Next New

New Media applications have spiked since its inception, and have found a significant application in every facet of our lives. Though New Media has not fully developed, and people are still finding useful applications. The above image gives a glimpse of the potential to control computers without actually using the traditional keyboards and mouses. This is particularly useful for individuals who do not posses the motor skills to do so. It is quite amazing how far we have study and analyzed the practicality of New Media.

Personally, I believe that an online platform for developers to upload data provided gathered by artificial intelligence. This data can be modified as other developers collaborate by uploading there data, allowing developers to have access to a baseline of current and modern information regarding specific topics. For example, artificial intelligence based twitter accounts can then begin to have a baseline of information about the demographic it is attributed to. Microsoft created an artificial intelligence twitter account, in which it gathered data throughout its life. It would save developers time, and help identify trends, etc. if the information could be uploaded to a collaborative platform. Data is a primary driver for developing new products, and New Media has the potential to collect, aggregate, and distribute this data using this tool.

Our Class Wiki - So Far

As of lately I have not contributed to the class Wiki. Though I have been thinking of the content I would like to add. I think I may create a page on the Wiki that will let the class contribute YouTube and other videos too. The topic may be something fun or something of educational value. Going forward I will focus on this, and of course making sure the page is free of grammatical errors.

P2P

File sharing is the transfer of files from one person to another. Common file sharing methods is downloading directly off a server through the internet. Like downloading your favorite song off of iTunes. P2P file sharing relies on third party applications to download files from a variety of individuals. The individuals who have the file you are looking to download are the distribution servers.

It was interesting to read how P2P and bit-torrent lead to the creation of a simple legal option, the iTunes Music Store. P2P is often regarding as an illegal activity, which in some cases is true but now always. P2P can lead to copyright infringement by downloading movies, games, and music without paying for it. When purchasing software, the company grants you a license to use that software, with P2P that license is not granted. I read recently that the internet companies are focusing on pinpointing the individuals that download music illegally and threaten to shut their internet down.

Privacy & Confidentiality

The above photo should state " Find us on Facebook even though we deleted our Facebook accounts." Once something is placed onto a new media application, it is likely to remain there. High school students who grew up while Facebook was emerging are currently regretting some of the posts in hindsight. Confidentiality is really only possible when people avoid placing confidential information online. Social media in particular can let confidential information spread rather quickly. In regards to privacy, websites and social media sites collect a significant amount of data about there users, each and every action is recorded and is used to determine consumer behavior. Some believe that harnessing this data is an invasion of privacy. More recently, privacy and new media, in particular social media, has been making headlines recently. Given the FBIs requests to Apple to unlock an iPhone, Facebook responded by securing all messages on its applications. No messages can ever be opened by anyone, even the Facebook. Social media in particular has redirected its focus to ensure that privacy is protected.

Advice to Baruch College

Upon enterance into Baruch College as an employee to use new media to improve the college. Immediately, I will have all departments require assignments to be completed online that would utilize new media applications. Finding data and using data is an integral part of every potential career therefore this will help students prepare for life after college. Additionally, I would use an mobile application that integrates all of CUNY first's information and action tools. CUNY first is an inefficient tool that lacks a mobile application to allow students to conveniently access there schedules from there cell phones. Lastly, I would all communication intensive courses will require the use of blogs, wikis, social media, or even podcasts. These are applications in which everyone uses, and can spark creativity in the class room. Each new media application can translate into soft skills.

Creativity and New Media

Creativity using New Media to me is scratching the "what if's" that we all have. Many of us ask ourselves like "what if I was a doctor..." etc. New Media, especially social media, can give you an insider view to answer that question. New Media also can serve as a platform to build upon ideas, whether reading other perspectives through social media or reading wiki's to gather more information. New Media allows for engaging conversations on social media or even the comments section which I believe is how ideas come to light.

Personally, I am more interested in using New Media to shed some light on those "what ifs" that I get throughout the day. I enjoy looking through the eyes of people around the world, and New Media allows me to do that conveniently. For example, I used New Media to answer one of my most recent "what ifs," what if I was a vampire? Second Life let me explore that possibility.

