Creativity and New Media

When it comes to creativity and new media, creating avatars, images that represents you in the virtual world comes to mind. There are different kinds of avatars from 2D to 3D, a lot of them can be used in the virtual world of games and social events to meet other people. Usually when creating avatars, options of different skin color, hair, clothes and accessories are given so you can mix and match until you get the avatar you like most. The basics are free but other items used to glam up your avatar will most likely cost money.

from DoppelMe and Avatar Face Maker

With the above 2 screenshots, you can see the simplicity of the avatar. They are plainly 2D but in different forms. These 2D avatars don’t move or associate themselves with other avatars.

from Style Me Girl app

Another different kind of avatar would be 3D. These avatars can move and walk around to “socialize” with other avatars. They act very much like humans and some are even able to talk.

Creativity

One of the most amazing features of new media is the way it fosters creativity. The expanded array of options and channels of communicating your personality that new media offers is seemingly never ending. From Instagram offering users the chance at editing the lighting, texture, and filter of their photographs to make them look almost professional quality, to websites like Vine which encourage the movie director in us all to come out and begin to edit, chop, and put together works of visual wonder. Another way new media can foster creativity is through websites like Twitter, through which companies can receive customer feedback directly and even utilize customer suggestions to help create new products or develop changes to optimize existing ones, making the world a better place for both consumers and suppliers. In a NY Times article that focuses on how companies use twitter, it states, "Economists have long thought that producers — the people making products and running companies — are naturally the ones coming up with new ideas, Professor von Hippel said. In fact, he said, consumers often come up with ideas for products, and companies wait on the sidelines to see if they have mass appeal" One of my favorite examples of how new media fosters creativity is the Design byME website introduced by Lego, where "fans can use Lego design software to create their own models. Lego then sells the designs, effectively offloading the design cost to fans." In my opinion, this idea is pure corporate strategy genius, offloading costs to the consumer, while at the same time obtaining new models and designs for free. Pretty creative!




Citation:

Miller, Claire Cain. "Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers." The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 Oct. 2009. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

In today's society, virtual worlds have become quite popular. Virtual worlds can be used for personal, educational, and professional situations. It lets you socially interact with others and do the things you would like to do in the actual/real world. Mark Tutton of CNN explains that many businesses are using the virtual world to cut down on travel expenses since the recession. This way the virtual world could be used as a conference meeting to bring together business partners from all over the country and world. This became a way to share ideas among each other and still talk business. Another way the virtual world is being used is to train nurses into making decisions. Stephanie Simon, author of Avatar II: The Hospital, states “Health-care facilities are discovering that practicing in the virtual world can have major benefits in real life.” Nurses are faced with scenarios where their decision could save lives or endanger the lives of others. Creativity is shown by the way people use the virtual world. Seeing that someone felt that the virtual world could be used for many different activities shows that creativity is forever changing the way we use the internet.

    There are also negatives that come from these virtual platforms. Often times, people can be very mean to each other in these worlds, meaner than they would normally be if they were talking to someone face to face. The reason for this is the removal of physical presence. Humans will be more willing to be mean to each other if there is no chance for recourse, whether it be physical or otherwise. Also, continuing on that point of anonymity, people are willing to commit “virtual crimes” more quickly than they would commit those came crimes in real life. If there is a certain type of resource that can be stolen in one of these virtual worlds, a person is going to be more ready to steal it from someone when there is no law stating that they will be thrown in jail for doing so. People don’t steal things in real life because if they did that, they’d most likely get thrown in jail. Without the chance of consequences, these virtual worlds become kind of like the Wild West in that there are very little rules.

    One “virtual world” that I find particularly interesting is called Turntable.fm. In this virtual world, you can become the famous DJ that you always wanted to be. When it is your turn, you may step onto the stage and play the music of your choosing to a crowd of other users. This is an amazing tool for creative people who want to perform for other but may not have the resources or connections to do it in real life. This is a great example of how today’s virtual worlds can foster creativity in people.

    As for the future of virtual worlds, I believe that the scope will continue to increase to infinity. Right now, people have the ability to play video games in a virtual world through MMO games. They have the ability to act socially in platforms similar to 2nd Life. They have the ability to wage war on each other in platforms like Clash of Clans. I believe that in the future, any activity or location that you can think of will most likely be visualized. Soon people will attend full blown concerts from their living rooms. Soon people will be able to go on vacation simply by logging their family into the living room computer.



Citation:

Ferla, Ruth La. "No Budget, No Boundaries: It's the Real You." The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 Oct. 2009. Web. 20 Mar. 2015.

Musgrove, Mike. "At Hearing, Real and Virtual Worlds Collide." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 2 Apr. 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.

Blog about Twitter

The first comparison to a Twitter discussion compared to a blackboard is that you are limited with the amount of words in a Twitter discussion. You are therefore restrained as to how extensive your examples that you are making can be. With an in-class discussion, there is no comparison to being able to express yourself fully. Where as for Twitter we have app but there is nothing for blackboard which makes it more time consuming and complicated. Blackboard is defiantly not a user friendly I have been using it for past four years and I still struggle. On the other its been only couple of weeks I started using Twitter and I already love it.

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

Social networking site like Facebook, Twitter, My Space or LinkedIn are fairly different from each other, however – Facebook is particularly good at promoting events, while Twitter is  particularly good for connecting with like-minded organizations and the media and LinkedIn provides an interesting way to network with potential new supporters.

On Facebook you can set up a profile, and post updates, links, conversations, events, photos, videos, petitions. Someone who “like” your page, comment on your picture see updates without needing to navigate to your page.

