Wiki Wiki Wiki

  Lets first talk about how wikipedia has saved college students countless times when burning the midnight oil since it was brought online of January of 2001.  Yes, we all know that teachers and professors have a deep distrust of wikipedia, but I say they should trust, nay, honor this great creation for what it is.
  A global encyclopedia of all there is, or all that matters.  Originally the idea was to include everything possible and have the pages be created and edited by readers, by anyone who thought to sit down and write what they could.  This lead to a great schism that was similar to that of the Catholic Church's great schism in 1378.  This schism in wikipedia readers led to two factions, the inclusionists and the deletionists.
  The inclusionsists wanted to of course include everything they could about anything ever.  The believed that since they were not limited by the classic constraints of other encyclopedias, number of pages, costs of volumes, and financial support there should be no reason to judge the validity of entries based on relevance of facts.  They believe that a wikipedia held just has much value as an entry about Marlon Brando.
  Conversely the deletionists believe the exact opposite.  Relevance of facts is the only standard of value by which we should judge entries.  If we do not do this the site could become a jumbled mess of useless information that holds no benefit to anyone anywhere.  Who really cares about me other than those I know who should already know me.

  Granted we must be concerned with the reliability of the information presented to us.  Since any of the readers, anyone with an internet connection, can edit information the reliability of the information presented is in questions.  Two of the greatest benefits of the site are 1) transparency is held at high value and it sheds light on many subjects previously neglected; 2) many pages hold source references at the bottom and serve as an excellent starting point for research that one can actually have faith in.
  So please, don't overlook the value of wikipedia simply because some professor told you they would not allow you to cite the information or because a friend of a friend has a "this one time at bandcamp I was writing a paper on the relation between neutrino physics and saxophone notes" story...

That Sticky Icky?

  So, Youtube has been hailed as the 'stickiest' sight on the internet, but how and why is that sticky icky so irresistible?

  Now that you have finished watching... well whatever it is you watched, think back on how long you spent watching the video.  Now think: did you click on some related links, did you forward this to a friend, did you tweet it, did you post it on Facebook, did you post it on a blog?
  All of these things contribute to why Youtube is so sticky.  I can't tell you why we are so addicted to watching babies be babies, or people failing at life, or videos of cats being absurd, or puppies being cute; but I can tell you we are, and that for 2011 Youtube had over one trillion views (1,000,000,000,000).  That is approximately 140 views for every person on the planet!
  Some have their own opinion of why Youtube is so addicting; see the following article.  I can agree with some of these people, but I believe that Youtube is so addictive because it is not network television.
  Youtube is not only instant access, instant learn anything, instant replay, instant sharing, instant memories, it is instant everything.  I view anything I can find in the blink of an eye (depending on 30 second commercials and my internet speed).  I can learn how to make bombs, or pick locks, or fold an oragami swan, or cook a duck, or write a poem, or anything I am studying in school.  I can watch newsreel bloopers, I can watch old sports games and old MTV videos.  But even more importantly, I can post these.  I am in control of the content.
  Like everything else in new media I have control of the content I post.  Unlike having to watch whatever the TV Network deems appropriate or valuable I can film what I want and then post it to the internet.  I have instantly become my very own producer, director, actor, sound technician, director of photography and whatever other credit I choose to give myself.  And boy, don't we kids just love that instant control!

Cartoon From Randy Glasbergen

In The Spirit of The Season...

  Hello folks, yet another week has passed us by and in doing so has reminded me that it is time again for another post about social media.  Unlike my past two posts I'd like to dedicate this post to the concept of big brother.
  In this fashion I discovered this article.  If you don't care to read it I will certainly summarize.  In short a team from Compass Labs conducted a study of Facebook pages to analyze the difference between Republican and Democrat voters.  Now this idea is not new, studies have been done and published since the publishing of The American Voter in 1960.  However, it is one of the recent studies that has used social media as a primary source for data.
  But the question still remains "what did they find out?"
  Well for one, both Democrats and Republicans think 'The Hangover' was a great movie.  But on perhaps a more influential level, the study illustrated a breakdown of voters beyond their personal habits.  For example: Obama is flying high with over 28.3 million likes on his Facebook fan-page, while Romney is struggling to maintain just 6.4 million.  While at the same time Compass Labs found that the engagement ration for both were 52% for Romney and just 11% for Obama.
  Now I can agree that this use of social media to collect social data is an intelligent idea.  This issue I have with it is how reliable of a source it is.  First of all it is wonderful that I know that Republicans typically like to shop at Walmart and Democrats enjoy playing video games.  Secondly, I can glean that the most effective way to reach my voter base may not be through Facebook or in Walmart.  However, most importantly this tell me that the American citizen is now publicly offering their personal information that 40 years ago I would have to go door to door, or cold call, to discover.
  If Compass Labs can use Facebook to find all this information... what could Google do with it?

Blogging About Blogging

  I am continuing down this pathway of studying new new media, and at the moment blogging.  I posted a video of an interview with Paul Levinson in my last post, but I feel as though I should mention he is the author of the textbook I am currently studying at the moment.
  In the most recent chapter read, Levinson made the assertion that most social media has returned the communication sphere to a time predating the invention of print media.  During these ancient times communication took place via word of mouth and lacked gatekeepers.  Print media, radio, and television all use gatekeepers to control content.  Networks hire station directors as a gatekeeper to make sure everything on air is valid and true, or in line with the overall mission of the network.  Newspapers employ editors at all levels, from copy to desk to chief; content is reviewed and edited every step of the way.
  Blogging was the first of the social media developments, and the first to re-introduce society to this idea of unadulterated communication.  I could publish anything from porn to pastry recipes on this blog without an editor telling me I was fired.  Cursing, bias, untrue stories and more are published everyday in posts across the blogosphere.

  Like the delightful cartoon above demonstrates (illustrated by Dave Coverly) blogging is like wandering around and saying anything you want to anybody who will listen.  There is no editor, no director, no board of directors available to control content.  It is absolute freedom of speech, as long as you can find a way to host the site.

PS:  When searching for a definition of blogosphere I found a hilarious one on urbandictionary.com.  The following is the definition: "Imagine a million lunatics wandering the streets mumbling to themselves.  Write it all down and put it on the web.  Congratulations, you've just created the blogosphere."