RESPONSE: The Tech of Obamamania (John)

http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2008/02/potomac_primaries

John is definitely right that we need to embrace modern technology when relating to politics. The use of online networking and peer-to-peer online endorsements have obviously helped out Senator Obama tremendously. $500,000 raised by MoveOn.org, that’s incredible. I believe viral marketing is a very powerful tool as well, and it has definitely aided Obama. All of this employment of modern technology will encourage more people to vote too. The use of modern technology will definitely be brought into play throughout the future.

RESPONSE: Google’s Answer to Wikipedia (Jenn)

http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/20065/

I agree with her that it’s interesting to see Google attempting to take over another party of the internet. I also agree that it isn’t going to work. First off, the author situation isn’t going to work out the way they planned. Wikipedia is so glorious because you can constantly get linked to more and more stuff. Authors are going to be competing and usually will only link their own content. Another, more important reason Knol isn’t going to fly is simply Wikipedia already has a strong hold. Companies do this all the time, they use their big name to come in and try to mimic another successful company. In all honesty, to people use Google docs over Microsoft word? No.

GumGum

http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/02/gumgum-wants-to.html

Basically if someone uploads a photograph or movie to the web, it is insanely hard to track how many times it was viewed and making sure the person gets paid. The idea of this site is basically you upload content to GumGum. Then publishers will embed a flash based code which authenticates the number of times it has been viewed. It will then determine the licensing fee which will be given to the owner. This has been attempted before with different strategies. All in all this is very complicated to pull off. Personally I don’t see this working. Basically they are asking for publishers to accustom to their new ways. That is going to be hard to pull off.

HD-DVD is dead

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/02/hd-dvd-death-ma.html

When high-def movies were introduced to the home consumers had to choose between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Certain production companies had allegiances to certain companies, etc etc. You needed a certain player in your home to play each one. If you had a HD-DVD player and a movie produced by a production company aligned with Blu-Ray, you pretty much got railed. But in the past few months more and more left HD-DVD and began working with Blu-Ray. This reached it’s peak when Toshiba recently announced it will discontinue it’s production. Skeptics now believe even though HD-DVD is no longer a competitor, Blu-Ray needs to face the popularity of downloading. This is pretty interesting not because HD-DVD is dead, but they admit not only piracy is a competitor but television applications like on-demand. Either way home video isn’t what it use to be, but it certainly isn’t going to die. People enjoy have a physical object to keep as a collectable, but I won’t deny sales will diminish.

Nanochip

http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/20192/

So now a days flash memory is growing. It is growing so much that laptops are beginning to replace traditional hard drives with them. This replacement isn’t just limited to laptops either, larger memory is also bringing better mp3 players. Regardless, perhaps the next step in memory storage is the Nanochip. The two major advantages it has over flash is the amount it can store and it’s price. Stefan Lai, a scientific advisor to the Nanochip stated, “Eventually, the devices could store terabytes' worth of data, he says. That's likely out of the reach of flash-type memory.” Of course there is a lot of work left to get this on the market. But the Nanochip is just a link to smaller but larger memory in which the transportation of data becomes easier and easier.

Mobile Flash

http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20198/

For the longest time, cell phones offered a watered down version of the internet. It was never too popular due to it’s difficulty and compatibility. The CEO of Opera Software even stated that these versions of the web, “have been widely viewed as flops.” Finally a great step forward has been taken. Opera Mobile 9.5 has integrated the use of flash. This is great news not only for certain online animations but a lot of streaming video is embedded into flash now. Now if only multiple phone companies would start using Opera Mobile or if other mobile web companies pulled the flash accomplishment off.

Service: Digg

Digg.com is a website in which its users can share anything they find on the web. When someone submits something they find interesting, other users can check it out and then “digg” the content. It is unique because there are no editors deciding what’s what. The community decides what is important.

What activities support this service?
Entertainment and education mostly. People will visit the site to read up on important news, watch videos, or learn something new.

What software is used to engage this service?
All you need to use Digg is a web browser. But any of the content the site may link to could require other software. For example a video may be shared, in which you would need some sort of video player or flash player.

What objects are created by this service?
The website itself is full of images and links. The content shared includes web pages, images, videos, podcasts, sound, blogs, and so much more.

What professionals developed and maintain the services?
Programmers, designers, graphic artists, and most importantly the users. They are the backbone behind Digg.

What is this history behind this service?
The site was launched by Kevin Rose in December of 2004. The site continues to grow popularity and has a strong hand in politics.

Response to Internet Gains in Politics

So the article states that 42% of 18 to 29 year olds learn about campaigns via the internet. the article also reveals, “Far fewer Americans now say they regularly learn about the campaign from local TV news.” The potential social impact that this may cause is nothing to worry about. In fact I believe that it is much better that citizens begin to use the internet as their primary medium for connecting with politics. The problem with these major networks is that they are all slanted tremoundsly. This isn’t news to anyone that the major networks have certain agendas. Now this isn’t to say that the internet isn’t going to have slanted views. But there is one major difference, the internet has so many different views, sources, and voices on every political matter. This enables you to make your own decision while reading through plenty of different thoughts. Not only do you get a mass of different opinions but it isn’t just major companies, they can be every day people typing their beliefs. Versus the few options you have watching network television where you get one view slammed into your ears. I think that while more and more people move to the internet for news, especially on political campaigns, these people will be able to make decisions on their own.

