Privacy & Confidentiality

People are creative, even if they don't think so. Given the chance, they will create something new and interesting. However, what they create is usually based on something that already exists, and chances are that it is copyrighted or protected in some other way. Youtube was huge is spreading people's creations around the world. The Soulja Boy song that used Disney characters for the artists was clearly based on protected material, but the makers of the video still used it. While there are positive (appearance of Disney characters in new, interesting way) and negetive (Disney characters associated with un-family friendly material) effects, Disney didn't take any clear actions.

If people use mediums such as twitter of facebook, they need to accept that everything that they type when using the services, will not be private. Facebook recently updated their terms of use to say exactly that; user's pictures, updates, comments, etc, can be used by Facebook and sold to third parties. Although I don't know Twitters terms of use, I expect them to be similar. These services are only private and confidential for the people who run them.

Advice to Baruch College

One of the things I think Baruch should do is create more online classes. This makes it much easier for working students and students who otherwise don't have time to physically go to classes on a predetermined schedule. New media would be incorporated because it is mostly online. Blogs, wikis, twitter, etc would be the main means of communication between the professor and students. I think that this would require a professor who is very familiar with these technologies and students who have some basic experiences with them.
One of the ideas that Fix Baruch (USG candidates) is exactly this. I think that online classes would free up some space around campus (less people walking around), and would encourage the creation of new classes.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds are something that have yet to be fully utilized. But there are already many creative uses. Some companies use virtual settings for meetings. "Parmar told CNN that he recently held a meeting with 12 technical leaders from across Europe and Asia. While that would typically involve flying everyone to a central location, he said the meeting was held using the new Sametime 3D." Unless the meeting is very important, participants can log on instead of traveling around the world.

Virtual worlds can be used so ordinary people can get in on the action. A hearing about about online virtual worlds was shown on SecondLife. People were able to see and hear what was going on, and could participate themselves.

It is up to the user how they want their world to look like. So anything is possible. Even flying pigs.

From what I have seen, virtual worlds do not look very nice. They look like a video game from 2003. This is probably because so much programming and graphic editing is required to make it look better, but I think that should be the future; a real looking virtual world.

Twitter Discussion

I found that twitter discussions can be easy, but not without understanding how twitter works. If there is a keyword like #3810NET1B, it becomes very easy; all you need to do is click on it and you will see all posts with that keyword. But I'm sure that a lot of keywords are used by people who don't even know each other. So once you want to search using that keyword, you see your discussion and the discussion of whoever else used that keyword. It can be interesting to read other people's discussions.

Blackboard discussions are more similar to blog comments. There is an initial post and then all the replies/comments are in chronological order. Twitter discussions are newest tweet first, so you have to read down.

Overall it was interesting since I had not used twitter that much before.

Social Networking

Sites such as Linkedin greatly expedite the recruiting process. Employers just search for keywords and find many possible candidates. They no longer need to call someone to find if they know any possible job matches. "Using Linkedin, Steckerl says he can scout a group of job candidates in just half an hour. But if he wants to develop a relationship with any of them, he says there is no substitute for a much older social networking tool: the telephone." So there are still things that such social networking sites don't replace. But for users of more social sites like Facebook, people don't really need to talk on the phone, they can have whole conversation on walls, comment sections, or through messages.

These technologies can change the way that we look for things online. Facebook wants to be the future of the internet. It has a different way of thinking than Google. If either wins, people will get used to their way of thinking and searching. Social networks make accessing people easy. Someone can find out a lot of things about someone on sites like Pipl.com. Everything a person has online; pictures, history, thoughts, etc, is accessed and brought together.

Facebook brings people together, but it also separates them. Some people live in social networks and do not use regular means of communication. Phone conversations might eventually cease to exist as all communication will be via computers or whatever new device comes out.

Check Out Social Networking Sites

Facebook has been getting more complicated all the time. Once you get used to the new format, something changes and the process begins again. The current format allows users to post updates which can include link or pictures. The feed is now a major aspect. It is a cumulative display of your friends' updates which are organized by either popularity or chronology.

Myspace has elements similar to Facebook such as the updates section. Although it does not seam to be a major part of the site experience. User's pages are customizable with codes. Many artists use myspace to advertise themselves.

Friendster is similar to Facebook but the layout is different. People have home, profile, pics, friends, classified (facebook marketplace), and fun tabs. I don't know how everything works since I have never used the service prior to now.

Twitter used the updates ability from Facebook and made it the whole concept of their service. People can post short bursts of thought and others can read them. Following people is similar to friending them, but you have the choice of the communication only going one way. Many famous people have Twitter account, such as Ashon Kutcher, and anyone can follow their twitter feeds.

Depending if people just want to know a little bit about a person or really get to know them, they could use either Facebook or Twitter. Ironically, it seems that facebook provides less personal info while Twitter is more personal.