Creativity and New Media

Although "out of office" automatic reply email is helpful for any leave notice when you work, making a message card and putting on your desk is still polite and warm-hearted to any visitor, especially for a temporary leave.

I used Paint, PowerPoint, Publisher and Photoshop to make these cards. Card layout/dimension was created in Paint; wordings were processed in PowerPoint and Publisher and pictures were edited in Adobe Photoshop. Below, you can find my screenshots/card templates. Now, just click the picture and print it.

Creativity

The most obvious characteristic new media has is its interaction. Through new media, users can interact with each other easily. They can make comments and exchange opinions to a specific topic. This is just like brainstorming that can generate a large number of ideas. Users can come up with as many ideas as they can. Of the course, due to unlimited internet, users can share anything at any time and at any place. From this perspective, it of the course can inspire creativity. The powerful internet provides a great deal of information and it's so easy for user to search. More information a person gets can also help foster creativity.

There are so many easy access and easy to use tools/design applications, such as digital cameras and Adobe Photoshop, as well as lots of distribution choices, such as Youtube and blogging that users can be writers, designers and producers to upload their works online. With Photoshop and printers, users can do all the photo imaging they want and no need to go to a studio. Many music lovers also use music software to compose music easily and effectively. In the article of "Pop Music 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 The new math of mashups," Jeremy Brown isolated a song to create a new song. Apparently, different tool/software allows creativity.

From a business perspective, companies embrace user-generated innovation. Especially technology companies rely a lot on customers to help create new products or add new features. As described in the article of "Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers," by listening to and monitoring online user experience/opinions, Twitter comes up with many features to meet customer demand. Many companies also have to find new ways to connect with customers. They invite users to experience their products in the new product introduction phase. They listen to and monitor user opinions online and modify/add features accordingly.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

What are different ways these virtual worlds can be used?
The virtual worlds are built for gaming. In a gaming world, there's a fictional theme and different role play. You can build your own avatar there. Most of gaming are commercial gaming. In the article of "No Budget, No Boundaries: It’s the Real You," people in the commercial gaming can buy luxury clothes that they cannot afford in the reality. They can be invited to a party at the embassy which is impossible in the real world. People are attracted by the miracle/fantasy the gaming world has brought and they indulge in this. More and more commercial gaming are developed for this purpose. Virtual worlds are also used for socializing, i.e., online community based on different chat rooms. The online community is open-ended and allow you to speak out freely. In order to show yourself (to socialize with others), you can even  create and decorate a personal space such as a home or room. You can also host an activity and event. As described in "iReport: 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction," with such a socializing function, the virtual world can enable people with autism to "practice social interaction" to improve their treatment. Virtual worlds can also serve as forums for political expression and debate. I watched some TV play and understand that virtual worlds can be used to develop military training simulations. Some virtual worlds have been created for educational purposes. They include online university courses, computer programming tutorials, virtual libraries and so on.

What are the pros and cons?
Pros: It's a global world and people are linked together by similar interest without geographic border. There's also no border of age, culture and even linguistic form. People speak out freely online at any time and communication becomes more challenging, which may be more effective and productive. In addition, the virtual world is personal. You can do what you like there and speak what you want to and it encourages creativity.
Cons: People indulge in this virtual world, escaping from social life in reality, which may not be good to maintain an healthy interpersonal relationship in real world. People immersive in the fantasy world may lead to a feeling of worthless and low self-esteem. They won't pay attentions to their online behaviors since nobody can see them as in reality. Some people may extend their roles in the virtual world to the reality, which will bring destructive behaviors to society. Some people with ulterior motives may also use virtual worlds to commit crimes.

How do virtual worlds foster creativity?
The immersive virtual environment allows users to create the objects that fill the world. You can build the world so long as you can imagine it. Those fantasy you cannot build in reality can be built in the virtual worlds. In the virtual world, you can create and decorate a home, room or an apartment. The higher visiting rate to your decorated home may foster you to have more creative ideas/designs in order to attract more visitors. You may also try different role play in the virtual world, where you'll explore the role's characteristics and storylines. In education, some teachers extend the simulations into their classrooms, creating a virtual environment, engaging in open-ended activities in class. Some programs are developed to assist the development of creativity when students are encouraged to go beyond the program exercises to develop their own problems and situations that are based on the simulations. Providing students with a choice of activities to complete allows them to become more motivated and therefore creative in completing the tasks.

What do you think the future of virtual worlds will look like?
As described in the article of "I’ve Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life," the author says, "It’s a bet that the future of online interaction won’t be built on flat, static Web pages but rather in traversable 3-D spaces." In the future, all those in reality will be built in the computer world too. People don't need to go to a club to see a live performance, which can be viewed online at the same time. Furthermore, I think virtual world may be merged with the real world, which may become a totally seamless experience, but it all depends on technology development. It requires mature input and output technologies. Computers can simulate the imaginary world and those input/output technology can link the imaginary world with reality. So long as the science and technology are developed to a certain level, what we see in the science fictions/movies are possible.

