Creative Culture Online

So, what is Creative Culture online?  It’s pretty simple to understand actually so listen up!  Other people from around the world can share any of their creative work online and people like you and I can use that creative work and incorporate it into our work or doing something completely different.  After you and I have created some interesting things online, other people can see, use and/or share our work as a part of their work.  Make sense?  Well, just think of Creative Culture online as being one of the best ways for artists to come together and share our work to make the most amazing things possible.

Creative Culture is such a powerful culture that you can turn something as simple as recording your friend doing some funny dance moves into something extremely viral.  Someone recorded a friend doing funny dance moves, uploaded it to social media sites and next thing you know, his dance moves have been mixed with many different things, including some celebrities.  Check out this video below for an example!

Now, this is just two out of hundreds, maybe thousands of funny variations of this guy’s dancing.  Now are you starting to understand how Creative Culture online is so awesome?

Did you know that Ai Weiwei uses his art in a physical world as well as using his art as a powerful force on the internet.  Weiwei is a very active person in the Twitterverse and is constantly connecting to his followers with what is happening in his life, which in most cases, can spread to a large mass of people in just minutes.

I’m supposed to share with you some experts that I think are experts at Creative Culture online but I think these are some decent examples as well.  With the social networks that we have, I believe that we can become an expert at being creative online.  Social media sites like Pintrest and Twitter are the beginning and the most effective ways to share our creativity.  A site like Pintrest allows people to share their DIY projects, their photographs and the world from their perspective. As for Twitter, I find all sorts of funny memes that people create as well as Vines that are mashed with other funny Vines.  If you do it enough, you learn about what is effective and what isn’t.  Your creations can help make someone’s day or even spread to others who may be looking for something or style that you have already done.

So what does Creative Culture online and my my blog have in common?  Well, with the Evolution of Twitter and creativity involving music, there are some people who were able to create music from Tweets.  Yes, Tweets!  If you need a better explanation, you can watch this quick clip of how it was possible.  One thing that I have learned about Creative Culture online is that for it to live on, we must share our talents, our photos, our videos, what we see through our eyes and of course, our creativity.

Lawrence “Larry” Lessig, Creative Commons?

Larry Lessig, American Academic & Political Activist.  Lessig works primarily on reducing legal restrictions on copyright, trademarks, and radio frequency spectrum.  Lessig was born in Rapid City, South Dakota and grew up in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.  He earned a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Management from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in Philosphy from the University of Cambridge in England, and a Juris Doctor from the Yale Law School.  He is the director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University and the Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.  Larry Lessig is also the founder of Creative Commons, Rootstrikers, and the Stanford Center for Internet and Society.

Lessig is considered to be politically liberal and was liked by Democratic presidential candidate (back in his first presidential run), President Obama.  One of the things that he liked about the Obama campaign was because of their transformative nature.  However, Lessig also liked the John McCain campaign for talking about the Fair Use rights.  The McCain campaign sent a letter to YouTube stating that they were overreaching copyright claims, which lead to various campaign videos being taken down from YouTube.

“In computer science, ‘code’ typically refers to the text of a computer program (the source code)  In law, ‘code’ can refer to the texts that constitute statutory law.”  Lessig was always finding ways to make the word, “code” be an instrument for social control, leading to his phrase, “Code is Law.”   In 2002, Lessig received the Award for the Advancement of Free Software from the Free Software Foundation (FSF).  During this time, he began to become a well-known critic of copyright term extensions.  Then, he proposed the concept of “Free Culture” which is a “social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify creative works in the form of free content by using the Internet and other forms of media.”  Lessig also claimed that “70% of young people obtain digital information from illegal sources, the law should be changed.”

Lessig & Aaron Swartz

At the iCommons iSummit convention in 2007, Lessig announced that he would stop focusing so mch on copyright but focus on political corruption instead.  In 2008, he had the opportunity to run for California’s 12th congressional district after the death of Representative Tom Lantos. He decided to not run for the seat after starting an “exploratory project.”

