FUNewMedia

2011-07-18T14:23:00.006-04:00

Traditional Textbooks vs. Hypertext

2009-12-22T13:03:00.002-05:00

Chapter 17 in "Communication and Cyberspace" talks about traditional textbooks in classrooms versus the use of hypertext based textbooks. The text talks about Traditional textbooks being for more individual study and as not really promoting an interactive classroom. Whereas hypertext textbooks are more interactive, students can click on text or graphics to lead them to other pages to learn more about a topic, which may hold a students interest more.
I think this may work for lower levels of education such as grammar schools and junior high schools, but once a student gets to high school and most definitely in college, it seems they prefer the original paper based textbooks, at least for studying on their own. In many of my classes here at Fordham, whenever a textbook company offers an online edition of their textbook, it seems only a few students in the class opt to use this version of the textbook even though it is cheaper. It seems that many students still prefer to study out of a physical paper textbook, even if it costs a bit more money.

Digital Divide

2009-12-22T12:52:00.002-05:00

The "digital divide" is an extremely important issue in today's world. As America becomes more and more of a completely "digital society," those who do not have access to the internet are getting left behind. As the text mentions in chapter 10, some of the main demographics in which the digital divide exists are Income level, Race, Age, Education level, and Household type; and most of the time, Income level and education level are intertwined. If you have not gotten much education, you will usually have a lower income and therefore may not be able to afford to have a computer, nor know how to use one of your lack of exposure to computers. This issue has caused a lot of controversy in the last few years, some believing it is more of a problem, and some believing it is not a problem at all. But there is a website dedicated to educating people on the issue of the digital divide and to finding ways to conquer it.

http://www.digitaldivide.net/

Lost in Cyberspace

2009-12-22T12:08:00.002-05:00

With the emerging technologies and social networks that allow people to go from site to site with the help from hypertext, many people find themselves becoming addicted to the technology. Yes, I will admit, I have found myself trying to do homework and getting stuck going from facebook page to facebook page, but it can get out of control for some people because the internet is open 24-hours, 7-days a week, to anyone accessible. There are so many people on the internet at the same time, that people get caught up and lose track of their own realities in this virtual one. I researched about the cultural geography of cyberspace and found stories of parents getting so involved in the virtual world, that they forget to pick up their children or a spouse. Now it is a little out of control to fall completely out of reality and into a virtual world, but in an episode of South Park called "Make Love, Not Warcraft," they poke fun at the idea of children getting so involved in the game that they never leave their rooms. I couldn't find the actual episode, because of copyright, so here is a different version.

Interactive Media

2009-12-22T11:36:00.002-05:00

The idea of Interactive Media revolves around a medium that allows its participants to communicate with each other actively through two-way communication. In its relation to "New Media" a form of this would be Skype or IChat. These medias are groundbreaking into today's society because they allow people to speak to each other even if they are miles apart. I am an avid user of Skype because it enables me to chat with my friends across the country. Without this, we would only be able to communication through text and most of the time it is hard to decipher their emotion and sarcasm.

Along with Interactive Media comes Interactive Advertising. Some advertisers will show a commercial but cut out the end of it and post a saying "Go to this website to see how this ends", to get their audience to access their website. Most of the time it doesn't work because I suppose American's are too lazy to get up from watching television to see what actually happens, but that's just my opinion. haha.

Here is a pretty cool image I found that used Interactive Advertising to catch the attention of their audience for Star Wars.

The Differences Between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0

2009-12-22T11:31:00.003-05:00

While I was browsing the Internet, I found this distinction between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 on O'Reilly.com. It's funny to see that our generation may know the applications on both of these lists but the generation following us would probably know only the right column.

Web 1.0		Web 2.0
DoubleClick	-->	Google AdSense
Ofoto	-->	Flickr
Akamai	-->	BitTorrent
mp3.com	-->	Napster
Britannica Online	-->	Wikipedia
personal websites	-->	blogging
evite	-->	upcoming.org and EVDB
domain name speculation	-->	search engine optimization
page views	-->	cost per click
screen scraping	-->	web services
publishing	-->	participation
content management systems	-->	wikis
directories (taxonomy)	-->	tagging ("folksonomy")
stickiness	-->	syndication

The Future is Now

2009-12-22T05:00:00.000-05:00

The android phone and Google goggles

Cellular phone technology has come along way from the “box” nokia phones that were originally produced for the masses. In this video google goggles is presented and shows us how users can access ever more technology by just taking a picture of an image.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhgfz0zPmH4&feature=related

Attn: Advertising

2009-12-22T04:58:00.000-05:00

In one of Robby’s posts, he posted his thoughts on the way advertising has been developing in order to “catch” and hold the audiences attention. As I do agree with his comments that these advertisers only have a few seconds to get their message across and have the audience intrigued by what they are saying, it should be noted that it is not necessary for this to happen, there are numerous tricks that advertisers use to get people attention. As he stated, advertisers only have a few seconds to get their message across and hope that people get interested in the subject. However I believe that the main way to get people interested in their advertising is in repetition and not instant gratification. Most people find that when a commercial is played over and over again that they become more intrigued then just seeing a commercial once and saying that was cool and moving on. When a commercial is played repeatedly people tend to memorize the information, which leads them to further research the subject and potential buy the product. So it is not necessary to “catch” people’s attention but to get them to learn the information, which will hopefully get them to buy the product.

user generated content

2009-12-22T04:56:00.000-05:00

The book talks about how web sites and multimedia cd-roms are completely one-dimensional in that communication from these sources can only be displayed in certain order even if the user has free range. What is meant by this is that news outlets can display a certain piece of information that a user can read but to that extent only. Same with multimedia cd-roms such as Microsoft Encarta can display information to a user on basically any subject but can do no more than that. However I would have to disagree with this statement due to the fact that in today’s world information can be commented on from just about anything as well as be changed at any users discretion. It should be noted that at the time this book was written, digital media was at its infancy and commenting on news feeds was not yet available. However websites such as Wikipedia allow for users to add comments and change information on particular sites and allow users to either agree or disagree with this change. Take a recent example of the late death of Brittney Murphy, within only minutes of her death being released to the media outlets, her Wikipedia page had already been updated by a user about her death and also commented about the proposed cause of death. This right here shows that web sites are completly multi-dimesional in that information can be changed, commented on, and even debated by numerous rumors at the instant information is displayed. This just goes to show that the evolution of the web sites has come along way from web 1.0 to web 2.0.

Interactive Internet

2009-12-22T04:53:00.000-05:00

Rushkoff states in chapter 21 that the World Wide Web only allows for “interactive-style” activity, which would mean an information only,static type of internet. However with the rise of Web 2.0 and internet sites such as facebook and youtube, this statement can be clearly seen as false. With the ability for people all over the web to instantly change information on their own personal blog as well as get instant feedback from other users turns this idea of “interactive style” on its head. Another innovation the web has done is the collaboration of many websites all in one general location. Take for instance google maps or any other map based website. Google maps allows for users to not only find their way around a busy city by seeing a visual guideline, but they can also see traffic conditions being reported by not only news outlets but also from people on the road via their phones. Google maps also allow for a 360 degree view of a street and actually allows the user to “walk” down the road and look for particular shops along the route. If the user was able to find their store they need only to click on that store and all its information would be brought to them instantly via the stores personal site. This only proves that the world wide web was come along way from an “interactive-style” format where everything was static and only information searched for was brought to them, instead today all the information is brought to them at their fingertips.

Life without the Internet

2009-12-22T02:19:00.005-05:00

While searching about the effect the Internet has had on the concept of time I came across a funny story on The Morning News site about a little girl named Sally and how to do modern day tasks the way people would before the Internet. I copied the funnier parts out of it here...enjoy!

Googling Information

You’re unpacking the groceries when Sally walks in and starts tapping you on the arm.
SALLY: Maryland State bird.
YOU: What about it?
SALLY: Let me try: quote, state bird, unquote, Maryland.
YOU: Are you OK?
SALLY (to herself): Did I spell it wrong?
YOU: Spell what wrong?
SALLY: M-A-R-Y-L-A-N-D.
YOU: That spells Maryland.
SALLY: State bird.
YOU: (Pause)
SALLY: (Pause)
YOU: Sweetie, the Maryland state bird is an Oriole. It’s a black bird with an orange belly. Are you OK?

Emailing friends

This is where the video starts to look real old-timey. Sally sits down at a desk and gazes out the window while using a pehn to make swirly shapes on a piece of payper.(Forgive me if I’m misspelling anything. Some of these words are so out of date, spell check doesn’t even recognize them.) Since she’s still quite young, we see you proofreading her lehtir before she seals it up into a larger folded piece of payper known as an ennvilowp. Sally puts a stahmpe on the lehtir and males it with great satisfaction. Cut to the next day when Sally angrily approaches her friend Christine.
SALLY: Where were you yesterday?
CHRISTINE: When?
SALLY: Yesterday, after class.
CHRISTINE: I had ballet.
SALLY: Didn’t you get my message?
CHRISTINE: No.
SALLY: Really?
CHRISTINE: Yeah. What message?
SALLY: I asked you if you wanted to hang out.
CHRISTINE: Oh, no, I didn’t get it.
SALLY: Hm, the maleman must have a virus.
CHRISTINE: That sucks. He should run Live Update.

Classroom 2.0

2009-12-22T01:01:00.003-05:00

Google Wave is the latest craze in open source, real time, cross platform development online. Since we spoke about it in class I've seen interest generated around it mainly by education institutions who are looking at Google Wave as a new kind of classroom forum or community. With the addition of a few extensions or plugins it would eliminate many areas of criticism concerning online classes. Team building skills and social skills could be cultivated using this type of cross platform communication which could not be in a typical online class. It will be able to replace wikis, be able to playback the information for those who missed it in real time, allow collaborative, simultaneous group work, teacher involvment in all waves, and ability to publish (embed) completed projects to other sites. There has been so much buzz around Google Wave revolutionizing education that some are calling this next step in learning "Classroom 2.0"

I found that online I cannot find a single article bashing Google Wave in regards to education anywhere. However, I haven't heard any of my peers support Google Wave at all. I think that the beta version is pretty awful, as was the beta version of Gmail. Once Google gets it's feedback I'm sure they'll figure out a way to have us addicted to it like we are with Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter.

Internet shift

2009-12-22T00:31:00.001-05:00

Looking back to November 9th, I found myself reading Camille Paglia's chapter called "Dispatches from the New Frontier: Writing for the Internet" and was completely fascinated by her realizations about the Internet and her work with Salon. The statistics given by Paglia in her chapter do not even compare to those of college students today, but it is still true that "the Internet has cause a tremendous cultural shift whose most profound impact has been on young people." She states that college students spend 2 to 5 hours a night on the Internet. (I think this could be potentially more today).
With information for papers, tests, and exams becoming more and more accessible for students, it is an easy way for them to turn. The Internet is the newest of mediums that has had a profound affect on all people of all ages, and I think most on the college age students. Personal voices, as Paglia says, can dominate the Internet. As we see with our own blog, we are writing for the Internet, for each other, and for our lovely ONE outstanding follower (and maybe others?). And as Paglia states, we do use "more voices and shifts of tone" than we would in other places, especially here. Here we can be both silly and serious. We can have some fun and remain reserved to what we are reporting in our blog posts. But, as she says, if we were writing for the Wall Street Journal, we would definitely be much more reserved and serious about our reporting. Salon gave Camille a place to use her many voices, and this blog has done that for us!

Surrogates

2009-12-21T23:27:00.004-05:00

The term 'virtual reality' takes on a whole new meaning in the 2009 movie Surrogates. In the movie humans live in isolation while only communicating with their fellow man through robots that serve as social surrogates and are better-looking versions of their human counterparts. Humans sit in "stem chairs" and use the "power of their mind" to control these human-like robots with the durability of a machine. You can be who you want to be and live your life without limitations. I haven't seen the movie but from what I can gather, this wonderful lifestyle doesn't quite work out in the end. However, we can wonder if this type of technology will be developed in the future - and if so - if this really happens, does that mean: virtual reality = reality?

WoW Freakout / Internet Relationships

2009-12-21T22:44:00.002-05:00

Most of you have probably seen this...it's pretty hillarious. I didn't even really understand what World of Watcraft was before seeing the funeral raid in class. It was hard to believe people took that so seriously...then again watching this kid have the biggest melt down I've ever seen shows how serious people are about thier gaming life. In another class I'm taking taught by Dr. Sternberg I read an article that theorized that interpersonal communication through the internet allows people to form bonds just as strong, if not stronger, than in physical relationships. This is becasue the information that is left out because of the lack of face-to-face interaction is automatically filled in with the best possible option. For example, a man interested in a woman he met online would personify her as his ideal mate with all his most liked attributes. This got me thinking about how I suppose you really could form strong relationships withing a gaming world. Sometimes, since it is a game after all, that world might be way better than the real world and then I can understand how people become addicted to these types of 'second life' things.

Digital Get Down

2009-12-21T21:52:00.002-05:00

The development of cellular technology from analog to digital:

The name cellular comes from the break down of network service areas into cells. In traditional cellular technology, each cell contains a statin that transmits calls from mobile phones. This type of service is analog in that it transmits calls in one stream of information on the same frequency. However, there are limited number of analog frequencies which made calling on mobile devices difficult during the early stages of their development because you had to wait until a frequency freed up before you could place your call. Analog cellular service was regulated in the United States by the government until 1987 when the FCC allowed companies to openly develop alternative technologies. In 1991 the Telecommunication Industry Association created personal communication services technology which used all-digital wireless communication.

