Bonus Mission #3: SingShot...."London Bridge"

Bonus Mission #2: Second Life

Second Life, built and owned by its residents, is a 3-D virtual world. “Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items and services from one another” (Second Life, 2007). I had no clue what Second Life was until a week before this entry. Upon hearing the words, “Second Life”, I thought it was just another computer game like the game most guys are addicted to, World of Warcraft (WOW). I was indeed wrong.



Apparently, Second Life reminds me of The Sims, “a strategic life stimulation computer game” (The Sims, 2007). The Sims is basically a virtual place where you get to control the basic requirements you need to do in a day-to-day affair. However, after a while, it gets boring. Reason being, the characters in The Sims are monotonous. They speak in ‘Sims’ language which totally makes no sense, complain if they lack certain elements in their energy, fun and more. Interest is lost in time to come because I believe since we all go through our own fair share of day-to-day affairs; it would be rather boring to repeat such grounds again.

As for Second Life, before you sign up, you get to choose an avatar of your liking to represent yourself. It needs not to be an avatar of who you are actually. Be it someone you really are or someone you would want to be given that you cannot be that person in real life. That is why I chose ‘Goth girl’ as my avatar. I cannot imagine myself being Goth everyday, I think I would just faint. Also, Second Life involves interaction with other residents as there is a ‘chat’ function which allows you to type anything you want to the resident you are communication with. This function makes Second Life seem more ‘alive’.

To me, Second Life is not a game because it runs like a social networking forum through the use of avatar, graphics, to build interest in others or draw the attention of new residents. According to Kevin Lim, he said that Second Life’s map is too big to even finish exploring. This is why; Second Life is not like any other game which has an end to it. There is always more to come in Second Life. Just like how in real life, there is always more to come. Relationships are built constantly, buildings, new landmarks too are built constantly. With that in mind, Second Life appears to me that this is how it works with relation to World of Warcraft. “Though WOW is a fantasy world, the interaction between guilds and individuals relies on human choices and morals” (Steven Levy, 2007). Just like how you are in real life, you would be closely similar to how you are in Second Life in terms of communication and how you carry yourself.

Thus, Second Life is beyond mere entertainment as it involves a greater skill in communicating, building bonds with people whom you have not met and an endless boundary of the map. More effort is needed to be taken into consideration than just purely controlling the avatar and moving about. Also, groups of friends can be added together, like a virtual ‘hang out’ place. No games are like Second Life.


REFERENCES

Second Life. (2007, April 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved, April 6 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Second_Life&oldid=120268909

The Sims. (2007, April 2). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 6, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Sims&oldid=119832651

Levy, S. (2007). In World of Warcraft: Is It a Game. Retrieved April 6 2007, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14757769/site/newsweek/page/3/print/1/displaymode/1098/.

QotW9: STOMP - Citizen Journalism

STOMP (Straits Times Online Mobile Print) is an online portal set up by the Singapore Press Holdings. Here, the online portal makes use of the three platforms consisting of online, mobile and print, to involve the public in the updates of Singapore (Stomp, 2006). This form of publishing comments and views is some what like citizen journalism.

What is citizen journalism? Also known as “participatory journalism”, are citizens “playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information” (Citizen Journalism, 2007). STOMP allows such citizen involvement. Blogs may already allow citizens to voice out about almost every topic available; however, STOMP allows more citizens to be heard and allows those whom are lazy to own a blog to go to the online portal to share their views and to participate. Reason being, not many may know who blogs and what the bloggers blog about. Having STOMP allows citizens to broaden their circle of connections and readings, to share their similarities with those in common. To a certain extent, the above mentioned makes STOMP an ideal form of citizen journalism of Singapore. Why STOMP is not a complete ideal form of citizen journalism is because it is more restricted in terms of what topics can be published and what can be said even though more citizens are encouraged to take part. There is a restriction in STOMP whereas blogs can be used, as and how you want to use it. STOMP also seems more of chat forum instead of citizen journalism because yes the citizens may participate in contributing to the articles on the online portal; however, the topics mentioned are not what newspapers would publish for the public to view as an article.

