Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

      There are many ways virtual worlds can be used.  For example, "In most virtual worlds, memberships are free, but players trade real money for virtual currencies, used to buy products, save up in an account or eventually redeem for real money", people can use virtual world as a platform to experience  luxury lifestyle by spending real currency. Without actually having the means for that kind of lifestyle, virtual world allow people to have a taste of what luxury feels like. Virtual worlds can foster creativity by allowing people to expand their imagination by building anything in the virtual world. For example,  'But Minecraft is a virtual world. It’s digital LEGOs if you will, but it’s a space for kids to exercise their imagination and to connect with others to also want to build and create things". Minecraft is a virtual world game that allows users to build anything they want to. They can build houses, ships, castles etc., just like AutoCAD, users can use their imagination to build anything they wish. I think future virtual world are 3d compatible. We can connect the virtual world through an app and possibly google glass. This way we can build anything not only in a computer, we can also build outside with voice command,  



I've Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life" by Dave Itzkoff, The New York Times, January 6, 2008.

After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get A Reboot. April 30, 2013.

Blog about Twitter

Twitter discussion is drastically different from a blackboard discussion. I can think of 3 reasons. The first reason the differences are so great is that, in a blackboard discussion I can write infinite amount of words, whereas with twitter I can only write up to 160 characters, barely finishing a sentence. Another reason I think that separates the the two is that with blackboard discussion, I can find things on a list or by the author, whereas Twitter uses # and @ to link the message to the masses. The third reason I think that separates the two is that twitter is used as a platform for social network whereas the discussion board on blackboard is more for educational uses. The best analogy that I think best describe the two is comparing them to blogs and wikis, and in this case twitter is the blog and blackboard is the wiki. A blackboard discussion focus more on in depth discussion, and Twitter focus on brief discussion. Twitter would be the preferred chose for college education, who wants to write more than 160 characters?

Social Networking Sites

Four social networking sites that I frequently visit are YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Unlike the other three, YouTube is primarily videos driven and users connect by creating videos. Facebook offer the best connectivity out of the three, the most distinctive culture of Facebook is that users generally connect with people they know and those that share the same interest. Twitter is the most creative out of the four, the use of # allow users to use find tweets conveniently. LinkedIn is best use for job hunting or being hunted, career oriented individuals spend the most time on this site, it also serves as a public resume.

Social Networking

     Technology can now enable paralyzed patients who suffered spinal cord injury to control computer through small sensors implanted in the brain of patients. "If your brain can do it, we can tap into it,” said John P. Donoghue. The benefit of this type of technology is that it allows people who suffered severe medical misfortunes to who are unable to move any of their limps are now able to control computers and interact with people that was not possible before. Imagine you suffered a spinal cord injury that rendered you paralyzed, how can you google something if you can't type on a keyboard? The answer is you can't. However, with the development of sensors that can be implanted into brains, you can control controls through thoughts alone. There is a dark side to this form of technology though, if anyone can implant a sensor into their brain and can control a computer, especially with so many things digitized today, how are we suppose to not go beyond our  moral compass and do things that are not deemed justifiable with today's norm. I think the age of keyboard are slowly dying, much easier method of input such as Siri, google voice message are becoming easier to operate and more efficient since it doesn't require any tying. My vision for the future of social networking is in 50 years we would use my brain to control any digitized equipment.    

"Paralyzed Man Uses Thoughts to Move a Cursor" by Andrew Pollack, New York Times, Science, July 13, 2006.   

"The Rough-and-Tumble Online Universe Traversed by Young Cybernauts." The New York Times, Jan 22, 2008, p. E1.

Blogs vs Wikis

     Similar to blogs, wikis are webpages that require an independent authors to contribute to the page. Both webpages are essentially ideas crowd sourced together into one informative page on a particular subject. However, wikis are also very different from blogs because it requires and presents factual information rather than opinion such as what blog does. Blogs on the other hand are only updated chronically and usually update by one author. Wikis on the hand, are updated continuously by any author at any given moment. Blogs can be used for collaboration just like wikis. Blogs, even though have only one author, allows readers to become aware of certain situations with chronically updated information. For example, "But peering turned to blogging, and blogging turned to action, as neighbors started filing complaints with the 68th Precinct station house and attending Community Board 10 meetings and generally making noise until a narcotics investigation began, leading to the arrests." Blogs allowed readers to equally reflect on information and give their judgement to create a integral picture. A new use of a wiki that I can think of is college lecture, why do we need a professor when we can give lectures ourselves. We can type out information anywhere in the world as long as we have internet, why do we need to sit in a place where we don't want to be.



Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid By MICHAEL WILSON The New York Times June 26, 2008


"Stung by the Perfect Sting," By Maureen Dowd, The NY Times, Aug 25, 2009.

Blogs vs Wikis, How Similar are They?

Blogs and wikis are so similar, and yet so different. Both are webpages that relay information from one person to another, both are dependent on the World Wide Web and both require authors to update information on a regular basis. The question I am trying to answer is which one of these two forms of webpages can  give readers more qualitative information, and which one can draw more attention from readers.  The way I will approach this problem is to first fully understand the differences between these two type of webpages, then I will draw up the cons and pros of both, and lastly I will pick a winner that gives more qualitative information base on my observation.