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Peer to Peer Wireless Networks That Can Change Communication

Personal peer to peer networks are going to change some aspects of communication in the future. Fire Chat is a mobile app that uses a phones built in Bluetooth and Wifi to connect to there devices in range to allow for communication without the use of a network. While there are few instances in everyday life where this type of communication would be useful, there are moments where peer to peer networks have been transformative.

Protestors in China who organized them selves via social media turned to Firechat when the government cut access to the networks that allowed them to organize. These peer to peer network allowed the protestors to communicate in a way that wasn’t censorable by the government. These type of networks are also useful in situation like music festivals when the number of people in the area accessing a cellular network that isn’t deigned to deal with that type of capacity. So people turned to Firechat to share information about band location and access to restroom facilities. 

Peer to peer wireless networks are still in their infancy, and they have already been capable of effecting major social changes. I think the most important aspect to this form of communication is how it allows for digital communication that isn’t dependent on on corporate or government networks. Allowing it to be free of censorship,  

We have already seen how social media can be used to change entire governments. The results of Arab Spring allowed multiple middle eastern countries to overthrow their oppressive governments. National governments had previously not scene social media platforms as threat of revolution. 

Another way that these peer created networks can change communication is improving service in areas that susceptible to poor service. In large cities where it is difficult for service providers to provide service without holes. Say you are walking in the city talking on the phone, you walk into a small dead zone. Instead of the call being dropped if your signal was capable of jumping through the service of a nearby strangers who currently has service, it would drastically improve service for everyone. In other countries that rely more heavily on WIFI hotspots instead of cellular networks, these peer to peer networks that build themselves could be a major asset to extend the range of these networks. With capability of even replacing them some day.

QR codes are dead

The concept of using a smartphones cream to seamlessly connect the digital world with the print world was a good one. But QR codes have had a hard time catching on in the United states and it looks like there is little chance of them catching on in the USA.

Some of the main issue that have impacted the failure of QR codes is poor implementation by marketers. Many of the first QR codes were implemented in ares with poor internet service, like subway cars or sport stadiums. Many link lead to broken pages or pages that aren’t optimized for the mobile devices they were scanned by.

Most smartphones require a 3rd party app to be downloaded so the QR code can be scanned an direct people to the appropriate website. Since these apps take up space and are really used by consumer most people don’t keep them arraigns very long in an effort to keep there phones running fast. 

In most instances QR codes have been dumped in favor of short memorable URL. That can be accessed without the addition of a 3rd party app, and that also can me remember until the passerby is in a state where they are apt to look up the information that they seek. 

QR codes aren’t an entirely flawed idea though. They are thriving in asian countries where they have been implemented properly. Chinese people are also more used to using the internet on a mobile device than they are typing a web address. There are also entire price comparison apps built around QR codes giving them much more utility. 

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/qr-codes-dead

http://adage.com/article/global-news/qr-codes-alive-living-china/291026/

Viral Videos

Modern day hysteria issues when a particular video on the internet goes crazy. The URL of the video in question spread like wildfire, being posted on people’s facbeook pages and shared on twitter. These posts are seen, liked and shared. It can happen so rapidly that hundreds of thousands of people are exposed to the content within a very limited amount of time. 

A viral video can have major effects for the for the people involved in content. Earlier in the semester we discussed the case of Jarrid Tansey. After the video of him being accosted while delivering pizza, a Kickstarter campaign began that at this point has provided hime with over 30,000 dollars that he will use to pay for his children’s education. 

The online personality known by the name “Jenna Marble’s” attributes her entire career to one of her videos “How to Trick People in to Thinking Your Good Looking” going viral. She used youtube as a platform to share short videos she made with her friends. She didn’t really understand the everyone on the internet had access to her content. Soon after she posted the video her friends started sharing the video and within a couple of week it had over 4000,000 views. She Continued to make videos on youtube, and today she has over 14 million subscribers, the most for any female You-Tuber. 

