Myspace article

http://stcharlesjournal.stltoday.com/articles/2007/11/10/news/sj2tn20071110-1111stc_pokin_1.ii1.txt

Online Communities

The world as we know it has gone digital. Almost everything is now computerized, business, banking and even phone calls. Writing a letter is now archaic, emails and instant messages have taken over. Socializing with friend and meeting new people has gone to the net. Online communities are now the ‘it thing to do.’

Online communities are taking over the world; like a business man would say “there is something for everyone just come on in and take a look.” Both old and young, sometimes too young can be found on these online communities. In order for an online community to be a great success or for it to make money it must be well known and well visited so that businesses and companies would want to buy commercial space on the site. The more money these online communities get the more popular the community becomes. On average a person would visit an online community at least 5 to 10 times a day and online communities are utilizing this and are going in business with cell phone companies’ as well.

The most well know positive online communities are those like eharmony and match.com; these sites are the one that would advertized on Television. These online communities promise intimate connection for their members. Facebook and classmate.com are a few online communities that allow you to connect with your school friends past and present. Hi5, blackplanet and myspace.com are online communities that people used to find business, music contacts and artists or just to make friends. There are those online communities that are linked to television shows like heroes, smallville and gossip girl.

These online communities have caught the eye of many people beside the business and companies. The criminals are one people how have been linked to some of the online communities. Sexually predictors are looking into these online communities and are committing crimes including rape and child pornography. The myspace community has been linked to these kinds of acts the most cause the FBI to crack down on online communities. Another group of people that has come to embrace the online communities are Politian’s. Politian’s have seen a new and faster way to reach a massive amount of people in a short space of time for little to no money. Presidential hopeful Barack Obama used the online community blackplanet.com to give rise to the number of supports he has.

Wikipedia Summery

Wikipedia is the free online encyclopedia. Wikipedia is composed of an endless amount of users who contribute and post there knowledge on a topic of there expertise. Since its development in 2001 it has grown into on of the largest web sites. People from all over the world visit this website which is provides 250 different languages and had over 8,700,00 articles. Anyone who chooses can edit any article or post just about anything. You don’t have to have any kind of qualifications to contribute and can include any information . Information that should be cited with reference but u can include un-referenced information which has a greater chance in being removed.
Articles that are posted aren’t always true and at times don’t get taken off for weeks and in some cases months at a time. When using this site use caution; don’t use this site for your main source. It may not be a completely responsible and reliable source , but people use it all the time and it can be a good stating point for any research. Wikipedia can restrict editing rights of some users but only after repeated vandalism or disputes over what they said. Students often get information from wikipedia when cramming for test and often take that all the information provided is fact. Teachers had often found that a numerous amount of students often provide answers that are completely factual or that has never happened.
Among high school students Wikipedia is a resource that is commonly used and cited. In college many professors do not allow the use of Wikipedia. They say that the site is full of fictional information that students misinterpret for fact. Some college professors recently have been adapting the use of wikipedia in there classrooms. They have been required to make pages on this site and students must cite all resources. Through this they learn how to put together and the proper steps in creating pages for a encyclopedia.
The English Version of wikipedia had an estimated thirty eight million users in the U.S. in December. Some colleges wanted to try and restrict its students from using the site but they realized that it almost impossible. So instead of banning the site completely they have restricted its use in any papers. This has been the trend throughout all colleges across the country.

Colbert on Wikipedia

We'll look at this in class: http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/player.jhtml?ml_video=72347&ml_collection=&ml_gateway=&ml_gateway_id=&ml_comedian=&ml_runtime=&ml_context=show&ml_origin_url=%2Fmotherload%2Findex.jhtml%3Fml_video%3D72347&ml_playlist=&lnk=&is_large=true

(Links are working right now!)

Im Sorry its so late!

The useage of video sites has had many positive effects for people in the world. By utilizing sites such as youtube, break.com and various other sites people can now broadcast themselves to the world and use it to their benefit. People with disabilities can use the internet to show just how truly normal they are. And the saddest thing is that we watch it. Although we dont laugh at them in a malicious way, we still laugh and that means that in some way, they have made their point. This serves as a healthy outlet for all people with conditions that they may get made fun of for. Break.com, although a site predominantly for men is also a great way for people to get themselves noticed. On break people get paid to submit there videos, and they are oftenly videos of people expressing themselves in ways not normal to us.

