Com125 Assignment 12: Network Neutrality

What is network neutrality? According to wikipedia.org, Network neutrality is principles that is applied to residential broadband networks, and potentially to all networks. Network neutrality preserves a free and open internet. Overtime there has been a lot of debate over network neutrality and what it actually means. In the article, "Net Neutrality Debate Remains Continuous", by K.C. Jones, states, "Net neutrality is so contentious that many people debating it cannot even agree on a definition. Traditional allies and foes have rearranged themselves to form strange new alliances and divisions. Even the founders of the Internet and the World Wide Web -- including some who worked alongside each other -- are at odds over how to move forward". People still can't come agree on what net neutrality actually is. Now people are debating on whether internet service providers be able to charge more money for traffic, or whether the law should mandate equal access. Why are internet providers trying to gain more money because of traffic. It wouldn't be fair for networks with more traffic to charge more money. This is because there are some website that a lot of people visit and go to which have a lot of traffic. Like a lot of people use yahoo and google. It wouldn't be right to charge them more because those to sites are frequently used to search for things.

According to Jones, Jones states, "Some telecommunications executives have argued that they should be able to prioritize information from sources paying higher fees or serving higher purposes. A prioritized system, which would create an Internet fast lane for higher-paying content providers, would help fund network improvements, according to Internet service providers". I don't think if information was prioritized and paying higher fees will serve as an higher purpose. I feel people are just greedy and try to make as much money as possible. What they should be more concerned about instead of making more money with traffic flow is stopping all the virus and spam from floating around the internet. People maybe more happier if they weren't getting all of those pop-ups and viruses rather than how much traffic is going on. Also stated by Jones is, "Net neutrality opponents, including President Bill Clinton's former press secretary Mike McCurry, also argue that Internet service providers should be able to direct heavy traffic and screen out some material, like viruses and spam". If network neutrality is free and open internet then there should be no viruses and internet services providers should not charge for traffic. If internet service providers charge for more traffic than it won't be considered network neutrality.

People who use the internet are all affected by these debates that are going on. Nobody wants to pay for anything. Thats like a common thing in the u.s. . Anything thats free and has easy access with less stress involved is the type of stuff we like. Most Americans are going to be for network neutrality. Music musicians are even network neutrality. As stated in the article, " Rock The Net", it states, "As musicians and entrepreneurs, we understand the importance of treating all websites equally -- from the busiest online music store to the smallest blog. We urge Congress to support network neutrality.". If websites weren't treated equally people probably wouldn't visit those sites as much as they used to. Being treated fairly is all worth its while. I support network neutrailty because its free and an open source internet. I wouldn't want to pay for anything. I never want to pay for anything. Its hard to come by living today with just one job. I can only imagine how much a internet services provider would charge it there was alot of traffic involved with one website. Therefore i'm all for it.

Com125 Assignment 10: Journalism

What is journalism? Journalism is the occupation of reporting, writing, editing, photographing, or broadcasting news or of conducting any news organization as a business. Journalist provide the people in the world with insightful information about what's going on in our daily lives. I their weren't journalist people would be dumb founded about what's going on in society. They tend to be a good reliable source. Critics can and usually blow up a situation and make it look more serious then it really is. There are hot new topics occurring in the news everyday. Each news topic may not say exactly the same thing. Often articles vary from each publisher.

One of the most recent topics in the news today is about church members who protest at funerals. According to the USA Today in the article "Church liable for protest at funeral" by Alan Gomez states the jury gave a Marine's family nearly $11M in damages. (Gomez, 2007) So this article is basically about church protesters who were sued for speaking cruel phrases during the funeral of Lance Cpl Matthew Snyder who was a former Marine killed in Iraq. These protesters created signs saying "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags". As you can see these actions are not appropriate for funeral settings definitely coming from church members.

I feel that these church people went a little over board with some of the stuff they said at the funeral. Thats just mad disrespectful towards peoples families. Some of the things they were saying about God isn't true. The church people were saying like God hates fags and God hates you is not correct. First of all God doesn't hate anyone, they would know this if they read the bible. Haven't those people ever heard that song yes Jesus loves me for the bible tells me so. God doesn't condone any ungodly acts. I'm not about to get into any of this bible stuff right now. Just looking at the pictures and reading about the things these protesters are doing and saying is upsetting me and I'm not the type to really get upset. The more I think about it the more I get upset.

