The Next New Thing

I expect that the next new popular type of media will be the e-paper technology.  Thin, flexible, high-definition and low-powered e-paper displays will replace the old communication medium  -- paper.  Printed newspapers and magazines that we still see today, will be published on e-paper, instead of paper.  There will be no need to manually flip through dozens of pages in the magazine or newspaper to find what you're looking for.  The e-paper publications will come with a searchable table of contents right on their main page.  And most importantly, the e-paper newspapers will not stain the hands of their readers with black ink like many newspapers do today.  The future e-paper displays will revolutionize communication in the world.  They will be foldable, bendable, readable under a bright light and will not use any power to display information.  They will only use a low amount of power to change the information being displayed.  This will
be a huge advantage over the technology commonly used today.  The future e-paper technology might even completely replace printed books, something that today's e-book readers haven't been able to do yet, and the much talked about end of printed media will come.

P2P File Sharing

File sharing is the sharing of computer files whether they are copyrighted or not.  File sharing can be done through the internet, P2P or by sharing physical computer media containing the files.  P2P File Sharing is the sharing of computer files through personal computers.  In P2P File Sharing, computer programs are used to share a file with other computers, so that the computer that shares the file becomes a server and the other computers are clients that download the file from the server.

An example of P2P File Sharing is using a BitTorrent program to download files from the P2P File Sharing website The Pirate Bay.  In the article "Content producers should take advantage of P2P, not fear it", the documentary film "Steal This Film" was distributed using this method.  The producer of this film, argues that P2P File Sharing can help with the distrubution of movies and can help movie producers reach a large audience.  He also proposes a new voluntary payment system for the movies shared through  P2P as an alternative to the current system.  He believes that his new proposed system will be more successful than the current system.

Our Class Wiki - So Far

For our class wiki project, I have been working on the "New Media in Transportation" page.  I added new content and new sections to that page.  I expanded the section dealing with the new media use by the MTA.  I added information about the new MTA text-messaging program in which MTA LIRR and Metro-North railroad customers can check their train schedules online.  I also added a new section that discusses the use of new media technologies by the State Departments of Transportation in order to better communicate with their customers.

Advice to Baruch College

If I am hired by Baruch College, my first suggestion would be to convert more regular courses into online courses.  Online courses offer many conveniences to students, especially those who work and have a busy schedule.  In online courses students have more flexibility about when to study and do the assignments.  The technology has now also improved to the point where online classes can be as good as traditional classes.  Using Twitter, Blackboard, blogs and email, students and professors can communicate with each other.  Video lectures can be as good as traditional lectures and many people now have broadband internet access.
Another thing I would suggest is -- online course evaluations.  Instead of filling out paper forms in person at the end of each course, the students could do it by filling out a form online at the Baruch website.  It would save time for students, professors and would make it easier to compile statistical information that could be used to improve the courses such as how many students believed the course needs improvement vs. how many said it was OK the way it is.
Also, it should be a requirement for all courses to use some form of New Media or Blackboard for course material and communication because there are still some classes that don't use either one and unless you are always in class in-person and on-time, you will miss important information.

Privacy & Confidentiality in New Media

There isn't much privacy for the users of new media.  Since one of the purposes of the new media is to share information, some loss of privacy is to be expected for all who use it.  Most of the information on the internet can be very easily accessed by all internet users.  Information posted using new media tools such as Blogs or Twitter can be seen by virtually anyone.  Social networking sites such as Facebook track your every activity on their sites and post it for everyone to see.  These sites also contain a lot of personal information on their users.  You can see what's happening in their personal lives and pretty much everything else you want to know about a person.  Social networking sites have some privacy options but it is easy to go around them.  There are people who dont even use the privacy options or don't know that they're there.
In Facebook, for example, you can limit what others can see in your profile but once you become friends with them, they can see everything.  It is fairly easy to become friends with most people on Facebook and all of the information posted in your profile is certainly accessible to those who run Facebook.  The bottom line is, whatever is posted on the internet can be potentially seen by anyone and can be used by them for any purpose.

About My Term Research Paper

My research paper was about the Future of Old Media.  I chose this topic because I am interested in knowing how the old media will fare in the future.  In my research, I used search engines such as Google to find various news articles and scholarly sources online.  I also accessed some of the Baruch Library online databases such as ProQuest to find more sources for my paper.  From my research I learned that although the old media faces some serious challenges, it will not disappear in the near future.  It will converge with new media technologies.  The convergence of old media with the new media is already underway.  Many newspapers and magazines have online versions of their publications.  E-books are replacing printed books.  TV is converging with the web content and social media to become WebTV where content from the web can be displayed on your TV.  I concluded that in the future, the most successfull media companies will be the ones that are able to adapt themselves to the changing times and the changing needs of the consumers.

Creativity

New media fosters creativity because with the new media it is easy to create user-generated content such as mashups where original content is combined with some of the content that's not original.  Even though this is not considered piracy and some media creators will not mind if their content is used in mashups, others will frown upon it.  This is illustrated in the New York Times article "Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?" by Brooks Barnes.  In this article, Disney tolerates people using its cartoon characters in mashup music videos, where the cartoon characters sing rap songs.  Disney does not approve of this, like some other companies do but it understands that it might not be able to win a case against it in court.  Disney also has bigger issues to deal with, such as pirated material being posted on internet or sold in other places, so it tolerates mashups for now.