Theo

Final Reflection

2006-05-26T11:14:00.000-07:00

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

A great many of the things we've talked about this quarter were already on my radar. This class however taught me a new appreciation for the technologies we use to communicate. It has made me realize that the fun little programs and gadgets I use and adore have significant and profound implications for communication scholars and the world as a whole.

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

I would have liked to study more about human-computer interaction. Specifically I'm interested in how emerging technologies will change the ways in which man and machine interface. As technology advances computers will continue to integrate themselves into our everyday lives in increasingly invisible ways.

What topic was the least interesting to you? Why?

I've found most things in this course interesting, so singling one out as the least interesting is a touch difficult. If I had to I'd say the week I found the least interesting was the one in which we studied online policitics. Admittedly the impact of the internet on politics has significant consequences for the nation and the world.

In Class Assignment 5-11-2006

2006-05-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

Impressions
- Cantwell: Her site is very pleasant to the eye. The site feels almost laid back for the lack of a better term. Having Clinton's picture on the front page automatically adds credibility for Democrats.
I find it interesting that she has a sponsorship link for the Roadless Area Conservation Act on the front page, encouraging viewers to participate by adding their signature. This gives voters an immediate call for interaction. Along those same lines there are links for volunteers, petitions and contributions right on the main navigation bar which further encouraging participation.
At first glance at the "About Maria" page I found information on her history with a range of topics I was interested in, but I couldn't seem to find her stance on gay rights. While the page is sufficient to give a general feel her her position on many topics, it would have been more useful to find some sort of bullet point list on stances in addition to the simple overview of the candidate.

- McGavick: At first glance, his site is a bit more garish and in your face then Cantwell's. It for some reason comes off to me as a paysite, one in which you have to pay to access whatever the site in question provides. This of course isn't true, but something about the layout says it.
The news on the front page is nice in comparison with Cantwell's site where such information wasn't immediately available. I dislike who there are three pictures of him on the very front page however, two of which link to what appears to be the same video file.
I still can't find a place where he talks about his stance on gay rights but he provides a bullet point list of stances unlike Cantwell which is nice. The problem I find with his list and his whole site in general is that while he provides a good deal more information, its presented in an abrasive manner. The thing that bothers me the most is the repeated use of large red exclamation points throughout the site and generally the large use of red everywhere.

Reading Reflections 5-8-2006

2006-05-08T16:02:00.000-07:00

As premised by the Schreiber reading, the Internet is undeniably a new and powerful tool for politicians or more accurately political campaigns with the savvy to make the most of it. As demonstrated by Joe Trippi, the internet has until recently been an untapped resource. Handled proficiently as Trippi demonstrated, the Internet can be a literal goldmine and a tool to reach voters faster and more cost effectively then ever before. In order to make the most of the net however politicians must be aware of the cultural rules of cyberspace. The net, like any culture has contextual rules that must be observed if one is to avoid negative consequences. This was demonstrated by the backlash from the blogosphere against supposed "blogs" kept by politicians, which read more like press releases then personal musings.

The Journal of Online Behavior article shows that while the Internet is powerful, it still isn't the number 1 method of attaining political news, rather it serves as a supplemental resource for many at this point in time. This however as the article suggests could likely change in the near future. The internet due to the sometimes synchronous nature of the medium is an ideal tool for staying informed in real time. Moreover the internet tends to catch important stories that fall between the cracks regardless of whether or not politicians want these stories to get the press they deserve. This was demonstrated by Steven Colbert's comedy routine at the White House Press Dinner.

One possible way in which the power of the internet as a political tool could grow is if we ever reached the point where voting could be conducted entirely online. The ability to cast votes without having to physically leave your desk, or mail in a ballot would in my opinion cause a huge increase in voter turnout, especially given the large amounts of youths that typically don't vote but have access to the internet.

Discussion Questions
1: Do you vote currently? If you don't would being able to vote from a computer at home persaude you into voting? If you do, would you be interested in voting from home in the future?

2: Do you see the Internet's tendency to make news out of stories that sometimes purposely get dropped between the cracks as a positive or negative thing?

