Group topic: Go tweet yourself

Title of Book: Go Tweet Yourself: 365 reasons why Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and Other Social Networking Sites Suck by Janelle Randazza

Our group chose this book called, " Go Tweet Yourself: 365 reasons why Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and Other Social Networking Site Suck", by Janelle Randazza. The book basically criticizes each of the social networking site in a humorous way but actually seems to give a realistic reason to why some of these sites are not that great. In between the analytical comments, Janelle Randazza includes a few "facts" about these sites. It is really interesting to know what others might think of this but again, you might be thinking the same exact thing. Currently, I am a member of these social sites such as Facebook and Myspace. But I realize that the jokes and funny judgments the author gives is quite true in a way. Some I disagree with but a lot of it I was able to relate to them or think it to be concordant with facts. Although this book was a very opinionated book, it was without a doubt intriguing. This book is a fun book to just grab and start skimming over because it is just a comical book that criticizes the little things about facebook, twitter, myspace, and other networking sites.

GUEST SPEAKER: ERIK HANBERG

On November 23, 2009, we were introduced to a great guest speaker, Erik Hanberg. All throughout his presentation I was able to remain attentive to his speech because the contents of his preparation for the class was really interesting. In his presentation he was able to cover a lot of important information that answered many questions I had about the "WORKING" part of Living and Working in a Virtual World. In the beginning, he covered the two kinds of work, hourly/salary and scalable, and told us the differences referring it to some examples. Hourly and salary work is the most common source of work in which wages are capped hours, pay is steady, and other people working with the same job would earn similar amounts. On the other hand, scalable work, it is known to be a commission based job, limited amount of jobs, almost no limits, pay can "spike", and the pays would vary wildly among individuals. Moreover, he talked about the "winner take-all", which is basically when a company has the most market share or authority in the particular market such as, Amazon or Google. The two most interesting topics that caught my interest throughout the speech was the "Black Swan" and the message "Little Book of Gold" conveys. The topic about "Black Swan" seemed quite catchy because I didn't realize that the theory of this whole myth is really true. Some people would do so much within the same career but at the same time, a person who is doing the same amount of work or less would become THE most successful person. In addition, the "Little Book of Gold" also states a message that seems so simple yet incredibly difficult in my opinion. Contributing some time and money wouldn't be too hard but the difficult part is the big step one must take in order to make the action. You will never know if the decision one has made would be a hit or not until one really takes the sacrifice and does the ACTION. These messages were really influential because it certainly mentioned the reality of what successful people had to do in order to be acknowledges for their great input and work.

My views on blogging,,,

BLOGGING!!
Honestly, I am not a person that really enjoys blogging or had any interest in blog readings, but throughout this class I have really learned that just writing down my thoughts and opinions on to this blog site seemed to be quite addicting. A few reasons why I think people enjoy blogging:
1.) Blogging reminds of a diary. People are able to freely express their feelings onto a online blog in which people- friends, family, or even people who may share the same interests- would be interested in reading what YOU or I would think.
2.) Blogging helps as a SOCIAL NETWORK. Many people would use other blogging sites for different reasons and have the ability to create relationships with people who might be interested in the same things as oneself.
3.) Blogging is used a RESOURCE to others. Sometimes, I, myself would search online and find people who would help me get the idea of a restaurant, store, famous person, and etc by their opinions or experiences. IT REALLY DOES HELP TO KNOW.
Blogging might be something that people would feel lazy about or just not interested whatsoever, but it sure is interesting once you know the feeling of having one. :)

My scavenger hunt experience

SCAVENGER HUNT. So, last class (Wednesday), we had to accomplish a scavenger hunt with a group of people, using our laptops to find certain keywords and answers to the questions given. Although we did have much time and enough laptops, I was able to learn something from this experience. We used different search engines other than the commonly used "Google". At first, I was getting a little frustrated because we couldn't find the right answers or we went through some complications finding some of these questions. But throughout our hunt for the answers I discovered different methods in finding the various question answers. This opportunity not only opened my eyes to the things I did not realize when I searched for certain things but it definitely taught me new ways in finding searches more quickly and easily. In addition, it was an engaging assignment, meaning I didn't just do the assignment because I had to but because it was fascinating how technology today helps us find whatever our search is whether it is a common or uncommon search. :)

What is convergence?

"What is convergence?"
I went to Google to search the definition of what convergence would mean and I came across a term more specifically pertaining to what is called,"Technological convergence" which means, "the tendency for different technological systems to evolve towards performing similar tasks". But the more broader meaning of convergence is when there is an occurrence of two or more things that come together. Although I do not fully understand the meaning of this term and what it can refer to, I think it means that convergence is when different technology sources like telephony features, video, and other applications would come together, share resources and work together to create a more efficient and useful appliance. Basically, the combination of different technologies working together to create a better resource is impacting and changing the way people are learning and interacting. Because I use technology in my daily life, I am able to experience the meaning of "convergence" and it is quite interesting to know that I adapt to those changes and convergences.