Also, from the album No Strings Attached by *NSYNC - Digital Get Down:
From 2000 - talks about a relationship with technological communication as it's foundation. Enjoy the throwback to middle school!

Online Pornography and Protecting Youths on the Cyber Playground

2009-12-21T17:21:00.002-05:00

I decided to combine two topics previously discussed on the blog, those being pornography online and protecting youths on the cyber playground. Pornography is so easily accessed that it can even by auto-completed in the search box on Google's homepage. For parents it is probably a scary feeling to know that their child can find pornography just as easily as they can find answers to their homework online. This easily accessbile pornography can lead to corrput attitudes toward sex in children. They may now see sex as a recreational activity rather than an intimate/serious act.

Parents often use parental codes and blocks that restrict their children from certain websites but with each new technology invented there is only a matter of time until there is a way to get around it, or "hack" it.

Now with spam on MySpace that involves sex advertisements, a child doesn't necessarily have to be looking for porn, it can find them. I think more efforts to block spam should taken because it is easy to influence a young mind, and with all of the negativity online, the children may find more bad things to do on the internet than good.

Obsessing Over the Social Landscape

2009-12-21T16:52:00.005-05:00

"There are approximately 350 million facebook users who spend nearly 10 billion minutes there a day checking in with friends, writing on people’s electronic walls, clicking through photos and generally keeping pace with the drift of their social world ("To Deal With Obsession, Some Defriend Facebook," NYTimes)."

In a recent New York Times article, renowned analysts from Columbia and MIT, commented on a study that proved facebook was literally taking over student's lives and creating a physical blockade of procrastination. I know what you're thinking--"duh!"--but, do we really take this seriously? According to the article, a few students did and deactivated their facebook accounts to allow themselves to focus more on their studies and non-mediated relationships.

There is commentary on the "new" facebook and the live-feed that it features: "'You’re getting a feed of everything everyone is doing and saying,' Ms. Simmons, an educator and the author, said. 'You’re literally watching the social landscape on the screen, and if you’re obsessed with your position in that landscape, it’s very hard to look away.'"

In Communication and Cyberspace, it is noted that cyberspace may feel real and take on similar traits of real life, personal interactions, but is in fact lacking the crucial component of non-linearity.

"Cyberspace consists not only of material things like people and their artifacts (computers, modems, telephone lines, etc.); it also has two major nonmaterial components: relationships among individuals, and the cybercultural contents of their heads--the sense of belonging to cyberspace, and relational, and cognitive--constitute not only cyberspace itself, but what is often called "culture" more generally (Communication and Cyberspace, "Who Shall Control Cyberspace?" Beniger, p. 61)."

With relation to facebook, when do we draw the line between cyberspace and reality when cyberspace begins to encompass reality, translate into reality and inhibit reality? Facebook may exist only in cyberspace, but that is not where it is solely present. However, there are instances that will stay on facebook and most likely never be discussed in real-life, for instance your high score on “Farmville,” but there are more such instances that will translate off of facebook. For example, lets say you comment on someone’s ending of a “relationship” with someone else on facebook; you probably know that person and will discuss it with them off of facebook.

Facebook is indeed a social landscape and includes yourself and 100’s of your “friends” (or so that is apparent to you) and has the ability to make you obsessed with your position on that landscape. In fact, to make sure I was productive in writing this entry, I signed myself out of the usually-always-open facebook.

As an interesting caveat, here is a look at the top facebook trends of 2009:

This provides us with insight of how there are trends that are important specifically in the realm of facebook , for example “Facebook Applications,” and there are also trends which translate off of facebook and into mainstream, non-linear society, like “Swine Flu.”

The Art of Writing Online

2009-12-21T16:51:00.004-05:00

The journalist in me has been trained over the years to write new in a very specific way: the inverted triangle. The most important facts come first, and the less important information comes later to fill out the story. However, online, this writing style is too blocky and unattractive. To remedy this, there have been many proposed models for journalists when it comes to writing online. This model is the one with which I am the most familiar:

In this model, several "mini-stories" make up the greater piece of writing. This allows the writer to keep the readers' interest in an online environment.

Online Education vs. Traditional: The Real Difference

2009-12-21T16:23:00.002-05:00

The best, most attractive aspect of online education is that learning online allows students to explore which methods of teaching work the best for them. For example, some students learn better through lecture, others through powerpoint presentations, still others through some combination of the two. By exploring the material at each student's own pace, the optimal amount of learning will ultimately take place. To explore this idea further, check out this article.

Post for 11/10/09: Hypertext

2009-12-21T16:01:00.002-05:00

When using the internet it is impossible to avoid being subject to hypertext. At its most basic definition, hypertext is an internet tool that provides users easy access to information related to a specific subject. It is text that is not linear, which enables a user to click on the text and be taken to a new part of cyberspace. In other words, it links the user to whatever the author creates. For instance, a web page may include hypertext for other websites, making it easy for everyday people to navigate the web easily.

Post for 11/3/09: Online Learning

2009-12-21T15:56:00.002-05:00

Again, as mentioned in previous posts, the benefits of a virtual reality are numerous. In particular, this post will discuss online education: its benefits, as well as its constraints. While an online course can offer the most basic amenity of leisure, there still seems to be something missing from experience. A classmate wrote how online education helps less privileged individuals receive schooling, and how this is an extremely beneficial aspect to the subject. While i agree with this, i must look at what is missing to truly understand the concept of online learning. I believe that there is a great deal of significance in the interpersonal communication that can happen in a live educational setting. Whether it is being able to speak face to face with a professor or peer, there is something lost in cyberspace. Even with relatively advance video technology, nothing compares to the real thing

Post for 10/27/09: Virtual Benefits

2009-12-21T15:46:00.002-05:00

As discussed in previous posts, cyberspace can act as a virtual reality of sorts. While it may not be considered physical space, much of what can be done in our "real" world can be accomplished in the virtual world. For instance, cyberspace can act as a sort of meeting place for people many many miles apart. This can be extremely beneficial for many reasons, whether it be to make information more readily available, or simply help to avoid the hastles of traveling. In any case, the benefits of cyberspace and all it has to offer are huge, and still growing.

Post for 10/20/09: Cyberspace

2009-12-21T15:36:00.001-05:00

Cyberspace is something that is extremely thought provoking and interesting. The fact that there can be a sort of "alternate" reality apart from our physical world is astonishing. When you sit in front of a computer screen, one can truly begin to see what cyberspace truly is. While we can know that there is something behind the computer screen, it is hard for us to truly classify cyberspace as another world. While this "world" of cyberspace is entirely man-made, it makes us question our own innate sense of physical space. Can cyberspace be classified as physical space at all? In some ways, i believe it can. Cyberspace can hold large amounts of information, which should act to prove that it does have some physical properties. While we cannot walk through cyberspace, perhaps it can act to alter the physical world we do walk in. Therefore, while cyberspace may not actually be physical space, it certainly can and does affect our world.

Cyberpunks

2009-12-20T20:50:00.003-05:00

In chapter 14, Sue Barnes discusses Cyberpunk culture in cyberspace. According to Barnes, the term is used to describe people who explore the digital landscapes of electronic space. It has escaped from being a literary genre into a cultural reality. In the genre, cyberpunks are "outlaws and hackers on the computer frontier." They break into network and otherwise cause mischief in cyberspace. This video illustrates some aspects of cyberpunk culture today.

another backstreet boy fad?

2009-12-09T19:24:00.002-05:00

For my final post I would like to take a look into the future and discuss how social networking websites may affect us. Since the introduction of myspace there have been a large number of social sites created which mimic or incorporate the same principles. The main purpose seems to be to connect with friends and show off cool pictures. However, we seem to be creating a culture where we talk about what goes on the social websites in real life rather than the vica-versa. Being someone who doesn't take too much pride in posting pictures and what not on the Internet, these websites have very little allure for me. I wonder if they are a fad that will die out like the backstreet boys? or have they became an integral part of our socialization and culture?

Alice in Cyberland

2009-12-08T16:51:00.005-05:00

We talked about mash-ups and remixes today in class, so I thought I'd post a cool one. It is a video that uses footage from Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" to create a song. I'm not sure if the song is user created or comes from someone else. We talked about who owns media content today. Originally, Disney owned the video content, but the user has remixed it so it could be considered their intellectual property now. My guess is that Disney accepts this because the "Alice" video has been up for quite awhile. Please enjoy!

"2009 In Auto Tune"

2009-12-08T16:36:00.001-05:00

Going along the lines of what we spoke about in class today about the kids of today "remixing", I found this video which mashes up a bunch of the most memorable moments of 2009. It's pretty funny. Enjoy! :)

The "Napster"ization of Electronic Books

2009-12-08T15:50:00.001-05:00

For my last blog post I wanted to write about something that I have recently found very interesting. Recently, the New York Times has created a lot of articles in relation this idea of e-book "napsterization". I think this relates to our class as it is a new and currently upcoming form of electronic media -- the Kindle and Electronic Books.

Will Books Be Napsterized?
Cellphone Apps Challenge the Rise of E-Readers

These two articles, along with many others recently published with the New York Times, describe the complications that may arise with electronic books, from piracy with the Kindle and online books, as well as the difference in using e-books on the Kindle or the iPhone.
Thankfully, they suspect that with the holiday season coming, hopefully *fingers crossed* the Kindle will be a big present this season and will boost the revenue of the device. They are also currently developing an e-book reader for the Blackberry so the application can be used with purchased electronic books so you can read on-the-go. We see everything technology wise becoming more and more accessible for the average moving person so that no matter where you are, you have access to things with your iPhone, Blackberry, or even cell-phone!

Connected but Lonely

2009-12-08T14:40:00.003-05:00

In another class I'm taking, Communication and Technology, there was a discussion I found very interesting about how 1 in 4 Americans are classified by lonely. Lonely being defined as people who don't share their days events with at least one person each day. I found this strange but believable. We have our email and social media but it doesn't mean we aren't lonely. Or internet friends, most of them at least on Facebook, are not people you can share your days events with. You'd like to call someone or better yet talk face to face with someone about your day. But instead, people continue to be lonely despite the reaches and ability of the internet and other communication tools.

Tech

2009-12-08T14:38:00.002-05:00

For my final post, i'd like to discuss how lucky we are to have the technology we do, and how in some instances we take these advances for granted. The advancements made in technology over the past 25 years are simply amazing. Our worlds are exceptionally different from where they were, and in large part, we have technology to thank for this.

With these advancements comes a certain sense of entitlement for some people. That is to say, some people assume that technology should be perfect. Referring to a previous post this semester, this idea links back with our "instant generation", in which we really have no patience for anything that takes more than 10 seconds to accomplish. The fact that we as people feel our technology should be instantaneous in speed and infinitesimal in ability shows that we certainly in part take new technology for granted.

Of course, technology is not something that should be thought of as a given. there is much more to it than most of us know. The fact of the matter is, we should all be amazed by the speed at which our computers work, as opposed to being annoyed that it is not faster.

This issue is something i have seen prevalent in adolescents younger than I. In particular, my little sister is the epitome of the instant generation. She has no patience with technology whatsoever, expecting it to do what she wants when she wants it.

Is Twitter making us more selfish?

2009-12-08T13:58:00.002-05:00

John Dvorak, a write for MarketWatch.com has some issues with Twitter, especially as a news source. First he says that bloggers tend to make generalizations since they have no idea how to pursue a story and get the facts. Second, he says that the Internet is full of hoaxes and goofballs, making blogs unreliable and non-credible sources. Next, 140 characters does not allow for analysis, just a mere "headline". Finally, bloggers may have skewed priorities.

His last objection is the one I find most interesting. He references David Callaway, another MarketWatch writer saying, "He accurately points out that Twitter is mostly about the user himself or herself. "Can anyone find me a good restaurant?" ... " I'm cold." ... " I just ate a cheese sandwich." ... " I almost got killed in Tehran." And while the last example is a kind of reporting, these idiots with their cell-phone cameras should probably get out of harm's way."

Now that I think about it, its true that the point of Twitter is to tell your "followers" the who, what, when, where, why, how of every minute of your day. But who cares? Who cares that you just ate a delicious cheese sandwich, or that you're cold. On the one hand I think Callaway has a point, it is self centered to think everyone cares about everything you do but on the other hand, Twitter can be used to offer advice and experiences.

I still haven't joined Twitter because I'm torn over the way I feel about it.

Can't Get No Satisfaction

2009-12-08T13:20:00.002-05:00

For my last post, I’d like to reflect on an overall view of new media and technologies. We live in a world surrounded by the digital era; everything from our Blackberries to our state of the art computers to high definition televisions. However, I was recently asked in a class to name one form of technology that I was truly satisfied with. And to almost my disgust, I couldn’t name one thing.

In this class, we’ve talked about the constant changing of new technologies. As I reflected upon what technology I am truly satisfied with, I kept naming things in my head, and then realizing that they could be better. First, I thought of my computer. I completely depend on my computer for just about all of my classes. I type up all my notes, have essays and word documents, excel spreadsheets, powerpoint presentations, emails; everything I need to continue being a successful student. However, there are always ways that these applications can be improved. How? Not exactly sure. But I know that Microsoft Office continues to be re-developed, so therefore something can be changed to make it better for me.

