Internet Users

Today, it seems like everyone uses the interent. But we question how much and by who. It is broken up into categories of gender, age, income level, and nationality. These users being either connected by a hardwire or wireless for personal or business use. How many do you think there are? How does this impact the world?

Website Presentation

Top Sites

1. Google
2. Facebook
3. Youtube
4. Yahoo
5. Windows Live(live.com)
6. Baidu.com
7. Wikipedia
8. QQ
9. Twitter
10. MSN
11. YAho.jp
12. Taobao.com
13. Google.co.in
14. Sine.com.cn
15. Amazon.com
16. Google.de
17. Google.com.hk
18. Wordpress.com
19. Googel.co.uk

Alexa The Web Company

ESPN # 60

Pornhub # 55

Cracked.com is owned by

Demand Media

• -ehow.com
• -Livestrong.com
• -golflink.com
• -trails.com

Livestrong.com

-Mania.com

..going public 2011

CollegeHumor is owned by

InterActiveCorp

• Ask.com
• Bloglines
• Chemistry.com
• Citysearch.com
• The Daily Beast
• GarageGames
• Match.com
• Shoebuy.com
• Pronto.com
• Reference.com
• Urbanspoon.com
• Vimeo

…and others Revenue 1.6 Billion2009

Last.fm.com is owned by…

CBS Interactive

• CBSnews.com
• News.com
• CBSMoneywatch.com
• TV.com
• Gamespot.com
• Search.com
• NCAA.com
• Maxpreps.com

Revenue 600 million 2009

Ticketmaster who was once owned by InteractiveCorp

Live Nation Entertainement

..Monopoly

Revenue 4 Billion 2009

Expedia who was once Interactivecorp

InteractiveCorp was once USA Networks

Which was once Ticketmaster

• Hotels.com
• Hotwire.com
• Tripadvisor.com
• Seatguru.com

Gawker Media

• Gawker.com
• Gizmodo.com
• Kotaku.com
• Jalopnik.com
• Lifehacker.com
• Deadspin.com

IGN Entertainment

• Gamespy
• Gamestats
• Askmen.com

Myspace is owned by

News Corporation

• IGN Entertainment
• Hulu
• FOX
• New Digital Media
• 15 % Colorado Rockies
• Dow Jones
• WSJ
• New York Post
• Vogue
• Newspapers and Magazines

Skype was bought be ebay in 2005

EBAY

• Paypal.com
• Half.com
• Craigslist (not majority owner)
• Shopping.com
• Stubhub
• StumbleUpon
• SKYPE
• Sold 2009
• Silver Lake Partners

Sungaurd

Sabre Holdings

Travelocity

Google Youtube Android

Facebook

Microsoft

Wikipedia

Non Profit Wikimedia Foundation

You mean Google and Facebook don't love each other?

It may be obvious to some, but giant media corporation aren't always going to be the best of friends. It appears google has been branded with the 'bad roomate' label as the intro to the article suggests. It compares the corporation as college roommates, even mentioning the classic passive aggressive sticky notes. In it, it appears Google insults (delicately of course) some of facebook and their privacy concerns (or lack there of). Its no new issue that facebook has always had a very blurred line when it comes to privacy. And it will be interesting to see if there new web service actually kills gmail, but nobody is saying there going to kill google. However, I always love it when polite politicians, corporations or CEO's are just blunt as hell about issues, and this is as close as these things get.

Apple Microsoft Google Map

Apple Microsoft and Google have been all over the news recently. These three large corporations are being what is told as the future, as they have the power and money for new technology. It seems that everyday I look on the internet there is another story about one of these company's smartphones, search engines, or technology. These company's sue each other, talk about each other, and continue to fight for the most dominant power on the internet. I found this map above when i was searching the companies on google . The article that follows the image is here. The image is think is great layout for the three companies coming together. The one thing that is missing is Facebook. Rather than the big three, I think its the big four, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple. It would really interesting how Facebook would be tangled into the map. So who's winning? I think someone is always up and down. One thing that these corporations should fear is a technology failure, like the recall on a huge new product line or technology being hacked. If I were to place these four companies in order: What do you think?

Google
Apple
Microsoft
Facebook

Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is the new age phenomena of promotion.It is a simple and effective way of marketing which is being used extensively across the globe.Internet marketing is being widely used because of its interactive nature of marketing over the internet, that is, it provides instant response and also helps in determining the nature of response (good/bad/not interested).

With Internet Marketing coming of age, there are various dimensions added to it that act as a part of the base of marketing over the internet.Internet marketing agencies provide and develop solutions that help businesses get online and use internet as a marketing tool. Internet marketing agencies promote and improve companies that offer innovative and meaningful products or services.If someone wants to grow their sales, reach a wider audience or generate more traffic, internet marketing has become the best option. Today's companies are growing faster than ever due to internet marketing and more and more companies are become better at it.

Below is a link to a company that I had an internship for. They do Internet marketing.

http://denverinternetmarketing.com/

You've Got more Facebook

Facebook is going to launch it's own email/webmail services. Facebook is planned to make this announcement coming up soon in San Francisco where they are holding an event to go over more of the details of this mail service. It is expected that users will be able to access this new addition to their account without signing into Facebook directly. Users will also have a personalized email account option available instead of just using their own name and example is: hockeyfan77@facebook.com. This is going to be interesting as Facebook adds more and more services to it's social networking platform. Will we as American consumers have a social network similar to the ones in China where its a one spot stop for everything similar to our greatest retailing chain Walmart?

Wikileaks

I just wanted to write a little bit about Wikileaks in general. It has always been a hot topic in Swedish news because the wikileaks website is hosted in Sweden. And the swedish political party "Piratparitet" (the Pirate Party) is going to host wikileaks newer servers. I am not sure why but there must be something about swedish internet laws that makes it a great country for these kinds of websites (The Pirate Bay being another example of a questionable website that can't be taken down). It seems hard to prosecute anyone in Sweden for what they put on the internet.

