Assignment #13 - The Grinch a.k.a Facebook

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Now a days is not only is your personal information not private its public. With just a few clicks of the mouse almost anyone can find out just about anything they want about another person. From finding their age or where they went to high school to what their address is and pin pointing its exact location through Google Earth, nothing is a secret anymore. And trying to keep what little we have left is going to get even harder. Facebook's new internal marketing program Beacon, tracks member's purchases at over 40 participating sites that it's 55% of users age 18 - 49 years old tend to shop at. Then to make matters worse it shares that information with your social network buddies through profile news feeds. Some of the popular web sites using Beacon include Blockbuster.com, Overstock.com and Fandango.com, in a nice twist for me personally, I can say that I have purchased things online through all three of those sites...wonderful.

Facebook provided two opportunities to block the details from being shared, but many users said they never saw the "opt-out" notices. After a petition that was passed around and signed by 50,000 Facebook users blasting Beacon, Facebook decided to change its ways and promised its users that they will now have to give their explicit consent, or "opt-in" before any information is passed along. Another loop hole for Facebook is that the user has to click on the "opt-out" button each and every time he or she makes an online purchase from one of the users affiliated with Beacon, they just can't make anything easy for us, can they?

What this means for the holidays is that if someone buys something for a friend online that friend will be able to see exactly what was purchased, in turn ruining the surprise and Christmas for everyone. OK maybe I was exaggerating a tad at the end there, but it really does ruin the surprise. So where is our Cindy Lou Who? Who will save Christmas for all the online buying, Facebook user out there? MoveOn.org that's who!

MoveOn.org is organizing a petition for Facebook users unhappy with the practices of Beacon. The petition launched on November 21, 2007 by a spokesman for MoveOn.org Adam Green stated that "It also says a lot about the ability of Internet users to band together to make a difference." In a note that foreshadowed the changes to come a customer support representative stated that "We're sorry if we spoiled some of your holiday gift-giving plans," Facebook's Paul Janzer wrote in a posting addressed to Beacon's critics. "We are really trying to provide you with new meaningful ways, like Beacon, to help you connect and share information with your friends." Janzer also acknowledged Beacon "can be kind of confusing."

All in all it is just another thing that takes our information and just lets it float around out there in cyberspace for anyone to see, just another thing to make us a little less safe when shopping online, just another way for the big corporations to make money off us. Great.

Assignment # 12 - Fight For Internet Freedom

Up until this weeks assignment I had never heard the phrase network neutrality or have any clue as to what it is, so I was eager to find out what it is and what the debate over it is all about. Wikipedia vaguely refers to network neutrality as a principle that is applied to residential broadband networks, and potentially to all networks. What I think this means is that Internet users should be able to view any site they choose without limitations from their service provider. Under the current Telecommunications Act the bill states that certain classes of Internet providers "may not unreasonably" restrict applications or services, but there is no definition as to what "unreasonable" is. This reminds me of the video we watched in class on how the Chinese government patrols and polices the Internet so nothing bad is said about their government or nothing unwanted is leaked outside of the country and if Tiananmen Square of Tank Man is searched nice photos of the scenery are shown, not that massacre that took place there 17 years ago.

The current debate over network neutrality is whether to keep the Internet Service Providers (ISP'S) from discriminating between content. The net neutrality debate pits online computer services against a coalition of telephone utilities, telecommunications, and cable distributors-the companies that provide the content versus those that transmit it. The alliance opposed to the legislation includes AT&T Inc., BellSouth Corp., Verizon Communications, Comcast Corp., and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association; they advocate for a competitive Internet with minimal regulation. The list of active player in favor of network neutrality legislation includes Microsoft, Yahoo!, eBay Inc., Amazon.com, and Google Inc. (Source).

