Creativity and New Media

For this assignment, I used the internet to visit the Second Life website page, from there I was able to view many different avatars from which I could choose from, for example, “classic avatars”, “vampire avatars”, and “people avatars” were choices that were available. Once I choose an avatar that was to my liking, I was able to create an account with Second Life. The software was downloaded on to my computer. Through the Second Life’s software, I was able to log-in and start enjoying the virtual environment. Second Life assisted me in learning how to use the keyboard to maneuver to the left or to the right, I was taught how to walk, jump and fly in the virtual world. I thought this was definitely a great way to show the creativeness of new media, being a part of the virtual world was very interesting, the visuals were realistic, and the noises of the birds and crickets were both creative and lifelike. I found Second Life to be creative; it’s a great way to meet new people, especially for people who may be slightly shy or introverted. It can be a great place for people with phobias and disabilities where communities and societies can be created for support; geography does not have to play a barrier in virtual reality as it could restrict people in real life to look for such communities. Multinational organizations and even professional associations can meet in a virtual reality. On the surface, virtual realities may look like a game of sorts, but when further considered it can be a great life line for many people. 

Creativity

New Media has great potential to provide or spark an avenue towards creativity, this can be depicted through some of this week’s assigned readings on creativity, such as an article called “1+1+1=1 The New Math of Mashups”, written by Sasha Frere-Jones. Through this article, I was able to learn that original songs are being recreated or rather renewed through new media technology; two different artists from two completely different songs are joined together creating an end result of a “mashup”. In other words, mashups are created by using different features and components from two different songs (more than two may be used) which are then interwoven into a single piece of work.  This can only truly be created through the assistance of new media technology. In fact, within the article it is stated by Mark Vidler that “you don’t need a distributor, because your distribution is the Internet. You don’t need a record label, because it’s your bedroom, and you don’t need a recording studio, because that’s your computer. You do it all yourself” (par.6). Mashups are possible through the pairing of the right technology which could include software packages, laptops, and an internet service. Technology makes mashup easier, creative folks with interests and hobbies in the area of music can have a simple and fun time with creating mashups, in fact, new media technology provides the opportunity for creativity to work at its best because it breaks down barriers such as costs. Through this article, I was able to learn that some mashup songs were even more popular than the original songs. New media technology helps one visualize the true potentials of songs by evolving them into mashup or remixed songs, something that probably was really impossible before. Furthermore, for those folks that created some of the most popular mashup songs, they were able to land professional jobs and opportunities. In this way, new media technology has fostered creativity in people who are able to utilize the technology in a way to provide audiences with mashup songs that some of time tend to be much more popular than its original.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

After reading some of the assigned readings, I learned that virtual worlds can be used for many different purposes such as educational, entertainment, professional meetings for employees of corporations and business firms, creating communities for folks who may be in similar situations or circumstances, a social platform for meeting other people, and even visiting and traveling to other areas of the world virtually. I read the Forbes interview article, called “After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get A Reboot”, written by Diane Mehta. In the interview article, Mehta was interviewing Jacki Morie; I learned that virtual worlds can be used to provide healing for soldiers as well as training and preparing them. Morie had stated that “What If I built Iraqi village and we used it for healing instead of for training? Or I put in artificial intelligence (AI) characters as villagers?  What if we use this for healing to repair some done by people with these conflicts?” (par.14). I found this to be extremely interesting; to use virtual reality for healing purposes is extremely creative.  Another article that I found interesting was called “Avatar II: The Hospital”, written by Stephanie Simon; it discussed how virtual reality worlds can be utilized to help prepare nurses for what may occur in the real world. I thought that this could be incredibly helpful as well as cost saving, all in one. Some of the pros associated with virtual reality is that it provides a chance for training and developing certain occupations such as military, nurses, etc., people can recover from phobias, people with disabilities may meet in the virtual world, perhaps even creating a support community, developing hobbies such as design and fashion, virtual reality helps aid in creating friendships and bonds. Some of the cons are the notion of escaping the real world and spending more time in the virtual one, creating a virtual world may be costly, and a lot of virtual reality is still new so we don’t know the full capabilities of it. I think virtual worlds help create or spark creativity because it is not the real world, people have more room to make mistakes and they will not be so costly! Just the idea that this is virtual can make minds bring out great thoughts as there are no barriers in the virtual world that could be present in the real world. Creativity can be created through the self as one develops their avatar, such as new ways to dress, haircuts, etc.  The creativity that is created through virtual worlds can be reflected into the real world as well. The future of virtual worlds will perhaps be much more expansive; I feel like it will be more heard of rather than hidden.  It can be perhaps used by more (rather than few) multi-national companies, where employees may need to meet from many different locations. Perhaps meeting virtually will l be less of a unique and novel idea and more of a usual norm or policy. Maybe even construction companies could use virtual worlds for their business purposes or fashion designers, so that they could get a better idea of what to design and who would like it. The future can bring about use of virtual worlds through different arenas such as schools, hospitals, fire departments, and police departments. 

