My Term Research Project

The topic of my term project was " New Media and Creative Arts". we're all well aware of the definitation of new media and creative arts includes reading, writing, photography, painting, theater, music etc etc.
So I decided to research and cover three major aspects of new media which are writing, photography and art. I picked three different websites which are contributing towards these three aspects of new media which are creative commons, flickr and Deviant Art.

Creative commons was first found in 2001 with the generous support of the Center for the Public Domain. They introduced this new idea of “some rights reserved” as opposed to "All rights reserved". Creative commons allows you to use, distribute or remix and tweak websites, scholarship, music, film, photography, literature, courseware but not softwares under four different kind of licenses.
•Attribution
•Share-alike
•No derivatives
•Non-commercial

Flickr: Flickr is an image and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community platform. The service is widely used by bloggers as a photo repository.As of November 2008, it claims to host more than 3 billion images. There are different features of flickr:
1. Upload
2. Editing
3. Organize
4. Share
5. Maps
6. Make Stuff
7. Keep in Touch

Deviant Art:
Works are organized in a comprehensive category structure, including photography, digital art, traditional art, literature, Flash, filmmaking, and skins for applications, among others, along with extensive downloadable resources such as tutorials and stock photography.
•DeviantART has a series of forums.
•AdCast
•Subscription
•Critique
•DeviantART Shop
•Prints II

At the end i described overall advantages of all three websites that how they're giving us a platform to use, benefit and spread what we think, what we do and how we want things to work.

Our Class Wiki - So Far

First of all having wiki for new media class is a great idea. Everybody has done a significant job by putting different areas in new media together. It will provide a good resource for other students to look into and know more about new media and different aspects of it. I decided to add pictures for New media and Business page but I plan to add pictures overall and also organize different pages.

There were some pages which didn't look very organized so i tried to make them look coherent just like all other pages. I would like to keep working on it even after the semester is over but not sure if we would still be able to log in and use it.

Also I really liked how different people presented different ideas and websites which are contributing in new media. If time allowed, i may try to make a page that how new media is enhancing our everyday life through web.

The Next New Thing

The next new thing i thought couple of years ago and I wasn't aware that google is working on that that we should be able to google a image from image instead of text to image only. sometimes i felt that we should be able to scan and upload an image or just any image from online put in google to find similar images. Also Virtual smell would be great thing to work on as new media. It would be interesting if we were able to smell things over the internet as long the smell is good..lol

Or there should be button to turn the virtual smell off just like we can mute the volume.

Advice to Baruch College

I think Baruch college is doing pretty good using new media. we can register online. always updated with new events through email or college calnedar, keep track of courses through degree works and also blackboard. well, we all know how blackboard is so messed up, and slow lately. i think they should create a website where all prfessors post assignments, grades, updates and intract with students just like for our New Media class. They should also offer some courses online too because I wanted to take couple of courses online but they don't offer it at all for my major.

Old vs. New

Old media is TV, radio, newspapers, and paper mail advertisement. On the other hand, new media is internet, e-newspaper, YouTube, face book, blogs, wikis and cell phones.
There are several differences between old media and new media from different perspectives.

It’s said that old media was producer based media and new media is user based media. Users now have the control what, when and how they consume. When old media existed, there were only limited numbers of players in the market and it was hard and expensive to enter in the market. Now the number of players in market is unlimited. Anyone enter into the market whoever has unique and new ideas. It was hard, slow and also expensive to broadcast through radio and television but internets had fastened and make it cheaper to access the information globally. Cell phones and VOIP are the example to communicate with people anywhere around the world. If we look carefully, technology is the transition between old media and new media. New media isn’t something very new; it’s in fact the more developed, smaller and faster version of old media.

I found this link online which describes the different between old and new media in very interesting way with pictures.

http://chartreuse.wordpress.com/2006/08/09/the-big-difference-between-old- and-new/


I will write down here what they told in that link just in case some people may feel lazy to open it.
· Old media says……Pay attention
· New Media…………nothing is on except you.

· Old Media has to grab your attention
· New media is already there.

· You’ve to find old media.
· New Media finds you.

· Old media is begging for attention.
· New media is attention.

· Old media pushes.
· New media is pulled by you.

MODELING REALITY WITH VIRTUAL WORLDS

What are some ways (corporate and otherwise) that these technologies can be used?

Second life is the greatest example of modeling reality with virtual worlds. People use it to do things they are not capable of doing in real due to various reasons. They can create their own avatar and they can do whatever they want to do in second life. some people use it just for the sake of playing a game while other use it to improve certain skills or do the things which are not possible to do in real life. It's more like living in a dream where you can do anything you want to. You can visit different places of the world where you can't go in real life due to money, lack of time or different reasons.

On the corporate level, alot of big companies including IBM using virtual traning programs for emplyees where they can go and learn. they can do it over and over again in case they don't get it the first time unlike real life. furthermore, it's time flexible too.

What are the benefits of these technologies to society? Be specific.

It's helping people to imrpove their deficincies. As we discussed in class that people who are not good publis speakers, they can go to class rooms in virtual worlds where they interact with other people and talk. People can also improve different skills and prepare themselves for real life experince. You don't have to pay money, get out of the house and other things in order to do that unlike real life.

Is there a "dark side"?Make sure to include your opinion of the way these technologies might evolve in the future.

I think Virtual life or gaming is making people more isolated. They don't go out or do physical activities but spend hours gazing at the computer screen and play games. it's making them less socially active person.

Cite at least 1 (preferably more) of the assigned readings.

