What makes a community online?

When we think community we often think of the people we interact with on a daily basis, however when we take the leap into online interactions do we consider these online beings as community members are more like short interactions with strangers and not a true community. I personally believe we've all taken the leap and have some sort of standing in the online world either from social media sites such as Facebook to picture, text, and video sharing medias such as Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter. A community requires a gathering of people for a single or shared ideal or thought. All these medias online accomplish this very well such as Facebook allow people to become friends and have actual interactions be it sending requests to Candy Crush or Farmville. With the ability to leave comments and express one's feelings to complete strangers online these medias online has brought us all together as this whole online community. In the end as long as there are people in the world going online and interacting with one another it can be said that online communities do exist however, without the human aspect of it social medias such as Facebook become an empty space mere nothingness and it is our actions that create these online communities.

Disintermediation .. what do you mean you don't need me

Disintermediation is when technology solutions remove the need for a service provider to act as a middle man. To a point it does make sense as technology becomes better certain position becomes obsolete just as drafting software was created engineers and architects no longer needed drafters to create finalized blue prints and do to changing times drafting became a dying career. As we enter the next 20 years of technology we can expect even more disintermediation to occur. As scary and devastating it is as technology becomes more advanced and less human interaction is needed what are we left to do? are we leading towards a vegetable like state where all actions are inputed into our minds to emulate the sensation of living much like the world in the movie, The Matrix, or are we leading to a world where we slowly become more machine like and live as cyborgs. In the end it feels we are relying on technology too much, and could ultimately lead to our own downfall.
   

Dinosaurs to the Dot.Bomb

Companies rushed to the opportunity to run businesses online during this time frame of the Dot.com sensation. Nearly omnipresent no one foresaw an end to the limitless potential of the Dot.com period however this arrogant outlook led to it's own demise as companies began to declare bankruptcy, which caused certain sites to vanish from the virtual plane such as pets.com as mentioned in class. Overall this raise and fall was compared to toy dinosaurs which illustrated how the dinosaurs were the dominate beings, their lacking ability to evolve to changing times caused them to go extinct just like the companies that fell into bankruptcy.   

You can buy that online?!!

The vast innovation that technology has given us in boundless. We are able to speak with people on the other side of the world at real time, order food online and have it delivered to you, and even learn new skills by watching videos online. With all the things we can now do online there are still a few things I would advise in not purchasing online. I personally feel uncomfortable giving sensitive information online such as my credit card number and address. I am the type of person that won't answer my phone calls if I don't know the number or am not expecting someone to call. But over the recent years shopping online has intrigued me. At first it was credible sources that were selling goods online and only online, and as a consumer I had to break my concerns with giving my information online so that I could purchase these goods. For the most part there are a few things I would and wouldn't get online. Things that are exclusive to online purchase are few things I would get online, however, things you can go see directly to purchase I would not even consider ordering online. With that, I have the biggest problem with craigslist, it is an open source where people can post up things they wish to sell and have other people around contact to purchase said item. I may have a trust issue but, when someone is not a credible source and i'm trying to purchase a TV or a smartphone I would much rather pay the higher price getting something brand new. There is more security in knowing the device has never been used and you know exactly where it's coming from. When I think of craigslist it reminds me of when mobsters were still around and they would go around the streets dealing, and simply does not seem legitimate. Overall, I would never buy something online when I can go to a physical store, unless it is something I wish to purchase that is exclusive to online purchase such as Chachi pants which are dancer pants that a famous dancer from ABDC (American's Best Dance Crew) known as Olivia Chachi Gonzales, made famous by wearing while being part of ABDC and is sold exclusively online.

NO BUENO!

Chachi in Chachi pants!

Scavenger Hunt Online

All I have to say to this is a great opportunity missed... Hearing about what a fellow student had to do for the scavenger hunt was incredible. They talked about having to look for various things online that the professor had asked for in the form of a list. We talk about stalkers all the time but do online stalkers exist? and is it even easier to access people information even without hacking someone? We have gathered into a system of no privacy, because of the existence of sites such as Facebook, Youtube, and blogs, and privacy you may have is now nonexistent. I remember when the scavenger hunt was over and the professor talked about how he had these scavenger hunts in previous classes before this quarter but never has anyone correctly answered every question up until recently. Because everything online is interconnected now one information directly leads to another opening up information that may have been thought private is now public. Such as Facebook, someone may be able to privatize access into their Facebook but someone may have a mutual friend of that individual and can access their information indirectly, such as looking at pictures both people are in and then doing some detective work someone can figure out this person has a blog, and then from looking up information on Facebook you have now gain access to that person blog, which could further hold sensitive information about family information and so on. Even though I was not part of the scavenger hunt just hearing about it is a huge eye opener that we as an online community are tightly chained together and looking for privacy online is like standing in front of a stage filled with audience members and telling them to not look at you, only drawing more attention to yourself.

I see you!!

Prisoners in front of a screen

The youtube video, "The Machine is USing US" demonstrates the immensity of this thing we have created called, the internet, and how we are constantly on a daily basis teaching this machine what we as people like by utilizing the various things we are able to place and use on the virtual space of the internet. It comes to a point where people ask, where is the line? is there too much freedom on the internet is there too much exposure. These are new elements we as people need to face as we are transitioning into a society run by a virtual plane. When the concept of money was created it was a means to create a better means of commerce where trading was huge. Nowadays nearly no one trades goods in the US but instead we use money to purchase goods and having people acknowledge that these pieces of paper is legal tender that represents the wealth the country owns. This idea now exists in the virtual space. Online banking, perhaps a ridiculous idea ten years ago is how majority of people now see their net worth. There is no money involved no physical tender it is now all represented on a computer screen in the form of numbers. If you have 1,000 in your account then you have 1,000 to spend, and if you have 0 in your account in the same way you have no money to spend. It's incredible how our society has changed and now we are now prisoners in front of a screen. All activities now have a online substitute, such as, when someone said they are going shopping it used to mean you would get up from where you are drive to a mall and purchase goods. There is now an online alternative where you can sit in front of a computer look up what you want at what store and have the goods sent to your place of living through a delivery company. We see this as not an issue but when things become more convenient why would we use the difficult method. We without realizing are chaining ourselves in front of a computer screen in the form of laptops, smart phones, and tablets. Is this the way of the future? or will be fall somewhere in between a physical and virtual plane of existence.

... Is it me or is this heavier compared to yesterday...

The Gold Rush of Erik Hanberg

It was quite interesting listening to Erik Hanberg talk about his process as a self published author and his various other activities he has done over the years that has led him to becoming the author that he is today. The first impression I had when I first saw Erik was very plain, here is another man most likely gone to many years of school and is now doing what he does. Matter of fact I couldn't have been more wrong. Erik Hanberg was part of many small projects over the years a philanthropist and connoisseur of what is possible with the internet to help those trying to make a living by utilizing opportunities offered through the internet. From his lecture, what interested me most, by far, was his experience as a self published author. My perception on amazon.com was totally changed, I have purchased various things off Amazon before but never realized it could be used as a device to sell things as well, having a legitimate business virtually. It was very interesting to hear the various obstacles and challenges he faced and conquered on the way in becoming the author that he is today. From the entire lecture perhaps the ending was the most exciting when a signed copy of the his most recent book "The Lead Cloak" was going to be given to me or two other students, and till this day I cannot believe how unlucky I was being off by two numbers when we were asked to guess a number between one to ten... I suppose for now the picture of the book will suffice.