The Next New Thing

I would love to see and app where people can meet new people and make friends. I would call it “Find a Buddy”. You would be able to download it and input your favorite hangout spots. You would also input your interests and hobbies. The app will match you with buddies based on your interests and favorite places. On any given night, you can choose to meet up with your buddy at a mutually chosen spot. At the end of the encounter, you can rate your buddy and the experience. When others log on they will see where you went and with whom, and their ratings. “Find a Buddy” would be the preferred app to meet friends when you are new in town and unsure of where to go to hang out. It will also be a safer way to meet new people in public places. It gives the shy or antisocial a way to interact with potential friends or associates. It can also be a way to network in a more relaxed environment.

wiki.secondlife.com

Our Class Wiki-So Far

http://www.nginx.com

I’ve been researching dating websites and intend on adding more information and links to the Wiki around these two things. I’ve joined a couple of sites, so that I would have my own personal experiences to share and comment on. I also have several friends who have used dating apps or online websites to meet friends and potential mates. I find it very interesting online has expanded our dating options. We’re not only just communicating with people to share information, we’re also getting to know people online in a more personal way. Instant messages have become a way to share intimate thoughts and/or pictures.

Under the love section on our current Wiki page, you’ll find a few websites. I wanted to expand and add information that is more current. The section on the problems with finding love highlights all the areas that are negative with online dating. There’s no section on what’s right with it and how it works for some people. I intend on adding more links and some statistics to this page.

The YouTube link also needs a serious facelift. I would also like to add some links and background information about YouTube. I’m going to focus on these two links and also try to work on some of the broken links. I’m looking forward to contributing soon and reading what everyone else has contributed.

P2P File Sharing

http://www.northeastern.edu

File sharing is the public or private sharing of computer data  from one computer to another over the Internet.People share a file over a network and are able to access the file for use. It’s most commonly used in schools and universities.

According to www.zonealarm.com, P2P file sharing is the process of sharing and transferring digital files from one computer to another. In a P2P network, each ‘peer’ is an end-user’s computer connected to the other ‘peer’ via the Internet. P2P users download P2P software to communicate and share files such as videos, photos and music. Skype was based on P2P technology. Some examples of P2P files sharing programs are Kazaa, Limewire, Shareaza and BitTorrent.

As technology evolves P2P will also shift from its conventional use. In a NY Times article by Wendy Kaufman called Peers Find Less Pressure Borrowing From Each Other, Google partnered with the Lending Club to expand peer to peer lending. Investors lend money to borrowers who are having trouble getting financed through a bank or financial institution at a lower interest rate. Google’s expectation is to transform the way people do banking using peer to peer lending.

Privacy and Confidentiality

We log on to the internet unknowingly giving third parties the access to our personal information for profit. We believe that we have the right to keep our personal information out of the public eye. We believe that web pages and social media sites that we visit protect us from the prying eye of others, but that is often not the case. Our privacy is compromised daily by companies targeting us through the websites that we visit daily. They use computers and algorithms to track our data. They learn our habits and use the information that they obtain to market and sell their products to us. The worst part of it all is that the websites that we use for recreational or business purposes sell our information to these companies. The sites that we are forced to enter our personal information to verify that we are real people, gives these companies access to everything.

Buried among pages and pages of legal jargon in the terms of use is a consent to give access to these companies. If half of us knew that we were signing our rights of privacy away, would we change our minds on signing up? Seriously though, who reads that stuff? Even if you attempted to tackle the dozen or so pages, you would need a lawyer to translate what it says. Every activity that we do is feeding data to a new media source. Allowing google maps access to your location pinpoints exactly where you are at any given moment. Using your debit card in a store or online provides access to your spending habits and where you like to shop.

Did you know that there are no laws on privacy. There’s nothing to protect our information from these companies, private entities or even the government itself. The laws are designed to protect the government from surveilling us, but nothing against these third parties. Just remember that anything that you share on the internet is public. It can be reproduced and sold. It becomes a permanent part of new media. So please only share what you are ok with the public knowing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advice to Baruch College

Wikipedia states that “new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content anytime, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community formation around the media content.” It emerged in the late 20th century and  continues to rapidly evolve. New media is vastly becoming the preferred method of communication for people from ages 18-65. Whether it’s through email or a blog post.

