Alissa's Information in Contemporary Society

How many functions can we put in one device?

2009-12-05T21:43:00.002-05:00

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?

In the past 10 years due to technological change I have had to unlearn:

that cameras are only for taking pictures
that mp3 players are only for listening to music
that mail needs a stamp
that music and books needed to be bought at a store

Rating Systems

2009-12-05T20:47:00.002-05:00

Chapter 11: 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).

Customer review for Zhu Zhu Pets Hamster Mr. Squiggles - Light Brown

84 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

this is just a cat toy really, November 8, 2009

By	D. J. Hoppe

Durability: Fun: Educational:

After much hype and anticipation, we finally got mr squiggles today. The kids played with him for about 30 secs. and he was put down. I think this product was a little oversold. As far as I can tell, it does nothing but run though its toys making farm animal sounds. It also has a function where it doesn't run, it just makes cooing noises. I really don't see the "personality" on display. If you buy this for your child for christmas, make sure you have a back up gift. This will probably not be a big hit by christmas afternoon.

I feel that this review is good enough, and would sway me not to buy the toy. After people make reviews, people can comment so you can see what other people think about the review and if they found it helpful too. The star rating system also gives the user a quick way to see what people think without having to read the whole review.

Customer review for VIZIO 22" 1080p Class LCD HDTV - Black (VA22LFHDTV10T)

2 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4 stars

July 25, 2009

VERY HAPPY

Reviewer: New life for an old house "Riley" (Keansburg, NJ, USA) See all my reviews

I bought this model about a month ago...The picture comes in very clear, and the sound is not bad...However I did find that you put the color on custom in order to adjust picture when watching dvd's, otherwise the color bleeds a bit. Other then that it's a great tv or the price, and size.

This review is helpful because it lets you know what they think, has a star rating, and you can see if other people found the review helpful. Overall, sites that provide reviews are almost always helpful, but it is also important to realize that the people that are going to post are most likely strongly opinionated about the product, so the reviews will either be really good or really bad.

The Wise Crowd

2009-12-05T20:32:00.004-05:00

Chapter 11: 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?

The first piece of advice that I would give someone who was using information they found from a socialized website or resource would be to always be cautious of the information you take from the web. The world wide web is a wonderful resource with lots of information, but that information isn't always reliable. I would also tell that just because you were able to find a website where people think like you, doesn't mean that everyone does. Just because you found a few strong opinionated people that posted their thoughts on the web doesn't mean that everyone else will agree with you. I would also mention that "members who aren't connected can often generate better answers, by pooling their knowledge or intuition without having to come to an agreement." pg. 267 So in the end I would say take from the site what you want, but always check reliability.

Grades, Grades, Grades

2009-11-19T23:32:00.004-05:00

Shirky Chapter 10: 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 and high school students are not provided with many opportunities to fail. It is all about grades, grades, grades. You have to do it right the first time or you will not reap the benefits. Everything is centered around getting good grades and getting into college. Schools today shouldn't be worried about grades as much, they should be worried about learning, that the students have learned and grasped the material. Second tries should be allowed, or some kind of extra work to make up for the fact that they didn't understand the information the first time around. I feel that there shouldn't be as much as and emphasis on memorization, but on long term learning. In general I think that a better system should be put into place that isn't so concentrated on grades specifically, but the learning that should be going on.

FOAF

2009-11-19T23:16:00.002-05:00

Shirky Chapter 9: What professional benefits do you see by investing time into a FOAF-style network?

Professional benefits from investing time into a friend-of-a-friend networking is connecting people that cuts out the middle man in introducing people. If you see that you know someone in common, then you are more likely to interact with that person and want to do business with them. Cutting out the middle man, knowing that the connecting person is friends with both makes it easier for everyone. "The software didn't actually introduce us; it simply provided me the tool to make the introduction myself. Because the number of people you could know at any given moment is always a tiny fraction of the people you do know, social tools have to help us decide when to actually make a connection." pg. 220

"Because information in the system is passed along by friends and friends of friends, people tend to get information that is also of interest to their friends." pg. 221 In a professional setting this would be beneficial because information about your colleagues that interested you could be passed along, and they could connect you and give you the ability to be exposed to information though them.

