The internet is everywhere; even in the air you breathe. It is made up of everything. It’s there when you do your homework, when you relax, or when you pay your taxes. How can something so comprehensive not be a part of my life, for better or worse? The internet hasn’t been around for too long, but I have grown up with it (as one of the first generations to do so). The internet has been, at times, the bane of my existence. It has been my addiction. It is like a girlfriend: a love/ hate relationship exists, but you always go crawling back in the end.
I am part of the few generations out of thousands to come that can say they survived “the dial tone” stage of the internet without losing sanity. I remember AOL, the exact tonal pattern of my dial up connection, and the headache those tones used to give me. I couldn’t have been older than ten or eleven when I first had the urge to go online. It was when the Disney Channel had special games on their site that synchronized with the television shows during the afternoon. I would have traded all my Power Rangers and Pokemon cards to have my username associated with a high score on those commercials. However, this was not meant to be. In general, the internet provided mild entertainment for me as a child, and no, I don’t still play those games.
I am living now in the growing stages of broadband internet, social networking sites, and streaming video. As in Colonial times, these new waters may be littered with piracy, and a need for new laws, but the rewards for discovery and breakthrough are many. I can go online and check email, and read all the pointless details of my friends lives (even some things I wish I didn’t know). Or, I could streamline the latest Jim Gaffigan comedy routine and discover if my football team has lost any more of their most valuable players. I could shop. I sometimes wonder if there is a need to leave the desk at all. That’s usually when I go to the bathroom. Doing all of these things at the same time may describe a new plateau for laziness, but ease of access to so much information is the sole reason I have for gleaning it. I don’t need to read a newspaper. That would take an hour, and I’m already spending several online. I don’t need to call my friends, if I can have several conversations at the same time on AIM, a messaging program.
I would say that the primary reason for me to go online at this age is to stay social. I have friends in many states and countries that I can only talk effectively and cheaply to from the internet. I have cousins in Spain, and I can talk to them much more on the internet than long distance over a phone line. Websites like Facebook have changed the way I communicate. I now check my email and this website multiple times daily, and keep track of news about several people’s lives. I never forget a birthday! Facebook reminds me every time. Not unlike an addiction, however, it controls a lot of my free time.
My mom always used to say that watching too much television would turn my brain to mush. This scares me, because I spend more time on the internet daily than I do watching television in a week. The only difference between them is that my fingers are cramping, and slowly developing carpel tunnel while I go on the internet, as opposed to their near-death stillness while watching television.
As I think of all the wonderful things I’ve learned from going to the internet, though, my fears melt away. I have answered too many questions by consulting the internet to count. I just built a desktop computer the week I got to State College. I was able to troubleshoot eight separate problems that I had by going onto the internet and searching for the answer. I got those answers in an average speed of five minutes from the comfort of my room, with all the parts in front of me as reference. One would assume that you could find anything online. This is what makes the internet the most frustrating.
The internet is so vast, that when I can’t find what I’m looking for I might as well give up. For me, the internet is so reliable; I’ve forgotten how to use other sources of information efficiently. The only thing more frustrating than not finding your answer on the internet is the knowledge you would have it already if your connection wasn’t so slow. The internet has been a major contributor to the mentality that gratification is instantaneous. People in my generation want starting salaries above last generation’s average for beginning employees. They want them the way they want their internet: fast, and with little work. The Slowskies, commercial advertisers for Comcast digital cable, illustrate this point in beautiful satire. Slow downloads can be agonizing for those used to faster internet speeds. I am guilty of actually yelling at the internet from my desk chair, as if it could hear me, when it is remotely erratic in behavior.
Perhaps the most interesting topic is how the internet has the potential to change the way I live in the future. What other tasks in human life that required work will be done from the computer chair? Will there still be a need for desks when the wireless phenomenon takes hold? It’s possible I could do my grocery shopping, pay my bills, or meet the love of my life. I may not know the exact way that it can affect my future, but I do know that whatever I do with it will be fundamentally different than how I use it now. When I was a boy, I used it to play games. Now, in my quest for answers to the questions of life, it is my principle resource for information. In the future it’s a possibility a career path could arise involving the creation or maintenance of websites, essentially the creation of the same media I absorbed in my youth. That would bring the entire argument “full circle”! The internet hasn’t changed since I started using it necessarily as much as my needs have changed. The beautiful path of discovery, to asking questions, to providing answers to those questions for others, is really what it’s all about: sharing knowledge.
The effect the internet has had on me is as intangible as the internet itself, because it has affected me in so many diverse and unique ways that it is no longer possible to separate my life from it. I have hated it, praised it, used it and abused it. It has been an invaluable resource to me. Whether I like it or not, it’s here to stay. And I when need it, I’ll always be glad that it’s there.

Ok, I'll admit it. I am a self proclaimed gamer. I often make the filtered judgment to find some game to play on a rainy day like today rather than something productive, like my homework for this weekend.
Like all hobbyists, i follow all the latest news pertinent to said hobby: what new games are coming out? Do they have features I like? How was this game reviewed? All questions worth asking in the world of inflation and rising game prices. The blog I will break down today is sc2blog.com. This stands for one of the games I anticipate most this upcoming year (with any luck). Starcraft 2.

