Summer Session I

So currently im taking 2 summer classes: Spanish and Music! Both classes are going great and are having fun but just little too fast. Waking up at 5AM, 4 days a week in summer is not so enjoyable but its not bad. Spanish class is kind of hard for me because its a new language and to learn it in 6 weeks is not easy but its not bad. weather is really good, a bit of a humid but its not bad. Can't wait til im done with these classes and enjoy my summer.

End of Spring '10

So, today i officially ended my spring 2010 semester. It is 7:45 AM. I pulled my last all nighter today for this semester. Just finished writing paper for Management class. It feels good to be over but than again, i am not so far away from going back to school. Yeah that's right, SUMMER CLASS. Oh man, June 2nd, which is next Wednesday i start my summer class. I am taking 2 classes, Spanish and Music. I hope that goes well. So i have 1 good week to enjoy it before i bust my A$$ again...lol

By the way, i did really horrible in my Finance Final yesterday. It was really really bad, like i don't think the material we learned in class was on it. The questions were too long, was giving irrelevant information which confuses you like crazy and time consuming. anyways....

I am sleepy because i haven't slept whole night but yeah i don't wanna sleep because if i do than i am sure i won't be able to wake up til around 6-7PM which is bad because than i won't be able to sleep whole night and this cycle will continue so yeah, you got the point. lol

anyways, i just wanted to blog this since i haven't posted from last 2 weeks...

now off to park, run around little bit, come back, take shower, eat, and go outside?... C YA!

Someone's Else Project

I was very impressed by the presentation done by my fellow classmates and the topics they have picked. Three presentation that i personally liked a lot was:

1) "New Media and Teens" by Michael Chai
2) "Impact of New Media on Advertising" by Mobin Tariq
3) "Virtual Worlds" by Nadia Ayusheyeva

In Micheal's presentation, he discussed about how much media is exposed to teens and the causes of the uprising of new media in a teen's life. Teen spends great amount of time online about 8 hours a day by just looking at pictures, listening music, playing games, watching video and so on. About 24% time average teen between 8-18 year old, spend on SN and about 18% playing games. These impacts on their education, because these heavy user spends a great amount of time on SN and related work and does not focus on school work and therefore they do bad in school.

In Mobin's presentation, he discusses about the impact of new media on advertising. He discussed how before advertising was done in print publication such as newspaper, magazine and so on and still being done but because of increased in new media technology, it is more effective to advertise online. One of the reason is because it's inexpensive, increases revenues, you can directly connect to you market/consumer, and of course, global availability

In Nadia's presentation, she talked about the different perspectives of virtual worlds. She first discussed about the use of virtual world in educational field such as computer programing tutorials, colleges can have virtual libraries, they can have meeting spaces for online university courses, and can use for military training.

Than she moved on to discussed how businesses can use virtual world. Businesses can use virtual world for marketing, recruiting, meetings and collaboration, job training, and research and development.

Each presentation done by the students are very helpful. They each provides us unique information about how new media features are used today than in the past.

My Term Project Presentation

It feels great that its finally over, however i did not present the way i had expected and planned i guess because i was suppose to go on Tuesday but i decided to go today instead. Well there is always next time.

So my presentation was about the "Use of Social Networking in the Work Place". First i talked about the social networking in general and then talked about the five different types of social networking services used today, to determine whether or not allowing employees to take part in these social networking activities at work could create problems.

Also i talked about the risks and downfalls related to using SN at workplace such as, bandwidth, liability, malware, and of course productivity. However, for each of these negative one there seems to be positive reason to use it such as for some businesses, the increased audience, web traffic, and overall consumer participation outweighs these concerns. Therefore, as a business owner it is up to you to decide which one is right for you and your business purpose.

Than i talked about the 5 different types of social networking sites that are being used by businesses and gave brief overview of each.

• MySpace: Perhaps considered the pioneer of social networking and this network is one of the largest out there, and its use in business is questionable.
• Facebook: A major competitor of MySpace, this network, once open to students only, tried to target a niche, but soon realized the power was in a larger market. Maybe better suited for business than its MySpace predecessor, one can still question its benefits.
• Twitter: An entirely different style of social networking as compared to the previous two, this social networking website is more of a productivity killer than any, though it has its benefits.
• Linked In: A newer social networking site on the scene, this one has a primarily business focus, and therefore is one of the safer ones to allow. The business focus helps control the audience and downplays the disadvantages of social networking.
• Windows Live Spaces: Microsoft’s attempt to jump in on the social networking, offering a variety of services and features, may or may not be good for business.

After explaining each SN sites mentioned above, i talked about their use in businesses and how can you as a business owner can take advantages of it and decided which one is more beneficial to you.

