*News is better on...* - COM125 Assignment #10

Journalism can be seen in many different ways in today’s society. We read about our news and current events not only in newspapers and magazines, but on online sources as well. Online news has become another major source of information for us these days. But the question is: has it become our TOP source of information? Or do newspapers still dominate?

According to Wikipedia, or an online newspaper (aka web newspaper), “is a newspaper that exists on the World Wide Web.” I will also define what a newspaper is, just to show the clear and true definition of it. Wikipedia defines a newspaper as “a publication containing news, information and advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called newsprint. It may be general or special interest, most often published daily or weekly.”

My opinion:

In our generation, the World Wide Web has become the ‘being of our existence.’ Some of us spend almost 50% of our days in front of computers…scary but true. Our lives have become so saturated with work, projects, social lives, etc. that we sometimes don’t have the time to even purchase a newspaper or a magazine. So what do we do? We find an easier way to access our current events, local news, or news about the rest of the world by the click of a button, or our mouse. Online news is that main source of news for some people.

But how does online news differ from news that is printed on a newspaper?

In an article called “People get more ‘top’ news in the print than by computer, study shows,” two professors David Tewksbury and Scott Althaus found very interesting studies about the different type of information that students access online and in a newspaper. They said that “in the study of college students reading the New York Times, researchers found that online readers were less likely than their paper-reading counterparts to have read national, international and political news -- all typical "front section" newspaper topics.” They also found that 2/3 of newspaper readers read the “front section,” in comparison to only 41 percent of online readers reading it. Tewksbury and Althaus said that these differences resulted in “significant and substantial differences in readers’ knowledge about public affairs.”

Another main point that they make is that "online news sites often give prominence to fast-breaking stories that in the grand scheme of things aren’t that important.” They also mention that online news sites focus more on what are the newest stories, and reader’s interests rather than the truly important stories (mentioned at any time during the day).

I totally agree with this point. I am a member of the Yahoo community and every time I open up my personalized Yahoo site, the news comes up. The stories are usually presented as summaries, from the newest to the oldest event. They also highlight the news stories that are geared towards my own personal interests. Although I do receive great current events from Yahoo, I wonder…am I really reading about the truly important events going on?

Another article that describes the issues between these two sources called “Web vs. Print: Online Successes at One Newspaper Raise More Questions Than They Answer,” also holds arguments for both sides. This article mentions these two sources as “conjoined twins,” where one is thriving while the other is declining. However, they do depend on each other to survive.

Donald Graham, the CEO of the Washington post is also unsure of how these two will survive in the future. He mentions that “in the company's year-end statement came from the print-based Post, which, last year, lost 3% of its paid readers, 4% of its ad revenue and 14% of its classified recruitment revenues; both ad revenue measures fell almost twice as steeply in the fourth quarter, indicating more losses are on the way. "2006 has been a poor year for every newspaper I know of." So this statement clearly supports the idea that newspapers may be on their way to become the second main source of information for news.

The difference between an online news article and a newspaper article that I found:

Picture from Yahoo news online:

An article that I found on Yahoo News online, called “NC beach house fire kills students” was the main article on the site. It was the top headline of Yahoo news, which had a picture and a video that made me click on it right away. It did catch my eye because of the horrifying picture of the house, and the video that supported it. That’s one of the main differences with online news and printed news. You can’t click on a video that supports the article or that goes into more detail about the story. There are more supplemental materials to go along with each news story on online news sites. These videos, commentaries from the writers, commentaries from the news site editors themselves, can give you a deeper look into the story that you are reading about. In newspapers, you are limited to just the article itself; and sometimes with no illustrations to help catch a reader’s eye. Another main point that I notice with online news stories is that, they can be as long as the writer wants because they aren’t limited to fitting their information on a section of the newspaper. Their articles can extend to more than two pages if they preferred it, because all you have to do is click next on your computer screen. Each new story on online news also gets highlighted, where it goes on top of the site with a picture and a summary. In newspapers, there is just that one article on that specific topic, and that’s it.

The same article called “N.C. beach town stunned as fire investigation continues”, which I found in the newspaper USA Today was more limited with the amount of information that it provided about the tragic event. They only showed one picture of the house, just like the Yahoo news did, but they obviously didn’t have any supplemental videos or commentaries to go along with it. As I stated above, these things can be a bonus for readers because it gives them more of an inside look at the story.

