Margaret’s IMS 201 Weblog

I read this article right after I scanned the home page coverage on Governor Spitzer. I thought it was an interesting angle to look at the story- from the bloggers perspective. Instead of surfing through Times comments and message boards, a professional reporter has done it for you. This story also confirms the importance of citizen journalism in a web 2.0 world.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/nyregion/10cnd-comments.html?hp

Apparently Florida has done it again. The state, infamous for it’s election problems, has extended that reputation to it’s college students. Students at the University of Florida have protested the online voting system for student government elections. The students claim it goes againist a recent Supreme Court ruling that online voting is unconstitutional because it encourages coercion. Personally, I love the all we have to do to vote at Miami is log into blackboard. Honestly, if I had to walk across campus to vote for ASG, I’d defiantly be less likely to vote. Just another interesting tid bit to come out of the Gator Swamp.

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2806/u-of-florida-students-sue-to-hold-online-student-government-elections 

A recent study, out of Swinburne University of Technology found that in a two month period, bloggers were feeling less depressed, anxious, and stressed than non bloggers. The study attributes the social newtworking with these benefits. But there’s a catch, the study also found that bloggers started from a lower social position than nonbloggers, feeling less satisfied with their “real life” relationships. Many turn to blogging for a sense of connection- internet or otherwise.

 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/03/blogging-is-good-for-your-social-life-study/

JuicyCampus is so bad. We don’t have the site yet for Miami, thank god, but it claims free speech as a means to spread rumors in an online forum. This article, describes recent comments from the sites creator, begging users to stay more appropriate online. I agree with the writer of the post… the website is JUICY campus. We’re college students. Appropriate will never happen and if given the opportunity to list the biggest sluts on campus- unfortunately, we’ll take it.

 http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2790/campus-gossip-gets-hateful-wait-isnt-that-the-point

Botanicalls at New York Univeristy’s Interactive Telecommunications Program have found a way to have your plants tell you when it needs water. The group originally discovered a way to have your houseplant call you when it was feeling dry but now, as the article points out, like your mother and best friends, your houseplant can twitter you it’s needs. It works through your online twitter account and can reach you anywhere in the world. This seems very weird to me and although I don’t have a twitter account, I already get daily harassment calls from friends and family… the plant would be overkill. Even though I’m skeptical, this development is cool, if not just for sheer novelty.

http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9877823-2.html 

Hilarious. Apparently, last year when Microsoft $240 million in facebook, Bill Gates decided to try social networking first hand. Since then, Gates has reportedly spent 30 minutes on facebook at day. Reportedly… I’m not sure I buy it. A year later, Gates cites the reason of “excess celebrity”as his main reason to deactivate his account. He had over 8,000 friend requests a day and spotted some troublesome fan sites. The WSJ ties the article to privacy issues popping up with facebook. Primarily, once you deactivate your account, facebook still keeps record of your information. Good to know but a little late now. As I learned from our past class, Facebook actually owns my life. Great.

http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/02/12/bill-gates-quits-facebook/ 

Harvard University’s graduate school for the Arts and Sciences got a rude awakening Sunday before last when hackers gained access to the web’s server and published directory information from the school’s administrators. As cruel as it is, I smile a little when anything bad happens to Harvard. Playground taunting aside, this is a little worrisome. We all use file sharing websites and my information, like Harvard’s administrators’, could hacked. At Miami, blackboard is our lives. Our grades, tuition, email, scheduling… everything runs off our unique id and password.

This article describes a recent trend in workspaces across the country where freelance writers and tech specialists coming together to share a single workspace. Brad Nuberg is attributed with the new phenomenon and coined the word “coworking” to describe it. Basically, people rent workspaces in large open areas, mainly lofts. I think this is a really interesting concept and shows the portability of the world that we live in. As a journalism major, I’ll really only need two things in my career: a laptop with the internet and word and a cell phone. In the internet driven world, it’s easy to feel disconnected from true humanity. It’s nice to see people actually wanting to be around people.

Starbucks has ended it’s deal with T-Mobile to be the internet provider of the nationwide super-corp. Beginning this spring, starbucks will offer a mix of paid and free wireless internet. If the customer uses a starbucks card to make their purchase, they get two free hours of wireless service. Without the starbucks card, a monthly membership is $19.99. With T-Mobile, users pay $39.99 a month. The article asserted that starbucks had to respond to increasing pressure from their competitors (McDonald’s included) to step up their wireless service as most competitors provide the same service for less- or free.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Starbucks-ATT.html?ref=technology 

Flickr’s fan base has responded to the alleged Yahoo buy out with a vengeance. This past week, graphics designed by flickr’s devout following have popped up all over the site with multiple tags. Parodies of mash- up logos with yahoo and flickr range from the appropriate to somewhat inappropriate but hilarious. This evening, the news broke that Microsoft’s initial proposal has been rejected.

 http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/02/microsofts-bid.html