Jboo55's Blog

Playfish Games on Facebook

2010-11-25T11:20:00.000-08:00

In class this week, we have been learning about gaming studies. So, I discovered on Facebook the Playfish games that are big players in the social game space. Playfish is leading the social gaming industry and the company is changing the way people play games by creating more social and connected experiences. The games are designed for friends to play together.

The Playfish games are amongst the most acclaimed and popular online. Some of the popular games offered on Facebook are Pet Society, Restaurant City, Hotel City, Country Story and Who Has the Biggest Brain? So, in this case Facebook would be the machine, which is the platform that is being played on. I believe the Playfish games are diegetic because elements contained within the game’s total world narrative. For example, in the game Pet Society one inhabits this living social world with you’re friend’s pets.

Playfish is well known as the keystone game developer for Facebook. A positive thing about Playfish games is they will eventually drive down the costs of traditional marketing. The company markets through the games by selling virtual goods inside its games. The company made a smart choice choosing Facebook, which has over 500 million users. Social games will play a big part of the future of the video games industry. This is going to be the next hot trend because it has already attract millions of daily players.

Childhood Cancer Awareness

2010-11-17T11:44:00.000-08:00

The purpose of Childhood Cancer Awareness is to spotlight childhood cancer and survivorship issues related to childhood cancer.

To grab people's attention to childhood cancer we want to create a Facebook group like Kick it Kodi. The group will include a real story about a child who is fighting cancer. Second, we plan to use commercials and videos of actual children fighting for their life. The video will include a tour of a hospital like St. Jude and an interview with a young child and their family about their daily routine. We want to promote this awareness through commercials like the St. Jude's one. Last, we plan to use newspaper and choose child of the month who has cancer. There will be an article on their story. By using these pieces of media we plan to have emotional appeal and bring this cause to life by using true stories.

- Jennifer and Kyle

A Parallel Image

2010-11-15T18:55:00.000-08:00

When I came across this image, “A Parallel Image” by Gebhard Sengmüller, it really grabbed my attention. I loved how the artist used the parallel timeline technique of the past to create an effect, which is futuristic in its sensorial impact. This image is unlike conventional electronic image transmission procedures and is technologically transparent by conveying to the viewer a correspondence between the real world and transmission that can be sensually experienced.

“A Parallel Image” is an electronic camera obscura, which digitizes an image and simultaneously transmits all elements to a location. This interactive sculpture is based on the fictive assumption that the currently still valid principle of electronically transmitting moving images, namely by breaking them down into single images and image lines. He does this by connecting a camera and a monitor using about 2,500 cables. I thought that was so interesting and never knew techniques or art like this even existed. It is so fascinating how he attempts a highly elaborate parallel transmission of every single pixel from the sender to receiver.

I never knew work like this was art or how much is put in to make such a masterpiece. New media art is new to my knowledge and this artist really impressed me. The lighting is beautiful and I love how he created alternative ordering systems for media content. This really opened my eyes to a different kind of art.

Lady Gaga

2010-11-08T16:05:00.000-08:00

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to expand a variety of creative works available for others to build upon legally to share. It is a great tool that is a free charge to the public. Flickr users offer their work under the Creative Commons license. Creative Commons has a license that is often called “free advertising” license because it allows people to download their works and share them with others as long as they mention you and link back to you. They cannot change the image in any way or use them commercially.

Like this image of Lady Gage below:

This is a picture of Lady Gaga that was taken using an iPhone Apple by John H, docjohnboy. He took this at Bazaar and this is not used for any commercial use. He made this visible to everyone and he was sharing this to show off that he saw Lady Gaga at a small venue and got her to sign a CD.

Here’s another photo of Lady Gaga below:

This is a photo of Lady Gaga singing and this was a commercial image. Under the Attribution license it states that work should be specified by an author or licensor but not in any that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work. This image is Lady Gaga on Walmart Soundcheck and on the site page it gives credit to Walmart soundcheck with a link. The user that posted this photo was Carrie Stern, kindofadraag.

Last photo of Gaga below:

This image was taken by a paparrazi of some sort and was taken when Lady Gaga was leaving the Perth Airport. No real name is given on the page and only shows lovelyhk. However, in the description it states that the photo is a Non-Exclusive Pix by Flynet in 2009 and the author leaves a phone number and the name Nicolas. He is the author of this photo from Australia and is trying to sell the photo to USA. He is not using the photo for a commercial use but he is trying to sell this image.

All these photos are following the licenses of Creative Commons and provided the right credit for using a celebrity image.

The Social Factory

2010-11-04T14:39:00.000-07:00

The social media is spreading like a plague throughout the digital world. In Terranova’s article about free labor he defines the social factory as a process in which work processes have been shifted from factory to society. Facebook is a good comparison of this in the fact that so many Americans use it.

