Unlearning...

Epilogue: What have you had to “unlearn” (i.e. that only phones are for having conversations) in the past 10 years due to technological change?

I think that the biggest example out there is that only phones are for having conversations. This idea has been completely 'unlearned' in almost anyones mind. Today, there are so many different ways of communicating with people that phones sometimes are on the bottom of the list. Twitter, Facebook, Instant Messaging, Text Messaging and even video chatting allow people to connect with one another almost anywhere and at the touch of a button. Along with this is the way that news is delivered. Instead of watching TV for the 5 o'clock news, people can quickly log online and search for any news that they want.

Another thing that I have had to 'unlearn' is using technology during school. In middle school, we all learned the dewey decimal system. Although I never fully grasped the system anyways, it really is unnecessary to know anymore. By looking on the computer you can find almost any resource you need.

Consumer Review Sites...

Many online merchants today, such as eBay and Amazon, use rating systems empowered by its customers. Is this adequate for determining which products to buy, or which users to trust? Cite examples from these two merchants that support your opinion (whether it is good enough, or inadequate).

I think that the rating systems that are empowered by customers are great sources of information for consumers who are looking to purchase a product. For consumers to read a product review, they can figure out why or why not the product is a good selection and if someone had a really good or really bad experience with the product. Consumers really are the best judges of the products because they are the ones that take the product into their home setting and test it there. Although, I would be hesitant to buy a product with only 1 or 2 reviews.

Pool Speakers - I was looking to buy these over the summer and didn't because they all got very poor reviews. This specific one only has one review but after looking at a couple of different versions, I got the feeling that these speakers were not worth the money.

UGGS - Just by searching for UGGS on ebay, you can see that they are a very popular product because of the abundance of them!

Wise Crowds

James Surowiecki’s book mentioned in this chapter outlines four elements to create a so-called “wise crowd,” one that can make decisions better than experts. These include “diversity of opinion” and “independence.” Since social groups online seem to form crowds of many like-minded people, what caution would you give someone using information they find from a socialized website or resource?

Information found from these "wise crowds" can be very useful because most likely the group is very knowledgeable about the subject. But, if everyone in the group has the same opinion about the subject, the information could become very biased. For example, in a group about universities across the US in which it allows people to post about their own school, for the most part, the posts are going to be from people who all go to or went to that school and had positive experiences. This information could become extremely biased because in reality, these students have not gone to another school to compare theirs too. The main idea is that there is a tying factor to everyone in these "wise crowds" and that tying factor probably doesn't allow for much room to express strong opinions which are contrary to those of the group. Even if a group member did have an opposing opinion, there is a slim chance of them bringing it up because of the fear that the group would look down on them.

Failure

Think back to your experiences in middle and high school. How many opportunities were you given to experiment and “fail” in solving a problem? How could a school work today where students were regularly offered such opportunities?

In middle school and high school, students are constantly assigned tasks in which we could experiment with and either succeed or fail at. These tasks mostly were ones with greater success rates than others, but it was up to the student to fail or to ‘not fail’. The problem with many of these tasks was that students have to succeed in order to succeed at school. There was no option for failure and even if the student started to slip, a teacher would be right there to help.

I think that if today, there were schools that regularly offered students these opportunities; the students would come out of school with a slightly greater education. It would be much more productive in a higher education but to prepare students for that, upper levels of high school could implement these programs too. It would teach students how to succeed for themselves and not just to get a good grade in a class. Student’s would probably take longer (more failures) before they adjusted to this system but if picked up upon, it could be very beneficial to students.

FOAF-Style Networks & the Professional Benefits

What professional benefits do you see by investing time into a FOAF-style network?

The six degrees of separation is something that always sparks an interest in both parties. The book describes this ‘six degrees of separation’ theory as not completely random. It begins with homophily (the grouping of like with like). In other words, the six degrees of separation is not a probability taken from the whole world. It is more distinct and selective. Where you work, live, travel to, attend school all are places where you are more likely to meet someone who knows one of your friends.

