The machine is Us/ing Us
October 27, 2008 at 9:45 am (social networking) (web 2.0 socializing machine web2.0 role)
When i begun the Internet Cultures module we were shown the video below. It was an important introduction about what we are going to see and do. At that time, the other students posted immediately this video. I waited until today.
I can say that today i am more experienced than that day. I understand much more the role of the web 2.0 and what people can achieve through it. I think the video shows to a great extent how the web works and where its limits are. The title of the video is very smart : The machine is Us/ing Us .
Is the machine Us or is Using us? I leave this down to you 
I hate new Facebook
October 14, 2008 at 1:49 pm (social networking) (old new facebook dislike)
Lots of people have created communities in Facebook declaring they hate new Facebook and they demand to switch again back to the old one. I can say i agree with them since i have significantly reduced the time i spend in there comparing to the old Facebook. The template new Facebook is based on is not as handy as the previous one was. I don’t find the same joy as before. Only through playing some games i find myself spending time in there more than an hour. Otherwise i might just sign in, see whether there are any updates or messages and next log out. I don’t think so that old Facebook will come back, neither as a choice like many people have suggested. Human nature can adapt to any environment and this is going to happen in our case. New users that haven’t tried old facebook will not complaint, old users will find how to overcome technical difficulties they might face and just life will keep going on.
Imagine Cup Student Competition 2009
September 30, 2008 at 12:54 pm (social networking) (competition, design, game development, imagine cup, IT, member, photography, robotics and algorithm, short film, student, technology)
Have you heard of the Imagine Cup Student Competition? I recently read about it and i also joined it. The Imagine Cup is a global student technology competition focused on finding solutions to real-world issues.
Anyone can become a member. There are three different ways: Either like a student, like a mentor or as a guest. There are several competition categories: Software Design, Embedded Development, Game Development, Robotics and Algorithm, IT Challenge, Mashup, Photography, Short Film, Design. So, anyone can find information about the category he/she is more interested about.
You can read more or even join this competition at http://imaginecup.com/default.aspx
The new Facebook
July 31, 2008 at 5:42 pm (social networking) (Facebook, navigation, new, new facebook, page, photo, social networking, template)
Have you seen the new template that Facebook offers?
I can’t say whether i like it or not yet. What i know is that it looks more professional and easier to handle. Sure, this change doesn’t make it easier to get used to the new facebook. For the first time i switched by chance to the new template i was very surprised and i was scared because i thought i couldn’t switch to the old and loving facebook template.
The new one is separated into four tabs: the wall, info, photos and boxes. One can move from one tab to another according to his/her preferences. This makes it easier to find similar info in certain areas without having to read the whole page. For example, on the info tab you can find the ‘facebooker’s’ personal data or in the photo tab you can find all the photos from the albums, and so goes on. I haven’t found other important changes yet since i haven’t got used to the new template and to be fair i prefer the old one, although it might be a little bit slow or confusing at times.
So, this is how the new page looks like
I think that in this way all similar information can be found in certain areas making it easier for the inexperienced user to find the information he/she is interested about. Moreover, the page is non-linear as the user can select different paths in order to ‘jump’ from one page to another. In my opinion, this new page has been created in order to enhance the user’s movements in order to easily navigate on the panel.
Hi5, a meeting point for what and for whom?
July 19, 2008 at 2:04 pm (social networking) (friend request, friendship, Hi5, social networking)
Lately I signed in my Hi5 account. I was curious to see whether I had any new notifications. Surprisingly I did have many, regarding friend requests. I had about 10 requests from totally unknown people asking from me to become friends so as we can get to know a little bit more with each other. This is quite natural these days since lots of people with the rise of internet seek to socialise through social networks such as Hi5. However the strange part was that the requests had been made from children aged from 12 to 16 years old. Honestly, tell me, what kind of relation or friendship can be developed from people who belong to such different generations? What kind of discussions can we have?
In an attempt to understand their logic of asking me to become their friend I visited their pages. There I discovered lots of colours, amazing pictures, numerous applications and hundreds of posts written by their friends and from themselves. So, trying to see how they reached me and whether we had any common friends I saw their friends. But I quickly discovered that they had made hundreds of friends from all over the world and from any age rank.
I guess that this is a new tendency between friends, to make as many friends as possible. The one with the greater number of friends is the coolest and the greatest, the ‘leader’. So, I feel that although Internet has brought people together, is also bringing them apart. In the seek of making friends and searching people we forget our true friends and neglect them. The term friendship, as I have known it till today, is going to be distorted. We are going to hang out around with unknown people, through the screen of our computers, and we are going to feel happy and satisfied with this, because lots of people today find it difficult to spend their time the way they used to in making friends.