Later, i explained the pros and cons of using this SN at work place.

Finally, i concluded my presentation by brief summarizing the main point. :)

The Next New Thing!

There should be some kind of technology that lies on its potential to connect the real world with the internet, and overlaying the information on the world itself. What I mean by this is that create a technology that recognizes the objects around you, displaying information automatically and letting you access it in any way you want, in the simplest way. For example, you are at the supermarket, thinking about what brand of soap is better. Or maybe what wine you should get for tonight's dinner. Just look at objects, hold them on your hands, and this newly created technology will show you if it's good or bad, or if it fits your preferences or not. Need to know the time? Draw a circle on your wrist and a watch will appear and so on. For better understand what I mean by this new kind of technology please watch this video and you will be surprised to see what this new technology brings.



Also I read in today’s newspaper that a guy named Norman Scherer created a new App for iPhone which basically tells the train/bus time. He created a App for MTA which provides trivia along bus routes. App users can wait for trains above-ground, because they’ll know exactly when their train is due. This is something that we see on “L” train line, a time that displays on station saying how long you as a passenger have to wait before the trains arrives. We need this kind of new technology because waiting for bus and trains are ridiculous.

Sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUdDhWfpqxg

Privacy & Confidentiality

Each time we surf on the internet, we are dealing with the Privacy & Confidentiality issues. Sometime we may or may not have control of the information flow. However it is very hard to keep privacy and confidentiality in this 21st century media world. Individual may not realize how valuable their information is, or how much is at stake if privacy is lost. Information about individuals is extremely valuable both in the private and public sector because these companies gather your personal data, your interests, to generate profit. One of the way they collect your personal information is from the social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and so on that we use every day and sell it to the marketing companies or advisers and that’s how we see those ads when we surf the social networking sites which is most suitable ads to the target audiences.

Also it is very important what you post, write, upload pictures on your social networking sites because when you apply for the new job, a lot of companies does background check for their future employers and they can access all your information you have on the internet. You might end up losing that job and there is nothing you can do about it because if inappropriate information.

Most social networking sites that we use these days gives you options to control the privacy by going privacy settings but we do not care and just ignore it. It is important not to write personal information such as phone number, SSN, DOB, and address on social networking sites because a hackers, sexual predators, and strangers can easily access your information and can use it in harmful way.

Protecting the personal privacy is not easy and is not likely to get easier. It is something you cannot avoid unless you stop using new media which is impossible because this is a 21st century, a New Media world.


Source:
http://www.nightcruiser.com.au/wa/perth/privacy1.jpg

Advice to Baruch College

There are few suggestions that I would make to Baruch regarding using new media to improve the College. First, Baruch needs a social networking site where all students and professors can interact with each others. Students do not have to create a new account for that; all they need is their Baruch user name and password to log in. Creating social networking sites for Baruch College is great because students can write any problems that they have such as registration, information about clubs, classes’ recommendation, and so on. And other students who have experienced similar problem can give feedback or even professors or advisor can directly answer it. It is also a great place to built network of friends since not everyone is staying in college after class or joins clubs and so on because of work schedule or other problems.

Second, every students and professors should have a twitter account. It is very useful. You can update the tweets regarding anything related to class, such as homework due, exams, read chapters, read additional articles that are related to class, if professor is going to be absent and so on. I know blackboard is there for this things but NOT everyone is checking their blackboard every day. If they had twitter, simply they can just get updates to their cell phones immediately and knows what’s going on.

Third, books are ridiculously expensive. My management book is 216 dollar. When professor said that every student in this class needs to buy a book, everybody was going crazy just because it was too expensive and couldn’t find used one because they updated the version. If they had eBooks, that would be much better than cheaper for students. They afford it and can print it for cheap. It is also easy to carry if its printable chapters, because most professors wants you to bring book to class.

Forth, I personally never had experienced with online class other than 3-4 times this semester in my New Media class. But I think, having online classes is great idea because not everyone can make it college because of their work schedule. If they have online classes, students can register according to their best schedule and experience the new way of learning.

Next, have a virtual library, campus, classroom where incoming students can check and see how college is. It gives students a better idea about the college.

Also, they need some kind of system where they can inform students about the upcoming events. I know Baruch does sent out emails but I sure many if not most students do not even read that email and just delete just like myself and ignore the important information such as job fairs, workshops, events, clubs, and so on.

Finally, Baruch needs to do something about the escalator and elevator. No matter how early you get to college, you will be late for class just because escalator and elevator are not working and the ones that do work are over packed and have to wait more than 10 minutes. I have been tired of waiting for elevators and getting late for class so I just use stairs everyday going all the way up to 12th floor which I get up way faster than that elevator.