Starcraft was a title released for the PC by the Blizzard corporation in 1998 (Mac in 1999) that re-defined the genre of "real time strategy" games. this is, for all the non-gamers, a game that is not turn based; every player is working to accomplish their objective at the same time against eachother. Starcraft was based in very simple logic. You are one of three generals leading opposing armies: humans (known as terrans), the Zerg, best described as the creatures from the blockbuster "Alien" and their brood, and the Protoss, a highly evolved race of psychic beings. Each army had different strengths and weaknesses. The key to the success of this classic, like many games, was its replayable nature (It is still played avidly today). It was so well balanced that any army could win, pushing players to be better tacticians, or faster, aka pushing into the realm of skill. After nearly 10 years, Blizzard is finally releasing a sequel. Starcraft 2.

Starcraft 2 will be an amazing sequel and I wont bore you with the details.. But obviously fans like me will have many questions about new features, release information, and gameplay videos to wet our appetites. The official website by Blizzard is oddly enough not very helpful at answering these questions. SC2blog.com is a one stop shop for a massive wealth of information about it.
SC2blog.com has information on new units categorized for easy access, databases of question and answer sessions regarding changes, the nifty language translation bar, for those fans that don't speak English, and the original storyline outlined for new comers to catch up.
By far the most useful feature of this blog that the official website cant do is harness the community. It has many articles, forums, and comment archives about what the fans are talking about, something I find almost as interesting as the game itself. Giving the fans a place to discuss, theorize, and shape there hopes for this game is far more valuable than most marketing techniques out there. Let the public hype your game; it saves you, the company, the trouble..
What a valuable tool for user input! The game hasn't yet undergone beta testing, which is when they release a limited multi player only version of a new game and collect data on how things play so they can tweak unbalanced facets of the game before shipment. Until that beta test is finished, anything is subject to change. Having this blog means an organized view of the fan base for Blizzard, as well as a display of what the fans really really really want to see (excuse the bad grammar). In the end, isn't the point to make a game that your fans want to play? What's my blog doing for the community? Hopefully encouraging you to do something...What it is, who knows?
SC2blog.com is maintained by Anderson McCutcheon. His other major project is terranozergus.com.

Since a lot of my classmates have written about how blogging at work or as a career, I wanted to look for people that recommend blogging, or at least a profession where it was common practice. Here is what I found.

There is a site called Lexblog which is a personal webspace hosting a significant number of blogs written by Lawyers.
One in particular, Kevin, wrote about 15 ways to become an influential blogger. As the author of the site, Kevin has quite a history. Kevin O'Keefe's Real Lawyers Have Blogs is the leading source of information and commentary on the use of blogs, RSS, and social media for the marketing of law firms.

Kevin, President of LexBlog, Inc., was a trial lawyer for 17 years. Practicing law in rural Wisconsin, he successfully marketed his own law firm on the Internet in a such a positive way that USA Today said "If O'Keefe isn't careful, he may wind up giving lawyers a good name.

(information taken directly from his "about Kevin" page)

He ran his practice virtually online, and then moved towards blogging about bloggers in law, in a blog called prairelaw.com. This was later bought by lawyers.com, which unfortunately requires an account to sign in, so no link.

Kevin outlined a blog post by Skelliewag, another lawyer blogger, describing ways to blog like a professional, and become influential in your blogging community. Although geared towards other lawyers, its content is really universal. Some of my favorites:

# Respond to criticism with dignity. Every blogger with a readership will be criticized at some point. The way you deal with such criticism will leave a distinct mark on your profile, so make sure that mark is a positive one. Getting involved in a tit-for-tat may cause your credibility to spring a leak. As LexBlog's Creative Director, Greg Storey, would say, don't be an asshat. Lawyers are known for infighting. The blogoshere is not the place for it, word of it spreads far faster and wider. At the same time, defend your ground with passion, the blogosphere respects people with a spine.
# Use an authoritative voice. And no, that doesn’t mean talk like a police officer. There’s a common trait amongst most influential bloggers: they write well, they write fluently, they care about things like spelling, grammar and expression. They write with clarity. The more people who can understand you and ‘get’ what you’re trying to say, the further your ideas will spread.
(taken from the blog directly)

One very interesting concept he brought up was interviewing people and posting on the result on the blog as a great way for new quality content. I think this would be a good thing for many members of our class. It is a method to get to know each other as a unit, as well as give us blog posts. I, for instance, would love to talk in depth with someone who has a wealth of knowledge in the subject of programming, for I am an interested enthusiast that could use information gleaned from such a source. If not that, How about someone in the interest house willing to share the pros and cons? I would love to hear an insiders view on the subject. I'm looking at it as a living option currently and I'm very curious. This would also, obviously, add posts to our blog, which increases our grade (in some way, right?).

If you are interested in the blogs mentioned above, out of curiousness or an interest in Law, here are some RSS links:

Skelliewag

Kevin's Lexblog:

Particularly, for those interested in the plenty of valuable tidbits Kevin's blog may have to offer you all individually, this is his home page. The right column has several topics that may be of use to you.

Policies on blogging, in my opinion, seem largely dependent on the nature of the institution and the regulation of communication to protect its interests. The three institutions I chose to analyze are IBM, Sun Corporation, and Harvard. The first two should serve to demonstrate that two companies of similar interests have similar policies on blogging. The last example shows how a different institution, such as an academic one, could vary in its interests and therefore its policy.

Wow. That was very dry and boring! I felt like I was falling asleep in (a non - IST110) class again... Essentially, What are companies afraid could be leaked through blogs? Why wouldn't this bother a University? Now may be the time to press the "Wow that was Easy!" button next to your stapler.

Starting with IBM's policy, linked here, thanks to James Snell of the IBM blog as of 2005.

