Wednesday, March 30, 2011
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.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds
Virtual Worlds can be used for people to virtually experience things they wouldn't otherwise in real life. They can also be used to create environments that don't exist in real life. Second Life is the most popular virtual world that is used today for creativity, communication and collaboration.
In The New York Times article "In Room 100, It's Sid and Nancy All Over Again," by Saki Knafo, Second Life is used to create a virtual replica of the Hotel Chelsea in NYC as it was before its renovation. The replica was created so that others could experience the interior of the hotel at the time when bassist Sid Vicious from Sex Pistols and his girlfriend Nancy stayed at the hotel. The creator of the virtual hotel used the photographs he had taken of the real hotel to put together his replica.
The article "Going to the virtual office in Second Life" by Mark Tutton describes how companies are now using Second Life for virtual meetings. Meeting in Second Life, helps companies save money on travel expenses and time if the employees live in locations far from each other. Companies also use a tool called Enterprise for increased security during the meetings. This tools uses the company's private network for the meetings, instead of the internet. IBM has its own tool for virtual meetings; it is called Sametime 3D.
Virtual meetings are also more productive but have some disadvantages. They can't have spontaneous "water cooler" conversations that take place after real life meetings. Virtual worlds foster creativity because anything can be created in the virtual world environment. I believe the future of virtual worlds will be an immersive virtual reality simulator where with better graphics it will be almost indistinguishable from reality.
In The New York Times article "In Room 100, It's Sid and Nancy All Over Again," by Saki Knafo, Second Life is used to create a virtual replica of the Hotel Chelsea in NYC as it was before its renovation. The replica was created so that others could experience the interior of the hotel at the time when bassist Sid Vicious from Sex Pistols and his girlfriend Nancy stayed at the hotel. The creator of the virtual hotel used the photographs he had taken of the real hotel to put together his replica.
The article "Going to the virtual office in Second Life" by Mark Tutton describes how companies are now using Second Life for virtual meetings. Meeting in Second Life, helps companies save money on travel expenses and time if the employees live in locations far from each other. Companies also use a tool called Enterprise for increased security during the meetings. This tools uses the company's private network for the meetings, instead of the internet. IBM has its own tool for virtual meetings; it is called Sametime 3D.
Virtual meetings are also more productive but have some disadvantages. They can't have spontaneous "water cooler" conversations that take place after real life meetings. Virtual worlds foster creativity because anything can be created in the virtual world environment. I believe the future of virtual worlds will be an immersive virtual reality simulator where with better graphics it will be almost indistinguishable from reality.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Social Networking Sites
Facebook is a very popular social networking site. It lets people stay in touch with their friends and share with them a lot of personal information. You can share with your friends pictures, videos, post messages on your page and their pages, and play online games with them. Since its creation, Facebook use has expanded to many groups of our society. It is not just kids having fun.
Myspace is similar to Facebook, and once it was even more popular than Facebook. Myspace also lets its users share pictures, videos and personal information but in addition to that it lets users add music to their profile. It is my impression that Myspace is for a younger user group than Facebook because it has more customization and its pages can look more flashy. Both of these sites have options to limit the personal information being shared.
Another social networking website is LinkedIn. It has similarities to both Facebook and Myspace but it is more business oriented. It is a tool for staying in touch with colleagues and managers from the person's place of employment. Like Facebook and Myspace it lets users post pictures, videos and messages to each other.
Twitter is different than other social networking sites. It only lets its users post short messages. My impression is that it is intended to simulate a conversation in which one person says one sentence, another one says another sentence, and so on. It is like an online discussion.
Myspace is similar to Facebook, and once it was even more popular than Facebook. Myspace also lets its users share pictures, videos and personal information but in addition to that it lets users add music to their profile. It is my impression that Myspace is for a younger user group than Facebook because it has more customization and its pages can look more flashy. Both of these sites have options to limit the personal information being shared.
Another social networking website is LinkedIn. It has similarities to both Facebook and Myspace but it is more business oriented. It is a tool for staying in touch with colleagues and managers from the person's place of employment. Like Facebook and Myspace it lets users post pictures, videos and messages to each other.
