Our Class Wiki - So Far

On our class wiki I have been working on "What is Social Networking" in the section "How Business isusing Social Networking". That is all that I have contributed to it.

About My Term Project

My term project is about New Media & the Digital Divide. It consists of the history, young people and kids, the labor force potical campaigns, and Other countries like Brazil and European Union. It will also be about bridging the gap in the digital divide.

The Next New Thing

New media today en corporates almost everything we use. One of new media I think that would be helpful in today's society is one that people that don't know to much about new media can simple to use and be beneficial to them. This could help them keep up the way new media is going forward in the future. I think this can be a good thing for new media if does that. There are some people that don't know how to use the new media technology today.

Privacy & Confidentiality

In today's society of new media one of the biggest issues is privacy and confidentiality. An example of this is social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook. On sites like Facebook and Myspace most of the people that use these put up information that is not necessary to be on the social networking site. The information that most people put up are phone numbers, addresses, birth dates and other important information too. With that important info on the site which could viewed they leave themselves vulnerable to identity theft or something else. On the social networking sites they give the option to choose who can see and can not view their profile information. The community must use caution on what information they put and who can view it because you never know what someone will do with that information.

Advice to Baruch College

Baruch College getting more and more up to date with new media in our society today. One of the things Baruch College is blackboard. It really is a good way for us students to see any assignments or our grades on assignments that we did for class, and for professors as well to put the grades in and keep track of a student's progress in the class. Even though blackboard is good there is a downside to it though. Last semester blackboard more than once was down for days. The students couldn't see their grades on assignments and also get information about newly posted assignments. Professors couldn't put in any grades or retrieve any grades if that was there only source that contained their students grades and they could not post any new assignments on blackboard. Baruch College can start using the wiki and all the professors too who use blackboard as an alternative to blackboard to post new assignments, grades and students can use it too. The wiki is simple to use so I can see as an alternative to blackboard if it goes down again like how it did last semester.

My New Media Class - So Far

In today's society the technologies that are part of new media are social networking websites, blogs, mashups. The internet is very important to us because it allows us to stay connected with others from anywhere. New media is enchancing old media for example like in Second Life which is in the article 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction by Nicole Saidi which explains how Second Life helps kids with autism to act in the real world. That is new media in today's society.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds play a role in today's society. Both in our business lives and personal as well. In the article IBM's Virtual World for its Employees: IBM Learning Programs Get a 'Second Life' by Ed Frauenheim which tells how IBM employees under go training to learn how to do their job correctly through the virtual world of Second Life. Also in the article iReport: 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction by Nicole Saidi tells us about kids with autism and how the world of Second Life helps them learn how to interact with people in the real world. The benefits of a virtual world is that you can try again and don't have to worry about messing up like in the real world like in both articles the employees and of IBM and the kids with autism get a second chance to learn and fix the mistakes that they did in the virtual world like Second Life. There is a darkside to this though, which is that it is time consuming. I have a feeling that this technology is going to be used in every business that requires training and help people with a mental illness like autism in the future, despite that it would take up time.

Social Networking

Social networking is a good way to help us in our daily lives, as individuals and as corporations also. In corporations they use a social networking site called LinkedIn to recruit people for a job when they are looking hire someone for a certain position. It can be seen in this article called Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting. This article shows how effective a social networking site is in the business world. They also use these sites to keep in touch with other companies like partners or suppliers like in the article What's Next: Your Future in Social Networking.









Social Networking at IBM: Maclean's Feb 4, 2008 "What's Next? Your Future in Social Networking" vol 121, p. 42. http://ibm.rogersconsumerpublishing.com/macleans/downloads/social.pdfSocial Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting by Frank Langfitt, NPR, March 16, 2008. available from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf

Check Out Social Networking Sites

Social newtworking sites today have a great influence on our culture today, like facebook, myspace, friendster and Hi5. These sites allow us to stay connected with other people like friends, family, and coworkers for example. Friendster was popular in the US before but then when Myspace was being used by more and more people it lost its popularity here. Facebook now being used by mostly everyone in the US today. Hi5 though isn't popular at all over here. I had first heard about it from a friend of mine about two years ago but then after never heard of it again. In other countries thoug it is a popular social networking site. Social networking sites are a way for us to stay connected with people that we have met and others that we will meet later on in the future.

Blogs vs. Wikis

Blogs and Wikis are ared similiar but different in their own way. Both allows people to talk to each other and share ideas with each other. Blogs alllows people to work together as well as the wikis. Blogs only lets one person edit a post but a wiki any memeber can edit a post if planning a trip and gather supplies. Both blogs and wikis are good because in Brooklyn in New York citizens in that area used a blog to stop criminals in their neighborhood. This can be seen in the Brooklyn Blog Help Leads to Drug Raid in the NY Times by Michael Wilson. I don't have any ideas for the Wiki that hasn't been thought of already but we will see later on in the future.

Old vs. New

In the world today we have to distinguish between old and new media. New media today involves communication, collaboration, community, creativity, and convergence.Old media would be considered newspapers, televisions, books, etc. New media is considered blogs, wiki, etc. because it allows people to share comments, ideas, and talk to each other over the Internet.

New Media and the Digital Divide

My research topic that I am doing is New Media and the Digital Divide. I will talk about the gap between people who have a limited access to technology and people who have access to technology almost anywhere they go. This will show why certain people have limited access to technology and others do not have that limitation. That is the main focus of my research topic and how it involves new media.