Reflective post on the class

Honestly, I took this class because it was required. I've been a bit resistant to the increase of technology in our everyday world, and the point of this class is to embrace the technology. Right from the start, I could tell this class would be difficult for me. I kind of slacked off on the blog posts, procrastinating till the last minute to do all of them (sorry Dr. Melton), but I genuinely wanted to help with the ICRH as much as I possibly could. The fact that I could use this class to actually help people really meant alot to me. It forced me to be more open to the possibilities that social media could present us with. When we first launched the ICRH facebook page, I would have bet my life savings that there wouldn't be half as many "likes" of the page that there already are. But now, there are people posting on the page from New York and even different continents saying how inspirational it is for Isabella county to be running this program for the community. I really feel like I'm going to be able to take something away from this class. Its a different feeling than what I get from other classes when all I do is get a good grade. Regardless of what my grade ends up being in this class, I'm proud to say that I had the opportunity to help people who really need it, and with any luck ICRH will be a model for other communities to do the same type of charity work.

ICRH reflective post

Our group was assigned to help Isabella County Restoration Housing get on its feet with setting up their social media strategy as well as some advise as to how to help start the organization in general. When the semester started, ICRH was just an idea, and now it is an actual thing with 1000+ likes on facebook and countless people posting saying how great of a project it is. I really feel proud to have been part of helping ICRH start. To be modest, I know that the part that our group did wasn't the biggest part moving in the whole project, but it still feels good to have helped out even a little bit. I really hope that the ICRH will be able to help alot of people out this winter, and future winters. And I plan on volunteering to help out, as should you!

Prezi podcast

Heres the link to my Prezi podcast. I did it on the effect of social media in the Food Industry. Hopefully y'all find it interesting and learn something from it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azfJi1Y3IdI&feature=youtu.be

Social media usage log

I did this over thanksgiving break while I was in Las Vegas

I chose to do it at this time because I really wanted to focus on spending time with my family instead of being on Facebook, or on my phone in general. This log took place on Thanksgiving Day:

·         8:00 a.m.-            Checked my Facebook page when I woke up (unfortunately, that’s part of my morning routine)

·        

           10:30 a.m.-          Went on Facebook to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving, and I also had to brag about the lions winning

·        

            3 p.m.-                  After my last post on Facebook, I left my phone in my room to charge. When we were about to eat our dinner I brought it back out to take a picture and post it on my page

·         \

            6 p.m.-                  Complained on my Facebook page because A Christmas Story wasn’t on t.v.

·         

           9 p.m.-                  Checked my Facebook page to see posts about Black Friday. Since I was in Las Vegas, I was 3 hours behind everyone in Michigan. I was curious to see how everyone was holding up back home.

·       

          10 p.m-                 Checked my phone one last time before I put it away for the night and played board games with my family.

This was far less than what I normally do on a normal day, I think. The only social media site I really ever use is Facebook as well, so I can only check that so many times in a day before I get bored of it. I’m glad I chose to do this on Thanksgiving Day, it made me conscious of how I was spending my time. I rarely get to see all of my family together, and I would rather spend the day with them than on my phone.

LinkedIn Presentation

I did my in class presentation on Linked In. The reason I chose that program is because I didn't really know too much about it, but alot of my professors and other professionals I know told me many times how important it was to have one. I really learned alot while doing research for the project and I still keep my page up to date. I think it'll be a very valuable tool for finding a job once I (finally) graduate. I hope that other people in the class learned a few things as well because I'm sure they will find it a useful tool if they made an account as well

the social organization ch 9

Honestly, I thought this chapter was kindof boring and pretty self explanatory. The main point the author was trying to get across was to continue shepherding the community along throughout the entire process and not just let it lead itself. One tip that i did find interesting is to create social circles within a community when you feel the community is becoming stagnant and is no longer moving towards its goals. This is a practical resolution simply because it gets people to start talking again. Conversation leads to ideas which leads to action.

Who owns the future ch 4

This chapter starts off with the question of "Are Middle Classes Natural?" He goes on in the chapter to talk about different types of wealth distribution as well as pros and cons of Marxist type theories.
I'm not going to talk much about what Lanier had to say in the chapter, though. Instead, I am going to try to make the point that the middle class is not "natural" nor is upper, lower, or anything else in between. I think that what is "natural" for humans is to live in order to survive. In other words in nature, there is no economy. There are no jobs. There is no "money". All there is a "natural" world are people who eat, sleep, and procreate.

