Checking Out Some Social Networking Sites

The 4 Social networking sites that I checked out were, Facebook, Xanga, MySpace, and Friendster. Xanga is the older one of the bunch. It is a website that I created a profile for when I just began high school. It is a website where you are able to express your feelings, and just post entries about anything you want. People are able to comment and suscribe to each other's xanga's. This website basically was my introduction to social networking. Most of you should know what Myspace and Facebook are but if you guys don't they are basically social networking sites where users, register and create profiles. They are able to upload pictures of themselves, join groups comment on their friends profiles or even make new friends. MySpace and Facebook are two very similar sites, but they are both very popular for a good reason, because it they are so addicting! I'm sure many students waste countless hours on Facebook while they should be studying! I never had a Friendster account, but i created one a few days ago to check it out. It seems to have similar features to Facebook and Myspace, I can tell why it was popular as well.

Book Review Outline

Rule The Web by Mark Frauenfelder
Intro
I Description of what the book is about
II Goals and Effectiveness of the book
III Books audience and who it is written for

Body
I Review 3 major points
II Analyze 3 major points
III Does the book accomplish its goals.

Body 2
I Books Contribution to New Media
II How material relates to what we are learning in class
III My opinion if book is still valid.

Conclusion
I My overall opinion of the book
II Sum up key points

Social Networking and Virtual Worlds

There are many ways social networking and virtual world technologies can be used. Social networking can be used to as a great communication tool, to be able to interact with new people, or friends that you already have. The people you meet can be just friends, possible employers, or even dates. Also some companies are using social networking tools as well. According to the article "Why Is Nissan Mimicking MySpace?", Nissan incorporated a social networking system because they felt that it would speed up the communication process between employees and work would be completed more efficiently. Virtual Worlds. can be used as a way to teach. For example in the article "IBM Learning Programs Get a ‘Second Life’ IBM has incorporated virtual worlds in its orientation trainings.

The major benefit of these technologies is that it gives another very good means of communication. It allows easy and quick access to be able to meet people and interact with people you already know. It presents many opportunities, for example a social networking site like Linkedin, is able to connect its members , and people are able to be offered jobs because of it.

There is a dark side to social networking though. There have been many incidents with social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook where some people ended up interacting with the wrong person and put themselves in harms way. There have been occurrences on Myspace where a girl ended up being stalked because she communicated with the wrong guy.

I think these technologies can evolve even further in the future. When it does evolve it more be a even more powerful tool. I don't know how much further it can evolve but I'm sure with technology the way it is, it will for sure.

Term Project Sources

Here is a list a current sources I have more my term project, more will be coming upon research.


http://www.rileyguide.com/network.html

http://career-advice.monster.com/career-networking/home.aspx

http://shiftingcareers.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/taking-the-social-networking-plunge/?hp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf

http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/

Baruch New Media - Our Class Wiki - So Far

So far for our class wiki I have not added any articles, but I have done research and have a good amount of information which I will post up soon. I have have researched on sports and new media and slightly on entertainment in new media. Some useful information that I found was how some sports have used new media to give fans coverage of a variety of different aspects of the sports. For example in Nascar.com's website it talked about a program that was launched that gave fans access to updated photos of the racers, updated media clips, and it even had a feature where a fan is able to get an view of the racetracks. Also in the PGA tour, there is a new media technology which enables fans, to follow every golfers shot, on one of its most popular holes and fans have access to press converages as well as being able to view a virtual tour of the greens.

Blogs vs. Wikis

Blogs and Wikis are two very similar technologies, but they are also different in a few ways. Blogs and Wikis both allow for idea sharing. Wikis are for the most part a collaborative effort; many people are able to make changes, so its a combination of peoples thoughts about certain topics. According to the article on wikis on wikipedia.com a wiki is "a page or collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language. " The way that blogs are different is that they are more personalized. Usually it is one person that is able to create new post and edit old ones. Also blogs may include more about the personal lives of some people. Blogs also have been used as a news source. The article Celebrity Blogs: The Impact of New Media, discusses how some blog writers have been succesful in reporting celebrity news. They are one of the first to report the news as it comes out.

Convergence is very important in todays networked world. Communication is essenstial in today's world, and nowdays with technological convergence, it has become easier for people to communicate with others even if they are halfway across the world. Technologies like wikis and blogs have allowed employees from the same company but who are working in different countries share ideas and work together. In todays networked world this is very important because the better our communication tools are, the more we can get done.

A way that Blogs can be used for collaboration is by having a small group of people share a account and post there thoughts about a certain topic. This would all go on one blog, but since its more than one person writing, it wouldn't always stick to one side.

I can't really think of any new uses for wikis, but they are very powerful tools and can be used in many different ways. Any type of thing for sharing ideas and performing collaborative assignments, wikis should be able to do.

My New Media Class – So Far

According to the article "8 Business Technology Trends to Watch" it states the advancement of the internet or Web 2.0 as a main technology which is a part of new media. This includes technologies like blogs, wikis, and social networking websites like Facebook. Some other technologies that are a part of new media are things like, getting scores sent directly to your text phone via text message.

The internet is a vital part of new media. New media is a enhanced from of communication where people from one end of the world are able to contact people from the other end. The main source of this communication is the internet. Without the internet, there wouldn't be a new media. We need the internet, to blog, wiki, and social networking, without it, those would not be possible.

New media has been enhancing old media. Back in the day, books, newspapers, and magazines were the main forms of media. Now days books can be found electronically online. There are many articles everywhere online, and even most newspapers publish their articles online. If a even happens, people can use new media technology and they will find out instantly. While it would take newspapers until the next day to report it.