I would like to welcome everyone to the Spring 8w2 COM215 Class Blog.
I find it somewhat interesting that, this class has made me more aware of certain things through this current trip. For instance, I pondered the TSA blog as I walked through security, I'm not a big TSA fan, but I do realize the service they provide. While they do have their flaws, the traveling public, also needs to be aware of the rules when it comes to flying. Having flown over 350,000 miles in the past 2 1/2 years, I can appreciate people who follow the rules when it comes to going through airport security. It's almost like that Visa commercial, where everything is fine and dandy until one person throws a wrench in the whole line.
I also appreciate the convenience of laptops and wireless network connections. They allowed me to do some homework while stuck at an airport. It's definitely a big jump from a few years ago where dial-up and high internet costs were the norm. I did find it challenging to add accounts and create an initial post though, as the blogger site was in Japanese.
I look forward to learning not only with, but also from everybody. If I can be of any assistance, please don't hesitate to ask.
Joe
Avatars, Are they Fun or are they Deadly?
IF you didn't know now, there is a debate about Internet use when it deals with online gaming. Second Life has taken the online gaming world by storm due to its many new features with creating avatar characters and island communities and conducting business to make your avatar better then someone elses. Lawmakers think that people have gone to far as to manipulate other users during actual game playing and using that against the other user. The arguement presented is the fact that second life creators say that they have safeguards in place where users can decide whether or not to accept friendship invitation with other users or a user that is in the same island community as them. My personal opinion is this, people need to do their homework when it comes to allowing other people to become friends with them while they are playing online in Second Life. Just like in the real world, you should be cautious with other people you do not know very well and stick to the people that you do know. Then the prospects of something happening to you is very minimal. I don't think the government regulators will be able to change how Second Life does their online world. There are too many people that enjoy the day to day interaction with other people. So I think it will be hard to get them to change how the online world is being run from their corporate headquarters where their computer servers are located. For me, I think avatars are fun, but there is always that 10 percent rule that will try to break the system and that is when the troubles always begins. So everyone, what do you think about using avatars in general on the World Wide Web?
Http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue4.steinkuehler.html
Http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue4.steinkuehler.html
"America Discovers New Ways to Communicate"
The first commercial email was done back in the early sixties. Ray Tomlinson of ARPANET was the engineer whom created the first email without a subject line. These emails had to be opened in the order they were received in. As the years went on, many businesses, universities, and government agencies slowly built networks that were capable of communicating between themselves so personnel could email each other and communicate without leaving their offices and using the telephone everytime they needed information that was important for their job position. With the creation of these networks, it created new technology that allowed computers to talk to one another, for instance, TCP/IP brought smaller networks together which many universities used to communicate with government agencies. In the early nineties, this brought the startup of Internet Service Providers like MSN, Yahoo, and Mozilla which offered email applications as part of their package deal if you registered as a member to their website. Now email is the most widely used application that users use today. The Pew Research center did a survey and found out the 50 million adult americans had used some form of email to communicate with family, friends, and business associates. Another survey was conducted in December 2003, and 95% of women said that there were more likely to log onto a computer and check their email compared to only 90% of males. I think those numbers maybe inflated now because of the SPAM that people keep receiving from unknown people that they do not know, which takes away the fun of checking important emails from family, friends, and work related matters.
"America Discovers New Ways to Communicate" Electronic America. John W.Weier. Information Plus reference series Detroit:Gale, 2007. p.15-27
"America Discovers New Ways to Communicate" Electronic America. John W.Weier. Information Plus reference series Detroit:Gale, 2007. p.15-27
Social Network Research
My first post is based on Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship by Danah M. Boyd.
It is simply amazing how quickly social networks have changed the way we connect as individuals and businesses. The author states that since their introduction, social network sites (SNSs) such as MySpace, Facebook, Cyworld, and Bebo have attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated these sites into their daily practices.Blogs, to an extent, have evolved in the same way. The fact that we can intellectually socialize in the same manner and share our ideas with the anonymity and ubiquity of the internet has influenced this generation much like videos games of the 80's have enabled the gamers of today. The first recognizable social network site launched in 1997. SixDegrees.com allowed users to create profiles, list their Friends and, beginning in 1998, surf the Friends lists. Since then, thousand of sites, hosting million of members have established a virtual culture of their own.
Reference http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html
The second post is based on an article that helped me understand the first or at least the rationale behind the social network phenomenon. Signals in Social Supernets by Judith Donath.
