Neovox

For my neovox article, I was thinking of doing it on facebook/myspace. They are websites that I commly use and it would be easy for me to write about if I have had experience with using it.

'IM-speak' infiltrating classrooms

I found this article from MSNBC.com for another class, but I think it can relate to ours as well. This article discusses how students are creating new errors in their essays due to internet talk. Junior high and high school teachers say they all nationwide see a trend that is bothersome to them. These words are so common in their life now that they can't remember when not to use them. It is a subconscience act. One specific educator, David Warlick of Raleigh, N.C., sees the instant messengers as a phenomenon that should be celebrated. He claims that teachers should credit their students with inventing a new language ideal for communicating in a high-tech world. I don't know how many teachers would agree with him, but he gives an opinion on the other side of the argument. The article says that most students realize by the time they get to college not to use this type of talk. When discussing this article in my Issues in Digital Culture class, my teacher says she still finds some mistakes using IM talk in papers.

Smart Mobs - Chapter 7

Smart Mobs – Chapter 7

In chapter 7, Rheingold discusses the impact of technology used in groups of people. “On January 20, 2001, President Joseph Estrada of the Philippines became the first head of state in history to lose power to a smart mob. More than 1 million Manila residents mobilized and coordinated by waves of text messages…” This momentous occurrence of bringing down the government without firing the shot is not the only time it has happened. There have been other instances where technology got people together to take down a government. SMS messaging is free and wire line telephone service costs more than mobile phones. In a country where 40 percent of the population lives on 1 dollar a day, text messaging makes sense and is much cheaper. Filipinos started to text jokes, rumors, and chain letters. The significance of “netwar” was also discussed. “Netwar” is an emerging mode of conflict in which the protagonists-ranging from terrorist and criminal organizations on the dark side, to militant social activists on the bright side-use network forms of organization, doctrine, strategy, and technology attuned to the information age. This chapter also discussed these special programs on mobile phones that you sign up on the internet and enter in your information and then if someone else signed up is within a few feet of you, you can choose to let them find you. It helps new people to meet. You are also able from other online services to join groups that text messages you of information that you are interested in. Rheingold discussed how he joined nyc text alert and they alerted him when a plane crashed. Rheingold ends the chapter by saying, “Smart mobs are an unpredictable but at least partially describable emergent property that I see surfacing as more people use mobile telephones, more chips communicate with each other, more computers know where they are located, more technology becomes wearable, more people start using these new media to invent new forms of sex, commerce, entertainment, communion, and, as always, conflict.”

Smart Mobs - Chapter 6

Smart Mobs – Chapter 6

In chapter 6, Rheingold discussed wireless networks and the politics that goes along with it. The best way to find public wireless Internet access in a new city these days is to go where expensive coffee is served. Rheingold also talked about how recent technical and regulatory events have made it possible for citizens to share wireless Internet access today at speeds higher than expected. New technologies and social contracts make it possible for a small amount of people to do what used to require huge corporate monopolies. Wireless technologies are a cost-effective way to bring high-speed Internet services to the connection between people’s PCs or mobile devices and the fast fiber optic networks that pump data around the world at what are known as “broadband speeds.” Wireless is the best way to bring the majority of the world’s population online. The first phase of the Internet that was owned by someone who charged for access to and it is not required for wireless. Everyone owns the airwaves. “Whether or not wireless Internet access becomes a profitable business, the success of WiFi as a tool within industries was assured when Federal Express Corporation stared equipping its delivery fleet with WiFi networks that transmit encrypted broadband data when a truck nears a terminal and senses a hotspot. UPS is also deploying 802.11b wireless LANs in all its distribution centers worldwide.” There is although the health concern with wireless Internet access that is the radio frequency radiation. The radios operate on the same frequencies as microwave ovens, and a powerful access point emits as much radiation as a microwave oven. WiFi security, radiation, and interference problems might be solvable, or WiFi might be a dead end or transitional technology. Although, when it comes to wireless communications, politics is as important as technology. Who will have control over the use of the cloud of personal information smart mob technologies transmit, as mobile and pervasive communications evolve and merge? In each of the converging technologies that constitute smart mobs, issues of control remain to be resolved.

Smart Mobs - Chapter 4+5

Smart Mobs – Chapter 4

In chapter 4, Rheingold discusses how in the next ten years there will be a major impact of technology. Different research and development that has been progressing slowly for decades, is now accelerating because of affordable computation and communication capabilities. He discusses his experience using a “head computer” to view the world in virtual reality around him. This new technology can also be accused of invading people’s privacy. The technology will be capable of picking up information off of anyone within reasonable means, and transferring it to anywhere in the world. Rheingold also came across a technology called WorldBoard, which I personally thought was pretty cool, that would show information about anything you come across. Basically, this chapter discusses a bunch of crazy technologies that no one would ever think would be possible. Yet, one day it will be.


Smart Mobs- Chapter 5
In chapter 5, Rheingold discusses how certain website provide reputation systems for users to see other sites or books for example that they would be interested in after they purchase them or visit one of the sites. The main technologies that he discussed were electronic banking, eBay, Epinions, Slashdot, Amazon, and Google. Amazon.com and other e-commerce sites use collaborative filtering systems to make suggestions to regular customers. Everyone is able to publish their opinions on the internet. They do not have to be a professional writer anymore. Reputation is very important in commerce, even more than in regular conversation. Even though the number of e-businesses has been reduced, eBay combined e-commerce, online affinity groups, and reputation management. For eBay, I think the reputation system helps a lot. You are able to see which seller is reliable and efficient. Yet, for Amazon.com, I do not like the reputation system. When I go to Amazon.com, I usually am searching for a specific thing. I never would buy something that is suggested to me like that. For people who do buy things that are suggested, I guess it’s good for them, but that is my persona