The Next New Thing

I don’t know for sure what the way new media will follow is, I think no one knows. On one hand people keep on working on improving existing examples of new media (e.g. social sites) to make them more interesting or more secure. On the other hand some say all the commotion over those innovations will decline, because it is already saturated, initial excitement is over and people start noticing drawback (loss of anonymity, “time thief’, security threat). It is only natural that new enterprises are developed: to help us to leave Web 2.0 (e.g. removeyourname.com, to help us improve our image for potential employers).

As for the idea for completely new form of new media I was thinking of something with the use of holograms. I react best to visual cues. What if we can go a step further with social networking and add a feature of hologram. We could ‘meet’ with someone who is miles away via tech gadgets, by displaying their 3d image in our living room… Could you imagine class discussion of 20 holograms of classmates? I don’t have specifics on how to do it technically, but I’m pretty sure it would be possible in near future ;)

Our Class Wiki - So Far

Unfortunately, I didn't contribute anything except for my bio to our class wiki.....But the issue is constantly on my mind. Lately, I was doing some translation work for my close friend from Poland for her PhD thesis. Coincidently, her PhD thesis covers e-learning technologies :) She asked me for help to research ADL initiative because it was implemented here, in the US. That is how I came across sth I thought I can share with my class thru our wiki.......
(source http://www.adlnet.gov/ )
In the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) of 1996, the Department of Defense (DoD) identified several factors that highlighted the need for DoD to provide on-demand training for individuals and units worldwide. DoD developed a Department-wide strategy to harness the power of learning and information technologies to standardize and modernize education and training in 1997. The strategy was called the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative. It tasked the DoD with leading Federal participation with business and university groups and activities and charged them with developing consensus standards for training software and associated services.

The Deputy Secretary of Defense directed the development of a department-wide strategy to harness the power of learning and information technologies to standardize and modernize education and training.
Although there was ample evidence that significant savings were possible with current technology, the ever-quickening pace of technological change, with its continuous evolution of proprietary platforms, makes it difficult to implement technologies on a large-scale. Conversely, these newer technologies have the potential to provide a more efficient and effective means of improving military readiness, achieving significant savings, reducing travel, and improving quality of life.

Aside from the ADL initiative I also found some relevant articles durig research for my class paper. I intend to report on them as well......

P2P File Sharing

In his article for NYT (Should Online Scofflaws Be Denied Web Access?) Eric Pfanner discusses  the idea of blocking the internet connection for poeople who abuse the system thru P2P platforms. I don't see how it would be possible, aside from the fact if it is the proper way to deal with the problem......
Those 'pirates' can always use open  internet access on e.g. campuses or internet caffees... They can also open new accounts with internet providers or even steal the access from ignorant neighbors, who don't protect their wireless connections (....yes they still exist    :)   )
P2P platforms are created for the purpose of sharing information. Some people use them in noble way e.g.  to share a marketing presentation, that is "too big to email".... Other people use them for sharing their music, movie or software files which is basicly piracy.....
File sharing done by companies is usually(to my knowledge) legal sharing of some files (e.g.TV networks offering some of their shows online), thta was introduced to eiyher generate addition income (e.g. from ads) or to offset illegal downloads....
On the other hand, P2P (peer-to-peer) sharing is a wild wild west, full of illegal activities. 'Peers' share music, videos, software or even books files.....

Privacy & Confidentiality

I think that new media raises new questions  today about privacy and confidentiality. Some of those question had simple answers before Web 2.0 era, but they are not so simple now....
That is just one of the examples of controversial issues that arose with the invention of new media....

Excerpt from "Young people, ethics, and the new digital media" by James C., Davis K., Flores A., Francis J., Pettingill L., Rundle M. & Gardner H.

