Essay 2- Social Media Quality

The quality problem is one of the critical issues in new social media. As I pointed out in my previous post, there are several issues to discuss in this area. It could be involved to criminal issues, terrorism, abusing people’s authority or deceiving them. On the other hand, it can destroy and change the taste of people about what the good quality is. I mean it can change the whole concept of what the quality means. Just imagine that most of the mass-media corporations become bankrupt gradually because of losing their customers steadily; and hence we have thousands or millions of information sources around us which are user-generated data. Of course, we think that we have chosen the best of them but are they really the best ones?

We should point out to the inevitable positive consequences of new social media as well. In my point of view, new social media has helped people to express themselves and their beliefs freely without any supervising, censorship, social consideration and so on. It is helping people who are struggling for having democracy in order to decrease the power of governments in suppressing the freedom of speech. But is there any reliable filter in order to prevent ourselves from being deceived or misled by the biased content that we think is true.

There are two ways on how to observe the quality of this new media nowadays. One way is by employed staffs and another one is by users themselves like Google and Slashdot. It still works but it has some shortcomings as well. The employed staffs have no enough time to investigate all the produced materials especially when the number of produt issues is increasing due to the shift of internet users as new generations –so called internet generation- are getting older and therefore the number of material producers will be excessively large.

On the other hand, in user moderating models if there is a wave of new belief in the society about something but really it is not true or good, then instead of bad comments on a special posting about that issue, we will encounter supportive good comments on that. Psychologically point of view, when you see that large numbers of people agree on something, then you would never disagree to that even if you think reversely. So, in that case there is a prejudice to your way of thinking and reciprocally that belief will be amplified and become accepted in the society as a normative but it is not and there is no means to prevent it even if scientists or elites are against it. Hence, the truth will be lost and no one does realize that.

For me, as I experienced, I usually rely on the news or links that I see on the blogs of the people that I know and I like their points of views or they are socially respected. I think this way of filtering for myself is a way that works for me but it can have bad aspects too; as I narrow my mind gradually to one type of point of view and cannot criticize it with an opposition thinking. By the way, it is considerable that new digital social media works usually like a forum and you can see different comments on a link or news. As you can see even in famous news website like BBC you can put comments on the news, so people can see different views but of course there is always some kind of moderation or censorship in those websites in order to prevent publishing some critical comments.

Another aspect of quality is about entertainment which I pointed out at first, that maybe the user-generated data in long term causes bankruptcy in big media corporations and gradually change the taste of people for the quality of a product. Because amateurs cannot produce good quality clips or movies but you may become accustomed to them but you may lose motivation to watch them gradually because it does not satisfy you; and when there is no big corporation to do it professionally, it can destroy your motivation to media as an entertainment and finally a very good lucrative market will be shut down because there is no customer and also no good producer!!!

Essay 2 - The quality of social media

First part, I describe my personal experience in using social media. Then according to my experience, I discuss about some different parts and comparisons between traditional media and social media. In the end, some conclusions and suggestions will be provided within the core argument of media quality area.

How to access to the valuable information?

“You need a pair of better glasses nowadays.” After the Internet stage, especially after Blog became popular, the information and self media on the internet is explosion. Searching information capability becomes much more important than before. For example, pick out the accurate key words may be more efficiency instead of learn by heart many pages text from literature book. But on the other hand, there is lots of useless information wasting our time.

From my experience, I use several powerful tools and web services to access high quality media. I think these tools refine the media information in a high degree.

Peer production

From the theory of peer production, this might be the most reliable tool to get the high quality media; however, it must base on a large quantity numbers of “peer”. On the other words, it needs to have enough vote or comment to differentiate one media to the others.

It’s well known that PageRank is the essential algorithm of Google. In social media field, compare with that, I use PostRank as reference in my Google Reader. This Firefox plug-in could give priorities for social media information, especially Blogs. I also use Digg.com and Xianguo.com (which is a web service combine Google Reader and Digg.com function together.) to check the most popular or most rated blogs. These peer-based recommendations usually provide me a filter to get better media message.

But I think the weak point of peer production is that it always high votes the popular information, people will follow the trends. So that, some articles, videos or music etc, will become hit, but many niche resources couldn’t be discovered well because there are not so many peers in these fields.

Mentors

This example is also come from Google Reader. I subscribe some people’s shared items, such as,

I consider their share items are high relevant to my interested area. I think this is similar as traditional media. In traditional media, editors play the role as filter to choose and aggregate information. Sometimes use the tradition way to pick out high quality media information is very useful. But it relies on the people or channel you trust, the potential risk is misleading guidance of your opinion.

Social network

The third tool is high involved with your social relationship. As I mentioned in my previous essay, I usually read the shared items in Xiaonei.com (Social network service).