3: With the increasing focus on using the internet to reach voters, do you see any potential for problems with certain groups and inviduals without access to the internet missing out?

In-Class Exercise 5-4-2006

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

1: Identifying Media Support for Blogging, RSS Technology.

I'm starting with PBS.org

From my cursory glance PBS.org has 21 RSS feeds covering everything from Current Events and Tech to Religion and more Controversial Topics. There are also feeds for interviews done nightly by Tavis Smiley seperated into different feeds depending on the profession/noteriety of the person interviewed. I don't see any external feeds sponsored, just PBS.org feeds.

Next I tried the SeattleTimes.com

They have at first glance 47 RSS feeds. The topics cover pretty much everything the Seattle Times itself would cover. Its divided up into broad topics such as Entertainment and Health to more specific topics such as the Mariners and the Seahawks. They also have RSS feeds for a couple of their collumnists and a very broad feed for the entire site. Again I don't see any sponsored feeds, just ones that are directly from the Seattle Times.

The fact that these mainstream sites have RSS feeds shows that mainstream media is becoming aware of new technology trends. Moreover it shows that they're willing to try these new technologies in an effort to keep up with the growing technology prowess and desires of their readership.

2. Exploring the Social Networks Enabled By RSS Technology.

After searcing for "Steven Colbert" I found 1219 results. Searching simply Steven Colbert without the quotations produced 1617 results so I'd assume that the quotations forces the engine to search for the whole phrase rather then just "Steven" or "Colbert" Sorting by Truthiness or Funny Stuff both produced no results. Not sure if that was due to an error on my part.

Using the "authority" slider narrowed my results as I slowly dialed the authority level up. At the maximum setting I only had 155 results.

On the topic of my research on CMC relationships I did a search using the main search bar for "Online Relationships" which produced a great deal of results not really useful for my research. Searching by "tags" produced some mildly relevant posts on people's personal experiences and success stories with online dating. The blog finder link produced only a couple blogs but one of them is from a woman dealing with a long distance relationship. Her blog (690 Miles) is pretty up to date and it provides some useful thoughts on long distance relationships in general. While not directly on topic for my research it certainly brings up some interesting questions about situations where couples have to rely on CMC mediums.

Searching for www.blogcritics.org produced 113,401 results.

Class is ending at this point so I'll wrap it up here.

Trillian

2006-04-24T16:56:00.000-07:00

In response to last week's discussion about standardizing Instant Messenging in the same way E-mail is, I thought I'd point out a nice little application that kind of does that.

Trillian:
http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/

Trillian is a program that encompasses all the popular IM clients and standardizes their interfaces without sacrificing any of their functionality. How it basically works is, you can set up connections to all the IM clients you normally use (AIM, MSN, Yahoo, IRC, ICQ) and it will automatically sign you into them when you start up Trillian. It'll display all your contacts from each program in a unified contact list.

It doesn't matter whether or not they have Trillian themselves, on their end it will just seem like you're using whatever client they are. On your end messages from any of the clients supported will display through the standardized Trillian interface. You'll still be able to take advantage of the functionality of whatever client you're talking through, such as being able to leave messages for people offline if you're using ICQ or the video/audio functionality unique to certain IM clients. Moreover the Trillian interface is highly customizable, giving you the ability to do things such as reskin the interface, or change what the screenames of your contacts appear as. You can for example change someone with an AIM screename like "PaRtYgUrL669" to display as "Nancy".

I've only just started using it but I really recommend you folks check it out if you have time.

Reading Reflections 4-24-2006

2006-04-24T15:58:00.000-07:00

The open source software movement is worth studying for Communication scholars because it indirectly addresses the consequences of a post scarcity era of information. All three of the readings cover this in their own ways, the basic theme connecting the three is the toppling or challenging of traditional powerbases and hierarchies. Stallman's "GNU Manifesto" is particularly remarkable because it calls for the end of propriartary software, which challenges the fundamental distribution paradigm by which we currently get a great deal of our software today.

