Amanda's Blog

Final Blog Post

2006-05-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

I think that the most important thing that I have learned this quarter is what effects the rate of adoption of new products & technologies & how many of the technologies that are so popular today almost didn't reach the market. This reason that I feel that this is so important is because I would like to pursue a career in sales & I think that it is important to have understanding of all of the factors that can make or break a new product.

I would be very interested in learning more about newspapers & the threat that the internet holds for them. I would like to know how real this threat is and if any other sources of media are being threatened by the media.

I found most of the topics very interesting, however I found the readings on the beginning of the internet to be a little dull. My brain does not respond well to discussions of numbers or zeroes & ones! I think that this was an important topic, however it was not my favorite!

Reading Response Week 9

2006-05-22T14:41:00.000-07:00

Learning about VoIP in this week's reading, How VoIP Works, was very interesting. In response to the discussion question, how do I think this will effect basic phone and cable connections, I believe that it really won't. VoIP does not offer a service that is any cheaper than what people are already getting. This is the main reason, in my opinion, why someone would want to switch technologies. Also, there are still many issues with VoIP. As the reading discussed, VoIP has some issues such as 911 locations and power outages. People already have the tools for phone and cable in their homes and unless VoIP can prove that it is a better tool, I don't see many people changing in the near future.

Discussion Questions:
1) How would VoIP combat the popularity of cell phones, especially in countries where land lines are rare?
2) Would you be interested in switching to VoIP, why or why not?
3) Are telephone and cable networks making any efforts to insure their place in the market?

Reading Response Week 8

2006-05-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

This week’s reading, Chapter Seven: The Wireless Revolution and Universal Access, illustrates the various ways to make internet access more affordable, and therefore illustrates that closing the digital divide is possible. The internet was designed with the idea of a public forum in mind, I am disappointed to realize that not everyone can contribute.

Making the internet more of a public space, will not only increase the diversity and amount of material on the web, but will also connect people everywhere. Making the materials required for this access less expensive is a key way to accomplish this and I believe that programs that give incentives for countries to do this should be encouraged.

I do see a point that many people often make. Many offer the argument that third-world countries and impoverished people need other basic necessities first before they could ever need the internet. Also, many people think that making these materials more accessible isn’t possible, because of the lack of these basic necessities. I agree with this point, but I also see this access as a potential for these peoples. The internet can provide education and tools to learn how to manage a business, improve a farm, and receive important medical advice. To me, the possibilities of the internet are endless.

Questions:
1. What can people who can afford access do for those that can’t? How are we responsible for this public space?
2. How will other countries be affected if internet access is increased?
3. How will the U.S. benefit from increa

Extra Credit Week 7

2006-05-08T16:32:00.000-07:00

I found this article very interesting. I never could have imagined or appreciated how much detail and thought goes into web design. I also think that because of the impact of designs on viewers' impressions it is extremely important for anyone who is creating a website to take that into consideration. I found myself nodding as I read about user's reactions to banners and popups. Interestingly enough, politicians analyze everything about the public that they are attempting to appeal to. It makes sense to apply this same method to websites. As the web is becoming more of a main source of information for more people, it is important for designers to take user's impressions into account. It will interesting to see how advertisers will use this information in the future.

Reading Response Week 7

2006-05-07T18:22:00.000-07:00

“The Organization Man” by Noam Scheiber is a surprising article about the impact of new media and politics. Furthermore, the promising impact of Howard Dean’s campaign and Meetup.org. This impact holds enormous potential for third party campaigns who have struggled in the arena of politics against larger and profitable parties. The ability to raise that amount of money on personal donations alone is both impressive and promising. I think it will be interesting to see how future politicians and political parties will treat this potential. Will they use the internet to its fullest potential or ignore its possibilities?

The second article illustrated this potential further. The experiments run in “The Role of the Internet in National and Local News Media Use” allow the authors to predict that the internet will gradually replace and become a substitue for more traditional forms of news such as television and newspapers. This bold prediction is threatening to these older media forms, yes, but also promising for society. The internet has the capability to broadcast an infinite number of voices to virtually anyone and this is important to many people. I think that while older media sources may have become routines in our daily lives, the internet holds the power to overcome these routines. The author states:

“We find that Internet news sources best explain political knowledge among those who use them and suggest that Internet news may surpass newspapers as the select political information source of the future.”

I agree with this statement and believe that the internet follows the values of a true democracy.

Questions:
1) What third party campaigns have already begun to tap into the internet as a resource?
2) Are the reactions to new media by older forms, actually making a difference in terms of keeping their membership? If no, why not?
3) Do you prefer to get your news from the internet or local television?

