The Next New thing

Being a New Yorker, we all know about the parking problem people face in this jam packed city. First of all, it is really difficult to find parking, especially in Manhattan. Even if one is lucky enough to find parking space, there is a time limit which is a big constraint. On the other hand, it is a bit expensive. With the help of growing technology, we all have access to GPS systems. Overall GPS helps us all to navigate maps, enhance directions and find traffic free routes. Yet, it fails to find an available parking space for us. I think it would be amazing to add an extra feature to GPS which will be able to navigate available parking space through satellite. This will be a blessing to New Yorkers and it can save us all from wasting time and worrying about finding the parking space. Additionally, the same technology can be developed in a smart phone. Either as an app or a build-in feature connected to satellite. If developers are able to come up with something similar to this, it will save a lot of time and money for us New Yorkers. I believe that it won't be a difficult task for companies like Google or Apple to create or add this feature in existing application. For example Google maps, MapQuest and Bing etc. The developers just need to modify an existing application and they can come up with something more advanced and useful.

P2P File Sharing

According to Wikipedia, “file sharing is the practice of distributing files or providing access to digital stored information, such as computer programs, documents or multimedia.” Whereas, P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing is done with the help of downloading software such as Torrent, Kaaza and Lime Wire. Users use software to connect into P2P network, where they find vast variety of different files available for direct download from other users on the network. P2P software breaks large files into smaller portion, which is being uploaded from different servers and then reassembled/combined by the downloading software. However, P2P file share arises many questions of being ethical and legal. The issue also deals with copyright and privacy law. As in the article, $1.5 Million Fine for Downloading 24 Songs, by Daniel Kreps, he writes about a case where a mother from Minnesota was fined $1.5 million dollars for downloading 24 songs from a P2P file sharing network. At same, peer-to-peer file sharing is not limited to music sharing, but also e-books, movies, TV shows, software and much more. Nevertheless, I think the P2P file sharing will grow over the years because it is cheap and allows instance transferring of data.

Our class wiki- so far

For the class wiki I haven't contributed yet, but I am planning to write on at least three different topics. The topic on which I am planning to write are:

1) Drone strikes in Pakistan and there media representation 
In this I will give general overview of drone strikes and their impact on Pakistan. Than I will try to do a comparison between New York Times and Daily Jang News (Pakistani newspaper) on how they are covering this issue. 

2) Gaming on Facebook/social media
I will try to find the effects of gaming on social media with the people of statistics.

3)Online newspaper
Under this topic, my focus will be on how online newspaper helps to promote media. Additionally, I will write about the advantages and disadvantages of online newspaper.
 
4) Smartphones applications
The focus under this topic will be on social media and new media applications on smartphone. How these application have contributed towards the popularity of social media and their effects.

If anyone has any suggestions and want to add anything, please write me :)

Privacy

When is comes to new media, in particular to social media, many users raise their concerns over the privacy and confidentiality of data and personal information being shared and uploaded. Many believe that certain social networking websites also sell their users information to certain marketing companies to make extra profits. On the other hand, there have been instances when people lost their jobs just because of something they uploaded or commented about on Facebook via their profile.  Regarding privacy, I will like to share something which happened to me two months ago. There was a page on Facebook created with a name of "textbook and notes for Baruch" and I was invited on the page to join by someone I didn't know. I liked it randomly and believed that I might get some help from that page to buy cheap text books. Few day after that I received a email from Vice president office in Baruch regarding that page. They believed  that people on that page are selling test banks and past exam, so they accused everyone for cheating. Luckily for most of us, the department listened to us and didn't take any actions against us because we didn't intent to cheat and we were not guilty.
The point of all this is that are we safe on these social networking websites and do we have any privacy as individuals.
So to make sure that your information is private, I will recommend everyone to go to their profile setting and disable anything which allows the website to share your information. We think that we only know what we are doing on these sites, but in reality it is opposite.

Advice to Baruch College

Interestingly, I am currently working in Office of Student Life in Baruch College as student assistant and social media representative. My duties include posting current events on all social media websites such as Facebook, twitter. This helps us to remind students regarding important events and helps us to raise the attendance. Moreover, Facebook is also being used to send invitation for particular events which requires RSVP for attendance.  Apart from this, my team and I upload realtime pictures on Instagram and Facebook to show student life activities on campus. This helps us to keep the Baruch college community updated and encourage them to get involve in college. In last, we use new media for  advertising purposes also, as when someone is tagged or someone shares our post, more people come to know about our department and college it self.

If you guys have any suggestions for me or my team (office of student life), please share and help us to improve :)

Creativity and New Media

Back in High school, me and my friend made a video and uploaded it on Youtube. The video is regarding a very famous soccer team Manchester United. To make it something unique, we made a trailer for that team with mixing it with a famous movie '300.' With the help of software we added sound and combined different videos together. The major motivation to make such a video was that we had a chance to make a video and than show to people around the world via Youtube.
I hope you people like my work, particular if you are a soccer fan :)

URL: Manchester United: 300 Trailer

Creativity

One of the big reasons why new media promotes creativity is that it helps us to handle information that leads to our thinking process. Social networking websites provide users a platform where they can share their ideas openly without any fear. Due to this, companies and other users are benefitted by the supply of different ideas every moment. In connection to this, Claire Cain Miller in the article ‘Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers’ tells that many companies have considered and even agreed to the ideas suggested to their business from consumers. This is also known as user-generated innovations. In the similar article, it is also mentioned that twitter, a famous social networking website, was not confident in using the hash-tag “#” on first place, which was suggested by one of the users. However, as that trend got popular and almost every other user started using it, hash-tag became one of the symbols of twitter (official feature). Interestingly, users of other social networking website like Facebook have started using the same trend of hash-tags. As every other person has access to smart phone, laptop or internet device, they can share their ideas and innovations to general public without being a professional.