Convergence

Jenkins says that convergence is important because, "None of us can
know everything; each of us knows something; and we can put the pieces together if we pool our
resources and combine our skills" (page 9). I think that this is also important for us to think about. As communication majors, we all know how important collaboration in the classroom is and convergence is essentially just collaboration of mediums. Collaboration and convergence just makes for a bigger audience, which leads to more conversation on the topic.
Creative engagement is an innovative way to increase user activity on media. For example, a way to increase conversation on different media without the incentive of money or contests. Participators are engaging my creating conversation over the different media. They are also engaging because they can share this conversation to many other internet users. Convergence is great for increasing knowledge on a topic or creating a conversation. We are lucky that we can utilize the internet and the media.

How Do We Prevent Sharing Music Illegally?

After our class discussion, I began thinking on how to solve the problem of illegal music sharing. I know that many of my friends are victims of illegal music downloading and sharing. Over the weekend I came up with three ideas on how to possibly solve this problem. Let me know what you think!

1. Sharing should be blocked on websites that currently allow it. It sounds easy, but it is not. For example, websites such as YouTube should block sharing by creating a code or a system where you have to pay to download the song. This would help YouTube and the artist make money and would also create less of a chance of piracy. I know that people would still get around this system, but people are going to find ways around everything.

2. Most people do not want to click more than three times to get what they want; moreover, why not create a system where it is just difficult to download illegally? Make downloading possible only by clicking four or more times, so it defers illegal downloading. If it is hard for someone to do, then they may give up and try to find the song somewhere else that is easier. This would definitely cause people to stop downloading due to frustration.

3. Increase advertisements on why you should buy music versus trying to download illegally. This would cause a guilty conscious in some people and help decrease the amounts of illegal downloads. Some people may think that iTunes or the record label gets a big percentage of the sales, so helping explain why people should buy the music may be a possible solution to the problem.

These are very basic ideas, but starting simple is normally key to solving any problem. I think that if we start by taking these steps, then we an create a dent in the illegal downloading problem.

Privacy

Privacy-Enhanced Personalization by Alfred Kobsa brought up many important issues about privacy on the internet. I think it is important to know what the internet knows about you, but it may also scare you. The internet knows a lot about you whether you want it to or not. It stores a lot of information that you put on websites. Internet users understand that these websites know a lot about them, but it is something that every internet user is aware of when giving information out.

Looking at the three groups of internet users on page 26, I am included in the "privacy unconcerned" group. I am concerned with how much the internet knows about me, but I am not unwilling to provide my information if I want something.  I think it would be interesting to know how much each internet site knows about me, but then again I am not sure if I would really want to know how much they know because they probably have more information than I want them to have. I do not have a problem with releasing information about my basic demographics, hobbies, personal tastes, lifestyle information, or internet behaviors. However, I am less likely to give a site my credit card information and I will only give my social security code if it is something very important and I cannot move on to the next step without giving it. 

One question I have after reading this article is based on the "pseudonymous users and user models" section on page 31; moreover, do you think it is possible to create an anonymous infrastructure that still supports personalization? It would be awesome if this were possible because I do not like giving my e-mail to websites based on the fact that I do not like junk mail. If this were possible it would definitely be something for our generation to take a deeper look at.  

New Media and Technology

http://adage.com/article/digital/snapchat-s-advertiser-messaging-service-tv/295473/

I chose this article because it is interesting that Snapchat can now be used as an advertising medium. I think this is a great idea because if your target market is ages 14-25 then Snapchat would be a suitable medium to reach this market. I recommend reading this article because it introduces the idea of using this social media for advertising. Snapchat was mostly used for sending timed pictures, but now with the update allowing you to post stories it is a great medium for advertising. A few of my other classes have been talking about how social media is now becoming a popular advertising media, so this is just one more article to back up that idea. I am very interested to see where this takes the advertising field. I believe it is a brilliant idea for people wanting to target the younger generations. This is related to internet communication because social media is normally found on the internet or on your mobile device. Without internet Snapchat would not be around. So, next time you open Snapchat, check to see if you see any advertisements on your recent updates.

Networking Laws

            Of the laws we looked at in class on Thursday, I think that Sarnoff’s Law is the most interesting. I agree that the value of a network increases linearly with the amount of people on it. I think that the more people the network has the more valuable it is because there is more to interact with and more people to talk to. If there were only one or two people on a network, then you would obviously not get as much out of it as you would if there were two hundred people on the network.

            In five years from now, I think that people will still get their information from social media and the internet but it will be in a different way. For example, I do not think that Facebook and other social media sites will be as popular as they are today. I think that there will be a more direct way to get notifications about the news and information. Social media will definitely still be around and a medium for news and information but it will be presented differently than it is today.

Bringing this back to Sarnoff’s law, if more people are watching the same TV network, then more people will be talking about the same news and it will make the network more valuable. However, if only a few households are watching a news program then they will not have many people to talk about that news with. If more people are talking about the same news broadcast then the network becomes more valuable because the news being presented is being valued and talked about by more viewers. If more people are talking about it, then they are most likely posting it on social media, which also makes the network more valuable because more people will see it.

Why We Blog Response

After reading Why We Blog, I understand that even though people say they will blog about one topic he or she normally gets off topic and ends up blogging about personal ideas or emotions. I think this is even more relevant now because people are starting to blog more often. Blogging is almost used now as social media. I think it would be hard to blog and not put some personal ideas on the page or vent about your bad or good test score. I know I need to vent to a friend sometimes and if a friend isn't available then social media normally is my outlet, unfortunately. Many people vent on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, but if one does not utilize that media then he or she could likely vent on a blog. However, since most blogs do not have any interactivity most people are not too aware of who their readers are.
Different people are motivated in different ways to write about different things. For example, some people are motivated to blog because it can be used as an community forum, but some people can be motivated to blog by expressing deep emotions. These motivations will cause differences in the topic of the blog. Obviously, a blog that is used as a community forum will be read differently than one written by someone expressing their emotions and will have different readers.
Each blog is different because no two people write the same. Blogs are a more personal medium of writing and can be used in a variety of ways. 

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