Week 10: Final Reflection

What is the most important thing you learned in this course? Why?

I learned about the blogshpere and how big it is. Before this class I did not even know what a blog was let alone have one of my own. I am now a well informed person as a result and have told many others about blogs. I have even convinced some to get a blog of their own. But most importantly I would have to say learning about how search the web effectively and also what sources are more credible then others was extremely valuable. I am now worried about all of the papers I have written in the past because I did not go through the proper steps to find out if they were in fact credible sources. I also thought learning how to prepare a website and create links to it was valuable as well. I learned so much its hard to stick with one.

What would you like to have had more time to study? Why?

I would have like to study more about how the technology industry affects our society and the different socioeconomic classes of our country rather than about other countries. This is just more pertinent to me and I am just really interested in what ways does technology effect the gap between the rich and the poor and not just in wealth ways but in knowledge ways as well.

What topic was the least interesting to you? Why?

I did not like the topic about computer and human interaction it was really boring.

Week Nine Reflection

How do you expect VoIP to impact cable and telephone networks?

VoIP or Voice Over I believe like most other technologies will impact cable and telephone networks tremendously. Yet I am not sure that people will move as fast with it because even though it is both economically better and infrastructure requirements are better it also has its draw backs. Reliability is one, and it seems more likely to cause problems for users and users do not want to mover from a system that creates few inconveniences to one that creates more. I worry about every thing being transformed into a digital activity it just seems seriously disastrous. This article How VoIP Works by Robert Valdes did a good job of explaining what VoIP is and making it sound good but I am still skeptical but like all other technologies I think our society will catch on like wildfire almost to the point that cable and telephone networks as we know them will no longer exist.

Discussion Questions:

Is VoIP a good or a bad thing in your opinion? Why or why not?

Is technology going too far or are skeptics of today no different than skeptics of the past that feared the telephone and cable networks then?

Would you prefer to use VoIP? Explain.
Does all of this new technology scare you at all?

Week 8 Reading Reflection

What is the relationship between cyberspace as a public space and accessibility standards?

Cyberspace is considered to be public space but it is currently only accessible to those that can have enough money to buy it. I would like to propose that we do a better job in our country of making it more affordable for more people. In order for someone to make use of the internet they must have a computer or access to one. And we know that this is even more expensive. But I think it is something to think about because with our systems moving more and more too online activity it may be necessary. This is only in the US but in other countries some of its remote places do not even have phone lines let a lot the so called public internet. Thus I would not consider cyberspace a public space, maybe for those who can afford it.

Discussion questions:

1. What can we do to make the internet more accessible for all?
2. How long can you predict it will take to get internet access to everyone worldwide? And what will this take?
3. Whose responsibility is it to help make the internet more accessible to all?

Cantwell vs. McGavick

My first impression of Maria Cantwell's website was that it looked boring. It was plain and simple. On the other hand Mike McGavick's site was fun and busy. It had was very colorful and pleasing to my eyes. I also think that McGavicks website was more user friendly.

On Cantwell's website there is an easily located contact us link. This allows you to send an email about questions or concerns you may have. There was also a link to sign up for volunteering or contributions. This site makes it fairly easy to interact with Cantwell. That is if they get back to the one emails submits. Although this was suficient McGavick's website allowed for much more interaction among users and voters. Under his contact link there was not only email adresses but phone numbers, mailing adress and physical adress, there was ways to send emails to specific entities like his schedualers. Additonally there was a link to his blog that Cantwell did not have on her site. This is a clear sign of interaction between the candidate and its users because he is able to make statements about how feels on particular issues and we can comment. Also keep us posted on all the events he is doing and showing us the pictures from them.

The issue I choose was healthcare and it was much easier to find the postion that Mike McGavick took on this issue. He has an issues link and where he stands with the big ones. I could not find anything of this sort on Cantwell's website. I am assuming this is because she is an incumbent and a lot of people are already familiar with her. It does not seem like she is moving with the technology as well as Mike is.

I absolutely trust Maria more than I trust Mike becuase I am a Democrat. Even though Mike's site was more organized, compelling and interactive. I really think the fact that Maria has already run makes a difference.