Break.com pays money for users to submit there videos and that helps to encourage people to submit videos because everyone wants to make some money. The content of the videos is usually things that are gross, or involve partially naked women or people getting hurt, but millions of people still sit at their computers for hours watching these videos (i myself am guilty). People can sit and watch these videos, laugh and send them to friends which only makes break.com's user field grow. People watch these videos to see what other people around the world are doing, and then they try to do something bigger and better. They also show us things that other people normally dont show. For example, they have short clips of a TV show that airs in England, where they play jokes on people. That cant be shown in america due to the harsh censorship rules. The site gives us the ability to see whats going on in the world outside of our backyard.

Although many people would argue against the stand that im taking, people only see things with a certain view. You can judge a book by its cover, and you can judge a phenominon by the age and gender of people. Break.com is a site that is beneficial to all, its viewers, its users and its staff. It helps many people do things they would never imagine doing.

Heroes summary

As more cyber communities are being created, more and more people are being preoccupied by them. Now we are communicating through these online communities that are on a world wide level. Now also the television networks are combing with there internet by setting up websites for there TV shows. The Heroes site is like many of the other websites that let viewers watch full episodes online, play games, participate in the show by watching the show for clues, and then using those clues on the online game. This website is nothing like Facebook or Myspace, where the main purpose is to communicate to friends. On the Heroes website you can converse with those that are fans like you.
Many people believe that these type of websites are not necessary and they ruin the point of watching television shows. They say that the computer takes up all your time and that all people will not communicate with the outside world, because they are to busy on theses types of websites and also no one has that kind of time to waste. Others think that the computer gets more people involved in the show, and in the olden days all people did was watch, but now we can get involved by participating in the games online. I believe that theses website will change we watch television. It is time consuming, but when there is one show you really are onto, you can use the time you would use to watch other programs, on getting involved o the online community.

Soundclick.com article

This was the only one I could find. :-/
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20070923/ai_n20518926

ebay summary

Unlike online communities such as facebook and myspace, ebay is an online community that is not solely for the purpose of communicating with friends, or sharing pictures and videos. Ebay is a way for people to buy products for a cheaper price than they would in a store since most things are sold through an individual. It also presents people with the opportunity to get rid of used items, and even sometimes make a profit. While this website seems like a good, foolproof way to buy and sell things, both the buyer and the seller are subject to fraud, as described in the articles from msnbc.com and smallbuniesscomputing.com.

The article entitled, “Man arrested in huge ebay fraud,” is about one of the biggest frauds that ebay has every experienced. Over 1,000 people sent big sums of money to a laptop company called Liquidation Universe through ebay; however they did not receive their laptops. What made them angrier was the fact that an ebay verification service, SquareTrade, had approved Liquidation Universe and therefore assured the buyers that they weren’t subject for fraud. The company started off with good reviews from it’s buyers for the first few months, and then people started complaining that they weren’t receiving their laptops. Due to this, it’s unclear to the people involved in this case whether this company started in order to scam people, or that business was so poor that they couldn’t send the buyers their laptops. The company ‘stole’ close to one million dollars.

In contrast to the first article, “Victimized! My First eBay Fraud,” is about a seller who doesn’t receive her money. What’s ironic about this article is that the author, Beth Cox, had written many articles on how to avoid online fraud, warning people to be careful when they make online transactions. She was informed by paypal that the buyer had a fraudulent account, and since she was not covered by paypal’s seller protection policy, she couldn’t get her money back. Unlike the first article, this scam was preventable, but the seller wasn’t careful. The email address of the buyer was not confirmed by paypal, but sellers are reluctant to ask customers to be confirmed by paypal in fear that they will lose business this way. As a result, Beth Cox lost $15. While this isn’t a lot of money, no matter how much money is lost, it’s still upsetting, whether it’s a buyer or seller.