Friend of a Friend Networks can be extremely beneficial in social networking as long as professionally networking, only if implemented correctly. ‘’Tools that rely on FOAF networking work better when they augment human social choices rather than trying to replace them” (pg 220). One main benefit that can be gained by investing in FOAF-style network is if you know someone and their work ethics, work style, etc., their friends are more likely to have those characteristics as well. If you can trust someone, there is a higher chance that you can trust their friends as well.

Print Media & Online Media

While younger people today may not make distinctions between online and real-world friends according to Shirky, do you make distinctions between online vs. print media? Why or why not? Is there an advantage to one or the other?

The younger people today have grown up completely with the online world. Our age (current college students) were probably the intermediate generation in which our computer and internet knowledge didn't expand until middle or high-school, yet the younger people have started on the internet at a much younger age. Because of their age, they are probably much more susceptible to the dangers of the internet and the people on the internet.

Although today we are completely computer savvy, I don't think that our generation can make distinctions between print media and online because they all technically come from the same source. Almost any article you find in print media can be found online. The slight advantage of using online media is that it is much cheaper and much more easily accessible, which is why most print media outlets are leaning towards online media sources as well.

The Prisoner's Dilemma & Online Auctions..

Considering the Prisoner’s Dilemma in this chapter, provide your own insight on how sites such as eBay “work” for most participants of this popular online auction site. Do they really work? Or is there too much risk?

A big part of the prisoners dilemma is having knowledge of what the other person will act on. For example, if a buyer on EBay knows the history of the other bidder and/or seller, then they may act differently than if they didn't know anything about them. Although there is still a big risk of the unknown, sites like Ebay allow users to research each other before they make transactions. In the end, it comes down to trust. If you research a buyer or seller and can honestly trust them enough to make an online transaction, most people would do it.

An interesting tool which I think people use to make themselves look more trustful are returns. If someone is looking at something on an online site and is unsure about it, they are much more likely to purchase that item if the item can be returned. The return policy ensures trust among sellers and buyers.

Online auction sites always do have slight risk but I think as they become more popular, people are becoming more and more trustworthy of the sites themselves and the people on them.

Digital Media & Copyright Protection

What’s the value of a bit? It seems that going after folks who have traded songs or movies online is a huge expenditure of effort and money. Is DRM-protected content the way to go? If you don’t agree, propose another method for the distribution of digital multimedia so that content creators can still be compensated.

According to PCMag, a bit, or a binary digit is "The smallest element of computer storage. It is a single digit in a binary number (0 or 1). The bit is physically a transistor or capacitor in a memory cell, a magnetic domain on disk or tape, a reflective spot on optical media or a high or low voltage pulsing through a circuit." Because the data is so small, it has made it extremely easy for ordinary users to share data and even harder for legistlation to catch who is distributing that data.

This problem has affected the music industry greatly. DRM technologies try to control the use of digital media by prohibiting the access, copying or converting of media. I think that DRM is one way for people in the music and movie industries to protect themselves from consumers illegally downloading their data. Although there are still flaws in the technology, if it wasn't there, it would be much easier for people to take their music. Along with DRM technologies, a fine is a good way to prevent people from downloading illegally. It would be tough for the government to punish every single person that is doing it, but by fining $750 per song, people at least get the hint that the government is taking action.

DVD & Optical Media Protection..

The copy protection originally designed to protect content on DVDs has been overcome some years ago. What other methods can you find today that movie studios are using to protect their content on DVDs or other optical media?

In the 1970's, the Data Encryption Standard (DES) was adopted as a protection system of digital media. This system worked for the time being but soon became obsolete because new technology made hacking much more feasible. In 2002, a new system called Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) was adopted. DES and AES "have been subjected to both professional analysis and amateur experimentation, and no serious deficiencies have been discovered" . Today, there are many more systems that are being used to protect content on DVD's and other optical media. The following list comes from PC Tech Guide (link below) :

