The Next New Thing

The next new media type should be virtual food.
By use of electrodes inserted into the brain and mouth (which would be connected to neurons in the brain), people can put in an application into a device, connect the electrode apparatus (which is part of the device) to themselves and select an exotic type of food or drink to try.
Although, the virtual food would not provide any sustenance, it would allow for people to expand their pallet and perhaps want to try the real thing.
Potential users of this new media type would be customers at restaurants. The customers could try a digital sample of the food before they order (the menu would probably be a miniature computer that electrodes available for customers to use), as to ensure they do not have to return the actual--physical--food dish when it comes, ultimately saving time and money for the restaurant and customer.

Our Class Wiki - So Far

Because my speciality is in internet piracy (meaning I have done a great deal of research on the subject), I will be contributing to the "p2p" section of our class' wiki. Sometime next week I will make my contribution to the page. I will focus more on the origins of p2p (adding to and editing what has already been posted), as well as, adding a new header, "The Various Types of P2P," which will have descriptions of the various forms of p2p (there are more than just napster and bitorrents).
In addition, I have already edited a few pages that had technical errors and contextual errors.

About My Term Research Paper

Hello everyone.

I have changed my thesis for my project. Rather than doing an analysis of the subculture, I am will be showing that MP3 piracy online is much more elaborate than the media portrays (not just a 14 year old uploading mp3s ripped with windows media player onto kaaza).

My research has been quite extensive. in fact, there is very little published on what I am doing. There are numerous publications by the US Dept of Justice about arrests, but most of my information comes from "fieldwork" as well as from the book Software Piracy Exposed (Paul Craig and Mark Burnett: 2005) .

I have learned a great deal about my topic, mostly surrounding the origins of digital media piracy on the Internet.

I chose this topic because a large number of people illegally download music, but are clueless as to where it comes from, not to mention the fact that digital media piracy is a result of new media.

My findings show that the MP3 piracy scene is more than just a 14 year old kid, using windows media player, it is in fact a complex system that involves thousands of people and processes. Quality is key in the MP3 piracy scene.

As I mentioned above, digital media piracy is a result of new media, meaning that without types of new media such as CDs, DVDs, console games, and computer applications, there would be no media to pirate and spread digitally.

(I'm still working on the paper due to the fact I completely reformed my thesis and outline...so i might add more to this later on)

Privacy and Confidentiality (Relative to New Media)

How does privacy and confidentiality relate to new media?

Simple, if you have a Facebook, Twitter and/or MySpace profile and you make it available for everyone to see, well, you have no privacy. I am being a bit facetious, but there is truth to my statement.

I shall use a simple analogy (using social networking sites) to better explain what I mean: Think of your Facebook, Twitter and/or MySpace profile as a window to your bedroom. If you pull your window’s shade up, everything you do, say, or have in your room is visible to the people outside. If you pull down the shade, the things that go on in your room are no longer visible to the people outside, only to those you trust enough to bring inside your room.

I use social networking sites for my example because they are the more commonly used forms of new media and people have a tendency to post a lot of personal information and photos on their social networking profiles. However, like closing a window shade to hide things that go on in your bedroom, you can hide your profile from certain people so you are still able to maintain privacy. Or, you can make your profile public and not post anything you consider too personal (duh!).

For other forms of new media, perhaps email or online banking, confidentiality and privacy can and are maintained by using tools such as SSL (secure socket layering). SSL is an encryption method that, usually, makes data you send encrypted to those who do not have the proper viewing privileges (you usually see “https://” when SSL is being used on websites).

Once again going back to my analogy for social networking sites, if you make your data accessible to anyone (i.e. keeping your window shade pulled up), you should not expect your data/information to be private or confidential. And going back to the original question, privacy and confidentiality relate to new media as much as they relate to anything else in the world—if you want something kept private, you find ways to keep it private.

Advice to Baruch College

I was asked the following question:

“You are hired by Baruch College to use new media to improve the College. What are some suggestions you would make?”

This is a rather difficult question to answer. I say this because most of the ideas I would suggest have already been done—Facebook group pages, Twitter notifications, blogs, RSS feeds, online courses, etc.... Baruch already offers these, plus more.