Wikipedia article

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/technology/05wikipedia.html?n=Top/News/Business/Companies/Wikipedia


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/education/21wikipedia.html?n=Top/News/Business/Companies/Wikipedia

The Outsourced Brain

Here's a link to the article we read in class today: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/opinion/26brooks.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

heroes website

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/virtual_community

Urbis class summary

The internet has made valuable connections since its birth many years ago. Of those connections, the most important are of the people at a worldwide level. These connections wouldn’t be as entertaining if it isn’t for the recent explosion of social networking sites. Many beckoned me into joining through popularity. We have heard of MySpace, Facebook, and Youtube, all luring us in. Yet, there was one social networking site that caught me hook, line and sinker!
Urbis.com is a site dedicated to those all around the world who are in love with reading and writing. Whereas most sites are focused on staying in communication with friends only, Urbis.com revolves around friends critiquing and giving advice to one another. With that being said, most users should have an idea of what they want from the site. Users may want a publisher’s attention or simply post their hobby for others to read. As discussed in the class, there are many advantages to using the site. First, there’s a freedom to write whatever you wish never being confined to a notebook. Secondly, scouts search for new talent in the site eager for fresh ideas and new styles of writing. Thirdly, some book groups held in the “real world” limit the number of people who can hear your work as well as only hearing a specific genre. On Urbis genres are continually added, you’re not limited to one, and users who are willing to hear you are in the thousands! Finally, the aforementioned writing groups are where Urbis draws its inspiration; Urbis is its’ future representation. In the more accessible, more digital times we live in it seems every activity has its own url.
I found the site as a very useful way to get wide variety opinions from different ages, backgrounds and areas all around the United States. I am thrilled at the class’s overall reaction; most agreed it was a very useful tool. It could be accessed as a way to perfect one’s homework assignment, an idea I couldn’t come to realize. In addition, the credit system encourages reviewers to leave in depth comments about the works you’ve written no matter their background. However, an issue over copyrights surface, anyone could copy your hard written work and you wouldn’t know. Urbis protects users from copying other users, but it could only do so much when it is out in the open on the web. Surprisingly, unlike many other social networking sites Urbis has zero advertising. This is something that most internet savvy users find very welcoming. It has also been brought to my attention in class that it is very hard to figure out how Urbis receives it’s funding. Perhaps, there is a site devoting itself to make the audience happy, with no corporate puppeteers behind the stage.

EBAY

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3078461/
and
http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/emarketing/article.php/3079321
dont worry, they're not long!

amanda's article posts

http://mashable.com/2006/11/26/breakcom-to-pay-400-per-video/

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/04-11-2007/0004563231&EDATE=

she has a problem with her blogger but she is lucky she has friends......named wally.....who is cool.......ok i finished now :)

Article Links

http://www.harlemlive.org/community/peeps/owasow/wasow.html

and

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/10/23/on_specialized_websites_candidates_home_in/

here are the links to the Urbis articles

http://www.solutionwatch.com/535/urbis-judging-the-books-without-covers/

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/262404/an_urbis_primer_notes_on_a_superior.html

Facebook Analysis

Facebook, an online social networking community has indeed developed over the past few years. Designed for the likings of college students, Facebook has now opened itself up to any and everyone. The once private and restricted site has built itself up to be one of the nine top websites being browsed on the internet. The issue that my article focuses on is the idea that you’re information isn’t at all kept safe in the walls of Facebook. The article gives an example of how a few college students at Washington University was hosting a party, with underage drinking and due to the news of the party spreading through the wires connected from pc to pc, the campus offices were able to catch on and bust the party in action. The twist to the story is the same set of students, as a test decided to send out, through of course Facebook, another party referred as the beer party on campus. This was to prove their theory that their private information and conversations were being monitored by campus officials.

