Blog Assignment 5

The first idea to deter piracy that comes to mind is most definitely subscription-based content.  If you look at services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify, you'll find that they have tons of active users.  This is because they pay a monthly price (typically less than $10), and receive large amounts of content.  The way that content producers (bands, TV shows) get money is a monthly payout from the services similar to Hulu or Spotify.  The "middlemen" can also supply the content creators with more accurate statistics about viewers as opposed to TV stations.

Another idea is having a set standard of piracy laws.  A third-party international body could be formed to combat the issue.  They could potentially lay out laws and regulations that countries can choose to adopt if they wanted to fight against piracy.  This one is a shot in the dark though, because it would require massive funding from somewhere.  An example of how this has been difficult in the past is with "The Pirate Bay", which is a popular website to find illegally copied content.  They left when prosecuted from their original country, and kept bouncing around to host their website in different countries as they started being discovered.  An international body could make catching these types of offenders easier.

My third option is changing the file types of commercial media.  Look at modern video games. It's nearly impossible to find copied PS4 or Xbox One games.  This is because the arrangement of file types on the disk (and file types themselves) are extremely complex.  It takes proprietary hardware (the video game console) to be able to read the data on the disk.  If we moved away from the standard mp3 and mp4 file types to something more complex, piracy would decrease because of the learning curve to decode/encode a new file type.

Blog Assignment 4

It’s no secret that users like personalized content.  They like it whenever they visit a site, it’s different in a small way every time.  Good examples of this are amazon.com, who has personalized findings for suggested products on the home page every time you visit, and also news websites.  Often you can subscribe to certain types of news (tech, world, health, etc) that that content will appear on your home page.  The difficult and touch part of being able to create personalized content is the fact that you need to collect consumer information before you can do so.  An example provided in the article is about personalized digital tutoring, and how the student may not want the programmers knowing what skills they lack.  

There three classifiable groups on the privacy debate.  There are the privacy fundamentalists, who oppose all disclosing of information online, or in other physical settings.  The opposite side is the privacy unconcerned, who only express mild concern about their information.  Privacy pragmatists are what we’d consider “moderate” if we were to equate this situation to a political spectrum.  They have concern over their information, but are typically more understanding (and possibly more educated) about where their information is going, and why it’s being collected.

Attitudes about collected information can obviously change though, depending on the type being collected.  People are usually okay with disclosing basic demographics and lifestyle information such as hobbies.  Generally, less people disclose details about their “internet behavior and purchases”.  Financial details (credit card info, etc) is among the least disclosed types of information along with social security details.

The best things you can do to collect private information that will benefit your site include: having a privacy statement, having a clean and dignified looking website, as well as having a clean reputation.  A privacy statement (or policy) basically states what you do with consumer information, and how it would benefit their experience.  Having a clean website, and clean reputation simply let the user (either subconsciously or consciously) feel more comfortable while using your website.

The question I propose about privacy is this:

Where do we draw the line? In an ever increasing digital age, how can we find out where the balance is between the amount of user information we collect and benefits to user experience?  

Blog Assignment 3

The media/technology I want to report on for this blog assignment is called "longbets.org"  Long bets is a new social media and financial combination website that is "an arena for competitive, accountable predictions".  It also serves as a discussion forum for societal and technological changes that may come in the future.

It all starts with a prediction.  Someone starts by making a prediction about the future (minimum 2 years away).  Example: Prediction 678: Apple will release an electric car within the next decade.  Once someone makes a prediction, someone can challenge it, and turn it into a long bet.  Both participants (the predictor and challenger) pay a minimum of $200 to start their bet.  Whenever the deadline ends, the winner is paid.  The money is paid up front to longbets.org and is invested in endowments managed by Capital Research and Management Company.  The interesting part is that the winners of the bets don't actually win the money.  If they win, they donate their winnings to an IRS approved charity of their choice.

Longbets.org is an intriguing tool for philanthropic giving.  An example of a bet that has been paid out is bet #3.  "A profitable video-on-demand service aimed at consumer will offer 10,000 titles to 5 million subscribers by 2010".  This bet was placed in 2002.  It may not seem like a big deal to us now, but that prediction in 2002 was probably a long shot at the time. Both the predictor and challenger bet $1,000, and went to the Electric Frontier Foundation in 2010.