Whose interests are at stake are our own. The cable and phone companies who think they own the lines of communication are looking to pit companies like Google and Yahoo against each other for whose page loads faster and charge you a hefty price for what they consider a "better" Internet and for those of us who can not afford to pay they will have to take the scenic route and have much longer wait times for the pages to load. The ISP's, phone companies and corporate giants become a "gatekeeper" of sorts and are not interested in what is best for the consumer, they are interested in revenue and where their web site ranks. They are only interested in how their company is doing and taking out all of the small businesses that they can to increase their bottom line.

I support network neutrality because the Internet should be a level playing field for every voice out there to be heard no matter what their financial status, every e-mail should be read, every instant message should be answered and ever blog should get a comment. Just like us in our class, we are only college students that people otherwise wouldn't take seriously but in our blog we have a place to express our thought and feelings on the topic at hand each week, and get just as much respect for it as anyone else blogging. Without network neutrality you might not be able to read this because it could be blocked because it is something that a company may not want you to see. We should be able to go where we want on the Internet and see what we want to see by our own choice, not someone else's. Network neutrality is an important issue and after doing this assignment I'm glad I know more about how crucial it is to everyone.

Assignment # 11 - Virtually Not Reality

According to Wikipedia a virtual world (or sometimes a synthetic economy) is a computer based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars. However when these avatars start making transaction using "real" money another form of virtual economy is formed. "Open" virtual economies vs. "closed" virtual economies. Second Life is an "open" virtual economy that encourages the flow of "real" money however World of Warcraft, or WoW, is a "closed" virtual economy and does not allow for the exchange of money. Is one of these economies better than another, is one more fun to play then another? That all depends on who is playing the game and how much they are willing to risk and invest in it.

Investing real money in these type of "open" virtual economies can sometimes have its drawbacks. From Dibbell's The Unreal Estate Boom, even though you can plunk down $750 dollars to buy a nine room, three story house over looking the ocean, you can still never actually go there, because it is imaginary. So why bother investing in something you can never touch? People are looking for a quick buck, but getting greatly disappointed. In the virtual worlds there are banks promising extremely huge returns. A lot of the online worlds trap people into what is known as a Ponzi scheme, or pyramid scheme. Wikipedia defines Ponzi Scheme as a fraudulent investment operation that involves paying abnormally high returns ("profits") to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from net revenues generated by any real business. The system is doomed to collapse because there are little or no underlying earnings from the money received by the promoter. A recent example of this would be that in August 2007, a bank in Second Life called Ginko Financial claimed that it could give returns of 40% to 60%, collapsed and gone insolvent with debts of $750,000. Some residents have lost amounts of almost 10,000 in the scheme. On their web site they explain that they have exhausted all of their funds and are trying to find ways to pay back their customers.

People get involved in these schemes and find it hard to get out. Perhaps this is why WoW has chose to be a "closed" virtual economy so they do no have to deal with all the problems that arise from having to deal with "real" money. Maybe all that hassle could be avoided by not being frivolous with their had earned money, by trying to buy thing that in all honesty really do not exist. I don't really get the whole concept of playing virtual reality games and stuff, I know my brother is a freak for Halo 3 on his Xbox 360. He sits there for hours with his head set on yelling at little kids around the world, I personally just don't get what all the hype is about. But the main point in all of this is be careful with your money and who you trust it with and dont get into something that you cant get yourself out of.

Assignment # 10 - Lead Poisoning Is Bad

The old saying, "Did you eat paint chips as a kid?" no longer seems that funny. According to MayoClinic.com lead poisoning is a result of exposure to lead in the environment. Although lead is no longer used in paints, gasoline, water pipes and other products, some lead-based products still exist and may pose a health hazard. In addition, much lead remains in the environment years after its initial use. Children are particularly susceptible to the effects of lead poisoning. Children are more susceptible to lead poisoning because lead can accumulate in their nervous system as they grow and develop. Death by lead poisoning is uncommon, but dangerous levels of lead in children may cause serious health problems, including lower intelligence and poor school performance.

