Tiana Michelle

Final Reflection

2006-05-30T09:37:00.000-07:00

I found the blogosphere to be the most important thing that we learned about. This was something new for me that I have heard about but never used before. It was interesting to know that this was an important and widely used communication tool, especially for such an event as 9/11. Learning about how blogging may be a new a media that may replace newspapers was rather interesting. I enjoyed exploring all the many blog sites and finding one that was prevelent to me and the Seattle community.

I would have liked to study more about the future of technology. What we as individuals as well as you being more of an expert about new media might predict or forsee in the future. It we would have been nice to spent a little time on this specifically it would have made for a more exciting and involved topic for us to discuss.

What I didn't like about the class is that I felt we were suppose to have a little more than basic computer knowledge. I feel that we were left to go at things on our own. If we needed help we had to seek it outside of class time. I found myself asking my classmates to help me out. Which isn't bad but alot of the time they were just as loss as I was.

Week 9

2006-05-22T10:27:00.000-07:00

VoIP is a very useful technology. I can recall back in 2000 when am friend on mind called me over the internet. I thought it was the coolest thing. I didn't realize then the advantages it has. To be able to have a phone conversation over the internet while you are surfing the web is very convenient, since many of us do spend a lot of time on the web. If people are able to package all of their communication techonology through one carrier then it would make life more simple in this growing technological world.

Discussion Questions

1. How does this make you feel about your security and privacy as far as communicating with people?

2. Will VoIP allow the government easier access to our communcation (i.e. government logs of all phone calls made)? What concerns does this raise for you?

3. If service providers such as Comcast, Vonage and AT&T bundled communcation and entertainment into service packages in what ways would this make life easier for and you? How would it effect their

Week 8

2006-05-15T16:50:00.000-07:00

Cyberspace is a gateway to other worlds. I think that if the world was communicating on a universal level there would be more equality amongst us. This article was remained me of the everlasting question, "Which came first the chicken or the egg?" So in this case "Which should come first, access to the World Wide Web or basic survival needs?" The Internet allows people to gain access to how to attain and maintain basic survival needs. Knowledge is power and giving people access to as much knowledge as possible can make them only more powerful. The "lily-pad" concept is a great way for people to conceputalize how little it takes to get the rural and third-world communities connected. If it is a minimal cost to have thriving communities be a part of the technological advances world then the rest of the already prosperous should help out.

Discussion Questions

1. What would be the downfalls of providing Wi-Fi connectivity?

2. What everyday routines would Wi-Fi improve for the rural and third-world communities?

Lab

2006-05-11T12:24:00.000-07:00

My first impression of Maria Cantwell's website is that she is definitely environmentally concerned and that is her biggest issue she wants to focus on. For Washington and the Northwest the environment is important but I believe that there are other issues that she wants to face are of a little more importance and will help here win her election. I don't believe that environment is the first thing on people's list of issues to combat. There are not many options for contacting her. She only provides and e-mail option link for contacting her. This is not that convenient for all people, some people do still like one-to-one contact. I find that she puts great emphasis on contributing to her campaign. Although money is important to her campaign efforts I believe she could actually put less emphasis on it and be focus more on her campaigning issues.

Mick McGavick's website visually appealing and well laid out. It is easy to navigate through his site and find what you are looking without having to multiple clicking. His site is informative about the issues he trying to combat and it does not just focus on just one issue. He provides the most current information about his campaigning on the home page which is useful to see how active he is. He doesn't seem to put much emphasis on his need for donations as Cantwell does which makes him seem more genuine about his campaign rather than just money. His site provides multiple ways to contact to him which is beneficial for those who seek alternative mediums of communication.

Cantwell can give herself more opportunity to reach out through other contact options although having an e-mail link is useful for sending messages in real time.

Week 7 Extra Credit

2006-05-08T16:22:00.000-07:00

Websites are becoming increasingly more important in campaigning. It's hard to imagine that people aren't as inclined to get their information via the internet since many use it to retrieve many other types of information. I would think that the internet would be the most effective way to deliver campaign messages to the mass amount of people around the country. I still believe that local campaigning is still important since many different community's have that same beliefs. Online campaigning can be a basis and have general neutral ideas of what candidates want people to know. Online campaigning is very useful tool. The new voting generation spends a lot time surfing the web and candidates can reach out to that demographic with their websites and create a stronger voter turnout.