Online vs. Print Media

2009-11-15T11:10:00.003-05:00

Blog Question 2: 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?

I do make distinctions between online vs. print media, because anything can be posted on the internet. Growing up in a time where the internet was slowing rising to what it is today, I was brought up to research and trust books. I love the easy accessibility of the internet and the variety of options, but at the same time you don't always know if it is credible. I prefer to read things from a print media, having the tangible thing in front of me. It is sometimes hard to find if things are in actuality credible on the internet if you don't go directly to a site that is known to be credible. I think that both print and online media have their advantages, and I also think it depends on the user what they prefer to use. I think having information online is easier accessible and easier to maneuver then a book might be, is instant, and will most likely provide with at least one thing that you are looking for. I think books are credible without question and give you a tangible thing to look at, but it may take longer to find what you want and you might have to do a lot more reading.

When You Do It eBay

2009-11-15T10:47:00.003-05:00

Blog Question 1: 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?

"eBay may have been founded on a basic trust in human goodness, but within a couple of months after it launched, enough of the transactions were going awry in one way or another that the company had to respond. EBay's solution was to create a reputation systems, allowing the buyer and seller in any transaction to publicly report their satisfaction with each other. This system was designed to cast the shadow of the future over both parties, giving each an incentive to maintain or improve their standing on the site; with that addition, eBay became the site we know today." pg. 284 I do think that sites like eBay "work" for most participants because of the explosion of popularity it has, and the coined phrases like "sell it on eBay" As a personal eBay user myself, I have never had any problems buying and receiving what I want and what I win.

"Omidyar was right, with a caveat: people are basically good, when they are in circumstances that reward goodness while restraining impulses to defect. The rewards are restraints can be quite simple and small, but in big groups with relatively anonymous actors, they need to be there or behavior will decay over time." pg 284 I also think it "works" because the main incentive is to buy and sell, and people who really want to sell or buy will do so, and will lash out if not pleased with how the transaction went. With the process of allowing comments, if the user wasn't rewarded and was screwed by the process, as a possible Prisoner's dilema, there is now agreements that need to signed and that could have been not followed and can slam them in comments about their purchase/selling habits.

You have to pay for music?

2009-10-29T16:49:00.003-04:00

Chapter 6: 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.

"The general technique of distributing content together with control information that restricts its use is called digital rights managements DRM)." pg. 210

"DRM and trusted platforms may be creating effective technologies to control the use of information, but no one has yet devised effective methods to circumscribe the limits of that control." pg. 212 The internet is a big scary place that can really do damage before anyone is even aware of it. The problem with illegal downloading isn't being helped at all by the fact that iTunes has upped the price of the songs from 99 cents to $1.29, there is already such a problem with getting people to pay 99 cents why would you up the price more? I think that more of a system of a monthly rate for unlimited songs is the way to go, because I think getting more bang for your buck would help encourage people to buy the music as opposed to stealing it. Until they find a way to really scare people away from illegally downloading, I think it will continue to be a problem until everyone is equally compensated, the buyer and creator alike.

DVD's

2009-10-29T16:16:00.002-04:00

Chapter 5: 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

1. "Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), was adopted in 2002 after a thorough and public review." pg. 178

2. Anti-copying technology to prevent digital-to-digital recording

3. Separate encryption layer that interferes with recording to analog devices such as VCRs

4. Many studios have used technology from Macrovision and others for analog encryption on DVDs, which produce videotape recordings with blocky, unrecognizable images or a blue screen.

2-4 were found at: http://www.epanorama.net/links/videodvd.html#protection

WEP & WPA

2009-10-29T15:19:00.002-04:00

Chapter 5: 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?

"WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) was found to have serious flaws that made it easy to eavesdrop on wireless networks," (pg. 176) so I would recommend to my family to get WAP (Wi-Fi Protected Access) because they regularly use wifi. According to http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/itsc/security/isglosry/index.html, "WPA provides users with a high level of assurance that their data will remain protected by using Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) for data encryption." I would suggest that we use WPA because without it our security is jeopardized, and if we were to use WEP it would be easy to eavesdrop on our network. I think that it is important to keep hackers and cyberstalkers out of our business, so I think it is really important that my family use WPA, and not after reading this and not knowing if my family does indeed use WPA (I assume they do), I will be sure to check and make sure we are doing all we can to protect ourselves and our emails.

