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Unit 3 begins next week and will take place on our new wiki (cyber110news.pbwiki.com). For Tuesday's class, please email 3 ongoing news stories that you might be interested in working on. They have to be ongoing stories (like the war in Iraq, the primary elections, the collapsing economy, Olympics related turmoil in China, etc.).

If you do not email this to me begore Tuesday's class, I will choose a group for you.

Summary LonelyGirl15

LonelyGirls15 is one of the CyberComp in the internet that providing chat-rooms and free videos for visitors. At this Cyber, people are watching the videos about a girl’s life, and discus about them, or giving advice about what “She” should do since people don’t know that that’s a play. But now, they more likely to talk what they think it will show and what happen in the next play. And in the class, we had talk about free speech and privacy. Shouldn’t we give up our freedom of speech to keep our privacy or otherwise?

Kate Modern

Kate Modern isnt your average streaming video blog. Although it appears to be the narratives of several young people and their daily accounts it is in fact all scripted, a reality tv show of sorts. This however isnt your ordinary reality tv show, the viewer has a lot more power and is able to sit in the script writer's seat. Kate Modern offers a convoluted interactive plot. Each episode leaves the viewer clues to solve the many mysteries revolving around the show. The forum allows fans and viewers to leave input which the producers take into account when creating the future episodes. Kate Modern as well as its precursor Lonelygirl15 both have gathered a huge following. It is easy to see why, although the episodes are only a few minutes in length they offer you something that tv series cannot, you can actively participate. I believe that Kate Modern is a revolutionary form of entertainment, and is also more beneficial than regular tv. When you watch tv, you dont need to think, you just simply soak in what it gives you. Whereas, with Kate Modern and LG15 you can actually put your mind to work, and think for yourself of new plot twists that might be interesting for the show. Not only that, but you can try to use the clues provided within the episodes and try to solve the mysteries.

For Thursday, April 10

Please bring in 3 copies of your paper for peer review. You must bring a completed version of your paper. If you do not participate in peer review your paper will be marked down one grade, and you will need to make an appointment with the writing center (and bring in proof of your meeting).

Lonelygirl15

A Soap Opera Embedded in a Social Network

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/a-soap-opera-embedded-into-a-social-network/

summary

Flickr is a photo sharing website, which is owned by Yahoo company. People can post their photos for free and in the same time the visitors can make some comments on the photos. This connects people together in different places of the world. One of the features of Flickr is that people must indicate the place where the photo has been taken. Then, photos are classified efficiently and systematically, which is the advantage of using Flickr. Therefore, people can search the photos they like quickly and conveniently. After I searched in flickr, I enjoyed searching in it very much because I saw something I have never seen before and it widens my sight. As we discussed in class, people can keep their privacy in Flickr by choosing to view the photos for certain groups or sharing with everyone. It is good for users on protecting their privacy. My opinion is that we cannot control people to use your things that are posted on web, but you can choose not to post it. There are no law can totally protect our privacy. It is too difficult to define it and judge the problem of invading privacy especially in this new century with advanced technology. Therefore, we just behave ourselves in norm when we are staying out in the public. We can do nothing on it so we just take it easy.

Assignments for April 8

1. Read the posts by Eaky and Tamzid. Comment on those posts.

2. Read the articles posted by Denise and Deason.

3. Read Chapter 6 by Solove. (There will be a quiz.)

4. Start working on your paper. First draft due Thursday for peer review.

Tuesday will be the last day of this unit!

YouTube Slapped With First Copyright Lawsuit For Video Posted Without Permission

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1536695/20060719/index.jhtml?headlines=true

Summary of Second life

The class discussion was about the Second life and how does it affect people. Second life is a very interesting, new, and creative idea that was established in 2000. It gives you freedom of being whoever you want to be, which is impossible for some people in real world. You can do almost everything that you can do in the real life in there. You can buy things, interact with other live people, drive cars, go get a makeover and many more. Second life even gives you an godlike ability to Fly( which was a really fun thing to do.) In the class discussion somebody said that second life can help people to learn how to socialize, I agree with that. For example, somebody who is really shy in real life would never be able to go to another man or a woman and just start that conversation, but in second life he or she would easily do it, and hopefully one day it would happen in real life. As good as it look, second life can be addictive like drugs, smoking or alcohol. Sometimes people start to forget their real lives and just get into that game so much, that they even get a job in second life. People basically assimilate with their avatar(your character in the game).

