nicoleblack

Week 10: Final Reflection

2006-05-28T21:56:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-22T00:43:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-14T23:42:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-08T00:56:00.000-07:00

“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

2006-05-07T23:37:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

You must us quotes because it is a phrase.
Not one blog came up when I sorted my results by "funny stuff" and "truthfulness" thus it narrows your search
Nothing changed when I change the authority slider but this can either widden or narrow search.
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.
Blogs for project: One, two, three.
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
The blogs I found only had 1 to 12 links to them, this lets me know that they are not credible at all.
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.
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.

Week Six Reflection

2006-05-01T00:56:00.000-07:00

What are the implications of blogging technology on established media?

The reading “From Tom Paine to Blogs and Beyond” by Dan Gilmore made it clear that blogging will have an effect on established media because instead of society solely relying on journalist to provide us with news stories we can also go to blog’s and get more hands on, in-depth and immediate experience of these stories. Dan Gilmore showed this was prevalent with the blog’s that occurred after 911 and how people were blogging their personal experiences during the tragedy of 911. With news seeming less and less authentic society is in search of alternative news sources and I believe blogs will be a popular source. Although this may have a negative affect on the media it may also benefit them as well. As Gilmore mentioned bloggers often link the important news stories relating to the information they have posted. This may divert more traffic to these news stories. But I do believe we will be seeing an abundance of news becoming more available on the web.

In Will NPR’s Podcast Birth a New Business model for Public Radio? I was shocked about how popular podcasting is becoming. I don’t even have an mp3 player let alone an interest in podcasting. Furthermore most of the people around me do not have an mp3 as well. Clearly though mp3’s are the thing to have and podcasting is the thing to do. I guess I need to get hip.

Discussion Questions:

Should blog’s become a primary news source? Why or Why not.

The more and more I learn about how big technology is getting and becoming a major source in every day life as well as the numerous amount of activities that are done on the web I cant help but worry that this will have a huge impact on our society in a negative way. Do you agree or disagree with this, why or why not. Keep in mind that those who cannot afford these technologies or go to schools that cannot afford these technologies will be completely left out. What implications on our society will this have? What ways could and should our society solve these types of problems? Or should we just ignore them like we usually do?

Why is podcasting so popular in your opinion?

Week 5 Extra-credit Reflection

2006-04-24T16:51:00.000-07:00

Social Software and the Politics of Groups

Social networking on the web is becoming a huge phenomenon. Unfortunately I do not participate in any for of social networking I have many friends that do. Software in my opinion has created a pathway for individuals that are interested in a particular subject to communicate with each other that probably would not be able to if it were not for the web. This should be seen as a good thing. Although social interaction can create “tension between the individual and the group” it also can create joy and comradely among a group, if this were not the case there would not be this explosive occurrence of social networks like blog’s and MySpace for example. The only issue I have with social networking is the exclusion of lower class citizens that do not have access to the tools to be apart of these networks and how this will effect their social status.

Discussion Questions:

Are social networks creating more in-grouping and out-grouping? Why or Why not. If so will this negatively affect our society?

Why do you believe online networking is exploding the way it is?

Week 5 Reading Reflection

2006-04-24T16:48:00.000-07:00

Why should communication scholars study the open source software movement?

Communication scholars should study the open source software movement because it is a conversation between programmers, scholars and average citizens about whether or not open source software should transpire as well as the conversation that would come out of open source software . If open source software does transpire it will be a fresh form of communication for our society in which programmers get to build off of other programmers programs, as well be provided feedback from users as to what works best. Potentially creating the best conversation ever because there are no monetary incentives just the incentive to create the best, most useable program. It should be a communication scholar dream to study such a conversation. Although it varies tremendously from previous forms of communication, with the rise of technology there is also a rise in technology mediated communication that deserves some oversight and insight.

The Second Superpower Rears its Beautiful Head by James F. Moore

I did not really like this article. It had a good message and despite the fact that I do not agree with the overwhelming majority of the decisions that our government administration is making I feel like this article focused too much on helping to create equality for citizens internationally rather than nationally. Although I agree that we are one of many countries that live in one world and the decisions that one country makes will affect the other countries because we share the same world or home. I still believe we have a lot of inequalities that we must fix here in the U.S. before we go advocating for other countries. Take for example Hurricane Katrina, the amount of poor African Americans that this entire nation saw displaced form their homes is a prime example of what I mean. Our country has caused so many injustices on its own citizens that it is absurd to think that it would treat developing nations any better. Furthermore some of those so willing to fight for equality for other nations are the same people that participate in producing the inequalities of our own nation. Thus I am not sold at all on this article, not until I see serious improvements in the United States and for its citizens. This is what we should be focusing on.

Markets are Conversations By Doc Searls and David Weinberger

I thought this was an interesting article. It explored what markets need to do to market affectively and that was to be honest and to encourage conversation. I agree with this, consumers are too greedy therefore it is easy for marketers to persuade us to by their products based off of faulty advertisement. Despite this I believe there will be a backlash on those corporations that take it too far and those companies that tap into what the consumers actually wants and the honestly portrays that product will be extremely successful.

Discussion Questions:

Is open source software plausible? Why or Why not.

Will the internet further widen the socioeconomic gap if more and more people use it to organize politically? Explain.

Is word of mouth advertising the way to go? Why or Why not.

Week #4 Readings

2006-04-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

Both of these readings were extremely interesting. The comparison made between humans and machines in the article Being Analog by Donald Norman on how we operate totally different from one another is really interesting and if I am being honest with myself I dont think about this often or even at all. Also the explanation of how the internet works by Ethan Zuckerman and Andrew McLaughlin in Introduction to Internet Architecture and Institutions was really good because it was straightforward and uncomplicated. In other words it was explained in a way that those less technologically savvy (like me) can understand better how the technology they use everyday works.