• Analogue Protection System (APS): A system developed by Macrovision to prevent copying onto consumer VCRs.
• Content Scrambling System (CSS): Method for protecting DVD-Video content via authentication and content scrambling developed primarily by Matsushita and Toshiba.
• Copy Guard Management System (CGMS): A "serial" copy generation management system (SCMS) designed control the amount of legal copies allowed.
• Digital Transmission Content Protection (DTCP): Specifies robust encryption of content passing between domestic digital devices via IEEE 1394, through the use of copy control information, authentication and key exchange, digital encryption and system renewability.
• Content Protection for Recordable Media (CPRM): Specification enabling protected exchange of audio/visual content recorded on various portabledata storage media types, including DVD, SD Memory Cards, CompactFlash and IBM Microdrive media.
• Content Protection for Pre-recorded Media (CPPM): Specification for robust protection of DVD-Audio content stored on DVD-ROM media. Specifies encrypted storage of content, protected storage of content management information, system renewability and methods to prevent playback of bit-by-bit copies.
• High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP): A specification developed by Intel Corporation that encrypts each pixel as it moves from a PC or set-top box to digital displays across the DVI interface. The HDCP specification provides a robust and transparent method for transmitting and receiving digital entertainment content to DVI-compliant digital displays.
• Verance Watermark: Selected for use as a worldwide industry standard in copy protected DVD Audio and for the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). The Verance watermarking technology is inaudible, robust and tamper resistant and capable of surviving translation from analogue to digital, compressed to decompressed and encrypted to unencrypted.

http://www.pctechguide.com/34DVD_Content_protection.htm

WEP vs. WPA

If your mother uses wifi at home to send you e-mail, and your home network is not protected by WEP or WPA, what reasons would you suggest to her for enabling one of these two protocols at home if the liability of reading those e-mails still exists once her message leaves your home, on it’s way to school?

I would definitely suggest that she enable one of these protocols at home for security purposes, even if the information that she is sending is not valuable. The purpose of these protocols is to protect our wireless from intruders, but it was clearly found that a WEP (Wired Equivelent Privacy) had flaws and making it very easy to evesdrop on the network.; making this the worse choice of the two. In using a WPA (WiFi Protected Access ), there seems to be much more security and privacy for our network. "The Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) standard, and subsequent WPA2 standard, overcome these flaws by adding stronger authentication and encryption and should be used whenever possible in preference to WEP." (Windows IT Pro). It is extremely important that all of our information at home is protected because we do almost anything online. From ordering items using credit card information to signing up for things that ask for our Social Security Numbers, we have to make sure that our network is protected.

(http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/50105/reaping-the-benefits-of-wpa-and-peap.html)

Google's text-based Ads

In general, do you pay attention to Google’s text-based ads? If you do follow them, tell us why. If you don’t, tell us why. Should Google keep these “sponsored ads”? Tell us why or why not.

When searching for things on Google, for the most part I don't pay attention to the text based ads. Unless they are ads that have words that really pop out, it is highly unlikely that I will look at them, nonetheless click on them. The main reason that I do not follow the text based sponsored ads is because they are, in fact, sponsored. Because these ads are sponsored, it says that the organic results in searching for that product category would not have included the advertised page. By this, I would say that I trust the organic search results more because the reason that those links appear at the top of your search results is because they are clicked on by other people. If other people trust the page and/or the product, and it becomes a popular search result on the 'organic results', there is more of a chance that I will find what im looking for in those pages as well.

Although I steer clear of the sponsored ads, I think it would be a bad move on Google's part to remove them. They do not distract customers from their website and Google is still making money off of the sponsored ad. Even if people do click on those ads, it will not hurt google at all (I believe that they are all pay-per-click ads? ). Some people see the ads on the side and top as annoying but I don't think that their feelings are strong enough to deter them from the Google search engine.

Should ALL Medical Information be Disclosed?

The official website for the drug Olanzapine probably didn’t mention the fact it might cause diabetic symptoms in patients. Another website obviously did. Commercials on TV now are required to mention possible side effects. Should drug companies be required to come clean about situations like the one with Eli Lilly’s Olanzapine in their commercial websites? Why or why not?

