Go get Em

(Image taken from Google Images)
The Technology world is evolving constantly and to discuss the concept of technology you have to keep a close on it and integrate into the new activities available through different websites. Discussing the thousands of social networking sites and the craze of things like second life takes an inside look to really understand what there doing and how users are reacting. Now that anyone can become a star by simply posting a video on youtube who knows whats going to happen with world. Everyone is getting a voice with there own blogs and some people even achieve fame through voicing there opinions on the Internet. Its the most efficient way to connect people all over the world and keep people constantly updated on the most modern news. A lesson I've learned over the course of these past 5 months is to be cautious of how available you make yourself on the Internet. Once you voice your opinion or post pictures of yourself on a public domain your integrity and online reputation could be at sake. If you do feel what your saying or showing has a message that needs to be heard then all the power to you thats why it there!

MyFace and Spacebook

Over the time of this class we have taken a deep look into a popular part of our society. Everyone has been spending time on these various social networking sites but not many people take time to look into what really happens with these websites. The difficulty and challengers of keeping its users interested well not taking away from the sites original purpose. Advertisements are a big issue for people because of how it adds to the noise on a particular site and makes it difficult to read through. What doesn’t usually go through the users mind well their surfing through these sites is the necessity for people in charge to create revenue and keep the site running. We also spent time in this class looking at the amount of social networking sites there are competing with each other. The list I viewed of social networking sites was all jam-packed into http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites. I’m sure another handful has hoped into the competitive pool within the time it has taken me to post. This aspect of it makes it difficult for the user to know which one will best first his or her purpose of social networking online. It also makes it difficult for people creating sites to try and serve a unique purpose that will keep the users at bay.

Where did I leave my CellMP3CameraGPSInternetPhone?

(Image taken from Google Images)
Remember back in the day when there was never space in your pockets when you would go out on a Saturday night. You had your cell phone, camera, pager, IPod and any other necessity all separate and unique. With these innovative ideas for phones I think we will be able to cook popcorn with our cell phone before 2010. People have these phones that can connect to the Internet with a click of a button tell you your exact location through GPS and even capture a moment in time with high-tech cameras. I understand the desire to have all these tools in one easy device but when do you draw the line. People can spend all day on their phone and never need to engage in conversation because all their tools are right in their pocket. It’s difficult to make an argument that would compel people to change because the convenience of having everything in one place is what we love. Wal-Mart and Iphones will never be boycotted against because we love that kind of simplicity. I feel like there should at least be an age limit before a child should be allowed to own an Iphone. Having that kind of technology right there at all times has to be detrimental to some aspect of growing up and socializing.

To Care or Not To Care?

I was reading an article that although very interesting was a very boring matter. The presidential race is not a secret after the smoke has cleared from the last few months the final two big dogs are almost foreseeable. This article I read discussed the difficulties of editing presidential candidates webpage on Wikipedia. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia available in 250 languages and constantly being updated because any Joe Schmoe with a computer can decide to edit a page. A point made in the article was that when a candidates name is googled the first thing to come up is their Wikipedia site, which makes it an important online resume for that candidate. Where I felt the whole argument discussed in the article lost its integrity was when it discussed the content of what was being edited. Whether it was an image of a naked black man being deleted from Obama’s page or minor details to a candidate’s actual name. I understand the issue at hand but feel there should be a greater emphasis on the candidate’s policies instead of whether their name is Fred or Freddie.

Watch What You Write

Over the past few weeks I’ve felt torn over one particular idea. How available should you make yourself on the Internet? From the different stories of people losing their jobs over Facebook photos and just the importance of having a good reputation online available to the world I’ve been much more cautious. Thomas Kyte had some interesting ideas on the matter that were very enlightening. Things to put into consideration are your political and religious views and the amount of private information you may non-chaulauntly put on your LinkedIn profile or Blog that could have serious consequences. I’ve heard more and more stories of people deleting their profiles on different social networking sites because of the risks associated with them.
Now the big realization is with what were doing in this very class. Blogs are now a key way for employers to get a better look at an individual before hiring them. As we move into a more technology savvy generation companies are also progressing past interviews and resumes to get a deeper look into the potential employees. Your Blog is now viewed as an online resume and needs to written with care and consideration for yourself and others. Will everybody be more cautious well writing their next Blogs now that this is so widespread?

