Online inovations created by community sites  such as Youtube and Facebook create a new market for companies to sell their products.  YouTube sells ads to businesses which are interested in strenghtening their brand names, launching new products or just creating buzz about advantages of using their products and services. In that sense, Twitter also provides a special place for  small, medium size or large businesses to present their products to the masses at a very low price.  Even though, small and  medium size businesses are still not to competite at the same level as large corporations, web 2.o technologies such as stream videos, blogs and community sites have helped these businesses to build a sustainable flow of businesses for them at very low costs compared to tradional media. Tv, Radio and newspaper ads are very expensive, which makes it very difficult for small businesses to take advantage of them.

Another big advantage of using web 2.o technology in businesses is its quick feed back. Blogs, postes in Twitter and videos provide advertisers great feed back at a very short period of time. This allows companies to modify and better target possible consumers with a precision never seen before. Futhermore, the increasing number of large popular webistes, which bring thousands of people who share similar interests, hobbies, and who seek similar life styles have allowed companies to specialize their ads to reach out to specific demographics,  such approach creates better marketing campaigns and they end up getting more results for their money and because of that, more and more businesses are advertising online following this increasing trend of offering services and products via online ads.

Finally, the implementation and use of new technologies such as Web Analytics Tool, a free software application  offered by Google that allows companies to track and record every reaction that consumers have to a companies ad, video or discussion  forums helps companies to better understand consumers needs and wants. Also, most web 2.0 technology available online  today is free and every business can have access to at a very low cost. This low or unexisting cost  to these new technologies, make it easier to anyone with a good idea and success in the increasing online world.  Online advertising provides a vital source of income and motivation for intrepreneurs all over the world who become year to develop new ideas and ways to reach more people knowing that as long as they websites or blogs drive people companies will be willing to pay for advertising space.

AB.

In my  New Media, the elderly would be able to see and talk to their peers in a new and easy way.  For instance, i would develop simpler and more user friendly community sites, which would have fewer features to make it easier for them to get familiar with it faster. 

In my new community site, i would provide incentive for developer to create smarter software applications designed to meet some of the challenges that the elderly faces while trying to get involved in the New Media world. For instance, having a new kind of community website in which allows people who are 70 years old or older to fell part of society again will make them become more interactive and have a voice in society again. 

Another benefit of this new free open source community site would be to help keep the elderly safe and healthy.  Provide an easy communination channel  between elderly and  their care takes, neighbors and friends will make it safer for them. Whenever they need something they can go online and ask someone for help without having to leave their homes. They would be able to talk to nurses, doctors and other care takes through thins new and simpler coomunity website. This would also safe society a lot of money because many times the elderly don’t seek treating in the begining of an illness because they can not leave their homes or because they don’t know who to talk to about the problem they are having.

This new community site  would have fewer but important and easy to use features to make it easier for the elderly to engage in discussions about things that are relevant to them.  Bigger icons and bigger bottoms would facilitate them to see and use the new user graphical interface.  Content would be access through voice commands and  organized in simple ways so they could get the information they need as fast as possible.  A new voice activation system, would allow them to say words and sentences instead of typing them into specific subject fields.  Doing that we would be making information about new products, medicine, package tours easily for them to shared and access without having to go through a lot of  stress. 

I believe that the government should pay for the development of this new technology.  I think it is the least we can do to make the voice of millions of people who have been left behind in  the New Media  wave and help them  become active participants and beneficiaries of all the new technological innovations that exist today and that will become available in the future.

But government is not the only one interested on privacy and confidentiality of online users’ information been displayed on the New Media means of communication. Online ciber crimes involving identity theft and other related crimes have made online users to question and to become more aware of the impact of securiy on their private information. It is hard to safe guard one’s privacy in an online environment due to the open nature of the internet itself. A lot of people feel more confident to share ideas, information that other personal fact about their lives with friends online than they do while meeting someone in person.

It is clear that as the internet becomes the “second home” for the genetal online population the Law and  Security System, which exist today will have to be change to guarantee safety and privacy of users who at this moment in time feel without protection and without having a safe and reliable place to get information and resources to protect themselves.

AB

BlackBoard which is the current system used by professors, students and admistration, is a closed system which allows communition only among students who are current registered to a specific classes and courses. Wiki  is an open system that allows users to share ideas. It seems that a new more interective and inter-disciplinary approach to New Media will contribute to its expansion.  As students interact with other students, new challenges and new ways to expand and to improve the physical struture that goes behind the current New Media will emerge.  Also, I believe that the school would strongly benefit if it add to its network struture ways for students to upload and share their videos in which they would be able to share their experiences while studying at Baruch.  By intergrating to its current network something like, Youtube that allows you to share videos, in which one can share his or her experiences about courses, majors, professors, staffs and other relevant information, then, Baruch New Media will become a more democratic and open institution where students who would like to come to study here could get a real feeling of what it will be like to study at Baruch College once they start their classes here. 

