Noor Uddin's Term Porject Presentation

I liked the presentation done by Noor. First of all, I like that Noor used a lot of animation effects. His power points looked very nice and professional. The topic of his presentation which was a cyber-byllying, was discussed very thoroughly. I can tell that he did a lot of research and got very familiar with the topic. Also, he did all his presentation without reading it from the paper. Instead he communicated his ideas to the audience with his own words, and had the eye contact with the audience, not with his paper. As I said I like it, and I think it was one of the best presentations done so far. Though I must notice that almost every presentation I heard so far was done really good. I am impressed.

BARUCH NEW MEDIA - OUR CLASS WIKI - SO FAR

In our class wiki I contributed to the new media and entertainment section. I created the page under this section which talks about the online TV. Later I found that this topic was mentioned in the business section, so I created the internal links between these two parts that discussed the same topic. I also added external link to the online TV providers which is Nero Online TV. I started another page, the new media in the movie production. I hope somebody will contribute more information to the page.

My presentation summary

I presented on April 28th, tuesday. The topic was "The impact of the new media on children's education and social formation". I discussed two sides of the impact: positive and negative.

Positive impact inlcudes such things as promotion of learning, development of physical reaction, memory, and logic. The negative impacts that I was talking about were possible health problems such as obesity, addiction to video games, loss of physical strength. Also I was raising the problem of dificit of real life social communication, and exposure to undesirable information and contacts through the internet. At the end of my presentation I suggested to parents to control what the kids are watching or playing and to explain what is good and what is bad. I also suggested to involve kids in physical activities and real offline communication with other people.

The Next New Thing

Sometimes I think that everything that could be invented in media was already invented. What we have now is just the new ways of doing the old things. Nevertheless, the new innovations of the ways to do the things often amaze my imagination.
Today I heard that a camera will be placed in the middle of jungle. This camera will translate the reality show of jungle life directly to the internet where everyone would be able to watch the show.
May be if I switch on my imagination I also can think about something interesting.
I imagine that I connect to a friend online and his hologram steps out of my computer and talks to me? If we add some virtual sensors’ effects like feeling of touch or breathe, warm or cold, it would be something interesting. Of course, it is sounds like a fantastic movie.
The more realistic would be to imagine that I am alone at home and computer loudly read me emails, while I am busy with something else.

Advice to Baruch College

a) Do something with the blackboard. It is incredibly slow. It is constantly under construction and is unavailable just when you need it.

b) Why do we have to spend so much time and paper on professor’s evaluations when it can be easily done online.

c) I see, that the textbooks cost is related to copyrights rules. However, some book goes in both paper and digital formats. The digital books are less expensive, and not that heavy to carry around. Besides, they often accommodated with the home work managers, and test questions banks, which are a helpful way to learn the material. We can encourage professors to use this digital book versions more often.

Old vs. New

The old media and the new media are like two civilizations: one is ancient and another is advanced. We can distinguish “new media” from the “old media” based on the following factors:

1. The new media is in digital form. The old media is in analog form

It is like portrait of Mona Lisa by Leonardo vs. avatar, image generated by computer.

2. The new media is a two-way communication. The old media is a one-way communication.

For example, newspaper like New York Times issued periodically by professional journalists to be consumed by the public vs. internet blogs issued any time by anyone to be consumed and responded to by anybody.

3. The new media is easy convertible. The old media is hard to manipulate.

For instance, you can compress, transform, (mashup), transfer, create links when dealing with the new media. Old media is more permanent product. As the old proverb says: “You can not throw out the words out of the book. "

However, it doesn't mean that the old media is replaced by the new media. Both the new and the old media have right to exist and have their own audience and application.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

One of the everlasting human dreams is a dream about a perfect world. New technology made possible not just to visualize like in a movie but actually to be a part of that virtual better place.
The application of the virtual reality is huge. Fist of all, it is games. Webkinz, Barber world, Virtual pet shops are some of them which are well described in the Toys with a Second Life BusinessWeek’s article.
Medicine is trying to use the virtual reality. For example, we discussed a CNN report about how virtual interaction helps patients suffering from autism (iRepot: ‘Naughty Auties’ battle autism with virtual interaction).
An example of how corporations uses virtual world is the online virtual worlds for training. Thus, IBM is creating its own “virtual world” technology for employee training (IBM Learning Programs Get a ‘Second Life’).
All these examples are just a few of the variety of other possible ways of how society may benefit from the virtual worlds technology. On the other hand, there could be some potential threats. For example, kids under age of eight have difficulties to distinguish between what is real and what is not real. They could believe that a man has several lives and therefore shooting a person is not a problem. That is why it is necessary to know what the kid is playing and be ready to explain what is real and what is just a game. Moreover, the games are addictive. It is another problem, which concerns not only kids but also adults.
I believe the future of the virtual world technology is tremendous. I think that one day the technology will allow the user to involve all senses not just vision and hearing. It definitely will be used even more than today in education, and in professional trainings.
Sometimes the dreams are coming true. The virtual reality may help some of our dreams to come true.

