The Next New Thing

Today the focus of the "next new thing" should be put towards augmented reality. Though it is largely in development as of right now, we have been introduced to it on a higher level through Google Glass but doesn't exist commercially. Interacting directly with virtual happenings around you without a secondary terminal such as a phone or computer. There are discussions about how the use of AR technology outside might make people distracted while walking or on the road but it is still the direction we as a society would like to reach. Augmented Reality could enhance everything from daily tasks to something like construction. We could have all the information we need in front of our eyes while performing the task at hand. It would also enhance connectivity between people if for example you're both trying to meet up or find each other you can use the location of the other person's smart device or own AR goggles which would give directions on how to get to them through a maps feature. There are many possibilities that Augmented Reality can be used for, as of now Virtual Reality is growing rapidly and being commercialized but the ultimate goal is to achieve a commercial application of Augmented Reality in society.

P2P File Sharing

File sharing is basically the distribution of files between people, systems, and others through various mediums. It can be done physically through an external hard-drive, usb drive, or cables such as an ethernet or usb cable. Today most people and companies share files between each other through the cloud by uploading them to a virtual drive and giving access to the files present to the appropriate users. P2P file sharing is essentially users uploading all types of content, which can range from legal to illegal, and granting access to other users to download and use as they wish. Today the most prominent example of P2P file sharing are torrents. Torrents are files that let a person download the content of the file specified with the torrent through the BitTorrent protocol which requires different clients, or programs, to be able to access. Some of these P2P file sharing programs are BitTorrent and uTorrent. These P2P programs have become huge over the last decade as the capabilities of the internet and the speeds available have grown. According to Wired, "more than 20 million people have downloaded the bittorrent application." (Thompson, 2005). This was back in 2005, with the programs available the the immense growth in capable speeds, the number of p2p program users must have grown exponentially.

Our Class Wiki - So Far

So far I have updated the Project Morpheus sub-section under the Gaming category to its official name Playstation VR along with adding the release date, the price, and changing the picture. Also under the gaming category I added a new gaming company, Rocksteady studios, showcasing their critically acclaimed video game series, Batman: Arkham (Asylum, City, Knight). I will continue to add to this sub section, and then most likely add Konami which developed another one of my favorite game series, Metal Gear Solid and Ubisoft, who are the creators of the famous video game series' Assassin's Creed and Watch Dogs.

Privacy

Today we are so connected to our technology the use of new media that some consider "privacy" to be a thing of the past. We willingly put our information, pictures and other types of data about ourselves online which can be accessible by a lot of people, more than the person might even be aware of. People usually gloss over or completely skip the terms of service so most of the time they aren't even aware of how their data is being seen or used. Though different types of New Media do offer various privacy options, these are usually too confusing to figure out or the options aren't extensive enough to have the type of privacy you want. A perfect example of this was when Mark Zuckerberg's own sister accidentally posted a photo of her family Facebook. She thought that the privacy setting she was choosing for the post would suffice but it wasn't really clear who would have access to it, little did she know that a friend of her sister could see it because her sister was tagged in the photo. (Greenfield, 2012) So even when we think we are implementing the privacy settings to do one thing, we are unaware of what it actually covers. When putting our information in a public space such as any New Media platform, we have to be aware that we are essentially giving up some of our privacy in the process. It is possible to have privacy on New Media, but it is impossible to have complete privacy.

Advice to Baruch College

     If I would give advice to Baruch college would be to use some sort of New Media to give updates on what is happening around the school in terms of events and updates. Though similar things do exist on Facebook but they all belong to separate clubs. There should be one central page or account that would be updated to reflect the happenings of the week. Another way New Media can also be helpful is if there is some sort of place where students can let the school know of issues around the school, for example if the vending machine doesn't operate properly or an outlet in a certain room isn't working. The goal would be to use New Media to make things more convenient for the students and even the faculty, not to make things more complicated in the process.

Creativity and New Media

      I would like to showcase the avatar I created in the MMO game DC Universe Online. It is a game where you create your own superhero, or villain, shape him/her in the image you want, and work with other players and their avatars alongside iconic heroes such as Batman and Superman to do missions and tasks to save the the world from Brainiac's invasion.