Terranova’s article is basically all about labor in the digital world. This would include contributors to sites, lots of activity, and inviting people. Facebook’s contributors are the user’s and they are doing well with over 500 million users. The people that use Facebook are selling their information and are what keeps Facebook running. Which goes into Facebook activity in which users have become so active putting status, putting pictures up, posting on friends walls, etc. Facebook quantifies our social life and not only does it connect us with friends but it counts them. It allows you to invite people to be your friends to add.

As Terranova says that cultural and technical work is central to the Internet but is also a widespread activity throughout advanced capitalist societies. Facebook provides a widespread of users and activity but has meaning. People constantly check up on their number of friends and had become a measure of something meaningful. Our online relationships are shadowed by power relations, by who has the most friends or wall posts. All these people on Facebook are contributing to the social factory.

Social Media Tracking

2010-10-27T10:32:00.000-07:00

Social media has become an integral part of modern society and everyone is using it for fun and to stay connected. Businesses are using these social media sites not only because it is a great way to market their company but for networking too. Most companies are taking advantage of these tools and emphasizing their company’s presence online and reaching more potential customers, employees and business partners. It is a good way to give a company unlimited exposure to relevant people without dealing with any cost issues.

How can companies keep track of what people are saying about them? There are several social media tools that can help monitor a company’s brand performance. First, is Twazzup, which is a dashboard progam that monitors Twitter.

Twazzup will inform you every time your keywords are mentioned in a tweet and will categorize a company’s results by link popularity, contributors, tagging clouds and users. Company’s can follow real-time stream of updates and using the right sidebar will show the top tweets and a list of the top tweeted stories about this topic, as well as related photos from twitpic. This program is a powerful and valuable social media-monitoring tool.

Another one is Socialmention, which is like Google Alerts but for social media.

Socialmention is a social media search and analysis platform that collects user-generated content from across the universe into a single stream of information. This program will show user-defined statistics for your keywords over a thirty day period and measures what people are saying about the company, a new product or any topic across the web’s social media landscape in real-time. It monitors 100+ social media properties directly including: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google, etc. This is another good tool to monitor company through social media sites.

There are many other sites that will provide the same services for companies. This is a great tool to see what the public thinks about the company and how it is affecting society.

10 Social Media Monitoring Tools

Online Poker Identity

2010-10-21T21:09:00.000-07:00

Online users can create their own identity and have the power to create their own reality. According to Lisa Nakamura, “a user can become an ‘entrepreneur of the self’ through digital means reflects a technologically deterministic perspective, one that looks to technology to solve social problems.”

My boyfriend loves poker and plays online and face-to-face games. A site he uses is Pokerstars.net, which is an online poker site where players are not defined by gender, race, religion, or social status. This site visualizes players by their generic avatar, and with text-only handles. Nakamura believes that when people create their own cartoon character online “they are exercising their ability to choose their gender, race, body shape, and many either aspects of embodied identity.” However, online poker sites users do not choose images of themselves so their gender or race is not revealed. When opening an account in a card room, users choose handles, which is their screen name. The players are represented by their handles and by avatars. Players choose from a list or have a chose to upload images to make their avatar in means of establishing their identity. In online poker games, players express their individuality through play within their conversation text in a variety of ways.

Good poker players are able to read players and being able to observe and understand “tells.” Online it is hard to do this so it is important that players attempt to establish an understanding of the opponents’ playing styles.

In conclusion, I think that users create their own identity or avatars and are capable of hiding who they really are within race and gender. Pokerstars.com is a game site that allows you to hide your identity and judge others on their poker status and their playing styles.

Are you a Facebook Addict?

2010-10-13T10:10:00.000-07:00

Starting last Friday, students were assigned to not use Facebook for a week. Honestly, I thought this was going to be an easy task because I am not addicted to Facebook. I am not one of those people that puts statuses up all the time, however, I use it to communicate with friends and to see what is going on.

I was most definitely wrong about this being a breeze in the park. I have a bookmark for Facebook and it didn't occur to me how much of a habit it has become. It is so easy to pull up Facebook when I am using my computer even if I am doing homework or writing a blog. I will always have more then one tab open and it is always Facebook. So, this was very hard and I didn't realize how much I use and rely on Facebook. I had a few slip ups and realized "AH I am not supposed to be on Facebook" and then would exit out.

Facebook has become so popular and a lot of students use this all the time. Many people are actually becoming addicts to using Facebook but I would never consider myself an addict. According AddictionInfo.org "Frequent Facebook visits actually cause something that psychologists refer to as intermittent reinforcement." I don't believe that I qualify as an addict because getting on Facebook and receiving messages or notifications do not give me a "high." I would refer my use of Facebook to procrastination. An addict will get lost in time when using Facebook and has to be on it 24/7.

