Week 10 Response

The most important thing I learned in this course was how to use various programs. I had gotten out of learning how to make a website, create a blog, and properly do research online for my entire life, but knowing how to do it and how simple it can be makes me feel much more confident in my abilities to do research projects and use the computer in different ways. I think that kind of knowledge is what will be helpful to me in the future.

I’m not sure if I needed more time to study, but this class was by far my most time-consuming one. I feel like we had a lot of projects and things to do each week and they were a little hard for me to keep track of. I also think that it would have been helpful to have more time to complete the three assignments. It’s doable in one week, but coupled with the rest of my schedule, I had the tendency to be completely swamped every other week, and have nothing to do the other days.

Least interesting to me was a lot of the technological explanations. The technological descriptions of how the internet works, for instance. It was slightly interesting, but I felt like we talked about it too much. I am more interested in the implications of technologies on society and communication than the way that communication media work.

Week 9 Readings

Reading about VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) in “How VoIP Works” reminded me of another communications class I took in which the professor described how people were using the game Halo on XBOX Live as a phone service. In some cases, (especislly where long distance calls were involved, the company could not figure out why elderly people were purchasing XBOX Live. It turns out they were using it as a cheaper phone service; using this connection, which is like the internet, to “call” relatives by talking to them through the game.

With VoIP popularizing, I suspect that cable and telephone networks will be put in jeopardy. They will probably need to team up with internet companies, as I believe some already have, in order to put their lines to use in a less traditional manner. In general, over a time, the cable and telephone networks will probably need to be altered to facilitate VoIP. If not, they might even become completely obsolete to make way for digitized packet switching instead of circuit switching.

One thing I thought was strange was how bad the drawbacks to a complete switch to VoIP were. Things like not being able to have the phone in the case of power outages and not being able to call 911 seem like extremely dangerous drawbacks that I am surprised were not considered or addressed more in depth.

Discussion Questions:

If many companies are already using VoIP for long distance calls, then doesn’t it seem like they would be under more fire for charging people so much for long distance calls that are costing them very little?

Will a large-scale switch to VoIP instead of traditional phone service be detrimental to the economy in general, or just to the phone companies? Or are these two related? Getting rid of traditional phone service seems like it would be like getting rid of an entire industry.

The Forrester Research Group predicted nearly 5 million U.S. households would have VoIP by the end of 2006. Has this come to pass? Are the drawbacks the reason that VoIP is not more popular, considering that it is a basically a free phone service?

Week 7 Website Exercise

Cantwell’s site is very simple, clean, and easy to navigate. The bar and logo at the top give it a commercial feel, almost more like a company site than a candidate’s. Conversely, McGavick’s site is very election oriented. There is more going on and the fact that he is running for senate in 2006 is prominently displayed in multiple places. Navigation was slightly more difficult since links were at the upper and lower extremities of the page. There also seemed to be much more position and press information immediately available.

Cantwell’s site makes the opportunity to donate very obvious, changing the font color from white to yellow in the sidebar. She also provides opportunities to sign up for newsletters, volunteer, petitions about current events to the senate, RSVP for events, sending comments and questions, and to tell friends about the site, all of which can be found easily on the main page. McGavick also makes it easy to sign up for the newsletter and give donations, putting his links directly in the center of the page, as well as on the pages you can navigate to. He also provides links to blogs, an event calendar, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and how to ask him to attend an event.

In terms of issues, Cantwell’s site made it somewhat difficult to learn about her position. As far as the environment goes, she makes her eco-friendly position known through the petition she advertises, but otherwise mentions it only briefly half way through her profile and in fairly abstract terms. McGavick, on the other hand, provides a clear link to issues and his position on them. When talking about the environment, his site lists a few of his stances in bullet point form, as well as a quote, and a link to streaming video of a speech on the issue.

