With the recent focus on social media in class, I strongly believe that the gist of social interaction on the web is defined by the First Amendment; Freedom of speech. I am a firm believer of free speech, especially on the internet.
Think about this. A company creates a website with their very own ideas and statements for EVERYONE to see. Hence, I believe that if an organization seeks to spread their views, values or any promotions on the internet to society, they should also tolerate society’s views, good or bad.
After all, the public may even offer constructive or intellectual suggestions and proposals for improving and enhancing the clarity of the web page. More importantly, it is another form of getting customer feedback and reviews on products sold.
However, what complicates the matter is the fact that the public may slander or offer comments that are either false or misguiding. This is probably the reason why maintaining a browser that allows for the freedom of speech could be detrimental.
This discussion leads me to bring up a form of social media that was discussed in class two weeks back (I sincerely apologize for this delayed post, CNY was hectic and time-consuming). In 1999, two Singaporean college students launched a free browser plug-in called Third Voice that enabled users to leave comments on any site they visit.
The main reason why this plug in was created was to ensure that corporations remain honest and, also to promote the freedom of speech. It enabled users to post “sticky notes” such as suggestions or comments on any web page. At the height of its fame in 1999, it appeared on the cover of Fortune magazine as one of the publication’s coolest companies of the year.
Unfortunately, this freedom turned into “web graffiti” and after petitions from 400 independent web hosts through a campaign called “Say No to TV”, Third Voice never recovered and eventually the service stopped. Interestingly, its creator Tan Eng Siong also highlighted that the lack of consumer awareness made it impossible to raise its advertising revenue to upkeep the service.
More recently, another form of browser plug-in has manifested. Kraft Foods’ Miracle Whip Brand has started an application that allows users to post comments on web-based content through their social network such as Facebook. In conjunction with Facebook, Zingr enables its users to leave comments on numerous web pages which appear as dialog boxes that can be posted anywhere on the web page.
These postings called “Zings” will then appear on the user’s networks on Facebook and Twitter. Now, if one clicks on that user’s link, it shows the comments or postings accumulated by all the friends on that user’s network inclusive of all the user’s comments. This allows a congregation of people having a “forum” on a particular topic or organization of interest.
According to Miracle Whip, it is “the newest way to allow users to add their own flavor to the internet” Only time will tell if this newly invented application holds firm. Perhaps, the notion of the freedom of speech is returning on the internet, we can only hope that users of this application do not abuse or turn it into web graffiti……
Low advertising revenue or not, I strongly believe that the main reason it failed was due to the fact that the government and media wanted to curb the public from promoting the truth ; what really goes on in the company.
Think in terms of journalism and how the notion of the free press is nothing but bullshit considering the fact that large multi-national conglomerates own a large share of the market’s news agencies and channels. What do you think they would want to promote? More importantly, what would they not promote?
Initially, I had no idea what podcast and RSS is at all being quite technologically handicapped. However, I got interested in it after the last lecture and realize that podcasting is an extremely fast way to receive up to date information about anything via RSS feeds. A noteworthy fact is that the term “podcast” came along because the creators of podcasts, Adam Curry and co. used ipods to listen to their RSS feeds.
Adam Curry -"podfather"The video highlights three very important facts about why podcasting is useful
•Anyone can provide their own show or news that is open to the public without a satellite, radio station or studios needed
•Enabling users to receive up to date shows or news from a website automatically
•Downloadable on a MP3 player or an iphone allowing access to news anywhere.
I would also like to emphasize on two important points in highlighted on some interesting facts (fact 6) on podcasting . Not only should one have an interesting subject matter or enough material to create weekly update on one’s podcast. One must also be truthful to the public providing genuine and accurate facts and not defamation of events.
We owe the responsibility to ourselves and the public to provide the hard facts regardless of its consequences. Contemporary society is filled with tremendous uncertainty and fluidity. Therefore, we ought to use the First Amendment rights to cope with such events and not enhance the complexity among the public. Agree?
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