Facebook has other issues besides invasion of privacy; online predators are able to access personal information on the site of young adults and can result in “cyber stalking”. According to the article, it has raised much attention that Facebook, like many other social networking sites, has conflict with privacy. These sites display information that is filled out by a member in the process of joining the online community. Although it may seem that the information is kept safe and is only being viewed by close friends and family to the newcomer, the reality of it is that personal information about the individual has now been registered in the system for pretty much everyone to have access too. However, the many privacy issues have been brought to many users attention, the site still remains to be one of the top and hottest sites on the internet since MySpace and Friendster. Even so, there are other concerns for the parents of the young members of Facebook and the community as a whole. Facebook has taken away time youngsters used to use as “hang out” time. It has made face to face interaction almost extinct. Now that these online resources have taken over the internet with new and exiting ways to entertain you, who needs to meet up and see a movie? Who needs the telephone? When you have direct connection to many in a click of a mouse?

Facebook may have its many downfalls, but it is still one of the most popular sites out right now on the web. It is the web 2.0 version of MySpace. Instead of formulating your own applications like MySpace allows, Facebook has already made applications that you can add to your profile as a way of expressing yourself. The site allows for old friends and distant family to keep in touch and also allows for individuality. It is a site that brings people together through common interest and allows for social activity beyond meeting up for brunch. These sites have changed the face of the new generations. We are the technology age.

Facebook

My article strongly emphasized on how Facebook consumes to much time from teenagers. I agree because majority of teenagers are users of Facebook. Like myself, I do spend a lot of time on Facebook and other social networks and it lacks my ability to get duties, errands and even school work done regularly. Why is Facebook so much time - consuming towards adolescents? There are also other problems such as security and privacy issues that need to be regulated. However, Facebook is in the process of protecting it's users from pedophile and spam messages. Facebook is the new uprising social networking system. Myspace and Facebook have some similarities and differences among them. The two websites are implied to one another all the time. You sometimes hear, "Myspace V.S. Facebook." Both social networking sites are desired to help users communicate through the Internet. However, Facebook has different features and more exciting applications than Myspace. For example, Facebook most exciting feature is the famous, "Wall." The Wall is impressive because you post comments so, everyone can see and even draw on it. Myspace and the other hand has comments posted similar to the Wall on Facebook, but no creative design. Also, Facebook has it's own language, passageways and handshakes. You can "poke" a friend something like a wink or wave. You can also assign specialized subgroups who share same hobbies, virtual zombies, and other impressive applications. Facebook also allows you to send people drinks, flowers and other amazing stuff. Myspace doesn't have all these features, but you can have a layout for your page which Facebook does not have. Since, the version of Web 2.0. everything is set up for you all you have to do is upload. Invasion of privacy is an issue by many users because their information is out in the open to practically everyone. As a male perspective I have nothing to hide because I don't expect any stalkers. I'm not scared or terrified of others knowing my information because I don't believe anyone would try to harm me in any way possible. On the contrast, females perspectives are completely different. They inform privacy issues to Facebook because of pedophiles and other reasons of being harm. Females are more aware and conscious that they are being watched or monitored. Finally, I always thought these social networking sites as Myspace, Friendster, and Facebook had no issues and meant to make all people satisfied. Nevertheless, Facebook has some bad encounters and propose many problems to others.

Facebook Reflections

The question my articles asked was ‘Is Facebook really safe?’; ‘safe’, being from sexual predators. Well, Cuomo is making sure that Facebook is up to speed on of its safety features and that it follows the necessary regulations (in regards to having minors on their site), since his ‘experiment’ yielded not-so-good results. Cuomo’s assistant in this ruse – Eric Corngold - created phony profiles (one shown to be a thirteen-year-old girl. “Within days of posting the profiles,” they reported, “we received sexually suggestive messages and comments”. Turns out that Facebook takes as long to reply to dire complaints, as it does the fairly minor/rudimentary ones. Corngold said Facebook took a few weeks to respond to complaints. But then, there are 47 million people on Facebook; most of which sign on up to twenty times a day. Then again, I’m sure the new steps Facebook and their competitors are being forced to make to resolve the harassment issues, should clear up the confusion. Fortunately, the class seemed less than frantic from the results these (and so many others in the last few months) articles gave us. That response is very different from the reaction MySpace (with some of the same issues) received. Maybe that has something with us feeling safer because of the limitations Facebook’s already instilled within its site. The restrictions that make it seem like they’re not invading or privacy at all - the ones that specify exactly who can become members and the fact that existing members can place restrictions on whom can see their profiles (in part or in its entirety).

