Get Off the Internet

Anna Pulley writes a tech advice column called dear @nna for SFWeekly.  Here is her response to someone asking how they can get their social media fix without wasting so much time playing around on the Internet.  You can read the post here. 

This might be a possible final project idea.  Come up with a 3 week plan where you strictly monitor (and chronicle) your online behavior. Turn in a journal that details your media consumption and write a reflection paper about the entire experience.  I myself am starting to think about my smart phone usage while at home.  I might come up with a space to store my phone and only check it once in awhile, instead of carrying it around (as an extension of the self).

Finally watch the Le Tigre video at the end.  Great band and a fun song.

Google Targets Content Farms With Major Search Algorithm Tweaks

Here's an article that discusses exactly what we were talking about the other day. Google just announced it made "major" changes to its search algorithm which are aimed at reducing the amount of content farms and spam that result from people exploiting the Google algorithm. So, how do we measure value now, Google?

What is Internet, Anyway?

Libya and The Internet

The role of social media in Libya hasn't been discussed as much as Egypt, partially because Egypt was a much more open space than Libya.  I have read a couple of essays talking about a few social media pipelines out of the country but the events that happened in Egypt are much more important to the entire region than the impact of social media.  That being said, there is an interesting connection to the Internet through Libya.  Bit.ly is a url shortening program.  Twitter requires economic use of character spaces and posting a full url was impossible.  If you go to Bit.ly and put in the longer url, the program will assign it a very short version that will take you to the same page.  Bit.ly is pretty fun to say (bitt-lee) but I don't think many people make the connection between the ly and Libya.  Around 2000 country codes were defined.  With the url's in the United States, you can always ad a .us but because of our hegemonic control over the Internet we don't have to use it.  One of the most famous examples is the small country (several islands) of Tuvalu which has .tv and has proven to be very valuable.

Back to Libya. Techland discusses what happens to the Bit.ly protocol if Libya should fail as a state in "If Libya Falls, What Happens to All Those Twitter bit.ly Links?"

Cell Phones and the Brain

The Wall Street Journal post, "Brain Reacts to Cellphones" discusses a new study that concludes the part of the brain closest to the phone's antenna is more active.  The essay doesn't make the point that the cell phone is changing out intelligence but rather there are concerns over the health implications of the amount of radiation coming from our cell phones and how that is impacting our brain cells. 

An addition to Google's page rank system

I found this article (and supplementary YouTube video) that described how when you log in to your Google account, you can now get recommendations from your contacts on social media sites that you belong to, such as Flickr or Twitter. Instead of having information from social media sites placed at the bottom of a search, Google is now incorporating them throughout the top pages. This new addition to Google has made searching for specific items, vacation spots, or basically anything your contacts have blogged or mentioned, more personal.

As for the video by Google, I thought the cartoon was pretty cheesy, but it did simplify the new addition and make it easy to understand.

Staying in Touch With Home, for Better or Worse

I found this article in the New York Times and thought it was really interesting to see how technology in communication is affecting those who are serving the country. The article pretty much says that computer labs are now set up in some bases and they are open and available for use at any time. Soldiers are able to chat with loved ones on Facebook, email, Skype, among other social networking sites. Soldiers are now able to carry their phone with them for a fee, allowing them to facetime (on iPhone) or bbm (on blackberry) at any point of the day.

This is affecting soldiers in a way that is both good and bad. They are now able to reach their loved ones back home and still be a part of their lives. On the other hand, this has affected them psychologically. When there is such open communication and access, it drives those abroad and those at home crazy when a message does not get sent or if they aren't able to reach their loved ones.

