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 :) 

Creativity

I really enjoyed the article “Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers” by Claire Cain Miller for the NYT. The article is about users’ impact on products; especially on new media products e.g. Twitter.

“Twitter’s smart enough, or lucky enough, to say, ‘Gee, let’s not try to compete with our users in designing this stuff, let’s outsource design to them,’ ” (…)

Who better knows how to improve a product then people who actually use it? Why pay someone to come up with the idea for advancement if there are people willing to do it for free. Sharing new ideas about new media products is sooo easy. You just post the idea and then wait to see if other users like it. With regular goods e.g. cars, if one has an idea of an improvement he/she can only write to the producers and hope that they won’t disregard his/her comment(which is very likely to happen); on top of it other users won’t be able to respond to that idea, to declare their support (or the opposite). On the Twitter example we can see that those producers/managers may not always like some ideas at first, but users’ support for some features may change that eventually.

The founders did not like several user-generated Twitter features at first, but accepted them once they saw that others were adopting them, Mr. Williams said. When people started referring to Twitter posts as “tweets,” Twitter resisted until a few months ago, when it applied for a trademark on the term.  

Another way new media expands our creativity is thru virtual scrapbooking http://www.scrapblog.com/. Today we may freeze our favorite memories in virtual world, and send them worldwide in minutes. 

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

I believe that virtual worlds (VW) expand the way people interact with each other. To befriend someone we no longer need to meet that person face in face; today, we can make our avatars meet in one of virtual worlds. Those new ways of interaction bring hope to people who are socially impaired (e.g. people in autism spectrum), for them to overcome the problem. CNN’s iReport covers this issue in “iReport: 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction” by Nicole Saidi.

 David Savill, who created the 'Naughty Auties', a spot witih virtual world of the Second Life, says that his creation allows people like him (on autism spectrum) to practice social skills and to exchange information about their condition. In his own words: "So you're not going out into the real world meeting people, you're going meeting people online and in your own home, so you're perfectly relaxed. It's just a fantastic tool to use to bring people together."
I see the way VW can help people like Mr. Savill to overcome his shortcomings, but that social outlet has also a dark side. People are bound to 'take a path of a least resistance' that is our nature. I'm afraid that VW may become a substitute for real life relations instead of being just an exercise to improve them. People who are just shy by nature will also use VW to socialize. They will befriend a bunch of avatars in VW and that will satisfy their need for human contact. Instead of improving real life social skills VW may cause some people to cease going out.

Another aspect of VW is presented in “No Budget, No Boundaries: It’s the Real You” article by Ruth LaFerla. She familiarizes the readers with financial side of the Second Life (SL). The author points out that SL allows us to escape real problems of financially tough times. I our real life we may struggle financially, be frugal and penny pinching. But we may escape all that in our virtual world. In VW our avatars may ‘live large’, and immerse themselves in luxury unattainable in real life.

I consider this aspect of SL harmless fun. It may help us to cope with tough financial reality as long as we keep it within healthy (money wise) limits. What we need to spend in VW on some goods is far less then in real life, but it still costs money… But it’s rather inexpensive entertainment that allows people to express themselves.
“Certainly her real-world occupation as a nurse affords Ms. Cocke scant opportunity “to rock my new leather Gucci messenger bag or Jimmy Choo sandals,” she said. In contrast, “Vixie’s style is a better representation of my true self,” she said, “as it’s hard to be fashionable in hospital scrubs.””

Being a member of virtual world definitely fosters creativity. Everything in VW is created by its users, whether it is an outfit, tropical gateway, or a building. In the future we can get really creative, there are endless possibilities… We can create virtual classrooms (e.g. for our class J ), go for virtual dates in virtual clubs…. I just hope we won’t become so obsessed with virtual world we will opt out of the real one……

Social Networking Sites

I'm a newbie when it comes to social networking, so it is really hard for me to comment on SNS out of experience. I've logged to MySpace few minutes ago; opened the account with Twitter a week ago; own a Facebook profile for few months but rarely use it. The only SNS I really used is a polish site http://www.nk.pl/ When the nk.pl was created I was really excited. I was among the first million people who logged on (Poland is a 40mln people country). Initially it was created for schoolmates, to find each other. That is how the website got it's name "nasza klasa" or nk.pl ; it means literally "our class". I was thrilled to be able to find people I was close to for 8 (primary school) or 4 years (secondary school). Initially I logged on every day. Then I realized that it really takes up a lot of my time. I don't negate the fact that it was really nice to see all those once familiar faces, to learn about their children all other things; but somehow I lost interest in it after a while. SNS are an interesting initiative but with work, study, commute and overall life, logging onto SNS is not my daily priority.
I can say very little about the other 3 SNS. I'm still learning to socialize thru the Twitter or Facebook. With T my biggest challenge it to squeeze my thoughts into those 140 signs :) Facebook ahs LOTS of potential for me but I'll need to get used to logging there more often. As for MS, the minute I logged on I got suggestion on whom to befriend and but about 75percent of those suggestions were commercial account...so I know that MS won't be my favorite site anytime soon...