Blog about Twitter

Twitter only allows 140 characters that it requires your sentences are precise to correctly express yourself. However, for word limits on Blackboard Discussion, I have no idea of exact word limits, but if Blackboard Discussion does have word counts, at least it's much more than 140 characters. There's an enough room for you to fully express your idea. In the Blackboard Discussion, which class and section you are from are pre-defined by the professor and you don't need to worry about your this identity. There's always a topic specified and you can create your own related sub-topic (thread). And it's easy just by clicking the "reply" button to make a response. But in the twitter, you have to follow specific rules for a group discussion. You need to put a remark to indicate which section and class you are in when you make tweets or replies each time in order for the professor and other students to recognize you. To response to a student on twitter, you have to use the @ symbol (the student's username you want to make a reply) to indicate you make a reply on his/her tweet. To re-post what someone had said on twitter if you don't reply right away, you can retweet, but you'll have to use RT @username< section you copied from the student's tweet that you want to make a reply >. You need to remember all these rules all the time, or your replies will be confused to the readers. Both Twitter discussion and Blackboard Discussion are made on the internet, a virtual world. Through words, sentences and tones, readers can imagine author's facial and body expressions, and then find out the original and correct meaning of the author. An in-class discussion, however, is a face-to-face environment. Nothing is more efficient than hearing a person's real voice and seeing his/her body language. If you misunderstand him/her or have questions, you can verify or ask right away and no need to guess the real meaning just by viewing a few sentences from the virtual discussion board, where there may be requiring more sentences to get the real answers. But then again, some people may prefer a virtual world, where they feel safer and can express more freely than in the reality.  

Social Networking Sites

Facebook is more about friends and family. Connecting with everyone around you in a user-friendly way through wall posts, pics, chats, messages, groups and even apps. It might appeal more to the youth, because it has many different games in its apps, which can be pretty much addicting. For the business sector, Facebook provides more context and sells a link a little more. In addition, you can control who can see your posts, pics, or whatever. You can limit your stuff to your friends or even include your friends’ friends, or you can just make it 100% private.

Twitter only allows 140 characters. The tweet gets to the point quicker. It is a great online platform where we can share and follow great thoughts and ideas. It would probably be more attractive to the business sector, because things get public and people can take a peek and comment. You can just connect to almost anywhere via Twitter, so it's also really incredible in its own way. Twitter is also a great place to make new friends, so those who really love to connect would probably love Twitter.

Myspace has more options for sharing information, posting pictures and slide shows, adding your own music and videos and much more. There are many layouts, custom skins, generators and other graphics that are set up in the Myspace environment. It also has music-plays-on-page capability. Compared to Facebook, Myspace does not have real-time updates from other users and live search results. If you do not make your settings private, Myspace has more information showing, and the problem with this is that people can be very surprised with the unwanted spam they will get.

LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site and it is mainly used for professional networking. And of the course, it does not have many features as other social networking sites, which includes custom backgrounds, customization of layout, music play on page capability, etc. To protect user privacy, there's also no public message posting. The networking features of instant messaging and private messages are also not embedded in LinkedIn environment.  

Social Networking

What ways social networking can be used by the corporate and otherwise: For a corporate, social network marketing can grow business marketing profits. It can adds human element to the business or product. Comparing with expensive ads, it also can create buzz around your product, service or brand while in a cheaper price. When social network marketing engages with customers directly while hanging  out online, it can create customer loyalty and trust. Social networking sites are online communities where friends can interact and share information with each other, which can make the business or product word-of-mouth. Social networking can also help corporations to hire people. As described in "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting" by Frank Langfitt, it's so easy just by typing keywords into a search engine that helps Crawford scrape the entire network to dig out high-quality candidates whom she can't find elsewhere. Social networking can be used for election campaign, organizing activities, events or groups to showcase issues and opinions and make a wider audience aware of them. In the article of "How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power" By DAVID CARR, "by bolting together social networking applications under the banner of a movement, they created an unforeseen force to raise money, organize locally, fight smear campaigns and get out the vote that helped them topple the Clinton machine and then John McCain and the Republicans." Social networking can be used to hone debating and discussion skills to help users develop public ways of presenting themselves. Users are content creators, managers and distributors in social networking sites, which encourages and supports people's creativity, as well as their collaboration skills.

Benefits to society:
Social networking is the easiest way to stay connected with friends, co-works and bosses that helps create a harmony environment. It is a means of communication that friends and co-workers can share their up-to-date information. Social networking sites have certain topics and interests and therefore it can facilitate to make friends with similar interests and goals. With constant and updated news information, social networking sites allow readers to reach information quickly. Such efficiency can help drive social productivity. Social networking profiles allow users to post anything and can be seen by anybody, so it's a means of free advertising. People are more willing to "speak" in this virtual world and it encourages creative expression. Social networking massively decreases the size of the world. It creates a global exposure and this has made the flow of ideas and information an easier process. It also allows users to band together to create strong alliances to fight for a certain cause and therefore creates a positive impact on the world.

"Dark side" of social networking:
Young people indulging in the social networking sites may not concentrate on their study. In order to facilitate their social networking communication, they may ask their parents to purchase expensive handheld devices. If parents cannot satisfy them, they may seek for other negative solutions. For most of people who are not active in the social networking, their common concern is privacy issue. They know that the information in the network is spread so widely and spontaneously that their privacy may expose to everybody globally. In the "Who Cares About Facebook Privacy? Students Do" By Marc Parry, "The researchers, Danah Boyd and Eszter Hargittai, report that most Facebook users modified their privacy settings at least once in 2009 and that 'engagement with privacy settings increased significantly' between 2009 and 2010." Privacy disclosures not only bring troubles to users, but also may create potential crime issues. In the virtual world, free flow of information can be used for good, but it can also be used for ill. It may induce criminals and criminal behaviors. The Police, the intelligence services and industry have to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality.

The way these technologies might evolve in the future:
Smart phones become more ubiquitous. Software and webware companies know that if their products are not mobile-enabled, they will lose the battle. The web browser will get much smarter to fit handheld devices. Web marketing will continue to be consumer-centric and involve highly customer interaction. Social networking will become pervasive and privacy issues will continue to cause problems.