Sticking up for the internet

I couldn't think of anything that would anger Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing more than responding to her inaccurate and arcane comments via blog form. So here I am! Since the invention of the internet the world as we know has been changed. Rather than complaining about these changes it is necessary to embrace the internets infinite power.

I don't think anyone would argue the power of the internet instead I believe many of the "elitists" would however argue that it is dumbing us (society) down. Does saying lol, omg and all those other stupid acronomys when I'm in my e-world affect me in the real world. Absolutely not, I like many of my peers understand how to separate how we speak on the internet with our friends to how we communicate in the professional world and an educational setting. I believe Doris Lessings comments simply reflect the thoughts of an elderly woman who never got the chance to experience and see the value of the internet. That is to be expected. Lessing, like my grandparents simply find the internet overwhelming and instead unfortunately would not be able to appreciatae its value. Perhaps, if she was born forty years later she would be walking around this winter with an iphone tweeting her views on Obamas State of the Union.

Jimmy Wales on the otherhand makes many more valid points than Lessing did in her speech. I agree with his point of view that the authority of writers can be under question with the ever expanding number of sources for internet literature. However, to Wales satisfaction I always take into account the author and the publication from which I am gathering my knowledge. I am certainly going to put a lot of credibility and authority with the Wall Street Journal Online. However, when reading a blog I will take it for what it is worth and not put great stock into any of the facts. That is not to say that bloggers like myself don't have credibility but instead I believe our creditibility lies in our opinions certainly not our facts or reports.

Crowd Surfing for Crowd Sourcing

Welcome back, I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. This week, I wanna talk a little bit about a term I had never heard before, crowdsourcing. The very basic definition of Crowdsourcing is to take tasks which are usually solved by an individual to pose them to a group of people or community through an "open call" to a large group of people (a crowd) asking for contributions (Wikipedia). Crowdsourcing in theory is a bit idealistic. To think that a problem can be posed to a group of people and then they will offer a free solution sounds in theory great but in reality a bit unrealistic. It was fascinating to see/read some of the varying views on crowdsourcing and than draw my own conclusions. Two of the varying and different perspectives I got to see were from the youtube video by Jeff Howe and the Forbes.com article by Dan Woods.

Call me a skeptic but I tend to side closer with Woods and doubt that any truly innovative work would be completed through crowdsourcing. Most things including wikipedia and the Netflix contest were fueled originally by individual contributions and than later put together and considered crowdsourcing. I tend to believe that all of the best innovations are created by extremely talented individuals as opposed to a group or collection of a less talented community. Albeit that community can improve on that product or help make it possible.

Thanks for reading
Josh

Reality Mining and Facebook

Welcome back this week I'm just joshin' about the constantly evolving Facebook and reality mining. To start off, it seems everyday Facebook is making changes. The changes are immediately met with outrage by Facebook's dedicated users. However, after about a week and a few hundered groups protesting later everyone quickly adapts and forgets what they were angry about in the first place. Zuckerberg elaborates on future changes Facebook plans which actually seem pretty exciting, especially the social graph. It will continue to allow users to see what is going on around them and the celebrities and companies having their own profiles will be a strong addition.

I also read the article "Real-World Social Networks vs. Facebook Friends." I knew very little about the power of reality mining however, am not too surprised to find out the manager is not the one to usually know the most information. The power of reality mining is great as the author points out understanding social trends will help better predict the spread of disease. However, reality mining is very scary as well because I know I certainly wouldn't want my manager to always know where I am. Hopefully, a boundary will be established which will allow for reality mining to use its power for good while at the same time still protecting individual privacy.

Thanks for reading,
Josh

My first Rant

Welcome to my blog! This is my first post, I am a second semester senior at American University in the Kogod School of Business. I am writing this blog for my Itec social networking class.
“On my honor, all posts on this blog are my own”
Later