Week 7

2006-05-08T16:01:00.000-07:00

I found the article about Joe Trippi to be interestingly informative. His initiative to take campaigning online is clever and most applicable in our modern technological world. He provided candidates with opportunities that are very beneficial to them and for candidates in the future. Trippi's bring the voter to you strategy is beneficial in the same sense as to how companies create brand awareness through word of mouth. Candidates can create a stronger buzz through voters telling each other about what they have learned through the innovative online campaigning. People are more inclined to listen and trust their peers.

It is hard to imagine that most people are still getting most of political knowledge from print media. I would think that in this day and age with the multiple search engines available and access to the internet that people would choose the internet first to get their political information. At least for me it seems going online to retrieve any type of information is more convenient than reading the newspaper. Information online is available practically anytime and all in one place. Though you do run into information overload on the web and knowing which sites and bits of information to trust can be quite a task.

Discussion Questions

1. Which media news source do you most trust and use when looking for important informative information such as politics? Internet, newspaper or other media?

2. How long will it take for the majority of people to get their political information via the internet rather than the print media (newspapers)?

3. How do you feel the internet affects the personableness of online campaigning?

Lab

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

LATimes.com does have RSS. It is broken down into 3 categories: News, Blogs and Careerbuilder RSS feeds. Each category has subcategories. News has several categories that would correspond with a typical daily newspaper such as Sports, Entertainment, Local News and so forth totaling 18. The Blog category is sub-divided into 3 categories: Sports, Business & Education, Travel and Entertainment totaling 7 Blog categories. The last category Careerbulider has 6 categories in itself. You may view a summary of an article for but to purchase the entire article there is an fee that can be refunded within two hours.

PBS.org has RSS as well. It has 12 categories ranging from topics about their TV programs they air to Religion & Ethics as well as the PBS Omsbudsman. It seems that all information is free to look at and read.

The two sites are related as far as providing us with the news of current events. PBS.org is geared more towards education about events and are more humanitarian news topics. They provided advertising about their own company's programming. LATimes.com simply provides the news that you would on most other newspaper sites. They advertise other brands than just their own.

Week 6

2006-05-01T14:54:00.000-07:00

Blogging will be more important in the future. Blogs will become like the reality TV of journalism. More and more people will join in the blogosphere and record their own opinions and accounts of what is happening in the world around them. Blogs will no longer primarily be for telling people about their personal lives and what is and has affected them personally but in fact people will begin to record and communicate messages of real life accounts that are affecting everyone, just as in Gilmor's book of how people communicated through blogs after 9/11. News broadcasts and especially newspapers, because of time delay, will become secondary sources of information as more and more people log on to the world wide web and obtain their information, though there will still be a percentage of people who trust in the "fact" gathering of journalist.

With the rise in the popularity of podcasting news will be at your fingertips. Podcasting has become a more convenient way of obtaining the news. Since I don't own an ipod or an mp3 player I don't know the reliability of how obtaining access to a podcast is but it seems as if the convenience would definitely be good reason to obtain one, especially in the wake of such an event as 9/11. (It makes me want an ipod/mp3 player even more.) To be able to have access to the news of the world around at my fingertips is about priceless, especially when all other forms of communication are inoperable. With the advancements in technology I can only imagine that podcasting will become as reliable as a battery operated radio, you the kind they tell you pack with the 3day/3night emergency bag.

Discussion Questions

1. What will happen in the world of journalism? Will journalists have to branch out and make an extra effort to save their careers?