This service is very powerful to get some interesting media. But it also has some problems, such as, there is not clear topic and the number of shared items is also random. Also, when my friends and I have different situation, such as I am studying in Sweden, they are still in China and already work in company. My shared items which I cared about may be boring for them, and vice versa.

These are my solution to deal with social media. Although, there are still some potential weak points, but generally, it’s very useful for refine the quality and access to more valuable information.

Traditional Media vs. Social Media

In traditional media, the amount of resources/information is usually much larger than social media (One to one comparison). But Internet improves the accessibility to media. Also according to the low cost and less limitation in social media, the total information amount is much larger than traditional media.

Considering media quality, traditional media usually has a good quality. They have mature business model to support hiring qualified media providers. And the employees have the professional responsibility to provide media production. The budget of making a program is much higher than social media or self media (bloggers). But in some other fields, social media has the significant advantages, for example, social media may more immediately to report some news, some people are better understanding the situation, the story may come from themselves and in some niche topics, bloggers may have better competence than traditional media company.

The way of communication is also different. Traditional media/Mass media usually push information to the audience. While in social media, audience become more positive to grab the media which they like.

To sum up, the quality of social media depends on the way of refine the huge scale of media resources. With the development of tools and internet services, people would have better opportunity to get the valuable information. But the essential quality of social media must be self-regulate, only social media providers take the responsibility to produce high quality information, social media would provide more value to the world.

Essay 1 - Me and Social Media

I have connected myself to the internet since I first got a computer and the internet running up at home in 2001. Now I use it almost every day as a source of information, entertainment as well as a major communicating channel since I am away from home. Social Media Technologies have influenced my life since I found a small online community in a form of webboard, a technological evolution of the dialup BBS, on a website of my former university. The webboard has been up and running since 2001. I first found some interesting topics and discussions, especially the ones posted by some people I know of. Since then, I have become an active reader. It was not long before I began to reply the threads and turned to be an interactive user. The webboard provides free space for everyone to publish their ideas as well as give comments on others. The topics I chose to participate in were not only the one related to the subjects I was studying but also many discussions about news and general issues, e.g. current events, what was going on inside the university, music, etc. When I was at the university I also used this webboard as a mean to communicate news and event that would be held by a club I have joined. I then started to use internet everyday as to update news, to get in touch with friends on msn, to search for information needed, etc. Later on I registered for a social networking website, Hi5, when I received tons of invitations to join the network in my email. The website is based on web 2.0 concept where users can edit, decorate, and add gargets onto their own profile page. I added many friends who has had an account on Hi5 to my friend list and also sent out invitations to those who have not been registered to the network. The website was fancy and quite innovative at that time so I spent a lot of time decorating my page, exploring my friends’ pictures, leaving my friends comments, etc. I felt the network was very useful to stay in touch with friends especially the ones who live far away since it takes much less time than writing an email and, ofcourse, it is fun to see activities the others have done. However, I found this kind of social network low in degree of privacy since not only your friends can view your profile and the pictures you have published, but also the people in your friends’ friends list and even strangers who randomly search for friends. Everything you publish on the web page is risky that it may be taken and used from others for an unpleasant purpose. Nevertheless, the admin, later on, added a new function to enable an adjustment of degree of privacy so the users can control who can view their profile, either everyone or friends only.
A few years later, I registered for Bebo, another online social network. I use Bebo with the same purpose that I use Hi5 but with different group of friends. I only have a few friends on Bebo so I rarely use it. Similarly, I registered for Facebook when I came to Sweden to join the Master’s program’s group blog, created by the program’s coordinator. What I have found out from looking at different network is that all of them have active users from all segments including demography. However, the popularity of each network varies in different geographical areas. For example, Hi5 is very famous in Thailand while Bebo is heavily used in New Zealand and Australia. Facebook has burst out in the last few years and become top most visited website in many countries worldwide.
In addition, since I’m very interested in photography, I also have my blog on Multiply.com where I have the photos taken by myself uploaded on my site. Multiply differs from the general social network websites as Hi5 and Facebook in the sense that most of the users are amateurs or experienced photographers who want to share photos as well as techniques used in shooting pictures and editing process. From this community I meet new people who share the same interest and learn from their experience and skill. Also, some people sometimes invent an event such as a photo trip to go out and take photos together, some even make money from organizing a trip for photo lesson and invite the people to join. I am very satisfied with this network and enjoy it a lot. In my opinion, this type of social network is growing and maybe more popular in the future since it serves users’ specific needs.

Essay 1

Social Media: threat or opportunity?

By Homayoun Derakhshan

Network-based media that depends on user generated data is a paramount important issue these days. Everyone is using some kind of social media and communicate with other people in a sense that maybe he doesn’t even know. Instant messaging, Facebooking, blogging, or etc, are just some examples of using social media everyday in our life.

