Yelp

I had never heard of Yelp prior to this assignment, so I am obviously glad that it was assigned. I like the idea of having all restaurant reviews conveniently located on one website. The two places I chose to write a review about were local places from my hometown in New Jersey. There were only 2 reviews and 3 reviews for each respectively before I added my own opinions. For my first review I chose Taste of Reality Deli, which is a local deli on my block and is hugely popular and successful. I rated it 5 stars because it is my favorite place to eat and socialize, not to mention to food is delicious. For my second review I chose to write about Mac's Diner, a stereotypical New Jersey Diner located on the highway that runs parallel to my town. Out of all the diners I have been to (and that's a lot) this one is my favorite, so as a result I gave it 4 stars.

I definitely enjoyed my first Yelp experience. I had never written a restaurant review prior to this so this was something new to me. For some reason writing about my favorite places to eat really appealed to me. However, I found the website to be a little all over the place or disorganized. I didn't really see the point of me adding a profile picture or adding friends since this is a place for restaurant reviews and not socializing. But I like the website and I like its purpose, and I will most likely be writing more reviews in the future.

My Youtube Comments, Or Lack Thereof

My strategy to produce comments obviously didn't pan out as my video has a total of zero comments. I was going to start the commenting myself on another Youtube account but for some reason every time I tried to post a comment it would say "error" and wouldn't let me post. I tried everything possible to fix this. I made it so that comments were enabled to everyone without approval from me so anybody could easily comment, but for some reason an error would always occur.

I also asked my friends to go on and watch the video and comment. They watched, but they sure didn't comment. Maybe this is because they too were encountering an error or maybe they just didn't care. Whatever the reason, my video had no comments (sigh). So unfortunately there really is nothing more I can really write about my commenting experience because my commenting experience was non-existent.

I Dig Digg

Before this assignment was assigned I have never been an avid user of Digg, I didn't really get the point of the site and I would rarely ever visit it. However, this assignment has completely changed the way that I view Digg and I can definitely now see myself frequenting the site daily. My good friend is real big on Digg and has been telling me to check the site out now for some time, but I never listened to him. I guess it had to take a mandatory assignment to get me to visit the site, but I am glad I did.

I spent the last week on Digg primarily just reading and "digging" articles; I left the submissions to other people because I don't really surf the internet much for news. I also feel that if I were to submit something it would be pointless because nobody would ever "digg" it or somebody else probably had already posted it.

However I did do a lot of reading and some of the articles I found to be most interesting were: the new Apple Iphone, the 3D computer graphic artworks, and most recently the death of rapper Guru.

A brief overview of each for those of you who are too lazy to click the links. Apparently a new version of the Iphone was found and it has been remastered and remodeled. Some new features include a video camera, a higher resolution screen, a bigger battery, and a new, sleeker design.
There is not much to say about the 3D graphics besides the fact that they are breathtaking and definitely worth checking out. The final link I provided I discovered today and it really caught me off guard. I had no idea that Guru, a rapper and member of Gang Starr, was battling cancer and had a heart attack. I have about 15 of his songs on my Ipod and listen to all of them. I really enjoy his music and it's a shame that he has passed so abruptly.

I did a lot of other readings but those were probably three of my favorite findings so to speak. However, I must admit that I did not participate in commenting at all. It is habit of mine that once I finish the article, I automatically click the back button and resume perusing more articles. I don't even think about commenting. This is a habit that I must break. I did do my fair share of "digging" though. Every article that I found interesting I made sure I did my part in pushing it to the top. I didn't do any down voting though because mainly because I felt bad doing it. I know I am exaggerating but I don't want my down vote to ruin people's chances of getting to the front page.

After a week spent on Digg I have become a big fan of it, and thanks to this assignment I see myself doing a lot more "digging" in the future.

My First Youtube Video

I am not a Youtube or video wizard in any sense, I don't have a camera or a video camera, so I chose to just upload a video that I've had on my computer for a while. I had no clue how to get audio or add a music track. The video is of my friend Joe "schooling" his friend Mike in basketball in his backyard. The video is below and I made the title a link to the video on Youtube. Enjoy

My Favorite Youtube Video

This is by far and away my favorite youtube video. It's a parody of of the infomercial "Shamwow" and sarcastically promotes the benefits of the product Paper Towels. My roommate showed it to me after he visited his friend at a school in up state New York. At the time he showed it to me 5 months ago the video had less than 1,000 views. Hope you enjoy!

Youtube's Design

The design of Youtube is not at all similar to that of other popular social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace. There are no, no personalized pages, no mini feeds, and no photo albums, instead there are just videos and comment sections. Youtube is not as personal as other networking sites. The majority of people who post videos do not use their real name but instead use usernames. Even if the video you post does receive millions of hits, it doesn't mean people know you like if were to have a million friends. The design of Youtube is obviously pretty limited; videos and comment sections. There isn't much more to it than that. They do have a few user friendly gadgets if you're a member such as favorites and playlists. Youtube is trying to become more like Facebook and Myspace with the implementation of the Inbox and Friend Invites. I didn't even realize they had these options until I decided to write this blog so needless to say they aren't very popular. People who use Youtube are looking to watch videos and have a good time, they aren't looking to make friends, and this is Youtube's biggest limitation.

Viral Videos Not For Me

I didn't quite understand this assignment or what the relevance of it was, but these videos just weren't for me (perhaps it's because I didn't get my hands on the book yet). But either way, I found the first video to be kind of pointless so I tried to find anything that dealt with the story or mythology behind it. What I discovered was that the two girls in the video became somewhat famous, or at least famous enough to get Kevin Smith to appear in one of their videos. It also seems that they started a wave that made lip syncing videos popular. I for one am not a fan of these videos and never will be, but congratulations to these girls for making something of themselves via Youtube.

The other video by Lonleygirl15 was a tad more entertaining because right off the bat I could tell that this was going to be like a video blog series, which it indeed is. This idea is pretty interesting and the creator(s) seemed to have pulled it off pretty well. I did a little more digging and discovered they had a website and that the video blogs on Youtube were similar to a TV series with characters and everything. I'm assuming these kids were the first ones to pioneer a project like this and I am sure that many others have followed suit. I really like this idea and wish that I could have came up with it first.

Reaction to Youtube Quote

"YouTube proves that in practice the economic and cultural rearrangements that “participatory culture” stands for are as disruptive and uncomfortable as they might be potentially liberating. The debates and struggles around YouTube as a site of participatory culture…are less about technology and more about cultural and political questions: who gets to speak, and who gets the attention; what compensations or rewards there are for creativity and work; and the uncertainties around various forms of expertise and authority."

I don't understand how Burgess and Green can make the claim that Youtube is uncomfortable and disruptive. I mean, what exactly is uncomfortable and disruptive about it? Maybe they are referring to the fact that there are a lot of obscene and inappropriate videos on the website; but that's the only thing I can think of. I do agree with them however that Youtube can potentially be liberating since it for the most part allows anybody to post whatever they want on it. It's a good forum for allowing people to speak their mind's through video. I do feel that Youtube is a good site of participatory culture although in this quote they seem hesitant to make such a claim. To answer their questions, everybody and anybody gets to speak whether that be via posting a video or leaving a comment. The people who get the most attention are obviously the people who post the best videos and get the most hits, but there are no monetary compensations or rewards for their creativity and work, instead they get their 15 minutes of fame.