Farewell

I had a lot of fun in this class this semester. It was definitely something different...more different than any other class I have taken in college. Going into it, I thought it would be a breeze - thinking I knew everything already. I was wrong.

I had no idea what Goldfarming was, and that was really cool to learn about. I had an idea what Crowdsourcing was, but didn't really understand it until we covered it in class.

Taking this class also made me realize some things about Facebook that I wasn't aware of before...like the identity theft, background checks, and that it is probably the greatest invention in history, as far as social networking goes. It seemed like everything we talked about in class related back to Facebook somehow. The class also made me realize I am a Facebook addict, haha.

The tests were hard too - but I enjoyed them. I dont think I ever put as much effort into studying for any other class...

I have also found myself using terms learned in class, in daily conversations/situations - like Ubiquitos and Social Capital, for example.

It was a good time. My first class in the WEB building, which is awesome btw...and everyone in the class was pretty cool. We had some good discussions.

I will keep this blog up, so future e-lifers can have something to reference...or so nobody else takes my sweet name/url.

Thanks!

Smaller = Better ?

It is no secret that over the years cell phones have gotten smaller and smaller. They used to be the size of bricks, now they can fit inside your fist.

It seemed to me that they reached a happy medium a few years ago, with the release of all of the smart phones. The Blackberries, LG's and iPhone's are all relatively the same size - able to fit in the palm of your hand, with a large enough screen to read comfortably.

I came across an article about the Orange Vegas - the cheapest, smallest touch screen phone on the market (for now), and I am just asking myself one thing. Why?

Why does the phone need to be that small? It seems like it would be a hassle just to use the thing.

Although it is Innovative (Jenkins) to come up with a device that is unlike any other, is it really appropriate aside from the fact that it is just showcasing the ability of its creators? Sure, we can make a phone that is so small that you would need a dialing wand to use, but is it necessary?

I guess it just depends on your frame of mind. If you have to be the one with all of the cool gadgets, then sure. If you care more about functionality and comfort, then you will go with something a bit larger.

What does this mean for the future? Do you think phones will stay about the same size, or keep getting smaller? Will we get to the point where phones are just built in to something else, or an ear piece that we wear at all times so we do not miss a call? The way things are going now, with people addicted to text messaging and just their cell phones in general, it is scary to think about the future...

Interpersonal relationships would totally shift. Face to face contact would deminish, and people would be more concerned with their mobile device than anything else. Constantly talking or texting on their devices, people would not have time to make any human interaction. The only face to face contact or human interaction would be about the devices - either talking about how cool they are, or getting them fixed or upgraded. That kind of goes into Ubiquitos Computing too... The device will do everything for you, so why do you need people?

It's scary to think about.

Some beneficial research links

For me at least...

These are some of the sites that I have used for inspiration for my posts:

Wired - Wired Magazines website. They constantly update, and have tons of cool articles.

Hypebeast - Pretty good blog. Updates on latest (usually late) sneakers, fashion, technology.

The More [people] You Know!

The idea is simple; the more people you know, the more benefits/opportunities you will have. That is why we make friends in the first place right? Haha, kidding...

Knowing people - especially the right people - is kind of a big deal. If you have a "guy" for everything (a car guy, a shoe guy, a ticket guy, a computer guy, etc.) you are pretty well off. It may be hard for some people to acquire these "guys" though...and that is where social networking comes into play...

As it is stated in pretty much every presentation/blog, Facebook broadens your social network. You can meet people from all over the damn place. If you like cars, there's an interest group or twelve for you. If you like to drink, there are plenty of parties to check maybe to. Most of all though, you can make friends - or at least acquaintance - fairly easy. Just send them a message or a friend request, and let it snowball from there. Once you are on speaking terms, their resources become yours.