Twitter is different than other social networking sites. It only lets its users post short messages. My impression is that it is intended to simulate a conversation in which one person says one sentence, another one says another sentence, and so on. It is like an online discussion.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Blog about Twitter
Twitter discussion is different from BlackBoard discussion because only short messages can be posted using Twitter. It is obviously intended to be more similar to a conversation in which one person says one sentence and another one says another sentence. This is not the case with Blackboard discussions where long posts can be created. In fact BlackBoard discussions are more similar to a blog in that regard, except for the fact that the BlackBoard is managed by a website administrator instead of the post creator. Twitter
discussions have some similarity with in-class discussions in that all Twitter users, like students in a classroom can talk to each other by making short comments, just without face-to-face contact.
discussions have some similarity with in-class discussions in that all Twitter users, like students in a classroom can talk to each other by making short comments, just without face-to-face contact.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Social Networking
Social Networking technologies can be used for people to connect with each other, to share pictures, videos, comments, and personal information that they wish to share with others. In the corporate world, Social Networking can also be used for collaboration such as sharing common documents when working on a project or posting messages to one common message board similar to a blog. The benefit of this technology is that anything that's posted on one of the Social Networking sites can be instantly viewed by all the users of those sites and potentially all of the internet users. This feature of Social Networking can also be used against people, to post information, pictures and videos to harass them or to damage their reputation.
I believe that the use of this technology will continue to expand to all groups of society and it will be incorporated into all commonly used internet-enabled electronic devices. In the Maclean's article Social Networking at IBM: "What's Next? Your Future in Social Networking", the author tells us that companies such as IBM recognize the value and importance of Social Networks and are starting to use them in their business operations. This illustrates the expansion of the use of Social Networking to other groups of society because when it started, it was just a way for friends to connect with each other. Also, since its beginnings, the use of Social Networking expanded to politics. Politicians use Social Networking sites to promote themselves. In The New York Times article, "How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power," by David Carr, the author writes that President Obama understood the power of Social Networking and it helped him win his campaign against other presidential candidates in the 2008 election.
I believe that the use of this technology will continue to expand to all groups of society and it will be incorporated into all commonly used internet-enabled electronic devices. In the Maclean's article Social Networking at IBM: "What's Next? Your Future in Social Networking", the author tells us that companies such as IBM recognize the value and importance of Social Networks and are starting to use them in their business operations. This illustrates the expansion of the use of Social Networking to other groups of society because when it started, it was just a way for friends to connect with each other. Also, since its beginnings, the use of Social Networking expanded to politics. Politicians use Social Networking sites to promote themselves. In The New York Times article, "How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power," by David Carr, the author writes that President Obama understood the power of Social Networking and it helped him win his campaign against other presidential candidates in the 2008 election.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Blogs vs. Wikis
Blogs are a tool that individuals use to post their thoughts, commentaries, photos or videos. Blogs are managed by its owner who can choose what to show in the blog or what not to show. Other individuals can post comments on what's written or posted in the blog. However, they can not modify any other part of the blog, except for adding comments to it. Blogs can be used for collaboration between individuals and can influence events in the real world. This happened when the blog BayRidgeTalk.com helped clean up a Bay Ridge neighborhood in NYC from drug dealers and addicts. In the online New York Times article, "Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid" by Michael Wilson, he writes that the people living in that neighborhood were concerned about the fighting and drug dealing that was going on near their houses and posted commentaries about it to their blog. The police then got involved and raided the houses with the drug dealers.
Wikis are online databases or encyclopedias that can be edited by anyone. They are different from blogs because anyone can edit any part of the wiki or even create new wiki pages. Unlike a blog, no one person has complete control over the contents of a wiki. It is a much more collaborative environment than a blog.
The InternetWeek article "How To Use Wikis For Business" by Ezra Goodnoe states that Wikis are also beginning to be used in the business world for collaboration. They can be a very useful tool for employees working together on a common project. The Wikis would converge all of the project work into one place to which all employees would contribute. This would solve many problems such as passing around different version of the common documents by email. Wikis are also simple to use because even a person without technical knowledge can edit or create new pages.
Wikis are online databases or encyclopedias that can be edited by anyone. They are different from blogs because anyone can edit any part of the wiki or even create new wiki pages. Unlike a blog, no one person has complete control over the contents of a wiki. It is a much more collaborative environment than a blog.
The InternetWeek article "How To Use Wikis For Business" by Ezra Goodnoe states that Wikis are also beginning to be used in the business world for collaboration. They can be a very useful tool for employees working together on a common project. The Wikis would converge all of the project work into one place to which all employees would contribute. This would solve many problems such as passing around different version of the common documents by email. Wikis are also simple to use because even a person without technical knowledge can edit or create new pages.
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