Privacy & Confidentiality

The complication of the internet is that data posted on the internet is written and will exist permanently online. It is virtually impossible to get rid of something once it is exposed online. This can create problems for individuals who post pictures, statements or more that may be addressed to only a select few but be leaked to the masses. It is quite difficult to make something online 'private' because the content is not in your hands but in the care of service you had uploaded the data to. For example, if an embarrassing video of you has been posted online, you cannot remove it and it may have already spread to several new sites or machines. This can also be an issue with the new generation that with to be more socially connected with others online. Posting a twitter update about exactly what you are doing can be comprising of privacy of your personal life and is by no means confidential. On the other hand, it can be easy to disguise as someone else online. The new media provides an outlet to be anonymous or pose as an avatar online or even in a virtual world. This can allow users to keep their identify confidential. New media does promote communication and communities, therefore it can be expected that privacy and confidentiality of yourself will need to be loosened to a certain extent.

Advice to Baruch College

Baruch College does apply technology to help aid students. I feel that in a more radical approach, new media can be applied as well, in a virtual classroom or more. There are several large lecture classes that are difficult for a professor to give all students full attention to. There are several ways to work around the detriments caused by absurdly large class sizes. Few professors record their lecture, which will allow for students to revisit the lecture held in class. In addition, a virtual online classroom of fewer students may permit to fuller attention and engage students more directly. Wikis can also be made for several different courses that can help provide additional resources when applicable. There are several ways to utilize the online connectivity to network the student with the class on the internet.

The Social Network: Spoiler Warning

I wasn't thrilled to see this film about how Facebook started when I heard this movie was released, however I was somewhat interested in how engaging the director could make a movie about the history Facebook and it's key players including Mark Zuckerberg. The opening cut-scene between the main character and a girl surprised me. The actor for Mark Zuckerberg, Jesse Eisenberg did such an amazing job of portraying the director's vision of Zuckerberg being an 'ass'. I thought that the movie would not be able to keep me engaged from start to finish but the director was able to make the movie as concise as possible. The movie flowed quite well from one scene to another. There was minimal downtime from unnecessary scenes. The attention of the movie consistently stayed on track around how Facebook came to be and the stirring controversy between Mark Zuckerberg and the co-founder Eduardo Saverin, Napster cofounder founder Sean Parker, and the Winklevoss twins. Virtually all the characters in the movie were portrayed to have a unique personality, which helped keep the movie refreshing. I am turned off by the excessive overplay of college student stereotypes throughout the movie, that consists of students being drunk, stoned, and insane. I have no doubt that this film was created using the most interesting perspectives of the real life situation, but it makes me wonder how accurate everything is portrayed in the movie. When I reached the ending of the movie, I was surprised that the programmer of the Harvard Connection, working with the Winklevoss twins wasn't mentioned during the legal proceedings nor was there any mention what he got out of the lawsuit. Regardless of a few pet peeves, I found the movie rather enjoyable and an interesting watch. I would recommend this movie to others if they have any remote interest about The Social Network because the actors were great and the story was well written.

Twitter Discussion

This is my first time using twitter personally to send tweets to others. I have visited the site a few times for other uses such as information updates from major companies. The mass feed of twitter updates seemed very daunting to me. I'm quite used to participating in forums, and Twitter was a different feel. In comparison to using BB Discussion board, I feel more comfortable writing extended responses with more thought and detail. Twitter certainly makes sending some important messages clearly challenging. In addition, the mass of short messages can be quite uninformative at times but at times 140 characters is capable of putting the message through. The discussion board is probably easier to revisit in the future due to the organized structure but to engage in closer to real time, twitter certainly has the leg up compared to the forums or the discussion board. In terms of real-time, an in-class discussion is the best way to immediately and direct communicate with one another. The drawback is if everyone is trying to speak at once. The result would be a incomprehensible mess. The same situation would apply to all other mediums including Twitter and possibly even the discussion board. The in-class discussion can be moderated and therefore be the most effective way to communicate among a group. Twitter is definitely an interesting new experience, which I hope to make better use out of over time but I must avoid engrossing myself with excessive status updates.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

The development of a virtual world allows humans to perform actions otherwise limited by our human capacity. For enjoyment virtual reality can loosen the laws of physics and more. The virtual representation of the person is an avatar, which can be created to be similar or completely different from the person in their Earthly form. This freedom of personal identity allows individuals to be and act as then cannot in the real world. For example, medically handicapped individuals can function and appear as a healthy normal avatar when they may not be able to walk or function normally in real life. Away from personal embodiment, a person may assume a role in the virtual world such as leader or member of an organization. According to CNN Health, a virtual resource center was formed in Second Life to help individuals with autism and other related conditions. This can provide help to those seeking such aid. Some corporations also take part in the virtual world by having executives hold a meeting through their avatars. According to the Washington Post, several executives of major corporations including IBM, Linden Labs and others held a meeting in Second Life. This act can allow for spectators to view the meeting and possible engage with other spectators as well regarding the meeting. This accessibility can lead to good publicity but can also be counter productive if the online community does not take part in a serious manner.