IBM has been a leader in pioneering new technologies for a long time. When blogging became popular, and most importantly when companies began trying to shut it down internally, IBM supported its employees. They were encouraged to blog for the purpose of applying open-exchange learning and for contributing to the company PR. They issued guidelines, not rules, for blogging safely. Highlights include:

• If you publish a blog or post to a blog and it has something to do with work you do or subjects associated with IBM, use a disclaimer such as this: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."
• Don’t provide IBM’s or another’s confidential or other proprietary information.
• Don't pick fights, be the first to correct your own mistakes, and don't alter previous posts without indicating that you have done so.
• Try to add value. Provide worthwhile information and perspective.

Sun Corporation agrees wholeheartedly with IBM in this regard. They take it one more step down, from guidelines to even more informal "advice". The Sun Corp. policy highlights include (full document here):

• It's a Two-Way Street The real goal isn't to get everyone at Sun blogging, it's to become part of the industry conversation. So, whether or not you're going to write, and especially if you are, look around and do some reading, so you learn where the conversation is and what people are saying. If you start writing, remember the Web is all about links; when you see something interesting and relevant, link to it; you'll be doing your readers a service, and you'll also generate links back to you; a win-win.
• Write What You Know The best way to be interesting, stay out of trouble, and have fun is to write about what you know. If you have a deep understanding of some chunk of Solaris or a hot JSR, it's hard to get into too much trouble, or be boring, talking about the issues and challenges around that. On the other hand, a Solaris architect who publishes rants on marketing strategy, or whether Java should be open-sourced, has a good chance of being embarrassed by a real expert, or of being boring.

For the sake of repetition, I didn't post statements that overlapped with the IBM policy, but they also talk of disclaimers and protecting private information. They want an employee to make the company look good!
Now to take a large step out of the box, I'm going to explore a university's blogging policy, specifically Harvard's. Full article here, highlights below:

• Rights in the Content You Submit: Unless you specify otherwise, any and all works of authorship copyrightable by you and posted by you to any blog (“Content”) are submitted under the terms of an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons Public License. Under this license, you permit anyone to copy, distribute, display and perform your Content, royalty-free, on the condition that they credit your authorship each time they do so.
• By posting your Content using the Services, you are granting Harvard a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, and worldwide license to use your Content in connection with the operation of the Services, including, without limitation, the license rights to copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate and reformat your Content, and/or to incorporate it into a collective work.
• You agree that you will not knowingly and with intent to defraud provide material and misleading false information. You represent and warrant also that the content you supply does not violate these Terms, and that you will indemnify and hold Harvard harmless for any and all claims resulting from content you supply.

As you may have guessed from pieces of their policy, Harvard wants to protect itself like every other company, but Harvard has a larger interest: rights. Harvard assumes that most blogging will take place for research purposes, and therefore wants rights to that knowledge as intellectual property of the student, and for the bigger picture, the University.

After reading a blog by an Apple employee, I answered one of the questions that has been forming in the back of my mind since the beginning of this discussion. Posted here, he forcefully, and at times crudely, explains why Apple Corp. has no official blogging policy. Essentially, He asserts that you don't need one if you have a comprehensive policy on communication already. They overlap. A policy that defines what can and can't be discussed with members outside of the company naturally covers blogs, which can be read by anyone. The writer may need a reminder of their "universal" audience from time to time, but according to chuqui, the alias of the author of this blog, most parts of a blogging policy are already covered in some other policy agreement.

This doesn't mean that the valuable advice inside the policies above shouldn't be given by a company to its employees. Also, it doesn't necessarily apply to a University setting, because of the nature of education and the need for shared learning. One reason might simply be that students and grad students don't sign contracts to become students with communication restrictions.

I think a good standard practice would be a disclaimer for the company, and in general to blog about topics you feel you know well. If forced to make a strong opinion, do it in a way you would let your boss read. Remember, your content is your responsibilty. If you develop an online presence that is respected, then you have succeeded in this goal, because few people read blogs that are rude and respect them.

I found this exercise a little trying, but altogether helpful in developing awareness about what is expected if I were to continue blogging in the workplace. This is always very important to me: defining real world applications for whatever I learn in school. Shouldn't that be everyone's goal?

The purpose of this section of the class was to show us the "wonders of the blogoshere" and all its benefits. I feel that it has, to the point at which I may now become a blogger! I really enjoy writing to an audience, but I am feeling like the rules of this assignment are starting to become restrictions... I thought that in the beginning of this project the assignments counted as entries. I guess I'm wrong, but I threw my energy into those assignments, and some of my best posts no longer count towards my final project. I by no means am saying that posts like my Youtube video or my brother's song should count towards my academic blog, but what about our general college experiences? I have written about things that I've learned while at PSU that extend beyond the scope of my IST 110 Honors classroom. It's ironic, because the vibe I always got from that class was that it was about pushing the envelope, extending beyond classroom limits, using everything from the technology to the "open forum" style in which class is conducted to do so. It seems counterintuitive to have our blogs filled only with the topics at hand. Our lives are full of experiences that could make our blogs creative, unique, and fun to read. Do these types of posts count simply because they make our work more creative?
The course material has succeeded, but did it do so as it intended? I may in fact become an active blogger, but it has more to do with wanting to get out and write about things for which I have a passion. I feel better about it! But what about those kids that may not be getting into the the class assignments, but would write about something that kindles their fire, loosing in them that beautiful spark of human spirit? It takes time to put these posts together. I have spent a good couple hours on my blog posts from time to time, and it's hard to find that time. The thought of keeping some level of creativity while doubling the output of my blog is daunting to say the least. Sometimes it's hard to make the posts about class topics creative.
To recap: of course, we need to have a curriculum, and we have to do those posts for the class. I have no intention of complaining about them, because I learn more interesting things after each one. I'm only saying that practically speaking, if it was only meant to be academic, then for future classes it should be called an academic blog and not an academic/personal blog. I have become personally attached to my blog. I want it to be just as much about me as a person as a student.