Differences between a Physical document and an Online document

A document is an original or official written representation of information concerning a certain topic. Sometimes this may be about a person, place, idea, or just about anything. Usually it is physical papers or sometimes even shown through electronic devices such as the Internet(computer). There are many advantages and disadvantages of both physical and an online document. A physical document is written clarification defining or declaring anything. Usually the existence of these documents is to state the importance of a certain topic. The advantage of having a physical document is that it is most likely to be real and more professional since it is information that one knows clearly who or what they can refer back to about the information within the document. Whereas, the disadvantage is that sometimes when the document is lost or stolen, the published information would be difficult to get the same exact facts or news. On the other hand, the online document is valuable for that use, being able to work with since the information within a document can be saved and revised quickly and easily when needed to. But the disadvantage for documents found online is that sometimes it may not be published or real existing information. Depending on what kind of information is consisted within a document, it is very important where one can get a hold of the document. Both, physical and online documents are valuable and useful in different ways.

Vanity Search

Vanity Search means to be able to search one's own name on any search engine such as Google, Yahoo, and etc. So,,, I tried to do a "vanity search" on myself on both Google and Yahoo but it was quite difficult to begin with because even though I specifically searched "Jamie Jihyun Lee" with my age, school, gender, and home location, no search was found based on my name. Due to my name being quite common, I think it was harder to find myself on those search engines. Honestly, I think it would be weird to actually type in my name and have myself be the top searches found. But it is quite interesting and amazing what technology can do, because one can find themselves on the Internet if enough information or even little information is out there about a certain person.

Our guest speaker, Mark Briggs,,,

On October 19, 2009, the author of Journalism 2.0 and CEO and co-founder of Serra Media was greatful enough to come to our class and tell us a little about himself as well as what he does within his career. It was quite interesting to hear him speak because he was able to talk about what he does and his views on technology and Journalism. Journalism seems to have changed so much due to the advances in technology. Less people are investing in paper newspaper and more people are signing up for online publications and etc. In addition, it was actually an honor to meet someone like Mark Briggs, who teaches people involved in the media by actually helping them advance Journalism with technology- as he did in California. His presentation was absolutely awesome, he helped me to realize once again how rapidly technology is advancing and changing our lifestyles today.

My experiences using HTML :)

XANGA!! I am sure many people are familiar with this blog site. It is basically a personal "blogspot" where people post pictures and blog entries which in sense is useful for such things like social networking. I started "xanga-ing" at a young age-middle school and with a lot of hesitation I was able to decorate and make changes to my page by using different HTMLs, which stands for- HyperText Markup Language. Using the brackets, I would include letters and signs that would be later visualized on my page as different characteristics like colors, pictures, font, size, background, and etc.The concept of the HTML uses, is interesting because this special language can create things to be how they are or should be on variety of websites. Even till this day I do not really understand how this HTML concept works since it is complicating. Even more since I am a little technologically challenged, I try my best to update my Xanga with HTML codes to inquire what I exactly want on the page. But I could say that this seems to be an incredible creation because it is quick and concise. These codes might seem like nonsense and way too confusing but to know that HTML is basically what makes the Internet webpages exist, it is a fascinating structure!!!

Benefits of online publications

With all the advancing and progressing technology, one of the best idea was to make online publications of the newspaper. Honestly, I never read the newspaper and had no interest in ordering them. But during college it came to me that I should start paying more attention to things that were happening around the world and I. Because of this, I decided to subscribe newspaper to my own home. Soon after, I heard about online publications and how convenient they were. What a waste? Once I started reading the newspaper and other publications online I found it to be so much easier than I thought. Because, people have access to online publications more people have become aware of things that they wouldn't be able to read in the local newspaper. Although, sales have dropped with those that are sent out everything morning, sales on local and worldwide online newspaper publications have risen. Easy, fast, and eye-catching, and convenient the online newspaper publications have become an advanced creation. The inconveniences of having to always flip pages and consume a lot of space when reading, the Internet allows us to look at different articles at once on different tabs with the headlines of the most popular or top news articles on one page. Also, quick news reports get posted up whereas paper newspaper would only report articles from the day before to the moment the papers are being printed and sent out. This advancement has definitely changed my lifestyle because now I am able to access a handful of updated news online instead of limited amount. From local to worldwide, it enhanced my ability of getting hold of so much more information.

E-MAIL

So fast and rapid, technology is growing and improving everyday of our lives. People have become so dependent on technology to the point where they find it hard to function a day without their mobile phones, cars, internet, and etc. There are many advantages to technology, whereas there are the disadvantages. Specifically, e-mail has become a necessity to many people because it has now become a primary source of networking and communication. More than hand-written letters now, many people find it a lot easier and convenient to just send an e-mail in form of a contacting source. E-mail is a quick and instant process compared to having to send tangible mail through postal mail which also takes days to arrive to the receiver. In addition, e-mail is inexpensive and just so simple. A lot of people also worry about the confidentiality and privacy of the tangible mail which makes e-mail a much more safe and protective way to exchange information.
Although there are many benefits and positive attributes of using "e-mail", there are the negatives. Most common complications that people might have to encounter are typos or spelling errors with the e-mail addresses (even by one letter). With postal mail, as long as you have either/or the name and address, it is easier to track it down and resend to the correct name and address. Moreover, there are harmful e-mails, such as spams, that can greatly affect the computer with viruses. Sometimes privacy can be invaded with hackers that try to destroy or misuse an individual's e-mail, which can lead to complicating situations. All in all, e-mail has become a valuable tool to have nowadays since it is the most popular and common way to get around, but it is also important to be aware of unknown e-mails or mistakes using e-mail.