Social networking technologies (Due Jan29)
January 29, 2008In the ever expanding area of social networking we can see that there are new and exciting possibilities. sites such facebook and youtube have revolutionized the way we communicate. It is easier to be in contact with many individuals and many groups of individuals. These breakthroughs are important for areas of business and communication (i am an economics and business major). In the business world the most important thing is to have access to as much information as quickly as possible. in the ever changing business landscape new methods of producing, marketing and distribution are appearing every single day. With the new social networking age ideas can be shared and modified much easier and this information can be spread around large groups of people quicker increasing efficiency by a great margin.
When we also look at the technologies used in Second Life and World of Warcraft, we can see that a visual dimension has been added to the whole concept of social networking. They allow us to be in ‘direct contact’ with other people, while also using a different representation of us (wow players see the wow character and not the actual user). I feel this could revolutionize the way business is conducted. Meetings could be held in masssive virtual landscapes without requiring the actual parties involved to be there. This also erases sterotyping and other conceptions associated with seeing what a person looks like in person. Using this technology one could conduct several different meetings at the same time, while being in their most comfortable environment. One of the problems which might arise is the fact that people might not be conducting meetings with the people they think they are. Another issue is number of servers required and the security of servers. These are just a few ideas which could revolutionize the way business is conducted and the few problems will most probably be solved as time goes on and technologies are improved
I think you have a great handle on the issues here. There is an opportunity for people who understand the implications of social networking and virtual worlds to use and profit from these tools in the near future.
As an economics student, what do you think about the idea of a “virtual economy”?
In theory the idea of a virtual economy seems very pheasable. The entire technologies market can already be seen gravitating this way. Im not sure if the world is ready yet to put all thier faith in the virtual world and trust traditional economic transactions to take place in this manner. with programs like second life we can already see a ‘virtual currency’ emerging. This has its advantages and disadvantages economically. This adds a new demension to the way business could be conducted and essentially provides the public with higher purchasing power. The only problem with these actions from a macroeconomic stand point is that these type of vitual currencies increase ‘money’ supply in the economy by providing this new way of trading. This in turn will fuel inflation because of the increse in purchasing power but the Gross Domestic Product of America remaining the same, thus causing an increase in demand and driving up prices. Traditionally the FED has had control of this area of economics. If the virtual economy booms the FED will lose control of its ability to influence the economy because it will no longer be the sole controller of money supply and other fiscal issues associated with it. So this idea of a virtual economy seems okay in the theory, but in reallity could lead to certain individuals having the power to influence national economic policy instead of the Federal Reserve having this authority. If this were to occur, pandemonium could ensue.