Social Media Outside the Classroom

Since the semester is coming to a close, and we are beginning to discuss the ways in which we can apply our new media knowledge outside the classroom, I thought it would be useful to inform everyone about the site Mashable.com.  This is a new aggregator website which focuses specifically on happenings in the world of media.  It is an interesting website that contains lots of useful information for media students!

Another reason I thought that talking about this website would be good for my last post, is because this afternoon we are discussing the ways in which new media has infultrated the professional sphere. I thought it would be interesting to talk about the other ways in which social/new media is manifest outside the classroom.

Each week Mashable updates its events calander with  upcoming social media and web events, parties and conferences!

While these events take place across the country (and a few around the world) I thought that these events would be good networking (and social!) opportunities! There is a social media conference taking place in Washington, D.C. in Janauary! I encourage you to check it out…even if you don’t attend the events it may provide you with information about companies that you may be interesting in applying for jobs at!

Finally, I thought I would include a video about the CEO of Mashable.com, Peter Cashmore.  Not only is he Scottish and extremely handsome, he is also only 24 years old!  So put your education to good use, network, and maybe you too will be an extremely successful and powerful CEO in a few years!

Groupon!

Groupon is a website which offers different deals daily to local restaurants, bars, theaters etc.  It was launched in 2008 in the United States and Canada.  Groupon originated in Chicago, but today it now covers 150 markets nationwide in addition to 100 international markets!

This video gives a helpful overview of how Groupon works:

This is one of the coolest “new” websites I have ever used.  My girlfriends introduced me to it over Thanksgiving.  Six of us went out to an upscale restaurant in Boston had drinks, appetizers and dinner and because of our two “groupons” we only ended up paying 5 dollars each for a great meal!  I signed up and I encourage you to do the same!!

One thing I also found interesting about Groupon which I thought related well to our recent class discussion is that Google is currently in negations with Andrew Mason, The CEO of Groupon and ThePoint, Inc. (the company that owns Groupon) about purchasing the website.  Google is under extreme scrutiny right now from the EU because of their alleged bias search practices, and this acquisition only adds to the criticism.  Google competitors are concerned about this merger because it will give Google an even greater advantage because it would help them capitalize on the consumer demand for “web coupons.”  It will be interesting to see how this acquisition progresses and how Google’s competitors respond as a result!

 

 

New Media in Ireland

When we were discussing possible topics for the end of the semester a few classes ago, someone mentioned looking at the differences in social media abroad.  This inspired me to reflect on and blog about the experience I had social media while studying abroad in Ireland.

Just like in America, in Ireland sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Linked-in have become hugely popular.  In 2009, The Irish Independent did a story about the spike in Facebook users in Ireland which reached 400,980 users in January 2009 nearly doubling since 2008.  As the popularity of these social networking sites continues to grow in Eire, we see Facebook and Twitter infiltrating the Irish political scene much like it has done in the US.  Irish “TD” (the equilivant to US Senators) and Senators (the equilivant to US Reps…go figure!) are beginning to use Facebook and Twitter to reach update their communication methods and reach out to their younger constituents.  [ I urge you to check out these two links….The Facebook is the Hot, Young Finna Fail Senator & the Twitter is the TD my friend worked for abroad!!]

Blogging is also becoming widely popular in Ireland as well.  My favorite blog to read is Sprinbok which is an Irish rugby blog.

However, you can find blogs which cover a wide array of topics, yet the most popular blogs in Ireland usually focus on politics or the economy!

As the vlogging trend starts to gain popularity in the U.S. so too is it gaining popularity in Ireland.  This vlogg is made by a young Irish boy, who talks about the “randomness of being Irish”

Location Based Social Networking is also becoming popular.  The Irish Times did a piece on LBS and covered the big hitters, Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places.  He also talked about Locle, a new mobile “buddy finder” application from Eircom based out of Dublin.

Its concept is similar to the AT&T and Verizon “friend locator” services yet does not rely on GPS or mobile networks to run the application.  Locle, instead relies on social networking platforms such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace to bring web-like social networking functionality to the phone.

One final thing I found interesting when researching new media in Ireland was 

A social networking site specifically for Irish people.  The site claims that it is for “Irish people abroad and in Ireland.” I know there are social networking sites for specialized groups, however this site particularly interested me.  Not only does the site contain lots of different features such as blogs, photos, posting capabilities etc.  It also includes links to various links pertinent to Irish culture, such as links to the GAA site, links to Irish music sites and even links to find various travel information.  It is not your traditional social networking site, however I think it is a pretty cool site.