For me, social media usage is rather normal, not too much or too low. However, I always want to do it more like everyday blogging, enjoying flickr, or del.icio but unfortunately I cannot do that due to unknown problems which cause always lack of time for me to do so.

I use social media mainly as a mean to communicate with my friends through social network websites and sometimes instant messaging. Using social networks is a good tool to be in touch with your peers around the world with just a click, seeing what they do, their new photos, relationships, and how they are. Sometimes it may help you to improve your career or even find a better job just by chance. When “information is power” nowadays, so being in a networked place is potentially of vital importance for you to have an easier life.

Moreover, I utilize forums when I am looking for something in the internet that is hard to find related information. When you have problem with a device e.g. your mobile phone and you can not find your answer in the related websites, then the best place to find your answer is a forum and see how other people like you with the same problem could solve their problem. It is a very useful tool to use but we should be moral in some extent to participate in those forums afterwards if we find a better solution.

In my point of view, social media is getting larger and improved day by day and is a great opportunity for the future. There are a lot of ideas if we think deeply in order to utilize user generated data in a new way to make a new concept in this area. Just imagine that you could be the idea inventor of Skype or Facebook. There are a lot of opportunities out there for us to think about and develop. People want to express themselves and be in a networked situation psychologically because human is a social creature. People want to be famous and well-respected among their acquaintances or even unknown people and they try to express themselves in a way to fulfill this feeling. For us as professionals in this area, it is a good business opportunity to find new ideas and participate in improving this area and also making a good lucrative business out of it.

Every opportunity has its own threats as well. In the contrary of great advantages of social media technologies, there are some disadvantages which are considerable. The main differences of traditional mass media and social-online media is that everyone with every kind of thinking can create whatever he wants without any editorial observation. However, it is an improvement towards getting rid of censorship but it can be dangerous in some aspects like making propagandas to mislead people in a way that you want and bias their thoughts toward a fake issue.

Another threat can be bankruptcy of traditional media because of losing their customer in long-term. Since the user generated data doesn’t have the high quality and it is amateur-based, it doesn’t have the required quality to replace the previous mass media. Therefore, it may affect itself in long-run and makes people lose their interest in entertaining media as a whole which results in destroying a very lucrative business.

Essay 1 - Social media and me

What is social media? To answer that question I would like to quote an already established social media and their answer about what it is: “Social media are primarily Internet-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings” (Wikipedia).

How do I use it and what does it mean to me? The social media’s of internet is used every day of my life. I think that the usage of social media are so intertwined in my normal life, and to that degree, that I probably do not nearly even half of the times even think about that I am actually using one. They are used from small things such as getting information about a product from a forum and talking to people over Skype to more clear social media’s, such as Facebook.

Since most of my family members do not live in Stockholm or in Sweden, the use of social media has become increasingly important over the years. Reasons for this might be money and time. To travel to someone costs both time and money. And a phone call can get pretty expensive when calling someone abroad. Social media of internet deals with both of these issues, it is free and it saves time. Skype makes it possible to talk to someone wherever they are for free. To give an update about what is happening in our life is easily done now today through Facebook, MySpace and blogs.

The way that school work and assignments is done has also changed. The need of going to a library to find information about a topic has diminished throughout the years. Today most book, articles and reports can be found on internet, legal or illegal. The use of forums, blogs and Wikipedia has changed the way answers of questions are sought. But still, reliability of the information found on internet is an issue. It is still not as reliable as information found in a book.

What social media mean to me is possibilities to stay in contact with people and get information whenever I can and want to. It means also to me one word and that is: effectivity. It makes it possible for me to do a lot more in much lesser time. In a few minutes you can get updates and give an update to friends and family all over the world. When searching for a product that will satisfy your demands and wishes you can within a few mouse clicks find information about other people’s user experiences with that product.

The danger of these social media´s is that the more we use it, the more other people (in some cases unwanted people) will know about us. But the positive is greater than the negative and it is hard to imagine how to live an effective life without these communications.

Essay 1 - My own social media

Social media are something that have partially changed my approach to internet, most of all because I started to be not only a reader of the contents that are on the web, but I started interacting and, in a sort of way, making contents.

When I surfed the web for the first time I was just looking at things other people wrote or did and now I’m putting my own works, that can be various: code programming, advices, photos... I regularly check flickr.com for new interesting photos, or just to see if my friends have made some new cool shot. Moreover I often use newsgroups to share opinions, ideas and advices about software programs and programming troubles, so expecially informatical-oriented. And, of course, I do an intensive use of tools for online communication. I started with the old IRC chat, wich let me and my friend keeping in touch, even if we were far away, without using telephone (saving money :) ) and sharing, at the same time, the communication with other people. We after started using softwares as skype or messenger, to empower our communication, and for example now I’m kilometres far away from home, but I sort of feel near my family and my friends using such tools. They can be powerful too for exchanging file we are working on for some university project.

