The Next New Thing

According to The New York Times article by Andrew Pollack, a new tech that can be implanted into the brain to allow movements using only your thoughts gives new hope to the disables in the neurology department (2006). An idea derives from this article to develop an implant device that does the same thing but over wireless. The idea is to market the new media as part of the functions of smartphones combine with cloud storage. The implant would act as the alternate memory storage, expanding human ability to store text information that is connected to the individual's smartphone. For example, if the person wants to call a friend he/she will active the wireless earphone connecting to their smartphone and simply by thinking of pressing the call button to that specific contact in memory. Similarly, the function is also useful in presentations. For example, the presenter will use their thoughts to control the PowerPoint in the computer that's connected to a projector, instead of controlling it from a physical device such as a smartphone, they can utilize the implanted device to control displayed visual materials along their speech. Additionally, the new media can also replace traditional passcode entry on smart devices which adds more security to prevent identity theft to personal accounts. Much similar to voice control devices that we have nowaday, what's different is to control the device using thoughts. The implant wireless device that connects to smart devices will open up opportunities to verbally disabled individuals, allowing them to express themselves through texting controlled by their thoughts. In conclusion, the new media will mostly act as an alternative in human ability to store information and allowing convenient motionless access to those information, and will fully connect the individual to their smart devices over wireless.

P2P File Sharing

What is file sharing? In the early ages of ARPA (Advanced Research Project Agency), what is known today as the Internet, it is funded by the Department of Defense (DOD) to be used for military purposes and is used by scientists and technologist to share information from their researches. Later become ARPANET as the result of successfully connecting multiple computers to share information. As it continues to develop and have gotten public attention, it is now what we known as the Internet that connects all computers regardless of their geographic location. "It is important to note that the early adopters of the Internet, many of whom were technologists and scientists, strongly believed in the idea of sharing information for mutual benefit...the Internet was created by the government for the purpose of sharing information for scientific discovery", says in the article "Online Piracy and the Emergence of New Business Models" by David Choi and Arturo Perez. As a result, file sharing means one's ability to access the codes to the system and is free to use the system to their own best advantage, and then have their discoveries from research available in the system for other users to have access to. Therefore, file sharing is to ensure all the Internet users to share as to communicate with each other about each of their contributions and discoveries from research. It is also a way of organizing information in one place for ease to access in the long run.

What is P2P File sharing? As mentioned in previous post, that the Internet exist as a system that opens resouces to all users that its purpose is to continue to improve the system for any creative ways to use it. It was meant to be a public project where all its sources including system codes and data is make available to any user who wishes to access it, and the rule of the game is to share all findings by having all information stored in the system available to public access for users and to make future improvements. Therefore, P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing has it in its name that it is from one user to another in an open platform where it allows all Internet users are free to access the information, and it ensures those who find a new and creative ways to utilize the system to share information as well as to share accesses to the advantages with the rest of its community and so on. P2P file sharing can be understands as an unofficial way to share information within the community of internet users that operates solely on the users' will to share and on the bases of free to access.

Today, P2P file sharing is what makes up a relatively large percentage of the amount of traffic on the Internet. For example, YouTube was first used as a free online platform where users can share video contents of any sorts that they have the legal rights to possess. And by uploading the video content onto YouTube, other users who visits the website can access and view those contents free of charge. Thus, the user who uploads the content is sharing it with the community build on the website as well as benefiting the entire community of Internet users who can now have access to that specific content free of charge any time they want to.

 

Wiki So Far

In our class wiki which is an opened collaborative lists of research work done by students since 2008. The content focuses on the many ways new media contributed in parts of and how it impacts each categories such as: the ways social media impacts marketing, how effective are business on social media and the impacts of branding using these technology. On my part, I'm currently working on a new wiki page that will be added to our class wiki under Marketing section. I will be discussing about Digital Marketing also known as Internet Marketing as a result of new media in the business job field. My contribution to our class wiki will introduce Digital Marketing as well as its function in impacting businesses; and how new media creates this new job title.

As a Digital Marketing student, I've learned the role of Internet marketing in businesses. It is very clear to me that Digital Marketing can eventually over take traditional marketing as we continue to advance in innovative technologies, and the fact that new technologies are build on the basis to make everyday live more convenience.  

Advice

In this digital era, where things are constantly changing every second on the Internet, it is difficult to determine the potential benefits of these new technologies have on education now and in the future. Can education utilized new media to stay updated with the younger generations?

I personally suggest that colleges should maintain a good standing with the latest technology that influences its students' way of learning, and to do so can better prepare students for the opportunities that the job field requires. For example, in addition to the excel trainings, colleges can adapt to Twitter or blogs such as WordPress in some of its common courses and liberal art courses. It will ensure that students with a college degree is up-to-date with technology that the job fields required for entry level titles in businesses. Also, many businesses and media news are highly active on these social platforms. By encouraging students to interact course materials with each others through the media can ensure students are being exposed to the right kind of information that they need to stay informed about social current events, make learning more relatable to everyday life. Doing so can lead to a more productive learning environment where students are encourage to learn even outside of the classroom, and for those who are juggling in between jobs and school will make learning seem less restricted physically, and it allows these students to make better time managements while still have the chance to communicate and exchange ideas with fellow classmates.

