WIKI So Far...

My research for the Wiki will revolve around how New Media is used in the Clothing and Entertainment industries. I will focus on how Marketing and Advertising is handled in this new era of Technology. Another that I will look to add to the Wiki page is how Apps can be utilized to help in those two industries. Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) is used extensively in these fields as well. I have been to a number of different entertainment and clothing/sneaker events that have utilized all types of new media to promote their products/businesses.

 

On top of the Marketing/Advertising piece, I have also done research on how new media is used to manage these businesses. Most businesses used traditional software like Microsoft Office, Accounting/Inventory Management software that can be very costly. With the advent of Apps, there are now inexpensive, even free, simple to use versions that can help you manage the basics of your business. You can pay a little more for the Apps and get a better version to handle more complex tasks. I will show how New Media has ushered in simple to use technologies that once required years of training to achieve.

 

I will provide a contents page as well as references for my research.

Privacy

A lot of what new media does is try to find out as much as they can of your personal information to they could make a profit through selling that information to advertisers. That is primarily how companies like Facebook make their money. Privacy and confidentiality is hard to police in this new world or media. How can you trust all of those confidentiality statements you see in most of these websites? They will most likely not sell them off to third parties but what is stopping them from monitoring your traffic patterns on their websites and selling you stuff that meets those patterns. Also, people need to be careful with how much information they are putting out on these social network websites. If you have your phone number, work information, school you are attending, etc., you are basically violating your own privacy because you are putting it our for the world to see. The confidentiality you may have looked for will be gone at that point. It is hard to keep your information safe. On the news recently, there were a number of famous people (even Michelle Obama) who had their finances, S.S. numbers and all types of personal information splattered on their website. This was insane but it seems like it can happen at any point if computers are the primary source of storing this information. This is the wave of the future and it gives us global access. Going back to paper files for everything will most likely never be an option for us again.

You also have to understand that when you post too much information online, you are opening it up for everyone to see. If you are looking for a job, employers/managers like myself will Google your name to see if there is anything crazy out there linked to you or try to see what your real character is by looking at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. -  pictures, comments, statuses, etc. This can come back to bite you in the long run and I will say from experience, I have passed on candidates from what I have seen online. What they say at an interview will sometimes not match up with what I find online and this can cause me to question one’s credibility. Be careful what image you display to the world. It can end things for you before they even start…

Advice

Baruch has done a decent job of utilizing New Media to keep up with the times. A lot of their material is available online. The library has an extensive online catalog of books, articles, journals, etc. This allows students the ability to access resources from anywhere in the world. This gives students more options and accessibility options. You can get most of what you need from anywhere that has Internet access. Professors can also do the same. There are also other new media technologies like Blackboard, Blogs, online registration, tuition payments, etc…It seems like Baruch also has social media pages like Facebook, Twitter, etc…

Considering all of this, I still think they could do more. The first I would do is most likely do, is add more online courses. I don’t think Baruch has enough classes available online. I would make it a larger part of the course offerings at Baruch. The school has a good reputation and I think this would boost up the enrollment at the school.

I enjoyed one of the previous articles we read in the semester where it utilized Twitter in class somewhat similar to this class. Using Social Media in real time would be something the professors could use to their advantage. You find professors getting distracted in class because they are trying to keep their students off of their electronic gadgets. If the professors would find a way to incorporate social media into the lesson, I think there would be some unique ways in which to keep everyone’s attention and applying it immediately into the real world. Things like Online polls, Q&A sessions, inbox conversations, etc…, would definitely keep the things interesting for the new generation. This can also open up other options like blogs and wikis for classroom information or discussions. It would be amazing if some proprietary software could be created (like Facebook) so that communication could happen internally between students, professors, staff, student clubs, etc. This can be used for promoting events, classroom assignments, important messages, etc. These would be a few of my suggestions. Hopefully they will come to life someday. 

Creativity and New Media

I went ahead and created a Avatar in Life. I did not create it to my likeness but maybe what I would like to like a few years. There are so many tools and details at your disposal in Second Life and I can see why people would immerse themselves into this world for hours and hours.

I toured some of the areas and visited a place that was based on creativity. It was interesting because it offered you the options or receiving emails or correspondence from the company. This is a great way to market your company and now I can see what the stories about Second Life were referring to when it talked about doing business virtually. Great idea!

I also visited the Panorama place that you see in the picture above.

 

 

This is what I came across. It was a pretty cool and visually appealing place in Second Life. I can tell this world is most likely never ending. I saw a number of people have a chat with each other and I was invited to a party. There was so much to do in this environment and I enjoyed myself. I do not want to get sucked into this world because I know I will spend way too much time playing this simulation game. In my opinion, this will continue to enjoy success moving forward. Great Job!

Creativity

New media has opened up a myriad of opportunities for the amateur computer or technology gadget user to look like a professional that has studied it for years. The user friendly software packages have put a number of tools in the hands of the common person which has piqued the interest of the masses. This has done wonders for creativity because people are able to create things that were only possible for people who have worked with computers for a long time or who have degrees in some type of technology hardware/software program. I can work my way around most business programs but when it comes to programs like Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc., I don’t have the experience necessary to create anything impressive. I would be the first to say that I am not good at drawing or creating anything on a computer but I do have good ideas. With things like photo apps on an iPhone, I am able to do things with pictures/designs that I never thought possible. There are also computer programs that make it so user friendly that I can just use templates already pre-populated in certain programs that allow me to do something with the ideas in my head.

The ideas don’t always have to come from these large corporations or super-smart program/web developer with their fancy code language and difficult terminologies I have to Google every time I hear one. Innovation can come from the common person and New Media companies pick up on that. In the article “Twitter Serves Up Ideas From It's Followers”, Eric von Hippel (head of innovation and entrepreneurship group at the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T.) realized that the Twitter may have some ideas that the company could benefit from so he allowed them to help create new uses for the technology and it helped them become even more successful. This is smart because and idea can fall right into their lap and they didn’t have to spend millions of dollars in research and development. It is much cheaper going this route and allows them more time to focus on other things that can help them become even more successful. Look at mashups, this is a tough one for large companies because they have to be careful that the mashup doesn’t negatively affect their company if it looks like they are condoning something that may be improper but it could also give them a larger following that they could have never tapped into on their own. Nickelodeon allows their audience to create humorous videos using their characters but Disney would most likely consider this stealing. Again, these companies have to figure out what is considered acceptable use of their trademarked/copyrighted material. There is so much creativity that goes into these things and so much content out there, companies have to pick and choose which battles to fight. If they were to sue everyone, they would probably lose so much money on lawyer fees.

Creativity is tricky. Some could say that using someone else’s creation and putting a spin on it is not really creative but that can be debated. Original ideas are usually respected more than something like this but not everyone can do that. It can become expensive if you need specialized software/hardware or years of schooling. I feel that they are both creative but there definitely has to be a line that should not be crossed. In my opinion, New Media has done wonders in the way of helping foster creativity and the sky is the limit for even the common person with little design experience. Welcome to the future of technology.

Sources used:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/media/24crank.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/technology/internet/26twitter.html