amt101

Yay. We have come to the final weekly blog of the Digital Communities. It’s been an interesting learning experience for me to write blogs and to familiarise with new social media platform, Tumblr. Now come to the last topic of weekly blog, The GREAT Firewall of China. What’s good about China? China is the biggest and largest economy perspective and human population in Asia as well as the whole world. 

The Great Firewall of China 

China’s online population of 731 million gets a highly restricted internet, one that doesn’t include access to Google, Facebook, YouTube or the New York Times. There’s little coverage of the 1989 student protests in Tiananmen Square. China is able to control such a vast ocean of content through the largest system of censorship in the world, aptly known as the Great Firewall of China. It’s a joint effort between government monitors and the technology and telecommunications companies that are compelled to enforce the state’s rules. The stakes go beyond China, which is setting an example that other authoritarian countries can imitate. (Bloomberg 2017).

How is it without Facebook, Google, YouTube?

Netizens all over the world were sent into a frenzy when it was reported that the Chinese government had blocked WhatsApp around September 25 this year. Many were quick to decry the move as just another way for the government to strengthen it’s “Great Firewall of China”, an amalgamation of legislation and technology that blocks most the country’s population from “Western ideologies”, including US-based companies such as Facebook and Google. In doing so, detractors of the move argue, the government is continuing to stifle the creativity and innovation of the people, as well flouting more fundamental principles such as freedom of speech, or even democracy. (Kannan 2017) However, it is no surprise that the government has taken this step, and, in fact, it’s part of a greater strategy that is much worthiness. 

Oh well

Social gaming most commonly refers to online games that allow for social interaction between players. They may include multiplayer card games, board games, social network games, as well as interactive multiplayer video games. Social casinos which enable gamblers to play and wager on casino games online is one of the biggest branches of social gaming. 

While investments in social gamingmay be on the decline, social gaming -- and in particular mobile gaming -- from a play perspective is still on the rise, with the industry seeing a 105% increase in the number of mobile and social games on the market since 2000 and the industry's biggest boom just last year, when total games skyrocketed from 90 million to more than 211 million total. (Swallow 2013)

Game Monetisation

Mobile game monetization is one of the most important factors to consider when embarking on your journey of developing a mobile game. It takes a lot of money, time, and effort to build and maintain a game, so you need to figure out how to make money out of this game, not only to cover its costs but to make a profit as well.

There are many ways to do so and it’s all about figuring out a model that works for you. It’s a long process and it will need patience from your end but once it works, IT WORKS!

Mobile Game Monetization is basically the process of making money out of your mobile games. Years ago, the idea of mobile game monetization was limited to either a free app with ads or a paid app. However, the market has changed drastically since then and new worlds have opened up.

How Social Games Changing the World

When we think of social gaming, the first image that probably comes to mind is that of middle-aged women playing Farm Ville. Maybe your friends is constantly sending you requests to help them grow corn or raise livestock. Or perhaps they’re an early adopter and has already moved on to Ruby Blast Adventures or Bubble Safari Ocean.

In either case, it's no secret that social gaming has the reputation of being a total time sink for players and a complete annoyance for their friends receiving never-ending invitations to "join in on the action!"

Not this fan. I know its hot as we are living in a tropical continent. 

But this FAN what we’re talking about.

Everybody in the world has their own fan favourite that they admired with ever since they have their interest to be part in it.

What is Fandom? 

Fandom is somebody that is obsessed with a particular celebrity, band, singer, actors, somebody who can produce seams of information on their object of fandom and can quote their favourite lines or lyrics. 

Benefits of fandom

There are many benefits to building Fandom such as:

1. Cost effective where fans acquired are kept and accumulated over time.

2. Open conversation where an individual can share with the fans on brand values, promotions, feedback and information.

3. Focused interactions where fans form a special group of consumers who explicitly say they want to interact with us

4. Grow loyalty is where fans can become strong advocates and customers of our brand and services. 

Fan activism? 

