Multimedia Tools

Multimedia enhances our text messaging in many ways, since we majority of the time text people we aren't seeing face to face to have this added enhancement makes it even better and easier to communicate with those who may be far away from us and in a very fast time interaction. One good simple example of how this is done with picture messaging, we are able to send pictures to individuals phones and they are able to share in our experiences in the things we may be seeing at the moment. Animoto is a cloud-based tool that allows users to easily incorporate pictures, video clips, music and text messages into what they want to present. Here is the link to it, http://animoto.com/. It looks to be very user friendly. There is a free option as well as a paid option, you can also use it for personal use as well as business usage. I would consider Facebook a multimedia tool as well. You're able to share pictures, video, message individuals, place things on their pages and this is all free. Facebook is very user friendly as well, I believe once you get the hang of it, it may be the most user friendly multimedia tool out there, the link is www.facebook.com. Garageband is a site that is ran through Apple. Through your Mac you are able to create music. I believe this would be good for someone who is into music or just likes playing around with various songs, beats, tunes, etc. You have to have a Mac computer I believe which limits a lot of users, also unless you are heavy into music I don't see many people making use of this app. I think the website is pretty flashy though. Here is the link to the site, http://www.apple.com/mac/garageband/?cid=oas-us-domains-garageband.com. Also you are able to share your creation with basically the world or a few close friends and family members. PowerPoint is a good old faithful way of using multimedia that is simple, clean looking and you can get very creative with it. PowerPoint is great for business presentations, class assignments, etc. I have always enjoyed creating projects using this application. It's almost limitless what you can do. I believe many people who sit down and play with PowerPoint will find out how easy it is to create things. You can find PowerPoint through any Microsoft package.

 

Passing Of a Legend

The world is mourning the loss of one of the greatest college football coaches of all time Joe Paterno. After a long battle with cancer, he was finally able to rest in peace with family and friends surrounded around him. Paterno not only leaves his family behind he also leaves those who were close to him at Penn State. For many years he saw many players go through his locker room, many of these players went on to play professional football. The last few months shall lay in the back round with the scandal that loomed over his head. Today we will not remember the man and what he has been known for in the recent months, we will remember a man that took his team to many play offs, who many future coaches looked up to. Joe Paterno was a man who loved the game, Penn State, his family and his friends. Let the football world bow their heads in silence for one of the great ones.Passing of a Legend

Social Media Tools

The first site I decided to check out was this one: https://blog.aids.gov/. This is a blog site for individuals living with HIV, Policies &Programs, Research, New Media, and Global information. I chose this site since AIDS/HIV I believe is something that has touched at least all of us in one form or another. I thought it would be interesting to look into a site that captures many of the things going on in the world about it. There is a video and a blog about the International AIDS conference that was actually held 7/22/2014. Social media was used also to present the conference. Here is a excerpt from the article about the conference and using social media, If you’ve been following our blog and social media channels this week, you’ve likely noticed we’re producing videos from the International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014) . Starting on Sunday morning with a message from Dr. Fauci, and continuing throughout the week with highlights from Dr. Ron Valdiserri, Dr. Carl Dieffenbach, Ambassador Deborah Birx, and other senior officials, we are working with to bring some of the conference to you.We know online videos are increasing in popularity. In fact, a recent Pew report found that 78% of online adults watch or download videos [PDF 612KB]. By producing videos and allowing people like Dr. Fauci, Dr. Dieffenbach, and others to share their observations in their own words, we hope to bring the conference a little bit closer to home. (blod.AIDS.gov 2014).

I chose texting as the next option on this site, http://www.texting4health.org/, texting4health I found to be very interesting. This concept takes something that majority of people around the world do and implements it into saving lives. The Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab hosted “Texting4Health,” the premiere conference on how mobile text messaging can promote better health. This topic matters because texting is the only viable interactive channel for reaching people on a mass scale around the world (http://www.texting4health.org/ 2014).

The next link I clicked on was the mobile app, I used this site http://www.aids.gov/. This site gives you a wealth of information on AIDS/HIV, it even gives you where test locations are. I think that the mobile and text applications would reach a large majority of people on a grand scale, many people around the world have smartphones. We are attached to our phones at the hip, also we know if we are looking for something such as an HIV/AIDS testing location we are using something that is confindential. Sometimes it's hard for people to pick up the phone, but simply receiving a text message to locations can be a very handy tool.