It will be interesting to see if these social networking devices increase in popularity as the Irish economy continues to spiral downward and more people move out of Ireland.

Kik in touch!

In the last few weeks have seen so many people facebook status say “add me on kik” and since I had no idea what kik was I decided to do some investigation!

Kik is the newest chat application for smartphones and despite my lack of knowledge about it, Kik has been pretty successful since it start up. The company says it has registered 450,000 downloads in the first 10 days since going live with Kik.

Kik is very similar to Blackberry Messenger.  The messages look like Aim messages and you can see the status of a message once you sent it (whether or not the person you sent it to has read it) Unlike BBM, Kik operates across all smartphone platforms and allows a Blackberry users with Kik to “Kik message” someone who has installed Kik on their Ipone or Droid! Once you have downloaded Kik to your smartphone the application automatically checks your address book and recommends contacts who already have downloaded Kik in order for you to easily contact them!

Here is Kik’s application description:

And also an independent application review:

Kik is in its early development stages but aims to add a few other elements into its application to make it even more unique.   When the application is complete Kik will allow you to you take pictures, and show friends what you’re seeing, let you stream the music you’re listening to directly from your phone to your friends phone and also let you stream video.  It is also hopeful that in the near future other mediums will be included into the application, so that one will be able to stream something from a cellphone to a TV or Computer!

Despite its development setbacks I think Kik is a great! Now you don’t have to worry about going over your texting limit for the month because with Kik messenger “texting” is absolutely free!

Also if your interested you can follow Kik  on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube!

Download Kik and give us your own review!

Apple Advertising

Brand Identity and Advertising are two of the most important elements for a successful company  in this competitive age of technology and new media. If a company is able to separate itself from the competition by establishing a unique brand which can hold a loyal following, the possibilities for success is endless.  One example of such a company is Apple.

Apple is one of the most prestigious brands in technology and even new media.  The key reason for their success is their strong brand identity. Apple is famous for the catchy indie music orchestrating their ipod commercials or their funny Mac vs PC commercials for the Mac Book.

It is this unique brand identity that keeps people loyal to Apple.  While  I am in no way questioning the quality of Apples products, as I am a Mac user myself, I feel it is not always the quality of the products but rather the bright, flashy advertisements and marketing schemes which entice people to purchase an Apple product.  I mean would you rather listen to music on an MP3 player that looks like this:

Or one that looks like this?

Obviously the flashier Apple product would be more appealing.  This tacit is something Apple uses amongst its self and its own products as well.  Apple came out with the Color Ipod Nano, just a short time after releasing the Original Ipod Nano in order to reach a larger demographic with this product and to increase the Ipod Nano sales. While the products were virtually the same, the Color Ipod Nano was much more popular than the original Ipod Nano.

This interesting market tactic not only allows Apple products to be more successful than their competitors but it also makes Apple itself more successful.  Apple is also vestal and adaptable.  Apple has continued to reshape its products in this extremely competitive and  ever changing market  which still staying true to its brand identity.

I encourage you to look at other big brands such a Nike or Blackberry and see how their advertising and marketing tactics are similar/different to Apples approach?

Advertising and Marketing are the key to success

Online Gaming…the next generation of education?

I am sure all of you are familiar with the trivia/gaming website Sporcle.  Sporcle brands itself as a mentally stimulating diversion and in my opinion this couldn’t be any more spot on (just ask my supervisor last Summer in Senator Kerry’s Office.)  However, after reflecting back on the discussions we have been having in class, especially the discussion of the Jenkins reading I think we can give call Sporcle a little bit more then a stimulating diversion.

Sporcle embodies all the characteristics Jenkins suggests turn a form of new media into an exemplary useful and educative tool.  First and foremost the website relies on constant participation and is highly generative.  The content on this website changes daily (if not hourly) by the users of the sporcle community.  As a member users can create and upload their own, original quizzes to the website; on average  at least three new quizzes per day are added to the site.  Users can express themselves on this website by adding a quiz of any genre.

Secondly, it is a educational forum and provides a powerful opportunity for learning. While some of the quizzes may be less academic based than others, users can acquire vast amounts of knowledge (and trivia) by taking quizzes in various subject disciplines.  And because these quizzes are online, flashy and creative (let’s not forget addictive) users are coming into contact with a wealth of knowledge without being subjected to the bordem of the traditional classroom setting.  I mean how much cooler would it have been to learn American History via Sporcle?