People that are addicts use social media as a way to socialize with others instead of going out and being with friends. Where do you stand with your relationship to Facebook? Would you consider yourself an addict to this social media?

40 Minutes!

2010-10-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

This week in class I had to participate in 40 minutes of uninterrupted reading. This was a difficult task for me because I am very ADHD and I hate reading. So, I chose to use this time to read and study my Marketing Midterm Review.

Sitting and reading in silence was hard for me because I had constant thoughts running through my mind about everything. If I turned and looked at something it would get me off track of studying. As a result, I decided to go the apartment workout room. No one was in there and it was silent. I got on the elliptical and put my reading right in front of me and began focusing. Since my brain is going non stop all the time therefore, moving on the elliptical stopped all the mind wandering and I finally had my full attention on studying.

This was something I have never experienced before in my life. When I usually study I am around people or watching TV and somehow I can still study. It is crazy how our attention is so easily distracted. I had a bumpy 40 minutes of reading and only had about 25-30 minutes of no distractions. I am the queen of multitasking and being focused on one thing is super hard especially for a long 40 minutes.

Cathedral vs. Bazaar = Twitter vs. Facebook

2010-10-01T19:11:00.000-07:00

The Eric Raymond’s essay on The Cathedral and the Bazaar compares cathedral and bazaar to software. Raymond referred to the cathedral as proprietary model that has corporate interest and is user based. As for the bazaar he referred to software that is free and open source and institutionalized. So, I realized that it can also refer to Twitter and Facebook.

Twitter is like the cathedral because it has one purpose, which is to tweet. You are limited to just 140 characters and everything is very institutionalized. You can’t express much on Twitter besides tweeting what you had for breakfast. It is elaborate and a user based site. Everyone works together on Twitter by retweeting or commenting on other people’s tweets giving feedback.

Facebook it is more free and you can post statuses as long as you wish and post photos, videos, and can write on friends walls. It is much more open and profits from supporters which Facebook has over 20 million users. It’s pretty easy to navigate and manage rather than Twitter is more complex. There is less control on Facebook because users have the freedom to express themselves and make their profiles their own. You could say it is individualized because users have the power to make their own groups or post videos of things they believe in.

The cathedral vs. bazaar is a social metaphor so it is similar to the social network. In which makes Twitter vs. Facebook a great metaphor.

Wikipedia

2010-09-24T15:06:00.001-07:00

Wikipedia has been questioned on its authenticity because anyone can edit an article. There is no way of knowing if the information the author reveals is the truth.

In class we were told to edit a Wikipedia page of a topic we know most about. I chose retail because I have worked in retail for about three years and know a lot about it. I was able to edit the article without even having an account. When I came across the article about retail it was not long and under the customer service section there was one sentence: “According to the book "Discovery-Based Retail"[3] customer service is the "sum of acts and elements that allow consumers to receive what they need or desire from your retail establishment." In my opinion, that one sentence does not give outsiders enough information to fully understand customer service in retail. I believe that it is important for a store to do everything in the their power to make sure a customer leaves happy, with a product or not.

I think that Wikipedia is reliable source that gives people quality information. If people are writing false information the editor of the article can claim a dispute and have it removed. So, I think its up to the person doing the research to be cautious of what information they use from Wikipedia and make sure they do their own research. I think it is remarkable site that allows everyone to be an editor giving people something to be proud and a sense of importance. Its a community where everyone joins together to spread the knowledge.

Is the Internet a Reliable Source for Information?

2010-09-17T11:11:00.001-07:00

The Internet not only connects people but is also the main source for information. Is it a reliable source? Yes and no. Sometimes it is difficult to find information that has a perspective that is similar to your point of view.

The problem is that anyone can post anything on the Internet. Websites like Wikipedia are not reliable because basically anyone can edit them. The Internet is a great resource but it’s also a public forum, where anyone can make a claim or assertion. I believe that there is fabricated data on the Internet and it’s hard to differentiate between that and accurate information. When looking at an article that provides relevant information for your research, you should take the time to investigate the source to make sure it is valid and reliable. The Internet is an important source that connects people and provides information. People believe that the Internet is riddled with exaggerated information. It is your responsibility as a researcher to determine if the source is trustworthy.

The Internet can be a reliable resource if you investigate your source correctly. For example, stay away from Internet information that doesn’t list an author but if an author is named verify credibility and if the writer is published in a scholarly journal or employed by a research institution or university. Also, determine if the information is linked to an organization. Try to validate the reliability of the sponsoring organization. This means that there is an URL ending. Basically it is the responsibility of the researcher to be cautious and chose their sources carefully.

