The Next New Thing

A type of New Media that currently does not exist is a type of New Media that allows users to collaborate on video projects together. There would be an online platform that all of the team members can utilize and they would all be able to work on the exact same file at the same time. There is already a similar platform for word documents utilizing Google Doc or Google Spreadsheets. For coders, they have GitHub which similarly allows them to all work on the same piece together. In terms of video editing, it may be that each member in the group has a particular skill in video editing that they are more proficient in. In that sense, being able to work together would allow them to save a lot of time. There is always the possibility that they could piece together each of their individual works at the end. However, perhaps one scene requires a few of them to work on together. They may need someone to add in a special effect, one person to fix the lighting, one person to work on cropping and transitions. In that way, working separately just would not do. I do not know how feasible this is, but given the large scale projects that video editors work on, I think this can be highly beneficial to the field of video editing and the communities that practice the craft.

Our Class Wiki - So Far

Currently, for the class Wiki, I have been looking more into the MMORPG wiki page. I saw that Supercell was mentioned as a developer, however the information was not updated. I decided to update the information shown. Since Supercell recently released a new hit game which I currently play, I added a new Wiki Page that goes indepth into the world of Clash Royale. I currently have the basic structure of the page already done and hope that more people will contribute to it in the future. I noticed that the more I added to the page, the more things I noticed were missing. I understand that it is a long term project and I hope to make it as comprehensive as I can. I wonder if there are any other people who play the game who might be able to contribute to the page. I understand that there are many perspectives that one can have and hope to learn more from others too as we all work on our Class Wiki. I play the game everyday and will continue to do research to add on even more to the page.

P2P File Sharing

File sharing is a very controversial topic. It would make sense for there to be the option to share what you have with others. In terms of physical copies of books, I can always lend it to my friend. However, things are different when it comes to intellectual property and digital copies. By sharing files, I can essentially make a copy of it and make it so both my friend and I would have a copy each. This leads to the idea of piracy. File sharing is the act of sharing files over a network. Meanwhile P2P file sharing is using peer to peer options which have end users acting as the network in order to share content such as media files, books, ect. Some examples of P2P file sharing would include all forms of torrent and even certain software such as Pando Media Booster. Torrents allow users to share files with one another directly, and many things can be uploaded onto the platform including intellectual property and copyrighted material. Meanwhile Pando Media Booster which is used in multiple applications is used to allow for a P2P download aspect for specific software. It can be beneficial when there are many people uploading the content however, it may operate slowly when there are not much people uploading the content. To really gain a perspective on how popular P2P file sharing has become, The Bittorrent Effect explains, Bittorrent traffic makes up for about 1/3 of all data sent across the internet. It can be much more efficient than other download methods and I feel that the battle against it will always be something that is mentioned. It will be hard finding a right balance between the freedoms and rights that internet users have against illegal usage of torrents.

Creativity and New Media

     New Media can be a great way to express one's self and really does allows for many forms of creative expression. Within certain games and simulations, users can feel free to create avatars which can be tweaked to however the user wants. One way that I have been able to show my creativity using New Media would be within MapleStory. I was able to create a character and altar everything about my avatar. The variable portions that I had control over would include stats and attributes. I was also able to name my character, decide what type of role or job he would have. Aside from the more innate attributes, I was also able to change the way my character looked.

In the above picture, I have highlighted the current equipment and customization that I have on my character.

In this picture, I highlight the stats and attributes that I have decided to focus on for my character. 

The game really does allow a high level of editing and expression and there are much more ways for New Media to show creativity as more technology is introduced to the common market in the future.

Privacy & Confidentiality

Privacy and confidentiality are very important to us as social creatures. Despite the fact that we enjoy coming together and sharing, there are times that we want to be alone with ourselves and our thoughts. Not only that, it is more than just what we feel, the laws also protect our privacy and confidentiality to a certain extent. It is obvious that we value having it but yet at the same time we are risking and potentially jeopardizing it when we use new media. Edward Snowden has shown how our information is kept and being used with us not knowing. The information can be gathered from new media so it is important to be aware of what we put on it.

For Facebook, some of the information placed on it may be accessible by the public. New media allows open sharing and this can be a bad thing at times. There is the problem of putting up too much information. Perhaps we may even put up information that we only meant to share with a few people but others could share the information too. Some examples of various new media platforms keeping track of our information such as locations would include Google which may track us if we use location services. Facebook may also utilize location services to see if you are nearby certain locations. Another thing to keep in mind would be that as we make more and more accounts on new media platforms, others can gather a better idea of who the person is and piece together all of the information. I would definitely not enjoy knowing that there is a stranger out there who knows everything about me.

Advice to Baruch College

If I were to give advice to Baruch College for bettering it in terms of New Media. I would highly recommend it to increase its presence all over whether it be through Facebook, Reddit, it's own website, or even Twitter. I think that Twitter can be a good way for students to keep connected with the school. The most important part would be to make it appealing to the student body. Ideally all of these platforms would be student run as they know best what they want. One example of a really popular Facebook page that Baruch could make would be Baruch Confessions. Of course, it may have to be moderated to an extent.

Baruch can also better itself by having a stronger presence on YouTube. For example, there can be videos of big events and also sport games. I understand that the VC building has TV which shows events and footage of events, I feel that those are pretty useful and help keep students up to date with the school. In terms of Reddit, there can be a Baruch subreddit for people to complain or just shoot out questions. This will create a better relationship between the school community and administration. Communication is one of the most important part of any relationship and New Media is a great instrument for doing so.

Creativity

New Media has made many great impacts to the way we live today. One of it's greatest contributions would be to the creativity of our society. One example that makes good use of the collaboration aspect of New Media would be explained in The New Math of Mashups. In the article, it explains how Jeremy part was able to create a great piece through breaking off a part of "Debra" and mixing it with "Frontin'." It hit the top of the charts on iTunes quickly and was a great success.

Other forms of collaboration leading to creativity would be on Minecraft, Reddit, Skyrim, and other game mods. In the games mentioned, players are able to create their own pieces and share it with others. Reddit allows the dispersal of information and allow people to learn new things to further the advancement of the field. The games have built in creative tools for players to show their own style and flair.

There are also other platforms which have more of a community aspect leading to creativity such as Youtube and Facebook. They are great ways to get feedback and get interaction with the audience of the work. In addition Tinder makes people try to be more creative as well in order to stand out. I feel that New Media has made access to all types of information and arts extremely convenient and I hope to continue using the aforementioned platforms.