Twitter Saves the Day for NHL Goaltenders

This past year, I've witnessed more unlucky goals in the NHL then I have ever seen in my entire life.  Whether the puck is dumped in from center ice, or it bounces out of no where and ends up in then net, the puck has seemed to find its way into the net this year more then normally.  With this new trend in goaltending, a variety of NHL star goaltenders have found a very creative way to help ease the tension they were receiving form the public.....Twitter.  Luongo is one of the most popular NHL figures on Twitter with his constant stream of punny comments, and hilarious photo's of his teammates.  After giving up a goal against the Florida Panthers this past year, he took to Twitter in an effort to stop the mocking he received from every hockey fan across the world.  He allowed a goal from center ice, and the puck bounced down the ice and right over his glove and in the goal.  Taking to Twitter, Luongo released a picture of himself with a large cardboard piece taped to the top of his glove, demonstrating the new addition he would like to add to his equipment in order to not allow goals like this again.

By doing so, Luongo made a joke of his recent tragedy during a game and sparked a trend within the goaltending community.  Since this post other NHL goaltenders, such as Jonathan Bernier, have released similar posts trying to ease the tension on themselves and from the public about the issues they've been having.  These accomplish a lot for not only the individual but for the organization.  Making these posts such a "fan favorite" provides great publicity for the teams and gives the public an insight look at the character of these players.  Demonstrating that they're not just a "big mean fighting machine", and rather normal people just like us.  These Twitter posts also provide the goalies a way of easing the tension on themselves and help them move forward after the incident.  I'm sure that we will likely see a lot more of these posts throughout different social media platforms as teams are now creating SnapChat accounts with stories demonstrating the day to day activities of the players, and Facebook accounts allowing the players to interact with fans.

source:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/02/11/toronto-maple-leafs-jonathan-bernier-is-off-the-hook-roberto-luongo-allowed-a-terrible-goal-against-anaheim-ducks/#__federated=1

Apple Taking a SERIOUS Shot at Android

Though isn't your typical social media move that we've seen Apple make, Apple is taking a HUGE shot at Android over the past week.  Apple released over there corporate website and social media accounts that Android users can now turn in their phones towards gaining credits for paying for a new iPhone.  By doing this, they have created quite a stir within the technological market as they took a direct shot at all Android companies.  One of the biggest successes of this move by Apple was their secrecy before making the act, and immediately taking to their corporate social media accounts to spread the word.

Through using their corporate social media accounts loyal users were alerted of this new opportunity immediately.  Hundreds of thousands of users follow Apple on a variety of social media accounts and voiced their opinions.  Most of the comments and shared posts appeared to be very positive towards Apple, and most think it's a great idea.  However, the biggest social media move I'm waiting for is from companies such as Samsung, HT&T and Motorola.  The next moves that will happen should be very interesting in the way that nobody knows how they're going to react.  Should they respond with their own campaign in the same manner? Or should they try and make a joke of Apple and try and play it off?  Only time will tell.

source:
http://9to5mac.com/2015/03/30/apple-launches-in-store-android-trade-in-program-to-boost-iphone-sales/

Your Twitter Page Running Itself...

Can you imagine a day when your Twitter page could post by itself without you having todo anything? And being able to post what you actually want it to?  Well this is about to become a reality within the next 10 years thanks to the use of Artificial Intelligence.  No i'm not talking about Aliens, but about Cortex.  Developed out of Boston, this software learns the needs and wants of brands and is able to help them make decisions on social media sites.  The use of having a strong social media presence is becoming much more important and this is the reason why Cortex was developed.

Through running a series of algorithms, the software is able to learn the tendencies and situations that he brand is exposed to on social media accounts.  By doing so Cortex is able to learn and develop strategies that could help the brand function in a more beneficial manner.  The biggest point being made by Cortex is that nobody has to be there to run it.  The artificial intelligence runs by itself, makes decisions and practically runs the users social media accounts for them.  Though this seems mildly terrifying, I believe that this could be a huge step for technology and social media in the world. Being able to not have to hire somebody to run the accounts, and having the best possible knowledge about social media can only be beneficial for companies.  With Cortex being able to develop and adapt to changes so quickly, I believe that we could see a serious drop in jobs in this field if this technology continues to grow.

Source:
http://www.betaboston.com/news/2015/03/25/with-the-launch-of-cortex-artificial-intelligence-comes-to-social-media-management/

Virtual Reality Coming to Facebook

At a recent press conference, Mark Zuckerberg announced the introduction Facebooks latest study on virtual reality.  Working with Oculus, a virtual reality company that Facebook bought for $2million this past year, they hope to be able to take this technology and change how we use social media.  The main focus of using this new "Virtual Reality" is to connect the world in a totally new fashion and in a way that everyone can experience using social media platforms and peer to peer interaction.  

