Further research on social networking

There is no doubt that social networking has been and is currently successful. The advantages of social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Second Life are reasonably straightforward. For a business, they allow a company or product to gain exposure to an infinite number of consumers. Advertising on Facebook ensures that your product will be viewed by millions of consumers. Second Life enables a business to make money online, as the Second Life currency, the Linden Dollar, is an active currency, with an exchange rate of 270L$ to every 1 US$. Another social networking site, Entropia, had a turnover of £200million last year, and is about to become the first virtual world to be floated onto the stock market. The technology firm Gartner believes that by 2011, 80% of internet users will have virtual characters in a social networking site. This relates to sites such as Second Life, where your character, or avatar, is “real,” and is not like Facebook, where the consumer has only a profile of themselves. The Chinese Government believe so much in the usefulness of social networking, that they are building 10 Cyber Recreation Projects, each about 6miles squared in size. Each project will be able to support and create 150million avatars, the cost of which will be £15billion.

One problematic factor about social networking sites is the decision of who the target audience will be. Facebook is now used by people of all ages, but how many of those people can afford or are interested in the product that is being offered. Likewise, Second Life is used greatly by people to escape their own real lifestyles, as is explained later, and therefore “luxury products” need to be specifically targeted at certain audiences. A single mother living in a council flat will be reluctant to even pay £1.50 to buy a certain product. Instead, she could set up her own product and make some money for herself. This is a potential problem with Second Life. A company is not only in competition with other companies. It is in competition with every user who has set up a “business.”

There are other disadvantages of social networking websites that aren’t regularly publicised. As of December 2007, Facebook saw its first ever decline in users in the UK. The decrease was from 8.9 million users to 8.4 million. While this may be a relatively small figure, it must be noted that Facebook is not the only social networking site to see a decline in its users. MySpace saw a decline of 1.8 million users, from 6.8 million to 5 million, since April 2007. Bebo has seen a decrease of 500,000 users since April 2007 as well. Bear in mind these figures are in relation to Britain, not the rest of the world. There have also been slight declines in the number of social networking users in Spain and France as well. As far as Second Life is concerned, it is not popular in the UK. A BBC survey from the 21st February 2008 showing the top-10 most popular social networking sites in the UK did not include Second Life.

Apart from slight declines in usage, social networking sites have been facing other problems of late. On “Habbo,” a Dutch teenager was arrested, in real life not virtual, for stealing virtual furniture worth $2,800 from a virtual hotel room. The goods exist in a virtual universe, but carry a price in the real world. Second Life has also recently been investigated on the claim of child pornography. In Germany, police investigating a computer found that participants were buying sex with other players, by posing as children. There were also cases of child pornography being sold via Second Life. Virtual child pornography meetings were being held, with access to these “meetings” costing 500L$, or £1.50. There is hardly any way to control such practices. Second Life is run by the people who use it, and therefore they can run it however they wish.

To answer the question as to whether it is possible to really make friends online, it has to be said that it depends on the consumer. Many users see Second Life as a way to create a perfect world for themselves, in order to distract them from their normal lives, which are not so glamorous. Therefore, it is often the case that people present themselves virtually as the complete opposite to what they really are, in order to escape from the troubles of everyday life. Having said that, there was recently a couple who met through Second Life, and ended up getting married in real life. This does seem to be a rarity however. It is very difficult to make friends online without ever having known someone. On Second Life, it is more likely that you are making friends not with a real person, but with the image of what they wish to be. Facebook is able to prevent unknown people from looking at your profile through a number of security preventions, which allow only your friends to see you profile. An article from the Daily Telegraph in February 2008 has also announced that messages sent on Facebook can count as unreasonable behaviour, and therefore legitimate grounds for divorce. Even if a physical relationship is non-existent, flirtatious emails are now enough to justify “unreasonable behaviour,” perhaps showing that social networking sites can lead to divorce just as much as marriage.