~~ As to the earlier version of this post (it has been made less scathing), I apologize. I have to learn to not post in my blog until I can speak like a big boy about the topic at hand.

Facebook is part of nearly every college kid's life. Many students in the class, for credit or not, have posted something about Facebook on their blogs... some have even done presentations about it in some of their classes. What in the world of Facebook could I possibly talk about that hasn't been talked about before? the answer is "not much". That's the point: Facebook is very popular; it gets a lot of attention accordingly.

And Why shouldn't it? It is a brilliant idea that will make Mark Zuckerburg, its creator, insanely rich. It is the closest online replica of how our social networks work in reality. I think its most uncanny ability is how effective it can be at informing you of changes in your world. It actually improves upon the way we roll along in our normal lives. I could go to one class and have one whispered conversation with the person next to me for gossip news. I may find out that that person bombed a test, or that infamous line to describe a dull uneventful life: "I'm good...". But in 20 seconds on Facebook, this is the info I glean (this is an actual test; I pulled up my home page and scanned for information, stopping after 20 seconds):

• I have 3 friends with birthdays in 3 days.
• 2 of my friends are going to the Phillies game next week.
• One of my friends, according to his status, is currently confused.
• What I call the "Don't ask, don't tell" picture albums... You fill in the material.
• I've read three sentences in three of my friends' conversations to each other.

This instant and useful information are the cornerstones(can one have two?) of what makes Facebook an incredible phenomenon. The popularity of Facebook, as described in the article by Newsweek, is growing at the rate of one million people a week. It's apparently "a perfect fit" for plenty of people across demographics with a seemingly endless myriad of uses. This aspect is something the article above stressed in detail. Since Facebook opened to support third party applications, everything from playing poker or listening to new music can be done on Facebook.

Ah...The ever present buzz word of technology these days: versatility. Multifaceted technologies are becoming more popular. People can no longer live with a phone. Why would they, when they can have an internet browsing phone that plays music, has a built in planner, and can feed your dog for you? Ok, so maybe I'm getting a little facetious, but you get the point. The more things you can do on Facebook, the more time you spend on Facebook. Consolidation is key in today's technology market.

To summarize, I'll use the Austin Powers "Paradox Construction", courtesy of a certain overweight individual:

"I Facebook because I need to gossip, and I gossip because I Facebook. It's a vicious cycle..."

Social Networking sites have had a number of positive and negative effects on society since their inception. These two articles really show the full spectrum of their effect in that they explore different areas of society: your work life and your personal identity.

The "Business Side" of Life

This article, titled "Ten Cultural Implications of Social Software", states ten major changes in societal patterns as a direct result of the popularity of Web 2.0 technology. This article is worded very formally, definitely written to be read from a business perspective. Further proof of this fact is that all ten of the effects listed in this article refer to some type of business relationship. For example, It states that things you post online that are written poorly can have an effect on your job search, because the number of companies that hire illiterates are shrinking. Also, posting online in a blog about your industry could increase or decrease a potential employer's view of your professional competence, depending on your knowledge.
It also stated major changes in the way businesses market products. Beta Testing, or a release of a version of a product to a small community for testing, has been invaluable to many. It allows the "bugs" of the project to be discovered before the finished product is shipped.
Clearly, positive and negative effects exist here.

Dangerous Security Risks

The second article, titled "Social Networking 'Addiction' Aids Phishing", describes a new wave of crime that uses data from social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace to gather the personal information of others. This act, called phishing, can effectively allow criminals to reverse engineer your identity profile, or commit identity theft. Information that used be lulled out of unsuspecting consumers of products such as AOL (their passwords, pretending to be AOL employees) used to steal their identity can now be found posted on a website by the victim's free will. Sites like Facebook and Myspace in this way act as a "one stop-shop" for Phishers and Identity thieves.
Here is a perfect example. A phisher used to send you a spam mail that read like this :

This is a Citibank Employee. Please verify account information for security purposes.

If you couldn't differentiate this from a genuine email from Citibank, you could give away your credit card information to an identity thief. Now consider the possibilities granted a phisher when he goes to your Myspace, assuming you're bad at being safe online...
He gets your cell number, or an address. For a small fee, many online services exist for tracking down full names, other phone numbers and living locations based off of less information. Possibly one could gain pictures of you he can scan to a good fake ID. A brief view of any blog entries might give him the knowledge of where you will be certain days. How would you feel coming home to an empty house? This article brings up a severe danger to having more of our lives posted on the internet.
The first article seemed fairly straight forward to me. The information that I put on the internet can effect my Job Search. This is knowledge I have been force-fed in the last few months. It was the second article that truly scared me. Have you noticed on the lower right of your browsers, you users of Internet Explorer 7, that you have a Phishing Filter? This is searching for the legitimacy of the sites you visit. I have turned this off before!! This article gave me a reason to research what phishing really was, and it has definitely furthered my cause in reducing the information held on these social networking sites. In an earlier post, I mentioned my mother is now a blogger. I didn't mention it in the post, but my mother had posted her full address and a picture of herself on her blog at Blogger.com. I have told her to take it down, because it is quite frankly a security risk. This article is more fuel to the fire.

