Week of Feb 23

James Surowiecki: When social media became news

The thesis of this movie was when social media became a phenomenon in the 2005 tsunami. I found it intriguing that media outlets like texting, ims, video and blogs are what captured our history.  What wasn’t so great that James Surowiecki didn’t get to the point right away. 

Johanna Blakley : Social Media and The end of the Gender

The thesis of Blakley’s speech is that social media is going to help us dismantle and free us from the assumptions we have as a society against gender. I think it was very important and effective that Blakley got right to the point and brought up her points with examples within the first two minutes. I found it most intriguing that with online media tools we are able to redefine ourselves. Another fact I found intriguing was that women are driving the social media revolution according to world wide statistics in every age category they dominate men. I didn’t find any ideas that I didn’t think Blakley should have discussed, her speech was very organized.

Jonathan Zittrain: The Web as random acts of kindness

The thesis of this video is that the internet is made up of millions of disinterested acts of kindness, curiosity and trust. A couple things that I found interesting was his pessimistic attitude. I found it intriguing that the 3 founders of the internet all went to the same high school and were classmates. I found it intriguing that the 3 founders has no money to invest in the internet but they didn’t need it in order to succeed and come out on top. One thing that wasn’t so great was when Zittrain babbled on about bumble bees flying around. Some of his ideas were intriguing but he also brought in irrelevant information like beer at a baseball game.