I then thought to the Internet. Yes, I am satisfied with the internet. Oh no, wait. It can always be faster. There can always be more information. There can always be a way that it’s accessed easier and faster. And the same goes for my cell phone. I have the internet at my fingertips, all my important contacts with the click of a button, texts, calls, and BBMs, as well as a world of applications. What more could I want? The answer is more. There are always ways that it can be faster, that it can be better.

And I know that I’m not the only one to feel this way. I’ve read posts on this blog about how our generation becomes impatient if a website doesn’t load in under 3 seconds. But have we just become spoiled and lazy as our impatience grows with faster technology? Does that even make any sense, that as technology becomes more readily available to us, we become even more skeptical of how great it is and our impatience grows? Is this how we’re going to define our culture, in terms of how we view our cyber culture?

the rise and fall of mankind

2009-12-08T06:37:00.002-05:00

The face of social media, and technology as a whole, is changing, fast. Now don't get me wrong, i'm not anti-facebook at all, i'm on it right now. However, certain details have been catching my attention as of late. The facebook "clientele" i'm looking at now, hardly resembles those facebook users I was first aquainted with. A growing trend i've noticed throughout all social media, is how drastically the age range of users is changing. I remember when MySpace was the best we could do because FaceBook was restricted to college students, and then I remember the days when people were getting pissed off because high schoolers started signing-up. Now I didn't care that about any of that then, I was one of those high schoolers. However, when I sign in under that FB banner and look at the list of friends that pop up, I am often caught off-guard. I think I now understand why all those college kids were making such a big fuss over some high-school kid's friend-request. Its all our fault. We messed it up for everyone when we barged our way into a place where we didn't belong. It was by no means intentional, but we DID in fact open the "flood-gates" to the exceptions. Now, my 68 yr old father has facebook. He barely knows how to turn on the computer. All of you know the type of parent im talkin about. He's the kind who constantly alleges that the computer "deleted his emails," or refuses to even attempt to fix his own PC problems because he is 100% sure that he will break it, so he just calls you at 11pm asking why the printer's "broken?" and getting really upset when you don't know. But this man raised me in under his roof and provided for me, there's no possible way I can be justified in rejecting his friend-request. Right? However, do I necessarily want him to be able to read what my friends tell me I did the night before when I was drunk? The answer is no. So i'm forced to give him limited profile access, which i'm pretty sure only lets him see my picture. So whats the point? Why did he sign up? Unfortunately he did it for the same reason we did in the 9th or 10th grade. He did it because he can. Can't blame him for that, we did the exact same thing...but at what point do you have to draw the line? When is it just too weird? Example, my mom, who I guess has just recently discovered Twitter, is following Justin Timberlake. Not cool right? Yesterday I received a FB friend-request from my cousin, Austin. Problem.... he's thirteen years old. The worst part is, i'm sure he knows how to get around facebook wayy better than my parents, and there are just some things that are not appropriate for someone who hasn't even hit puberty. He's just old enough to read and understand what people write about and post pictures of, but he's not old enough to handle it. So here I am, feeling guilty that I rejected my little cousin, but really, I know that if it wasn't for us, and our impatience to get in the facebook clique, I wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. So keep this in mind, as we grow older, and new technologies evolve, we must make it our responsibility to know our place, to know where we belong, and to know where we have no business being at all.
-a.s.

Web 2.0 Summit

2009-12-08T02:04:00.007-05:00

Every year for the past five years, there has been a web 2.0 conference held. The summit brings those in the internet industry together to look at how Web 2.0 is affecting their businesses and other endeavors. This year the theme was Websquared. The summit describes Websquared: "As we approach the six year mark from the original Web 2.0 thesis, the trends are becoming clearer than ever. Once applications live in the cloud, the key to success is harnessing network effects so that those applications literally get better the more people use them. But that's just the beginning. Today we see that applications are being driven by sensors, not just by people typing on keyboards. They are becoming platforms for collective action, not just collective intelligence."

We can see that we no longer just use the web, the web uses us to create content and generate action. Social networking is just the beginning. Facebook began as a fairly passive application in which one could view friends profiles, but it becomes increasingly more interactive and collaboration.

Google also began as merely a search engine, but has developed into email and so much more. It's latest development is GoogleWave, which I have to admit I haven't totally figured out yet. It seems to allow people to communicate, collaborate, and create documents in real time through cyberspace. Collaboration is key what will be next?

This is a long video taken from the summit called "What Do Teens Want?". It's interesting to see perspective from our age group at the summit. I don't expect you to watch the whole 30+ minutes, but you might find a few snippets interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLblEHTnLPQ&feature=player_embedded

web 2.0

2009-12-08T00:37:00.008-05:00

For my last post I thought I would share, although it has already been posted before on this Blog, a video that provides insight into hypertext and the reality of the web 2.0. The video shows how search engines like Google can take the pulse of society as we type into the search box what we need or feel. Interestingly enough, this video is right on par with some of the ideas in our book Communication and Cyberspace. Our book allowed us to "examine virtual reality and the perception of immersion generated by cyberspace technologies, as well as hypertext and hypermedia as new forms of steering through the electronic landscape." It is interesting to note that our computers can now deliver us with more personalized ads based on past things we've searched for.

Social Media According To Wikipedia

2009-12-07T21:58:00.003-05:00

Coming to the last day of class tomorrow, I thought it would be appropriate to post on the idea of social media.

And! what better place to find the true definition than Wikipedia: the social media information outlet. The Wiki article describes social media as encouraging "the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers."

MySpace, Facebook, Wikipedia, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, Digg, Neopets, Last.fm, YouTube, Blogger, etc. etc. etc. all encourage the individual to create the content. No longer is there one-directional communication . Newspapers, TV, radio, and other forms of mass media have been supplanted by these new formats which are all led by an aggregate of the public.

MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking sites encourage communication between people. Wikipedia gives people who are experts in their field the ability to edit articles. Twitter gives people the ability to hear quick bytes of news and information. YouTube lets individuals post their videos for widespread viewing. And Neopets combines the toy that young kids love with the internet in a fascinating (and personally for me, unbelievably odd) way.

The question is: is this the way media should be? Should face-to-face interaction be supplanted by communication over the internet? Should in depth newspaper articles be overcome by instantaneous Twitter feeds? Should Wikipedia articles, which can be edited by many people, overcome the classic encyclopedia entry? Should YouTube and quick videos change the way people watch anything? It is a question that many people should be wondering with the advent of this Web 2.0 era. The internet certainly makes things easier... but is that a good thing?

Web 2.0

2009-12-01T15:06:00.002-05:00

Web 2.0 allows users to become participants rather than only observers. The users of web 2.0 can now take ownership and exercise control over data, whereas Web 1.0 was exclusively information, and less participation by users. Some examples of the increased technology from web 1.0 to web 2.0 are:

Ofoto to Flickr
mp3.com to Napster
Britanica Online to Wikipedia
Personal websites to blogging

Advertising

2009-12-01T14:32:00.003-05:00

Advertising has always been a very interesting industry for me personally. Last semester i took the Principles of Advertising course offered at Fordham. I was very intrigued by the whole process involved with advertising. One of the main points we learned in the course was the importance for advertisers to "catch" the attention of the audience. A major issue with this is that the general public's attention span seems to be getting shorter and shorter. As our media is becoming more instantaneous, with on-demand options etc. it is much more difficult for advertisers to get their message across. I find it intriguing how little time the advertisers have to make the audience interested in what they are saying. I can appreciate the hard work these people put in to their work. They literally only have seconds to do their job.

Advertising in the New age

2009-12-01T14:15:00.003-05:00

In reading about advertising in chapter 21, I became very interested in the idea of Advertising as creating needs rather than fulfilling needs. As our country becomes more and more of a consumer society, the more this issue will happen. As Americans we feed off the new and improved, we strive to make more and more money so we can buy more and more things. Things that we do not even truly need, but we seem to think that we do. The ads that we see are purposely made so that we can connect with them, so that we can picture ourself as the person in the ad. And so, if the person in the ad absolutely needs this new product, well since we are just like that person, we must need that product as well. Advertisers also appeal to our hopes and dreams, showing the rich and famous people using certain products, telling us that if we want to be part of that class of people, we need to use those products as well. It is almost as if we are tricked into needing things, and tricked into thinking that we are making our own decision to want these things.

Also on the topic of traditional advertising and television, it is becoming harder and harder for advertisements to catch our attention. As mentioned in the text, with remote controls, people can just change the television channel to another station when commercials come on, making things very difficult for the stations trying to sell the ad space, and for the advertisers who are trying to sell a product. This has become worse over the years with the invention of Tivo and on-demand television, as well as television being watched on the internet. People may pay a little bit more, but they can completely skip over having to see any advertisements if they choose.

Epilogue: Just the Beginning

2009-12-01T13:25:00.001-05:00

In the epilogue to our book, Neil Postman addresses the main theme of our book by writing on the topic of new technologies. However, unlike most chapters in the book, instead of explaining and critiquing the new technologies, Postman warns us about the dangers of new technologies. He wishes for us to go back to a simpler time; a time when we could appreciate things like the arts, writings, even music.

But in today’s time, we use technologies as our medium to interpret these messages. How easily is it to type into google “the Mona Lisa” and literally see the famous artwork in front of you? People use their computers to listen to music, rather than listen to it live. Even our writings are found through technologies; whether it is online journalism or the Kindle.

Many people argue that technology is used to help solve our problems as a society. However, Postman argues that,

“Technology does not touch life’s deepest problems. We may think it will, as so may thought in the 19th century, when the aim of technological development was to reduce ignorance, superstition, and suffering. And to some extent, they were right to hope so. And to some extent, technology did address those problems. But the technology celebrated now is just cruise control and electric windows.” (391)

I think Postman is right to argue this point. He is saying, essentially, that we are using technology as a band-aid to cover a bullet hole. Although I think that he is a bit extreme in his views, I do think we need to heed them, in order to make sure that we are using the technology, and not the other way around.

Web 2.0: re-changing the world

2009-12-01T13:16:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine recently sent this video to me when we were talking about technological advancements. Though it moves a little fast, it describes perfectly the culture we live in and the advancements that WE create every day. Our own ability to change the computer itself and the way the Web runs is an astronomical achievement.

Wikipedia defines Web 2.0 as: "web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web" (Wikipedia) To think about the amount of things that I simply did in this one blog entry though the use of HTML or XML is crazy, and we don't even realize it most of the time (because normally the computer/website does it for us, like Blogger!). The simplicity we are creating will last for years to come and will continue to prosper even after our death. Wikipedia also uses the image below to describe what Web 2.0 is, and what words are normally associated with it.
REMEMBER it is us who is changing the future of Web 2.0 and beyond, and we are doing so without even knowing it!

Protecting Youths on the Cyber Playground

2009-12-01T13:09:00.003-05:00

According to a CNN article published today, social media web sites Facebook and MySpace have deactivated the accounts of over 3,500 registered sex offenders in New York State. These websites used a state law which requires these people to inform the state of their email addresses and any online aliases that they would be using. The New York Attorney General said that the offenders were in violation of their parole by interacting with children in an online environment.

I personally am somewhat torn on the issue. The largest part of me is satisfied with the decision of the social networks. As a young adult and future parent, I absolutely want children to have the utmost protection, particularly over the Internet. However, I could also understand how some people would say that this begins to infringe on the personal liberties of these citizens. It is a complicated decision, but I feel that Facebook and MySpace protected both themselves and children using the site by taking this measure.

The Flaws of Communicating in Cyberspace & Technology

2009-12-01T11:34:00.002-05:00

While the title of this post is a bit of a play on our book title, in chapter 21, Rushkoff describes some of the flaws of "communicating" over the certain mediums. For example, he describes the issues within communicating in a video game, multimedia cd-rom, or web site. Within all of these, the communication is simply one dimensional, even if the user gets to pick his own direction.

A video game has been preprogrammed to let the player choose his own direction. While the player is able to follow his own path in the video game, all possible options have already been exhausted by video game developers. There is no possible decision the player could make that has not been already. The player moves within the constraints of the game.

A multimedia CD-rom is very similar to a video game. Like the "choose your own ending" stories we saw in class, a multimedia CD-rom lets the user pick his own direction, but all possible outcomes have been previously thought out by the developers. The person may think he is choosing his own direction, but truly it is the CD-rom developers who have actually come up with any possible ending.

At the time this book was written, the web was not into its full blown "web 2.0" stage. Communication on the web was one sided, with news and information being simply conveyed to the online reader. It is "a simulation of free choice" (350). In this, the reader is simply told information. But now with the rise of social media such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter, each person has the chance to publish and respond to anything he wants. The web became 2-directional with each user able to communicate with others, respond to stories, watch and comment on videos, and so forth. With the ability for so many different people to publish their own information, good and bad material has come. But, I don't think that anyone would argue the bad that the internet offers outweighs the good

Is Twitter really the way to God?

2009-12-01T09:20:00.003-05:00

Twitter, the popular social media network for micro-blogging was recently dubbed the most popular word of 2009. The Global Language Monitor declared “Twitter” as the top English word of the year. In a Time.com article, technology writer Clive Thompson says that by following these quick, abbreviated status reports from members of your extended social network, you get a strangely satisfying glimpse of their daily routines. We don't think it at all moronic to start a phone call with a friend by asking how her day is going. Twitter gives you the same information without your even having to ask.