Although newspapers may be limited with the amount of information that they can include about certain stories, they still tend to focus more on the important articles by placing them in the “front section,” just like Tewksbury and Althaus said above. Online news is just easier, faster, and free to access. So which one will win in the end…who knows? If Graham, the CEO of the Washington Post, is unsure…then so am I.

References:

• Baker, Mike. (October 2007). NC beach house fire kills students. Retrieved October 29, 2007, from http://real-us.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071029/ap_on_re_us/beach_house_fire.
• Lynn, Andrea. (October 2007). People get more 'top' news in print, than by computer, study shows. Retrieved October 29, 2007, from http://www.news.uiuc.edu/gentips/01/02netnews.html.
• Knowledge at Wharton. October 2007. Web vs. Print: Online Successes at One Newspaper Raise More Questions Than They Answer. Retrieved on October 29, 2007, from http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1699.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_news, Online news
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper

* Blogs & Pol' *~COM125 Assignment #9

In today’s world, blogs are commonly used to express one’s thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. In our own class, COM125, we’ve learned to become a part of this “blog world.” What’s interesting to me, is that the world blog is still unknown in old school dictionaries, and even on Microsoft Word’s spell check. I think Microsoft needs to get with the program! J

So what is a political blog?

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_blog), a political blog “is a common type of blog that comments on politics. In liberal democracies the right to criticize the government without interference is considered an important element of free speech.” Political blogs also tend to take one side of an issue. They clearly express someone’s views about a certain topic, and politicians tend to write them to try and persuade others to side with them on these views. The only problem is, these blogs are often too anyonymous, and sometimes can be seen as not trustworthy. But I guess it’s under our own personal discretion as to whether or not we want to believe these blogs, right?

An interesting blog that I came across online, was a blog titled “My Disability Blog.” It is found on http://disabilityblogger.blogspot.com/2007/08/social-security-disability-buffalo.html. The name of the blogger is Tim Moore. Tim is in the industry of Technology (so it says), so he is just a citizen blogger who has a true passion for Social Security Disability issues. But Tim was a former claims specialist. In his profile, it does not state his age. He first created his blog on blogger in September of 2005. In his “about me” section, he expresses that it’s tough to describe himself, but the one word he uses is ‘tricky.’ Hmm. Three things that stuck out to me about his interests were news, ideas, and political philosophy. I found political philosophy interesting because according to Wikipedia, political philosophy is “the study of fundamental questions about the state, government, politics, liberty, justice, property, rights, law and the enforcement of a legal code by authority.” Just a thought.

In Tim’s blog, he expresses his passion for the lack of immediate processing of Social Security Disability claims. He mentions in his blog called “Social Security Disability Buffalo- Statistics that “the average length of time time for filing a request for a social security disability hearing and the actual occurrence of the hearing is 22 months in the Buffalo, New York area. Nationally, this averages 17 months.” These are statistics that he read from an article written by a woman named Erica Bryant.

• Erica Bryant I became an editorial writer for the Democrat and Chronicle last July, after graduating from Boston University. I was born in Rochester and have lived here ever since, except for three years in Boston and one in Grenoble and Paris, France. I got my start in journalism by writing for bluejean magazine, a local young women¹s publication. Later I had two internships at the Democrat and Chronicle, as a reporter and an editorial writer. My areas of focus include the city, the environment, technology and issues affecting younger people. I live in Corn Hill. My parents and sister, Eddie, Jackie and Tiffany Bryant, live in Pittsford.
  This is the link to the Democrat and Chronicle.
  http://democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Here are a few more statistics that Tim Moore has found that clearly shows his hatred for the slow processing of these Social Security Disability claims.

• As of July, there were 14,707 cases waiting to be scheduled at the Buffalo hearing office. (Tim says that they did not disclose the amount that have been on hold for longer than a year)
  
• The Buffalo social security disability hearing office has only thirteen judges. (Tim finds this ludicrous considering the amount of cases waiting to be scheduled)
  
• The number of cases backlogged at the hearing level is 745,000 nationwide.
  Since 2001, congress has annually provided the white house with 150 million less than what has been requested for the social security administration budget.
  
• Two and a half million individuals file for disability each year and two thirds of them, nationally, are denied. This is an average, of course. In some states, an incredibly high percentage of claimants are denied for disability.
  http://disabilityblogger.blogspot.com/2007/08/social-security-disability-buffalo.html (Here’s the link to this particular blog)

These are pretty amazing statistics that he’s added onto his blog, from Erica’s article. Since he did claim exactly where he got these stats from, he seems more believable. Although Tim’s blog only ranks at 437,475 on Technorati, he has some valid points. He is a clear example of how citizen bloggers try to get their word out on how they feel about certain issues. It is seen just from this one blog, how he’s taken the time to do research on the lack of attention that Social Security Disability claims are receiving. It’s scary to read about things like this because one day, we could all reach that point!

