The Next New Thing

A new type of new media, that can be useful considering some challenges faced today would be a social media site that connects individuals and organizations in working together to solve issues worldwide - whether they be environmental or social. While sites like this do exist, they do not filter members based on similar interests. Instead members have to explore the sites themselves and find what they like or exactly what is being offered.

This new community site will require members to create a profile that lists the issues they're interested in, and ultimately link them to others who are interested in the same issue. It would be ideal to have an organization linked behind the issues to sponsor any initiative. This linkage would then open up the users to new discussions and ones that currently exist. This site will help rid of repetition and the lengthy search process, and quickly link members to begin on initiatives through different levels.

Our Class Wiki - So Far

I recently began taking a look at our class's wiki and noticed some interesting topics with a significant amount of information for each. What particularly struck out to me at first was the topic of religion and I have started contributing to that. Currently, I am working on the Sikhism portion, as it had some general information written and being a Sikh myself, I think it can be broken down to more specific topics such as populations, religious values and contexts and even current events. Additionally, I think it will be interesting to add the new media aspect to the different religions and how religious centers have started using social networking sites to promote events or occasions. I have been focusing on researching on Sikhism first, and then will move on to the topic of new media.

P2P File Sharing

File sharing is the ability to share files, uploading or downloading, with others through some interconnected network, usually the Internet. File sharing began in the 1970s but became particularly popular in the late 90s with the Internet. By 2000, there were several sites and softwares emerging to support file sharing such as Napster (which was shut down after legal issues) and BitTorrent. BitTorrent is particularly interesting in the way it runs, and how fast it allows sharing files thanks to P2P file sharing. 

In the Wired article "The BitTorrent Effect," journalist Clive Thompson writes of BitTorrent founder Bram Cohen, who has developed one of the most efficient P2P file sharing models. P2P file sharing requires users to interact with one another in downloading and uploading files through a program with other connected users/computers. Traditional models often lag in terms of time, whether it's for the downloader or uploader because single complete files are being put up at once, but BitTorrent requires users to upload files in "bits" so they upload faster and ultimately the files come together for a complete piece. (You can read more on BitTorrent here - really interesting article!). However, there are several other P2P file sharing examples such as instant messaging and the ability to share files, Skype, and Gnutella. 

Privacy & Confidentiality

Privacy and confidentiality are major concerns raised when it comes to new media. While most new media will assure users that their information will be protected, this isn't always certain. New media has given way to new methods of hacking online and retrieving personal information.
People put their personal information on places like virtual worlds like SecondLife or online banking systems. If someone hacks into these places, they receive all the personal information they can get.

Along with cyberattacks, a person's right to privacy may not really exist on new media because of interconnectedness online. For example, something someone posts on Facebook as a personal opinion can get shared by someone else, and may even cause problems for the original "poster". This can happen with any social media site consisted of pictures or posts. It is important to be mindful of how "private" new media can really be.

Advice to Baruch College

The five C's: communication, community, convergence, creativity, and collaboration. These characteristics are not only important in defining new media, but should be critical to a student's time in college as well. New media can be used in colleges to address new and beneficial possibilities for students. 

Baruch College should start addressing new media in several aspects and trying to engage students with it more. For example, the blogs we are asked to make for Freshman Seminar should be less of a requirement and more of a personal "my time at Baruch" kind of blog. It can be introduced to students each year in the beginning to remind them it exists. This blog would encourage students to share their experiences with one another as well as give or get advice for their time here. Additionally, more classes can use online class wikis, to comment on works they read and also become familiar with one another. Online newspapers and their feeds can be useful to students in business classes, or any classes covering current events. 

I do believe new media shouldn't be forced onto students. But showing them how it can possibly help them outside of just personal entertainment or social gain would be a great start to incorporating new media into Baruch. 