Now, as far as a middle class being "natural" in a capitalistic economy, I would also have to say no. The whole point of capitalism is to get rich, essentially. In a truly capitalistic economy, there would be no middle class. The economy in the U.S. is leaning towards this end of the spectrum, as we see the middle class dwindling every year. More and more people are living in poverty, and in return, a few people make a lot of money off of them.

Sometimes, I wish people were all just Aborigines still and all we did was eat and sleep. Those were the days.

chapter 3 of who owns the future

I think its interesting how Lanier draws the comparative of early "money" being another way to store information. It was more of an accounting system than an economy. Now, our economic system is set up where "money" holds a concrete value instead of just being a representation of something else. One result of the newer money system is; we have no idea where the money comes from anymore. For most people, this is a good thing. If we were to know where every single dollar came from, people would be arguing left and right. But, this is also a bad thing. The fact that money is harder to trace makes it easier for people to give into temptations and corruptions, ultimately leading into disasters like the Great Recession.

ch 7 and 8 of the social organization

One thing I pulled away from chapters 7 and 8 is the need to have a plan in place before taking action. I can apply this directly with the ICRH project. When the project was just starting it seemed like it was un organized and it was difficult to find the right direction to work in. Eventually we took a step back and applied the steps of: 1) exploring and defining the participant experience, 2) creating the right environment, then 3) engaging the community. After our group got re organized, it became far easier to do the project

Ch 2 of who owns the future

Lanier makes a point to further delve into the idea of people contributing infor to an econonmy because they will be paid for information. I think that's an interesting idea, mostly because it is very different than what it's like today. If people got paid to release information, I feel that people would be coming out with much more useful technology everyday. While reading this chapter, i appreciated how Lanier stepped back a bit and tried to view this from an objective standpoint instead of letting his biased get in the way. I agree with Lanier when he says that even though machines may one day be capable of running themselves, they still use "human thoughts" to function fully. I interpreted that as in Lanier saying "sure, eventually robots could be fully autonomous, but even if they were, they would be programmed to think like other humans". I guess this makes the thought of a robot revolution in the future a bit less terrifying.

Ch 5 & 6 for the social organization

One important thing that I pulled from this chapter is to not try to do too many things at once. The book gave the example of the Christian based site, where users didn't know if it was used to find dates or to talk about religion. When you launch more than one social media platform at the same time, it creates confusion for possible customers and creates an almost unmanageable mess for the person trying to run the pages. A quote that I found in the reading that I thought was really interesting was "every successful complex system starts off as a successful simple system." That quote just reiterates the importance of starting of small and organized, instead of rushing into something unprepared. I really thought it was interesting to see how many ways you can use a purpose road map and the variety of areas that it can help with

Meshy Business

I think that my organization follows the similar traits of a "meshy" business.

Pm360online.com says that a mesh business has these four characteristics:

• The core offering can be shared within a community, market, or value chain—including products, services, and raw materials.
• Advanced web and mobile data networks track and aggregate data on usage, customers and products.
• The focus is on sharable physical goods, including the materials used, which makes local delivery of services and products—and their recovery —valuable and relevant.
• Offers, news and recommendations are transmitted through word of mouth, augmented by social network services.

Essentially, mesh businesses are businesses that cut out the un-necesary parts. An example the site gave was zipcar, which is a car rental service. It allows customers to pay a monthly fee to use a car only when they need it, instead of owning their own. My idea of a mesh business would be a food truck. They cut out the unnecessary parts of a restaurant which usually ends up costing the customer more in the end. Food trucks are perfect for large cities, especially those which are growing at a high rate such as Austin. The amount of people that are on the streets walking around daily is perfect for the convenience of a food truck. The reason I think my organization can be considered a mesh business, is because they were one for years before they transferred to a brick and mortar store.

social organization ch 3 and 4

Again, my organizations social media use is extremely informal. The majority of the posts are made by the owner, Ralph, and a few other crew members will make a post when Ralph is unavailable. Even though they are informal with the way they use their facebook page, it is surprisingly effective. Their page has about 1,500 likes and almost every post on the page has multiple likes and comments.
One of their more recent posts read; "you all should follow your dreams like i did open a place that people would talk about and would love to eat at so i named it turf n surf poboy started as a trailer then ran out of land down town so look at us now we at lavaca street bar cooking it up so come out this week end and let us cook it up great drinks and some great football love you." That post got 33 likes, 5 shares, and 5 comments. This just goes to show that even though they use social media in a much more relaxed way, they are still getting their message across and are reaching the potential customers.

