Next New

The next new media is going to be something like you see on Star Trek- A virtual type of world were you will have access to media and websites, not at your fingertips but by what you are thinking. It will be a hologram type of media. We wake up in the morning we watch TV on the television or on our IPad- I imagine a world were we will be able to watch a virtual tv while we are in the shower, or log in to the computer and access our data while we are doing other things. It will voice activated no buttons, no typing, just speak your thoughts and it poof, you will have it. Getting ready in the morning and want to watch the news while taking a shower just say business news and a hologram appears and you can watch TV and shower at the same time, you want to cook while watching a cooking channel, just say the words and a virtual show appears in the kitchen. Of course we will need devices either on us or in the room, but it will be totally hands free and anyone could use as the system will recognize voices. The system will also keep track of each person’s preferences

This virtual type of world will tie right into all of your social media so you wouldn’t have to “update”, the system will recognize the person and provide automatic updates. Taking pictures, the hologram will appear and let you select the pictures you want to post by saying a word associated with the picture the system will recognize and ask you to confirm and poof, without touching buttons your status and pictures are posted. It will dramatically cut down the time it takes to update as the system will track and ask you throughout the day if you want to update. Essentially, it would be like having a personal assistant that would ask you throughout the day how and what you want to update, what you want to watch when you get home and have it ready, adjust you music list based on your mood and of course you would be able to shut it off when you want your privacy.

Of course this is going to have the same issues as current social media, privacy concerns, accesibilty concerns, and security concerns. The future is going to have some interesting social media, the questions I continue to have is social media crave a fad? I think it will be around forever, but it may not be as popular in 10 years as it is now, everything always seems to go in and out of style and the questions is how long will it last or are we entereing a totally new phase where social media is going to control everything we do from the time we wake up until we go to bed.

PSP File Sharing

File sharing is when people on a given network share files, a good example is when a company shares information on a intranet- files can include numerous things, including worldwide web links to mutlimedia information.  

P2P file sharing is more popular today method of file sharing, this allows users to share things such as music, movies and books.   The most popular and recognized form of this type of file sharing would be things such as limewwire, where users would share music and people could download music that people share.  This is a gray area as a lot of this is considered by many as copy infringement.   Some additional examples of this sites are the former Napster, and current Bittorrent. 

The article on Baruch media gives an example of how this copy infringement is costly to people and music and movie companies are not taking this lightly.  However, the NY times article mentions how digital pirates are fighting the battle against hollywood studios.  This is an evolving problem, nowadays we have internet radio and movies, such as Pandora and Netflix.  These companies are paying for the content they are providing, and given the relatively low cost, piirating is not as popular as it once was.  If you can get unlimited music and movies for under ten dollars a month, people will be less likely to steal. 

Click to access IllegalMusic.pdf

Advice to Baruch College

First, I would advise Baruch to that in order to improve the college that they would need to enhance the users online experience, specifically Blackboard and the registration system. They could create a system that based on the students degree program brings up the only eligible courses to enroll. For example, if you were a business major and you log in to register, it could pre-determine you best courses for a student to take. It would recognize the users and track you along the way and it would make it much easier throughout the process.

Also, Baruch should provide more online classes using new media. That would include allowing a student to log in to a classroom remotely and not miss class. If a student is sick and can’t make it in, they can log in from home and still “go to class”. I know other colleges that allow this and many of the students advantage. Some people would say that people would just not show up, this is not true, many people prefer to attend in person, this new media option would just add another option.

Lastly, the college should create a blog or wiki of some sort where students can collaborate and shares experiences so it can help existing and new students. For example, if a student had a specific question about a program or class, they could be linked to a blog that may answer their questions. I personally have spent a lot of time running around the college trying to find answers on specific information. This would help the college and student alike as it would help students better understand processes and it would help the college by allowing people to work more efficiently.

Privacy & Confidentiality

Privacy and Confidentiality are major issues when it comes to new media.  In fact, my term paper covered this topic and detail and I believe it is an issue that will either stunt the growth of social media or if companies adopt policies that put their users first and protect their data, they could continue to be successful.  For example, Facebook has

Since Facebook is now a public company, they are now forced to make a profit and try to continue growing that profit.  The company has programs that match your data against which companies would be best suited for that user and advertisements will pop up based on this info.  Additionally, Facebook has been known to sell your information to third parties.  Many people are not aware of the policy so they mostly ignore, but more and more discover have their data is not protected and it is freely used, these people will be less willing to use that service. 

People expect that when they provide their personal information to a company, that it is safeguarded and kept confidential.  Some of the policies of the new media is to freely share information and many people do not have an issue with this.  They feel that if they are not doing anything wrong, what is the big deal.  However, in this day and age with all the online hackers and theft to personal data it is to the utmost important that information is protected.  Working in the banking industry I know that people’s information is hacked from all sources.  Personally, I am very careful when it comes to providing information as I believe that my information is not as private or confidential as these companies claim.  The only way to truly protect yourself is to limit sharing your information and I believe that people are finally adhering to this and it will cause less interest in some of the new media that is out there. 