2. How would the convenience of podcasting affect peoples' choice of the way they obtain their news?

3. With the ability to view images on ipods how will the popularity of radio be affected? Will it become obsolete?

Week 4

2006-04-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

I consider myself a well organized and planned person, and keeping my life in order is what I strive for. I am much more focused when I have my daily life in order and with all the technological devices available to me I am able to do this. Without my cell phone I wouldn't even know when to get up in the morning, since I don't even own an alarm clock, its been probably 10 years since I've used one or even owned one. I use my cell phone for many things, such as an alarm clock, address book, camera and so forth, but it would be nice to have one device to keep my life in order. I do still have a daily planner that I manually write in, I am looking into owning a cell phone that is PDA that also has Internet access, so that I can check my e-mail when I am not near a computer. It is much more convenient and orderly to have one device that will keep track of my daily schedule. I do often feel I am my own computer but I am flawed because I have so many things going on I have to rely on my human brain to remind me to write down my daily events.

I was pleased to read Introduction to Internet Architecture and Institutions, though it was fairly technical I was glad to be given an understanding of how the internet operates. I gained knowledge that I won't necessarily use but will allow me to grasp the reality of how the internet functions. It is an article that makes me feel more intellectually empowered.

Discussion Questions

1. Now that Ethan Zuckerman and Andrew McLaughlin article informed us of how the internet functions, what concerns did it raise that information you are seeking or sharing is getting sent to the wrong person?

2. Analog vs. Digital which do you prefer and which do you think will be preference of the future and why?

3. What main functions of organizational devices, such as Blackberrys do you find to be most beneficial for all.

Week 3

2006-04-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

These two articles made me comforted to know that I am not the only one or even the only student out there feeling bombared with information. As I read the articles I became more at ease with the skill of research. I now feel less like I am not achieving my goals that I set forth to achieve when researching a topic. There is just so much information out there and so many people offering it, sorting through it all has become an overwhelming task, even just reading and learning about what I am and will experience throughout my pregnancy. You have to learn to be your own librarian and know where to start looking to find the answers. To effectively and confidently use the "Internet-turned-Information-Superhighway" students/people need to be taught that it is a skill and not just a resource. We should be knowledgable in how to detect the right information we are searching for, though it partly search engines responsiblity to make using the Internet as a research tool easier to sort through what information is useful and what information is useless (although that can be a matter of opinion in some cases).

These articles layout a general understanding of what people are experiencing this day and age with the inundation of information. Search Engine companies can take this information and run with to make more useful and successful information search capabilities. Although there are spam blockers that are very useful in keeping unneeded and too much information filtered search engines need to take that next step in making it easier to find what information is repetitive and futile to the researcher.

Discussion Questions

1. Books have always been the gateway to knowledge, is there any need to worry that books will become obsolete and everything will be published on the Internet?

2. What is the next step that search engines such as Google, Infoseek and Lycos need to take to help eliminate 'information overload'?

3. Should students learn to be most skillful in using the Internet as their primary source of research or should they physically go to their libraries and learn to be skilled reasearchers?

Week 2

2006-04-03T16:55:00.000-07:00

My how technology has changed and how it has changed the way we can communicate. Technology has made communicating easier and more accessible. As long as technology continues to evovle we will continue to create new ways of communicating. Just like human evolution, communication finds new ways to exsist. Each new advancement in the way we communicate can be attributed to its predecessor. Our tools we use now to communicate such as instant messaging, text messaging and so forth, were not around 10 years ago let alone 2 or 3 years ago. It is hard to imagine the changes that will occur over the next few decades, even a year from now.
Bush's innovative thought in 1945 of what of the future will offer is astonishing. He presented the idea of what technology is trying to achieve through creating an all-in-one device. Entertainment devices such as what he named a "memex" that can store multiple enteratinement tools have become the latest craze. This device he refers to reminds me of what the Apple ipod or cell phone manufacturers are trying to achieve, an all-in-one entertainment device that is easily accessible and convenient to carry. I think Bush presents an idea that leads the way for current innovations. He makes way for the many inventions that are yet to be dreamed up and for those inventions that are hard to imagine as a part of our reality.

My First Blog

2006-03-28T12:47:00.000-08:00

Hello,
It's Tiana. I writing my first blog for COM300. Its the 7th day of Spring and it finally stopped rainig today. I hope we have a sunny Spring. ; )