Moreover I read a lot of blogs, forums and websites about general thematics, all concerning my interests, at the top of whom there is sport. I read the forums of my favourite soccer team (Frosinone Calcio, the link) and other teams blog, and I regularly keep in touch with my rugby team mates, both by mail and a guestbook (Volsci Rugby Sora). What really makes me crazy is youtube.com: I see a lot of video everyday of sports, expecially the highlights of sunday matches, or music video and discuss them with other people.

Two main things have never convinced me about social media, the first one is related to social networks like badoo, where it’s all like a showcase and users do not create any sort of contents, no interesting information is given, at least according to me, since I don’t see any develop of interests.

The other thing that always frighten me is about privacy, expecially in web site like facebook: I’m not just talking about personal data (like photo, age, work) that can be seen everywhere, but the use that marketing company can do with our personal data, this is why I don’t use other site like delicious or tagged; I mean: it’s nice receiving information linked to our profile, categorize everything, but I sort of feel observed and controlled... And let’s hope it’s just marketing! However I keep using them “with care”: with other friends, we have created a group so that we pendulars, that go everyday from our houses to the work places or the university, can keep in touch, travel together, express opinions about train, tell stories, all done through ning.com. If you’re interested the group is here.

So the most important thing in social network, the thing I really like, is that distances can be tore down and it’s not only a matter of physical distances, but a real leveling, so that we can talk each other informally, and not thinking about the fact that someone is our boss ora an employee. And everyone can contribute to develop the knowledge of a community just sharing his own, which is one of the first things that purpose of www.

Social Media Around Me

The relationship between me and social media technology is kind of complicated, and sometimes it’s contradictory.

I used to be a heavy user of social media services. At that time, I followed the trends of all kinds of web2.0 website, social network services, blogs and microblogs, etc. I read “Mashable” and “Read/write Web”, etc, to find out some new social media web services. Because I feel it’s interesting and also I would like to study in this field. This kind of touching as much new web services as possible lasted for half a year until the end of 2007. Then I was so tired of using social media services. I felt it cost too much time to try those web services. And it’s not a good way to discover or study new media. I don’t think these fuzzy and tricky website provide me much value and knowledge. So I stop trying these new services, but focus on some services which I really enjoy.

Now, I use Facebook, LinkedIn to keep in touch with friends in Europe. For my friends in China, I use Xiaonei.com, Douban.com to maintain and expansion circle. These four social network systems are the main services which I used frequently. However, according to my using habit and relationship intensity, I spend much more time on Xiaonei.com and Douban.com rather than Facebook. Xiaonei.com is the largest social network system in China (active users are more than 22 million), focusing on university students. Most of my classmates and friends are in this service. Usually, I check this website every day. It has the same function as Facebook, but the open API part is just launch which is not as mature as Facebook. One of the most important functions for me is “Sharing”. We usually share interesting, useful or important websites, pictures and videos, etc with our friends. I think the users in China do more sharing information than the other parts. (While the weak point might be there are less original articles, photos or videos created by ourselves.) The other web service, Douban.com, is more culture and art based. There are many independent artists and designers are using this website. I read the reviews of books, films and music. Also I publish some comments or discuss some topic which in culture and art’s field. For LinkedIn, I use this service just for several months. As a student, I don’t have many contacts on LinkedIn. But now this is my final year of university study, so I would like to create the circle on the professional social network. I hope it would be helpful to find some opportunity when I graduate.

After discussion about SNS, blog is another important social media technology. I have written blogs for about 2 years. I use several different platforms, change several ideas and topics of my blog. I even tried to use “tumblr” for a while. This blog platform is simple than normal blog, but rich than microblog. But now, I focus on my new blog “shuguo.org” which I would like to share some ideas in media field, and record my study life in Stockholm. I use WordPress as the platform. There are lots of themes and plug-ins made by third party. I think this kind of collaborate working is also one kind of social media technology. Besides my main blog, I use twitter as my microblog service. When I have some short idea or some interesting sentence I usually publish them on twitter.

I like photography very much, so Flickr and Picasa give me the opportunity sharing and store photos online. But unfortunately, there are not so many people visit my albums, on other words, it seems not so “social”. While at least, my friends and family often watching my photos.

To aggregate my social media services, I use FriendFeed to realize. My friends when checking my FriendFeed could get my new update in different web service; also I can receive my friends’ news. I can also use this to share website which I am reading, so I don’t use Delicious that often any more.

At last but not least, Google, I use many Google services. More and more become or add social media technology in the feature. Such as, Google reader, now we can share articles with friends, and add comments etc. Blogger and orkut are consider as typical social media. I think Groups and Docs are also one kind of social media technology. Even Google Calendar, provide social function.

To sum up, I think social media technology is not one kind of service anymore. I think it will be a compulsory feature existed in most services in the future.