Next New

Next New

Before I opened my own small business, I worked for some time in the moving/relocation industry in New York City. One could almost say that this is a luxury business, if you cannot afford it you have to do it yourself - call a friend, buy boxes, rent U-Haul, you get the point. If you can afford it, call a moving company and it will be done for you. And that is somewhat worth it if you have a whole 2-bedroom apartment to move, it is hard to do it on your own. But if you have just 10 boxes and want to move to let's say From NY to Colorado, the prices are almost the same as moving a whole studio apartment. The reason: the movers must make the trip anyway regardless of how full the truck is. Of course, moving companies consolidate shipments to save on cost but this is all in the background and rarely reflected in the price.

So, I have this idea for a mobile app, called BitsMoving, that will enable people from all around US who need to move just like 10 - 15 boxes of household, something small enough for a moving company but large enough for postal services, to share information on the platform. The immediate result will be increased buyers’ power. Moving companies around US will still be the providers and will exchange information among them as well but will only dispatch a track only when there is let us say 10 customers with 10 boxes each in relative proximity. The model is applicable in metro cities and rural areas. 

This application will increase efficiency and reduce cost at the same time for the business and the customers.

Wiki So Far

Wiki So Far

·       Edited the design of the Examples page with Frequently Asked Questions as sections had misaligned images and text. BTW, this seems to be a common theme for a lot of pages. Also, uploaded a few images. There is still work left to be done on this page though

·       Contributed to the Security page by adding an overview of the CIA Triad, and added Countermeasures to all of the listed attacks

Planning to complete the wiki assignment by contributing more to the Security page by adding a section “Social Media Security best practices” which will describe about 7 of these.

P2P

P2P

1. What is file sharing?

File sharing is the process of public or private sharing of data on a network with various level of access. (King, 2007)The term refers to sharing on files that are sitting readily available on a file server and can be accessed one or many times by one or many of the users on the network to the degree of their access. On a private scale, it is impossible to imagine any business being efficient without utilizing file sharing. On a public scale, it gets trickier. Google Drive is one such service that is free, legal, readily accessible to the public. On the other hand, public file sharing mainly, often crosses boundaries and falls in illegal/unethical category.

2. What is P2P File sharing?

P2P sharing is when file sharing is not done via a dedicated server but instead is a direct communication/transaction between two clients/peers on the network. There is still a server but is on the same device. So, each device is a client when requests and server when responds to a request for file by another client.

3. What are some examples of P2P file sharing?

One of the most popular applications for P2P sharing are about sharing of music, movies, software, and games. One example of P2P sharing that I like personally is Lending Club, a P2P lending platform that connects investors with customers in need for a loan (Kauffman, 2013).

Bibliography

1.     King, Jamie (2007, Nov 22). Take Advantage of P2P - not fear it by Jamie King, New Media Age. pg. 19. https://econsultancy.com/nma-archive/56421-content-producers-should-take-advantage-of-p2p-not-fear-it

2.   Kaufman, Wendy (2013, May 10).Peers Find Less Pressure Borrowing http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/05/10/182651552/peers-find-less-pressure-borrowing-from-each-other

  

Privacy

Privacy

The new media is a great tool for reaching a large audience if you want to be heard. These platforms are inherently free and available to across the society to corporations, politicians, digital marketers, and common citizens. Being on social media has become a very effective and low-cost way of reaching someone who shares similar interests with you.

New media is also inherently designed to deprive privacy. Because it is based on sharing there is not really a good way to have a control over your privacy when one is using new media. Right of the bat, by creating a profile you have already exposed at the very least your name, email, birthday, and location. We are at the level where these attributes are not even considered private anymore. Often before creating a profile a user is asked to agree that their information can be used “to better serve” the client. Depending on the platform, there are also questions like political affiliation, religious affiliation, hobbies, and whatnot. In many cases this information is further share with 3rd parties, advertisers, and governments.

The universal wisdom is that if you delete your account or never create one to begin with, you have positioned yourself better when it comes to privacy. However, companies have gotten smarter and by using data analytics they are able to predict a profile based on the interactions users on their platform have with you. Tagging you on a photo or simply mentioning you in a tweet are the obvious examples. In addition, two very concerning examples are Snowden’s revelation about the Prism project, and the scandal with Cambridge Analytica where the “friend of a friends” insights were exploited.

New media is here to stay, and the protection of privacy will have to be a collaborative effort. Self-education of the user how to behave online is the first and most important step. Next, the government should follow with legislature similar like GDPR, and last but not least new media providers and influencers on their platform should consider ethics before exercising their marketing decisions.

Advice

Advice

It is great that we have classes like this one that educate on the benefits of Social Media. However it feels like more could be accomplished. If I were in charge here is what I will try to develop the new new media initiative of CUNY:

1.     Be proactive on the platform. I‘ve noted that CUNY has Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn but for the most part there is no fresh content. While user generated content is important, CUNY needs to contribute more with articles, news, and initiatives.

2.     Practice Social Media Listening. CUNY is on a city budget and most college policies are wrapped around the city’s government legislature. However, politicians are not always right or on time. One recent example is, around the time we had our twitter assignment, many students called for a shutting down CUNY colleges due to the coronavirus outbreak. CUNY refused and waited for the NY Governor to announce it a week later. CUNY must listen to the traffic that relates to it and react to users experience and expectation.   

3.     Reach out to potential students while they are still in high school, advertising in a way.

4.     Hashtags. Implement hash tags across Blackboard. No more comments here except that it will make all of the above more efficient.