Creativity

New media fosters creativity for corporations. Corporation uses Twitter to understand what the customers like and to listen to their customers. Companies can listen to their user and incorporate their ideas in the products. This allows new media to be a pillar for creativity.

Almost every company has a a twitter account and has people who constantly monitory their consumers. Twitter and social media networks allow the users to reach out to the corporations and provide feedback on their current products. The companies can then understand consumer preferences. The greatest part of this is that it is less costly to do so. Companies used to purchase consumer data reports, but can now receive the same results by using social media.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

As depicted the photo above the virtual world is based off reality. Almost all activities that can take place in person can be completed virtually, such as communication, presentations, and conducting business. The virtual world can be used to model reality, and display reality in simplistic terms. Through utilizing data analysis techniques, the virtual world can portray reality in figures and a few graphs pertaining to a specific topic.

There are several pros to the virtual world, one being that it gives the user a glimpse of what the real world is like. I.e. Amazon let's their users read reviews of products which give the user a first hand look at the product. MTV gave people the opportunity to have a take a glimpse of the South Californian beach community. If it is great in the virtual world, it will be much better in person, is a common thought and justification for trying out things people see online. When it comes to the virtual world many people have focused on virtual reality. This adds to the pros of the virtual world because VR can be used to train people in a way that would usually put them at risk.

Though there are several benefits, there are several cons as well. One is that the virtual world can disconnect people from reality. The simplistic view that the virtual world creates does not foster the necessary skills people need to succeed in many facets of their lives. Additionally as noted by a study, the virtual world can affect human behavior. This can be concerning considering that several video games are catered to violence and drugs, which may affect the behaviors in adolescents.

The virtual world allows people to experience things or gain additional perspectives that are note easily accessible. These influences can benefit creativity. The virtual world can help entrepreneurs form and finalize their ideas before they take it to market.

The future of the virtual world is virtual reality. Virtual reality gives users an additional missing link between the virtual world and reality. I expect to see the virtual world use virtual reality to help train professionals such as doctors.

Blog about Twitter

Twitter conversations can be quite engaging. The conversations can take place, privately and publicly and even through our cell phones. Twitter forces us to keep out discussions to 140 characters, which can easily remove unnecessary conversational clutter and make users get straight to the point. Having discussions in class does contain dialogue that is just not necessary and do not contribute strongly enough to the discussion. Another benefit to a twitter discussion is that you can refer back to the conversation at a later date in the event one would want to review the discussion. Twitter discussions do move at a substantially lower pace and are not in real time like in class discussions.

Blackboard discussions and twitter discussions are more similar. One could review previous posts on both platforms to review the discussion and do not happen in real time. The one major difference of blackboard is that one could have longer posts. One could argue though that all comments and discussion points can be reduced to one or two 140 character tweets. Lastly, a blackboard discussion can really only take place at a computer. Blackboard has not mastered its mobile app, therefore Twitter does hold the upper hand in convenience. A Blackboard discussion also is only available to those in class, meanwhile at least all of your followers, or in some cases anyone, can view your twitter discussions. 

Social Networking Sites

Facebook

My initial impression of Facebook was that there is an influx of information and photos on my timeline. Facebook allows people to present information through sharing links, photos, status updates, and commenting. It is almost an overwhelming amount of content, which is rather bothersome. As a social network user I prefer social media that streamlines only one form of content, such as photos.

Twitter

Twitter has always been my social network of choice since it removes the rather uninteresting clutter that Facebook provides. By removing the assortment of different content, Twitter appears more organized and readable. Twitter's layout is very inviting, and promotes the users to get engaged in conversations through the use of hashtags and trending topics.

Instagram

Instagram has a very similar feel to Twitter. The content is presented in an organized fashion, and strictly limits users to posting photos and photos only. Instagram has a simple layout, and does not have too many features. Personally I believe, the simplicity of Instagram is the reason why it has been successful and has a significant portion of social media users.

Vine

Vine still needs improvements to its layout and features. For example, when I tried to like a video by "double tapping", it caused the video to pause for a split second prior to registering the like. Vine does have an artistic feel to it as it appears that many users like to loop videos and post videos of breathtaking views. My initial impression was that vine users should post videos that loop well, such as the Niagara Falls.