It's a really interesting article. Check it out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/us/17soldiers.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

WWE and the new Social Media

So I remembered what Dr.Snyder was saying about how when he went to that concert everyone was pulling out their phones and taking pictures to tell the world they were there. Now I saw this in a slightly different medium. I don't know what you guys think of the WWE but I am a bit of a fan, and the WWE perfectly used social media to have it's biggest star of all time, The Rock, come back after 7 years without an appearance. WWE announced on their show two mondays ago that there would be a special guest host for Wrestlemania, they then tweeted and used Facebook to stir speculation, at the same time Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was leaving cryptic tweets and Facebook updates hinting of a possible come back after 7 years. So the WW waited until the last 5 minutes of their show this past Monday night (which is live) to announce it. They dimmed all of the lights and then The Rock's famous music hit, what's interesting to note is that in this video, especially at 1:27 of it, look how many iPhones and cell phones and cameras are out filming the whole thing. Twitter and Facebook exploded with mentions of the Rock. This is a short video showing when he came back, look at how the announcers say nothing, but the camera shots show how excited people are, not just by there cheering but with shots of phones lighting up across the arena, people texting, calling and flashbulbs lighting up everywhere. I thought it was fascinating

Professor Adelman on the radio

An interesting discussion on the role new media played in Egypt.

https://www.wypr.org/sites/default/files/podcast_audio/midday110210hr2.mp3

A Resolution Revolution

Here's a link to a photo blog from yahoo. It shows the evolution of fighting video games from extremely pixelated graphics to the super refined and realistic graphics of today. Resolution Revolution!

http://blog.games.yahoo.com/photos/219-evolution-of-fighting-games/1

Meme's and their Targets

Dr. Loviglio shared this one with me.  It it about the man behind the image used for the "scumbag Steve" meme. If you do an google image search you will find countless appropriations of his image like this one:

A Daily Mail reporter tracked down the real "scumbag Steve" and interviewed him about the picture and the meme in "Who is 'Scumbag Steve'? Internet teenage hate figure reveals infamous picture was taken by his mother (and he's actually quite a nice guy).

PageRank and the Consumer Society

We might talk about this essay in the New York Times today as it fits in nicely with the essay about PageRank.  It is an investigative journalism piece that examines the way that a department store was able to game Google's system over the holiday season and the consequences of getting caught.  You might have to log into NYT to view but its free.  The essay is "The Dirty Little Secrets of Search," by David Segal.

Hacking the News

Newstweek: The Short Demonstration from newstweek on Vimeo.

This is a video that shows how a couple of hackers created a tool that allows them to alter news sites at a internet hotspot.  The technology is pretty cool, though I think its practicality is limited.  You can't really determine what site each person is looking at, so it doesn't seem that it would have any real effect.  On the other hand if someone employed a localized strategy (changing the umbc home page for example) it could cause a bit of havoc. 

Everything You Want in the Palm of Your Hand...

http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/09/technology/smartphones_eclipse_pcs/index.htm

This article from CNN, discusses the shift from computer sales to the exponential growth of smart phone sales. Now with the technology of the smart phone, it is able to do all the things a computer can for the most part. Even with the 4G internet, we are able to watch youtube videos and check our Facebook faster.
Is this necessary? First with the laptop we were able to transport our computers with us wherever. Now our smart phones allow for a more convenient way for us to enjoy the internet. Is it a constant need for us to be updated and plugged in all the time?

Free Internet

Buy This Satellite  is a non-profit group attempting to raise money in order to bring Internet access to the third world.  One of the quotes on the page explains, "We need to get information to them [the citizens] so they can think for themselves, better their own lives, and not rely on other people's dole."  What does everyone think?  Is this a worthy project?

YouTube Sensations

With the creation of YouTube came the Internet sensations. Justin Bieber was discovered on the site, laughing babies, crazy free-throws, Charlie Bit My Finger and so on all became viral. Which is exactly how Stjepan Hauser and Luka Sulic, two cellists from Slovenia, became so well known in such a short period of time.

Mostly, I am just really into this video right now and wanted to post it. It's a cover of Smooth Criminal and the intensity of the two musicians (and the amazing skills) really make it a fascinating video to watch. The video was posted in January 2011, and already has over 2 million views. YouTube makes it possible for anyone to become known, and it is interesting to watch a video become such a sensation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlVbEclPj4c

Best Buy's Buy Back Program

There were a couple commercials during the Super Bowl which had media ecology written all over them. This is the one that caught my attention the most:

As you can see, it features both Ozzy Osbourne and Justin Bieber as spokesmen participating in a commercial for an unidentified smart phone. During the span of the commercial shoot the device is upgraded twice.