  

     My favorite superhero is Batman so I gave my character a Batman inspired helmet with a belt bearing batman's symbol along with a glider which is itself shaped like Batman's symbol. I wear superman's shield on my chest (hard too see because of the lighting) as he is my second favorite superhero and gauntlets of one of my other favorite characters, Dr. Fate. I made his colors black and gold for two reasons. The black is inspired from my lifelong favorite superhero, Batman. The gold comes from my favorite basketball team, the Los Angeles Lakers. While using my avatar I can work with other players who created their heroes in the image they wanted from things that might have influenced and get see all the different styles, both cosmetically and ability wise that people have chosen.

Creativity

     New media has allowed creativity to be fostered by granting a plethora of tools for people to express themselves and their ideas online. People have the opportunity to create and share things that they have created. New media is essentially just a new platform for people to showcase their talents with ease; it allows their work to reach thousands of people with a few clicks. In his paper Creativity in an Interactive Environment, Isaac Bell states "another way that new media encourages creativity is in this ability to circulate the works with little effort. It is simple for a creator, or audience member, with Internet access to find wellknown online communities such as YouTube, Fanfiction.net, DeviantArt, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Renderosity, or Vimeo, or niche-focused sites like Blip.tv, TED.com, or Pandora, in order to share their works." New media has evolved to a point where the is are multiple avenues for all types of creative works to be shared.

Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

     Virtual worlds open the horizon for people to experience something different than their normal lives. People can possibly create essentially alternate realities for themselves to live in, sometimes for fun and sometimes because they actually feel the need to escape from their real lives. Virtual worlds can be used for people to socialize such as they would do with another social networking platform but anonymously. It also gives people the access to create themselves in the vision they might want to be in. Currently virtual worlds are being primarily for recreation but they do have possibilities for use in different avenues such as education.In the paper Situated Learning in Virtual Worlds and Immersive Simulations research by Hew and Cheung suggested that "K-12 students like using VWs because they can fly and move around freely in a 3-D space, meet new people, and experience virtual field trips and simulations. Similarly, adult learners and teachers have reported great enthusiasm when learning in immersive spaces." (Dickey, 2011) There are some pros and cons to this situation though, the pros would be the time and cost effectiveness of using virtual worlds for interactions and the ability to experience famous settings and things created virtually. The cons would be in the lack of real human interaction and accountability. Although virtual worlds are a great supplement to the classroom they shouldn't be substituted for the classroom, especially for younger grades. For kids the interaction between fellow students and teachers are key in building real life etiquette and manners.
     In a virtual world setting a student can do anything as far as the programming allows but in real life there are externalities taken into account in real life situations which kids learn and absorb for use in the future and complete virtual world immersion greatly diminishes this fact. The use of virtual worlds and the internet is a great addition to the classroom as a supplement. It makes the world smaller by extending the reach of students minds and learning capabilities farther. In the paper The Advantages and Disadvantages of the Virtual Classroom and the Role of the Teacher it states "The Internet provides an immediacy and global awareness that has been unavailable to students. Students and teachers are able to have interactions not only in other parts of the country, but also around the world. From this they can learn about the life and issues that impact on other people." (Posey, 13) This is a great way to foster creativity in a student by letting them interact with other students around the world allowing them to learn about each others cultures and difference, along with teaching about tolerance and acceptance of things different from themselves and their experiences. I believe that the future of virtual worlds is slowing and possibly fading to make way for virtual reality where instead of you putting yourself in a virtually rendered version of yourself in an experience, the experience comes to you and you are put into the experience.

Blog about Twitter

     Twitter and Blackboard discussions are very different from one another. Twitter discussions are out in the open and public with access to anyone. Blackboard discussions stay within the class itself and is only accessible by the class. Having a discussion on twitter compared to a discussion on blackboard sounds good on paper but doesn't execute as well as a traditional blackboard discussion has. It's easier to keep track of who is saying what, and for classroom purposes, have a more thorough discussion on the relevant topics on blackboard since there is no character limit. An in-class discussion might be one of the most effective way to communicate but not the most efficient due to time constraints. In an in-class discussion some people might not get a chance to voice their opinion or take on a subject, along with others who might be shy or not comfortable speaking out on topics in public. In my opinion a blackboard discussion is the most efficient medium for discussion in a classroom setting, where each student can share their thoughts on a subject matter and also easily comment and discuss with the other classmates on their thoughts.