But the class didn’t seem to have any major problems with any of the privacy invasions we might suffer. I don’t see this surveillance as serious or severe as the ‘Big Brother’ surveillance. We take precautions, but they are not as severe as some we might take with another, more open site. An example would be the access different organizations have to Facebook (for networking purposes). When applying, I would change my profile picture and some details (my status), when applying for a job. You could also change the names that are shown on your profile page (make it seem more professional).

But then, it's not like Facebook spies on its user and sells all of our personal information. They only take what we provide, after all (unlike Friendster and MySpace). Sure, they sell some of it (names, ages, etc.) and yes they have plenty of incentive, but members volunteer any other shared information. As explained in the YouTube video we viewed in class, everything is spelled out in the Terms & Conditions. The confidential medical, educational and credit card information is taken only when voluntarily given. There are certain applications – like Pulse – that have the sole purpose of questioning and polling students, then sending that information out to third party corporations who use said info to sell us their products. For some reason, this method seemed a lot less underhanded than ones used by many of Facebook’s competitors. Facebook is a bit more upfront about invading our privacy; not to mention they do it slower. Perhaps that’s why we don’t mind so much. They take steps that violate our security rights, but listen when we object to them (modifying things like the News Feeds accordingly). They’re not being sneaky or dishonest about their gathering of information. Why should we hide it from them?

My myspace article

ok so it takes about 2 minutes to find but here are the steps

1.log into academic search premier
2.type in myspace
3.go to page 3 and click on the 26th article by Kirkpatrick, David entitled "Myspace Strikes Back"

4. and if you scroll down you will see the article

enjoy
:)

Facebook isn't Safe?

My articles for Facebook: Facebook Agrees to Tougher Safeguards
and Investigating Facebook's Safety Rules

Facebook's Recent News

Didn't take long... Microsoft purchased a huge stake Facebook yesterday!

Facebook Stalker...Is this a joke or something to be worried about?

And now a Facebook Conspiracy!

My take on Myspace!

Many teenagers and young adults use the site myspace.com daily to chat with their friends. They can do many things that help keep them connected in their different social circles such as see what old friends now look like, message and comment friends, and share pictures. Also myspace helps you discover new music that you may like and lets you know when your favorite bands are playing in your area. It is a popular persons dream and it may be a shy persons nightmare. In high school many people are seemed as cool or less cool depending on how many friends they have on myspace. This contributes to problems of self-esteem as an adolescent. But people move on and get over it. However, in a desperate attempt to become popular they might befriend pedophiles and who knows what may happen then. Although, many teens do not see that as a big threat.

They also don’t really see privacy as a threat. Many teens believe that if they put their myspace profiles on private no one else except for Tom and their friends can see it. However, this is completely untrue. Many hackers can and will hack into “private” myspaces without the user knowing. Other privacy issues surrounding myspace have to deal with pictures and personal information put up. When you put upload your photo onto myspace you give up the rights to your pictures and then they own it. Any information that you submit on myspace is sent into archives and they are there forever. This might endanger a future job.

Privacy and self esteem issues aside myspace is not that “place for friends” most people would imagine due to their advertising. It is a ploy for advertising corporations to force feed teens junk. It is another way for greedy and money hungry corporate sponsors to get their claws into the youth of America. They disguise their true motives on making the youth feel like they can express themselves via the Internet. When in reality I feel like they are just trying to help our generation stay the most consumerized generation yet. They just want you to keep consuming, they don’t really care about your self-expression. It’s not really the most convient way to talk to your friends, but rather a way to make you a media consumed monster.

MySpace.com – Discussion Response

My chosen article was on pedophilia via MySpace.com. However, many other topics were touched that dealt with the website during class discussion.

The response that many people in the class spoke out about regarding my article was that it instilled an unnecessary underlying fear into the public. A fear that told them their young children were apt to become victims of perverted adults seeking out children through this online community. Some students in the class believed that using MySpace does not increase one’s chances of falling victim to online predators, nor will it increase the overall frequency of occurrences concerning pedophilia within the nation. It was also mentioned that MySpace isn’t the only way for a pedophile to reach children, but instead has just become another option.

