Podcasting

Reading 1
In the podcast, How creativityis being strangled by the law, Larry Lessig talks about how new technology is being brought about and it is unable to be used to it’s fullest potential due to the fact of the hinderance of laws. Ultimately, Lessig, would like to believe if all individuals were able to use their creativity in conjunction with the technology the possibilities would be endless. One of the key ideas brought about by Lessig’s talk was that of the ReadWrite technology and how the internet revives this thought. In addition this revival brings about the “amateur culture” which is not that of the inexperience but rather the production of something based solely for the love of it rather than the necessity of it. A second key idea was the law not greeting this technology with open arms but instead coining the individuals who are using the technology more as copy right infringers or better yet trespassers. Lessig believes that common sense has not been used to enable this new form of creativity. Lastly, the third key idea was the solution to technology advancing through creativity is the artists need to not be so private with their ideas and creations but allow others to use the ideas as stepping stones and go further with them to create bigger and better things.
The most difficult concept developed in this podcasting was individuals and the law turning their heads to copy right infringement and laws. The laws were put into place for a reason and even though they may be hard to get around in order to use the technology to it’s best capability they are there to protect the individuals who were creative enough in the first place to create.
A couple of questions regarding this podcast are is there another way to get around the laws in order to still foster the creativity without being illegal and do the laws need to be changed in order to allow the creativity or is the creativity already brought about and we are not doing a good job to seeing it.
This reading does indirectly relate to my topic and brings more questions to mind for me to look into. In thinking about social networking and teenagers in regards to online relationships and how weak or strong the ties are maybe there is a missing link of creativity that is being brought about by these ties which is being overlooked. Maybe it’s not about the weak or strong ties between the relationships but more so how creative the individual is being and do these ties bring out more creativity because the individuals are now able to find others who have the same ideas and thoughts through the use of the internet and the online social networking sites.

Reading 2
The article, The Changing Face of Workplace Learning, speaks to the point of training in the workplace and how it is ever evolving. The new wave of workplace training is podcasting and or vodcasting. Podcasting is the idea that employees can download a training session straight to a their PC or in an effort to be more mobile the podcasts can be downloaded to a portable MP3 player such as an IPOD or in some cases a mobile phone or Blackberry. This change in training techniques enables companies to attack all angles of training needs especially in key areas such as the sales force whom are constantly on the go and outside of the office, ultimately unable to receive the traditional type of training in a classroom setting.
One key idea brought out by the reading is the notion of Tivo-ing the radio so anyone who would like to listen to a podcast can do it on their own time instead of at the specific time it is being presented. The idea of Tivo-ing the radio is brought about by the “format’s time-shift capability” which “enables more productive load-balancing during the workday, and the ability to listen on the go while driving to client meetings or work, walking the dow, or running on the treadmill, transforms downtime into constructive time”. A second idea is people being on the move and tailoring the technology to fit the need. Once the mobile learning strategy has been integrated then decisions like, “how long should the podcasts be? How frequently will they be produce? What format best addresses the audience, the company’s culture, and its business needs?” Depending on the answers to the above questions helps to define how the technology can be best used in each individual company’s learning experience in addition to tailoring it specifically to the culture. Lastly, a third key idea is creating a culture which promotes the idea of using podcasting outside of the workplace and on personal time. In order to adopt podcasting as a way of teaching the company needs to motivate the individuals to “devote their personal time to work” and this can be achieved by “a significant change in the company culture” which “means creating a completely new approach to learning”. This idea is a must if podcasting even has a chance of surviving as a way of learning.
The most difficult concept to grasp in this reading was the idea of turning the podcasting and vodcasting over to employees. I understand this approach brings about a type of realism to the employees but I can also see how this can be a liability to the company and would like to explore further how companies deal with this issue.
A couple of questions I would like to explore further is what type of culture does it take to adapt a type of learning technique as this and how would a company go about enforcing this technology on the individuals especially on the older generation who may not be as technologically savy.
This reading particularly relates to my topic of social networking in the fact that through this article a lot of networking takes place in this technology. Especially through the idea of doing podcasting with a follow up blog set up to address any additional questions or concerns an individual may have through listening to the podcasting. This would be a prime area of other individuals who have the same issues to talk them out through the blogging and then form a bond of some type. The point I would like to see through further is whether or not this bond is a weak or strong tie and is something I am currently investigating amongst teenagers but would like to seek out further in the future.

Article 1
The Quality of Online and Offline Relationships: The Role of Multiplexity and Duration of Social Relationships.

