Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

With the introduction of Virtual Worlds, people can create an avatar to represent themselves and act out what they feel in these 3D communities.
Virtual worlds are being used in various ways. One of the popular ways is in the workplace, where individuals who work remotely can gather at a ‘virtual office” for a quasi office feel or can hold a meeting or conduct training. Mark Tutton in his article, Going to the virtualoffice in Second Life, writes “Virtual community Second Life is seeking to tap into that market by creating a new tool that allows businesses to have virtual meetings on their own computer networks.” In the same article he adds, “more than 1,400 organizations -- including large companies, educational institutions, government agencies and even the U.S. military -- use Second Life to hold meetings, conduct training and prototype new technologies more efficiently.”
Other than this, virtual worlds are also been used by individuals who want to escape their current location for an unusual destination. They build and create things out of their imaginations and creativity to have a better feeling regarding their personal life.  
Virtual worlds have merits and de-merits. Daine Mehta in her article, After Second life, Can Virtual Worlds Get aReboot, writes, “You can use virtual worlds in education, in delivery services, or as an advanced form of tele-healthcare that offers so much more than videoconferencing. Virtual worlds can give us social connectivity, built-in support groups, and ways to avoid ever being alone again.”  Thus, virtual worlds can be considered as a social development tool. People can also live out their desires within the virtual worlds. However, people that only live in the virtual world can neglect the real worlds. This isolation can lead to feelings of fantasy. As well as, virtual worlds are addictive. The users might start thinking and doing same things in real world as they do in virtual world, which could lead to negative effects.
In No Budget, No Boundaries: It’s the Real You, Ruth La Ferla talks about virtual world activity during the recession. Individuals did not stop purchasing items in the virtual world despite their economic conditions. People can be whoever they like, can purchase what they like regardless or price, and can go to whatever clubs they feel.
In near future, virtual Worlds can play an important role in improving the workplace conditions or with innovations, it might make a way in education and online classes. Students can learn about their courses in a virtual class room in the way they like. At same, virtual world have many differences with reality, so it is important for us to keep a balance between both of them.

Social Networking Sites

With the introduction of social networking websites, it has become easier for users to connect to each other in ways that were not possible before the internet. These sites help to connect individuals together, ranging from families and relatives living in different part of world to high schools’ classmates and teachers. While there are many social networking websites running presently, some have gained enormous popularity and competitive advantage over the others in past years.

Facebook was started as a website for college students only to interact with each other. But as the time passed, it became more inclusive, until anyone could create an account. Facebook allows user to upload albums, pictures and videos; share videos from ‘Youtube’ and connect with friends via commenting on their pictures and posting on their wall. Furthermore, it allows you to update others via “status update” and create a family tree on your profile. In recent years, facebook also introduced games app which you can play with other people. It also has many different pages and groups on almost every topic, example, pages of celebrities and movies.  

Twitter allows user to tweet (short updates) up to 140 characters. Hence, short comment limit gives it an instant message interface look, although giving it the public access of a post. At same, when you interact with someone, his or her name is being used with ‘@’, example, @waleedmalik and the tweet. One can also quote or re-tweet someone else words. Users can also share links of articles, videos and post pictures on their profile. Interestingly, twitter does not have an option of friend. Instead, you have to ‘follow’ others in order to see their tweets.

MySpace allows a user to design the look of her profile page and add his or her favorite music list. Users can also link their Facebook and twitter accounts with MySpace page. It helps people to connect with each other and discover their taste of music. It is quite similar to another website know as ‘sound clouds’. Additionally, it also has the facility of radio on the website. The website also gives information regarding the upcoming musical events and songs of the artist which the user is following.

           Linkedin allows users to communicate and network with different recruiters in the market. It allows user to post their resume and experiences regarding their previous jobs on their profiles. Users can also search different jobs posting according to their specific requirement, such as, area of work, location of work and expected salary. Once you find a job, you can apply for it and also you can send a private message to the recruiter of the company in order to have some interaction. This helps you to build a strong relationship with recruiter.

Blog about Twitter

Twitter is a social networking website where people across the globe can access you and comment on your post. On the other hand, blackboard is a tool mostly used by educational institutes for sole purpose of sharing information and documents, and communicating with people within your class. Blackboard discussions are mostly private and are based on particular topic assigned by the Professor or within the domain of the particular course; whereas, twitter discussions are public and on random topics as you can post or discuss anything. Twitter also has a maximum length of 140 characters per tweet so people usually will use lots of hash tags and ‘@’ symbol in there discussion to pass the message. On the contrary, blackboard discussions have no word limit and are more formal.  

