Final Blog!

Well, this is it, the final blog. I had a blast exploring all the different social media aspects on the internet and learning a lot of new things. Lets see... we covered Blogger, Wikispaces, Facebook, Twitter, RSS, Podcasts, YouTube, and Flickr. In my opinion, Facebook and Twitter seem like the same thing, only Facebook seems more structured and social. YouTube, and Flickr seemed to be connected as well; both allow displays of pictures and videos for friends and other users to view and comment on. YouTube and Podcasts are similar as well as they both display videos and audio files. Wikispaces was kind of its own category, and I'm not really sure about it. It just seemed like a place for people to up information they found somewhere else.... Blogger was a great experience, because I got to talk about whatever I wanted and comment on other people's blogs as well and share my opinions. RSS was a great site because it allowed me access to all of the other sites we were using in this class (Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Wikispaces, Podcasts, etc).
I think that RSS may be the most important and most helpful in my college/business career. It allows access to nearly every other social media outlet that people worldwide use and could be very helpful for keeping in touch with school work in groups or working on a business project in the future.
I think this class was taught perfectly (I really do think that, not trying to get brownie points! =)). I think the powerpoint slides my teacher made were very descriptive and helpful, maybe a bit confusing, but help was given by both her and my fellow classmates when needed. I really enjoyed this class and will probably continue to explore with a few of these sites that we were introduced to =).
So long, folks!

YouTube & Flickr

Finally, something simple! =)

For class this week we are to post a video from YouTube that we like, and explain why. I chose this music video Firework by Katy Perry. Not only do I love the long, but I think the video is very fitting for the lyrics. She shows different scenarios of people who are insecure or maybe considered insignificant. As the video progresses, she shows them breaking free of their insignificance or insecurity. I think this is very meaningful and important for everyone. I just want to say that my favorite parts are the girl finally jumping into the pool and the man in the club finally walking up and kissing the other man. These are both very important issues for me because I think that even someone who is overweight should be able to enjoy a pool party and that there is nothing wrong with gay men.

The first ten comments were rather interesting. Some were updated as I was listening to the music and starting to write this blog post:

1. "I love this video".

2. "definitivamente 33340 personas no tienen oidos o tienen mal gusto por q esta cancion es genial!!!!!!!!!!!!!1" (Not sure what that means...)

3. "I cant' believe you're married to Russel Brand".

4. "Es Budapest?" (Again, what does that mean?)

5, 6, 7, and 8 were all spam posts....

9. "How can you feel like a plastic bag?"

10. "feeling empty, feeling like someone has used you and you're not worth anything... I know the feeling and I love this song, I wish she'd wrote that 5 years ago..."

The only comment here that had any sort of meaning to it was the last one, and I can completely understand what that person is thinking. Their point of view is not different from mine in any way, and I think that a lot of people around the world can relate to this at one point or another.

I don't really like this picture, but I found a similar one to it on Flickr... I was not able to save that or get a link for the picture, so I'm making due with one of the same idea: "All Animals Have the Same Parts". The picture on Flickr was not a model, but a woman at a PETA protest on the street, sitting down with these similar markings on her body (chuck, rib, loin). There were only 3 comments on this picture:

1. "Except only fish have airbladders".

2. "I believe animals should have rights just has humans do...."

3. "They're more modest, wear hair instead of bra."

The first comment made me laugh, just a bit of humor to go against the picture. The next one was more meaningful towards the picture and made more sense to what the image was trying to convey. The third one was interesting and I'm not really sure what to make of that.... 0.o

Anywho.... Flickr and YouTube, in my opinion, are fun =). I already had a YouTube account with plenty of videos and playlists, but I never really went into Flickr. It is essentially YouTube, except YouTube is only videos whereas Flickr is both videos and pictures. I think both are great ways to just browse through videos and pictures to relax or do some research for a class and can be very valuable to people for connecting with others around the world.

Podcasts.

This was without a doubt, the most complicated thing we've had to do yet, as Bistra promised. I was able to download Audacity fine and messed around with the audio files a bit, but I wasn't able to download the LAME portion.... it was asking me to put in a password in order to install it... I don't have a password for my laptop.... Also, the steps for adding the audio file greatly confused me. There was so much information, I was barely able to follow it all. Then I was reading more complication on Facebook from fellow classmates about getting the audio files to work, and sure enough, when I went to one of their blogs, their video file did not play.....
On another note, I have no idea how to find podcasts or audio/video files for my wiki regarding my organization, or any other audio/video files.
I personally do not care for this audio podcasting thing. I myself feel awkward talking into a computer for someone else to hear later (I generally do not leave voicemails on phones, either). In regards to others, I would much rather read a blog than listen to it. While I'm reading, I find I can much more focused on what the person has to say. While listening to someone, I find it is much easier for me to get distracted on something else happening around me. With this in mind, I don't think that audio podcasts would help me with my education, and I don't really want to involve them in my education beyond this course.
Bottom line is, I'm more of a reading person so this week was really difficult, and just left me very, very confused... while trying hard to get completely frustrated.... hopefully next week will get better.... I will try to add a audio file later on today to this blog, but I can't make any promises....

