Friday, December 16, 2011

November 10: Anderson, Chapter 12 to end

The Future of the Long Tail was the topic for this week. Anderson starts off by showing how no one really knew that television would end up the way it is today. If you really look into it, sometimes I wonder if television is really considered tv at all. We watch movies, play games, and n the case of Dr. Kris we also use the box solely for Netflix to avoid commercials and standard programming that starts at a specific time and day. Personally, and a little off topic, I still love to come home on a wednesday and watch Law and Order: SVU...even to the point where I will decide not to go out if it conflicts with my law and order time.
I was shocked to read that there is actually 31 million hours of original television produced each year. This leads me to our class discussion on whether all or most of tv is basically garbage. I beg to differ, but ultimately it is a form of an escape for me. I cannot yell when my boss makes strange decisions, but I can watch my favorite actors do it on tv. I secretly applaud them while wishing I could do the same.
Back to the discussion of the Long Tail. Chapter 13 delves into eBay and how it is similar in performance to stores like Walmart, but ow it sales is entirely Long Tail. You can find pretty much anything on Ebay and sell pretty much anything as well. For example, I once operated a pretty successful ebay business and sold a book signed by Barack Obama for $2000..needless to say it was a very happy christmas that year. The future of Long Tail, as Anderson describes with various businesses, is that it appears to be taking over traditional media and ways of buying products. While I still believe we will have a need for a grocery store and movie theater, the necessity to go there instead of ordering it online will be less of a concern. I can't really remember the last time I bought something I truly loved from a department store...but I do remember buying great nostalgic dvds of old shows from a bargain online store. Things that we really consume everyday will likely still be a part of our process, but those items that we can wait for or entertainment that is available instantaneously is something that I believe is not a dying trend. The internet is growing faster than we can keep up and everyone is ultimately realizing it. I could be more influencial on the internet than in a boardroom full of stock holders and investors.
Anderson does list two ways to make a successful Long Tail Busines:
1. Make everything available
2. Help me find it. (p. 217)
He suggests that we should let the customers do the work. In the case of Ebay, they are just a platform for others to build their products, stores, and gain mounds of profit. They take a small percentage of the profits you gain and then host your item for a specific time until it sells. They even offer advice on how to sell i fast and for the best results in profits. Anderson also suggests that we think Niche... in the business world, we can find 20 different brands of socks at walmart. However, there are a few customers who just want green and black socks with pokadots on them...and where can they find them but online. This is the future of Long Tail. Because I work in the car industry, my suggestion would always be to have your products available online. In internet sales, my boss always says that we are no longer a few feet from our competitors, we are a mere piece of a centimeter on the internet. Our competitor is only a click away, so we have to build value in the price and features of what we sell online. The future of long tail to me means that I will definitely have a job in the future if I choose to hit the ground running in the realm of internet sales.

October 14th: Fans, Friends and Folowers

I didn't have a chance to hear the Planet Monkey interview and Coulton's response, but I will delve into Kirsner's paper. He does say a lot about how to engage with the audience, some examples include:

· Create opportunities for participation: audiences want to do more than just consume, they want to actively collaborate, craving “recognition and connection". When he mentioned that as a creator, you may not want fans to critique your creative style, but this will help in the process of making your work even better. It is a little bit scary to open up your work for many to ponder, like, dislike, and repost in various forms. However, the advantages of it can be grande. For example, one of my iReportMemphis YouTube videos about the Freedom Awards by the National Civil Rights Museum has been selected to be archived as part of their history. I could have chosen not to make that segment open for public debate and scrutiny, but my objective as a reporter is always to inform the public. Therefore, I was given the chance to let them critique on an open media such as YouTube...and they liked it :).

· The power of the link and how it can track how people are getting to your site is explored on page 6. Suggestion to offer exclusives to the media sites that generate the most traffic so that they will link back to your website is a hot topic here. I often look at analytics to see how people came to my site and i find that most people view it via Mobile Media. Now this is new to me, but nonetheless something to think about. The way a website looks via mobile media is completely different than what it looks like via the original website. You don't have the fancy borders or great layout that you spent months creating; you just have posts about your topics. Therefore, you have to learn how to know your audience and make choices to fit their needs. I need to focus more on the blog posts than the overall look of the blog itself, because many of my readers will not see the entire site...just the post. More links, videos and pics tend to engage readers more.

