Roundtable Tech Talk: Thoughts.

Firstly I would like to congratulate all my classmates on the excellent work they presented for the discussion. I learned lots about many different new media topics as well as arising issues, such as security and legality. Some of the presentations actually stemmed a discussion which will be carried out in the next class meeting.

Below are some interesting thoughts on the presentations of my classmates:

• Muhanad's presentation on social bookmarking: I was very interested in learning more about del.icio.us since some of my friends use it and have given me great feedback about it. Muhanad explained the inner working of the system very well. The tag system is definitely a neat feature.


• Nichel's Flickr expose: I have to say that I was a huge fan of Google's own Picasa software until this presentation. The ability to share photos with others is very intriguing, especially if you have relatives or friends overseas.


• Amy's Ebay Presentation: Ebay is a very familiar site to me as I use it almost daily to buy random stuff I don't need. After the best part of a decade on Ebay I thought I knew next to everything. Amy opened my eyes to some interesting resources on the site. Particularly the forums and Ebay world pages.


• Anthony's presentation on Youtube was very interesting. I especially liked the "marketing" approach he used to discuss some of the future prospects of the site, as well as web t.v. in general.


• Johnny's explanation of Vonage and VOiP in general was very informative. The inclusion of Skype and VOiP is definitely a step in a new direction for communication. I think johnny was able to explain this very effectively.


• Melissa brought something very innovative to the table. gnu.org seems like a great open source solution to many problems which require lots of money from conventional "for profit" software developers. Although I'm not a huge fan of freeware but I may just try this cool program.
• Sarah's presentation on Web T.V. opened lots of new doors for me. The links on her blog have given me m any hours of enjoyment already. the presentation was clear and articulate. Great Job!!!
• Teisha's PowerPoint on new music media was very innovative and educational. I feel like I've been out of the loop with recordable media lately. This presentation made me realize that maybe it's about time I get an Ipod. Thanks Teisha!
• Derek's presentation on Photosynth was very intuitive and rich in content. I personally liked the web enabled demo of the actual software, even if it was a demo. I have to say that I am very happy that we got all of the kinks worked out and Derek was able to present this software without any glitches.
• Anastasia's Second Life presentation was hit. I have played The Sims at one time, but this is a whole new ballgame. I want to try this very much, however the risk of being completely immersed in this advance simulation runs very high. Thanks for a great look into a topic I have been very interested in.
• Shan's choice to discuss HowStuffWorks.com was a great idea because it is a great resource if you need to know how something functions or its principle.
• Perhaps the most controversial presentation of them all was Damon's BitTorrent presentation. Clearly the legalities of downloading content are to be discussed to great lengths(on Thursday) but isn't it fun knowing that you are able to get Microsoft's new Office for free!?!??!?
• Vincent's blog on Wikipedia was of great help to me due to the fact that he provided common coding instructions and where to find them. It was also of much surprise to me that Wikipedia was originally upheld bu a bunch of scholars with administrative privileges. Very interesting presentation.