Creativity and New Media

There is a deep connection between creativity and new media. The modern art is basically defined as an art which is created digitally. It is always interesting to use various application which are there in the web provided for the users to play with it. The trend of creating avatar is going viral. similarly, for this blog, I have created  few of my avatar using different applications.

First, I started to create just an image of myself using avachara application. It helps me create my own image by selecting many features. In the beginning, I choose my facial structure then I choose the skin color along with the eyes, hair, nose, ears, brows, and mouth. Then there was an option for the items. Since I wear glasses, I really liked the features of items which have an option of getting a pair of glasses for my avatar. Finally, I choose the outfit for my avatar and I really liked building my own avatar.

After I created these avatars, I felt like doing something more. Then I found another website where I can make a comic of my own avatar. Here, I created an avatar of me and my girlfriend. I tried to bring some of the moment of us which usually we do. When it comes for cooking, I feel lazy sometimes. So even I say that I would cook, I somehow end up ordering take-outs. That is what, I have created myself in this another application. However, for this one, I have created myself without the glasses where I thought I would be using the contact. 

I think new media helps a lot for being creative. It is convenient and easy to use these application and create something productive and interesting at the same time. I would never be able to create something like these without the help of the new media. I think this is making me creative and allowing me to create and explore more.

Creativity

Our conscious and sub-conscious part of our brain plays a major role in creativity and creativity comes from genius. It is also said that everyone of us is genius in a way. Only it matters when is your creativity is become useful to others. according to the reading, Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers" states that "Technology companies have been the most active in relying on others to innovate for them. This is in large part because the Internet lets people exchange ideas easily and rapidly with large groups, and computing tools let people design new products cheaply." It means that the internet is the major platform of creativity.

As we all know without Internet, New Media is not much of possible to be in the society. New Media helps us, the society, a community, a world to be one and communicate about the ideas and thoughts. Moreover, A thought can be changed into idea and the idea can be changed into innovation or creativity by nourishment and guidance of the similar creative conscious and sub-conscious mind which indeed was possible because of the New Media. However, these are the ideas that are approached by the investors and companies to create a product.

I think using new media technology can really help people to become genius and creativity because it don't only teach you new things but also teaches you to become creative and share your thoughts and ideas which can change people's life or make a small difference.

Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

^{The first thing when we think about virtual world is that it is not real. There is even some belief that living in a virtual world is not living real. However,  with the advance in technologies, more users are being influence with the virtual world applications in different ways. One can always come up with some critical analysis but with the motions and touch sensations, it definitely sounds interesting and prevailing. By, general definition, A virtual world is a simulated environment which is computer based , populated by many users who can create their personal avatar. The user can participate and communicate independently being involve in certain activities. There are many tools that are easily available in the market to use the virtual world few to mention: whyville, minecraft, sim city, quest, etc. Each of these applications has their own reasons and features to implement the virtual world.}

^{Now, virtual worlds simulation have been used widely for educational purposes, training, skill developing and many more. According to the article, Lisa Dawley, " Situated Learning in Virtual Worlds and Immersive Simulations," NASA uses NASA's Moonbase Alpha simulations to achieve the specific educational purposes and goals where players/ trainees are situated in a hypothetical lunar outpost as a crew member and had to participate in some realistic mission challenges. It creates such an environment according to the standards which definitely teaching them to feel the real time experiences as well as helping the players to develop more techniques and skills. The disadvantages of this is that the purpose is solely educational  but it might turn down the motivation or creativity of engagement and would be just having just fun.} 

^{Business people are always there with limiting their budget and thinking about new innovations to conduct their daily necessary activities. Virtual community Second Life have created some tools so that the business organization can conduct meetings in virtual world using their own computer network which will be cost efficient. According to Linden Lab, creators of Second Life, more than 1400 organizations including large companies, educational institutions, government agencies and even the U.S. military use the Second Life to hold meetings, conduct training and prototype new technologies more efficiently." Moreover, U.S government are using virtual world tools innovated by Stephen Hawking's and his team for the combat training which is helping the military to practice and experience the real time scenario which would definitely develop their skills of performance. In contrast, Prof. Surinder Kahai,University School of Management, New York stated that "I've seen people mess up completely because they think that what works in face-to-face environment also works in a virtual environment."(Mark Tutton, CNN)  Here, he is talking about the engagement or creativity of the participant who might take it as a fun base and decrease of the purpose that it has been created.}