RSS

Setting up my Google Reader this week was pretty simple. Finding subscriptions was easier than I thought it would be, just typing in a key word of what I was looking for, then going through the list to find what I wanted. When I want to subscribe to something, I think the thing I look at is how many subscribers it already has. That way, I know that it is popular and most likely a credible source of information.
Google Reader made it very easy for me to view all of my classmates' blogs very quickly, and gave me updates on them as well. I have not yet figured out how to subscribe to my other classmates, and only two people have been able to follow/subscribe to me so far (Bistra and Cara).
I do not have any custom made links on my Google Reader profile page, but I do have a link for my shared items. My shared items in Google Reader
Maybe that will help for other classmates to follow me on Google Reader =).
As far as my organization goes, I found tons and tons of articles posted about different animal abuse cases, with new ones being posted daily. Most of them were merely blogs that other users have posted in relation to these events, and some of the events listed were very disturbing so it was very hard to read. On the bright side, their articles and blogs are very easy to find.
I think once I get the hang of following people on Google Reader, it will be easier to keep track of blogs and wikis and the other social media aspects that we are using. So far it is a bit confusing, but Google Reader seems like it has potential to make it much easier since you have access to other sites.

Twitter.

A little late in the week for me to be starting my Twitter account, but this week has been pretty busy on many levels. Unfortunately, now I am struggling with my Twitter account and having a tough time adjusting to it. Thanks to the Blackboard discussion, I was able to put up a link on my Wiki for my Twitter page, and I was able to arrange my Twitter page to my liking, but I cannot figure out how to link Facebook or my Blog, or link my Twitter to any of those. I'm not really sure what else to do for my Twitter; I've never used it before, and I'm a little hesitant about it, but I'll have to get over that to succeed in the course I'm taking (which requires we use it). Does anyone else from my class think they could help me out?

Wikispaces.

A few days ago I signed up for my Wikispaces page, and started the wiki page for my group's organization. The process was a little confusion because it was my first time exploring the wiki aspect of the media. Once I got the hang of it, I rather enjoyed setting it up.
I decided that the first page of our wiki will be a basic introduction to the organization where we have some information on their history, what they do, and some major people that run it. In further weeks we will have more pages that will expand on these and other topics.
Settings are set so that anyone can view it, but only members will be able to edit and change the information (The only members will be Nick and Cara, my partners, as well as Bistra).
Researching our organization was fairly simply as they have their own website packed with information on various topics and things they have accomplished. I don't think it will be too difficult to find the information we need for our wiki, and I look forward to finding out more about this organization.
If you'd like to view what we have so far, here is a link for our wiki (hopefully it works!).
http://petasaw2.wikispaces.com/

My First Blog.

This is the first blog I have ever written and is an entirely new experience for me. First off, my name is Deanna. I am from Massachusetts and go to school here at UNE and am majoring in Marine Biology. I am fascinated by the creatures in the ocean that we know about, as well as the ones we do not know about (which happens to be a greater amount than the ones we have discovered).
I am taking this course in order to complete an SGA requirement, but also to learn more about different social aspect through the media that I have not experienced before. I expect that through this course I will learn a lot about blogging, video blogging, podcasting, and more. Setting up the blog seemed very similar to Myspace or Facebook, and was not terribly difficult for me. I enjoyed being able choose a particular layout and changing the fonts and colors to my liking. I think that learning about all these different aspects of social media will help me in the real world in the future for any professional job and may help to receive insight to my work from others in the same field.
My privacy settings have been set so that only registered users may comment on my blog posts, and those users will also have to enter a word verification, so I will not receive any spam comments.
I chose the layout for my blog according to my interests. The background is splatter paint, which I have found very enjoyable both to create and to observe. The colors of the rest of the blog were chosen to match and blend with the colors in the background.
I am very curious if and what others have to say about my first blog, and I look forward to reading those comments, as well as reading others' blogs, once I am able to access them.
Thanks for reading,
Deanna