Practicum #8-Nicole

As I wrap up my practicum semester project, I have found that the topic of support groups allowed me to see how different groups of people use the Internet differently on a regular basis. To fully understand the lives of support group users, I had to immerse myself in their networks. It was quite different from how I imagined the stereotypical support group to be. I imagined support groups to be like AA or some sort of sitting in a circle telling each other how their feelings are. Using support groups online is a much more convenient, private and non-committal way of receiving the help and guidance someone may need. Although I don't intend to continue my use of SupportGroups.com, I have learned a great deal about this type of online community. However, I do intend to continue using the marathon support groups I have joined.

practicum #8--Kailin

it is good to check back and realize I still have one pose to go.
compared with famous SNS like Facebook, personal homepage provide a wider space to establish my online identity. It gives me a better sense of self-understanding, allowing me to characterize myself or change myself to who I really want to be. for example,I was explored by multiple me in my homepage. The “Mode” page shows that I am interested in trend. My traveling diaries express I like to broaden my outlook. And the collections of lomo camera represent I am a big lomo fan.

However, in the process of building online identity, we should concerned piracy problem.Parts of what I did with my blog might refer to soft piracy. agreed with Lessig’s critiques that copyright law should be more inflexible in digital age. The overly strict law will create a “chilling” effect on creativity. I found many interesting or gorgeous collection pictures. Unfortunately, they were under copyright so I cannot use them. I didn't do the filesharing for profit purpose. In fact, this is a new way of spreading content. In digital time, tons of images or music or videos are uploaded or downloaded every single moment. I argue if copyright only mainly focus on how to overly protect the original producer. The key point I believe should be how to preserve the benefits of filesharing, while minimize the wrongful harm it causes artists.

It is pity that rarely people use personal sites although it fills us in a more freedom space. Homepage is collection of data forms a publication, while SNS forms participation. Lack of participation directly leads to the reduction. People concern more social connection than personalization. No matter how wonderful one does, he doesn't feel his contribution matter and feel some degree of social connection, he will easily loss the dynamics to contribute more.

over all, I really enjoy doing my project.

Practicum #7-Nicole

Within the last week, I have come a long way with my online relationships. As I mentioned before, I actually met people that I connected with online, but I also continue to connect with people from SupportGroups.com. I'm not just connecting with one group, but several groups. Since you are able to participate in multiple topics, I chose three to participate in: Weight Loss, Death and Divorce. I realize that most of those don't exactly seem overexciting, but I was able to contribute to each in a different way. Recently, I have been really connecting with a user dealing with her sister's death. We met on a discussion board and have no began talking in our own personal conversation. I message her about once or twice a day. Although I've never had to deal with the loss of a sister, I can sympathize. She has been telling me how helpful I am for her situation. Very rewarding.

Practicum 8--Angela

To wrap up my project I wanted to go back to the main idea of trying to integrate oneself into a community. In some ways I feel like I really have made a connection and become an "expert" in the community such as in my previous post when I talked about the gym facebook group. I feel like I can go back to the actual gym now and feel more at home and part of the "crowd" than I have since high school. The other blogs and forums will take much longer to become an "expert" in and I will probably never be a top poster, but I do feel like I fit in more in smaller parts of the forums such as the midwest specific part.

Its been pretty fun following blogs, etc. in a topic that I really understand and find interesting. I've definitely had to reconsider the relationship the internet and technology has with even something as opposite as rock climbing. I plan to keep following the blogs and posting in the forums--which before this project I was a bit too shy to post in.

Practicum: Twitter

Over this past semester, I have become incredibly familiar with Twitter. I went from only knowing what I knew about it from the media, to interacting with the site on almost a daily basis. However, one issue that I realized that I have not yet discussed on the blog is that of access. While it is free for anyone with Internet access to visit and become a member of Twitter, in order to really engage and participate in the site, one needs to have a smart phone, or some mobile device that can support the Twitter application. At various points during the semester, I found myself thinking, "If I did not have my blackberry, I don't know how I would do this project". So while Twitter's membership has increased greatly in the past year, we must still be concerned with the issue of access. Not everyone has the means to afford a smart phone, or even Internet access for that matter. Because a smart phone makes using Twitter so much more practical and enjoyable, I would argue that Twitter faces greater challenges regarding access than other social networking sites, such as Facebook, which are primarily accessed on the computer. Perhaps Twitter will become even more mainstream when all cellular phones have the capability of supporting Twitter.

Number 8

I think that politicians are trying to use new media, but are still nervous about implications. Feingold uses his blog to post press releases. Twitter is not used to give insight into candidates lives, but as just another way to post links to the same press releases. I am not generally one who says I want to know what my president is really like, I want their policies to play the important role, but politicians have a unique chance with facebook and twitter to reach people on a more personal note. They can tell us who they are and why the policies are important that they are recommending.

Grassroots organizations as seen by the most recent elections can play a larger role then ever before. Reaching people 24 hours a day is now possible for small organizations. The two party system is still strong, but these organizations will force the democrats and republicans to look at the new issues.

Bloggers change the news cycle. Television has already made politics a 24/7 operation, but print is a powerful medium and now it is also 24/7.

I found that the internet is used differently by all three of these groups that I explored, but what I would want you all to take away form my presentation and my post is that politics has only just scratched the potential of the Web and the power and importance of new media will only continue to grow.

I will leave you with this: D.C political offices are starting to create a department specifically for new media in addition to traditional communication's offices

importance of online political activism

One the things that I constantly thought about while doing this project is the role of online political activism.

When I was looking at the Tea Party forums and my blogs i kept coming back to the idea that Web 2.0 was trying to democratize the internet. I think that by giving people a voice it also makes the governments democracy stronger as well. Do you guys remember when it was discovered that Sarah Palin's clothing was paid for by the GOP? Well politico broke that first online. Instantly the word was everywhere because the article reached users as soon as it was finished.

In addition, anyone can create a blog to discuss politics now and small niche groups that may get left out of main stream media. Through this these groups can end up getting heard and become relevant in the political discussion the possibilities are endless when it comes to what political activist can now achieve because of the Web.

Yes, this is not always a good thing. I have read some pretty crazy things while doing research for this project, but at the same time it is pretty great that major papers like The New York Times no longer control the news