Unraveling the Mystery of Web 2.0

In my second week of blogging I had discussed quite a bit about privacy, and explained that with social media, I think there is no such thing - only an illusion of control. When reading and surfing the internet this week, I came across a TED talk that discussed two major themes that have interest me after taking my two summer classes - identity and big data.

A fellow blogger from class, Jerome, shared about live streaming in his first post and showed the commercial applications of it. This week, I was introduced to a new site called Periscope. It was the first time I was hearing about it.

In class this week, we addressed two broad categories - online communities, and the international nature of social media. This is my summary.

In my previous post, I shared how an online community has changed in terms of how interactions take place. However, the principles of an online community and a face-to-face one have not. These principles include  Longevity ,  Shared Values ,  Community Management , and  Trust . Now that we know what constitutes an online community, we can learn what some of the elements are that need to go into making one.

Before thinking about designing an online community, we must first understand what it is. How different is your understanding of online communities as compared to face-to-face ones? Is there even a difference? After some a simple search, here it was I found.

In a reading and then discussion I had this week, I explored the utility of social networking tools (SNTs) in developing countries with regard to education.

I'm pretty sure many of you have head of TED talks, and I have shared a few in my posts. However, I have now just discovered that there is TED-Ed that focuses on spreading ideas about the future of education. And in the spirit of this week's topic about instructional design for social media, I thought I shared what I found.

Today, while searching for a topic to blog about I came across an old website. For those who are "digital immigrants", or are "digital natives" (Crook, 2012) that happen to be born during the time when the field was burgeoning, can truly appreciate the development that occurred in the last two decades.

If you had asked me about 6 months ago how social media can help one learn, I would be out of my depth trying to provide a response. For me, social media was just that -- a medium to help you be social . Just looking at my interactions with friends and with social media, they were largely sharing of stories, photographs, or playing of little games. I would not have considered that learning.

As a fairly avid user and consumer of the web, I have come across many tools and sites. But I think many would agree that are just too many to try them all. Instead, we just know of  them, and that is about it. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I came across a new function within an old tool.

As this week draws to a close, I must admit that I still have no firm handle on my readings and topics of this week. Between 'Copyright' and 'Creative Commons'; and 'Folksonomy' and 'Ontology', I knew I was in for a tough time getting through the content. And unlike a happy movie, I cannot say that I came out on top.

This week, I explored a new content curation tool called 'Scoop.It!' and here is what I found...

When I was an undergraduate, while I understood what intellectual property was, the naive me could not fully appreciate why we needed it. Fast forward 10 years, and I understand the financial implications of rights ownership. And if like me, you get confused about the difference between copyright, creative commons, and how much you can use before it is considered Fair Use, this might help you.

In the last week or so, I have had several posts about privacy. There continues to exist this spectrum between thinking that privacy online should be actively pursued, and that of privacy cannot exist in a world with social media and therefore the users should be the ones that watch what they post.

I have always been interested in the propensity of social media users of sharing information. It always amazes me the type of information people share on social media, for all the world to see, that they would not share even with an acquaintance. And after this week's readings and discussions, I have gained a better understanding of the motivations why.

After signing up for LinkedIn and using it for a week, I understand why professionals are signing up and using it increasingly. The tool provides one additional avenue for which potential employers and employees are able to meet and interact. I highlighted in this post some of the elements and settings that I found to be useful.

For those that know, i just came back from a month-long trip to Europe. Just before boarding the plane in Miami, I came across some professional (or maybe some ardent hobbyists) drone videos. Impressed by it, and knowing what has been said about the views in Europe, I impulsively bought a quad-copter drone. I did not know how to fly one, how to take cinematic videos, or even how to do post-production. However, that is when I had the most recent encounter with the true "power" of the Web 2.0

In my ongoing exploration of privacy on web 2.0, I stumbled over a simple yet potentially problematic issue, and that is the ownership of anonymity. Let me explain..

This has been a week of many firsts, and also of revisiting past habits. In the span of these 6-7 days, I have already explored many tools, attempted to clarify my understanding of Web 2.0, and continue my expansion of privacy issues. And here are my reflections...

In both my previous class and this one, one topic keeps coming up; and that is the idea of privacy.  But i feel, it is no longer up for discussion...

After spending the last hour looking through the functionality of Feedly and Digg, I thought having Blog List may serve the same purpose and is more straightforward to use. Here's why I think so... The main benefit of Feedly and Digg is that they help consolidate all the posts into a single convenient portal. However, that's where I see the benefits ending. Even after an hour of looking through lines of HTML code, I am still unable to figure out how to embed Feedly or Digg onto my blog (or if is even possible). Blog list, on the other hand, may not be able to consolidate all the day's posts from all the blogs, but it does provide a live and running commentary. By adjusting your setting, you can choose how many blogs appear, and how much information from said blog you'd be able to see.

Hello Everyone! This blog was created for my Web 2.0 class. This is not the first time that I have attempted blogging, but my previous foray was more of an online journal where I would be able to express myself somewhat freely. This blog, however, would be different. I hope to hear your thoughts and feelings about Web 2.0 as I post. Also, please feel free to share your opinions and interesting videos you find about the topic. And finally, let me know what you think about the theme of my blog, and if it is easy to navigate. Till the next post, Josh, out.