication because you no longer have to physically be near someone to talk to them, you can talk to them over the internet.

New Media's Impact on Privacy

The invention of new media, for example, the internet and social media websites resulted in humans giving up more than just their money and time to access these things; us humans also gave up our privacy when we embraced new media. For the term paper, I plan to research how certain new media inventions led to this loss of privacy. I also plan to research how things such as RFID technology, databases that contain our information, and even things like laptops and computers helped us lose our privacy.

In my previous example of social media, us humans gave up our privacy in the sense that everything we do, we post on our social media accounts, such as taking a vacation or having a fight with a significant other. We no longer confine our privacy to the area known as our household, and the situation where mostly your family or extremely close friends would only know certain things that you know post all over your Facebook accounts.