Creativity and New Media

One way I channel my creativity by new media is through Snapchat. My cousins and I often send "snaps" to each other that are sometimes videos of particular events or animated pictures. On my cousin's birthday, I sent a quick picture snap of my cousin who we often call "Billi" meaning cat in my language. I drew on the picture with the colored pencil features and sent the snap to some friends and family. Often, this triggers the receivers to send a creation of their own. One of my first replies was my younger cousin, who decided to save her creativity for another time.

Creativity

New media fosters creativity in several ways. Users of new media can post creative pictures they have taken, blog poems or stories they have written, create unique videos, and even collaborate on ideas instantly. New media is an open platform for users to constantly test their creativity.

For example, mash-ups became very popular on YouTube, where the producers would combine two different snippets of music or cartoons or both, into one video. In a particular example mentioned in the NYT article "Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?," YouTubers created mashups of Disney characters with popular rap songs. These mash-ups made it seem as if the cartoons were singing and dancing to the song. (You can watch the video here).

Other examples include websites like OpenIDEO where users collaborate on new, creative solutions to social issues, Instagram where photographers can display their unique collections, and even Snapchat where users send short pictures or videos that they can draw or create. New media allows users to channel their creativity through different ways of collaboration and freestyle.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds are quite gripping, and I remember them being around since I was very young. Most of these virtual worlds applied to games like Sims or Runescape where players would embody a character online and play accordingly. I watched my cousins play these games habitually, and always questioned what was so compelling about it. They answered it was "fun" but they were definitely experiencing more than fun. They were experiencing an online community, interacting with other interested users, and yes, having fun as well. 

Today, these virtual worlds have expanded beyond video games for purposes of just common interest, or a career field like in healthcare. In the New York Times article "In Room 100, It’s Sid and Nancy All Over Again," the author discusses a virtual world created to preserve the older Hotel Chelsea experience before the manager was replaced along with its bohemian style. Fans of this experience log onto an account and enter this virtual world to interact with other users and pre-made avatars. In the WSJ article "Avatar II: The Hospital," the author discusses nurses and doctors using virtual worlds to practice emergency/hospital scenes. In these scenes, nurses and doctors get to practice on patients and in medical situations that apply to real life. 

Virtual worlds are beneficial in channeling creativity, creating online communities, and allowing individuals to be more social. My cousins didn't like socializing with family members, but they loved socializing in these virtual worlds. Common interests bring people together in these worlds and allow them to interact as well as think creatively in decision making to different situations. Unfortunately, they do harm human interaction, but at the pace they are going, virtual worlds aren't a significant harm. I see virtual worlds growing more in the educational aspects like that in the healthcare system, for tutorials, training or practice in a school or career field. 

Blog About Twitter

Discussions are possible on Twitter, BlackBoard and in class. On Twitter, discussions tend to be a lot of short, quick points that convey the individual's POV in a sentence or two. The discussion can go back and forth with replies. Similarly, a discussion on BlackBoard consists of posts and replies, but they tend to be much more concentrated, and an individual is able to delve into their opinion with a lot more depth in a single post. In-class discussions land somewhere in the middle of quick discussions without much resources present, but communication is a lot more set in a time frame, which doesn't exist on Twitter but may on BlackBoard with deadlines.

Social Networking Sites

I chose to look at Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Tumblr. These four social media sites are quite interesting and serve different purposes. On a personal level, Facebook keeps me connected to my friends, family and previous teachers...as it does for many others of different ages. Twitter focuses on quick updates an individual lets their followers know - whether it's about an article they read, a concern they have, or any situation they can quickly sum up. Snapchat's main focus is communicating through quick pictures, video, and messages for a max. of ten seconds. Tumblr focuses on blogging pictures with comments or descriptions on topics the blogger tends to focus on. It's interesting to see the different target audience and purpose these sites have.

Social Networking

Businesses and individuals use social networking to meet new people, interact with groups, stay connected, etc. Using social networking for such reasons are a benefit to businesses and individuals. For example, Linkedin is a great social networking site to connect professionals with businesses and industries they work for or are interested in, along with helping those looking for jobs find them based on past experiences. 