The three sites I chose for this assignment were Facebook, Mog, and Twitter.

The focus of my discussion is simple. The word social in social networking is pretty general. The reason there are so many social networking sites are because people are "social" in many different ways. Therefore, there are as many social networking sites (SN sites) as there are ways to be social.

Mog is a unique SN site that focuses on just one way people socially interact. We've all been there: greatest way to break the ice with someone is to ask "What music do you listen to?" It gets you talking about a subject that everyone can relate to in some way. Mog not only focuses on just that social interaction, it facilitates it! You set up a Mog page and download the Mog updater. It tells your Mog your music library by reading the information that your music player gives off. It updates you page with your top rated album for that week, most played songs, and a list of what's in your music library. Using GraceNote, the database program that the iTunes Music store uses index songs, it even links the blurb in your profile to a snippet of the song. Someone can browse Mog pages for a certain type of music and meet people that like the same things. You can post "reviews" of any song posted on Mog, blog about music, or even comment on people's music choices. It doesn't have a clear cut friend system, but you can add to your page a list of "trusted Mogs", or a list of Mog pages that you trust to post quality music. This is the networking factor of Mog. All in all, it focuses on one tried and true part of everyone's personality and allows you to socialize with people that share your interests.

Facebook is something everyone is a little more familiar with. It takes the most obvious aspect of socializing, making friends, and simulates it in an online experience. It links you to your friends the same way you do in real life: by classifying each friend with information unique to your connection with that person. Maybe you met Bob in grade school. You worked with Jim. You traveled to Europe with Cindy. Those are differentiating factors when distinguishing different friends. Facebook also facilitates the activities that occur between friends, such as talking, sharing videos and pictures, or planning events. Everyone is fairly familiar with Facebook because making friends is the most popular way to socialize. This is why Facebook is so insanely popular.

Twitter has its own unique way of defining social interaction. It is basically a "What are you doing this second in 140 characters or less?" website. I find this SN site particularly interesting because it more accurately mimics real social interaction among close friends and new acquaintances alike. With your close friends, you know whats going on in there life; there post is just a current "This is what I'm doing right now." Don't you find it ironic that when asking someone you barely know "Whats up?" You always get a short but informative answer? Twitter posts of people you just met can be read basically like the answer to a "Whats up?". It includes a basic instant messaging service, and recently cell phone text message support, which is significantly less communication than the services provided by a SN site like Facebook. I prefer to see it as the trade-off of the feel of a real life social network in an online space for functionality.

The format of these SN sites directly correlates to how easy the sites are for you. For example, how many of your friends are friends with each other as well? If you find one of your friends on Facebook, the likelihood of finding more of your friends through his friends list is strong. This makes setting up your network fast and easy! The fact that Twitter restricts you to so many characters dictates the way it is used - constant, non- life changing posts that change every two minutes. The fact that Mog provides something that updates your page for you saves you time in maintaining it. You can spend that time (while listening to the music you love, and updating your page as you go) looking at other profiles. You may discover your new favorite band!

Being social is a complicated thing. not everyone can be social in the same manner... The surge of different social networking sites intimates, however, that there is some way that everyone can socialize if given the proper environment.

Youtube is immensly popular and has set a benchmark for what should be expected from the world of internet video 2.0 websites. That is precisely why I am not doing this project on youtube. I instead chose three sites that are in some cases less popular, but in general containig a smaller scope.

College Humor is a very different breed of comedy. That is why CollegeHumor.com was founded in 1999 by two high school friends from Baltimore, Maryland. They went to different colleges as a way to share all of the pictures, videos, and links their friends would IM and e-mail each other. Now it's a lot bigger. This site includes social networking capability, as well as the ability to upload photos and video compilations. You aren't the only supplier of content, however. The site has a dedicated team of writers that spend their days finding funny things on the internet to share with us.

CollegeHumor.com reaches over 6.21 million unique visitors each month, and displays over 200 million monthly page views (courtesy of Nielsen data). Our users are 73.4% male and 42.6% are within the 18-24 age demographic, and 69.2% are between 18-34 (based on @Plan data). The user base is made up largely by College students - in fact 68% of our users are students. In addition, their weekly email newsletter reaches over 200,000 subscribers. Some of their past site sponsors include Proctor and Gamble, Sony Motion Pictures and Home Video, Ford, Rockstar Games, Jose Cuervo, Virgin Mobile, CBS Television, Miller Brewing, Comedy Central, Paramount Theatrical and Home Video, Warner Brothers, MTV and many others. It uses connected ventures technology - which states tha by using their site you acknowledge that all works they submit as solely theirs and all works you submit as solely yours.

Here's something (appropriately) funny I found on CollegeHumor.com: aptly titled, Spam I Might Actually Read...

Obviously, Stupidvideos.com hosts videos of people doing stupid things. Specifically, they offer stupid videos, photos, and parodies of tv shows. They also offer ecards and contests for cash prizes for good stupid videos, blogging and social networking capability and links to sites such as xsports for specific genres of stupidity, such as sports bloopers.

StupidVideos is located in El Segundo, CA and is part of PureVideo Networks. StupidVideos.com is a viral video website dedicated to humorous, off-the-wall videos, including wild stunts, wacky animals, sports bloopers, funny commercials, song and dance parodies and more. The videos are submitted to us by users like you, licensed from their partners, or produced by the StupidVideos staff.

