Next New

I do agree that there are many different types of new media yet to be found or brought to the attention of the public. I think one thing that has not been done yet is 3-D interactive group chat rooms. Now, I do understand that chatrooms have been done, but I was thinking about the combination between VR and people conferences to make real life like 3-D conferences where people can walk around in their own rooms, but inside their headset they would be walking around meeting with other people who are on the same headset. It would broadcast their face as they walk around with the usual audio and visual. I think if something like this was implemented that people would be able to take advantage of this by using it to network and maybe even implement it educationally. This could be used in classrooms to project them and talk to people in more isolated areas of the world where people are doing research. it would provide real life experiences without the danger and even real time question and answer sessions.

Wiki So Far

There will be two topics that I will be posting about.

1. The ride of dessert food because of social media
The dessert trend started around 2015. Many people were using social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to showcase outrageous desserts that they have been getting. This lead to an entire trend being ensured. Restaurants and startups alike are now making their food more outrageous to be featured on people's stories and websites to become popular. The power of social media alone is insane when it comes to enabling a business to do well. One example of this would be the milkshakes at Blacktap. The restaurant is known for their burgers, but once their milkshakes were featured on Business Insider, their lines grew insanely long. Now there is regularly a 2 hour minimum wait to be seated. Many people go just to post it on their social media. The rise of new dessert start up is also on the rise. Dessert places such as 10 below, Snowdays, Eggloo, Soft Swerve all became popular via social media. Students and Young Adults alike will flock to these locations just to put it on their social media and say that they have gone.

Sources:
http://abc7ny.com/food/purple-ice-cream-from-nyc-is-latest-dessert-trend/1765697/
https://www.popsugar.com/food/What-10-Below-Rolled-Ice-Cream-38170473
http://www.amny.com/eat-and-drink/eggloo-rolling-and-scooping-up-nyc-s-newest-ice-cream-waffle-craze-1.11446881


2. Independent artists and how the internet makes them possible
Chance The Rapper is the current face for independent music. He has always talked about not signing to a label and being on his own while making his own decisions. His most famous releases were two albums, Acid Rap & Coloring Book, that were available for free download. His most recent album, Coloring Book, won a Grammy for best new artist. It was the first time ever that the Grammy's even considered allowing a streaming only album. Without signing to a major label, Chance has performed for concerts, featured by other artists, and even headlined for The Meadows festival in 2017 with Kanye West. Chance even worked on 5 songs with Kanye West for his acclaimed The Life of Pablo album in which he is also featured in Ultraligh Beam. Even within his own song Blessings (within his Coloring Book album) he says "Kanye's best prodigy. He aint signed me but he proud of me" to further his notion that he will not be signed. In an in depth interview with Complex, Chance talks more about how other artists can be independent using technology and the social media around them.

Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/19/chance-the-rapper-album-coloring-book-mixtape-billboard-charts-stream-music
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/chance-the-rapper-grammys-record-deal-a7578031.html
http://www.complex.com/music/2017/03/chance-the-rapper-interview-2017-cover-story

P2P

P2P stand for peer to peer. This means that people upload content to share with other people. This could mean anything from entertainment, music, songs, books, and movies. File sharing is often known as the ability to interchange files from one person to another over the network or the internet. P2P file sharing is a little different because instead of one person directly sending it to another user, users upload their files onto the web and then other users can freely scour the network and pick and choose what they want instead of waiting or asking people directly. P2P lending is becoming a huge thing within the tech world. Google invested $125 million in Lending Club in 2013 (NPR) It's a new way of sharing. The CEO has quoted that "Last year we facilitated about $800 million in loans and we are planning on $2 billion this year" (NPR) With the way that business is done, the investors still make a profit while keeping the costs low for consumers. Another example of a P2P site would be Bittorrent. Bram Cohen, the creator, wanted a free source that people can visit and download content that is needed. He makes a comfortable enough living off of donations that is able to support himself and his family (Wired) Of course the government  and industries involved are wary and even actively fight against P2P. An example of this would be Warner Brothers trying to combat illegal copies of The Dark Night movie. It of course failed as over 7 million people illegally downloaded the movie. (NYTimes) Many people do say instead of combating it, they should somehow learn to embrace it and work with the changing culture instead of trying to eliminate it. 