Recently, a couple of months back, after a visit in Sweden Julian Assange was arrested in his absence because of accusations of rape. However the case was quickly withdrawn as there was no real evidence. Some believe that wikileak enemies where behind it to get Assange behind bars.

There is no doubt that Wikileaks is controversial. Also, without the internet, it is likely that this would have never happened. The internet has allowed it to reach everyone without even the U.S. stopping it. That just shows what a powerful tool the internet is. But wether it is the right thing to do or not is up for debate.

Wikileaks related to The Matrix

While reading the Wikileak articles, the entire thing reminded me of The Matrix. The whole idea of the articles saying that the general public does not know what is really going on with the war in the middle east. Julian Assange is the one that is trying to let everyone know the truth about the war, just as in The Matrix, Neo and Morpheus are trying to eventually get all of the other humans to understand the truth about the world they live in. The biggest controversy with the release of wikileaks is about the public reacting badly to the information that they learn, and they will not know how to deal with it, at least, that is what the government argues. Julian Assange just thinks that people should be educated about what is going on in their world, and especially know what their government is doing. We are typically kept in the dark by our government, just as the people from The Matrix are blind to the real world.

One of the videos that Julian Assange posted was this. What is going on is that American soldiers are shooting civilians that were unarmed and posing no threat to them. Our government does not want a bad reputation so they are doing what they can to stop Julian from posting these leaked videos.

A good scene I found from The Matrix that relates to the wikileaks situation is this youtube post.

"Why the world needs WikiLeaks"

I found this TED video on WikiLeaks, "Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks". It's a little long, but the creator, Assange, discusses how WikiLeaks works and why he thinks it is important for the public to know some secret information. He talks about a few specific instances, like how a leaked document affected an Kenyan election. WikiLeaks is a form of collective intelligence because it allows people to contribute anonymously in attempt to change situations and the world.

Do We Support Digital Monopolies?

Browsing the internet, I found an interesting link to an editorial on the Wall Street Journal Online. Aptly titled In the Grip of the New Monopolists, the writer Tim Wu makes a very interesting critique on current internet trends, mainly about the development of Web 2.0. He draws striking parallels between the behaviors of Google and Facebook and older monopolies like the former AT&T. He shows how consumers willingly flock to these companies because size equates to efficiency, yet he gives a strong warning that once these monopolies past their golden age, they refuse to relinquish their control. He contests that this scenario is very detrimental to consumers because it halts the trend of progress and restrains the lassie-faire competition model. His message is one of foreshadowing of a darker future for the internet than what we have discussed in class.

Is Wu justified in his concerns about the power of the new internet monopolists? Or will we, the users, keep them accountable so his vision never comes to fruition?

You Pick the Price: Music Lovers Dream

Throughout the years copyright altering methods such as Creative Commons and Open Source media have grown in popularity. Using these different methods, musicians, artists and other creative personnel can create works of art that can be either completely open to public use, or can be used in whatever way the creator specifies. These are great alternatives to the concrete copyright laws that exist in the music, photo, and film industry today, but there is something else that can keep people from breaking through through these harsh copyright laws in an attempt to get music for cheap or even for free.

In 2007, Radiohead, one of the world's most popular bands of the generation decided to release their new album, In Rainbows, as a digital download. This wasn't just any release though. They let their fans choose what price they would like to pay for the album. You could enter in $0.00 or as much as you liked to pay for the album. Girl Talk, an artist discussed in Brett Gaylor's film Rip! A Remix Manifesto also tried on the Radiohead method for size when he released his album Feed the Animals in 2008, letting fans choose their price. Greg Gillis, or Girl Talk, was quoted saying he wanted to "make it easier for people to get their hands on the music, which is my number one priority." Whether it is a matter of distribution and getting the music out there to fans, or if it is about making money from those loyal fans, it is an effective method that more musicians should look towards in the future. Not only does it get the music more widely spread in the community, but it discourages people from downloading the music illegally because they can choose to reward the artist for their work or to get it for free if they want.

Google and Facebook Rivalry Takes Centerstage.

An article by Alexei Oreskovic describes brewing rivalry between Google and Facebook. The competition between the two billion dollar corporations has intensified since Facebook introduced a plans to release a new version of its messenger - that could challenge Gmail. I know both Gmail and Facebook have huge numbers of users so it will be interesting to see if the Facebook email will develop a following like Gmail has. I remember when Myspace developed an email technology. From what I remember it flopped. But maybe in this time of a convergence a social networking site may be able to create a successful emailing technology.

Convergence Discussion Q's

Convergence vs Remix: What are the views of the future of culture according to each?

CH 4: Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars

1. What’s the main point of this chapter?

2. Why is it called that?

3. How does web innovation and especially consumer-generated content influence the mainstream film industry today?

4. How will it in the future?

CH 6: Photoshop for Democracy

1. Why was the Your Fired Video so popular?

2. Jenkins writes: “The new political culture—just like the new popular culture—reflects a pull and tug of these two media systems: one broadcast and commercial the other narrowcast and grassroots.” (211) What does he mean by this? How did these two come together in the Obama campaign?

3. On what grounds does Joe Trippi discount convergence and why does Jenkins disagree?

4. What is culture jamming?

5. Pierre Levy writes: “Until now we have only reappropriated speech in the service of revolutionary movements, crises, cures, exceptional acts of creation. What would normal, calm, established appropriation of speech be like?” What does Jenkins think?

6. How is the Daily show a form of resistance or of public engagement?

Conclusion

1. How does convergence encourage participation and collective intelligence?

2. Why does it matter?

3. On what grounds does Jenkins critique “critical pessimists.”

4. How is literacy different today than it was 15 years ago?

5. How will people learn skills so that they can fully participate?

Drunken Facebooking Prohibited

Have you ever woken up in the morning and wished you hadn't made that Facebook post or that Tweet the night before? This is something that many teens and college students might find prevalent in today's society which is why there is now a Firefox application to prevent you from using your social media sites at times that might not be so appropriate.

