Question 3

Transparency is such an important concept because of the shift in what is trusted by society. With everyone able to share ideas and feelings about any type of issue, older mediums are looked to less to strengthen beliefs. The problem is that companies and political groups are taking advantage of the cheap and easy "homegrown" media and publishing it as though it is a single person sharing an idea. In the real world, you may not know the exact motives of someone you're talking too, but you can see them, know who they are, and make your own opinion. In the online world, anyone can hide behind a fake name and a fake image. If true motives cannot be seen it will be hard to trust anything and that is why transparency is so important in the online world.

Class questions 1,2

1: I think that the goal of making advertisements look "homegrown" and amateurish is to make it more easier for the audience to relate. Recently, people have seemed to grow tired of marketing strategies. People are constantly bombarded with thousands of advertisements for absolutely everything, and they are aware of it. This leads to many advertisements being ignored because people want to feel as though they cannot be swayed by corporate goals. With YouTube becoming so popular along with all other social media that allows people to publish and share their own opinions, videos, etc. corporations are trying to break into the field and generate revenue from it. If social media continues to boom in popularity, than I think this goal for "homegrown" appearances will continue to gain popularity. It will work as an under-the-radar ploy that may get people to drop their guard and lead to effective advertising. As the quality of user-generated information increases, I think production costs will go up as well. This is inevitable because technology is evolving and improving on a daily basis. As better technologies are available to the general public at lower prices, quality will undoubtedly go up.
This is only for certain companies/products though because there will always be those companies who keep their professional appearance and do not want to appear amateur in any way.

2: http://www.toyota.com/recall/?srchid=K16005_p280560543
My Tags: Toyota, Recall, Gas Pedal, Repairs, Fixing the problem, Company Ad, PR
Tags: floor mat, gas pedal, recall information, Toyota

I'm not sure why floor mat is included in this other than that the original cause for the problem was said to be floor mats, which is how the recall was delayed for some time. I included company ad as well as PR because it seems like it is by how things are said as well as user comments below. Someone said the article itself isn't a paid ad, that it just was paid for to be on the homepage of Digg, but it is PR none the less. "It is good to know that Toyota is doing everything they can to fix this problem both quickly and safely," the first comment by "Roy" is something people need to be aware of online. It is increasingly popular and profitable for companies to have people constantly boast the company on websites and blogs related to them.

Digital Nation Pt.2

I think it is so interesting the way people use the social media that is available. Aside from all of the dating and match-making websites that exist now, other forms of media are also connecting people in the same way. The Blizzcon convention that Digital Nation showed led to an interesting realization for me. I just thought of MMO games like World of Warcraft as a fun game that allows people to interact with each other for the game. I have made several online friends through games, but its only in the essence of the game, I never thought romantic relationships could stem from a cyber world. Seeing people that had met each other through WoW and eventually got married was a very interesting scenario. The statement that the virtual world "wasn't isolating them, it was giving them a new way to be intimate" was intriguing.
The Second Life network wasn't a shock to me because I knew about it and knew that interviews and projects have been shifting towards being done completely online, but it was really cool to see how in depth it goes. People even make jokes as if it were actually them in this world, like when the man said he needed his glasses back because he couldn't see. It is an amazing idea that you could live in America, be employed in England, and work on projects with people in Australia, Asia, Africa, anywhere really and never actually know what these people look like.
When the swimming with whales experiment was explained, i was slightly concerned. the fact that virtual reality can convince young children that they have actually swam with whales seems like a bad side effect. I wonder what this can mean for the future of things like advertising. How will this be used for marketers to aim messages subliminally at children and have it be effective without anyone realizing? This makes me believe that the virtual experience we are going through can definitely change us.
The army gaming station raises some interesting issues. First-person shooter video games already receive a lot of attention for the reason that researchers believe it impacts how violent kids are today. If this is valid, then the idea that the army is using it to lure kids into wanting to go to the army is unsettling. I give a lot of credit to those who enlist and want to defend their country, but I don't think it is good to try and condition kids to want to go into combat. With weapons becoming increasingly remote-controlled, it seems as though these games are almost training tools. It also may skew the image of what war actually is. If children grow up playing these games, killing computers images that represent real people, how will that affect how they act if they are in the army, remote controlling a device to kill real people? I really don't know how I feel about the entire building, especially with recruiters walking around and speaking to 13 year-old kids.