First meeting in second life at 3rd of June
June 7, 2008 at 7:37 pm (How To, social networking) (avatars, education, How To, risks, Second Life)
It has been a really busy week. I did not have enough time and motivation to write something in my blog. It is not so easy to update it every week. This is why i hadn’t written something until today.
This week we had a meeting in Second Life (SL) with the classmates from the Internet Cultures module. It was our first meeting. It was not so easy to have a proper discussion since everybody was speaking and someone else might interrupt and there was no coherence in the discussion. There were many problems.
Lets take it from the beginning though. Not everybody from the course managed to be there. I don’t know the reason but i can guess. They might not have a proper internet connection at their homes, not a great computer to run SL , not enough time to get to grips with SL, they might be doing something else at the same time and finally maybe not very confident to use SL and have such a ‘face to face’ meeting. I hope in our next meeting there will be more people.
So, in the beginning we sat in a certain area where we could have a proper discussion since in the same place where we met, there were other groups and we could hear their discussions too! After we sat, we introduced to each other and we started talking about the whole experience of having an avatar in SL and doing things in there. But this was not a discussion. Everybody was telling his/her opinion and it was difficult to catch up. Moreover, i wanted to tell my opinion too and so i was writing as fast as i could. As a result, i was doing so many mistakes but no one seemed to care since they were struggling to write their opinion too.
Except for this i had problems with my picture. My graphics card is so old and my computer does not meet with the minimum requirements of SL. So, there were times in SL when i could see nothing else but myself and if i moved a little bit i would see everything in my screen move up and down. It was very upsetting but what else could i do?
Anyway, someone raised the question, why are there only beautiful and healthy avatars? Why do the shops sell beautiful and young faces and bodies? Can my avatar grow up or is it young forever? Obviously, SL is a place for socializing and hanging around with friends. There are handsome and beautiful avatars because when we meet with new people we want to give a great first impression. We want to look beautiful and make as many friends as we can. Since SL offers this opportunity why not? If in real life we are not as skinny as we want, or tall enough, or beautiful or young as we would like to, why not be in SL? Nobody can check what the truth is. Oh and you can even have another shape than a human being. As a result you don’t have to be a male or female and you can be whatever you want. You can make friends from both sexes and never reveal your true identity. Very convenient.
Also, i had read somewhere that some people make opposite sex avatars in SL. A man for example can make a female avatar for himself and pretend to be a woman. As a result he can have a relationship in there with a man and see from the woman’s scope how it is to be in a relationship with a man. Obviously there are no ethic rules in SL and you can be exposed to anything and anyone, so you should be very careful of what “friends” you make and never talk about personal things and data with someone whom you do not know!
Finally, there is a question of how might SL be used for educational purposes. What i feel is that SL can be used for educational purposes but for adults only and not children. There are so many dangers that children can be exposed in there. Anyone can approach them for any purpose and they are not safe at all. And there are some areas in SL which are for adults only and children shouldn’t see.
Anyway, this is a very interesting video for Science Learning Opportunities in Second Life
There are so many opportunities offered aren’t there? Through simulation systems scientists can try and do almost anything! Even a non-scientist can enter there and learn things that in real life would be impossible to learn. Even for children it would be fine to visit such places. I remember myself as a child when we conducted experiments in chemistry or biology and i always felt that if i could see this experiments how really did happen i would learn more easily than watching the teacher doing the experiment for us.
My blogging experience so far (and my future blogging career…)
June 1, 2008 at 4:20 pm (social networking) (blogging experience, effects, social networking)
This blog was firstly created to serve the purpose of maintaining a blog for my MA media class. It was about a month ago that i posted my first entry fully enthusiastic that i would begin something by myself and other people would comment on it. As I read from the article “Why we blog” there are several motivations for blogging. I can say that my main motivation has been to provide comments and opinions; and maybe articulate ideas through writing about social networking.
I have to admit that this is not my first blog. I had begun another one last year where I was documenting my life and expressing ideas and opinions, but I deactivated my account after a while. The reason was that I did not feel motivated enough to continue writing. I was writing things about my life but what was the point? I did not have a great audience, the more passionate ones where my two closest friends, but no one else seemed to be interested about my blog. I was feeling too unimportant and that I was spending too much time for something that was worthless. I hope it will not happen the same with this blog too!
What reasons would you give for *not* carrying on with a blog?
As I already wrote, the main reason for not carrying on with a blog would be the lack of audience. As far as I see that other people are visiting my blog I will feel confident enough to continue blogging. I don’t think that I would stop my blog if I had nothing to say. There are so many things around us that affect our lives and we can have an opinion to express on them.