The article basically broken down in full descriptive detail. They writer of this article clearly breaks down who was sued, how the money from the law suit was distributed, describes past protesting incidents, talks about states passing laws against protesters, the way some of the people felt, and and the location the incident happened. The journalist who wrote this article also has a picture in the middle of the article of the protesters which shows the types of signs they were holding. On the website the chicagotribune.com , the article called "The church behind the protesters" provided by Tribune news services, gives little description behind what happened. The article on the website does not have a picture like the article in the newspaper. The write up on the website is very brief; it basically just states who was involved and how much money was won in the case. It also goes into depth about why the protester are taking their actions. This article is more focused on how the protesters feel compared to the one in the newspaper which is more about how the victims of this situation felt. Newspapers usually have tiny print and big bold headings. Online is more colorful. People are starting to get their news from the internet instead of leaving their homes to go buy a newspaper. Internet news is becoming more convenient.

Com125 Assignment 8: Thanks to photo web applications

An web application that I often use or find useful is photobucket. What your basically allowed to do on photobucket is share pictures and videos with other users and non-users. Even if your not a user you can still search for videos and pictures. You can also send the images to your phone as well as save them into your own album. I do not have a photobucket account, but I still go on and search for pictures and videos. Often I would search for funny pictures to post on peoples myspace wall. What's also cool about photobucket is your able to embed pictures and videos on your websites, but the thing is people can delete their account or album you got the picture or video from which will erase it from your the contents you placed it on. Photobucket has a simple home page design. The home page is blue and white. At the top right corner it has little tabs where you can enter your username, password, or either join. The on the top left it has a photobucket picture and under that it has 3 tabs which says home, join now, or find stuff. Under those tabs it informs you that u can share pictures and videos, where you can share them (myspace, livejournal, blogger, facebook, email, etc). Under that if has a search bar where you can specifically search for pictures or videos. All you have to do is type in what your looking for and press enter. Lastly under that the home page has a search related pictures and videos people have looked up and those pictures and video change everytime you go onto or refresh the home page. The way the home page is setup makes it easier for users to join or search for things their looking for. I'm not 100% sure, but I don't believe theirs any social aspects to this site except the fact that you can share your images and videos with people. The reason I find this site interesting is the fact that you can search for and share images and and videos easily.

Com125 Assignment 7: Open to the Communtiy

What is a community?
A community is a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage. Most people are involved in some type of community whether they know it or like it. According to the article, "Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure?"by Fernback and Thompson, Cooley (1983) says that all normal humans have a natural affinity for community. (Fernback and Thompson, 1995) Theres no way you can avoid it unless your a hermit and I doubt thats the case. Fernback and Thompson also states, "The structural process that is associated with community is communication. Without communication there can be no action to organize social relations." (Fernback and Thompson, 1995) People who are active in communities gain social ties and relationships with the members they interact with. There are two types of communities people associate their selves with. People are involved in online as well as offline communities. There are some who prefer the online community better. As for me I prefer both.

Reasons behind me preferring to belong to both communities is because online you can communicate with people you probably will never see. You can be online to communicate with friends, family members, people you have just met, people you want to meet, etc. Online community is good, but it can also be a bad thing. There might be people that are frauds and are not who they say they are. You may be thinking their one thing, but can be totally different. Other than that you can catch up with friends, view how they are doing, how they are interacting and communicating with others. Its a excellent way to keep in touch with the ones you care about. What I admire about offline communities is you can physically get involved in it. It allows you to go out and actually meet new people, hand out with friends and family, create better relationships with people, and generate stronger ties. Also with an online communtiy you can't participate in community activities where you are able to communicate with a wide range of people. For instance, when I go to Alumni to play basketball I meet and make new friends all the time in which I would most likely only have communication with them at the gym. Being with a community you can't really do things like being physically active with the people you communicate with at the current moment. I think the online and the offline community both have its ups and downs.

I feel the internet helps improve someones relationship. For instance, I am a facebook user and if I didn't use it I probably wouldn't keep in touch with my freshmen roommate in college at all or others they i used to be close to, but am now relocated in different areas from them. Using IM is another way for people to develop stronger ties with people because you can communicate with people faster than on facebook or myspace. I feel the internet helps social ties more than they hurt them. With the internet you also have the option of adding who who want to communicate with so that you can keep internet predators away. According to the article, "Friends, Friendsters, and Top 8: Writing Community into being on social network sites" by Danah Boyd, it says, "“Are you my friend? Yes or no?” This question, while fundamentally odd, is a key component of social network sites." This statement is very true. These networks give you the option of accepting who you want to be your friend. If your accepting people who know and would like to know you can create a better relationship with the person because your not as afraid of sharing personal information with them.

Com125 Assignment 6: Hey is that really U?

