Rhetorical Arts: Digital Divides

MyVeteran: Change a Veterans life

Posted on May 6, 2015 by bobbyf

Hi everyone. I just wanted to give you an idea of what we are trying to accomplish at MyVeteran. Our mission at MyVeteran, is to provide a site exclusive to veterans that can give them capabilites not available to them elsewhere. Some of the tools that we at MyVeteran will be offering iclude but are not limited to: Creating communities, monitered by therapistis, that will help soldiers deal with PTSD of all forms. Create a way for companies to advertises jobs exclusive to verterans in both the private and public sector. Have the ability for old friends who have lost touch to re-connect. Allow for issues to with veteran benefits to be solved directly thoguh our site. Give exlusive access to military news, provided by the government, the civilians would not have access to. These are only a few on the many things that we hope to accomplish. There are so many different directions we can go, and are goal is to be constatly evloving as time goes on. But, are main goal is to be sure that we are maknig veterans, their families, and there friends, lives better. Please stop by our website for more information.

Please come check out our information page!

RecycLA

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Valeria

Human activities have change the face of Earth. The construction of cities and exploitation of natural resources like trees and water, have changed the physical structure of the land. As many know, global warming has caused climate change as explained on YouTube videos made by the National Research Council. Climate change and the unwise use of water supplies has brought a serious drought to California. For example, even though the Los Angeles County has implemented a programs and regulations to save water it still acquires its water from places far from Southern California like the Colorado River. The image found here, shows how fast the drought has developed.

As of now, LA’s runoff water (rain water) and urban runoff is disposed into the Santa Monica Bay. In order to face the drought head on, the residents of LA have to overcome the common perception of recycled water not being clean enough to drink. The solution to this problem is education. It is important to educate the residents not only about what the current drought really means in terms of water supply. Convincing the public about the seriousness shouldn’t be that hard since the actions agains the drought are getting more serious. It is also important to inform the people about the different processes that exist to recycle water and how those processes are safe. Apart from more modern ways of recycling water like cleaning water through UV light at a company, I will concentrate more on ways that the residents can actively participate in. One of the main ways they will be able to do so is by participating in a program lined out after Orange County Water Hero Program. Another way is by implementing biofiltration systems, mainly rain gardens, in their homes.

Rain garden implementation will help underground water recharge, a process in which water is cleaned by bacteria and plants as it makes its way through the soil and to the underground water. Later, the water can be taken out through a wells.

The process by which I will educate people is mainly through social media such as Facebook and Instagram. The group I am mainly targeting are people from the ages eighteen to mid-forties because they are the ones who can understand the conditions of recycled water and take action.

Back on Track

Posted on May 6, 2015 by acinco

My project is called Back on Track. The purpose of this project is to help recently released criminals or former criminals who are trying to get their life back together. This is where I come in. With my company, Back on Track, it will give these people the opportunity find jobs where the employer does not car if the person they are hiring has a criminal record. My company along with the employer want to help them get back on the right path. It is difficult for people with criminal records, especially felonies, to find a job. In addition, we help people practice for interviews and even help them construct resumes. We do not just stop there, we keep in touch with our clients so we can track their progress. We want to see them succeed.

Typically, when an employer sees that someone has a criminal record, they do not even bother thinking about hiring them. They do not want someone like that working for them. They have preconceived ideas about how former criminals are and how they might act. In addition, since there is a high recidivism rate, this will hopefully help bring that down because people will be able to find jobs and hopefully keep them. Then, if the recidivism rate goes down, the incarceration number will go down. This will help the problems of mass incarceration and overpopulation in prisons.

The target audience for this project is adults and politicians. If adults see this, maybe they know someone who could use our help. If politicians see this, maybe I could receive federal funding to run this project since we are a non-profit organization.

As far as social media goes, I created a website for the project called 1backontrack.weebly.com. Here, people can read about the company and then sign up for an account to get started. I also created a Facebook and a Twitter. These would be updated quite often in order to promote any information and events that the company will have. An increasing number of people are creating Facebooks and Twitters. I do not think my target audience would typically have Instagram or Tumblr so those would not work.

The Future of Food Technology

Posted on May 6, 2015 by kevinc

Our population is said to hit almost 10 billion people by the year 2050. To account for this, most scientists claim that we would have to produce 70% more food to feed upwards of 10 billion people. Other than the problem of food production, we also have problems of provided ample water supply and even repairing Earth’s damaged ecosystem. How can we solve this? The answer: Vertical Farming.

Creating a vertical farm eco-city has numerous benefits:

We will have no more agricultural runoff because we recycle our water
We will have year round crop production
No crop loss from severe weather
Uses 70% less water than normal agriculture
Above all, we repair damaged ecosystems
We can remediate gray water
Create new jobs
Supply fresh produce for inner city dwellers
Use abandoned city properties
We can even grow bio-fuels

The vertical farm eco-city is the key to feeding our future generations. It provides a safe, sustainable, and abundant food and water supply. For every indoor acre in the vertical farm, it can produce as much as 10 acres of outdoor farmland. It is time for us to stop talking, time for us to start doing, save water, save land, save lives, and in the end save our Earth.

