Next New

            A type of new media that does not exist that I can suggest is a virtual way for people to see how one lives in poverty a third world country. It is very hard for people to understand how badly some other people live in this world. While they will never truly understand, by 'walking in their shoes', people could have a better idea of what someone in Sudan goes through on a daily basis to survive. It would be a 'video game' type of system. It would also be connected to a reputable charity which makes a difference in that particular area. Charities could have these 'games' customized to fit their cause and I think this would have a better effect on people donating than a commercial that tries to make them feel guilty and donate that way.

Wiki So Far

          While I got a late start working on my additions to the Wiki, I find it to be an amazing thing. It is like an organism that keeps growing and feeds off of knowledge. It is neither positive not negative, it might not always state the truth and might contain some blatant lies but it is what it is, a collaboration of the opinions and facts of many. It really is a beautiful thing.
           I have not yet contributed much but I have added some information to the P2P and Entertainment sections. I talked about the legal issues companies such as Grooveshark faces on a daily basis along with the throttling of bandwidth set forth by internet providers. I look forward to contributing a lot more to this Wiki.

P2P

           According to Wikipedia, file sharing is defined as the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books.
          Wikipedia also defines P2P Sharing as a type of decentralized and distributed network architecture in which individual nodes in the network (called "peers") act as both suppliers and consumers of resources, in contrast to the centralized client–server model where client nodes request access to resources provided by central servers.
           An example of P2P file sharing is BitTorrent. It allows people to download movies or shows at great speeds. In the article 'The BitTorrent Effect' by Clive Thompson, it shows how Bram Cohen, who created BitTorrent, can achieve these great speeds by using technology to download multiple pieces of a file from multiple uploaders all at once, speeding up the process tremendously.

Advice

           The wonderful thing about New Media is that it is new. It is current. It revolves around the ideas of today, not yesterday. This simple fact can help older 'beings' fit into the new world and take advantage of what it has to offer. If I was hired by Baruch College to use New Media to improve the College, the first thing I would do would be to incorporate the use of Smart Boards. I am guessing certain classrooms in the building already have them but I have yet to see one. Smart Boards are great for many reasons, it is easier for a teacher to point out and emphasize what they are trying to teach. I also believe that it is easier to keep the student's attention with a Smart Board. My generation grew up with computers and cell phones. When a teacher writes on a white board, it is in a way boring. Smart Boards make for an easier and more pleasant presentation by the teacher, along with the ability to focus more on teaching than writing on the white board and having everyone understand their writing.
           Another way I would use Social Media to improve the school, would be to create a social media platform where students enrolled in a specific class, would automatically be joined into a social media group. It can be very hard to make friends in class, some people might be shy and some might not bother with it. The thing is, knowing people in your class helps tremendously. We have all missed class before and it can be crippling. If you know someone or can get into contact with someone easily, it can save you a lot of headaches by easily catching up on what was missed.

Privacy

           Privacy is the main reason why I quit social media over 2 years ago. Privacy is very important to me. While I love to share ideas and memories with friends, the 'friends' you have on social media are not necessarily those people. I find it scary that people want to share their daily lives with the world but maybe that is just an insecurity of mine. So many times people get into trouble and lately lose their jobs over social media posts. While we live in a free country, with freedom of press, beliefs and ideas, this is not without consequence. There seems to be a group or anti-group for just about every subject out there. Someone who wants to freely share their idea with their friends or followers can be crucified over their beliefs. More than that, people's careers can end on the spot with a simple tweet. While it might be good to see who someone really is, just because I do not agree with their ideas does not mean they should lose their job which they most likely worked their whole life to achieve. We live in a very scary time as far as social media goes and it is not something I am interested in participating in.

Creativity and New Media

In 2009, I was visiting friends in Florida when Hurricane Wilma hit. I took many videos on my camera of action during the hurricane and of the damage the hurricane caused. I had recently written a song using Reason. Reason is a music software that gives you a virtual copy of instruments that would regularly costs thousands of dollars. I decided to make a video and found that the mood of this song would be very fitting to the situation that just happened. I used Microsoft Movie Maker to join my song and the videos I had and edited away. What came out of it was this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lya7-pdR3f8

I hope you enjoy.

CREATIVITY

          The definition of creativity is the use of the imagination or original ideas, esp. in the production of an artistic work. New media definitely fosters creativity and we can see this in the article "The New Math of Mashups" by Sasha Frere-Jones. This article talks about DJ Reset who combines two types of songs that most people would not even think of trying to combine. In the past people did not have the technology to store or access files as easily as we can today. In today's world we have access to just about any song we want, and access to software which can edit and alter those songs. DJ Reset combined a song by Beck and Jay-Z/Pharell which kind of breaks through to a new style of music. This is the perfect example of computer music in a post-modern music world. Without new media, someone might have had the idea to create this type of music but they would not have had the tools to actually get it done.