Sharanya Sharma

Watching the video “An anthropological introduction to Youtube”, I felt that Mike Wesch’s primary research question was “What is Youtube, and how does it affect today’s society?” The primary research consisted mainly of the ten undergraduate students that he took under his wing, to watch videos, take notes on them and then state their views of the videos they had watched. We can say that this was a survey of sorts. Another source of primary research was his own video that he tracked over YouTube and the other blogging sites, such as Digg. The videos themselves can be viewed as secondary sources of research, but getting opinions from the people that watched the video makes those people primary sources of research.

Thinking about the research Mike Wesch conducted, I can say that the research he conducted was successful mainly because of the impact youtube has on our lives. The mere size of youtube can be viewed as an almost endless supply of research topics. So, of course, the website itself is a wonderful topic to research on. Another reason I think the research was such a great success is because Mike Wesch, along with his undergraduates, created videos themselves, and so they got a first person’s perspective into the community of practice that they were researching on, which is crucial in understanding what is to be researched.

PAR, UIUC; 6:30 PM: When i first saw it, i was shocked; appalled, even. It was a disaster. There was cupcake…everywhere. I tried to think that it was mud. Someone had scooped up a whole lot of mud. And then thrown it on the floor. But it wasn’t to be. On close inspection, i found it to be cupcakes. As the realization dawned on me, my face froze in horror as i pictured the horrific accident. There were a few things worse than such a travesty.

But was it an accident, I thought to myself, somberly. Could it be that there was someone out there, that truly had it against muffins? Was someone so…cruel! So cruel, that they found sadistic joy in torturing our favorite pastry in such a blood-freezing way? There were certainly no suspects; it was the perfect crime. But was i being paranoid? Was this all just a misunderstanding; some poor soul, walking happily in Carr Hall, without a care in the world, when all of a sudden, they dropped the muffin they were chomping on? It was easier to believe this was an accident.

However, good journalists don’t take the easy way. The path we walk is paved with uncertainty and destruction. We walk a lonely path; the only true path to begin with. I had to get to the bottom of this mystery. The police were of no help. With Unofficial St. Patrick’s day looming over our heads, just a few days away, the police were on the lookout for drunk people. Who even drinks on St. Patrick’s day?! I knew I was the only person looking for an answer. There were people out there who didn’t want the real story coming out. On more than one occasion i found myself being followed to my room. Sure, it was my room mate. But could he be with ‘them’? What was this world coming to, if i couldn’t even trust those closest to me?

I was alone in my quest for the truth. It would be hard, surely, but i didn’t care. In my world, even cupcakes deserved justice. This world is a free one. Everyone has their rights, and cursed be he that tries to escape the over-reaching arms of the judiciaries. I had to talk to people. People that were still untainted by the criminals. But who could i ask for information? Who?! That was when it hit me; the ultimate anonymous source. Through a complex system of coding and google searches(but not wikipedia; never wikipedia), i finally came across the perfect site, where i could communicate with my source: cleverbot. The cleverest of them all.

Here’s a transcript of our conversation. I realize if i post this, i would have gained notoriety, like wiki leaks, or Justin Bieber. But for the truth to come out, if i must die, so be it. For the world to know, i would gladly put myself at risk.

User: Who dropped the cupcakes?

Cleverbot: The water made the sky blue.

User: JUST TELL ME DAMN IT!

Cleverbot: No need to get rude.

User: I’m…I’m sorry. I let go of my emotions. It’s been hard for me. Please, tell me; who dropped the cupcakes in the hall?

Cleverbot: The Chudley Cannons.

User: Are you sure?

Cleverbot: To feel is to love and to love is to feel.

User: So it was the quiddich team?

Cleverbot: So far, a fine day.

User: I don’t understand. What are you talking about?

Cleverbot: Friday is a song sung by Rebecca Black.

User: I…I know. And I’m sorry. My generation has failed our ears. But it was the Cannons that dropped the cupcake?

Cleverbot: Now you’re typing gibberish.

User: Haha, I get it. Keeping it on the down low. Smart. They could have tracked us. Good thinking. Thanks, for all this. I’ll repay you one day…in cupcakes.

Cleverbot: Thanks.

User: Goodbye. You’re a good bot.

Cleverbot: I’m not a bot.

User: Then I’ll just see you around.

Cleverbot: Well that’s good.

I chose “WHAT IS ARMY ROTC?” - Careers & Colleges; Nov/Dec2005, Vol. 26 Issue 2, p24-24, 1p, 2 Black and White Photographs as my second source of information for the research paper. It tells me about the benefits of army ROTC, which is a significant part of the paper i am writing. The article may be a little one-sided when it comes to measuring out the pros and con, but it still gives its views on what the benefits of ROTC are in more detail, which gives me greater perspective about the program in the first place. The more i know about the ROTC, the more i can understand its working, and then i can easily find out the advantages and the disadvantages of such a program.