Education for Now

Posted on May 6, 2015 by tonyn

As human society steps into the digital era of the 21st century, almost all forms of industries have been impacted and influenced by the surge of modern technological developments such as social media, the internet, mobile computing and smart infrastructure. However, our education system, grounded in millennia of traditions and values, are seemingly faltering behind the rapid rise of modern technology. With technological platforms such as social media, portable computers, and the cloud, human interactions have evolved into a newer phase of instantaneousness in which everything is increasingly immediate and visual due to the overwhelming influx of information constantly thrown at us. Therefore, it is to expected that the way human learn and acquire information must adapt to this speedy transition. The education system, obstructed by traditions, legislations, politics, and outdated methods can not adapt to this change in learning style, and ultimately, loses its engagement factor to students and learners. That is the issue of the current state of our education system: too many students are losing interest in learning while being crammed with information in methods that push them even further from truly comprehending the knowledge. The solution to this lies in centralizing an education reform movement that revolves around integrating modern educational technology into a new platform of education standards for academic institutions to follow, and this is where Education for Now comes in.

Education for Now is a non-profit organization whose goal is to revolutionize the face of education by once again implementing the factor of engagement into academic learning by adding technology into the equation. Derived from intensive research, Education for Now has managed to invent a set of standards called FUTUREed that could be implemented widely into academic curricula in order to create a central initiative that could see our education system enters a new transition with technology at its core. Technology implementation in education is nothing new, but as of now, it is still excessively sporadic, unreliable, uncontrolled, and inconsistent. That is the problem Education for Now aims to fix with our action plan AEON:

The ultimate goal of AEON is to popularize this new educational platform, titled FutureEd, within the educational system of the United States and potentially globally.

AEON consists of four steps:

Awareness: Raising attention from education leaders and legislatures by giving a voice to students and showing the reality of the disadvantages between the current education system and the modern student’s learning style. This step entails the demonstration of the effectiveness in implementing technology into the curriculums of K-12 to the college level.

Experiment: After creating a solid foundation and center of attention, Education for Now will propose partnerships with certain educational institutions to implement the FutureEd curriculum within the mentioned institutions for the physical experimentation and documentation of the positive consequences it brings.

Obtain: Following successful experimentation of FutureEd, an official proposal for educational legislative standards based on the new curriculum will be drafted with the goal of obtaining popularized implementation of FutureEd within the local education system starting from local districts of Los Angeles and eventually extending to the state of California itself.

Necessitate: With the successful implementation of FutureEd within the state of California, Education for Now will propose towards the federal government the implementation and necessitation of the curriculum’s standards within the American educational system from the primary, secondary, and higher education level.

Check us out on Facebook, Youtube, and our website HERE!

Car Sensor Technology Social Media Campaign

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Rice

Over the course of one’s lifetime, they may experience three to four accidents or some sort of crash. But, out of every 1,000 accidents only three of them are fatal, which means that the crashes experienced by each person is likely to be minor. (Fox News) If we can fix the problem of minor accidents it will save many injuries, worries and even insurance rates from skyrocketing. That is where car sensor technology can apply. Many manufacturers have already started to include sensors in their cars, but by making it a universal idea, road situations will become safer and minor accidents will decrease.

The target audience for this project would be people who are old enough to buy cars. They are the ones that are prone to accidents and are the consumers deciding what kind of car they want to buy. By appealing to them financially car sensor technology can become a success. The older generation love to watch television especially news channels and they are also the ones to most likely share videos that are posted on Facebook. I have created a one minute commercial video to help appeal to this target audience which will be promoted as a shared video on Facebook as well as showing up on news channels and outlets. Since the target audience is an older generation who most likely have teenagers, the interviewees in the video are teenagers describing the typical accidents they have been apart of when driving. By placing fear into the audience and giving them hope that these situations can be prevented can win over the audience on car sensor technology as a productive and innovative creation in furthering car productivity.

You can find the video HERE

Smart Travel Social Media Campaign

Posted on May 5, 2015 by A Williams

Smart Travel is a company dedicated to making the TSA lines at security checkpoints faster and more efficient. Security lines have long waits and there is no differentiation between passengers. Smart Travel provides you with a Smart Travel ID that you input when buying tickets. Then with the more flights you fly the more experience you gain. With that experience you are placed in one of three categories at security checkpoints, those including: experienced, average, and beginner. My target audience for this company is all people who fly, but specifically those who want to experience faster airport security lines. My campaign consists of a Smart Travel website, Facebook, Twitter, and an application. The Smart Travel website is where you will be able to find the most information about our company as well as if you have any questions. Our website is also where you start the initial sign up process, which then is completed through email. We will also post to the Facebook and Twitter when any new information is released. Those posts will link back to our website where you will be able to read more in depth about the new information. Our app will include brief information about your experience points, flights flown, your boarding pass, as well as be able to track wait times in security checkpoints at the airport you are flying out of. This campaign will connect with my audience because it is very simple, which is ultimately the goal of my program. We do not have every single social media site, and the main focus is on our website so you can simply find information with a quick Google search of our website. We want to make our consumers experience easy and hassle-free which is achieved through our social media campaign. The information on our website is straight-foreword and concise, which makes all consumers able to understand our company, what it does, how it does it, and our goals.