We may have magazines and newspapers to write in but do we actually think that every entry would be published? I doubt so. With STOMP, you have can publish your views, comments on topics such as love, food and more. Remember, STOMP has restrictions too but at least more citizens are allowed to give it a try rather than totally ignore the situation. To me, STOMP is some what like a multi-ownership blog. According to Gillmor, he is “not convinced that Big Media is doing the most important thing: listening” (Gillmor, 2004). Just like how STOMP may be there to let you publish comments related to topics that are allowed to be mentioned, yet are the comments really taken into consideration.

This leads to how STOMP could improve. STOMP is great in a way that the citizens’ views have been taken into consideration by allowing citizens to take part in the online forum. At least the thought of the citizens’ well-being is established. If only actions were to be taken to reduce the restrictions and prove to the public that improvements have been made based on the citizens’ posted comments. There is no proof if actions have been taken, but it is good enough to know that the higher authorities are ready, or willing to listen to the citizens’ views. Indeed, a step to greater improvement.




REFERENCES

STOMP (2006) From Singapore Press Holdings Retrieved March 30, 2007 from http://www.stomp.com.sg/

Citizen Journalism. (2007, March 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 30, 2007, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_journalism

Gillmor, D. (2004). We the People: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. Retrieved March 30, 2007 from http://download.nowis.com/index.cfm?phile=WeTheMedia.html&tipe=text/html#chap3

QotW7: Twit - ter "the" - Twitter

Is Twitter an online community? Yes, Twitter is an online community. Here is what an online community means before I reason out why twitter falls under the category of an online community.

When we think of the term, online community, we usually think of it as a place where people communicate and exchange views. According to Wikipedia, an online community, also known as the virtual community is said to be “a group of people that may or may not primarily or initially communicate or interact via the internet.” (Virtual Community, 2007) Not only that, it plays the role of allowing people who already know each other to communicate online.

With such advanced technology, many ways of communicating on an online community is applied. For example, the use of pseudonyms where you need not use your real name in order to chat and share ideas. Everyone has control over the information they want to share and receive. Just like LetsSingIt.com, forums are used for such purposes. Also, rules as usual are stated in order to maintain the harmony going on within the community. “The advance of technology brings nations together and narrows the differences between the experiences of their people.” (Fernback & Thompson, 1995) Here, people from different parts of the world can come together just by contributing in an online community. The online community is open to just about anyone as long as you have internet connection.

Now, why is Twitter an online community? I signed up for Twitter on Thursday afternoon to get a feel of what it is like just because it is required for this assignment. Had it not been for the experience, I would not have got a feel of how an online community really works. First of all, I do not own a Friendster account just because I fear the computer at times, in whether it will break down on me any time soon. Twitter seems straight forward for me as every step such as signing up, leaving messages and adding friends are clearly showed. Twitter seems like a blog, yet not really a blog because it has limited words for you to leave comments. However, Twitter allows connects you to many of your other friends just like how Friendster does and how blog shows links to others. With such similarity, it brings a step closer for Twitter to fall under the category of an online community.

In Twitter, you have a section for your personal profile, the ability to add friends from any part of the world while communicating and exchanging ideas just like the functions of MSN - “Without regard to race, creed, gender or geography.” (Wellman & Gula, 1996) That is exactly how we have come together on Twitter, especially for class com 125. Everyone is now in some way or another linked.

In conclusion, Twitter is an online community just because it is similar in its functions and how it works when compared to other online communities. With ongoing interaction of the individuals in the community, it is no doubt an online community.