Creative Commons

In 2002, Lessig launched what is called Creative Commons.  One of the most well-known non-profit licensing organizations in the world.  The organization has released several licenses called the Creative Commons licenses, fee of charge to use.  The licenses allow creators/publishers which rights they reserve and which rights they want to they want to waive for others to use.  The license has a one-page explanation of its rights with a few symbolic visuals hat explain specific details for each license.  However, the Creative Commons licenses do not replace copyright but is based on it.  They do replace specific rights between copyright owners and licensees which are all under the “all rights reserved” copyright management.  In other words, it’s a cheap copyright management system that works well for copyright owners as well as licensees.  The first set of copyright licenses was released in December 2002.  Aaron Swartz was a part of the earlier stages of the Creative Commons project.  In October 2011, Flickr hosted over 200 million Creative Commons licensed photographs.

Creative Commons goals were influenced by Lessig’s approach to allowing information to be shared without the hassle of dealing with stricter copyright laws and making information easier to obtain and use.

I have attached a pretty nice video of Larry Lessig giving his take on some issues dealing with copyright.  Check it out on Ted.com!

I Spy With My Little Eye, Edward Snowden.

In June 2013, approximately 200,00 classified documents were brought to light by none other than Edward Snowden.  Did he “damage the country” as said by former U.S. President, George W. Bush or did he help bring some uncovered secrets to light for the betterment of the People?

 

 

 

Snowden was a contractor and computer specialist for the National Security Agency (NSA) and was also an employee for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).  In May of 2013, Snowden began to collect top-secret documents about the NSA domestic surveillance practices.  Snowden didn’t like that at all.  After finding out about all of the surveillance practices, he fled to China.  When he fled to China, there were newspapers being printed, talking about how Snowden had leaked the top-secret documents to China, many of them were very detailed and and spoke of spying practices against U.S. citizens.  The United States charged Snowden under the Espionage Act but many other Americans are calling this man a hero.  Now, why would someone who was living a very comfortable life-style and is living with a $200,000 salary throw it all away?

The Washington Post and the Guardian released articles on Snowden’s leaked information on the PRISM program.  “PRISM is an NSA program that allows real-time information collection.”   Snowden described, “I’m willing to sacrifice [my former life] because I can’t in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building.”  The U.S. government, however saw this from a different perspective.  They charged Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information, and willful communication of classified intelligence with an unauthorized person.  Fun Fact:  The last two facts qualify for violation of the Espionage Act.  (Before President Barack Obama took office, the act has only been used three times since becoming a law in 1917; Since President Obama took office, it has been used seven times as of June 2013).

My friend and colleague, Caleb Schlabach made some very valid points in his blog about Edward Snowden.

“Chris Soghoian explains just how much power the NSA has “The NSA sorta performs two kinds of surveillance.  They perform dragnet surveillance of everyones communications and then they perform targeted surveillance on individual communications and if the NSA wants to get into your computer or phone they’re gonna get in and there really isn’t any way to stop them.”

Why does this matter?  Maybe you share the same idea as many and say “I have nothing to hide, I don’t really care.”  What you may not know is that the NSA is allowed to target surveillance somebody who is “three hops” away from their intended suspect.  That means somebody who talks to somebody who talks to you.  The amount of people three hops away from you is enormous.  The website theguardian.com has a calculator up to determine just how many people are three hops away from you based off your number of Facebook friends.  I have 390 friends on Facebook,  that means that I have 63,726 people that are connected to me in just “two hops” on Facebook.  That in itself is already a huge number but if we go one more level I have 10,412,828 3rd degree friends.  Basically what that means is if anyone of those nearly 10 and a half million people are being targeted in any reason by the NSA then the NSA can target surveillance me by hacking into my phone or computer.”

Although spying on American citizens can be a bad thing but what do we do in situations like we

Tweets from the Washington Post article.

just had on April 14?  American Airlines was receiving bomb Tweets.  Is it ok to then spy on the individual tweeting stuff like this for safety measures?  Even though nothing happened, would it be okay to make sure that this isn’t something that could be harmful to hundreds of people?  These kind of things keep people on the edge, especially for those who are in the airports.  These types of ignorance just isn’t alright to joke about.  Could these types of circumstances be the reasons why the U.S. feels the need to spy on Americans?  I’ve always said that “it’s better to be safe than sorry.”  I appreciate what Edward Snowden did in terms of letting the people know about what the government was doing behind our backs but I don’t appreciate the fact that he went overseas to China.  There are probably things that he told them that we may never know or find out.

