Digital Convergence Part 2

I have "Apples iPhone" and; I can market my company by keeping track of orders, scan products that I sell at trade shows, availability of my inventory, emails, and fax purchase orders all from my iPhone.  Another product innovation that is in the prototype by "Otellini is Push 2 TV, adapter developed by Netgear that uses Intel's Wireless Display technology to wirelessly connect laptops with TVs so users can watch high-definition videos and other content"(http://www.macworld.com/article/145480/2010/01/otellini_ces.html).  This new device will also help movie and some music videos from being pirated off the internet because the Push 2 TV adapter has a chip installed to protect from copyright infringement on some of the discs that the entertainment industry has in place (http://www.macworld.com/article/145480/2010/01/otellini_ces.html).  I have a online subscription to the "Washington Post Newspaper" online in which enables me to find out more political information than CNN can provide me with on cable television.  I believe that the internet has really helped save most of the large newspapers outlets, but unfortunately, not the small home-town newspapers.  Consumers all over the world with the use of the technology with Digital Convergence can use one device to conduct what ever behavioral activities they chose to do; and this helps all niches of online and offline organizational entities (Red Cross, Unicef, Borders Books, Amazon.com, and even online college education), to help all economies of the globe to connect to each other and this is part of the horizontal line of the "Long Tail," of democracy.

Digital Convergence

Digital Convergence came about with the Internet Age of the early to mid 1990's, when people wanted faster-easier and single devices to use (such as cellphones).  Over the last twenty years more industries have been meeting this niche ("Long Tail") for e'commerce such as: telephone companies; Electronic manufactures (televisions, "xBox," computers, and handheld devices...); music and movie studios; software engineering industries like "EA Sports," for gaming, applications for personal computers and; social-networking sites. In the past year everyone in the United states had to go to digital television mandated by the FCCC, and this either led the consumer to upgrade their old television sets (analog), to buying a digital flat screen television or to purchase a digital converter box for the old analog television's to work.  The FCCC stated this would free up more space because of the demand for more cable TV channels coming online (CNN-Money).  Digital Convergence has enabled the world to be able to use single digital devices to take pictures, talk to someone on the phone, download APPS, scanning, and recieving faxes right off their cell phones, PC's, and PDA's...(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_convergence). As  a consumer I can use a computerized mobile reading pad to either read the newspapers or an online textbook for my college courses.  Apple has recently came out this past month with the "Apple iPad," which will have a huge impact on the newspaper industry and their advertisers' too, because people can use the "Apple iPad," to reach newspapers in a larger handheld device around 10" (http://www.guardian.couk/media/pda/2010/jan/28/can-apple-ipad-save-newspapers-print).

The consumer can also use the "Apple iPad" to have several articles on the tablet to review at one time (http://media/pda/2010/jan/28/can-apple-ipad-save-newspapers-print).  Another device that came out before the "Apple iPad" is the "Microsoft's Courier Digital Journal" that opens up like a small book which is the picture above this blog; and you have two viewing windows left-to-right to have better visual abilities than a single window device (http;//www.engadget.com/2010/03/05/microsofts-courier-digital-journal-exclusive-pictures...). 

Corporations can use the internet with Digital Convergence to have board or sales meetings from NYC to Tokyo, without ever having to leave their corporate locations with the use of video conferencing software.  This saves organizations' tons of money because of the costs of travel around the Earth in our global economy.

Non-Profit Organizations

Facebook is a social-networking site that a lot of non-profit organizations flock to because the costs are much lower and can reach a wider-diverse audience (Wall Street Journal).  Facebook has been experimenting to sell charity gifts to users and the money will go to 4 groups: Kiva, Project Red, The World Wild Life fund, and toms shoes.  Some social-networking sites have been the key to fundraising for disaters like the recent haiti earthquake, and recruiting other organizations to donate their manpower (Doctors Without Borders) to help the haitian people 9http://cnn.site.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Social+networks/02C+tex...).  The Red cross raised $5 million dollars for the haiti earthquake victims compared to all money donated by all charities using mobile textings in 2009 by an additional &1 million dollars more (CNN).  Red Cross uses facebook, Myspace, and especially Twitter to raise money for castrophies, like the California mountain fires in 2007 (CNN).  In addition, they have their own Red Cross blog networking sites and an online newsroom on Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube that is constantly updating the disater relief and responses, too (CNN).  This is also part of the "Long Tail" because this is a seperate niche that reaches millions of more people than otherwise would with television commercials alone.