Twitter is gaining popularity at lightning speed. It had a huge effect on Black Friday sales, with retailers “tweeting” deal, hoping to catch the attention of their followers. James Fielding, President of Disney Stores Worldwide is quoted as saying, “I think in this economy you need to leverage every asset that you have.” This past Friday, Fielding tweeted, “We have amazing ONE DAY ONLY deals previewing on our Facebook page — become a fan today and find out more!”

While I think taking advantage of Twitter, Facebook and other new forms of social media, how much is too much? This question came to mind when I came across a Time.com article entitled, “Twitter in Church, with the Pastor’s O.K.” The article profiles John Voelz, a pastor at Westwinds Community Church in Jackson, Michigan who has embraced Twitter and taught his congregation how to use it. Voelz spent two weeks teaching his parishioners about the site and how to use it. After no time, tweets were appearing on screen in the training session with things like, “I have a hard time recognizing God in the middle of everything" and "The more I press in to Him, the more He presses me out to be useful.”

Is this really appropriate? Voelz seems to think so. Instead of reminding worshippers to silence their cell phones, he is encouraging them to integrate text messaging into their relationship with God. Some believe that it is the Church’s responsibility to leverage current culture to their advantage, in order to draw young people in. Actually, Bible verses can frequently be found in pop culture. Here are two unexpected examples:

On the other hand, many believe that there is a time a place for technology, and Sunday morning Mass isn’t is.

I personally do not believe that Church is the time/place for social media sites. I know if there was a screen in the front of my Church displaying Twitter, I would watch that the whole time rather than pay attention to the Mass. And if, for some reason, I wasn’t paying attention to what’s going on up on the altar, shouldn’t I be reflecting on my life throughout the past week?

Web 2.0 and Social Media

2009-11-30T22:26:00.003-05:00

People like to be connected and the desire for such connectivity has given exponential growth to social media. We are in constant want and/or need to stay in contact with our friends, family, and at times keep up with people that we may not even know all to well or not all. Sometimes its mind boggling that people care about or give so much attention to the most insignificant tweets or status updates. People don’t want to be left out of the loop and always want to know what’s going on.

The emergence of Web 2.0, "web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web (Wikipedia)" seems to have given rise to social media. It has created interactivity in which users are not merely passive observers, but instead are able to participate with the websites content. The ability to participate created an engaging attribute to the web and thus provided people with something to do online. When people became participants and producers of a websites content, social media began to thrive.

People are constantly in motion and therefore we need something to keep in touch. An increasing number of people are enabling internet on their phones because that's their main outlet of communication. Even if your on the run, staying connected is not an option, it has become more of a necessity.
"Stay in-the-know wherever you go with wireless access to: status updates, friend requests, photos, wall posts, and messages." Blackberry's ad reveals that although people may be fast-paced and mobile, we never truly become disconnected from our social networking sites (what may now be our main source of social connectivity).

Perhaps this progression towards social media is merely a normal phase of the evolution of communication, such as the movement from the telegraph to the phone. Some people are still weary of social media and have not yet adapted to it. However, I believe that in the long run most people will feel comfortable with the idea and the use of social media, much like other mediums of communication. Maybe next semester the use of twitter will be required for this class and people our age will personally find out what all the hype is about.

Interesting Social Media and Web 2.0 presentation that I found on the web:

Web 2.0 and Social Media

View more presentations from Shantanu Adhicary.

A Very Merry Twitter Holiday

2009-11-30T19:50:00.004-05:00

This past Friday, hordes of deal-hungry Americans woke up at unimaginably early hours to wait in excruciatingly long lines, pillage a $3.99 DVD bin, and get what could be the "lowest price of the season" on a popular toy for their eager adolescents. However, what makes this years Black Friday different from others is that this is America's first Twitter Holiday.

According to a recent NYTimes Article, "retailers and their customers used the social networking site to talk to one another about bargains, problems, purchases and shopping strategies." Tech savvy black Friday shoppers used Twitter as their guide to discounts around the retail sphere and most who did say that they benefited more than just shopping with your average black Friday sale circular. Some Twitter-exclusive deals included a coupon for 15% off a purchase of $75 or more at the Gap Outlet and the special "One Day Sale" from Disney, which previewed exclusively on their Facebook page.

However, Best Buy is one of the most remarkable retail Twitter users this holiday season;

"A few months ago, Best Buy began piloting a Twelpforce — a Twitter-inspired play on “help force” — of some 2,500 employees that answer consumers’ questions in real time. After buying a new navigation system at 6 a.m. on black Friday, Laura S. Kern of Los Angeles could not figure out why it was not giving her traffic updates. She sent a message to Best Buy’s Twelpforce account and within five minutes not one, but two Best Buy employees responded with fix-it advice ("Buying, Selling and Twittering all the Way." New York Times. Nov. 27, 2009)."

In chapter one of Communication and Cyberspace, Gumpert & Drucker posit the excitement of progress and technological developments in that "being able to connect with the outside world from our intellectual dungeon is amazing and helpful, but it is much more difficult to forecast the impact of such developments." Twitter, the most used word of 2009, allows people to connect with the outside world in unimaginable ways; Tweets can theoretically be seen by millions of people and with the nature of a tweet being 140 characters or less, this spurt of information is tangible and useful for more people compared to a traditional blog or facebook post, which can be wordy and not get to the point in the same concise fashion as Twitter. This is why for businesses, Twitter is a goldmine.

Did retailers ever think that Twitter would become so large that they would be increasing their use of social media this holiday season by 47% ("Buying, Selling and Twittering all the Way." New York Times. Nov. 27, 2009)? Probably not. The power of Twitter for businesses is growing exponentially and the developments with how to better utilize Twitter, a la Best Buy's Twelpforce, is a perfect example of how a company is already making advancements in a nascent form of communication to sataisfy customers in an instant gratification, palm-of-your-hand type of way.

Twitter is a prodigious playground with growing possibilities. As seen with this years black Friday, retailers have the ability to directly address the consumer and make them feel heard and noticed. What advancements will Twitter and other forms of social media and web 2.0 make in 2010? Perhaps you will be able to download a holographic Best Buy employee to help you set up your new home theater system.

Making the Concrete. Abstract

2009-11-30T19:37:00.004-05:00

Chapter 18 by Paul Lippert titled, "Cinematic Representations of Cyberspace" discusses the manner in which film has been able to manipulate concrete ideas and make them abstract in a manner which print couldn't do. I found this observation very compelling because it reminded my of the Multimedia classes I had taken in high school.
Lippert mentions how the placement of characters in a scene can create an abstract meaning. On page 298 he makes this point that if a character is standing in front of a group of others in a shot, the spacial arrangment of the characters is concrete, however the idea that this one individual is in the foreground illustrates an abstract idea that he or she is over importance. This idea of positioning adds a dynamic to film that print culture couldn't accomplish. Similarly, camera angles play a large role in creating abstract ideas of characters. A low camera angle with a character seeming larger than life creates a sense of power and vice versa.
Print was only able to do the opposite and make concrete what was abstract. Ideas of things beyond the physical world could be captured by words in print but couldn't go the other way.

Mass Media Manipulator

2009-11-28T23:56:00.002-05:00

Chapter 21 in 'Communication and Cyberspace', discusses how our two way communication is surprisingly one way. The media can control most of the news that affects us by presenting information in a way that we regard as living communication. The imitation, however, is the broadcasted one-way view of worldwide sponsors. When we receive information, it has been formulated in a way that captures are attention and plays into our desires, fears, and aspirations. In chapter 21, author Douglas Rushkoff highlights how the media can take data and turn it against us. For example, Counterinsurgency air force brigadier general Edward G. Lansdale, worked for the CIA and gathered information about the Huk rebels in the Philippines just after World War II. He learned that this group of people was very superstitious and greatly feared vampires. He capitalized on their fears by quietly capturing one of their men and killing him by puncturing two holes in the side of his neck and then draining him of blood. They would leave the man to be found by his tribe early the next morning. When the tribe did come across the victim they would retreat in fear of vampires. Essentially this tactic "depends on concretizing living myth with fixed data. They invariably mine the most fertile cultural soil for inherent inconsistencies, and then replace them with symbols that can be more easily controlled"(pg 353).

This story relates to our mass media because marketers do what General Lansdale did everyday. They distribute surveys and other polling options that require our feedback, essentially allowing them to identify our target needs- allowing us to become the victims of an eventual marketing attack. In many ways advertising is becoming more and more specific. As companies now can literally map out each of their target customers likes/dislikes and preferences using stored information from their computer's history of past purchases, we might see a trend of getting advertising that applies to us specifically. In a way I'd rather see coupons for things that pertain to my life and advertsing that 'knows me' - even if it is a little bit 'Big Brother-ish'.

Communication and Cyberspace: Chapter 21

Critical Perspectives

2009-11-28T22:11:00.002-05:00

In Chapter 1, 'From Locomotion to Telecommunication, or Paths of Safety, Streets of Gore', I was struck by the story of David Alsberg. He was an innocent bystander killed by a stray bullet during a robbery in Times Square. The book describes how his family grieved, but so did his online world- the friends he had in cyberspace. They had an online wake for him in an electronic forum- I thought of the WOW funeral we observed in class. The chapter went on to quote the population of cyberspace ( between 30-35 million people ). As more people are choosing to communicate, explore, discover, and socialize online, rather than doing so in the real world, are we becoming a generation that seeks social isolation. As cyberspace grows, are we retreating to the confines of our own homes- behind our own computer screens?

The epilogue of chapter one said it best:

"Once upon a time, not so many years ago, people could go out into the city lights when the fancy struck them, when they had nothing better to do, when it occurred to them that it might be fun to be with others. Sometimes it was necessary to walk into the street to find out what was happening in the world. They wandered out into the square to talk, to the cafe to contemplate their lives over a cup of coffee, to the park to stroll among others, to the pub to flirt with those who were there to rush the blood, to the bench where ancient memories reside, to the chess tables to advise and criticize, to the public realm to vanquish loneliness, discuss politics, or simply talk. But it is no longer that time past, and the old and familiar have often become hostile and menacing. We sadly step back and find other possibilities and less threatening opportunities to play and frolic- safely, often alone."

Communication and Cyberspace: Chapter 1

Pornography

2009-11-24T14:47:00.002-05:00

The topic i found most worthy of comment was the pornography industry and its hold on the cyberspace world. I was astonished at how evidence supports the claim that porn has driven many technological advancements. It is clear that the porn industry makes the internet what it is today.

Personally, i am quite surprised at this fact, as i was under the impression since the government first created the internet, porn would be last on the list. I guess it goes to show you that sex truly does sell.

Cyberspace: A Neverending Story

2009-11-24T14:01:00.002-05:00

The Internet has come a long way since its birth in the 70s with ARPAnet. What began as an organized controlled sphere of data has evolved into flowing and constantly adapting stream of culture and information. In chapter 3 Beniger uses the analogy of paths flowing through the Harvard campus. Like the Internet, as time passed, what was once sufficient is no longer appropriate. The web evolves as it sees fit. No one tries to change the Internet it just happens naturally.
The Internet itself doesn't change, the people who utilize it do, and with these changes new meanings come to old ideas. The Internet at its core is the same. It functions in same way, i.e. It is the home of free flowing information available to anyone with access. If you were to look at the original ARPAnet, and compare it to today's world wide web, it would be easy to say that they are unrelated and share no ties. This however is inaccurate. Rather than taking them as two separate entities, one should consider the world wide web as something which is ever-expanding.
At the core of this web is ARPAnet, because this is where it all began. As new developments emerge, such as how the united postal service utilized the net, a web of tentacles begins to unfold and expand outward in all directions. In 20 years no doubt we will be using the Internet in ways we cannot fathom today. The world wide web will probably become a tech term of the past, like ARPAnet is today. But this is not to say that whatever will emerge is not intrinsically linked to the technologies of the past.

Gamer

2009-11-24T13:59:00.004-05:00

While reading Chapter 18, I could not help thinking of a movie that I saw recently: Gamer, featuring Gerard Butler. While far from being a cinematic masterpiece, it provided an interesting interpretation of the blurred line between cyberspace and "real life", and also of the dangers of relying on mass media. In the movie, Butler is simultaneously a video game character and a human being. This is made possible by mind control technology used on death row inmates to provide entertainment for those with the money to play the game. To a large degree, the movie is meant to make the audience sick and to be wary of technology on the whole, media in particular.

Gerard is not to be messed with.

This resonated with me particularly because of Lippert's assertion that "science and technology increasingly have distanced us semantically and experientially from this lifeworld, our ideas and their images have become similarly remote." I would contend that in certain instances, such as in Gamer or The Matrix, technology becomes a replacement for the real world, but does not necessarily make an attempt to distance space from cyberspace.

What Are We Paying For?

2009-11-24T13:49:00.001-05:00

In chapter 8, Mark Giese discusses the history of the Internet and the different ways the Internet has been used in our society. On page 154, he discusses the Internet on a collegiate level, and what it is that we pay (or do not) pay for. He quotes John P. Doyle by stating,

“One of the keys to understanding why colleges and universities make their computers available to the public is the fact that it doesn’t really cost them anything. The computer servers are always on.”