The article The Benefits of Facebook "Friends" has an article that I can really relate to in it:

For individuals, social capital allows a person to draw on resources from other members of the networks to which he or she belongs. These resources can take the form of useful information, personal relationships, or the capacity to organize groups (Paxton, 1999). Access to individuals outside one's close circle provides access to non-redundant information, resulting in benefits such as employment connections (Granovetter, 1973). Moreover, social capital researchers have found that various forms of social capital, including ties with friends and neighbors, are related to indices of psychological well-being, such as self esteem and satisfaction with life (Bargh & McKenna, 2004; Helliwell & Putnam, 2004).

Some personal experiences:

• I met a friend online through a car club online. That guy introduced me to some more guys, who introduced me to even more guys. Now I have friends that know all types of cars (muscle, Japanese, euro, etc.), so if I need help with anything that has to do with those, I have someone to call. Through that particular group, I met a guy who works at T-mobile. He hooked me up with a free Blackberry.

• I am friends with a local DJ, and after checking out his friends page on myspace (years ago) I became a fan of their music. He introduced me to them at a show, and we have been hanging out ever since. I got my other DJ friend a gig with them, and he is now a part of their group and they perform every week or so all over the city.

I don't want to sound like I am bragging, but it really pays off to be social. I have always heard the term, "It's not what you know, its who you know" and have actually benefited from it for most of my life. The job I have now I got because I had friends that worked there...and every job I have had in the past as well.

On top of all that, you meet some really awesome people, and form some really great friendships. People that I consider some of my best friends, I have met through social networking. Without it, I probably would have never met them, and who knows where I would be now...

Facebook also makes it easy to maintain your relationships, and communicate with everyone in a timely manner whether it be a simple wall post or a 5 minute chat. Of course there are going to be those people that you aren't really close to, that you may see in passing or just dont really get a lot of face to face time with, but online you can keep a connection with them.

The way the world is going, it seems like having connections with people can benefit you more than a degree will. So I guess the point I am getting at here is, don't take people for granted and give everyone a chance. You never know how they could benefit you - or how you could benefit them. Whether it be a hookup on a sweet phone, or just someone to talk to... who knows, maybe one day you will end up in their wedding line or something.

iSolation

Earlier in the year, I remember talking about the digital divide and how technology divides families. Family is a very important interpersonal relationship, if not the most. People usually spend more time with their families when they are younger than when they are grown up. When they grow up, they have their own lives, have new friends, and possibly families of their own.

During the time when we are young, we spend time with our families in a variety of ways...dinners, trips, shopping, home evenings, etc. Back in the old days - before the digital divide - families would do more things together like sing songs, play games, or just converse. Enter the digital era...
Now, instead of spending time with family kids are either on their computers, chatting it up with friends or playing video games, or totally tuned out with their iPods on.

The main point that I would like to get at with this post, is the isolation that people - particularly younger people - put themselves in with their iPods (or other forms of mp3 players).

As I am writing this, I am sitting in the Box Canyon Lodge in Ouray Colorado. I came down here with my family yesterday, and it was about a 6 hour drive. 4 of those hours, I had headphones on. My sister had hers on for probably 5. I thought about this subject while we were going through Grand Junction... I thought back to every road trip I had been on with my family, and from what I can remember, as long as I have had a portable music player, I have listened to it the majority of the time, if not the entire time. Ever since my first Walkman at the age of 10, complete with Nirvana tape...haha. After that it was the Sony Discman, and my only memory of that on a trip was going to Las Vegas when I was 16, with only two cd's. But the whole time, I had my headphones on. Why? I don't know exactly, but it has something to do with the digital divide, and me wanting to isolate myself for some reason. It does make the trip go by faster, but I think it goes deeper than that...

I notice people around campus, as well as throughout the city with headphones on a lot too, even if it is just in between classes, or walking to work/school. Maybe it offers some sort of escape to be able to listen to whatever you want, whenever you want.

Anyway, the point I am getting at is: When we have the option of being tuned out from our families, and focusing on our own personal music choice, we take it. It must be something about our generation that likes to be isolated, and in our own world - in a sense. Unlike generations before us, we like to do what we like - and we actually do it instead of talking about it.

