Intermission

Last blog post for the semester. At least last one for me till finals are done. Not too sure what this blog is going to become after final, but one thing is for sure is that I will continue to write in it. I might move all the social networking stuff onto another domain name though. Not too sure yet, but I'll keep you posted if I do or do not.

Thank you for everyone that came to my blog, and hope you will continue to come. I think I will continue with at least one entry a week.

A conversation I overheard yesterday during lunch sums everything up pretty well. 3 older gentlemen around their 40s to 50s were talking about work, and it lead up to them talking about technology. One of them marveled how incredible it is that the internet didn't even exist when he first joined the workforce. Now he can do just about anything on it. Another said something along the line that he didn't even have a cell phone, pager or computer till 1996. The third chimed in, "everyone is on the internet these days, it's so much easier to get in touch with people." By this point their food came and they moved onto another topic, and I finished eating and left. But not before jotting down what they said on those red chopstick paper pocket wrap thing.

Actually that didn't really sum anything up at all lol, but that conversation gave me a good perspective on everything I learned this semester. Technology is changing so rapidly these days, steps in improvement aren't introduced year after year now, they're accomplished each day if not less. It's a marvelous time to be in we are, with social networking we can not only watch but participate in this era. It's great.

And that's that. Good luck on everyone's finals!

You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?

Labels.

Labels grinds my gears. Elitist, populist, amateur, professional. Who really defines these labels. People with credentials such as degrees, positions, and badges? or mass consensus? Even if we picked a group to align with, a view to look through, there's always an opposing side even within that group.

Why must we lock ourselves into any one position? Why can't I stand in the middle? Oh but if I did that I'm wishy washy. #@&! that.

I just read an article from the American Society of Association Executives and I just about puked. Andrew Keen made me puked a little bit in my mouth. That didn't stop me from reading his other piece at Weekly Standard that says Web2.0 is essentially communism in effect.

Have you ever read or heard something that's just so ridiculous you experience disbelief and immediate nausea? well those 2 articles did that for me. Granted it's a pretty frequent occurence for me of late, all caused by Mr. Keen's elite traditional media no less (The O'Really He Did Not Just Say That Factor, and the recent CNN presidential debates).

Keen is a hypocrite, but I'll get back to this later. Since I'm only a college student, I'm not worthy enough to criticize Mr. Keen. So I'll borrow BuzzMachine's Jeff Jarvis's view, which I agree with to start. "In web 2.0, Keen sees the means of flattening culture. I see the means of the people speaking. That’s not communism. That’s democracy. That’s freedom."

What Keen calls amateur "junk" are the people's voices. How is that killing culture? how is that "flattening" it. I would think that everyone obeying some elitist's point of view will flatten culture not the other way around.

Keen says that because of Web 2.0, the only courageous thing for people to do is not to write, not to have an opinion. "Since everyone will use digital media to express themselves, the only decisive act will be to not mark the paper." Those are his actual words. It's complete bullshit and this is where he's a hypocrite. He himself have a blog and a podcast. At the end of the day, he's just another Web 2.0 nobody, if you look at it from his point of view. The only thing I can agree with Keen is that Web2.0 is a neutral tool.

I can spiel on and on about this, but I'll leave you with this clip from Good Will Hunting. Matt Damon's last line toward the Harvard graduate student is great.



P.S.: I just added the AnswerTips application, double click anyword to get definition. It even works with movies, so try double clicking anything on this page.

Blog Content for Sale

After reading Derek Powazek's blog entry on user-generated content, I too have come to despise the term UGC. When did the novelty of blogging become something so dreadfully commodified. It seems like a throwback to the Orwellian 1984, my blog is not newspeak nor will it ever be, and that's what UGC makes it out to be a part of.

In addition, UGC is implying that because I'm writing from the position of the end user, I'm just not as good as other outlet's produced content. This is complete bull. I've read hired published writers who's vocabulary might be more extension than mine, write complete garbage. I've seen news conglomerate who are bias to the point of disgust.

The contents made by the end users weren't meant to be rated, and I agree with puchoo from India when he says, "the quality assigned to a UGC platform is never absolute but perception based."

I leave you with this from Henry Copeland: "Calling blogs consumer-generated media is like calling sex the "clothless generation of heat, musk and mucus." The essential excitement and motivation just doesn't come through, does it?"

Virtual Insanity

With all the stuff on the web nowadays, sometimes it feels a little overwhelming.
This song reminds me a lot of that notion, and its music video is great. One of the first music video I've ever seen, and can remember. Enjoy.

Sweet New Look

Got seriously jealous looking at other bloggers' sweet layout, so I shopped around on the web and modified me a template. Viola! presto! New Layout! I think its real spiff, how about you?

P.S.
I know its spelled voilà, but who doesn't like a good viola (awesome instrument btw) joke? I certainly don't know anyone who doesn't.

P.S.S.
Ok it's pretty lame (the viola thing, not the layout, the layout is friggin' sweet), if its any consolation, I am wired.

P.S.S.S.
psssssss...if anyone want to check out my group's assignment 3 here's a link: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddq2xrmh_1ppbkg7