Assignment for Thursday, March 8th

1. I don’t know if I can identify the one specific thing that was the most important thing I learned in this course. But I think the most important thing I got out of the course, so I guess learned, was a confidence that I can learn to use new technologies successfully. After I learned that we would have to do a podcast in this course, I was definately nervous. I consider myself kind of technologically challenged. But this course made me realize that this idea was all in my head. I also learned that new technology is something that really interests me. I hope to take more courses along the lines of this class, and explore technology a lot more on my own, like making my own podcasts and videos.

2. I would have liked to spent more time on emerging technologies. For me, this was the most interesting unit, and I wish we had more time to discuss it. I also wish that we had more time to go a little more in-depth with the various projects. For example it would have been cool if we had learned how to attach video and picture to our audio podcasts (without garageband). But I guess that is a little unrealistic in a 10 week course.

3. The least interesting thing for me was the history of different technologies, especially the Internet. This is probably because I have learned about it in other classes, so it was all review.

VoIP Service

I looked at vonage.com. I picked the residental plan with unlimited minutes. It’s 24.99 a month. Some fees would be applied to this, but they wouldn’t tell me what unless I gave them my address and everything, so I guess some fees will be added. For my phone I picked VTech IP8100-2, or two cordless phones. The price for these was about $150, but they offered an instant rebate that lowered the price to about $110. I can’t tell the exact price because it doesn’t include certain charges to set up the system. The router was free after the rebate. I asked them to give me a number because the only local number I have is a cell phone, but I don’t think that this should make a difference in class. I thought the website was a little confusing to use, they didn’t really tell me which equipment I would need to buy, they just gave me a list.

Speakeasy was about $55 per month. I found this website a little difficult too. I was a little confused about what services where included and what other fees might apply. I don’t think I would use this service. This service included broadband internet and I would use my cell phone as my primary phone.

I liked the vonage website better and with their service I got a phone in addition to my cell, which is what I would want. I would actually think about using this service. Currently, I am living in the dorms, but am currently looking for an apartment for next year. As I said in a previous blogpost, I make a lot of long distance calls to the East Coast. I rely on calling cards and my cell phone, but with my cell, I have to wait until my nighttime or weekend minutes kick in, during the week with the 3 hour time difference, I cannot make long distance calls usually. So Sundays, I sometimes end up on the phone for a long time. It’s also inconvient to not be able to call when I want, and have to wait until the weekend, because I’m worried about eating up my minutes. I would consider using this service, because I could get a cell-phone plan with less minutes and make all my local calls and long distance calls from my vonage phone. I think I might look into this service more for next year actually. What I like about it is that I have unlimited minutes for just $25 a month. I think that if I had this, I would end up using a lot less cell phone minutes and it would work out really well.

Reading Reflection for Feb. 27th

I think that this technology will really change the way we think about phone service. In a previous blog, I mentioned that I sometimes use a service like the one featured to talk to my friend. My friend recently moved to Poland, and using the service over the internet is much cheaper than placing long distance calls to her. When she came to visit recently, she used her the service so that I could virtually “meet” her new friends in Poland. Without the use of things like long-distance calls over the internet, as well as im and email, I would not be able to have as much communication with her as I currently do.

I think that this service would be really good, especially if you have cable internet, and most of the people I know do. It sounds cheaper than traditional long distance through the phone company. My family makes a lot of long distance calls because most of my family is on the East Coast (in the tri-state area mostly). We end up making a lot of long-distance calls every month and it gets really pricey. I might actually mention this article to my mom so she could see about getting this service.

Although, I think a situation like this is bad for the phone companies in a sense. They will have to change the services they offer. If companies like Vonage start to pose a huge threat the the more traditional phone companies, such as AT&T, they will have to restructure. They will have to either get rid of their long distance service, or more likely, they will have to start offering these kinds of service and possibly internet service as well. Customers like my mom, might be more willing to try this kind of technology if it came from their telephone service provider, because they already trust the company and would not have to totally switch to a new provider. I think that this will ust mean more of what we are already seeing- companies that are forced to restructure their business and provide many different services and products to stay competitive in the current market, i.e. convergence.

Discussion Questions:

Do you use VoIP in any form? Do those stupid Vonage commercials make more sense now?

Do you think enought people make enough long-distance calls that they would be interested in this, given the disadvantages, maily reliability and problems with 911 calls?

Do you see this as just another example of convergence in the market place?

Reading Reflection for Feb. 20th

In this class, we have discussed how the internet is in many ways public property. The Internet has no owner or no central location. Anyone can use it, anyone can have a website or a blog. Of course, this last part is in theory. In reality there are limitations. The Internet should be a public space that we all have access to and can all use as we please, but it does not really work out that way. We have discussed things like government limitations on how people use the Internet, but this article brings up another way that makes it difficult for the Internet to truly be a public space: accessibility. Accessibility and public space are related because the accessiblity in certain areas makes it difficult for the public to use the Internet (the digital divide). Universal access would of course solve this problem, everyone would have access and it would truly be a public space. This is a nice thought, but I don’t think it will work out in reality.

Accessibility concerns could be solved by the WMANs that the author explains, but a digital divide will still exist. Not everyone will have access to the internet, and there will still be those that can use the benefits of the internet in ways that others can’t (have and have nots). There will still be people that cannot afford computers and even if we solve this problem, there will still be the problem of some have faster computers than others. Because of all the advances in computer technology, in several years, the computer you have will be much slower than new computers. There will always be people that cannot keep up. This will change the way you use the Internet, or just technology in general. Because of this, I think that the Internet will never be a truly public space. There will always be governments trying to regulate it, but more, there will always be people that are unable to keep up.

Discussion Questions:

How do you define “public space”?