From the sites, I tended to trust McGavick more. He seemed to provide more information, whereas Cantwell’s site felt overly staged, almost to the point of being fake. McGavick also seemed like he wasn’t afraid of the public’s reaction to him or what people thought about his comments since he provided links to his speeches, as well as news stories analyzing them, and a forum for discussion. While Cantwell’s site attempted to give her a well put together aura, it seems to also be masking whatever flaws she might have, making it more suspicious.

Week 8 Readings

The “Wireless Revolution and Universal Access” article was interesting because it addressed the issue of the “digital divide” which I have become more familiar with as it is closely tied to my project topic (the interpersonal divide). The digital divide is, in part, about the disconnect between nations and individuals who have access and those who do not. In today’s society, which is highly dependent on technology, the digital divide is seen to reinforce the split between people and nations that have access to the technology and those who do not in a social, global, and democratic way. Like the article, the “digital divide” issue stresses the importance of getting access to those people and nations that do not yet have it.

Cyberspace is considered public; there aren’t laws or blockages that prevent people from accessing it. Ironically, there is and inherent technological access impediment. You must have certain technologies in order to get to this public space. Not only that, but the infrastructure to bring the public space to the individual needs to be in place. There are physical restrictions to access which are discussed in this article. I think the article is very useful because it provides practical solutions to access problems in various areas.

Discussion Questions:

Is there high enough demand in areas that are currently without access for internet availability to be profitable? If so, why have small businesses not jumped on this opportunity?

Are hand-held devices for access a reasonable solution to the cost of buying whole computers? Is there a disadvantage to using a hand-held device? For instance, would having a hand-held device bring people into the technological sphere, but be seen to keep them from getting all that they could from the internet?

Should it be the responsibility of government to ensure access to everyone? If so, should access be available solely in terms of Wi-Fi etc. (potential access is available), or should government be required to provide the hardware devices for access as well?

Extra Credit: The Race of the Web Sites 2004

I thought this article about the 2004 presidential candidates’ websites was very interesting. The side-by-side comparison was a great way of showing how little differences can be perceived as flaws. One thing I found myself wondering, however, was whether or not these small navigation “flaws” would really affect the average site-goer’s feelings about the candidate or their experience with the website. In a way I can see how navigation difficulties may lead to more frustration, but would that really impact the way a person voted or thought about a candidate? It also seemed like some of the things the author found wrong with the websites were very small, and that they gave viewers very little credit in terms of their ability to find their way around the site. Also, I am not sure of the political orientation of the author, but in the past I think I heard that the Bush website was better organized or more effective than Kerry’s. In this article, however, the author is much more critical of the Bush website, leading the reader to believe that it is extremely flawed.

Week 7 Readings

In the “Organization Man” article by Noam Scheiber, I was surprised to learn about the huge impact of the internet and Meetup.com on the Dean campaign. I knew that the internet has been seen to bring in a substantial amount of money for political campaigns, but I didn’t realize they’d had that much of an impact on campaign finances. In a way, the impact of the internet on political campaigns as described in this article is so simple and effective that it seems like it should have been thought of sooner. Getting people to sign up for a group makes them feel partly responsible for that group’s wellbeing, strengthening their bond to it while simultaneously encouraging them to spread its praises. This article talks about how even with the huge internet support base, there are still not going to be enough voters to win a general election. This seems like a moot point, however, since every bit of support, especially at that magnitude, counts.

I’m not sure if I agree with the assertion of the authors of the journal: “The Role of the Internet in National and Local News Media Use” where they predict that the internet will gradually become more of a substitute for traditional newspapers and magazines. This prediction seems to echo the ones made when computers first came around, that computers would eventually eliminate the use of print and paper. I think that despite the convenience offered by online news sources, people will still like to have the printed, tangible version available. It also seems like this study may be flawed in the way that it measured people’s amounts of political knowledge. For instance, people may have more in-depth and detailed knowledge of political goings-on if they use the internet to supplement their traditional newspapers and magazines, but with the questions they used in the study, this may not have been reflected.

Discussion Questions:

Have you ever joined a group (political, activist, etc.), and did that strengthen your commitment to its cause, weaken it, or have no affect? Do you think that joining a political campaign online would have this same effect and why?