In this case, we again come upon the issue of once something is put on the web, it stays on the web. "The world is a different place from a time when the judge could have ordered the return of all copies of offending materials" says Abelson. In the Olanzapine case, the Zyprexa website did not inform its viewers of the possible side effects of the drug and it wasn't until the information leaked that people found out about it. Once the information was up, it was out there for everyone to see and the reputation of the drug was then diminished. I think that this is absurd and if someone is looking into taking a drug, they should know all about what it does, good or bad. The drug companies and the research companies are really the only people who know the complete list of symptoms that occur after taking the drug and if they do not disclose this information, who is going to? It could be fatal before any doctors or patients find out about it.

Ken Zeran & AOL - 1995

What might you have done differently if you were in the position of artist Ken Zeran, mentioned in this chapter?

After reading the Ken Zeran story, I felt bad for him and was enraged at the same time. It was absolutely absurd that AOLtook no action in helping him get rid of the post. He had contacted them multiple times and even though AOL knew thatthese posts were hurting his reputation and were false posts, AOL did nothing for a week. If I were Ken, the first thingI would have done differently was to change my phone number. Although his art business needed constant contact with him,I think his clients would have understood the situation. For him to leave his cell phone number, I think that it hurt his reputation even more because his story went public. By changing his phone number, he could have avoided the situationbefore it affected him even further. This story was interesting because this could happen to anyone at any time.People's information has become so public and once it gets on the internet, it is out there for anyone to see.

Apple's Choice of AAC Formatting

Research the differences between the MP3 and AAC audio formats, then explain why you think Apple chose the AAC format for music in their iTunes store.



For the general music listener, as long as the music is not screeching, scratching or making any other weird noises, I cannot tell what format the audio file is in. In fact, even if someone were to tell me which was which, I probably still couldn't tell the differences. When it comes to avid music listeners, there are slight differences in the music which can impact the way they hear it. Two types of files for audio formats that iTunes had to choose between were the MP3 format and the AAC audio format. In the end, Apple chose the AAC format. After reading the article posted below, it seems that AAC format was a better choice in general because it had a better quality track and the file actually took up less space. One of the main reasons that the quality of the track is better is because MP3s are a 'lossy' file transfer. This means that when the compression of the file takes place, the track looses some of its quality while it is being transferred. It seems that for the average listener, you will not be able to tell that the MP3 track 'lost' some of its data, but to keep up with Apples reputation of having high quality in everything that they do, they chose AAC format to keep customers happy.

Collective Causes & Groups

What kinds of collective causes have you become a part of? Did the cause have a website? How did you learn about the cause? How did you participate? What kind(s) of technology were used to communicate re: the group forming or group action?

Shirky could not be more dead on when he describes that our 'social urge to share information isn't new.' - page 149. He then describes that "Prior to e-mail and weblogs, we clipped articles and published family newsletters. Recalling these older behaviors, it's tempting to conclude that our new tools are merely improvements on existing behaviors; this view is both right and wrong." There has always been an urge to share information yet with the development of the web and networking sites, the ease of sharing information has broadened those urges. These sites make it quick and easy to share opinions and interests, which attracts others of the same interests and can then form a network or a group.

As for a personal example, one group that I joined that was a in high school in support of a friend's sick mom. She had been fighting ALS for a few months and many people in the town came together to help raise money, awareness and especially support for the family. Although people had constantly been supporting the family, the group became 'official' on facebook, which turned out to be a great way to communicate with the members. Eventually, by word of mouth, many more people came to her support.

"JMU-pedia" & The Power Law Distribution

The “power law distribution” or “long tail” phenomenon, as seen in behavior online on the Wikipedia, suggests that the concept of an average user of wikipedia is meaningless. Support your answer: how do you think a local, “JMU only” version of the Wikipedia would compare to the worldwide version? Would it be very similar? Higher quality? Less quality? Why?