Maybe we don't spend as much time talking with our families as generations before us, but it doesn't mean our connections aren't as strong. It goes back to my philosophy of quality over quantity...

I am not sure exactly why we choose to isolate ourselves, maybe it is because we want to explore what else is out there, or maybe we want a change of pace. If anyone has some insight on the subject, please reply.

Tweet Tweet

We have mentioned Twitter in class before, and today I noticed a column in Wired magazine that mentioned it as well. It was the February issue, and I also found the link to it.

Steven Levy talks about how he feels uncomfortable sharing certain information with people he has never met, and this reminded me of the discussion we had in class about privacy online...

When someone is sharing their personal information online, they are choosing to do so. It is totally up to you how much you want to share. Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook allow you to set your profiles to private, so you can verify that you actually know the people that want to see your information. However, if you want to add people that you don't know, in order to broaden your network, then you run into a little dilemma. You then start questioning the content you are posting, and then start questioning if you should be updating as frequently. These are also things that Levy mentioned in his article.

I can see (and have seen) Twitter or Facebook really helping/hurting interpersonal relationships because of this... "Your relationship status still says single..wtf?!" "You tweeted that the game was awesome, at 5pm - when you said you had to take your mom to dinner instead of go out with me!"

Interpersonal relationships really are getting to that point...

But what is one to do, when becoming a user of these social networking sites is the norm for our society? Well, I see a few options...

• Either make an account for the hell of it, just to say you have one.
• Make an account, and just use it to keep in touch with your actual friends that you already have.
• Make an account to meet to new people, and explore this new technology.
• Or just go with the flow...sign up, see what the site is about, and eventually adapt to it. Because lets face it, you are going to have to eventually...

You have the freedom to do what you want. People are only going to see what you want them to see, and hear what you want them to hear. Building and maintaining interpersonal relationships (existing and future) all depend on how you choose to do so. You aren't obligated to expose everything to your entire network of friends, but at the same time, they would probably like to know what is going on in your life - because you are friends.

I really liked this paragraph of the article, because I think it sums up how I feel about social networking sites:

We hear a lot about privacy violations by Big Brother and Little Brother. But what if the fault lies not in our siblings but in ourselves? For a reality check, I called Marc Rotenberg, head of the Electronic Privacy Information Center and an utter hawk when it comes to protecting personal data. He told me to relax. "One aspect of privacy is the ability to project yourself as you choose," he says. Services like Facebook and Twitter are strictly opt-in, so as long as the information isn't divvied out to marketers, Rotenberg is OK with it: "That is freedom."

So, if you are going to update your status, or Tweet constantly, just be aware of who you are letting see.

Gold Farming

When I heard the term Gold Farming in class, the first thing I thought of was when Annie's husband came and presented, and mentioned the crowdsourcing event of the people looking for gold. After doing the readings, I then realized how off I was, but then again how the two were similar.

The Gold Farmers are actually farming make believe gold on the internet while the people in the contest were finding actual physical gold.

Both have people doing work for other people for a smaller cost, while the people in charge make all of the profit.

So in that way, they are similar.

Now, back to Gold Farming...

The idea itself goes back to the beginning of time - have someone else do the hard work for you while you reap the benefits. In this case, instead of having someone you know do it, you are having someone in another country do it for you, which is a fine display of how far society has come technologically. Outsourcing to other countries that will work for minimal wages is pretty common these days.

Personally, I would never do this. I see it as cheating. If you are playing a game, you should be following the guidelines that everyone else is following. Otherwise, you enter a cheat code. There is a reason cheat codes are called cheat codes... because it is CHEATING. You enter cheat codes when you just want to mess around, or get far without trying. When you apply it to an MMO, it just isn't fair.

The analogy that I thought of during the discussion in class was customizing a car. A lot of time and effort - and money - goes into building up a car. Some people spend months or years getting their cars exactly the way they want them. People of like minds - car enthusiasts - will get together and talk about their cars, show them off, go on cruises, etc. They all share the appreciation.