Mass collaboration and my organization

Honestly, my organization doesn't really have the need for mass collaboration. It is just one single restaurant and that's it. They don't have much pull in a community where there are literally thousands of other restaurants just like them. What they use facebook and social media for, more than anything, is to promote their business. People enjoy reading Ralph's weird and quirky posts he makes and it gets people talking about the business. I don't feel this organization would be ready to make any type of mass collaborative effort because they are simply unprepared for such an endeavor.

Who owns the future ch 1 response

I think its interesting to picture a world where most productivity will be software mediated such as Lanier suggests. He states that technology could provide the opportunity for people to not worry about money, food, retirement, etc. but probably wont be used for those things. Instead, better technology is just leading to a higher unemployment rate and a socialist backlash.
I do think its interesting when he says we're moving toward an economy that's based on selling information, which will ultimately strengthen the middle class. This would obviously be much different than the market today which is based on buying and selling goods and services. I tend to agree with Lanier in saying that the way we are organizing the world around digital networks is unsustainable and there are better ways to solve our problems.

My organization

The organization that I am going to be writing about is a company that I did an internship with over the summer called Turf N Surf. The company is in Austin Texas. It used to be a food truck for a few years then it later became a brick and mortar store. One day, I want to do something similar to that. I would like to open a restaurant or food truck and Austin would be the perfect place to do it.
Their approach to social media is extremely relaxed. The owner, Ralph, handles most of the Facebook posts. He has horrible grammar and sometimes isn't exactly politically correct, but people still love to read what he has to say.

Schmidt and Cohen vs. Lanier

It seems to me like Lanier likes technology and what it can provide for society, but he is also skeptical because he is aware of problems that may arise from technology overload. Things such as "Lock- In", where people don't stray away from the norm, causing an era of stagnant growth in our economy and civilization as a whole.

Schmidt and Cohen wholeheartedly embrace the opportunities that technology presents. They are committed to the idea that technology will benefit everyone in the future, no matter what their socioeconomic situation may be. Although I truly hope this is the case, I tend to have a little skepticism as well.

If I had to choose who I agree with more, I would have to say I prefer Lanier's view. There are a tremendous amount of things that technology can make possible in the future. Both good and bad things, unfortunately. The one point that I really agree with is the fact that its fragmenting our society. It's hard to hold a conversation with anyone without them checking their phone or tweeting ever 45 seconds. Hopefully, people learn how to balance their virtual lives and actual lives in harmony.

Schmidt and Cohen's view

The authors of The New Digital Age make an emphasis that everyone in the future will be "connected". Although everyone wont be financially equal, they will have the same opportunities to learn as everyone else. The authors feel like the impact will be most profound in developing countries. This makes sense to me. The ability to access information is vital for a civilization. The most important resource that anyone can have is intelligence. If developing countries become connected with the developed world, they will have access to information that will help them transition into a developed country themselves.
The authors also think technology will help already developed countries. Using technology will become a huge part in things such as streamlining business activities and creating new products that are unfathomable to even think of today. I think the idea of having a mental chip installed in us, while somewhat terrifying, is also kind of cool. It would be nice to have an internal backup system that made sure you're doing everything right.
In general, Schmidt and Cohen love the advancements that technology is making. They have strong supporting cases too. I personally believe that the world is moving too fast, and people are having technology take over every aspect of their lives far too hastily. Although I admit, technology opens doors of opportunity that would have never been opened otherwise, but I also see that there is a potential to do great harm if certain technology ever fell into the wrong hands

Laniers view on technology

It seems to me like Lanier believes that the anonymity that technology provides fragments communication and society as a whole. I think that he has a really good point when he said "... impersonal communication has demeaned interpersonal interaction." I see this every day. Talking with one another on an equal level is becoming a thing of the past. I cant even recall how many times I've been in a room full of people and literally everyone is on their phone or laptops.
Although he feels like there are negatives brought on, he embraces the idea that technology can be used to make the world a general better place. He makes it clear that technology in the future can do one of two things; either envelope us as a society, or become a seamless part of everyday life.