REFERENCES

Fernback, J. & Thompson, B. (1995). "Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure?" Retrieved March 15, 2007 from http://www.rheingold.com/texts/techpolitix/VCcivil.html

Wellman, B. & Gulia, M. (1996). "Net Surfers Don't Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as Communities." Retrieved March 15, 2007 from http://www.acm.org/%7Eccp/references/wellman/wellman.html

Wikipedia (2007). Virtual Community. Retrieved March 15, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_communities

QotW6: Stop Peeping

First of all, we need to know what privacy means. Many individuals out there might have a different idea of what privacy is about. To me, privacy is about not intruding into the personal affairs of another and only reading materials, copying materials and taking personal photos of the other when permission is granted. For example, no one likes people to read the messages stored in their handphones. “Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to keep their lives and personal affairs out of possible view, or to control the flow of information about themselves.” (Privacy, 2007)

Without having this topic for assignment, I would not think that many of us would think about the term, privacy. “When you have it, you don’t notice it. Only when it’s gone do you wish you’d done more to protect it.” (Sullivan, 2004) Due to the technology advancement, our views on privacy have changed, “Increasingly obtained not by shared experiences or fixed social status but by self-revelation.” (Rosen, 2004)

Since most of us are almost familiar about blogging, I shall use that to bring in privacy with relation to my first blog entry, ‘About Me’. As we can see, I did not mention specific details about myself. Examples would be my birth date, which part of Singapore I stay in and most importantly, a front photo of me. The picture I chose for my blog is just my side view, almost covered up by a mug. Now, why did I do that? Reason being, I feel vulnerable if someone I do not know of actually knows my name and personal information. They might know my likes and dislikes when I could even possibly not know their name. I would rather disclose such information only to the people I know and see if it is worth mentioning. Other than that, I would prefer an equal share of information about each other than me not knowing anything about the other while the other knows something about me.

People should ask when they want to find out a particular information about the other, rather than sort to means like peeking into the belongings of that person. Of course the extent of privacy all depends on an individual. Some may love to disclose, share more daily happenings about themselves on a blog, while others like me would choose to keep a low profile. I find it more interesting to get to know more about the other person through face-to-face conversation instead of using means of spying, ‘detective’ style approach.

Also, the term privacy makes me think of paparazzi. Like how they intrude into the lives of celebrities even of they were seen drinking coffee at Starbucks. We may ask when to draw the line of privacy. This depends on the comfort zone of the individual. Only you can decide what to do about the prevention of the invasion of privacy.


REFERENCES

Privacy (7th March, 2007). In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 10th March, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Privacy&oldid=113354124

Rosen, J. (19th July, 2004). "The Naked Crowd". Retrieved on 10th March, 2007 from http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/0000000CA5FF.htm

Sullivan, B. (17th October, 2006). "Privacy Lost: Does Anyone Care?". Retrieved on 10th March, 2007 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/print/1/displaymode/1098/

QotW5: One Body, One Identity.

What is an online identity? It is a “social identity that network users establish in online communities” (Online Identity, 2007). For example, in IRC, instant messaging, forums and even online gaming, users have to own an account name to create an identity for others to acknowledge who you are. Usually under such circumstance, a nickname would be used instead of the birth name one is given. Now why would anyone want to do that? Well, sometimes, people like to have a new identity just so that they feel like they can behave differently with that new identity - a start of a new life. That is the advantage of the online community. No one can see who you are, they would not know if the picture you have up is really you or not. All they can do is imagine who you are according to the information you disclose to them and how you behave online.

This is where reputation comes into play. Everyone wants to own a good reputation. It would be crazy for anyone to want a bad reputation. In an online community, once information is provided to those that want to see it, reputation will be increased. This is because you gave the reader what they wanted. Everyone involved builds an opinion based on the interaction of how the other person is like. “Reputation is enhanced by contributing remarks of the type admired by the group” (Donath, 1996).

Currently, the online identity I can relate to most for this entry would be my class blog. The first entry assigned was to describe who you are, your interests and include a picture of yourself. Some may have written a lot about themselves, while some may have written the minimal requirements. Nevertheless, information is still disclosed. This is where readers of the blog can know more about me.

