Ash's Blog

Wrap up blog

2006-05-18T18:38:00.000-07:00

I think one of the most important things that I learned in this class was that, there is a lot of new technology that is going on that I didn’t really even know about or at least I didn’t realize was so popular. Open source software is an example, I knew about firebox, but I didn’t realize how popular just among my classmates. I think that this is important because it makes me realize how important its is to stay up on new technology, even if I don’t use it I should really be aware of it so I am not caught by any surprises later on! J

I think one thing I would have liked to study more was online politics and the future of it. I thought it was really interesting just analyzing the two senator candidate web pages, and what kinds of affects those could have on an election. I think that this is a really relevant issue that could come into play in a big way especially with the topic of online voting, and the potential pros and cons.

I don’t think there was anything in the class that I didn’t find interesting, most of it was new information and I enjoyed that. The only thing that was less interesting was the more technical discussions and readings, only because I have a hard time visualizing how all this stuff really works, but it was still helpful.

Week 9 Reading Response -VoIP

2006-05-17T13:43:00.000-07:00

I heard from one of my friends about VoIP, she has been using Skype for a while now. This article was very interesting though because it really helped me understand how all of it works. Before reading this article I didn't know that VoIP technology was taking off with so many different companies. I think the potential impacts on existing infrastructure might not be as bad as some may think. I think that because VoIP technology uses basically existing infrastructure they will eventually have to go through existing companies (cable and telephone). I think that as long as existing companies stay on top of VoIP technology as it is progressing there will be less impacts on the businesses. I wonder about the regulation of VoIP technology and also about the security. I realize that we send information out on the internet everyday so maybe it wont be a big deal but it seems like it would need to be regulated and highly secure in order to be rapidly adopted.

Questions
*do you think VoIP technology will take off and become widely adopted or do you think it will be maintained by only a small community of users? Why?

*What do you think security risks might be? Can you see yourself using this technology?

Week 8 Reading Response-Access and the digital divide

2006-05-15T12:29:00.000-07:00

I would say that calling cyberspace a public space is almost untrue based on its accessibility. Access to cyberspace is not free; there are many costs and fees in order to access this public space. Not only are there costs in order access cyberspace, there is the initial cost of infrastructure. Access to cyberspace is not easy in places where there is no infrastructure to it. Just to get dial up communities need phone infrastructure and there are many places where this does not exist. This all ties into the digital divide, where some places are advancing to new ways based on existing infrastructure while other places still need to develop the initial infrastructure that other countries have built upon for many years already.

When I think of public space I think of things like parks and libraries, in which they are free to use. Sure they are paid for by everyone’s taxes, so they are in essence not free, but the access is there, you just have to go there. The barriers to the uses of these public spaces is not money, perhaps transportation might be one, but it is likely that you can get there to utilize this public space. Cyberspace on the other had dose have barriers like money and infrastructure that are needed to access the “public” space. Libraries do have the internet but not enough to serve everyone who needs it, and there are time limits imposed usually. I think the issues with access to cyberspace challenge the idea that it is a public space at this point in time. The article showed that things are changing and there is hope for greater access, which might mean that eventually the internet/cyberspace will be in fact a public space, but as for now I do not think this is the right term for the internet.

Questions

The internet is a great tool and should be accessible to everyone, do you think that the government should step in to subsidize infrastructure with in the United States to the areas that need it through the use of taxes?
How should access be handled in other countries? Should the United States step in with other Western Nations to help build the needed infrastructure to close the digital divide?
What problems can you see happening from giving the infrastructure for the internet in other countries? Would this affect innovation within those countries?

In Class Assignment

2006-05-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

My first impressions of these two sites were both positive. I think that they are both laid out well and are easily navigated. I would say that I like how McGavick has a place where you can look at his stand on certain issues, where he has made statements. I also think that McGavick's website is a little more interesting, but on some of the pages there is too much going on.