Grooming, gossip, and online friending are some of the first characteristics that takes place online. My first experience with social networking was over a decade ago with online dating. No, I did not participate but I did find ways to market to local singles to attend parties at local bars. Chat rooms where the areas that the gossiping and establishment of friends took place. I am not sure how to evaluate grooming but I am sure that we all look better online. Communication technologies expand human social reach. Email makes communication more efficient: Sending a message to numerous recipients is as easy as sending it to one. Social sites also provide an certain amount of anonymity. There is a country song and it speaks of the different personality and fantasy world that many can create in these online environments.
Users represent themselves with a profile, which includes a self-description, comments from other users, and the technology's defining feature, a list of links to chosen other members. The self-description can include pictures, affiliations, career goals, and other personal details.
I saw an article in which models photos have been copied and represented as someone else, teenagers become adults and adults become teenagers. I guess I will just stay with my video games.
Reference http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/donath.html
Submitted by John H.
It is simply amazing how quickly social networks have changed the way we connect as individuals and businesses. The author states that since their introduction, social network sites (SNSs) such as MySpace, Facebook, Cyworld, and Bebo have attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated these sites into their daily practices.Blogs, to an extent, have evolved in the same way. The fact that we can intellectually socialize in the same manner and share our ideas with the anonymity and ubiquity of the internet has influenced this generation much like videos games of the 80's have enabled the gamers of today. The first recognizable social network site launched in 1997. SixDegrees.com allowed users to create profiles, list their Friends and, beginning in 1998, surf the Friends lists. Since then, thousand of sites, hosting million of members have established a virtual culture of their own.
Reference http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html
The second post is based on an article that helped me understand the first or at least the rationale behind the social network phenomenon. Signals in Social Supernets by Judith Donath.
Grooming, gossip, and online friending are some of the first characteristics that takes place online. My first experience with social networking was over a decade ago with online dating. No, I did not participate but I did find ways to market to local singles to attend parties at local bars. Chat rooms where the areas that the gossiping and establishment of friends took place. I am not sure how to evaluate grooming but I am sure that we all look better online. Communication technologies expand human social reach. Email makes communication more efficient: Sending a message to numerous recipients is as easy as sending it to one. Social sites also provide an certain amount of anonymity. There is a country song and it speaks of the different personality and fantasy world that many can create in these online environments.
Users represent themselves with a profile, which includes a self-description, comments from other users, and the technology's defining feature, a list of links to chosen other members. The self-description can include pictures, affiliations, career goals, and other personal details.
I saw an article in which models photos have been copied and represented as someone else, teenagers become adults and adults become teenagers. I guess I will just stay with my video games.
Reference http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/donath.html
Submitted by John H.
Is online deliberation better than face-to-face?
I just read an article by Seong-Jae Min titled “Online vs. Face-to-Face Deliberation: Effects on Civic Engagement”.
In this article the author discusses how online vs. face-to-face deliberation affects a person’s opinion and knowledge of political and social issues. This was done by performing their own controlled experiment using a group of university students. The students were split into a online, face-to-face, and control group.
It was very surprising to see just how little impact the deliberation had on the opinions of all three groups. It turned out that those that changed generally intensified their original opinion versus having a complete change of opinion.
It was shown that although there was little change of opinion there was still a positive increase on the persons knowledge of the subject. This was a very informative article that made it clear just how little research has been put into this issue and the fact that there can be both positive and negative aspects to online deliberation. If you are interested in how online deliberation compares with face-to-face then this would be a good read.
Min, Seong-Jae. “Online vs. Face-to-Face Deliberation: Effects on Civic Engagement.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 2007. 01 Mar. 2008 <http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/min.html>.
In this article the author discusses how online vs. face-to-face deliberation affects a person’s opinion and knowledge of political and social issues. This was done by performing their own controlled experiment using a group of university students. The students were split into a online, face-to-face, and control group.
It was very surprising to see just how little impact the deliberation had on the opinions of all three groups. It turned out that those that changed generally intensified their original opinion versus having a complete change of opinion.
It was shown that although there was little change of opinion there was still a positive increase on the persons knowledge of the subject. This was a very informative article that made it clear just how little research has been put into this issue and the fact that there can be both positive and negative aspects to online deliberation. If you are interested in how online deliberation compares with face-to-face then this would be a good read.
Min, Seong-Jae. “Online vs. Face-to-Face Deliberation: Effects on Civic Engagement.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 2007. 01 Mar. 2008 <http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/min.html>.
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