The commercial is for Best Buy's new "Buy Back Program," which allows customers to purchase an extra protection for their electronics, allowing them to bring them back for a portion of the price to buy the next generation. This article probably explains it a little better.

For me, the commercial (and program) raised the question of "Why can't we wait until we actually need a new one? Or our contracts expire?" It seems like we constantly have to have the newest piece of technology, even when the old ones work perfectly fine.

In my personal experience, I got the iPod touch a few months before the newest generation came out. The only difference I really knew of was the integrated webcam, which I most likely wouldn't even use. Nonetheless, I was upset that I was now stuck with the old version.

Does anyone else have similar experiences?

This is a second commercial I found for the program:

Students, turn your iPad to page 101

The article, "Georgia state senator hopes to replace schoolbooks with iPads" is a quick write up by Daniel Eran Dilger describing a proposal by Apple and a senator to replace traditional text books with iPads.  In the essay the senator is noted as saying, "we're currently spending about $40 million a year on books.  And they last about seven years.  We have books that don't even have 9/11.  This is the way kids are learning, and we need to be willing to move in that direction."  What would Neil Postman say?

The Net Delusion?

In class I mentioned how Facebook was used for organizing some of the earlier protests in Egypt and the media has really focused on the way that social media has been utilized during the movement.  Has the role of Twitter and Facebook been overstated?  As we will read later in the semester, Malcolm Gladwell warns us that the revolution will not be tweeted and while these tools are valuable as communication devices, they are not as central to what happened last year in Iran as many had previously claimed.  In his recently published book, The Net Delusion, Evgeny Morozov uncovers that only .027% of the Iranian population were using Twitter.  Most of the Twitter users were highlighted because they had the ability to communicate with the Western world.  In his NYT essay, "Wallflowers at the Revolution" Frank Rich, cites The Net Delusion argues that this hints at America's resistance to the already established media industries within the regions of Northern Africa and the Middle East.  He makes the point that it is not social media at the core of these protests, but rather concerns about human dignity.  It is easy the American population to think about how important the tools of Facebook and Twitter might be, but much harder to understand hundreds of years of complex religious, political, and economic history.  

Returning to Morozov's book (which I haven't read), in the NYT review "Twitter Can't Save You"  Lee Siegel illuminates Morozov's point that the oppressive regimes are just as likely to utilized these same technologies as a tool to remain in power.  Overall this seems like an important message: claims of the complete utopian or dystopian promise of technology are always overstated and oversimplified.  

Facebook Reunites Long-Lost Family Members

This article illustrates one of the ways in which Facebook functions not only as a recreational networking tool, but also as a means for bringing about great change in individual lives. In this instance, lost siblings were able to find each other after 37 years of separation, and after years of failed attempts, by utilizing the medium of Facebook. Facebook has become significant to the public in a way that transcends the more obvious functions of status updates and friend requests; it allows people to connect in ways that their resources previously might have prohibited. For Steve Inman, the cost to even begin the search for Sally (his sister, believed to have disappeared in Korea) was $30,000. Costs would increase once the investigation was underway. The social networking site allowed the Inman family to sidestep these prohibitive costs, serving as an equal platform where all users are able to connect with one another regardless of their financial state. It is also worth considering that both Sally and Steve independently decided to utilize Facebook to locate each other, indicating that the site is considered so universal and ubiquitous that they each thought it would be worth trying.

[Sally Blue on Skype, with her biological mother Diane Drinkwine in the foreground.
The pair were reunited through Facebook after Sally's brother, Steve, used the platform
to make a page about her disappearance.]