Giese continues Doyle’s thoughts by stating that

“…even at the institutional level, the costs associated with the growth and maintenance of the Internet are diffused and indirect. Once the investment in computer hardware is made, there is little additional cost associated with making access to the Internet available to a wide range of people”

I thought that the idea of the low cost of creating a serve with wide range access to a large group of people was very interesting, especially here at Fordham. With the campus being almost 99% wireless, I always wondered how the IT department was able to fund the ever-expansive wireless project. However, now I understand that making these services available to a large group is fairly inexpensive, comparatively to what it could be. I also now understand why the IT department is able to provide us with free customer support and free programs such as Symantec Anti-Virus and the dreaded Cisco Clean Access Agent.

Who controls the Internet?

2009-11-24T13:03:00.001-05:00

I think the issue of control, brought up in Chapter 3 by James Beniger is very interesting. He begins the chapter by describing the evolution of walking paths in Harvard Yard. He says, “As new buildings open, both on campus and off, and popular courses move from one part of the university to another, the resulting shifts in Harvard’s pedestrian traffic are recorded in new footpaths cutting across the various lawns of the Yard…Harvard does not attempt to reseed- it simply paves over all the new paths chosen by sufficient pluralities of feet. In choosing to act this way, Harvard has eschewed top-down control in favor of a bottom-up variety, forsaking the centralized control of the landscape architect in favor of decentralized control by emergent popular habits.” (P.60) Fordham, on the other hand, does not take this approach. In September there was a path of beaten down grass, between two trees, leading from the street by Spellman Hall to O’Hare. Maintenance reseeded this area and put barricades around it to prevent students from walking on the new grass. What makes them think that students won’t walk along the same path once the barricades are removed? Or will the barricades be there forever, suggesting top-down control?

Beniger likens Harvard’s bottom-up paving of popular footpaths chosen by students to the bottom-up development of the Internet. In the early days of the Internet, before it became what we know it as today, it was simply a computer network run by the U.S. Defense Department. Beniger describes how the Defense Department tried to stop the rise of a virtual community of science fiction fans. However, the community was so strong and vocal that they succeeded in gaining “control”. The Defense Department, like Harvard was forced to allow a bottom-up development of the Internet by frequent users.

This brings up the question of control. While Harvard owns the concrete paths they have paved, no one owns the Internet. James Gleick is quoted as saying, “It isn’t a thing; it isn’t an entity; it isn’t an organization. No one owns it; no one runs it. It is simply Everyone’s Computers, Connected.” (P.61) While I’m not sure what will happen, in terms of control to the Internet in the future, it’s interesting to think about it’s current state of decentralized control.

Epilogue: Cyberspace

2009-11-24T12:03:00.002-05:00

Epilogue: Cyberspace, Shmyberspace

“In the epilogue to this volume, he raises the most basic question of all- Do we actually need cyberspace technologies? Is there a problem that cyberspace is needed to solve? Postman suggests that the difficulties contemporary information technologies were meant to address were, in fact, resolved in the 19th century. Thus, we suffer from too much information and from empty simulations that take the place of genuine experience. Far from a dismissal, Postman reminds us that in fulfilling new functions, older, more important, ones may be ignored; in creating new forms, more traditional and satisfying ones may be forgotten; and that in generating new codes and meanings, we may become lost in a Babel-like sate of incoherence.”

Postman believes that the problem we faced in the 19th century was trying to increase the ability to communicate with people faster. He suggests that this problem was solved with inventions such as the telegraphy, photography, radio, movies, penny press, and more. He believes that “we have solved the problem of information scarcity” and should instead be trying to gain meaning in our lives. He goes on to state that “people who are enthusiastic about virtual reality machines” are those trying to escape the real world and are seeking friendships in a simulated world because they lack the social skills to make friends. Postman states that their real problem is “boringness, friendlessness, thoughtlessness.” This reminds me of Second Life and how people are using it to create an avatar in order to belong to a simulated world. The fabricated world created with the idea that they can escape the real world and create a fantasy one. This empty simulation is what Postman argues against. I don’t believe Postman is against new media, but rather is disheartened by what it has created.

Postman states that the “tie between information and human purpose has been severed.” In some ways I have to agree with Postman. Our generation has been inundated by information and new media and has been captivated so much as to say were trapped by new mediums. For example, so many people will rather text some one or write on their Facebook page rather than call a person. There’s an intimate connection lost when you text someone or use a social networking site that is present when you call someone. This relates to Postman’s suggestion that people continue to want to communicate information faster and have lost some meaning in doing so. Moreover, Postman states that “we must now turn to our poets, playwrights, composers, theologians, and artists, who, alone, can create or restore the narratives that will give a meaningful pattern to our lives. They are our weavers who can liberate us from cyberspace and put us back in the world.” Postman made a real bold statement because it’s difficult to entirely agree with him; I’m a bit torn between both ends of the spectrum. Although I feel that we have lost some meaning through the use of cyberspace, I don’t think that we need to liberate ourselves completely from it. Instead we should limit our use of cyberspace and try and gain a greater connection with the real world. However, Postman’s argument creates a skeptical outlook about the future. As we keep moving towards an increasingly technological and cyber world, will we be entrapped by it and are we going to need total liberation as Postman states? It’s definitely some worth thinking about.

Moral Ground

2009-11-24T01:57:00.003-05:00

We all know that sex sells. With such a lucrative market, there must be a reason why pornography is so successful. Pornography is so successful because it allows for people to full fill dreams or fantasies which may never be achieved in real life. With that said, is viewing pornography immoral? The class seemed to be divided on the debate of whether virtual funeral crashers were immoral.

Obviously viewing pornography on the Internet could be detrimental to a child. It is up to the parents of that child to ensure that this type of material is not seen by them. It is not the government's responsibility to filter tv, reading, movie, or Internet material. Parents should be mature enough to realize what is appropriate for their child's development and not depend on someone or some entity to do their parenting for them.

The media can create dread for parents and many may over protect their children. Many people do not realize the strength of persuasion that the media has. The media creates news and news is what people talk about. The news also tends to focus on the negative. So when people read an article about how pornography has become an epidemic they quickly over react. If fox news said that an apple a day will send you to the doctor today most people would stop eating apples. So when the government and media propose pornography as a danger their will be steps taken to ban or diminish the sources of porn. I am not saying that porn is a good thing or bad thing. I am saying that you can not control what people will want to do regardless of rules or regulations. They will do it anyway e.g. alcohol abolition.

Do you think pornography is wrong or immoral?

Porn's Prominent Place

2009-11-23T21:33:00.003-05:00

In chapter 11, I was shocked to see a section describing how pornography has furthered technological advances. When it comes down to the details, the thesis has a lots of support.

The essay goes all the way back to the Gutenberg press arguing that a book about sexual positions and another about various sexual stories were two of the most prolifically produced texts. Almost every medium has fostered a development in pornography.

Next came the development of the paperback book which was created on cheap paper products. These texts were frequently pornography and erotica (Zimmer and Hunter go so far as to argue that variations on this are now found in modern supermarkets).

Next came porn photography during the Civil War where the "soldiers sought more than just letters from home" (187). Then came pay-per-view cable, videotaped pornography, and finally internet pornography.

The internet has provided its users with instant access to information, music, videos, and pornography as well. Every new medium brings with it advantages in positive and negative ways and the internet is no different. It has brought about changes in all forms. Communications and Cyberspace states that internet pornography is now a $1 billion business and pornography as a whole is $56 billion.

The question is, is this a good thing? Many people argue that the internet has brought with it great advances and major downfalls. Opinions?

Unseen Consequences of New Technologies

2009-11-23T12:20:00.002-05:00

In Chapter 8, From ARPAnet to the Internet, Mark Giese discusses the founding of ARPAnet, the origin of today's internet. He traces it to the Defense Department's way of creating a manner in which to communicate if all other forms fail during nuclear war. ARPAnet, it was called, was at its foundation, antithetical to the usual way the military worked. They wanted a non-centralized and interconnnected system, much different from the normal hierarchy of the military. But the most interesting point of Giese's chapter is the example it makes of being unaware of the consequences or other uses for a new technology. Marshall McLuhan, a famed member of the Media Ecology community, always warned of the effects of new technologies. No one can ever fully understand how something new will change the world we live in and ARPAnet is no exception. The military eventually lost the battle with computer researchers and the internet slowly became a social network. Little did the military know that there system originally meant for back up communications in the case of an attack would become public and be used world-wide.

Google Chrome OS: a new cyberspace

2009-11-22T21:47:00.009-05:00

Google announced this week that they would be launching a brand new "Google Chrome" operating system. The Google Chrome web browser was the fundamental influence for Chrome, bringing together all of Google's apps like Google Docs, Gmail, Gchat, blogger and more into a reinvented, 21st century interface. The catch is, that's all there is to the operating system; there's no hard drive and no native apps--just a browser, housing everything you need.

As Beniger assesses in Communication and Cyberspace, "For those who seek to advertise, politic, persuade, or otherwise control large populations, cyberspace presents two attractive features: First, because cyberspace has the feel (and currently the tradition) of interpersonal communication, it would well serve to conceal the inherently impersonal (and thus less persuasive) aspects of mass communication. Second, because almost all of its communication is inherently accessible, retrievable, and machine readable by virtually anyone, cyberspace would itself foster unprecedented mass processing to support centralized control."

The second point about communication (and technology) being "inherently accessible, retrievable, and machine readable" is what struck a parallel for me with Chrome. Chrome enables users to access their content from any computer with web access just as if they were home on their computer. In many ways we already have these abilities with the plethora of Google apps that are already circulating, and Gmail is evolving to be (and already is for those who acknowledge the vast capabilities) much more than an email client. Chrome monopolizes on the simple idea of communication and digital interaction and creates their own "cyberspace." You now have a completely wireless, fully accessible operating system.

Google is marketing Chrome to be used on NetBooks and that it has all of the capabilities of a normal operating system with the usage of Google Docs for word processing, Gchat for your AIM needs, Hulu for your television, Google Calendar, and many more. Does the Chrome OS entice you? Do you feel comfortable with having all of your information and important documents stored solely on Google's servers?

Privacy

2009-11-17T15:26:00.003-05:00

Privacy has become more and more of an issue in recent years. In the reading, privacy is discussed and it is also brought up how much we are tracked daily. I think there is no way to escape getting tracked in the technologically advanced world we live in now. We must give up our privacy and allow ourselves to get tracked in exchange for security. If we want to keep our privacy, then we would most likely lose a sense of security because we would not know what is going on around us, we would not have as much information as we do because people's personal security would be the priority.

Computer Time: Is Our Health Effected?

2009-11-17T14:38:00.005-05:00

There have been numerous reports stating the harmful effects of continuous exposure to TV and computer. Some of the latest research claims that sedentary behaviors may be associated with high blood pressure. Joe Eisenmann stated that, "the cardiovascular disease risk factors suggest that risks may be immediate and not just indicative of potential problems.... sedentary behaviors are linked to obesity, and that obesity is linked to high blood pressure, but this is the first time that we've linked those behaviors directly to elevated blood pressure."

Children today are growing up in a different world. Often enough many children find enjoyment from playing online or accessing any bits of media they so choose. Formerly parents were concerned that they were spending too much time in front of the computer screen and this might pose a threat to their health, but now parents have something else to worry about. Their children have become the generation that can access any information at anytime. Parents again should question whether the vast amounts of information presented through the internet can actually impede their children's long term learning abilities. Often enough this generation may look up various information they need online to have a quick answer. The question is -will they remember it in the long term or will they feel confident that they can just look it up again? In Lance Strate's chapter 22 (Cybertime) of Communication and Cyberspace he mentions that, "Beyond the problem of the information glut, there are very legitimate fears concerning the loss of privacy, fears our every move leaves behind a trail of electronically recorded transactions" (State 376). So now, parents can worry about more than just the health of their children, but now, their online safety. As social networking sites allow users to post pictures and blogs, should parents fear that their children's post could be a mistake that one day prevents them from being hired for a job?

Stress, Health, and Cybertime

2009-11-17T14:24:00.003-05:00

I didn't know anything about cybertime before I read Prof Strate's chapter. It had however occurred to me, especially with the recent change to daylight savings time, that there is something unnatural about the way we let time rule our days. Time is an arbitrary conception and I wanted to see what others thought of the idea that the rhythm of life as we know it today may not be natural or healthy. Ancient peoples connected time with the rising of the sun and the moon. People awoke when the sun rose and slept when it set. Doctors refer to our sleep schedule as our circadian rhythm and it turns out that this is mostly based on the concept of daylight. A change in out circadian rhythm is related to all kinds of health problems. These can be as mild as jet lag or as severe as sleep disorders and bipolar disorder.

The chapter also speaks of the nanosecond culture which can create stress because of the instantaneous effects of cybertime on the increasing speed and impatience in which we live out lives. This instantaneous and constant connection to cybertime, while we are in a real time world adds to the stress of nanosecond culture.

I don't have any formal research to back these claims up at the moment, but what are your thoughts?

NO TIME!!!!

2009-11-17T13:53:00.003-05:00

A major issue with today's culture is our impatience regarding just about anything. We have grown up in an age where everything is expected to be instant. Whether it be instant food, instant entertainment, or even instant treatment to illness, we expect everything to be completed as fast as possible. In particular, I feel that we as a generation take the internet and its amazing abilities for granted. We expect the web page to load instantly, and the song to download nearly instantly, when in reality it is amazing we have this technology at all. I believe we all need to take a step back and realize that this technology is only in its infancy. We should understand that what we have already is amazing and really super fast. Our generation, labeled, "The instant generation", needs to realize that there is value in being patient. If we continue this lifestyle we will only dwell on the waiting periods, instead of valuing that precious time.