Everyone has their own unique identity. Having your own identity is important. Your identity is what separates you from every other individual in the world. People often like to keep things about themselves kept a secret. Nobody wants everyone in their business or to even know stuff about them. And then theres lot of people who don't care if some information about them is known by others. Imagine someone you don't know or haven't met at all and they know everything about you. How would that make you feel? Would it creep you out, make you scared, happy, or would you even care? Thats a big issue you have to face when you decide to put personal stuff about yourself online.

Majority of the people in the world have their own online identity. An online identity is a social identity that network users establish in online communities. There are many online communities out there. It may range from e-mails, instant messenger, myspace, facebook, blogs, shopping online, playing video games online, etc. Network users may go by their real name or they may create one establish an identity out of the user name they created. People can be defined or put into certain categories depending on what online community they associate with. When you come across people with e-mail addresses that end in .edu basically means that their in college or at least was at one point in their life. Another way a person can create a social identity is by groups that they join on certain networks. For instance, on facebook you can join groups. Depending on which groups you join can give online users an idea of what type of stuff your interested in.

What do I identify with?
One of the many online communities I belong to is facebook. Facebook used to just be accessible just to people who were in college. Now facebook is open to the public. Anyone can create a facebook account now. I wasn't introduced to facebook until my older sister informed me about it and the things your able to do on it. I was informed that you can get in contact with old friends , relatives, or even meet new people on this network. You can also share photos, message people, find out peoples interest and status. I have my own personal profile which helps people identify me from others. For the most part I have my real information up there. I only put information up there that I don't mind if users to know about me. Their are privacy settings you can put up so that only people who are friends with you can view your profile, but I don't really care because I have nothing of importance about me on my profile. While i'm on facebook I can interact with old high school friends, friends that I grew up with, new friends that I've met in college, and family members. I can even interact with people I've never met before. I like the fact that you can be informed on events that are going on at your school as well as other schools.

I also have social identity on myspace, but I stop going on their as much because there has been to much identity theft and viruses going around on that online community. There are a lot of weirdos on myspace. My myspace account password was some how stolen and someone had access to my account. The person who had access to my account was going around sending random messages to people on my friends list and they deleted links on my profile page. Now when people visit my myspace profile they have no way to link back to other stuff because some jerk deleted my links. Thats why I don't really mess with myspace anymore. One of my friend even told me someone told her pictures off of her profile and made an profile using her picture. I don't know what would possess people to do this. They must think were COOL, just kidding. If you don't want your information being stolen I advice you to not create a profile on these website so unknown users can view them. If you do create a profile limit what information you give out about yourself or you can just make your profile private so only people you know can view it.

Com125 Assignment 5: My bizness my bizness...stay up out my bizness

What person doesn't want their own privacy? In the Untied States people tend to have a high amount of respect for people and their privacy. As you take a look at this map you can see which areas in the world are strict about privacy and which areas are not. Everybody wants to have their own privacy. People tend to want their own privacy when their at home, using the bathroom, at the store, or even on the computer. Nobody wants people snooping all around in their business. We often want things to be kept confidential. What does privacy actually mean? What privacy means to me is having your own personal space, ideas, and belongings kept confidential without anyone's intrusion. People in today's society need their own privacy. I can only imagine how superstars feel when the paparazzi is all up in their business taking pictures, asking their for autographs, askin them questions, and constantly following them.

Some people in America doesn't care if things about them are view by others. When you create a profile on facebook or myspace you are putting info about yourself out there for other public viewers. In the article, "Social Network Sites: Public, Private, or What?" by Danah Boyd, states how teens use these sites to access public life. Mainly people use these sites to socialize with friends and family. If people are putting out their personal conversations and information on the internet knowing other people can obtain that infotmation their displaying makes you really wonder if people even care about their privacy. In the article, "Privacy Lost: Does anybody care?" by Bob Sullivan. Bob tries to explain whether or not people care about their privacy knowing people can look at certain things about you over the internet. In Sullivan's article it states, "Only a tiny fraction of Americans – 7 percent, according to a recent survey by The Ponemon Institute – change any behaviors in an effort to preserve their privacy. Few people turn down a discount at toll booths to avoid using the EZ-Pass system that can track automobile movements." (Sullivan, 2006) It seems like people care about their privacy based on what type of information about them is being giving out.

You may not know it but your privacy is not always secure over the internet. When your shopping online and such your personal privacy can be invaded. This is a big issue because people using the computer don't know when their privacy is being intruded upon. People often visit sites where message boxes will pop up to let you know that your visiting a unsecure website, but some websites don't inform you that your visiting a unsecured website or not. Your often at risk when your on the internet whether you know it or not. The thing is how can you stop people from getting into your personal space while your on the internet.

