Blog Number 4

It is impossible to know what the future holds, however I think that Social Media usage and popularity is on an up rise and will continue to be utilized with even more understanding and frequency as time goes on. I think that with the way the whole internet and technology world is heading, that is to make things faster, more visual and more accessible via smart phones, web cams and smarter computers. I think that social media is headed in to the direction of being able to be accessed anywhere and would be more visually stunning. I also believe that with the mobile generation there will be smarter applications, such as the new Google application that allows you to take a picture on your smart phone, and from that picture get all the web pages associated with the subject. For example if you were visiting Toronto and took a picture of the CN tower, from that picture you could access web pages that would give you the history and interesting facts about the CN tower or would allow you to get directions to places of interest that are near the CN tower.

I think that anything to do with mobile access to the internet and different ideas that can be put into applications on your smart phone will be the next big step in Social Media. Applications where you can find out information or share information in any form, such as video, written, picture, faster from your phone would be the direction i see social media going. I think that another thing we will see will be major companies trying to keep up with the trends in Social Media to inform and gather new customers. there may soon be applications where you can scan a barcode and get all the retail prices from different competitors in your general area. In saying that I think that we will see new smart phone technologies, new three dimensional televisions , which are already in the process of being made, but maybe we will see a three dimensional phone screen, that could project a 3D display. No one will ever know exactly where technology is headed, but I find that some of the ideas I have posted above are quite plausible and the idea that companies and corporations will have to keep up with the direction in which social media is headed in order to stay in business, is also an important factor in technological advancements.

Blog Number Three - Are there certain products or services that just CAN NOT be generated with Commons-Based Peer Production methodologies? Why or why not?

            Commons-based peer productions is simply a group of people who do not know each other well, that come together with their own separate information and ideas. These ideas are then merged and the final creation makes up a service or a product. It can be compared to social websites such as Wikipedia, where different people with knowledge on the same topic edit and post new ideas to make a reliable and widely used service. Knowing this I would say that, depending on how you look at the situation, there is not much that can not be generated with commons-based peer production.

A product as defined by Marriam Webster’s online dictionary “is something produced something (as a service) that is marketed or sold as a commodity. When I hear product in relation with commons-based peer productions I immediately think of a company trying to sell an item. My initial reaction was that a company can be made upon the methodologies of common-based peer productions, but an actual product the company may produce could not. For instance, if you take Bic razors, the Bic Company could very easily have been made up by commons-based peer productions. It could start off with three or four different individuals coming together with the idea of creating a company that sells everyday items, such as razors and pens. The idea of making the items could have been generated using the peer based methodologies but the actual product, the pen in all of is entity could not. Some may argue that the pen was made up with commons-based peer methodologies; however it is in my opinion that the idea of the pen was made up with the methodologies in mind, but the actual pen itself was not.

Service as defined by Marriam Webster’s online dictionary “is a contribution to the welfare of others”. A service can definitely be generated using commons-based peer productions; in fact I would say that getting different ideas from various people who do not share common beliefs, or who come from different walks of life, could potentially make a service better. For instance if somebody wanted to try and help homeless youth in Toronto by opening up a home or shelter, that could be run by volunteers and would try to provide meals and housing for the youth, but the people trying to open this shelter all come from middle class families and have never even met a homeless person, much less understand the difficulties faced by homeless youth. If these people could use common-based peer production methodologies they could get people from different walks of life that could help hem come up with ideas. Even simple things such as approaching and communicating with people on the street can be a delicate issue. On that topic I had the privilege of attending a downtown Toronto walk, led and narrated by a man named Patrick Sullivan, that was a real eye opener for many who were there, on the physical and psychological horrors faced by homeless youth. 

As I see it, all services could be generated using these methodologies, and most would actually benefit from different perspectives so the service could expand and incorporate more people. Ideas concerning products and products that are formulated online, such as online gaming items that one can purchase, all can utilize peer based methodologies, however the physical aspect of a product being sold, in my opinion could not be generated using commons-based peer productions.

Cristie, J. (2010). Social media and the economy. Retrieved from https://connect.mycampus.ca/webct/urw/lc4130011.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct
 Wikipedia. (2010). Commons-based peer production. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commons-based_peer_production

Blog number 2 - Social media : increased or decreased news quality?

                With today's hectic lifestyle in which people want to have things done in a hurry and want everything, such as news, right away, social media has become a dominate source for information. The problem is : by using social media, the news is done by the people (not trained journalists) for the people. That being said, could the news articles say one thing, when really another happened? Or even worse, could the news articles be completely fabricated? Does social media increase or decrease the quality of news that is available to us? I believe that even though social media has increased the quality to some extent, but there is also some serious effects that have decreased the quality of the news.

                In the world of social media, news can come from a variety of sources. These sources can be found almost anywhere, from credible websites to blogs to tweets. According to a study done by the Pew Research Centre's Project for Excellence in Journalism, "Major news portals — like Yahoo News, Google News, AOL, and Topix — are the most commonly used online news sources, beating out the web sites of major news outlets like CNN, CBS, and the New York Times." and they also say that "About 71% of internet users, or 53% of all American adults, get their news online; that number has been relatively steady in recent years." (McGee, 2010) This goes to show you that a lot of people use the internet for their news.