· Ask for reviews and ratings, send advance copies and access to mentors and influencers of your new project to gain their support (p.7). I simply LOVE this idea. I think asking for reviews opens up a plethora of ways for people to see your work. Having them rate it, such as on YouTube, opens the doors for positives and negatives...but overall it gives you feedback. I tend to use the ratings to see how people are interacting with my posts, if they learn anything from it and if it was helpful to them. Creating a site that warrants people to want to make reviews gets me excited about how their feedback and links to my posts can generate more traffic.

Everyone who chooses to become a fan, friend, or follower is ultimately a contributor to the ideas you place on a particular medium. I just discovered that you can request to be someone's friend on Youtube, though I am unsure about what you do after that. I love Kirsner's paper though, and I will surely use it on my upcoming graduate school project.

Sept. 22: Professionals vs. Amateurs

In the battle between professionals and amateurs...the real debocle is trying to decide which is which. In my personal experience, I have always called myself a professional filmmaker because I've invested time, money, and countless amounts of dedication to learning in order to make my craft better. As far as being perfect, I think that there is still much work to be done. One of the filmmakers I used to work with once told me that in order for me to be taken seriously as a professional, I have to act the part. I have to be able to produce work that is accommodating to the prices I charge and not price myself below what I feel is professional.
Leadbetter and Miller describe ProAm as "amateurs who work to professional standards." They also describe them as "knowledgable, educated, committed and networked, by new technology." It was interesting to read about how the operating system Linux was formed, by a student who saw the need to make something difficult more simple and accessible. He is a professional, but starting out seen as an amateur. This gets me pondering who is it that makes the rules on who can become an amateur or a professional. If a blogger decides, like me, to create an independent news site to show positive news about Memphis, would I be considered a professional reporter or merely an amateur.
I also wonder about the term citizen journalism, and if it is another form of giving amateurs a way to build their status. Levinson touched on Citizen Journalism in his book New New Media, showing how this is the reference often given to bloggers. Bloggers have arisen in staggering forms, and some amateur creations have become dominant sources for professional news, ie the Huffinton Post. Levinson gave some ideas on how to monetize your blog.
  • 5 general ways of making money from your own blog (monetizing your blogs) (p.28):
    • Google AdSense
    • Amazon Associates
    • PayPerPost
    • PayPal Donation Widget
    • Place ads direct from Advertisers
  • Using Widgets, images and videos in your blog (p.35)
  • Gauging readership: Statcounter and SiteMeter, Technorati (measures blog by link that go back to your blog), Alexa, Google PageRank, Digg (p.37)
There are some who say that moetizing a blog only refutes the actual purpose of the blog, but there are many bloggers out there who make it their sole job to report on different things...so perhaps they need a way of funding that job. In my case with iReportMemphis, I think that monetizing my blog with only local ads is a good way of adding more readers plus funding what it is that I do. If I could do this solely for a living, I may just do that.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Oct. 27: Jenkins Chapter 3