Do you think internet support for a candidate really increases the number of voters or support that a candidate receives, or are the people who already supporters simply making their presence known online?

How would a finding that people learn more about politics from internet news sources than print ones change campaign methods of candidates? Seeing as many of the sources people read online are ones that others read in print (for example, the New York Times), do you think s finding like this would even have an impact?

Blog In-Class Exercise

CNN.com does have RSS feeds. There are seventeen of them, discussing news, politics, law, science, health, travel, entertainment, etc. The site sponsors blogs by Anderson Coopers (one of their journalists) and one called New You Buddy Blog about health and fitness. PBS.org also has numerous RS feeds, mainly about news, current events, science and technology. There are no sponsored blogs available at the site. Overall, this indicates to me that mainstream news is being affected directly by RSS feeds. People want their news as quickly as possible, so this feature is probably important in maintaining that instantaneous quality. Blogs, on the other hand, may be more of an indirect effect. Since blogs are mainly opinion, blogging may not be as important to mainstream news which attempts to be impartial. The blogs I did find were not about politics or other controversial topics or were written by someone within the company. I still believe that blogging has an affect on news, but through a more indirect route.



ON Technorati.com, searching for “Steven Colbert” returned 1,293 results. When sorted by “truthiness” or “funny stuff,” however, no results appeared. Changing the authority slider revealed that as the amount of “authority” increased, the results decreased and vice versa.

Searching the "tags" link at the top of the page searches for all the words in a search as one topic. To find relative information in terms of tags, it is necessary to search each keyword seperated by a comma, or a commonly used grouping of words. "blog finder" allows you to search for one keyword, then gives you a list of blogs along with related topics you can search as well. I found three blogs which related to my topic: "From virtual to local community," "Where the people are," and "Neighbornodes:The Boulevards of the World Wide Web."

Back on the main search tab, www.blogcritics.org came up with 113,852 results. This tells me that blogcrittics.org is an important or fairly popular site and topic. My first site had no results, the second had 93,683, and the third had no results. This tells me that my sites have little popularity and possibly little credibility. I believe that the second site may have been a fluke, since "where the people are" references are not necessarily references to this site.

From google.com, I found there to be about 23,900 links to blogcritics.org. There are more links from the main search page of technorati.com than from google.com. This could be due to the fact that the sites with references or mentions of blogcritics.org do not necessarily have links from them to the blogcritics.org site.

Blogrolls help you find other sources on similar topics because it is basically a list of sites the author found interesting or relative to what they discuss in their blog. They may also be referenced in the blog, meaning their topic is similar or at least relative to the blog you are reading from.

Week 6 Readings

In the first chapter of Dan Gillmore’s We the Media, I am not sure that I agree with the assertion that media today still follows the motto “if it bleeds, it leads,” (p.5). Although this may be true to some extent, I think that it has been brought to the attention of modern reporters, who are now reporting positive events and happenings as well. One thing I hadn’t considered is journalists using internet publications to correct or supplement their articles with information. This makes sense since people online may have a better idea of what is going on in a particular situation than journalists due to proximity. It also seems like it may be a liability, however, since people’s comments online are not necessarily a credible source. This article leads me to believe that blogging technology, in a way, can act as a more accurate news source. It allows discussion and diversified viewpoints, which reduces the bias that may be inherent in other forms of media, specifically those produced by a single journalist.

One thing I found interesting about the article “Will NPR's podcasts birth a new business model for public radio?” by Mark Glaser was how he mentions that podcasts demand a new type of methodology to creating media. He says that with podcasts, brevity is very important. I thought this was interesting because it seems like many of the news stories on television are already short, and having a more condensed report would actually take away from the appeal of the podcast. Not being a participant in podcasting myself, however, I don’t have any experience in the matter. I have noticed increasing demands for podcasting leading to changes in our local news stations as well. King 5 news, for instance, has started a site called “Blogger KING” where watchers/listeners can respond to news online. They have also started vehemently promoting their podcast which is currently available online.