However, I do have one suggestion for something Baruch does not seem to offer yet: Offer online courses in a virtual world (similar to Second Life). I believe using a virtual world, like Second Life, for online courses and lectures would engage the students more. Currently, streaming videos, wikis and blogs are used for online courses. But, if students were able to interact (using avatars) with one another (as they would in a virtual world), they might be more intrigued by the course work. The tools being used now for such courses can even be added into a virtual world, making the possibilities endless.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds’ uses have been evolving over the past decade. These virtual worlds were made popular by games such as World of Warcraft or the Simms. However, the game aspect has slowly been removed from these virtual worlds—e.g. Second Life and Enterprise. The modern virtual worlds can be used for a variety of things, such as company meetings, viewing live (real world) concerts and even to partake in congressional hearings. There is even a place for real world people with autism and aspergers syndrome (the disease Tom Hank’s character, Forest Gump, suffered from) can go and “practice social interaction and find information about the[ir] condition. The graphical representations of real people create a ‘comfort zone’ that can coax users out of their shells and get them communicating with others.”

Virtual worlds allow people to network and interact with one another globally, without having to leave the comfort of their own home/office. They might even be able to do things they are not able to do in the real world. However, this might not be such a great thing.

Virtual worlds have the potential to remove people from their, normal, everyday interactions; people can, and have, become obsessed with their virtual lives, going as far as not wanting to leave their home for days at a time (I personally know people who have done this). An obsession like that can affect their real world relationships and networks. Real world relationships and networks are probably more important (i.e. making money, food, procreation, conversation, physical interaction, etc…) than staring at a computer and watching a digital version of yourself do it. Still, it isn’t everyone who is obsessed to the point of not wanting to leave their home (to play on Second Life or Warcraft).

Virtual worlds have the potential to make life more convenient, and people are constantly thinking up creative new ways to improve on these virtual worlds. I mean, going into a virtual bar to watch a real world concert (being streamed live into the virtual bar) is pretty creative if you ask me.

Most likely, more and more features will be added to virtual worlds; perhaps one day I will no long have to physically stand on line at the DMV, instead, I will be able to have my digital self wait online for me. The rate at which these virtual worlds are evolving, that might not be such an unlikely scenario in the near future.

Social Networking

Social networking sites have a variety of uses. There are some, like LinkedIn, which allow for people to search for jobs or employers to search for potential employees. Then there are other sites, such as MySpace which allows for people to interact globally, as well as, serving as a resource for small music groups to be heard and promoted. There are also sites like Facebook, which like MySpace, allows for interaction among users globally, a nice interface for online photo hosting and a good way to promote events and groups--even the Obama campaign utilized Facebook's extensive networking capabilities. The benefits of social networking sites are endless. Frank Langfitt, of NPR, states, "Professional recruiters have started hunting for job candidates using social networking technology," using such sites as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. These sites also allow for old friends, who perhaps haven't communicated for years, to reconnect and for people to have an easy way to organize events and monitor guest lists and event information.
However, not all social networking sites are so beneficial to society. There are a number of malicious gossip sites in which members can anonymously torment and criticize other members, or non-members of their schools in a public forum--e.g. sites such as JuciyCampus, CampusGossip and CollegeACB. Such sites have been described as having the potential to, "cause harm to reputations, with serious impacts on students if the messages are seen by future employers or potential suitors. Unlike slurs scrawled on bathroom walls, online posts can be more public and more lasting" (Young, Chronicle.com). One site, named PeoplesDirt (a peer-slander site for High School students), received so much negative feedback that "Maryland's attorney general opened an investigation into the site, describing it in a written statement as 'home almost exclusively to abusive, harmful, and embarrassing personal attacks on high-school-aged children'"--further exemplifying the potential dangers of certain social networking sites (Young, Chronicle.com).
Nevertheless, social networking sites have the potential to become even better. Facebook has added more features to make communication among users even easier (such as Facebook chat), and eventually even more advanced means of communication and networking will become standard, maybe instant text chatting will become obsolete and instant video chat will become the new way of online social networking.