While the details of their story may have been unique, Sally and Steve were not the first family to be reunited by the social networking platform. Elliott Cox actually hired a private investigator, but after much expense was still unable to locate his missing niece. 22 years after he last saw her, Facebook reunited them. After much frustration and years of going through the 'proper channels', Allan Silberstein found his sister through Facebook by running a simple search for her name. The family had been separated by the Holocaust 25 years ago. Facebook has also reunited adopted children with their birth parents, and parents with children lost during a separation from their partner. Facebook has even helped locate children kidnapped by strangers, such as in the case of Carlina White, who was abducted from a hospital at just 9 days old.

Clearly, Facebook can be more than just a way to broadcast the intricacies and mundane details of our daily lives. Can anyone else think of similar situations, where something as seemingly trivial as Facebook has forever changed the lives of its users?

Internet censorship

Like the Facebook map that showed who was connected, this shows that all the connectivity that the net provides has political boundaries.

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/04/5988217-internet-censoring-almost-everybodys-doing-it

Congress Questions Facebook

Matt posted about how Facebook is investing money into their lobbying efforts.  Representative Markey and Barton from the House's bipartisan Privacy Caucus sent Zuckerberg a letter asking Facebook to answer some questions about their attempts to release private data to third party websites.  You can read a summary of the letter on Congressman Markey's website.  There is also a link on that site to a copy of the full letter.

Free Internet is a Birth Right

Scrolling through my daily yahoo headline fix I came across this article on the "World's Most Innovative Citites". The reading showcases the 21st century push to "go green" with the new advancements in technology or to use established technology in a environmentally friendly way, but the one that really caught my attention is the innovative contribution of Estonia's Government. They have claimed that free access to the internet is a birth right and no one should be without ability to plug into it. The Wi-Fi access covers basically every nook and cranky of Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn claims that they are the net-savvy capital of the Balitc Region. Go Figure.


http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-37533159

News Corp The Daily iPad digtial newspaper demo

Egypt condensed

I think Carr would have a good time with this. However, I've been trying to follow the events and some things I missed have been linked up by CNN here:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/03/egypt.protests.timeline/index.html?iref=allsearch

They update it as event unfold, but I would recommend this as an annotation and actually read longer news articles regarding these events.

Social media/marketing gone wrong

I think this goes a bit too far. Thoughts?

Kenneth Cole Egypt tweets ignite firestorm

Egypt and Facebook

Cecilia Kang and Ian Shapira's Facebook treads carefully after its vital role in Egypt's anti-Mubarak protests is an article that briefly discusses how Facebook was used to rally potential protestors, which really focuses on how Facebook is trying to protect their image.

What Would Facebook Lobby For?

Here's a quick one. Something that's easy to forget is the influence that major corporations have on law-making these days. With high-tech companies such as Microsoft and Google being some of the most profitable companies in existence, their influence in Washington is undoubtedly heard. It makes you wonder: What would Facebook lobby for?

Here's an article on Facebook's plans to "beef up its lobbying power"

Watson = The Future

While we were in class today, something reminded me of IBM's new creation. It must have been while we talked about Huxley's "Brave New World" and thinking about how our future is only going to consist more of what we love--technology.

There is a computer that has been created to battle on Jeopardy, against two of the biggest champions ever, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. The only thing this leads me to think is: is this really our future? Are computers/robots going to be like this in the future? Is this really even necessary, or is IBM just showing how far they can push the limits of computers?

I couldn't find the video I wanted, but I did find three others. The first goes on to explain the creation and talk to past champions.



The following videos are different opinions--one is a commercial from IBM promoting "Watson," and the other is two random guys on a video blog. Personally, I'd rather watch the two random guys and their opinions. "So it's one of those moments where you're like, 'Oh.. wow.. so we are building computers that are drastically smarter than we are. Welcome to the 21st century..'"





Thoughts? Is "Watson" a good thing? A sign of things to come?

Conan's Message to Egypt

This is awesome beyond words.  Amusing ourselves to death.  