On Cantwell's website there are the following ways for voters to interact: the contribution page, the volunteer page, the petition page and the contact page (for questions). There is also a place to sign up for email updates and at the home page you are greeted with a message from Cantwell.

On McGavick's website there are these following ways for voters to interact: there is a volunteer page, donation page, a blog where McGavick blogs, and you can also suscribe to the blog, there is an events calendar, an email update signup, and a contact us page. It also looks like McGavick does live web Q&A.

The issue I will pick for this assignment is abortion. On Cantwell's webpage there is no mention of abortion, nor is there an issue page really. McGavick's website does not discuss abortion either, however he does have an issue page where he discusses other issues. So in order for me to find out how these two candiates feel about abortion, I would not be able to do so on their web pages. I would have to search for other means of this. Finding Cantwell's voting record would be easy, or perhaps looking at her old campain. If I looked, and watched all of McGavicks videos that are on his site of his speeches and press releases I might beable to find out his stance on abortion. Since he has not had a voting record I would not be able to find that on him. Overall I would say that it is not easy to find information on this issue from eaither candidate. It is good that McGavick has an issue page, where Cantwell does not, but he does not adress all the issues, and personally I think that abortion is an important issue today.

Based on the website alone regardless of content/opionons, I would say that I trust McGavicks webpage more just becuase he seems to have more information out on the table for people to see. Also though I would say that he might need to have more content on his page because he is not really known, where as Cantwell has been serving the state and has a voting record. but i think that both candidates should have a lot of information.

As a side note I thought taht it was really intersting that Cantwell's site did not even mention the race for the senate except wehre you would go to donate or volunteer, where as McGavick has it on the homepage...just an observation.

Week 7 reading response, Online Politics

2006-05-07T18:14:00.000-07:00

The internet has definitely changed the way that political information is received, and how people use it. The internet gives people a chance to seek out information easily, and also a place to organize with other people who feel the same way. This has made it easier for people to get involved in politics and also changed the way campaigns work as discussed in the Noam Scheiber article. The internet has raised efficiency on both sides of campaigning. I think it is really interesting how the article related the use of internet in organization for campaigns as a grassroots support system, because the internet has really taken grassroots campaigning to another level where you not only can reach small numbers by standing on a soapbox in the park but you can attract national attention by sitting in a computer chair.
I do think that internet technology and campaigning is having an effect on politics in the United States. Though many people still use other sources for news, typically there are things that link to the internet, “you can find more information on this matter by going to our website…” things like that, I think, will not eliminate print media new sources but will indeed be a strong companion to the news people receive. The internet does make a lot of things easier, and for voters I think this is appealing in that they can find a lot of information about candidates and find out what other people think about them from sources like blogs.
One problem that I do see with the theory of internet changing the way politics are done is that like the Scheiber article said, “just because you have 15,000 people show up for a Meetup, or 250,000 people giving you money, or 500,000 people giving you their e-mail addresses and reading your blog, doesn't necessarily mean that all 15,000 or 250,000 or 500,000 are going to show up on Election Day”. Though this is skeptic perception it has a good point. Another thing I think about is that the people who really care about a candidate or a political issue are going to try to seek out information anyway, regardless of internet ease. Not all people are like this, but I think the internet might make seeking out the information more appealing even to those who might not be as passionate about something.

Questions:

What are the possible drawbacks of all the internet grassroots campaigning when thinking about human contact and relating? Could this cause a disconnection in how close people feel to their cause?

As these articles discussed, internet support is one thing, but money is another. What could the possible future be of internet support and raising enough money to actually see that support put into play? Will the money always prevail?

in class exercise May 4th 2006

2006-05-04T12:49:00.000-07:00

Part 1.