Do you see universal internet access in the foreseeable future? Dial-up? High speed?

Is this problem solveable, or will there always be have and have nots in terms of technology?

Comments on Blog Data Table Assignment

I learned a lot about organization of websites through this assignment. Some of the websites I visited were poorly organized. I think this would really discourage users. For example, the East Valley Tribune was really confusing to use to find their blogs. They were scattered throughout the website, seemingly randomly, and there was not a complete blog index. I found this really frustrating. As a user, I couldn’t just browse the blogs on their website, I had to pick a topic and then scroll all the way down the page to see if there was a blog for that page (or topic, as pages were sorted by topic, or geographic area sometimes).  They did have a blog index, but it only had about two thirds of the blogs for this newspaper’s website.

My recommendations for a newspaper building a website with blogs, would be to have a complete blog index that is easy to find. For example, USA Today’s website when you click on the “blog” link on the left hand bar of the opening page, it takes you straight to the blog index. This makes it really easy for users to find the index, and I think it makes them more likely to go to the blogs. The blogs on this website are then sorted by topic, so weather for example. The author’s name, picture and title of the blog are clear to the user. I think USA Today’s website is an excellent example of being easy for the user to access blogs.

Podcast Update

I’ve been trying to come up with ideas of how to use the Terrorism Handbook on foxnews.com in my podcast. I might just have to read it or something.

But I haven’t really been thinking about materials too much, more the audio recording aspect of the project. I bought a microphone so I’ve been practicing using that. I’m leaning towards using unscipted material for my audio part of the project. I have experience with public speaking, so I feel pretty confident that I can do it okay without a lot of filler words. I don’t want the audio to sound really scripted and unnatural. So mostly what I’ve been doing as far as the project goes, is experimenting with the microphone and using the audacity software.

Reading for Feb. 13th

I’m not sure that I see the internet as inherently changing politics. I see websites, blogs, etc. as another media outlet that candidates can use to try to get votes, or get citizens more involoved in their campaign. I know that now a lot of the politicians have blogs, we talked about this the other day in class. We talked about a change in that now candidates announce things over their websites first (such as that they are running for president). That is interesting to me, I suppose that is a big change, instead of announcing that they are running for office in the newspaper, they announce it online. But really, they’re just replacing a more “traditional” media format with a “newer” one.

Professor Gill’s article made me realize how much is involved in a candidates website. I don’t consciously consider all those things when looking at a website, but I guess on some level, a user would notice. I might think that I don’t like a website or that its confusing, but may not be able to articulate why. But afte reading the article, I realize how involved making a website can be, especially for something as important and life-changing as running for office. I see politicans using the web as another way to access voters, and one more marketing tool, one more way for them to try to get money, or voters on their side. I guess I don’t really see the internet as changing politics, but simply being used by politicians.

Discussion Questions:

Have you ever visited a political candidates website?

If a candidates website was really confusing, or nto visually appealing, do you think it would change your opinion of that particular candidate?

Do you think being able to access a candidates political stance on the internet (instead of listening to them on TV, radio or reading the paper) makes people more likely to make informed decisions?

Rosenberg

What I think is interesting about Rosenberg is that he has really adapted to the changing face of the news media. In another class I’m taking, we are discussing the “dying newspaper”. I agree with Rosenberg in that news organizations will never completely vanish, but reporters must now be more flexible and adaptable to change in the way news is reported. Rosenberg has adapted in addition to writing for news organizations, he has his blog. As an additional source of income, he consults. He’s wearing a lot of hats.

I also thought it was interesting how he was saying with his blog, his writing can now reach a wider audience than it could if it was just published in a local or city newspaper. Someone in another blog can link to one of his stories or put his blog on their blogroll. This idea of how the internet creates greater interconnectivity is something we have discussed in this class and I liked that he examined this theme in his own career.

Reflection for Feb. 6th

I think that the most obvious implication of blogging for the media is a shift from “big” to “small” media. In the first article, the author discussed this idea of big media. I think this is a really familiar concept to all of us- a few companies seem to control everything from TV to local newspapers. We’re used to this idea. But blogging is the spread of the small news providers. Sometimes blogs discuss politics and big stories that are explored on CNN or The New York Times, sometimes its small news, things we wouldn’t really call news at all, like what someone ate that day. But I see the rise of blogging as a shift from big to small.

This makes me wonder if blogging too will somehow become sucked into big media somehow. It’s already starting, politicians have blogs that they use to spread their own ideas and party platforms. There are blogs everywhere, and there are a few big names, blogs that are well known. Now blogging seems like something that anyone can do, and there are thousands of these little corners of the web with someone’s blog on it. It’s all small right now, pretty much. Like I said, there are a few big names, but they’re not big compared to today’s big media. It’s scary to think that perhaps blogging will not destroy big media, but instead become part of it.

Discussion Questions:

Do you have a blog?

Are there any blogs you visit on a regular basis?

Do you see blogs as mostly useless with a lot of junk that no one cares about, or a useful tool in a society overrun by corporate giants?

Article Presentation

Today I presented the article that I summarized in my last post. I think it went really well. I was surprised by how much the other students discussed the article. I had prepared discussion questions just in case, but everyone seemed to have a comment about the material I had presented. That was good, because it made me think of the article in different ways, I liked hearing other’s viewpoints. Most of the other students in my groups, discussed their own experiences with im . Some criticized certain aspects of the study I presented. One student noted, that it might not be relevant to discussions of our own age group. Others commented on differences in online habits between the age group that added an interesting layer to the discussion. All the questions and opinions, made me look more critically at the article and my own feelings about it. I think because the groups were small, this made discussion easier. If we had presented in front of the entire class, it probably would have been a very different experience. This had a very informal and interactive feel.