The Digital World (Elise Trent)

As I read the blog prompt for this week, I was sitting in Mac’s Cafe. Immediately the words “information technologies” prompted me to think of the two televisions mounted at either end of the cafe. To be honest, I usually spend some portion of my lunch period tuned into one of the two television. Many news reports have triggered conversations amongst me and my friends. And while waiting for friends to arrive for lunch, I like to watch a few news segments in order to feel somewhat attuned to what’s happening in the world outside of our little Ithaca “bubble.”

On the contrary, there are plenty of days that also go by where I am completely oblivious to the large flat screen televisions playing the news; and I have absolutely become jaded to the multiple television in the Mann Library lobby – despite their informative purpose. Typically my news and information searches occur on my laptop or even on my blackberry browser. Because I’m a student and always on the go, I feel like my television consumption is incredibly lower here on campus than it is back home in Virginia. Because of our student/academic environment, and the sort of “bubble” created by living in upstate new york, my information sources are drastically altered to portable sources.

On average, most students have laptops and internet capable phones that they take around with them almost every day. While these technologies are outlets to credible news sources, students don’t always take full advantage of their capabilities.

Because I am typically on the go, I feel as I refer to news sources in short snippets of time – the five minutes before class starts while the professor is putting up the slides, waiting at a bus stop, etc. So, in contrast to my approximately once a day newspaper/news show consumption, I find myself checking the news more frequently for fewer minutes at a time. Potentially enabling me to have a more up-to-date perspective on global and national news events.

For this blog, I went to Mann Library to observe the intersection of physical space and information technologies. Because of its nature as a library, Mann is an incredibly information technology rich space. The open layout of the first floor contains a large computer lab, rows and rows of desktops, several printers, as well as hard copy magazines on shelves. Besides the large area of floorspace devoted to computers, many of the students at desks are also on laptops/netbooks. The other floors of the library seem to also have a heavy percentage of students on computers, and instead of computer labs, large quantities of traditional print media. The open architectural design of Mann allows for students to see other students around them and easily spot computer stations.

While walking around the library observing the technology rich areas of Mann, I noticed a surprising number of students on facebook. Students both on their personal laptops and on desktops in the computer lab were seen writing on friends’ walls, reading their newsfeed, and flipping through pictures. I felt surprisingly awkward when I glanced around and spotted someone on facebook because I could easily see their facebook activities with little to no privacy. This provided an intersection of new media and public space. Because computer screens (even netbook screens) are relatively large, a passerby can easily see what you’re doing on your computer. I felt awkward because I feel like, while posts and pictures are public, activities on facebook like surfing friends’ profiles and editing your own are still somewhat private activities. However, by participating in these activities in a public space, the activities then became public knowledge.

Rated: from 11 votes

For this assignment, I chose to analyze Wikipedia’s Social Media page. Originally written December 11, 2006 when many of us were freshmen. This page is linked to 19 other wikipedia pages (many of which are subsets of this topic) and seven different references. There are also nine external “further readings” linked at the bottom of the page. I chose to analyze this wikipedia page because social media is a very active part of all our daily lives, whether we’re checking our news feed on Facebook or creating a LinkedIn profile to hunt for potential employers. Social Media is also a communication avenue which can be used to business-to-business communication purposes and for companies to reach out to their (potential) clients.

Along with providing the standard definition of the term, the authors have also gone do far as to devote a section to differentiating social media from industrial media (from which people gain information) and provide a plethora of examples. Examples are given in the areas of communication (blogs, etc.) , collaboration (delicious, etc.), Multimedia (Flickr, etc), Reviews and Opinions (yelp.com, etc.), Entertainment (Second Life, etc.), Brand Monitoring (Attensity, etc.) and Others (like Information Aggregators). Because the authors provide such specific sites and examples, readers can then visit these sites in order to gain a deeper understanding of what social media is and how it functions in each of these realms.

While the authors have provided these examples, defined the term, and differentiated the term from industrial media, at the end of the article, I am still left wanting more information. For some reason, I feel like this article provides an excellent skeleton, but could definitely be flushed out and filled in with more information. For being in existence for four years, I feel like there should be more information on this page. Instead it’s a mere 1145 words long, including all the examples given. (For reference: 500 words single space is about a page in Microsoft Word).

Overall, this page gives excellent examples of the many forms and faces social media takes in this day and age. The authors simply listed the examples, and the article seems to be pretty free of bias. There’s no real preaching about what social media is better than others.

