Blog about Twitter

After using Twitter for the first time I found getting use to the limit set on the amount of characters you can have in a single message to be difficult. I was aware of this limitation before I used Twitter but found that it was hard to condense what you were trying to say in only 140 characters. Of course the whole point of the website is to provide short messages and I’d imagine that I’d get use to it eventually with continued use.  Because of this limitation Twitter discussions aren’t as in depth as a Blackboard or in-class discussion.  It can also be confusing to follow a conversation if a person did not reply properly or re-tweet an old message. Blackboard organizes messages in threads like a basic forum so it is easy to follow the conversation.  One of the advantages of a Twitter discussion is the fact that most people have a smart phone or internet access so they can be notified of a reply, Blackboard does not have an application that I am aware of that would allow someone to receive instant notification so you may get a late reply or no reply at all when using Blackboard. In my opinion Twitter is also more user friendly than Blackboard so besides formulating what you are trying to say in 140 characters it can be easier to use than Blackboard. Ultimately both Twitter and Blackboard lack face to face interaction found in an in-class discussion. An in-class discussion allows people to better understand what someone is saying because you can directly get feedback and ask questions to a person. You don’t have to wait for someone to reply or to get notification. An in-class discussion also offers more clarity by allowing you to see and hear the person’s emotions; It may be possible to misunderstand a person’s tone through text but you always know someone’s tone when they are talking to you.  It is with this reasoning that I believe an in-class discussion is the best option, when left to choose between Twitter and Blackboard I think it can go either way based on how much depth you want to add to the conversation.

Social Networking Sites

Facebook is currently the most popular and largest social networking site. Some of its features include allowing you to add friends, instant message, provide status updates which allow the user to tell their friends what they are up to, have a “wall” which allows a user’s friends to post comments and messages to their friend, create events, upload photos and videos, and use various applications. I believe that the reason this site is the most popular is because it of its simple and easy to use design layout. For someone who is unfamiliar with social networking sites they will probably have the easiest time learning Facebook compared to the other social networks I will discuss. 

MySpace is a slightly older site than Facebook. On MySpace users are allowed to have a homepage, friends, and can have status updates similar to Facebook and various applications like web based games. The main difference between MySpace and Facebook is its music features; MySpace allows users to create playlists and also suggests music you may like based on what you listen to. MySpace used to have a confusing layout that looked less neat than Facebook. Since then MySpace has changed their layout and more or less copied many popular features on Facebook such as the previously mentioned web based games.  It’s hard to say whether or not people will go back to MySpace or not but it seems doubtful. Most of us associate MySpace with a younger user base than Facebook because it’s the social network we used during high school or even younger times.  

Twitter is a social networking site that allows its users to post short messages (only 140 characters) called “tweets”. Usually when someone tweets it is about what is currently happening to them. Twitter doesn’t focus on a traditional friends list like MySpace or Facebook but instead allows users to follow other people. When Twitter first came out it was mostly used by celebrities but since then it is catching on among a lot of people. Like Facebook, Twitter’s layout is simplistic and fairly easy to understand.

Lastly, LinkedIn is a social networking site that is business oriented.  Its features include allowing its user’s to make a profile which typically acts as a resume listing previous and current job experience, your company, and your industry. LinkedIn allows its user to create a network that consists of “connections” which include people you know and expand to the people they know. With the growing popularity of social networking companies are actually making use of LinkedIn and it is becoming a viable option for someone looking for a job.

Social Networking

It should not be surprising that the use of social networking is vastly increasing in our society because of its many benefits. Some of the obvious benefits of this type of technology are its ability to keep friends, and family in touch with one another. Physical barriers such as distance are no longer an issue and it is effortless to reach out to an old friend or just stay in touch with your current friends. Another not so obvious benefit of social networking can be found in Heather Timmons's article "In India, Using Facebook to Catch Scofflaw Drivers".  Police in New Delhi, India have used Facebook to collaborate with citizens who can post pictures of wreck less drivers in order to help make the traffic filled streets safer.  In this case another benefit of Social Networking is to moderate illegal activity, such as wreck less driving.

 One way corporations are starting to use Social Networking is as a way to recruit people for jobs. People can find better jobs and corporations can find better workers. Professional recruiters are finding it easier to use social network sites such as LinkedIn as oppose to a traditional rolodex. In Frank Langfitt's article "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting" Shally Steckerl along with other corporate headhunters have found that by using social networking sites they can vastly increase the size of their rolodex. With social network sites Steckerl can see directly who his all contacts friends are without having to call them first; therefore if Steckerl has 8500 contacts this could potentially lead to him to have as many as 4.5 million leads when looking to fill a job slot.  