Ever wish there was a ctrl +Z for life?

2009-11-17T13:48:00.000-05:00

In Strate’s article on cybertime, he cites Brenda Laurel in her thoughts on reversibility in computing. She talks about the idea of undoing one’s thoughts; essentially undoing time. Laurel writes,

“What if I failed to save a copy of my spreadsheet before I monkeyed around with a scenario that turned out to be disastrous…I don’t really want to page back through versions of my work; I want to turn back the clocks.” (374)

Laurel brings up a very interesting point here. I can’t even begin to count the number of times that I’ve made changes to a word document and wished that I hadn’t. We spend all of this time reading, researching and writing, only to redraft. But as Laurel states, what if we liked our original draft? How do we undo what we already undid?

I think that the idea of “undo” and “redo” are beyond resourcesful; however, do their effects eliminate the idea of “time”? For example, let’s say you wrote an entire paragraph that took you 15 minutes. After reading it over, you decided that the paragraph does not fit with your paper, and you delete it. Does that mean that you also deleted time? And for that matter, if you then decide that you want that paragraph back and you undo your delete, did you just take advantage of the idea of time?

When it comes to a digital world, I think we need to redefine what we mean by time. In a world where we can undo and redo hours of work in a matter of nanoseconds, by what do you really gauge time?

Cybermedia Space

2009-11-17T13:08:00.002-05:00

“The building blocks of physical, perceptual, and conceptual space combine to form our sense of space in everyday life.” Physical space can be subjective, pertaining to what the space exactly is, and therefore “this sense of space is mediated by our physical environment, our sense, and language.” In making sense of this “space,” with regards to electronic media, a “personal presence” helps create sense in an artificial context.An example of this “artificial” or “electronic space” is given in the text: “It is not entirely clear where your voice is when you talk on the telephone (at your end, at the receiving end, or somewhere in between?), and therefore it is not entirely clear where you are (perceptually or conceptually).” You know that you are talking on the phone to, lets say your mom, but you do not know for sure where you mom is based on the telephone conversation. Of course there are audible clues, which may lead you to draw a conclusion of where you mom is without her telling you, for example noise on a busy street in New York. However, there still is a “space” where this conversation, this exchange of voice, occurs and that is the “artificial sense of space.”

Defining a space in an artificial, electronic environment is not done in the same way that it would be in a physical environment with walls and furniture. In an electronic, or mediated, space, the aforementioned “personal presence” online is one that is necessary for defining this space.

Often times you will hear people refer to online media as the “cyberworld.” YouTube stars will call their fans “YouTubers” and Twitter users will call the interaction of tweets the “Twitterverse.” This “world,” which is electronically present, is one that is defined by the personalities that are developed by individual users on their individual computers. While that concept of a person creating an avatar on their computer is a tangible idea, the interaction and exchange of information, thoughts and comments on the specified media platform (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Blogger) is where we encounter this “cybermedia space.” The “twitterverse” is a cybermedia “space,” or platform, where ideas are exchanged along with YouTube and facebook. If something “happened on facebook,” it occurred within the realm of online interaction between individuals who are on facebook, but the “place” where this all happened is intangible and unfathomable to the human mind. It literally occurs on facebook’s servers and follows the path of the code written by the developers, but that is not the thought process of the average user. The thought process of the average user is that if you click on someone’s profile and then write on their wall, that’s exactly what you are doing. The GUI makes it appear as if the process is simple and normal and this is why any person can accept facebook or any other social media platform for exactly what it is with out (much) question.

Cybertime and Privacy

2009-11-17T12:01:00.002-05:00

Before reading this chapter I was unaware of the concept of cybertime. This is probably due to the lack of attention that is given to it. As Prof Strate states, “the concept of cyberspace has proven to be both popular and powerful, the idea of cybertime has been all but ignored.” Prof Strate considers many different aspects between the relationship of time in cyberspace and how it relates to computers, computer-mediated communication, and online interaction.
Prof Strate then goes to discuss the computer as a medium and its representation of time. Prof Strate presents us with the example of surveillance and states:

“given the hyper speed of computing technology, surveillance can occur in real time. Total recall becomes total see-all…Gelernter is enthusiastic about computer power and its potential to revolutionize such activities as news gathering, traffic control, hospital organization, and the political process. It is therefore difficult to decide which is more frightening: the implementation of the system that he describes, or Gelernter’s seeming obliviousness to the threat it poses to freedom and privacy. Moreover, he misses the irony of installing mirror worlds in a culture characterized by rampant narcissism. Mirror worlds, as symbolic representations or maps of the present (and the past), also represent the computer’s potential to both control and contain the outside world through hyper speed surveillance and information processing and the ability to respond immediately.”

It is interesting how cyber time will completely mirror that of reality and be able to present us with images of the outside world. The constant surveillance that we are under is frightening. Every move we make, every step we take can be recorded without our knowledge. Such a system can be beneficial to our society, but as Strate suggests are we willing to give up our freedom and privacy in order to establish such a system? Do the gains really outweigh the losses? This poses the question of how far will society go in order to know our position at every point in time, whether its real time or cybertime. If such a system was fully implemented, it’s similar to just inserting a computer chip in our bodies and tracking our every movement.

Moreover, many people were astounded by Google Earth and its ability to allow a person to view satellite imagery. Although this program was pretty cool, it may just be a predecessor to the system Gelernter was speaking of.

Instant Gratification Generation

2009-11-17T11:53:00.003-05:00

In Chapter 22, Professor Strate talks about J. David Bolter as one of the few people to make the connection between the clock as a close ancestor of the computer rather than the steam engine. The chapter has a quote from Bolter which says, "...Men and women began to work, eat, and sleep by the clock, and as soon as they decided to regulate their actions by this arbitrary measurer of time, the clock was transformed from an expression of civic pride into a necessity of urban life. The computer too has changed from a luxury to a necessity for modern business and government." (p.363)

Later in the chapter Professor Strate refers to Rifkin and his idea of the 'new nanosecond culture'. He says, "We have come to expect the instantaneous, so that it no longer excites us... When sitting at a computer terminal, delays of a few seconds seem interminable and five minutes is an eternity. Hyperspeed breeds impatience, haste, and intolerance, both online and in the real world." (p.367) We, as young adults have become accustomed to having everything at our fingertips and getting information instantaneously. This mindset has earned the title of "instant gratification generation". An interesting example of this is the Fordham internet situation. Fordham students can frequently be heard complaining about the "slow internet". If we can't get to a webpage within 10 seconds we freak out and complain about the slow connection. The popularity of smartphones also illustrates how people need the convenience of information anytime, anywhere.

Clocks and Computers

2009-11-17T11:45:00.003-05:00

In Cybertime, the analogy between the clock and the computer is very fascinating to see. Once the clock became common, people relied on it for the information it conveyed. Time became an important aspect of the day to day lifestyle when clocks became standard. Days were ruled by the time and people obeyed the information it conveyed.

The computer has had the exact same effect. Every business, college, student, etc. is completely reliant upon the power within computing. The computer runs finances, businesses, classes, and most other things. If there was ever an issue with computers, the world would be a much different place. We are reliant upon this new technology like people became reliant upon the invention of clocks.

With this new technology and our utter dependence on it, are we more susceptible to bigger issues? If we can no longer have modern society without the internet, computers, and cybertime, what are we supposed to do if they all fail?

Computers, Watches, and Cell Phones: OH MY!

2009-11-17T02:04:00.002-05:00

In reading the beginning of Professor Strate's chapter on Cybertime not only made me realize how considerably unique and different, yet similar clocks and computers are, but it made me realize more about technological changes. Even in the past few years we have turned to cell phones, as possibly another form of technology to be considered in this grouping. Not in so much as Professor Strate speaks of the internal of the computer working in computer time and time pieces working as passes of our time, but cell phones in some ways determine our time.

Think about everything you use your cell phone for... not only calling or texting, but in most cases is your main way of having a grasp of time. How many people still wear watches... well, how many "young" people still wear watches?

Just tonight at a rehearsal, someone asked, "What is the time?" While everyone fumbled through their pockets and ran to their bags, my director simply lifted her wrist and said, "10:22pm". Surprised, everyone looked up and someone said, "Now who still wears one of those...?"

Though we are a technologically driven generation, we run on the world's time and are constantly going. Maybe computer have it easier. They are on their own time, on the cyber time explained in this chapter. And all though this does not correlate exactly to the idea of cyber/computer time, I think it gives us an idea of the ability for technology to work on its own time, and the mechanisms of a clock to be able to give us real world time.

Privacy

2009-11-17T00:52:00.002-05:00

The professor discusses the loss of privacy due to the computer's ability to recall data. It seems that everywhere we are we can be tracked. It has become nearly impossible to cover a trail in our society. Somewhere something we are doing is has been recorded by someone. Records of the websites we visit are archived, stores at which we swipe our credit card are documented, and surveillance cameras observe us. These traces have become hurdles for the common criminal. For the rest of us, the threshold of privacy has been breached. As we discussed earlier in the semester, Internet alias' have become a past practice. We are now willing to share our full names, pictures, employment history, etc. for all to see. Is the release of our private information on the Internet safe? Will it serve to risk improper use of our personal information and/or defame our character? Binary data is factual information and it can be stored and used for or against us.

It startles me to think that everything I do in the cyber realm may be kept track of. So before I share stories or pictures or anything on the Internet, I pretend that my mother is sitting next to me and if there is any doubt I leave it for my hippocampus. Whenever I want a good laugh I look at pictures of my hair cut in high-school. If had put those pictures on the Internet not knowing who has a hold of them I'd probably be more red faced than I am right now for having told you about it. Always remember that employers want you to maintain your image more than you do. Use discretion!

Internet Timing

2009-11-16T17:40:00.002-05:00

In reading Chapter 22, "Cybertime," I realized my lack of focusing on how the roles of digital clocks and our computer's internal clock. But one point made in the article that stood out to me, by way of relation, was the third phenomenon of cybertime. This third phenomenon is the subjective experience of time through computers and our interaction with them. This point immediately brought to mind how my friends, and myself included, struggle with time in conversations on the internet. When we send an instant message and it takes two minutes for a reply, that wait could alter the meaning of the answer and allow for a variation of interpretations. We are used to immediate answers and it is this timing on the internet which determine the mood of conversations. The only way someone can try to tell the emotions or attitude of another individual over the internet is the timing and rhythm of the back and forth conversation.

Hypertext

2009-11-10T15:04:00.005-05:00

"The book is obsolete," declared theorist Marshall McLuhan ... He was quick, though, to explain himself: "Obsolescent does not mean extinction. Quite the contrary. For example, handwriting has been 'obsolete' since Gutenberg, and certainly since [the typewriter], there is more handwriting today than there ever has been." Instead, the book, he suggests, will be raised to an "art form."

He makes a good point in that just because we have keyboards and computers doesn't mean we have left our pens and paper idle. I write every day, and I also enjoy reading a text book rather than reading from a computer screen. Will we ever leave books behind for good? I can't imagine that happening. Although in our book Communications and Cyberspace, in chapter 17 (Pedagogy and Hypertext), author Stephanie Gibson argues that the hypertext form can be utilized in the classroom in many ways. For some, the textbook remains a one dimensional means whereas hypertext allows you to discover and interact with the material you are learning. Gibson sites one of the earliest interactive hypertext packages- The Perseus Project- that allowed it's user to explore ancient Greece. There were " archaeological photographs and diagrams, photos of period artwork, plays in the original Greek language with translations, contemporary commentary, maps, and several glossaries all linked together to allow myriad approaches to the material" (Gibson 282).

Internet Writing and Hypertext

2009-11-10T14:24:00.002-05:00

In chapter 16, Paglia discusses the many aspects of internet writing. Paglia states:

“The key to Internet writing for me is visual, not verbal. Ever since computer operating systems progressed from half-mathematical ASCII to today’s lively, colorful, high-resolution graphics HTML format, the Internet has become a mercurial hybrid of word, image, and sound.”

Although Paglia’s format of writing can be more visually appealing, it can still be difficult to capture the attention of the reader. I always see myself reluctant to read long articles online and I’d rather print them. In some ways, there is a connection that you gain with the print version that doesn’t exist while reading online. I don’t see myself purchasing a kindle version of a book anytime soon.

However, in chapter 17 Gibson makes some interesting argument. Gibson states:

“All the qualities of hypertext encourage vastly different habits of thought than does traditional print. Hypertext has been called a democratizing medium because it allows everyone access to both production and decoding. This may be said of it both internally and within its larger environment. Internally, for example, hypertext is able to show clearly interconnectedness between ideas by linking them together. Although this is not completely impossible in print, it is structurally difficult to include massive amounts of material in a single text. “

I have to agree that hypertext can create a broader reach of ideas and can be used to search more efficiently for whatever is relevant to the reader. However, it is hard to fathom the traditional textbook in the classroom not existing because of hypertext. Gibson also suggests that a shift from traditional print textbooks to hypertext will inevitably take place in the classroom. The interactivity of hypertext and its ability to create a visually and increasingly informative environment will be an integral part of education, but I don't think it will eliminate or drastically decrease the use of textbooks.