The development of this new technology can open Facebook from just a typical social media site, to an international market place.  This all depends on what steps that Zuckerberg wants to take and into which direction he wants the company to go in.  If he were interested in making Facebook into a more business oriented site, the use of Oculus could help drastically change how we deal with interacting with meetings.  The use of the virtual reality would allow individuals to feel like they're at the business meeting and interacting with other members, without ever having to be there.  The use of virtual reality would potentially allow for meetings, conferences, games and other sorts of issues to become a first person experience; no matter your location.   Time will only tell if this new form of media will take off, or if it'll be just a giant waste of money.

source:
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2902183/at-f8-today-virtual-reality-may-be-next-phase-of-social-networking.html

Pixels Takes on a New Look

We can all remember the days of playing Donkey Kong and Pong and how great the animations used to look to us.  However, as time went on we started to realize that, well, these games were actually pretty awful.  A new movie being released within the next year is all about the pixels that we've come to love and portrays them in a totally new way.  This fictional movie has taken a series of older games and produced something totally and new.

Movie companies are taking to social media to advertise their movies now much more then ever before.  Due to the rise of social media in our every day lives, it isn't surprising that they now do most of their advertising over this platform.  With companies such as FaceBook and LinkedIn lowering their age requirement for using their service, companies are now promoting to this audience as well (via social media).  I believe that this trend in advertising will only rise and become a much bigger factor for companies like Pixar and other movie companies.

source:
https://www.facebook.com/PixelsMovie?pnref=story

From Social Media to the Court Room--Class Work

Brief Summary:
The use of social media sites within the court room has been a growing figure the last 10 years.  The first part of this article depicts how hard it is for court rooms to narrow down evidence with online data.  The use of images and videos may not always be taken as concrete evidence within the court room do to the advances in producing "life like" digital files.  The use of different digital programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe AfterEffects is creating interference with the court room because it asks the question, "is this really what happened? Or did somebody edit this and put what they wanted into it?"  The next section of the reading describes to the user how lawyers are affected by taking social media evidence to the court room.  The lawyers duty of candor is a primary issue within many court cases dealing with social media information.  Whether the lawyer is being 100% truthful with the information he/she has gathered, and whether he/she is representing the case honestly is proving to be a larger issue within todays court hearings.  Though this seems like a "no brainer" and that lawyers are always truthful with their cases, in many cases they are unaware of the situation that they are in and are mislead by a client dealing with social media evidence.

Notable Points:
-Information pulled from social media sites is not always considered good evidence.
        -Can be altered in programs and therefore not eligible for court.
-People vs. Beckley
        -Girl putting up gang sign with a quote considered to be from a gang on social media.
        -Brought up in court as evidence.
        -Not concrete evidence so couldn't be used.

Relation to Law Topics Issues such as the ability to alter images and the ability to quote sources that many think shouldn't be allowed on social media sites will continue to be a problem within todays court system.  The main issue that court cases will run into is whether whatever is being taken to court was "literal in meaning" or "used in that way".  The interpretation over a users information on their social media site will be hard to fight due to not being able to ever know the exact reasoning behind it without having to go to the source who wrote it.  Because we cannot know for sure they exact and literal meaning behind something found on social media sites (such as images or tweets), lawyers will continue to have a hard time building evidence off of information found on a social media platform.

Discussion Question:
1.) How can we determine the literal meaning behind information pulled from social media platforms against the client who wrote it?

2.) Does the court have the right to bypass the security and rights of an individual on a social media site who is being prosecuted in court?


source:
http://apps.calbar.ca.gov/mcleselfstudy/mcle_home.aspx?testID=61

Google Plus

Blog about Google Plus from class: 3/10/15

When it comes to social media, many of us restrict what we publicly announce about ourselves on these sites.  Some information that users post seems far to private then anything we would use, but yet there is no distinct boundary about what is acceptable and what isn’t.  Choosing to opt in on the information that we are sharing can be far different then what many other users are doing, and choosing to opt out seems to be an easier (used more) option.  Due to the decision about what is right and what isn’t, different social media sites have created layout for their sites due to how easy it is to opt out of sharing information.

Google Plus, a modern social media site, is an internationally used social media platform that allows you to share and hide personal information within their site.  Certain aspects within Google Plus such as a photo and your name are automatically displayed forcing you to opt in with this service.  Though you are forced to have an image associated with your name, Google gives you the option of having a default image that they created which preserves your privacy.

Privacy protection within Google Plus is a main focus within the social media platform.  For example, the user can simply “lock” or “hide information” much like they can do on other sites such as Facebook and Twitter.  The user can choose to block cookies from the Google platform so that their personal information is not being tracked due to what they are looking at or clicking on.  Another precaution that Google takes with their social media site is found within the code of the site itself.  Google has taken many steps towards encrypting their service so that outside sources cannot break their wall and access information that is stored within the site about their users.  Though this seems like a typical step with a social media sites, encrypting the software in a unique way will prevent hackers from being able to access private information and tearing down the social media network.

When it comes to the information that the user has control of on Google Plus, we run into a mild curveball.  The user can display pretty much as little or as much as they want, but Google sometimes adds information to the account without the user knowing on occasion.  Google accounts for these incidents by stating that the user has the power to delete whatever they want, so they should be in charge of doing it.  This brings up a serious issue with the connection between private information and the power of the social media network.  Should they dictate what they feel is acceptable for other users to know about you? Should you be able to make these decisions?