Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

          The fast phase of technology make our life convenient and more efficient. One of the most commonly used technology is virtual community and it brings many advantages in our lives.  One of the benefits are the virtual community can help companies to save money while work efficiently. According to the article "Going to the virtual office in Second life.", the virtual community help business entities to save money.  For example, when the companies having meeting on their own computer networks, it collaborate effectively using virtual tools to have conference or meetings.  Virtual community now became important aspect for business entities because it is not only save money but also save time especially for those busy business men. Moreover, not only business entities but also the government agencies and the U.S. military take advantages of virtual community when they are conducting training and prototype new technologies more efficiently.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/11/05/second.life.virtual.collaboration/index.html

         Further more, the virtual community  can be used as virtual training for nurses. Since the training costs much less than the training with hired actors, it is easily used by the hospitals according to the article Avatar2:The hospital. 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703909804575124470868041204.html?KEYWORDS=avatar+ii+the+hospital

        It also can add creations in our lives. We can using virtual community to experience things that we can not do in the real life. 

         On the other hand, over use of virtual training, might affect in losing social relationships and a loss of the sense of community. These days too many people addicted in playing games and losing the social relationships with their friends in real life.

 The future of the virtual life will definitely make our life more convenient while saving our resources. However, we might also losing social relationships in the real life if there are too many virtual communities. 

Blog about Twitter

Twitter discussions allow people to write short sentences that limited 140 characters so that people write abstractions of their summary. It can be use for many ways such as political purposes, advertising, entertainment etc…

Black board discussions are mostly used for academic purpose that professors and students can communicate through the Black board without any limitation. Students also can read and print out materials that professors post on the Black board. 

During the in class discussions, students can ask professor questions that they don't understand and  professors and students can debete on the certain topic. It is more direct communication and students can get the feedbacks right away. 

Social networking sites

My impression of the Twitter is mainly posting our thoughts, ideas, articles and announcements. Twitters can only allows the followers to see what the people wrote on the their Twitter. Since it is limited to 140 characters, we can read the main points or the abstractions of the summary of the writers. 

On the other hand, on Facebook people are likely posting pictures, tag friends, posting where they have been etc... Since it is one of the most famous social networking, many people check it regularly so that we use it as primary communication tool. 

My space also is a social networking tool but it has been losing its members. It allows people to post their pictures, design, adding musics and decorate their own profile. 

Linkedin is a professonal social networking tool that became popular and mainly for job searching professionals. It allows people to search the jobs and allows employees to search the potential employers through qualifications and experiences. 

Social networking

The companies use social network to connect and service customers to promote their company. For examples,  Warby Parker, success so quickly from the community of  followers.   They've cultivated through their activities on key social media networks, specifically Facebook, Twitter.  It approaches community building and offers great lessons in social engagement that implement them to fast track the growth of their business. Warby Parker is currently just shy of 100,000 followers and still growing daily. The strength of their appeal on Face book lies in their prolific use of images through status updates, albums and users engagement campaigns. Since the arrival of the Facebook timeline, images are more important than ever. Also, according to Facebook Marketing, "Photos and videos get 120 % and 100 % more engagement respectively."  Thus, the social networks can increase awareness of the companies, develop targeted marketing activities and better understanding of customers perceptions of their brand.  On the other hand, because of increasing of social media web sites,  it is vexing lots of companies. The instantaneous sharing of information and opinions about products on Twitter, blogs, and other sites is compelling companies to try to influence these conversation through technology and new ways of thinking. Businesses don't really need to worry any longer about losing control of what consumers are saying about them on the web; that control is pretty much gone. Many companies are being victimized by social media rather than capitalizing on it because they're too slow and ill-equipped to react to negative comments that can damage their brands. Since, more and more companies promote their brand in social networking site, I believe that it will move toward more interactive social networking features that allow people of like minds in the business world to communicate and even debate with one another in real time through the internet and business interactions will become more dynamic.