Course Reflection

1. What is the most important thing you learned? Why?

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

(I combined these two questions because what I found most important (the digital divide) I also wanted to learn more about).

I was intrigued and very interested in the digital divide. All of the things we read about this quarter are influential and have an impact on somebody. However, this topic seems to stand out to me. I think it is because all of the other articles talk about the ways technology is used and how it is being developed whereas the digital divide is bringing attention to the fact that not everyone can afford or access these new technologies. It is important to remember our place in the world and realize how lucky we are. Because of this I wish we had spent more time on this topic and focused more attention on it. It is a very important topic that should be addressed.

What topic was the least interesting to you? Why?

I was had the least interest in Week 5: Networks- Social and Technological. I think I didn't like the topic because I never fully understood the article about GNUs. I still don't really know what they are. I do not have enough information about the topic to be well-informed about it and that makes it more difficult for me to have an interest in it.

Week 9 Readings

Technology is continually evolving. Even in my lifetime there have been so many changes. VoIP is one of the new developing technologies. I had never heard of VoIP until these readings. It was interesting to read about.
But this VoIP does not have ground breaking new features. For example, it has many of the same features that are already available to phone (home or cell) like call waiting, conference calling, etc. Also, many cell phone plans already have free long distance as one of the elements of the contract so that is not necessarily a huge bonus of VoIP.
VoIP will affect the cable and telephone networks because it is a new, free, relatively convenient feature. Just like reading newpapers online is more convenient and being used more and more frequently, I think the same will happen with VoIP--more people will use it.

Discussion Questions:

• Do you think VoIP eventually become the primary form of communication?
• Do you think on of the main draws to VoIP is the fact that it is free?
• Is it a detraction to be required to be in front of a computer in order to use VoIP?

Week 8 Readings

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

The cost of technology is continually dropping yet there is still still a digital divide. However, things are getting better, efforts are being taken to try to increase accessiblity and to reduce the digital divide. PCs are still pretty expensive but other options are being developed such as "thin clients" or hand-held devices which are less than half the cost of PCs. There are also several programs already set up to provide rural communiteis with internet, phone, fax, radio, etc. Then there is "universal access provider" (UAP) which reduces and eliminates access licensing fees as well as taxes and duties on ICT goods.
So basically public space on cyberspace is increasing. People can use the internet for a wide variety of reasons, however, it can be difficult for some people to have access to the internet and technology/equipment. Luckily this is gradually changing with exceptions being made on accessibility standards for poor, rural areas.

Discussion Questions:

• It is probable that there will always be a digital divide, but do you think the gap will significantly decrease in the future?
• Will universal access ever become profitable?
• The article mentioned that "residents of rural and poor communities might be willing to spend at least 1.5% of their incomes on information and communication needs". What percentage of income to you think Americans spend on info and communication?
  

Extra Credit Post, Week 7

This whole article was very interesting to me. I liked to read the comparison about the two websites and the pros and cons of each.
I also found a lot of the comments on the design to be interesting because they are very true but I had never thought about it in such a way. For example, I had never thought about "banner-blindness" which is the "'tendency of the human eye to avoid anything that resembles a banner ad". That is completely true even though I had never consciously realized it before. Also, the poor placement of Bush's main links above the campaign logo because of "reverse eye movement".
One interesting aspect mentioned in the article was the fact that in both 2000 and 2004 the Democrats used Linux, Apache and PHP whereas the Republicans used Windows, Microsoft Information Server and ASP. Gill mentioned that that reinforced party stereotypes. I wonder if there were any other reasons behind why the parties did that--i.e. did certain companies/software support one party over the other?

Week 7 Readings

How does internet technology impact politics? Do you agree with the premise of these authors?

The internet has quite an effect on politics and political campaigns. "Organization Man" describes how the internet was essential for Howard Dean's campaign for the Democratic nomination in 2004. The internet was huge for organizing. With the internet it was no longer as crucial for people working on the campaign to go and contact supporters--the supporters could now come to the campaign. Websites had blogs where supporters could post their thoughts and get feedback from others. The internet also made it easy for people to donate money to the campaign.

The other article "The Role of the Internet in National and Local News Media Use" focused more on internet use for news rather than political campaigns. The internet tends to be used as a supplement to print newspapers and magazines. People tend to use the internet to supplement the national news rather than local news. It is a way for people to further research a specific topic of interest to them--to get more details. Politics are impacted by that because the public can become more involved and educate themselves about issues. They don't have to rely on traditional media outlets anymore.