I think that young girls are prone to making mistakes and do not have an awareness of when to be socially cautious with personal information. With age comes an unconscious tendency to know what information is safe to discuss and what can be potentially exploited. Given access to MySpace, young girls are allowed a way to give their online information in a way that is “fun” by means of a decorative profile for their friends. Potentially, this profile information can be used by an online predator. However, this is not to say that it will increase the childrens chances of becoming a victim; pedophiles can drive down any street and pick up children whether they have a MySpace profile or not.

The class also expressed mixed responses to whether or not MySpace offered acceptable privacy for its users. Some classmates made remarks that changes had been made to offer sufficient privacy choices for site users that would enable more control of who would be able to view his/her profile, photos, and blog. Others said that they didn’t feel the need to make their profiles private because they didn’t have a fear of using MySpace. My opinion falls with the latter; when I’m using MySpace I don’t feel fear that my life is in danger of being intruded upon.

At the beginning of class everyone seemed to have a positive opinion of MySpace. Towards the end of class we were asked if this discussion changed anyones view of MySpace; the majority of people responded that no it did not. However, when we were told to write for a few mintutes in conclusion to the topics, I took note that every response read aloud had a negative undertone towards MySpace.

MySpace

Created from the idea of Friendster, Chris DeWolfe joint this type of social networking and a more personal look and created MySpace. MySpace allows its users to communicate with other people in varies way, either through personal messages, comments that displays in their profile page, comments trough their photos, journals, or blogs. The personal profile also displays music, groups, photos, personal information, videos, ads, etc. Trough MySpace, users have the power to express themselves, interact with friends, and consume popular culture. Each month, MySpace displays more pages than any other website. It has surpassed the very popular website, Yahoo, making MySpace the number one most visited website in America.

MySpace allows users to comment on each others profile. On the profile, there is a comment section, where the users may leave comments for all users to see. If the user chooses to, they able to delete the comment and/or approve of them before anyone else sees them. MySpace also supports uploading images. The user is allowed to upload more then twelve main images but is allowed to pick one as their "default picture" that shows up on their profile page, search page, or whenever another user comes in contact with it. The user is also allowed to customize their MySpace in however way they like using HTML. They could change the color of the font, background, size, etc. There are HTML codes that give users an option add music, hide their comments, friends, picture, etc. as well. Along with all these options, MySpace users could have up to as many friends as they desire giving them a top 8 to pick their top friends to display on their profile.

Main concerns that MySpace users have is privacy, security and safety. The minimum age to register for an account in MySpace is 14. Profiles set to age 14 or 15 are automatically private. Users ages 16 and older have to option now to set their profile private if they wish. Having your profile privates means only the user's friends have full access to their profile. Recently, numerous news reports have been focusing on MySpace. Parents have been concerned that their children are not safe due to online predators. New reports state that teenagers have found ways around the restrictions set by MySpace and feel that children are being too exposed. Now, to secure the safety, security, and privacy of children, MySpace has set more restrictions to children under the age of 16. User's ages over 18 are unable to come in contact with users under 16 unless they know their full name or email address.

"People are truly invested in this site and it has become so entrenched in so many lives", says Chris DeWolfe. Users spent months building their profiles. He believes that if he keeps building the features users want, they will stay on the site.

Facebook! =D

Hey guys...here are the articles... good luck =)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/08/education/edlife/facebooks.html
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1463

hey lookkk heres my article A Dad's Encounter with The Vortex of Facebook - TIME

MySpace Video (part I)

MySpace Video (an experiment)

YOUTUBE.com Summary!!!

Youtube is one of the most successful companies ever made. This website, which started going on live in Spring 2005, was sold to Google in 2007 for $1.65 Billion to Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, two of the three co-founders of Youtube. Through their website, anyone from around the world can post videos of shows, movies, themselves, and many more types of video clips onto the website. Therefore, by uploading the video anyone can then see it without needing to download it onto the hard drive. This website quickly got out into the public as more and more people started to upload crazy videos.