                The quality of the news from the internet is a debatable topic. One perspective is that people who post news articles online, especially from independent sources, such as blogger or twitter, would make up stories to get more views on their page.  This has happened more than once with ridiculous stories such as "Lion mutilates 42 midgets in Cambodian ring fight" (Gallagher, 2009). This story was clearly made up, but because it looked authentic it was picked up by several high profile blog posts and eventually even the New York Times printed an article on it. Which proves that it does not matter where you get your information, there is still the possibility it may be tainted, as this story showed up in both print and online. 

                Social media allows us even more opportunities to get the news, now instead of having to wait for the paper we can get it online, from  a computer or even a phone, almost instantanously. We can also get news from all over the world and get access to some news stories the paper does not want to print. One theory is that because bad news (sex, deaths, violence) sells, the papers print alot more of these stories then good things that may have happened in he community to boost sales. Since online websites do not have to worry about profits they can portray all different kinds of stories including the good. The problem with the news online is that the story could have made up points, or could be completely fake. with the growing number of these happening worldwide I would say that, even though social media makes it easier to access and view the news, it has decreased the quality.

Gallagher, D. (2009, May 4). 7 clearly fake news stories that fooled the mainstream media. Retrieved from http://www.cracked.com/article_17318_7-clearly-fake-news-stories-that-fooled-mainstream-media_p2.html

McGee, M. (2010, March 15). Google, yahoo & portals are top online news sources: study. Retrieved from http://searchengineland.com/google-yahoo-portals-are-top-online-news-sources-38041

McAuliffe, W. (2010, February 12). Bad news sells, is social media changing this?. Retrieved from http://www.liberatemedia.com/blog/bad-news-sells-is-social-media-changing-this/

Social Media... a fad? or something more?

I personally believe that social media is definitely not a fad, but rather a means that has already started and will continue, to revolutionize many aspects of social connections. Weather it be connecting and sharing with friends and family, or companies (big and small) that use social media to project their products to the masses.

            To understand how social media is and will continue to be a tool used to revolutionize modern society we must understand what social media is. It is hard to label social media with a concrete definition, however it typically represents media that users can easily participate and contribute to (Christie, 2010) - (Karjaluoto, 2008). It is not the tools, such as facebook, twitter, and wikipedia, but the interactions and conversations that are happening on these operating sites that define social media.

            From a social perspective, the conversations have evolved from one person communicating with many, to many people communicating with many others. In other words many people can now contribute to one blog, forum topic, post or wiki, each adding his or her own information. The end result can be viewed by anyone who can then comment on the topic making their own opinions clear. Social media has also been the foundation on which many online communities such as facebook, msn live chat and myspace have built upon.

            From a business perspective, social media has been a complete breakthrough. Now companies can post their products online, for little or no monetary cost, and can have users comment on whether or not they liked the product and can then give their own opinions on it. This sparks a mutualistic relationship between consumer and company. Whereas the company gets free advertising and marketing and the consumer gets truthful, either positive or negative, feedback on an item so they can make an informed choice on whether or not to purchase the product.  A recent study showed that 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations, while only 14 % trust advertisements. (Kutsko, 2010).

            Out of all the positive remarks about social media and how it lets us get connected with friends and family no matter how far away they might live and how it enables us to make informed decisions on purchases. We must also understand some of the negative effects of social media. Facebook alone beats Google for weekly traffic in the United States, and it added over 200 million users in less then a year (Kutsko, 2010). Over 250 million people use facebook on a daily basis and the site logs in more than 700 billion hours per month of usage ("Facebook|statistics,”). These staggering numbers show that one social networking site such as Facebook consumes a drastic amount of people’s daily lives. Spending so much time on these sites has had a dramatically negative impact on our own communication skills, physical activity and attention span. Also employers have been known to use social sites such as Facebook to check out the personal lives of applicants before hiring them and an increasing amount of people are not getting hired because of incriminating pictures on Facebook. One final remark is that many companies will post their product online and then sign on at various times as various people to help promote their product. They do this to increase sales because the customer buying has no idea who is actually posting the comments but will trust it because they think it is a peer to peer review.

            I think that social media has proven that it has the potential to be a great asset to humanity. It allows us to get world wide news almost instantaneously, to be able to talk to people who are hundreds of miles away from your current location, and to get truthful (most of the time) reviews on products we may purchase. I also think that there are many problems associated with social media and the amount of time we as people spend on them on a daily basis. Whether for good or for bad social media is not a fad, it is here to stay.

         

References:

Facebook|statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

Christie, Jordanne. (2010, September). Introduction to social media module. Retrieved from https://connect.mycampus.ca/webct/urw/lc4130011.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct

Kutsko, E. (Producer). (2010). Social media revolution 2 (refresh). [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng

Test Blog

This is my first blog, to make sure it works! lol.