Blog about Twitter

I won't pretend that I know the Twitter well, but as of now I don't like it much :(
After reading the article "Brave New World of Digital Intimacy" I got really interested in that new form of relationship that emerged thru microblogging, feeling of closeness without ever seeing the other person.  I found the idea of “ambient awareness” really interesting. However, at this time I'm still at the point, where I'm reluctant of the twitting. I prefer other types of discussions like thru blackboard or my favorite....in class discussion. With Twitter discussion I spend more time on fitting into those 140signs, then on what I want to say. It is counterproductive. But it also forces us to use new forms of communication like texting acronyms and abbreviations (e.g CU, l8er, U2 etc) and that is the interesting part of the whole experience

Social network changed our society, our relationships forever. It helps us to stay in touch with our closest friend, as well as it allows us to expand our contacts with people who would be left out otherwise.  There are many pros and cons to the changes that social networking brings. We are not able to fully comprehend them at the moment, but over time we will learn to use them to our benefits and eventually we may get addicted to them.

I loved the article by Clive Thompson for NYT “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy”. It shows that exact order of things (fear of unknown, getting used to, and addiction) on the example of Facebook. When News Feed was introduced to Facebook members, they were very suspicious at first but later they got over it. Now the News Feed feature is credited for the success of the Facebook among other things….  Just like Mark Zuckerberg says himself “(…) and at times that means stretching people and getting them to be comfortable with things they aren’t yet comfortable with. A lot of this is just social norms catching up with what technology is capable of.”

That same article also talks about benefits of social networking esp. Twitter. How the idea of constant intimate updates can seam silly for some people, especially those who never tried it (myself included).But the author talks about how it created new concept of relationship or friendship. Surprisingly, that new form of contact gives him a sense of closeness to the people he never even met in person.

“Each little update — each individual bit of social information — is insignificant on its own, even supremely mundane. But taken together, over time, the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends’ and family members’ lives, like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting. This was never before possible, because in the real world, no friend would bother to call you up and detail the sandwiches she was eating.”(Thompson C.)

Another benefit of social networking is how it can be used for job recruiting. In an article “Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting” by Frank Langfitt we can see exactly how it works.

“Maureen Crawford-Hentz recruits for Osram Sylvania, the global lighting company. She says the new tools have changed her life.” Social networking technology is absolutely the best thing to happen to recruiting — ever."”Any recruiter can easily access the LinkedIn and search for a perfect job candidate among its 90 million members.

When it comes to cons of those new tools, my biggest concerns are privacy issues and abuse. Some people may post information that makes them vulnerable to identity theft, sexual predator or scams. Also internet communities bring back the atmosphere of a small town even to people living in the biggest metropolises (the idea of everybody knowing everything...)

As for the future I can't even imagine what will happen? I guess we will get used to those new ideas, and hopefully their creators will focus on improving the security of the system. I'm also concerned about marketing specialists being very innovative and finding the way to use social networking to their benefit. They may find a way to uncover our preferences and to make us spend our hard earned money.

Wikis vs Blogs

I have the feeling that the main difference between wikis and blogs is that we turn to a wiki for information, and we go to a blog mainly for opinions. Those to ideas are very closely related but they are also distinctive at the same time. In her article “How to build your own Wikipedia”, Margaret Locher praises the main feature that wikis were created for.” By making it easier to gather and share information as well as record discussions about a subject, wikis (…) can help people improve their processes and get projects done faster”. Wikis are used mostly as collaboration tools, platforms to exchange information, share documents and ideas.

Blogs, on the other hand, are closer to journalism. Just as Kathy Gill claims in her article “How can we measure the influence of the blogosphere?”: “Not only does it provide many viewpoints on shared experiences, but it often also serves as a collective databank used to jog the faulty memories of those who write or report for major media.” We also turn to that outlet for information, but it is a different kind of knowledge then the one we find on a wiki.  

I’d call convergence a cause and an effect in one. Different media converge with one another (e.g. infotainment, TiVo) as a result of changes in today’s world, because people in charge of media look for new ways to get to more people. That new hybrids cause convergence of consumption, as people can now use different Medias simultaneously (we watch TV or read newspaper on our computers or other portable devices).

Blogs do allow for collaboration because they are a two way street. The authors allow for recipients to post their own comments as well as they can post material for all readers to see. Corporate blogs (e.g. for Dell or Wall Mart) were created for the single purchase of collaboration of many individual customers.
This is the first time I'm learning about wiki platforms, other than Wikipedia. I see the great potential they have in corporate world for information exchange. I'd have to explor more to find brand new application for it. The only obstacle I see, is that we all would have to have a class like this one, to be able to use that fantastic tool.