Tuesday, June 4, 2013
TWIF Flattener 4 - Uploading
Use one of the current events sources linked at http://svhs-hwc-fall2013.blogspot.com/2013/06/approved-sources-for-twif-current.html to find a recent news article that relates to, supports, or refutes Friedman's assertion that uploading was a "flattener." Your comment should include the title of the news article, a link to the article, and a summary of the article including an explanation of how the article relates to this point. Don't forget to check your rubric for evaluation criteria!
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Cracking crime with Twitter in Spain
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22943878
The article discusses the use of Twitter, a social networking site, to solve crimes or alert the public of crimes in Spain. The police in Spain use the account to tweet about crimes and ask the public for information about suspects, which can be turned in at a completely anonymous email account. So far, the police solved 300 crimes due to the "tweet raids" for information in the past year, including the discovery of drug trafficking from the Dominican Republic. The Twitter account also plays a role model to other countries' police forces to utilize social networking. This article relates to Friedman's assertion that uploading flattens the world because social networking possesses such a huge popularity around the world that government institutions, like police, turn to it to flatten their own country. Additionally, crimes can occur within more than one country, so social networking can spur communication for help from all involved countries, and that flattens the world because it connects different countries. Furthermore, international crimes, such as drug trafficking, can be solved through the use of Twitter tips, like the example from the article. In conclusion, uploading is a flattener, especially through social networking, because it connects international communities, and individuals can contribute to international affairs.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23083462
ReplyDeleteShould bosses tweet? The do's and don'ts for executives
This article from BBC centers on the controversial topic of whether executives from large companies should connect with customers through the use of social media websites. A few executives are quoted throughout the passage on their concerns as well as their reasons for being favorable towards these sites. In general, businesses find that uploading posts to Facebook and Twitter enables them to instantaneously reach new audiences and maintain customer relationships. However, this form of communication and collaboration flattens because it lengthens the reach of large companies, causing a person's location to be regardless. In summary, the article supports Friedman's thoughts on uploading and its ability to flatten the world.
Daily Report: A Mobile Facebook for Phones in the Developing World http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/daily-report-a-mobile-facebook-for-phones-in-the-developing-world/
ReplyDeleteThis article describes Facebook's newest project, called Facebook for Every Phone. The social networking site has made it possible for "feature phones" to post and explore on Facebook, which greatly expands their number of users. Feature phones have more capabilities than ordinary mobile phones because they do more than call and text message, but they cannot do everything that an expensive smartphone does. Feature phones are very inexpensive; some models cost just twenty dollars. These phones are very popular in countries like India, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil, and Vietnam, and now people of those countries constitute one eighth of Facebook's mobile customers.
Friedman argues that the ability of people to upload content is a significant flattener, and this article supports his reasoning. Because new, cheap technology with uploading capabilities is available at lower costs, more people than those of wealthier countries have the opportunity to create and share content. A main theme in The World is Flat, especially in the discussion around the first three flatteners, is that it is human nature to want to share one's ideas and other creations. This is part of the reason that the Internet and the World Wide Web became so incredibly popular within just a few years after their development. Furthermore, several businesses and charities have Facebook accounts in order to promote themselves, receive suggestions, and even communicate among colleagues. This mobile access to a popular social networking site is also an opportunity for businesses in developing countries. In conclusion, the extended reach of Facebook exemplifies Friedman's argument about uploading as a flattener.
Collaboration: Apps that work alone to come together
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22879173
This article from BBC talks about a new app that has come about. The owners of the popular smartphone and tablet app Evernote have released an enterprise version of the app, made strictly for business looking to make their documentation more efficient. The idea behind the app is that even though a person may be working on a project by themselves physically, there are actually probably a dozen people included in the creation of the document digitally. Essentially, this new app brings a whole new meaning to business collaboration. This supports Friedman's theory that 1. digitally collaborating has flattened the world by bringing anyone connected to the Internet the ability to work together and 2. it will significantly increase in popularity and large institutions and corporations will include themselves eventually. One of the biggest reasons for online collaboration's popularity is that it does not have to be done in an office. With introduction to 3G data streaming in the last few years, now people do not even have to be connected to WiFi to use these apps. They can physically be done anywhere in the world. In summary, this article supports Friedman's thesis that the ability to upload content onto the World Wide Web has flattened the world and will (has) become more incorporated into the human lifestyle.