The cost of living in the virtual world is much less than that of the real world. Users may obtain fancy accessories for their avatar and live a luxurious life, which would be more difficult to do in real life. Living the virtual luxurious life can come at a cost that an individual may not be able to sustain alongside the real life. Regardless, virtual worlds such as Second Life allows for an escape from reality. It grants the person the ability to do things that otherwise you cannot in reality. The ability to break free from boundaries such as the laws of physics can spur creativity such as owning multiple islands and being able teleport to each of them at your own will. In a case of where a place ceases to exist in reality, The New York Times reports that a famous hotel called Hotel Chelsea was changed in the real world by new management and the former manager recreated the hotel in Second Life. The hotel was digitally replicated and allows for individuals to experience how it originally was. The virtual world makes impossible moments possible but it requires the individual to take the step to create it and take part. Online gaming particularly MMORPG's allow individuals to live a fantasy life and the actions they make is based on how creative they wish to be. They can play casually to have fun or take the game seriously to even as far as online relationships through fictional characters. Real life can get complicated if the person thinks marrying a digital character is synonymous to the real life. Such extreme actions can be the consequence of virtual worlds if the individual gets too drawn in.

Virtual worlds will not vanish in the future. The digital world will grow thanks to expansion of the social network and incorporation of virtual worlds through online gaming and more. Earth could probably be replicated in the virtual world in the future in one instance to provide a substitute for the real world. I would not be surprised if the virtual world will be deemed as a World 2.0 that can almost completely engage our life, but we still need to remember we exist in the original World 1.0.

Social Networking

Social Networking has certainly invited new opportunities and possibilities of use. Many social networking services such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Blog sites have brought upon several new benefits and some issues of concern as well. On the corporate side of the social networking, businesses are capable of obtaining more personal feedback of their products or services, which can serve as vital information for making improvements. A possible downside to community reviews is the validity of such feedback. In Technology Review, researchers say online recommendation systems can be distorted by a minority of users. The mass feedback can be a false representation of criticism if a large number of feedback comes from a small amount of users. In addition, the small representation that votes may be on the extreme end of the spectrum. User feedback can evolve into even more in-depth reviews that show their usage of the product and service.

Businesses are also able to use social networking technology to help with job recruiting. According to the NPR, professional recruiters have begun using MySpace, Facebook, and particularly LinkedIn to locate qualifying candidates for hire. This has resulted in an increase in job recruitment. It is quite possible that in the future, employers may conduct interviews online instead of using phone calls or meeting physically in person.

Social Networking sites also allow for several ways to share content including videos, images, and more. Barb Dybwad of Mashable mentions several ways to utilize twitter other than it's primary status update based function. The expansion of functions for social networking sites allow users to have more options available to them.

The goal of these sites is to get the user to speak out and be more open about their life and opinions. This of course is not what everyone may want since privacy is to be respected as well. Marc Parry of The Chronicle states that research indicates Facebook users have altered their privacy at least once in the history of their account. Social networking will certainly still expand by leaps and bounds but at the same time, the services need to realize there is a limit to how much people are willing to share and there should be control over that.

Social Networking is not to be taken for granted and it will not escape our lives especially with the incorporation of wireless devices.

Check Out Social Networking Sites

There are far too many social networking sites for one person to pick from. The few that I have recently visited are Facebook, Friendster, MySpace, and Linked In. The first thing that comes to mind when visiting these sites is some form of advertising. Facebook didn't directly present a third party ad at the homepage, however the other three had at least one banner ad space of a third party advertiser. Beginning with Facebook, the layout of the website seems organized and easy on the eyes. Although the space is organized, it can easily be populated with an large amount of different information from status updates of friends, events, and even advertisements. Facebook seems to offer a balanced degree of control over what information you see and what you want seen. Facebook appears to be less bloated and provide more focus on your personal friends status in comparison with the others. The others seems to create a general focus on unknown groups and individuals to you, which are recommended to you. Linked In tries to maintain a display of professionalism as a business social networking site whereas the others are more focused on the personal life activities. Linked In's color scheme is more neutral, whereas the others use more vivid color schemes. I feel somewhat insecure about using Friendster and MySpace because of the mass display of advertisements. Regardless, all sites have their own privacy controls and they each seem to have a decent amount of power to personalize your privacy. The simplicity of presenting yourself makes these sites so attractive to people. It's a wonder what will be next.