I read an article on npr.org between David Green and Jennifer Granick, director of Civil Liberties at the Stanford Center of Internet and Society.  She made a good point about the Snowden’s decision to release information about the U.S.’s surveillance.

“Well, we would not know what our government is doing, we would not know the extent to which they spy on us, were it not for Edward Snowden.  There were whistleblowers before him about the NSA, but the documents that Snowden took proved the truth of what those whistleblowers and what Edward Snowden was saying.  And only because we have those documents, our government has had to come clean about its practices.”

So the real question is… What do you think?  Do you think Edward Snowden was a traitor or a hero?

 

 

“Thought for Your Thoughts” Interview

What’s up, guys!  It’s been a while since I’ve posted for you.  Like my title?  When I was doing my interview on the Evolution of Twitter, I wanted to role play and be the guy from the show Parks and Recreation.  You know him, the guy from the “Thought For Your Thoughts” radio show!  You don’t?  Ahhh, it’s alright if you don’t.

So here’s the deal this week.  I was supposed to interview someone of a high caliber for my interview, however, trying to find someone to talk about the Evolution of Twitter is hard.  If I had the connections, I would have tried to interview the CEO of Twitter about it.  I’m guessing that

Richard Robinson

someone as small as me would have an extremely hard time reaching out to the CEO of a multi-million dollar company.  So instead, I decided to interview a close friend of mine about the Evolution of Twitter.  Somebody who isn’t much of a leader in terms of having a multi-million dollar business but is a leader in many other things; track, school, and mentorship.  His name is Richard Robinson, high school and college track star.  Here’s the interview!

 

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1. What does the Evolution of Twitter mean?

How does it evolve?  I think Twitter really evolved when people, young adults, got tired of Facebook.  How cool is it to get your point across in 140 characters?  It has truly come a long way since 2007.  The hashtag?  That was a big deal.

2. How long have you had your Twitter?

I’ve had my Twitter since 2011.  I didn’t really tweet much; I only had three tweets and just forgot about it.  It was mainly because I didn’t know how to operate it.

3. How do you use it now?

I use it now to say what’s on my mind.  Why not?  I have every right to.  It’s something that I can use to communicate with friends and something that can help get me through lectures in class.

4. Are you one of those people to just rant or tweet about random stuff? 

I don’t necessarily rant but I do randomly tweet.

5. How many tweets do you have?

*Picks up phone and goes to Twitter* I have over 5,000 tweets.  I was going to give you an exact number but that would just be weird.

6. How many followers do you have?

I have around 320 something.

7. Do they all hate you?

Ummmm… I think they get annoyed when I tweet about random stuff.  But I’ve always said that if they don’t like it, they can always hit the unfollow button!

8. Who do you talk to the most on Twitter and why?

*laughs* @dragonflyjones. We share common interests.

9. How has Twitter changed your life?

Negatively, I’ve noticed that it has distracted me more in class, especially if there’s a boring lecture.  But on a positive not, I use it to get a lot of my local news, national news, etc.  I get a lot of good laughs because of Twitter; the memes, funny pictures, Twitter beef.  It can definitely be a good way to lift spirits when you’re down.  I’m sure that it’ll continue to change my life the more I use it.

Future Posts

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to reach out to you guys! I thought it would be a good idea to give you all a post about my future posts; a list post to be exact.

1. Between Two Ferns with President Obama.  Funny or Die.

2.   So… You ever notice that most twitter users who use profanity somehow ends up on top with the most followers, retweets, favorites, and popularity?

3. Now I’m going to teach you a lesson on how Twitter worked its butt off to become an IPO. I was dumb and didn’t invest in it. I’m telling ya, Twitter would’ve evolved my finances for the better!