PBS.com
This site does have RSS feeds available. You can find it on the homepage under new ways to experience PBS. It looks like they have about 20 different feeds, many under similar topics or organizations. Some topic examples are public affairs, technology watch, personal interviews, digital media, NOVA, NOW, daily news, religious discussion. They have a different section for pod casts which consists of the other RSS feeds and a few more. It doesn't appear to sponsor any blogs from what I can see. PBS suggests where you can get software that is generally free in order to use and listen to RSS and podcasts provided by PBS. I don't think that they charge for the actual program.

BBC.com
This site does offer RRS/Podcasting, but it appears that they are still in the trial version/stage of allowing this. It is a 7 day license to download the programs. The types of programs seem to be interviews, art, music, women’s hour, world and local news, sports, technology. They also appear to have their own blog network and those can also be downloaded with RSS.

It seems like both of these websites are trying to reach a broader audience by allowing RSS and podcasting from their websites. I think with more people on the go both PBS and the BBC can spread their messages through this technology capturing new audiences. Also with BBC's website, they have blogging that can be accessed through RSS and I think this is very neat for readers to be able to interact with the information they are receiving. From what I understand the authors of media on the BBC site blog as well and it gives readers/listeners a chance to connect with the producers of the media they are consuming.

I think that both sites require registration to access the publications, but they both appear to be free, however with the BBC site I do not know what happens after the trial period.

Part 2

my first search on Technorati.com "Steven Colbert" found 1159 posts containing his name. The second search for "truthiness" found 2356 results. My search for "funny stuff" found 23,779 results. So as I became less specific the results grew. Changing the authority slider towards more authority created less results each time.

***here is the rest of the in class exercise (updated 5/7/06)

*Here are the results for my search on my final project Digital Rights Management

I searched using Digital Rights Management and DRM
When I hit tags- it showed me blogs, photos and links that had been tagged for digital rights management
When I clicked blog finder- it showed me 13 blogs that were ranked by authority
The blogs that I found that had relevant info on my topic are:

http://www.commonsmusic.com/blog/

http://drmnews.com/index.php

http://www.wmdrm.com/

http://digitalmusic.weblogsinc.com/

http://www.boycottsony.us/

When I searched for http://www.blogcritics.org/ I found 11,897 links, which suggests that it is a popular and most likely a trustable blog.

When I searched for http://www.commonsmusic.com/blog/
There are only 7 sites that link to this blog, which means that it may not be a very good source for information on this topic.
When I searched for http://drmnews.com/index.php
There was only one site that linked to this blog, which again means that this is probably not a very good source.
When I searched for http://www.wmdrm.com/
There were no sites that linked to this blog, this really says that this blog isn’t a reputable source.
When I searched for http://digitalmusic.weblogsinc.com/
There were 252 sites that linked to this blog, finally a better blog! This at least gives some hope that this is a good blog to get info from.
When I searched for http://www.boycottsony.us/
There were 220 sites that linked to this blog, again a better of the ones that I searched for and hopefully meaning it is a good source.

*When I searched for blogcritics.org on Google, it said that 23,900 sites linked to this blog. Google has more links to blogcritics.org than Technorati, I guess this could be because on Technorati it is more for registered blogs…but I don’t really know for sure.

*When searching A9.com for Seattle blogs I found 4,437 blogs
*When searching blogsearch.google.com I found 71,891 blogs that related to the search for Seattle blogs
looking at Seattleblogs.us I can see that using the blog roll is a good way to find related blogs because the posts typically have links in them relating to the topic of that post.

Week 6 reading response

2006-05-01T13:15:00.000-07:00

Blogging opened up a space for nonprofessionals to write and read about various topics that might or might not have been discussed in the mainstream media. This implicated established media because it forced them to look at what other people were talking about and what they were interested in, it was no longer a news monopoly. Another implication on the media was that because news or conversations could be posted instantly on the web, media organizations have been forced to create websites to compete and get their stories on the web as well. This has also affected the immediacy of the news that is produced by established media, there is less fact checking and real reporting because they need news and they need it now to keep up.