Just as the EPIC film showed us, we are in an era where people are becoming increasingly empowered to not just consume, but to modify and create. In recent years the release of a software application is often not the final step, but the first step in its evolution. Software is designed and redesigned, adopted and modified, built upon and stripped down to meet the needs and desires of the end user. The line between creater and user is becoming increasingly blurred as the distribution channel continues to grow more and more omnidirectional.

Discussion Questions:

1) Can you think of any software you use that is the result of modifications by someone other then the original creator?

2) Do you see any negative consequences of a post scarcity era?

3) Do you think free software is sensible? Or does it fly in the face of traditional rewards models?

Reading Reflections 4-17-2006

2006-04-17T13:24:00.000-07:00

Norman's "Being Analog" article brought up some points for me that I hadn't previously considered such as error tolerance being a virtue in some cases rather then a flaw. Moreover I hadn't ever considered the possibility that an reliance on accuracy is at times undesirable. Beyond that however, the juxtaposition of Man vs. Machine is a bit of a science fiction cliche at this point in time. Man and machine both have their strengths and their weaknesses but at the end of the day (at least in the 21st Century) the roles which men and machine play already suit those which they excel in. Man is the creative force, the designer, the operator while the machine is the instrument, the tool, the means. Through this symbiotic relationship (which I'd argue already exists) human fallibility and mechanical rigidity are rendered in the long term, moot. We do not rely on computers to do our creative thinking for us because at this point in time machines have no capability for creation and we do not rely on human minds to do every one the millions of equations and functions that are taking place while I write this very post.

That all said, I do agree with the overall point I drew from Norman's article, that technology must be more user friendly. I think however because of both the creative and economic advantage of creating more user friendly, human centered applications, we are already moving in the proper direction. For example when I created this blog, I essentially created a fully functioning website that a decade ago would have taken an in depth understanding of HTML coding to create. For the most part, this blog is tolerant of my errors, I could for example spell the word dahsboard wrong and there would be little consequence. Moreover I could have the program I'm writing on check my spelling to correct my fallibility. Now this isn't to say I could make a drastic mistake like clicking "Sign Out" instead of "Publish Post" but it does illustrate the point I'm trying to make. Applications are evolving in the direction of user friendliness. Blogger allows me to express my creativity without requiring any real technical expertise on my part while it at the same time compensates to some degree for my fallibility. I think this is at least part of what Norman was getting at in his writing.

Zuckerman and McLaughin's article in its lengthy coverage of how exactly an email gets from point A to point B illustrates the strengths of the mechanical reliance on accuracy. While an email program might not understand what you were trying to do if you click the wrong button, it certainly does a good job of getting your intended message from Accra to Ulaanbaatar. Asking more then that might be asking for just a little too much. That said I imagine that as technology and design progress, applications and machines will become increasingly tolerant of human error, and to respond to my above example many programs already ask for a confirmation if you try to close a window in which you are doing work without saving. This to me is an example of our progress in the direction of human centric design.

Discussion Questions:

1: Can you think of any other ways programs already try to take into account human error?

2: What do you think would be a further step in the direction of human centric application design?

3: If your calculator only gave you accurate results most of the time would you still rely on it?

Reading Reflections 4-10-2006

2006-04-10T15:47:00.000-07:00

Perhaps these articles have been rendered irrelevant by recent advances such as Google. Or perhaps I’m a touch more technologically savvy then what they portray as the average user in their writings. I can say without much of a stretch however that I’ve very rarely had trouble finding the information I’ve needed, when I needed it. While I would agree that a great deal of the information available to us these days is trivial, sensational and in many cases false, I would also say that finding good information is nowhere near as treacherous or convoluted as the articles would suggest. All it takes is a touch of skepticism and practice.

I couldn’t find an exact date on these articles but looking at their references and the technology used as examples I would guess they come from the mid 90’s to no later then 2000. The warnings within them however strike me as the typical sky is falling type of concerns that occur whenever any new technology is adopted. Technology invariably evolves towards greater accessibility and functionality, and as the information load increases so to will the capabilities of technology to handle it. EPIC probably lands somewhere close to the mark as far as information sorting technology goes in the next decade. Whether or not that actually leads to a generation of armchair intellectuals is anyone’s guess.

