New Media Learner: Omar B.

Whether it be nostalgia or not, I have a deep fascination about how the Wild West era (less structure and privatization) of the Internet affected the modern Internet we know today. Before the advent of CSS and Javascript, websites were mainly text, and looked ugly but were nonetheless functional. Websites nowadays are the heart of organizations, companies, forums, blogs, video hosting pages and everything else imaginable. Everything from Google.com, as barebones as it may look, is a website with its own reason of being. (1) I want to study the evolution of the website and how creative individuals took a text editor and created something out of nothing to revolutionize the way the Internet connects. My research thus far have included the introduction of HTML 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, how websites of the past matched their demographic and how the advent of the CSS, JavaScript, PHP and SQL led to the mass technological feats of today's modern website. I want to highlight the most important

At its simplest definition, file sharing is the transfer of any file, whether it be text, audio, video or project, from one individual to another. In application of the digital age, is the practice of distributing or providing access to media between individuals. (Definition based off of Wikipedia). What makes this idea so controversial in the modern age? The practice has come under scrutiny because the sharing of files can lead to the loss of revenues for many companies and of course, being companies filed litigations against various entities during the maturity of the Internet - the problem being, "Do we have the right to share files that are not 'ours' ". The definition of ownership has come under question, do we own the MP3 files of CDs that we spent our hard earned money on? Companies argue that we only own the privilege of using the files we purchase on an INDIVIDUAL BASIS and thus are not entitled to share the files with other beings. The most heavily attacked

One of the ways Baruch College can improve the university experience for its students is increasing the community atmosphere and community engagement within the university. Because Baruch College is tainted with the reputation of being a commuter school, many students become disengaged with the community of the school. Therefore to remedy this, the school can launch initiatives with new media mediums such as social media to increase awareness of social events and other aspects of college social life. They can also create initiatives for classroom settings that allow faculty and students to engage in subject matters more in depth and increase the overall academic aspects of the university setting. The Internet has invited Baruch College and the rest of universities to live online, providing a more intimate relationship with its student body and can continue to cater to students in a way that increases the benefits of the student body.

          Privacy in the modern landscape is a pressing issue - due to unmarked territory and a lack of precedence. Cameras are everywhere and you are unable to determine your privacy outdoors, a privilege that was once taken for granted but has since been commoditized and sold against our intentions at heart. For example, companies such as Google has been able to monetize our privacy and tendencies to sell to advertisers. In today's society, the definition of privacy is changing with our norms according to a blog posted by Daniel Reed. He argues that the physical aspect of privacy is becoming less relevant as the Internet is taking over our virtual lives. Many of the companies that we sell our privacy to do a poor job of protecting our information. Take for example, the University of Maryland security breach, who exposed 300,000 records of students, faculty and staff dating back to 1998. Mass aggregation of information poses this risk and ultimately harm the people in the informa

I really felt bad for my pet chickens. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKl1gSDrF5I

One of my favorite things to follow online in Internet culture. It's fun. Give someone a media platform like Youtube or Adobe Premiere, and they'll take it and make their own - People are artists after all; one should never underestimate the power of boredom either. I had the opportunity to read the article of music mashups - an interesting method of artistry for music composition. The article "1+1+1=1" from The New Yorker depicts musician Jeremy Brown, as he experiments with the rhythm, instrumentation, and song beats of a plethora of genres. He was able to mix Indie, classic rock and avant-garde music with contemporary feels of pop and hip-hop. He mixes artists like rap mogul Jay Z with British Invasion phenomenon group the Beatles to create new music. New accessible technologies in music fosters musician creativity and make platforms such as music mashups.