Indie Bookstore Rehires Four Employess they fired for wanting a Union

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/04/book-culture-fired-workers_n_5558728.html?ir=Business


"We have re-hired all four store managers who were terminated last week," the Book Culture statement read. "There is no longer a labor dispute. Book Culture has now recognized the RWDSU as the union representing our employees. We are respectful of the rights of our employees to unionize and of the views of our customers in the community and [nearby Columbia University]." I found this line to be pretty interesting considering that these employees were fired for exercising their rights to have a Union. In the article it stated that the 5 total were promoted to "manager" in title only which made it against company policy to participate in a Union. I looked around online using Google and I found 724,000 threads on the subject as well as the company which lead me to believe that the story had to be true. There were posts on Facebook about it, on a site Democratic Underground.com, on lockerdome.com as well as numerous other sites. Four out of the five employees excepted their jobs back. I would just wonder if I would want to work for a company that will not respect my rights to want to have a Union. I feel overall the story and the sources are fairly legit. They used firsthand accounts, i.e the workers and even the company reps. The main motive was to let the public know what happened to these workers.

How Do I Know What I Know?

http://news.msn.com/in-depth/history-buffs-race-to-preserve-dialect-in-missouri

I used MSN to read this article. I guess I chose this one because out of all the media things that were listed on MSN this one caught my eye the quickest. It was off to the left in the in depth section of the website. I thought the article was interesting because it showed how many things from the old times are dying in this country. Many of the practices that came with our ancestors are now falling much to the wayside, this can be said with regional dialects, styles of cooking, ways we live and just our overall ways of thinking. Here is a quote from someone in the article, "
Missouri French "was on the verge of being lost," she said. "People are passing away. It's the end of an era." Carol Diaz-Granados, an anthropology researcher at Washington University in St. Louis who studies the region's Native American archaeology, heralded Stroughmatt's historical preservation efforts. Diaz-Granados is a board member of the Old Mines Area Historical Society, a volunteer group working to restore an old log cabin on the outskirts of town that would serve as the centerpiece of a 19th century village and history museum commemorating the region's deep French roots.This is one element of the article that made me believe it was true, there was a quote by someone who is a scholar and working on the subject, willing to have themselves quoted. I believe if this was not something that was true in nature they would not take the chance of having their career being put in jeopardy. There are only a mere 30 individuals left speaking this dialect in this town of Missouri. I believe it will be interesting to see how things turn out, but sadly I believe just like many things of old, this to will fade away.

I believe that sites should be reliable when they are coming across to the public as being credible and presenting credible information. Most people want to believe that the information they are retaining for the most part is true, unless they are reading the Enquirer magazine and many people want those articles to be true as well. If I am doing something for school, work or any other kind of research I want to have the confidence that the resources I'm using holds some creditability. I want to believe the information that I am gathering and retaining is of some worth.

3 Questions

In your first entry, answer these questions: What forms of new media do you use daily? How has new social media influenced your perspective of events? Are these positive or negative influences?

The main form of new media I use at least a few times a day is facebook. Though I don't normally post, I do enjoy looking around at the various pages and happenings on the site. Since I have so many family and friends who live out of the area and in various states, I have an up to date feed of what has been going on in their lives. I also use Linkedin at various times. Outlook and Yahoo Mail are also daily use items for me as well.

I don't believe that new social media has really influenced my perspective on events. I believe it does influence my husband to some degree, (laughing). I tend to just do some research and try to formulate my own opinion on things. I believe that if I read everything that is going on in the world on a daily basis based off media postings, I would never eat, drink, sleep, or better read breathe again. I try to live my life based on the largest impacts and greatest amount of effect. Such as, the HIV epidemic, or when H1N1 was happening and even than I was not in that much of a panic. You just take precautions in your life, even if social media did not exist.

I believe there are plenty of positive influences, it does keep many people informed has to what is happening in the world. Like the reading stated, now people can listen to podcasts while brushing their teeth and stay in line with the events of the world. I remember my grandfather reading the paper every morning. That was his dose of staying in touch of what is happening in the world. The downside is that we can get to much stimulation, to much feedback, to much knowledge as to what is happening in the world and it can create a large amount of paranoia. I don't believe I would want to know what is going on in all parts of the world at all times.