These are the two home pages for my app.

Cloud image on app: Tony Hammond

City image on app: David Yu

Facebook cover photo: Nastigallina

Home page picture under basics: When on Earth

All other images and graphcis by me.

“Look up” Social Media Campaign

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Hira

My research presentation was on communication in an age of digital media, and the benefits of online communication. I argued that social and digital media have only given us a different form of communicating and we should not look at it as better or worse than face-to-face communication. Social media allows us to stay connected and maintain relationships with people that are important in our lives. It also offers a platform for self expression and exploration and has allowed for novel ways of reflection. However, it is true that there is a time and a place for technology and part of living in an age of digital media and making the digital shift is to learn when to unplug and take a tech break. This is why I’ve created a Pinterest board with ideas that will allow people to take a break from technology. Some of the ideas could also involve technology, such as reading books on a device, and even just using Pinterest to get ideas. This is a way to incorporate technology into activities that don’t involve being glued to a screen. There are lists of places to travel, restaurants to try, DIY projects, and lists of books to read, such as “Books to read before they are movies” or “Best books of 2014.” We need to “look up” once in a while and make this digital shift together.

Look Up Pinterest Board

here is the link to my campaign!

Social Media Campaign – Cyberbullying/Trolling in League of Legends

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Andrew Moya

My project is about cyberbullying and trolling within the game League of Legends. The game League of Legends was released in 2009 where the game had a phenomenal blow up of popularity. The game began to spread worldwide to various regions such as Europe, Taiwan, Korea, Oceania, etc. causing it to be the biggest online game out there. As the community grows, so does the amount of trolls and cyberbullying to the fellow players. My targeted audience is the people who play League of Legends, so that ranges from teenagers to adults, with various backgrounds. The social media that I have used is a Twitter account called @LoLSMCampaign, where I have been sharing things I have found that deals with certain profanity and verbal abuse and derogatory dialogue among the people who play. There is no real plan of action that is being used, rather it’s just there to spread awareness that there are people within the game that are causing havoc among the community and people should be alert so they can have counter-measures within the game.

As you can see here, I have made the twitter page and have gone on Tumblr to reblog some posts that relate to what I see as a problem within League of Legends. Some are not as serious as others. Some are just jokes that people make but still touch on the fact of how the community can be. This social media account will be updated whenever I find stuff on my phone or laptop when I’m browsing through my personal Facebook or searching it upon Tumblr, or even screenshotting it and posting my findings on Twitch.tv whenever I watch live streams of certain League of Legends players.This campaign will allow those who are interested in League to pick up on some easy jokes and have relations that I understand. It will be easy to pick up as well from people who don’t get it so often because some things are just profanity that anyone can understand and see how the community could be at times.

Social Media Campaign: Online Piracy

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Gracie

Piracy is unauthorized reproduction or use of copyrighted items such as books, movies, music and television shows. Many such items are uploaded to the Internet by people who have bought the item themselves and wish to share it with other people who can then watch or listen to the song, to the movie without having to pay any money. So what’s the problem with this? You get to download music for free, watch movies and shows before they have even been released to the public. What could be better?

Well there are several consequences to these actions. First of all is economic loss. This loss of money affects all industries involved, such as the entertainment industry, the music industry and the film industry. But this loss is not only centered in these concentrated spots but affects our national economy, GDP or gross domestic product. The goal is for our GDP to increase, not decrease, which is what the economic loss caused by online piracy, is doing.The second consequence is that many employees are actually losing jobs as well. It is a positive correlation. As the loss of money increases, so does the percentage of job loss.Lastly is that online piracy is, according to law, illegal. Many people think that oh, I’m one person compared to the other 318.9 million people living in the USA, the government will never find me. That may be true but it doesn’t mean what you or I am doing isn’t illegal.

It’s a proposed bill introduced by US Representative Lamar Smith in late 2011. It that aims to crack down on copyright infringement by restricting access to sites that host or facilitate the trading of pirated content. The proposed law would have expanded existing criminal laws to include unauthorized steaming of copyrighted material, imposing a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Methods such as SOPA aren’t going to work and could potentially just increase the problem itself. What we need to address first is a different problem, the real problem: how digital content is being sold.

One potential solution is the pay what you want to pay. The idea behind this basically means that users will pay what they think the item is worth. This concept has rarely, if ever, been implemented in the selling of digital content. But there have been cases in restaurants around the country that have implemented this concept. One such chain is Panera Bread, which I’m sure most of you know of. They actually have five locations that have this pay what you want policy and three years in it has proven to be a success. 60% of customers pay full price, 20% pay less or nothing and 20% paying more. As you can see, this policy does have the potential to be a success.

I have titled this social media campaign as “For what it’s worth”. This campaign will start from a website and hopefully will spread throughout the Internet through other social media platforms through hashtags, articles or posts. Of course with this new concept, we would not know exactly the side effects of the implementation of this policy on digital content. It could be a huge success or it could be a total failure. But it isn’t till we try first that we will know.

http://forwhatitsworthrhet.weebly.com/