Man2Man Communication

“Communications media was between one sender and one recipient. This is a one-to-one pattern – I talk and you listen, then you talk and I listen. Broadcast media was between one sender and many recipients, and the recipients couldn’t talk back. This is one-to-many pattern – I talk, and I talk, and talk, and all you can do is choose to listen or tune out.” – Shirky.

As our ways of communication is easier to achieve now, we are taking advantage of being able to talk to one and another. Back in my mother’s day, phone and letter is what they depended on when it came to conversing with someone. Before her time, it was all in person. People communicated through other people making each contact personal and tangible.

Now that we are provided with all types of communication sources like text messaging, chat logs and so on, provide other people with the ability to distribute with out any professional assistance. For instance if you go on Youtube, many of the postings are user generated content. They post up videos for fun and pleasure. Some also do this because of a small fame you can gain by displaying yourself on other people’s screen. Things like Youtube is very interesting because what you have to say is hear by anyone that simply searches for the category you are talking about. On the other hand in real world, things you say are “are heard only by the people you are talking to” (89, Shirky). Sharing your life story, opinions, hobbies with people who you have never met and not knowing what they look like is a brave move. However, being able to state what ever is on your mind is priceless. The people who sit on the other side of the screen also have an advantage of screening out the things they are not interested in. This act of posting things to the public is mostly for your own satisfaction and not for the public.

Y2K Social Organization (week 4)

Like ants we are eusocial. We have an advanced level of social organization. We are given tasks to finish and by doing so we are awarded. Most of us work for somebody or with someone and work under certain systems in order to operate smoothly. However this typical hierarchy organization restricts us from being more open, sharing and utilizing all of our relevant knowledge. This is our reality.

On the other hand, our virtual world’s social system escapes from this limitation. Many of us have the freedom to roam as they please and contribute to whatever knowledge they have to offer. As Shirky mentioned in his book, ’sharing creates the fewest demands on the participants’ (41, Shirky) over the web. On the internet there is more of a socialist attitude that everyone’s equal, partially due to the anonymous users. This networked organization is the social changes we are experiencing at the moment. People are only judged by the knowledge they bring to the table. With anyone being able to access and co-operate within the internet community, information extends quicker to users.

With the rise of online communities often being able to rival large companies in terms of entertainment, news and other electronic media, conventional organizations must quickly adapt to this rapid change or be left behind.

Platforms for Collaboration(Week 3)

This week’s reading really made me think of how much I personally trust the web and the media. I wake up everyday to a world where there is false information distributed everywhere. I watch the news and half of the time I do not take in 100% of what they try to inform me. I think of it as the media being businesses that want to sell as many interesting subjects but over hyped sometimes. I understand that any business would want to make money and they are aware that people love anything that is shocking. As much as I say that I do not trust the media, I look up things on Wikipedia and such for facts about things I research and for some reason I trust the community who upload information. Anyone could be posting lies on this Wikipedia but it seems like there is trust that has been built to this website. This “platforms for participation”(183, Tapscott and Williams) where a business can build upon trusting the users and co-creating a better and stronger business can really extend product capacity. It is just like operating with thousands of brain put together as one.

I find it most engaging to think that on the internet, “freedom will always [stimulate] more creativity then the one based on restriction” (Jody Baker). These two key words; trust and freedom, is really the next generation in helping designers and businesses grow further with less cost and more innovation. Socializing and work can come together.

Something that reminded me while thinking of collaboration too much.
haha. “Together, forever~”

Consumers+Producers=Prosumers

The steps of creating, sharing, learning and inspiring is the new way of creating the culture. We are at a state now where downloading files from the internet is old news. Millions of people download music, movies and software for free every day and we have very easy access to do so. Many movie production companies along with music makers have lost countless amounts of money because of these online pirates. Sure, creating files for sharing is great and it is good to see the “the gap between producers and consumers blurring” (126, Tapscott & Wiliams) but it is crucial for the producers to be able to have some sort of control over their product and consumers. How is this possible?

Consumers become producers. If the consumer can build a community where they develop, participate “in the design creation and production of the product” (126, Tapscott & Wiliams), they become both. Tapscott & Wiliams would call these people “prosumers”. By being a prosumer, you can have both customer and producer viewpoints. This is great for the company’s growth because it helps circumvent the large corporation and property owners (Jody Baker).

This infinite platform of customer innovation leads to the next generation of sharing over the internet. With more systems like this in the future where you can share, reuse and remix, it helps people dedicate their works to the public domain.

Little Red Chinahood

Creative Common Licensing

Little Red Chinahood by Aina Kawamoto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License.

Wikinomics

Being able to share some of your intellectual secrets to the globe over the web can help you further develop your ideas, resources and connections. We live in a time where we depend on technology as much as we depend on food. It is no longer a virtual world, and is becoming our reality where people meet, share ideas, plan projects and more(Joel Baker). The outcome of this process of collaboration becomes a reality. For instance, this week I was introduced to a website called “Deli.cio.us.” which is essentially a bookmarking website. However, this idea is taken further into creating a community online by being able to share your bookmarks; in other words sharing your wisdom with others. Giving away a bit of your knowledge and resources to others who also have the same interest as you do, and them doing the same for you creates a whole new realm of networking.

In the past reading books on materials you were interested in was the only way to find information; now there are many sources. By looking up one single word on Google will end up with thousands of results. “Sharing some intellectual property”(10, Tapscott and Williams) with people over the web is not that easy to do. Trust becomes the key issue when sharing information on the internet due to the largely anonymous user-base who could violate the terms of use associated with your intellectual property. However, when you are past this stage and start collaborating with masses of people and firms openly, it drives “innovation and growth in their industries”.