Who would you blog for? What sense of audience have you got when you are blogging? What evidence have you got for your blog being used by others?
For the moment, i believe that my main audience is my classmates from the media course. We are all trying to maintain our blogs and we expect from each other to read the blogs and comment on them. From the dashboard I have some indicators that other bloggers too have read my blog. They have reached it through certain tags which I have used in order to categorize my entries. Moreover, I have used a tool called blog stats which shows the total number of people who have visited the blog and which fortunately everyday seems to increase. After I finish the course my main target will be my friends and anyone else who is interested about social networking.
What are the benefits of blogging for (i) yourself and (ii) others?
In order to maintain the blog I have to be informed about social networks. I have to develop my own opinion and express it objectively in my blog. So, I have to be an “expert” about what I am writing about or at least have some knowledge about it. So, I read and search for articles, and I use the internet in order to stay informed. As a result, I broaden my knowledge too. Consequently, as the blog will be informative and will be sticking to facts, anyone else who will be reading it, will stay informed too. They might even understand what I will be writing about in more depth because my goal is to use plain English.
I have read that some people use blogs in order to earn money through using advertisements. I would never do such a thing and my opinion is that it is not right to exploit the readers in such unethical ways.
What have been the ‘unintended consequences’ of blogging?
Sometimes, i feel that I am disappointing my audience if I haven’t written something for a week. I feel guilty because I think that they visit my blog in order to read something new and they feel disappointed when they find that I haven’t included a new entry. There is no one to apologize to because it is my own blog but I keep thinking that I should have an entry at least once a week so as they remain satisfied.
Has anything surprised you about keeping a blog?
Well, it is quite difficult to keep a blog. You have to spend quite a lot of time in order to maintain it and write new stuff every week. I thought that it would be easy to express my opinion and exciting to receive comments by anyone who would read it. The truth is that I don’t feel free to express my opinion, I am not totally excited that I will have an online journal; I have to watch out for everything I write about. I should be very careful in order not to insult or hurt someone. I should be very well informed because anyone can proof what I am talking about might be wrong. And sometimes I feel that I don’t want to share anything with anyone. I would prefer to keep it for myself or at least for my friends. Why should I spend so much time and effort for somebody else who might not even appreciate what I am writing about?
Have you suddenly made lots of new online friends?
No, I haven’t made new online friends through my blog …
Has your social life take a turn for the worse?
Of course not …
Is it all a lot more boring and mundane than you expected?
Yes it is, but no one has ever managed to become good at something without spending lots of time and effort (unless he is a true talent of course) …
Second Life
May 27, 2008 at 9:29 pm (social networking) (How To, Second Life, social networking)
I tried Second Life (SL) two months ago but my computer’s graphics did not allow me to experience this social network the way I would like. From the smallest movement everything on my screen seemed to collapse and even if I didn’t move my avatar wasn’t stable at all. But first of all let me introduce what SL is according to my experience.
Well first of all you create an account with a username and a password. You can choose your first name but not your last name. There are a number of choices and someone can choose the one it best suits him/her. After that you can install the SL on your computer and after entering your username and password a totally new world is just for you.
In the beginning there is a tutorial base where you learn the basics such as walking, watching around, flying, dressing and changing your avatar, and talking to other people in there. This is a funny and easy part as it seems that you can do anything you dreamt of in real life (RL).
If you have very good graphics you can make the slightest changes on your avatar, even from changing the shape of your eyes. This is really good; you can look like you would love to in RL.
Well after this, you can visit different areas of SL and see so many things. There is a place just for educational purposes the Education UK Island whose address is
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Education%20UK/227/33/22
There you can find a great number of other universities and stuff for educational purposes.
Also, there is a research project at the London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, University of London, for Learning From Online Worlds; Teaching In Second Life whose page is:
http://learningfromsocialworlds.wordpress.com/
From there you can have a better idea of what SL can offer as learning is concerned.
But there are so many groups and events you can learn about if you learn how to handle SL. You can join these groups and become a member of many societies. You can even learn about popular place, events and groups without losing lots of time.
Moreover, there are places in SL where you can find stuff for free. These include clothes, jewellery, money, games and quite many things.
But SL has its disadvantages too. There are places for adults only and there is a great risk for a child to visit them. What is more, lots of people in SL can so easily pretend to be anything they like so you can never trust the one you are speaking with. You must really be careful what you are saying and to whom.