I think we can see other implications on the media from blogging in that people are creating their own news, and forming their own news groups where they hold their readership. I think that this has implications on the media because they are probably seeing a decline in their readership/audiences. I feel that a lot of news has become very generic on the mainstream media, they seem to all use the same sound bites and pictures and with blogging people are getting much more of a variety. I think this has had some implications so far, but as time goes on I really think that the established media are going to have to make some changes to keep up with blogging and this new form of news creation and reception.

Discussion Questions:

*Will 24 hour news channels have to change their formats in order to keep up with the blogging world? How?

*It is good to be able to find a variety of opinions and news on the internet through blogging, but how can “average” people know what to consider credible on the internet.

Week 5 reading response

2006-04-24T14:15:00.000-07:00

I think it would be beneficial for communication scholars to study the open software movement because it has a lot of potential to affect the future of our society. As discussed in “The Second Superpower Rears it’s Beautiful Head”, the internet and its communication forums (blogging, email, etc) are an enormous and effective means of communication. If the GNU catches on, it will spread like wildfire across the internet and other peer-peer communications tools (IM, text messaging). If communication scholars start studying it now they could see how the topic progresses across theses mediums, and see the effectiveness of these tools. We know that the internet is capable of organizing huge events rallying support for issues, so it would be beneficial for communication scholars to look at this topic and study it for means of a case study.

Though I do not know for sure how the development of the GNU movement will end up, I have feeling or a guess, that while maybe a good idea, perhaps not a great idea. I guess I just think it seems a little improvable, but I do not really know to much about software development, I know how much it costs and I think it would nice to have prices reduced, I think the idea of free software is stretching it.

I found the article “The Second Superpower Rears its Beautiful Head” to be very interesting. I thought it was an interesting view about the internet and other mass communication technologies. I think it is true that avid users of the internet for political or issue purpose have become a community all of its own.

Discussion Questions:

*What are ways companies could make themselves more human and less monotone in order to better interact with their markets?

*What may have brought the onset of change in the marketplace that makes the companies seem so inhuman? Or did the companies somehow spark the change?

Week 4's reading reflections

2006-04-17T13:25:00.000-07:00

I guess I never really thought about the difference in humans in computers in the way that these articles discuss. Analog vs. algorithmic never really made me think about humans, just technologies so it was interesting to see this article compare us. I guess I always thought of computers has using human logic mostly. Since humans designed them I thought they must “think” like humans. Reading this I guess I can see that there are differences in how the brains work.
I guess my view of the man/machine relationship hasn’t changed too much. I’ve felt that many people in the world, especially in the United States are too heavily reliant on computers and technology. They have had such an impact on our lives that we are extremely needful of them now. IN Norman’s chapter he discusses how we’ve lost our attention spans and become less patient. However, before reading this article I never really thought about the numerical type of thinking that computers do. I knew that it was a number based system but I had never really connected that with my frustrations. I find myself irritated at the computer often when I don’t understand why it did something or it messed something up. Now I guess I realize the way the” machine” thinks is entirely different than my way of thinking.
I think Normans point about human, errors and misconceptions was very interesting because it is so true that we associate and understand things, even mistakes, based on experience and assuming we know what someone else is getting at. This is something the almighty computer cannot really do and I realized that I assumed that computers should be able to do that before reading these articles and seeing how complex these computer systems are. The Zuckerman article was really hard for me to read and I realized after I read the Norman article that it was difficult to read because I had to process the information the way a computer was doing it. Following the process and “thinking” that a computer does to send messages was hard to wrap my head around.

Discussion Questions
Do you think that computers will ever be capable of more forms of human thought? How could we develop this?
Did we develop computers to “think” they way they do in order to make more precise sense of our own human thinking? Did this happen because we thought it would be easier to only have right and wrong ways of thinking for computers?