As Twitter Expands Reach, Abuse Policy Gets Added Scrutiny
ReplyDeletehttp://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/08/07/209602106/as-twitter-expands-reach-abuse-policy-gets-added-scrutiny
This article from NPR discusses Twitter and its new problems with abuse. Caroline Criado-Perez received threats and hate messages through twitter after she led a campaign. She is only one of many that have received death threats, hate messages, and more on the site. Since people are free to say whatever they would like on Twitter, there is no shortage of hate being sent through the site. This has gotten Twitter to analyze its abuse policies. They have always had the ability for its users to report abuse, but the how-to was unclear. The company has decided to figure out ways to make reporting abuse on the website more clear for its users. One of Friedman's flatteners is uploading, which includes blogs and sites similar to Twitter. These blogging and social media sites are thriving today, and people really do have the freedom to upload almost anything.
Jimmy Wales: Boring university lectures 'are doomed'
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22160988
This BBC article records an interview with Jimmy Wales, the founder of WIkipedia. In this interview he speaks about the future and development of universities and their learning process. Wales says that regular lectures are a thing of the past and that recorded video lectures are the better method. He states that these lectures should be uploaded on an online software so that it is more suitable for the student and that way the lesson can be stopped and started. Wales also believes that Universities that do not keep up with these new renovations to the learning process will become obsolete. This connects to uploading as a flattener because having a lecture online makes it way more accessible and convenient for the student. WIth this new feature anyone can go to college. Education now does not have to be so traditional anymore and it can adjust to the students schedule and they might even learn better if more things were online.
Anonymous group launches citizen journalism website
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22198707
In an article from BBC News, Anonymous, a loosely organized group of unidentified activists, has created a website to spread their message. The ragtag group already has platforms on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, arguably the most popular and widely used social media sites. Its new website, Your Anon News (YAN) seeks to deliver unbiased news bulletins that differ from the mainstream political and celebrity gossip channels in the sense that they are created by the people for the people. Despite this inspiring promise, Anonymous recently hacked into Uriminzokkiri, a North Korean news site, and breached their Flickr and Twitter profiles as well. YAN, which has a large “fanbase” on both its social media platforms and on its website, received its operating money (to establish the website) from donations, but not all are embracing this newfound organization. Many argue that its anonymity creates a lack of accountability, some state that the group has its own biased political agenda, and still others complain of its hacking operations. Still, despite its skeptics, it is a very large, influential news provider. This correlates with Friedman’s fifth flattener, uploading, which speaks of how ordinary citizens can upload articles, videos, photos, etc. to their heart’s desire. Indeed, YAN does just that, with anonymous citizens posting a myriad of news articles, sound clips, photos, videos, and tweets. With virtually medium covered, YAN epitomizes the ease of uploading information in multiple forms. Spurred by media propaganda, YAN empowered themselves by uploading news on their own accord; shockingly, they receive more views than some news sources, yet they are unprofessional, disorganized, and anonymous, further illustrating Friedman’s point. Now more than ever, people and groups like YAN are becoming the creators of their world, spreading content at the click of a button that anyone can see. All in all, this article reflects the relative facility of uploading, a major flattener in the sense that anyone can upload rather than sit by and become a passive news consumer.
WikiLeaks Releasing Trove of Syria Documents
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/06/world/middleeast/wikileaks-releasing-trove-of-syria-documents.html
This article from the New York Times talks about a website called WikiLeaks which was in possession of over two million secret e-mails between Syrian politicians, officials, and companies. WikiLeaks threatened to release these e-mails in hopes to "'shine a light on the inner workings of the Syrian government and economy."' At the time of this article being released, only twenty-five of the e-mails were released, but the site was threatening to release all of them in the coming months. This shows that uploading is flattening the world because it is another example of individuals releasing information on the internet. Friedman talks about how “every big institution or hierarchical structure will feel [uploading's] effects.” this is an example of how that could happen.