^{In my opinion, There are always advantages and disadvantages on every aspect of things. But saying this might not stop us experiencing it. I would definitely use it and more interested of using it. Learning this motivates me to use the virtual reality gadgets which are available in the market called Samsung gear. Virtual world would be a game changer in the future.Technologies have been grown so much in past years and there is not a sign of limit for it. Like many organization and even the U.S military have been using it for many purposes and it would definitely helping them to achieve the purposes.} 

Blog About Twitter

Human beings are all different to each other and everyone of us have our own beliefs and perspectives. whenever we talk about something we may or may not have similar belief of perspective on the certain topics. That is why, we discuss presenting out views on our belief and perspectives and in most extend we learn new things. Discussion helps us to improve our beliefs and perspectives. Social networking sites and educational channels  help us do the same in our lives. Either discussing in person or using the virtual word,  we present our ideas and listen to others too. A good discussing is that when everyone puts in their ideas and come to some conclusion that both or more parties agrees. 

As of student, we have many ways to be in part of discussion such as in-class discussion, blackboard discussion and using the social networking sites. Twitter is one of the good examples of social networking sites to have a discussion because it has some incorporated features for the students and the professors for educational purposes. Most student don't use much of the blackboard discussion only if it is course related. Unlike other normal citizen, everyone love to be in social media sites. However, using social networking sites such as Twitter is one track that can be use for educational or noneducational purposes. Moreover, class periods are limited and everything can't be discuss in one short period. But the same topic is posted in twitter discussion with the Twitter tools apps, students can discuss about the unfinished topic off campus with the fellow students as well as professor. For example, lets say someone missed the class for some reason and having a class discussion on Twitter would help let the absent student to be part of a discussion that he/she would have missed. 

In my opinion, blackboard discussion is done only if you are in school or college and most of the time it is used only if it is course related. In class discussion is the most important factor of being a student where we can present our ideas and beliefs in front of others. However, time is limited. But using Twitter discussion which can be off or to the topic and because of its straight forward features, one can give their beliefs and perspective in simple understanding way. 

Social Networking Sites

I can't deny that social networking sites have been helping us to connect with family, friends and the people around the world. One part of the the internet is that there are social networking sites which made it more interesting than any other. back in the days, I used to use more of the Hi5 which is also one of the social networking sites and it was interesting to have friends and be in touch with them with sending messages and liking their updates. MSN messenger and Yahoochat were the big hit as a social networking and I enjoyed using it then I learned about Skype which was more interesting because of its best picture quality and amazing features. I came to know about Facebook which is viral and everyone started using it because of its popularity and useful contents.

However, I love the social media sites and I am one part of it. These social networking sites are established with the same objective to connect and networking between people. There aren't too many differences between them. Of course, there may be some advantages of using one for a particular reason such as I use Skype to do video chat with my family and friends who are not here. I use Facebook to upload my thoughts as my status and share information that I have liked to let others know. I used LinkedIn for a professional use by uploading my resume for my career.

Now, I just started using Twitter and learning about its useful ways that I could implement in my college profession is amazing and I would be using it not only for the college purpose but also after the graduation. Compared to Facebook, Twitter is very straight forward and has limit of 140 character long. I like Twitter over Facebook is the # tag and @ sign features.

Overall, These social networking sites are all made for one particular reason and that is to be connected with the world because no one has enough time to be everywhere to learn things that would be around. Besides connecting and networking, privacy features in most of them are pretty much similar. These social networking sites helps us, convenient  us and made our life so easy and I love being part of it.

