The World is Flat 3.0

I found Thomas L. Friedman's presentation very interesting. He first comes out and says a little about himself and follows with the explaining of his newly released book The World is Flat 3.0. I found interesting, that in comparison to many philosophers learned about in Wireless World, Mr. Friedman's work came about by accident. While visiting India, primarily there to receive the opposing side to outsourcing, an Indian entrepreneur told him that the economic playing field is leveling and the Americans are not ready. This then played over in his mind until he opinionated that this Indian entrepreneur is was trying to tell him the world is flat.
I completely agree with Mr. Friedman when he discusses how the world shrunk using three different eras. He states that the world went from being run through Countries, then companies, and now individuals. I believe not only is the economic playing field being leveled, but the power distribution is as well. Starting with Countries, there was no idividualality and the power was minor divided. Moving on to companies, who acquired enough power to make crucial decisions, which could then impact the country. And finally the individual, who now has the resources to make these important decisions and ultimately compete on a more individual level. I also agree with Friedman's statement that this individual era came about with the introduction of PCs. PCs began the domino effect that would later result in the world being connected as countries and individuals. He also states that individuals are now uploading, rather than downloading. I believe this means rather then downloading anothers information, we are now uploading our own. This is shown in the use of Wikipedia or blogging.
During the final interesting phase of his presentation, Friedman talked about the world changing from being vertically to horizontally. The horizontally is relating to the idea that the world is flat, and he tells a story explaining the impact of this change. In his Southwest Airlines story, Friedman tells the audience the difficulty he had buying a ticket intitally (referred to as the vertical way), and later buying a tickey using using a different way (horizontal). Buy going on the Internet to buy his ticket he acquired 60 min of productivity, and he explains many companies and now individuals are connecting horizontally because the production is increased. In support of this, a man he interviewed stated he worked in the chocolate industry, however closed down because another country could make and ship the product faster and cheaper then he could make it. Having connections, horizontally, increases productivity and thus levels the economic playing field. Rater then one company being on top and controlling all, others are connecting and giving everyone equal opportunity. I truly support Friedman's last statement that the Country who will take the challenge to control power/energy and does it best and most productive, will rule the 21st Century.
From his presentation, I do not disagree with Thomas L. Friedman in any way. He uses very strong support with his opinion, and I also believe him because I see much of what he explains. We can all see it, Thomas L. Friedman simply did the hard part and put what we are seeing into words. After watching his presentation I began to think and much of what he said struck me and I realized all he said is true. As the Indian entrepreneur was trying to say, Americans are not on top anymore, nobody is. The playing field has been leveled not only economically but in power as well. With the resources and greatest advancements, everyone now has the opportunity that years ago only few had.

Exercize Number 2 Pg. 324

When I think of news, I think of information on current events. When looking or analyzing the news I am often doing so to make myself up to date. I want to know what is going on in the world, therefore I watch and read the news. I do not read/watch the news to find interpretations on a situation. I want to know news about factual information, statistics, and headline events that are taking place. Wtching the news I rarely care about others opinion and I take in the information to simply form my own. Another's opinion on a situation will rarely vary mine, however, facts and statistics can easily vary this. In other words, I will not use the news to take in other's opinions, though I may use it to form my own. In addition, I will also use the news to settle an argument. There is no better way to settle an argument than with the use of facts and statistics.
There are many specific criteria when it comes to considering reliable news. As with Wikipedia, I believe reliable news contains no opinion and is stricly factual. When news contains personal opinions, the information becomes one sided and ultimatley suspicious. When I think of suspicious informaiton I think of blogs and possibly news sites that are more uncommon. Reliable news has to source there information if it is not discovered or posted live by them. For example, Fox News on TV will hardley source thier information becuase they personally recieve it themsleves. If this does not occur, then the news should be cited by whom ever is presenting it. This will let readers know the information is true and the presenter has no problem saying where they got the information. I also believe presenting the information in an organized manner will also cause the news to seem more reliable.
Analyzing and thinking about "news" causes one to consider what it really means or is used for. As stated earlier, I think of news as information on current events. When the event becomes history, I then lable the "news" as infomation. One can also first think of the word "new", in that it means something that is not old nor in the future. This word literally means current, happening now, and is someghing that many may not know about. In turn, the word "news" causes me to relate to the same concept and think of news as information on current events. In addition to my meaning, I believe news should contain only factual information that should be cited, and organization is very key when considering reliable news.