4.  #hashtag… yeah.  How useful are hashtags in the Twitterverse?

5.  Getting followed by verified accounts.  Check!

6.  Having a bad day?  If you follow some humorous Twitter accounts, you’d be surprised at how much you laugh and how much better you’ll feel after reading a few tweets.

7.  College Confessions.  Oh, boy.

8.  Follow some religious leaders, motivational speakers, and accounts that make post inspirational quotes. Those accounts are often the best for me because I can relate and get some positivity for the day!

9.  Does Twitter change the way you think?

10. How the Evolution of Twitter has changed my life. Yeah, it’s time for me to talk about how it has changed me! Saved the best for last!

SPECIAL ELECTION! Ok, Maybe Not An Election.

Hello again, followers!  I have a poll that I want you guys to participate in.  I think it would be a good idea to get the opinions of my followers no matter what the poll is.

Ok, dig this… Katy Perry is known as the “Queen of Twitter” so I can guess that by now, my post readers should know what that means.  Yeah, that’s right.  She has the most Twitter followers; topping off with 51,355,400 followers.  I’m pretty sure that she’s reserved the right to be called the Queen of Twitter.

Now, check this out.  Kevin Hart, one of the best comedians of the 21 century thus far has approximately 10 million followers on Twitter but is widely known outside of Twitter.  With his roles in movies, tv shows, etc.,  I can say that Kevin Hart MIGHT be just as popular as Katy Perry in certain areas.  Can you see where I’m going with this?

Author, Londen Wheeler

Londen Wheeler (talking about myself in third person), average Joe in the world of Twitter has 407 followers on Twitter.  His followers have been rising at a consistent pace in the past month and the numbers look to be in his favor for more followers.  His involvement at EMU has been growing at a rapid pace and is looking to be involved more outside of the school after graduation.

Tell me this guys, if you had the chance to be retweeted by any of these three candidates, who would you want to be retweeted by?  I’ve left a poll below for you guys to vote.  It isn’t that poll but it’s just something to see what you guys would do.  But please, feel free to vote for me!  You guys would make me very happy.  😛

“Neighbor, can I borrow some sugar?”

Hey guys, coming to you all with a blog from one of my fellow “neighbor.”  (Classmate actually.)  And I guess that you guys are wondering why I named my title for this blog the way I did.  Yeah, well, I’m knocking on the door to borrow some information from my neighbor’s blog, critique it and add it to my recipe of fun Twitter facts.  Of course it’s going to be pretty sweet.

Her blog’s title is “Twitter, Youth’s Not So Personal Diary.”  It’s a blog about how our generation knows almost nothing about keeping their business private.  This blog will keep you on your toes about why our generation is so content on sharing so much of our business.  Why do we constantly feel the need to share everything we know?  Some of life’s “fun facts” are meant to be kept to oneself sometime!

If you check out the about page, you can get a good sense of who the author is and how her about page is so relevant to the rest of her blog!

Here are a few things that I LIKE about my neighbor’s blog, you ready?

1. One of my favorite posts that my neighbor has written was “Twitter and Valentines Day… Not the Best Mix.”  I related to this post in every way possible because I was one of the Tweeps tweeting about how awful Valentines Day was… Sad, but true.
2. She shows passion in everything that she posts.  This is very helpful because I have trouble reading posts that show no sincerity, etc.
3. I also like how she asks questions to keep you engaged as the reader.
4. I really like how she tries to relate to her audience by showing a great sense of humor.

Here are a few things that I RECOMMEND for her blog:

1. Some of her posts could use some more in depth content to help educate the readers.
2. Adding some visuals to a blog could really help out as well.
3. Maybe try adding in some hyperlinks!
4. Try to be a little more formal.  The informal sense is nice but sometimes, we need to see the more professional side of you as the author.

Overall, I think you have a strong blog going here.  Like I mentioned before, your topic is a great topic to talk about.  I will definitely mention some things that our generation does… and it doesn’t involve privacy on Twitter.  Keep up the good work and the rest of your blog will fall into place!

Extra, Extra, Read All About … The News?