Social Class is used on Social-Networking Sites

Anna Owens started using MySpace while she was attending college to keep in contact with old friends from high school that didn't go to college afterwards.  After Ms. Owens graduated from college she felt that she w2as too old for MySpace and quit using the social-networking site altogether (CNN).  When she turned 26 years old she started to use FaceBook and stated in her opinion that Facebook is often used by blue-collar or part-time workers and it seems to motivate them and keep their interests (CNN) In a recent research study by "Nielsen Claritas found that people in more affluent demographics are 25% more likely to be found on FaceBook, while the less affluent are 37% more likely to connect on MYSpace" (CNN).  i was really surprised that social status may determine which networking site an individual would likely participate in.  They also stated in this article that 23% of Facebook participants earn more than a $100,000 a year versus 37% of MySpace participants earned less than $50,000 a year.  Twitter and LinkedIn are even substantially higher end in the annual income scale where most users are white-collar workers that make well over $100,000 a year (CNN).  Facebook was created at Harvard University and was limited to selected college students before the site went public on the internet in September, 2006 and; Facebook is considered the ghetto of social-networking sites (CNN).  It was also found that multiracial college students that used Facebook compared to MySpace tended to make more contacts and friends that were white-affluent or upper-middle class ethnic individuals (CNN).

Job Seekers using Social-Networking Sites for Employment

Twiiter can be a best friend for both the applicant and the organizations looking for qualified candidates by using the job search engines to match potential people to companies using the software TwitJobSearch and TweetDeck(nytimes).  A man named Doug winfield used social-networking in Seattle after losing his job and broadened his horizons with the "Long Tail", by joining a Social Media Club of Seattle where he made great connections; and this led to him creating a Facebook site that had ads to reach other companies embedding keywords into his Facebook page for these businesses to advertise (http;//money.cnn.com/2010/02/26/news/economy/hired_facebook/index.htm).  This helped him to be able to get interviews after two years without a job and it only cost him a $170.00 dollars.  He stated that when he was in the social networking site in Seattle that so many of the other users resumes were so similiar to his is why he created this campaign on facebook to stand out of the crowd and he ended up landing a job in a New York based company as a vice-president  to communicate new ways to current and potential new customers. (money-cnn).

Social Newtworkers' Beware

In the United Kingdom some social-networking sites have had bullying by individuals to another site called Bebo that AOL owns and 'Microsoft's instant messaging service as hotspots for bullying to occur" (http://www.printhis.clickability.compt/cpt?action=cpt&Title=Social+Networking+sitescritici...).  A charity in the UK "Beautybulllying conducted a poll of 11-16 year olds who had been "cyberbullied", and out of the 2,094 participants 30% were found to have experienced bullying" (CNN)  Other networking sites like Facebook has created a software program called "Ceop button" from the Ceop site that gives 24 hour support in 70 languages acroos Europe and North America (CNN). 

New Bill could Keep Sex-Offenders off social Networking sites:

The state of Georgia has introduced a Bill to keep pediphiles off Facebook, MYSpace, and other sites (http://www.2.wjgf.com/jbf/news/state_regional/georgia/article/new-bill-could_keep_-sex_o...).  One pre-teen female has both a Facebook page and a Myspace page and stated that there has been a lot of request to be her friend from people in there 30's and 40's (wjbf news).  Georgia State representatives beleives the bill will allow the "Georgia Bureau of Investigation to release social-networking sites the email and user names of pediphiles of registered sex-offenders and to be able to catch the pediphiles through software installed on these network sites (wjbf news).  Please see Podcast to the left on this article

Social Networking-Sites-What are they?