Jaron Lanier’s article he questions the Internet as a reliable source. He believes that the Internet brings nothing but trouble and that there are problems with voice, reliability, and confusion. But, I disagree because there will always be flaws in searching for information. For an example, the News media reports what will bring up their ratings rather than what is really going on because that’s boring. They will over exaggerate events to bring hype and grab audience’s attention. So, not every source of media is reliable but its up to us to make the distinction between what is the truth and what is junk.

To some extent you can rely on the most trusted news sources, but you should not rely on them exclusively because their goal is entertainment. Same with the Internet, you have to determine what is useful and what is false by doing your own research. In conclusion, the Internet is a reliable source if the researcher is cautious regarding the information they encounter.

Is The Apple iPod an Old Trend?

2010-09-10T13:43:00.000-07:00

Apple has come out with multiple models of the iPod Nano and they just recently came out with the sixth edition. The iPod has come a long way from the first edition that launched in 2001. The sixth edition iPod Nano is half the size of the previous model and is a touch screen. Most would agree the new iPod Nano has down graded because many features are gone like the video playback, camcorder, microphone, speaker, alarm clock, games, and several more features. My opinion is that the touch screen is overkill with the small design. In the article, “Is Apple’s iPod tune getting old?” Erica Ogg writes,

“The easiest conclusion is that the iPod is simply no longer a main focus of the company, but is still one that its customers expect Apple to do something with each year. Without major leaps or any competitors to try to grab attention from, Apple could probably get by without a special press event for iPods in the future but might continue to do it just because its customers expect it. But that means customers need to adjust to the idea that every year won't bring major breakthroughs in every product category. With the iPod, it's just not clear how much more Apple can do with it beyond little tweaks here an there.”

So, most can come to the conclusion that there will not be another edition because they haven’t had any hype in their iPod lineup since Apple came out with the iPod Touch. People have lost interest in the iPod because there is nothing special about them anymore and sales are starting to decline. The iPhone and iPad are now the revenue drivers for the company.

The Importance of Networks

2010-09-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

The article, “Why Networks Matter” by Manuel Castells, was very interesting and made many great points. Networks are important because they keep society interconnected and play a role in organizing communication.

Most would believe that networks are important to today’s competitive market. Responsiveness and speed to a customer or supplier demand is often a decisive factor in the success of a business. The network is the most critical resource in an organization. It shares product and pricing information from vendors. This would relate to Castells second outcome, that networked organizations out beat any other kind of organization. This is why businesses that use networks are more successful. Larger firms are internally networked unlike small and medium size firms. But, leaves room for generating ideas for improving small business marketing and management. Businesses that are networked are more successful because they are more likely to develop and adopt innovative processes, products, and strategies. Also, networks play an important role in providing and supporting economic change.

Another major point on the importance of networks is that it connects people socially. He makes the point that the world lives in a highly individualistic society and a highly networked society. Networks bring people together to share beliefs, issues or ideas with others and then receive feedback. This gives people a sense of belonging but also connects them with people who have the same interests. Castells puts this under the category of virtual communities. By living in a network society, it opens doors for people who are not social in person and give them a chance to express themselves and connect with people through the web.

Castells ending comment “Networks are the matrix,” doesn’t support the claims he makes in the article. It confuses readers to question whether the network is a structure, like he claims, or is it not a reality? Networks do make up our lives but Castells could have made that point without comparing that to a fictional movie. In conclusion, networks are very important in the business world and in the social society. The network is keeping society interconnected more than ever before and is expanding in the business world.

About Me!

2010-08-23T18:33:00.000-07:00

I am Jennifer Short and this is my first semester at UTD. I am EMAC major and Entrepreneurship minor. I hope to pursue a career in Public Relations for businesses. I am a junior and I have changed my major about three times from fashion then marketing to EMAC. I am planning to get masters in EMAC. I was born in Overland Park, Kansas but was raised in Plano, TX for majority of my life.

I love my family! I have a mom, dad and a sister who is 24. My sister’s name is Ashley and she graduated from TCU and works as a merchandise analyst for Zale’s Corporation in Irving. I love my boyfriend, Beau, and we have been together for over 2 and half years in November it will be 3 years . I also have a dog that I adore named Bella, she is a Morkie and is 2 ½ years old. Morkie is part Yorkie and part Maltiese. I love all my friends and they mean a lot to me. These are the most important people in my life!

My first semester of college I attended the University of Arkansas then the last year and half I attended Collin College. This is my second semester being an EMAC major and I am loving it so far. I am looking forward to this class and learning how to Blog and use Twitter and Delicious. I have never used anything beside Facebook.

I love to shop, go to the lake a lot, hangout with friends and I LOVE rollercoaster’s (Six Flags). My favorite shows are One Tree Hill (no longer playing :( ), Gossip Girl, Covert Affairs, Dexter, The Hills, The City, and Keeping up with the Kardashians. I love TV and will always make time for it everyday! I am currently unemployed so I can focus on being a full time student.