The Next New Thing

Virtual Shopping? I mean have we seen google earth? It can basically show you any part of the world, and almost live!

Why not use the same concept for shopping? Would we one day be able to feed the interior visual of an opt-in retailer so that users at home are able to see the real-time physical collection at the store and browse around?

Imagine having the convenience of browsing your favorite store beforehand so that you are able to pinpoint and map out your shopping trip!? How many times have we wondered if a store carried a certain product? We all know that their e-commerce sites are rarely ever accurate on stock!

Or am I the only one that would use this service?

Our Class Wiki - So Far

For our class wiki, I have chosen to be an editor of the "New Media and Dating" section. I have been researching heavily on not only new content in this area, but actual content that would be of interest to the college student. I believe I have found the perfect contribution and will be finalizing the details of it within the next week or so. Please look out for a very unique and fun twist to the "New Media and Dating" section of wiki's.

P2P File Sharing

This is by far one of the most interesting topics to discuss and debate on.  File sharing is an enormous function of the internet today and to name the most popular is the ability to post content on sites such as youtube, facebook, blogger, etc., where a mass audience is able to view said file. P2P file sharing is a form of file sharing in the respect that you are directly sharing a file with another peer, rather than a mass audience. We see examples of P2P file sharing and have most likely engaged in multiple forms of this many times in our lives. The most popular and controversial is that of downloading music through host sites like Napster, Kazaa, or Limewire. All of these sites have been shut down due to legal issues.  From Daniel Kreps article, "$1.5 Million Dollar Fine for Downloading 24 Songs," we see that the implications of engaging in such illegal activities can cost an individual tons of money. This shows how much P2P file sharing has affected us today. The availability and accessibility that P2P provides us is far more attractive than having to dish out money for something we much rather not pay for. Times have changed although, and the law has been working very hard to crack down on individuals who are distributing illegal files (without copyright permission) via P2P. While not all are caught, we see that the few who are, will face harsh consequences.

About My Term Research Paper

My term paper was on how "The Twitter Life" has actually affected life itself. I chose this topic because I find it extremely fascinating the uses of Twitter for both the individual and the business. It is amazing what 140 characters coupled with a enormous amount of "followers" can create. Not many see deeper than what it really is, and I hope to have shed some light to this revolutionary micro-blogging tool that has dominated the social media realm. In my research I further developed my take on how Twitter has evolved the political, economical, social, and technological worlds all in positive and negative aspects. I also learned that Twitter has connected millions of people in ways that would've not been possible a mere three years ago while simultaneously placing a social disconnect on the interpersonal aspect to interaction (but that is a totally different argument).

Creativity and New Media

So I actually never heard of or even seen anything of "Second Life." I was extremely shocked as I thought I knew about everything!

And I signed up for an account and created "MisterBojangles," the wild child. Check out what I accomplished within the first 3 minutes of Second Life.

Yes, that is not one, but two women surrounding Mister Bojangles. One from Texas and one from North Carolina. Oh and look, they are twins!

I then ended up ditching them and decided to get away and relax by myself. You know, women can stress a guy out. Check out my Second Life view!

As you can see, there are definitely great networking opportunities with this new media. The lady from Texas owns her own business and asked if I wanted to join! Of course I said no, but this just shows the potential that this program has! It also provides a sense of realism which always makes things more exciting. I will see what else I can get out of this moving forward!

Creativity

What happens when you give a child a new toy?




Simply put, they respond in the following ways:
1) Become extremely happy and excited
2) Play with it for hours and 
3) Discover new ways to use it aside from its intended use


So how does this relate to us?


Simply put, this is exactly how we respond to new media once we have accepted it.


This means that we were raised to explore with creativity. New media is just another toy that fosters creativity in our curious minds. Twitter for example has built most of its features through listening to its own users. As Eric von Hippel stated in Claire Cain Miller's New York Times article, Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers, “Twitter’s smart enough, or lucky enough, to say, ‘Gee, let’s not try to compete with our users in designing this stuff, let’s outsource design to them.’ ”


What a brilliant idea huh? Well, isn't that how all ideas are generated? We look at how people react or attempt to use a product and then we provide them with a finished product that addresses their concern. This cycle of creativity is exactly how new media has grown into such a conglomerate in the online realm. People are able to share their ideas instantly to millions and millions of people. To some, these exposed ideas are then fostered into greater ideas, which can then ultimately lead to another form of new media!

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Having virtual worlds is another addition to the many forms of communication that we have come to know today. Virtual worlds allow individuals to creatively form a life in which he/she is able to decide on every aspect of it. This allows the individual to portray almost any situation desired and is then able to live it out. By having these possibilities, many companies have seized this as an opportunity to further develop their employees. Rashik Parmer, IBM's Chief Technology Officer, discussed in CNN.com's article - Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life, that by using technology of this stature, he was able to not only save on travel time but has also received much more feedback in terms of generating ideas. As I have mentioned in my previous blogs, there has been a growing amount of people that much rather communicate virtually rather than personally. By having virtual worlds, one can be more comfortable in expressing and communicating their ideas to a larger group of people. Through Stephanie Simon's article in The Wall Street Journal, Avatar II: The Hospital, we see another example of how virtual worlds have played a pertinent role in the training of employees. When speaking on how virtual worlds have been applied to hospitals, she states that, "participants can build their own virtual clinics and stage just about any training drill they can imagine." This allows for a life-like simulation at a much lower cost and higher usage rate. One very important thing that I think the article has forgotten to mention is that virtual worlds used in training can also help a company achieve consistent standards across all the markets they are present in, by issuing the same virtual world training to all their associates.


But, as with any change/addition in our lives, there are of course some negative factors that play into the use of such a technical system. There are the many technical difficulties that may arise and disrupt the accuracy of its portrayal of reality, coupled with the actual teaching of how to even use the virtual world application itself and we already have a slew of situations.


Other than the minor difficulties that may arise here and there, I believe that this system will have many uses in the near future. I wouldn't be surprised if they even began to use virtual worlds to develop specific play-calls in the sports world. I'm pretty sure it will be more clearer than the X's and O's they currently use on the drawing boards...