The Next New Thing

Dont ask me how I thought of this, and while its pretty stupid, I think its kind of interesting also.  Imagine a tracking device on your shoes that send a video or picture straight to your computer, iPad or whatever.  This could be really weird, yet good for parents.  They can keep track of their kids so they dont lie when telling their parents where they are going. ( My kids arent going to read this). It could also be good for when youre waiting for your friends to walk to your house, and they tell you theyre up the block, yet theyre 15 minutes away.  No more believing that.  If its truly implemented in every set of shoes or sneakers, which understandably so is unlikely, it can also help to track down criminals.  TVs and such would be set up in police headquarters.  It seems far-fetched and impractical, but you never know. Its all I could think of.

Our Class Wiki - So Far

     I must admit I have not started to contribute to my wiki page as much as I want to. However, I chose the same topic as I did for my research paper, so I plan to use a lot of my research to contribute.  In my paper, I discussed a lot about Stewart Cink, a PGA golfer.  He is really involved in his Twitter and I think its a good example of how to use it in a positive way.  He really loves his fans, and he goes as far as tweeting back to them, while giving some golf tips and real life visions of the golf course.  He serves as a role model to many, and it shouldnt go unnoticed.   
    In one of my scholarly articles, a great statistic was given about the fans of the NFL and MLB which I plan to contribute to the page.  55% of all NFL fans and 61% of all MLB fans now enjoying watching the sport more now that new media is being used.
    In my paper I discussed at length some positive and negative effects of using new media in the college world, whether it be the student athletes, the coaches or the actual programs itself.  Im going to contribute this as well because I think its really important for teaching the right ways to use new media, starting at the high school and college level.

P2P File Sharing

          File sharing is simply giving access to digital information, such as computer programs, pictures and videos, or e books.  It has gotten pretty big over the years now that technology is so important to us.  You can share files in a few different ways, like web based hyperlinks, through computer networks, or by peer-to-peer sharing, which many of us use today.
          P2P sharing is a pretty exceptional way of sharing files between two users.  A most common website that features P2P sharing, as noted by Chris Nuttall in his article "Valley View: Filesharing Joins The Mainstream", is BitTorrent.  Here, you can download huge files like movies and other videos directly from another user.  At first, you might think movie industries wouldnt let this fly, and you would be right.  However, according to Nuttall, BitTorrent has "made peace" with the Hollywood studios and allowed them to distribute these movies. BitTorrent works so well because it downloads files so fast.  It used to be where the more people who downloaded the same file, the slower it would be.  With P2P file sharing, the more people that download the same file, the faster it typically downloads.  You cant ask for anything better in this situation.
           Jamie King's article "Take Advantage of P2P-Not Fear It", also mentions another huge P2P website, Pirate Bay.  Between this and BitTorrent, you have all the movies, shows, and videos you can ever imagine

Privacy and Confidentiality

Privacy has and will be a long standing issue with new media such as facebook and twitter.  disgruntled users of these sites have nothing better to do and hack the system to make your life a living hell.  it becomes even easier when facebook keeps defaulting certain settings as public.  if you dont remember to make certain things private, then everyone can see everything, which can lead to some pretty serious consequences.
    another pretty scary issue is that our names and pictures on facebook are linked to search engines like google.  all you have to do is type in your name on google and your facebook will pop up.  hackers can figure out ways to extract other information pertaining to you.  this also happens when users download applications on facebook.    this could lead to an error page, and this is where hackers get into your account to take personal information.

Advice to Baruch College

i think a great way for more interaction with professors and students would be through skype.  often times, professors dont answer emails, and it can be frustrating when at home when you need an answer.  skype could be an answer.  it can be used from the comfort of your own home which is great for some people.
    another way for teachers to get a good message out instead of using email or blackboard is to use twitter.  many of us have twitter now, and im sure that a lot of us check it more than we do our baruch emails.  perhaps informing us through twitter may be effective.  a cool way to help implement this would be to set up little computers around the school that you can strictly use to sign on to twitter and check for updates.  this could allow more room in the actual computer rooms, because they are always packed with students.

About My Term Research Paper

i decided to write about social media in the sports world because i am a huge sports fan.  i discussed the positive effects of social media, such as effectively communicating with a high school recruiter trying to get him/her to enroll in the college you work at, or just simply following your favorite athlete to see what they are up to.  sometimes, athletes will tweet while they are at work, such as on a golf course, which is pretty cool for a fan to understand what it may really be like to play professional golf.  there are obviously some negative effects of using social media.  some coaches and players get themselves in trouble by posting controversial tweets.  these tend to result in fines or suspensions.  i also spoke about how leagues such as the NBA set regulations for when players can use their phones for Twitter and such.  there definitely needs to be some of these regulations to limit the amount of trouble players cam get into.  they are usually outspoken which is a good thing, but taking it too far can shed a bad light on them. i learned that some recruiters shy away from certain universities after seeing some controversial material on future teammates facebook pages.  it was pretty interesting and all in all, i enjoyed writing this.