Google Ad's

2009-10-24T22:12:00.003-04:00

Abelson: 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.

In general, it depends on what I am searching for, whether or not i pay attention to Google's text-based ads. If I'm online shopping, then I will be more likely to click on an ad that comes up with my search, but if I am doing research or looking up something specific I am less likely to click on the ads. Yes, I do think that Google should keep these "sponsored ads," because "the advertising has no effect on the search results," and "Google will not accept advertisements for fake designer goods, child pornography, term paper writing services, illegal, and some legal herbal substances, drug paraphernalia, fireworks, online gambling, miracle cures, prostitution, traffic radar jammers, guns, and brass knuckles." pg. 145 The fact that Google doesn't interact with dirty, black market money means that its advertising is all in safe fun, and the results are not effected. With out the ads Google wouldn't have been able to grow and expand into what it is today.

Freeze Flash!

2009-10-24T21:20:00.003-04:00

Shirky: Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GfrfDmXDb0 What would you write to get people to do this? Where would you put it? How would you distribute the message? How would you get buy-in for participation?

Want to be involved in James Madison's biggest student freeze flash?! It is all going to take place at 12 noon on the Quad, where everyone will be just doing everyday activities such as playing frisbee, laying, studying, jamming, etc. It will be just like a normal day on the Quad, just FROZEN. For more information and so we can get a feel for the turn out visit our Facebook event page, and follow us on Twitter! For all those who participate will recieve a free purple t-shirt with gold writing after the freeze that says... FREEZE.

I would distribute the message by sending emails out to the JMU community, table tents. The Breeze, and a mass invite to all of my friends on Facebook to the event and tell them to pass it along to their friends.

Olanzapine

2009-10-24T19:19:00.003-04:00

Abelson: 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?

Yes, I do believe that drug companies should be required to come clean about possible side effects from their drug. It is unfair to the consumer to not have all the facts when considering what drug to use. Although drugs are now required to mention the possible side effects it has been such a joke in society at how fast they say them at the end of the commercial that a lot of times people don't really consider or realize the extreme possible consequences to using the drug. I think it is easier to come clean on a website then try and cover up the whole thing leading to a large, long, and expensive law suit. If all websites are required to come clean about side effects, then by not coming clean you're website wouldn't be at an advantage because people would know that your drug isn't trustworthy. In the end, I do believe that drug companies should be required to come clean about their side effects, because drugs are supposed to help people, not hurt them.

The Miller Test

2009-10-16T19:46:00.002-04:00

Chapter 7: If you were developing an Internet policy for your company or organization, how would you define content inappropriate in the workplace in email or bulletin boards different than the Miller test?

The Miller Test

"To determine whether material is obscene, a court must consider the following:

1. Whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest.

2. Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law.

3. Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value." pg. 237

The problem with the Miller Test is that it is up to the community to decide if the material is obscene, and the internet is not a community, it's world wide. I would add that if you think the material may be objectionable then double check with some higher up than to make sure it is okay. For the most part if you think, even a little bit, that something is obscene, it will most likely offend at least one person. Coming from a background in high school television news program, somethings you think are funny will offend someone, as we had to learn the hard way. I believe that now a days a lot of companies have either a PR or image consultant that helps guide companies away from anything that could be perceived as obscene, and do most things the safe way. I think I would also remind my employees that once it is out in cyberspace, it will never completely go away, and to keep that in mind whenever they are doing anything on the internet.

Ken ZZ03

2009-10-16T01:38:00.003-04:00

Chapter 7: What might you have done differently if you were in the position of artist Ken Zeran, mentioned in this chapter?

Even if my likelihood depended on the phone number remaining the same, I would have changed it. Ken Zeran is a trooper for keeping his same phone number through it all and just putting up with the phone calls. I think I would have pushed harder to find out who who the publisher of the ad was. As much as it was AOL's fault, when they posted the ad they didn't know that "Ken ZZ03" wasn't Ken Zeran and that he wasn't selling these shirts. Although AOL told him that they couldn't help him to identify the person, I think they owed him at least that. The internet is a complex and unknown place that we are learning about different things as they come up and how the court should treat them, and it is a shame that Ken Zeran got the short end of the stick.