The threat of lead poisoning lately seems to be on an alarming increase. In a recent front page article in the October 29th issue of the USA Today the cover story read "For many kids, lead threat is right in their own homes." The article covers a number of topics including the threat to the elderly and its connection to crime. USA Today states that after the U.S. government banned lead pain in 1978, and the U.S. oil companies began phasing out leaded gasoline in 1975. Since then, the percentage of children with high levels of lead in their blood has plummeted from 88% in the 1970's to 1.6% in 2005. However nearly three decades after the paint ban, hundreds of thousands of children - most of them under 6 - show signs of lead exposure. The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that one in four children live in housing with deteriorating lead paint, part of a toxic legacy from generation past when less was known about the dangers of such substances. But could this be the main problem, could old chipping paint be the reason hundreds of thousands of children are getting sick? Just recently we found out that the answer to that question is no.

CNN.com ran an article titled "Fisher-Price recalls 1M toys". CNN.com wrote "Toy-maker Fisher-Price is recalling 83 types of toys -- including the popular Big Bird, Elmo, Dora, and Diego, characters -- because their paint contains excessive amounts of lead. The world wide recall involves 967,000 plastic preschool toys made by a Chinese vendor and sold in the United States between May and August."

The two articles are both well written and stress the importance of prevention and avoiding lead products. The USA Today talks about having lead in the home by discussing the actual home, including old lead pipes, older windows and lead paint. Although these home improvements could be pricey it is a necessary upgrade to keeping your family safe. On the other hand, CNN.com points out that having lead in the home can not just include your house, but the toys that your children are playing with in that house.

The newspaper article differs from the online article because of the point of view they took. The newspaper seems to be trying to put blame on people for their own misfortune, stating that "poor and minority children in big cities are amongst those hardest hit" also claiming that they could not afford the lead removal or to replace the old windows. The online article however, place the blame for the children getting sick directly on the parent company of Fisher-Price, Mattel Inc. Also stating, "Anytime a company brings a banned hazardous product into the U.S. marketplace, especially one intended for children, it is unacceptable," said Nancy Nord, acting chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission." The two articles differ in many ways but are also very similar, but the main point of them and the only point that matters is the prevention of lead poisoning.

Assignment # 9 - You Don't Gotta Get All Political

After a few days of scouring the Internet trying to find someone or something political attached to buffalo bloggers, I stumbled across the web page of Political Class Dismissed: The Blog. The site is run by Jim Ostrowski who is a lawyer, writer, founder and President of Free Buffalo (Free New York Inc.). He currently lives in Buffalo with his wife and two children, his e-mail address is jameso@apollo3.com. His first post was on Wednesday December 7, 2005. According to Technorati the rank for this website is 731,678, whatever that means. On his site I found the Mission link especially straight forward, informative and truthful, especially the last line, "I learned about politics the hard way. I earned a Ph.D in anti-politics from the School of Hard Knocks."

The tone of this blog tends to lean towards the Republican party favoring Ron Paul and Russ Thompson. The site is well laid out and easy to read with many informative video clips, and lots of comments from other people making in interesting debate to keep an eye on. Reading peoples' comments and their opposing views and thoughts keeps you interested, such as this post. The page has a long list of links to take you to related places as well as a few advertisements on the right hand side.

After reading "Does the Internet create Democracy?" by Alinta Thornton and the asking myself," How are blogs affecting local politics?" I came to the conclusion that blogs are having a huge effect on local politics. By being able to put possible candidates and their views online has a major effect the younger votes and allows them to get to know a candidate better then just what they hear from the news and their fights in debates. Local politicians can get involved in the community and stay in touch with what is going on around them and the cities they are supposed to be governing. For me personally going out to vote is not usually on the top of my list of things to do, but if online voting was an option, since us students are online constantly, it would be something that I would definitely be more likely to do. As Thornton stated in her paper, " The USA has run several trials to test the viability of online voting. Arizona trialled it in the June 2000 primary elections and found that participation rose by 600%, with 40,000 voters, 80% of the total, voting online." This shows that making voting more accessible for some people could help increase voter turnout by quite a bit.