AB

According to a study presented in the SOURCE  King Fish Media in SALEM, Mass., Oct. 14 /PRNewswire/ — “A new study released found that a structural change in the world of media is drivingmarketers to rethink the business of reaching customers and prospects.The King Fish Media 2009 Survey on Marketing, Media and Measurement, conducted inpartnership with HubSpot, Junta42 and the Upshot Institute, reveals that where traditional advertising was once a foregone conclusion and a focal point of all marketing efforts, companies are now revising old formulas and creating new ones.  Above all, their ability to use new media channels to reach audiences directly and to measure the value of their response and interactionis advancing a trend:  companies are abandoning other’s media platforms infavor of creating their own original channels and content.
To read more about this topic and the findings of this study visit the link below.

New Study Finds Marketers Planning Shift In Advertising Dollars in 2010: Old Media Losing Ground to New Media and Custom Content.[ http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS135103+14-Oct-2009+PRN20091014

Cost-effective new media technologies are making it easier for small firms to enjoy some of the benefits that previously were only available to large companies. An empirical study of 192 large and small companies indicates that small firms are using new media technologies to level the competitive playing field.

Some of the technologies that one will find among all the mentioned websites above are: the ability to search content which has been facilitated by using a smaller number of keywords to describe topics,  the ability to create, edit and share content through links, RSS feeds  and other forms of sharing information and  ability to collaborate in the creation of new content which is often in one single place. All of these feature which were not present in Web 1.o make the New Media a more democratic, more dynamic and faster than ever before. Today, users can share contents with other in  pace never before possible. This ability to share and create content collective has opened new opportunities for business. As one can see the words of Andy Raskin  in his article “Giving it Away (for Fun and Profit) Creative Commons encourages artists to share and distribute their work for free. And that could be the key to a new multibillion-dollar industry,” “the sharing economy that now became a must in Web 2.o  is built on a supply-and-demand equation wholly alien to traditional media companies.” A totally new segment and market has been create based upon all the new technologies that developed from web 1.0 basic concepts.

Most of the new technologies that we see today would not be possible if it was not for the Internet. Internet is the heart and soul of New Media. As the World Wide Web becomes more and more part of our everyday life, more and more people are spending more time creating, sharing and editing content in a “Online Social Environment” and that is possible because of the Internet. Today, computers are faster and we can exchange information at a peace which we may not thought possible twenty years ago.  Thanks to the Internet and its fast growing popularity, people are become real online citizens who feel free to express and seek out their personal interests. No matter what kind of interests someone may have, he or she can be certain that he can find a community of people who share some interests and who are blogging, chatting or Twitting about it any time of the day and night.

The “sharing economy” is built on a supply-and-demand equation wholly alien to traditional media companies

All the transformations and natural online evolution, which has happened in the last few years has contributed to the creation of the New Media. However, one cannot argue the importance of the Old Media in terms of creating the basis for what we now know as Web 2.o.  New Media is  the Old Media plus all the technological advances, which has taken place on the Internet in the last new years.  In a more singular view,  the old media has been enhanced by the  all the new technological advances to give bird to what is now know as the New Media.

AB

Corporations and users alike are taken full advantage of YouTube video sharing system to expand their markets and to better understand consumer’s behavior. While some of us are watching silly videos about animals and other inviduals who insist in making fun of themselves, companies are studying and experiments with new ways to collect and analyze online user’s data so they can find new ways to sale more of their products and services. YouTube also plays a great role in balancing power in society. YouTube is a place where one can express his or her opinions about other individuals, companies and products. This site empowers consumers in a way never seen before, as more and more people become part of these communities they shave information and values that helps them to better evaluate their peers and companies.

But, it is this very same ability and democratic characteristics, which is thought be connected to the new generation of the internet, web 2.0, that makes it also so dangerous. The idea that almost anything can be said and done online without one having to account for it, has caused a lot social distress for a lot of people. For instance, when people post videos of others exposing them a way that is clearly not appropriate or when companies use dirty tricks to get online users information so they can formulate better ways to sell their products and services, then, we find ourselves in a position that might be far from ideal.