I believe that Baruch should incorporate as many new forms of new media possible in the curriculum and to market and promote the different schools in the college. Universities all over the world are using new media as an every day part of their lectures. Professor of music, Thomas Forrest Kelly of  the University of Bologna in Italy uses audio, video and interactive methods of learning instead of traditional classroom lectures. Students are encouraged to think more and write less. They are more creative and have extra time to focus on class assignments due to the lack of textbooks and other old forms of media.

If Baruch adopted a new media driven curriculum for marketing, they would be able to compete with a lot of the SUNY and private universities. Every school should have their own social media page and it should be monitored and updated consistently by school staff. Potential students should be able to log into one of the social media sites and find out all they need to know about a particular school within Baruch. Every department head should ensure that their information is up to date and class materials align with the ever changing new media.

Recent studies show that people are more likely to retain information when it is visual versus words. New media provides access to concepts outside of the normal realm of classroom learning. Students and faculty can benefit from the use of new media on a more consistent basis at Baruch. We are said to be the “Harvard” of CUNY and I believe that in order to live up to that name, we need to stay on top of current technological advances. We owe it to our students to create the best learning environment possible.

Sources: Lambert, C. (2009). Professor Video:
Visual, audio, and interactive media are transforming the college classroom. Retrieved from HarvardMagazine.com

Socha, B., Eber-Schmid, B. (2015). WHAT IS NEW MEDIA?: Defining New Media Isn’t Easy. Retrieved from newmedia.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Socha

 

 

 

 

 

Creativity and New Media

I created an Avatar using Second Life. Second Life is an 3D online virtual world where everyone avatar that you encounter is an actual person. Users can interact with each other using free texts and chat. In Second Life the avatar that you create can travel to different locations and jump, run and fly on your command. In the first screenshot, I prompted my avatar to hover over the cliff with the ocean in her background. I also added a filter to create the illusion that the sun was shining brightly in her background. In the second screenshot I have the avatar on the beach with a spotlight filter on her. Second Life allows me to manipulate the color, clothes, hair and even body parts of my avatar. Really cool site to play around with and endless possibilities to living out your virtual world dreams.  http://secondlife.com/

Creativity

“New media can enrich your mental resources to help you develop ideas that are stronger and more impactful.” Caitlin Moyer, Sr. Manager, Advertising & Marketing at Milwaukee Brewers

New Media has changed the way we interact and create.  According to a thesis written by Isaac Bell on New Media, “The improvement in information technologies has had several effects. Not only did these
advances make it easier to distribute the created work (or facsimiles of that work), but each one
gave audiences the ability to respond to these works in their own ways, from written discussions
to attempts to create their own art.” Due to advances in technology, we have been able to witness art and transform art. We use New Media to alter and add to existing works to make it our own. We look to New Media to help us improve on old processes or systems. There are so many tools at hand because of the internet and forms of New Media that are being created. Society has no choice but to become involved. We strive to be apart of something creative and add out input. New Media breeds inspiration and fosters an environment of creativity.

Advances in technologies makes creating easier and quicker than with old forms of technology. The internet has created a platform for people to feel free to join the creative process. Blogs, Social Media, Interactive Apps, etc. are just a few forms of New Media that encourage creativity. These forms are based on users adding something that they created to the site. Users also collaborate and use what they learned to create a entirely new site. The world of New Media is constantly changing and I’m excited to see the direction that it is taking.

Sources:

Bell, I. (2014) Creators, Audiences, and New Media:
Creativity in an Interactive Environment (Master’s of Art Thesis) Retrieved from https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/16810/Bell_ku_0099M_13626_DATA_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual Worlds are no longer considered far fetched or something out of a sci-fi movie. It’s actually now part of our reality. We have many uses for Virtual World in today’s society. Universities and non profit organizations use Virtual Worlds to communicate with students and other educators by holding virtual meetings and virtual field trips. Students can travel to other countries without leaving their classroom. Also virtual simulations help students build their confidence before they take on real life situations, such as in the case of a disaster relief worker. Simulations are created to demonstrate what would happen if a tsunami or hurricane occurred. It gives users the opportunity to see what would happen without actually having to experience it.  In “Situated Learning in Virtual Worlds and Immersive Simulations” , the article discusses how students benefit from Virtual Worlds because it provides users with a sense of being there and the contexts are endless. Virtual Worlds also allow for workplace collaborations. Employees in different parts of the world can assist and provide their input on a project without having to be in the same room. This type of collaboration allows them the freedom to add to a project at anytime during its creative process. Most tech companies utilize virtual collaborations.