Digg your way to the top

The next stop throughout my journey of the online community involves a deep look into social news sites. For some it’s a tool to branch out and advertise their ideas or product well others use it for its general purpose of posting the most interesting stories in a place that could attract a mass audience. When discussing the big dogs of this crazy world, Digg is the first site to some to mind for most people. Digg is a very large and well-known social news site that posts stories by category and popularity. It has so many users right now that on the front page of the site which shows 15 stories posted by users the 15th story was posted only five hours and will be pushed into archive pages by the time the sun comes up.
Social news sites are considered a revolutionary new way to get a voice and gain supporters especially now that Digg decided to allow political stories on there site. Allow is a funny word when it comes to these kind of sites because even though the goal is to give the little man or the nobodies a voice the editors can quickly take it away. It works effectively if the goal is to stop hate stories or false stories all together but I do find it kind of contradictory to do such a thing. If these sites were made for that exact purpose it doesn’t seem fair to only allow a selected few to be posted on the site. Overall I would say social news sites are a great idea but when the get to the size of one like Digg where hundreds of stories are filtered in daily it becomes much more difficult to continue following the original goals for the site.

More maybe Better I think not

Throughout the last couple months my digital world has opened up to many new ideas, cultures, and beliefs. I have read and posted on different activities and events that take place in the real world and transfer into the digital world. Starting with the obvious Second life and all the issues I have with what this program has done to our society new issues come into play. After reading through what Milestone Company believes and what NetAge Endless Knots has posted on the website the idea of virtual brainstorming being more beneficial than face to face brainstorming is the new argument. There are very compelling arguments for both sides but I still feel more confident that working with the physical person and not just there voice are web cam version of them is more effective. There isn’t much of an argument against the numbers saying virtual brainstorming groups find more solutions alone then groups meeting and brainstorming together, however, is more solutions necessarily better? If your working at the top level of a corporation in making million dollar deals and decisions the amount of solutions is hardly the most important issue. I would say having people come together and brainstorm creates a stronger bond between people and better solutions. The only reason why more solutions come up when brainstorming is done virtually and alone is because no one is opposing them.

Job Hunting

With the advancements made in society I feel we have done pretty well at teaching are youth how to also stay on track with this forward progression. From the first time I took a job as a busboy a remember tips to take into account when trying to get the job. Keep eye contact and give a firm handshake when you first meet. For jobs I will be working for in the near future it may take a little more. I’ve heard things like it’s not what you know but who you know that get you the job and connections are most important when trying to excel but what else comes into play.
Now that social networking online is becoming a more popular way to do business then going in yourself and applying I feel from here on out I will need to be much more tech savvy. I could walk into an interview more qualified but several steps behind my competition because my online resume was either not existent or less than stellar. At this point its not so much my future I’m concerned about but what I’ll be teaching my children so they can be ahead of the game when the time comes.

2nd second life

I felt like second life deserved a second week of discussion. I’ve continued to do some readings about the online community and still find it very depressing. After the class that we had last week and the chance to experience second life first hand I have spent good about of time thinking about it. After reading about the marriages people have celebrated on second life and the amount of stories about people making real money I wonder how far this second life thing can go.
Complaints I’ve heard about second life and complaints I have myself about it are similar to issues people have with other social networking tools. I understand the convenience of being able to meet up with people in a virtual world that may be strenuous to arrange otherwise because of maybe distance or disabilities. In situations like that I think its great for people to have an easier way to communicate. Issues I have with second life falls under issues of an older advertisement. Second life was allowing people to go to Talib Kweli’s house and hang out with him in the second life world. That just seems like a waste of time and a bizarre way to get people involved in second life.

Second life or end of life

Is this what we have related to this early in our generation. “Second Life” seems like such a tragedy to me. If someone isn’t happy with their own life they can go to their second life and get the women and the money that seems so distant in their real life. When Teletubbies first came about there were critics who said its bad for kids to watch them. The reason being the TV’s on there abdomens promoted isolation and not socializing with friends. I thought that idea was ridiculous until right now. Teletubbies controversy may have been a stretch but the original thought isn’t so farfetched. With this second life people log into their names and sit in front of the computer hanging out in clubs with their friends or cool party places. It would sound all fine and dandy if there wasn’t a computer screen in between you and you were actually moving and dancing. This could be the end of humanity as we know it if it keeps up.