This article from CNN discusses the application that can be used for websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and even media sites such as Flickr and YouTube. Users can adjust the settings of the application to fit their own specific needs, depending on what time of day (or night) they would like the app to kick in. The application also features a test that users can take in order to override the prohibited access so that they can access these specific websites at certain times of day. The article states that one test requires you to keep your mouse inside a moving circle for a specific amount of time. Pass the test and you're in. Fail the test... go to sleep. This is just one example of how culture and media are coming together. Many people who like to enjoy social media and alcohol have probably experienced the result of these two things combined at some point or another. Its funny to think that they are making programs to prevent people from using their computers while under the influence... But is it funny? Or is it worthwhile?

Another Search Browser?

Another Browser Comes Out

"We built features into the browser to address people's three top browsing behaviors: interacting with friends, consume news and information, and searching", says founders Eric Vishria and Tim Howes. Take a chance and check out the website. The interface of the browser brings the user an entire different feeling to a search engine. Social networking is displays on the left side while the ride side bring current up to date content. The browser works off of a google chrome model, a brower I use and like very much. Overall, Rockmelt is trying to conglomerate more websites into one browser. Yet, has this already been done? I think Rockmelt's functions are very useful but marketing and attracting users will be very difficult because some people simply don't like to change.

Governing Without a Net -- Obama’s online troops are clicked off.

Newsweek's Daniel Lyon:

What happened to the Netroots? That’s what I’ve been wondering ever since the Republicans routed the Democrats last week. Two years ago, a lot of people—myself included—really believed that all those online activists who helped elect Barack Obama were going to stick around and support him as he pushed through a sweeping list of progressive measures. Instead, those idealistic young folks have all dried up and blown away, while Tea Party people like Sarah Palin have used Facebook, Twitter, and other social media to lead a backlash.

Positive only please

New weird social movement in South Korea encourages Internet users to post positive online comments.

I Am a Blogger No Longer

Atlantic writer Marc Ambinder says its exhausting to articulate and defend an online persona. He's had enough.

Google and Facebook, a Setback on Convergence

An article in the Wall Street Journal has stated that as as of friday, Google is removing the feature on facebook that allows facebook users to access their gmail account names. This information collecting was a huge success in the growth of Facebook, because people can find all of their gmail contacts on facebook with just their gmail username and password. The probably reason for this sudden setback is because of business. The main part is that facebook has its own version of Google's AdSense. Google, now one of the leading companies in online advertising, was helping Facebook grow and in return wanted to spread their advertising into facebook. Yet Facebook refused and so since there was no money to be made on Facebook at the moment, the feature was shut down.

Now people can still search for friends, but instead of just logging into your own gmail account, you have to search for each friend's gmail addess, but it will only work if the friend's gmail address was posted on facebook, and is not private.

Facebook's educational stand

When someone thinks of facebook, they think of socialization, friends communicating and sharing their information. Usually, it is used for purely fun, but what I have noticed going through high school, is that it is immensely useful for study sessions, and exchanging information. Here is the scenario, it is the day before a final, and everyone is scrambling to finish their study guide so that they do not completely fail. As they go through, there will be some questions that they can not find the answer to. They could text all the smart people to see if they know, or email, but majority of the time they will receive the annoying one word answer "idk", and be screwed for that part of the final. Instead what students are doing is just asking the question in there status and have whoever knows the answer, answer it. On facebook, it is easy to see who is actually available for talking by simply going to the "chat" tab. With the quick answer and response, it will be much easier to find the information needed. But also on facebook, you can send messages. So you can send entire study guide files to someone in seconds, all on the same website. On facebook, you can even make a page of your specific class and put all of your questions there. For example, the Digital Media class, we all joined a facebook group and discussed our questions for the midterm. Facebook is mostly used for socializing, but it is a useful study tool because of the simplicity of it's tools and how everything is right in front of the user. Caroline Lego Menoz talks about how facebook is connected to education, and includes it in Web 2.0.

Facebook and the ..competition?

It seems nowadays facebook has no competition. Myspace is for 4 year olds, and the 40 year olds looking for the 4 year olds. Name another social network, if you don't count LinkedIn, nothing really comes to mind. However, the point of this post is about education, and I want to bring about some info on the competition. The terribly named 'Diaspora' is an open source (which is the strongest and weakest point for it) alternative. Open source will let the world crate the project, but open source will also make it incredibly open to hackz, which is never a good selling point for new users. However the gang managed to get 200K without a line of code, as even Mark Z donated to the project. The project has potential, but I would be impressed if it ever scraped 1% away from FB. The Catch-22 of social networking is that your friends have to already be on it to want to drive the switch, but nobody switches just to switch. The best quick blurb for Diaspora is found here as it hits on some good short points. I look forwarding to following the project (there views on FB's security issues are interesting), but I'm not ready to invest.

Anybody think I'm mistaken? Will you be making the switch?

~Docta Jones

Presentation/Wiki Leaks

Wiki Leaks

Co-founder

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sYXppiOteM

Is he doing the right thing?

He isn't American.

His anyone benefiting from this?

Actual Video

http://www.france24.com/en/20100406-leaked-video-shows-us-military-killing-civilians-reuters-staff

War Logs

http://wikileaks.org/

National Security/Is it worth it?

Facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/wikileaks

Social Networking and Marketing FORD

Ford gave a brief video interview of how social media campaigns helped them really evolve some of their products and build communities. The big campaign discussed was the Ford Fiesta where 1 year before the car would be released in the states Ford will let the community market the product. They gave 100 people 1 Fiesta each and then tracked the amount of buzz/traffic they got in their Ford Fiesta community and of course the tags via twitter and flickr. They were amazed by the results. They also did a campaign on Facebook where if they could get 30,000 "likes" I believe then they would create a sweepstakes. They got a tremendous turn out on Facebook. The last thing is a Focus rally where people try to enter a rally similar to the Amazing Race (who is helping develop this idea) and along this journey the episodes will be on Hulu. So these average people will compete in this race but receive help along the way from online strangers following the journey. At the end the winners get 10 Ford Focus' to give away to the people that helped them out the most on the clues and puzzles throughout the journey. It will be interesting to see how that campaign turns out.