Social Networking Sites

Facebook: I believe that Facebook is much more personalized; it is about connections with family, friends, acquaintances, and colleagues. You share your whole social life on Facebook; activities, books that have been read, pictures, or even events you may be attending. It is a virtual online social diary for yourself and for others to take a look at or view at any time. Facebook can be quite unlimited to how much you can share, your status can be as long as you would like.

Twitter: Twitter is about sharing ideas, statuses, news, and world events. There is also a sense of professionalism about it because you’re able to find jobs through Twitter. Many colleges and high schools use Twitter as a tool for educational enhancement. Also, the 140 character limit for tweets helps keep things clean and concise as well as to the point.

Instagram: I believe that Instagram may be a fusion of Facebook and Twitter. There is a sense of a virtual social life through the pictures that are available by Instagram users, they can be about one’s social life, what they have eaten, fashion, hobbies, interests, and entertainment. But it has a feel of twitter through the way friends are made, you can follow any one at any point in time and then even perhaps unfollow them, this flexibility is very similar to that of Twitter’s.

Snapchat: I find Snapchat to be really unique because it works off the contacts on your cellphone, in which you are able to share stories and pictures. You can now customize the photos to look a certain way such as a rabbit or any other fun filters they may have. Snapchat is a fun way of sharing what you may be up to in real time; the stories may only last for certain amounts of time such as 30 seconds which is quite different from other social media.

Blog About Twitter

After using twitter for the first time yesterday, I enjoyed it somewhat more than a blackboard discussion in terms of communication. Twitter felt instantaneous, as the twitter app was downloaded onto my smartphone, I would get real time notifications on tweets that were posted from the people that I followed or were following me (my classmates), I also got these same notifications if someone was responding to one of my tweets. I really found that to be convenient, on our black board website, we don’t really know what’s going on within the black board thread until we log in and see for ourselves. We do not receive a notification of who has responded to the thread or our own comments until we take the time out to have a look. I really enjoyed this feature in Twitter because I felt like I was a part of the conversation in real time, rather than just posting up my response. I was actually seeing a live online class assignment taking place in front of my eyes. I also like that there are other Twitter features available that make assignments more fun, exciting, and challenging such as the 140 character limit, it pushes one to really think, so that the one sentence that is created is meaningful and packed with quality.

If I were to compare Twitter to an in-class discussion, I would perhaps favor Twitter more. Twitter provides students and their teacher or professor, the opportunity to talk and discuss about topics and information that go beyond the four walls of a classroom. All of a sudden, conversations can be carried out at home, at work, and during free times to discuss assignments, difficult topics, and project delegation. Twitter provides a novel flexibility that a time constrained classroom cannot. Also, sometimes, people may feel less shy behind a social media account rather than in person, face to face communications. Folks can be more open and feel more comfortable about asking and answering questions on social media such as Twitter than they would be in person.

Social Networking

Social media technologies can be used in a myriad number of ways by corporations and folks in general. Corporations can use social media to create and project a stronger brand image which can reach countless individuals effortlessly and with minimum cost. Brand images can be pushed through many different social media sites. Furthermore, when firms are launching new products and services, they may be able to introduce them through the different social media websites. This may spark discussions between friends which in turn, will spread the news much faster. Small businesses and local restaurants are able to create an online display of themselves through Yelp, Facebook, and Twitter; garnering comments, ratings (Yelp), and check-ins’ (Facebook) which ignite the curiosity and interest of social media friends to perhaps check out these establishments for themselves. Lastly, corporations and business firms can use social media for recruitment purposes. For example, an article called “Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting”, written by Frank Langfitt, from NPR.org, states that “Using LinkedIn, Steckerl says he can scout a group of job candidates in just half an hour” (par.20). This shows the smoothness of such professional social media networks, it not only saves the cost of heavy recruitment efforts but also provides a large candidate pool of extremely talented professionals in one fell swoop. This allows recruiters to focus more on finding the right potential employee rather than on how well recruitment efforts may be functioning. People may use social media to further build relationships and bonds with family and friends. Social media becomes a tool to stay in contact with family who may be international and with friends from elementary, middle, or high school. Also, people can utilize social media to find better jobs and careers through LinkedIn, Monster.com, and Indeed.com. They may use social media to discuss and display the latest news and personal events. New media can be used for educational purposes for individuals as well, as is with our class. Some of the benefits of these technologies include vast communication availabilities at our fingertips, due to these technologies we are able to communicate with any one worldwide. People have increasing amounts of information on many different events and going ons’ of the world. They are better able to connect with others who may have similar interests as them. For example, an article from freakonomics.com, called “Is Myspace Good For Society?”, Danah Boyd, had stated that “as an ethnographer traipsing across the U.S., I have heard innumerable stories of how social media has been used to bring people together, support learning, and provide an outlet for creative expression” (par.37). The dark side to social media is identity theft, the concern of how much displayed information on social media websites is too much, cyber bullying, spam, phishing, and less productivity due to too much usage time of these technologies. For example, an interesting article written by Jeffery R. Young, called “They're Back, and They're Bad: Campus-Gossip Web Sites” discusses the dangers of online bullying, mudslinging, and plain old name calling. Within this article, it is quoted stating that “"internet shaming creates an indelible blemish on a person's identity," wrote Daniel J. Solove, a professor of law at George Washington University, in his 2007 book, The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet (Yale University Press). "It's similar to being forced to wear a digital scarlet letter or being branded or tattooed. People acquire permanent digital baggage. They are unable to escape their past, which is forever etched into Google's memory"” (par.15). This displays the true dangers and permanence of such negative acts. The consequences can be tough to overcome as they can lead to a tough time finding a job in the right career. I think that these technologies will change and evolve in many unimaginable ways in the future; I think they will become more personal, so where ever we go on the internet it’s like we are leaving a visible bread crumb trail all over the internet. I believe that in the future, our personal lives will be more assimilated and integrated with social media, making it hard to separate the two entities. As we become more and more intertwined with social media technologies, I hope there will be more privacy options as well as laws to protect its many users.