I am not really into politics but after doing this blog and studying Jim Ostrowski's web site I have come to realize that whether I know it or not, politics are playing a big role in our everyday lives, and have a new found respect for how much time, money and effort that they put into their campaign. In the future I can absolutely see online voting as a viable option, as well as candidates focusing more on technology to reach untapped markets.

Assignment # 8 - W.A.R. - Web Application Review

For the assignment I chose to review a very popular photograph website called Flickr. Flickr can be found online at http://www.flickr.com. Their are two main functions of this site, one is to help people save and organize their photographs and the other is to help make their pictures easily accessible to people who matter to them.

The look of the website is very clean and simple making using it a breeze. On the main page there are only a few, but just enough, options making this web site very user friendly. The options are Create An Account, for new users looking to upload pictures, the Share & Stay In Touch link discuses the topics of groups and even covers the hassles of privacy, by showing the levels of privacy, including Public, anyone can join, Public, invitation only, and Private, that you can apply to your account. The Upload & Organize link describes the five ways you are able to upload you pictures to your account, the Make Stuff tab shows you how to make an array of things from your pictures you have up loaded, you can make everything from photo books to postage stamps. The Explore link allows you to search the most interesting photos from that day one year ago, you can also explore Flickr through Tags, and for the beginner there is even a our that you can take which will take you step by step through the whole Flickr process.

The social aspects of Flickr are huge, they can bring other people into the lives of other with just a click of the mouse, someone could look at another persons entire wedding album or of their vacation to Cancun. Flickr even has a blog where people with shared interests or photos can get together to discuss them and show them off to each other. Keeping families and friends in touch is another social aspect that Flickr has to offer.

I think this site is very beneficial to people even if they just want to start getting their photographs organized, we all have that box full of old photos all mixed up with no dates on them to remember them by. This is a way to keep all of those memories right where you know they are, and you can even show off you skills to other people if you chose to. this site is interesting because you can find literally anything you want to search for, there are photographs of everything you can imagine and they are all right at your finger tips. You can keep in touch with loved one who are far away, make different things our of your pictures, just let your creativity flow. I think this site is very interesting useful, and beneficial, check out this photo that I thought was pretty neat.

Assignment #7 - Community...Not For Me.

Personally I really don't belong to many groups completely mediated by the Internet. I have a screen name and e-mail through AOL, our blog we use in 125, i have my e-mail address here at school and other then that I have a Facebook account but I rarely use it, so for me this is probably the toughest blog yet. I'm not into online gambling or playing fantasy football, i don't shop online anymore, because of a bad experience, and I definitely don't go online dating. I guess I just never really got into the whole Myspace, Facebook hype. To me they just always seemed like more trouble then they were worth.

Wikipedia defines community as a group of organisms sharing an environment, normally with shared interests. For me I've always thought of community more along the lines of the physical relationships in your life, not the virtual ones. The ties that are formed between people who share the same interests can become very strong and trusting over time, no matter what realm you are in. Over the Internet you can be whoever you want to be and like anything you want, but in real life, face-to-face interactions it is easier to tell if someone is just going through the motions or if the are really passionate about what they are talking about.

To me this is a community




Not this




I believe that a community can encompass anyone from anywhere as long as they have the same interests, even though an online community can have fake people or information is can still in its own way have bonds between members that can be very strong and meaningful. Just as in real life is someone lies or becomes untrustworthy the group can shun them and it can take a long time to regain that trust. Some communities people might be familiar with can be anything from the church you go to, to boy scouts or brownies, even to AA class. Having similar interests can give people a sense of pride and helps them to feel needed, loved and connected.