"IMPORTANT: IF YOU ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 18, STUPIDVIDEOS WILL NOT CONSIDER YOUR SUBMISSION WITHOUT YOUR PARENT OR GUARDIAN'S CERTIFICATION THAT THEY HAVE APPROVED OF THE ACTIVITIES INVOLVED WITH YOUR SUBMISSION BEFORE YOU BEGAN PRODUCING IT. "

Copied straight from their terms of service, this is unique to them. They refuse to allow minors to partake in doing stupid things on purpose without their parents permission. Now if only the lady that spilled McDonald's coffee on her lap to test the temperature was told that, we'd have less general stupidity in this world...

Break.com is a leading entertainment channel for guys fueled by user created media. Break creates a growing community based on timely, visceral entertainment, and enables users to upload and share their original content. essentially its a powerhouse.. Break remains a leading proponent of the democratization and monetization of content. Thanks to Break, you don't need to be famous to create entertaining videos and have them distributed to millions. Break has already worked with a wide variety of advertisers including Anheuser-Busch, Verizon, Lions Gate, Paramount, MTV Networks, Haggar Clothing, Universal Pictures, Miramax, The Weinstein Company and many more.

Break has some powerful statistics. It's the largest independent multimedia destination (Hitwise), as well as a top 100 domestic US web site (Alexa) and top indexer for men 18-34 (Comscore). It's become a platform to reach over 1.3 million daily unique visitors who consume over 15,000,000 videos daily!

As with all of these sites aforementioned, Break follows the same terms policy for uploaded content. This is Taken directly from their Terms and Conditions:

"You understand that all user feedback, data, comments, suggestions, information, text, data, software, sounds, photographs, audio, audiovisual, video, artwork, graphics, messages and other materials of any nature ("Materials") that are transmitted to or via the Site are the sole responsibility of the person from which the Materials originated. This means you, and not us, are entirely responsible for the Materials you transmit through the Site. Further, you understand that by using the Site you may be exposed to Materials that are offensive, objectionable or indecent."

Well, t least they're honest..

For your enjoyment, this was gleaned from the videos at break. This girl was playing a computer maze game, when randomely a scary picture comes to the screen and screams, scaring the girls. It's a poplar prank and a large number of videos use it to get scares from their victims.

All three sites have practically identical legal issues surrounding their content and they handle it in nearly the same way. They all deal with humor, instead of the all-encompassing youtube, which has vlogs and serious things as well. They all use standard social networking technologies to their advantage. They all advertise, but to their respective audiences. Break and CollegeHumor have similar audiences and advertise to the age group 18-34. Stupid Videos tend to attract a wide following of those bored of their respective day jobs, and tend to advertise big companies such as Geico.

But they all share a purpose: to bring a smile to our faces when we should by rights be doing something important

• Top Ten Chuck Norris Facts (as voted by users)

Chuck Norris is a washed up has-been. It is harsh, but the truth. In his day he was a 6 time world karate champion, and was a horrible actor on classic failures such as Walker Texas Ranger, where a round house kick could stop a bad guy with a gun. Not many people still know about him in my generation.

Conan did a skit on his Late Show about being attacked by the insanely powerful Chuck Norris a few years back and since then this form of humor (oddly similar to "your momma" jokes) has taken off. You can find at least 50,000 of them on the internet, all of them hysterically funny.

Some of my favorites jokes are:

• Chuck Norris does not wear a condom. Because there is no such thing as protection from Chuck Norris.
• When Chuck Norris goes to donate blood, he declines the syringe, and instead requests a hand gun and a bucket.
• Chuck Norris' first job was as a paperboy. There were no survivors.
• Chuck Norris is the only person to ever win a staring contest against Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder.

Now, Chuck Norris has become more popular with this generation than he ever was in his glory days. These jokes, which he finds hysterical (if not a little crude), have catapulted him to god-like status. In an article from WorldNetDaily.com, Chuck Norris is interviewed about the jokes surrounding his super human strength. He finds most to be good fun and some rather offensive. He claims that he is not as saintly strong as the "facts" make him to be. Here is a video of Chuck Norris reading jokes about himself he's never heard before on a talk show:

Why has it caught on so quickly? I can't say that I know. All I know is that this internet phenomenon has transformed this old actor into a current celebrity. But maybe this deity has been tricking us all along! It is already considered "fact" by the Chuck Norris fans that "Chuck Norris has never won an Academy Award for acting... because he's not acting."

The first step necessary to set up our Flickr account was to obtain a Yahoo ID, because Flickr is interwoven with Yahoo’s already established login system. As Team Wintermute, we took this opportunity to create a team email address at istwintermute@yahoo.com. This has proved a little more reliable than the email system through Angel, which has a history of losing emails that are quintessentially important. A few of us had Yahoo accounts already, but this simplified the whole process to a universal login we would all remember. A definite benefit to Flickr’s login system is this connection with Yahoo. Yahoo’s support with its massive user base allows Yahoo users to have near instant access to Flickr’s services.

The next step in setting up a gallery was actually taking pictures that we believed visually spoke the message of the IST department. The IST building seemed to be the shining monument to our philosophy on technology. It was all too fitting that the building where we spend most of our time would be main subject of the pictures. So we set out with our camera and took photos from different angles trying to catch the IST building in “a different light”. For instance, the picture “Sunset on IST” uses light in a positive way, combined with the title and caption to illustrate a mood or a feeling in a way one couldn’t do verbally. Comparatively, “John Stuart Mill, on Liberty (1859)” does with words what a visual cannot. It verbalizes quite elegantly that there is more to technology then just the system itself; it grows through people.

Uploading photos to Flickr is a very easy process. Just as a camera is point and click, uploading photos to Flickr is browse and click. It took five minutes to get all of our photos onto our Flickr account. Once they were there, the real work began.