Journalists need entrepreneurial skills

As a Mediashift article by Mark Glaser cleary demonstrates, digitalisation has had major effects on the business model of journalism. Journalists have to start engaging with the internet and develop entrepreneurial skills. A lot of journalists have blogs, online videos and their dedicated websites or online profiles.

Please see above a picture of the world famous interviewer Daphne Barak with Bianca Jagger. This picture is displayed on her website amongst other highlights and links to her best videos.

Summary of my blogging experience

The purpose of this post is to reflect on the ups and downs I experienced during my blogging course and how the course affected me.

The course was running for 9 weeks and unfortunately due to a severe virus and an ear operation I was not able to attend the first weeks. Hence, I could not participate in the group projects. This is why I focussed all my energy on doing well with my personal blog.

In the beginning I saw this as quite a challenge since there was a lot for me to catch up on and I had no background knowledge about "blogging" what so ever.
Yes, being in the media industry, I had read a few blogs and I was aware of the impact they could have, but did I ever consider creating my own blog? No......

The concept of posting my thoughts online was quite intimidating to me and it took me a while to familiarise myself with Nigel's course outline and weekly tasks.
In the beginning most of my posts were giving general information on new websites such as l'exposure.net, etc. Once I got more used to the process of blogging and once I felt comfortable with the technological aspects of blogging (adding pictures and videos as well as creating links and formating) my blog posts started to become more related to Nigel's weekly tasks and articles.

Being asked to give an example for a good and a bad website I really went through a personal exploratory process of analysing which websites I like and which ones I don't and why I am feeling that way whilst before that I took most websites as a given and never really paid any attention to web design or structure.

The process of looking at and comparing various social networking sites was educating me about the variety of features of social networking sites. I was very impressed when reading about the practicality of Twitter and decided to register and use it in the future. This really changed my mind about social networks since I used to consider most of them as fairly distracting. I also still have a quite sceptic approach when it comes to how people present themselves online since often this online identity has nothing to do with the actual person at all and I am a great believer that a lot of people escape into the virtual world if they feel overwhelmed with the real life challenges.

The articles Nigel gave us to read and my personal research really got me drawn to the "blogging" experience and I felt more and more comfortable to post my thoughts online. Apart from merely addressing Nigel's tasks I tried to add value to my blog by posting videos or thoughts which inspired me personally. One website which I simply love is www.ted.com and you will find a few videos from that website in my blog.
When thinking how the course and the course topics added value to me, I would argue that I am now far more experienced and confident in the fields of social networking and blogging, but also far more aware of the negative aspects and dangers of new media technologies, such as online repression, identity theft and credit card frauds.

Going forward, after having gone through the entire research proces, I will be able to distinguish between useful and useless social networking applications and the useful ones will hopefully add value to my existing communication and help me to enjoy digitalisation to its fullest.

New ways of disseminating ideas

This is a video by Mike Wesch and his students at Kansas State University. Is this a viable way of disseminating ideas? Might this type of media form part of how we form or change opinions?

I personally believe that young generations use new media technologies in order to express themselves and their ideas and beliefs differently. This can also be seen in the Larry Lessig video I posted on my blog. New media and digital technologies offer a perfect platform for young people to change traditional communication patterns. I am quite fond of this creative movement, since everyone can be a "creator" in today's digital age and it is quite extraordinary how enthusiastic and innovative young people are when it comes to expressing themselves online.

Internet repression in week 7

In week 7 Nigel gave us some articles about internet repression.

I was fairly surprised when I heard that governments actually manage to control and censor the vast amounts of information on the internet and that people can be persecuted for expressing their views online. I always saw the internet as a great tool for democratic expression and freedom of speech.

The fact that IT companies are supporting anti- democratic regimes and are developping systems which enable surveillance and censorship is quite frightening.


http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/13/syria-more-victims-of-internet-repression/

Googling myself: What is my online footprint?