Reading through the discussion section of the article, I realized that some sections had been controversially removed, which could explain why I feel like parts of the page are just missing and there isn’t enough information being provided for such a massive topic. Sections removed included a business section and a campaigns section which discussed social media’s use in both arenas. Authors against removing these subtopics argued that those topics thoroughly capitalized and utilized social media, so why should they be removed when they provided accurate, important information?

In conclusion, the page can still use work, and maybe a re-addition of those topic areas, however, it provides a solid outline of the area and provides strong, concrete examples readers can later delve into in order to learn more about how social media actually functions in a real world setting on the internet.

Rated: from 11 votes

In this day and age, information is at the touch of our fingertips. Phones, mobile internet devices (ipod touches, etc.), laptops, netbooks, and other technologies enable us to access information whenever wherever. However, do we, as the up and coming generation, utilize this opportunity or, because the internet is pretty much always accessible, let it fall to the wayside?

In terms of actively seeking information, I have my homepage set to the New York Times. Therefore, every time I open my web browser on my computer, I typically pause (before searching for whatever I initially opened my browser to research) and scan the headlines/summary statements on the homepage of the newspaper’s site. By doing so, I try to keep informed about the large events occurring in the world. Glancing at classmates’ computers’ today I saw a decent amount of people reading from a serious news source (NY Times, Economist, Washington Post) and from other informative sources (aka ESPN sports blogs, etc.). The trend I noticed among the few computer screens I’ve looked at in the last few days, and pattern I’ve noticed among myself, is that, with all the information available on the Internet, I try to stay well informed. But on topics I find personally interesting and relevant. So while we may be more informed than our counterparts 10 years ago, I personally believe it’s on more targeted subject matter.

Rated: from 1 votes

While searching for a controversy to cover for this week’s blog post, I came across a February article concerning prisoner’s Facebook use in England. The Article briefly overviews multiple situations where, according to the website, Facebook removed the profile pages of thirty prisoners who were using Facebook to maliciously taunt victims and the police. While computer access was difficult, some prisoners were accessing the social media site through smuggled in mobile devices. Facebook removed the profiles after they were flagged as “offensive” by another Facebook user. While the Justice Minister praised Facebook for its speedy removal of the Facebook profiles, he stated that he hopes to form a constructive relationship with Facebook where, as soon as the justice department flags a profile as “offensive” it is removed immediately and without question in order to remove inmates’ improperly used Facebook accounts.

Balkin’s article discussed a somewhat different facet of free speech in this day and age, however, his statement that “new technologies offer ordinary citizens a vast range of new opportunities to speak, create and publish; they decentralize control over culture, over information production and over access to mass audiences.” is highly relevant to the situation of using Facebook profiles for malicious reasons. Because new technologies (ie. computers and mobile phones) have access to the internet, and in particular, social networking sites – which connect prisoners to the outside world. These websites, which are admittedly difficult to monitor due to the immense number of sites/ users, would definitely benefit from a stronger police/justice department relationship in order to minimize the abuse of the privileges of their site. The harassment victims and police are receiving from prisoners inside jail most likely blatant illegal abuse of the site. I believe the aforementioned quotation from Balkin sums up how the prisoners are able to harass citizens from inside jail – increased opportunities to express themselves and decreased control over what they say by authorities. The double-edged sword presented by the capabilites of communicaiton technologies represent the beneficial and detrimental effects technology can have on our society. However, these technologies are not going anywhere soon, and, therefore, abuse should be closely monitored.

Rated: from 4 votes

For statement 2A, challenge is the perfect word to descriptor for that goal. The lofty aim of attaining goals such as eliminating “extreme poverty and hunger, universal basic education, gender equality, etc will take extreme coordination between countries and an actual deep-rooted passion among ALL involved countries to make these life improvements for their citizens. The overarching goal of a “more peaceful, just and prosperous world” is one that will benefit just about every human being and their future progeny for generations to come. In such a world, humanity would be free to flourish. Such an evironment, I believe i is teh most important to achieve because other beneficial changes can be easily made/ assisted in such an evironment. In a “peaceful, just and prosperous world,” more likely than the day we live in today, vaccines would be openly shared, food quality/access would improve for the poor, iformation and technology would be openly shared, instead of countries still building nuclear reactors/bombs out of fear and anger.