Extra Credit: Week 7

“The Race of the Website 2004” by Kathy Gill was a really interesting article. I liked the detailed comparison Professor Kathy did. It is really interesting read the description about how each of these websites were organized and designed as well as the way the information was displayed on each website from an informed or as I should say “web specialist.” This is a clear sign that the internet is impacting politics because the majority of candidates will have a website. In my moms campaign it was one of the first things on the agenda list and everywhere we went to campaign people would ask what the website is. But it is affecting everything, almost every corporation, organization, politician, and the list goes on has a website.

Week Seven Reflection

How does the internet technology impact politics?

The internet is yet another tool aside from TV and print media that provides information about politics. Thus it would only be obvious that it would have an impact on the media. Because the internet is accessible 24/7 and can provide more information than traditional media it is more convenient and thorough. The internet also provides those with unlimited and creative freedom to produce what they want to on the web. Therefore politicians and their campaigns can provide more information about themselves immediately and for free. Rather then having to send out tons of pamphlets and campaign paraphernalia to registered voters.

Do you agree with the premises made by these authors?

I agree with the authors of the Role of the Internet in National and Local News Media Use. In my opinion and from my experiences the internet has become a major source of the average person’s daily life. I especially agree with this statement “Our results reveal that, at of the time of our study, most people use the Internet in conjunction with other national and local news sources.” I use online new sources because they can be conveniently accessed at anytime but I love watching the news as well. It provides a different experience. Although I am not sure if the newspaper is not being used as much for political information because when my ran for the School Board when she got the newspaper endorsements everyone, everywhere we went would complement her on them and they would say this is huge. I also noticed a lot of people bring the newspaper with them to vote.

I definitely agreed with the article by Noam Schreiber in that the internet has helped gather more detailed information on registered voters. I learned this as well in my mother’s campaign because we were able to look at the demographics of particular precincts in Seattle that’s voting habits would be more likely to vote for my mom. This allowed us to spend more money and time targeting this group of individuals and the internet made this possible.

Discussion Questions:

Will politics benefit from the internet? Why or why not.

Will internet technology cause more youth to get more involved with politics and vote? Explain.

Is the internet an effective way for politicians to campaign? Why or why not.
Extra-Credit

May 4th 2006 In-Class Exercise

Part One

BBC.com:

• This new source does have RSS feeds: amount = 2
• The news story about Zacarias Moussaoui who was recently convicted and sentenced to life in prison for his contributions to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The story is specifically about the Judge silenceing Moussaoui's outburst. Link to this Story
• McClaren named as England manager this is another story that this new source had an RSS feed linked to it. This story is a sports story about this man becoming the manager of a football (soccer) team in England. Link to this Story
• I did not see any blogs sponsored by the this new source
• I did not find any linked blogs on this new sources website

SeattleTimes.com

• The seattletimes.com as well had RSS feeds, and numerous ones at that.
• There was a wide range of stories with RSS feeds from top stories to health, business and technology, sports and the list goes on. Virtually every section of this new source had an RSS feed.
• The RSS feeds were much harder to use on this website

Conclusion:

It is clear that RSS feeds are impacting these mainstream organizations in a profound way. Especially on seattletimes.com.

Part Two

1. You must us quotes because it is a phrase.
2. Not one blog came up when I sorted my results by "funny stuff" and "truthfulness" thus it narrows your search
3. Nothing changed when I change the authority slider but this can either widden or narrow search.
4. The basic search would tell me how many posts contain the phrase or word I typed in it, the tag link displayed all the blog post with the subject or category of the words or phrases I typed in and the blog finder link will take you to all the blogs that are tagged the key word I typed in.
5. Blogs for project: One, two, three.
6. When I typed in www.blogcrtics.org I got 11,244 results this shows that it is a pretty trusted blog thus making it more credible
7. The blogs I found only had 1 to 12 links to them, this lets me know that they are not credible at all.
8. About 23,900 link to blogcirtics.org on google thus obviously google has way more. This is probable do to the fact that it taps into every registered blog not just ones with technorati. Thats my gues but I am not sure.
9. I had a hard time determining what blogs were in the Greater Seattle area I also could not remember what a blog roll is. I had a hard time with this part and will be asking questions in class so that I can do this on my own.