Reading Jenkins Chapter 3 about the Matrix and the complexities of how it evolved from a movie, to a game, to comics, and then wrapping back up was something I had never looked at before now. I love the original first Matrix, after that the trilogy seemed to take on a more niche market than I was prepared for. While the trilogy itself was pretty good, I think that the third fell onto what many trilogies do for me, which is a perplexing end. Jenkins mentioned that in order to create something like The Matrix you have to have a world complete with its own terminology that people can decipher, add to, and play on. This reminds me of the Lord of the Rings phenomenon and the language of the people that seemed to mold into reality wherein everyday folks were speaking elvish...hmmm. I'm not quite sure how to respond to that, but we do live in a world where I am very social online to an array of strangers I do not know. The term transmedia isn't defined very clearly in Jenkins's book, and leads me to think that it is the adaptation of entertainment across many platforms of media. However, to correct myself, I did a little research on this term.
Of course, Wikipedia would be the immediate Top Hit for a definition, and because we have discussed it's validity as far as being reliable, I can use their definition as a starting point. Their definition is as follows: "From a production standpoint, it involves creating content that engages an audience using various techniques to permeate their daily lives. In order to achieve this engagement, a Transmedia production will develop stories across multiple forms of media in order to deliver unique pieces of content over multiple channels. Importantly, these pieces of content are not only linked together (overtly or subtly), but are in narrative sync with each other." (Wikipedia).
I like this idea because it gives "True Fans" that we discussed earlier an avenue to explore different parts of the world created by entertainment. True Fans may be emersed in every part of the matrix. I actually find this to be a very clever idea, though I am quite sure it is an adaptation of what advertisers have been doing for years...just on a level more relevant to the new social media around today.

Oct. 20: Jason Scott

This is an overdue post...trying to catch up :)

When we had our guest speaker Jason Scott, it was really interesting to hear him speak via Skype. Mind you, I've done skype chats before but never an an introduction for a group of people. I am simmering with ideas on skype chats for other classes and guest speakers on campus.

Jason had a lot to say about his niche startup. I love the fact that he has been able to find such creative ways for funding something that is really a niche market and would normally be hard to find a large audience for. I do think innately we all have a bit of geek in us though. Take, for example, my love of shows like the Wonder Years and I Love Lucy. I'm quite a fanatic, but this would seem normal to people 10 to 20 years older than me. To my peer group, however, a fascination with I Love Lucy is a bit before their time period. I do mea a fanatic..I had every episode, lunch boxes, clothes and accessories, and when I went to Disney World at 12 years old my little heart overjoyed to see that they actually had a Lucy Store.

In any case, although his startup is a little outside of my interest, the way he was able to package,distribute, and fund everything is pretty amazing to me. I would add to his funds simply for the fact that he is doing something he loves to do and for other people who love it as well. I am also a filmmaker so I know how hard it can be to get your films to the public and have everyone really like them. He did a good job and the sype guest was really interesting for a different kind of classroom

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Media 2.0

*My apologies for the late return ... working a double shit before and after class so I passed out when I got home :(

For my Media 2.0 Project, I created an independent news site called iReportMemphis. The purpose of this site is to show positive and investigative news stories about Memphis. There is so much controversy over the negative stories in Memphis that I wanted to show people some positives. Throughout this process I learned the value of making things cohesive and different tricks of the trade. For example, I would highlight news stories on my personal facebook page with a teaser, then send my friends directly to the blog of facebook page for the whole story. It's like being able to see the real news of television, but there are great stories instead of car crashes and murders. Not all stories can be positive if some news stories must be told, as in the case of Larry Porter being fired from UofM. For this reason, I added the investigative aspect to my news site. I also created a daily paper that generates new news content every 24hrs and post that to the facebook page.

Here are the links:

Blog: ireportmemphis.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ireportmemphis
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ireportmemphis
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/jesadler2268
iReportMemphis Daily Paper: http://paper.li/iReportMemphis/1322549272

The stats are as follows:

Facebook: 32 likes, 4 people talking about it, 131 total weekly reach
Blog: 1,140 views of all time, 3 blog followers, one comment follower (not sure why but there is such a thing as a comment follower)
Twitter: 32 followers, occassional RTs
YouTube: 250 views of first story, 3 likes
iReportMemphis Paper: 23 views, 2 subscribers


Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Media 2.0 project

for my media 2.0 project I chose to do a blog on http://www.blogger.com/

My blog was an artist blog that represented different artistic individuals and I provided artist profiles and decriptions of the work that was uploaded.  Reaching out to other blogs was difficult and out of the 20 emails I sent out I only heard back from one person. some of the other blogs I looked at would have been good but they became ilrelevant to use due to the fact that the individulas didnt update their blogs regularly.  other oproblems were things such as people being able to leave comments but that problem was later corrected.  I promoted my blog by putting links on 10 of my friends facebook pages and they reached out to friends they had.  This project was interesting but I dont feel I have the true knack to keep up my blog.

shannon-creatingvisions.blogspot.com
facebook.com/creatingvisions.blogspot.com

last page

My page link is http://www.wix.com/tajiah4/my-world-of it has all of my links i used in the creation of this web page .

