Extra Credit: Social Software

I am so not tech-savvy, and never have been. I was one of those play outside and ride bikes kids. My family got a computer pretty early, around 1988 or so. I was never too into it because I didn’t understand it and I didn’t play video games, unlike my brother. (Or maybe that was why I never got into it, my brother never got off the computer...) I never knew what "social software" was until I did the reading. Now, I understand what it is and what took me away from the real world for a year or two. When I was in sixth grade, my best friend came across this program online called "SPLIT." It was a bunch of people between ten and twenty years old, who just chatted online. It was the first time I ever used "LOL" or "BRB" because I had never heard of those things before. I had never really been online for leisure. Back then it was really like cyberspace because it was space-it was a computer connected to a telephone line where you could send words out to another telephone line.
There were no logos or images on SPLIT, it was just a black screen with green writing and people had usernames. We would talk all day, and I remember being so excited to get home from school so I could go talk to my friends. I "fell in love" for the first time talking to a guy named GAMER, haha. We would all get to know eachother and sometimes meet up in groups so we could put a face to a username. This is the first social software I ever used, as far as I’m concerned. I think it is a really neat tool and it has taken us far since the 1980's. I didn’t really have that many friends because I was so shy, so where else could I have met 50 people and been able to be myself? Where else can you socialize for hours with people your age when you don’t have a car, too young to ride the bus, it’s rainy outside, or the people live far away? Nowhere and that is why this social software has become a hit.

Open Source Movement

As Communication students and scholars, we have important duties in our line of work. One of our duties is to keep up to date with new and up coming technology. It depends on what field of com you may be going into, but each one should know about open source software.
This is such a huge, controversial topic because these people could be undermining the billionaires of the world. People are saying there will be no support for these free programs, but I say who cares? I have never needed support to run my computers, my dad has 40 employees each with a computer and they don’t need "support." Like Stallman said, there are people out there who just need their hand held because it’s the easy way out. I have a solution for these people with GNU. Because they are giving this away for free and will give no support, why not just give a great instruction manual and go around on a couple tours giving extensive knowledge to tech guys. Now, those tech guys know a lot about the program and they can either run a business of their own, or get hired as the "tech guy" for any business. In the long run, people and businesses will save money by doing this.
As communication scholars, sometimes it is our job to come up with answers, advertisements, and public relation kinds of things. That is why we should be reading into these things right now and learning about this movement. Someday soon it will be us backing up these guys who are trying to get a free product out there in the open. It could be our volunteer time doing this stuff for them or it could be paid, who knows. We also need to know about current technology because our jobs will rely heavily on knowledge and capability.
Just to touch on the subject of these programmers not getting paid- I didn’t hear of anyone shoving knives in these guys’ faces forcing them to become programmers for GNU. They are doing this because they truly believe in it and want to help and give their input. I think it is so ridiculous that outsiders are trying to speak for these programmers. Obviously they wouldn’t be doing it if they really didn’t want to be.

Discussion Questions:
1. Why are these outsiders trying to speak for the programmers about the lack of money?
2. Do you think this kind of thing will really get out there? It is so controversial and the competitors are billionaires who could beat them out of anything...
3. As Communication students, what do you think about the technology that is out there now and the upcoming?

Three discussion questions?

1. Do you think humans would survive without machines? Would we go extinct because we are so used to having them and don’t know how to live without them?
2. Do you think most human work will someday be replaced by computers and machines?
3. What classifies something as a "machine?"

Analog...

Monday January 23, 2006
Humans and machines are definitely a match made in Heaven, until you look at the differences and troubles they bring to each other. These days it seems like one can’t work without the other, and that will become a problem. Really, look at the charts in the first reading. Who wouldn’t want a computer or machine to help them out? Machines and humans compliment eachother to make one, whole, superhuman like figure. Seriously if you think about the qualities of man and combine that with the qualities of a machine it’s amazing. A machine is orderly, precise, and logical while a human is emotional, creative, and compliant. Neither have the exact same capabilities but they compliment eachother well. Isn’t there a saying that two minds are better than one? I completely agree with that, but one mind and a machine is the best anyone is going to get.
Until I read these articles I didn’t realize how important machines are. I hate to admit it like this, because I honestly cannot stand technology. But think of how far we have come since machines and technology have been around. We eat better, we are more healthy, we have warm clothes, we live two to three times longer, and we are safe from our surroundings. Machines have brought humans to where we are today, and I don’t think anybody can take that away.
On the flip side, I do see humans longing for nature and simplicity in some cases. That is why people go on vacation, or go hiking on the weekend. I think it is different here in Seattle because many people here are very earth conscious and outdoorsy. For a native Seattlite, I bet it would be easier to live without technology than it would be for a New Yorker or L.A. Some people don’t even think there is a green world out there, they live in the city and work with machines all day. I would guess that if people really knew what was out there besides work and machines and technology, they would appreciate life more.
OK, random thoughts I know my computer battery is dead!

Information Overload

Information Overload
1-17-05

Use this week's readings to reflect on how your life is affected by information (too much? too little? just enough?) . Develop three discussion questions for class.

I really enjoy the technology that we have easy access to like phones, televisions, and computers. On the other hand, I have very mixed feelings about the internet and the “Deep Web.” Just the other day I was trying to find a quick definition of Marxism for one of my seminar classes, and do you know what I found? Everything except a quick and readable definition that made sense. I got Wickipedia and crazy readings on the subject that nobody I know would even understand. What happened to the good old days?

Do you remember in elementary school when you had to do a one page book report? The whole class would go to the library and do “research” on their topic. We would look through encyclopedias, reference books, browse the shelves for something that had your topic in the title. Then, if we didn’t finish our report we had to go home and our parents would take us to the library. There was so much less expected of us, because there was not that much available information. Now the 3^rd graders are doing research projects on the internet and they don’t even have to leave their home to get 50 times as much information as they need or want.

Information overload not only affects adults, but children as well. There are no standards for putting information on the internet, so you never really know for sure how credible something is. With all of these people producing websites and dumping their thoughts into their computers, it makes it hard to find anything at all. There are only so many quotations, ands, ors, and parenthesis one can squeeze into one search box. Even with all of those useful tools one can come across nine or ten thousand results.

That is such a difficult question to force myself to answer… I guess I do believe there is way too much stuff out there for people to read, but actual information I’m not sure. If there was an easy, readable, understandable explanation for everything I don’t think we would be overloaded, but there’s not. So yes, I think my life is affected by information overload way more than I wish. It was much more simple back in the day when we used real, tangible resources that were credible and trustworthy.

Three Questions:

1. Being brought up in the beginnings of this technological revolution, do you think we are actually dependant on information overload?
2. How do you know for sure if a source is credible?
3. Would you rather have the information overload that is present now, or a lack of information that is easier to manage and retrieve?

Testing again, this stuff makes no sense to me...

J Couden is here, hopefully for the rest of the class!