I think the idea of a 'JMU only' version of wikipedia is an interesting idea. Although I don't think the knowledge would be as extensive as sites that are open to the world, the JMU site would hold great information that students could create, access, and comment on. The topics on the site would be much more focused to JMU events, current events and local news but I think it would be a great resource for people to have in the Harrisonburg community. And, just because the topics will not have such a range, it does not mean that the quality of the JMU site would be any less. In fact, JMU's site may even have a higher knowledge of certain topics compared to Wikipedia. In Wikipedia, people can completely fabricate topics, information and news, but at JMU I would hope that most of what people post is truthful. In Shirky's article, he discusses the power law distribution. "the gap between the first and second position is larger than the gap between second and third, and so on." - page 125. This theory would definitely hold true if JMU were to have a wikipedia-type site, yet it may not be as visible because there would probably not be the 'n-th' degree of users. At most, maybe 2 or 3 people would probably edit a particular topic, in which the theory could be visible but not as clear as a site like Wikipedia.

Media Goes Digital...

If Shirky is right, and we’re headed to a period where social media tools like YouTube, Flickr, and social networks like Facebook become “invisible,” what’s the impact on things you spend money on as consumers? Books? Movies? Music?

I really don't think that the amount of money people are going to spend on media will change too much. The only thing that will impact that is if sites and programs like limewire continue to draw users to illegally downloading free media. Otherwise, people are going to continues to spend their money on media, yet in different formats. Instead of going to the book store to buy a book, with the click of a mouse, people can log onto amazon and buy the digital version and have it on their kindle within minutes. Instead of going to the music store, consumers can log onto iTunes and immediately download the newest hit to their iPods. These social media tools are not only beneficial in the quick delivery and immediate gratification of the item being purchased, but also allow consumers to read reviews about the purchase before they actually commit. Although authors and music artists will still be earning the benefits of their media being purchased...Printing companies and record labels beware. Media is going digital! Shirky describes this perfectly at the end of chapter 4:

"Our social tools are not an improvement to modern society; they are a challenge to it. A culture with printing presses is a different kind of culture from one that doesn't have them. New technology makes new things possible: put another way, when new technology appears, previously impossible things start occuring. If enough of those impossible things are important and happen in a bundle, quickly, the change becomes a revolution."

Communities of Practice

Consider the concept of a “community of practice.” How can such a community offer opportunities for learning?

Communities of practice have been up and coming since the phenomenon of websites like myspace, youtube, wikipedia and especially facebook. These sites provide an outlet for users to share media and information that they believe to be interesting or of use to anyone else that is interested. "Communities of Practice are inherently cooperative, and are beautifully supported by social tools, because that is exactly the kind of community whose members can recruit one another or allow themselves to be found by interested searchers." says Shirky on page 101. These communities basically market themselves to others who would like to become involved in the knowledge and share their own thoughts. People can learn great things from communities of practice because they are focused on the exact topic which people are interested in. They are also places where people can share information about certain topics and dispute their opinions on those topics as well.

Is Google invading our right to Privacy?

Abelson, Chapter 2: In a well-publicized news story, a man was caught “on camera” exiting a "gentleman's club" when Google photographed him for their StreetView project. He later sued Google because the revelation was unhappy news to his wife. Do you think Google is in the clear when they photograph the view from streets in your neighborhood?


"The explosive growth in digital technologies has radically altered our expectations about what will be private and shifted our thinking about what should be private"

As Abelson explains in chapter 2, technologies has completely changed our thoughts of what should and should not be private. As these technological changes have occurred, we have quickly been thrown into a world where almost anything you say or do can be duplicated or reprocessed. Many would complain, such as the man in the example stated who was photographed by google exiting a gentleman's club or the man who was held up for an hour trying to exit the parking garage, but, there are some benefits that go along with the intrusive technologies of today. Security is on everyone's mind and with the constant threat or chance of something occuring, I think most would rather be safe than have their privacy invaded.

Google's GoogleEarth is an amazing tool that has brought many people help all around the world. Google is not 'out to get' people, they are simply providing a service which allows citizens to get an up close view of almost any location. Although there are some drawbacks, I do not think Google should be held responsible for photographing things others do not want seen. As we have learned in many classes, you should not do things that you do not want in the news!!

Citizen Journalism & False News Reports

Can you find any examples where "citizen journalists" have failed miserably to report accurate news? And if you do find examples (you should), does this make the concept of amateur journalism a bad thing? Why or why not?