In Week 6 Nigel asked us to find out more about our online identity and footprint.
When googling myself there is 5 search results (see below). All the five results are links to my various work involvements in film and as the commercial director of Fashion TV.
To answer Nigel's question "Who are you online" I am concluding, that I am myself online. (at least on google)

Suchergebnisse 1 - 5 von ca. 5 zu daniela karnuts powered by
F E I G E . T V - P R O J E K T E
Gast 1, Markus H. Eberhard. Gast 2, Jacob Jensen. Prinziger Jr. Jesse Lehmann.
Girl vom Prinziger, Daniela Karnuts. Bruder vom Prinziger, Maximilian Pfaff.
http://www.feige.tv/html_f/filme_6wbi_inf_darst.html - 13k - Im Cache


Rio Carnival Rio Carnival FASHIONTV PRESENTS THE LONGEST BIGGEST ...
FTV-live from Rio Carnival party“. (dates: 17th-20th february 2007) …please contact:.
Daniela Karnuts. Marketing/pr Fashion TV UK. At daniela@ftv.com ...
http://www.ftv.com/bilder/d13/Carnival_Parties.ppt - - Im Cache


f-diamond FINAL.ppt
Please contact:. -Michel Adam, president of FTV at. adam@ftv.com or. -Daniela
Karnuts, marketing/pr FTV uk. under daniela@ftv.com ….for further information.
http://www.ftv.com/bilder/FBoat/FLines.pdf - - Im Cache

Linzi Stoppard - The Electric Violinist Fan Club: What 'they' say ...
Daniela Karnuts, Marketing Director Fashion TV "Linzi's dazzling performance in
Monaco at Grand Prix Unites with Fashion TV as a great opening to such a ...
http://linzi-stoppard.blogspot.com/2007/08/what-they-say-about-linzi.html - 54k - Im Cache


A Christmas Beer Carol (Short)
August Schmölzer, Tankwart Helmut (lead). Markus H. Eberhard, Kollege. Winfried Hübner,
Weihnachtsmann. Jakob Jensen, Kollege. Daniela Karnuts, Girl ...
http://english.crew-united.com/projekte/displayProjectdata.asp?IDPD=14429 - 50k - Im Cache




When searching for myself on 192.com there is no results under my name

Twitter- Week 5

In Week 5 Nigel asked us to look at articles which demonstrate how the social networking site Twitter can be used for educational purposes.
Since I had never used Twitter before I decided to register in order to get a personal approach to the articles Nigel gave us to read. The process of registering is easy but unfortunately I have no Twitter contacts yet, which makes it hard for me to analyse the network's communication tools. When clicking around the various section and reading through the "recent public updates" section I was quite surprised that the Twitter users are making their announcements in their own language.

In one of Nigel's articles, Doug Belshaw, a teacher, describes how Twitter can be used in order to improve practical communication. Teachers can use Twitter in order to remind their students about homework via their mobile phones. Twitter allows its users to enter their phone number and they will then be informed about their friends' updates via their phones. Doug Belshaw outlines the three different methods to use Twitter: (1) as a communications tool for collaborating researchers; (2)as a way to get students to focus in a concise (140 words) way on a topic; and (3) As a way for conference attendees to discuss topics, again in a concise manner.
Twitter is also ideal for library use and library reminders.

It was easy to sign up on Twitter, the website seems to be easy to use and it is perfect for sending short messages. Twitter offers the opportunity to keep your account private. It is partly blog, partly social network, partly sms tool and is ideal for its users to inform each other on "what they are doing".
"Users have 140 characters for each posting (or “tweet”) to say whatever they care to say. Many tweets do answer the question of what the user is doing, but plenty of others are responses to other tweets, pointers to online resources that the user found interesting, musings, or questions. Similar to social networking sites like Facebook—which has itself evolved to include mini-updates—Twitter lets users create formal friendships"

Even though I am not an expert of Twitter I consider it as far less distracting and more effective than Facebook. Twitter is very easy to handle and it seems to really add value to the traditional means of email, phone, and IM messenger communication. I will spend some more time on it and decide how it can add value to my existing communication patterns.
Thanks for the tip, Nigel!