Second Life Summary

Second life is by far one of the most innovative methods of cyber communication. It basically creates all of the aspects of personal identity that the players want to incorporate, the same as in Facebook and MySpace, in addition to the 3 Dimensional re-creation of real life events, places, and people as decided by the users. Aside from providing the creative tools, the actual creators of Second Life really don't have much involvement in this cyber world. Every character, building, and fantasy island is entirely the creation of the users. Like Wikipedia, this can also be considered User-Generated content but in a different aspect. Second Life gives users the opportunity to relive a special moment, recreate their first lives, or simply just live a whole different identity if they so desire. But like every other cyber community [or real one for that matter] user-beware! there is a great deal of in-your-face corruption. A large underground sex industry is building within this cyberworld, trading both cyber and real money. This of course can be seen with practically every cyber community on the internet now a days, but in my opinion it's a lot more shocking to see it live and in 3D. Despite it's flaws, if you steer away from this, you should be able to enjoy quite a good time trying to navigate through it's twisted recreations of real world places and meeting new and interesting people [despite the psychos!]... lol

Second Life Summary

In class we talked about all the different aspects of the online community, Second Life. We talked about whether or not the way people act on Second Life should be any different than the way we act on the website. For example, Germanas started to follow a girl when we were on the site on class, which is hopefully not something anybody would do in real life. We talked about why we thought it was okay, and funny, to follow this girl on the website, when it is not okay to so in reality. We also discussed how second life will change the way that we communicate. There is also a danger to become too involved in the site. For instance, people begin to not be able to tell the difference between their second life and their real one. But as long as people don't become too involved, I think that Second Life can be used as a great networking tool because you can go and talk to people all over the world.

Library of Congress Taps Web 2.0 for User Photo Expertise --Flickr

http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_002570DE00740E18002573D3006B14C8.html

Assignments for Thursday, April 3

1. Germanas. Semone, and Juan will post by tomorrow, and the rest of you will comment.

2. Eaky and Tamzid will post articles for you all to read.

3. Read chapter 7 in Solove's book.

Summary of Craigslist

The debate that we had in class was whether or not craigslist should have regulation on what is posted. Some people in our class said that it would be a good idea to have posts checked, either kept or removed, depending on what the truth is. A good reason for having a system of regulation is to reinforce good behavior and to avoid being scammed while you are searching for what you want on craigslist. The article that i posted mentions how people are using craigslist for illegal activity such as advertising prostitution or the selling of illegal drugs. This comes to the second part of the debate where some students in our class say that it should not be regulated. Because of the free access and use of the site, some students in our class say that it should not be regulated and that there is no means to do it. I think that there should be some sort of regulation, meaning that there should be a computer that searches for key words that sound like a scam and remove that post.

K

Your Second Life is Ready

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2006-09/your-second-life-ready

Do-it-yourselfers buy into Second Life

http://www.nytimes.com

Wikipedia Summary

Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia in where you can find information that you do not even imagine. This encyclopedia is made by its users. Since it was launched in 2001, millions of articles had been created in different languages. Anyone with access to the internet can edit or add an article. But this liberty that this website gives to its users can be a bad thing. Many people can edit articles to favor them or their companies as the article mentioned. There is a big controversy because many companies are editing their articles deleting information and that is why now there is a program to identify where the edition of the article is coming from. Although this program gives that information it cannot be known who did it. I think that it is good that the website locks some articles as we could see in class to prevent the alteration of the information. People can write false information and as a consequence of this Wikipedia cannot be reliable on. We can do some research on Wikipedia but we must have in mind that the information can be incorrect so we should have other sources to verify it.

Career Networking in Second Life

http://www.itworld.com/Career/career-networking-second-life-nlscareer-080318/

Introducing the Books

Assignments for Tuesday, April 1

1. Claudia and Kyriakos will post their summaries by tomorrow at noon. Comments should proceed as usual.

2. Please read articles posted by Juan, Semone, and Germanas about Second Life.

3. Read pages 25-42 in Henry Jenkins' Convergence Culture

Important April Dates

April 1: You must meet with me by this date if you want to revise your first paper.

April 10: First draft of paper #2 due

April 17: Final draft of paper must be emailed to me by midnight of this date.

If you would like to visit the writing center before submitting either of these drafts, please make your appointment well in advance.

