Exploring Second Life

When I first started looking at Second Life, I was pretty confused. I was unsure of how to get around, where to go, and how to communicate with other. With time I was able to gain more knowledge of this site.

I learned how to "fly" to different locations. Though many times I did end up in water, which proved to be a problem. I walked around the virtual city for a little while but still was unsure of what I was supposed to do.

The video that we watched in class a few weeks back had me interested in going to certain shops where I could look at clothes and in turn give my avatar more of a "social life". I was unable to find these spots which was a little disappointing because they appeared so cool and interesting in the video.

I'm sure if I were to spend more time on this website I would be able to learn so much more. This is not an as well known site, so with time it may be able to reach more people. I enjoyed the time that I spent on this site but I am unsure if I will use it more.

Endless Options of Second Life

Many people play video and computer games in todays society. There are multiple reasons of why people do so, such as entertainment and to escape their everyday lives. In this ever-changing world of virtual reality there is a new way people can immerse themselves into an online world.

The name of this is Second Life. It is growing so rapidly that people actually have jobs where they sell and design clothes in this virtual world. Many people create avatar like people and build a life for them in Second Life. There are even schools inside this website.

For example, Drury University, has online learning in Second Life. The students don't meet an actual classroom, they instead meet online. They are able to discuss all of their class topics and learn in a different manner. The only difference (while greatly different), is that they don't meet in person.

I think this is an awesome new tool for education and for pleasure. It will provide endless options for schools, businesses, and ordinary people to spend their time. It will be interesting to see how much more this site will grow with time.

Safety Concerns With Social Networks

When I first heard of Foursquare, I was a little apprehensive to jump straight on the bandwagon. One reason being I didn't know much about it and didn't see the use in it. The main one being, I did not want people to know where I was at all times of the day. 

I just read an article that was about the privacy concerns of Facebook, Twitter, and now Foursquare. It mentioned how if you state your location, you never know who is going to use that to their advantage. The article gives the example of when someone states they are going to be out of town. Someone could in turn, then go rob your home. While this is taking it to the extreme, it is possible. 

Foursquare is not all bad. It is a great way to connect with other people and earn deals from certain companies. In fact, there are numerous businesses that offer discounts and specials for those who "check-in" a certain amount of times at their location. 

If one is going to participate in this form of social media, I only suggest that they take precautions in the manner of privacy settings. Make sure that you only allow people you know to see your updates and you should be just fine. 

Trending Topic: Mark Your Spot

I recently read an article about Twitter and how businesses can utilize this specific form of social media. The news story was about how businesses can use the "Places" application to help them more valuable.

Similar to Facebook, Twitter has allowed its users to "check in" when they arrive at a certain destination but they may now be taking this a step further.

This new idea would give businesses permanent URL's for their location. There would also be a list of the names of people who have checked in and been at their site.

While this is not currently an option for users to take advantage of, Twitter executives are looking into this for the future. This would be an interesting and exciting development for users, consumers, and owners of businesses to have as an option.

I am looking forward to how this progresses and the outcome that the future will bring with this particular application.

Do you Digg Social Media?

In my New Media and Public Communication class we have been talking about many new social media tools that people are able to use. One of the many that we have highlighted is Digg. I had not heard much about this site so I was intrigued and interested to learn more about it.

This website is very helpful in explaining just what Digg exactly is. There is a blog that is maintained and a simple "What is Digg?" page that gives all the details that one needs to know. Such as that this site allows users to "digg" certain stories that they like. The most popular "digged" stories will be the top, trending news.

I found this website very interesting because it is not maintained by any editors. Essentially, the users are able to decide which story they think is the most important. With this "power" comes problems though.
Many people decide to all digg, or not digg, a certain story. A reason being that this story benefits or hurts them or their company.

With all new things come the good and the bad. I truly believe that this site is a great way to get your personal voice and opinion heard and out in the open.

World of Wiki

Throughout my years of schooling, I have been told that Wikipedia is not a legitimate source and that we were not allowed to use it in our papers. Their reason being that since anybody can add what they want on any topic, we can never know what information is accurate.

I recently read an article about "taking a stand against WIkipedia". The author, Scott Jaschik, wrote about Middlebury College and what the professors are doing about Wikipedia. They are banning students from citing Wikipedia for their papers. The purpose of this was to educate the students about what is wrong with Wikipedia and to proove that it is not all valid information.