The Pros of Virtual Worlds are that it allows people access to people and places in any part of the world without having to leave their seat. It saves on travel time and bridges the gap of communication for a wide spectrum of people. Scientists can communicate with students and administrators can communicate with doctors via virtual classrooms and meetings. The cons of Virtual Worlds would be that some people work better with the face to face interaction that is missing in virtual forms of communication. Some people use Virtual Worlds as a place for social interaction and to meet people. They may get so caught up in avatars that they may not know how to interact outside of the Virtual World. In the NY Times article “I’ve Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life” by Dave Itzkoff, Virtual Worlds were created to simulate visiting neighborhood hangout spots. The problem was that instead of actually going out to experience what the places were like, people would just log on to their computers and “virtually visit” these places with avatars that they created. They never get to actually experience what it’s like to visit these local neighborhood treasures.

Virtual Worlds Foster Creativity because they are designed for users to create content and customize features. They encourage collaboration and through this collaboration users work together to improve the project that they are working on.

The future of Virtual Worlds would be everything that we are doing now to the tenth power. I believe at some point we will be actually able visualize something and create it using virtual worlds. 3D printers will be a thing of the past and everyone will have access to whatever their imagination could come up with using Virtual Worlds.

Blog about Twitter

A Twitter discussion compares to a blackboard discussion in the sense that people are able to respond and view posts shared by their classmates and friends. Twitter is more public and although there are privacy settings in place it is difficult to keep the discussion private. Each user would have to have the same settings. In a blackboard discussion the privacy settings are already set and users are only interacting with their professors and classmates currently enrolled in a particular class session. Twitter is also limited to 140 characters as opposed to blackboard which has over 300. Blackboard discussions appear in order by user name and subject of the discussion. Twitter discussions appear in a timeline by Twitter user names with the @ symbol in front. Clicking on the user names takes you directly to the user page where you can see all their Tweets and profile.

If I had to compare Twitter to an in-class discussion I would sat that Twitter is definitely less personal. Nothing replaces face to face interaction. In-class discussions are usually have a casual tone and students may be a little apprehensive to share their point of view. Some students may be shy or don’t want to say the wrong answer in front of their peers. Twitter allows users to hide behind a their screen names and gives them a confidence that they may not have exhibited in person. Users feel bold and are not concerned with the embarrassment that they would have felt in an in-class discussion.

Social Networking Sites

According to http://www.ebizmba.com, the top 4 Social Networking Sites are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Facebook has an estimate of 900 million visitors per month. The average age demographic of Facebook users is 35-54. Users post status updates and upload pictures or videos of their daily activities. FB also allows users to share status updates and uploads from their “Friends”. Most users use FB to connect with long lost family members or high school/college friends. Recently FB has added suggestion features where ads that are matched to your search engine appear on your timeline and entice users to click on them.

Twitter is similar to FB in the sense that ads also appear on the timeline of users. Twitter has 310 million monthly visitors. Users “Tweet” status updates and are limited to 140 characters per Tweet. Sharing a Tweet is called “ReTweet”. Twitter is a little more technical than FB. This may be a reason why recent articles state that teens are shying away from Twitter. They are finding it more difficult than some of the other social media sites. You can see how celebrities use Twitter to promote their latest endeavors or simply vent about whatever drama is occurring at the moment. The demographic of users are in the 18-29 yr old age range.

The 3rd most popular Social Networking is LinkedIn. The user demographic is 30-49. LinkedIn has an estimate of 255 million monthly visitors. LinkedIn is more of a professional page where users create profiles and connect with other professionals. Companies use LinkedIn to search for potential candidates. Users can endorse other users. This endorsement is considered a reference for potential employers or professional connections. The site also lists users skills and previous or existing company affiliations.

Pinterest is the 4th most popular site. Its monthly visitors total over 250 million. Pinterest is unique. It differs from the other sites because users dictate what other users view and follow. For example, someone may post a picture of a place where they bought fresh flowers from. Anyone who is interested in fresh flowers goes on Pinterest and types in a search for flowers. Users who “pinned” fresh flowers will appear and you are able to view where they were bought and details about the flowers. You can bounce from page to page depending on your specific preferences and interests. The average age demographic is 18-29.