New age media/ Old school teaching...

The internet is the fastest growing information technology source on the planet. Its capabilities are endless and without it, business wouldn't be what it is today. Being a business student its easy to understand how falling behind in your occupations IT resources and detriment you. Without the proper knowledge of what your companies capabilities our, your work will suffer and in return you can be fired.

I feel that business schools (including DU) should focus more on the IT world. Most teachers these days are old school and although very knowledgeable, don't understand what is out there as far as technology is concerned. Having a well rounded business degree that includes classes that involve the worlds changing IT patterns and how to affectively use them as a strategic advantage in business would be extremely beneficial.

Here is a college that has taken this step.... (link below)

The Wilderness Downtown.

I found an interesting film created by Chris Milk. It is an innovative play on a music video using HTML5 and Google satellite images.
The video features the song "We Used To Wait" by The Arcade Fire. The film's collaboration of media makes it a perfect example of convergence. One is first asked to type in an address of their childhood home. The video follows a runner and birds to the address of the house. It is creatively made. Different windows pop up along with the song making it an extremely engaging film. I can see this film becoming a model for how most internet films are made.


I'm unable to create a hyperlink for it but here's the URL for the film:
http://thewildernessdowntown.com/#

News websites social features

I wanted to look at news websites and how they try and work with consumers. Some news organizations have developed larger social networking sites for their consumers while other organisations have no apparent way of getting in touch with their readers.

CNN's iReport is probably the most developed user based news community among the websites I looked at. You sign up, create a profile and from there you can make your own blog, write your own news articles and upload your own video reportage. I didn't read the "Terms of Service" but I'm guessing CNN get to use your news articles without paying for it, which makes it free news for CNN. Just a thought.

BBC's website is good but if you want to contribute it is kind of hard to find information. The only information I found was a number where you could text things to and a site where you could upload a video or a picture. But it was hard to figure out and didn't work that well.

The largest Swedish newspaper DN.se have a simple text note on the top of their homepage with a phone number you can text if you have breaking news (you can also send pictures). My local newspaper back home HD.se has the same feature but they also offer 5000SEK (900USD) for the best user story each month.

The DenverPost was probably the hardest website to try and contribute to. I'm still not sure how to send them anything...

All these sites had a "comments" features which seems to be standard these days.

Wikileaks and the concept of Propoganda

I decided to do even more research into people's opinions about wiki leaks because clearly there are many sides to the argument of leaking information. Stephen M Walt from foreignpolicy.com posts an article that talks about defending wikileaks. He virtually is saying that the leaking of this classified information in his opinion is doing more good than harm. He thinks that some information should stay secret, but largely what people are trying to keep secret now does not always fit in that category. I find it interesting that he also talks about the fact that certain information may be "leaked" but leaked on purpose to help political decisions to be made. Another writer from Fox News, Christian Whilton, has a very anti wikileak opinion. He states that it is completely going to unravel our country's structure if we keep letting it go on.

I do see both arguments but at the same time I keep thinking about the question; is holding information on the same level of deception as stealing and releasing that same information?

This got me thinking on the larger concept of propaganda. Ultimately most sites or videos publish information in a way that they want the viewer to see it. How valid is this? Can we really trust people to watch these videos or read these articles and then come away without a skewed view?

Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore

Fahrenhiet 9/11 conclusion

Michael Moore

What is your opinion about keeping information secret to protect people? Does it ever really protect people? Also, what is your opinion on how information released should be portrayed?

Convergence Feeding Social Network Obsession

A few months ago, Facebook had an internal error and crashed. While this could have been a big deal if it was down indefinitely, the website was only down for roughly two hours. Yet if you had gone online during this brief time period, the internet would have had you believe the world had ended. From frantic twitter posts of users terrified of their Farmville crops dying to the BBC releasing an article, it seemed that online society itself had collapsed.

This event clearly highlighted many people's dependence on social networking, and the extent that it has permeated our culture. Phones are sold based on Facebook and Myspace apps, video game consoles have become 'black boxes' of media, allowing users to post their in game achievements from their console over the web. Even televisions, a piece of hardware for displaying video feeds from other pieces of technology, are trying to pitch their products by their abilities to connect to youtube and twitter. Clearly to the masses social networking has become such an important part of society that attaching it to just about any object makes it more desirable.

My question is what do you think of this trend? Is social networking a generational fad? Is it something to be concerned about or something to be embraced? Is it empowering for an individual to be in constant management of their online persona or is it a crippling chain that distracts one from living life? Do we really need our TVs to be tweeting what shows we're watching?

YouTube and Auto Tuning

Auto Tuning has become one of the biggest fads for Youtube videos recently. I think that this has created an interesting culture and a whole new form of making fun of people. I think that this has made us so caught up in the idea of trying to find something to laugh at that we are skating the line of right and wrong. I find myself laughing at these videos that auto tune ridiculous interviews or news broadcasts, but have just recently started to think about the consequences. Is it really right to be putting our biggest efforts into making fun of people. I think it is a slippery slope that we are traveling down. I think it ultimately will lead to serious issues losing ability to affect viewers. We just keep adding so many things to our person desensitized list.

Paper Gets an Upgrade

I was thinking recently about technology that's been changed or updated in an attempt to "go green". Paper is something that people use every single day. It's also a an invention that's largely discussed because of the amount of trees and forests that get cut down just to make paper.
But that may all change some day very soon. LG Philips announced a sheet of electronic paper a few years ago. It looks just like a sheet of paper, except the image on the sheet can be changed at anytime.
Don't believe me? Check it out this blog post for yourself.

Stumbling Ipad

While I was aimlessly stumbling, I came upon this sweet video.

iPhone Glitch

"Daddy, do you remember where you were during the great iPhone alarm calamity of 2010?" "No son, I was asleep."

