Our Class Wiki - So Far

So far on the class wiki I have many edits to the music page on the billboard charts. I have been researching royalties through ASCAP and BMI, the history of Vinyl as an audio playing format, new media in music programs and more.I plan to make more edits to the wiki this weekend as I compile my sources and images.

 I would also like to add more to the impact on the music industry section as I feel that new media has played a very significant role in the music industry. I'd also like to add a section on music piracy and P2P sharing as we have been discussing lately, specifically with Napster and other mainstream instances of music piracy. I plan to sort through the music wiki and remove outdated and irrelevant information.

P2P

File sharing is when users share and transmit files from one computer to the other over the internet or through an external drive. P2P file sharing is the ability to share such content through other connected computers on the P2P network, usually through a P2P or torrent software. File sharing has become very common, especially through cloud based services such as Dropbox and Google Cloud

Examples of peer to peer file sharing would be programs such as Limewire or Torrent programs such as Bittorent or Utorrent. Although file sharing originally meant uploading and downloading of such files, now streaming has become more common. As shown in Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios  Instead of illegally downloading new movies on a torrent, a user is easily able to stream it off of many popular websites. This ultimately hurts everyone involved in the creation and distribution of the content. In the example of a song being illegally downloaded and shared, the band themselves, any song writers, the record label, the record label staff, management, and everyone else involved would all be negatively affected. Online piracy and theft of content is so widespread and easy to do that people do not realize the effects of their actions. With this article talking about how it effects the movie industry and how they are taking a page from the music industry in how it was effected by online piracy, the trend seems to be moving towards giving users more and more ability to stream the movies they want on their own official websites. This way traffic is diverted away from piracy sites and re-directed towards the proper channels.

BLOG: Advice

At times Baruch can feel very disconnected being a commuter school and having a vertical campus. New media could be used to connect the student body further and allow more networking between students. Baruch already utilizes social media such as Facebook and Twitter, but one suggestion would be a closed Facebook group for all undergraduate students to be able to talk and network in. Baruch posts a lot of content to their social media, but allowing for more interaction with the students in postings and hearing more of students suggestions and concerns would be another way to better utilize their social media presence. This could go even further to there being contests for free admission to concerts and events being held at Baruch, and other ways to reward the students and help them feel more unified. I would also suggest an initiative to promote Blogs at Baruch more. More and more of our classes at Baruch are utilizing new media such as blogs to tie in with class discussions, which is definitely a good usage of new media.

BLOG: Privacy

In the age of New Media, the issues of privacy and confidentiality are always being discussed. New media allows us to both be confidential, and yet at the same time it can lead to an invasion of our privacy. In the case of a wiki, you can choose to edit it anonymously or leave your credentials. In the case of editing anonymously, the confidentiality can benefit you in protecting your privacy, but at the same time it can be questionable if the editor is reliable. In the case of blogs, with constant posting and discussions going on, some of our privacy can be taken away. Social media websites can lead to the biggest invasion of privacy, with years of our content, photos, and private information all being accessible on social media by our friends and family, and also in cases of third party companies selling our information or in leaks of privacy.