p2p file sharing

File sharing is a network that allows us to share files and information with others. By giving others the permission to access the information we have stored it allows us to "file share".  File sharing can also be physical objects such as floppy disks and portable hard drives, but now we can use something completely digital to store and share information. The things we can share range from pictures, documents to music and etc.
P2P file sharing means peer to peer. This means that there is a network which allows people to upload share and download files with pretty much everyone that has access. This type of file sharing allows delinquency such as piracy to occur very easily. "Because of widely available broadband access and a new wave of streaming sites, it has become surprisingly easy to watch pirated video online" as said by Brian Stelter in his article Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios.
Examples of file sharing are limewire which has been shut down for a while now, kazaa, letmewatchthis.com.

privacy

Privacy, as related to new media is a very touchy subject. The importance of privacy to us is very high. New media gives us the freedom to express ourselves, and to be able to show our opinions in many ways. But it also takes some of our privacy. Before new media, for someone to breach your privacy they had to have some sort of physical connection with you, now they can breach your privacy through the new media tools that we often use. For example, we often post videos on youtube, comments on facebook and pictures on instagram that can easily be used by someone else, for good or bad who knows, but they are accessible by others. Our information, our every day activities are on these new media tools and they can easily be used by others to breach our privacy. The funny thing is, we do not care, because we continue to use new media like social networks and continue to put out all of our information without caring of the consequences

creativity

The way technology is looking, It seems like people can express themselves more and more and show how creative they are every day. We have all the tools to be able to express ourselves and create on a daily basis. You can create by tweeting, by making a youtube video or simply responding to a video or post from your own stand point. Youtube and twitter are prime examples of two social media platforms (new media) that foster creativity. Youtube allows you to make videos and video responses to express yourself in forms of video. Twitter on the other hand let's you express yourself through text. Through these platforms, we are able to exchange opinions and ideas.
"The internet let's people exchange ideas easily and rapidly with large groups", stated by Claire Cain Miller in her article about twitter 'Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers'. According to Miller, the internet gives us the freedom to communicate our ideas quickly with many other people.

Social networking sites

Social networking sites have been around for some time now, for the younger generations, it has been around for all their lives, so it would be considered a way of life. People use social media for many reasons, most frequently to stay in touch with family and friends and also to voice opinions. Some of the most popular social networking sites include facebook, twitter, instagram and myspace.

Myspace today seems like something of the past, ever since facebook became the new "wave", most people abandoned myspace and started using facebook as their primary social media platform. However, myspace was a pretty good social media platform, it was just simply outdone by facebook.

Facebook on the other hand has been standing on top for a pretty long time, (considering the life span of a social media platform). It launched back in 2004, and it now has 1.11 billion users. Facebook is user friendly, and like all other social media platforms it allows you to stay in touch with your family. Recently Facebook launched a campaign for Facebook Home, which should generate more and more enthusiasm from users that are on the go like me.

When talking about facebook you must mention instagram, which is a social media tool owned by facebook. Instagram is pretty much facebook without the chit chat. Users are able to post pictures and now videos and share with friends for likes and comments. Its a good way of seeing how your friends and family are doing and looking. Instagram was faced recently with strong competition from a competitor named Vine, which is a social media platform where you post short videos, Instagram responded by adding video. Instragram adapted pretty fast therefore they will probably remain strong in the market.

Twitter is the social media platform that I am least familiar with out of the 4. I know there is a character limit (140). And you can "hashtag" to create and follow trends. Twitter is very popular, I actually even see an abundance of twitter references in the sports world. It really has revolutionized how we do things and how news gets around.

Blogs vs. Wiki

How do blogs compare to wikis? We can start by saying that a major difference between blogs and wikis is that with wikis users have the power to change just about any of the content of the wiki, and with a blog users can voice there opinions about a topic but cannot make changes like with a wiki. Both Blogs and Wiki's are very similar because they are made up of user contribution and participation.  While blogs usually have one author and then users contribute by commenting on the blog, wiki's have many authors and editors who collectively contribute to the content of the. I believe Wiki's are more fun to work with than blogs, and they give you the power to get things done easily and much faster, the article entitled More on How to Build your own Wikipedia it states "wikis.. can help people improve their processes and get projects done", which confirms my opinion.

In the article How to use wiki's for business we see a very common example of a wiki, "The most well-known example of a wiki is Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by, well, anybody who feels like it." Blogs can be used in many ways of collaboration, mainly to express ideas and receive feed back that will help someone do something better. For example a book writer may want to write a blog about an idea he or she may have for the book, and take opinions to help him create something worth reading.

I believe that Wiki can be used in the workplace to create projects and or give ideas for new projects. I am pretty sure some companies are already integrating this concept in their work flows but in the companies I have worked for this has not been the case. I think it would be a great idea if this became more of a traditional way of working because it allows employees to voice their opinions and help create the content of a project and give their ideas freely and easily.

Social Networking: better or worse than the real thing?

The project I will be doing will be Social Networking: better or worse than the real thing? I will be discussing how social network has evolved and how it affects us. The way we communicate, the way we interact with each other. Also, how this affects the way we live. I will point out the pros and cons of social networking and how it can make our social experience better or worse. I will give my personal opinion and also provide facts and research regarding this subject matter.