Then there are the people that just want to fit in. They will do what it takes to make those people like them, or accept them. The most common case that I have seen is someone buying a car that is already fixed up, and then talking about it like they did it themselves, or actually know anything about the car. When you ask them a question about how long the motor took to build, or what type of turbo they decided to go with, they just reply "I donno, it came like that..." and they still want credit. It seems to be the same thing as just buying a fixed up character on world of warcraft. When they get it, will they even know how to use it? ...which can be said about the car or the character.

If that doesn't apply to this at all, let me know. That is just the first thing that came to me.

I think in the future, it will be worse than it is today. Everyone that has money will be paying people to do things for them, so they can take the credit for it. It comes with the 'better, faster, stronger' mindset that society seems to have. Nothing is ever good enough, and everything needs to be done faster. It is kind of sad that people wont take the time to enjoy things.

"Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
- Ferris Bueller

Smart Phones

I have had a BlackBerry for about 8 months now, and I must say, I probably couldn't live without it. I definitely cannot go back to a conventional phone - it would be like going from an automobile to a bicycle.

Smart Phones have pretty much revolutionized the mobile phone world by converging your everyday tasks into one device. Aside from your phone calls, text messages, emails, mp3s, videos, and appointments are all in the palm of your hand.

A Smart Phone makes life a lot easier, especially in this day and age where every ones lives revolve around computers. With a full keyboard, high quality display, and full internet capabilities, it is no wonder why they are gaining such a fan base. Maintaining your interpersonal relationships is another perk of a smart phone. You can access your Myspace or Facebook right there in the palm of your hand, as well as your email account. In theory, you are constantly connected to your social network.

Aside from keeping up with your friends and such on a personal level, you can still keep up with them on the material level as well. But these days it may cost you a little more than it has in the past...

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine today about cell phones, when we passed the "tricked out cell phone accessory" cart. 5 or 6 years ago, during high school, the craze were the Nokia candybar phones and various flip phones, that would allow you to change the faceplates, add decorations, and personalize them. Now everyone has a BlackBerry or an iPhone, and the only customization you can really do to them is some sort of protective case - the gel skins being the most popular. I dont know if it is just becuase of the age difference, and subtlety comes with age, or Smart Phones are just cool how they are. One thing that came of the conversation though, is that those accessory booths probably do not get nearly as much business as they used to, and probably never will with the way things are going.

People these days want designer stuff. If you are spending hundreds of dollars on a phone, you want the best case for it as well.

For example, this Louis Vuitton case for the iPhone. $250. This is the future of cell phone accessories. Be prepared.

By now, if you do not have a smart phone then within the next year or two you will. They are making things like day planners and mp3 players obsolete. With capabilities of a laptop computer in the palm of your hand, why have anything else?

My questions to you are: What kind of phone do you use? Why did you choose that particular model? and What accessories do you have/want to have for it.

Convergence...

Mash-ups are awesome

Media Convergence is an amazing thing. I love the fact that I can do so many things on just my computer alone - check email, watch tv, watch movies, listen to music, and talk to people through video, audio, and text. What is even cooler, is that it is all free. I can't even imagine what it will be like 10 years from now, or even 5.

Jenkins says that "Convergence alters the relationship between existing technologies, industries, markets, genres and audiences..."

I want to elaborate on that, how I see the alterations in each of those subjects...

Existing Technologies

I have seen the relationship between existing technologies altered in more than one way. First of all, televisions and computers. HDTV's are becoming the standard now, and in turn, High Definition monitors for computers and laptops have too. Now you can watch your HD TV shows online, for free - without a special cable box. Monitors are getting larger too, so they seem just like a TV. Personally, I have an iMac desktop with a 19" screen and I use it to watch dvd's and tv shows on. It works just like a TV, so I have no need for one in my bedroom, which in turn saves me space.

Industries

An industry that comes to mind that has recently converged is digital online music with physical online music. For instance, Amazon.com. You generally go to their web-site to look up products to purchase, like cd's, dvd's, etc. Now, while browsing cd's you might potentially buy from them, you can sample the songs in mp3 format. If you like the song or album, you can save more time and just buy the digital version, and download it to your computer - no waiting for it to ship to your house. The only downside to this, is you dont get the physical cd to have, but really...who collects cds anymore?