Fan activism is just that.  Fan activism can be defined as a form of civil engagement and political participation that emerges from the passions of fandoms and fan culture.  Fan activism can be fan-driven efforts to engage and address civic, social, and political issues. There is significant power and potential of fan activism.  Fandoms can be ideological and cultural resistance to heteronormative and patriarchal values of society.  The capacity of fan communities to unite and mobilize in reaction to casting decisions, show cancellations, etc. is well established.  Now, these collective mobilization efforts are being used to support campaigns for social justice and human rights, inspiring young people to engage.  

TCrowdsourcing and crowdfunding are about connecting people at a local level to create businesses that will benefit communities. Although the world is operating more and more as one global community through social media, people rely on local communities for bare necessities.

One of crowdsourcing obtained was ‘Pulang mengundi’ - a word in Malay which means return home to vote.  It is the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from tradi6onal employees or suppliers. 

In times of need (social or political), can social media movements like #pulangmengundi (crowdsourcing and crowdfunding) transportation to mobilise youth to vote) benefit communities? 

This new culture of innovation, supported by crowdfunding for worthwhile projects, allows for idea collaboration and technological innovation for the greater good. Further, our increasingly mobile world population allows for people from anywhere, and with any background, to give their input on a project.

Social media and the internet has been a big supporter of social innovation over the past couple of years, witnessing the creation of powerful virtual communities dedicated to a particular cause or initiative.

We’ve seen the power of these communities in action, ranging from the Arab Spring and political uprisings and protests in the Middle East to animal-lovers intercepting a truck carrying 1500 dogs bound for a slaughterhouse in China. Social networks create a new kind of access, where individuals in disparate geographical areas can come together in pursuit of a particular goal. (Marom, D 2013)

In an era filled with fake news, what effect can this have on crowdsourced information? 

It can be hard to know what is true online. Propaganda and misinformation have a much longer history than the internet, of course. But the rapid proliferation of “fake news” on social media, and its tendency to extend into mainstream news coverage can obscure the difference between credible information and inaccuracies.

Existing social networking sites like Facebook could set up a section of its site for people to engage in collaborative fact-checking and help combat the spread of fake news. People could see how different groups they’re connected to build and filter these arguments and filter the emotional content of aspects of those arguments.

It’s not yet clear whether crowdsourcing fact-checking is the best way to verify alternative facts, and even if so, whether our approach is the best way to manage the process. But in the end, getting people to engage in evidence-based reasoning can have benefits well beyond identifying specific instances of “fake news” – it can teach users the critical thinking skills needed to detect and evaluate misinformation and fake news they may encounter in the future. (The Conversation 2017)

References:

Chin, B n.d., ‘ Week 8 Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding ’, MDA20009 Digital Communites , Learning materials on Blackboard, Swinburne University Sarawak, 23 April 2018, viewed 2 May 2018.

Marom, D 2013, ‘Crowdfunding is Propelling Social Innovation, Crowdsourcing Week’,viewed 1 May 2018 <https://crowdsourcingweek.com/blog/crowdfunding-is-propelling-social-innovation/>

Trolling is trending online, works 24 hours 7 day round the clock especially when it appears on anonymous websites where the perpetrators are almost completely unidentifiable. Negative trolls are defined as individuals who deliberately engage in damaging and disruptive behavior online, such as online vandalism and cyberbullying (Phillips, 2011). While these comments may only be made online, they nonetheless can have devastating consequences offline, in the real world. Over the years, there have been several people who have taken their own lives after being a victim of internet trolls.

Does Internet/social media governance work?

Around the world, governments and citizens are engaging on social media. For instance, the town government in one of the cities in Spain that has famously ditched its traditional approach to municipal customer service and replaced it with Twitter interactions. (Toscano 2016)

Are certain platforms more susceptible to trolling and hate? Why?

A recent Pew Internet Survey found that four out of 10 people online have been harassed online, with far more having witnessed such behavior. Trolling has become so rampant that several websites have even resorted to completely removing comments.