Media 2.(0

so this is my 3rd time trying to post this blog but i decided to do my blog on none other than fashion. I am a fanatic of fashion. I really use all the extra money I earn to shop. I really have an addiction and a problem. so this is why i decided to blog about it. when u see my blog u will know that i am fashion and color coordinated crazed. here is my link>>>>http://jashma89.blog.com/ i so loved working this project i was able to share with every one that looked how i shop and how cheap i actually buy things at. I am a non nonsense person about fashion i know it all.
My blog tell all the places to go get fashion and there websites are listed as well i even went as far email sign ups so i can be the first to know what is cheap and on sale. I am a major cheap person but i do spend on what i really want.
websites:
tjmaxx.com
marshalls.com
h&m.com>>cant order clothes from here
a&f.com
I really enjoyed doing and updating this blog it was really fun and the class was hella fun as well

Media 2.0 Project

My media 2.0 project deals with.... guess what?????? Yeah you guessed it. Sports. Why would I want to talk about anything else..
I decided to do a blog site on tumblr that discusses social media in sports and how it is such a major factor in our culture. Social media has affected our world in a very big way so I kind of wanted to document it along the way. I enjoyed doing the research for the project and writing on it. I felt like a real sports reporter because with pretty much every post/story I added my own opinion with it. I do plan to keep the blog going after this class because it is very interesting to me what you can find on social media sites and how athletes and sports organizations are using them. We all know that we live in the internet age and even athletes, not just professional but amateur ones as well use social media as a means to connect to fans as well as owners of teams do the same thing.
My class blog is titled Sports Media (<------ click the link). http://sportsmedia.tumblr.com/

Also. I haven't updated my personal blog in a while but I will be over the break so feel free to check it out as well.
The DOCumentary


Media 2.0 Project

I decided to do a video for my project about going green and saving energy. In the beginning, I started out with a blog, but I don't think blogging is really "me." The video was kind of a tribute to Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter. Growing up, my brother used to do a really good impersonation of him and I thought it would be funny for my brother, "Irwin Thornberry" to hunt energy sucking homosapiens. I really enjoyed making the video and I was excited to see that everyday my hits on youtube are growing!! This was a cool project and a cool way to mix comedy with a serious issue. The link is posted below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6sKg-iAT-4

Semiotics from the Edge of Time

I decided to do my project on a subject that interests me: the semiotics of change. My plan was to focus on symbols going through current transition. Here is the introduction to my blog as well as links. I selected Tumblr because I'm familiar with the layout and it is easy to post to -- but in retrospect I would probably select a blog that allows for more feedback. Tumblr folk do a lot more liking than commenting.

Multi Media 2.0 Project

For my project, I decided to write a song, record it, and then create a music video for it. I didn't know exactly what I was getting myself into- now I do : ) It took time, effort and the help of several other people, but I think the project was successful

I first posted the audio recording only on November 27th. I advertised on Facebook with a link to YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbnP9kk0xIg&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1

I shared my recording with 31 people on Facebook which resulted in 25 comments, 14 likes, and 4 more shares.

On Youtube, my audio recording has received 174 views, 5 likes, 1 dislike, and 12 comments.

I posted the full music video on YouTube on December 6th, and it has received 8 views and one comment, which happens to be from my sister-in-law. Here is the link to my music video entitled "World Gone 2.0" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dro8Q-NoxPc&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1

Jesse Anderson
Media 2.0

Monday, December 5, 2011

Memphis Cycling

I chose to do my Media 2.0 project on the student organization I started here at the U of M. I already had a blog so I decided to revamp it, and link to other clubs in to other schools in different places that had successful cycling clubs. I chose to connect to these clubs via twitter and then link to them in a blog post.

I linked the blog to our Facebook page, Twitter, Google plus, and even posted about new blog entries on all these sites when a new one was written. The twitter has grown a little (I now have 7 followers!).