Discussion Questions:

Are web-logs and other audience participatory media outlets for “a bunch of people who are turned off by the mainstream media,” or are they places for discussing current events? Why, and what is the difference?

Do you think that blogging has increased public awareness of current events? Has it increased the interest in the news, and how?

Do you think that NPR’s condensed versions of their reports that are created from podcasts actually detract from the podcast itself? Would they be better with the full version?

Extra Credit: Social Software and the Politics of Groups

I liked the explanation of how the internet allows us to control time (to some extent) in “Social Software and the Politics of Groups.” I think the examples of trying to coordinate conference calls or organize a large group of friends more clearly articulated this point than any other explanations I have heard in the past. The list of three safeguards against offensive or irrelevant material (moderation, meta-moderation, and karma) was also one that was interesting to me because I can see the safeguards’ application in other programs. E-Bay, for instance, has a system where you can rank the credibility of other users (karma). In a way, this article is gloomy. It articulates the idealistic version of networked groups: “they could be of any size; anyone should be able to join them; and the freedom of the individual is more important than the goals of the community,” and describes how those ideals were brought down when more people got a hold of it. It is sad that the idealistic vision for the internet couldn’t be achieved because of the worse sides of human nature and the power of anonymity.

Week 5 Readings

“Markets are Conversations,” although somewhat overly-full of flowery language, provided an interesting analysis of the transformation of markets from social, conversational places to more one-sided, deceptive ones. The thing that I found strange was how the author makes mass production and industry out to be evil; but is this really the case? The author says that businesses are broadcasting messages that people don’t want to hear. This may be true in some cases, but in each case there is probably someone that is listening for their message. For example, one of my friends has had a difficult time sleeping for longer than four hours, but didn’t want to take sleeping pills since they can be addictive. Then he heard an advertisement for Tylenol PM that basically said it was for people that can’t sleep the whole night and are afraid of sleeping pills. That advertisement might not have been noticed by most people, but for him it was exactly what he had been looking for.

I thought the assertion that individual minds matter a lot in a networked age in “The Second Superpower Rears its Beautiful Head” was interesting. I would agree that individuals can launch movements that counter those of the government, but in terms of results and change, how effective are those movements? The example I was considering is gay rights. There are thousands, maybe millions of people who support it, but that hasn’t made a difference with the government. Although there are many supporters of the movement, there are apparently more who are against it. So has the individuals’ contribution really made a difference? The article somewhat explains this, saying that the “second superpower [the individuals, united] is not currently able to match the first [the United States government].” Despite the article’s assertion that the second superpower is closer to being able to match the power of the first than we may think, I still have a hard time following this argument.

I understand the idea in “The GNU Manifesto,” but I also think it is impractical in the long run. Mot being a programmer myself, I may just not understand the free software concept, but I think that not having any compensation, monetary or otherwise, would be extremely detrimental to programming as a field of expertise. True, some people like programming as a hobby, but I think that the number of people learning programming would die down over time if there was no career or future in it. It seems like over time, there would be fewer programmers, and that would slow down innovation. Instead of being slowed down by competition and secrecy, programming would be slowed down by the lack of people willing to devote time to learning and depending on it I do like the idea of the “post-scarcity world where no one would have to work very hard just to make a living,” but I’m pessimistic as to its feasibility.

I think the last article really brings home the reason communication scholars study the open source software movement. This movement is something that would require mass cooperation; something that is finally becoming possible through mass media. Particularly the internet. This is something that is interesting in the field of communications because it shows how mediated communication can bring many people together to make a real change in society. This is a situation where a small movement would gain momentum to make an important shift in society.

Discussion Questions:

Do you think businesses would be more popular or reputable if they were more honest or kept the public openly updated one their status (in terms of management, business deals, etc.)?

If the government does something illegal or unconstitutional, but the majority still agrees with its decision, is it right? What can a minority do to keep the government in check?

Would people (especially children) want to learn a skill like programming if it wasn’t as lucrative as it is now? Do you think the “post-scarcity world” could happen, and how?