Finally, Sporcle is interactive, which is something I actually didn’t learn until I chose to blog on this topic.  Because of its growing popularity, Sporcle has its on Facebook page, its on Wikipedia page,  Twitter page and even its own Blogspot!  So now you can access your favorite trivia spot on a host of new media forums.  Did I mention you can also download Sprocle as an App to your Apple Products?  People have also began to add their Sporcle quizzes to Youtube.

I don’t think that these websites can or will ever replace the lessons and material one learns in an organized educational setting.  However, I do feel that the skills one acquires from participating in online gaming are important supplements to what is being taught and learned in the classroom.  I think it will be interesting to see if online gaming is integrated into curriculums as more studies are published about the educational benefits of online gaming.

But for now…I challenge you to my favorite Sporcle quiz! Post and we’ll see how we all match up!

 

 

Social Networking “Training Camps”

Tammy’s presentation on Mixels.com inspired me to do some more research on social networking-type sites for children and to my surprise there were a lot more than I had expected to find!

These sites all operate off of a very similar basis and offer similar features.  On these sites children can play educational games and communicate and interact with children in their particular age groups.  The most important feature of these sites however is that the parents have the ultimate control over their childrens use of the site.

The site I found most interesting was Fantage also known as Fantastic Age.  This ironically is also one of the more popular social networking sites for kids.  According to a study done by Venture Beat this site boasts 7.7 million registered users this year compared to the 3 million registered usership recorded a year ago.  It is geared for children ages 7-13.  The site is community where children can go on secret agent style missions to earn awards in this virtual world.  Like most of these young social networking sites the child user creates an avatar of themselves and then uses that character to represent them in this virtual space.  According to the creators of this site, the games are intended to teach children important lessons about sharing and giving while promoting positive social interaction in a safe environment.

Some other popular sites which operate off this basis include Whyville.com, ClubPenguin.com and Webkinz.com.

ClubPenguin is a Disney owned website.  Instead of having human like avatars the users are represented as penguin avatars.  Children can play games in which they earn virtual money to purchase accessories for their penguins and their igloos.  They can also interact with other penguins by inviting them to visit their igloo.  On this site, unlike other sites, the phrases users are allowed to use in chats are predetermined unless parents allow them to chat with their buddies freely.

Webkinz is very similar to ClubPenguin, however in order to fully access the site one needs to purchase a Webkinz or Lil’Kinz toy and use the code to log in.  With this log in users their Webkinz “doll” character to interact in the Webkinz community.

While the parents have the ultimate control over their childrens use of such sites the idea of  social networking sites is still a sensitive and contested issue for most parents. I think this youtube video is a good example of that.

These sites have a different format from “adult” social networking sites, much more strict privacy policies and a much more exclusive usership.  Therefore, I feel that while in some way these sites can serve as a type of “training” forum for real social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace, because of their differences it is still important that adults teach their children about the pros and cons of social networking sites before letting them venture out into a more open forum.

Never Forgotten <3

Since the beginning of this class I have really been awakened to the fact that their are so many older people online.  Before taking this course I realized the demographic of Facebook was changing when I received friend requests from older neighbors and family friends and even peoples mothers.  However, I did not realize how prevalent the baby boomer generation was becoming online!  Over the last few days, I have noticed that some of the people who have been coming up on my “people you may know” are people whom I would consider elderly, like my cousins grandfather and my neighbor Bob who is in his late 60’s!  This is something I had never noticed before!

The New York Times article As Older Users Join Facebook, Network Grapples with Death, was an interesting piece in my opinion.  I never realized that there was an option on Facebook to memorialize a deceased users page, I had previously assumed it would just be left as it is or removed (which is the experiences I have had with death on Facebook). I was also disturbed by the fact that in order to have a page memorialized one would have to prove a users death by producing an obituary.  In my opinion asking a grieving family member for an obituary is insensitive (cough cough catholic university!!)  However, what I also find intriguing is the due to the fact that social networking sites are so popular in our generation that now when I loved one passes, grieving friends and family, now not only have to deal with all of the typical steps that go along with the process of burying a loved one, but they eventually have to decide what to do with that persons facebook!! How times have changed!

However, the part of the article that dealt with the older generation was not the reason this article really struck me.  Fortunately, I have not had to deal with the passing of an elderly acquaintance or loved one online.  On the other hand however, the “ghosts” that I have had to face online have been my peers and friends. Over the last year, my community has unfortunately experienced a lot of sadness and tragedy.  Between last summer and last week, at least 8 kids ( and probably more I didn’t know ) around my age have passed away from either accidental drug over-doses or suicide, and many of their Facebooks have become a tribute to their short but beautiful lives.