As I mentioned above, blogging is the new and “it” thing of our society today. It is a way to fully express the way we feel about ANYTHING. With so many people online and the internet today, it seems that we can get across our opinions easier using blogs. Just with this assignment alone, and reading about other people’s blogs, it’s clear that politics is truly involved in blogs. Anyone can choose to blog about politics, and more often than not they will be heard. It may not automatically be by other politicians or any high status member in the government, but being heard out by a normal citizen can move mountains also. In Thornton’s article, she expresses how “The research confirmed that this situation leveled out using email. Higher status and lower status members had a more equal contribution to make both in terms of the amount of talking they do and their influence on outcomes. They also express more opinions and ideas, and vent more emotion.”

Resources:

• Thornton, Alinta. (2002, October). Does Internet Create Democracy? Retrieved October 23, 2007, from https://ublearns.buffalo.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_47434_1.
• Moore, Tim. (2007). My Disability Blog. Retrieved October 26, 2007, from http://disabilityblogger.blogspot.com/2007/08/social-security-disability-buffalo.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_philosophy

"Google Fam"~ COM125: Assignment #8

Web applications can run our lives. They’re an amazing way of indulging yourself into a program that allows you to express yourself, as well as contact others. Wikipedia defines web applications as “an application that is accessed via web over a network such as the Internet or an intranet.”

A web application that I am involved with on daily basis is Google Groups. Google group is a free application on Google that allows people to have discussions based on their common interests. It can be literally be about ANYTHING. There can be discussion groups on this site, or threaded messages.

Last year when I first transferred to UB it was difficult to keep in touch with the members of my family, just because there are so many of us. Not only are we large in number, but we all have a lot going on in our lives that no one ever has the time to pick up the phone to say hello. I came to UB to take up a Communication degree on top of a Management degree that I have from Baruch College in NYC. I have a cousin in Law School at UB as well, so we both figured that we needed to find a way to keep in touch with our family back in LI and NYC. My boyfriend Kenny and his family were involved in a “family website” online, and I thought that was a great idea!

As I ventured on to Kenny’s family website, I started to get excited because I knew that this was the answer that my cousin and I were looking for. I figured that all we had to do was create a family website and email my family, and notify them to get involved.

After some research, my cousin and I decided to use Google Groups to form our family website. At first we thought that it would be difficult to do, but it ended up being quite easy. On top of its easiness, it was free.

The first thing we did on this website was to invite all our family members. As soon as everyone joined, we left it up to them to post whatever they wanted. It became a free forum of ideas. There was so much going on with our family that every day there was a different post, picture, message, etc. Not only were my cousin and I stuck at UB working hard, but two of our cousins both had twin girls, 3 months apart; and another cousin who got engaged. This website became the perfect opportunity for us all to keep in touch.

When I first moved to Buffalo, I was extremely depressed because I felt as though I was missing out on so much that was going on with my family back in LI and NYC. I had no clue as to how I was going to keep in touch with everyone, which made me really unhappy. Thanks to Kenny, my cousin and I were able to research and create a family website of our own.

We based the whole website on the new baby girls in our family. Since there was four of them, we figured that we would make them the center of our attention. When do you ever see two sets of baby girl twins born three months apart? To my family, it was amazing. I never even knew I had these genes.

To be honest, I am thankful to the geniuses who created web applications. Without them, I don’t think I could keep in touch with my family as much as I do. There is so much going on in all our lives, that it’s nice to be able to share it with the ones that we love. Buffalo may not seem that far from LI and NYC, but just the thought of being so far away from all that is happening there makes me uneasy. It’s nice to be able to access my Google Group to catch me up.

Here is our site's main design and feature!

Jenna & Jordan

Sam & Alex



References:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_applications
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_groups
• http://groups.google.com/

"Online community" ~ COM125-Assignment #7

The Internet and online are the best ways to keep in contact with one another. Not only is it the most convenient, but it’s easy and quick. Online communities have become a huge part of our lives. They allow us to interact with people and become a part of their lives, in a non-physical way.

According to Wikipedia, an online community (AKA virtual community and e-community) is defined as “a group of people that primarily interact via communication media such as letters, telephone, email or Usenet rather than face to face. If the mechanism is a computer network, it is called an online community.”