BREAKING NEWS:  Twitter is the #2 social media platform for relaying news the public population.

 

 

With Twitter gaining so much momentum from more users and becoming an IPO in 2013, big time news junkies thought it would be a good idea to bring the news to Twitter.  What online news sites, like CNN, Fox News, or US Today do you follow on Twitter?  I follow a lot of different news sites that range from my local news stations to following the White House news.  Since 2008, Twitter has been trying to get more news sites to tweet about everything that is going on around the world.

 

Although I didn’t have a Twitter in 2008; from my experience with Twitter over the past two years, I have noticed that the “Breaking News” trend is going strong and is here to stay.  The news sources that I have been following since day one have really stepped their game up when releasing useful and very informative information.  During the summer, while I was at work, I had to rely on Twitter for breaking news when I couldn’t get to the TV for the Trayvon Martin case and other important things that happen in my area.  I shouldn’t have been on my phone at work but you know, things happen!  Anyway, because of these news sites being smart and adapting to what the people want and use,  I was able to be in touch with what was happening live.  While I am away from home and in college, I rely on Twitter for all of the news happening in my hometown.  Occasionally, something will happen and I will find out through Twitter.  Sometimes my parents will give me a call and ask if I had heard of a certain incident.  I pause for a few seconds and say, “uh, Channel 13 news tweeted that earlier today…”  Then we sit in an awkward silence for about a minute then they change the subject.  Yeah, that’s how obtaining news through Twitter can help you.

 

Because of breaking news coming to Twitter, we can all stay in touch with the news on the go.  Forget your TV, forget using up all your data trying to stream the latest news from a news app.  Just stroll over to Twitter, scroll down your TL and see all of the news going on in the world.

 

Let’s See What Twitter Can Do For Your Business!

What about your business and Twitter? Well, duh you can use it for promotional reasons! Although it may not be as effective as Facebook at times, you must remember that people still see it!  Here’s an example and story below.

A shot of @NickSymmonds after his 800 meter run win at the @JDLFastTrack on Feb. 1. #JDL #guysface #olympian pic.twitter.com/cCW3LdHszE

— Londen Wheeler (@dragonflyjnes) February 5, 2014

This is a picture that I took of a 2012 London Olympic competitor, Nick Symmonds. He finished 5th place in the men’s 800 meter final in London and I was able to capture him pleasing the crowd with his 800 meter win at the JDL FastTrack in North Carolina.  I thought it would be a good idea to see how many retweets and favorites I could get if I posted this photo and mentioned Nick Symmonds. Well, after about 2 minutes, Nick retweeted the picture and after that, my phone was literally blowing up! Retweet after retweet, favorite after favorite! It was a pretty awesome feeling to see something go viral in a matter of minutes! And here’s the other cool thing about this whole situation… Do you see the guy with the “WOW!” face? Yeah, well, one of his friends/teammates saw the tweet and mentioned him in it. The guy seemed to be very thankful that he was in the shot of his running role model. He then retweeted it, thanked me, and went ahead and followed me. It’s amazing to see something like that just take off. One tweet did a lot for my name and the same can happen to you and your business! Don’t be afraid to go out there and promote your stuff! Nobody knows what you have until you show it off, right?

If you want to learn more about how Twitter can help you and your business grow, check out these links!  You guys better take advantage of this!  Who would have known that something like Twitter (where teens rant and adults are confused) would be a place where you can do business!  Twitter has evolved fairly quickly for stuff like this to happen.

If you’re a non-profit organization, click here!

If you’re a small business owner, click here!

What Are You Looking For?

So what are you looking for when looking at my blog?  Well, that’s a good question and I’m glad you asked.  During the semester, I will be talking to you about my perspective about the Evolution of Twitter.  In my mind, it has changed drastically over the few years that I have had my account.  Honestly, there’s still a lot more evolving that it can go through.  Twitter is even working on evolving a new look for their site (might look a little like Facebook but it’ll be a different look for Twitter).  Can you believe that?  This may be one of my shortest posts so stay tuned because I have so much more to tell you in posts to come!