Social Networking

          The good thing of social networking is that it connects you with the people around the world. Human beings are the social animal and we are meant to be socialize. Even there is a saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s about who you know.” Well this explains how much the social networking is important. Now the technologies are growing so rapidly and we, human are trying to fit in with it accordingly. Technology such as social networking plays the vital role in general compare to any other. Social networking websites or applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc. are such viral social networking apps that are not only the humans has but it has also been created for an animals. 

          In India, traffic police created a Facebook page and turned out to be beneficial for the community to maintain law and regulations. As soon as the page has been created, residents started posting photos of fellow citizens who were breaking the law. According to The New York Times, by Heather Timmons, “Using the pictures, the Delhi Traffic Police have issued 665 tickets, using the license plate numbers shown in the photos to track vehicle owners.” The traffic police has never asked for such activities from the residents, it just happened automatically. It is also been said that drivers are being more careful and more cautious, and less numbers of scofflaw drivers.

          Now a days, individuals are so much into social media and it is helping them gathering information. According to Leaving ‘Friendprints’ : How Online Social Networks Are Redefining Privacy and Personal Security, “ It is clear that individuals are increasingly using these sites to keep in touch with friends, find jobs and enhance their careers.” This is one of the useful way of using or being part of the social networking system. However, the article also state,” According to Hoffman, that new friend may just be mining your social circle for information. As networks grow and more friends of friends (and their friends) are accepted by users, it’s unclear who can be trusted.” In other words, it is hard to trust who is your friend and who is the enemy. In a way, social networking has taken away the privacy of the individuals. For example, a group of people gathers together and want to share that information to their friends. But somehow the information went viral because someone might it share it with other group of people. The article, Facebook Privacy is so confusing even the Zuckerberg family photo isn’t private, says “Schweitzer, who is not friends with Zuckerberg and just subscribes to her public posts, apologized.” Now the one who is not even a friend has access to see the information just being his/her friend’s friend in the social media. 

          I think social networking is a good thing depending how precisely individual would use it. Of course there is always two sides of a coin. Social networking may be useful in many ways but also it has some down falls. With a growth of technologies, I think there will be such system that records itself the activities you would do and would be processed and updated in the social networking pages. An individual would not even need to type or share. There would be a built in system in the body that would function according to the feelings and thoughts of an individual.

Blog v Wiki

We live in a society where we share information through many communicable means. Thanks to Internet which helped us, built many communicable associations that has made our life convenient and simple. Blogs and wiki are one of those means that we can’t block of knowing. Both are meant for providing information and sharing knowledge. However, having so much of similarities, there are still many differences, which are actually beneficial where it stands.

Blog is simple and easy to create. Actually, it is like talking to someone presenting or expressing your ideas, thoughts, opinions, etc. on certain topic. A certain person creates a blog and few other people follows it and add comments on such topic. Blogs are collaborative.  According to Michael Wilson, “Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid,” says “A group of people who did not know each other came together and traded information.” In other words, these group of unfamiliar people came together and shared their information to get rid of those drug dealers from their neighborhood. This action happen because of the blog that one created and made them all one to become a strength to go to the authorities to talk on the disturbing things happening in the neighborhood.

Similar to Blog, wiki is also simple and easy to create. It is also one of the way to communicate to people. However, unlike blog which is limitless meaning it is created and can be edited by only one person who has created. Wiki is more of limitless where everyone can get in there and edit it with their own knowledge of understanding. Wiki is also collaborative. According to The New York Times, “Wikipedia to Limit Changes to Articles on People,” it says, “And for seven months beginning in November, The New York Times worked with Wikipedia administrators to suppress information about the kidnapping of David Rhode, a correspondent in Afghanistan, from the article about him.” In other words, like the newspaper, wiki also holds the information and even they have collaborate together for more information so that people who knew more about any case could enter their knowledge and share it to the world.

In my opinion, both blog and wiki are a great thing to get use and share. However, blogs are much of like communicating with ideas, thoughts and opinions on certain topics and it is not much of accuracy compared to wiki because wiki can be edited by enormous people and has link on them which verifies the accuracy and more reliable. Finally, I think every companies or organization should have their wiki because for example “SAP Developer Network” has a wiki and it would be easier to search for the information, different collaborative ideas, etc.