P2P File Sharing

File sharing the ability for many users to share various files on a global scale. It usually involves one person hosting a file on a website for users to download and share with others (Thompson). The mediums in which a person can use to share files are vast as it can be as simple as sending a text message with a picture attachment to an e-mail with multiple documents and spreadsheets attached and ready for use to even more complex methods of sharing such as establishing a network in which a large group of users work simultaneously on files and share them within an organization (Thompson).

P2P sharing exists allowing users to quickly download files that would otherwise take a very long time to download. The most common type of P2P sharing is torrenting. The Bittorrent Protocol was founded in 2001 as a faster means of sharing files between people (Thompson). It involves one person downloading a part of a file and collecting the rest of the parts from others downloading the file at the same time. All these parts are shared in real time as the file is downloaded in multiple locations so the user can download those parts at the same time they are downloading the file (Thompson). This lets users download files much more quickly as they are receiving them from multiple sources. Quite handy if it wasn't being used for illegal purposes.

If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Sources:
http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/13.01/bittorrent.html

The Next New Thing in New Media

Personally, I believe that the next new thing in new media is virtual reality. While virtual reality exists already in the form of role playing games such as The Sims or Second Life, there is new technology that is coming along the way in the form of virtual reality headsets. Companies like Oculus and One Plus are hard at work creating these headsets to better allow the user immerse him or herself into the game they are currently playing. With these headsets, the player can actually dive into the world of the characters that he or she may interact with and it would almost be like the real world.

With these new companies  making innovations in virtual reality to the point where the user can become an integral part of the game, If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Privacy and Confidentiality

Privacy and confidentiality are related to new media as it deals with the accessibility of information. The main concern with privacy and confidentiality in new media is the accessibility of information mainly because whatever is posted on the Internet is no longer under the control of the user. On top of this, there are websites that flood the user with privacy agreements that are barely understandable since they are written with complex language which the user will likely not understand even with the help or reading skills such as context clues.

The problems that exist with this, is that within these terms of agreements tend to include clauses that the user relinquish control of their data to the website or service that they user and that data has the potential to be sold to third parties. By making potentially sensitive information public, anyone can access that data. The problems that exist can range from government surveillance, data mining and targeted advertising and potentially even cyberstalking. In certain circumstances, it can be argued that new media can be a purposeful loss of privacy since people continue to use potentially compromising services on a regular basis.

Interestingly enough, I wrote an entire paper on the risks of social media and the loss of privacy and what I just mentioned here on this blog post is just the tip of the iceberg. If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below.