The Next New Media

I would like to see a new media that allowed for people with visual and hearing impediments to interact. Maybe a site that integrates technology and new media to make it easier for them to meet other people, share their experiences, learn, play and facilitate their integration to society. Something similar to Facebook or Twitter that includes options like automatic reading out loud of posts in their profiles, videos that detect what a person is saying and subtitle the content in real time, games according to the impediments. I believe this will be beneficial for this portion of our society.

P2P File Sharing

What is file Sharing?

Like the name says is a way to share files using computers connected to a network using special software. These files can be music, books, movies, video games, among others

What is P2P File Sharing?

Also known as peer to peer file sharing is the use of P2P software to share content like music, movies, books through a P2P Network of computers connected that by a simple search will find the content solicited. 

What are some examples of P2P Sharing ?

One of the first P2P sharing is Napster but we have a million more like BitTorrents, limewire (no longer available), Xtorrents, Transmission. Brian Stelter and Brad Stone in their Article "Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios" a site called Super Nova Tube where you post videos of any length.  

Privacy and Confidentiality

         Privacy has being an issue since new media came up. How our information is shared with other companies, groups, individuals with many purposes like marketing, studies, etc. Any information we put out there is used to either send us promotions about products or service that according to our sex, age, interests we could be interested in or to run some sort of background check to possible candidates to a job position, etc. We have as an example Facebook ads that targets people according to their age, ethnicity, education, location, etc and display ads on their profiles that might be of their interest. But in many cases we the users of these new media are the ones that put in risk our privacy. We share to much needless information that could get us in trouble, and if we add to that the fact that we seem to forget what privacy and confidentiality mean. We do not need to share every single aspect of our lives, where we live, where we are, some photos and/or videos. We also don't pay attention or do not care enough about learning how can we protect our information using the tools these new media provides like privacy settings such as limiting the access to our profiles to certain group. Nevertheless some aspects of privacy we can't control but the less we share the less we have to worry about how could this information could hurt us like for example, when we are looking for a job since it is known that companies check these new media to get some background info. 

Creativity and New Media

I created an avatar using a website that allows you to create it and share it by clicking away. I decided to create a little comic style scene of how I am sure we all would like to do during the summer time.

Creativity

           Technology and the new media are not only product of the creativity of men, but has also foster people’s imagination, has awaken our curiosity and almost forced us to explore our minds. Everyday we used these media and many times do not even realize how we are advancing with technology and not only learning but providing our own input to make it better and more suitable to our necessities. We as users have been able to guide media creators by showing trends, providing feedback and making them keep our attention and focus. The article “Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers” by Claire Cain Miller in The New York Times, talks about how twitter instead of competing with their users they outsource to them the design, also how the company watches how people use the site and what ideas catch on.These is only one of many ways creativity has become part of our everyday. We have facebook which started as a college oriented online community and now not only is available for everyone but you can share your thoughts, pictures, opinions, play games, comunicate with others, market products and many other features. Every generation has different needs and with this opportunities to stimulate our creativity and let our brains and imagination mold our future.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

       Virtual world have so many uses, art, science, politics, business, technology and many other fields. An example is how art and some of history/culture/social aspects of the real world meet in the second life or virtual world as explained in the article on the NYTimes by Saky Knafo “In Room 100, It’s Sid and Nancy All Over Again”. In this article the author explain how The Chelsea hotel went through a transformation under new management which switch some of the particular characteristics like the mailboxes and Bob Dylan’s room were transformed. But, thank you to second life these will live on. On the other hand, like everything in life,this can have pros and cons. One of the many pros are how this virtual world can be used in different fields with the purpose of bettering the real world situations like on the article on CNN by Nicole Saidi “iReport: ‘Naughty Auties’ battle autism with virtual interaction”, where she talks about this second life created for interaction of people with conditions like autism, Aspergers, etc. Here also we saw how scientific also joined Naughty Auties and can be found working in a second life lab, this researcher is studying interactions and as Bignell said. “For people who have social, emotional, communicational problems … we can get them familiar with an environment before they actually try it out in real life.”

       Among the Cons I can count that since interactions in this second word are all through technology this might hurt the interaction one of one of individuals. Social skills in my opinion can not be learned in a computerized environment since these should be spontaneous.

For one we need to admit that creativity is exposed to it maximum expression in the virtual world, people are able to become whoever or whatever they want for that matter, have their dream houses, live a different life, create parallel worlds. Many markets have joined this trend and like the toy industry with the webkinz.

The future of this technology will probably be the replacement of many of our daily activities by virtual world, work, study, socialize through this second life

Social Networking Sites

I visited MySpace today after many many years and it look very different (I might even reopen my account), in fact there are two types the classic and the new myspace. I browsed for a while and I can say that Myspace is more dedicated to art and creativity, its a good way to keep up with trends, fashion, music and for artist to expose themselves. On the other hand I recently joined twitter and while I am still getting the hang of it, I have notice that this media its very popular because people, companies, organizations etc can give their opinions or just express their comments about a topic and others with the same interest can reply. It is a good, fast way to put your thoughts out there. Now Facebook, that’s my thing, I love how you can stay connected with family and friends and meet other people through this type of media. Facebook is also being used for many other purposes like marketing, fan pages, charity and more. You can browse your contacts profiles and see their pictures, what are they up to, you can get back in touch with people from the past, from your childhood, from kindergarten, you can see on your wall updates from your friends. Another Networking site I visited was LinkedIn, this site has a professional environment, people here post their occupations,experience,education, they link with others and give organizations the opportunity to find talent through social network. This is a great idea in my opinion since it makes easier the hiring/job hunting process for both sides.