Something that I do receive on a regular basis are e-mails due to the communications departments' listserve, or electronic mailing list. Just about every day, or even sometimes two or three times a day I get an e-mail from Janeen Wilder, to help me keep up on the most important things we need to know about whats going on in our department, including the most recent one on force forms. Even though I sometimes receive an e-mail that doesn't pertain to me specifically I still receive it because I am on the communications departments' listserve. Wikipedia defines listserve as a type of Internet forum, as a special usage of e-mail that allows for widespread distribution of information to many Internet users.

No matter what your definition of community is or what part of your life you relate it to you there are still ties that can connect us all together, be it blood lines or a DSL line. For me personally I'm not much of an online junkie, id rather sit around with friends of family in person instead of doing it through a computer screen, but for other people they may feel more comfortably that way. Either way you do it the connections we have with others are strong and important to us, a sense of community is a good thing, real or virtual.

Assignment #6 - Identity... Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

In the online community you can never really be sure who you are talking to. Anyone can say they are who ever they want. Just last night I was watching Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, in the movie Jim Carey, Ace, is on the case to find the missing Miami Dolphin's mascot, Snowflake. Along the was he finds out that the old punter for the Dolphins, Ray Finkle, has taken on the identity as the detective for the local police department, Lois Einhorn.



This started to make me think, if a man could pose as a woman in front of officers and not get discovered, then doing it online to a total stranger, behind their back must be a cake walk. (And yes I do realize its just a movie.) Wikipedia defines online identity as a social identity that network users establish in online communities. Now more than ever people are coming up with aliases to either conceal or reveal themselves in the online world. For many people their online reputation is as important or in extreme cases more important than their real life reputation.

People identify themselves online either through AIM or MSN with a screen name, just as I do. The name they chose can consist of numbers, letters or a combination of the both. When picking a screen name it is important to think about the people who are going to be talking, not just today but in the future. Your screen name is your first impression made on the Internet. Most people tend to choose a nick name they have had all their life or perhaps a hobby that they have, followed by some numbers, either their birth date or maybe their lucky number. Choosing the wrong name though can give predators the wrong idea, and really, who wants to be known of as SeXXXyMama69 or PimpDaDDyLuVa when their 30?

Keeping your identity safe can be tough when it is so easy for someone to create an account just like that. Say for instance you have a screen name in it with the letter "l" or the number one, with out any trouble a thief can make a name that emulates yours exactly. Take the name GoalieGirl, by replacing the number one for the letter l's the screen name is now being run by someone else but looks exactly that same as yours. Another thing thieves do is copy your font and the color or pick the same avatar as you. An avatar is a small icon-sized graphic image (Source). Just like that your reputation could be ruined and this person can say and whatever they want while posing as you.

As I mentioned an online identity that I am familiar with are screen names. I don't go on AIM much anymore so when people IM me they usually say "is that really you?", checking that I am who I say I am because they rarely see me online. If out of the blue they started seeing my screen name online 24/7 they would probably be a little suspicious and call me to see if it really was me online all day. Your reputation is based on the fact that you give out accurate information, and in return you expect the same from others. After a while of interaction has occurred and a feeling of reliability is placed on that person the trust can grow and so can that persons' reputation. Although it can take days, weeks, or even months to build to that level of trust, once it has been broken or damaged, it is almost impossible to gain that trust back again, no matter what length of time. "As users, our burden is one of trust, and there's little precedent for awarding it" (Source).

As I mentioned in my last blog I like using Firefox and would recommend other people use it above Internet Explorer or Netscape because when you are on a secure web site the address box turns yellow. That little option can save you a lot of hassle and help to further protect you identity online. People tend to trust web sites and to believe everything they read. If a web page looks good people may believe it is okay to give out a credit card number or their social security number, but in most cases this isn't a good idea. Fancy writing and animation can influence a persons better judgment into thinking it is a secure web site. "Three primary trust factors surfaced...good content, simple design and few grammatical errors. ...trusted web sites are content driven... (Source).

In the end you never really can tell who you are talking to, you can never be to safe when if comes to protecting your identity online. There's a good chance that you have or will have an encounter with some shady people online, and no I don't mean Slim Shady, I mean people who are out there for monetary gains, and they could care less who they hurt in the process.

