Topic of My Conversation

Although my group and I were not able to present on wednesday, the topic of my conversation had to deal with the book Go Tweet Yourself by Janelle Randazza. Essentially, it explains why many popular social networking sites such as twitter, facebook, & myspace simply "suck." The book goes about making its point via the use of jokes, that do a great job of catching the readers attention.

In regards to a certain facebook application, the author uncannily comments, "as though real golf wasn't a sedentary enough sport, Facebook has now made it so you never actually have to get off the golf cart. You can just sit on your rapidly spreading ass and exercise your mouse-clicking fingers all day long." (Randazza, 158).

All jokes aside, the author does make some great points by stating that most of these social networking sites are simply losing their identity and becoming ones that mimic dating sites instead. Additionally, she believes that some of these sites are simply disclosing to much personal information about its individual users, which obviously highlights concerns of privacy that we've discussed thoroughly throughout the quarter.

A visit from Erik Hanberg

The main message I took out of Erik Hanberg's was that the internet allows us unlimited possibilities and if we utilize them and work hard, we can be very successful. Not only successful in accumulating capital, but more importantly, reaching others via the mediums we utilize (i.e. writing blogs or even online books). He considers the internet as one of the Black Swan opportunities out there and again stresses the importance of hard work, but also to party now and then. Although such work is scalable and atypical of the norm (hourly & salary), Erik maintains that he has greatly benefited from such a practice noting not only his involvement in many non-profit organizations (City Club, etc), but also his successful endeavour and publication of The Little Book of Gold.

Scavenger Hunt

The scavenger hunt in-class wednesday was fun, albeit a little challenging at times. I was in a group with Judy and Titus and we coordinated well in answering the questions. It will be quite interesting to see which group one and even more interesting to see the prize in question. Hopefully, it'll be awesome. All in all, it was great to engage in a group activity. I found it to be a welcomed change of pace, allowing us to utilize various tools and applications on the internet in order to answer the questions at hand. Although the quarter who is almost over, I'm hoping we get to engage in another activity similar to this. It was well worth it.

Convergence

Technological Convergence is certainly an interesting and beneficial phenomenon in my view. As you mentioned in class, the iPhone is a great example of such a trend. Not only can you place calls, but you can also access the internet, and store/listen to your own music. You can do much more than this simply by downloading the latest applications, which Apple offers mostly for free. Although the iPhone is only one example, the potential for the further expansion of convergence is boundlesss. It will be very interesting to see what new devices or technologies are developed in the coming months and years. Ultimately, we as a society end up as winners with such a phenonmenon.

Physical vs. Digital Documents

Both forms of resources can be crucial in providing a wide-array of information we may seek. However, one main difference in my opinion is that digital documents can be easily altered since there are a bevy of programs available which can aid one in doing so. However, digital documents do have the benefit of being more readily accessible. After all, a great majority of us use the internet daily, and any document we are searching for is only a click away. All in all, both forms of documents have their unique pro's and cons, but still remain invaluable since they are essentially documents which provide us information on a broad range of topics.

Vanity Search

I just completed a vanity search, and I'm pleasantly surprised with the results. After all, the only search results I found relevant to my name were my facebook and twitter profiles. Although this may be a limited result, it's better in terms of privacy. I'm not one to prefer a bevy of information being present about me online without my knowledge. :)

Mark Briggs presentation

Marks Briggs presentation was very thorough and insightful. It'll be interesting to really see what the future holds in terms of the battle between traditional acquisition of news, and the ever developing online news medium. As Briggs said there certainly will be a major transformation, yet this does not mean that newspapers as a whole will be eliminated, just slimmed down (i.e. less sections in the paper).
As the online news medium develops even more, it'll be interesting to see exactly which sites become popular, and if they can truly fill the news "gap" set to be underway during the transformation. Certainly the ones that do become popular will be do so by building their credibility and also by incorporating links within their site to another news outlets to give the reader a more comprehensive understanding of they days developments.
All in all, I appreciate the fact that Briggs was able to present to our class. After all, he not only runs his own site/business, but has written a widely accepted book in Journalism 2.0. Thus it's always good to hear those who have experience in the field.

Online Newspapers

The widespread acceptance and use of online newspapers has had a profound impact on my life. For one, it's much easier to access a wide array of useful information given the fact that every news bit is only a click away. The internet also offers me additional flexibility in that I'm able to browse a wide range of different news outlets, thus giving me a better understanding and grasp of the days events.
Given my age, I've never been one to buy physical newspapers and actually read them, at least not here. However, having been born in Turkey and spent a substantial amount of my life there, I did tend to read physical newspapers much more often (it's more of the norm there; going to tea-shops reading the paper in the morning, etc). When I did read newspapers there, they were mainly sports newspapers (i.e. Fanatik, which means Fanatic in Turkish).
While in Washington State, the only time I honestly went out of my way to pick up newspapers was my Junior (last) year at UWT as we were allowed free access to The Seattle Times & The New York Times (which I loved). Reading them, especially during class breaks was a great way to relax in my opinion. Unfortunately, due to widespread budget cuts, we no longer have access to such a valuable and free resource, which is really a shame.

Email vs. The Postal Service

There are certainly many similarities and differences between the use of emails and the postal service (i.e. sending traditional mail). As we discussed in class, the use of email certainly does offer many advantages over the previously mentioned traditional alternative. For instance, communicating with others via email is exponentially quicker than using traditional mail, and you can forward multiple copies of the same document to other parties (i.e. clients) who may be interested with the document at hand. Unfortunately, using emails does have some drawbacks including but not limited to, the acquisition of viruses and the often times headache inducing overload of spam sent out by various entities across the globe for the sole purpose to annoy you.
In terms of highlighting similarities, both options obviously allow us to communicate with each other and stay connected to our loved ones and/or business clientele. However, the use of emails has seemingly connected us to the broader world and is truly one of the primary catalysts for the rapid globalization, spread of information, and economic expansion taking place today. Without email, our world and our lifestyles would be completely different.