In A Clouded World, The CD Can 'Stay'
ReplyDeletehttp://www.npr.org/2012/05/25/153711916/in-a-clouded-world-the-cd-can-stay
This NPR article revolves around a particular band, Jim’s Big Ego, and discusses MP3’s compared to CD’s and other physical versions of the songs. The band explains that it is easy to upload a song online. Everybody knows this; almost everybody has uploaded some type of information online, anything from a song like theirs or even the post that I am writing now. As Jim Infantino explains, everybody knows this new technological world, and everybody expects things such as CD’s that could be put online will soon fade away. He also states that many people prefer the hard copy in their hands. Friedman lists uploading as a flattener, and he is definitely right about that, but this short article discusses that not everybody is ready for that complete change.
Forever 21′s leaked memo: Faith at work?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2013/08/19/forever-21s-leaked-memo-faith-at-work/
In this Washington Post article published on August 19th 2013, Forever 21, takes backlash from social media accounts. The company received hate comments, and posts when it was reported that the company would be shortening the hours of some of their full-time employees to part time hours. The company was reportedly shortening hours to no more than 29.5 hours per week. This may be because it is illegal to not provide healthcare to employees who work more than 30 hours a week. The company is also very Christian and they print a bible verse, John 3:16, on the bottom of every bag they hand out. Comments such as, “My, my, my how unchristian,” and “A true Christian thinks of others first and is not greedy. Tell me, just how rich do you need to be?” were posted by enraged shoppers on social media accounts, such as Facebook. This article can relate the Friedman's flattener of uploading, on blogs such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. These social media sites can change many peoples opinions and thoughts, just by being able to read other peoples posts. Today these sites are very familiar and many companies use them for advertising.
Teenager Hannah Smith killed herself because of online bullying, says father
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/aug/06/hannah-smith-online-bullying
This article from The Guardian describes the suicide of a fourteen-year-old Hannah Smith after she was cyber bullied on the website Ask.fm. This particular website allows the users to anonymously post, which makes it easier for them to make cruel comments. Dave Smith, Hannah’s father, has attempted to get the website shut down, but has so far been unsuccessful.
The information from this article corresponds to Freidman’s ideas in the fourth flattener, uploading. Freidman describes uploading as a way for anyone to share his or her knowledge with the rest of the world. In this particular situation, uploading is used in a negative way, rather than positive. When someone uploads a brutal comment through the Internet, it requires very little thought of how it will make affect the other person, making it much easier than saying it in person. Although uploading can be positive for providing more information, it can also be negative when people misuse it.
University Pages: LinkedIn Launches New College Profiles
ReplyDeletehttp://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/08/19/213450212/university-pages-linkedin-launches-new-college-profiles
This article is explaining how a new website LinkedIn, a website much like Facebook, is progressing. LinkedIn is launching a new section for its social audience on Monday 26, 2013. This new addition to the website will connect colleges with students, or future students. The colleges will have a ‘profile’ for the students to explore and read about the certain college. Each University page includes the necessary information that a student would need to know. The ages that are targeted by this sight range from ages 13 to 18 years old, from all around the world. This relates to Flattener #4 because Friedman talks about how people in communities and/or companies around can share information and work on projects together. The colleges can work with the students, with this new addition to LinkedIn, to persuade them to join/apply to their college. He also talks about how people can upload “more complex things.”
Wikipedia: Meet the men and women who write the articles
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18833763
In this article from BBC it explains how the online encyclopedia, "wikipedia" is maintained. The site contains over 22 million articles in 282 different languages! The way that they keep the sites up to date and running is very unique, and sometimes cannot be trusted. Wikipedia in maintained by around 85,000 people around the world who will volunteer to keep the pages up to date as news is released for the certain topic. Anybody who wants to can update these pages, some of the "wikipedians" that were displayed in the article had a variety of careers. One man was an engineer, another woman was a librarian, and one man who frequently updated wikipedia was a pizza delivery man! This goes along with Friedman's notes on Uploading in flattener 4, he explains how now-a-days using sites like wikipedia and other social networks, anybody can post anything they want on the internet for thousands of people to see it. He says that it is a new way of sharing information which is exactly what wikipedia is for, to give people access to the whole world from just a computer screen.
Instagram updates to allow video imports
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/instagram-updates-to-allow-video-imports/2013/08/07/02435668-ff90-11e2-96a8-d3b921c0924a_story.html
Instagram has recently announced that users of the popular social media application will now be able to upload videos directly from their phone. Users can select up to fifteen seconds of video, from different videos if they so desire, which allows people to upload much more content than the six seconds that the other popular video application vine allows. Instagram extended the time frame to fifteen seconds to allow for more meaningful videos to be created while still keeping it short enough to be shared on social media. Additionally, filters are available to enhance the video appearance, and users can crop the video to capture exactly what they want on the video. This reinforces Friedman’s arguments on the flattener of uploading, because anyone can now upload their fifteen second video to Instagram, a new way of sharing digital media online. Instagram acts as a blog for some users, and by allowing them to document video, there are more options for how they share with the world their opinions and experiences.