What made this website so successful was due to many factors. Youtube has absolutely no pornography; if there is any it is usually removed quickly. But, what made more and more people want to visit this website is that there were no commercial or advertisements. If Steve and Chad were to make easy money by allowing companies to ad on their website, Youtube wouldn’t have been as successful as it is today. Along with no pornography and advertisements, Youtube is easy to use so that even kids and the elderly can upload videos or watch videos within their homes. Plus, you can type the most “stupidest and silliest” things ever and there’ll probably be a video for it on Youtube. Youtube is part of “life” for this internet based generation because often when something happens and it is captured on tape someone might say, “That’s gonna be on Youtube” or “Youtube it so I can see it again!”

Youtube has helped political affairs as well. Because of Youtube is the number one view streaming website in the world, politics have taken that advantage to use it to benefit themselves. They often advertise about themselves to promote their campaign. Some even use this tool to degrade the other candidates anonymously. Youtube became such a success because of young adults that would always be on it to view or upload their videos. Knowing this, political officials used Youtube to draw young people to vote for them. Youtube has even hosted online political debates that at a click of a button anyone can watch.

Youtube has also changed the laws of copyright. There have been a great number of cases of lawsuits against Youtube for stealing video clips from companies. Because Youtube allows anyone to post any type of videos, users will often post video clips from shows that they like. Thus, causing a major problem for Youtube. Video clips that are posted onto the website without the consent of the company who owns it are considered illegal due to copyright laws. Youtube then tries settles the lawsuit by agreeing that they will remove the video if and only if the owner asks them to. This act diminishes the whole idea of having something copyrighted because they are stealing something from another company and using it to benefit themselves.

YouTube.com - Amazing

Youtube.com has indeed become one of the latest and most powerful internet phenomenons. Its basic function was to just create a community by a sharing of video clips. However, after reaching its ridiculous popularity, YouTube is a great factor of influence among its common users. From entertainment, to politics, to even issues of copyright, this website has become a way to widely reach out to the public.

Youtube.com has become a new form and alteration of entertainment. Perhaps it could be due to its amazing variety of video categories. The most unexpected types of creativity can be shared as a short video, knowing it can easily be reached worldwide. Two creative teenagers create a funny video. It is posted on youtube.com, within months it reaches the millions of views. Smosh, as this duo is called, has won the youtube humor award, and had their life changed since. These two kids then appear in TV, radio shows, create their own clothing line, create their own website, and their videos are highly anticipated by their fans. They are known as youtube celebrities; a new form of entertainment. This is just an example of the wisely used power of the site. Some other forms of entertainment that can be widely exposed through youtube are: musical acts, mini-series, current events, point of views, comedy, the expressing of talent, or just plain pleasant time killers.
Among the views or opinions that can be expressed through this site, there are those of political views. Even though, politics matters are not among the big interests of the youth (for the majority of youtube users are commonly young), youtube is nevertheless a good way to try to reach to the young audience. As opposed to TV, commercials and news articles, political views can be personalized, meaning not being sponsored by a political party, but by the individual instead. This then is shared world wide. This is how eventually, a collectivity and variety of thoughts are posted. Users are then exposed to these views as they surf through the site. Hence, YouTube.com becomes a easier way for the youth's attention to be caught with more understandable and more demonstrative political views exposed, than say a political debate aired on CNN, which is not likely for a teenager to be searching on TV programming. A college English 110 class with sixteen students, where youtube videos were being searched and showed, around four to five of these students had learned something new about the current politic matter, which in this particular case was the unawareness of Hilary Clinton voting for the current war. They learned this through a very humorous, yet simple video, a video that can be easily watched by the thousands. This is an example of how YouTube.com can reach its audiense even on poorly interested topics, but yet making an impacact.
With great powers, great responsibilities also arise; or more problems? This YouTube.com was caught in the middle of controversial copyright issues. Copyright, or ownership of specifics works or ideas, has been greatly argued after the rise the website. Since these videos are do easily shared world wide, the claim of "ownership" of them is question and debated by many people. Should every user claim copyright to their posted videos? Can copyrighted works be posted on youtube? As the result to these dilemmas, YouTube had to face the removal of certain videos upon requests. For example, a clip of singer and performer Beyonce Knowles falling in a stage had been called upon a copyrighted work of Sony Entertainment, who had immediately asked for the removal of the video off the site. With similar events, YouTube had even faced law sues on this matter. The site and this controversy has helped the idea of copyright to come closer to the public.

