Pass the Baton

https://twitter.com/hydroflask

Today I contributed to my first wiki-post. by using a website called Pass the Baton my fellow classmates and I collaborated to work together to find a goal that we could fight for. The idea pitched was mine about HydroFlask and how they give 5% of their proceeds to one of twelve organizations that they pair with. We came together as a team to establish tasks that would help inform the public. In our minds once the public is informed we believe the only conscious decision would be to act. Agreeing on what steps to take took a little time, to my knowledge no one in our group has ever tried to establish a plan of action to inform the public. so, we had a slow start. After a little discussion, we realized that we needed to create a hashtag that the users to interact with to solidify a two-way relationship from company and user. We decided on the hastag #HydroFlaskGivesback. On top of a hashtag we want owners of HydroFlask to stop and register their HydroFlasks now. Thirdly we decided to promote giving a gift to not only a friend but also a charity. By buying a hydro flask for someone you can also benefit others. This is a no brainer. The fourth goal was to post a picture of your HydroFlask and the access code on the bottle to social media this will help collaborate a feeling on community, if people feel a connection with others than we know that they will be more likely to give. The final task we decide on was to encourage a conversation offline as well. Word of mouth whether it be computer moderated or face to face will be the driving force of this campaign. This simple act of registering your HydroFlask you are taking a few simple and easy steps we as a society can come together to help to benefit the charities.

Working in such a large group was hard at first, finding a vision that fit the group was difficult. At first everyone was sitting silently trying to figure out a direction to take this project. Once the ideas started flowing however it was helpful having so many people, the group did a great job at listening to all suggestions and collaborating to find the best ones that fit the image we wanted. All in all I am proud with the work we have done. We came together in a short and productive time.  This ability of self involvement in a activist group really leads to an ownership to the task. 

The Power of the Counter

From the beginning of time man has felt the need to socialize, and as time evolved this need grew. How we have Countless ways to classify how connected a person is. The overarching label that we use is called “the public” now publics confuse me. This is because public is defined as a group who are socially aware of specific events. The problem resides here, that makes the public a very limiting force.  A Public is also a self-organized group. So, does this mean that to be considered part off the public you must willing choose and be aware that you are part of it? Furthermore, who gets to defined what the organization is? To me the scary part about publics are that they are so open ended that they are able to apply to everyone. Which is not inherently bad, however it can create problems. Society has shown us that when public have issues, we can see the creation of counter publics. A counter public is when the minority voice stands up to dispute the norms of what society is saying. Counter public’s can lead to a powerful and visionary movement, which allows the invisible to come together and be recognized by society.

http://scotthalbach.weebly.com/checks-and-balances.html

In class, it was discussed how a public is the social space created by reflexive circulation of discourse. The importance can always have been seen in conversation. The public can only be positive and beneficial when all parts are aware and collaborating to bring the best to the society they serve. These spaces of open dialogue and discourse are very important for how a counter public interacts. As societal norms are naturally build around the culture we can start to develop bias, so the importance of a counter public is to make sure the society is mindful of how it comes across. The government has a very powerful system in place to act as a safeguard for the people and the public. In the same regards, we can label counter public's under the same name. checks and balances are what allow a public to thrive and grown while on the other being protected. This is the merit.

The Power Behind Collaborating

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/252698

So now that we are five days removed from Tuesday I can finally talk about the election. I wanted to wait to distance myself from my gut feeling and truly apply course content to what took place on Tuesday night. All I can say is wow. Online collaborating in recent years have definitely had an influence on the election and how information was passed on to the mass public. In this day in age having access to content online allows the collaboration of communities to take place and form connections of people with similar attitudes that can directly impacts voters this is not debatable.

The interesting part to me comes in the idea of getting the online pool of resources to mobilize feasible force to be felt. Etienne And Beverly Wenger--‐Trayner write an article called Communities of practice a brief introduction it states that A Community of practice is not merely a community of interest--‐--‐ people who like certain kinds of movies, for instance. Members Of a community of practice are practitioners. This means common practice are shared. To me however, it is clear that Trump was able to transcend the scope of online collaboration and push the collaborating forces into a movement that won him the election. By reaching rural America he was able to slip through the cracks of experience and become president by sheer promise. His practical group was large enough to buy into what he was selling and gain enough votes. 

The Simplicity of Open Source Programs

For years, the battle of ownership has plagued the corporate world. Both sides make great points for who has a valid argument, however the view point is often taken away from the consumer and that’s where I want to take it back to. As a college student I can confidently say that finding the right applications to use for a semester can either make or break your classes. So can working with other students. In a major like E-Society collaborating with other students on projects/assignments is all but inevitable, and half of the problem is making sure the tools are equally usable for all students. Typically, these conversations take up the majority of the first couple meets. Amazingly, when it came to open source programs the issues were almost all but nonexistent. One of the biggest obstacle comes in the form of what operating system you run, the divided between Mac and PC is very real, and very difficult. In my mind I went into our group meeting today on Nov 10 to work on our collaborative assignment with the same mindset, and astonishingly I was surprised to have all of that be laid to rest.

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/believeityes/blog/biteable-how-to-make-a-free-animation

We decided to use a website called Biteable to create a video project on Net Neutrality. Besides just the video we are adding audio which will be all done inside of the program Audacity. Planning this assignment was a very painless process which I believe is chiefly due to the ability to forgo all issues around making sure we all have access to the information. Sometimes I get lost in the idea of closed source programs being more trust worthy because corporate America has trained me with brand loyalty so I believe their products are better. In fact this is rarely the case. I am excited that this project finally allows me to access the other side of the spectrum so familiarity will not hold me back any more. 

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,