China web users arrested over posts on Sina Weibo
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23795294
This article, talks about the four arrests that were made in China over a post about a "hero" used in propaganda posters. The users were posting rumors on this twitter-like website, about a deceased soldier who is said to be a hero. The rumors rapidly traveled across the internet and the soldier's name was put to shame. The government found out and arrested these users who were said to be profiting from these posts. This article goes along with Friedman's fourth flattener, Uploading. Uploading is when people post things on the internet for everyone to see. This is including, pictures, music, data, even social networking posts. When something is uploaded, it can be shared with the internet world and that is how the government found the "tweets" about the rumors. Uploading is becoming the most revolutionary way of collaborating. A form of uploading, very similar to this situation would be blogging. A blog is "your own personal virtual soapbox". There is no barriers to access this and anybody can read it. Rumors and wild allegations tend to form on blogs just like this "twitter-like" website.
A Breakup Letter From My Chemical Romance
ReplyDeletehttp://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/a-breakup-letter-from-my-chemical-romance/?_r=0
This article talks about the break up of the band My Chemical Romance. The singer of the band, Gerard Way, did not state clearly his reasons for the band's break up; however, it appears to be because of an change in how he felt while preforming, stating that he had a realization during a concert one day. He discusses this among other things in the break up letter that he posted online on a website called TwitLonger. This uploading of information coincides with the fourth flattener that Friedman described, the uploading of information for others to view. Way posted his break up letter on the web to share his thoughts and ideas, essentially information, with those interested in hearing it. This method of uploading and sharing information acts like the blogging that Friedman described, and acts as a flattener because anyone can upload similar information, and anyone can read that information. Through the use of uploading, regular people became able to learn what they could not have before; in this case, Gerard Way's innermost thoughts and feelings about the band's break up.
Topics that spark Wikipedia 'edit wars' revealed
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23354613
This article found on BBC, talks about the editing of Wikipedia pages, and how quickly they change. Although it mentions that most of the changing topics are controversial, or a "rapidly changing field or topic." Now in flattener 4 of TWIF, the overall topic is uploading. While in that topic, Friedman divides it into three subtopics: Community developed, Blogging/Pod-casting, Wikipedia. He speaks of how it is an open forum, free, quick, and informational pages that anyone could edit. With this article it restates the idea of how anyone who has a computer, internet connection, and the ability to get to Wikipedia, can look, edit, alter, read, quote, and really do anything to a wikipage. If anyone can do it, their location also does not madder. From America to India, the world is flattened by the ability to upload or alter things on the internet.
Topics that spark Wikipedia 'edit wars' revealed
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23354613
This article off of the BBC News website is about what subjects are the most controversial and cause the most 'edit wars'. Scientists looked over 10 editions of Wikipedia to find out which articles were the most contested and fought over by the Wiki contributors. An 'edit war' is what happens when information is posted and is almost immediately changed by another user. Researchers plan on continuing work on this subject to see the "ebb and flow of controversial subjects." This article, and so called edit wars, fall right under Friedman's fourth flattener of Uploading. Edit wars are a form of community development because they consist of people from all over the world working together, or rather fighting, to ensure that the information of the Wiki page is correct and in depth. Wikipedia as a whole acts as a flatener because it allows everyone to be able to put information up and have it be seen by the whole world almost instantly.
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ReplyDeleteSoftware Being Developed To Monitor Opinions of U.S.
ReplyDeletehttp://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=F10C1EF73F540C778CDDA90994DE404482
Alot of major universities, using Homeland Security Department money, is developing software that would let the government monitor negative opinions of the United States or its leaders in newspapers and other publications overseas. Because it actualy is like communities of people designing new software to help people lives be easiear. The new software would allow much more rapid and comprehensive monitoring of the global news media. Which is the same as what the community software devolpers did. When they downloaded the soft ware to the internet for every to see which waas very helpful to most people around the world.