Wiki So Far

So far, for our class wiki page, I've contributed to the New Media in Advertising. New Media in Advertising caught my attention because it included social networks, which I am very familiar with and use actively each day. I have the most interest and experience in this section so I decided to contribute a subtopic about LinkedIn as a social network.

In this section, I spoke about the History and Background of LinkedIn including it's purpose, mission, and more about the co-founders. From there I spoke a little more about how vast the company has grown as well as the uses of this site and it's influence on people, companies, etc. All in all, LinkedIn is a useful tool that has become a vital tool for job search in today's age.

I also plan to continue contributing to the Advertising category as well as Entertainment, Music, Marketing, and Social Networking. So far, these seem to be the most interesting topics to me and I believe that I will enjoy research and writing more on them.

P2P

With all these new media outlets, the internet has expanded far beyond what it was originally intended to do. With the help of the internet, people can interact with others without actually physically being there. Not only can they communicate through messages, people can also utilize file sharing. File sharing is where users can transfer files from their computers through the Internet. In the same sense as file sharing itself, peer-to-peer file sharing is when users share media files such as movies, books, music, games, and much more through a P2P software on a P2P network. A user can search for a media file and a list of matching file results will appear that other users uploaded online. These users can then download the file from anywhere.

Peer-to-peer file sharing is a very useful tool for many people, especially since we can share all the media we like. However, P2P file sharing can actually be bad in the sense that it is hurting the content creators because of piracy. In the article, "Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios," Brian Stetler and Brad Stone tackle the issue of piracy and the fact that the amount of money the movie producers make from film productions come from DVD sales. This shows that piracy deeply effects this industry and P2P file sharing can actually cause a downfall. Piracy can also be found in the video game industry, music industry, and book sales as well. Although individuals generally believe they are helping others out by P2P file sharing, it is actually unfair to others who work hard to put the content out.

Privacy & Confidentiality

Privacy and confidentiality are valuable to people especially when it comes to new media. Privacy is inevitable for users and companies who use new media or the internet. When companies have priacy policies and terms of use agreements written out for its users, it clearly states what the company can, can't, will, and won't do with your information and data collected. As many people can relate, more than half of the users that encounter these privacy policies tend to skim or skip them. This is a vital key because without reading them, most users do not understand that some of their information can be recorded and distributed to other companies.

Confidentiality is almost an agreement between two parties to acknowledge that a person's identity will not be revealed. Privacy and confidentiality are related to new media because users can be anonymous on the internet and share their opinion but most of the time, they have a public identity and input a great amount of information about themselves.

When Target was under great pressure after a security breach, they acted fast and spent about $1 million to expedite their advanced chip-credit cards to ensure their customers that they are working to improve privacy and security. Customers value things like this so it was very important for Target to act fast. In new media, with such advance technology that some of us cannot keep up with, there is always a worry that our information can be stolen or breached by hackers. Privacy is always a risk, for companies and customers alike. All in all, privacy and confidentiality are two of the most important aspects of new media and should be taken seriously.

Advice to Baruch College

When the world is constantly improving and technology is advancing such as new media, it is no surprise that we must keep up with it all to stay relevant. Baruch College could really utilize new media with its courses to improve student learning. Ways that Baruch can do so is by incorporating blogging and posting blog posts as a means of getting a discussion going even outside the classroom. With over 100 students in some classes, it may be easier for students to communicate and get their voices heard.

Although we have Blackboard as a means of communications between students and professors as well as students among students, it isn't as efficient. The average user does not check Blackboard on a daily basis or even weekly as much as they check their social networks. Potentially creating Facebook groups for courses can encourage class participation and interaction. Facebook is a networking site that many people are comfortable with using and by getting ease of access to it will increase student engagement.

Another suggestion would be to use YouTube, which is a very popular video sharing site. Professors can create a private profile on YouTube and upload and lectures that students may have missed or would like to study for the exam. YouTube has an easy interface that students love to go on and watch videos, it would be very convenient for them.

CREATIVITY

New media fosters creativity in society in many ways such as providing new outlets for people to create, produce, share, and publish content on. Since the introduction of new social networking platforms and social media outlets, users can publicly express their thoughts and opinions in order to reach companies.