In some ways I find it comforting to see the outpour of support between friends and family on peoples Facebook walls, and think its nice that people can use that as a space to “forever” commemorate and celebrate the life of the deceased.  I also think it is nice that people can continue to “talk” to the person via Facebook by writing them little comments on their wall days, weeks and years after they have passed, in order to keep them from forgetting. However, it also saddens me.  I find it hard to see a daily reminder that that person is gone forever and that their lives were cut so short.

One example that sticks out in my mind is my friend Paul Facebook.  While I was abroad I got a message on Facebook from a friend of mine that one of our friends and co-workers had passed away suddenly.  He was 30 years old, healthy, happy and in love, and died suddenly of a massive heart attack.  Since his passing his Facebook, although not officially memorialized by  Facebook personale, has become a memorial to his life.  I wrote on it when he first passed away, as a way to express my grief and reach out to his family and girlfriend.  However, I have not been able to bring myself to write on it again, although from time to time I do look at the comments friends leave on his wall and his pictures.  I guess it is a way for me to keep his memory alive.  However, I still think that there are other ways to do so and I’m still unsure of my feelings about using Facebook as a memorial space.

I think the issue of death on Facebook is far from a black and white issue, and after hearing the comments from some other users in class yesterday I think that there is a lot of work that needs to be done on the part of Facebook before they can throughly convince me that it is a good/healthy idea.

Blocking mom on Facebook might not be enough!!

In late April 2009, AT&T launched a service called “FamilyMaps” which allows people to track the location of any cell phone on AT&T’s network from a mobile phone or PC.  This service uses satellite GPS technology and cell tower triangulation to pin-point the location of cell phones.

The person who is being tracked through this service receives a text message informing them that they are being tracked.  However we all know that when our service provider sends us a text, they usually are automatically deleted!  So as a secondary precaution  AT&T  will periodically find alternative ways to inform the individual that their phone is being tracked.

The service is geared at allowing parents to keep track of their childrens whereabouts via their cell phone.  AT&Ts program only allows users to track phones that are connected into their family plans, and claims that users will not be able to simply lookup a phone number on the AT&T network and find their whereabouts.  So far there have been no complains about stalking on this service.

AT&T is not the first to pioneer this time of location-based service Verizon and T-Mobile have offered similar programs though their service for over a year.  However, there are other programs available to the average consumer that have much less restricted access than the programs offered by these major wireless providers.  For example a software called MobileSpy has the capability to  unknowingly record texts, phone call details and track GPS locations on smart phones.  This software can be loaded onto a persons cellphone and as a result that person can be tracked!!

While I agree that GPS capabilities are a useful application to have on ones cell phone, I also find it extremely alarming that cell phone providers are privy  to the knowledge of where all their customers cellphones are, and typically within a radius of less than 100 feet.  While this capability can be useful for a number of reasons; helping parents, police and other emergency responders locate missing people or to obtain directions when visiting an unfamiliar place, there are also negative means of using the technology which need to be acknowledged.

The Fate of Facebook

In recent Facebook history there has been a lot of criticism about Facebook releasing too much user information.  The first criticism came when Facebook allowed large search engines like Google to include Facebook users pages to be included in searches.  However the most current controversy comes with the release of Facebooks new “Places” application.  Facebook added this application as a way for friends to connect with each other outside of the social networking space.  The application is meant for users to include where they are going to be in their status so that their friends can meet up with them if they happen to be in that particular area.  While on the surface this may seem like a cool application, it can also be a very dangerous application if it is not used wisely. Many newspapers, blogs and magazines, including Reuters have warned users of this new application, and even include the steps to changing your privacy settings in order to disable this application….which Facebook failed to provide to their users.

What I found even more interesting than the controversy surround Facebook Places however was the new “alternative-Facebook” which was created in response to users fears about the lax privacy policy Facebook seems to be implementing.  Diaspora is a new social networking site (meant be to launched this month) that gives users more control over personal information included on their site.  Unlike Facebook, Diaspora does not operate on an independent server but instead “users to download the software package, and then install it on their own Website hosted by yourself or a Web hosting service like Go Daddy.” The purpose of this is to ensure that the user is in complete control of their profile and information.  To me however, it seems like an added burden.

What I also find interesting is that it was due to launch September 15, 2010…and until today this was the first time I have ever heard of it.  I think it will be extremely interesting to see how this new social networking site progresses.  Will it eventually replace our beloved Facebook?  Will Facebooks new applications lead it to suffer the same fate as Friendster? Hmm….only time will tell!