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
Monday, July 6, 2015
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.
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.
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.
Monday, June 29, 2015
Modelling Reality With Virtual Worlds
Virtual worlds have a plethora of uses in new media. Some examples are: entertainment or enjoyment to more pragmatic uses such as therapy for those who have social or psychological issues. With virtual worlds, people can finally be open without having to be open in real life. It can help people adjust to the real world by simulating it virtually and helping to adjust to it after some time.
The pros of using virtual worlds is that it can be used to simulate the actual world in the event that you would not be able to enjoy fully (if at all) in real life or if you just live too far away (Itzkoff). In the article on the New York Times by Dave Itzkoff, he mentions how he prefers to walk around the lower east side of Manhattan virtually in order to get away from the foul smelling neighborhoods in and the menacing bouncers guarding the clubs in real life. He also feels safer not having been exposed to the night time dangers of New York such as crime (Itzkoff). However, it comes at a cost or cons as Itzkoff explains that there is a lack of excitement and the lack of actually being at the location to take in the fun.
Another pro of using virtual worlds is to create their own world in their own image using programs such as SecondLife (Saidi). In an article by Nicole Saidi, a man named David Savill has Asperger's Syndrome created a virtual world for himself and other suffering from mental disorders. By creating his own virtual world in SecondLife, he is able to have memorable and intimate connections with friends and loved ones. This helps him to communicate with others with relative ease whereas having to communicate in real life would have been a problem for him. The drawback in this case is the wanting to continue to interact with others in the virtual world and not leaving to actually interact with people (Saidi). Thus, in reality, people are even more isolated and introverted and in the long run, this man ultimately hurt the person as he does not engage in the human experience.
I think that the future of the virtual world is bright. I believe that it will continue to grow especially with the advent of Virtual Reality goggles such as Oculus Rift. This can also spur progress for new media to find ways to immerse the virtual world into the real world. Even though there is concern for those who do not want to leave the virtual world, I feel that the expansion of the virtual world will not be hindered in any way or form. If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to post them in the comments below.
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/arts/television/06itzk.html?pagewanted=2
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/28/sl.autism.irpt/index.html#cnnSTCText
The pros of using virtual worlds is that it can be used to simulate the actual world in the event that you would not be able to enjoy fully (if at all) in real life or if you just live too far away (Itzkoff). In the article on the New York Times by Dave Itzkoff, he mentions how he prefers to walk around the lower east side of Manhattan virtually in order to get away from the foul smelling neighborhoods in and the menacing bouncers guarding the clubs in real life. He also feels safer not having been exposed to the night time dangers of New York such as crime (Itzkoff). However, it comes at a cost or cons as Itzkoff explains that there is a lack of excitement and the lack of actually being at the location to take in the fun.
Another pro of using virtual worlds is to create their own world in their own image using programs such as SecondLife (Saidi). In an article by Nicole Saidi, a man named David Savill has Asperger's Syndrome created a virtual world for himself and other suffering from mental disorders. By creating his own virtual world in SecondLife, he is able to have memorable and intimate connections with friends and loved ones. This helps him to communicate with others with relative ease whereas having to communicate in real life would have been a problem for him. The drawback in this case is the wanting to continue to interact with others in the virtual world and not leaving to actually interact with people (Saidi). Thus, in reality, people are even more isolated and introverted and in the long run, this man ultimately hurt the person as he does not engage in the human experience.
I think that the future of the virtual world is bright. I believe that it will continue to grow especially with the advent of Virtual Reality goggles such as Oculus Rift. This can also spur progress for new media to find ways to immerse the virtual world into the real world. Even though there is concern for those who do not want to leave the virtual world, I feel that the expansion of the virtual world will not be hindered in any way or form. If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to post them in the comments below.
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/arts/television/06itzk.html?pagewanted=2
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/28/sl.autism.irpt/index.html#cnnSTCText
Creativity
New media fosters creativity by allowing us to collaborate online with posting and sharing ideas using social networking. According to the article by Claire Cain Miller, technology companies rely on the user to spur creativity and innovation since the Internet allows for people to share and exchange ideas and computing tools cheaply, easily and rapidly in large groups with new tools. In a way, these companies take the back seat and let the user curate their own user experience which can ultimately increase their bottom line. The people have effectively become their own means to create what they want. When users are in control of the creativity process, they can foster new forms of new media. An example from the article is that users have developed a desktop client for Twitter called TweetDeck. It would not have been possible without Twitter allowing the developer community to enhance the website's experience. Creativity is essential to the continued success of new media. If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below.
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/technology/internet/26twitter.html?_r=0
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/technology/internet/26twitter.html?_r=0
Creativity and New Media
I created a website with new media. I did this by creating a website using Microsoft Notepad and I used HTML to code the website that I created. HTML is the default programing language of the Internet and I learned HTML over the years. I took several web design courses and I know how to code in HTML and use Adobe Dreamweaver. I also used a web hosting service to keep the website up and running.
Here's the link to my website. Check it out!
http://ash3810s1nt.ucoz.com/index.htm
If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below.
Here's the link to my website. Check it out!
http://ash3810s1nt.ucoz.com/index.htm
If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below.
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Social Networking Sites
These days it's hard for people to connect without some form of Social Networking. I'll be honest, I also use Social Networking, so here are my thoughts on some of these websites.
Facebook:
I've used Facebook since 2010 and since then, it has been my go to site to connect with family and friends. However, in the past few years, I stopped flocking to Facebook because after some point, I lost interest in the countless stories that ended up in my newsfeed. I only ever use Facebook these days to just chat with friends who don't have texting and it's usually on my phone via the Facebook Messenger app. I was tired of being swamped with game requests, pokes and what not so I just gradually cut down on my access to the site. I only ever log in the site ever so often and I hardly post anything at all. Until my friends decide to get texting or find a different way to communicate with me, I'm stuck with Facebook.
Twitter:
I never really flirted with the idea of having a Twitter account until my last year in high school. When I did end up making a Twitter, I didn't have many followers, seldom tweeted and really just read other tweets. Needless to say, the account didn't really last. Even after taking this class, I'm not entirely swoon with having Twitter. Perhaps my outlook will change as we progress through the rest of the semester, but so far, I'm not convinced. We'll see how it goes...
Myspace:
Back in 2006, Myspace was a thing. Now...not so much... Either way, I wasn't sold on it then and I'm not sold on it now. I've had an aversion to Myspace growing up as I heard lots of news stories of misrepresentation of identity and serious crimes being committed as a result so that fueled my fear of Social Networking at the time especially with Myspace. Now I look at it as a failed website just desperately looking for visitors. I find the layout of content to be confusing as it's all over the place. It's not streamlined and not easy on the eyes despite its refined look. With information scattered about and no form of organization, I find it to be almost irrelevant. We live in a society that prefers simplicity and organization, and in my opinion, Myspace fails to deliver. Quite frankly, who even uses Myspace these days?
LinkedIn:
I've been using LinkedIn for the past two years now to build myself professionally and branch out for potential job opportunities. I find LinkedIn to be an excellent resource for people to connect and think that receiving endorsements for skills from connections is invaluable and irrefutable as compared to writing skills down on a resume. It is the exact opposite of any other Social Networking Site out in the world as it makes a clear distinction from work and play that other websites have not quite been able to do. Overall, LinkedIn seems to be an invaluable asset for career growth and development.
If you have any thoughts or questions, leave them down in the comments below.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)