Wiki: So Far....

I am a person that is interested in the why, how, and where of things. When something seems off, my curiosity gets the best of me and off to investigate I go. It is now common knowledge that, in essence; five families "control" the world via banking institutions and other organizations. With that being said, it is only natural I look into the history of one of these particular families: The Rockefellers. I have been conducting research on Standard Oil (a Rockefeller company), the monopolization of the oil industry in the early 20th century by said company; as well as John Rockefellers constant meddling in other affairs foreign to oil (such as the chemical as well as medical industries). The umbrella of evil has always been synonymous to the last name Rockefeller, yet many people don't understand why. Without bias, or false information, I will present in true Wiki form; the start of the legacy of the Rockefeller family, and how its "ownership" of the United States started long ago. In the age of easily accessible information, the era of Liberals vs. Conservatives, it is important to identify the wrong-doings of individuals that abuse power in order to enrich themselves. The effort has to be a team effort; one person doesn't and shouldn't have more power than we, the people.

P2P (Peer to Peer)

Ah, the golden age of Napster and Kazaa sure brings back memories. When a multitude of music, videos and files that were available with two clicks of a mouse. Wait a minute, they still are available! BitTorrent and Ares particularly come to mind in this day and age. What do these applications have in common? They are Peer to Peer; the content that is available is supplied by users that make them available via the programs settings. Then, by default; the files that are downloaded by other users become available and shared from that users' computer as long as it's on and has the application running. This cycle continues with other users, and many times file sharing is done amongst a couple of users at the same time; each user contributes distinct parts of the file. As stated by Pearl Weisel (Professor, Baruch College, NYC) there are some common justifications for P2P: "I'm helping out those who can't afford to pay such high prices for digital products (i.e., stealing apples to give to the poor). Those media (or software or …) companies charge too much for their products. I'm just stealing from a thief. I'm trying to spur creation of new business models.The Devil made me do it. [my personal favorite]." Sure, a sarcastic way of saying there are many excuses to participate in peer to peer practices, but let's be honest; if we don't do P2P (which I doubt), we have done it at some point. I'm not for it or against it personally, yet I do believe that Net Neutrality is defended by having these methods available for use, even though it is under constant scrutiny by governments worldwide. 

New Media & Privacy

Privacy and confidentiality. What comes to mind when pairing these words with social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and  Youtube?  I believe that there are two factors that come into play when discussing the issue of privacy online. I call them the personal factor and the general factor. Personal factor is how much you let on; rather how much information you publish, and what nicknames/usernames are used when doing so. General factor is what cannot be controlled by the individual, such as widespread government surveillance, and sometimes; hackers. In these cases, one can use firewalls and limit what information is shared online. In an age when websites generally store cookies on devices to remember user information, and targeted advetising takes place on a constant basis (facilitated by constant monitoring); one can not just help but wonder where the line between public and private is now located. That is the precise reason why privacy is now in danger more than ever before, due to the fact that almost everything can be digitalized and traced. Have you ever searched for a specific product, or spoke of something to someone over the phone; to later have advertisements show up when browsing the web; specifically about those specific products? That is no coincidence, This has been documented worldwide, and admitted to by many different credible sources. One can't be naive and believe that everything can and should be shared online, yet the dangers that may be present can be avoided by limiting online presence, masking ones identity online, and using safe browsing habits that circumvent hackers (i.e. firewalls, proxy servers). Even though, there are cases where too much information sharing, or people that investigate others lives online no matter the amount of information available, anything online can be used for or against anyone that dares enter that arena. This applies to everything though and shouldn't be used to cast new media in a negative light, it's like using knives. They are dangerous, but if used properly, can be extremely useful for many reasons. Lesson learned? Learn how to protect yourself and your information when participating in the digital world and social media platforms such as Facebook & Twitter; control what you share and how you do it, and there's no reason why your privacy has to be compromised when doing so.

Utilizing New Media to Improve the Baruch Experience

Improve the Baruch Experience utilizing new media. #cis123 @professorX regarding the paper, when is the due date and length required? Imagine being able to interact in a community on Twitter not only for class matters, but also for general recommendations being looked at constantly by school employees. For example, conditions might not be up to par in the student bathroom. #baruchcleanup bathroom 3rd floor-new annex @janitorX. "@user123. Thanks for the feedback! We're on it! #baruchcleanup." Using Facebook groups, mentoring and team assignments can be much easier since time is scarce most of the time these days. That's the magic of new media, some believe it makes us more dull and less intelligent since information is so readily available. On the contrary, our minds have adapted and absorb much more information than ever before. Looking for a book to rent or buy from a classmate, just create a subreddit and inform users via Facebook & Twitter links. R/UsedBooksBaruchNYC "Moderator States: Post brief description and picture." To reach out to prospective students and media, these forms of new media can help by using pictures, videos (youtube.com), and #hashtag discussions. Online courses would be better if professors used Facebook live when doing an online course, or when conditions of weather won't permit schools to be open. We all use new media and live in a digital twenty first century, so why not use these forms of new media to our benefit.