MSN Space Summary

One big reason made MSN Space become so popular is probably because of the massive uses of MSN Messenger all over the world. It connects the space straight to people’s messenger. Just click on one friend’s name, people can see the newest updates in their friend’s MSN Space. MSN Space is not only a usual blog for people to write everyday journals. It is actually a multifunction online personal space for people to learn, have fun, and communicate with each other. There are just so many things to do with the MSN Space. Unlike many other blog spaces, MSN Space provides various templates and designs for people to choose and decorate their own spaces. Users can randomly change the way how their spaces look as they wish. Almost anything, in the space, MSN will allow users to play around. From the smallest mouse pointer to the whole background design and templates, if users have enough knowledge of HTML then they almost can do anything with their space. Even set their personal picture as the background. In fact, I learned my own HTML skill from building up my MSN Space. It even helped me got an A in my computer science class. Also MSN Space is a place can keep users’ privacy efficiently. Users can choose whoever they want to share their spaces with. They have options to open their space to everyone or just few friends or only to themselves. Overall, to me MSN Space is really a great place to keep on with my daily or monthly journals while having lots funs with.

MySpace Summary

MySpace is a social networking site which in three short years has became one of the top five most visited sites in the US. Unlike its predecessors, for one example Friendster, MySpace did “not have pre-conceived notions about how users wanted to interact with the site”. The users of the site were given the freedom to choose why and how they wanted to use the site. “MySpace listened to user feedback and quickly iterated the product [the users requested] with rapid development cycles.” At the users request MySpace added applications like blogs, comment boards, message boards and IM (Instant Messaging). MySpace became very popularity among teenage users because of its freedom and attentiveness to their users. As more and more teens joined MySpace it caught the attention of large corporations who were interested in it as more than just a social networking tool. These large corporations recognized the potential of social networking sites as great marketing tools. Corporations started paying for advertisement space on MySpace. Today there are advertisements everywhere on MySpace; there are even restrictions on the users prohibiting them from blocking these ads.

Tencent Summery

In 1998, Pony Ma, the co-founder of China's hosttest Internet company created the "QQ"which has reached more than 100 million users, or nearly 80 percent of the market.Tencent is also worrying the Chinese government, which strictly regulates the Internet and is wary of the Web’s ability to mobilize huge online political communities or perhaps to nurture underground economies. A few weeks ago, Q-Coins available which allow customers to shop online for games, music and even virtual furniture. It also an example for the convergence culture because it just use as the massenger at first, now Tencent combines aspects of the social networking site MySpace, the video sharing site YouTube and the online virtual world of Second Life, it make America’s biggest Internet companies, like Yahoo, Google and eBay, have largely flopped in China.Tencent earns the bulk of its revenue from the entertainment services it sells through the Internet and mobile phones. Next, in the United States, roughly 70 percent of Internet users are over the age of 30; in China, it is the other way around — 70 percent of users here are under 30, according to the investment bank Morgan Stanley. Furthermore, in 2006, the Q-cooins rised the profit of Tencent from 200% to 221%. Finally, the article wrote about the Pony Ma. I like his logion:“There are a lot of opportunities in the market now,” he said. “The leader of the market today may not necessarily be the leader tomorrow.”

Seeing Corporate Fingerprints in Wikipedia Edits

MySpace Conspiracy?

Assignments for Thursday, March 27

1. Dennis, Melody, and Hugo will post summaries of our discussion by tomorrow at noon. The rest of you will comment before our next class.

2. Read articles posted by Kryiakos and Claudia.

3. Finally, read Solove's Chapter 2 to page 43.

As Prostitutes Turn to Craigslist, Law Takes Notice

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/05/nyregion/05craigslist.html?scp=9&sq=craigslist&st=nyt

So You Want to Be a Blogging Star?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/technology/personaltech/20basics.html?_r=1

Here is another interesting story about blogging, just for fun.
Even your dog has a blog
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/03/21/dog.blog/

Paper #2: Digital Communities

Paper Guidelines

Your paper should be 4-5 pages in 12-point Times New Roman font or equivalent. You should have at least two outside research sources and a properly formatted bibliography in MLA style. Your paper must have a thesis statement with supporting evidence. As you begin your research, please think of one of the following questions as a way to frame your argument:

1. How have social networking sites brought up issues around privacy? Do you think these sites are in violation of people’s privacy? Why or why not?

2. Some critics of online communities say these spaces encourage anti-social behavior? Do you agree with this criticism? Why or why not?

3. Digital communities have received some attention recently because of fraudulent and/or criminal activities on the sites. Do you think online communities encourage this kind of behavior or make certain behaviors more prevalent?