According to a NY Times article, "Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers" by Claire Cain Miller, companies are using Twitter as a tool to generate conversation with customers and getting to know them. As a result of utilizing Twitter, the companies were able to understand what needed to be changed or implemented in order to gain a better appeal. The articles goes in-depth about how the consumers are often the people who come up with new innovative ideas for future products and the companies are the ones observing how much appeal the ideas gather.

With the help of these new types of media and social networks, customers are able to provide feedback and interact with companies. The companies are then using the customer feedback to better their customer service and generate new ideas. In the end, it is beneficial to the customer and company.

Creativity and New Media

For this assignment, I downloaded Second Life and selected an avatar. It was difficult to change my avatar to represent myself so this was the best I could find. It took me a while to find the options to change the customization of my avatar but I settled for this because the avatar was a good representation of me. In the image, my avatar is very calm and posed casually, which in my opinion is the way I am.

New media allows individuals to be creative as possible and change/edit anything they don't like, which is different from real life. By creating these avatars in the virtual world, many people are able to either create an avatar that represents them or disguise themselves as someone else or someone they want to be. Some people find an escape in these virtual worlds and feel that they can remain anonymous behind these avatars. However, for the most part, these avatars create a sense of belonging or connection for users when they're playing games and such. In the end, users become more engaged in the game and feel like they're actually in the virtual realm.

I also downloaded the Kim Kardashian: Hollywood mobile app and created an avatar. I personalized my avatar to represent myself as much as possible, however, my options were very limited. There were very few options to customize an avatar including the hair, eyes, nose, lips, and clothes. The game was set-up so that you would buy (with real cash) or earn (money in the game) as you progress and "work" in the game. The animations or facial expressions that my avatar shows in the game is also limited, with the very few poses such as the one shown in the image. Overall, I found this game pretty engaging for many reasons such as:

• There were goals to complete (the more goals you complete, the more money you earn and more popular you get as a celebrity)
• The clothes and all the glamorous things are an escape from real life.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds can be used in many ways and everyday, there's some new invention or way to escape our world to visit a virtual world. Virtual worlds help us escape the real world but it also causes a misconception and in reality, may end up taking more from us. According to a CNN article, "Going to the virtual office in Second Life" by Mark Tutton, he explains how businesses can have meetings or conferences in a virtual world instead of physically being there. The article also states that the "second life" allows for avatars to be created for the employees of the company. Overall, this is beneficial in a sense where businesses can emulate a real world conference by using the avatars to represent each individual, give the company a more interactive and engaging approach versus traditional styles of having a conference. This can also be cost-effective for companies.

On the other hand, the health24 article "Virtual world may impact real-world behaviour" talks about how detrimental a virtual world might be for society. People become very engaged in these virtual worlds, maybe even a little too much. Since humans tend to imitate a character or avatar as they connect with them (role-play as a certain character in a video game - hero and/or villain), it may affect their social behavior. This can lead to people becoming too dependent on virtual worlds, which is harmful to a person's behavior in the real world.

The pros and cons of virtual worlds may include:

Pros:

• Offer experience that doesn't require actually physically being there (medical training simulation or military training simulation)
• Can be used in various fields and not just in business environments (i.e. scientific studies)
• Provide basis for new technology and has a lot of potential for future uses/purposes
• Allow remote connectivity and ease of communication

Cons:

• May be costly (technology advances causes prices and demand to go up) 
• Can cause too much disconnect from reality or the real world 
• May affect social behavior 
• Cause society to be too dependent on technology 

I believe that virtual worlds are a great new technological advancement that can be used for way more than video games and business-related purposes. Virtual worlds foster creativity in the sense where people are free to experiment and try things out. Whether it’s videoconferencing or gaming, the idea that people can interact with one another without physically being in the same room can alter the traditional “9-to-5” lifestyle and perhaps allow it to become more freelance/less stressful. When people are able to collaborate on projects together remotely, it gives them time and space to collect their thoughts and come up with a solution in their own comfortable environment (as opposed to being confined in a cubicle).

I feel that in time, people will be able to work remotely and there will be many restrictions/policies strictly for remote activity (virtual environments/worlds) because of the kinds of interactions that can go on. There can be crime or frauds discussed over virtual environments, and there will eventually be a need to regulate online activity in those worlds — just like what we have in the real world.