This is a quotation from a twitter user that was featured in this article. Although it is supposed to funny, and that it probably will be me a 'calamity' that will go down in history, this iphone glitch is a big deal. The article discloses how the new iphone has a daylight savings glitch in the alarm program. The phone may recognize that it is an hour earlier, but the alarm does not, therefore making those who use their iphone as an alarm may be an hour late on Monday. This was discovered in europe and in the southern hemisphere where their daylight savings came before ours. The fact that this made CNN technology front page shows just how many people have the iphone and how many people would be interested in this news. Apple is known to have glitches in their first generation products, and have been criticized for it. Being an hour late on monday may not seem like that big of a deal, but the fact that our culture rely's so heavily on apple and on technology, it has been made into a deal. I personally use my phone as my alarm, which can be seen as a minor form of convergence. What happened to the bed side table with the digital clock in which you personally set back. We expect things to be done for us, so in some ways, this is a wake up call, no pun intended, to make sure we take some things back into our own hands.

Is Google taking over??

I came across this really interesting video about Google, specifically recognizing it's current state and expansion into almost every market out there (the video is only 2 min and 42 seconds, definitely worth your time). The video points out that Google process over a billion searches a day, operates nearly 450,000 servers, and is worth nearly 200 billion dollars. But not only is Google our number one choice for search engine, they also are tapping into numerous other markets and as the video claims, "is taking over." CEO of Intel, Andy Grove, calls Google a "company on steroids with a finger in every industry." The video claims the Google wants to control your phone, email, computer, digital life, cables that deliver internet, and electricity to power them. It wants to know where everything is and everything that we are searching.

Clearly this video has some bias against Google, which people noticed and addressed on the comments below the video, however it still is factually true (from what I know). Do you think that Google should be stopped? or are they simply the company that has figured it all out and is just dominating in nearly every market and industry?

New Media Journalism: Online Journal

New media journalism uses collective intelligence to gather news and ideas that give a wider perspective on happenings in the world. Online Journal is a website that "provides uncensored and accurate news, analysis, and commentary." It allows anyone to make a submission based on certain standards. The site encourages submissions from around the world to add different points of view. This is new because there are frequent updates and it includes an unlimited number of contributors. Many articles can be written/published about a single subject on the same day, which is much different from a printed journal.

Music Bloggers

Today, it seems there is a great amount of music blogging going on. From staying on top of famous artists on the road to keeping up on smaller, local bands. Even since I have been in college, a couple of my friends have started blogs so they can share all the cool and new music they find on the internet. Its an easy was to share common interests. A blog really isn't even needed due to face book, which acts the same, passing information on to many eyes and ears. My personal favorite non blog is Pretty Lights, a local CO artist who puts his music up to be downloaded free. The internet is full of treasures.

The revolution of the news

The news used to be a one way outlet of information. Concerns or inerests of the audience were not really considered. Media channels like TV, radio or newspapers had all the power over the decision what to present to us.
This has changed! These days it is the people, who make the news. It is a lot more participatory than it used to be through the internet and new devices. Now we can use smart phones, blogs, instant massengers or socials sites like twitter or facebook to post news. All this contributes to a broader choice of what kinds of news we want to see/hear/read about and also these devices allow people to access news faster and in more places!
To wrap it all up I found a video about the attacks in Mumbai several years ago. It explains very well how these new types of news have helped people to distribute news and how they helped to stay in touch with each other...

YouTube, Facebook, and Politics

I read this article online about how social media such as Facebook and YouTube has greatly affected electoral races and specifically the Atlanta Mayoral race and the last presidential election. The author comments on how many people who he interviewed state that they rarely watch candidates debate on TV anymore, but rather participate in online activities and news reports through social sites. Most people are finding their information on these sites and discussing it with people through Facebook. Many people also show their political pride for their chosen candidate through their own profile.

Digital media revolution

Sweden has since the beginning of the internet been the home of many innovative websites and programs. This has made the swedish population very open to new possibilities and alternatives. The way Swedes use & share media and socialize has changed constantly throughout the years. I will start all the way back in 1996.

Social

In 1996 LunarStorm was created. It was Europe's first social networking site and was hugely popular in Sweden among an younger audience. It was later left for Facebook. Skype is another Swedish "invention" created in 2003.

Music and Video

The first site program I personally used to obtain media was Kazaa. It was really popular in the early 2000 but was also quickly forgotten. People learned how bit-torrents worked and soon the Pirate Bay (wiki info) gained popularity not only in Sweden but also globally. The Pirate Bay has also been subject for many trials controversy in Sweden. (There is even a political party with connection to the Pirate Bay called, "the Pirate Party")

As of today, the way Swedes consume media has changed drastically. A majority of people still use the Pirate Bay there are some interesting new programs. I would also argue that one of the reasons to why we have all these programs in Sweden is because the major american sites and programs don't work in Sweden. For example the only thing you can buy on iTunes in Sweden is music.

Spotify is a relatively new program and everyone I know now uses it. iTunes has become obsolete when compared to Spotify. Also since movies are not offered in iTunes (neither is hulu) Voddler has become a popular alternative. But we got some revenge! Spotify and Voddler does not work in the US... These sites and programs are of course closely integrated with social sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Video on Spotify.

Calif. Pushes To Uphold Ban On Violent Video Games

For those who have not played one of these games, let's pause here to describe them. Postal 2 is the game that the state of California cites as the best example of why it wants to ban violent videos. The game invites players to burn people alive with gasoline, decapitate them with shovels, slaughter female zombies, beat people to death while they beg for mercy and worse, much worse.

But the figures are computer-generated, and the blood and gore is nothing like the grisly stuff you see on TV every night in prime time.

At the same time, many violent video games are based on Greek mythology, or great literature, like the Iliad and the Odyssey, or on epic World War II battles.

