Sunday, February 24, 2008

The Red Solo Cup

Facebook-my life before college. I got a facebook account the summer before freshman year of college. I was so excited to look up all the new boys in girls in the class of 2010! I browsed randomly facebook stalking my fellow classmates, looking for the "cool kids". These were the kids whose profile picture was either a pretty prom picture or a picture of themselves holding the ever present red solo cup.

As the summer progressed I was friended by random people that i didn't know. I was actually worried at one point because I thought I wouldn't have any friends at school because I didn't have as many facebook friends or look as cool as all these other kids.

After arriving at school, I reconized my new "friends" around campus, but could never bring myself to say anything to them. I mean we were friends right? Wrong! Facebook and other online profiles allow users to protray themselves in anyway they like. After a break up you can look like you don't care that your ex just stepped all over your heart because you have a picture up with 15 of his closest friends all around you. Check out this youtube video, it's all about these guys who revamp their myspace pages to attract girlfriends



While some people use these profiles to impress people they know, many other people can gain access to these same pictures. Your online reputation preceeds you and so do these images. For my sorority, we take down all of our pictures where we look too intoxicated or any other ones that we wouldn't want an employers or a grandmother to see. I'm glad we do this because it makes me asses how I look to other people. Maybe holding the red solo cup in every picture is a bad idea.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Virtual Me







Back in 7th and 8th grade I was obsessed with the computer game The Sims. Even before everyone else caught on to the craze I was the first one in school to kill off my first sim family and to master the "sim ese" gibberish language. I bought every single expansion pack, addition and anxiously awaited The Sims 2 which gave sims genetics to pass on to future generations! I was obsessed. The only expasion pack that never really caught my interest was The Sims Online. The thought of interacting with greasy old men and hype active eight year olds in the game did not appeal to me in the least. I read all the new press relaeases and even heard about Second Life through these research sessions I would have.

I remember many people questioning how Second Life and similar virtual realities would suceed. I didn't think people would actually be willing to spend real money to buy virtual land and cars. Who would do that? Well apparently many people would...and do. After reading more about Second Life i've come to realize it is much more than a virtual reality for people to meet and talk. The business implications of networking alone are amazing! I still don't know everything about Second Life, but i'm really excited about it! It seems like the grown up version of The Sims. Instead of 'winning' the game (whcih, by the way, is impossible in The Sims), you can "win" at real life by making business deals, connections and even before a virtual Millionaire!


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Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Here is a link to a really cool blogger in my class...shes the best

Jessica's Blog

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Technorati Profile

Some Generated Content from a User

"User Generated Content" what is that? Some sort of risque XXX rated material? I had no idea what to think of this week's reading assignments except to be slightly excited. "Oooh, it's like Wikipedia and all those sites anyone can update...buzz kill". Still, user generated content is a very new and interesting topic. We're not sure how it is exactly it will affect us, but we know it already has.

I was a late bloomer in the wikipedia world. I'd heard peope talk about it, but we were never formally introduced until I came to college. In one class, two of my friends were talking about how they changed the definition of a word to be their friend's name. This lasted for about a nanosecond and a half before someone in Japan changed it back. But this made me think...can we really change the facts on the internet? Can a few people change the facts? Ever since then i've been wary of sites that allow changes, but after these readings i understand that they can be very useful to the website and the rest of us.

Even though some people have a problem with the exact term "User Generated Content" (get over it) I think it's a really interesting idea. Obviously Wikipedia and YouTube have been very sucessful in getting and maintaining users. Others, like Current TV are struggling to gain and keep viewers. The YouTube is. CurrentTV might be a simple fact that people don't like to watch certain clips and want the power to move on to the next one. Overall though, why do some user genertaed sites do much better than others? Your guess is as good as mine...for the time being, I might need to change that statement later on.

Friday, February 1, 2008

This is a job for all the lonely people

I think that Crowdsourcing is a neat idea...in theory.

It is nice to think that crowdsourcing gives people the chance to earn money and occupy their tie by doing tasks that need human processing skills to complete. I think about the elderly that aren't physically able anymore, but their minds are collecting cobwebs with the forced inactivty. With crowdsourding they are able to look at websites and find duplicates and keep their minds active. They are able to earn a little bit of money (a handful of cents per find) for their efforts.

Crowdsourcing does not seem to be a great source of income and seems almost too much work for the little pay. It's scary to think that these could be used as sole sources of income. I don't think this would really become a reality because the Crowdsouce-er would have to already own or have access to a computer and the internet. So poor families, imigrants, and kids can't only rely on crowdsourcing as a steady flow of income.

I really like the idea of crowdsourcing as a hobby or a past time. Not as a real/only job.