Reality > Virtual Reality

In this video, Rhonda Lowry is a big supporter of virtual realities like Second Life. She puts a big emphasis on how in order to successfully use virtual realities, we need to change the way we see our "identity." Rhonda is a credited professional with many skills and talents, yet her online "identity" is an alias. Her Second Life identity is Grace McDunnough, an avatar that she controls through her computer. Personally, I think that's silly. Social media tools and websites give us the opportunity to explore, discover, and connect with so many people and topics. I don't understand the necessity to have a different identity or avatar that is different from yourself to participate successfully. I think that your online presence should reflect your own personality as much as possible.

For networking purposes, it makes sense to have your online identity be the same as the person you really are. If I'm looking for advice or people to connect with and create a network, I want to know who it is I'm connecting to. The online profile and the actual person should be the same. Your real identity should be portrayed truthfully online because of our converging culture too. People use multiple social media sites and their presence online should be consistent for each. We are definitely moving away from the Industrial Age and virtual realities are going to become more common, but people are still people. We have new technologies and social tools to help us connect and make work more efficient, but we need to understand who we are connecting to.

A Few Steps to Establishing a Consistent Social Media Practice

1. "Subscribe to 50 or more blogs in a similar space as yours, including competitors, and any industry blogs. "
 - Get connected with as many people as you can. Find out what other people are saying and get used to the type of conversations people have. 


2. "Use tagging and other metadata to improve your blog’s search features. Most newer blog software has this built in. If not, look for plugins."
 - Get noticed! Establish yourself and get people interested in checking out your blog.


3. "Look for cross-promotional opportunities for like-minded blogs in your space."
- Share with your peers. Promote your network and they will promote you back.


4. "Remember to comment on other people’s blogs frequently, and show your participation in the communities where you have presence."
- Social media is a 2-way conversation. Don't just absorb everyone's information, comment and share it!


5. "If you’re blogging, make that a home base for all your other efforts."
- Have a personal profile on the internet. With everything you read and post, make sure it is nice and organized in one place. 

Brain Technology

This type of technology is amazing! Our brain is super complex and scientists don’t even have a full understanding of how and why the brain works the way it does. This headset can gives us so much insight into our brains. 

Although it is a fascinating tool, I can only see a few ways in which it can help human communication. People with disabilities can use this technology to help them function and communicate with others easier. The scary part of this technology makes me think of Disney and Pixar’s movie Wall-E. If humans rely solely on technology like this then we can become super lazy and dependent on machines and technology. 

Work Together

Howard Rheingold has a great TED lecture on the importance of collaboration and cooperation. People are starting to realize that sharing and working together can produce creative and innovative products and services. Traditional methods companies use like keeping projects and software a secret and only work on them with internal resources has limited their development. The Open-Source Movement puts an emphasis on community collaboration. Instead of developing something from only within the company, open sourcing opens the project up to a community and allows anyone to alter and make contributions.

I think the open source movement is awesome. Collaboration from a community that is interested and dedicated to something is way better than the same small group of people working together on every project. The open source movement gives everyone a chance to make suggestions for improvement. My only concern for open source projects is standardization. The constant collaboration is great for making improvements, but too much change in a product can become annoying. Then again, is constant changes due to improvements a bad thing? Saying yes to improvements seems silly, so I think people need to start contributing, collaborating, and working as a team.