MP3 & AAC

2009-10-16T01:24:00.002-04:00

Chapter 3: 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.

According to Ableson, "MP3 is a lossy compression method for audio. It uses a variety of tricks to create small data files...MP3's are 'good enough' for many purposes, but a trained and sensitive ear can detect the loss if sound quality" pg. 89

According to the Apple website, "Because of its exceptional performance and quality, Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) is at the core of the MPEG-4, 3GPP and 3GPP2 specifications and is the audio codec of choice for Internet, wireless and digital broadcast arenas. AAC provides audio encoding that compresses much more efficiently than older formats, such as MP3, yet delivers quality rivaling that of uncompressed CD audio."

I think Apple chose to go with the ACC format for the music in their iTunes store because it is currently the best music format for music. Being such a household name, Apple only wants the best for their customers and chose to go with the best product available. Being an avid music listener, I personally notice if the quality of music isn't CD or iTunes quality, and am grateful that they use ACC so my listening experience is enjoyable and how the artist meant it to sound.

Cougar News

2009-10-02T19:47:00.003-04:00

Question 2 (Shirky, Chapter 6): 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?

A collective cause that I have become a part of in the past was Save Cougar News! Cougar news was my high schools morning news program that we filmed during the week and showed during the last 15 minutes of class on friday. One day the faculty came in and said that they were completely changing the program that had been built from the group up by our teacher. They were going to make it a daily morning announcement program and they were bringing in a new teacher. One of the students involved in the class started a Facebook group to bring attention to the cause. As a student of the class and an executive producer, I joined the group because I was concerned with it ceasing to exist in its current form. The group got passed around reached around 800 members. The group was able to show the administration about our concern and dedication to the class as it was. Overall the group did help us get some more answers out of the administration and bring attention to the importance of the class. In the end however the school did as it wanted without much influence from the students.

JMUWiki

2009-10-02T19:35:00.002-04:00

Question 1 (Shirky Chapter 5): 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 believe that a "JMU only" version of Wikipedia has the potential to be a high quality version. With the amount of resources that are available to students and faculty that attended and work for JMU, the information is out there for them to consolidate into an online version. One downfall would be that although college students are at college to learn, they can be lazy. As stated in the chapter "in a system where anyone is free to get something started, however badly, a short uninformative article can be the anchor for the good article that will eventually appear. Its very inadequacy motivates people to improve it many more people are willing to make a bad article better than are willing to start a good article from scratch" pg. 122 I agree with this statement and think that when people find errors they are willing to fix, and contribute if they are avid users and are looking for the best information possible. I fell that if the professors started it off and contributed with all the knowledge that they have and have gained over the years, it will be a valuable asset to JMU students. I also think that if professors centered assignments around adding and editing articles on the JMU Wiki then more students would work hard to make the system better and successful. All in all I fell that if JMU were to make its own Wiki it would have the potential to become a new innovative, reliable, and creditable source for JMU students to use.

Community of Practice

2009-09-27T00:29:00.003-04:00

Shirky, Chapter 4: Consider the concept of a “community of practice.” How can such a community offer opportunities for learning?

"This form of communication is what the sociologist Etienne Wenger calls a community of practice, a group of people who converse about some shared task in order to get better at it." pg. 100 A "community of practice" can offer many different opportunities for learning, from art related tasks such as taking pictures, to how to make a proper resume. Having the ability to turn to the internet to learn how to do something you would have otherwise not have know is growing. There are explanations to help with math questions to science projects to movie making. The ability to converse with each other and share knowledge fosters opportunities for learning. "the goal of getting better at something is different from the goal of being good at it; there is a pleasure in improving your abilities even if that doesn't translate into absolute profection." pg. 99

Invisible

2009-09-26T23:47:00.003-04:00

Shirky Chapter 4: 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?

"Our social tools are not an improvement to modern society; they are a challenge to it. New technology makes new things possible: put another way, when new technology appears, previously impossible things start occurring." pg 107 The impact on consumers is that books, movies, and music maintain their traditional forms, while transforming and working with the digital age. Books are still in print, movies are still on DVD, and music on CD, but all are available for purchase and storage on the computer. These things so far have outlived becoming invisible, maintained important, continued to be purchased by consumers, and grown with the digital age.

