The next new media I would like to see would involve more than the three main senses that all media currently caters to. For instance there is media for sound, sight, and to some extent touch, but there is nothing for taste or smell. I can see how before there could be an issue considering the limits of technology, but I think as technology gets better, especially with ways to read and stimulate the mind, I feel like Virtual Reality which included taste and smell as well could be a whole new media.
Picture watching The Great British Baking show and as the baked goods are being made you can smell the deliciousness in progress! There would need to be options that can be adjusted, such as intensity or blacklisting certain smells that are offensive, and the ability to opt out of it all together, but the potential for this new media would be great. Of course this will be like all media at it is first introduced, the niche market, the scapegoating, the general acceptance, and finally the realization of being a new media.
Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Blog: P2P
File sharing happens when a file is shared between two people. The download speed is usually not a problem, but when it comes to uploading there is almost always a bottleneck because the upload speed is almost always limited. So the file transfer is restricted by the sender and the receiver is the one that has to deal with the frustration. (The BitTorrent Effect)
P2P, or peer to peer, file sharing is a connection between two computers over the internet. So instead of downloading something form a single person with throttled, limited, download speeds, instead groups of people share the file and your computer draws from all of them to download the file quicker. P2P file transfer though puts a lot of trust in the peers that the file is coming from.
Torrent, a way to someone to download a file in pieces from different sources instead of downloading the full file from one source, which bypasses the upload limit that a single transfer source can limit the speed of the download. The ones I am familiar with the most are BitTorrent and Utorrent, for current P2P programs, but the most well known before is probably Napster, which was only for music files, and raised a lot of controversy about pirating.
P2P, or peer to peer, file sharing is a connection between two computers over the internet. So instead of downloading something form a single person with throttled, limited, download speeds, instead groups of people share the file and your computer draws from all of them to download the file quicker. P2P file transfer though puts a lot of trust in the peers that the file is coming from.
Torrent, a way to someone to download a file in pieces from different sources instead of downloading the full file from one source, which bypasses the upload limit that a single transfer source can limit the speed of the download. The ones I am familiar with the most are BitTorrent and Utorrent, for current P2P programs, but the most well known before is probably Napster, which was only for music files, and raised a lot of controversy about pirating.
Blog: Privacy
Privacy in general is in such a strange spot, but when it comes to new media it is in a very strange spot. I can't remember the article, I browse google news app on my phone entirely too much, but there was an article about Facebook and it's privacy settings. The article tells of how a member of the Zuckerberg family, Randi who is Mark's sister, had posted a personal family photo but because another user was friends with Randi's sister they were able to see the photo. Thinking Randi posted it publicly, because the user was a subscriber to Randi, the photo was retweeted out.
The exchange that followed afterward between Randi and Callie, the user who retweeted the photo, was saved by Buzzfeed, and can be found here, which is pretty ironic considering who Randi is related to. It is funny because her privacy was breached accidentally by a fellow user, where as everyone else's was breached by the creator of the website.
This is the reason I closed my facebook account and generally don't post to any social media. There is no way to know what is happening behind the scenes of these sites. It may sound like paranoia, but coming from a job in IT I know what kind of back end access I have to the work accounts my colleagues use and I am not the owner of the company. So if I have that much information at my hands, imagine what the owner of a website that people put all their personal information onto has.
The exchange that followed afterward between Randi and Callie, the user who retweeted the photo, was saved by Buzzfeed, and can be found here, which is pretty ironic considering who Randi is related to. It is funny because her privacy was breached accidentally by a fellow user, where as everyone else's was breached by the creator of the website.
This is the reason I closed my facebook account and generally don't post to any social media. There is no way to know what is happening behind the scenes of these sites. It may sound like paranoia, but coming from a job in IT I know what kind of back end access I have to the work accounts my colleagues use and I am not the owner of the company. So if I have that much information at my hands, imagine what the owner of a website that people put all their personal information onto has.
Thursday, June 28, 2018
Creativity and New Media
Last fall I was part of a class that took me way out of my comfort zone. It involved a lot of media and I had to create a few pieces of media from scratch. So I took one hobby my friend has, cosplaying, for which I am often helping her, and showed how this activity, handler for a cosplayer, broke me out of a shell. Speaking with people is not one of my strong points, I tend to be shy, and these experiences of helping my friend cosplay have exposed me to so many people.
So that is what the project was, what I did using wevideo is to take pictures of my time at one of these cosplay conventions and create a story of my experience using my voice to tell the story and these pictures to help bring the story to life.
So that is what the project was, what I did using wevideo is to take pictures of my time at one of these cosplay conventions and create a story of my experience using my voice to tell the story and these pictures to help bring the story to life.
HW Creativity
Creativity doesn't always mean original idea, sometimes it means taking two existing things and combining them into something new but not original. There is a line though between making something new and just copying something old, creativity vs plagiarism, that if not kept to can lead to big issues. One such company that comes down hard on copyright infringement is Disney. Even though Disney fights piracy with a no tolerance attitude, creativity is, if not fostered, given room to grow. This is important because pieces like the mash-ups featured in Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why? promotes creativity, hard work, and fun.
While Disney is within its rights to go after piracy of its works, stomping down on all forms of creativity has negative affects. The creativity of one person can lead to new ideas for original content being made. A mash-up of Bambi singing some random song can lead to an idea for a new R&B singing deer who goes out to save the forest through concerts. I mean that wasn't very creative but the idea still holds that one piece of creative work can lead to new works that, like dominoes, can lead to the next big sensation that changes the word.