This article can be considered to be accurate, and tells us a great deal about how the ROTC program offers benefits for students such as scholarships and officer’s commissions. It is a good way to understand the gist of the program and why people join it in much greater detail. I prefer this article because it contains information relevant to what i’m looking for, ie, the ROTC as a Registered Student Organisation on campus and how it affects students that are a part of it. This article is more detailed as to the aspects that appeal to students rather than what the students think, which can help us infer whether the students get what they expect, which can lead to some interesting observations.

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=19538166&site=ehost-live

The first article i chose to use was “ROTC Enjoys Interest, but Will It Enlist More Recruits?” - Chronicle of Higher Education; 11/16/2001, Vol. 48 Issue 12, pA41, 3p, 2 Color Photographs.

The topic i have chosen to research on is the effect that Registered Student Organizations have on students’ lives. Is it a positive effect or negative? It is impossible to know the entirety of such an answer if we take into account all the RSOs there are in this great university. Therefore, the ROTC was the RSO i researched into. The ROTC stands for the Reserve Officer’s Training Corp. In order to know the benefits of this program, the easiest way to find out would be to get to know why students were joining up in the first place. this article helps me do exactly that. The title lists that the ROTC enjoys interest, and then questions if more people will join. That is as close to my question as it gets. “Why are students joining the ROTC, apart from patriotism?” This article is expected to provide mostly positive effects of ROTC.

The article looks into the benefits of ROTC. The first one, as gauged from students, is that they are able to complete further education while they are still a part of the ROTC and can start their careers early in life. This is a good reason, and a positive effect that the ROTC has on its members. A second question pops up while thinking about the ROTC: does the army have a place on campus? Can military programs be successful on campus? It is common perception to think that all university students are against war, etc. However, the latter half of the article interviews a student who joined the ROTC. He says that he was against the ROTC completely at first, and was afraid that his independence would be a liability to the ROTC if he joined.However, he says that this was a misconception, as most of the recruits were just like him. This is a great source for my paper.

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=5595413&site=ehost-live

Back in high school(from about years 9-11), when i was living in Dubai, i had an immense passion for swimming. I can’t say i loved swimming from the very start. My dad wanted my brother and me to do something productive, that had the potential to help us out in the future. We decided that swimming would be the best option. Who doesn’t like swimming, right? It’s fun, you can’t get sweaty, etc. Turns out, this pool was an official Olympic size pool; about 50m long and 25m wide. Needless to say, my brother and i were stunned. No way in hell were we going to be able to swim that much(my father had told us we were going to swim for an hour every day). By the end of the first week, I’d started to hate going to the pool, and regarded it as a total waste of my time and effort. However, as i continued t go, i started regarding swimming as ‘just another thing i did every other day’ and when i came to terms with the fact that swimming was, in fact, quite relaxing to me, i started getting better. I’d like to thank my dad at this point for putting so much effort into making us do something productive, because about half a year later, i was doing about fifty to sixty-five laps of that pool in an hour. If I’d seen myself doing fifty laps an hour when i first started, i would probably have thought it was a different person, but it’s good to know that with enough practice, anyone can be good at anything.

Unfortunately, i haven’t been swimming for about a year, as i moved to New Delhi, and my community pool was drained of any and all water.I haven’t swam for about a year now. However, i do plan to visit CRCE or ARC to swim a few laps on the weekends. Swimming, and soccer, are the few activities i can say that i’m actually any good at, and i’m glad i chose them, because nothing else is as entertaining as playing a game of soccer, or swimming without a thought.

My name is Sharanya Sharma. I was born in the city of Delhi, India on the 18th of December, 1993.

Here, at Urbana-Champaign, I’m an ECE(Electrical and Computer Engineering) major although I’m changing to Computer Science this semester. Before i came here I lived in Gurgaon; a city near Delhi. I like to play soccer, to the dismay of a lot of my friends who prefer basketball. They say that my height would give me an advantage if i ever played basket ball. Even so, I still love playing soccer; so much so that i was a defender in my school team.

The one thing that i love and hate about my past is the number of places i’ve been in. In my entire life, i must have moved houses about 4-5 times, and i’ve probably been in about four different schools. What i loved about it is that i got to meet new people every three years or so, and what i hated about it was obviously that i couldn’t stay any longer than a few years. However, as a result i still know a lot of people in different countries, which i guess is pretty cool.

I’ve never really written anything just for the sake of writing it. It’s mostly just happened because my high school English teacher gave me an assignment. However, i still do like writing, and didn’t mind having to spend an hour writing. It’s something that i really like, yet don’t really do much on my own. The only writing I’ve done in the past year must be a parody of Macbeth i wrote when studying for my English finals. Apart from that, most of my writing goes into posting on facebook and texts.