Privacy in the Blogosphere

Sofia is an eighteen-year-old freshman at a small college. She has

been keeping a blog on LiveJournal for several years and has continued

to blog after she enters college to keep her high school friends

informed of the ups and downs of her new life at college. She also

finds that writing is a great way to think through problems in her life

and to express her opinions in a free environment. The stresses of

taking premed courses, handling dorm life, and making new friends

are consistent themes of Sofia’s blog at college, but she also writes

about her dating and intimate experiences. Some aspects of her posts

are fictionalized, but Sofia has fun writing, and judging by the comments

that her friends leave on her blog, they seem to enjoy her

narratives. She has told only a couple of close friends at college

about her blog and disguises the identities of her crushes, hook-ups,

and dates. Although she does refer to her college by name, she writes

under a pseudonym and doesn’t give many details that would clearly

identify her as the author. Even if a few random people happen

across her blog, she reflects, they probably wouldn’t be able to figure

out her real identity.

A local journalist who is writing a story on blogging searches

LiveJournal for local college students who actively maintain blogs.

Her search uncovers Sofia’s blog, and because it is in the public

domain, the journalist feels free to write about its content. After the

story appears in the local newspaper, Sofia is surprised to find that

students all over campus start reading and commenting on her blog.

Eventually, a few people are able to piece together details from her

posts and expose Sofia as the author of the blog. Some of her past

romantic partners express anger and frustration because comments

that Sofia’s friends write on the blog reveal their identities. Sofia

feels blind-sided by this turn of events. She never imagined that a

broader public would be reading about her most intimate thoughts

and experiences.

Advice to Baruch College

I would love to have a multimedia platform to use for collaboration on group projects. Being a part-time student, and working full time I have really tight daily schedules..... (just like 99% of Baruch students :)  )
That makes it difficult to work on group projects with other students. We all know 'the pain' of working in a five-students group and trying to accomodate everyones' schedules ;)
I think that a multimedia platform, where we can all share our thoughts, videos that we want to present, and ppp slides we create, would be a good idea. We could save time on commuting to and from old fashioned meeting.

My research paper
 For my term paper I wanted to explote how the Web2.0 impacts us a a society.
Those are some o fthe issued I explored in the paper.

The arrival of new technologies brings remarkable change to our personal as well as social lives. It changes the way we communicate by either creating new forms of communication or by bringing new words to out everyday language. We tweet, we blog, we LOL when something is funny, we unfriend some people who disappoint us. Today we all understand what all those actions mean, but 30 or 25 years ago ordinary people wouldn’t know what I mean.

Web 2.0 also changes human relationship. Some argue that today’s contact may be more often (to the extent of daily updates) but it may lack the depth of old-fashioned friendships that were based on physical not virtual contact. Proponents of cyber friendship or romance claim that new forms of relationship are different, but they are not necessarily weaker. Some claim that they are a necessity due to our busy schedules, and that they evolved naturally as a way of adaptation.

New media also opened many new doors for journalism. Newspapers used to play a vital role in maintaining the sense of communities.  Today, other forms of journalism emerged. The question is whether those new forms help to carry out that idea or do they hinder it…Do we value immediate information reported by ordinary people more then in depth analysis done by professional journalists? Or maybe they complement each other. 

I've done my reserch online... (one of the fabulous perks of the internet). The only thing that frustrated me during my research it that some of the article I found thru our college library were unavailable. Some really interesting articles required a fee....
I also had to modify my initial outline for the paper since originally I focused more on impact of Web1.0 on our society. In my final paper I explored the impact of Web 2.0 (two way interactions)

Creativity and New Media

I want to start by saying that I’m not the artistic, creative type. So If I’m willing to spent any time on a creative project with help of new media……. it means that they truly enhance creativity from “zero to any” in my case J When I read the article “Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers” I got the idea to try the Design byME feature offered by Lego. I found it really interesting, because a week ago I was working on a Lego puzzle with a five-year-old son of my friend. I don’t have much experience with Lego and it was showing. It looked soooo complicated that I actually wondered ‘who invents those models?’…. It took three adults, a five-year-old, and a booklet of instructions to finish those two trucks J That is why I decided to give the Design byME a try………..

That  is my very first trial (I wanted to create a model of an Easter bunny).... and I have to admit it is not as easy as I thought it would be ;) 
I truly respect Lego designers now :)))

The Lego web site even priced it out for me.... The price for my bunny set came up to over 32$.......hmmmm

'Overpriced' is an understatement :)