An online communication that I am a part of is a listserv for a professional business fraternity called Alpha Kappa Psi. A listserv is the first electronic mailing list software application (Wikipedia 2007). It assists over 30 million users by transmitting more that 20 million messages a day. It allows you to send messages to more than one person at a time.

UB is just one of the many universities or organizations that use listserv. At UB, each department and organization within the school has its own listserv email system. This is an easier way to get messages out to students at the same time, with just one email. It’s convenient, quick, and productive.

In Alpha Kappa Psi, our listserv is a huge part of our organization. It’s basically our life-line. We receive AT LEAST five emails a day concerning updates, appointments, activities, etc. With the large amount of brothers that we have in the organization, it’s the easiest way to contact everyone all at once. For example, if we have a professional event to attend and the meeting time has changed, all we have to do is send one email to the listserv and everyone in the group receives it!

In my experience, being a part of the listserv also allows me and my brothers to express how we feel without having to do it face-to-face, when conflicts arise. It is easier to be bold and stern about what we want through an email, instead of facing a whole group of people. However, when we do choose to use the listserv to express our thoughts and opinions, it’s all done in a PROFESSIONAL manner.

Our listserv also serves the purpose of communicating with one another period. It can be used to just send a quick hello, a good luck on your exams, a happy birthday, to get help with classes, etc. It allows us to keep in contact, which is great because there’s always a group of people you can get in touch with if you ever need help with anything. In our Alpha Kappa Psi listserv, we make the most out of the online community that we are a part of. It is something positive that I’m fortunate to have.

References:

• http://wings.buffalo.edu/mgtclubs/AKPsi/Home.html



• Listserv. (October 8, 2007). In Wikipedia, the Free Wikipedia. Retrieved on 12 October, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listserv.



• Online community. (8 October, 2007). In Wikipedia, the Free Wikipedia. Retrieved on 12 October, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_community.

"Who am I?" --- COM125: Assignment #6

Before we get into what an online identity is, let’s first define the term identity
According to Wikipedia, identity is “a term used to describe an individual's comprehension of him or herself as a discrete, separate entity.”

Online identity is a social identity that networks users establish in online communities. Many of us if not all, can relate to having an online identity. There are so many social networks out there like Myspace, Facebook, and Friendster (to name just a few); that people are a part of. In Judith DONATH’s article she also mentions that there are many online communities out there that define who people are.

But how do we define who we are?

As Donath expressed in his article, emails are one of the major ways in which one can be identified. This is what stuck out to me the most because EVERYONE has an email. Just by looking at their email address, you can tell what online community that person is a part of. For example, there are those who have their addresses ending in ‘gmail.com.’ This can link someone as being a part of the Google community. This person has access to all the different features that Google offers; like blogs, forums, personal websites, etc.

Another example of identifying someone through their email is if they have an address ending in ‘.edu.’ Just from this alone you can tell that this person belongs to an educational community. This person can either be a student, a professor, or a staff member at this particular school.

So what do I identify with?

An online community that I belong to, is Myspace. Myspace is a site that is used worldwide. People can create their own identities through Myspace by creating their own personal profiles. This helps to identify one person from another. It is a way to create yourself according to how you want people to see you. Unfortunately, sometimes you are not getting who a person REALLY is by looking at their profile, but that’s the risk you take in trusting what they put out there.

Myspace is also a forum that people have used to stay connected with family and friends, old and new. It’s a community in which people interact with strangers to form brand new relationships. They use it to meet future partners, and to even just make new friends.

Myspace has many unique features. Just to name a few, there’s an email system, a comment box (where you can say things to people and it is seen on their profiles), a photo album, a box that lets you update your mood for a given time, and it even allows you to play songs on your profile. All of these things put together can define who you are. You have the choice to reveal yourself physically through photos, let people know how you’re feeling, and even show people the type of songs that you like.

But what happens when you show too much on your profile?

People form reputations from the things that they post on their personal profiles. For example, I personally do not want people to know too much about me at all so I limit the pictures I put up, and information that I reveal about myself. There is also a privacy setting that only allows those people that I’m friends with to access my page. I don’t allow people to access my personal email, my phone number, or my address as well; but some people do.
To be honest I wonder why people do that, but to each is own.