I posted on the blog things about the club, upcoming rides, etc. It worked in that I got people to come to some of the cycling club rides even though the weather was bad.

Links:


Promotion:
*Email list gathered from events we have had in the past was contacted about further events
*Posting on twitter and facebook
*Blogging and linking the entry to different social media sites

Stats:

7 followers on Twitter
187 fans on Facbook
6 followers on the blog
587 Pageviews (180 last month)


All in all I think this project has help lay solid ground for a social media network to be used by the Cycling Club.

Elvis Presley and Memphis Blog

For my media 2.0 project, I decided to create a blog about Elvis Presley and his significance and connection to Memphis: http://elvispresleyandmemphis.blogspot.com/
I posted regularly blog entries, such as Graceland, Sun Studio, Beale Street, his teenage life etc. I added some photos and received to every entry some comments.

Those pages have links to my side:

http://www.elvis-presley-forever.com/elvis-presley-and-memphis.html
http://elvislives.info/links/
http://elvisfansite.com/links/
http://www.elvis-history-blog.com/elvis_blog.html
http://elvispresley.com.au/ep/links/
http://online.elvis.com.au/
http://talkinginmemphis.wordpress.com


Promotion:
  • Email-marketing
  • Facebook: Sharing on walls, contact relevant Facebook groups, several mailing campaigns
  • Word-of-mouth-propaganda
Conclusion:
  • Overall pageviews: 784
  • 7 Backlinks
  • Traffic from different countries
  • Each entry has some comments
Daniel
http://elvispresleyandmemphis.blogspot.com/

Blog Project

For my media 2.0 project, I chose to create a Wordpress-blog (talkinginmemphis.wordpress.com), on which I posted about my experiences in the US, written from the view of an exchange student. I wrote about student life in Memphis, as well as about the trips we made other parts of the country. And I added photos that I shot over time, a tag cloud and a blog roll with some affiliated blogs that backlink to my blog. In general, acception and feedback turned out to be very good. People commented on my posts, shared their thoughts and experiences. To promote my blog, I mainly used Facebook to publish it and make it available for friends.

Julian

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Flickr Project

For my Media 2.0 Project, I created a flickr account, under the username hypnic jerks.

I've been in the flickr community for a while and never changed the way I used the site - to upload and find. With this project, I used the power of tagging, geotagging, and joining groups to become more connected to the flickr community, and have received feedback and views. I learned more about what works and doesn't. The positive reinforcement inspires me to continue shooting and improve.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnicjerks/

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Class Conclusion

Where do i start in mentioning what i've learned in this course this semester? I should first start by saying that this post probably will not accurately account for all that I have consumed. But this has been a very interesting semester and it was a fun class. I particularly liked the discussions in class and the feedback from all the students. Hearing each person's view on different topics made for better conversation in class and for more memorable moments. Of course since the class was Media 2.0 we learned exactly what that meant, as far as the long tail, niche cultures, media convergence, fandom, produsers, etc. There are many terms that now have a lot of meaning to them for not just me but i'm sure for everybody that was in the class semester. I enjoyed taking what we now know about the long tail and niche cultures and applying it to my everyday life. Needless to say that my everyday life consist mainly of sports but Media 2.0 is very much in the sports world in different aspects but now I just have a better understanding of how to interpret things.
I'm sure there were some other things I was suppose to touch on in this last post. But I don't have my notebook in front of me. So if i left something out, feel free to comment and let me know and i'll try to add some more.
I had a good time this semester and hopefully everyone else did as well. The internet is here to stay and it isn't going anywhere anytime soon so hopefully we get to see how it continues to affect our culture in the upcoming years but now we'll be able to understand the dynamics of it.

Project repost

It was just drawn to my attention that the original link didn't post.

So here it is again, my blog dealing with depression, withdrawal, and mental illness.