"If you look at the Lord of the Rings trilogy, something which I think is great and which people took their 8-year-olds to in vast numbers, there are huge battle scenes in which people's heads are chopped off and huge spears come crashing down on people, and thousands and thousands of characters are killed," says lawyer Paul Smith, who will represent the video game industry in the Supreme Court on Tuesday. "But everybody — because it's a fantasy — in our culture, thinks that is reasonably OK for most kids."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130979773

Smart Phones as a marriage destroyer

The digital era has clearly been a boon for romance. Online dating sites are a main way Americans now meet their mates, and smart phones and social media have revolutionized long-distance relationships.

But put spouses and their digital devices all in the same room and, well — marriage therapists say they're hearing an earful about friction.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130698574

Information Empires

This is a conversation with Columbia law professor Tony Wu on his new book about how the information industry cycles through periods of openness and competition to empires of few powerful companies (he points to Apple and Google in today's landscape).

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130982785

Have a listen.

Digital Cameras - A Shifted World of Photography

This article discusses the hard times that some companies experienced when the shift from traditional to digital cameras was very prevalent. Although the article is a bit dated - from 2006 - it talks about companies like Kodak, Nikon and consumers struggling through the technological changes of the photography world. Companies found it difficult to change their products to both keep up with competition and to meet the needs and wants of their potential camera buyers. Users also found themselves sad that they were missing out on some traditional things. A digital camera does not use a dark room, it does not use negatives, you do not have to load the film or take it out in a black bag, you are not only limited to taking 36 pictures, and you don't have to be disappointed when more than half of your photos turn out terribly. There are some very good advantages of a digital camera, but there are also things people will miss, and theres just nothing like actual film. Either way though, whichever medium or technology people choose to use, we can all agree that through converging technology, traditional photography paved the way for the digital world.

The internet as a tool-

I believe the internet can be more than used for communication and passing funny videos along to friends. The obvious sub category in this is research. I would even go so far to say that tools can be the direct following of such research, and benefited by the ease of communication. As I read through my daily site checks last week, something struck me as amazing, ad well as something I would not of found if it was not for the ability and communication of the internet. This crazy model link and one more different technique, is one that pulls at my geek strings. It gives the user a much more intuitive feedback for modeling in 3D on a computer. It was too nerdyly awesome not to pass on. I know some might find this 'not interested; but it rather reflects on what we (as a human race) can achieve, and rather, more importantly, display. I would say that achievements are important, but displaying such great heights could be more important. Imagine is nobody ever saw the pyramids, still would be cool, but scientists would not marvel or still continue to figure outlaw they were constructed. However, since such tech is a bit off, the only way I can see glimpses is the power of the absolute network, and the coverage that brings to such achievements.

EDIT: This by chance has to do with some photo talks today, about photos from every angle.

broken dorm internet, (still not fixed) but used school wireless for this.

transformation of cultural industries: photography Part 2

Not only has the new age of photographic technology brought upon the ease of taking, modifying and publishing pictures, but it has also made the transfer of pictures much more accessible. A photographer across the world can take a series of pictures, of places and events we may not understand due to our surroundings. It comes down to that “A picture is worth a thousand words” as said by many photographers. It’s a creative hobby which allows one to express thoughts and feelings through pictures. Ranging from the photographers view to spectators impressed by the professional art.

From stumbling “Pictures”

to going through google images

to photo essays

to cops

and to my back yard

A TedX video that shows how pictures have changed the world.

The photographic world is constantly advancing, what opportunities or problems do you foresee?

Body to Body Network

I found this article on body to body networking. Pretty much the idea is that instead of more cell phone towers or innovative devices for sending wireless signals why not connect mobile devices together. With this concept, people will be connecting through the person next to them and then near that person and so on. Although, this is a very new concept it could free up wireless space in high urban areas. The technology is being tested while it is only in beginning stages. The only fear is that connecting with another user puts and threat on the information being passed along the body to body line or network.

ARTICLE
Here

More Connectivity

As it is Halloween, I thought I would do something related. As me and my friends were looking up haunted houses, we discovered "Thirteen Floors" through Stumbleupon. After going onto the website, it prompted us to connect with them through Twitter and Facebook. Of course we didn't do this because it would of turned into spam on our accounts. Haunted houses are only good once a year so no need for reminders everyday. However, I have down this with other websites such as an animal research site that learns information on black bears. After finding this website, I began to follow a black bear and her cub named Lily and Hope. These researchers take video and pictures and then upload them onto facebook. Because I am connected to facebook, I am now connected to this random bear couple in Montana. Without this social networking, I would have no idea about these bears, or the research done on them. Facebook and other social networking sites not only keeps me connected to people but to a plethora or educational information.

A Survivaball Halloween, 2009

So, in the spirit of the current holiday, I wanted to find something interesting that had to do with Halloween. I found a pretty funny article from November of last year that explained how two Yes Men apprentices dressed as the Yes Men for Halloween and staged their own march of survivaballs, the very safe and friendly survival suits we saw in The Yes Men Fix the World. The article is humorous, and the video they made to tag along with it is pretty neat. It also has a bit of remixing in the video, when the Ghost Busters theme plays with "The Yes Men" being called instead of the Ghost Busters.
I also thought it was pretty cool that this article is on The Yes Men's website instead of someone's personal blog. Go fan support!

transformation of cultural industries: photography

The social digital world has changed the way we interact with photography...

Not only can we instantly see our photographs with the digital camera, but now we can instantly upload them to the web and share them with friends or with the world. We can even instantly order prints with a click of a button, completely eliminating the need for a darkroom as well as simply organize your photos with "tags," which easily document who is in what picture from when. And we can instantly take a snapshot on our cell phones, which are only getting better and better (the new iPhone features a 5 megapixel camera).

flickr

photobucket

piccasa

cooliris

As you can see, taking a photograph has become much more than a click of a button and a good picture, a picture can now be instantly and easily taken, edited, shared, and organized- thanks to the digital world.

