Illustrator CS4

Even though I'm a Digital Media major, I am still a bit new to Illustrator so I kept it simple this time around. I found a picture of Sony Vaio's transparent laptop, thought it was pretty interesting. Apparently its suppose to hit the market soon.

1. I don't think that the level of professional video will drop at all. I think the "homegrown" tactic that professional companies use when producing media is an effort to connect with the audience, not a diminishing standard. They're trying to use this method to make the consumer feel as if they could have made it. In all reality, that professionally mocked unprofessional video is of a better quality than a video the consumer could make with a camcorder or a flip. There is an "industry standard" right now, and if you're speaking with anyone who produces high quality media, they'll easily inform you of what they're using, and why everyone uses it. I think if anything the quality will continue to increase, whether or not the content is a parallel. The effort of a singer in a crowd of singers is similar to a singers video in the internet crowd. If they're good enough, the word will spread because it can so quickly now.

2. Upon reading the article about the Bloom Box, the tags i would've anticipated were more narrowed down than the ones that were actually on delicious.com. I would have thought that the tags would be Bloom box, new fuel cell, silicon valley venture capital. The tags that were used were electricity, fuel, energy, and bloom. These are more broad, but I can see why they would be so they can cross the whole audience and scanning the keywords.

3. Transparency is important in social media because it allows people to have options. After reading the article "The Illusion of Transparency In Social Media" I can see that it certainly plays a big role in people's interaction in Internet environments and on some level, is similar to the meaning of being transparent in the real world. Transparency is certainly debatable, as shown in this article, due to the fact that it may give people a reason change their opinion based on the opportunities that being "transparent" provides them. It certainly brings up the question of whether you can believe everything people tell you about themselves. I personally think that it is more important in the offline world, simply because its what makes the "world go round." Its how we live, its how we survive, its how we gain opportunity. I'm not necessarily saying that people are lying when they are transparent in order to get what they want, but I am saying that there is certain information that you share and certain things that you keep to yourself. In any case the truth comes out eventually. If you are transparent from the start more doors will be opened. And I just think that is more useful in the real world than in cyberspace.

After watching the second part of "Digital Nation" I'll have to be honest I was impressed with the hands on study. This is due to the fact that usually when people talk about technology its usually just some general opinion based on how they think technology is affecting today's youth. But in this video, it shows that some people actually realize that this is the generation that we grew up in. Technology like the internet is what we were exposed to since birth. Granted I personally was born a few years before the internet really blew up, I still consider myself very fluent in using it. That being said, in order to understand why it affects us so much one must first understand that its as much a norm for us as color tv was a norm for people who were born during that time.
I also enjoyed the talk about World of Warcraft. I'm a gamer, and I do play WoW from time to time. Personally I am more of a console gamer rather that a PC gamer but it is an addicting game. I dont play nearly as much as some of the people in the video do, but it was interesting to see how it really connects people. These people can talk to each other for years and never meet each other, but when they finally do its like they have been hanging out in person for that same amount of time. While im not as immersed I can certainly relate to them as far as being a fan of the game.

Thoughts on "Digital Nation"

We've only watched a few segments of "Digital Nation", but from what I have seen, I've personally found it somewhat interesting. To be honest I have been a part of plenty of conversations in which the focus was technology "taking over." However, I have never seen any actual experimental studies done. What I personally found interesting is the idea of "less is more" when referring to brain activity. It was proven that people used more brain power to surf the internet than read a book. At first it may seem as a "pro" rather than a "con". But the doctor who performed the tests stated for correction that it was actually not a good thing.
It was interesting to hear that in surfing the internet, the average human is actually overloading their brain, because there is so much going on, therefore alot of brain power goes into making decisions, rather than being decisive. Reading a book is something that you choose to do, so the decision is made and you are just following through by reading. I would be interested in seeing if this idea is explored further in the coming segments of "Digital Nation"

The Content and Usage of Web 2.0

User generated content - any kind of publicly shared media created by the consumer for other people to enjoy

Long tail- A selling strategy in which unique items are sold in small quantities and more common items are sold in large quantities

Network as platform- when network services are distributed at an internet scale such as WebOS

Folksonomy- in the simplest terms, the managing of ones own content with the use of tagging or annotation

Syndication- when one website's material is made available on other sites, commonly with the use of web feeds

Mass collaboration is a collective effort in which large amounts of people work independently to complete one project or add on to it, such as wikipedia

Computer supported collaboration refers to things such as text and voicemail, things that explore the nature of people's relationships, whether business or pleasure.

Social software refers to things such as the networking sites, facebook and myspace. This type of software allows users to interact with one another and share their own information should they choose too.

Hosted services provide typical IT needs such as web hosting and storage.

Web applications are accessed thru web browsers. They provide entertainment and interactivity to the user

The medium is the message. Apple has made music, video, and internet accessible pretty much anywhere you go by creating the ipod and the iphone. Now, not only can you listen to music and talk on the phone, but you can also record video and play it on your big screen tv at home