While Disney is within its rights to go after piracy of its works, stomping down on all forms of creativity has negative affects. The creativity of one person can lead to new ideas for original content being made. A mash-up of Bambi singing some random song can lead to an idea for a new R&B singing deer who goes out to save the forest through concerts. I mean that wasn't very creative but the idea still holds that one piece of creative work can lead to new works that, like dominoes, can lead to the next big sensation that changes the word.
Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds
Virtual Worlds, like all technology, can be an amazing asset to build people up or a weapon to tear people down. In the end it all comes down to how governed they are and how people choose to use these worlds.
A Virtual world can be the next logical step up from the internet classroom. There are, for some children, aspects about themselves that keep them from being more vocal. This could be anything from a dislike for their own appearance to a speech impediment that keeps them from participating. A virtual world could help to remove some of these issues through the use of hardware and software that correct speech impediments or an avatar that is of the child's making. As stated in The Advantages and Disadvantages of the Virtual Classroom and the Role of the Teacher teachers prefer to have finished products in their classroom and these virtual classrooms are not perfect.
Virtual classrooms do have a disconnect between the teachers and the students. The disconnect helps those who are shy but it also leaves doubt of who is attending the classes. In addition to this there is no guarantee that the virtual classroom will be secure and always connected, not to mention areas where internet is less stable. These uncertainties prevent Virtual Classrooms from being a tool that Teachers trust, and understandingly so, because there are enough obstacles to teaching that the classroom being one more could be a huge issue.
If Virtual worlds can become stable places for people to go, and they can be safe places instead of anonymous bullying, then the real world could be positively influenced. If people can role play as a hero in the virtual world then, as seen in Virtual world may impact realworld behaviour, perhaps virtual worlds can be used to help improve people's real world interactions. Though the opposite is also true as playing the villain can lead to evil mad scientist thinking!
Oddly enough the potential for virtual worlds has already been explored in a couple of, really good, movies. The Matrix and Ready Player One are both great movies that deal with the potential of Virtual worlds. It would be great if, like in Ready Player One, there was a place to escape the real world and change from who we are for society and instead be who we want to be for ourselves. Again though, this will always depend on who the people users are and who they try to be.
A Virtual world can be the next logical step up from the internet classroom. There are, for some children, aspects about themselves that keep them from being more vocal. This could be anything from a dislike for their own appearance to a speech impediment that keeps them from participating. A virtual world could help to remove some of these issues through the use of hardware and software that correct speech impediments or an avatar that is of the child's making. As stated in The Advantages and Disadvantages of the Virtual Classroom and the Role of the Teacher teachers prefer to have finished products in their classroom and these virtual classrooms are not perfect.
Virtual classrooms do have a disconnect between the teachers and the students. The disconnect helps those who are shy but it also leaves doubt of who is attending the classes. In addition to this there is no guarantee that the virtual classroom will be secure and always connected, not to mention areas where internet is less stable. These uncertainties prevent Virtual Classrooms from being a tool that Teachers trust, and understandingly so, because there are enough obstacles to teaching that the classroom being one more could be a huge issue.
If Virtual worlds can become stable places for people to go, and they can be safe places instead of anonymous bullying, then the real world could be positively influenced. If people can role play as a hero in the virtual world then, as seen in Virtual world may impact realworld behaviour, perhaps virtual worlds can be used to help improve people's real world interactions. Though the opposite is also true as playing the villain can lead to evil mad scientist thinking!
Oddly enough the potential for virtual worlds has already been explored in a couple of, really good, movies. The Matrix and Ready Player One are both great movies that deal with the potential of Virtual worlds. It would be great if, like in Ready Player One, there was a place to escape the real world and change from who we are for society and instead be who we want to be for ourselves. Again though, this will always depend on who the people users are and who they try to be.
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Blog: Social networking sites
Social media sites, from a design standpoint, are meant to create communities and bring people together, just not people from other social media sites.
For some of the craziest real life stories I would definitely pay attention to Facebook. The amount of personal, and frankly stupid, information people put on Facebook is insane. The same people who complain about privacy issues are also posting everything, and I mean everything, in their daily lives ON Facebook. So the information you get falls in the category of TMI (too much info) or Fake News, where people try, and succeed, in convincing people of "facts", or alternative truths, that they believe in.
Twitter suffers from the same issues, just with fewer words. This leads to even more misinformation because the whole story is NEVER told in tweets fully enough to get the whole picture. That same out of context line then gets retweeted over and over and people make fools of themselves. Twitter is also a great platform for hate, as seen in the news recently, because the whole story is never seen so only the parts that prove a point are expressed.
Reddit is an interesting social media site. The creators/owners attempt to take a "hands off" approach to governing the site. Oddly enough this makes it easier to have a community on there as you can find a subreddit to your tastes and jump right in. There is still a lot of misinformation and lies, but for the most part that is limited to a subreddit of like minded people instead of broadcasting it to everyone on a network.
Youtube is my favorite social media site. There are rules and regulations for it and while there is misinformation as well, it is avoidable. Also the communities are easy to get into and enjoy as you know already what the channel is about and can avoid the ones that don't interest you.
So if I was to list them in order of preference I would say Youtube, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook in terms of enjoy-ability and community.
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