Many believe that trolling is done by a small, vocal minority of sociopathic individuals. This belief has been reinforced not only in the media but also in past research on trolling, which focused on interviewing these individuals. Some studies even showed that trolls have predisposing personal and biological traits, such as sadism and a propensity to seek excessive stimulation. (Ayana 2017)

A Pew Research Center survey published two years ago found that 70% of 18-to-24-year-olds who use the Internet had experienced harassment, and 26% of women that age said they’d been stalked online. This is exactly what trolls want. (Stein, J 2016)

Does social media networks also affords potential for grassroots ‘bystander’ activism (e.g. Starbucks)?

According to Kweifio-Okai (2015), social media has become an essential main purpose tool for activists be able to connect as many people from all over the world.

Methods such as campaigners that increasingly embrace online tools to get their messages across. Blogging sites, online personal or group profiles, and cyberspace are used to spread awareness about a campaign, interact with and motivate supporters to follow the campaign, and coordinate events. Tweets and likes make it easy for the campaigners to track their followers’ interaction and engagement, while flexibility in social networking gives a behind-the-scenes view of the campaign and consequently a sense of accessibility.

Come to this generation where news spread as fast as lightning speed. No matter where you are, all you can get is just in a single handy gadget. Around the world we have seen activism and protest taking place from political to social activism.

Various platform have been used to enable people from around the world signing up. Majority platform been used to engage people is from Facebook where is the largest social media platform. From there, it extends to an external link leading to the website for communities to participate in whatever activities they would be interested in joining in.

The spirit of unity has liven the people from all walks of lives in participating with social activism they would want to fight for or to believe that something is for the betterment for themselves and to the nation. Several invitations have been sent to me in order to participate but I would not reach to that level stage as it might ruined the reputation, unless if you are capable enough to stand on your own feet earn well enough of wealth then you may be able to fight for it.

The Future Generation

Come to this generation where everyone in the world are in touch with social media especially when it comes to Politics. Be it good or bad, they would somehow talk about something that is benefit among themselves to the society or just for pleasure. 

The use of social media in politics including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube has dramatically changed the way campaigns are run and how Americans interact with their elected officials.

The prevalence of social media in politics has made elected officials and candidates for public office more accountable and accessible to voters. And the ability to publish content and broadcast it to millions of people instantaneously allows campaigns to carefully manage their candidates’ images based on rich sets of analytics in real time and at almost no cost.

Social media tools including Facebook, Twitter and Youtube allow politicians to speak directly to voters without spending a dime. Using those social media allows politicians to circumvent the traditional method of reaching voters through paid advertising or earned media.

Political Campaigns

Twitter and Facebook have become instrumental in organizing campaigns. They allow like-minded voters and activists to easily share news and information such as campaign events with each other. That's what the "Share" function on Facebook and "retweet" feature of Twitter are for.

Donald Trump used Twitter heavily in his 2016 presidential campaign. "I like it because I can get also my point of view out there, and my point of view is very important to a lot of people that are looking at me," Trump said.

Millennials 

Good question. We have come across to various social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat to name a few. However, there is more than these media channel. Here we are come to a subject of Tumblr has been existence for quite some time since 2007 and it has come to a confusion on how it should be used. For the past 3 weeks, I have get to sign up to Tumblr and here I am, the story begins. 

Hello Tumblr

So here is to what Tumblr all about. Tumblr is largely used as a hub for creatives and therefore many Tumblr bloggers will carve out a niche for their blog which resonates with a specific style or aesthetic. Other Tumblr users who are drawn to your aesthetic will begin to follow your blog when you have a clearly identified style and content theme. The Key to finding your voice and making meaningful social connections on Tumblr is all about building a consistent blog. 

The social community found on Tumblr is typically a younger demographic and they use it for sharing all forms of online content including images, links, Vines, graphic ‘Gifs’, art work, written works, and memes to name a few.

Unique Feature

The great thing about Tumblr is that unlike other popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter, you're not stuck with the standard profile layout. We have given lot of choices in terms of the themes available in Tumblr as unique as we want it, and there are a lot of great free and premium themes to choose from. The more a person uses Tumblr, the more trends they are able to identify on the platform, giving them clues about what users love to see and share. A Tumblr post can go viral in a matter of hours, even spreading across other social networks.

YES TUMBLR!