I think that citizen journalism is in general, a good thing. I think the responsibility lies in the hands of the readers to know that they cannot believe everything they read. Citizen Journalism is a way to get information out as fast as possible and allows people a place to voice their own opinions for others to read. There were plenty of situations in recent history where people have used citizen journalism as a news source. In some cases, like the VA Tech massacre, it alerted people immediately of the tragedy. In less serious cases, people hold blogs and websites about celebrity gossip, sports news, cooking tips, etc.
There are definitely downfalls of 'citizen journalists' reporting news on the web. The facts that they are reporting can be completely fabricated and have no truth to them which could send people into a hysteria. The main thing is that people need to know who to trust for their news and also know that there is a very good chance of what they are reading is not true.

A great example of a 'citizen journalist' reporting false information is the recent CNN report of a Coast Guard Operation that went wrong. Although CNN is normally a credible news source, they must have gotten their information from a poor resource, which caused the miscommunication. I have provided the link below:

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/11/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5303828.shtml

Asking Someone a Personal Question..

You have an important personal question you’d like answered. Explain the procedure for getting your question answered and why this method appeals to you (you don’t need to get specific, but let’s assume the answer does not require specific expert knowledge, as from a doctor).


If I had a very personal question that needed to be asked, the first thing I would do about it is think. I would want to get all of my facts straight and everything I need to have the question answered. My next step in the process would be to think of people who I could ask this question. I would like to have someone who has some expertise or knowledge on the subject, knows a little about me, and most importantly someone that I trust. When asking the question to this person, it would be important that they know the issue is important and meaningful. If they knew the seriousness of the question, they will probably put a little more thought into their response. The reason I would put so much thought into the question asking process is because I normally keep things to myself and do not share. In opening up to someone else, I would have to make sure it be someone that I trust and can depend on for an answer.

Problems With Searchable Tagging Systems

Many organizations waste time and money researching answers to questions already answered or creating content that may already have been done by others within the organization. What shortfalls of social tagging does Trant identify that might prohibit a searchable tagging system to be a successful aid within an organization such as a business or school?

In Trant's article, Studying Social Tagging and Folksonomy, she concludes that "There is a convern over the relativistic nature of socially created vocabularies, the lack of tern consistency, problems with synonomy and polysemy, and the inherent inconsistency of a user-generated vocabulary". I think this statement describes the shortfalls of social tagging perfectly. There are so many different ways to tag things and multiple words which all mean the same thing. Companies that waste time and money researching answers to the same questions are most likely running into problems because they do not know the exact terms that they need to search with. Words vary between people, cultures, and especially generations and although two people could post the exact same thing, they could tag it completely different. The different tags will give people a very large variety of sites when searching tags.

An Organization that's too Large...

This chapter talks about the challenges that face an organization that grows too large, requiring a lot of staff devoted to management. What are some of the potential pitfalls in an organization that’s large and organized by a hierarchical organization chart?

There are many downfalls to organizationals that are too large and have a vertical management structure. One major problem is that the management at the top has little to no interaction with the employees at the bottom of the structure. The top management is dependent on the 'middle managers' to communicate with their employees and return the information back to them. In this type of situation, ideas very frequently get lost and never even make it to the top of management. This creates a huge problem, not only because good ideas are not being heard, but becase the lower level employees become frustrated and unmotivated to do work if they know that their voice cannot be heard throughout the company. The text points out that the complexity of the group grows faster than the group itself, which is completely the case with companies that are organized by a hierarchical organization chart.

With a horizontal organization, people throughout the company can voice their opinions and ideas, be heard, and stay motivated to do their work. Overall, the moral of the company will be much higher and people will be much more excited to work.

Groups Management and Communication

Describe a group you are a member of (online community, church, job, etc.) and how it is organized. Is there management? How is information distributed within the group?

At JMU, I am part of a social sorority. The greek life on campus is a great way to get involved with philanthropies, community service, and meet new people. Our sorority consists of an Exec board, a cabinet and the general body. The exec board is made up of 9 members who do much of the planning and decision making for the chapter. Each week, before our chapter meeting, Exec meets to discuss any issues and/or upcoming events for the chapter. When all other sisters come in, exec shares all announcements and asks for any other announcements from the chapter. Every week, the cabinet also meets. The cabinet is ran by the VP and the VP will share any of the cabinets announcements at Exec.

