Social Networking

Social networking technology is a relatively new form of new media that can be used to foster an online community among Internet users. In the social context, social networking is used to connect users to their friends, family, and to the world at large. This form of social networking often takes places on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace (before 2010). In the corporate world, social networking can also be used to communicate between colleagues and coworkers, however, corporations often use social networking as an opportunity to market their products and services. In recent years, many saavy retail companies have created accounts on Facebook and Twitter to advertise their brand while simultaneously opening up a channel for customer feedback.
*Although it's not absolutely necessary for companies to have a social networking presence, it seems like the companies that aren't following the trend of being on Facebook/Twitter are missing out on a business opportunity.

Whether we support it or disapprove of it, social networking provides some benefits to society. As I mentioned before, social networking technology enables communication between users and their friends [who might not have been able to communicate using older technology]. According to an article written by Heather Timmons, citizens of Delhi, India have been able to use social networking technology to report traffic violations to the police via Facebook. While the usual benefits of social networking involve social/communication related items, the citizens of Delhi can use social networking technology to report instances of poor and unsafe driving to the traffic police who actually enforce punishments to the wrongdoers. According to the article, "more than 17,000 people had become fans of the page" and "almost 3,000 photographs and dozens of videos." were posted to the Facebook page (Timmons). Although the critics of the concept consider it "Orwellian" to allow citizens to report their peers to the police, the idea of using social networking technology to enforce traffic laws seems like a notable, albeit risky way to alleviate traffic violations in an urban city.

 Although social networking provides tangible benefits to its users, it does have a "dark side" that can hurt users. When used improperly, social networking technology can be used to bully people, mishandle personal information/photos and also reduce face-to-face communication. Among other issues, privacy concerns on social networking sites are often a serious problem, due to the dense language and unclear laws on the relatively new technology. In an odd case, Randi Zuckerberg (sister of Facebook's creator, Mark Zuckerberg) had a family photo re-tweeted by a person who she did not know. Although Zuckerberg did not make the photo publicly viewable, the "[non] universal" privacy settings of Facebook allowed Callie Schweitze, a "not-friend" of Zuckerberg to see the photo and post it to Twitter. Although the issue was later resolved between the two, the photo was eventually re-posted on another website, which defeated the purpose of having privacy settings on Facebook.

In the future, I beleive social networking technology will expand into a more commerically beneficial medium, with less privacy protection laws. Even though we often see the media publish stories about the loose/ambiguous privacy guidelines on our favorite social networking sites, to some extent they are a necessary evil that we must put up with to use the technology. Since many of us are going into the job market, we will have to put up a public profile for recruiters to see, while we continue to update our friends and family about our personal lives. Although I hope providers of social networking technology become more transparent with their privacy policies, the level of public exposure each user enables depends on the material they post about themselves.

Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/technology/02traffic.html?ref=business
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf

Blogs vs. Wikis

Blogs and wikis are both online mediums used to share information to the public or a selected group of people. Although they're used for different purposes, blogs and wikis have been commonly used by Internet users to share facts and ideas with users around the world. While blogs are published by a single user or a small group of users, wikis can be edited by anyone in the world (pending moderation from established editors). Both blogs and wikis can be viewed by anyone with an internet connection, however the difference lies in who can publish or edit content.

The purpose of the content published on blogs and wikis are one of the distinguishing properties of the two new media applications. While blogs are often used to post users' opinions and personal experiences, wikis are often used for collaboration and gathering information from a group of users.  Information Week states that wikis are used in the business world to "centralize all types of corporate data", which is only limited to"anything that can be displayed in a browser". Although blogs and wikis differed by the numbers of users who could contribute to them, wikis are becoming more like blogs in their recent restrictions on contributions to certain pages. According to CNN, Wikipedia "add[ed] a layer of oversight" by forcing "trusted volunteers" to "approve public edits before they're published to English-language stories about living people". The decision to create oversight by not allowing public edits to certain pages made wikis more similar to blogs by restricting editors' ability to post content or revisions.

Convergence in today's networked world is often seen in the level of interconnectedness within different sources of new media. Without convergence, Internet users would have a hard time finding content related to topics or specific ideas that interest them. Because of convergence, various people can communicate on a wide variety of topics, which facilitates user collaborations and expansion of information.

 Blogs can be used for collaboration when multiple users provide feedback in a timely basis.  In Michael Wilson's article "Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid", bloggers in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn collaborated to remove drug dealers from an old building in the area. According to Wilson, their collaboration on the blog led to results when"peering turned to blogging, and blogging turned to action", in the form of complaints to the police department. 

 Although wikis have been used to gather information from large pools of users, wikis haven't been used to generate revenue. Even though some companies profited from wiki technology by providing special types of wiki hosting services, the technology hasn't been used to support commercial products or services. While I personally believe that wikis should not be used for advertising or non-beneficial purposes,  I believe that using wikis to promote products might be a lucrative venture if done properly.

Sources:

http://www.informationweek.com/how-to-use-wikis-for-business/d/d-id/1034971?
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/26/wikipedia.editors/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/nyregion/26bayridge.html?_r=0

Project Description: eBay- A Modern day e-Bazaar

The online auction website eBay was founded in 1995 during the "dot com bubble" period of Internet businesses. Since it's creation, eBay has become a bustling online marketplace which offers a broad variety of products ranging from electronics, clothing and cars. Although it was once a leader in its industry, the introduction of competitors in the e-commerce field such as Amazon, and Etsy have reduced eBay's hold on the market. As eBay's user pool grew, it has shifted away from it's original tightknit community of buyers and sellers to become an online bazaar of a diverse collection of goods. In  my research project, I will take a closer look at the impact eBay has made to the Internet as a growing online bazaar.

I really appreciate any feedback or comments!