October 20 Question #2

I think we do need to organize our work by assigning people into certain tasks or subjects. Organization in any way will always point a group effort twards succsess. Looking breifly at the day the class created a wiki, there was no organization and the information was scattered. The types of information, the amount of information in each catergory, and the amount of people writting on a specific topic was completley unknown. This happens because no organization is present in the class wiki. By organizing the class into groups such as sports, acedemics, greek life, majors, ect. the information will become more balanced and the quality of that information will also increase. Instead of having a large group of students writing about multiple topics, the wiki will now contain an organized list of topics and an in depth amount of information concerning each topic. These facts are also supported by the wiki itself. For example, when analyzing the class wiki I noticed a small amount of informaion concerning "Arabic Population," while I found more (with multiple links as well) concerning "Sports." This shows that the information is unbalanced with each topic. This can become more balnced with the organization of groups to concentraite on certain topic. I do not know which groups to organize the class into, however I stronlgy feel it needs to be done.
This group organization method is not used by Wikipedia itself, because it is impossible to organize the millions who use it into groups. One can write concerning any factual topic on Wikipedia, which gives the encyclopedia it diversity. This method is fine, if the wiki is controlled by such an enormous amount of people. In our case, with only twenty or so people, I believe the class needs some form of organization.
The range of information found on a wikipedia will always be very wide. Though in a small group such as ours, the information will not only be widely ranged, it will also be very short. This can change with organization to the group. As stated earlier, the organization will cause a more professional wiki and the informaiton within each topic will increase because more individuals will be concentrated on the same topic.

Ad Questions #1,2

1. The message in my ad is to show smokers how dumb they are for smoking. I used a photo of a camel drinking out of a toilet and beside this is a box of Camel cigarettes. Within the ad is a fact stating that smoking can cause damage to the brain. This fact is appropriate because the camel appears to have damage to his brain by drinking out of the toilet. The strategy I used to create my ad is looking at other smoking parodies and try to create one similar to those. All smoking parodies are basically making fun of a slogan or smokers themselves. In this ad I do both, with the camel and the toilet, and using one of Camel's slogans, "Smooth Character," to represent the camel. My parody pokes fun at both the slogan and smokers in general. I knew this would be effective because I found the picture to be extremely funny. Bottom line parodies are mostly funny, therefore if I think my parody is I also think it will be effective. Also, it contains a truthful fact to truly inform smokers how bad their addiction is,which will also make it more effective. When I moved from my concept to my design, problems arose such as, which slogan to use, which fact to use, how to visually lay it out, and which colors to use. By trying all my ideas and comparing them I was able to chose the best ones.

2. Working on this ad allowed me to learn about advertising as a form of public communication. Ads, or in this case parodies as well, are viewed by many individuals. This also means the message portrayed in the ad is spread to all the viewers. This makes advertising as a form of public communication very important. One has to strictly follow all the guidelines provided in "Text Messaging" to fully make the print ad successful. I learned the ad has to short and to the point, and more is not always better. There may a million words one wants to say in the ad, however keeping it sweet can be much more effective. I also learned that grammar is very important when it comes to a print ad. For example, the creator may not seem very credible if they cannot even spell. The message will also get across easier to the public if easier words are used and spelled correctly.

The Election and Social Networking

Social Networking sites, such as Facebook and Myspace, have an enormous impact on this year's presidential election. This impact is enforced and shown in many different ways on these two sites. On Mypsace, when a user first logs in there will often be advertisement all over the screen for different companies and products. With the election coming up, many of these advertisements are concerning the candidate's and their "changes" to the Country. Once a user actually enters Myspace the rest of this impact is shown with groups, pictures, videos, and basically anything else the user can place on their page. Many groups have been formed to support the election on both Myspace and Facebook. Obviously in this case the two main groups are those with Obama and the remaining with McCain for president. Myspace is more known to have the fancy visuals and videos on the users page. Facebook can have these, however this site is less creative than Myspace. Visually, these two sites have a large impact on the election with their videos, either to voice an opinion or to show a specific candidate, pictures of each candidate and some times parodies making fun, and groups are formed to individually support and destroy the candidates themselves.
Above visually, these sites are also showing their impact in the election using words. A user of Myspace or Facebook can put anything they wish about either candidate in their profile. Good or bad they are spreading their opinion about the candidates and changing the opinion of others as well. For example, someone may decide to vote for McCain strictly because a friend of theirs has supporting facts why he should be president. After viewing and reading the friends profile, he decided to vote for McCain because he agrees with his friend. This is an example of how social networking effects the election. Word spreads fast and even faster on the Internet. When a user blogs, comments, posts pictures, videos, or anything else related to election, it is effecting it.
Without social networking, the opinions about the candidates and advertising would all be done through verbal communication and campaigns. Word would still spread fast, however not nearly as fast. Also, groups would only be formed in campaigns and not online. Social networking simply spreads ideas, advertising, and groups faster and more effectively. This will have a positive and negative impact for both candidates in that users are not always going to have something nice or mean to say about the candidates. Overall, there is an impact and no matter what there will always be an impact on the election through sites such as Facebook and Myspace.
Professor Troy Murphy is one of the founders of MyVote, a website that allows students to voice their opinion about the election. An individual can voice their opinion to anything such as, the economy, gas prices, importance of education, military, which candidate they like and why, or even share a personal story how the new president will affect them. This is an example of social networking and this obviously impacts the election. This website spreads opinions and allows other students to view the videos and thus compare their opinions. The impact of social networking on the election is massive bring many ways individuals can share and voice their opinions about each candidate and the election overall.