In my profile I also include APPROPRIATE pictures of myself, my family, and my friends. I don’t reveal any part of myself at all (if you know what I mean); and some people do. In my opinion, this is what creates bad reputations for people. A lot of times with Myspace, there are kids under 18 posing as 18-21 year-olds. They also post very revealing and inappropriate pictures of themselves. This gives people the wrong impression and sometimes it even leads to sexual harassment. Adults get the wrong idea about these young kids and tend to approach them believing that they are of age, when in reality they are not. These children under 18 years old are giving themselves a false identity. Unfortunately, as I stated above, you can never be sure about who’s being truthful and who’s not.

Something else that can be scary!

Recently, there have been many people hacking into Myspace profiles. There are those people that have nothing better to do than steal people’s names and passwords to assume their identity. For example, hackers send mass emails or comments to other Myspace users about websites that contain viruses. There have also been cases where hackers add, eliminate, or change information on other people’s profiles.
And why do they do this…I do not know.

As common as these online communities have become, it’s scary to think that the people who are part of them may not REALLY be who they say they are. In my opinion, your identity is what you reveal to other people around you. Sadly, sometimes people lie and have to assume other identities; but we’d like to hope that who people say they are on these sites, are really them.
These are the risks we take in trusting people.

References:

• Donnah, Judith . (1996, November). Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. Retrieved October 4, 2007, from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_identity
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_%28social_science%29
• http://www.myspace.com/
• http://www.google.com/
  

"Priva-SEE!" ~COM125: Assignment #5

Can you imagine if someone was always in your face, following you around, and questioning your every move? What if you were a famous celebrity; do you think you could handle the amount of paparazzi always trying to invade your personal space? These poor people have no sense of privacy whatsoever. This would drive me INSANE!

So what is PRIVACY?

My own personal definition of privacy is the ability to keep things to myself, without any kind of disturbance from anything or anyone. It is also a form of secrecy for me. Privacy is an important part of my life; without it I wouldn’t have a sense of individuality. Although my definition sounds pretty accurate, I like what Bob Sullivan says in his article. He says that “most Americans struggle when asked to define privacy.” He also states that “more than 6,500 MSNBC readers tried to do it in our survey. The nearest thing to consensus was this sentiment, appropriately offered by an anonymous reader: “Privacy is to be left alone.”

But a real definition sounds something more like this…

According to Wikipedia, “privacy is the ability of an individual or group to keep their lives and personal affairs out of public view, or to control the flow of information about themselves. Privacy is the ability of an individual or organization to reveal oneself selectively.” As I stated above, some people like famous celebrities don’t have this luxury of privacy. The public is always curious about their lives so people will do ANYTHING to get information about them, whether it is photographs, rumors heard, stories, etc.

Another invasion of their privacy can be seen on online gossip forums, like Perezhilton.com. This is actually an example of Internet privacy, being invaded. Internet privacy is privacy over media of the Internet. Wikipedia states that it is “the ability to control what information one reveals about oneself over the Internet, and to control who can access that information.” Perez Hilton does just the opposite of this. On his website, he reveals the lives of all the famous celebrities in the spotlight at the moment. He doesn’t just tell you what’s happening in their lives, but he also pokes fun at them. If Perez doesn’t like you, he’ll humiliate you in EVERY way he can. These poor celebrities have NO control as to what Perez says about them. They have no control about the information being revealed about them either.

I have to admit, I do access Perezhiton.com often just because it is so entertaining. It takes me far away from my own personal life and the stress that comes along with it. It seems lame, but it’s my guilty pleasure.



Here's Perez with two of the "most wanted" celebrities...haha!


Here's a picture that Perez puts on his site when he DOESN'T like you!




Another form of privacy and the internet that I am directly involved with are the social networks such as Myspace and facebook. In Danah Boyd’s article, she says that these social networks are “ubiquitous” or exist everywhere, and our generation uses them to access every part of the public life. I completely agree with her. It seems as if we’ve lost our sense of privacy here. We’ve placed ourselves onto the Internet with these sites, and we’re allowing people to know a lot about us. We are revealing our private lives with stories and pictures that almost anyone can access. Sometimes there are those who get very carried away by revealing TOO much, which can be seen in their photographs. In Boyd’s article it says that “most adults are panicking,” and that “they do not understand the shifts that are taking place and, regardless, they do not like what they are seeing.” It is obvious why some adults feel this way. There are a lot of young kids out there taking provocative pictures of themselves, making pretend they are a lot older than they are, and even engaging in meeting random strangers that they meet on these social sites.


Here is an anonymous person.
This is just an example of the type of pictures people include in their profiles.