Week 6 Lab

2006-05-04T17:13:00.000-07:00

BBC.com: BBC.com appears to have an infinite amount of RSS feeds. These feeds cover stories from front page news to technology to sports to education. The site does not require any subscription fees in order to access RSS feeds; however you have to have compatible downloadable software in order to view the feeds. This software is called a news reader. You can also subscribe to receive daily RSS feeds, but entering the proper information into the news reader. BBC.com does offer blogs although it was difficult at first to locate on the site. There are around eight different subjects including: world, community, children’s, events, music and comedy, people, programs, and of course sport.

SeattleTimes.com: The Times has around 15 different RSS feed topics. These include top stories and sports. The RSS feeds are also free however you have to compatible software. The Times has over 10 pages of blogs written by both Times writers and guest columnists. These blogs vary in subject like the RSS feeds.

Comparison: BBC.com and SeattleTimes.com both offer RSS feeds and blogs at no price. The RSS feeds on SeattleTimes.com actually wouldn’t show up correctly on my screen however. While BBC.com’s RSS feeds are easier to find the Seattle Times’, the Times’ blogs were actually easier to find the former. Both sites contained a lot of information on their feeds and blogs. This suggests that mainstream news is trying to keep with the evolution of technology. They are doing this by adapting technology’s latest trends. This is the millennium’s version of when newspapers went online in the first place.

2) An initial search for “Steven Colbert” on Technorati.com resulted in 927 posts. It was important to use the quotations, because otherwise the search results include matches that contain parts of the name, not the whole. No results show up when the sorting is changed by truthiness. This also occurs when messing the funny stuff tab. By changing the authority tab, results are lessened as more authority is requested.

A general search for “Lucasfilms” gives twenty results. By clicking on the “tabs” link the results are lessened to about six. No blogs show up when I clicked on the “blogs” link. By searching for www.blogcritics.com, the engine offers 111,565 results.

Week 6 Reading Response

2006-05-01T15:19:00.000-07:00

I found the article We the Media, very interesting as both a refresher of the history of personal journalism and media and a comparison to what media has become today. In the days of Thomas Paine, the authors of pamphlets were critical of the government, while today's authors of blogs and such are also aimed toward traditional media itself. While media began as public service, it has developed to become an advertising mogul, because that is where the money is. This is both tragic and disappointing, however it does not have to be the way things are. Blogging has truly become a very powerful media source. New to the blogging world, I have been impressed with the amount of bloggers out there and of course, what they have to say.

Traditional media must also have been surprised and because of this, continuously tries to keep up. Media is going online as major networks have launched their own blogs, asking viewers to read and comment on these blogs. This interactivity is both appealing to blog writers and readers. NPR's podcasts seem also to be a response to the popularity of blogs and the growing need for interaction. I think that blogging is helping traditional media fight back. It is forcing traditional media to evolve to meet the demand of its viewers and while many blogs are still developing themselves, I think that this can only be positive for us as media recipients.

Questions:
1) As we all know, traditional media did start out as a public forum however for various reasons has evolved into an industry, does this fate lie in the future of blogging as well?

2) How are advertising companies responding to blogs? What is the potential for advertising on blogger websites?

3) Has NPR's attempt to appeal to the new media audience attracted the attention of other media networks? If so, how are they responded?

Reading Response Week 4

2006-04-17T15:40:00.000-07:00

I had to agree with some of the points made in "Being Analog". Norman argues how digital technology is reshaping the world that we live in and how we live in it. He states that "machines should adapt itself to human requirements." While men/women have created machines, he argues that machines do or should change to meet the needs of humans. This is interesting because this suggests that man is still in control. Our society has growing fears of technology advancing to a point where domination over humans will be inevitable, this is evident in many movies and games. While this is a drastic concern, there is evidence of machine domination in our society today. Spell & grammar checker present on most computers have created a youth that cannot spell for themselves. Machines present in factories and mills have replaced jobs for many humans. These are just two examples. Humans have benefited from machines, yet must be in control in order to continue to benefit. I think adaption of machines is necessary due to growing and changing needs of mankind, however man needs to facilitate this adaptation.

The article by Zuckerman and McLaughlin only furthers this idea of machines over humans. The genius of man to think and create such a dynamic design of the internet is amazing and shows how powerful human thinking can be. It also shows the limits of mankind and how machines can be built to achieve what we can't. Mankind in a sense, needs this aid to achieve many of the feats that we have achieved in science, health, math, etc.

Has man become too dependent on technology?

How can AI change our society and the man/machine relationship for good? For bad?

