My New Media Class- So Far

What kinds of technologies are part of the new media?

New Media involves technologies such as cellphones and computers. Technologies in new media include any kind of technology that is "in the moment" and constantly evolving.

How important is the Internet to the new media?

Internet plays a huge roll in new media. The Internet is the foundation of how new media is spread across the world. In order to access new media, people must connect to the internet to be able to access the many websites that support new media, such as social networking sites and wikis.

Why and how are the new media replacing and / or enhancing the old media?

New media in my opinion is not replacing old media, but enhancing it. Taking a old media idea such as the distribution of music like CD's and transforming it into downloadable mp3 files that can be access at any moment. The Internet and television are both old media things that have been evolved into new media thing because they are use to share new media ideas to a large quantity of people.

Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

What are some ways (corporate and otherwise) that these technologies can be used?

Based on an article in wikipedia:
"Many companies and organizations now incorporate virtual worlds as a new form of advertising. There are many advantages to using these methods of commercialization. An example of this would be Apple creating an online store within “Second Life”. This allows the users to browse the latest and innovative products. You cannot actually purchase a product but having these “virtual stores” is a way of accessing a different clientèle and customer demographic". IBM has also created its own virtual world. Based on the article "IBM Learning Programs Get a ‘Second Life", IBM has created a virtual world that is used to conduct employee orientation and mentoring. This allows IBM employees to interact with each other even if they are miles apart. I believe this causes a more sociable work environment for the IBM employees.

What are the benefits of these technologies to society?

The benefits of modeling reality with virtual worlds is that people who tend to anti-social or very shy are able to express themselves without the fear of social rejection. Virtual worlds allow people to become the person they in fact really want to be, allows people travel anywhere, at anytime, without having to leave one's home. People can be able to express themselves in any matter.

Is there a "dark side"?

Modeling the real world with the virtual world has it's dark side. People will depend on these types of worlds to much in the future if used in a large scale. Human interaction in the real world in my opinion is one of the things that make us human and part of life; virtual worlds make it easier to interact because the people are not face to face. But face to face interaction has the human aspect to it because mental and physical emotions play a part in the interaction.

My thoughts on Pedro Orellana's Presentation

Peer to Peer (P2P) file sharing is a controversial aspect of new media. Based on wikipedia p2p can be classified as:

"P2P networks can be classified by what they can be used for:

• file sharing
• telephony
• media streaming (audio, video)
• discussion forums"

Other classification of P2P networks is according to their degree of centralization.

In 'pure' P2P networks:

• Peers act as equals, merging the roles of clients and server
• There is no central server managing the network
• There is no central router

With the introduction of Napster, p2p has taken a different toll. Being able to download any mp3 song at anytime for free is what gave the controversy to p2p. Other programs similar to Napster came out; Morpheus, Kazaa, Limewire, Aries, Torrents, Filetopia...etc. These programs let users share any kind of file with other users for free. The government had to intervene because many software developers and artistes were loosing money because of p2p.

Overall Pedro's presentation was unique and different. I liked the way he used a different approach to presenting his work. Using window media player besides power point to bring about his work was a different way of presenting it. He had enough information for his presentation length and had interesting points and facts. To answer his question about people's reaction of getting caught, well i believe the risk is to slim for people to actually be scared. Millions of people download files illegaly on the web and the chances of one specific person getting caught is slim. But I believe that the fear of getting caught is always in our mind.

Old Vs. New

Old Media is a term that has no exact definition. Old Media in my opinion are just certain technologies that we no longer use or use little off. Old Media in my opinion are things such as a standard radio, newspaper, cassette tapes, CD's...etc. Even things that we consider to be new media are becoming old media because of the constant upgrades in technology. New media can be defined as a certain form of technology that his "hip" in the moment or an upgrade to something that is considered old media. New media can be such things as itunes, apple ipod, twitter, myspace, facebook, p2p, virtual worlds...etc.

The Next New Thing

Myself being a sneaker freak, the next new thing should incorporate fashion with technology. If you have ever seen the movie Back to the Future II, the part when Michael J. Fox puts on this over sized jacket and with a press of a button the jacket shrunk to his body type, while his sneaker tied itself up, that was just genius!....Also there should be a machine that pretty much dresses you. You can put your wardrobe into the machine and with a touch screen computer you can choose your outfit. I think the Jetsons cartoon show had something similar to this.

Advice to Baruch College

You are hired by Baruch College to use new media to improve the College. What are some suggestions you would make?

If i were to be hired to Baruch College to improve the use of new media in the college i would like to the college to be able to record certain call sessions, especially very large classes because it would be a great tool for those students who can not always go to class because of personal reasons. This will let the student fully comprehend the lecture because powerpoints and the text book does not really explain the subject as a professor would be able to.
Second, online courses would be such a great add on to the school, especially in the winter and summer sessions. This is a great tool because it will help a student who can not make it to the college physically on a daily basis by allowing the student to access the class anywhere. This will prevent the student from getting delayed from graduating.

Term Project: New Media and the Distribution of Music

My Term project is about the new approach the music industry has taken to the way music is distributed to the public. Since the year 2000, CD sales have decreased 45%, thus implementing a new way of distributing music by way of digital downloads. iTunes and other sites sell whole albums in mp3 format which tend to be cheaper in price than CD format albums. Highly anticipated albums are no longer selling as they once need, but people are downloading a lot more albums from online sources like itunes. Stores like Best Buy, Circuit City and the Virgin Mega Store depend on revenue from CD Sales. The Virgin Mega Store is going out of business because of the decline in CD sales. Artists are going from CD format to an all digital means when it comes down to their music, using websites like iTunes, MySpace, Facebook, etc. In the year 2008, 1 billion songs were downloaded, which is a 27% increase from 2007, which shows how effective digital downloads have become and how obsolete CD format music has become.