Too much? I think so! Do you think her page is private? NOT!
http://www.barbye18.peperonity.com/ in case you were interested...

Ok, so is there ANY way we can fix this?

In my opinion, "kids will be kids". I put that in quotes because apparently, it's not just kids that choose to reveal themselves in improper ways, because as you can see above adults do it too. You can’t control the amount of information that someone wants to reveal about themselves. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve put a lot of privacy settings on my Myspace profile and on my Facebook. I don’t like to reveal too much to anyone, nor am I friends with complete strangers. The only people that can access my profile are people that I’m friends with. This is the reason why I’ve never experienced an invasion of my privacy on the Internet. I’ve made it hard for random people to access my pages. I would recommend this to all users on these sites, but sometimes you’ll find people who don’t care much about their privacy. It seems strange to me, but whatever floats their boats.

References:

• Danah, B. (2007). “Social Network Sites: Public, Private, or What?”Knowledge Tree. Retrieved on 26 September, 2007 from http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2007/?page_id=28


• Internet Privacy. (2007). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 26 September, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Cite&page=Internet_privacy&id=159183503


• Sullivan, Bob. (2006, October). Privacy Lost: Does Anybody Care? Retrieved on 24 September, 2007 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/print/1/displaymode/1098/


• Myspace.com
• Perezhilton.com
  

"The Universal Gift"- COM125 (Assignment #4)

Name me one person who doesn’t love gifts. Yes, there are some instances where we find those who love to give more than to receive such as myself; but in general gifts can put a smile on anyone’s face. But what is the true definition of this wonderful thing that seems to make almost anyone happy?

According to http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/gift, a gift is “something that is voluntarily transferred by one person to another without compensation.” Gifts aren’t just for special occasions, they can be given at anytime as an act of kindness or maybe even as a thank you. To me, the best part about sharing a gift with someone is the look in their eyes and the expression on their face. The best way that I can describe this, is like when you look at a child while they are trying their first piece of candy.

Another aspect which is very similar to the term gift is gift economy. Gift economy is “is an economic system in which goods and services are given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future quid pro quo” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy).
For those who don’t know what “quid pro quo” is, it’s defined as an equal exchange of goods or services.

Gift economies are driven by social interaction. It involves the sharing and giving on information without anything in return. Relating to the Internet, it is the act of sharing or giving useful knowledge and information to one another without any type of cost.
Now this is a true act of kindness!

A gift economy that I’m involved with along with all, if not most, of the students here at UB is GOOGLE. Google is open to the public, and is an American corporation that specializes in Internet research and online advertising. It is one of the biggest search engines, if not number one. Its mission statement truly defines what they are all about. It is “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google). Google has expanded its horizons in so many ways. They’re not just a search engine anymore, they also have web-based email, video sharing, office productivity, blogging; you name it, Google has it.

Our generation revolves around Google. We would all be lost without it. There is not one thing that you can’t find on Google. It amazes me how when we don’t know something, the first thing that comes into mind is “hey, just Google it.” This may not necessarily be a good thing, just because in a way we’ve become lazy to do actual research. The good side about ‘Google-ing’ something is that it’s still a form of research.

After reading what they were about, it’s no wonder that people are drawn to their sources. They’re such a laid back company that you would never think they were so successful! Something else that caught my eye was their slogans, “"Don't be evil", and "Work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun." Those statements say it all.

Google seems like an amazing company to work for. I’m proud to say that one of my good friends is in the process of interviewing with them. They flied her out to California last month and we’re keeping our fingers crossed! Hopefully I’ll have a great opportunity in the future to work for a company like Google.

Here's some more information about Google:

Google Inc.
Type
Public (NASDAQ: GOOG), (LSE: GGEA)
Founded
Menlo Park, California (September 7, 1998[1])
Headquarters
Mountain View, California, USA
Key people
Eric E. Schmidt, CEO/DirectorSergey Brin, Co-Founder, Technology PresidentLarry E. Page, Co-Founder, Products PresidentGeorge Reyes, CFO
Industry
Internet, Computer software
Products
See list of Google products
Revenue
10.604 Billion USD (2006)[2]
Net income
3.077 Billion USD (2006)[2]
Employees
13,748 (June 30, 2007)
Slogan
Don't Be Evil
Website
http://www.google.com/
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Sources:

*Kollock, Peter. (1999). The economics of online cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in cyberspace. Retrieved on 17 September, 2007 from
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm

*http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/gift

*(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google