Web Site Reviews

Obama
http://www.barackobama.com/

The splash page for his site brings up a picture of him with his family. It shows the Obama family as very relaxed and happy. This picture is showing that family is very important to him, which is a target towards people with deep family beliefs. Below the picture you are given the option to “Join The Movement” by entering your email and zip code. This is a simple way of supporting the campaign, by getting updates and information on his it. This could also be used maliciously by someone supporting another campaign by analyzing his strategies.

The main page of the site is full of headlines of victories and other important Obama messages. Once again an email/zip code sign up is in the top right corner. Right above that is the “En Espanol” link, which obviously translates the site into Spanish. This is so Spanish speaking citizens can be targeted to become a supporter. A main headline scroller is centered in which these titles appear, “Senator Kennedy Endorses Barack,” and “Caroline Kennedy Endorses Barack.” These are shown to help influence Kennedy supporters to support Obama. There is a table titled, “Make A Difference” under which gives you options of ways to support his campaign

I could go through every pixel of this site and explain its significance to his campaign. The overall design of the site is pretty good. The site is really easy to navigate and it really showcases his success in the campaign. As well it is easy to locate what he stands for. In addition it makes it very easy to become part of his campaign and show your support.

McCain
http://www.johnmccain.com/

The first headline you see is titled, “Courageous Service” which links to a video of when McCain served. This video is targeted to those serving our country trying to show he was one of them. Another table has scrolling recommendations from politics. This is targeted towards anyone who may support any of those politics. Bottom left of the site is a poll, “By how much would the Democrats’ budget resolution raise America’s tax bill?” This is blatantly there to bring in the hardcore republicans.

McCain’s website has various ways to get you to show support. There are links everywhere saying, “Contribute,” “Join,” and “Donate.” Also there is a link leading to a page to make phone calls for McCain. If you click the “Get Involved” link on the menu bar you are giving a heap of options in ways to support him.

As I said about in the Obama review, I could explain every little bit of this site and how it serves a purpose to get you as a supporter. The site’s not bad. It is really littered with donation links though.

Internet History Exhibit

Looking at the 1982 section of the exhibit it has a picture of a computer game named Snipes. Snipes was this action game that people could play together over a network. I found it pretty interesting that there was actually a playable network game that far back. Not sure if it was the first game to be played over a network though. Not only did this game get released but I guess this when TCP/IP became the standard. Since IBM came out with the PC in 1981, other versions of the PC were popping up in 1982. This surge from everything leading up to this year resulted in the computer being Time magazine’s “Man of the Year.”

Teen and Social Media

Not a very shocking article in my opinion. The internet is a major element in the world now. Why wouldn’t future generations use it a lot? As I said in my last post, in a couple decades or so, the internet is going to be used by so many more people compared to today’s numbers. Things change, the way society lives will never stay the same, I think that is blatantly obvious. If human beings didn’t change we would be living in caves still refusing fire because it’s different.

The worry that people don’t get out in the world and live life without constant connection isn’t something to stress. Sure I won’t sit here and deny that there are some negative effects to excessive internet use. In all reality too much of anything is bad for you though. Of course there are terrible people that utilize the web, but there are terrible people out in the world too. Simple knowledge about being safe can be taught to kids by parents to help prevent stuff like this. The kids and people who get scammed or hurt by those who cloak themselves in the web are usually unknowledgeable about being safe and not just web safe. Too much good comes from the internet, it inspires people to do things they would have never even heard of or seen before. I could go on for pages about how the pros heavily outweigh the cons.

All this article talks about are percentages of this teens who use the internet for social and content creation and how it’s growing. My feeling is people who have grown up without the internet view this as uneasy news. 28% of the teen population are “super-communicators.” I believe that communication is extremely important in the expansion of someone’s mind, especially younger people.

Internet Activities

I definitely exceed the “average” American with the amount of activities based on the web. When I made my chart though I went about checking off things I’ve done before but not necessarily all the time. For example, “pay access to download digital content online” isn’t something I do all the time, or really ever often at all. Some others were checked for different reasons. Like religious/spiritual info, I’m not very religious but I still find it interesting to read up on other people’s beliefs. I firmly believe that the number of activities done online will increase dramatically over time. Not only because of ease, but because more every day things are now being infused into the internet. As of now the population is still full of people who grew up without the internet, but future generations will thrive on the web.

My chart:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ar?id=o14834477974712836704.4072772128326113857.03170324521739271385.4637991230056247144&hl=en&action=1&tile=0&rpert=20&tfe=bx_43&srow=0&erow=71&fprt=false&scol=0&ecol=2

Internet Typology Quiz

So I took the quiz and the results described me as an Omnivore. Basically an Omnivore is someone whose life is greatly entwined with internet and technology. I agree with this assessment very much. A lot of what I do has some aspect relying on the web or some form of technology.

The internet is such a massive source of information. Someone can learn absolutely anything when knowing how to search for it, and how to filter out all the bogus junk. I’ve taught myself so much by researching online, it’s incredible. Sometimes I wonder how differently things would be if I didn’t have the internet to study things.

The internet is such an important tool into the expansion of ideas. It gives such simple people unparallel freedoms to express thoughts. This is only fueled by the instant communication that the internet offers. I am given the ability to share my ideas, thoughts, and creations. While at the same time I can learn about others’ ideas and thoughts. I could go on and on about the benefits that the internet gives.