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Final Blog Post

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Final Blog Post Images: Pixabay Hey guys, I’m glad we all survived. I just recently switched to eSociety last year and have not been disappointed since then. The major focuses on more practical aspects of introducing students to technologies that are out there that they might not know about. This also leans into how we learned more in depth about social media, which is important since nearly all of us are on it. I find that the more classes I take like ESOC 211, I find that working in groups has gotten a lot easier for me. I hope it has helped you all as well! Collaborating together has been a great experience and I wish more students got the chance to meet and get to know each other. I feel that that was the more practical life experience we all learned in this class. Jared’s blog: http://esoc211uaj.blogspot.com/ Evan’s blog http://collaboratingforet.blogspot.com/ I did not expect to learn as much as I did and since we are all the same or similar majors, I am
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Group Presentations! 11/30/17

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ESOC 211 Group Presentations! Image: Wikimedia Commons This week we had our Collaborative Group 2 presentations. I thought it would be interesting to put these comments in my blog! Community Commitment Group 3: Hannah Leigh Johnson, Alan Castillo, Ryan Cohn, Christian Williams, Ethan Mermel The First Group (3) that went made a came up with a good product. The video was concise in the points it made as well as some interesting facts and statistics in the presentation. I had no idea that there was that high of a number of college students committing suicide. Social media also had a part to play in the suicide narrative as it can have an impact in preventing it (Reddit) Toxic Food Environment Group 4: Jeremy Thompson, Alex Lozano, Shannon Washington, Josh Quirk, Kaci Burden This presentation was incredibly informative. The video was comical and I enjoyed learning more about nutrition. This is important because there are many options of items to consume and the
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Calling All Citizen Scientists! 11/21/17

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Calling All Citizen Scientists! By Jacob Chan Image: File:Science-symbol-2.svg, Wikimedia Commons Over the last couple of weeks in ESOC 211, we have explored what it means to be a contributor to large online platforms such as Wikipedia. This week’s activity included introducing our class to the possibility of being “citizen scientists”. Citizen Scientists refers to the user of the website being granted the ability to contribute their own time and effort towards a collective research goal. Through platforms such as Zooniverse, anyone can be a researcher. That’s right. There is no background or any specialty necessary to participate in Zooniverse. This is a unique aspect as users can contribute their own research from the comfort of their own home on their own time. This main body of researchers is comprised of many men and a surprising amount of women contributors. Source: https://www.zooniverse.org/
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Intro to Understanding Wikipedia’s Gender Gap: 11/13/17 Week 13

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Intro to Understanding Wikipedia’s Gender Gap By: Jacob Chan Image: Wikimedia Commons For this week’s iteration, the beginning of the week covered an interesting topic: the wikipedia gender gap. At first I  had no knowledge of what or where this was going but after further research and reading I learned more about it. Long story short, it refers to is the lack of female editors in Wikipedia, however the bigger picture is something to take note of. Wikipedia in itself is a method in which a large encyclopedia can be edited by anyone and is not controlled by one sole entity. It can be described as a playground of sorts where anyone can lay check and balance on information placed on the popular search website. This in theory is an ideal means of keeping up to date information on the website which keeps its relevance and fills the demand for current information on nearly anything. Where the theory comes to a grinding halt is that the public check and balance system does not
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Save the Tree Octopus 11/07/17

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“Save the Tree Octopus” Image: Wikimedia Commons This week we covered the effects of the spreading of misinformation, disinformation, fake news, and bullshit. The Tree Octopus reading was created with the intent of demonstrating the spreading of content from user to user. In the article it described a tree-inhabiting octopus and surrounded its fictitious existence with a few real octopus facts. Although the “tree octopus” is not a real thing, the author sprinkled some facts and edited pictures to fool readers into sharing the content. The point of the article although satirical, was to see if the “consumer” or reader would possess the ability to digest information with sound and informed judgement. Misinformation, Disinformation, Fake News, or Bullshit? Answer: A little bit of everything! What the author did here was an artfully done precursor to the Onion. This article was a masterpiece of integrating all four descriptions in the reading. Now the question is
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Brand Building in the Digital Age 10/29/17

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Brand Building in the Digital Age by Jacob Chan Image: CC0 License, Pexels.com This week we were tasked to read into brand building. In particular to our learning objectives was the reading assignment “Branding in the Age of Social Media ” by Douglass Holt in the Harvard Business Review. I thought this was an interesting read personally due to the fact that brand building has a tremendous impact on modern day business! With many evolving industries, many new markets have been created in the information economy. Many of these have to do with social media management and involve research and adaptation. On the flip side, corporations are attempting to become less faceless by turning to consultants in this new era of online branding. From what I gathered from the reading, social media itself can be described as a billboard or giant playground for showing the world your own brand/product and it is an amplified system of word of mouth communication. It represents more of a
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Who Was Ada Lovelace? 10/24/17

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Who was Ada Lovelace? Image: Wikimedia Commons Ada Lovelace was born Dec 10, 1815 to Lord Byron and Augusta “Ada” Byron Countess of Lovelace. She was taught an extensive educational background in science and mathematics and built an affinity languages and numbers. She met the inventor Charles Babbage who was a scientist and mathematician. Babbage was known as the creator of the “Difference Engine”, a device designed with the purpose of performing and solving mathematical calculations. Ada was fascinated by the machine and chose to work under Charles Babbage. Ada went on to publish a translation of an article about the Difference engine and its analytical success and put short and concise additions to the literature. So what? Known most famously as the first female coder. She earned her fame through her work and proved that women also belong in the fields of science, math, and computer programming. The legacy of Ada Lovelace culminated with her contributions to t
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