Collaborating Inside the Election.

 As Election Day approaches, I can confidently say that the internet is a votes best friend. Depending on which party you are voting for I can guarantee that there are sites that have supporting “facts” and negative “facts” about the other candidates.  It stuns me to see how different groups of people will come and work together to support a candidate, the collaborative process is always at works in a presidential race. Traditionally it would have to do with the “foot work” of going door to door, calling for donations, or getting volunteers to attend rallies to raise awareness for the platform a candidate is running on. President Obama changed this scope of this conversation though, he has been deemed as the first social media President. The Washington post has labeled him as a new media president, an Engadget.com has called Obama the White House’s first “Social Media Ninja”. 

https://evolllution.com/opinions/audio-collaboration-key-strengthening-workforce/

All of this together we see how President Obama has used his reaches with media to connect to people and when he was just a nominee he used this power to add votes. Now that was more than 16 years ago that Obama took YouTube by storm to collaborate with the “common person” however in 2016 the field has changed again. This Political race I would deem as the Race of the Meme, to me it seems that every political event that is going on where it be debate, speech, rally, donor dinner, or press events all leave with a meme of what a candidate did.  Over the last 3 or 4 elections I can confidently say that the number of young votes has been growing, and I believe that collaborating is that key. In past elections to understand what a candidate stood for you had to watch the broadcast news or physically attend a rally. However, in 2016 you simply must pick up your phone you have access to virtually every aspect of a candidates’ life. You also get a more robust image of a candidate because with a few clicks on your phone you can see all sides of an argument collaborated with news, social media, and others a person can fully invoke their right to vote. It is so exciting that in this day and age more and more people are getting out and being motivated to vote, also that the notion of voting is becoming “cool” again. As technology first started to advance I feel like we were programed to believe that this was for work purposely only (whether that be school or in the professional world) there has been a slow shift recently that is enabling society to use technology collaboratively and better the world. 

OpenAI

In class on Thursday the 13 we began to talk about the idea of ownership, and what that looks like as we keep progressing into the digital age. Ownership is a very complex and difficult thing to track as collaboration becomes more asynchronous. Boundaries and lines get blurred almost daily as to what “rights” do people have over products, especially as individuals begin pulling ideas and collaborating with different outside sources to achieve results. The prime example we talked about in class was how Steve Jobs is credited as the mastermind behind Apple when in reality he was the collaborating kingpin that just new how to push products and tweak others idea until they “fit his vision”. Jobs was able to take from the minds of others and tweak and add little pieces in order to bring a better more complete product that they created and runs for their systems. Much like Apple, Facebook does the same. They choose to create software that helps benefit their systems. This is where trouble can lie. For example, there is a new “space race” however instead of seeing who can reach outer space first companies are now competing to see who can create an artificial intelligence program that surpasses all other. These companies such as, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, and Intel all are working furiously behind closed doors. They have taken all collaborated methods behind their own walled garden to ensure that they will be in control.

https://jobs.lever.co/openai

However, there is one company that is actively working to break that mold, OpenAI is a company owned by Elon Musk (creator of Paypal) and wants to bridge all forms of collaborating when it comes to producing AI software. This isn’t the popular because other companies see this as a competition. Musk though sees danger. There is a high likelihood that if a fully sustainable artificial intelligence program is created then it would not take long for it to redesign its own intelligence and cause a worldwide problem. Which could mean the down fall of society as we know it. So this is why we must come together to allow all people to have access to the source and code that would give that power. If we continue to keep our collaboration away from each other than we potentially are heading to worlds end. This is a revolution because Musk isn’t seeking ownership of anything of the data that is created, the code is available to all. Any company can access it. This is the nightmare for every other company by limiting the circulation of code they are ensure that they are the key player. Movies like Terminator or I, Robot can show the real danger that is right around the corner if this technology is allowed to be created in a hidden lab. Collaboration could turn out to be the saving grace that the world needs. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbcRlDBnwjM

LET THEM TYPE

                                                                  LET THEM TYPE

In class on Thursday October sixth we as a class look at the very complex topic of self-help forums. The topic of the forum was anorexia and how society has labeled it. However, before we can fully dive into this topic we must take a step back discuss what platforms we are talking about. The biggest plate form for this issue is social media, with sites such as Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Pinterest all located at the center point of these self-run forums. Now the tern for the movement who is against the act of anorexia BUT still an advocate for an open dialogue on the topic is called being Pro-Ana. This title at first was a hard thing for me to understand I can admit that I was quick to judge by the suffix pro which Dictionary.com tells us means “indicating favor for some party, system, idea, etc., without identity with the group” (www.dictionary.com/browse/pro-) so you could see how I was confused by nature. Here we are talking about a group who is here to fight the stigma of anorexia but yet still is in favor of it? That makes no sense, and in reality I was right. It didn’t make any sense, in fact these forums are quite the opposite they are in no way for or promoting the notion of anorexia instead conversely they standing to allow freedom of dialogue about these topics.

(Photo From Bing Images)

Once I was understood this I really started to listen to learn. I am not well versed in this topic but I think it is a dreadfully serious one that needs addressing. During the discussion Lili mentioned that in believe in France(?) they have decided to block all social media post with the hashtag #ProAna attached to it. This is surprising and concerning. Online communities are built allowing the members/users access to connections and collaborations that they would never have before. With these communities there are both positives and negatives much like any other society. I am weary of the message that this sends to other online groups, that if their agenda is not in line with the localized government then they will be forcible shut down. And this is a scary thought to me,