I definitely worry about my privacy online. I don't know who wouldn't worry about their privacy online. I think i only tend to think or worry about it when I'm purchasing an account online and I'm required to put all of my personal information down including my atm/debit/credit card number down. I often buy sneakers off the internet sometimes. I usually order them from like finish line, eastbay, or footlocker. When your placing an order you are required to put your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and bank account card number down. Even when your trying to fill out for loans online for school. When filling out a loan you have to put down even more of your personal information down such including your social security number down in which you don't want anyone to have a hold of.

Over the summer I was looking at the news and they were talking about these two people from my hometown Rochester, NY, were stealing superstars identity and buying cars and other things of value. The superstars who's identity were being stolen were Nia Long, Ashanti, and i can't remember the last celebrity. Somehow these people were able to obtain their social security number from the internet. The people acted as if they were them and were buying stuff under their name. How do you sell something to a person that does not look anything like those celebrities? The thing is why would those celebrities even be in Rochester to buy a car? Like it really doesn't even add up if you think about it. People were shocked that this situation was even able to happen. Thats why my mom always tells me i shouldn't always be buying stuff off the internet or filling out information about me because I don't anyone to be stealing my personal identity or information.

Com125 Assignment 4: It is better to give than receieve

What does the word economy mean? Economy is the act or means of thrifty savings. People tend to save their savings in order to become more wealthy individuals. Usually the more money people make the higher their status becomes, but thats not always the case if your not doing the right thing with your money. Gift economy sounds pretty similar to economy, but its actually very different. Gift economy is where computer users or some main source gives information to other users for free without expecting anything back.They put out resourceful advice out for the publics access. The person on the receiving end may never come in counter wit the person delivering their source of information. In the reading "The Economies of Online Cooperation" by Kollack (1999), Bell(1999) states in a gift economy, benefits come from improving the “technology of social relations” by, for example, increasing the range and diversity of one's social network. In commodity economies, the benefits come from making improvements in the technology of production. Thus, gift economies are driven by social relations while commodity economies are driven by price. According to the article,"The Hi-Tech Gift Economy" by Richard Barbook, he discusses how the gift economy evolved since 1998 when the paper was written.

How has the gift economy come about? In the article, "Internet gift economies: Voluntary payment schemes as tangible reciprocity" by Kylie J. Veale, she states, "exchange in the internet gift economy begins with the creation of a product, not unlike societies in the past, made available to the community at large for free. These products are a variety of digital items — Web pages, discussions or newsgroups, e-mails, MP3’s or other files including software and digitised newspaper and magazine articles." (Veale, 2003) By utilizing the phrase ‘gift economy’, digital anthropologists have consequently sought to explain how the Internet grew in its early years through the sharing of information" (Veale,2003). People create websites for others to gain knowledge from for free. That's what the gift economy is all about; gaining useful information that they can put to use.

Even then when the internet was not very popular there was a paper source where information was being shared wit society. Now that we have the internet people can communicate socially with one another through various websites such as facebook which is considered part of the gift economy. People can not only give information about stuff,share videos, and can also share photos, but they can also receive information about things. Facebook is a perfect example of gift economy. Myspace would also be considered part of the gift economy. I am very familiar with both myspace and facebook.

Myspace service began in August of 2003. Myspace is 100% owned division of publicly traded internet company eUniverse. The intentions of myspace was to be a social networking website which would offer an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos internationally. The very first myspace users were eUniverse employees. Their company held a contest to see which employee could sign up the most users. By September 7, 2007, there were over 200 million accounts. People are able to share information with each other. Unknown artist are able to put their music out there on the internet to bed heard and exposed by myspace users. E-mail subscribers have even put forth effort and time to breathe life into myspace.

According to wikipedia, shortly after launching MySpace, team member Chris DeWolfe in its first business plan suggested that they start charging a fee for the basic MySpace service. Brad Greenspan (eUniverse's Founder, Chairman, CEO) nixed Chris DeWolfe's idea, due to it being "totally not necessary, as many mindless youths and adults will donate money to us anyway".The eUniverse company was bought in July 2005 for $580 million approximately $327 million has been attributed to the value of MySpace according to the financial advisor fairness opinion.

It seems like the more users myspace has it seems like the more it advances. It used to be just where you can obtain music. Now you can put your own music and videos for viewers to view.
You can also view which of your friends are currently online, let people know what kind of a mood your in, etc.I feel its good to have a gift economy because if we didnt then where would people get all their good resourceful information from. I wouldn't probably known anything about this topic if it wasn't for the gift economy. The more people access and use these websites the more it will gain revenue for the creators to keep it up.