My New Media Class - So Far

New media comprises many technologies that have radically change the way we communicate and exchange information.

Online publishing technologies such as blogs skyrocketed few years ago with the emergence of publishing platforms such as Wordpress, Blogger, MovableType and others , bringing new ways for people to disseminate their ideas. Recently new technologies, such as Twitter and Tumblr, have brought micro-blogging to the mix, allowing faster and concise methods to spread information.

Wikis make possible online collaboration, by allowing its users to edit content, bringing dynamism to the way content is created and allowing it to evolve and stay updated. Wiki technologies make online encyclopedias such as the Wikipedia possible, but since everyone can edit content, critics demand mechanisms and rules to prevent vandalism and maintain accuracy, as noted in this article on CNN.com.

Social networking technologies have emerge as preferred venues for social interaction online. Sites like Facebook and MySpace allow people to befriend each other and form online groups. Instant online communities and social networks can be set up quickly with services like Ning. Virtual worlds allow users to interact in 3-D worlds and perform many activities that mimic real life, such as going to a club and assisting to concerts.

The internet is the preferred venue for new media, without it many technologies that are changing and replacing old ways of communication, wouldn’t exist. Old media such as Newspapers and TV are making their way into new media by employing the use of online newspapers and streaming TV online respectively. 

Ubiquitous access to the internet and the convergence of new media and geolocation technologies, bring new online services such as loopt, which allows users to find friends wherever they are. 

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds offer a virtual representation of any imaginable world. The most known virtual environment is Second Life, which allows users to hang out and interact in a 3-D world through the internet. Users are represented by personalized avatars and are able to assist to virtual gatherings and do other activities that imitate real life.

Activities such as visiting a club and enjoy musical performance are possible thanks to virtual worlds. Companies, such as MTV Networks, are seeing the potential in building their brand through online virtual worlds. According to The New York Times, in its article I’ve Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life, In 2006 MTV started to build a virtual representation of the Southern Californian beach community from one of its reality shows, among with other virtual properties with the goal to create virtual social networks and platforms to discover artists.

Virtual worlds can facilitate meetings and reduce travelling costs, which is beneficial when the attendees reside in different geographical zones. Last year the Congress broadcasted a hearing with some attendees logged from a virtual room in Second Life, as noted in this article from The Washington Post.

There are many applications to virtual worlds and the possibilities are endless, however, similar to social networking, they present some disadvantages and negative side effects. Biologically our bodies are not designed to inhabit in virtual worlds, hence we cannot properly experience the full benefits of real life social interactions.

In the future I see virtual reality gaining more prominence and becoming a huge part in our lives. As computing power increases and manufacturing processes bring prices down, a better and more realistic virtual representation of the world could be possible. Avatars would no longer be pixelated and could better display a  bigger array of human expressions. Full immersion would be possible with advances in haptic technology, which allow the use of the sense of touch. Eventually, as technology would be able to replicate even in more detail the real world, the appeal of virtual worlds would also increase.

Social Networking

The growth of social networks imposes new rules and demands innovative ways for organizations to reach their intended audience. Organizations can easily interact with people, build their brand online, improve their business intelligence practices, and work collaboratively thanks to social networking tools.

Social networks offer many advantages. The New York Times in its article The Media Equation – How Obama Tapped Into Social Network’s Power, addresses how the Obama Campaign was able to create a brand and build a sense of connectedness with its supporters by leveraging social networking tools.

Besides political organizations, businesses are also making use of social networking. Chuck Hamilton, from IBM, in an interview for Maclean’s Magazine notices that “social networks are emerging as key tools for business innovation.” (access the complete interview in a pdf file from here). Hamilton addresses how companies can collaborate with people from different backgrounds working across the world. He also mentions the usefulness of these technologies in acquiring valuable information from customers and learn how to better serve their needs.

While social networking technologies provide many benefits to organizations and end users, there’s also important to acknowledge some of its negative side effects such as the loss of privacy and the lack of intimacy face-to-face relationships provide.

TweetDeck

I’ve noticed many classmates, mostly from the non-online section, joining twitter over the last few days. I want to recommend the use of TweetDeck to fully enjoy what twitter has to offer. TweetDeck is an application you can install in your computer (Windows & Mac OS) and integrates with Facebook and MySpace.

The following video covers the main benefits and features.

(Video from http://www.pcmech.com/)

If you want to try it out, you can find it at http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/

Some numbers…

For those of you researching social networking websites, here are some statistics http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/2009-social-network-analysis-report/

An example:

On Social Networking Sites

I’m not a big fan of social networking sites, mostly because of privacy concerns. However, in the past I have used Hi5 and Facebook. I joined Hi5, which is very popular in Latin America, because many old friends had set up profiles there and at the time it made sense to join the network to keep in touch. Later, they were moving to Facebook, so, I also joined Facebook. This brings an important characteristics of social networking sites, and that is, users define and make them grow. Aesthetics, features, and other quality issues are secondary, without a solid user base, there’s not network.

Many of these websites share common features, such a profile page where users describe themselves and post pictures and videos, a private and public messaging system to communicate to each other, and “friending” capabilities. Users with similar tastes and interests can befriend each other, create groups and grow into communities.

Right now, the only social networking site I use is Twitter. Initially, I was reluctant to create an account because of the amount of bots and noise (nonsense tweets), but chose to give it a try. Twitter is a mix of micro-blogging and social networking, on it you “follow” people and can choose to monitor certain topics. I find it to be very good at extracting information once you carefully choose whose tweets to follow.

Source: Chicago Tribune

Facebook is the most popular, and seems to have many good qualities, such as its openness to third party developers which enhances the end user experience. Anyway, like similar sites, it can become a hassle to maintain a profile and another inbox besides your primary email address. 

I attempted to delete my Facebook account two years ago, and couldn’t finish the process. They seem to have worked out a scheme to prevent you from doing so, and keep your data forever.

For now, I’m sticking to social networking sites that provide me value. This doesn’t mean Facebook is not a valuable tool, but at least for me and my current goals, it’s mostly a liability. I find LinkedIn to be more useful.

Blog vs. Wiki

Blogs are a collection of dated entries classified by categories and sometimes labels. Blogs can have multiple authors, but each entry or post can only be written by one author, which makes blogs mostly an informative medium. Wikis, on the other hand, are collaborative since they are a collection of entries or articles that can be created and edited by multiple authors.

Entries in a blog can be very biased, but have the advantage of allowing visitors to leave comments, which incites discussion and participation. Since entries are time-stamped, their longevity is short and the subject get lost in the archives.

While wikis don’t have comments, they allow visitors – given the right permissions – to add and edit content, which makes them more dynamic than blogs. The collaborative nature of wikis makes them less prone to personal biases, and are often consensus builders as pointed out here. Wikis are not as time-centric as blogs, and since each user is a collaborator, the subject evolves and its information stays current.

Update: 10/7 After looking for a hosted wiki to manage a group project for one of my courses I discovered some wikis, such as PBworks, have commenting systems. A feature I’m not sure is available in MediaWiki. For those not aware, MediaWiki is the backbone of Wikipedia and Baruch’s new media wiki.