Social Networking

 

Social networking entails a wide range of significant opportunities for businesses, charities, and groups for a cause. First and foremost, social media serves as a significant marketing opportunity for businesses at a very low cost. Ads printing volume has significantly decreases, because companies have shifted their focus to reaching potential consumers through their mobile devices. Another use is for companies to create a better company culture. The age of new media has increased the transparency of companies, resulting in employees and potential employees seeking a firm with a great culture. By providing their employees a firm-wide social networking site, Nissan was able to reduce bureaucratic channels in their company. Additionally, the site allowed individuals throughout the corporation to form professional relationships. I believe this was a great initiative by Nissan, especially during 2007 when social media was beginning to gains team. 

There are also several benefits to society. Charities and groups that are for a cause can increase the number of participants by using social networking. Also, these groups can promote awareness for international issues that may not receive coverage by the local new stations. People dislike embarrassment, and naturally we all seek to avoid this emotion. In India, people have posted photos of people breaking scofflaws by posting their photos on social media. As this group viewership spreads and people become aware that their photos could be taken then individuals may begin to avoid breaking scofflaws. This yields an increase in people following the law, without an increase in spending on local law enforcement. 

The dark side to social media is that the companies collect massive amounts of data including credit card and other personal information about their users. If the company storing all this data is hacked then all of this information can be ported to those who will use it to cause harm upon the networking site's users.

Blog v Wiki

Blogs and wiki's are often confused as similar, in several different aspects. Though, they are entirely different stemming from number of authors and even credibility of posts. Blogs have a single author for the most part, but others cannot edit the content without explicit permission of the blog owner. Wiki's have multiple authors, and with a diverse set of authors wikis can be more credible than blogs. This is because wiki authors can remove biased opinions, resulting in content that is based on information instead of opinions. A wiki can continuously grow and is intended for group communication, while a blog holds a journalistic model of presenting content to many individuals.

Additionally, a significant difference is the relevance of when a post on a wiki or blog is uploaded. Why? A wiki is constantly updated by multiple users, allowing the content portrayed on the wiki to remain up to date, while a blog post is not necessarily regularly updated therefore you may be reading outdated information. Wiki's continuously link users to other wiki's when the post brings up other ideas or information that is in the realm of the wiki's theme. As Ward Cunningham stated in the wiki page of Wikipedia, a wiki is to promote topic associations and making those topics easily accessible for the user. Every wiki page has highlighted items that allow the user to access other user generated topics.

One of the important similarities between the two, user generated content. Blogs and wikis give ordinary people a change to be a curator of information and content. This is a luxury that the average person could not do 20 or so years ago. As mentioned in the NYT, blogs serve well in corporations as well, contrary to the belief that corporations benefit only from wikis.

Blogs can be used for collaboration through utilizing the comment section and having an active editor of the blog. The comment section can be used to point out errors, fact check, and even discuss bias sections of the blog post. This can give blog owner's who are looking to remain unbiased to meet their goals.

Wiki's serve well in the workplace and can be used to allow employees edit and manage an agenda. This agenda can be for meetings, conferences, short-term goals, and long-term goals.

New Media and its impact on the financial industry

New Media has enabled us to access information almost instantaneously. Within a minute or so, one can answer their own questions, explore content, and respond to information. Investor's can conveniently access and even react to information regarding their portfolio all through their smartphone. For example, Twitter features a search function specifically for stock tickers, where the user will be able to view tweets about the stock. Upon earning reports, investors can read imperative information in less than a 160 character tweet, switch apps and adjust their portfolio accordingly. For my project I would like to explore the depth in which New Media has impacted the financial markets and industry as a whole. Media, reports, and other published content drive the financial markets and New Media has changed the course in which we access media. Additionally, I expect to find that New Media has led to an increase in transparency of companies, especially in market driven aspects. I will begin my research with understanding how financial reporting and financial news was published using Old Media. While researching the industry before the change in media I will note the demographics during that time to further understand how the change in media has led to an increase in market participation. Lastly, I will draw conclusions on New Media's impact based on how each aspect the industry has transitioned in modern times.

- Stavros Orsaris