Social Networking Sites

     Through my experience of using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr, they all have their similarities and differences. Instagram and Tumblr are more multimedia oriented, where pictures and videos are the main source of content shared and presented. From the four different social networking sites, in my opinion Instagram has the simplest/cleanest user interface from the others. Tumblr is the hardest to navigate from the 4 of them but has great content once you figure out where to actually find it. Twitter, which is my personal favorite to use because of all the news content from things that interest me, from entertainment to politics. Twitter is also a great forum for discussion and debate, along with the 140 character limit which keeps things straight to the point and quick to read and respond. The use of media on twitter does exist and works great but isn't necessary at all to get your point across. Facebook utilizes the best balance between words and media, it's a great place to connect with old friends and family members but no real content other than what people in your friends list put up. Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr gives you access to content from people all around the world and not just the people you know. From my experience Facebook is the best for "traditional" social networking but not as free form as the other options.

Social Net'g

     Social Networking technologies can be used in a vast number of ways. It can be used for personal reasons such as voicing your opinion, or posting your own personal content. It can also be utilized by corporations and different businesses to gauge consumer opinion and feedback. Many businesses also use social networking as a way to be able to answer questions from consumers and in some instances act as customer support. Society is already seeing benefits from social networking by allowing people of all kinds; family, friends, and associates to be able to connect and share things with each other. It can also benefit society allowing grass roots movements, and group opinions to have a voice, such as the Black Lives Matter movement.
     There is definitely a "dark side" to social networking such as cyber bullying and privacy concerns. According to research from Alessandro Acquisti "people are more likely to divulge key personal information — their photo, birthday, hometown, address and phone number — on social networking sites than they would on other web sites." (Wharton, 2009) This lets stalkers and identity thieves to have much easier access to your confidential information without you even considering what your putting up. People are aware of these risks, they are willing to put their information out there but also takes steps into creating some sort of barrier between the public and those who they don't mind have access to their information through privacy settings. According to researchers, Danah Boyd and Eszter Hargittai, "most Facebook users modified their privacy settings at least once in 2009 and that “engagement with privacy settings increased significantly” between 2009 and 2010." (Parry, 2010) These technologies might evolve in the future by bringing more capabilities through social networking such as the ability to vote.

Blog v Wiki

       The emergence of Blogs brought about a personalization aspect that had not previously existed in such a simplified format. Blogs allowed any given person to voice their opinions and showcase their talents and experiences. The format and layout allowed for easy access to the content provided through the blog. Blogs brought out the possibility of interacting with people close to you or strangers around the world, each sharing their own thoughts an experiences giving people a glimpse into the lives of different people and different cultures. Aside from the personal content, blogs were also used for many things such as advertisements, businesses, and most prominently, journalism. As Kathy E. Gill stated in her "How can we measure the influence of of the blogosphere?" article, she says "Bloggers can serve as grassroots reporters or fact checkers...". Local news and events that aren't considered mainstream have a chance to be exposed through blogs. Blogs can be used for collaboration for businesses that create and manage company events and announcements. It can also be used for collaborative news story telling where different bloggers get their angle of the same news story and put it together to make one fully fledged news reporting.
       Blogs can be used for a plethora of things but its mainly used for personal or opinionated content, Wiki's slightly deviate from this notion. Wiki's are primarily used for the collection and corroboration of factual knowledge and information. Similar to blogs, wiki's can be run by anyone with the difference that wiki's are mostly purposed to provide objective, factual content compared to the subjective and personal content provided by blogs. As Oded Nov states in his article "What motivates wikipedians?" he says "Wikipedia is a prominent example of a collaborative user-generated content outlet based on the open source model, and a promising model for knowledge sharing." Convergence is important in today's world because of the importance of information. Wikipedia has brought essentially almost infinite knowledge in one easily accessible format. The sharing and distribution of knowledge and information has become invaluable and blogs and wikis allow for a very easy distribution. Wiki's can be potentially used to provide live forum of discussion for an big news events.

Virtual Reality

The topic I am researching for my project is the emergence of Virtual Reality as a much more  real and accessible form of media than was possible before. Virtual Reality is being used mostly for entertainment purposes such as video games, and other immersive experiences but has the potential to expand into the other various aspects of society. I will be discussing the potential use of Virtual Reality as a legitimate form of new media, where it stands right now in society, and how it could impact the economic, technical, educational, and moral perspectives in the future. I will also discuss how it will specifically further our immersion in media and news storytelling. I will also touch on how the use of Virtual Reality in video games helped jump the industry forward in terms of awareness and acceptance.