The focus of this study was personal relationships during adolescence in which the thought was the social relationships outside of the family expand and their quality is linked to various behavioral outcomes. The study looked at the social similarity, homophily, and quality of social ties, the duration of the relationship, and the multiplexity of the relationship. The study was part of the annual national youth survey conducted by the Minerva Center of Youth Studies at the University of Haifa. The data was collected between June and October of 2004 and covered a representative sample of 1000 households in Israel.
The findings of the study provided partial support for the association of social similarity and various measures of relational intensity and content of the relationship. In addition the study confirmed the argument that adolescents with an online friend reported the friend was known for a shorter time than face-to-face friends, they discussed fewer topics and they participated in fewer shared activities. Overall the findings indicate that online friends play a reduced and probably more specialized role than the face-to-face friends at extracurricular activities and parties. Finally, the study found that online friends tend to be perceived as less close than face-to-face friends and this is due to the dimension of time and topic of discussion. The reasoning behind this is face-to-face relationships tend to be holistic and not restricted to particular activities and topics where as online relationships are restricted to nonpersonal topics and not everyday activities which causes the online relationships to be perceived as less integrated in the daily life of the individuals and as more distant.

This article will be a good basis for me to start my argument that online social networking has weaker ties and is not as beneficial as face-to-face relationships amongst teenagers. I plan to use this article more extensively in my final paper.

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=20790468&site=ehost-live

Article 2
A Review of Online Social Networking Profiles by Adolescents: Implications for Future Research and Intervention.

The study implemented in this paper explored content posted by and interactions that took place by adolescents on online social networking profiles. The sample for this study was 100 randomly selected profiles authored by adolescents who where between the ages of 16 and 18. The content was coded by identifying rich thematic elements which were included family and social issues, risk behaviors, disclosure of personally identifiable information and frequent peer interaction.

The outcome of this study was very inconclusive because it raised more questions then answering the question it set out to prove or disprove. Observing the adolescent behavior within an online network supported the notion that profiles are rich in behavioral data as related to the development and individuation. The review of the profiles indicates the necessity fro more analysis on profiles to determine the importance of adolescent behavior and peer interaction as it relates to social relationships, risk behaviors, special interests, extracurricular activities and family dynamics.

Although this study had no profound or concrete findings on what I am trying to study it does show that further research needs to be conducted on this topic because it is not directly apparent.

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=33026178&site=ehost-live

Article #1
1. What does the author mean by political polarization?

Political polarization, to the author is the idea that the web provides so much information an individual is now capable of finding information on any topic therefore creating more of a divide between all sides of the issue.

2. What are your thought about the statement, "Governments feel they are royalty to some
degree"?

I think there is a certain air of royalty that emits from the government but royalty is established based on blood lines and even though in the government many of the individuals come from blood lines in which have ties to government in the past there is always a chance of a non-blood line individual making it into government. I think the government is charged with a big job of keeping the people protected and in doing so they have to make very difficult positions and are held responsible to know all sides to every issue in order to make the best decision. I think because the everyday people may not be as educated on all topics and issues they are quick to judge the government and it’s decisions.

3. Do you agree/disagree with the statement, "We've literally experienced an information tsunami-but more information does not mean better decisions"? Why?

I completely agree that we have experienced an information tsunami and that it does not mean better decisions. When a person is faced with a choice between black and white they have to choose on or the other but when there is black, white, grey and red how do you know which to choose? The more choices and information given the harder it is to figure out which one is the best.

4. The author states that "the very technology that is meant to solve problems merely makes people more emotional-not more reasonable". Give an example of a real life digital convergence that can be viewed to make people more emotional.

Blogging is a perfect example of people becoming more emotional due to digital convergence. People can start a blog for any reason, for example a former co-worker of mine had triplets three years ago and she started a blog so everyone could follow the progress of the triplets. It turned out one of the triplets was diagnosed with being profoundly deaf and had cochlear implants. Through her blog she was able to express all the feelings she encountered during the journey she has embarked upon and was able to gain support from other people who have children with the same condition as well as others who could not be near to her but could show their support through blogging.

Article #2

1. The Web has been a platform for the creation of a wide and unanticipated variety of services. Name one of the commercial services and how you apply the service to your daily/weekly routine.

I use Google on a daily basis in both my work and home environment. I use it to search for answers to questions I may have or to search for help on applications I am using in the business world that I may be unfamiliar with.

2. What does the author mean by "Semantic Web"? How does this effect the future of convergence?
The Semantic Web is a way to link data from web pages more effectively. This way pages can be linked based on the data they hold not necessarily on key words like how it is today. By linking the data in a more effective way the web will be more able to converge and become a very powerful tool.