Social Networking

Social Networking is a powerful new media technology. It is relevantly new way of communication. That is why every other day people are coming up with new ways of using this technology. First of all when we think about social networks we think about sites like Facebook, or MySpace. These networks are used primary for communication. Thus, they resolve a social problem which arise in highly urbanized societies like the one we live in. I am talking about a problem of loneliness and alienation. Very often people do not know their neighbor who lives next door. We have no time to exchange a couple of words with a somebody we do know because we hurry to catch a train or are afraid to miss an important meeting.
However, social networks are not solely used privately. Lately, businesses are trying to explore the ways of utilizing social networks. For example, Frank Langfitt gives an example of how social networks can be successfully used for job recruiting (Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recrtuiting). Another good example of corporate application of social networks is described in the article of Kenji Hall (Why is Nissan Mimicking MySpace). Nissan Corp. is trying to bypass bureaucracy by boosting informal contracts.
The technology provides the fast, cheap and convenient way of communication. That is the biggest advantage of the social networking. However there are some “dark sides” as well. Online communication sometimes creates an illusion of a crowd around you. You think you are surrounded by friends. Though, indeed, those “online friends” are most likely just companions for a minute or two. Moreover, the more people use social networking the more difficult it becomes for them to socialize in a real world. Another big problem of social networking is a lack of real body movements. People do not need to relocate their bodies in order to communicate to each other. As one of the results, obesity becomes one of the biggest problems for Americans.
Of course, social networks are not yet fully exploit. The new technologies will make it even better and faster. Probably they would converge social networking with other technologies like virtual reality, which will make the networking even more attractive for users. Whatever it is going to be I know it will be amazing, I guess, somehow, it will change social norms, but I am absolutely not sure if it will positively affect the human physiology. Many years ago I read a fantasy story about the distant future, where people have huge heads and miserable small bodies. I want to hope that it is not going to happen.

My New Media Class - So Far

What have I learned during almost two months of attending my new media class?
First of all, now I can distinguish between old and new media. I understand that the new media is a result of digitalization of information. Recent development of computer technology transformed old media into different form. For example, most of the old newspapers and magazines now are available online in a digital form. Almost every newspaper has its own blog. Development of internet technology made blogging a popular form of journalism. Blogging is easy. You do not need to have a special education or license to post your own blogs. Blogging in its turn influence the old media. For example, Melissa Gerry, in her article about celebrity blogs, states that some celebrity blogs are “so innovative and revolutionary in their approach” that they impact the old media market.
What would new media be without the internet? Internet is a biggest phenomenon in the digital world. It is a powerful net that does not know borders. It transfer information with a speed almost as fast as a speed of light. Finally, it is cheap. Only with help of the internet people can communicate fast, cheap, and with comfort. They do not even have to leave their homes, no matter how big is a distance between them. As a result we have a new media tool like social networking. It has its own pluses but as Frank Langfitt notices in “Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting”, if you need to build a stronger relationship with people there is no substitute for a telephone.
Though telephone itself is not quite the same telephone as it used to be. For example, our cell phones represent a convergence of different technologies: photo camera, music player, internet, etc. Convergence takes place in different spheres. Thus, the article “Gadgets at Work: The Blurring Boundary between Consumer and Corporate Technologies” discusses how the same technology is used by corporations and consumers at the same time. Another article, “Mix, Match, and Mutate” talks about convergence of software. They give an example of Amazon, which now includes software from Google, Yahoo and others.
Media, which is all about communication, when combined with the internet power became a new media, which we are study in our new media class and enjoy in our everyday life.

Blogs vs. Wikis

Blogs and wikis are two media tools. Both were made possible due to the new online technology. Both are similar in terms of usage: anyone can do blogging or collaborate in a wiki. Both are a form of journalism. Blogs and wikis are perfect examples of role convergence which is one of the essential features of new media. Internet gave people a power of two way communication. This power may be fully exercised in wikis and moreover in blogging; role of a user is converged with the role of an author. The same person becomes producer and consumer of information at the same time.

However, blogs and wikis are not the same thing. Thus, unlike wikis blogs are written by identifiable authors, who have control over their posts. Blogs are mostly created by people who have passion for writing, for expressing themselves and there personal ideas. Nevertheless, blogs can be used collaboratively as well. For example, as described in an article by Michael Wilson "Brooklyn blog helps lead to drug raid", the blog topic started by one person was developed by others. People collaborated, and it helps them to bring attention of the police to drug abuse in the building. On contrary, most wikis give a chance to everyone to participate in its creation. Therefore, wiki is a product of collaboration of many, while blog is a product of one. Wiki are designed in a way which allows people to work on their product as a team. The most known example of wiki is a Wikipedia. An article "An Internal wiki that's not classified" by Noam Cohen tells about a Diplopedia, a wiki created by contribution of all who works in a State Department. However, wikis are not limited to creation of text material. They are used for business discussions in place of meetings etc. I am sure wiki technology may be applied broader on college blackboards as a helpful tool for students to work on their team projects.