http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/ver/223/popup/index.php?cl=4890121

It’s amusing to retrace the steps of my research habits. Though some parts are fuzzy, there are still distinct tools that have been used since I was a kid. The first, and probably the most lasting, is the question. When you want to know something, you ask. Then there was the card catalog at the library, the index of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and then gradually the card catalog had moved to a computer system by the time I reached high school, though the old system remained in the library – probably as a reassurance to confused students that they were in the right place. College was a whole new system of databases and online journals, but one could still find information from the indexes of various books, you just had to know how to find them. Then there was a shift to AOL and Yahoo! (I still remember the original commercials for Yahoo!), but my Internet usage was pretty minimal at that point. Then there was the day I was introduced to Google. It was my junior year of college and I was taking a multimedia class (it would be the first time that I actually started dissecting web pages) and there was the Google page, in all its simple glory. It was a like a drug, one that would never be kicked.

It is not until reading Halavais work on search engines that I really started to understand what they are and what they can do. What interests me is the idea that search engines are sociable because they primarily rely on human judgment for results. People are responsible for the content on the web and the placement of links. Search results do not come from some all knowing, ingenious machine, but pulls information from some sort of popularity contest that the public claims to be an expert in the area. They have established a community with web users where a person can say to another person, “Don’t know the answer? Google it,” and there is an instantaneous understanding to use a search engine to find the answer.

As a community, we all have the responsibility to provide the correct information, or at least provide a path for people to follow to the right answer. And as a user, we should make sure that we don’t just except the first answer that is given to us. There maybe trusted sites that we constantly go to for the answer, but like every good investigator/researcher, we should check our sources. Never stop asking questions, there’s a whole world of answers at our fingertips.

I exaggerate, but people do think of these things. Technology is evolving so we can start devolving from doing anything for ourselves. Soon we won’t have to wipe…well, you get my point.

There are some cool developments and Rheingold made a pretty good observation from Shibuya that certain technologies are giving freedoms to people that were never available to them. Teenagers are able to establish an identity and privacy away from their close, quartered families. The idea of controlling several aspects of your life from one device is convenient and being able to pull forgotten memories (Digital Memories) from a digitized storage area is pretty outstanding. But will it ever be too much? Will we stop evolving by learning how to do things for ourselves and by stepping outside of our comfort zones? If we have personal fabricators like Gershenfeld’s, maybe people won’t cease in doing things for themselves, they’ll just create their own inventions to improve their lives. Maybe all this simplification and personalization will allow people to pursue new things that the normal day of living can not allow (I suggest reading Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End). Or maybe the machines will really take over the world….

People are becoming so dependable on their pieces of technology that they believe they can’t live without them, not knowing that they can. Some people forget that there was life before cell phones and computers. Life was there, and it led us to here.

Rheingold, H. (2002). Shibuya epiphany (pp. 1-28). Smart mobs. New York: Perseus.

Czerwinski, M., Gage, D.W., Gemmell, J., Marshall, C., Pérez-Quiñonesis, M., Skeels, et al (2006). Digital memories in an era of ubiquitous computing and abundant storage. Communications of the ACM, 49(1), 45-50.

Gershenfeld, N. (2005). Fab (Selection). New York: Basic Books.

And then there’s Giuliani in drag…

I do have to say that the two assigned articles for this week were a bit of an eye opener. What I have always thought of as a means for people to release bottled knowledge, opinions, and egos is actually a lot more than that. From Clive Thompson, Scoble, and Isreal, I learned that the blogosphere serves as a way to humanize large corporations and for others to make money.

Large corporations, like Microsoft, have used blogging as a resource to keep an open line of communication with the world outside of Silicon Valley. These titan corporations have made attempts to allow their employees, clients, and customers to become personally involved – soon there will be weekend get-a-ways and ski retreats. By opening up some of their doors, they are attempting to show people that they too are humans with feelings, but still keeping at least one hand in the money pot.

What surprises me the most is the fact that people actually make money from their blogs. Advertising has found a new niche to infiltrate, and it’s the bloggers who are making the bank off of it. But I have to wonder if it is all worth it. Blog writers have to constantly be on their game so that they don’t lose their audience, which makes me wonder if any of them have much a life or even enjoy the money that they are making.

What bothers me the most is how it seems blogging seems to be overrunning the old school of journalism. I know that the media cannot be trusted, but I find that there is more integrity to a journalist who is sitting in the middle of the battlefield than to one who is sitting in the luxury of their office. Will old conventions of investigative reporting be completely overrun by the new forums of public speaking? Does blogging only serve the purpose of celebrity gossip, gadget news, and political debate? Who is hitting the pavement for these blogs, anyways?

I think that blogs will become something of the past as the Information Revolution continues on and new methods of communication evolve. There will always exist the A-, B-, and C-list that Thompson mentioned; there will always be someone making more money than rest of us. And then there are people like me, who will always stay on the D-list. We are dabblers by nature, but truthfully hold little attention about anything for too long.

