Presentations and My future presentation

I would like to take this blog entry to talk about some of the presentations from the semester that I particularly enjoyed.

First of all, Kit did a great job discussing the elements of new media and sports. This is a very interesting topic to me personally because I was an intern with the Washington Nationals marketing department, and I know they have devoted time to promotion via facebook and twitter. Kit did an excellent job showing the effects that new media has on marketing of teams, but also athletes lack of discretion via new media platforms. Good work Kit.

Although many were not in class to see it, Tory did a terrific job presenting about youtube and fame. I had some prior knowledge of youtube phenoms such as Justin Beiber and the guy (?) who threw a tantrum defending Britney Spears, but Tory gave some knew examples, and even added that she was contemplating an attempt at fame via youtube as well. Youtube is one of my favorite sites on the internet and is a great use of new media technology, and this presentation showed the influence that new media now has on pop culture.

Meghan's presentation on licence plate recognition was really interesting and clearly well researched. It showed how new media can affect law enforcement in a positive way. It was amazing to see how far the technology has come. Well done Meghan.

I was impressed with all of your presentations, whether I mentioned them or not. This brings me to my next point... does anyone have any ideas they would like to give me for my presentation. I am the last one to present and the options are limited. I have a few ideas, but any suggestions would be welcomed! Thanks in advance.

-Will

Wikipedia Donations

If any of you have been on Wikipedia lately I'm sure you have noticed the large banner on the top that reads "Please Read: A personal appeal from Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales". I figured it had to do with donating money and I think there was a similar campaign last year to raise money for the site. I was curious and clicked on it. It reads as follows:

"I got a lot of funny looks ten years ago when I started talking to people about Wikipedia. Let’s just say some people were skeptical of the notion that volunteers from all across the world could come together to create a remarkable pool of human knowledge – all for the simple purpose of sharing.
No ads. No agenda. No strings attached.
A decade after its founding, nearly 400 million people use Wikipedia and its sister sites every month - almost a third of the Internet-connected world.
It is the 5th most popular website in the world - but Wikipedia isn’t anything like a commercial website. It is a community creation, written by volunteers making one entry at a time. You are part of our community. And I’m writing today to ask you to protect and sustain Wikipedia.
Together, we can keep it free of charge and free of advertising. We can keep it open – you can use the information in Wikipedia any way you want. We can keep it growing – spreading knowledge everywhere, and inviting participation from everyone.
Each year at this time, we reach out to ask you and others all across the Wikimedia community to help sustain our joint enterprise with a modest donation of $20, $35, $50 or more.
If you value Wikipedia as a source of information – and a source of inspiration – I hope you’ll choose to act right now.
All the best,
Jimmy Wales
Founder, Wikipedia
P.S. Wikipedia is about the power of people like us to do extraordinary things. People like us write Wikipedia, one word at a time. People like us fund it, one donation at a time. It's proof of our collective potential to change the world."

 

I think its a little corny but it does have a point. As much as teachers hate when students use wikipedia as a reference, I think its a very valuable site, and evidently a very popular site as well. I wouldn't go as far as to actually donate to it, but I would be pretty upset if I had to pay to start using it. I'm sure it would be a lot different if that was the case.

 

What do you guys think about this? Would you consider donating to it? Would you still use Wikipedia if it charged a fee?

 

 

Deactivating Facebook

Well I went through with it. As much as I like having facebook in my life to see whats going on and to keep in touch with my friends, I decided that it was best to deactivate the facebook. I am in contention for a job that I am very interested in, and I have a ton of work coming up the next few weeks thats really important that I do well on.

I figured instead of de-tagging all of the pictures that may be offensive to my potential employer and going through wall posts from friends that were somewhat distasteful, It'd be easier to just deactivate the facebook.

Also, I spend a deceivingly immense amount of time on facebook. For example, when I go to leahy to do work or write a paper, It takes me at least 20 minutes to actually start doing work. I always do my usual rounds of my e-mail, ESPN.COM, MLBtraderumors.com, and the most time consuming, Facebook. I don't think I even realize how much time I waste on facebook.

I noticed while deactivating my facebook, the website asks why you are leaving facebook, and reminds you that your "friends" will miss you. It is very easy to reactivate your facebook, which is good for both the user and the company. I will miss some aspects of facebook, but this was the best choice for me right now.  Here is an interesting graph on time spent on the Internet, facebook is pretty high up there.

Have you guys ever deactivated your facebook or considered it? If so how did you feel about it?

New Media and Crime

I remember someone in class presented about facebook and crime (sorry I can't remember who!) and I wanted to blog about it and talk about the ways it can affect our lives as college students in smaller ways.

As some of you may know the popular bar "Thirsty Turtle" in College Park, MD had its liquor licence revoked yesterday due to a court verdict based on results of a sting operation planned by local police. The operation involved 2 undercover student police officers that presented the Thirsty Turtle bouncers IDs that indicated that they were not 21 years old but were admitted into the bar anyways. The turtle came into question after a violent incident in mid October that began inside the doors of the College Park bar; however it may be worth looking at it from a new media perspective...

The Thirsty Turtle has an active facebook page that has over 5,203 "Fans". I would have to imagine that some, if not most of these followers are not 21 or over. It was not stated in any report, but I'd have to imagine that in performing their due diligence the government investigators may have looked at some of these fans linked to the Thirsty Turtle; finding that some of them are not 21 and have frequented the establish enough to become a fan on facebook. If I was a detective on this case, I would absolutely exhaust Internet resources in order to at least gain a feel for the public image of the bar.

This brings me to my next point, should the Thirsty Turtle have had a facebook page? Sure it was good for promotions and free marketing, but I speculate that it may have cost them in the long run.

What do you guys think?