Hypertext

2009-11-10T14:11:00.003-05:00

What is hypertext? Hypertext is text which is not constrained to be linear. Hypertext is text that is linked to other texts. The founder of hypertext Ted Nelson around 1965. Hypertext is a concept more than anything else. This picture illustrates a way in which we can look at hypertext.:

The uses for hypertext are endless. The World Wide Web combines computer networking (the Internet) and Hypertext MarkUp Language (HTML) into an easy to use system by which people can access information around the world from a desktop computer. Hypertext is the medium used to transmit the information in a non-linear fashion via computer by clicking on a "link" using a mouse.

Hypertext

2009-11-10T13:37:00.003-05:00

Hypertext is used with hyperlinks that refer you to other links that are related to what the user is reading. Hypertext can be static or dynamic. Static hyper text is mostly used for cross-references of data in certain documents. Dynamic hypertext continuously changes in response to user input.

Textbooks vs. Hypertext

2009-11-10T12:05:00.004-05:00

In Chapter 17, Pedagogy and Hypertext, Gibson talks about how educational institutions had a hard time accepting hypertext and digital learning tools in the 1990s. She describes The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, saying that they did not build a computer science building because they felt it would not attract students. She goes on to say, "Those people who were attracted to the study of computers went on to design computer programs that now invisibly pervade our everyday lives. ATMs, Game Boys, palm pilots, cell phones, Nintendos, cars that think, appliances that make phone calls, and the Internet itself, to name just a few manifestations, are integral parts of American life." (p.278) Later in the chapter she discusses the transition from traditional textbooks in the classroom to hypertext and digital learning tools. Gibson says that there are two extreme ways of looking at textbooks, either as a driving force behind curriculum decisions or as simple tools for classroom interaction. She goes on to describe the possibility of hypertext replacing textbooks, saying it could provide a more comprehensive and interactive coverage of subjects. She says, "an oft-heard comment during a summer workshop, and since, is that hyptertext is a way to hold student interest. It is dynamic, contains several approaches to the material, and appears to give readers/users a choice about how the material will be experienced and studied." (p.287)

I think hypertext has huge potential in the academic world. It is a powerful tool that allows teachers to best meet the needs of each individual student. On the other hand, it would be sad to see all books go digital. There is something unique about opening a new book, turning pages as you read, and physically seeing yourself progress through the book.

Hypertext Hierarchies?

2009-11-09T23:37:00.002-05:00

After reading "Pedagogy and Hypertext", I realized why it is that I am able to understand internet content much easier than printed, written content.
The internet, according to Gibson, has "no hierarchy of ideas as is evidenced in a table of contents or outline" (284). By giving the reader to choose the direction that he wishes to continue in, the reader is able to learn in the manner that best suits him. I find myself having a tough time with a solid, rigid structure so the internet's ability to help the reader maneuver through the material relevant to him is great. There is no overarching structure to the internet; it is strictly organized "not in order of importance, calling into question not only hierarchies of ideas, but the notion of prerequisites" (284). It is this "choose your ending" style that gives the internet the power it has to convey information to a reader.

Is It So Wrong To Use Electronic?

2009-11-09T23:06:00.003-05:00

I found a section in Chapter 16 by Camille Pagila that discusses and tries to define something that I most definitely relate with: me. In Pagila’s discussion of “Writing for the Internet”, she discusses the fact that college students rely on the Internet and other electronic resources for their information.

“College students, even in the Ivy Leagues, may spend from 2 to 5 hours a night on the internet….Today’s college students were born in the 1980’s, when newspapers, a major melting-pot medium for a century since the start of immigration era, had already lost ground to television"

I personally do not know how I should take that statement. On the one hand, yes, it is true. I know I speak for most of us when I say that we spend a great deal of time online. Most of us depend on the Internet for our information; anything from news to emails to file transfers to this blog. So although we’ve been cited for spending so much time online, my question is, is it so wrong?

I know that on a day to day basis, I use my computer for just about all of my written communication. I check my email, I write to friends, I go on my favorite gossip blogs; I even go as far as bringing my computer to class to type out my notes such that I have all my information in neat, typed form. However, Pagila seems to hold it against us that we no longer (typically) turn to newspapers for our first source of information. I understand that newspapers may seem tradition; however, why should we hold ourselves back when it comes to receiving information? I like reading my newspaper every now and then, but I turn to the easiest source of information; electronic.

The Textual Convo

2009-11-09T22:20:00.003-05:00

"Although asynchronous communication all but guarantees that the e-mail messages we recieve were composed at some point in the past, there is a tendency to experience them as if they were being communicated in the present (Strate, Communication and Cyberspace. p. 379)."

When you are having an Instant Message conversation with someone over gchat, facebook or AIM there is a synchronous interaction happening. When you are reading an email thread or a discussion on a message board you are reading a asynchronous interaction. However when you read an IM and you read a discussion thread, what is the difference besides waiting for the instant reply from the other person? After you complete the IM conversation with with someone, you can go back and read the conversation as if it is happening instantly again. There is a "sense of immediacy," as Strate points out, when you read a discussion, whether synchronous or asynchronous, and the reader can't help but to feel that the conversation is happening instantanously when the reality is that it could have happened hours, days or weeks a part.

This is sort of related to an implied textual emotion. Those who text, IM and leave facebook wall posts know that a different connotation can be applied to any blurb of text and by adding symbols like "!!!!" or ":)" and can make all the difference. Sure, text is text and a word is a word, but when you add these symbols to your online writing, you create a textual personality for yourself almost to the point of others being able to sense if a person is not who they say they are on the other side based on the textual emotion being exuded.

The Effects of Hypertext

2009-11-09T18:28:00.003-05:00

After reading chapter 17, "Pedagogy and Hypertext" by Stephanie B. Gibson, I realize how little understanding of hypertext I had. To me hypertext was just links and internet buttons which lead you to another page or to more information. I failed to fully grasp the effects and consequences of hypertext, especially in education. In the article I found it very interesting how Gibson discusses the implications hypertext has on education. From reorganizing the way education works in a classroom with respect to teachers and students and how the authority works. Hypertext takes away the authority of teachers and their textbooks and shift to students and their own learning experience by using the information in programs. Even though this is only one example, the chapter covers numerous ways that hypertexts change the academic scope of material we use to learn.
If teachers introduce hypertext into their classroom it takes away from their control. Let's say a teacher uses a computer program which students use to help them learn. What is the teachers role now? It is simply a director, someone who guides the learning process instead of being an active member of giving the material to be learned. Students can wonder on these programs and gather information the teacher may not be ready to discuss yet or may not be necessary. If a student has a question about something they haven't gone over, that teacher must then be ready for everything which takes away from the organization and control of the class.

Effects of the Internet

2009-11-06T20:50:00.003-05:00

"Since the mid-1990s, the Internet has caused a tremendous cultural shift whose most profound impact has been on young people. It will take another 30 years before the Internet's effects are clearly understood. The computer has literally reshaped the brain of those who grew up with it..."(268)

The Internet has allowed for a new basis of which we socialize (facebook) and retrieve information (wikipedia.) It is now possible to reach anyone anywhere in the world and to retrieve facts in only seconds. Is this convenience making our generation more intelligent or more lazy? Studies have shown that the areas of the brain which control decision making and complex reasoning double in activity among new internet users. However, internet users show a decrease in their capacity to concentrate on given tasks. Using the internet may be rewiring our neuron connections. Paglia raises a very thought provoking point when he states "It will take another 30 years before the internet's effects are clearly understood." It seems that everyday interent use is reaching a new pinnacle. How will internet use effect the behavior and evolution of humans in the future? As I look at my 2 year old nephew unwittingly pressing on the keyboard, I wonder how the use of computers from such an early age will effect his cognitive development. In other words, is his mind at advantage or disadvantage by being entertained by interenet sites. Internet use has become so prevalent that it may be taking away from people's social skills as they spend hours on end in front of a computer, they may be losing out on critical life experiences.

The Key to The Keyboard

2009-11-03T13:43:00.002-05:00

In chapter 19 of our text, Judith Yaross Lee discusses the idea of what is in a particular body of online text (specifically email) and the way in which we perceive it. She goes on to discuss the ways in which this information is presented to us,

“…the convention of upper and lower case letters, a visual and spatial distinction devised for pint, becomes a means for indicating loudness. Similarly, the emoticon converts the finite alphanumeric keyboard into a source of nearly movable types…”

I thought this particular paragraph to be interesting in regards to the future of literacy. When we are talking with friends online or through email, we tend (or at least I, myself, find) that we become lazy. Instead of “you” it become “u”, if we’re happy, we tend to write :-) to convey emotion, and we even go so far to stop capitalizing “i”, simply because the computer will convert it for us.

But how soon will it be that we’ve translated the way that we write to our friends into the way that we write formally? With all the different ways in which we use the keyboard to convey our emotions and feelings, as stated by Lee, what’s to stop us from starting to use those methods of typing in a formal setting? We have a keyboard with vast options to convey our messages. For example, iF I typed LiKe ThIs, not only would you probably want to smash my keyboard, but you also might think that I am a 12 year old girl writing online for the first time. IF I STARTED TO TYPE LIKE THIS, you might think that I was angry at the fact that I have to continue typing. if i just simply typed like this n didnt care if i was riting formally or not, u mite think i was just talking to a friend.

Our keyboards help us to convey a message, but how does that message “convey” us? And how much longer will it be that we use these different ways of typing before they all blur together into one, non-formal, way of communication?

Online Education Unbound

2009-11-03T12:49:00.003-05:00

Chapter 13 discusses the attributes of online education. Levinson suggests that some people have obstacles that prevent them from having a traditional in class education. These obstacles are obstacles of geography, time, retention, economics, teacher domination and physical disability. At the risk of sounding redundant I won’t explain each obstacle since a few of you have already touched on the subject. Although many of these obstacles are pushing people towards online education, many people are still wary about receiving an online degree. There are many fake online colleges also known as degree mills that are not accredited by a recognized agency or are accredited by fake agencies. This may be one of the biggest reasons why I wouldn’t want to get an online education. The fear that the online university is not reputable will most likely drive me away.

However, sources such as geteducated.com as committed themselves to “rate, rank & compare online schools & degrees.” With such information available, people have been more inclined to get an online education without having to fear the many scams that are out there. In addition, traditional top tier schools such as Boston University, Penn State University and many others are now offering online degree programs. As people begin to see online education as a viable and increasingly more efficient way of receiving a degree, it may become a vital part of our educational endeavors.

In addition, here is a video of CNN reporting on online education:

Online Education

2009-11-03T12:03:00.003-05:00

Levinson writes about the bounds and constraints of normal education environments that online courses can allow. It is true for many people that an education cannot be pursued in order to maintain their job and reasonable way of life. Online courses offer these people the opportunity to be enlightened and gain an education while they complete the responisbilities of work. It may be difficult for some of us to understand that there are people who would love to be in the classroom environment but simply can't because of their obligations to family and their need for survival...e.g. working. I believe that online courses are a great idea and give an opportunity to those who are not fortunate enough to have the leisure time for the physical classroom to emancipate themselves from the boundries which the physical classroom may entail.

Education and Virtual Reality

2009-11-03T11:57:00.004-05:00

In chapter 12, Terri Toles Patkin, the articles' author discusses the use of multimedia simulation in education. I found the idea of a virtual "internship" particularly interesting. Patkin says, "Students could try working in a small family business or a Fortune 500 headquarters during a single semester. They could then select the type of organization they would prefer to concentrate their efforts on in the future." (p. 204) He goes on to say that such a virtual organization would supplement, not replace, textbook, classroom and internship experiences.

Virtual reality simulators could also be used for other real-life purposes, such as training people in cross-cultural communication. For example, an American businessman could practice appropriate negotiation skills with a virtual Japanese client. The beauty of virtual reality used for educational purposes is its ability to present a simplified reality to the beginner, with complicating factors stripped out of the scenario until the student is ready to handle more complexity. For example, a flight school student may use a simulator to practice landing a plane and as he or she gets more comfortable the system may add a crosswind to the simulation.

The "Virtual Intern"

2009-11-03T11:55:00.002-05:00

In Chapter 12 of Communication and Cyberspace, the idea of students participating in a Virtual Organization surfaces. It states that "Communication students who get the chance to intern in organizations today generally report dissatisfaction with the tasks they are assigned. Dreams of creative fulfillment tend to be misplaced among the filing, telephone duty, and fact checking that typically constitute the intern's job description. Often the experience of a corporate environment and the change to "network" provide more valuable experiences for the student that the substance of the assigned tasks" (p. 204). Being an intern myself, this is very close to my personal work experience.

I work as a sales/public relations intern for the fashion designer, Derek Lam, and my background in communication enables me to easily perform some of my given tasks. Some of these tasks include tracking samples of clothing, where we scan a barcode of the sample and through a virtual computer program it shows exactly where that sample is, whether it be somewhere in the United States or even Milan or Japan. I have been given the chance to "network" while attending events held at different department stores and also put in my personal creative input by styling mannequins. Other tasks include designing templates of picture of the runway shows and doing competitive analysis reports by researching department store websites to compare prices of other designers. I would consider myself a "virtual intern" because of my thorough use of the web and computer during my daily work activities.

Why Online Education?

2009-11-03T10:05:00.002-05:00

Chapter 13 focuses on the advantages and drawbacks of online education. This has a great influence in our culture today. We see many television commercials advertising online education, or learning at home on your own time. That is one of the greatest advantages to online education, being able to do it on your own time. You do not need to attend a class at a specific time during the day, but instead can do it on your own time when you are fully awake, willing to learn, and willing to give back to the discussion.