Lastly, I will say that this is such a major topic that colleges have dedicated classes and ever degree programs based on this type of thinking.  At Baruch I took at course called Computer Ethics, and a good portion of the course discussed this exact topic. 

Creativity and New Media

Check out my first Avatar from Bitstrips

http://bitstrips.com/r/0V381

It was pretty basic creating this avatar, I was first required to go and register at bitstrips- it takes you step by step on how to create an avatar- you get to chose everything from the obvious, sex, weight, height, but it also allows you to choose the eyebrows and facial expressions. I will also able to make my own cartoons and create my own captions- It was pretty cool and I want to try a more animated site- I also created a character on the South Park Avatar site- it was pretty funny- you should all give it a shot

CREATIVTY

With all of the social media and instant communication, people are constantly on-line, checking their status or looking at their tweets or text.  In one way or another people always have social media on their mind.  I believe that since many people are always thinking sub consciously about their social media, that it inspires creativity  as it forces people to come up with the next and new idea.  For example, before Facebook, there was myspace, which was eerily similar, however, through use and application Facebook was able to dominant by capitalizing on the things that myspace got wrong. 

Many of the new and upcoming social media companies now are born out of the ones before them and every day their seems to be a new company that provides a new service that users are looking to use.  By having people constantly involved it forces people to think of new things and ideas.  The article below talks about how twitter involved its users to create the next idea for the company and it is a brillant idea.  Rather than restrict people from sharing ideas they encouraged and it has helped create the company that twitter is today. 

As the article discusses, this has encouraged other companies to encourage their customers to come up with the next idea.  They way I see it is rather than have people sitting in a room trying to think of the new idea, let the people who use the product determine what is best.  How many times have we ourselves been sitting their thinking I wish this tablet or phone had this option?  The social media companies and consumers benefit when we are able to collaborate and share ideas.  It is a win win situation.

 

Reference:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/technology/internet/26twitter.html

Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

There are many options that these new virtual worlds can be used. Already today, virtual classrooms are being used throughout the world. It is allowing people to access parts of the world that may not have been accessible and it allows to teach for practicable real world scenarios. One example would be a person training to be a police office and in the virtual world they could be put in dangerous situations to see how they would react. Additionally, along with training and schools companies could implement virtual worlds in their jobs. As we know many large companies today how offices all over the world. They could have employees collaborate in order to foster best practices and shares ideas that will make them successful. It will also like for meetings that are similar to in person meetings. In the CNN article “Going to the virtual office in a second life” the author talks exactly about this and how companies are implementing this into their corporate culture.

As with everything else there are pros and cons associated with this new virtual world. Some of the pros would be that companies would be able to cut cost and save money on overhead, if they can have the same meeting in a virtual world, they would not have to fly people all over the world. The virtual world would also foster a more creative environment as people would be more willing to speak up and give their ideas. Some of the cons of the virtual world are that people could “act” out and one would know the persons true intentions. Also, as mentioned in the CNN article, nothing compares to a face to face meeting. To me, you have a better understanding and get true feeling from someone when you look them in the eye and have a conversation. Another con could be the eventual cost to keeping and maintaining the virtual world system. In order to have a smooth operating virtual world, you will need to proper support behind it, the bigger it grows the more expensive it will get. Lastly, security to these virtual worlds are a huge issue for me. Everyday there is a news story about people hacking into this or that, if hackers feel there is a need to hack into their systems and disrupts companies it can easily be done, again, if you want to secure it as much as you can, it will require more and more cost.

There is no doubt in my mind that the virtual world inspires creativity and it forces people to think outside of the box. Before the huge growth of social media people would have never thought the concepts such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterst and the like would be as successful as they are. I believe a part of that success has to do with people collaborating online and taking part in the virtual world. Although the initial concept may have been thought outside the virtual world, it is growth was certainly not. Also, people themselves can be creative themselves by creating virtual second lives. As mentioned in NY Times article “No Budget, No Boundaries: It’s the Real You”, real life people were able to create a life they always dreamed of. Perhaps some people see this great virtual life and it inspires people to chase their dreams and become creativity in their own sense.

Where is the Virtual World heading, it seems to be growing day by day and although there are many risks involved such as hacking, theft, pirating, etc, many people still turn to the virtual world for several reasons such as relieving stress, to increase profits, to streamline thoughts and ideas. Although I believe that the virtual world and some of the things that many articles discussed are not a true reality, it is not disappearing any time soon. There are still several hurdles that companies have to get over to make the virtual world a true reality, such issues as security, morality of information and even lawsuits are big issue that companies and people in general face.

Reference:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/11/05/second.life.virtual.collaboration/index.html

Twitter

I have to be honest, I was a little skeptical about twitter and the functionalities it offers to its users.  It was probably due to hearing that only celebrities use it, but after speaking to several friends and colleagues at work, they use it for other reasons.  First when I went to sign up I thought it would be a whole process- however, it was so simple,  I was able to sign up, tweet, and post and follow people with ease.  I love the simplicity of the functions and the website itself, and unlike Facebook, I do not feel like (although I am) that I am being tracked or violated. 