Yes Men

The Yes Men bring up a rather interesting topic of coversation. There certainly are two sides to the argument; however, I feel that what they are doing is clever and unique. It's almost as though they are turning the worlds thoughts into actionable items. Instead of letting these thoughts spin into 'nothingness,' these individuals have are taking a proactive stance and showing the rest of us how change is indeed feasbile. Perhaps there are times when boundaries have been crossed, yet change has to stem from somewhere - why not turn things around starting with the Yes Men. Although, there seems to never to be a second side to the story. I feel that a lot of these corporations have reasons for what they do (some more just than others). Taking a look at the company that boarded up all the windows to every building after Hurrican Katrina provides an example of this very thought. This company was only executing these practices in the best interest of the general pubic. When these actions were implemented the intent was to keep criminals out to avoid any additional negative occurances. In the Yes Men video, they portayed this company in a harsh light because they were not letting people back into their homes. Obviously there were two sides to this story, yet the Yes Men definitely focused on the negative. Regardless of the work that the Yes Men promote, I believe it is important to always use a critical eye in evaluating the examples that are brought to our attention.

Thoughts on digital music distribution

The discussion we had in class during Charles presentation on last.fm was interesting. It made me think about the music industry, which we have also read about, and what they have done right and wrong so far.

Today the music industry is in front concerning the usage of technology and social media. I would however argue that the only reason they have been better than other industries is because of greed. But greed is good right...

Anyway, the music industry managed to shut down some early "dotcom" sites such as Napster and Kazaa (the latter I used myself). They also managed to put DMR protections on for example music sold via the iTunes Store. This successfully stopped people from sharing music for a while but is now removed. The long battle between pirates and labels has created many new interesting ways of listening to music. But what the music industry should have done was to work with technology instead of against it. But maybe in the end that is exactly what made it better today?

Today the digital music market and distribution is a lot better developed. But I don't credit the big music labels for that. None of the popular software we use today to buy music has been developed by the music industry, Instead small private companies such as last.fm and Spotify has created the possibilities (Itunes was of course a pioneer in this field but they need to change too). Without these companies I think the music industry still would have struggled.

test drive a car from your desk.

Mitsubishi has done something drastic to shake up the car market. Mitsubishi has made a remote controlled access point for consumers to test drive the new 2011 Outlander Sport. People can sign up online to take the car on a closed course for a quick drive session using their computer. I became aware of this promotion through their multimedia campaign telling people about their interesting web promotion. I have herd of shooting ranges you can control from your computer, but this... as a promotion. If it becomes a huge success will other companies convert or offer these types of services... and do you need a dealership if you can just drive and purchase a car online? I see this promotion as being very cool, I would love to experience the test driving session but I feel that I might have missed out since the ability to sign up has been available since October 15th. If you would like to try and sign up for a test drive go to outlandersport.com.

Why do we follow others examples?

After watching the Yes Men video and witnessing the influence they have on the people that they are hoaxing, I thought about a video that I viewed in a psychology class a couple years ago. This video shows how when other people are doing something around us, we easily conform so that we do not feel like the outsider. This video is rather funny, but it represents a very serious issue. Although it is a very old video from candid camera, it seems to ring just as true today. Our world today gives so much proof that we live afraid of being alienated by fellow peers. The norms that develop because of this reason are not always healthy and can really have a negative impact on people. The classic statement of "would you jump off a bridge if your friend jumped off a bridge first" is much truer than we like to believe. Many people will simply express themselves in a way that others are used to or ways that they know will portray them in a light that may not reflect their actual personality. It is scary to see how individuality is skewed to create unhealthy interactions.

Tactical Media like the Yes Men

After watching the Yes Men in class I thought about how it is a form of tactical media and it proves how convergence today allows for tactical media to be successful. Media has commonly become a civil and public way for citizens to take political action in order to cause change. Media including film/documentary, television, internet, music, photography, video games, and the like have all been used as tactical media over and over again. With the common convergence of media today and the popularity of social networking (such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, blogging sites, etc.) tactical media is a form of activism that spreads so fast that it be seen and heard by the entire world in such a small amount of time, therefore it tends to be the most effective. Although there is a wide variety of media that has been used as a form of activism, I feel that a visual media style such as a documentary and websites that the Yes Men have done is perhaps one of the most effective forms of tactical media in that they are widely viewed by the public through means such as internet, television, film festivals, and theaters. Also, through the creation of the documentary film itself, many people (including the filmmakers, interviewees, targeted group, celebrities, and the general public) are forced to focus on the issue presented. I feel that with a camera in one’s face it becomes difficult to hide the truth. As I am personally interested in film making I was looking up other documentaries that focus on tactical media such as:

2.) RiP: A Remix Manifesto

Web activist, Brett Gaylor, created this documentary over a period of 6 years dedicated to defending DJ Girl Talk, who had been accused of copyright infringement by top record labels. The film features the collaborative remix work of hundreds of Open Source Cinema website contributers. This is a good representation of tactical media because it calls for action among citizens by encouraging more people to create their own remixes from the film itself while being informative about copyright laws themselves. Gaylor suggests that copyrights should be distributed according to the creator of the media as a whole, rather than who holds the ownership for specific songs, videos, images, etc.

3.) The Cove

This documentary film describes the annual killing of dolphins in a National Park at Taiji, Wakayama, in Japan from the point of view of ocean conservationist, Ric O’Barry (trainer of Flipper). The film exemplifies tactical media as the O’Barry and his team went to extreme, and occasionally illegal, measures to capture the truth about what was happening in this small cove in Japan. Portions were even filmed secretly by using underwater microphones and cameras disguised as rocks. The film was created in an attempt to save migrating dolphins who are herded into a hidden cove where they are netted and killed over the side of small fishing boats and sold as lunch meat. Directed by former National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos, the documentary won the U.S. Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009 and the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2010. Although the response to the film did greatly hurt the whaling industry, it did not manage to make it illegal. After showing the film in two theaters in Japan it was banned in the country.

4.) An Inconvenient Truth

This documentary film about former U.S. Vice President Al Gore’s campaign to educate citizens about global warming was a critical and box-office success, winning Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature and Best Original Song, as well as becoming the fifth-highest-grossing documentary film in the U.S. This tactical media has been credited for raising international public awareness of climate change and has also been included in science curricula in schools around the world.

