Social networks

Social networks become more and more important these days and I just wonder why these networks have such a power! Personally I only use studivz.de and mostly for being in touch with people from University. It is an easy way to organize meetings or to share things about the same classes. For me it fulfills the function of a student network in a good way. Of course sometimes I use it for other things, too, for example looking at my friend's photos but this is just a side effect.
I do not like to write messages with people that I have not seen for long time (some people from school for example), it is basically just stupid small talk like "what are you up to, how is University..." and after writing one or two messages we never talk again. For me this is useless and kinda a waste of time. However, there are some other good social networks, too. Especially when it comes to school/student networks or business networks. Basically networks that help communicate with people that share the same interests.
Social networks can be dangerous though if people have wrong identities and try to betray that way. You never know who the person at the other side of the computer is and if that person is talking to you honestly. I am actually a careful person and I never tell much about myself. Still, I do not think that it is easy to live without social networks these days, especially for young people. there are so many information going around over these networks and it really helps us in our everyday life. And if you do not participate you are
The first social networks on the internet started in 1985 which means that these networks are not ideas of recent years. Twitter http://twitter.com/ is one of the recent ones and combines a lot of functions in one "tool". It becomes really popular these days. I found a nice article that tells about how twitter is used in Iran. http://diepresse.com/home/politik/aussenpolitik/487599/index.do?direct=486568&_vl_backlink=/home/politik/aussenpolitik/index.do&selChannel
It is amazing that it is possible to follow the actions that happen right now. you get even more the feeling that you are "live" at places where something happens. You get the latest news every minute.
It is sad that not all people in the world access to the internet. The ones without are kinda excluded from the world because they do not know what is happening, especially if countries block websites for the people.
The internet and with it the social networks create a really great community where people from all over the world share information. The world becomes more interconnected because of that.

Election in the USA

Today when we talked about the election system in the states and I noticed that I never knew much about it. It is a really complex system and I do not think that a lot of people in the states know how it really works. In the US the presidential candidate with the most votes wins the election. It is already enough if he has a few more votes than the other candidate. this is a big difference to other election systems like the one we have in Germany. There the candidate needs a total majority, which means that at least 51% of the votes have to be for one candidate. If that does not happen in first round there is a second round in which the two candidates with the most votes compete against each other and finally the one with the total majority wins.

An important thing in the states are the caucuses. I found a definition on the internet: " a closed meeting of a group of persons belonging to the same political party or faction usually to select candidates or to decide on policy" I actually never heard about that before I read the book by Joe Trippi "The Revolution will not be televised" http://www.amazon.de/Revolution-Will-Not-Televised-Everything/dp/006156107X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books-intl-de&qid=1245161134&sr=8-1 This book really explains a lot about the election system especially what happens behind the scenes. I really enjoyed reading it.

However, coming back to the system. I actually did not find a really good link that explains the system... but I found a funny video on youtube that explains the system :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkqEdlRDKfo

I wonder how many people in the states do actually know how the system works. It is funny that people vote for the candidate they want to be president on their ballot paper but actually the votes come from the electors and not from the people directly. For me that does not sound like democracy...

well, if I have time someday maybe I will read more about it :-)

Something funny at the end!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB5YzlcAHt0&feature=PlayList&p=5CD673C0B0D48412&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=39

History becomes alive on the internet

I am going to write a thesis paper at the end of the course and it will be about John F. Kennedy and Obama. I want to compare them by looking at their campaigns and how they used the media for it. When Kennedy ran for presidency in 1960 the "new" medium TV was used for the first time in a campaign. Therefore the first presidential debate was held on TV which was a really great thing back then.
By researching about Kennedy on the internet ( I have to say that I did not know much about him before) I really found some interesting stuff and I spent hours reading articles about Kennedy also in comparison with Obama. The internet makes it possible to get so many information about a topic... However, the best thing I explored where videos on youtube. I actually did not spend that much time on that site before so it was really exciting for me to see how many videos there were especially the old ones. I watched speeches by Kennedy, the tv debate and also how he was shot. It was so interesting to see these old things from about 1960 on the internet. It felt like getting a real insight into that history. That way it is even fascinating to learn something about "boring history". I really like that kind of studying more than reading old history books. On the internet history becomes alive and if people would spend more time watching serious stuff on youtube they could know alot of things. Especially when it comes to politics it is a really good source, you always have the latest news on youtube and you can catch up to what happens in the world right now. There is even an own youtube site for people interested in politics http://www.youtubepolitics.org/ lots of great stuff.
If you need information for University stuff from the internet you should consult youtube, there are probably the best information.