This little blog of paradise will not last into the new year, but I gave it shot. And perhaps I’ll revisit it for future projects. For now, it will live in the land of obscurity with millions of other random thoughts and opinions, slowly slipping into the dark void created by information age. At least it will be peaceful.

Scoble, R. & Israel, S. (2006). Naked Conversations. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 1-62

Thompson, C. (2006). Blogs to Riches. New York Magazine, February 20. 26-35.

I honestly spent very little time with WoW. It took forever and a day to load the game and all of its uploads. So I was highly frustrated by the time I started the game. I hate doing tutorials or reading through instructions, so I just plowed ahead and immersed myself in the game. I instantly found myself wondering what the point was. I know you can start quests and hold conversations, but knowing that there are actual living humans behind the characters, I instantly became shy and didn’t want anyone to know that I was new (yes, I know people can identify what level you are). I felt so inept about the game that I gave up. I was just not curious enough to continue the torture.

I’m geek enough to try it again, but maybe with the assistance of a friend. I love video games, but I love playing with other people in the room where I can be verbally and physically abusive (ever wrestle a friend to distract them while playing Need for Speed or Tetris?). I can understand how a game like WoW is a great way to gather people in friendly surroundings, but I also know that situations like the South Park’s WoW episode occur and that frightens me a bit.

World of Warcraft 10-day trial

Huizinga discussed the cultural phenomena of play and the different ways it can be interpreted from rituals to fishing. In this common age, our sense of play exists on a technological level. We watch movies, play video games, and talk on the phone. Of course there still exists the simpler forms of play, but the rise of technological entertainment is forever on the rise. We immerse ourselves in these altered realities, but always remain connected to the true reality in some fashion – listening for the oven timer to go off, having real time conversations as we play, or realizing that bathroom break is desperately needed. We still follow some form of accepted rules, and a cheater is still cheater.

 The important thing to consider is how our enjoyment can be heightened by our environments. Andrew Hinton, B.J Pine, and J.H. Gilmore have all discussed how our enjoyment of something is heightened by our level of involvement and what caters to our senses. We play games like WoW and Second Life, where we are allowed a great level of control, but the designers have taken the time to create a place that is comfortable and welcoming to provide an environment that the users are going to constantly use. Pine and Gilmore discussed the sensory experiences that Disney and the Rainforest Café provide, but it is only a matter of time before new technology develops to offer an all encompassing experience through our computers (Strange Days, anyone?). 

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”  Alan Kay

I know journalists can pass along the wrong information, or that someone has their hand in what is considered to be important news, but it’s impossible to wake up in the morning and take a brisk walk around the globe to see what is going on for myself. So, I have to rely on the t.v., radio, and Internet for those stories.

Now, Axel Burns, Walter Bender, and Cass Sunstein have all written about people contributing to the news, creating alternative means of news reporting and developing the citizen journalist. The common person is now taking the reporting of news into their own hands and attempting to fill in the gaps left by the professionals. My only problem is that now we not only have to filter through the reports of the professionals, but we have to filter through the “facts” of hundreds of others. We have trained ourselves for decades to interpret the journalist’s B.S. and to read between the lines, but how can we be certain that the new citizen journalists are accurate too? And are we now going to be inundated by news that has no relevance to anyone?

Again, we find ourselves on the fronteir of something new brought about by the changes of technology. So, we need to find a way to educate the reader and the citizen journalist on the responsibilities, integrity, and accuracy of the news that is being pumped into the system. I trust Katie Couric. It’s all about the eyes, and I can’t see the eyes of those writing on the Internet.

I think Cass Sunstein had a very important point about the “Daily We” ( or Daily Me) and how people are increasingly limiting their exposure to new topics and ideas. People participate in the forums that interest them, they contribute information on topics that they are familiar with, and they seek to educate themselves in areas that they already have some knowledge of. How often do they step out of their comfort zones and travel down unmarked paths for new information? How heavily is their education being dictated by the “communities” that they are established in? When are their filters ever turned off?

I count myself lucky in that I place myself in situations where there is always someone with a different view or opinion. I appreciate the new sense of community of like minded people that the Internet provides, it makes me feel secure that I’m not all that crazy – or at least not alone, but often times it’s the adversary that truly builds my confidence in what I believe in or forces me to see things differently. We would all have potbellied superheroes if they didn’t have evil villains to kick around and show a different POV.

This one just rates some tools that you can use for your virtual team, they provide a place for people to meet virtually and cater to project work. If anyone checks these out, let me know what you think.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/36/firstsite.html

 This other link is just a blog that provides a little etiquette when dealing with your team members virtually. It’s all about gaining trust, which I think is very important when working in a team. The blurb about sarcasm reminded me of Adam’s story about communication issues with his friend via email.

http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/09/26/building-trust-on-virtual-teams-the-web-way/