Chevron Thinks We're Stupid.

This week we were introduced to The Yes Men. I was interested to see what they have been up to recently. Chevron Oil created a campaign, We Agree, to emphasize their public relations and good doings. The web page shows links like - "Oil Companies Should Put Their Profit To Good Use" and "Oil Companies Should Support Small Business. These statements are practically begging to be parodied. This is exactly what The Yes Men did. Their website, Chevron Thinks We're Stupid. The site features a spoof video created by FunnyOrDie, information on a spoof ad contest and information about Chevron.

The Yes Men justify the spoof by saying:

"Chevron is responsible for one of the largest environmental disasters in history. Rather than take responsibility for its oil pollution in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest, however, the oil giant is waging unprecedented legal, public relations, and lobbying campaigns to avoid having to clean up environmental and public health catastrophes that continue today."

The Yes Men then challenge their audience to take action:

"Angry and frustrated that oil companies like Chevron think they can ignore their environmental and human rights abuses while cleaning up their image with high-cost ad campaigns? We agree! Enter our contest now and help hold Chevron accountable by making sure the company doesn’t get away with its greenwash."

The Yes Men have once again challenged big business to make a change by creating awareness of the corruption of power. They are showing that Chevron can't make an ad saying that they're going to try to better the world while their actions show otherwise.

Transformation of the instant message industry

In the date of 25th, June 2008, lots of Chinese people getting crazy, just because they can’t log in QQ(Chinese instant message ). At the same time, people started to think the question seriously; they even can’t live without that “small penguin”. QQ , just like mobile and other modern electric tools, which plays a very important role in their daily life. According to the official survey, Chinese instant massager user’s number is over 17 billion people. How, when we look back to the history, we can see that this industry has transformed a lot.

    This is what instant message used to be. Which called UC(SINA company made it), it can just chat with each other as the original function, and it can also send some simple expression to others. When most people use it, it can date back to dial number’s time. This kind of instant message is quit form Chinese market, because it can’t follow the new time’ coming. The function of it is too simple. On the other hand, it doesn’t have the update things in China.  

However, what people use nowadays, is totally changed. In China everyone use QQ. Its logo is just like a small penguin, it starts from three people in the beginning, and until now is one of the big internet company in China. Last year, they are nearly 17 billion people use QQ at the same time. Also, based on a recent survey instant messaging are more useful to the good management, text chat, language chat, video chat (field), and transfer files (therapeutic). Based on large user, derivative service - all portals, E-mail, chat, games, blog, SMS, etc. The QQ company win the nearly 80 percent of users to use, is not only because it can chat with other. In recent years, that company launched QQ zone (like blog ) qq show (the virtual image ) ,QQ message which links to mobile phone. And QQ pets. It also updates to Web 2.0, and give more information and resource for uses to use.

 This is the reason why people can not live without QQ, whenever you work, study or even traveling. This is how instant message industry transformed and developed. .  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LLHXlwnXUU&feature=related

the new design of QQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkzB8TVXqhA&feature=related

Nowadays qq

Last.fm, the Transformation of the Music Industry

Convergence has transformed almost every cultural industry in some regard. This transformation has not been instantaneous one. As new technologies gradually emerge and media converges across them, cultural industries have gradually transformed with their converging media. While all cultural industries have been affected by convergence, the most obvious transformations have occurred within the entertainment industry. I have chosen to chronicle the furthest stages of evolution that have transpired within the entertainment industry, particularly the music industry.

The music industry has become notorious for fighting against many aspects of the vast changes that have occurred due to convergence. Yet at the same time they have also transformed their industry entirely around these new technologies and practices. The current epitome of this convergence is Last.fm, an internet radio social network music database. By building a profile on Last.fm, a user is able to create a library of tracks they enjoy. This track list is built by either manually by looking at band profiles and adding them to the library, 'loving' a track or importing your iTunes, Mog, and Windows Media Player libraries using the Last.fm Scrobbler application that you download to your computer. Each time a song starts playing on the 'radio', pictures of the band play in a slideshow, an artist biography along with the genres and descriptions it is tagged with, similar artists, user comments, discography, upcoming local concerts and events, and most notably the options to share the track link through social networking sites and email, tag the track with your own description, purchase the track through various online retailers in both digital and CD formats, and even send the song as a ringtone to a phone. Speaking of phones, Last.fm also has an app for Android and the iPhone so you can stream your personal customized internet radio on the go, so long as you have internet access through your mobile device. Recently Last.fm has also launched an Xbox Live version to stream internet radio through the video game console.

Last.fm is not done converging media yet, mentioned earlier, it is also a social network where users can find one another based on similar musical interests and then discuss the music they mutually enjoy. Users can also form groups, which function like a shared profile and a private forum combined. It actively adapts the group’s library based on the interests of everyone in the group, and allows for members to write messages to other members within the group. Last.fm also acknowledges the existence of other social networking sites, and thusly incorporated them into its infrastructure. Users can share songs and band links through e-mail, tweets, Facebook status updates, Myspace posts, and Diggs.

The sheer amount of convergence occurring in this one website is astounding, and perfectly exemplifies how cultural industries have transformed due to convergence. A major complaint of the music industry was how they would determine what music would be popular, forcing less mainstream genres into obscurity, making it difficult to find similar bands and hear about local shows. Last.fm has completely destroyed this concept, allowing all music to be treated equally, linked together, and shared by user created content tags, forums, and suggestions. It has also met the demand of the ‘black boxes’ on both ends of the market spectrum by offering app versions of their service to various entertainment devices as well as linking every song to various digital and hard copy retail websites. Throughout band biographies users can find links not only to these retail sites, but also Myspace profiles, Facebook fan pages, Wikipedia pages, and official band websites, making Last.fm a central hub for band information. Last.fm incorporation other social networking sites also allows for free promotion of music between people through the internet. By converging user generated content, social networking, online retail services, multi-platform dynamics, and collective intelligence, the music industry has transformed itself around convergence culture in the form of Last.fm.