Now twitter is clearly different than a Blackboard discussion as it forces you to get to your point as it limits the amount of characters in one tweet- people like when you get to the point- on Blackboard or any online forum, people always go on and on when then can simply get to the point and be done.  Also, on twitter since you can follow what interests you, you are always aware of that given subject and if I am correct it keeps a running list.  If you need to back to something you can scroll down, not that easy in Blackboard. 

Now it is clearly different from an in class discussion in that you are not face to face with the person you are conversing with and sometimes people are intimated in a classroom as with twitter I feel people will freely express their thoughts without feeling em-brassed or pressured.  It is a way of public speaking without everyone staring at you and making you nervous.  Again, in class people go on and on about something without getting to the point, as mentioned above, twitter forces you to make your statement and move on.

I am looking forward to using and learning more about the options of twitter and how it can make my life easier.  

Social Networking Sites

Even though some of these sites have been around for a while, I am fairly new at using them and getting accustomed to the options that each site provides. When I checked out the recent myspace page, it is entirely different from I can remember when I used it about 8 years ago. Then, myspace was similar to what Facebook is now, a social networking site providing a way to update family and friends, share photos, websites, music, the list goes on. Now, it seems it is dedicated to music, videos and the like. When I went to the page to check it out, it was entirely different then what I remember. Facebook is obviously the new and more hip way to stay connected with family and friends, but it reminds of what the old myspace was like. A way to stay in touch and be able to shares information instantly. To be honest, I am not sure why myspace died and Facebook users exploded, I believe that when myspace started using an ad system showing up on pages it killed the common user. Is Facebook falling into that same trap that remains to be seen.

Twitter is the newest craze and it seems to be pretty popular what I do like about Twitter is that it is an easy way to stay connected to things that interest me. Like Facebook, you can track only those things that interest you and you get your updated immediately. Also, I like the idea that you are limited to a certain amount of characters makes people get to the point and keeps a conversation focused on a given topic. What I also noticed about twitter is that it seems less invasive and you do not get bombarded with adds. Again, it is a quick convenient way to stay interested in your topics and limits all the manusha that Facebook seems to have. What I also like about twitter is the simplicity of its website and I was able to set my twitter up in about 5 minutes. I am afraid to go near facebook as it seems to me to have too much going on and it seems that it is a full time job to keep a page up and running and current.

The last site I looked at was Yelp and again I like the simplicity of the site and think it will be a very useful tool for businesses. You can go online and rate your experiences and a number of different categories once thing I am always iffy of is that people are usually more willing to write a negative review than a positive review. Yelp has to figure out a way it can substantiate people claims not sure how that would work, but if a person had a vendetta about place or service than the company should have an opportunity to rebut.

After looking at these sites it is clear to me that I prefer the simplicity of the sites of Yelp and Twitter over Facebook and Myspace. Facebook and Myspace pages just seem too complicated and cluttered with so much information it is tough to focus on what you are really looking for. It is great tool to stay in touch with people and share information, but it just seems like it is a lot of work. Keep it simple is my model.

Social Networking

Social networking is growing day by day, and it seems every couple of months there is a new popular social networking website.  This poses many opporunities for corporate America and at the same time it presents several challenges for them.  For example, Linkedin is a great way for a human resource department to look at certain candidates even prior to bringing them in for an interview.  On the other hand, many large companies, do not allow employees access to social media from the company computer. Many of these companies do not want their employess, who are suppose to be working, looking for new jobs or checking in on their friends and family.  Create a new post on your blog with the above title. In your post, answer the following questions.

Another benefit for these large corporations and being accessible via social networking is that it provides these companies with relatively cheap alternative to market their products.  As mentioned in the marketing week article referenced below, companies allow the customers easy access not only to purchase products, but the customers can easily spread the word about a great product to their “friends” or followers.  Of course, the down side to this is that if your customers has a bad experience, negative news seems to travel faster than positive news and companies will be forced to spend time defending these bad experiences that customers have. 

Also, a dark side for these companies and social networking is that these companies track your every move and if you purchase something on their website or page they have lots of personal inforamation on people such as name, address, credit card info, and they have the ability to track what sites you visit.  It seems people today have no shame in providing as much personal information as possible without knowing the true consequences.  As mentioned in “Leaving Fingerprints” article “privacy is a moving target” and we do not know what really goes on behind the scenes once these companies have your information.  20 years ago people would never give away their information as freely as they do now, but do we know how and what it will look like in 20 years?  I do not think anyone knows, me, you, or even the companies that spend billions of dollars every year on storing and trying to protect your information. 

It is my opinion that if there is one thing that will put a dent into the rapid growth of social networking and perhaps make people less likely to use this resources is the issue of privacy.  I do not believe that most people understand how, when, and why their information is used.  Granted, social is not likely to ever disappear, it may just become a lesser part of our social fabric. 

References:

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/real-facebook-shop-in-virtual-world-breathes-life-into-mars/2059708.article

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2262