Should Your Business Be on Facebook?

As I was researching for information to add to our class wiki, I stumbled upon an article called "Should Your Business Be on Facebook?" by Kathleen Ryan O'Connor. The article talks about the situations where Facebook could be beneficial to a business and situations where it would be counterproductive. Since Facebook is primarily for networking, she suggested that the site would be helpful for those who wanted to connect with others and not necessarily to sell things.

Check it out here:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/17/smbusiness/Facebook_marketing.fsb/index.htm?postversion=2008031809

THE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES: OVERVIEW AND RESEARCH FRAMEWORK

Firstly, I thought that the paper was very informative and really opens up the topic of new media to those who don't know anything about it. I was especially impressed by the logical layout of the paper and how it transitioned from topic to topic.

One of the questions I have though, and maybe Professor Friedman hit upon it and i missed it, is when is the exact point in time or in technology did media become "new"? Is any electronic content considered "new" media?

I also feel that compared to the rest of the paper, the conclusion was weak. It feels rushed and rough. I understand the point expressed in the conclusion but I think the conclusion can be improved to keep the quality of the paper consistent throughout.

To Blog or Not to Blog?

That is the question pertaining to my term project. I will discussing the positive and negative effects of blogging in one's social life, work life, and personal life. For each part of one's life, I plan to present the positives and then present the negatives after. I will not chose a side but will try to present this topic in an objective manner. I will leave the judging up to you.

I have no decide if I will incorporate any form of new media into my presentation as of yet.

TechTech Roundtable - Aftermath

Overall, I enjoyed all the different presentations and learned a great deal about some amazing technologies.

Muhanad - del.icio.us: I think I make good use of del.icio.us since my bookmarks folder is so cluttered. I think this site will help me aggregrate and rank my favorite articles.

Nichel - flickr: I knew of flickr beforehand but I did not realize all of the great features of it until Nichel's presentation. I always thought that flickr resized images to very low resolutions and I'm satisfied to know that one can choose to keep his/her photos at whatever resolution he/she chooses.

Amy - eBay: I learned some very interesting facts about eBay through this presentation. It is hard to imagine so much money is exchanged through eBay daily.

Anthony - YouTube, Google Video: While some of the videos throughout his presentation was entertaining, I did not really learn anything new.

Johnny - VOIP: I have considered Vonage as a prime phone service provider but I've heard many issues with their services. I have found that I do not even need a dedicated landline because my cell phone has been so reliable.

Melissa - GNU: I think that GNU has does wonders for the open source community and its pretty astounding to see how big it has grown. Some of the best applications around the Net are created through GNU.

Sarah - TV on the Web: I have long thought that the Internet will take over the standard way of watching televsion and now I am seeing this prediction come into fruition. If cable and satellite providers are smart, they'd start providing more on-demand content if they want to be able to compete.

Tiesha - Music Media: I especially liked the CD and vinyl combination. I don't think that it will ever become a standard but it's amazing to see such creativity.

Derek - Photosynth: I enjoyed this very thorough presentation of Photosynth. The interface of Photosynth was much more fluid that I would expect it to be. I think the technology behind it has a vast amount of potential for the future of photographs. I particularly liked how Photosynth brought back all my memories of visiting St. Marks Square by virtually putting me back into that environment.

Anastasia - Second Life: I have heard a lot about Second Life these past 2 years and while I think it is very innovative, I'd hate to see this sort of social interaction become widespread. The Internet is always making communication so impersonal. I hope that people will always prefer meeting in person as opposed to meeting in a virtual community.

Damon - BitTorrent: I thought the points that he brought up about filesharing were very relevant to today's laws and its impact on society. I have been following this development for a while now and I am interested to see if any laws get changed or if more citizens will be penalized.

Sutharshan - HowStuffWorks: I was pleasantly surprised by how much HowStuffWorks has expanded since the last time I visited the site a couple of years ago. They have updated articles with videos which is a huge addition. They have expanded into explaining not just physical aspects of the universe but are also dabbling in explaining things such as historical situations.

Sergey - MapQuest: I have always thought that MapQuest was more accurate and more advanced than GoogleMaps but I always use GoogleMaps for directions because it just seems so easy to use. But with some of the great features that Sergey presented, I may give MapQuest another try.

TechTalk Roundtable: Wikipedia

I'm writing just to give a recap of my presentation.

Since most of you know what Wikipedia is and what it does, I went into its history as well as some unknown features.

Before Wikipedia, there was Nupedia. Nupedia was also a free encyclopedia but content was peer reviewed by highly qualified scholars. As a result, content was added very slowly. Eventually the idea of making a wiki was introduced and Wikipedia started up from there. Content can be contributed and edited by anybody, and the community as a whole can review contributed content.

One of the cool features of Wikipedia is that you can type in any date and any notable events, births, deaths, holidays, and obeservances are listed.

I also mentioned the Wikipedia Sandbox which lets any user freely experiment with code.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sandbox

Wikipedia has a large music database as well. One can search any genre of music and find information about the genre, artists associated with it, and any subgenres.

Post a comment if you have any further questions!

Some cool links!

Here are some links to some cool people:

Johnny Jailall: http://johnnyjcis4670.blogspot.com

Melissa Komal: http://melissakcis4670.blogspot.com/

Sarah Loebis: http://srlcis4670.blogspot.com/

Anthony Hernandez: http://anthonystruth.blogspot.com/

Sergeg Zhukov: http://www.szcis4670.blogspot.com/

How Sticky is Facebook?

Reading through the article, "How Sticky Is Membership on Facebook?" on NYTimes.com, it really angers me how badly these kind of sites treat the very people who made them what they are today. It is almost like a stab in the back.

The article talks about how much effort and time is needed to get Facebook to delete every trace of information about a user. If a user chooses to deactivate his or her account with the intention of hiding any and all of his information, it has proved to be a daunting task. There have been reports of information still being left behind even after months of trying.

It is a little surprising that a company can be so blinded by the possibly of making money in the short-term while neglecting any long-term implications of such actions. Right now they may be making loads of money but if shady practices persist, down the road these very companies may eventually bury themselves in their own graves.

Update: Looks like Facebook has made some concessions in remedying this issue, but it still seems unsatisfactory at best.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/technology/13face.html

Hey New Media Class!

Hey class,

here's my definition of "new media":

The phrase “new media” refers to the proliferation of information through digital mediums that has emerged through the last two decades. The invention of the Internet provided for this new way of communication. Examples of new media include web pages, blogs, wikis, e-books, and whatever else that is accessed digitally – even old media that has been digitized. Old media consists of information that is physically printed such as magazines, newspapers, books, etc. New media is bound to take over old media as the primary source of information in near future.

Citations:

New Media Reader By Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Nick Montfort

Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_media#Old_media_and_new_media