Blog v. Wiki

Blogs and wikis are mediums with similar features on the surface, however digging into the depth of these new media communication forms illuminates upon interesting differences. Blogs are about declaring opinions; blogging can be understood as a virtual microphone for folks looking to discuss their interests, hobbies, and pastimes to a wider audience in whatever topic such as politics, arts, skin care products, make up, hair, clothes, news, books, different consumer products,  food, and so much more. The content regarding blogging is based in an opinionated and personal nature. In fact, within a paper, written by Kathy E. Gill, called “How Can We Measure the Influence of the Blogosphere?” it is stated that “bloggers write about topics that matter to them; their audience may be larger or small. Some blogs are single-person operations (one to many); others have a community of authors (many to many)” (par.11). I found some aspects of blogs to be quiet ingenious and novel such as how one is able to see past posts and each post is dated as well as time stamped (if need be). One can imagine a blog as an online diary or chronicle of sorts, but one that is available for all to read and comment on. Comments from other visitors and the audience spark about a dialogue or conversation which adds more fun and excitement to blogging because it transforms those interactions into online socializing. In contrast, wiki is more about collaboration, research, and sharing information; others can in turn, enhance that information by sharing more knowledge, data, and facts towards it. In fact, The Harvard Business Review article, written by Gardiner Morse, called “Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales On Making the Most of Company Wikis”, states that wikis can be used for “pretty much any sort of knowledge sharing that is enhanced by open, flexible, rapid collaboration, particularly in contexts where people are separated geographically and relationship-building is important. Wikis are great tools for helping people to come to consensus quickly, whether about what to put on a meeting agenda or how best to meet customers’ needs” (par.5). I think for multi-national corporations wiki could be a great way for different regions to collaborate or just share information.

Convergence is extremely important in this technologically advanced time period, as we are connected to almost every event and all types of data it is important for convergence to exist. Through it, many aspects of life can become much more efficient. Consider the article written by James Dao, called “Pentagon Keeps Wary Watch As Troops Blog”, which shows the convergence of soldiers and blogging, this brings out a unique point of view of war which only could occur through convergence.

Personally, I don’t see blogs being used for collaboration in a large functional extent, unless you have a case where there is more than one blogger within a blogging site, both blogging publishers can contribute together towards mutually interesting topics and concerns. Also, comments written by the audience may be seen in a slight perspective as collaboration. Perhaps they can “comment” further knowledge which contributes to the blog post in a certain way or that the blogger can use to adjust the blog. When I read the article called “Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead To Drug Raid”, written by Michael Wilson, I thought that that was a perfect collaboration between the neighborhood bloggers, the community at large, and the police. If a certain blogger posted a blog about suspicious activity, others contributed and further collaborated with the publisher by providing even more information in real time! I found this amazing and extremely   unprecedented; I truly enjoyed reading about the collaboration present in this article.  

New ways to utilize wiki:

A growing trend of business is to outsource some of its functions such as human resources, talent searches, information technology, and accounting to other firms that excel in providing the services. Perhaps wikis can be used as a collaborative tool between the client organization and service provider firm to stay on top of important projects and to keep all key parties involved by allowing them to meet in one virtual setting. So for example, hiring new employees can be discussed in detail within wiki between both companies. Job descriptions can be edited through the wiki as well by both parties. Or head hunting firms can collaborate with their clients through wiki to help expedite and iron out the job search.