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Reading Summary- Amazon Prime

Amazon has recently announced that it will be introducing new subscription options that its customers can choose from for its Amazon Prime Service in the near future. Whereas before, Amazon only offered its customers the option to pay for access to its full Prime service, which includes video streaming, free two-day shipping on orders, music streaming, and more services, potential customers will now also have the option to pay a monthly subscription fee for access. Amazon will also be introducing the option to pay solely for specific services from that original package, such as the video streaming service, priced at a rate of $8.99 per month. In addition, they will be adding programs to their video streaming service that are not accessible through other companies with similar services.

I believe that Amazon’s decision regarding its Prime services is a good example of how it and other businesses are being affected by the Long Tail mentioned by Chris Anderson. In his article, Anderson mentions that in the past, due to limitations on physical space for merchandise, companies within the entertainment industry would primarily offer solely entertainment that was considered a “hit” on a large scale. With the advent of the internet however, these companies, Amazon included, are able to make more of a profit by providing access to a much larger variety of entertainment outside of the hits. With the introduction of these new payment options, I believe that Amazon is attempting to make more use of the Long Tail than it has through its normal services. Amazon’s previous service model for Prime could be considered inefficient due to the fact that it required customers to pay for all of the services available for an entire year up front. This made these services- in particular its video streaming service- much less accessible to the general public, and thus made it harder for Amazon to compete in certain industries with other popular or similar services, such as Netflix or Hulu. The new payment options provide their customers with more freedom to decide how they wish to receive their entertainment and services. This allows Amazon to gain more use out of the Long Tail by making its content far more easily accessible to a larger audience than before.

Amazon’s decision regarding its Prime service also displays some of the elements mentioned by Anil Dash. In his article on Rebuilding the Web we Lost, Dash mentions that some popular social networks and apps have become inflexible and arrogant due to their successes and that in order to become more successful, companies need to move away from that mindset. Through these recent changes, Amazon is showing that it seems to understand this point fairly well. Dash also mentions that the insularity of some companies is working against them in the long run by limiting their view of the industry and their markets. He mentions that newer companies can avoid this issue by broadening their appeal to include more prospective users at an earlier stage. I believe that Amazon is attempting to reach a similar goal through its Prime services.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/18/business/amazon-challenges-netflix-by-opening-prime-to-monthly-subscribers.html?ref=technology

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/amazon-takes-aim-netflix-monthly-prime-membership-n557676

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Code Academy

ch1 part 1 ch1 part 2 html6 html5 html4 html3

The code academy assignments were fairly easy. I had actually already learned about much of this in the past. Because of that, it was really more of a refresher of the basics for me. I do think that code academy is a good tool to learn how to code though. It explains the concepts you need to know well. The assignments are simple and easy to follow. I intend to use it more to learn about other topics.

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Github- New Media

Github is a web based Git repository hosting service. The company was founded in 2008 by Tom Preston-Werner, Chris Wanstrath, and PJ Hyett. Github’s primary purpose is to manage source code for project development through Git as well as to provide social network functions to developers and programmers. It is the currently the largest Source Code host in the world, with over 12 million users worldwide and counting. Many of the services Github provides are free and accessible to everyone. However, some of its services, such as the ability to restrict access to your code, are reserved only for those who are able pay for them.

Out of the 8 principles of New Media proposed by Manovich, I believe that the eighth proposition- New Media as Parallel Articulation of Similar Ideas in Post WWII Art and Modern Computing- is the proposition that best describes Github. One of the key aspects of that proposition is that human input is a key component of new media. Similarly, Github is a service that requires input by programmers who wish to store their code with it.

Github displays many of the qualities that O’Reilly states that make it part of Web 2.0. For example, the first principle, Web as a Platform, applies to Github because it provides people with access to a service- in this case, source code management- in a way that is simple and easily accessible by many. The second principle- Harnessing collective intelligence- applies to Github as well. Github is designed to be collaborative, and it succeeds in doing so by allowing communication between its users as well as the ability to share projects with others. Because Github is web-based, it does not have to be reinstalled when changes are made to it. As such, the fourth principle- End of the Software Release Cycle- applies to it as well. Many of the services provided by Github are open source and are designed to be more user-friendly than Git. Because of this, Github also shows the fifth principle that O’Reilly mentions. Github displays the sixth principle because of the fact that it can be used effectively on multiple devices and operating systems. Lastly, due to the fact that Github is designed to be collaborative and involves heavy user input, the seventh principle O’Reilly mentions applies to Github as well.

The development of the Linux platform was a major factor involved in the creation of Github. Linux was developed by Linus Torvalds, who, according to Rosenzweig, created it in order to access Usenet. Github is based on Git, which was originally created for use on Linux platforms. However, unlike Git, which is a command line tool, Github has a graphical interface to work with as well. Additionally, it is written with the programming language Ruby.

Github embodies the “convergence culture” aspect of Social Media very well. As was stated previously, it is designed to be collaborative. For much of the content that is uploaded to Github, anyone can get access and use the content as they see fit. Github also clearly displays aspects of the Eversion described by Jones. Many programmers, as well as popular apps and services today are based around Github services.

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