Blogspot.overcomingmymonsters

My Media 2.0 Project

I decided to do a style blog as my project for Media 2.0.  My biggest reason for this is because I've never put myself out in the "public eye" so to speak.  And I felt this would be a great way to do that.  I also decided to do this blog because I love what other bloggers of this nature are doing, so I wanted to add my 2 cents in.  I never realized all the work that goes into doing a blog until this project.  If you want your project to be successful, you have to stay with it. 

One of my biggest advertising avenues was using Networked Blogs.  All you have to do is set up your profile, add your blog name, select which web sites you want to publish your blog posts, and it takes care of the rest.  I set mine to publish my new posts in FaceBook and Twitter.  And with the help of my friends retweeting my Network Blogs tweet and sharing in FaceBook, I have so far gotten over 250 hits to by blog.   And I also got help by adding tags to my blog posts. 

I have really enjoyed doing this project and I plan on keeping it going after I graduate.  Here is a list of my URL's:

www.DialSForStyle.blogspot.com
www.networkedblogs.com
www.facebook.com/ascarborough
www.twitter.com/#!/karamelreign 

Event Management 101

I did my project on the life of an event manager in the sport and entertainment industry. Thomas Carrier is the event manager at FedExForum and I videotaped the duties he performs at his job. My main goal was to create a visual aid that would educate individuals who are interested in a position like this. The most education one can gain on the topic of managing events is taking courses, interning or volunteering. The most effective way to determine if you are interested in a position of this caliber is to get involved with hands on experience. The current state of our economy has unfortunately limited these opportunities in order to cut expense. My passion for this topic is rooted in my hopes to have a career in a sports and entertainment industry someday. I created a YouTube page for all the videos and a WordPress blog to produce educational content that cannot be said in video that must remain short and engaging. The Twitter account was to help me promote the content but also provided a second function that I had not thought of before starting the project. I figured if I follow multiple entities and organizations around the wold that are closely linked with the duties of an event manager, it would serve a purpose of generating a list that links outside entities to the job duties of the event manager. I started following other event managers, arenas, stadiums, corporations, promoters, and agencies that revolve around the career. The videos allow you to look into the action of what happens backstage at events, and I hope you find that the show or game does not start and end with the artist and players but those who create the opportunity for that event to transpire.

Class Project on Flickr

My wife is a very talented individual. She is a photographer. Working in Photography services at the University of Memphis, she shot many photos of Tiger football and basketball in the years before her retirement, but I think her best work was shooting photos of Memphis as a hobby. I have wanted to display some of her work for years, and this class project has given me that opportunity. At the suggestion of Dr. Markman, I used Flickr and my wife's photos for my class project. I have created a Flickr photo group of Memphis Neons by Phyliss. I first had to have the photos scanned to CD by converting them from analog to digital format. From the digital format I was able to introduce them to my Flickr account and edit them into a group. For the first group, and for demonstration purposes, I used neons of the Memphis music scene. Each photo has been given a brief description and has been tagged by key words for location by other groups with similar photos. Each photo has been mapped for location, and shared on my Facebook account as well. I intend to follow all post and views with the ultimate goal of creating a web site to possibly sell some of the photos online. Memphis Neons by Phyliss can be viewed at http://www.flickr/groups/memphisneons/. If there proves to be significant interest in this photo group, I will create even more on different topics.

Malvin Massey, Jr.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

PRESENTATION URLS AND INFO

Hate The Deed

I did my Media 2.0 project in the form of a Blog. I did a lot of trial and error. Once I created a blog, I had no clue where to go from there. I read an article online that suggested sites like Yahoo! Q&A.. Epic Fail! I did answer dog posts and then included my URL, and I saw that people were visiting the sites, but they were not staying or following, or commenting on anything I posted. So, I decided to strictly focus on the Blog Elements, and get in touch with fellow pet bloggers. I came across the website PBU. They did a special new blogger post on me, and this opened a lot of new doors. I also commented on animal related blogs, mostly blogs relating to pit pulls. There were over 40 comments that I made on other peoples blogs, I saw Over 40 because there are some that I forgot to keep track of, but 40 is still a good number for this short term project. I commented on others blogs and responded to the majority of the comments on my blog. When seeing other popular animal blogs I would take some of their elements and style and try to tie it in with my blog. I have 406 hits as of yesterday of my blog. Generally I receive about 20 hits for a new post. I really enjoy commenting on other blogs and seeing their styles. Creating a banner is something i had difficulty with. Blogger is not well equipped to do that. And with my computer I do not have PhotoShop. But I've really enjoyed this blog and have had a positive experience with it.
Kim

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Concusion

Needless to say, I am please with yet another class of Ms. Markman's, I find that the learning experience is so unique and allows us all to be so involved, that learning is actually done, not just memorizing.

