P2P

New media companies continue to have a hard time managing piracy, also known as, digital theft. While file sharing and peer to peer file sharing would factor in to digital theft since is one of the means of piracy, not all file sharing and peer to peer filing would be considered illegal activity. For background, file sharing is the act of transferring files from one computer to another. Peer to peer file sharing (aka P2P file sharing) allows someone to access things such as music, movies, or book using a P2P software. For example, Amazon allows you to loan someone a book from your library which is totally legal.

Hollywood is still fighting the piracy battle. Brad Stone and Brian Stilter wrote an article that appeared in the New York Times, titled, "Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios" that covered the enormous efforts the makers of the move Dark Knights made with the creation of a anti piracy campaign that failed. The movie was illegal reproduced despite all of their efforts.

Next New

The next new media I foresee is FaceTime that allows for visual group conversations. Currently, FaceTime only allows for two people on separate phones to use the app. I think Apple or someone should create an app that allows for multiple people to partake in the visual conversation. This could be similar to Skype, but for mobile devices. This could be very helpful for professionals working in multiple locations and also has benefits for more casual usage.

Privacy

Privacy on new media continues to be an hot topic. Although privacy filters are offered on social media sites such as Facebook, it is very common to hear stories about people's accounts being hacked. This also leads to concerns with identity theft. As new media become more advanced in protecting uses, so do the skills of the hackers. It is recommended to have separate passwords for accounts and to link you email to your accounts to help monitor usual activity.

Creativity and New Media

In my search for new media creativity ideas I stumbled across Google's Made with Code. Here's a link to a light up dress I created:

Enjoy!

Creativity

New media provides people from diverse backgrounds and interests access to various tools that can spur creativity. A story published in The New Yorker titled, "1+1+1=1 The new math of mashups.", details a guy, Jeremy Brown aka DJ Reset, that created a mashup by combining lyrics from Debra from a Beck album with vocals from Jay-Z and Pharrel's song Frontin. The new mashup soon Jeremy created  from his apartment in Long Island City was "Frontin on Debra", and he offered the song on iTunes. DJ Reset's access to various songs, beats, and the iTunes provided him access to what he needed to produce and sell the "mashup" piece. Mashups produced by others continues to thrive.

Other examples of how new media fosters creativity can also be seen among the pop culture. A few examples include the use of filters on new media sites such as Snapchat, the use of quirky slangs such as "bye Felicia", and the ALS challenge videos that aided in raising money for research.

Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds are increasingly becoming popular, especially within the gaming industry targeting children. Personally, my children create avatars for some of the online games they play on their Kindle. The military uses it to help heal soldiers when they return from combat. Also, virtual worlds help in healthcare and education. For example, according to an CNN.com iReport titled, 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction,' Dave Savil suffers from Asperger's syndrome and uses his avatar to education people about autism.

Savill, who represents himself in the virtual world using an avatar named Dave Sparrow, said one benefit is that visitors can practice social interaction and find information about the 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, he said.

The pros include the ability to escape to a virtual world and isolation and being "alone together", as stated in a Forbes.com piece, titled, "After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot?" On the flip side, some people get addicted to living in the fantasy world and have a hard time getting back to reality.

Virtual worlds foster creative across industries such as education, entertainment, healthcare, and other sectors. I think this industry will continue to grow and will target more millennia based on the buying power of this demographic group.

Social Networking Sites

While I find social media to be very helpful for maintaining relationships with friends and family, it's also beneficial in the business world. Here are brief descriptions on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram along with my personal thoughts on how they differ for both personal and professional use:

- Facebook allows users to create a user profile, add other users as "friends", exchange messages, post status updates and photos, share videos, use various apps, and receive notifications when others update their profiles. This new media site is a favorite for people that like to connect with friends and family regardless of their location. That said, businesses use it too. No character limitations here! You can also go "live" by taking video footage in real time.

- Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read short 140-character messages called "tweets". Registered users can read and post tweets, but those who are unregistered can only read them. The same thing that makes it unique, is the same thing that deters people from using it.... the character limit. Twitter is very popular among celebrities and businesses. Sometimes it can be seen has one-way communication if you don't have a vibrant following.

- LinkedIn is the world's largest professional networking site. I personally like to use it as my virtual professional Rolodex and it's a great tool for job hunting.

- Instagram has one of the most dominating social media services, it’s also become one of the most popular websites in the world. Its highly visual as it's best known for allowing users to posting photos and vides with brief commentary. Increasingly, entrepreneurs use this site to sell products. Advertising is also becoming very popular.

Other social media sites include Snapchat, kik, YouTube, Flipboard, and Pinterest.

Social Net'g

Social media networking has many uses today such as creating and maintaining relationships, communicating with family and friends that are literally across the world. In a New York Times story, titled, "Brave New World of Digital Intimacy", Clive Thompson, wrote about how Facebook allows users to feel "as if they've never actually been apart." Also, companies use social media sites to promote their products, and law enforcement uses social media networking sites to help solve crimes. Some of the benefits to society is that it is little to no cost, and allows people from all economic backgrounds access to information.

However, there is a dark side to social media networking. There have been many cases of people that commit suicide because of internet bullying. The Chronicle for Higher Education published an article written by Jeffery R. Young, titled, "They're back and They're Bad:Campus Gossip Websites," that covers the impact of these sites on students and overall internet shaming. Child predators and other criminals can also be found lurking on social media.

We're seeing the evolution of social media now as it's being incorporated in the classroom, and technologies are being created to further advance social media. I foresee having access to social media sites on airplanes in a similar fashion to how the television on a plane is the norm.

Blog v Wiki

Blogs and wikis are new media tools that help to share information. They are web pages that can be created or edited by anyone with permission. Both are collaborative, and can be used for personal or professional purposes. One difference between these online communication tools is that a blog can be based on opinion, whereas a wikis tend to be more factual.

In terms of how these technologies are currently being used, InformationWeek published a piece titled, "How to Use Wikis For Business." The piece states that many businesses use wikis when they are looking to establish a company intranet; want to publish corporate documents in a universal location and let employees manage this documents; and when the want to organize meeting notes, team agendas, and company calendars. Blogs are also used by companies to help generate sales, and to elevate the profile of the business or employees.

Beyond the business component, blogs are used in education, and in some cases to promote people's personal interests such as cars, travel, and sports. Additionally, blogs have been used to fight crime. Reporter Michael Wilson wrote an article, titled, "Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid," which covered how residents in a Brooklyn community used a blog that once profiled community events and yard sales to shed light on a crack house and related drug activity. Residents kept up-to-date on the criminal activity and almost immediately reported when police made the drug bust and arrested the parties involved.

Moving forward, blogs and wikis should be explored more in K-12 to expose students to writing, research, and overall information sharing using these new media tools.

References:
InformationWeek - How To Use Wikis For Business.pdf
"How to Use Wikis for Business," by Ezra Goodnoe, Information Week, August 8, 2005
Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid By MICHAEL WILSON The New York Times June 26, 2008 available at:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/nyregion/26bayridge.html 

Facebook's Impact on Society

One of the most widely used social media platforms is Facebook. In fact, Facebook is the largest social media networks in the world with over a billion and a half monthly active users. There’s no disputing that the digital empire has greatly impacted society. Facebook has changed the way people communicate, how people communicate, and what is communicated. It has changed relationships such as how relationships are formed and maintained. Facebook has also changed technology and how people utilize technology.

First Blog Post

This is the first of a series of blog entries.

Stay tuned…

N Stevens