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Where do you usually go when you take a trip onto the Internet? If there is no homework or research to be done and nobody that you have to urgently get in touch with how do you spend your time on the web? What is it about a website that attracts an Internet user to come back again and again? I have a couple different e-mail accounts that I usually give a quick look-see and then see the scores of my teams on espn.com. Facebook, which we have had enough of a class discussion about, I will usually visit to see if any birthdays are coming up. To become a regular visit for any web user the site must be adapting and changing consistently.
I was reading the article about spoof videos posted on youtube that attracted thousands of viewers with the website alone getting millions of visitors. Also the idea of getting someone from every state to visit my blog post got me thinking of what exactly attracts a user to a particular site. There are 5 websites that I check regularly and I’m very curious to here from others what websites they check regularly. I also recommend downloading Stumble if you use firefox or Internet Explorer. Stumble is a program that after putting your interests in it will take you to websites that appeal to your interests. Check it out if you get a chance.

Our Blogs should get together

Kendra's blog posted on February 2nd was a very interesting read. It pertains to business's being able to look over what their employees are doing with work computers. She brings up specifics of certain people who were fired for searching for porn during work hours. The number of times the employees searched for porn was 19,000 times in a year which makes their trip to the unemployment line more reasonable. The issue I had with the article was when it discusses the companies freedom to look through anything that happens on the employees computer E-mails, instant messages, web sites visited etc. Porn is one thing but being able to look through anything eliminates all freedoms of the employee.

money money money

There are several ways to make a living or a source of income. Some people choose to succeed through shortcuts or getting lucky well most of us will sit in a cubicle to make a steady pay check. The new innovative way to do this and make money is online. Everything now a day seems to has a self-service lane that is taking jobs away from people. Whether it be check out at Wal-Mart or getting your boarding pass from Southwest there is a computer that can do it for you. Fortunately there are still things that the old fashioned noggin can to better than computers. Mechanical Turk the online service is now a way for humans to work as guides to come up with relevant searches and make money for doing so.
If your already making money and just looking for a way to make more it looks like the online market is still the way to go. Nike now allows any Joe Shmoe with a computer to customize his or her own pair of fresh Nike’s. This will appeal to a huge audience and only profits can come out of it. I personally look forward to customizing my own pair after I finish this blog post. Nike has proven for years that it can stay ahead of its competition and now with a more technology savvy generation Nike still adapted and tapped into a gold mine.

Blogging in Corporate America

It is remarkable where the world of blogging has come to. It has now become a key part in a couple of my classes here at American University including this one. The article about blog posts sending a message to corporate America was a very intriguing article. People posting complaints can now be very expensive for big time corporations and I love it. When a product wasn’t working up to standards before blogging there wasn’t much that could be done besides trying to talk to an actual person at customer service. Now if a company dare try to scam or release poor quality products it can be read by hundreds of thousands and be a major setback for a company.

I recently read a blog where someone had told his story with Orbitz and the impossible itinerary the sold him. It went into detail about how they sold him a 96-dollar impossible itinerary that eventually cost him near 300 with no compensation from the Orbitz. After posting his story on his already very popular blog dozens of stories flooded of other people who had been cheated by Orbitz and received nothing in return. I don’t how the company is doing now but I make sure to never buy my ticket from them and tell everyone I can the same story.

The other article I read had a much more beneficial message for someone considering starting there own business. It was not to fear the blog posting frenzy but to embrace it and use it to your advantage. Blogging is a living creature that is being updated constantly and can give a company an inside look into what its consumers are thinking. This is a very interesting way to look at blogging and will hopefully be picked up by companies across the world. The whole blogging phenomena will be the future in corporate America and in networking with its consumers.

Week 1 Blog

There were several parts of the readings that I found very interesting. The idea of it not being about “what you know but who you know” is a very important concept. That idea starts earlier than social networking around the office. Even when applying to private high schools or colleges having older siblings or people on the inside make your acceptance much more likely. In most situations in life relationships are very important and not burning bridges will always benefit you in the long run. This article had a real in depth look into that idea and making those connections when networking in the business world.
I strongly agree with the idea of making moves to progress in the business world through networking and establishing connections with people who can help you excel. It’s unfortunate however when someone moves forward solely because of there connections and who they know. When over privileged people get job opportunities over others who may work harder but haven’t made friends with the big wigs of the company yet.

My First Blog

I'm a student at American University doing blog posts for a class. "On my honor, all posts on this blog are my own."