Patent

What is a patent? A patent is a form of the right granted by the government to an inventor, giving the owner the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering to sell, and importing an invention for a limited period of time, in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention. An invention is a solution to a specific technological problem, which may be a product or a process and generally has to fulfill three main requirements: it has to be new, not obvious and there needs to be an industrial applicability. (Wikipedia) 

I used to be a patent worker for invention protection on intellectual property field in China. My job’s major responsibilities are the patent revision, patent keyword extract, the patent classification in terms of IPC(International Patent Classification) and so on. Before working, each employee needs to complete an induction training (formal learning) for three months about an international patent law, China patent law, patent examination, IPC, and a wide variety of patent knowledge. I worked for this company for six years. During this time, I revised 14,000 biological patents which come from different countries, China, Europe, USA, Japan, and so on. For patent, more and more people in China emphasize its importance and benefits and encourage invention-creation to promote the development of science and technology. Each year, the amount of invention-patent application is tremendous in China. 

WeChat

WeChat (Chinese: 微信) is a Chinese multi-purpose messaging, social media and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. It was first released in 2011. It is described as one of the world's most powerful apps by Forbes, it is also known as China's "app for everything" and a "super app" because of its wide range of functions and platforms(Wikipedia). WeChat based on the platform of mobile incorporates many features such as messaging (one to one, or one to many), official accounts, moments(social feed of friends), subscription accounts, payment service,  friend seek, city services, and so on.
 In our course textbook, it mentions that Networked Individualism: People have become increasingly networked as individuals, rather than embedded in groups. WeChat is one of the best tools to demonstrate this point. It is one of the world's largest standalone mobile apps by monthly active users, with over 1 billion monthly active users (902 million daily active users) by 2018. Each of my family member, including seniors and children, built this tool in her/his own mobile to individually contact with others and to broaden his/her social network. For example, my mom has several friend groups on her WeChat account (previous colleague group, dancing group, table tennis group, middle school classmate group and so on). In each group, people share or communicate distinct topics regarding their hobbies and backgrounds. It is an excellent way to mitigate the adverse effect of context collapse.

How to Apply the Creative Commons License to Flickr Photographs

It is my first time to create a creative commons license on the creative commons website. Creative commons work with platforms like Wikipedia, Flickr, and Vimeo to provide their users with the option of licensing works with CC licenses. So, I signed up a Flickr account with my Yahoo account and shared one photo to try to protect its intellectual property under a creative commons license. However, A problem emerged--how to apply the creative commons license to Flickr photographs?

https://www.wikihow.com/Apply-the-Creative-Commons-License-to-Flickr-Photographs

 

This is a useful link which provides several ways to solve this problem. The ways solve: how to change a license on an individual image; how to change a batch of Flickr images; how to change a batch of selected images; how to change the default license for future uploads. Finally, all your new uploads to Flickr will have this new license.

Diigo and Pinterest

I am unfamiliar with these tools so I got some resources from Wikipedia and YouTube. Diigo is a social bookmarking website that allows signed-up users to bookmark and tag Web pages. Additionally, it allows users to highlight any part of a webpage and attach sticky notes to specific highlights or to a whole page. These annotations can be kept private, shared with a group within Diigo, or be forwarded to someone else via a special link. The name "Diigo" is an acronym from "Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff"—Wikipedia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJjobCRbT3I –YouTube

Diigo looks like a practical tool to help people curate much information on the Internet. I like one of the features that highlight any part of a webpage and attach sticky notes to specific highlights or a whole page. It would be useful to help students collect, organize and share online information.

Pinterest: Pinterest is a web and mobile application company that operates a software system designed to discover information on the World Wide Web, mainly using images and on a shorter scale, GIFs and videos. Pinterest is a free website that requires registration to use. Users can upload, save, sort, and manage images—known as pins—and other media content (e.g., videos) through collections known as pinboards—Wikipedia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKmcQsS6xAM--YouTube

I like sharing interesting/beautiful photos or videos to my friends and family, so I am full of curiosity about this tool. However, its homepage might be a little bit messy. So many pictures on the website distract my focus. I was not sure which one meets my needs. I need to spend more time to explore it for its benefits. 

One of our Week 2 tools is Snapchat. It is my first time to know about it. I downloaded it and began to explore it. It is an exciting multimedia tool. One of the principal concepts of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are only available for a short time. Snaps can consist of a photo or a short video, and can be edited to include filters and effects, text captions, and drawings.
In China, another tool, titled “Faceu”, is very similar to Snapchat. Faceu (Chinese: 激萌) is a heat beauty selfie camera APP for a smartphone. This APP allows users to choose their favorite stickers or add interesting and exaggerated effects in real-time when taking selfies and videos or add them on photos in user cell phone. 

Want to give it a try? Please download it with your smartphone and access it. Choose what thing do you want to create? Photo? Short Video? Or GIF? Take a picture with your favorite stickers and filters. Download it or share it on Wechat, Instagram, Facebook, or other social media tools. 

Informal Learning

Dr. Dennen mentioned informal learning on the discussion board. Recently I keep my eye on it too. As far as I know, Informal learning is defined as a process in which learners set their own learning objectives and determine for themselves what successful completion looks like. Learning occurs organically within the context of everyday life. Learning is an accidental by-product. For example, informal learning happens when visitors visit exhibitions in a museum or when a graduate student absorbs the work experiences from an experienced professional during a social event at a conference. The rise of the Internet is a significant driver of interest in informal learning. The Internet provides learners or workers with access to extensive repositories of information. Social media, like LinkedIn or discussion boards, connect workers/learners so they can conveniently exchange tips/information/techniques.