                When comparing in-class discussion with twitter’s discussion, things are mostly different. In class discussion takes place in a room or a particular location and it is important for one to be present over there at that time to participate and contribute with ideas. However, as twitter can be accessed via internet (which is available mostly everywhere), the element of presence is eliminated and one can contribute at anytime from any place. Nevertheless, it is easier to express and explain your ideas in in-class discussion compare to twitter as there is no limit to number of characters or words within in-class discussion.

All together, all of these platforms for discussions have their own merits and de-merits. There are certain similarities between them and it depends on the participant how they use them.

Social Networking

The world has progressed a great deal over the time. Old technology is constantly being replaced by new technology and methods. One of the new additions in technological world is Social networking. Social networking is a popular phenomenon these days. It has been widely used by people around the globe.  J. Ruker, a web blogger, traditionally defines social network as “An association of people drawn together by family, work or hobby.”

However, this traditional explanation has now expanded to become computer based, which includes customers of the company that you are working at, your favorite celebrities and politicians. Some of the famous social-networking websites such as My Space, Facebook and twitter are popularly used by all and sundry around the globe. This phenomenon started with the advent of the internet. However, according to Ellison Boyd, it took the shape of social networking with the launch of sixsigma.com in the year 1997 and has been expanding since then.

                These social networking websites are functioning in many various ways. It has became a big platform where users interact with new people, companies use direct marketing strategy on their target market with the help of advertisement and publicity of their products by famous celebrities. Moreover, social networking is also helping users to find new jobs and make connections with recruiters. As in the article Social NetworkingTechnology Boosts Job Recruiting by Frank Langfitt, “Professional recruiters have started hunting for job candidates using social networking technology.” In the same article, Maureen Crawford-Hentz recruits for Osram Sylvania says, "Social networking technology is absolutely the best thing to happen to recruiting — ever."

                The influence of social networking on masses can be measured with the help of President Barack Obama campaign for 2008 elections. David Carr in his article, How Obama Tapped into Social Networks’ Power, writes, “The Obama campaign did not invent anything completely new. Instead, by bolting together social networking applications under the banner of a movement, they created an unforeseen force to raise money, organize locally, fight smear campaigns and get out the vote that helped them topple the Clinton machine and then John McCain and the Republicans.”  

                On the other side, there are certain issues related with social networking. One of them is privacy. Almost all social networking websites sells the information of their users to companies for different purpose, example, marketing strategy. Secondly, there are quite clear chances of identity theft with the help of hacking in someone else account. To protect users some such events, the social networking are working hard and coming with new ideas and privacy settings. In addition to this, few people also think that due to these websites, the physical interaction between people is decreasing and such websites are waste of time also.

                However, the way technology is advancing and new methods are being introduced, it won’t take long for something new to replace these social networking websites. To extend  their cycle, the developers of these websites are constantly working on new updates so the users don’t switch to something new in near future.

Blog vs Wiki

In recent years, blogs and use of Wiki has become quite popular among the users of Internet. Both of them have also added a new flavor and variety in media. At same, they are considered a major component of ‘new media’.

In simple word, a blog is an informational site published on Internet. Individuals write blogs to express their opinions regarding anything, varying from current affairs to product views to discussion regarding block party. The person who writes a blog is sole owner of his or her page and only has the access to edit or delete the content. However, the blog can be read and viewed by other people. In additions to this, the readers can also post comments and views regarding the topic.  Few examples of popular websites for blogging are www.blogger.com and www.worldpress.com. Presently, there are millions of websites available for blogging. Michael Wilson, in his article ‘Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid’ writes, “Most neighborhoods in Brooklyn have at least one blog — and in some places, there seems to be one in every house, every bedroom.” Blog serves as a new source of information and more importantly, from ones personal experience; whereas in newspapers, not every topic is covered and most of the news are being reported by a reporter, who is a third person

On the other side, Wiki is quite similar to blog in many ways. Margaret Locher in his article More on How to build Your Own Wikipedia defines Wiki as “a software application that allows groups of users to create, edit and comment on online documents.” The feature of editing the content by multiple users differentiates Wiki from blog. In present business and technology driven world, different individual can share information and communicate with each other on same topic on same platform at same time via Wiki. It helps to minimize the communication channel and barriers as multiple admin of a particular Wiki page can share or edit information with each other directly. In connection to this, Wiki can be very helpful in group projects. All group members can see the performance of individual team mates along with overall group performance at same time. They can add ideas and correct the mistakes of their teams mates without even asking them. Among hundreds of Wiki websites, ‘Wikipedia’ is the most famous and commonly known.

With the introduction of these two cost-effective and user-friendly mediums in media, the flow of communication and information between individuals is getting faster and effective with the passage of time.