Assignment #5 - Privacy... What Privacy?

For me personally the definition of privacy would be the ability to be hidden from the presence of others, and to be free from the unwanted intrusion of others. At times I do tend to worry about my presence online. Even thought I know TAP and FAFSA are secure websites I am always a little hesitant to put my social security number online because it could possibly end up in the wrong hands for them to do who knows what with it.

Now a days you know there is a big problem when a guy named Chris Hansen dedicates a whole show on prime time television to computer hackers called To Catch An I.D. Thief. According to the Federal Trade Commissions Identity Theft Report, approximately 10 million American consumers discovered that their personal information had been used to open fraudulent bank, credit card, or utility accounts, or used to commit other crimes.





But you don't have to go to the other side of the globe to do something about it. Unfortunately I know all about having your privacy taken away and your identity stolen. Just recently I received a statement from my bank as I do every month. This time though a purchase was on there that i hadn't made. It had said that there was a purchase made in Washington for $10.99 at some place called 3 guppies inc. and of course I had not made this purchase. I rarely use my checking account because I have a tenancy to spend more money then I actually have in there, and since I was sick of paying the $38.00 over draft fee I decided to only use it to pay for my car insurance online. So after calling the bank they informed me that a detective would be assigned to my case and in the mean time I would be sent a new card and to cut up the old one. Lucky for me it didn't take forever to get this mess cleared up and the stolen money was returned to my account. If I use my credit card online for two purchases a year and get my identity stolen I can only imagine how much more at risk other people are that use it for every single bill they have.



Remember a while ago when hackers stole data from at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards of shoppers at off-price retailers T.J. Maxx and Marshalls in a case said to be the largest such breach of consumer information. Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America. The average victim spends 175 hours and $1000.000 repairing the damage.

After going through what I did I couldn't imagine someone that had a lot of money in their account or if it had happening to them for a long period of time. I believe that I reacted to this situation the only way I could, although I would have liked to have kicked this person in the shins, since that was not a viable option, I informed HSBC immediately and they took proper actions quickly. I cut up my old card and was sent a new one with a new pin number in a separate envelope.

To sum it up, you just have to be smart about what you do these days because nothing is safe anymore. You have to keep an eye out at the ATM to make sure no on is looking over your shoulder, make your online passwords a little more difficult to guess than the ever popular "qwerty" (the first six letter of the keyboard) and maybe even have to lock up your car over night even if its sitting right in your driveway.

Assignment #4 - A True Gift

Google defines a gift economy as an economic system in which goods an services are given, rather then traded. A gift is usually something given to a friend or loved one to show they are appreciated. Whether it is a holiday, a birthday or just to say thank you, a gift is usually given from the heart with nothing expected in return other than the look of joy on that persons face. Theres just something special about watching someone else tear into a perfectly wrapped present that money just can't buy. An economy that I am familiar with would be my community. At any given time you can walk around town and see a number of kind things being done others with no compensation of any sort needed.

Buffalo is called the City of Good Neighbors for a reason.

Just recently a story on the local news caught my eye. Volunteers for Habitat for Humanity were renovating a house in Buffalo's Fruit Belt neighborhood when they were robbed at gunpoint while on their lunch break at about 12:30 p.m. The two robbers, wearing hoodies and bandannas, jumping out from behind a security bunker where the tools are stored, on 227 Peach Street, demanded their money as the four men sat outside. This was the first time in Habitat Buffalo's 22-year history this type of crime has happened. This is so shocking and saddening to me that people from their own community would do this to their fellow neighbors who are actually doing some good and trying to improve the city. Many of the volunteers are retirees. One of the victims was an 84-year old Clarence man, and this was only his first day on the job. In total the robbers only made off with a little over two hundred dollars, luckily no one was hurt in the incident.