It is a lot harder to tag, name, and describe so many photos about the same thing. It was a design flaw in our method of getting pictures, in a way. We had to ask ourselves what was unique about each photo when compared to the others. We were successful, but it was taxing. We should have taken the time to come up with a few different picture ideas before we started taking photos, so we would have a wealth of different subjects.

We often chose to focus on the mood and aspects of the building that were prevalent in the photo when describing it and titling it, because that is what made them unique. We learned as lot about how to tag from looking at how other users tagged similar pictures of our very own IST building. The user “Opacity” has had photos from August of 2007. He tagged every photo first with Penn State, psu, and then IST, and with just cause. There is a strong German user base on Flickr and “ist” is a derivation of the verb “to be” in German. This causes a problem.

A major flaw in the search engine of Flickr lies in that it is not case sensitive, and sometimes words that are similarly written mean different things in different languages. IST is the same in the search engine as typing ist, which in some cases might put photos with tags just slightly different in the search results (ei. Photos tagged Penn State or penn state). But across different languages, this strategy causes mayhem! How many times do you need the word “is” in description? Flickr needs to differentiate between different languages, possibly by having a language selection tool in the search options. This would eliminate the search results that are obviously not pertinent. That said, the tagging structure, when carefully used, can be a springboard for finding people that share your interests. All you had to do to upload multiple tags was separate each one with a space and put two-word tags in quotes. After that, every time you click the tag it searches for other photos from any user that were tagged the same way and places them in front of you.

The flaws in the tagging system are inherited from the natural flaws of folksonomies. Synonyms are difficult to link. Especially in a multilingual system, it becomes difficult to link photos to search terms. All in all, Team Wintermute’s assessment of Flickr is positive, but not shining. We think the tagging system is practical and well implemented, but not perfect by any means.

• Martha and Paul collaborated on the paper
• Eric and Matt took the pics
• Martha and Matt titled and tagged most of the pics
• Paul set up the Flickr account and the yahoo mail istwintermute@yahoo.com

This quote hangs high in the center of the IST building. What does this quote mean, and where did it come from? What meaning can be found from something written in 1859 for us, those focused on technology in the 21st century? This will hopefully answer these questions..

On Liberty is a philosophical work by 19th century philosopher John Stuart Mill, first published in 1859. John was a major advocate of the fledgling theory of utilitarianism, as well as a political economist, civil servant, and member of Parliament. John believed that the individual held supreme power in society, and his political views reflected his beliefs.

To John, this quote was the summation of his belief that a human being had the right to find happiness, and that happiness was different to different people, and most importantly that no government that ruled over the majority of society could provide happiness to all individuals. He saw a governing body as a "well-oiled machine" that worked on rules. While this worked best for Parliament, he wishes to convey that it does not for the individual. In Great Britain at the time, etiquette and class structures still reigned. It was encouraged that you were happier as a member of the upper class than as a member of the lower class. John asserted that this theory that all of society can be contained by the same simple rules for happiness was fundamentally flawed.

Mill defines the difference between higher and lower forms of happiness on the principle that those who have experienced both tend to prefer one over the other. Mill's argument is that the 'simple pleasures' tend to be preferred by people who have no experience with high art or other forms of educated entertainment, and therefore prevent those people from having enough knowledge to be in a proper position to judge. For this reason, in his life Mill supported legislation that would have granted extra voting power to university graduates, on the grounds that they were in a better position to judge what would be best for society. It should be noted that Mill in no way devalued the uneducated as people, and he certainly would have advocated sending the poor but talented to universities; it was the education, and not the intrinsic nature, of the educated that Mill believed qualified them to have more influence in government.

Obviously, times have changed. We live in a country that was founded on the right of the individual to find and obtain happiness. Our government is defined, and controlled, by the people. And yet this quote is still timeless! As a University student, it empowers me to feel like I don't have to fit into a prescribed path for the rest of my life, and that it is my right to be free to find my own way. Moreover, I believe that Mill would agree with me when I say the knowledge I gain here has the power to better the world. What my generation does today will define tomorrow.

As an IST student, a brand new meaning is gleaned from this philosophical wisdom. While we study technology, there is an over-arching purpose to all we do in IST: to identify with the individual. If we learn anything from IST, it is that a technology is only as good as how useful and accessible it is to it's users. We have a tremendous responsibility to make sure that information systems, or technological systems in general, are unique and complimentary to its users, and to allow them to grow and develop naturally with its users. Just because a system works now for some people, doesn't necessarily mean it will be useful to a different group of people or even that the system will continue to be beneficial for its current users in a few years! The technology must therefore be tailored for the people.

Human Nature is not a well-oiled machine, and is not subject to finite rules. Therefore technology, which must function to benefit human nature, can't be subject to those rules either. It must be as diverse as the people using it, in a way, as diverse in purpose, design, and function, as humanity itself.

• All factual information taken from various Wikipedia articles surrounding John Stuart Mill and On Liberty, and Utilitarianism

Team Wintermute- Matt M., Paul L., Eric H., Martha D.

The subject we chose for our video project was faculty member Dr. Gerry Santoro, professor in the IST/SRA departments. The reason this was chosen was because Matt and Martha have Gerry as a professor for SRA 111 and thought he would be a good choice for a faculty member biography. This was unique from the other group because no other group did a biographical type project.

In order to create a biographical-style video, we realized that we were going to need to interview him with prepared questions and a sense of what we would want to include in our video. We created a general diagram illustrating the topics we wanted to cover, and Gerry’s life in chronological order. This was made to help us figure out where necessary information and data within the video was located, in addition to helping us create a storyboard for the editing process.