The WSJ article "Moguls of New Media" states, "24-year-old cosmetologist who until a few months ago worked at a makeup counter in a mall, she now has a manager and a start-up jeans company and has won promotional deals for two mainstream consumer brands" about MySpace user Christine Dolce. Dolce effectively used social networking to kickstart her career through her connections and growing popularity on MySpace. This is just one way social networking is beneficial to individuals. On the other side are businesses that are able to promote their business and attract consumers by simply being active on social networking and posting pictures, sales and keeping people updated with what they're doing. These technologies, like MySpace, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. all keep people connected with one another -- making the world a little smaller than it is. 

On the other hand, there are downsides to these technologies. A major one being privacy. The Wire article, "Facebook Privacy Is So Confusing Even the Zuckerberg Family Photo Isn't Private" states "...if you really don't want intimate photos out there, don't put 'em on Facebook. But also, don't expect to hide something if you do — everything can be shared and re-shared these days." The article discusses how Randi Zuckerberg, Mark Zuckerberg's sister, posted a family photo that she intended to be shown just to friends, but got shared by a Vox Media marketing director. This happens several times on social networking sites with photos or information that once posted, is really not under your own control.

Regardless of this downside, I still believe social networking sites will continue to grow. As I mentioned before, they make the world seem a little smaller than it really is by connecting so many individuals, groups, and businesses together. I definitely see a growth of small businesses on social networking sites, it's a great way to reach out to people who tend to use those sites a lot and want to a quick way to follow what a business is offering. 

Blogs vs. Wikis

Blogs and wikis have become essential examples of new media, and while they may seem similar, they must not be confused as interchangeable. In her paper "How can we measure the influence of the blogosphere?" Kathy Gill states blogs emerged in the late 1990s and by 2002, there were an estimated 500,000 blogs in the universe, and possibly somewhere in the millions today. Wikis became popular in the late 90s, with the first wiki software developed in 1995 by Ward Cunningham as a way to manage site content. Of course, one of the most popular wikis today is Wikipedia. 

So what's the difference between these two? Well there a quite a few.

Gill states in her article the "Primary characteristics of a blog include: 

• Reverse chronological journaling (format) • Regular, date-stamped entries (timeliness)

• Links to related news articles, documents, blog entries within each entry (attribution)

• Archived entries (old content remains accessible) 

• Links to related blogs (blogrolling) • RSS or XML feed (ease of syndication)

• Passion (voice)" 

Blogs often have one author and sometimes a few contributors, and tend to be opinionated. On the other hand, wikis are meant to be collaborative on shared knowledge, and are constantly being updated. In the article, "How To Use Wikis for Business," the author explains how a Los Angeles Times wiki failed as the Times tried to make an opinionated article into something conversational, which would have worked well for a blog but not a wiki.

Convergence has become very important in today's networked world as more and more people begin to contribute to and share information available to either groups or the public. Converging allows for different media platforms to come together, so kind of like the emerging of wikiblogs, or simply news platforms adding rss feeds or wikis to their sites.

This brings me to the importance of collaboration, especially with blogs. Nowadays, blogs are used for collaboration with the public or within organizations, just to simply share experiences or opinions or knowledge. For example, Blogs@Baruch were introduced to most of us freshman year as a way to share our stories and experiences at Baruch with students in our class. Another example is business blogs where the authors share their opinions or experience with certain strategies or ideas and other bloggers tend to reply with their thoughts. 

Blogs and wikis are truly interesting new media technologies that are leading to more convergence and collaboration online. Maybe a possible future use for wikis can be for group research projects in Baruch (even though I'm sure some other universities may do this already). 

New Media's Impact on Customer Relationships

Project Title
New Media's Impact on Customer Relationships

Project Description
For my research paper, I will be focusing on the effect new media has had on customer relationships in businesses. My focus will be on a transition from the traditional strategies when approaching consumers to the new strategies necessary due to new media. I will also write of the positive and negative impacts such as the development of a very interactive system, but the lack of human interaction.