Creativity and New Media

Group Projects can be really hectic- You need to give extra time to meet your group and all the members don't always live close. Hence, considering the value of time of all the group members, I created a group on Facebook to discuss about our group assignment for Computer Ethics(CIS 3270) class. We can drop a question anytime and response to it promptly. In addition, we can also have a group chat so we do not have to meet physically that often.

Please Click here to view the Picture.

(I spray painted on the texts and the group members.)

Creativity

Blogs, social networking sites, wikis and video chats are some of the examples of new media. New media has definitely made our lives easier. It has not only contributed in the entertainment world but also in the academic sector. Take an example of this class: Instead of being in school, we are taking this class while we're at home sitting in our comfy couch. I've also had other classes where blogs were used as one of the ways to connect with the professor and the other fellow classmates. I think that using blogs and wikis are creative sides of new media itself. Moreover, think about skype. I use skype to talk to my family and friends back home. It feels like I'm at home when i'm talking to them online. In virtual world, people can be creative and develop their own imaginary world with everything they want. People who are physically disabled can use avatars and dance/run in their second life.

In addition, take an example of youtube. This site has allowed people to become creative day by day. People use this site to post songs, movies, personal videos, lectures, cooking lessons and much much more. Today's big artists such as Justin Beiber[not his fan :) ] was discovered in you tube. Some of my favorite videos that went viral are Charlie bit me and the (JK Wedding).

The article Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers says, "Technology companies have been the most active in relying on others to innovate for them. This is in large part because the Internet lets people exchange ideas easily and rapidly with large groups, and computing tools let people design new products cheaply". To support this point they give an example of flickr and explain that flickr first started out as the gaming site but when they noticed that the users were posting their pictures more than they were using the site for gaming, they changed the theme and made flickr to upload pictures.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual world was just a gaming world to me until I did all the readings and saw the professor's video. We all know about how it is used in gaming industry, but for me it was really interesting to learn that businesses use virtual world to train new employees also. In virtual world,  people can be creative and develop their own imaginary world with everything they want, which can also be reffered to as a second life. 

Virtual world can be really beneficial to the people with physical disabilities. Imagine how amazing a person would feel who cannot stand on his feet, dancing or running in his second life. Moreover, it can also benefit to the business world, people can communicate(have meetings) with each other by using avatars no matter where they are. According to Linden Lab in the article Going to the virtual office in Second Life, "creators of Second Life, more than 1,400 organizations -- including large companies, educational institutions, government agencies and even the U.S. military -- use Second Life to hold meetings, conduct training and prototype new technologies more efficiently". In addition, toy industries are making profit by selling the virtual toys. The article Toys with a Second Life states, "Virtually every toy-industry heavy hitter is involved. Dollmaker Russ Berrie (RUS) is selling Webkinz-like Shining Stars at Toys 'R' Us and other major retailers". On the contrary, having an avatar can always not be so beneficial. There are different sorts of people and some avatars people use might offend others. It can sometimes cost you a lot of money. Children who use it to play on these virtual worlds can be hooked and spend huge time on these games instead of studying or doing some productive things. 

Virtual world allows people to interact in a very realistic way. Hence, people can be creative, let themselves go and apply it to the virtual world as they want things to be in the reality. I think that the concept of virtual world is very interesting and that it will influence all the gaming industries and businesses even more due to its awesome features in near future. 

Social Networking Sites

Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn - Who doesn't know about these sites these days? I have been a member for all these social networking sites, but I've just used Facebook even though  I've had accounts on the other sites.

MySpace was very popular back in the days. It is very user friendly and has a lot of multimedia features so it's fun to use it. People could see who views their profile so there is no issue of being creepy and stalking people.

Facebook is my favorite among all. Facebook has grown so rapidly over these years that there are 800 million users across the world as of date. It has so many features such as chattimg, upload pictures, videos, subscribe all these top notch people and get updated, etc. It does not only help connect people but also help businesses to market their products. In fact it has become one of the marketing strategies for a business to post their advertisements on Facebook because all you need is a like of one user to spread the word to hundreds of their friends.

Twitter is one of the other biggest social networking sites today. The concept of twitter is more or less same of Facebook- you can upload photos, videos, share your views, etc. The terms used are different. For example, when you connect with other person, it's called follow others, whereas on Facebook  its called as becoming friends. On twitter you can only write upto 140 characters. I'm new to twitter also, but I found it very convenient to learn about the hashtag(#) that makes it easier for the users to search for a specific thing such as job. Moreover, celebrities seem to be using twitter more these days and businesses have made this site as a target for marketing their products.

Unlike other social networking sites that we talked so far, LinkedIn seems to be more professional. All these top notch people have accounts on linkedIn so if you're interested in post of specific company then you might be able to connect directly with the CEO. I've had linkedIn for a couple of months now and I've been able to connect with my co-workers and friends. You can have people write you recommendations which looks good on your profile. Its like a site where you market your self to the employers.  Moreover, you can control the privacy setting yourself. Lets say that you viewed you boss's profile and you do not want him to know that, then you can change your setting to anonymous or someone from your network.

Blog about twitter

I think that black board discussion board is very boring. Whereas, twitter has is so much broad that we can share our interests, views, pictures, look for so much more beyond class activity. Moreover, twitter is easily accessible in your cell phones as well. All you need to do is, download twitter app and there you go- do your assignments wherever you are. Its not that you cannot use discussion board to access it in your cell phone, but it takes much more longer process to log in, and blackboard is not always running properly( the server gets down so many times).
The only defect that I see on twitter is that you cannot write more than 140 words, which I think is good in a away because people are more likely to read smaller discussions more than longer ones which makes the discussion even more spontaneous.

Social Networking

Social Networking has taken over the media thesedays. We all know that it has helped people re-connect with their friends from childhood to present, but these sites have grown so rapidly overthese years that it has been used by the corporate world as one of their marketing strategies. Now a days whenever we log on to facebook, advertisments are posted all over the homepage; these adverstisments are matched according to the information you post on your profile. Hence, the companies can also pull your contact information easily if you do not change your privacy setting which can get pretty annoying. On the other hand, it is a good marketing strategy for the business because it just takes one like from a person to share it with hundreds of other people in their friend's list. Celebrities use these sites to keep up with their fans which can be good and bad at the same time. It is good because this does not involve a third person: the celebrity interacts with their fan and visa versa in a lot more personal level. On the other hand, all the fans aren't always good, they might use these sites to threaten them.

Moreover, there is a professional social networking site called linkedIn that was launched in May 2003, where most of the CEO's and all these corporate people have joined linkedIn. The article, "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting by Frank Langfitt" mentions that social networking is the best thing that ever happened in recruiting and such sites also help job hunters market themselves online by setting up profiles, listing work history and specific skills. My point is, people can write you reccomendations and you can connect with these top notch personnel and apply for jobs on these sites. Isn't that amazing? It is, isn't it? But, it might not be so amazing when you have an interview and the interviewer looks at your pictures on these networking sites and judge you even before you know them.

I also read an article that social networking saved a man from being arrested because he had updated his status on facebook while the robbery happened. Funny, but thats what it was written. Take an example of the couple who ran into white house during thanksgiving couple years back. They attended the dinner and uploaded pictures on facebook who were obviously caught later.

Over the coming years, I think social networking sites are going to make a huge impact on the news, corporate world and the features that would help to make people feel even closer to their near and dear ones. You find jobs in these sites today and you never know, you might be giving interviews in these sites in near future. Moreover it was funny to read in the article "Dictionary word of the year: 'Unfriend'"that Oxford defined the word Unfriend as to remove some one from their friend's list on facebook. :)