After all these man had been through they still vowed to finish what they had started. They were not going to let what had happened to them deter them from their ultimate goal, to give what they can to their community and help a family that is in need. To me, this is the ultimate definition of a gift economy. The men and women that devote their time and money to help another, asking for nothing in return is truly a gift in itself. If you are able, and have the resources to help others, why wouldn't you? The old adage is true, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. You can check out this story from Channel 2 News here.

Most forms of volunteer work can be considered a gift. Weather you are helping out at your local hospital or devoting your time at an animal shelter, there are endless possibilities on how you can give back. The thing that makes a gift economy so special is that no matter how small you think what you are doing is, it can be huge in someone else's eyes, like you cleaning up the dishes for your mom without her having to nag at you, or keeping your side of the room clean because you know your roommate is a little bit of a neat freak. Sometimes the little things really are the best.

Assignment #3 - Pirating...Ahoy ye Matey!

Amid all of the controversy surrounding music file-sharing on the Internet, nearly half of online youth around the world have downloaded music off the Internet, according to a new study from the global research firm, Ipsos–Reid. Among teens and young adults between the ages of 12 and 24 who have used the Internet in the past 30 days, 47% report having downloaded a music or MP3 file (Source). Now a days it is commonplace to download music online. You can get it anywhere from Napster, to Limewire to iTunes, to DC++ used on many college campuses, including ours.

Piracy is not all that bad for musicians. In fact, research has shown that less popular artists actually profit from piracy. This can be concluded from, and is supported by several studies. Frustrated as they are, the music industry claims that they lose millions a year due to piracy, but is this really the case?

Two facts:
-Album sales are declining.
-75% of all artists profit from filesharing.

We will try to explain these two seemingly contradicting facts, and list three factors that may help us understand what’s going on…
1. Artists sell more albums thanks to piracy

Several studies have shown that most artists actually profit from unauthorized sharing of files. They sell more albums because people have the opportunity to download songs and entire albums for free. A study by Blackburn (2004), a PhD student from Harvard, found that the 75% of the artist actually profit from piracy. Blackburn reports that the most popular artist (top 25%) sell less records. However, the remaining 75% of all artists actually profit from filesharing (Source).

2. But why do these artists sell more? Well, there are a couple of possible explanations.
-Music from highly popular artists is widely available on filesharing networks. If pirates mainly download albums from these artists, they will have more money left to buy albums of less popular artists.
-People have the opportunity to discover new music for free. It is thus easier to find new, and less popular artists. It is likely that people will buy albums from these artists as well if they like what they hear.
-It is not only piracy that makes it easier to discover new artists, social music services like Last.fm and Pandora also contribute to this phenomenon. The rise in income from concerts shows that the interest in music is increasing instead of declining.

3. Wait a minute… the music industry and the RIAA always say that they are losing huge amounts of money because of filesharing. Isn’t this true?

Well, the fact is that there are less albums sold in total compared to some of the years when album sales were booming. However, it is hard to attribute this decline in sales to piracy (alone). From the research that has been done on this topic we can conclude that the effect of piracy on the music industry’s lost income lies somewhere between 0 and 30% (of the decline in sales, not of the sales in total). Pollock (2006) gives a comprehensive overview of these studies and concludes:

The basic result is that online illegal file-sharing probably has some negative impact on traditional sales but the effect is appears to be quite small. The size of this effect is debated, and ranges from 0 to 100% of the sales decline in recent years, but a figure of between 0 and 30% would be a reasonable consensus value (i.e. that file-sharing accounted for 0-30% of the decline in sales not a 0-30% decline in sales). At the same time there is still substantial disagreement in the literature with the most impressive paper to date (Oberholzer and Strumpf 2005) estimating no impact from file-sharing.

One of the things we can be pretty sure of is that the music industry is starting to lose control over their customers. A great deal of their income was generated by overly promoted albums and artists. It is those artists and albums that suffer the most from piracy. It gets harder and harder for the music industry to market artists to the top position of the charts now the customers have all kinds of alternative ways to discover new music.