In conclusion, new media can transform learning into a more modern, and it allows new media to become an official tool for interactive learning and teaching.

Privacy

There seems to have no 100 percent privacy protection in this digital information age. Facebook who is one of the biggest social media network promises its users to continue to improve their security protection, to give users more control on who they want to share their personal posts such as pictures. However, even the founder of Facebook, Zuckerberg's holiday family picture is not entirely protected against third parties when it is intended to be shared within the family circle. Which it raises the question, how can we ensure that our privacy is protected against unauthorized usage, or even to securely prevent from identify thief and other information leakage?

To understand privacy in the digital information age, we need to understand the function of the Internet. Since its early usage, according to the GNU project and the Free Software movement, the Internet started as an open source where information and technical accesses are meant to made free to use to anyone find the tools useful, and it allows users to make changes to better suite each users, as well as to continue to improve and develop the system. In other words, the Internet is initially meant to be an open project allowing anyone who understands the coding sources to build on the creative ways to make the system useful. It wasn't created on the bases to store personal privacy, rather, it is created to be a platform where its users are free to contribute and share their creativity and findings.

Until e-commerce came along, the Internet becomes the platform to money making for businesses. As the digital era blooms, businesses dominate the creative usage of the Internet. It becomes the platform where businesses are connected globally, resulting in a global digital economy where businesses maximize income with little amount of investment. Which brings us to storing consumers' private information such as credit card information for electronic purchases, as well as information such as social security, online personal behavior patterns, birthdays, physical addresses and etc.. Businesses collect such information for their own benefits at the beginning, and later on these information become extremely valuable in helping companies generate more business. One thing lead to another, new business model exist to make money by selling these valuable privacy information to each other without notifying the consumers to what usage the private information are for.

As mentioned, the Internet's initial purpose is to create an opened, shared, and free software system to the public for creative usage and the possibility to improve the system in the long run. Reed Daniel ends his article with the question that "in a digital world where images, video and text can proliferate globally in seconds, we need to rethink what "possession" means". Rather to discuss the issues of privacy and how it is related to new media, we should think about the purpose of the Internet and how it is being used today that changed the purpose of this platform overtime.

Creativity and New Media

New media tools such as Bitmoji allows user to creatively put together an avatar that reflects what they see in each other and how they perceive themselves. The picture provided is a Bitmoji avatar of how others recognize me as an animated character. It took me a couple tries to get to the avatar where my sister says, yes, it looks like me. The process is self discovering because the face shape I thought I have did not reflects how others see me. And I choose that specific Bitmoji with breakfast because I love to have brunch, and I believe in breakfast is the most important meal of the day. 

Before I found out about Bitmoji, I also tried to achieve the same with traditional ways such as self portrait done by me, and portraits of me by my friends, as well as a paid street artist. The difference is time consumption and the ease to make even minor changes make the portraits request little too much to ask from. And with Bitmoji, we were able to laugh about it, make fun of each other's avatar because it's that easy to make changes.  

Creativity

New medias such as the Web 2.0 that is user generated contents, allows its users to create and use the available tools to their best advantage. Many social networks such as YouTube and Twitter are some of the early examples of creative usages of the new media that is adopted since the 1990s. Today, these new medias survived and is continuing to innovate with new features. What makes these platforms successful is their flexibility to define their products/services accordingly to its end users. With Web 2.0, platforms like Twitter have it easy in fostering creativity in their service.

With Web 2.0, Twitter has been doing an excellent job in observing their end users as they innovate their services with creative features. From observation, Twitter is quick to pickup the creative ideas that is first used by its original users, they "rely on user-generated innovation more than any other company", says Miller C. Claire in the article "Twitter Serves Up Ideas from Its Followers". "The company watches how people use the service and which ideas catch on. Then its engineers turn the ideas into new features" (Miller, 2009). This is an example of businesses generating creative ideas based on its consumers. With the new media, Web 2.0, the company fosters creativity in that it allows consumers to express ideal changes that can further improve the services/product on a continuous basis. Since these creative features are generated from Twitter's end users, they tend to be easily implemented and they are practical features that its consumers are happy to use. It is fostering creativity because the freedom to use and publish user contents encourage consumers to maintain direct communication with the company. And, the company are there to listen and be benefited from applying those changes by creating innovative features in its products/services. Thus, the new media helps to foster creativity in the product/service producers' side because it allows them to easily generate useful information from its consumers that directs their next innovative ideas to bettering the product/services.