For me the increasing amount of information at our disposal is a vital and necessary part of defining 21st Century culture, and of defining who we are as individuals. Whether it be for work, class or leisure I find that the breadth and depth of news and data I have access to be deeply enriching and highly useful. While in the 17th Century it might have been acceptable to know less in your lifetime about the world then one edition of the New York Times, in the 21st Century given the speed and interconnectedness of life in the modern day, we need the information we have. If anything the only real concern I have with the amount of information we have, is that when we don’t get it, there is a very tangible vacuum.

3 Discussion Questions

1: Do you find yourself having trouble with “clutter” and frivolous information when doing research?

2: Do you think you could function without regular access to the internet?

3: Is EPIC possible? Is it necessary given increasing rapidity of news?

Oops! Discussion Questions 4-4-2006

2006-04-04T11:26:00.000-07:00

1) The readings traced the Internet all the way back to railroads, but could the concepts that eventually resulted in the Internet be traced back further?

2) The reading spot of convergences in technologies, and looking at much of our technology today we can see the result of convergences. Can you think of any other convergences?

3) Is there ever an endpoint for technology? Or will there never be such a thing as "fast enough"?

Reading Reflections 4-3-2006

2006-04-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

Two “Ah Ha’s!” from the reading.

Ah ha! The internet as we know it today can be traced in its development back to the creation of railroads and the increasing need for faster communications to keep up with the growing speed of the world. In turn telegraph, telephone, radio, television and finally computer technologies developed through a long and arduous process of technological convergences at the very last resulting in a rudimentary form of the internet that would grow in popularity and approachability until it became what it is today.

Ah ha! One need only let their imagination run away to find out what the future will be like, as evidenced by Vannevar Bush’s “As We May Think”. In 1945 his idea for the “memex” would sound like a simple flight of fancy, yet in 2006 Bush’s article exhibits a great deal of prescience.

On that note, the “memex” while described in the somewhat archaic terms and technologies of his day does eerily resemble some of the functions if not the technologies behind modern computers and the Internet. While the “memex” doesn’t cover nearly all of the possibilities of the Internet, such as the possibility for media, communication and commerce, it certainly describes something recognizably close to the real thing.

As shown by the readings, to predict the evolution of technology, one should first look to the possibilities for convergences of technologies. To guess what the internet will look like in 2045 I would first look at the growing trends of today. I would look first at the overwhelming success of cell phones and the rapidly growing popularity of instant messaging programs as evidence that people have an incredibly strong desire to stay in touch with each other. I would then look the integration of internet news technologies into cell phones and other portable mediums, the increasing number of internet access points in public areas, and the increasing trend in miniaturization as evidence that people want instant and convenient access to information and to the world at large wherever they go. Lastly I would look at the technologies that are currently being developed to integrate certain aspects of computer technology into human beings, for example the sub-dermal chips that are being implanted into people containing important medical history in order to assist Doctors in avoiding mistakes.

When these three technologies converge I see the possibility of incorporating cellular technologies directly into humans giving them access to vast information and more importantly communication networks traditionally only available when working from a computer. This would continue down the road opened by cell phone technology by allowing users the means to communicate with each other at any time without any need for an intermediary device. One need only look at the increasing speed of human communication to see why this is the natural destination of wireless communication, from word of mouth, to mail, to telegraph, to telephone, to cell phone our methods of communicating with one another have become increasingly quick, convenient and portable. In 2045 I see a truly global village, where all users are connected to each other and where a loved one physically thousands of miles away can share a private mental space with you more close and intimate then has ever been possible in the span of human existence.

First Day

2006-03-28T12:45:00.000-08:00

First day of COM 300 today, interesting class albeit somewhat strange in its format. I was expecting a more traditional style (ie: lecture, notes, tests) ect. I'll probably stick with it, the instructor seems very enthusiastic which is refreshing.

That all said my classes this quarter are quite writing intensive, and I have a long trip planned for the end of May so hopefully that combined with my usual spring quarter doldrums don't hammer my GPA too hard.