We discussed the sort of video we wanted to create, and what we wanted to include. The style we were going for was modeled after a VH1 pop culture production. The interview would be cut and chopped up according to the way we wanted to present the material recorded of Gerry speaking. We would use his personal videos and images as visuals during part of the time that we spoke to illustrate exactly what he was referring to in his interview.

We weren’t sure exactly how Gerry was going to answer the questions we were going to ask him, so we asked more than we knew we’d be using, just to cover all our bases and have enough material. We asked him questions about his entire life story, his early influences, his education, work, research, teaching and personal interests. Gerry enthusiastically answered everything and provided us with an hour’s worth of material.

The Storyboard required a lot of time and energy from our group. We had so much video to get rid of, simply because we could not fit it all, that we had to be sure that what we included counted. We spent the better part of six hours in total working on the storyboard alone.

After a general introduction of the group and our subject, Gerry Santoro, in the first and second blocks, we decided to begin the video with the lesser known facts about this well known professor. In the third block of the storyboard, Paul introduces a little background history of Gerry’s origins, and then we placed clips of our interview with Gerry in an order that brought to light his hobbies and interests, such as Astronomy, Harley Davidson bikes, guitar, and comic books. Moving toward his research, we linked his interests with the technology he works with in the fourth block. Gerry talks about recording video of his bike rides and making covers using multi-track layering software of a famous song. After "the hook", if you will, we start to show Gerry talking about his research in the fifth block, introduced formally by Eric. Gerry talks about technology and pop culture, virtual worlds, and the Web2.0 phenomenon. In the sixth block, we talk to Gerry about his teaching methods and what he thinks makes a good teacher. The seventh and final block, composed of the credits and Imagine by John Lennon, ends the presentation with a quote of Gerry's; that he enjoys dreaming of what can be.

In our video imaging project, we used different types of technological devices in order to completely finish our video. Since none of us had a video camera, we went to the Media Lab in the Willard Building and took out one of their video cameras for a week. This camera was compact and very easy to use, and had a touch screen panel. In addition, we also got a camera to help document the process. Once we had our necessary film, we needed to work on the storyboard to aid the editing.

We used iMovie as our video editing program on Martha’s MacBook Pro. Because we did all of our editing on a lap top, our project was permitted to be portable. In order to work on our movie, we needed two computers, and to exchange the information between those computers, we used Matt’s 160 GB external hard-drive, email and multiple flash drives.

Video Script (interview not scripted due to length- rather than type out entire script, we decided to use a brief summary to describe the dialogue. Narration includes typing and vocals.)

Narration: "Who is the real Gerry Santoro?"

Paul: "Since he was a child in Blanux, Pennsylvania, Gerry’s personal interests have influenced his professional research within the realm of information science and technology."

( Gerry answering question about personal life and interests )

Narration: "How Gerry relates technology to his personal interests..

( Gerry talks about using technology and his communities )

Narration: "Gerry’s research includes.."

Eric: "According to Gerry, his professional research includes social informatics, computer-mediated communication, technology policy and future policies."

( Gerry talking about his research: computer-mediated communication, Web2.0 and virtual worlds )

Narration: "What about your teaching? What makes a great teacher?"

( Gerry discusses teaching techniques and what he incorporates them into his classes )

Problems/ Issues

Initially, we didn’t know how long we would be able to take out the camera for, and our interview date wasn’t set. The indefinite dates made the beginning process difficult and frustrating because of all of our other group work.

Taping the material for our video project went smoothly, but we ended up with an hour’s worth of useful, relevant information. Many issues stemmed from this. First, we had to organize the video into clips in order to find anything in the recording. Second, choosing which clips we would use for the time limit down from the original hour took an enormous time. This was facilitated by the storyboard, but as mentioned, the storyboard took over six hours to create and perfect. Thirdly, Gerry gave us plenty of material, but a lot of it we decided wasn’t going to be relevant to our project and time frame. We spent a good deal of time mashing clips to create thought-provoking and coherent new clips from sometimes long or irrelevant material.

We started the project too close to its deadline, and because of this, we spent almost all week and everyday working as a group on it. Due to the intensity of this project, we all have a good portion of Gerry’s hour long dialogue memorized. All in all, we feel this project was worth too little credit in comparison with the amount of work we put in.

Paul had experience with windows video editing software called Nero. Although the group decided iMovie would be better for the task at hand, in retrospect it might have saved us vital editing time if we had a member of the team intimately aware of the program. Using Nero could have saved us some time, because Paul’s computer has more processing power and capability to handle large files than Martha’s laptop.

That said, there is great value in becoming part of the Web 2.0 phenomenon. Like our blogs, this project allowed us to explore our creativity and share it with the world using YouTube. It may have been a lot of work, but we are pleased with the final result.

Resources

Gerry Santoro. Personal Interview. 04 November 2007.

Home Page for Gerry Santoro. Gerry Santoro. Pennsylvania State University.
02 November 2007. <http://cac.psu.edu/~santoro/santoro.html.

• Matt rented the camera
• all of us were present for the interview
• Martha and Paul created the final storyboard
• All members contributed to where certain clips should be placed within the video
• Matt is responsible for all video effects in our movie, and for doing the actual editing to Team Wintermute's specifications
• Martha compiled final paper
• The parts of the paper were written by either Martha, Eric, or Paul, with Martha being the predominant writer
• Eric compiled information from the web posted about Gerry Santoro