Most of problems that occur online seem to be related to lack of control and lack of authority that seems to prevail in these new virtual worlds. As the article”I Tube, You Tube, Everybody Tubes: Analyzing the World’s Largest User Generated Content Video System” by Meeyoung Cha, Haewoon Kwak, Pablo Rodriguez, Yong-Yeol Ahn, and Sue Moon, suggested the “The video popularity and ratings (i.e. the number of view-ers who evaluated the video) show a strong linear relation-ship for both UGC and non-UGC, with the correlation co-efficient of 0.8 for YouTube and 0.87 for Yahoo. This is an interesting observation, because it indicates that users are democratic enough to spend almost the same amount of effort to rank both good and bad contents which they find online.  This is a good indication that if rules and more control are put into effect, people might be more open to follow them.

I believe that the future of the internet is going to be very bright when it comes to the fair to which users will treat and respect their online peers. However, I believe that there will be necessary that rules of conduct and behavior will have to be put in place to guide people on the right direction. Like with most new technologies it will take time for online users to understand what these new features and community sites are and in what way they are expected to behave once they join them.  Technological advances are and will be part of our future and we should be careful not to end up turning something with a lot of potential for good into something that will give a big social headache for all of us.

http://bbhosted.cuny.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_187391_1%26url%3d

Twitter allows students to send instant messages, which inform others interested in participating in discussions every time  new tweet has been entered. This allows for users to quickly replay and add their inputs about the topics being discussed. Also, the fact that one can use their mobile phones to create, receive and send tweets makes the whole discussion process much faster and more interactive.  One can also argue that because Twitter allows only 140 characters at once, people might tend to be more direct and focus to the discussions being presented.

I truly believe that Twitter offers a better structure for discussions than Black Board does, it allows for easy access to information and does not require that one be in front of the computer to participate and share their thoughts and views with others.

AB

Social Networking gave a new meaning for the word belonging.  Companies are not more connected then ever before with their suppliers, customers and with professionals within their industries. Website such as Twitter, FaceBook and other social networking sites are becoming a daily part of any company which wishes to build a solid online presence. While individuals are chatting and exchange recipes, talking  lives or just checking what their close and not so close friends are up to, companies are trying to buy online real estate for themselves. They are engaging in discussion forums about products and paying close attention to what online users are saying about them and about their competitors. A big advantage of social networks is how fast news, good and bad are spreed online. As we saw in the article,”AT&T uses Twitter during service outage” by Marguerite Reardon, cnet News, April 9, 2009. Available at: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10216712-94.html, people can use social networks to alert other of every problems in traffic, an power outrage or even traffic problems.  Since millions of people can be reached fast, social network can be used to orient and alert the population at large in case of a local, national and international emergence.  This kind of social service is unique to social networks and it seems that this trend is here to stay.

Social networking is also allow businesses to feel closer than ever to their industry leaders and opening new market opportunities for them. Companies are hiring or assigning employees to manage and lead the discussions on blogs and social networks around the world. That helps them to better understand consumers, test new marketing strategies and get faster feed back about their products and practices.

The dark side of social networking is also becoming more and more visible. Companies are investing heavily in new software which are capable of collecting and saving online users data. That has many people skeptical about what kind of information is being collected and what it will be used for. In addition, more and more people are concerned with having their personal information such as date of birth, address and other relevant information stolen from their online profiles. Companies are also facing problems since it is becoming more difficult for them to control their products images and to avoid that bad feed back damage their marketing campaigns and even a whole product line.

As we can see, there are many advantages in using Social Networks for both companies and individuals.  As always it will take time for all of us really be able to size up the negatives and positive impacts of social networking in society as a whole.

AB

The first characteristic which one can not fail to see is the speed at which information is spread and collected with new media. Old media such as newspapers and magazines took long time to be produced and distributed.  On the other hand, Twitter and Facebook which are leading examples of the New Media have an amazing capability to collect and spread information at a pace never seem before.  With Twitter one can argue that information is spread as events unveils.  One can even argue that Old Media is no longer the primary source of information for a large part of the population. The reason for such a sift from the traditional newspaper to the online chats rooms, blogs and Twitties can be easily explained by the amazing speed at which these new means of communication allow users to share information.

A second feature that differenciate The Old Media from the New Media is the quality of content. Before, just a hand full of television channels, radio programs and newspapers controlled the information being passed on the the public. With New Media, millions of people are collaborating, sharing and exchanging information. No matter in what part of the planet one event took place, millions of users come together in blogs, wikis and on Twitter to talk about what happened and how the event is impacting them as it unveils. The quality and the amount of information comes from the diversity and the number of voices that one can hear in the discussions created daily. Such a prospect could not been possible and or certainly not the intention of television producers and newspapers editors all over the country and the world.

In summary, two of the mains features that differentiate the Old and New Media are the speed and the quality of contents being created. With new media, information is spread much faster and quality comes from the many inputs derived from users from all over the world.

Anselmo Ferreira.