How has man adapted to the competition w/ machines for blue collar jobs? Are more people seeking higher education in response to this?

Reading Response Week 3

2006-04-10T15:18:00.000-07:00

While the internet has become an amazing tool for people all over the world, the issue brought up by both articles (Nelson and Carlson) this week shows that it is not perfect and that and we need to continually work on every aspect of the internet. The internet has become a one-stop shop for people needing information on travel locations, weather, money, health conditions, sports, etc. Also, it has become a great tool for students accessing research. With all of the information that the internet holds, however finding exactly one one is looking for and then further validating that information has become tiresme and challenging. The readings point this out in discussing the difficulty in locating specidic data that is also credible and with the rate that the internet is gowing, they ddiscuss how much information the internet does hold.

The disccussion of "deep web" was also interesting to me, I had never heard of this term before. Neither did I know how to accurately search for information and the pruposes of different search engines. If this information was more available to people (and perhaps not over the internet!), then finding information could be easier for everyone.

As discussed, I agree with the statement that there is an internet overload and frustration and anxiety are growing problems for users. The readings suggested that to elimate these issues and information overload, one has to become a more educated user. This will help to increase the effectivesness of the internet and make validated and specific information easier to find.

Questions:

1. Other than Google, what search engines do most students use? Have sthere been any that have proven more reliable?

2. Are there plans for better search engines? What will the future hold?

3. How has research on the web influenced library research and other "physical" research?

Draft Proposal

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

The idea is still in the works, but I am curious about the impact of the internet on the world of sexual predators. There seem to be a multitude of warnings and scares to parents and yet I would like to see if this threat has grown. Is there a threat? And if so how has the internet effected it?

Discussion Questions Week #2

2006-04-03T20:41:00.000-07:00

- What possibilties do chat rooms/ blogs hold for the political arena, that are not being achieved?
- Do you think that like other mediums, the internet will somehow become consolidated?
- What can be changed about the modern day computer to increase communication possibilites?

Reading Response Week 2

2006-04-03T14:17:00.000-07:00

In Vannevar Bush's article, I found his call to intellectuals and scientists very interesting. He urged them to focus their attentions to a more humanitarian pursuit of increasing the availability of information and research to the general public and between scientists and researchers themselves. At the time, much attention was focused on WWII horrors and weaponry and Bush wanted to see a switch in focus. I think that Bush would be excited and mortified by today's focus. I feel that he would be excited by the possibility that the internet allows in sharing and obtaining research from anywhere in the world. Websites such as Google and more specifically AllReferHealth.org, allow users to easily type in a search term such as an issue or symptom and then instantly gain access to information on that search term. This was key to Bush's claim that in order to maximize research, people need to be able to access previous information so that they can then redistribute in on another level. Google and Allreferhealth essentially do this. Research and study has obviously benefited from the invention of the internet as people are able to spread ideas and information faster and easier.

In Networks of Remediation, the author cites a Walter Benjamin for arguing that a political revolution will be brought about because of the internet. The internet will allow more people to participate in politics and have varying access to political information with various viewpoints. Political parody sites have sprung up through the years and allow people to laugh and mock different candidates. Also, many politicians have taken advantage of the internet to spread their ideas and goals to more people. Blogs and chat rooms allow users to voice their opinions and not only be heard by millions of people, but essentially not have to answer to their opinions due to the anonymity of such features. I agree with Benjamin that the internet had the potential. But I also feel that the political possibilities of the internet have not been fully achieved, and with features such as chat rooms and blogs, people have taken advantage of the internet to spread false information and completely unsound ideas without having to face any repercussions. But I also feel that the internet is ever evolving and we may still be able to use it to its full potential.

Returning to the article by Bush, his description of 'Memex' is similar to the modern day computer and internet in that anyone is able to access and send information virtually anywhere in the world. Bush's idea of this back in 1945 has been fully lived today. Information is not only accessible for research, but for business correspondence, as he suggested, and networking.

It is hard to imagine what the internet of 2045 will be like. When technology has already come so far, it is hard to imagine where it has to go. Already in a few years, people are actually able to access sports scores in the middle of the desert, or send email from a beach in Mexico. Video cams have enabled long distance communication to be more personal. The internet is everchanging however, and society has to keep up with it. I see the internet of 2045 not only being faster, more organized, and more efficient, but also becoming a need and not just a want for a human. I can see kids in 2045 staring in disbelief when someone tells them what life was like in 1970, when the internet was only a dream. This is both amazing and scary to me!

Test

2006-04-01T11:37:00.000-08:00

This is a test...