What The Future Holds for Social Media

Social media started as an evolution, but now it is the time for a revolution. The future of social media will change with the introduction of Web 3.0 and the Semantic Web. It has happened to all of us; we Google search for a specific piece of information and we cannot find it. The Semantic Web or Web 3.0 will take the information that we are looking for and link it to how are thought patterns have been on the Internet. With this information, it will help people locate the exact information they are looking for.

The Arduino, will be the next biggest step for social media and it is upon us. The Arduino is a small circuit board that is commonly used to prototype electronics. When this is connected to a social media like Twitter, you can receive tweets for endless possibilities. For example: you can receive a tweet if the dryer has stop, or the iron is left on, or your dinner has finished cooking. The possibilities are endless.

Optical Pattern Recognition & Augmented Reality is also an ingenious way that will change the world with the use of social media. Optical Pattern Recognition & Augmented Reality will allow you to scan a room with your cell-phone and any face recognitions that occur, a social profile be produced. This will allow someone to find out if the handsome man or pretty girl is available without having to ask them.

The way the world is fast-paced and changing, society looks like it might have trouble keeping up with the times. After researching data for my blog I now believe that a lot of the things that I didn’t think would be possible with social media now seem very plausible.  

Blog Posting #3

                When I first read the assignment for this week’s blog, I said to myself, as did probably a lot of you, WTF!!!!!! What is this? What is Commons-Based Peer Production? It must not be that important if I have never heard of it before! Well, I was wrong! To explain it down simply Yochai Benkler states; “Peer production is production that harnesses the creative energies of many self-selecting participants without any financial compensation and lacking a formal managerial structure”. Examples of this would be GNU/Linux, Apache, Perl, SETI@home, NASA Clickworkers, Wikipedia, Slashdot.

 So the answer to the question is why not! I believe that as long as there is a platform provided and people sharing a common interest or goal, products or services can and will be generated with Commons-Based Peer Production methodologies. It is already being done today at a rate that is changing the way the world and how corporations and society are operating. As long as people are willing to donate their own time and effort to, what they believe is justified, than the possibilities are endless. Think of this scenario, do you remember when the millionaire Steve Fossett’s airplane went missing a few years ago? People, in their spare time and working towards a general cause, used Google Earth to search the Nevada Dessert in hopes to find the plane wreckage and if they found something suspicious they were suppose to flag it. The response was massive and the wreckage of the plane was found. 

 People are using Commons-Based Peer Production to help make the world and society a better place. What is good for you and I may not be good for the pocket books of some companies though. Some of the products and services that have been generated now are threatening some of the Market-based, decentralized systems. Take Skype for example, how much money do you think is being taken away from telephone companies’ bottom-line every year when people choose to use Skype and talk long distance and/or overseas? I would say millions! But, as long as Commons-Based Peer Production is free for its users and for its makers, society today will continue to evolve at the rapid rate that it is today. Who knows maybe you and I can help develop the next technological advance.

These are the following resources that I found helpful in explaining Commons-Based Peer Production.

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/news-at-sei/architect.cfm

http://www.nyu.edu/projects/nissenbaum/papers/jopp_235.pdf

Does Social Media Dumb Down Our News??????

From my viewpoint I believe that social media has both, increased the quality of news as well as decreased it. Before you jump to any conclusions as to why I am not choosing a side, hear me out. I am not one of those “fence sitters”, and after you read my points you will see that as long has you educate yourself, you too, may share the same vantage point.

                By and large I do believe that news is issued to any individual as it has never before. Instead of the old, traditional way of waiting for the evening news to see what has gone on in the world, you can just click on your laptop, computer, or cell phone and quickly connect to any media web site. You can read the journalist blogs or watch their podcasts. This is vast becoming one of the easiest way for someone to access the daily news, as long as you are educated enough to know that the website that you are visiting is creditable. These news agencies make it even easier for you to stay connected by offering news alerts that are sent directly to your email, which means your phone, computer and/or IPad get instant updates. You can even set up the accounts on your facebook account or sign up for their twitter accounts.  As long as you know that the information you are accessing is creditable than this is a huge step in the right direction. This is why social media has become a pillar in the news world.

                There are however, situations where people use social media outlets to purposely misrepresent an issue or topic. This is why I believe that social media has decreased the value of news today. When people are not aware that the website or email they are reading is actually fiction. All of this reminds me of the “The War of The Worlds” broadcast. Although the radio broadcast was announced to be a story, people still believed it to be factual. Unfortunately, in today’s day and age, some people intentionally try to pass fiction off as fact and that is the down side to social media. Some people purposely send factious emails, post untrue blogs and make false edits to web pages like Wikipedia.

                Does social media improve the quality of news or decrease it? Well, if I had to make a choice I would have to say that the good outweighs the bad. Social media is constantly finding new ways for people to access the world news. The times are changing and people are starting to catch on. News, now is just a click away and as long as you trust the source, than all the power to you.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Is-Wikipedia-Trustworthy-15597.shtml

A bit about me....

Oh well here goes nothing...or something lol!!!!!!
I will start by saying this is my first blog so I guess that's a Yippeee!!!(as long as it works)