Sadly there is a "dark side" to Social Networking which is its lack of privacy. Social Networking makes it easier for you to stay connected with others but it also makes it easier for unwanted people to find information about you. These people include corporations, predators, and identity thieves. The article "Leaving 'Friendprints': How Online Social Networks Are Redefining Privacy and Personal Security" revealed that with simply a person's name, date of birth, and list of friends a person can be at risk for identity theft. Even if a person’s profile uses privacy settings it doesn’t necessarily mean they are protected because their friends profile may not be as secure. Another downside with regard to lack of privacy is the lack of separation between corporate and personal use. As mentioned earlier LinkedIn is popular among corporations to recruit new employees, however there isn’t much to stop a corporation from seeing your casual persona such as your Facebook profile which in turn may affect the outcome of you getting hired or not.

Social networking has come a long way and still seems to be getting more intricate and advanced.  One possible way for Social networking to evolve is by incorporating the technology of voice over  internet protocol. By using VOIP social networking sites can bring back more human interaction by allowing friends to talk directly to each other as if they were on a phone call, or possibly make it so they can incorporate chartrooms where multiple friends can have a conversation where they can just talk and avoid chat messages.

Blogs vs Wikis

With the growing use of wiki’s and blogs in today’s world it is important to distinguish the differences between each, along with how they are used. A blog is similar to a journal, it usually only has one author however there can be multiple authors. Typically blogs talk about every day things or things that matter to the person blogging. Blogging is more personal than wiki's because the blogger can express his or her opinion on an event while wiki's are fact based. Blogs offer some interaction between the blogger and the person reading the blog by allowing people to leave comments and send a message to the blogger. Blogs usually have an archive because a time line is relevant; the blogger may change their opinion about something, or constantly update people on an ongoing story.

An example of blogs used for collaboration can be found in Michael Wilson’s article “Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid”. A blog known as bayridgetalk.com was used by a core group of seven citizens to post on suspicious activity within Bayridge. The blog led to the arrest of 5 drug dealers within a few months. Without the blog it would have been much harder to communicate and make the neighborhood aware of what was going on in the area.

A wiki is more like an encyclopedia. It allows multiple users to edit content and the content is updated or edited when necessary. There is no need to archive a wiki because information on a wiki is suppose to be updated or edited as new information becomes available. Wiki’s often use other wiki pages in order to link relevant information together.

 It is hard to think of a new use for a wiki because many diverse industries and people have already found a use for wiki’s. For example, in “More on How to Build Your Own Wikipedia” by Margaret Locher wiki’s are a growing part of corporate use along with personal use.  Companies like EMC are beginning to use wiki’s because they are cheap and don’t necessarily require IT specialization to run them.  Even for education wiki’s are starting to become tools for learning; this online course has a wiki available to students. Perhaps a new use for a wiki would be a social network format were people will be listed along with their biography, accomplishments, and other factual information. Hopefully this idea will never happen because it seems to go a little too far with regard to people’s privacy.

Convergence is important in today's world because as Kathy Gill points out in "How can we measure the influence of the blogosphere"  the advance in technologies throughout the year such as the internet have made people have new expectations about the "right to express an opinion and access information upon which to base that opinion" (pg 1:introduction). Things like blogging and wiki's help people access this kind of information easier. Not only do people have easier access to information through blogs and wikis but these tools also force mass media to present its news differently. As Gill points out, mass media often presents a homogenization of news; blogger's can challenge mainstream media and force them to move from being just observers to commentators. Blogs can even change the agenda on what to report on and what is considered news worthy. Without convergence people will be starved for the information that they actually want and instead they will be given a homogenization of information the mass media decides to report on.

P2P Sharing: Helping or Hurting?

For my research project I have chosen to do an analysis of the new media technology Peer-to-Peer (P2P) sharing. When most people hear of P2P sharing they usually think of things like Limewire, torrents, or some other form of illegal sharing so I believed this would be an interesting technology to analyze. It is often easy for people to list the negative effects of P2P technologies such as piracy, however there are positive effects of this technology as well. In my project I will try to determine whether P2P is helping or hurting society as a whole. I believe the best approach to my topic would be to focus less on the technical aspect of P2P and more on specific instances of its usage. I will be focusing on mainstream uses of P2P sharing such as “warez” websites, torrents, and other file sharing programs.