Our Class Wiki - So Far

Well I haven't been able to work on the our class wiki page. However, I am interested on Religion categories and how it is affecting the religion such as Buddhist monks. From the research I came to learn that monk should be allowed to use the cell phones; not only the cell phone but they are not allowed to use any of the technological gadgets which may create negative effects on their mind and excite envy. Also, in the technology categories, I didn't see any updates on the Nokia smartphone. So I would like to add some of the features from Nokia which influence the social media. Other than that I enjoy wiki page more and learn many things that not could be possible.

P2P

File sharing simply means sharing computer data and information through some network. File sharing allows the people to use the same file to read or view it, write it or modify it, copy it or print it. P2P file sharing is the process of sharing files such books, notes, movies, games, etc. in a safe way so that third party will not be able to see or access to the files.It is basically in most of social applications such as Skype, Viber, WhatsApp, Napster, Dropbox, etc. P2P is such an architecture the shared filed will remain only between the sender and recipient. Facebook uses Pipe for the P2P connection where neither Facebook nor Pipe will be able to access on the contest of the file. If the recipient is offline then the file which was sent will be stored for 5 days before being removed from the system. 

As for its safe and secure ability, there are more use of P2P connections. Lending Club and Prosper are two loan companies who uses P2P connections and helping the communities providing lower interest rate loans. According to the reading, in 2012, Lending club facilitated about $800 millions in loan and about $2 billions in 2013. There are many criteria while filing for the loan in the bank. However, Lending Club have less criteria and the process is faster than banks. Lending Club investors put up their money to fund the loans and they are ranked according to the risk and rate of return also depends on the risk.

In conclusion, we all share files in a way with each other. However, we wanted it to be safe and secure. This is really helped by the P2P file sharing connection. Not only it helped in sharing files but also in helping the community. Due to this connections it helped the peers to find the easier way to borrow loans with lower interest rate and mostly, it is helping the small investors to make some profit out of their money.

Privacy & Confidentiality

Privacy and confidentiality is the major concern of every users who are in social media. In terms of being social users tend to share their personal information to their friends and family. There are security features and policy in the social media applications because sharing information have many positive and negative impacts of social media. Especially, concentrating on the negative aspect of social media. Everyone should be aware of the privacy settings and options that are available for the users in order to manage their profile so that it can remain exclusively between friends and the people who the users want to share their information. There are other features as well such as blocking others from views any information on the users page. Learning these features and option could help users to maintain their privacy and confidentiality.

However, Internet plays a vital role for the success of social media. Another thing about the internet is that once it is in the web, it cannot be delete permanently. The information is always there stored somewhere.We all may have notice that the thing that we have searched on google may have been following us as an advertisement. Also, you may see the advertisement on Facebook. Not only on Facebook but you may see it in other web applications too. It is actually keeping you information where companies have a contract of ad exchange. This is a simple example that social media is not really safe place for privacy and confidentiality.

Advice to Baruch College

Every end of the semester, students are asked to fill out the survey for their respected professor which tells the college something about the classes, Likes and Dislikes,  was class exciting and dynamic— or boring? This is a very nice thing to let the professors know what the students think about his/her teaching and class personality. With this survey, professors can uncover what they're doing right, and what they're doing wrong and with this information, they can even make next semester's classes more exciting.

However, I think Baruch College should let students know the result of the survey as well. Most of the students before registering the classes visits the web "ratemyprofessor.com." I also visit it to check about the classes and the professor. I think Baruch College should come up with some social application where they can store these testing and evaluation information so that it can be access to the students as well who are going to take the course in next semester. So, that they can even evaluate better with the referencing the older evaluations done by the students. 

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.}