Researching social networks: Facebook, Hi5 and MySpace
May 22, 2008 at 1:01 pm (social networking) (Facebook, Hi5, MySpace, social networking)
In the beginning it was MySpace. Then totally unexpectedly Hi5 came up in my life, and now I have settled in my most favourite social network, Facebook.
And the most reasonable questions are then arisen: Why did you join both three networks, Why do you prefer Facebook more than the others and finally but not least, what do you do in such networks?
It was around the beginning of 2006 when I first obtained an internet connection at home. The reason was simple. I had to study through the Internet and keep track of my tutor’s demands as an undergraduate student of a technological department. You might think how it is possible not to already have an internet connection in my home just like everybody else, but keep in mind that my home is in Greece and the internet penetration was quite low at that time and it did cost a lot to have a broadband line.
So, through trial and error I was making my first steps in the “magical” world of internet. I was so happy and excited to discover so many things through a simple click on my computer. To watch any video and picture I wanted; to download anything useful for my school work and even communicate with my friends!
As you might have guessed I discovered MySpace. I immediately became a member and I spent quite many hours for settling up my profile, decorating my page and adding my musical preferences. MySpace as you might know is a social network in which music is its central theme. Many bands advertise their music in there. So, except for my friends I also added for friends some musical groups. I visited their pages and listened to their music. Sometimes, these groups even invite me for events, where they play music in different venues in Athens. But I quickly got bored and I abandoned my page as a friend suggested me to try Hi5.
I found Hi5 much more interesting and easier to use for communicating with my friends. It is quite simpler and more convenient to handle than MySpace. Someone can choose a background profile, add personal details and interests and is ready to make friends from all over the world. Another difference between MySpace and Hi5 is the privacy level. What I mean is that in Hi5 only your friends can see your profile since you can set it to be a private profile. Moreover, you can upload photos, comment on them, give and take fives which describe you and write journals.
However, I did not have enough time to spend on Hi5 and I abandoned it for quite a lot time. It was not until this year that I signed in again where I noticed quite many changes in there. Many new applications are added and there are lots of things that one can do. But I noticed that the people in there had changed too. When I firstly joined Hi5 I could find people from all age ranks but now it was not the same. Children aged from 14 to 17 were asking my friendship and after becoming their friend I discovered that they had made Hi5 a meeting point where they tried to make the best profile with as many applications as possible and showing off through the photos they had uploaded. Moreover, there is a relentless chatting between them through the profile comments, where they even discuss other friends in Hi5 and the story so goes on …
Finally I joined Facebook when I was here in London around the February of 2008 as a friend did talk about it all the time. She was so excited finding old friends and communicating with them even after ten years of losing touch. I was so curious. What a magical network is this that can even reunite you with friends that you haven’t seen for years.
So, I became a member …
In contrary to the other two networks I had to post my real name and I soon was faced with privacy matters. How safe is it to post my real data, exposed to anyone who might want to become a friend? What if I do not post my real data? But then how my old friends will track me? I was in a great dilemma. Then I made a choice. “I will post my real name but I will set privacy rules in my profile. Only my friends and the network I belong will see my profile. My pictures will be visible only to friends and as a result I will make friends whom I already know”. So, I managed to overcome privacy problems and create my own account.
I have found some old friends, I added friends from Greece with whom I “talk” a lot after being in London for 5 months and I would have missed them a lot if we did not speak at all. I even joined some groups where I made friends with whom we have the same interests and finally I have added a variety of applications which are so funny. I can send requests to my friends to use them too and it is a kind of interaction through which we have a nice time. We compare our answers and send many more requests for much more applications to use. Moreover, one can upload an unlimited number of photos, create albums and tag the people on them. As a result, when someone is tagged this photo appears to his photos too!
Finally, someone can create a journal through the message box where he can let a number of certain people to read and comment on it. So, keeping in touch even being miles away from them is much easier.
The question now is what is next? Which network am I going to join after I get bored from Facebook too? Is it going to be Bebo, Twitter or Second Life?
Well, at least for the moment, my answer is that I totally love Facebook and I will never abandon it. I don’t need any other network as long as I feel satisfied with this one…
Of course there is the other side of Facebook, just watch the video
Diigo
May 15, 2008 at 1:07 pm (social networking) (bookmarks, Diigo, social networking)
I recently became a member of Diigo society. Diigo is a useful tool with emphasis on research and socializing. One can parallelize it with Del.icio.us but i think that they are not quite the same. They share common things such as bookmarking and researching but i find Diigo a better tool since it offers many facilities. Just watch the video and you will find that it is quite interesting. I just became a member and i hope what the video promises are true and easy to do. I will certainly talk about Diigo after a while, for the moment i am experimenting and i need some more time to objectively criticize it.