4. Cyber Neighborhoods have allowed for what some observers call “interactivity” or "convergence culture"—opportunities for participants to mix various media (graphics, video, ARGs). How has interactivity changed the way people communicate and/or view entertainment?

5. Cyber communities have been applauded for democratizing access to information and the dissemination of knowledge. Do you agree that the internet is more democratic? Why or why not?


(Questions may also be added depending on issues that come up in class discussions.)

Internet Boom in China Is Built on Virtual Fun

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/05/world/asia/05virtual.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Facebook Summarization

Facebook is a social networking site. Many users use it on the site. In general, I think Facebook is good for socializing with friends you know. However, for the research of my article, it demonstrates a fact that some people wanted to deactive the Facebook account, but it takes long time to get rid of the membership. Also, it forced some people had to choose legal action to break free. As a result, while the Web site offers users the option to deactivate their accounts, Facebook servers still keep copies of the information for the uses’ accounts. Indeed, many users who have contacted Facebook to request that their accounts be deleted have not succeeded in erasing their records from the network. So, do you want your information stay on internet forever? In this article, I think it is time to think about the privacy. Since the Facebook has copy right for users’ information, I think maybe its time that people change the contract of agreement with Facebook, of becoming a member, that Facebook does not have the right to use the information it can/do gather from its content for any other use. In addition, I think it is dangerous to put on your true information on the website. In the article, there was a story about “Mr. Das, who joined Facebook on a whim after receiving invitations from friends, tried to leave after realizing that most of his co-workers were also on the site….The last thing I want is people going on there and checking out my private life.” obviously, Mr. Das is a good example to demonstrate that he didn’t want his co-workers seeing things about his private life. When he tried to delete some information he wrote about, he finally find out that it was hard to delete them. In this case, who’s fault? I guess some people would say he is so stupid by putting some true information on the Facebook However, this is not just one case, and it could happen to other one. For example, some students also put some true information on the Facebook. Their first purpose was likely to make the site look interesting and let their friends known about him/her well. Indeed, I believe people should take responsible to post something that you really want to share to your friends and set the limit to choose who you want to share. Don’t share your information with strangers. Furthermore, I think people should think about twice before you post when you wrote something on your friends wall because other strangers can see them, too.

Furthermore, we watched the video in the class, I feel it is common sense that CIA investigates people’ life, it is not serious if you don’t do anything wrong. Beside the Facebook, phone taping is another way that they watch us, so we don’t need to scare a lot. In conclusion, people should be smart enough to protect your privacy by modifying the privacy settings in Facebook, and make the Facebook with your social networking life better.

In Facebook, Investing in a Theory

Facebook is an evergrowing very popular site that is attracting people all over the world. In the article "In facebook, investing in a Theory" it talks about how not just people who want a blog go to facebook, investors go their also. Many investors like Microsoft who was considering investing $500 million dollars in facebook when facebook was only 3 years old. Other companies as well including advertising companies invest in facebook, and they can expose their ads to thousands of people who go on the website everyday. Facebook is making profits for a lot of different people as well like Lance Toluda, who is the owner of Super Wall, this lets people post messages. In the article is his quote that say that if someone were to write him a check for $10million he would say "Forget it". This is proof that facebook has grown tremendously. As an Egyptian immigrant I use facebook to connect with people back in Egypt. The article I chose explains how the many features and "widgets" attracts people to Facebook. People can really display their individual personalities through Facebook. A comment that was made in class today was that before you can look in a person's room to see their style, now you just have to look in their Facebook to get a feeling of who they are. The general class agreement was that Facebook is a fun activity to do when you are bored and have nothing else to do. Most people like it because it is easy to communicate with your friends and the features are really fun. I believe that our class discussion really shows why facebook has been so successful. It is something that you can use to interact and even find friends and family you have not seen for a very long time. I love facebook very much and will continue to use it everyday.

Facebook Summary

Facebook is a great example of convergence of media. You can now post pictures, videos, and games on your Facebook pages. This is on top of messages and posts that you can send to your friends. Facebook has the ability to bring people together. There are also some issues with Facebook. Qin posted an article that describes how it is very difficult to erase your info from your page. When you deactivate your page all your info is still in the Facebook server. Another problem people have with Facebook is the time that is wasted. Are people less productive because they can go onto Facebook during work or school? Some people view it as something they can do when bored while others view it as a distraction. I personally think that people who procrastinate will always do that and although Facebook is one of the ways in which to accomplish that, it is not at fault. Facebook can also be used to the advantage of companies to get information out to the public or to try and gather info on what people are interested in. Another advantage of Facebook is that it gives you the ability to find people that you haven’t seen in a very long time. We asked if it is considered rude to ignore someone who sends you a message on Facebook and if it is changing social rules. I think that although it is rude to ignore someone it is not so much different then ignoring someone in person and therefore is not really changing social guidelines. But it was brought up that while it is very unlikely that you will run into a past friend on the street, it is much easier to find someone on facebook and therefore there is a lot more to ignore.