That is just "Delicious"

I was preparing a handout about a new media tool called "delicious" http://delicious.com/. I never heard about that before and it is was really interesting to find out what the tool is about. With delicious you can bookmark websites and you can see those from every computer by just logging in to that website. Therefore it is really comfortable especially if you find exciting websites on the internet and you have not enough time to read everything, delicious will memorize that for you and you can read it later where ever you are at that moment. And if you are at a public computer you can still save your favorite websites.
I personally do not use these bookmarking services yet because I am only working with my own laptop and therefore I can bookmark on the computer which is easier for me because I cannot remember so many passwords :-) anyways, I still like the idea of delicious to share bookmarks. Especially for students that service is great to exchange interesting websites. That way it is more easy to prepare work for classes at University and to always have one's favorite websites together on one website.
Another additional service is that popular websites will be shown on delicious, too. That way you can discover new interesting things that you would not have found otherwise.

Maybe I am going to use these services from now one. I kinda convinced myself by writing this blog entry :-) If you are interested in services for bookmarking then you should consult this website http://social.front.lv/ to see what kind of bookmarking services are provided on the internet and which one you would like to use. Those tools are especially useful for bloggers :-) At least the website says so. In my eyes it is nice to have many tools together. That way you can look at all of them and decide which one you like the most or which one is the most useful website for your needs. It is kinda weird that so many services for bookmarking exist because they mostly have the same tools... anyways, it seems like they become more popular these days...
I would really advise you to check out some of these tools, maybe this is what you really need... :-)

new media and old media - we need both

I think it is really interesting to see how many new media tools there are. I found a website which shows some new tools I have never heard before (and I know many from class already)
http://www.masternewmedia.org/new_media/new_media_tools/best_new_media_tools_of_the_week_20061217.htm
It is crazy what kind of tools we have these days but I personally think that it is already too much. People spend so much time on the internet and with new media tools that real relationships become less intensive. In my eyes it is a dangerous development if people rather be on the internet talking with people they have met there instead of having relationships in the real world. To find out more about new tools check out these blogs.
http://en.wordpress.com/tag/new-media-tools/
I am really curious what the future has to offer. I cannot imagine what else will be offered to us, seems like the internet is growing so fast that we cannot even follow all the developments.

Although I actually prefer "old media" in most cases I have to say that the new media tools are useful, too. It is amazing how much we can learn from all the information on the internet and I think people will become smarter in the future because there is such an easy access to information. For example, the voting for the European Parliament is coming up and a lot of information are conveyed over the internet and that really helps people to be informed about the parties even if they do not read newspapers or watch news on television.

As a conclusion I would say that the new media tools can be really helpful but we should not rely on them all the time and still experience the "real world".

How could people have lived without the internet??

The internet is just an amazing inventions. Today on my way home from University I was just thinking about all the stuff I still have to do this week and most of them have to do with the internet. It is kinda freaky how much we depend on that thing and no one in my age could imagine to live without the internet.
It is not even possible to be a student at the University without the internet. For me the internet is not that important when it comes to social contacts and networks but I really enjoy all the information on the internet. If I think about what I use the internet for it is a long list. I go shopping on the internet, make reservations for a restaurant, apply for a job, find information about whatever I want to, I can watch TV and so many things more.
I think we are so lucky to live in that communication society. I personally cannot imagine to live without the internet and I cannot believe how, for example, my parents used to live without that technology...
I even have a class now where we talk most of time about the internet...
Look at these websites. I found them at random... http://www.endoftheinternet.com
/http://www.shibumi.org/eoti.htm
I think it is kinda funny to think about the end of internet, for me the internet is some endless thing that has no end and no beginning...
here are some more of those weird pages.... http://www.internetfirstpage.com/
http://www.kygallery.com/first.html
ok, if there is a last page of the internet, why are there different ones??
As a result of all that stuff I just think that too many people spend too much time on the internet with useless stuff...

Google: danger?

Last semester I was taking an economics class and I had to read a text about google. It was called "Dangers posed by Google" and it was really shocking what kind of information Hermann Maurer offered in that text.
I tried to find some information on Google about him and his book from which the text was taken. Of course there were not as many information as I found on ask.com :-)
In my eyes it is important to consider the bad sides of new media, too. We enjoy all the new media services and leave a lot of information about ourselves everywhere in the internet, so that a lot of people know things about us. It could be dangerous if people misuse our information. We should think about what we want other people to know about us and we should not surf revealing too much about us.
here are really two good links
http://www.millionface.com/l/privacy-concerns-about-google-analytics/
http://tihane.wordpress.com/2007/09/20/herman-maurer-keynote-at-ectel07/ .
I hope you enjoyed the texts and maybe you try to be more carefully while being on the internet.