Kaufman, Wendy. "Peers Find Less Pressure Borrowing From Each Other." NPR. NPR, 10 May 2013. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

Thompson, Clive. "The BitTorrent Effect." Wired. Conde Nast, 01 Jan. 2005. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

Stelter, Brian and Stone, Brad. "Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios" NYTimes, 4 Feb 20019. Wed. 26 Apr. 2017.

Privacy

With new media there is a new source of information that is vulnerable to security breaches. The effects can be wide reaching and across many different platforms. For example, Target is a major company with stores all around. There was a massive security breach within their system that is estimated to potentially affect around 110 million customers. Then soon afterwards Target is now pooling $100 million to advance the use of chip reading credit cards in their stores to enhance security for their customers. Another way new media is an issue for privacy is the users. There are many instances that are now cropping up that talks about the issue of catfishing. This means that one user poses as someone else on the internet and deceives another person. This can be nefarious when it comes to young children and older adult predators on the web. Many large companies like Google and Facebook are still in the midst of fully figuring out their own privacy settings for themselves and their users. New Media enables innovation and advancements, but it leaves a lot about security and privacy in the grey as people have not yet tackles these issues in full.

Advice

If I was hired by Baruch College to use new media to improve the college, there are some fundamental changes that I would make in information dissemination. I would create youtube videos on virtual tours of the school and the outline of it so that incoming students would not be confused on how to find their way about. For example, many incoming students do not know that the library is only floors 2-5 within the Newman library building. The 1st floor, floors 6-9 are all administrative and separate entities. Also most classes within the Vertical Campus are all on one side while offices and major departments are on the other. Then I would also highlight important services such as Academic Advisement,  STARR, The Writing Center, OSL, USG, and much more that can be found within Baruch College. I would make their twitter and Facebook use much more frequent so that students can keep up to date with notices from the college. I would also think about creating an inquiry/question submission blog that students can submit requests about the school and the facilities directly to the college, and then someone internally would disseminate the information accordingly to the proper departments and administrative offices.

Creativity and New Media

For this assignment I decided to make a Second Life avatar. At first I was a little apprehensive when I first downloaded it and made an account, but I realized how much fun it could be and also how creative I could be while making my account. There were so many options when it came to customizing the face, the body, and even the type of clothing that the avatar could wear. Creativity goes far when I realized that I had full reign and control over my avatar. Originally I just chose a generic girl that closely resembled me. But then I also got advantageous and changed up her clothes, her height, and then even gave the avatar a tattoo. I can see that with all these tools and options, it definitely sprouts creativity because one things leads to another and all of sudden, it's like having a new avatar.

HW Creativity

New media is an avenue that artists and users alike can use to foster and nurture creativity. New media allows users to use tools and technological advances that were not previously available to them. One example would be the way mashups are made and exemplified through "Frontin on Debra" (Frere-Jones, The New Yorker) Another famous example would be an album called the Grey Album that mashed up Jay-Z's Black Album and The Beatles White Album. New technological advances within music technology allows artists like Brian Burton (Danger Mouse) to use tools like Acid Pro and such to loop certain beats and notes to make it easier to make a mashup. This leads to thousands of possibilities when it comes to music choices and mashups. Everything you need is found online, there is no real need to have expensive equipment and a lot of training. This means that the average person could train themselves online to combine music together to make new music. A great example of this would be viral youtube videos of artists that have mashed up songs using online tools. Us The Duo, Kurt Hugo Schneider, Alex Aiono, and many more are just some of the few artists that used these tools available to them to inspire creativity that inspires those who watch them. 

Frere-Jones, Sasha. "1 + 1 + 1 = 1." The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 18 Feb. 2015. Web. 28 Mar. 2017.