This system has been working great for years, but with new technologies we have included additional ways to communicate information. One of my favorite tools we use is TxtBlaster. This online tool allows any exec member to go on to the website and send a short message to all of our sisters' phones. We can also send a text to textblaster to send out as well. This website has allowed us to be in constant communication with all of our sisters, just by the use of a cell phone.

Using Facebook for the management of groups..

If managers aren’t important anymore towards the formation or control of groups using online tools, what do you consider the main role websites such as Meetup.com, Facebook, or MySpace have provided newly emerging groups?

The internet has brought on a world of change for businesses. Roles of managers are slowly being taken over by websites that can perform the tasks of managers but at a much quicker pace and in today's world, everything is about efficiency. If something can get done quicker or easier, people are going to do it that way rather than holding their traditional ways.

Websites such as Facebook and MeetUp are great tools in which groups can gather and organize information and share that information with desired people. These websites are also very helpful in the communication between group members. Instead of having meetings, groups can have a continuous chat where they can log in and see the posts from other group members. I think these 'threads' that are created are great ways for groups to stay in contact.

Cell Phones & Privacy

With so many cell phones on the market today able to take photos (and video), do you ever worry about being “captured” in a not-so-flattering moment? How would you deal with a friend who decided to share such a picture or video with others?

On page 14 of Abelson's Digital Explosion, he states "Society is rapidly being freed from the old limitations of geography and status in accessing information". This is very true when you look around and almost everyone is on their blackberry's and iphones. These smart phone technologies have been quickly accepted into our daily life as necessities in which people can access their e mail, the web, and any contact in a matter of seconds. Along with all of the benefits we get from these technologies, there is a HUGE technology scare when it comes to users privacy.

The cameras and video recorders on phones have made it easy for people to take pictures at any moment of people who may not be willing to have their pictures taken. This is a scary thing for many, but I think the people that are worried about it most are people who aren't supposed to be caught in a certain place at a certain time. As for simple privacy of everyday people, it is more annoying than anything to be worried about.

Over the summer I went to a wedding and there were pictures posted from the wedding on sites like Flickr and Facebook before the bride and groom got to even see their wedding pictures. In this case, although it is upsetting for the couple, there is really nothing that they can do about it except ask their friends and family to respect their privacy and not post the pictures. Unless they restrict cameras at their wedding, what else could they do??

Censorship of Google in China

Both Google and Yahoo have been criticized for censoring their search results in China. What are your feelings about this? Why should Google, or why should Google not, produce different search results for different countries?

Almost everything in the world has gone digital. When ARPANET was started in the 70s, I don’t think they knew exactly how big of a discovery the ‘net’ was, but it has been constantly growing for the past few decades. Although there are many negatives to having so much information on the web that is accessible to almost anyone, the benefits of the internet have clearly outweighed them. One downfall of the internet is the fact that once the information is on the web, it’s there for good. Once the information is out there, it is just dependent on how long people are going to look for it before they find what they want.
Search engines like Google and Yahoo should not restrict searches in different countries. Almost all web users know that there are plenty of things on the internet that are not true. If websites are restricted, people will really only get ‘half the story’ of what they are looking for. It is not up to the government to decide what people can and cannot view on the web.

Folksonomy

Although many of us learned the Dewey decimal system in our middle school education, it is hardly something that most remember anything about. The new system of ‘Folksonomy’ is using words to tag resources, instead of numbers, to create a system in which information is easily found on the web. By tagging items in different sites, people are creating a system in which related items can be easily accessed through the tags. This system, I believe is of much greater use to the users of online websites. By using a word to tag instead of numbers, people can simply just search what they are looking for rather than searching for its reference number, then looking for the item itself.

Websites like Delicious are great resources to store frequently used sites, locate them and all related material quickly and share them with other users. I have used delicious for a major class project and thought it was extremely helpful in organizing and sharing all of our resources.