Digital Nation

I really enjoyed watching Digital Nation. It is obvious that people increasingly connecting their lives to the internet. College campus' all over the country are moving towards making the entire campus wireless accessible and it is interesting to see the research people are putting into this. Compared to students at MIT, I'm barely on the internet. It was shocking to hear how often they were online doing something. It really shouldn't have been shocking to me though since Blackberry's and iPhones keep people constantly connected.

Multitasking has become a way of life for our generation and as the video points out, we all believe that we are experts at it. One of the girls who was interviewed said teachers need to accept that we multitask and we are good at it which was really funny since it was followed with the studies that showed how performance drops when there are multiple distractions. Instead of doing one thing well, multitaskers succeed at doing poorly in multiple ways.

What was most interesting to me was the section about brain activity while reading vs. while on the internet. It showed more activity while on the internet which is not what I expected at all. I guess it is because it is more stimulating visually. I was further surprised when we learned that more activity isn't necessarily better. I think he even referred to the brain like golf where a lower score is better. I'm curious as to what the significance of reading a book online would be, or even reading the news from a website. Will that lead to more or less brain activity and what would that mean for people? Hopefully they go more into it and eventually touch on the idea of being addicted to the internet or video games.

Web 2.0 terms

User-generated content: refers to various types of media that are available to the public and people who these them have the ability to share information and communicate with other users.

Long-tail: a retailing idea that generates good profit by selling a large number of unique items in small quantities. It also includes selling large quantities of less popular items.

Network as Platform: Uses core network functions through open-source software instead of computer hardware. This allows for users to expand on the original model of this network and create new components. It also allows the administrator to decide how each component runs, giving it more versatility since it is not running on a single system

Folksonomy: a system of classification that allows users to collaboratively tag and label all sorts of things. This is clearly used in things such as Facebook and MySpace.

Web Syndication: when a website is available on or through other sites. It includes web feeds that connect people to a site or explanations of what the website includes.

Mass collaboration: a collective action between a large group of people working together on separate parts of a single project. Online tools such as wiki’s are commonly used to share information.

Computer supported collaboration: research that focuses on technology that affects groups, organizations, communities and societies. Includes texting, voice mail, and its impact on work activities and relationships

Social-Software: Software that allows users to communicate and share information. Examples are site such as Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, and social-networking sites.

Web hosting services: Companies that provide space on an owned or leased server that allows individuals to create their own website and share it with everyone through the web.

Computer Evolution

The evolution of computers. Starting in the bottom left, the original computer that was the size of an entire room then progressing to a table sized computer with several large parts. Eventually computers being used for gaming and evolving to better graphics. Next it shows older computers being put into classrooms, learning about them and enhancing learning. Moving from there it shows new classrooms with everyone sitting with personal laptops and moves into the new tablet laptops with removable screens. Then it has a futuristic idea where the computer is a clear device with digital images and everything is controlled by touch screens. Ultimately they could evolve to what is used in the movie Avatar, where the machine produces a digital hologram that is interactive and can be moved around and played with.

Content Vs. Message

Tablet Laptop
Content: Digital audio/video/pictures, internet, streaming audio/video
Message: The internet/world at your fingertips in a portable way and touch screen abilities making it easier to connect with anything you want, anywhere

Smart Phones
Content: Internet, text, audio, video
Message: Complete connectivity to people through speaking or texting as well as accessing the internet for all types of reasons such as entertainment or practical uses such as gps. Also allows for customization to completely adapt to the users needs and desires.

Flip Video Camera
Content: Digital audio/video
Message: It is small and compact which makes it easy to bring everywhere and allows people to film any interesting part of their lives to share on the internet. It is another way people can share parts of their lives with friends, family, or anyone online.