The Next New Thing

To be honest, it is hard to think of a next new thing, a new "New Media", for the reason it seems like people had thought about all the possible new media and they are implemented. However, I have finally come up with something. We can call it “Sub life”, which Google map gives me that idea. As we all know, Google map has a feature called street view, you can actually just browsing through it just like you are in that street. “Sub Life” is basically a game, where people can choose where to live, whether the place they currently live in or the place they wish to live in. The idea is you use your own image/character, and have another life in the virtual world by using the real map/street in the real life, it is just like the  real life, but in the virtual world. After all, it would be great if one day we get this idea implemented and actually get it working.

P2P File Sharing

File sharing is a term often used on Internet for providing access for others to have access to their computer files. Such as images, videos, audio, music, etc. When file sharing, it can also be called as P2P method (peer-to-peer). For P2P, users use software that make them connects in to a peer-to-peer network to search for shared files on the computers of other users connected to the network. When users find files they want, they can download it. In addition, large files will be broken down into smaller ones; smaller ones may be obtained from multiple peers and then reassembled by the downloader. The famous downloaders, eMule, uTorrent and BitTorrent are examples of P2P file sharing programs. Some Chinese video network software, PPTV, PPStream, etc, are peer-to-peer as well. P2P often make download speed faster, “The slow download process, often using a peer-to-peer technology called BitTorrent, required patience and a modicum of sophistication by users.” Reported by Brian Stelter. BitTorrtent is so called BT, it is P2P program which makes download process faster.

Privacy & Confidentiality

When users decide to use the free services provided by the New Media, such as Facebook, Instagram, etc., it is also a process which users agree to sell their privacy for the free service. Generally, users are not familiar with online privacy policy. New Media, social networking sites, often ask for users for personal information/data, which is called privacy. When they say they keep all users’ data confidential, it might not always be true. One thing for sure is that they will use users’ data for their future development to see what users’ need/want. For example, google’s mail, gmail, had been reported that, when browsing their email, ads will show on right side; they show ads with thing you often searched for. Many users reported that they felt their privacy's been exposed because of that. After all, when users use real information online, they should know it will never be confidential, and has no privacy projection at all.

Creativity and New Media

Virtual world is your world, and your imagination. Second Life is a free 3D virtual world where users can socialize, connect and create using free voice and text chat to communicate. In there, we can experience endless surprises and unexpected delights that is created by us, and do something we might not able to do or achieve in real life.

Creativity

As already mention in last post, virtual worlds foster creativity. The real world is already how it is; it is hard to change anything. However, in the virtual world, we can put our imaginations together, and create the world we want it to be. "'Our audiences can creatively mash video from our content as much and as often as they like,' said Dan Martinsen, a Nickelodeon spokesman" in  Brooks Barnes's article, "Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?" Because virtual world is unlimited, it has full of potential to be creative, and to actually make it work the way we want it to work. It is the power and beauty of the virtual world.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

            Virtual is used to describe something that can be done or seen using a computer. "Second Life is a multiuser virtual environment, a computer program that lets online users construct settings and hang out in them, using video-game-like characters called avatars. “ Says by Saki Knafo. A virtual world is an online community, in another word, the form of a computer-based simulated environment. Users can interact with one another through virtual world, it can be anything, exist in real world or not. As Internet is commonly used in today's world, virtual worlds are becoming one of the most important features for kids, teenagers, and adults.

            Virtual worlds have pros and cons. The pros are that people can spend their free time on it when they are bored. Also, it is easier to meet other people online.  More important is that it creates a world that we can’t experience in real world, which is filled with imaginations. Other than pros, it comes cons.  Often people get too addicted to virtual world, and forgot about the real world. Virtual world is not real; sometimes people get confused about it and real world. People sometimes fell into the virtual world, and won’t want to get out of it, thus making their real life ruined. "So you're not going out into the real world meeting people, you're going meeting people online and in your own home, so you're perfectly relaxed. It's just a fantastic tool to use to bring people together." Says Savill, reported by Nicole Saidi. That’s what a virtual going to bring us, we meet people in virtual world, not real world, and it can be bad sometimes.

            Moreover, virtual worlds foster creativity. In the real world, it is how it is already; it is hard to change anything. However, in the virtual world, we can put our imaginations together, and create the world we want it to be. It is the power and beauty of the virtual world.

            The future of virtual worlds will be much brighter. As technology is keep improving, we can do and build much more stuffs into the virtual world in the near future. Technology is what changes the world, making it different, better and convenient. 

            

Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. are really popular nowadays. All of them share common characteristics - status posting, sharing information, pictures, music, videos, etc. with others. However, they still have differences. 

MySpace was really popular back then, much more popular than Facebook, and its popularity had dropped rapidly since late 2008. Now, not many people are still using MySpace, it’s almost out of sight already. Just like other sites, it is featuring in picture, music, etc. sharing. 

Facebook is the most popular social networking site right now. Its popularity grew rapidly since 2008. Besides anything else, it’s a really successful social networking site. It has great features such as pictures, music, videos, status posting, instant messages, etc. 

Twitter is one of the most popular social networking sites. It’s a little different than MySpace and Facebook, it’s featuring in status posting, and information sharing, such as news. 

Tumblr is another popular social networking site. Similar to Facebook and MySpace, it allows users to post multimedia and other contents like pictures and music sharing, etc. It has 108 million blogs and 50.8 billion posts in total as of May 19, 2013, and its popularity is still increasing.