Three key things I will take from this semester are Produsage, Collective Intelligence, and Participatory Culture.
Produsage because it kind of blurs the line between the amatuer and the professional. Who really is professional these days? We all have the same capabilities to distribute. I am an ETSY fan, and I have my own account, I have the capability of managing my own store ONLINE. This allows me to create and sell, using a free internet source. Artists dont have to rely so heavily on setting up a booth for art festivals as much, they can put it on line and allow others to view it. They can connect their blog to their shop for more advertising to their Etsy shop. This allows me to be actively involved in produsage.
Collective Intelligence was really interesting to learn about, and getting the hands on experience from the Wikipedia project. This gave me a hands on experience and a hands on look at how collective Intelligence works. I was able to put my input in the article, and so was the rest of the world. And the wonderful thing about that, is it allows us to review and change and make these articles perfect so that it can allow others to learn from it. No one person knows everything, so having people around the world contribute allows us to get a more accurate representation.
Participatory Culture, Okay so since we kind of spent a lot of time in class about this, I am going to say that I am participating in this class via Blog Post. I believe I can do the same with Participatory culture in regards to Movie Fandom as well. Each blog post or social networking site Post I make allows me to become apart of the show. It allows me to feel as if I am doing something larger than just watching a television. So I think participatory culture can be divided into levels. From posting online comments, writing new scripts, or creating fan fiction!!

Class Conclusion

This class has been great all semester and the one class I feel I have actually learned new content. I feel like today’s class was so engaging and because it allowed so much “participation” among all of us as we synthesized the whole semester.

I have always felt like I was a computer and internet wizard but this class has completely opened my eyes to all the complex and niche areas of the world wide web that I honestly did not know about. One of the key things I will take away from this class is the realization that “Wikipedia is not a bad source”. As students, we hear so many times to not use Wikipedia as a source in academic papers; that it is unreliable. However, from this class I’ve been exposed to the concept of collective intelligence and that is basically the whole essence of Wikipedia. All of us cannot be experts on all the topics and concepts in the world, yet if there are a few individuals who know different and specific information on one topic then they collaborate and collect all that information to create full range of content on that topic. Wikipedia has allowed for those individuals to share that knowledge with the world that others may not have ever known.

The second element that I will take away from this class is the actual participation in participatory culture. The Internet is this realm where we have the ability to place whatever we like or create out there for the entire world to see. Once we place that content on the web we want others to like it with us and we are full aware whether they do or do not. This realm is place where people can freely express their opinions through comments, “likes’, retweets, mentions, ratings, ect. without exposing their face. As the producer or consumer of the content we tend to react based on those opinions. I have mentioned it before but my experience came from the Wikipedia and our Media 2.0 projects on the graduate end. I was proud of the content I created for the Wikipedia project and wanted others to see what I had produced; yet in the end my article barely has any of my original work. (oh well, learning through participation, right?) I have created a YouTube page for my Media 2.0 project but it still has low number of views, due to others not being interested or lack of exposure. But of course people on YouTube probably don’t want to see some amateur documentary on her dream job and would rather watch some cheerleader freak-out as she won some competition. I just don’t get it.

Lastly, I will take a way from this course the unanswered questions on what defines participation and professionalism. I loved our discussions on what each of us have viewed as the definition of these concepts as well as opening my eyes to be more aware of who claims to be participating in something and who claims to be a professional. Analyzing the surrounding content of those claims among friends, the Internet, and media has really put the concepts of our class in real life.


I’ve enjoyed this class and look forward to taking Communications in the Internet next semester.