Where as Twitter lets you send out a stream of short messages called “tweets”—for instance, updates about what you’re doing. People can choose to “follow” your tweets, and if they particularly like one they can “retweet” it. To me its like a radio station—you’re broadcasting into the ether, and it’s hard to know who. Twitter is particularly good for connecting with like-minded organizations and the media, asking questions, and providing very frequent updates.

Also LinkedIn is an interesting site that falls somewhere between social networking. Each person sets up a  profile which is similar to a resume, and can then link to other people that they know.  Targeted at professionals interested in professional networking, it’s likely to be of particular interest to groups whose mission is to support people in their jobs or who have a focus on professional networking.

MySpace is similar to Facebook. In 2008, the two were running neck to neck in terms of usage numbers. Since then, however, Facebook has seen a huge boom in popularity, and MySpace a substantial decline. However, MySpace has a large emphasis on music and musicians. It’s worth checking.

Social Networking

Business doesn’t happen face to face as often as some would like. Instead, today’s communication depends on conference calls and emails chains that make it challenging to get to know your partners. It’s been a common lament among business people dissatisfied with the technology that has become the norm in their daily lives. But with so many workers worldwide now working in virtual teams, many business relationships do depend on technology. And that’s not a bad thing — as long they’re using the right technologies in the right ways.

A new generation of communications technologies are upon us. They are addressing the new way to work that is permeating workplaces worldwide. It’s “dynamic, cultural shift in the marketplace.” They’re making the global workplace exactly what it’s looking for: a joyful, delightful experience.
 Who wouldn’t want to engage with that?

Work-from-Home
We live in a global workplace without time zones or office hours. Just ask any spouse who has waited to serve the main course while awaiting a husband or wife to finish a work email at the table. Delayed dinners notwithstanding, the ability to shoot out that email at the dinner table actually allows that spouse to get out of work an hour earlier and be there in the first place. A fair tradeoff.
And it’s also good for employers when employees have happy, balanced lives. You might be on a conference call with Europe in the wee hours and have to get your kids to a soccer game in the afternoon. You can do it working virtually, and there’s real value in accommodating that employee need.”

Closer Collaborations
Collaboration used to happen in board rooms with whiteboards and bagels. Today, it’s on documents being edited by multiple people all over the world at the same time. It’s sharing screen data and chatting over video.


Unified Communications

What this new generation of platforms is doing it pulling it all together.  You get the information you need for the business moment you’re in. At the beginning of a recurring meeting, you get a picture of exactly where things stand, action item status, all relevant documents and emails. “It’s like the recap at the beginning of a television show. You quickly make the context switch and pick up right where the last meeting left off.”
That’s some real, measurable productivity. And when in human history has an increase in workplace productivity come hand-in-hand with an increase in workplace delight? Joy? Social connectivity? This is what makes the new generation of workplace collaboration tools so exciting — they don’t just make the new way to work more possible and productive. They also make the job itself more desirable.



"Six Ways Social Media Technologies Can Accelerate Large-Scale Change." Six Ways Social Media Technologies Can Accelerate Large-scale Change. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2015.

"Six Ways Social Media Technologies Can Accelerate Large-Scale Change." Six Ways Social Media Technologies Can Accelerate Large-scale Change. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2015. 

Blogs vs. Wikis

A blog is an online diary or reflective journal where a person can post and publish their thoughts about what they have experienced or learned, and/or text and pictures describing their life, interests and work experiences. The posts tend to be relatively short, but have enough information and interest to engage other readers. Other readers (classmates and teachers) can usually leave comments about the post.

A wiki is a web page that can be edited by many people - in other words wikis can be co-created web pages. You could, for example, set up a wiki and ask a group of your students to create a Web page about a project (including images, text, videos, and sound). Other students will be able to see the information and edit it if they feel it is wrong or needs clarification. A wiki is open and collaborative. (A good example of a wiki is Wikipedia)

Blogs and Wikis are both ways of communicating to other people. Blogs are more opinionated than wikis, because wikis are a collaboration of facts by individual. Wiki is more of a discussion than blogging, because blogging is one person's opinion with others comments on it. Wikis are more like individual webpages, and blogs are just part of a webpage. Wikis are also more organized. They are not just paragraphs of information like blogs. They usually have several different headings with the information for that little section underneath. Blogs and wikis are equally effective. Wikis are used for sharing information and sharing views on things. Blogs are ways to talk about you and give opinions on certain things. The biggest difference in a blog are not authored or edited by the community, instead, comments are allowed at the end of each post.  Both are being used in education , awareness, learning and spreading knowledge.

The importance of convergence in today’s networked world

Today’s networked world allows to share individuals information such as personal thoughts, opinions and ideas. Basically people can learn from each other on thing they don’t know. Everyone can obtain useful information without actually going through books. For instance, the article “Mac tricks and tips on Wikipedia” talks about the tricks and tips of Mac.

How can blogs be used for collaboration

I think blogs help you to share what you’re doing with the world. It is like a  direct collaboration when you throw ideas out there and ask people to respond by adding their point of view to yours.  They can indirectly stimulate collaboration by educating others about your area of expertise, who may then apply your learning to their own.

New use for a wiki that has not been done yet?

Ummm!! I think Wiki can be use a Foodies Wiki. When you go to a new restaurant and have a good experience, it's likely that you won't keep the place a secret. After all, when people enjoy a great meal, exceptional service or a pleasant atmosphere, they typically make an effort to tell other people about it. Many of us, particularly city dwellers, are naturally curious about what's new, popular or just plain good around town, and sharing with others is one of the easier and more reliable ways of establishing the best locations.



"Blogs and Wikis." Business Information Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.

Bijayananda, Pradhan, and Parveen Gupta. "Blog and Wiki." INFLIBNET Center, n.d. Web.03 Mar. 2015