A youtube video talked about the information we put on Facebook. Not only does Facebook have the right to use the info in anyway they want but they sell it to companies and even give it to the US government. Everything we put on Facebook can be used to watch us and everything we do. We can go so far as to say that sites like Facebook were created by the government in order to gather information on us. Facebook not only uses your info but actually owns it. When you post something on Facebook, you agree to give them ownership of that item.

MySpace Case Study: Not a purely viral start

http://www.startup-review.com/blog/myspace-case-study-not-a-purely-viral-start.php

Assignments for Tuesday, March 25

1. Qin, Raphael, and Mina will post summaries and opinions of our class discussions by tomorrow at noon. The rest of you will comment on one of their posts before our next class. You will not get credit if you don't post before class.

2. Read articles posted by Dennis, Melody, and Hugo.

3. Read Chapter 1 of Daniel Solove's The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy. Click here for the chapter.

Facebook and Privacy

Pulling the Plug on Facebook

http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/small-business/article/pulling-plug-facebook_525772_33.html

In Facebook, Investing in a Theory

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/technology/04facebook.html?pagewanted=1&sq=what%20is%20facebook&st=nyt&scp=3

How Sticky Is Membership on Facebook? Just Try Breaking Free

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/technology/11facebook.html?

Assignments for Thursday, March 20

1. Read the articles posted by Qin, Raphael, and Mina.

2. Read the Introduction to Convergence Culture by Jenkins. You can access the book here through google books.

There's a good chance you will be quizzed on this material at the beginning of class, again.

CyberCommunity Schedule

Here's the schedule for presentations:

Thurs. March 20: Facebook: Qin, Raphael, and Mina

Tues., March 25: Other Online Networks: Dennis on MySpace and Hugo on Tencent and Melody on MSN Space

Thurs., March 27: Knowledge production on the net: Claudia on Wikipedia and Kyriakos on Craigslist

Tues., Apr. 1: Second Life: Juan and Semone and Germanas

Thurs., Apr. 3: Visual Cultures: Eaky on Flickr and Tamzid on YouTube

Tues., Apr. 8: The rise of YouTube: Denise on LG15, Deason on LG15

Thurs., Apr. 10: Peer Review #2: Draft of Paper #2 Due

Assignments for Tuesday, March 18

1. Choose 3 digital communities for presentation/research. Please email me by tomorrow at noon. The sooner you email me the more likely I am to accommodate your first choice.

2. Read U R 2 Old for Tuesday.

3. Read the articles posted by the first 2 presenters. (The articles will be posted by Sunday at noon.)

CyberCommunities

Here are various Digital Communities:


LonelyGirl15 (or Kate Modern): www.lg15.com
Second Life: www.secondlife.com
Wikipedia: www.wikipedia.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com
Digg: www.digg.com
GoodReads: www.goodreads.com
Blogs: various sites
Find Satoshi: www.findsatoshi.com
Heroes: www.nbc.com/Heroes/
Xanga: www.xanga.com
Fickr: http://www.flickr.com/
Cyworld: www.cyworld.com
Last.fm: http://www.last.fm
Deviant Art: http://www.deviantart.com/
Craig’s List: www.craigslist.org

You?

Web 2.0

Internet?

Text Generation Gap

R U 2 OLD? Please click on the link and read this NY Times article before class on Tuesday, March 18.

Wikiality: Colbert on Wikipedia

click here

Greenpoint and New York Stats

Helpful Sites for NYC Stats:

http://gis.nyc.gov/ops/mmr/address.jsp?app=MMR

http://www.nychanis.com/NYU/NYCHANIS/Start.aspx

Cancer rates: http://www.health.state.ny.us/statistics/cancer/registry/vol1n.htm

http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/library/publications/ny_neighborhoods.html

http://furmancenter.nyu.edu/SOC2006.htm

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eresources/databases/4171135.html

Did You Know 2.0?

Welcome!

Welcome to Cyber 110 at Queens College. We're going to use this blog to view videos, pictures, and eventually, post about our cyber communities.