Creativity and New Media

Below is a little digital scrapbook that I put together.  Sports are a big part of my life and I felt I should blog about it.  The program is called smilebox and its extremely easy to use.  Theres a ton of layouts to choose from, and you just drag your favorite pictures and videos on the layout.  You can then post it directly to Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Free digital scrapbook created with Smilebox

Creativity

The article "Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers" by Claire Cain Miller may be the most interesting article I've read for this class.  Its so interesting how users developed and created most of the way Twitter works today.  A guy named Chris Messina was actually the one to introduce the hashtag symbol, #, onto Twitter.  This is used so much to relate to Twitter now its not even funny.  People are even using it outside of Twitter, on Facebook for example.  The hashtag helps to mark a conversation about a certain topic, and Twitter linked the hashtags so you can easily click them to follow the topic.  Its genius.
      There are a few other user developments that creatively enhance Twitter.  These are Lists and Retweets.  Lists help see who to follow easier and retweets helps you to send someone elses tweet through your Twitter.  They are both convenient shortcuts.  Many people think that producers and such create new ways to develop their product.  In Twitter's case, users give feedback to help create new ideas and shortcuts, which I believe is an effective way of creating a good product.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Ill start by saying my lack of knowledge about virtual worlds is second to none.  I have never once looked into this until now.  After reading the article "I've Been In That Club, Just Not In Real Life" by Dave Itzkoff, I found out you could be in a virtual world relative to a club, as opposed to actually being there.  He explained how he went to one to see a concert, but was not pleased with it.  He decided to go home and make an avatar and go into a virtual world of the club he was just at.  Now, he could meet the same people, but not have to be in the actual place.  This is a pro for David because he didnt like the atmosphere and felt more comfortable at home.  A con however, is that you dont literally get to be in contact with the people and surroundings of the real world.
        Another great article was "Avatar II: The Hospital by Stephanie Simon.  Nurses enter a virtual world of an emergency room to help practice for real life situations.  Its almost ingenious to think how beneficial it could be, especially with other fields of work.  I never really thought about it.  The NYPD and FDNY might find this useful as well.

Blog about Twitter

The beauty of Twitter is that you can link so many people together onto one discussion by using hashtags.  You can get a lot of input and insightful thinking on there.  Its obviously pretty different to an in-class discussion.  People are often shy when discussing things in front of others.  I, for one, am not but I still understand where people come from when they get nervous.  I wish I could help.  Twitter is also advantageous because you can do it from your bedroom, the train, the bathroom, or at dinner.  An in-class discussion is in boring Baruch and nobody enjoys that, not even me.  Go Twitter.

Social Networking Sites

Right off the bat I have to announce Facebook as my top soical networking site out of the 4 I will discuss, which are Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Tumblr.  I just made a Tumblr two seconds ago to see what its like.  I have all of the other three, even though I dont use myspace anymore.  Its extremely outdated and is really facing heavy competition nowadays.  Facebook is just plain addicting.  Im not fully used to Twitter yet, but sadly I feel I may throw this in my repertoire of daily things I do.  Twitter is quick and easy which is good.  After playing around with Tumblr, I noticed its extremely user friendly and customizable.  I probably wont get into it, but it does seem pretty fun.  Overall, I think Facebook has way too much power over the rest, and with a new generation (age 50+) coming on, I dont see it slowing down anytime soon.

Social Networking

     Facebook, Twitter and the like are slowly taking over the world.  Its almost ridiculous.  I completely put myself in the category of people who are hooked to Facebook and/or Twitter.  While it is fun to talk to friends and post pictures etc., these sites can be helpful in society, namely the corporate world.  The article " Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting" by Frank Langfitt discusses tactics that companies use to recruit employees via Facebook.  In a bizarre twist, a recruiter for a global lighting company came across a Facebook profile of a man who she believed would be perfect for a job with her company.
     With that being said, privacy is more important to users than we think.  Marc Perry's article "Who Cares About Facebook Privacy? Students Do", hits on that.  Study shows, according to Danah Boyd and Eszter Hargittai, that most teens modify their privacy settings on Facebook at some point.  Between 2009 and 2010, this action increased significantly.  
       I truly believe that Facebook is a psychological test for all users.  They modify the layout and such for a certain period of time until they believe that we have all adapted to it.  Just when we think we've got it down pat, they change it again.  Its a test to see how long we are going to give in to them before we stop using it.  Its hilarious, yet sad at the same time.  Whats even sadder is that I am a part of the movement, and I dont plan on leaving just because the layout changes every twelve seconds.

Blogs vs Wikis

Blogs and Wikis are comparable in a sense that they can be so quickly accessed, and so quickly updated to give you the most current of all information.  Wikis are known for the collaboration capabilities, where an entire group of, say, reporters can input pertinent information and edit the page to make it as credible as possible.  In the article "How to Use Wikis for Business", Ezra Goodnoe discusses the benefits a business can have by using wikis.  An exchange of information between teams in a corporation is seemingly effortless now, not to mention much less expensive.
      A blog however, is made more for airing opinions, holding conversations and the like. The article "Wal-Mart Tastemakers Write Unfiltered Blog" by Michael Barbaro is a perfect example to illustrate such airing of opinions.  An employee made a negative comment about its supplies coming in from Microsoft, and soon after, another employee related to purchasing video games, commented on a Star Wars movie that Wal-Mart sells.  Here lies the difference between blogs and wikis.  Blogs are used more to voice opinions and entice other people to engage in discussion while a wiki, although not always true, is made to provide knowledgeable information.

Research Topic

Being that I am a sports fanatic and an unfortunate addict to Facebook, I have come to understand that social networking and sports have gone hand in hand over the past few years, more so Twitter than Facebook.  It truly is becoming an everyday part of the sports world.  Athletes are going as far as posting their X-Rays to Twitter in order to keep their fans updated.  With that being said, there are positive and negative effects that social networking has on sports programs, including the professional teams, colleges and individual athletes.  I think it is a good time to explore more into this.