However, with such disclosure of personal information, there are risks involved. Identity theft is one of the major issues of online communities though many do not know that there are such problems. Identity theft is, “the misuse of the identity (such as the name, date of birth, current address or previous addresses) of another person without their knowledge or consent” (Security Report: Online Identity Theft, 2006). There are many versions of identity theft such as:

(1) Bin raiding
(2) Phishing
(3) Skimming
(4) Moving house

How identity theft works for my situation would be that a reader of my blog decides to copy the picture posted on my blog, create an exact replica of my blog and most importantly, because the reader has an advantage due to my earlier entry on self-disclosure. The reader could simply use that information provided to “act” as me. Given such direct information, it is easy for anyone to copy exactly who you are and what you are online because no one really knows the real you online. Here, my reputation could be ruined because I have no control over the information that reader could be providing to others. Wrong information could be provided and thus, my reputation I established earlier on would be destroyed.

In the near future, it is important to make sure that your personal information is kept safely and that no one can steal it so easily.




REFERENCES

Donath, J.S. (1996) “Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community” Retrieved February 16, 2007 from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html

Online identity. (2007, February 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved
February 22, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Online_identity&oldid=108207999

Security Report: Online Identity Theft. (2006, February). BT Group, Retrieved February 22, 2007, from http://www.btplc.com/onlineidtheft/onlineidtheft.pdf

QotW4: Gifts

Is anyone really willing to give anything without wanting anything in return? In the past, the internet was never thought to gin so much through sharing of information. As stated by Kollock (1999), “given that online interaction is relatively anonymous, that there is no central authority, and that it is difficult or impossible to impose monetary or physical sanctions on someone, it is striking that the internet is not literally a war of all against all.” However, now, a huge amount of sharing and cooperation of information is done over the internet. This leads to the term, gift economy, because it means, “In which help and information is offered without the expectation of any direct, immediate quid-pro-quo” (Rheingold, 1993) - ‘A favor for a favor’. As long as sharing is involved, it belongs to the gift economy, with a bigger emphasis on the word, gift. Also, it can too be called a “sharing economy” (Gift economy, 2007). This is because sometimes people may need information yet not feel the need to return anything at the current situation.



An example of a gift economy that I am familiar with would be LetsSingIt.com - your favorite music community. LetsSingIt.com (LSI) is a music community where information about your favorite artists, lyrics news updates, can be found and shared with others. Every component of this site is for free. To participate in chats, discussions, a membership is required; however, that is free too.

How did LSI come about? Well, here is a brief summary of its history. Raymond Bonsee is the owner of LSI which originally started out as “Ray’s Music Site”. He started this site because he often found it difficult to find the lyrics he wanted. Thinking that others might feel the same way as he did, he created a free lyrics site which allowed easy search either through the artist’s name, or parts of the lyrics from the song, or album name or song name. Once it was created, it drew the attention of many and soon became a forum community made up of many different individuals. Hence, the interests of many were met. (LetsSingIt.com)

Moving on, through the amount of subscribers or people who go to the LSI site for lyrics, a rating poll will keep track of the most frequent searched song and rank the artists by the number of visits. Also, other than just discussions about lyrics and artists, any other topics are welcomed too. Here our world is made smaller through ‘global’ interaction. Thus, “gift economies are driven by social relations” (Bell, 1991).

However, nothing is perfect and yes the gift economy too has its ups and downs. With such free and easy discussion forums, it is normal that some ‘hooligans’ would see the need in wrecking the peace of a nice on-going discussion. There is no reason as to why they would want to do such a thing but we know that such people do exist. That’s why in LSI, they wrote a claim stating that if unacceptable conversations are going on, they will have the right to remove any particular conversation. (LetsSingIt.com)

In conclusion, after knowing what a gift economy is, that it runs with the concept of reciprocation instead of a ‘since I gave u something, you have to give me something else in return’, we know not to take it for granted. Not all the time would someone actually give anything in return but it’s what goes on in the forums that help. Should we not greatly accept what we have been given and work towards helping such forums is better than to bring it down. With relation to LetsSingIt.com, it is one of the many forums online that works as a gift economy because people come in to share anything though mainly about music.


REFERENCES

Gift economy. (2007, February 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, retrieved February 9, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy

Kollock, P. (1999). 'The Economies of Online Cooperation; Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace" Retrieved February 9, 2007 from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm

Rheingold, H. (1993). The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. New York: Addison-Wesley.

http://www.answers.com/topic/letssingit-com

http://www.letssingit.com/