"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/
*************************************************************

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

Copy RIGHTS!!!-- COM125-Assignment #3

Do you find it annoying when people copy work that you’ve done because they’re just not creative enough to develop their own? Or was there ever a time when you had a project that was so similar to a fellow classmate’s because they stole your idea, and then they happen to get a better grade on it than you? I’ve had almost all these things happen to me and let me tell you, it’s pretty frustrating. They weren’t that serious at the time but if I was doing research for my MBA with all my own ideas and someone tried to steal my work, I would have to say that it’s considered Copyright infringement.

To gain a better understanding on this topic, I’ll start off by defining what Copyright is.

Copyright is a form of protection that is given to authors or creators for their original work. This can consist of their books, dramatical, artistical, musical, and other intellectual works. This means that as the original creator of a specific work, you can or allow others to:

• make copies of your work
• distribute copies of your work
• perform your work publicly (such as for plays, film, dances or music)
• display your work publicly (such as for artwork or stills from audiovisual works, or any other material used on the Internet or television); and
• make “derivative works” (including making modifications, adaptations or other new uses of a work, or translating the work to another media)
  (http://www.copyrightkids.org/whatcopyframes.htm).

Copyright infringement is abusing the power of copyright. This is when you fail to respect the original thoughts and ideas of an author or creator. It occurs when you try to steal someone’s work without their permission. It is highly illegal to do this and you can be fined a lot of money for it.

Now that we know a lot about copyright, and copyright infringement, let me explain to you how I DON’T think that this is the case when it comes to sharing music.

Balancing the interests of content creators and the public good can be a difficult one. It’s hard to please both sides, but it is possible. I personally feel that there can be a middle ground for these two sides. A few possible solutions are networks or websites that can be used to share digital content, for example Napster.

Ahh, Napster. Just the sound of that word I’m sure, gives us all great memories of how exciting it was when we were first introduced to this brilliant idea.

Downloading music off the Internet has become one of the most common things to do in our generation. Years ago it seemed so far fetched, but now it’s become a part of our culture. Another NOT very surprising fact is that according to a new CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, 17% of adults connected to the Internet at home or at work, have downloaded music as well.

Napster was a program that enabled mass sharing of pirated copies of music. Since it was found illegal, it was shut down by a strong fight from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). After this issue with Napster occurred, there was a middle ground that was found for both technology and freedom itself. The peer to peer (p2p) file sharing was introduced, which wasn’t considered illegal because the programs don’t keep track of what the actual files are (http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2005/02/debate_on_downl.html).

Even though some people think that downloading music online through file sharing programs is a considered stealing, or a crime, I don’t. Piracy, or the reproduction, of music actually helps musicians. For example, through Myspace and Youtube we are introduced to new artists everyday. We can hear their songs on these sites, and even download them to our computers. This is a way for them to advertise themselves by making their music accessible to the public. According to the website found on
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Music/musiclaw4.html, 75% of all artists profit from filesharing.

Another argument I want to express is that consumers have the right to have their own music, and copy them onto CDs. This can be from making your own mixes on CDs, to copying music onto your PCs, and even transferring tunes to an MP3 player. These actions seem so normal, don’t they? I sure think so. If we weren’t allowed to do things like this, where do VCRs, photocopiers, and tape recorders come into play?

David Lieberman from USA Today says “it's also far from clear that piracy is even a main reason the music industry's in trouble.” So this means that music piracy shouldn’t be blamed for the troubles of the music industry. "In 1997, 11% of music was pirated, and 40% of computer software was pirated," says PriceWaterhouseCoopers' Saul Berman. "Who makes more money: Microsoft or the record companies?"

So as we can see from many different perspectives, file sharing and downloading music is not the end of the world. It gives us freedom to dive into the world of music without having the trouble of finding the right amount of money to buy it. Music is such a big part of our lives today that for some people, it even defines who they are. Some of the hottest and newest bands and musicians today are becoming stars because of downloading music, so why would we want to take that away from them, or us?

References:

http://www.copyrightkids.org/whatcopyframes.htm

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2005/02/debate_on_downl.html

http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Music/musiclaw4.html

Lieberman, D. (2002, April 8). Money: Piracy Pillages Music Industry. USA Today.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/covers/2002-04-05-music-piracy.htm

The 411 about Newsgroups! (COM125-Assignment #2)

Can you imagine the Internet without the idea of being able to communicate with others? How would we ever find out about what's going on with the world around us? Imagine if we were only limited to reading information that people posted online without being able to comment on it or discuss it? In our generation, communicating with others online is what the Internet is ALL about. Not only can we find limitless information about almost any topic, but we can get involved in putting our "two cents" into it too! What would we ever do without the concept of NEWSGROUPS?

The word newsgroup looks just like what it’s defined as. “A newsgroup is a discussion about a particular subject consisting of notes written to a central Internet site and redistributed through Usenet, a worldwide network of news discussion groups.”(reference) Usenet consists of messages or notes that people submit on many different types of subjects. This information is posted to servers on a worldwide network.

Newsgroups are a continuous public discussion about any particular topic. Anyone can feel free to join a discussion anytime they want. Usually it's easily accessible, but sometimes some sites require a fee.

So who are the brains behind all this?

North Carolina was the first place to discover newsgroups. In 1979 two Duke University students connected two computers together "to start an exchange of information with other UNIX users." Jim Ellis and Tom Truscott, computer science graduate students at Duke, provided the most basic way to share information and communicate. They came up with an easy way "to automate the transfer of files between any two computers using telephone modems." They had good knowledge of the first mailing lists using ARPANET, and wanted to make a similar program that universities can use that weren't doing research. "The ARPANET was the first wide area packet switching network, called the "Eve" network, which has evolved into the Internet we know and love today." (reference) Although these two men conceived the Usenet concept, a man by the name of Steve Bellovin wrote the first program way before the Internet even became popular.

Here's a picture of the amazing individual!

STEVE BELLOVIN


Newsgroups are a great addition to the use of the Internet today. They allow us to access many different sites that can fill our brains with information on a various amount of topics. It also gets us involved with sharing our own thoughts and feelings, about the issues that we choose to discuss about. One of the best parts about it is that you can join a newsgroup anytime and become a part of a huge conversation with people from all over the world. This opportunity opens up our chances to get to know other people and their opinions, from other countries. It gives us a different perspective on life.


Here's just a little tip on when newsgroups are most useful. (SOURCE)

• When you don't need an immediate answer.


• You want to communicate with more than one person.


• You want to communicate with a group of people interested in the same topic.


• You need or want to provide extensive information about that topic.

Also, here's an example of a newsgroup site that allows you to access MANY different newsgroups! http://www.cyberfiber.com/

I hope that this helped you all get an idea of what newsgroups are all about. Before I did the research I thought I knew exactly what it was about, but it definitely exceeded my expecations of how useful it can be. Now I know there's another way to keep me busy on the Internet!