StreetView

2009-09-26T23:06:00.003-04:00

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?

I do not think that Google is in the clear when they photograph the view from the streets, because the people being photographed don't know that they are. According to the Fair Information Practice Principles, "there must be a way for a person to find out what information about the person is in record and how it is used" pg. 64 I feel that it is safe to assume that the man didn't know that he was being photographed or what the photograph was going to be used for. Posting photos on the internet is a new, unknown, blurry area where as problems arise rules and regulations are being made. It it understandable that Google was not intending to capture what this man was doing in his spare time, just the view from the street, but at the same time that man is entitled to do what he wants in his spare time without having someone else post it on the internet.

Question?

2009-09-20T11:23:00.002-04:00

Shirky Chapter 3: 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).

When I have an important personal question that I want answered, I always turn to the internet. Google is my favorite search engine, and I have been told that I am a good "googler." Googling is easier nowadays because there is a little search engine always at the top of the page, next to the internet url. Sometimes I will type the question directly into Google, but that doesn't always bring up the answer. A lot of times the same question will be on wiki answers, or some type of blog. If the question is something like "What is the name of the song in the iPod commercial," these kinds of sites are acceptable. If the question is something that needs a credible, citable source, then it gets a little more complicated. This method appeals to me because it is simple and fast. It can be frustrating when the exact answer I am looking for can't be found, but for the most part with determination and creative googling, I can find an acceptable answer. Overall, Google is my procedure of choice when it comes to answering a question.

Citizen Journalism

2009-09-18T23:54:00.003-04:00

Glaser Article: 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?

"Citizen journalists" try to report the news for the general public from what they see, but sometimes they fail horribly. According to The Business Insider, a year ago "'Citizen journalism' apparently just failed its first significant test. A CNN iReport poster reported this morning that Steve Jobs had been rushed to the ER after a severe heart attack. Fortunately, it appears the story was false. We contacted an Apple spokeswoman, who categorically denied it." Here is the perfect example where someone thought they were reporting the news, when in fact it was false. They didn't have the access to contacts to either confirm or deny the claim like real journalists do. They didn't have their information edited or checked, they just reported what they saw, right after they saw it. I think that amateur journalism has its place, because as was pointed out in the Media Shift article, "citizen journalists" have helped in the past to provide pictures and video footage of events like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. With out the help of amateur journalists the general public wouldn't be able to receive the news as fast, because they would have to wait for a news crew to get to the scene. Overall "citizen journalists" have their place on the internet, but it is up to the reader to be cautious and not believe everything that they read.

Social Tagging Shortfalls

2009-09-10T20:13:00.002-04:00

Trant Article: 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?

Some shortfalls of social tagging that might prevent it from being a successful aid is that with out a specific list of terms that everyone uses to describe documents and pictures in the system, people wouldn't know what to look up, or two people will use different terms. At the same time if a specific list of terms is given, certain things might not fit in the categories causing more confusion. "Particularly in the information retrieval community, there is concern over the relativistic nature of socially created vocabularies, the lack of term consistency, problems with synonomy and polysemy, and the inherent inconsistency of a user-generated vocabulary. All of these characteristics may limit the value of a folksonomy as an indexing language and retrieval tool." pg. 23

Groups of People are Complex

2009-09-10T19:41:00.003-04:00

Shirky Chapter 2: 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?

Some of the potential pitfalls in an organization that's large and organized by a hierarchical organization chart are things not getting done or happening. Another pitfall is that if a manager doesn't think that your idea or what you have to say isn't important enough to pass on to whoever is above them, then they won't. This stunts the growth of the organization without having fresh ideas, with only a few people contributing and maintaining control.

"The choice between markets and managed effort assumed that there was no third alternative. Now there is." pg. 47 They used to think that in order for a group to be fully functioning it needed management, but with the rise of technology and the internet, groups can form on their own. These groups can form because they want to, or they can just happen. "Ridiculously easy group-forming matters because the desire to be part of a group that share, cooperates, or acts in concert is a basic human instinct that has always been constrained by transaction costs. Now that group forming has gone from hard to ridiculously easy, we are seeing an explosion of experiments with new groups and new kinds of groups." pg 54

The Kids Club

2009-09-10T19:32:00.004-04:00

Shirky Chapter 2: 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?