"So you're not going out into the real world meeting people, you're going meeting people online and in your own home, so you're perfectly relaxed. It's just a fantastic tool to use to bring people together." As described in the article "iReport: 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction" by nicole Saidi where she describes how virtual life is benefiting people with autism to feel relaxed and talk within a group of people.

"BM Learning Programs Get a ‘Second Life’" they say "t’s also likely to give the nascent field of training in virtual environments such as Second Life a major boost, says Mark Oehlert, an associate at consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton". IBM is using second life for training and orintation in US, china and india by creatin avatars in virtual worlds. They want to improve mentoring, interact and share ideas from different places in the world.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

What are some ways (corporate and otherwise) that these technologies can be used?

Social networking can be used in order to stay connected with your friends, get socialize, make new friends, share ideas, join groups to raise awareness among people related to specific issues. it's also used on corporate level where you can get connected with people from work, join the group related to your area of expertise.

What are the benefits of these technologies to society? Be specific.

Social networking is helping people to know and talk with people they wouldn't be able to do in real life due to different reasons. It can also keep people up-to-date with anything going on in any part of world because you've alot of friends from all over the world. Personally i came to know about latest news or happening in some other country through facebook when few friends of mine put that up as their status message or post videos or enws article about it.

Is there a "dark side"?Make sure to include your opinion of the way these technologies might evolve in the future.

People use networking sites to get persocanl information about somebody and then spread it all over. they also use these sites to stalk people and then later try to harm them. there are alot of cases where it got very serious when kids made fun of other kid and it lead to suicide. People take advantage of being anonymous and then threat other people they know in person.

Cite at least 1 (preferably more) of the assigned readings.

In the article "Twitter? It’s What You Make It" by David Pogue, he talks about how people use twitter for different purposes by updating their status all the time. it can be used it anyway you want it to be from personal use to business use.

MY NEW MEDIA CLASS - SO FAR

What kinds of technologies are part of the new media?

There's a wide range of technologies which are part of new media. Sometimes it's even hard to differentiate between new and old technology. computeres, cell phones, wirless PDA's, P2P file sharing or voip.

How important is the Internet to the new media?

Internet is the most crucial part of new media. the new media which we're using nowadays would't be accessable so easily without internet. we use internet to browse websites, connect with people through social networking sites, share files, play games and alot more.

Why and how are the new media replacing and / or enhancing the old media?

it's hard to tell why new media is replacing old media because i think new media is faster, more developed version of old media. Without old media we wouldn't be able to use new media. It's like a process of making changes according to our needs and making things faster. nowadays we think of TV as an old media and people are using computers to watch TV shows when they want to. Or reading news pepers online.

According to the Article in New York Times by Matt Richtel "Now a movement is afoot by chip makers big and small to spur a new generation of TVs with full browser capability, like a personal computer". they're trying to converge new and old media by introducing the characteristics of internet in new TV.

Blogs vs. Wikis

First of all i found this table online describing the similarities and differences between blogs and wikis.

Blogs

• E-mail
• Communication
• Newsletter
• Process
• Chronological
• Ongoing
• Public, Private

Wikis

• Shared Folder
• Collaboration
• Encyclopedia
• Product
• Versioning/History
• Work in Progress
• public....PRIVATE

Wiki is useful for group projects, you can log in and change the context. on the other hand you can respond to one question or topic of discussion. it's like brainstorming, it gives you wide range of thoughts and opinions related to one topic. The main difference, then, between a wiki and a blog becomes the layout and organization of information. A wiki becomes a continually modifiable easy-access web page, while a blog's journalistic style catalogs and dates content so readers can see the interchange of ideas related to the blog topic in question.

Watch this video which outlines the differences between Wikis and Blogs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsFU3sAlPx4

Blogs reflect the process of learning, of going through a learning experience that may not result in a final product. Blogs can be easily criticized by anyone on the internet, user fellows or anonymous people.

Checking out some social networking sites

Face book is rapidly growing and most popular social networking website. The most attractive feature of face book is status updates, a lot of applications, ads and “people you may know” tool. This tool really helps you to add the people you know but didn’t know they were on face book. we can play and participate in games, quizzes, tests, polls, and much more.

My space is also very popular among people but its popularity has been going down from past two years. More and more people are switching from my space to face book but the ones who’re addicted to it, don’t find face book that attractive. What I like most about my space was its music collection and the blogging feature. You can also create the background of your page as you like.

Friendster isn’t that in to use anymore. It’s slower and not popular all over the world that much as compared to face book and my space. It’s commonly used among people of Asia; Friendster’s hyperlinked profile information of its members is an attractive feature to find other people of similar interests to you. As well as, Friendster has recently started to open up its platform to third-party application developers.

Orkut is another social networking website which is very similar to face book and widely used in India. On orkut you can view everyone’s profile whether you’re friends with that person or not, so no privacy. You will be informed that how many times your profile has been visited and it also tells u who has visited your profile recently.

What's new media?

The term “new media” has its challenges because looking back, every new development in media technology is “new” at the time it comes out. New media is a term meant to encompass the emergence of digital, computerized, or networked information and communication technologies which began in the later part of the 20th century. The online society can also be broken into societal groups to be successfully targeted by advertisements and subjects of interest. Another place to look for present and future media is the massive realm of massive online multiplayer games. so i think new media is making the access to information and everything we want to know about more convenient and faster.

You Tube vs. hulu

In my term paper I want to compare www.youtube.com with www.hulu.com. I will mainly focus on the differences and similarities between both websites. YouTube is of course older and more popular among people but there are some shortcomings which YouTube needs to pay attention to in order to compete with hulu. On the other hand, there are some advantages which youtube has on hulu too. The big question which people are more debating over is which is going to be the next winner.