3. The future of the web has created substantial privacy challenges which are barely addressed by our current privacy laws. What are your thoughts on new data integration? Is the thought of this legal?

The new data integration will cause more transparency for the individuals who produce and this leads to a big privacy issue. On the other hand it may lead the individuals to be held more accountable for the information which is published by them and in the end making the web a very powerful tool. I do not see any legal issues behind making the web and individuals who post more transparent unless you get into personal information. I know I would not want all my personal information out there for everyone to see so I would like to think that type of information would stay protected, if not then the legality of it would kick in.

***Update to last Blog***

Thesis Statement: I am exploring the effects of online social networking among adolescents in order to find out if this type of social networking creates strong or weak ties between the adolescents and how this ultimately affects interpersonal and face to face social networking at later stages in life.


Links to articles:
MySpace Generation:
http://athena.rider.edu:4055/ehost/detail?vid=29&hid=116&sid=1c60b682-25d3-457f-aee5-7d33f137f78b%40sessionmgr108&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=19025357

Adolescents on the Net: Internet Use and Well Being.
http://athena.rider.edu:4055/ehost/pdf?vid=27&hid=116&sid=1c60b682-25d3-457f-aee5-7d33f137f78b%40sessionmgr108

So…after presenting my topic in class last Tuesday I realized it was so lame and out dated! So I decided on something new, along with talking to Dr. Xia, and settled on a topic around social networking. I have not narrowed my thesis down totally yet but like the idea of social networking it’s pros and cons and how that effects teenagers who are constantly “plugged in”. I found two articles which I thoroughly enjoyed reading and they really made me see this phenomenon more clearly.

First, I read The MySpace Generation by Jessi Hempel, which was the cover story for the December 12, 2005 issue of Business Week. The article basically states that the newest generation of youngsters is called Generation @. These individuals see the Internet as an access point for creating new forms of social behavior. This new form of behavior blurs the distinctions between online and real-world interactions and overall the young generation largely ignores the difference between the two. This thinking is very different than that of adults who see the Web as a supplement to their daily lives. They tap into information to buy books or send flowers but for the most part their social lives remain rooted in the traditional pone call and face-to-face interaction.

Because teenagers are constantly plugged in companies are finding ways to cash in on this new form of social networking. They are starting companies based on this activity, like MySpace and Facebook, but the owners of these companies are now older than their users and they are having a hard time keeping up with what to do in order to keep the company thriving. The owner of the online community of Buzz-Oven made the hard decision to pass down the torch to a younger version of himself in order the keep Buzz-Oven thriving. As of the time of this article being published that was the right decision but they individual who somewhat replaced him did have the capability to black list the owner if one wrong thing was done and doing that over the internet reaches many individuals simultaneously.

I understand that this article may be outdated and we have come further than what is being talked about but the newer stuff is so new it hasn’t been written about and I find this very fascinating.

The next article I chose was Adolescents on the Net: Internet use and Well-Being by Kaveri Subahmanyam and Gloria Lin. The paper examined the relationship between adolescent online activity and well being which included a study of 156 adolescent participants between the age of 15 and 18.4. The participants were surveyed on the their access to and use of the Internet as well as measuring loneliness and perceived social support. Previous research suggests that the extent of adolescents’ Internet use places a concern that this use displaces activities important for adolescent development such as physical activities and social interactions with peers that occur in face-to-face contexts and over the phone. Ultimately, the authors believe that the displacement of adolescents “real interactions” with peers and family may substitute weak ties for strong ones.

Overall the researchers found some indication that participants who reported receiving less support from their parents were more likely to have met an online acquaintance and to have become good friend with him or her. They believe their findings to be related to the participants perception of their relationship with online acquaintances could have been due to one of two reasons which were the weakness in nature of the ties and the participants unrealistic perceptions about friendships and relationships. It seems that the researchers have not come to any profound or concrete findings but do highlight the need for more research on this topic of adolescents and development in conjunction with the Internet.
These two articles talk about how prevalent social networking in adolescents is and how it has changed from face to face to online. This is a good indicator as to how the adolescents will act when put in the work force and have to deal with individuals face to face on a daily basis. I hope to find more linkages and articles talking about this to study it further in my paper.
Links to articles:
MySpace Generation
http://athena.rider.edu:4055/ehost/detail?vid=29&hid=116&sid=1c60b682-25d3-457f-aee5-7d33f137f78b%40sessionmgr108&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=19025357
Adolescents on the Net: Internet Use and Well Being.
http://athena.rider.edu:4055/ehost/pdf?vid=27&hid=116&sid=1c60b682-25d3-457f-aee5-7d33f137f78b%40sessionmgr108