YouTube.com has indeed proven to be one of the most successful current websites. YouTube is not only successful but also powerful. With the strong community and connections formed though the sharing of videos, the site can be said to be nothing, but amazing.

You Tube

When Steve Chen and Chad Hurley founded YouTube there focus was on building a community of users by creating a library of short videos. When this site became a phenomenon in 2006, advertisers were rushing to get in on the success which eventually led to the selling . Although still unproven, Google was willing to spend $1.65 billion making these some of the richest 21 year olds to say the least. With its availability worldwide YouTube has changed the face of many industries, politics, the way advertising is being used, and our plain old everyday life. "YouTube is to video browsing what a Wal-Mart Supercenter is to shopping."

There are of course many controversies involved with the site. Copyright is probably its main problem, and is why it was a huge risk on Google's part to pay that much money for an unproven site constantly on the verge of being crushed by lawsuits from content creators. But of course with big risk comes big reward, and whats $1.65 billion anyways? Google though has one law on there side being that its only required to remove videos when copyright holders complain. They are though initiating agreements with media companies to legally show clips from their shows.

Forgetting about some of these problems for a second, advertising has reached this sort of revolution along with this YouTube boom. Anything from discovering a new garage band watching them extend their fan base with weekly/daily clips, to even lending opportunities to politicians to sell whatever it is their selling. People are logging on to watch and judge these clips, given the access to many different angles of a product that used to have few (visible ones). Politicians whether officially or through a middle man are taking advantage of this opportunity by attracting the i-don't-care-about-politics person, with some entertainment promoting themselves while bashing their counterpart. This person could very well be dragged into voting without any insights other than his YouTube experience of which video made him laugh harder. Whats so great about the site though is anyone with a camera and computer can create an act of their own views and scripts supplying the public with whatever it is they want. Of course thats not always a good thing!

Myspace article

SORRY GUYS ITS LATE!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/business/yourmoney/23myspace.html

MySpace in the News

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12242009/

myspace article

http://web.ebscohost.com.central.ezproxy.cuny.edu:2048/ehost/detail?vid=13&hid=115&sid=448f70f9-a289-4208-8d7f-405535e3b6c5%40sessionmgr102

YouTube article

This is the link to the article
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/5020364.stm
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1216501,00.html

YouTube

Tomorrow we'll be discussing YouTube. Click on the link for more exploring.

Benny's Article

Hi class,

Benny mistakenly posted his article on his own blog, so here's a link to his site:

http://baminoff.blogspot.com/2007/10/you-tube.html

Youtube info for the class =/

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1570795-1,00.html

click on the link above to read about the info. sorry that it's 9 pages. I couldn't find anything over 4 pages except this.

Essay #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”—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.)

The Machine is Us/ing Us

New Internet

Presentations

Here's the Schedule (an email was also sent to you):

Thurs., Oct. 18: YouTube: Benny, Andrea, Sam

Tues., Oct. 23: MySpace: Emily, Sarah, Shanique

Thurs., Oct. 25: Facebook: Kelly, Andrew, Lauren

Tues., Oct. 30: Urbis: Wally; Break: Amanda; Hi5: Madonna

Thurs., Nov. 1: Heroes: Elizabeth; eBay: Allison

Tues., Nov. 6: Wikipedia: George; Talaya?

Thurs., Nov. 8: Class cancelled

Tues., Nov. 13: Peer Review for paper #2

Thurs., Nov. 15: Final draft of paper #2 due; Unit 3 begins

Assignment #1

Before Tuesday, October 16 choose a digital community you would like to participate in and research. You can either choose a community from the list I posted, or find your own. Please email me your top three preferences by noon before our next class. I will attempt to accommodate your first choice, but since more than three students can't research one community, this may not be possible. The sooner you're able to email me your choices, the more likely your first choice will be available.

Also, please read this article about You. for our next class.

Introducing the book (repost)

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: 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

Neighborhood Corner

Did You Know 2.0

Did You Know II

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.