Markets

A market that I think has changed their relationship due to media convergence, is Advertising. All of the different markets within advertising have converged - television, radio, online, etc. You cannot go anywhere without being subject to at least some form of advertising. Televisions were practically made for advertising, the shows are just there to keep us watching until the next commercial comes on. Radio pretty much lives on advertising, like tv, with constant commercials. Now that the internet is available on your cell phone, so is more advertising - and not only through the internet, text messages as well. Online advertising has taken advantage of the convergence with television by placing more and more ads that you are forced to watch during the episodes of your favorite online tv shows (hulu, sidereel, youtube, etc.)

Genres

This is the one that caught my attention the most, because it is the one that I enjoy the most. I love music, and hip-hop is my favorite genre. Hip-hop was born by converging different genres of music together to come up with something new, and eventually became what it is today. It is constantly evolving too, with different remixes and collaborations. I was introduced to Mash-up's back in 2005 when I heard about "The Grey Album". The Grey Album is a mash-up of Jay-Z's Black Album, and The Beatles White Album. There was a lot of controversy over it, because DJ Danger Mouse didn't clear any of the samples or beats, but it put him on the map. Now he is one of the most successful producers in the industry (Gnarles Barkley, Gorillaz, etc.) The next one I learned about was in 2006; "Blue eyes meets Bed stuy" in an issue of GQ - John Legend had mentioned it during an interview - anyway, the album is a mash-up Notorious B.I.G. and Frank Sinatra. DJ Chapel & Smitty put it together, and I was blown away with it. Biggie's rhymes combined with Sinatra's melody and big band sound, was the perfect mix.

Audiences

Audiences have altered their relationships as everything else has. Music and Television are all gaining new followers, from all age groups. "old" people are now listening to the likes of Radiohead and Kanye West, where as 10 years ago you would never see a person over 50 listening to an artist like West. Television shows like Deal or No Deal are bringing people of all ages together as well - even though it is one of the dumbest shows in the history of television. It is something everyone can understand, and the suspense is something people of all ages can feel. Audiences are always going to be separated, but they are slowly coming together more and more. I wouldn't be surprised to see families watching an entire night of tv together, or all listening to the same "popular" music together, and not having to ask each other questions.

First post of the semester!

Finally...

After contemplating a topic for this blog over the last few weeks, one finally came to me - describing what the "e-life" is, to me, and how it is changing our lives, and everything around us.

The first thing that came to my mind was Youtube.

Everyone has spent at least some part of their day killing time on Youtube watching videos. Some people spend a couple of minutes, and some spend a couple of hours - it all depends on the situation, especially if something like alcohol is involved.

Watching ridiculous videos of people falling down, or babies making funny faces are favorite past times of people of all types. Just check the view counts... "Charlie bit my finger" has over 77 million views...

If you were a big company, or even the people responsible for the video, wouldn't you want some money for those 77 million views? I know I would...

Lately, I have seen a lot of advertising on the sidebars of those videos, as well as pop-ups that go over the videos themselves - advertising a t-shirt or something that references the video. My initial reaction to the advertisements was, "wow, this is pretty annoying" but now that I think about it, the idea is genius. The videos already get watched more than most TV shows, and are constantly visited thousands of times a day, so why wouldn't you want to advertise on them? The same goes for the video makers. If that many people are watching your videos, you have an opportunity to get them to buy things - and that is what television exists for in the first place; to show you advertisements so you can buy things.

Sure it takes the fun away from it, but cash does rule everything around us, so we don't really have a choice.

This relates to McLuhans famous quote, "The medium is the message." If you are trying to market video making software you can use at home, what better medium to use than a web site where people post home made videos? There are plenty of different ads on Youtube, and every other video site on the web as well, so try and notice them next time you are watching one and see how it relates to the site or video.