This is related to our internet communication course because it shows an entertaining, interactive option for philanthropic giving.  There are comments on the website from as old as 12 years ago, which is uncommon to see.  The site has only recently gained popularity, after being featured on CNN.

You can read more from CNN here:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/22/tech/social-media/future-betting-tomorrow-transformed/

I recommend this article because it describes a website that is both intelligent discussion and charity based.  It's unlike any other website I've ever seen.

Internet Laws Assignment 2

While I believe that all the laws are technically “true”, I think the one that the masses need to be most concerned with is Sarnoff’s law.  It states that the more active users you have on a network, the more value it holds.  Some may ask: “why does network value matter?”  Well, today a large percentage of advertisement is done online.  People are starting to spend more time at their computers, and less at their TV.  This could be because with a computer, you can cater your media choices to your own interests.  Either way, a web user is now a potential customer for advertisers.  

I bet many companies thought differently about advertising with Facebook in 2006, compared to advertising with them in 2014.  The reason for this change would be Sarnoff’s law.  According to a Yahoo News article, Facebook only had 12 million users at the end of 2006.  In March 2013 (their last measured date), there were 1.1 billion users.  The network grew exponentially, and so did it’s value.  That’s why facebook is now a multi billion dollar corporation.  That’s why you have to pay to advertise on their website.

Sarnoff’s Law can also be applied to more traditional contexts such as TV and Radio.  We’ve all heard about TV rankings.  You’ll notice that on newer and more popular shows you’ll find higher quality advertisements.  If you watch a local TV station, you’ll likely be seeing cheesy local car dealerships’ advertisements compared to seeing Audi commercials while watching a show like “Mad Men”.  Another example is superbowl advertisements.  The advertises know that the network users increase during the game, and therefore try to purchasing advertising space.  This drives the price up, as more advertisers are trying to purchase time than is available.

Five years from now, I think information will be received primarily through the internet.  Since I’ve gotten a smartphone, I’ve noticed that I use it to make simple internet searches instead of going in my room and using my desktop computer.  I think smartphones and tablets are going to be the main computing devices of the future, because they’re more convenient. Desktops and laptops will still be used for working, but casual searches will eventually transfer over to mobile devices as more people get smartphones and tablets.

Blogging has been referred to as journal keeping, grassroots journalism, and even free advertisement.  The possibilities for blogs go far beyond what the average person may first think.  Blogging was one of the earlier forms of social media to exist on the web. 

Bloggers have many different motivations.  There are fine main ones that include: "documenting one's life; providing commentary and opinions; expressing deeply felt emotions; articulating ideas through writing; and forming and maintaining community forums."  There are other types of blogs, but those 5 motivations are the reason for the existence of most blogs.

Documenting your life
Many bloggers recorded their lives on platforms such as blogger before more recent social media platforms existed.  They could utilize a photo album gadget within the blog site to share photographs, and could enable commenting on pictures.

Catharsis
Some feelings can be difficult to describe through speech.  I personally find some concepts of emotions easier to explain through writing.  Blogs are often utilized as either private or public emotional outlets for bloggers.

Commentary
Social commentary is another main purpose for blogs.  In the late 2000's I know many sports blogs would provide opinions (as well as facts) on sports gossip, scores, rankings, and draft stats.  These have since become less popular, but sports was definitely one of the more popular opinion blogs.

Muse
Authors may blog because it will stimulate their creativity.  Some say the best cure for writers block is to "start writing".  It doesn't have to be about anything in particular, but if you start writing something, your mind will be stirred to create.  Some people use blogs for that purpose.  It may not necessarily be nonsense, but the posts could be covering a variety of topics.

Community Forum
Blogs utilized as a community forum sprang up once commenting on blog posts became the norm.  The article "Why we Blog" discovered a forum for poets, two for educators, and one political discussion in their preliminary search. 

This article is a bit outdated, since it was published in 2004.  Facebook, which is the currently largest social media platform was only launched in early 2004, and was exclusive to very few users (specific universities).  The number of bloggers has declined because of the rise of social media platform software.  They still exist, and are a tight knit group it seems.  It will be interesting to see what the future holds for blogging.

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