Social networking is where people interact both personally, professionally, advertise their goods and services to one another.  People may belong to a social network service because they share a common interest or hobby, and give each other advice or thoughts.  One of the first social networking sites that I remeber joining was Classmates.com in 1995, to keep in touch with my old high school friends.  Many of the main social naetworking sites are Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn that are used intercontinental (http://en.wikepedia.org/wiki/social_network_service).  LinkedIn is used for a lot of business social-networking sites to attract potential customers to get feedback on a product, and for individuals and organizations to communicate about employment oppurtunities.
Twitter uses a slang word called 'Tweets" that can reach millions of people and for the unemployed to help reach organization recruiters(http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/251twitter-could-become-a-recruiters-best-friend?pa...).  In the months of december, 2009 and January 2010 Twitter has had almost 400,000 jobs posted; and this has become a vast tool for the unemployed to find another job besides other internet sites like Monster.com and carrer.job.com (bits-nytimes). 
William Fischer who is a coowner of Workdigital company made a fantastic software tool called 'TwitJobSearch" which goes through Twitter's mainframes looking for help-wanted postings (bits-nytimes).  "TwitjobSearch" is able to detect downturns in a particular job industry and will not post when requested by an individual who types that industry in the search engine (bits-nytimes).  The next new software that 'WorkDigital' has created for organizations looking for applicants is "JobDeck", and this software collects Tweets from Twitter and updates job postings on LinkedIn (bit-nytimes).  The organizations also advertise their products and services in addition to placing job listings and pay a hefty sum in some cases for their advertisements when people use search engines on these social-networking sites (bits-nytimes).

Ning:

Ning is another social-networking site that was started in 2007 and it is free.  Ning is differnt than facebook or MySpace because it is somewhat like "Creative Commons" that allows people to build their sites on "social-networking platforms based around their passions and pastimes" (http://cnn.site.printhis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Ning%3A+Thefutureof...).  The way it's similiar to "Creative Commons" is that people can share their musical talents and get a limited copyright, too.  The idea for creating Ning was websites like Craigslist and eBay, because they connected people to business (Cnn-the futere of...).  One of  the many top sites on Ning is 'this is a hiphop TMz and the other popular site is the 'Pickens' Plan" that is interested in environmental energy-alternatives like solar and wind energy (Cnn-the futureof...).  What is the difference with Ning from Facebook and Twitter is that these two social-networking sites connect an individual to another person that they are already acquainted with, or real-time news events on Twitter.  Whereas Ning is allowing people to meet new people with similiar interests (Cnn-the future of...). 

News Organizations:

Facebook and google and Twitter have been in competition for news media outlets to use their sites in order to grow their audiences even further (http://www.poynter.orgcolumn.asp/?=31&aid=168485&view=print).  Facebook in August of 2004 decided to face its competitors with the news-media outlets by "acquiring FriendFeed", real-time search engines, and allow people to place ads on their Facebook networking sites (http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=168485&view=print).  Since this article was written Facebook has made software that enables the user to have ecommerce applications to compete with PayPal and this allows people to buy right from the Facebook page without having to leave and go to PayPal (Poynter).  The news media fan pages are the NewYork Times, CNN, and other smaller newspaper outlets online (Poynter).  Facebook is still behind the times by 7 years compare to where Google is today; but without Facebook or a Google site if you aren't there than the individual may miss a huge audience and exposure to other social-networkers' (Poynter).

BBC News Organization:

According to BBC service director Peter Horrocks states that social networking sites is a very efficient way of getting journalism across the internet in just seconds and reaches a much wider audience.  He also atates that it has helped the BBC to cover news from isolated, hostile, or treacherous parts of the world by using mobile phones and gives real-time news coverage of events like Iran (www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/feb/10/peter-horrocks-social-media/print).  Horrocks also states that early on in the movement of social-netorking sites was how to get the journalistic qualities on the internet in the same principles of live reporting on the television and now the BBC sees that it shouldn't be that much harder to report on the internet (guardian).

Marketing on Social-Networking Sites:

Facebook has 300 million users and is a great niche for the Long Tail of e-commerce to sell a lot of different products to purchase but couldn't readily find it (www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/business/smallbusiness/12guide.html?_r=3&pagewan...).  Starbucks coffee franchise utilizes Facebook to reach an audience, Ticketmaster, and amazon.com, too; and thus this can enable another link to their websites (CNN).  Not only is Facebook being used for social-networking peer-to-peer or business to peer; but, an introduction to the arts, and allowing scientists to discuss research and findings from data more readily (CNN).