Week 3's readings on Information Technologies

2006-04-10T13:25:00.000-07:00

I would say that my life is affected in both good and bad ways by information. There are pros and cons to almost everything and with technology it is no different. Our vast amounts of information that are available are extremely convenient for research, pleasure, or to settle a quick argument. J A downside to having so much information and such easy access to it is that there becomes a large amount of false information as well, and people sometimes hesitate to ask any questions about the information. Another positive way that information is a positive force in my life has been the ability to learn so many new things, again a downside to this is that more and more people around the world and in our own country are falling further and further behind in information which causes problems in the ‘global community’ because people are not on the same page. In terms of information literacy I can see it at home where my dad is not very literate. He is improving but you can see the struggle and furthering gaps in generations brought on by technology, and the lack of literacy. This affects my life when I am trying to help him and sometimes it seem like we are speaking different languages.

The fact that some older generations do not have the same information literacy as some other people creates some social problems in that those people will not have the same ease in performing what are considered today as easy tasks, like downloading an application for a job, filling it out on the computer and emailing it back to a perspective employer. Easy for almost anyone my age trying to find a job, but not for someone trying to find a new job using information technology that they are not familiar with at all. As Christopher Carlson said in his article “more information has almost always been a good thing… [but] is now increasingly been seen as a problem”.

In some ways I feel that information is becoming fairly overwhelming. A lot of this has to do with, in my case, the vast number of areas information is available from. In school all you used to have to do was read a book in class or at home. Now with things like online journal resources complied together to make it easier for people I think that there can be too much information, spread out. It is wonderful to have these resources, but not there is so much to think about sometimes it can drive a person mad. Also I would say that it is wonderful to be able to have up to minute updates as to where the president is landing and other security information, but I think that this poses a problem in some respects, in some cases things like that should be kept secret, but in our information age that information becomes readily available all over the world in minutes, when years before no one may have known where the president was for days on end. I guess overall I am happy with the amount of information but I think as time goes by it is becoming more and more overwhelming and becoming perhaps too much of a good thing.

Discussion Questions:
*Will the vast amounts of information cause people to be less patient when some info is unavailable?

*What can we do to increase information technology literacy to those who have not had as many opportunities?

Week 2's Readings

2006-04-03T14:06:00.000-07:00

As We May Think:

This paper by Vannevar Bush discusses technology, how it changes and how we are affected by it. He discusses technologies application for the uses of elevating the human mind rather that human strength. I never thought too much about this, the fact that technologies have continued to develop in our world but they are expanding our abilities as they have done in the past, making our lives easier, yet now the ease affects us in different ways. Even in 1945 this was true and Bush was able to see the need for these “mind” technologies in the future. Logic is an important part of his discussion because he says we need to have logical technologies to work like the brain, and the moder computer really does have that ability, and in some ways surpasses the logic of the brain.
*How can logic of machines exceed the logic of the people who created it?

Bush’s discussion of Memex seems to be very insightful to the future developments for his time. Though not exactly the same, today’s internet and personal computers are the same basic idea that Bush discusses. We have the ability to access information from all over the world and from many different periods of time, his article for example. The internet allows us and personal computers allow us to do this from the comfort of our home. I don’t know if I am just being naive or what, but I wonder how much more can be done to the internet. I cannot really see it changing drastically in the next 40 years. Connection speed will continue to improve I’m sure, giving us the ability to do more things over the internet with ease, but the infrastructure of the internet as already hit wireless, and I guess I don’t see where it can go from here. People have thought this way about many technologies in the past and been proven wrong, and I might be too. Right now I guess I just cannot comprehend much more development of the internet.
*Where can the internet go from here in making our lives easier?

“Technologies of the Third Metamorphosis”

This chapter of Rodger Fidler’s book was very interesting. They discussed the use invention and of technologies. This discussion made me think about how crazy it must be to invent something and know how it works, but not be quite sure about how it will be used by people, or if they will even accept it. They discussed the telephone and how even Alexander Bell was not even sure how it would be used. This really made me think about how technologies are used and adapted in society and sometime they are used in far different ways than intend and how technologies, like the telephone, are not even intended for a specific use at first.