A video going viral can be a career maker for any content creator, some have had to do it the old fashioned way. Grace Helbig who just landed her own show within traditional media. slowly built her audience over a 5 year period. A video going viral may be a quick way to fame, but it can’t be forced. So those wanting to be internet-famous, might just have to be patient and understand that it can take time to build a following. 

https://soundcloud.com/earbiscuits/1-grace-helbig

Arab Spring Reflection

Oppressive leaders are careful to try and provide there subjects with an illusion of freedom. They carefully try and balance restrictions and liberties to prevent uprisings and maintain power. The leaders of the countries affected by Arab Spring strongly underestimated the power that social media could give to their population. 

These countries use state ran media outlets which gives the government complete control over what is published in newspapers and broadcast online. The leaders are careful to control what news events are communicated with the people.The leaders of Tunisia Egypt, and other countries in the region, restrict internet access to political website that might insight or facilitate rebellion. Facebook and twitter were viewed as a way to kill al little time by catching up with old friends. Social media took on a new roll one day when a man set himself on fire to protest corruption in his cities markets. Since the state’s media didn’t broadcast this story to the people, the people spread the message themselves via facebook and twitter. 

Arab spring demonstrates the power that social media has. Social media has provided the world with a new for people to communicate and organize themselves. In the countries affected by Arab spring it was an uncensored source of information where people could stay informed on the governments actions,  an organize their response. 

I also think that it’s cool how the application market is responding to the needs of  people in the protesters position. While most of the platforms weren’t willing to delete content from protesters, during the conflict. Now twitter has changed there policies, and they will delete tweets that are considered illegal in certain countries. The threat of deleting tweets and a complete blockage of sites by governments posts a serious threat to future social media based revolutions. A new app called fire chat could take the place of Twitter and Facebook in these situations. Firechat isn’t dependent on existing networks to transmit messages. Fire chat uses the built in wifi and bluetooth within each phone to create its own network. Making the platform impossible to enforce on the digital level. It does have limitation that there needs to be enough people within range to make the network effective. 

The ability to use social media in this manner really excites me. While the protests were full of violence when the dust settled many of these countries are on there way to democracy. Some people think of Facebook and twitter as time wasters but the platforms have shown the ability to enhance the quality of life in an entire country.

Social media could potentially be an avenue, for government to take place. The rapid way the messages can be spread, would allow  a government based online could meet the continually and quickly changing needs of a population, within a democratic process. A democratic process that allows more direct democracy. It might sound crazy but if government can be overthrown through social media, social media could be used to build and effective government. A government that would values transparency and democracy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnPR90dJ3Gk

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/feb/25/twitter-facebook-uprisings-arab-libya

Search Engine Optimization

Google is the universal way people find information on the internet. The google algorithm sift through web pages searching for link and key words to provide their audience with the most relevant content. Optimizing my website can provide me with more interaction with potential clients, because it makes it easier for them to find me on the internet. 

The google algorithm favors links from social media. especially those from google based platforms like youtube, blogger and google plus. But links from other platforms can go along way to help too. I work for the Office of Research and Graduate studies, and out websites get a huge leg up since the are for an educational institution and google favors website the end in .edu. While attending the College of Southern Idaho I learned the the College’s IT department always had a goal to be the first google result when people googled CSI. It didn’t happen very often but sometimes they were able to optimize their site to show up ahead of the hit CBS procedural show. 

http://www.blogtyrant.com/beginner-blogging-seo/

http://www.convinceandconvert.com/digital-marketing/3-ways-to-transform-your-blog-into-a-seo-machine/

Instagram Platform Tools

Facebook has many built in functions to allow me to monitor how people are interacting with my posts. There are all sorts for charts and graphs that allow me optimize my actions with the Traughber Photography Facebook Page. The stripped down nature of Instagram which makes it so popular lacks any analytics besides, number of likes of a post, or followers on the page. So I’m reliant on outside apps to provide me with valuable information to 

InstaFollow is the main resource I use to mange my Instagram activity. It gives me valuable information about which followers are most engaged with my posts. The app also keeps track of who is following me back so that I can make sure I’m following who are following back. It also keeps track of who unfollows, so I know what type of content can cause me to loose followers.

Iconosquare is a desktop website that takes the place of the functionalities of the Facebook page manager. It provides me with statistics the allow me to to choose the most effective times for me to post so that I can maximize reach. These Apps have allowed me to build an effective instagram account in a short period of time.