As a result of this my views have been altered concerning the relationship between humans and machines. First and foremost I now understand the internet and how it works. Yippee!!! I have taken numerous classes on how the internet works and read about it over and over again but it has never been explained this way to me and therefore I never got it until now. Gaining this understanding of how the internet works makes me realize that humans are not that much different than the machines we use today. But rather that we just don’t understand how they work. I also had know idea how that an emails travel through many different computers before it reaches its destination. It makes me realize how brilliant the humans are that created the internet and imprecate their efforts

However I am always really frustrated with computers. I find it hard to do the simplest things on it, I always felt like they just did not come natural to me. After reading the article by Norman I better understand why. Despite all of this I have some reservations about his article as well because Norman makes the argument that “people are compliant: we adapt ourselves to the situation. We are flexible enough to allow our bodies and our actions to fit the circumstances.” Whereas machines are the opposite therefore he believes we live in a world in which technology is not “appropriate” for us. I disagree because some people consider technology to be more straightforward and less complicated than human beings and furthermore humans are the ones who created the technology and machines we use daily. Thus it just seems awkward for him to be making this blanket statement and anyway it is kind of obvious when pointed out that machines and humans do and act completely different because they are in fact different. These readings both moved me closer and further away from the argument that that machines and humans are completely different.

Questions:

Are machines and technology unfit for the average citizen? Why or Why not.

What would need to be done to make computers more “human like” and how would we do this?

Would it be beneficial for machines to be more “human-like”? Or is it good that we have computers that force us to be less flexible and more precise? Why or Why not.

Week 3 Readings

2006-04-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

Information I believe is extremely important. A variety of information allows for an endless amount of knowledge. In the article We Have the Information You Want, But Getting it Will Cost You: Being Held Hostage by Information Overload by Mark Nelson provides a vary negative tone to the amount of information available today. Although I agree that by having greater numbers of information “both useful and useless information” will be included and cause us to have to “sort and choose.” This may not be such a bad thing. Given that it ensures that each and everyone can obtain information that pertains to their need. For example what may be useful to me could be useless to others. Therefore I believe we must continue to foster the “free information market” despite our own selfish needs. I for example love having an infinite amount of information and like being able to compare and contrast the old and the new, the useful and the useless. But I must admit at times it can be annoying but it is a sacrifice I am willing to take.

In the article Information Overload, Retrieval strategies and internet User Empowerment by Dr. Christopher N. Carlson talks about this issue as well but provides information about solutions to it. This article was a little more persuasive then the first. It made me realize that there is a downside to having too much information, for example it is costly. Despite this I would still argue that more information is better because it fosters dialogue, diversity and more knowledge. Even if we have “more information available to us then we can readily assimilate” if one person gets to some of that information and finds it useful its better than him not having access to it at all (Carlson).

Discussion Questions

Is the annoyance of “information overload” a good enough reason to find ways to limit the amount of information available?

Will the vast amount of information available have a negative effect on the way people conduct research?

What would be a legitimate reason for the information that you would like to provide to the public to be withheld for?

WEEK TWO READINGS

2006-04-03T15:20:00.000-07:00

In chapter four of Mediamorphosis: Understanding New Media, Roger Fidler did a phenomenal job of providing insight into the historical aspect of technology. All too often we as citizens are too consumed with the present and unaware of past that make our experiences of today possible. What this reading revealed to me was that each new technological invention was a stepping stone for the next. Furthermore that without one there may not have been the other. For example without the invention of a broadcast radio medium there may not be television as we know it today. It is funny that certain technologies that are so common to us today like the telephone were once a sketchy invention to everyone like computers have been to us throughout our lifetime. I was really surprised that “much of the credit for transforming radio into the first electronic broadcast medium belongs to amateur radio operators” (p.89). In addition they saw their doings as just a hobby. I was under the impression that inventions are made by really smart people or “scientist” that are trying to create something great, rather than just average Joe’s doing what is necessary to survive.

As We May Think by Vannevar Bush seems a little bit outdated because of our huge technological advances today. However it is amazing that in 1945 Bush was able to predict and strive for some of the vary technologies that are somewhat new to us in 2006. Even though his description of the “Memex” in some ways contrast with the internet as we know it today it is also very similar. The definition of a “memex” according to Bush “is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communication and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility.” This definition sounds very similar to the search engines we commonly use today on the internet for example Yahoo and Google to name a few. This article is a reminder that human beings are extremely innovative and are continually striving to adapt by creating newer and more functional technologies to make our lives easier. In 2045 I can only imagine additions and improvements that will be made to the internet. I am not even sure there will be one as we know it. One thing I know for sure is that the way we use the internet and how convenient it seems to be today will be totally different in 2045. In fact it may make our current use seem really inconvenient and out dated after all. The question is how advanced can we get and is there an end point?

Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin did a great job of exploring the complexities of introducing new technologies or inventions to society in “Networks of Remediation” from Remediation: Understanding New Media. They did this by showing the different perspectives that commonly occur when new technologies are introduced. For example some tend to fear it and assume it will create negative outcomes. Whereas others see it as expansive and opening the doors for a “new culture.” I think this is important to mention because it shows the evolving attitudes that surround the technologies not just the technology itself. I think that it is really interesting that in order for new technologies to be successful they must not only replace the old technology but improve on it as well. This as well was explored in this chapter. This also shows the relationship between the old technologies and the new ones. As I mentioned above this makes it even more evident that the older technologies are somewhat like stepping stones for the next new technologies.

2006-03-28T12:49:00.000-08:00

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