Thursday, March 25, 2010

My New Media Class - So Far

I going to be honest, I really thought this class was going to be an easy A. But so far it's not! I mean lets face it, there's a lot of work in this class. The frequent blogs, twitter post, and readings. However, I love it. This class has been really fun and I'm learning new things about things I THOUGHT i knew. There are so many things to new media than just the internet and cellphones. For example second life. Learning about second life and it's benefits was really cool. However my favorite class so far was last week's class on Viral. It was really interesting and watching the videos were awesome. The wedding video from the Office made me really happy and i didn't think a class can make me feel that way. The reading are honestly a big of a drag but I can see the purpose of them. They further our understanding and they take our class content and put it in the real world.

I think my favorite feature or assignment in this class are the blogs. When I blog i feel like i can write down anything and express myself. It's a pretty good way to blow off some steam or just be myself. Twitter is kinda cool as well but i dont really see the point. However it's funny to see what some people are tweeting. I'm pretty nervous about the research project. But then again I'm nervous about every project I do until I'm actually finished with the project. I really hope i do well in this class. I need an A to boost my grade.

Professor Friedman is an incredible person. Every class she looks like she just got off the plane from Paris lol. I had a couple of professors name Friedman and they've all hated me. I didnt like them that much either. However Professor Friedman is a great professor. Not trying to suck up but she does a great job teaching us the content of this class. She gathers our attention by showing us funny videos that relate to the information of the class. That's pretty hard to accomplish.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

With the use of internet being more and more essential, virtual worlds are becoming more and more popular. There are many ways virtual worlds can be used. One of the most common way is to use it in a recreational way. For example, kids can play with their virtual toys in a virtual world. Webkinz lead in industry of virtual toys. They are plush animals that comes with a code that activates the online version of the toys. (Toys with a Second Life by Brian Hindo) In virtual worlds, it offers many things one cannot do in reality. For example, flight. In virtual worlds such as second life, one can travel to places with the ability of flight. This has a lot of appeal to many users because it provides a very unique experience. Virtual worlds can also be used in a professional way. One of those ways is training. Since virtual worlds mimics reality very closely, many companies can set a training program and have their new employees train on them. The military also has programs that train soldiers on how to act during a real life scenario.

There are many upsides to how virtual worlds are being used today. Using virtual worlds is a great way to meet someone. Now when it comes to the use of virtual worlds in the office, it is a lot easier to bring everyone together on a virtual conference meeting. This way of conducting a meeting offers a lot more functions than a video call. (Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life by Mark Tutton) Not only that, by conducting a virtual world meeting, it saves the employees time and money from having to travel to their office. Also, when their are less cars on the road, that is always a good thing. With the way military conducting their training in virtual world, not only are they saving tons of money, the are probably saving lives too. Instead of putting inexperienced soldiers in dangerous situations, they can simulate everything through virtual world.

Virtual worlds have their flaws as well. They create a world that might seem better than reality to some and that can result in some mental problems. One might get so attached to a virtual world, they may never want to come back to reality again. Also since their are really no rules in virtual worlds, one may do whatever he or she wishes to do. This behavior might translate into reality. Because they've done it numerous of times in their virtual worlds, they think it is fine to do it in reality.

I really believe virtual world can foster creativity very well. Since virtual worlds are so similar to reality, what you do in virtual worlds can be turned into reality. Because of the fact that virtual worlds are not real, one can always try to come up with new idea in a virtual worlds and see if it will have success. If the idea fails, no harm is really done because it was never applied in the REAL world.

I believe in the future virtual worlds will play a huge part. The future will be very similar to the movie "The Surrogate". Eventually we will have a robot that can look like anything we want it to look like and we will live our lives thru that robot. This way, we can never get injured because our actual self will be inside a machine while our robots take all the risk of everyday life. It sounds corny and unrealistic but just wait and watch.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Social Networking

Ever been to an interview and the interviewer asks you for your facebook account? Well that's their way of doing a little background check on you before they seriously consider you for the position. Facebook users think they can post any provocative pictures or inappropriate comments without the consequences. They're wrong! Many employers are now looking for dirt on their current and potential employees. By looking at social networking pages, many corporate and other
employers can find who someone really are. Just remember a silly picture can destroy your future.

In the future, I believe social networking sites will be used more and more by companies. Not just for check ups on employees, but operating parts of their businesses thru them. For example, in the article "AT&T uses Twitter during service outage", AT&T used Twitter to communicate with their customer in result of a service outage. According to "How to Find Job Posts on Twitter" by C.G. Lynch, many companies are now posting job ads thru Twitter.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Social Network Sites

Before you read this post, I should inform you that I am a dime a dozen. Yep, believe it or not, I've never had an account in ANY of the social network sites. I am a rare breed right? You might ask, why I've never considered signing up for a site? The truth is, these sites have no appeal to me. I don't have to time to constantly check out who commented me or wrote on my wall. I perfer my to spend my time doing... well, everything else. Maybe because I am a traditional guy. I like talking to people face to face, not virtually. Although I have no interst in these sites, it doesn't mean I'm completely aganist it.

First off, lets start with Myspace. To my very little knowledge, this was the site that started all. You have the usual friend requests and comment pages. I beleive you can also load up pictures of yourself. One thing about myspace I like is the fact that you can load music to your site. This to me is a very personal touch. I have friends who downloads music through myspace. I've never done it first hand, but this is a very cool tool to use. Another feature on Myspace that I think is pretty useful is that fact that you can block your site from people that are not your friends. This feature actually gives you the VERY FEW privacy on the site.

Facebook. Nearly everyone is this world knows what it is. Like Myspace, you can load pictures and videos. What Facebook does very well is connect people to each other. The feature that Facebook has to do this is the friend suggestion. Facebook actually shows you the mutual friends you share with an individual. Another way is to show you who recently signed up an account from you old school. My mom has a Facebook and she recently came in contact with a classmate she went to college with more than 30 years ago. To me, I think this is how people of Facebook really connect with each other, by schools. Of course their are groups you can join as well. People can find others who share common interests. I really like this feature as well. Also, I think facebook is very organized. It's very easy to use and it's easy to find, view, and talk to friends.

Friendster is an unfimilar site to me. I have never heard of it and therefore, I cannot talk about the website.

Twitter has become very popular. I am not educated at all on this site but I know the basics. Twitter is basically a site that announces what you're doing. What is the point of this? Why does someone have to say EXACTLY what thier doing? I can understand why celebrities Tweet. They obviously have many follwers that are interested in what they're doing. But what i don't understand is, how does someone have the time to do this. This is also a huge invasion of privacy. If you're telling people where you are or what you're doing, how can y0u have anymore secrets?