In some research, I found a lot of debate around online education and the degrees received from it. Many people were willing to defend online education and "kill" the lies about online education, exclusively found on this website, which also contains a web page including 15 benefits of online education. This site: Online Education Lies includes 5 lies revealed that tend to dissuade people from using these programs.

I think that we are deterred from using these programs because of advertisements we see for them and how outdated they appear. For me, I had no need to use online education and see one of the great disadvantages of it being the lack of possibility to have a hands on experience. Online education, though always accessible, does not allow for the teacher/student relationship that can occur in normal institutional, as well as the non-existence of a campus and the idea of who else is in the class. As students at an institution, we have no need to use online education but it is true that there are many, many people out there that do need this form of education to spend both their time working as well as getting a degree. It will continue to have the advantages and disadvantages that currently exist no matter what may change.

VR's Return to Plato's Cave

2009-11-03T00:53:00.003-05:00

I'm posting on the topics from last week as somehow last week I misread the syllabus and posted about this week's reading. With that said -- I found Zettl's comparison between virtual reality and Plato's cave to be interesting. He discusses the implications of VR and how it is a modern day cave.

In VR, the person is able to escape to another world - one without any sort of physical repercussions. For example, in flight simulators if the pilot crashes, there aren't any actual physical repercussions. He/she is able to learn without actually experiencing harm. It is as if they are exposed to the light Plato discusses without actually having to change their lifestyle. I found this comparison to be most interesting when thinking about games like The Sims or Second Life. In these games, the player is actually able to simulate a family or simply create an avatar that represents who that player is/wants to be. Like Zettl says, these players have "a yearning for not being held accountable for our decisions" (108). The player is able to create a family, be responsible for day to day life, and interact with people without any true physical contact. It truly is the modern day "cave."

The following YouTube video shows the interesting capabilities of Second Life. Intro. Comm. Professor Levinson discussed this during one of our classes. He actually conducted a reading of a section of one of his books via avatar in Second Life. I had never heard of it before, but it was an interesting/extremely modern way to deliver a speech. Enjoy:

Hypertwitter

2009-11-03T00:08:00.004-05:00

According to a passage in Communication and Cyberspace,

Hypertext is "any program that allows readers to navigate nonlinearly through a body of text, sometimes a single text, but frequently a database of related materials with hundreds of nodes of text linked together forming a network of relevant material, it may be considered a hypertext. Hypertext is text that exists only in cyberspace. It is impossible to put hypertext into traditional page-bound print; doing so would so radically alter its nature that it would simply no longer be hypertext (Gibson)."

In many ways, linking Hypertext is a creative process. For example, while reading an educational passage about the history of the printing press, one might see that the words "...first printed book..." are a link, and when clicked, bring the reader to an image of the book. This type of interactive reading does not just happen by coincidence, rather it is thoughtfully created by the author to enhance what would be just a typical sequence of text. It is interesting to examine how facebook and twitter utilize hypertext. To me, the stand out usage would be the ability to click on specific interests, music, books and movies that your friends list out in their "Info" section. If you see someone likes the movie Atonement, you can click the word and then be directed to everyone else on facebook who lists Atonement as one of their favorite movies. This is really the operating principle of social networking; linking people together by common interests.
Twitter is really just a collaborative network of hypertext. Those who claim that Twitter is "just status updates" really have no idea what it is all about. People who take full advantage of Twitter are those who post viral video and real-time photos, links to websites, maps of their current location and use hash tags to start trending topics. It has gotten to the point where I personally don't tweet anything without some form of the aforementioned links in my update. And how cool is that? If someone walks by a major event in New York City and takes a picture of that and instantly tweets about it, it could possibly be re-tweeted over and over again to a point where thousands or even millions of people have now seen this image...perhaps an hour before it hits the 5 o'clock news or online news site.

Virtual Reality and Physical Rehabilitation

2009-11-02T13:48:00.003-05:00

Many of us have heard of nursing homes and rehab centers using the Nintendo Wii for rehab and exercise purposes, however there are some schools of medicine that want to take the technology one step further: to virtual reality. In an article from PubMed, a scholarly journal, Keshner (Northwestern University) explains, "Many people question why we don't just have subjects perform motor tasks in the real world. The answer to this question is that VR offers us the opportunity to bring the complexity of the physical world into the controlled environment of the laboratory." In a virtual reality setting there is more precise control over what the patient experiences and on the tasked they are asked to accomplish. Keshner explains further:

There are numerous strengths underlying the use of VR with rehabilitation [11,12]. Among these are that VR provides the opportunity for ecological validity, stimulus control and consistency, real-time performance feedback, independent practice, stimulus and response modifications that are contingent on a user's physical abilities, a safe testing and training environment, the opportunity for graduated exposure to stimuli, the ability to distract or augment the performer's attention, and perhaps most important to therapeutic intervention, motivation for the performer.

It's plain to see that the benefits of VR in rehabilitation are great and would allow rehabilitation practitioners to accurately measure a patients progress. Not only is this a form of virtual communication, but most importantly the practitioner would receiver a large amount of data feedback. If interested here is a link to the article:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC546404/

Virtual Reality in Education or Professions

2009-11-02T12:12:00.002-05:00

In Chapter 12, Terri Patkin discusses the possibilities of using virtual reality to aid in teaching and the educational process. I believe there are some good oppurtunities and practical uses for such an idea. But what is overlooked is that it shouldn't be enough to just use virtual reality. The idea that practicing surgeons or pilots use a simulator for their area of expertise is understandable and maybe even good. But a pilot can land a simulator doesn't mean he or she can land a real plane. Similarly, a virtual surgery is very different from having a real person in front of you. What if having the simulators and virtual aids remove responsibility or a feeling of care for those practicing it in. If a resident physician, after using a simulator loses even the least bit of understanding what a small mistake can do to a real person, that becomes very dangerous. My point isn't that I believe everyone plans on using just virtual practices, the point is that people can't lose understand that the real practice is what's most important and vital.

Virtual World

2009-10-27T14:54:00.006-04:00

In chapter 5, Zettl poses potential problems of virtual reality in a “postmodern existentialist context.” Zettl states that “we are operating in an amoral environment, an environment free of threats or reprisals, whose virtual character liberates us from feeling any form of existential angst when making choices. After all, we are no longer interacting with real people in a real world, but with synthetic objects and subjects in a virtual environment. Shapiro and McDonald are quite right when asking whether we should ‘feel guilty about committing adultery’ in virtual reality. The synthetic world of virtual reality seems to promise us not so much how to exercise control over our environment, but rather how to escape from it.”

This scenario reminds me of an emerging virtual world named Second Life. Second Life is a virtual world developed by Linden Lab and was launched in 2003. The purpose of Second Life is to create a virtual avatar that will enable a person to free themselves from their personal world. According to Second Life, the virtual world is a “place to connect, a place to shop, a place to work, a place to love, a place to explore, a place to be different, be yourself, free yourself, free your mind, change your mind, change your look, love your look, and love your life.” Second Life is a perfect example of using the virtual world as a way of escaping one’s environment. The virtual character liberates the users from reprisals and allows the users to say and do things that they might not have.

The Immoral world of Virtual Reality

2009-10-27T13:51:00.002-04:00

I thought it was interesting when Zettl talks in chapter five about the darker side of virtual reality. He states that "Today, we have games on the drawing board and already on the market that offer the participants the opportunity to engage in extreme human behavior, such as mutilation, rape, and even murder. In a way, virtual reality provides a perfect existential world, in which we can exercise free will and make any number of decisions, however extreme, without the Kierkegaardian "dizziness of freedom" and the underlying anxiety of accountability."

I think that it is an important when dealing with virtual reality to speak about the morality of what goes on. Is mutilating and killing someone in a virtual world an okay thing to do because you arent physically harming someone? Or does this ability to commit virtual crimes foster the ability for one to commit these crimes in the physical world? Should there be regulations for committing especially heinous crimes in virtual reality? Many questions like these are being dealt with today, but who knows if a concrete conclusion will ever come, due to the broadness and unpredictability of the cyberworld.

Welcome to Cyberspace

2009-10-27T13:41:00.003-04:00

I like these pictures because they create words that essentially come to mind when we think cyberspace. The vast communication patterns that can be achieved in cyberspace are represented above, while below represents the matrix of virtual infrastructure.

Through its electromagnetic nature, cyberspace integrates a number of capabilities (sensors, signals, connections, transmissions, processors, controllers) and generates a virtual interactive experience accessed for the purpose of communication and control regardless of a geographic location.

In pragmatic terms, cyberspace allows the interdependent network of information technology infrastructures, telecommunications networks—such as the internet, computer systems, integrated sensors, system control networks and embedded processors and controllers common to global control and communications.

blog.lib.umn.edu/lieb0128/ architecure/2006/10...

wikipedia.com

The Point to PowerPoint?

2009-10-27T13:35:00.002-04:00

In chapter 7 of our text, “Virtual Reality and Redefinition of Self”, Bolter write on how our new technologies help (or sometimes hinder) how we define ourselves as a culture and what new methods, through these new technologies, we use to communicate. I found it particularly interesting in his section on “Perspective and The Self”. Bolter writes that

“Electronic technology offers two distinct sets of tools for presentation and representation: tools for writing, and tools for visualization and sensory presentation. The computer and attendant technologies call forth both a new writing space and new perceptual space. Each of these new spaces in turn fosters a different construction of self” (130).

I found this section to be particularly through provoking when applied to the ideals behind the creation of Microsoft Office. Most, if not all of us, use Microsoft Office. Office comes with such programs as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. However, when creating either a word document, a chart, or a PowerPoint, we are creating a way to communicate with others. But, though these ways of communication, we are able to personalize the overall appearance, which can change the overall message.

Think about it: if you are shown a PowerPoint presentation in class, which one are you more likely to pay attention to? The presentation that is in purely black and white, Time New Roman, or the presentation with slide designs, fancy fonts and appealing transitions? The way that we “design” and personalize our message can change the overall impact it has on our audiences.

There are numerous ways we use technologies to help define ourselves. Just from reading this post, can you guess my favorite color?

Military and Cyberspace

2009-10-27T13:28:00.003-04:00

I thought this was an interesting article about the United States Military using cyberspace to protect and defend our country by creating the "Cyber Command" unit.

"ON OCTOBER 1, just beyond the Beltway inside Fort Meade, a four-star general became the first head of America’s new Cyber Command. Subordinate to General Keith Alexander are the Tenth Fleet and the Twenty-Fourth Air Force. The fleet has no ships, and the air-force unit has neither aircraft nor missiles. Their weapons are ones and zeroes. Their battlefield is cyberspace.

The mission of Cyber Command is to protect the U.S. military’s networks and to be ready to launch offensive cyber attacks on a potential enemy. Those offensive cyber attacks have the potential to reach out from cyberspace into the physical dimension, causing giant electrical generators to shred themselves, trains to derail, high-tension power-transmission lines to burn, gas pipelines to explode, aircraft to crash, weapons to malfunction, funds to disappear and enemy units to walk into ambushes. Welcome to warfare in the twenty-first century."

This is the full article http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=22340

2009-10-27T12:07:00.002-04:00

I must agree with Devon. One of the most interesting things about virtual reality is its alternative applications. Virtual reality and simulators has been used by psychologists to try and teach fire safety to children diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome. The simulator teaches proper evacuation procedures in an interactive way that is both safe and fun to learn in. Even the military has made use of virtual reality for pilots and it is used to teach the proper operations of a number of components.

Virtual Reality Simulators

2009-10-27T11:41:00.003-04:00

I thought one the most interesting things discussed in the reading was the use of virtual reality for things other than video games or as an escape from reality. On page 108, Zettl says, "One of the highly practical functions of virtual reality is that it can let us see things that are ordinarily hidden from our view." He goes on to give the example of virtual reality systems used by medical students to learn about the human body, or to practice medical procedures with no harmful effects to a real person. Zettl says, "a mistake in [virtual reality] operating procedures may cause an angry computer beep or, at most, a crash. But it will certainly not jeopardize anyone's life." Other examples of virtual reality simulators used for practice include, flight simulators, driving simulators and war/battle simulators.

Flaming and Cyberspace

2009-10-27T11:30:00.002-04:00

When I first came upon the chapter on flaming, I was confused. I had never heard the term before, but immediately upon hearing the definition (and a few examples), I knew this was something that I had dealt with before. The essay in the book goes on to describe flaming as "speak[ing] rabidly or incessantly on an uninteresting topic or with a patently ridiculous attitude" (The Hacker's Dictionary). The definition goes farther to include insults, over expression, rudeness, etc. I found the quote the idea that flaming is found to be in the objective attributes of a message. Thus, the meaning of what a flame truly is is left open to the interpreter. Anything from a quick insult to a powerful racial slur, from a love message to a political rant could be considered flaming.

These flames are found all over the internet on blogs, discussion boards, emails, chat rooms, and IMs. When I used to go into chat rooms and talk more frequently online, I would constantly see these flames posted everywhere. Over the internet, people can put on a mask that they would not usually wear. People have a confidence when not put face to face with a person; they say things they would usually not. Flames turned into the newer phenomenon of "cyberbullying." Parents now are encouraged to monitor their children's interaction over the internet not only for questionable websites, but also for bullying. There is a lot of information on the web about this subject, but I found this video to be interesting: