The Next New Thing

Communication via the internet took another big leap when live video calling became available to anyone with a computer and webcam, or a smartphone. I think the next huge leap would be communication via virtual reality worlds in which virtual reality hang outs are possible. Hologram projection would also be huge. You commonly see it in movies where it's possible to look at and talk to someone as if they're right there in the room with you. Wouldn't it be wild if it became a common occurence?

Our Class Wiki - So Far

I have not contributed to the class wiki as of yet, but I did plan on contributing to the Gaming section of the wiki with info about live streaming games on twitch.tv, what partnership on twitch can do for gamers, and how job opportunities, and sponsorships are also a possibility. I also wanted to maybe add some basic knowledge on fighting games as it is mentioned briefly as one of the many genres of video games.

P2P File Sharing

File sharing, the act of transmitting files from one computer to another via the Internet, has become quite popular in today's technology age. File sharing sites like Mediafire and 4shared are commonly used to upload files directly from ones computer onto the web in which it becomes available for those who are permitted by the uploader (public or private). P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing is a form of file sharing in which multiple computers, known as peers, are connected to each other via the internet, and a p2p software program. The p2p software program connects a p2p network in which any computer systems on the network are able to access each other and share media files such as music, movies, books, and even games. Each computer on the network acts as both a file server, and a client. "BitTorrent lets users quickly upload and download enormous amounts of data, files that are hundreds or thousands of times bigger than a single MP3." says Clive Thompson in The BitTorrent Effect. uTorrent (a BitTorrent client), Morpheus, Tunngle, and Kazaa are some other examples p2p file sharing programs.

Privacy & Confidentiality

Today people have become lax when it comes to privacy and confidentiality. On social media, it is becoming more common to see people share more information than they should. Many link their phone numbers, or even put their locations in their account info. They also post information about where they work, what their daily routines are, info about their family members/friends, etc. Sharing so much info is very dangerous over the net as you never know who may try to exploit it. I recently watched a vid of a guy who pranked players in a video game by mentioning their actual names or locations over the mic to give them a scare if they messed with him. He was able to find out that much just from researching their usernames which a lot of the time also brought up their facebook accounts. There's an interview on it all here: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-virtuallyvain-finds-your-info-for-the-african-drug-lord-videos-2016-8. All in all, be very careful with what you share online.

Advice to the College

A lot of companies/establishments nowadays utilize social media as a means to communicate with their customers and potential customers Brooklyn College already have Facebook and Twitter accounts, but I feel that the college would also benefit from adding Snapchat to their arsenal. With Snapchat, the college could share brief videos of activities happening on the campus to all their followers in the form of individual snaps, or stories, which are a compilation of snaps. Sports games, career fairs, and class activities can all be shared basically as they're happening for those who have never experienced any of these campus events.

Creativity

New media allows one to share their creativity with the world and even provides an opportunity for them to gain from sharing their creativity. In the New York Times article Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers, Claire Cain Miller states, "Lego started a site called Design byME, where fans can use Lego design software to create their own models. Lego then sells the designs, effectively offloading the design cost to fans." Exposure, feedback, money; all of these are quite valuable to one who wants to put their creativity out there for the rest of the world to see, and with new media it is all very possible.

Creativity and New Media

Since I dabble in video games a lot in my spare time, I end up coming up with a lot of things that are either creative, funny, or could be useful to other people that play these games. With new media technology like Youtube, I'm able to share this content with anyone who's interested out there in the world. Here is an example of something creative in one of these games:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE1jw9tSkNg