A group that I am a member of is the Kids Club staff at Olympus Gym. The Kids Club is a daycare like place where parents can drop off their kids while they work out. It is organized by having many student age employees who watch, play, and take care of the kids while their parents are working out. Above these students is the Kids Club manager. She makes sure that things run smoothly, implements new rules, deals with disgruntled parents, and makes sure she has the best staff possible. Information is distributed within the group though every employee having a folder where important papers may be placed, and through email. There is also management above her, the gym manager, and the owners.

The Tectonic Shift

2009-09-05T14:38:00.006-04:00

Shirky Chapter 1: 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?

"Newly capable groups are assembling, and they are working without the managerial imperative and outside the previous strictures that bounded their effectiveness. These changes will transform the world everywhere groups of people come together to accomplish something, which is to say everywhere." pg. 24

Websites such as Facebook or MySpace have given the individual the ability to fulfill the desire for social interaction by just going on the computer. A person can now easily search and find people with similar interests, desires, or motivations and contact or communicate with them. Group pages and chat rooms and give the user the ability to belong to a group and contribute. It also gives the user the ability to seek group interaction at any time and at their leisure. Overall, "by making it easier for groups to self-assemble and for individuals to contribute to group effort without requiring formal management, these tools have radically altered the old limits on the size, sophistication, and scope of unsupervised effort." pg. 21

John Hendron said...

Let's say you're a manager of a student interest group on campus. Would you manage? Or would you let the group manage itself via Facebook or another similar tool?

Although it is a lot easier nowadays for groups to form and manage themselves, if I was a manager of a student interest group on campus, I would manage to an extent. A free for all can be good if the people don't know each other and nothing is trying to get accomplished, but if it were a group that would potentially have meetings offline and be involved in events or things of that nature, a manager, even a laid back one, would be needed. People can get together and create groups, but with no direction, nothing gets done.

Gotcha!

2009-09-03T00:41:00.006-04:00

Abelson Chapter 1: 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?

I do worry about being "captured" in a not-so-flattering moment, and I try to keep from being captured as much as a I can. Having the ability to "remove tag" and "report this photo" are tools that help to control your name from being associated with these moments are tools that I am glad to have incase such an even occurs. I would deal with a friend who decided to share such a photo by removing the tag if there was one, and approaching them and asking them to either remove or delete the photo/video, and if they were a true friend they would.

John Hendron said...

You sound comfortable with the tools available in Facebook. What if it was a celebrity and they didn't have the same tool for self-monitoring?

When it comes to celebrities, and not-so-flattering shots, although you can do damage control, a lot of time you just have to ride it out and wait for a different celebrity to come along and do something that draws the attention away from you. When a celebrity does have a not-so-flattering shot, they a lot of times will publicly apologize on their blog, or in a tabloid to attempt to salvage their image. The obsession with entertainment media is very unforgiving, but a lot of times the best thing to do is wait for a different and more unflattering picture of someone else.

Different Results for Different Countries?

2009-09-03T00:13:00.004-04:00

Abelson Chapter 1: 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?

I feel that people should be entitled to have the ability to have access to any and all information that they seek, but it gets messy when it comes to government, money, and censorship. Google and Yahoo are put into a tight spot because if they don't do what the country asks of them, they could block their site all together. I don't think, however, that Google should produce different search results for different countries because that leaves the whole population informed differently.

Folksonomy

2009-08-25T21:52:00.000-04:00

Folksonomy: the labeling or tagging of pictures, documents, etc, to simplify the process of finding. A simpler system of searching for an item that is based on the users interpretation of what is important about the item and worth noting. This helps to bring simple organization through tags for a multitude of different things. The more specific tag, the better, because it will lead you right to the exact thing you are looking for.

example: a vacation picture at the pool with your family could be tagged as --> vacation, pool, summer 2009, family, etc.

I found this topic of folksonomy or social tagging very interesting because at my job this summer without knowing this terminology, I was doing just that. I was asked to take all of the pictures that were saved onto the hard drive, put them on Cd's, and use a program called CDWinder to essentially tag and label all of the pictures so the employees could look up and find the pictures later. Being an avid facebook user I didn't think tagging was such a big deal and had special names, but now I know from doing the reading and am amazed at what it has become.