Cyber110 at Queens College: November 2007

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Myspace article

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

Monday, November 12, 2007

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.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

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.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

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.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Soundclick.com article

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

Saturday, November 3, 2007

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.