‘Tree octopus’ is latest evidence the internet is making kids dumb, says group

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110202/ts_yblog_thelookout/tree-octopus-is-latest-evidence-the-internet-is-making-kids-dumb-says-group

This a very interesting article that explains how a study done by a group called Pearson (http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/01/prweb5010934.htm), said "Pearson's release explained that the Department of Education funded the study and that it was administered by Dr. Donald Leu, a former teacher and "national authority on integrating technology into instruction." Leu's study highlighted fallacious reports on the fate of the "tree octopus" -- an allegedly endangered species roaming the treetops of the Pacific Northwest -- as a key illustration of this baleful trend.

Researchers on Leu's team asked a group of students to hunt down information on the critter, which of course does not exist. But the same researchers pulled a bit of trickery on the students -- they directed them to a website dedicated to saving the mythical tree octopus from extinction. And presto: the kids taking part in the study fell for the hoax and even continued to believe in the tree octopus after the study's leaders explained that there was no such thing."

What do you guys and gals think about this? Should we be worried?

Forced Partial Media Deprivation

I am posting an email conversation I had with a student from MCS 222 last semester.  The student is doing a study abroad in Reunion, which as she mentions is a small island in the Indian Ocean.  Here is the exchange which is interesting in terms of our discussion on Tuesday.

Student to me:

I was thinking that you might like to know that the Media Deprivation assignment has somewhat become my life now, making up its own rules for me. I'm studying abroad on an island in the Indian Ocean called Réunion. They are very up to date and Americanized however, I was told by the program coordinator that there wouldn't be Internet in the dorms and I didn't bring my laptop with me, just my iPad. Well, there is Internet (not Wifi though so my iPad is useless in the dorms). I'm obviously not going to buy a computer for the sole purpose of using it during my stay so if I want to use my iPad I have to go somewhere on campus that has Wifi. They do have a library with computers, but being French, the hours are limited. The library opens at 8 and closes on 5 Mon - Fri and 9-12 on Sat. Typing long emails on the iPad can be very annoying, so I usually wait to go to the library to send emails to my family and friends. After 5 however, I'm Internet less for the rest of the night. I usually read books on my iPad or play games that don't require Internet connection - or take a walk into town.

 

Another deprivation is no cell phone. I do not plan on purchasing one here and the friends that I've met have resorted to slipping notes underneath my door if they want to tell me something (because they know I also have no Internet).

 

Obviously I'm managing - because I have to - and not having a cell phone isn't that hard, it's not having Internet at your fingertips 24/7. Because of the time difference, I write an email in the morning (when everyone in Maryland is most likely sleeping) and won't be able to check for a response until the next day. It's frustrating and definitely made my first week alone very hard.

 

I'm curious to see upon my return home if I'll treat my cell phone like a brand new toy and run up the texting bill, feeling like I'm experiencing this new technology or rarely use it since I have gotten used to its absence. I've also noticed while yes, they do have iPhones here which surprised me, not everyone has a cell phone. You rarely see people using them if they do. I've never seen anyone sneak a text during class, or even texting while they're eating in the cafeteria. Facebook however...I've heard about that more than cell phones!

 

I hope the semester started off well and you can now tell your students that the assignment isn't impossible!

Me to student:

Thanks for the email!  Your experience sounds very interesting (and
yes, a little frustrating).  Are you the only one without Internet
access in the dorms or are there others?  I like the lo-fi solution of
sliding notes under your door.  In my day we all had white boards
outside our rooms that people would leave messages on.  Sort of a
low-tech facebook wall.

I would be interested in hearing more about how the students are using
facebook.  Are they using it the same way that American college
students are or are their differences?

I am glad you had some practice leading up to your forced media
deprivation.  Going for walks into the town sounds great.  I wonder if
you feel that not having access to these technologies has affected the
way you socialize.  Are you more or less social, especially in terms
of not having constant access to your friends back home?  Or is there
no impact whatsoever?  I am wondering if having constant access might
allow us to remain more detached in situations that seem foreign.
Anyway, me and my questions.

Good luck with your classes and make sure to have lots of fun.