Law Schools are trying to reform copyright laws

A young man from Boston University doctoral student was sued for downloading music from the internet and was fined $22,500 for each track x 30 tracks = $675,000.00; and this to me isn't fair to single out one person out of a generation of people his age across the entire world!  If the entertainment industry wants to protect the copyrights of artists'; then they need to have legislation passed in the World Court to go after the website companies instead (of the younger generation)!  The R.I.A.A or Recording Industry Association is who filed suit against this young man in 2007, and they seem to be targeting college students for suit (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/business/global/02iht-riedmedia.html?amp=&pageswanted+print).  In 1999 the Copyright Act of 1976 was changed to make internet downloaders' that take songs or movies or any other intellectual property (especially songs to $150,000.00 per song); and how can the youth be able to afford this amount when they can buy an entire CD or DVD for under $20.00!  They are still obligated to pay their student loans when they graduate and on top of that, they have to pay these ridiculous amounts?

Another new idea has emerged, and educators like this new concept by allowing students to download their textboks from online stores because of the cost of the books from the universities; which can be around $1,000 to $1,200 a year (http://cnnmoney.printhis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Cut+school+costs%3A+Download+your+textbooks+-+Dec...).  Professors also like that they can put lectures on "IPhones" and can also modify the textbooks in the pdf format to their likening(CNN-Money).  Textbooks on average costs are increasing from 6% to 8% annually (CNN-Money).  Now students can go to "Flat World Knowledge" and "Course Smart" to purchase some textbooks in digital format (CNN-Money).  Some 2000 faculty members from over 500 universities signed a petition to have more affordable textbooks online and its time, because it is the 21st century!

Creative Commons has revolutionized the web not only in music but education, too.  Creative Commons is also helping to expand sharing in the Middle East (Jordan in Nov, 2009), with Al Jazeera Network for blogs and other distribution media sharing (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/esther-wojcicki/creative-commons-in2009_b_366548.html).  Stores are also using Creative commons license to promote their goods and services like "Nike and Best Buy"(huffingtonpost).  Creative Commons is taking off and there is no stopping it; and maybe that would be a solution for the music and movie industries to go with Creative Commons under their protected copyright license, instead of spending millions of dollars targeting college-age people!

Josh Woodward Part II of Assignment #3

This is a picture of the early pioneer of "Creative Commons"; and was taken in 2007 (www.wikipedia.org/joshwoodward)




Josh Woodward is from Findlay, Ohio and was tired of all the comotion of Napster; because of the downloading of artists' songs for free and the lawsuits that followed.  He is a singer and a songwriter and decided to fight back and placed a 150 of his original songs on his website for people to download for free and to encourage them to buy CD's through "Snickers Records"(http://www.joshwoodward.com/).  As a result of this briliant idea to allow people to download his music for free, it has led to "Creative Commons" to have millions of downloads a day.  The internet for freelancers or creative people using "Creative Commons" gives them the ability to showcase their talent or lack of to a niche audience.  As for Josh Woodward, he has had over a million downloads of his music and noteriety, too.

What is Creative Commons and what or whom does it help or hurt?

Creative Commons is a website that allows people (amateurs) to place their talent online under a license (one-for-all), for people to download the artists' works for free.  Some artists' can also have their works published under "Creative Commons" with some copyright protection.

A man name Allan Vilhan did just that; he joined "Megatune.com (an internet music distributor) that places an "all rights reserved" copyright language, with additional protection licenses reserved under "Creative Commons"(http://money.cnn.com/magazine/business2_archive/2004/05/01/368240/index.htm).
Allan Vilhan was able to make a small profit from a programmer that downloaded 2 versions of his two tracks, and was paid $450.00 to license them for music on a videogame (CNN-Money).  In addition, a design firm used Vilham's songs for a Flash presentation and paid him $370.00 (CNN-Money).  According to CNN, 'Megatune founder John Buckman has grossed in just two years-from 2003-2005, $180,000 for 126 musicians.  Plus, the free downloads gives these artists' exposure that they would not otherwise have and which may lead to commercial demand; where the real money is (CNN-Money).

This is just on example of how an artist can utilize "Creative Common" with a license or limited copyright protection.  But, there are artists' out there like "Pink Floyd", "ACDC", 'Jimi Hendrix", and movies blockbusters the "Titantic", that are under the Copyright Act of 1976 and are protected from internet free-downloading (CNN-Money).  I believe that these artists' should not have their creative works stolen from them whether or not it's a societal new phenomenum or not.  If artists choose to place their works under "Creative Commons" or any other free access site; then that's their business!  But, I feel personally that piratcy isn't a moral right, and therefore anyone who steals creativity from someone else should pay legally!