Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds are representations of reality (Friedman). The use of virtual worlds can extend from simple creativity to sophisticated corporate use. One good way in which big corporations are using virtual worlds is by integrating them to their personnel training. Virtual worlds may help new employees prepare with simulated real life situations. As stated by IBM vice president Ted Hoff, "[New IBM employees] can learn real-life working skills such as signing up for benefits, developing code as part of a global team, and ramping up sales skills before they meet with IBM clients” (Frauenheim). Moreover, virtual worlds can help poeple with different health problems such as autism. Poeple with autism can go into virtual worlds and interact with other people which in real life it is difficult for them to do so (Saidi). As Volkmar states, "there is clearly considerable potential in use of new technologies for fostering social skills" which in this case virtual worlds (Saidi). The benefits of using this technology is that it can greatly increase communication skills which are essential in the work place and life in general. In addition, this technology can expand different ways on how to treat patients with certain disorders that prevent them from socializing with different people.

Blogs Vs. Wikis

Blogs and Wikis are similar to one another in that any person can create one. Blogs are alternative to personal web pages. The blogs are mostly used to publish your own ideas and share them with many people. Blogs have limited collaboration since only the user can post content on his or her page. If you are not the owner of the blog you can post comment on the user's page which is a great thing. Also, the user can post links to different websites and to other person's blog. Blogs can create relationships among readers and the users since people are exposing their own unique perspectives.
Wikis give a better feel of what is meant by the word collaboration. A wiki is web page created by user in where other users can access it, edit or add new content to that page. A wiki integrates three important aspects which are communication, collaboration, and community (Friedman). A wiki is ideal for an entire company or just a department in the fact that every can share their own ideas or suggestions. The truth is like stated in the article How To Use Wikis For Business by Ezra Goodnoe "although wikis have been around for a decade, they're just starting to take off in business."
Blogs can be use for collaboration by sharing your ideas with many people. Right now you as the reader are collaborating by taking your time to read this blog post. One thing you can do, is to post a comment regarding my blog post. I can then write back to you and read your own ideas. We can then create a community among other blog users and create a blog roll. Wikis perform better in this area. A new way that wikis can be use is in the area of medicine research. Doctors can share their approaches on new research regarding rare diseases. Doctors around the world would be converging in a single place which would be a wiki.

Blogs and Wikis on youtube

Checking Out Some Social Networking Sites

Myspace, Friendster, Facebook, and Hi5 are social networking sites were people can come together and communicate with one another. These social networking sites are similar to another. Myspace is one of the most popular sites. Myspace attracts musicians since anyone can post their own music and have a better promotion. Posting your favorite music on to your own web profile page is a great thing. In addition, you can customize your own profile page and post pictures which creates a big attraction among teens. I find friendstar to be similar to myspace since the profile pages are arranged in the same style such as comments, friendlist, and . One good feature is the fact that users can create their own blogs or join forums. In my opinion, facebook is mostly use by students who want to find their old classmate friends. College students compose a major part of the users. Facebook is user friendly since you can have fast updates of what your friens are doing. Users do not have to struggle to create their own designs for their home pages. Users receive faster email when comments are posted on their page. Hi5 is the least popular site of these social networking sites. The user interface is so complicated to use. It lacks from a good search engine in order to find friends. Whats the idea behind a Hi5!!!!?
This site was my least favorite one.