I believe the biggest obstacle to achieving all the goals set forth in this document are, as I mentioned earlier, coordination and and drive. The strong language and rhetoric employed in this document indicate a strong desire to achieve mutually beneficial goals, however, the goals outlined in this document (such as ” we are resolute to empower the poor” and “each person should have the opportunity to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge”) will require an immense quantity of dedication by many governments over an extensive period of time. And even if they are achieved, relaxing may cause societies and citizens to slip back into old, oppressive and anti-progressive behaviors and attitudes.

Rated: from 6 votes

Nowadays, the world is always on the go, but through Twitter people share their ever-changing lives and the ever-evolving news with the world.

Rated: from 4 votes

Scanning the cloud of popular twitter topics, I noticed a wide range of topics: Justin Bieber (musician), Italy (country), Scripture (religion), and Shaun White (athlete). All of these unrelated topics have made it onto Twitter’s list of popular topics “right now” “today” or “this week” Justin Bieber, the musician, actually managed to make it onto all three popularity lists, quite the feat. However, I believe the wide range and depth of topics all are indicative of Twitter’s user population. Twitters users, from personal notice, include organizations, themed topic writers, companies, and individuals. I personally created an account a while ago to see what all the hullabaloo was about, but rarely sign in or post. The wide range of users is indicative of the wide range of topics. Obviously, there are reports and statistical analysis investigations that have been conducted to see what demographics Twitter is the most popular with, a few of which I’ve read. From personal browsing, I’ve come across a wide variety of postings and have friends who post about many, very unrelated topics depending on their lives and what happens during the day.

Haiti is currently on the most popular right now tag cloud for Twitter. Many politicians have gotten involved with Haiti and running donation programs and phone-a-thons in order to raise money. Many more have spoken and expressed their sadness over the unfortunate events that have occurred there. I believe Twitter is a great outlet for up to the minute information on events like this (people down there can post, down to the second, how recovery is going, what they are doing to help, and what fundraisers politicians are hosting/conducting and what they have said on the topic.

I believe as twitter’s regular, active audience grows, the political importance of twitter will grow as a well. No one can say if growth between the two would be proportional or what not, but the fact that anyone can write anything on twitter at anytime means that it should be highly monitored at all times. Slander, rumors, etc can easily get out of hand and become viral posts passed from account to account and information control/image is important, maybe even crucial for candidates.

the 140 character limit clearly limits what can be said, however, I do believe that it is a sufficient space for Twitter’s microblogging purpose, and abbreviations/symbols, etc can enable posters to say what they need to say in one or two posts.

Rated: from 9 votes

While I was reading over the course blog for this weeks assignment, and doing the extra reading, I was pulled into Lanier’s first argument in his article “World Wide Mush.” In the opening paragraph, Lanier argues “The idea of a world where everybody has a say and nobody goes unheard is deeply appealing. But what if all of the voices that are piling on end up drowning one another out?” I personally feel like this is a risk worth taking with the internet world. Everybody has a platform from which they can convey information and argue their opinions. Out of all the sources/sites available on the internet, clearly some have risen up as leaders and credible information sources. And some sources will inevitably drown out others, but the luxury we have with the internet is the ability and opportunity to choose our information sources and to espouse our own information through our own sites.

Rated: from 8 votes

According to Radian6, social media is changing brand management. The company’s website states ” A brand is now defined as the sum of all conversations taking place around it, and it’s happening regardless of whether or not we participate in the conversation.” As has been discussed in numerous communication classes social and new media (blogs, facebook, twitter, etc.) pretty much allow anyone to say anything at any time. Clearly some online sources are more credible than others, however, social media is changing the face of brand management. Radian6 offers a “listening platform” for companies. By working with Radian6, companies will be able to monitor social media conversations concerning their products, companies, competitors, and industry. By being informed, Radian6 hopes that companies will be conscious of the online conversations surrounding their “brand.”

To take social media one step further, Radian6 also provides services to help companies monitor, analyze, and report on social media. Radian6 also provides companies with the tools to “engage with their communities online.” Services also include “webinars” and other educational sessions to educate companies on using all the services and tools Radian has to offer and how these services/tools will be effective in managing and improving their brand(s). Case studies of major companies are also available to demonstrate a

Despite being founded a mere 4 years ago, Radian 6 has impressive clientele which include Dell, Comcast, Microsoft, Weber Shandwick Worldwide, Pepsi, American Red Cross, Ogilvy, MolsonCoors, and Kodak. With a strong client list and an impressive array of services/tools, Radian6 appears to be a well-developed, booming social media company with the potential to have a strong impact on companies’ brand management strategies.

Rated: from 5 votes

custom header is a cropped image from allfreewallpaper.com

Rated: from 1 votes