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?