Discussion Questions:

• What do you think about Joe Trippi putting Cranston parahernalia on Mondale buses in order to get the Cranston tickets for Mondale supporters? Was the plan ethical?
• How do you use the internet for news? Is it your main source for news or do you use it as a supplement to some other news source?
• Do you think the internet will ever completely overtake print media as the only source for news?

Week 6 Readings

What are the implications of blogging technology on established media?

Blogging has boosted established media. Media is continuously changing and making improvements. There has been a wide variety of improvements in media with the transition from newspaper, telegraph, postal service, radio, television, internet, etc. Blogging is one of those changes. It is a good improvement to the media system because it allows people to have more interaction amongst each other. Blogs allows anyone to publish their opinions and feelings about a situation. A person no longer has to be a professional journalist to have their opinion seen and read by 1000's of people. It's just regular people talking about whatever they feel like. That is a huge step in media.

As for the second article--it doesn't have anything to do with blogging. But it is another example of technology changing. The i-pod/mp3 player craze has brought about another twist in the media picture. People no longer have to listen to the radio to hear music. And now with pod casts they can listen to talk radio on their i-pod as well. It gives people more options.

Discussion Questions:

• Do you think blogging would have eventually taken off even if 9/11 hadn't happened?
• Why has there been such a demand for pod casts recently?
• Are people's attention spans really getting so much shorter that they wouldn't want to listen to a 2 hour NPR show like "Morning Addition"?

Week 5 Readings

Scholars should study the open source movement because as with study any movement, people’s eyes can be opened to new ideas and views they might not have otherwise thought about. The articles seemed to imply a sense of sharing, free information and not breaking the law. Those are good values to have and hence the studying of the open source movement would promote such ideas.

It was interesting to read that mass communications media allowed for connections to greater markets with little to no cost. This made for more profits which required there to be more protection of those profits. It also points out that political movements are able to reach huge numbers of people for free via social software such as the internet. It is much more efficient and monetarily wise to do so. It makes a point to say that it is not an individual effort but rather a collective effort including work from thousands of people.

This week’s readings were difficult for me to understand. All the discussion about GNU’s was like trying to read a foreign language for me—I had no idea what the article was talking about. I don’t know what Unix is so that makes it difficult to understand what “Gnu’s not Unix” is. I think it’s awesome that the author wanted the software to be distributed for free. But reading things that are new and foreign is beneficial because one can learn from that experience.

Discussion questions:

• What exactly is GNU??
• Has the degree of personal connections diminished because of the lack actual physical personal interactions?
• What are some of the political implications of GNU and how will they be dealt with?
  

Extra Credit Post, Week 5

Prior to reading this article I had no idea what social software was. So this opened my eyes to new terminology and several interesting ideas.

The article mentions how conference calling was the most “convenient” way of group conversation before the internet. I remember doing that when I was younger and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. But it really wasn’t that convenient because it cost money and everyone tried to talk at the same time so we had to repeat things multiple times before we cleared things up.

Another interesting point the article brought up was the fact that when social software first came about it was mostly used by young, technology savvy males. Now the number of users has exploded includes all kinds of demographics including more females and a much wider age range.

I never thought about how regulation and restrictions would help a social software thrive. I would have thought that the more the merrier, but as the article points out, sometimes unrestricted hostility can make a website, etc fall apart. People won’t put up with such behavior. Also, sometimes restrictions give something a sense of novelty and value—people want to be a part of something that isn’t available to anyone who wants to partake.

Week 4 Readings

Man-Machine Relationship:
Prior to these readings I never really thought about the man-machine relationship. I pretty much take machines, technology and computers for granted. Humans are constantly aided by machines and dependent on them for doing everyday tasks such as an alarm clock for getting up in the morning, a toaster for making breakfast, an automobile for getting to work, a computer at work, microwave for cooking, dishwasher for doing dishes, television for entertainment, etc. It's no wonder that machines are taken for granted because they are used all the time.
As for these readings changing my view on the man-machine relationship, seeing as I didn't really have an opinion other than naivity prior to these readings, I would say that these readings opened my eyes to the differences between man and computers, specifically the fact that humans are flexible and able to look beyond superficial errors whereas computers are very accurate and precise.

3 Discussion Questions:

1. Humans can overlook slight errors such as the Moses/Noah example and still get the context of the situation. Do you think computer will ever be able to reach that point of sophisticated operation?
2. Computers are known for their precision and accuracy. Do you think the emphasis on time and dates has become increasingly more important and influential as computers have become more prominent in society?
3. The readings kept emphasizing how humans are biological and flexible so why would humans build computers which are so opposite of that? Now that we have computers it seems that we are going back the other way--we want computers to be more compliant like humans. Why the change?