Also, at University of California at Santa Barbara faculty stated that it "is not appropriate as the primary or sole reference for anything that is central to an argument, complex, or controversial". 

While there are still faults with Wikipedia, it is not all bad. The site is maintained and edited constantly so inaccurate information is taken out. When a student is writing a paper or doing research, they just need to be careful and further investigate what they found on Wikipedia on other sites. They just can not use it as their only source. 

The Art of Business Blogging

For my Media class, we had to find an article about blogging. It was interesting to look though many articles and websites about it because there are so many different aspects and it is ever changing.

The article that I found was about business blogging. It gave many tips that companies could use to gain more publicity for themselves. One of the tips that was given was to choose the right blogging platform. What is meant by this is that it has easy access to other social media sites so that you can promote in more ways.

One other tip that I found interesting was to love your audience. The author of the blog should be friendly with everyone, even if they post a negative comment. The company can try and turn everyone into a consumer of their product and a supporter of their company. It also stated that all comments should be appreciated because that starts a flow of conversation and you gain more traffic to your website.

The Debate Over Web 2.0

I recently read an article for my media class that talked about mainstream media and citizen journalism. The differing sides of the argument were taken by Steven Johnson and Brian Williams.

Johnson was claiming that the new Web 2.0 is not just centered around the mainstream media but it is essentially "All About Us". It consists of amateurs who are blogging gives "power to the people". It is a new forum that all can participate in.

On the other side Brian Williams stated that since there are so many opportunities for citizens now to read and write about what they want they will not be receiving the information that they need to hear. They will just be searching for information that interests them and a lot of the "important" news stories that are being broadcasted on some television news channels will not be put at the level of importance they need.

There are many different opinions that can be formed on this topic. Which helps prove the fact that there now are so many options for citizens to read about the news.

Hiding Behind the Screen

This past week I watched a PBS special called Growing up Online. There were many great points made in this informative video but the one that stuck out to me out the most was about cyber bullying. With all of the recent suicides in the gay community it is hard to ignore the fact that teens are using the internet as a way to further bully their peers. 

At Rutgers University persistent cyber bullying by classmates of Tyler Clementi drove him to jump into the Hudson River. In the month of September alone five gay men from the ages of 13- 19 have committed suicide due to bullying through Facebook, twitter, skype,  etc. 

New media is now fully integrated into many of our lives and it is a great tool for communication, but there needs to be an end to bullying though these means of technology. It is a horrible occurrence when someone is led to suicide in result of opinions and comments of others. We can only hope that good will come out of the awful suffering that Clementi and others had to face daily and there will be full awareness of cyber bullying so it will not continue. 

The Ever-Changing World of Media

This past week, we learned about the role that citizens have in media. For this to happen, the media has opened up many outlets for their readers participation. It is what the readers do with it that matters.

One option the readers have is to comment on the news stories. They can post their opinion, create an argument, give support, or make a correction if there is an error. To take this to a larger extent, enter into the equation blogging. Instead of just a small comment on a news article, people can create their own blogs to state their opinion on many things that are happening in the news.

Expanding from blogs, citizens can even write their own news article on get them posted on the internet.
On this website, Ohmy News, people can write and post news stories that they may have witnessed or read somewhere else.

Over the course of time, media has continued opening up outlets for citizens to participate in the news throughout the world. Who knows what will come of media in the next ten years and how many more outlets will be opened.

Out With the Old and In With the New

I recently read an article, Bonding with Fans Who Can't Get Enough, which was about professional sports teams who are using mobile devices to generate an increase in their fan club. The Pittsburgh Penguins, a professional hockey team, were facing a decline in their fan support and were desperate to try anything. Jeremy Zimmer, who was the team's director of new media, came up with the idea to have a mobile fan club. This new idea would send text  messages with score updates, statistics, and news. Since this, the Penguins fan base has increased from 14,000 in 2008-20009 to 72,440. This new technique of "new media" has greatly influenced the world that we live in. Over the last few weeks I have been learning about new and social media in my college course. We have discussed the effects that Twitter and LinkedIn, for example, have had on our society; how many citizens are getting their news updates from short "tweets" or applying for jobs by networking online. The main question that I will be consistently addressing in my blog  is how new and social media are changing everything about the media and the way we get our news. I look forward to delving deeper into this issue and sharing what I learn in and out of the classroom with you.