Student to me: 

As far as I know, I'm the only person who doesn't have Internet access in their room. The people that I can see from my balcony all have computers.

 

I definitely think that not having access to the Internet whenever I want has caused me to be more social and get out into my surroundings. The first week here was really rough. All I wanted to do was talk to my parents and my friends because I didn't know anyone. On Sunday, the library is always closed and I just craved human interaction so much that I plucked up the courage to knock on a random persons door and said "Hi, I'm new here and I don't have any friends." Even though she speaks very little English and my French is so-so, she invited me in and answered as many questions as she could. Since then, we've stopped by each others rooms time to time. If I had Internet, I know that I wouldn't have even thought to go over there when I could just Skype with my friends from home.

 

I was very surprised to find that Facebook is used exactly the same way here as in the United States. When you go into the library, half of the computers have Facebook up, with people creeping through pictures. The girl that I met on Sunday immediately friended me. I met some German exchange students who spoke English and when they found I didn't have a phone they said "We'll find you on Facebook." Walking around with French people, I can understand very little, but I do understand when they say Facebook! I knew America was obsessed with it, but I didn't know the rest of the world was too (or at least on its way).

Let me know if there are any other questions I can answer. I would love to hear what your students think of my experience and wonder if I have turned any of them off from studying abroad! :)

Do any of you have any questions for her?  Would you enjoy a study abroad if you were cut off from Internet access for a majority of the time?  Do you think the technology you have access to changes the way you socialize in new situations? 

"Don't be left behind."

The readings from Carr and Watkins both touched on the idea that part of our dependency on technology stems from the want to be included in social circles. This made me think of these two commercials from AT&T:

The tagline at the end of the commercials is "Don't be left behind" emphasizing the quickness of AT&T's network. It seems obvious the company is trying to make money off of people's want for quick and new information.

I was surprised to see such blatant examples.

Point, Snap, Hold...Capture

I love looking through yahoo's homepage and browsing the headlines. The one that caught my eye today was this find from Gizmodo. The article shows the ways in which we're experimenting with the traditional notions of photography and coming up with beautiful snapshots. Believe it or not the pictures were taken at night! Take a Look!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20110128/od_yblog_upshot/day-at-night

Is the Internet Teaching Us to Share?

I ran across this TED Talk recently and thought it seemed relevant to what we've been discussing. Rachel Botsman argues that the internet has led to a movement she refers to as "collaborative consumption," which describes the recent explosion in traditional sharing, bartering, renting, trading, etc. This has led to an overall decrease of emphasis placed on worth of the material good, and more on the end result it delivers (e.g., the hole a drill provides is more important than the drill itself). She cites some obvious websites such as Craigslist, eBay, and Netflix, as well as some lesser known ones (at least to me) like Swap.com, which allows users the ability to make a list of things they want and things they have to trade; it then automatically arranges trades between users. Do you agree with her statement that the internet is contributing to a culture of sharing? Has "collaborative consumption" influenced the current "green" movement?

Facebook Language

There is so much to talk about when it comes to Facebook.  Clive Thompson's "Secret Messages in the Digital Age" is about the way that teenagers aware of their parents surveillance are writing coded status updates to communicate to their friends while keeping Mom and Dad in the dark.  This essay quotes Dana Boyd who we will be reading later in the semester. 

More Mooney, More Problems

A friend of mine posted this link on my facebook page: an Bogost's Cow Clicker.  Bogost is an academic who writes about video games.  He has created this game as a critique of Facebook's Zanga games that have thrived economically.  Do any of you play any of the Zynga games on Facebook?  What do you think of Bogost's analysis?

What Would Walter Benjamin Say?

In Carr's book that we read a chapter from today, he talks about Google's strategy to provide and endless amount of free information so that they can charge advertisers based on the amount of traffic they host.  Here is another really cool example.  Vlad Savov wrote about Google's recent work with some of the most important museums in the world in the post, "Google Art Project offers gigapixel images of art classics, 'indoor' Street View of museums."