E-Life, Week 5

This week we will be focusing on user-generated content.

Please watch the following videos:
Information Bombardment
An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube
Blogs vs. Wikis
Wikis in Plain English

And then, for Wednesday, answer the following questions on your blog:

1. What enables hatred as public performance? What other effects come from the combination of the same sources?
2. What is user-generated organization?
3. What is user-generated distribution?
4. What is user-generated commentary?
5. What is the purpose of media?
6. What is … and why do we care about … networked individualism?

By Wednesday, I will have sent you an invitation to become a collaborator on Wiki :)

Continuing on with the theme of "digital footprints", explore further-in-depth the impacts of social networking and utilities. Think about how social networking has evolved from its inception. Ask yourself how social networks have changed the world and how we communicate and relate to others? How has social networking changed business and impacted advertising and commerce? What are the social and political impacts of social networks?

In the "Week 4" folder on ANGEL, there is another folder entitled "Readings" that contains many documents pertaining to social media and some of the various social media platforms. I would like for you to spend this week reading over those materials (and anything else related that you might find on the web). 

By noon on Wednesday, Please create a blog posting that examines, describes, and compares between Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ the following:

• features
• functionality
• usability
• user demographic and population
• impact on business and advertising
• impact on society and pop culture
• impact on politics and government
• impact on civil rights such as privacy and free speech

By midnight on Friday, create a second blog post containing a conclusion, based on your research about the future of social networking.

Cite your sources and provide links to information and images to illustrate your points as necessary. Be sure that your postings have been spell-checked and are grammatically correct (with regards, of course, to the tone of your blog).

By midnight on Sunday, read each of your fellow classmates' opinions and respond to at least one posting. 

In today's folder on ANGEL, you will find a PDF entitled "Digital Footprints Reading", a slideshow entitled "A Timeline of Teens and Technology", a spreadsheet entitled "Teen Internet Usage Over Time", and a document containing "Questions to Answer".

Read the PDF, view the slideshow, and review the spreadsheet in order to find the answers to the questions asked.  Submit the document with the questions answered to its dropbox by noon on Friday, October 14.

From those questions, select at least two that you are particularly interested in exploring further in-depth. Search the web for more information on that/those topics and blog about your findings, opinions, and theories regarding them. Include links back to the sources for your information. Complete this blog post by noon on Sunday, October 16.

Read your fellow classmates' postings and comment on at least one by noon on Monday, October 17.


Best of luck, and have fun with this project!

Read these articles online:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/internet.htm

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/internet-infrastructure.htm

You will be responsible for understanding this content and you will be quizzed over it on your midterm.

Also,
Please refer to THIS handy, educational, and entertaining diagram on The Oatmeal to help guide your writing (specifically spelling) when creating blog posts (or anything else for that matter).
Then, please take THIS quiz to test your new-found spelling prowess. Post your score, including a screen shot of it on your blog. Please don't cheat, as it will end up only hurting you in the long run...