So back when we were sharing CD's with our friends were we doing something illegal? How is that different from borrowing a CD or MP3 today and burning a copy for yourself? Were we basically stealing? The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) thinks so.

Because of the impact that downloading has had on the music industry, the trade group that represents the biggest record companies, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), has begun to bring lawsuits against people who illegally download and swap music files on the Internet. They argue, and the courts agree, that downloading and swapping music illegally is just like stealing a CD from a store, and they want to encourage music lovers to acquire and enjoy their music without breaking the copyright laws (Source).

So what do the artists who are making this music think about it?

For the most part the jury is still out. Some hate the fact that people are getting their albums for free, and sometimes even getting a hold of it earlier then the intended release date and leaking it out to the public, while others think it is a great way to get new and different music out there into the mainstream.

Whatever you view, the odds are that you have downloaded music or that you will download music for free, and it doesn't look like there is any end to it in sight. We could say that music is more alive than ever before, that piracy is a tool to build a fanbase, and that the times when the music industry could dictate what we were listening to are over.

COM125 Assignment 2 - Hypertext 101

Trying to do research online without hypertext would be a long, daunting, and tedious task. Fortunately for us we have Ted Nelson to thank for that, in 1965 he coined the terms "hypertext" and "hypermedia" in a paper to the ACM 20th national conference (Source). Hypertext most often refers to text on a computer that will lead the user to other, related information on demand. Hypertext represents a relatively recent innovation to user interfaces, which overcomes some of the limitations of written text. Rather than remaining static like traditional text, hypertext makes possible a dynamic organization of information through links and connections (called hyperlinks). Hypertext can be designed to perform various tasks; for instance when a user "clicks" on it or "hovers" over it, a bubble with a word definition may appear, or a web page on a related subject may load, or a video clip may run, or an application may open (Source).

In laymans terms " hypertext is text which contains links to other texts" (Source).

The first hypertext-based system was developed in 1967 by a team of researchers led by Dr. Andries van dam at Brown University, not to get him confused with the ever popular Jean Claude Van Dammae.

The research was funded by IBM and the first hypertext implementation, Hypertext Editing System, ran on an IBM/360 mainframe. IBM later sold the system to the Houston Manned Spacecraft Center which reportedly used it for the Apollo space program documentation. A year later, in 1968, van Dam developed FRESS, a File Retrieval and Editing System which was an improvement of his original Hypertext Editing System and was used commercially by Philips (Source).

Hypertext has completely changed the was we use the internet. Today not only does clicking on a link connect you to other articles but also pictures and videos. There isn't a web site that you go to that doesn't have a hypertext in some form or another. Without it citing articles would be almost impossible.

First Timer

My name is Stephanie and im pretty new to this whole blogging thing. I dont have a myspace or anything like that so this is something new to me. Well a little bit about me is that I am from Lewiston NY about a 25 minuite commute from UB so I pretty much waste all of my money on gas which sucks. I graduated from Niagara County Community College with an accociates degree in Business Administration then transfered to UB, where I am currently taking comm 125.

I am a proud Western New Yorker through and through. Im a huge fan of the Sabres and the Bills, I can just feel it, this year were going to the play offs I just know it. The Buffalo curse has to end some time... dosent it? I know people are trying to get out of here as fast as humanly possible, but I dont see the rush, theres just so much to do and see. I think its beautiful here, we have all four season, even though for about 7 of them were usually buried under snow, but hey if you can drive here in the winter you can consider yourself an excellent driver, other cities get an inch or two of snow and the entire city completely shuts down, but not us. I think we have it pretty good here, no floods, earthquakes, tornadoes...just the occasional blizzard or two, but hey its true about Buffalo weather if you dont like it just wait 5 minuites, we never know what lake erie is gonna throw at us next.

I guess you can see that I like living here and proud to represent Buffalo, UB, and all of western New York, enought of that for now. If you want to learn more about whats going on around town you can check this out.

GO BILLS!