Wayne’s Spot

Well i finished my podcast. So im adding a link here, and on the com 300 page.

link- http://students.washington.edu/jrz2/com300/Podcast_final.m4a

hope you guys enjoy

Well, the suns out and it seems like spring is coming out of hiding. So that means the quarter is coming to an end. Before that happens im going to answer these three questions for feedback to next quarters class.

 1. The most interesting thing that i have learned in this course, to me personally is learning how to blog. I dont have a blogging website and now i do. I never thought i even wanted one before, but now that i have been exposed to how incredibly easy it is to manage and how i can display my thoughts and ideas as a reference or for the world to see, i think is something that is extremely fun and important to the course and the things we have learned this quarter.

2. There is only one thing that i wished we had more time to study, and that is how to customize my podcast. I mean i have the major gist of how to incorporate my ideas and how to make it look/sound pretty with editing and all. But i wish we had a little more time to play with the functions and tools to get a real grasp on the technology. Podcasts are becoming much more popular, before this class i had no idea what a podcast even was. But after finding out i had to make one, ive been seeing podcasts pop up in the everyday things that i do that i never even noticed. I find podcasting very interesting and wish this class was alittle longer so we could have more time to study these things.

3. The topic that was the least interesting to me was probably the examination of newspaper websites and how they are incorporating blogging and RSS feeds into their sites. People say that newspapers are a dying medium, i would like to argue that and take a different position, but thats not the point. I thought that searching over many newspapers websites and and figuring out how to navigate through it a number of times was quite tedious to get the point across. I understand that newspapers are adapting to blogs and such, however, newspapers are quite complicated. Many have a sign up page where you cant enter the site without signing up. In addition, many sites are very unorganized with the implementation of blogging and i just felt that seeing it was very important, but maybe from a different stance or viewpoint. All in all, i didnt even think that assignment was that bad, but compared to all the things we have done in the class, i would consider it the least interesting.

 Article Summary-

First off, ill start with the summary of the article I used in my discussion leader presentation before I reflect on the experience. The article I used was “Cell phones May Become Traffic ‘Probes’” by Amy Gilroy. The main purpose was the article was that because nearly all cell phones already include GPS technology, GPS and cellular phone networks like Sprint Nextel are taking the technology to a new level creating traffic reports through the GPS components of cell phones. It is estimated that nearly 70% of America owns cell phones. Therefore, through accumulating the sample of the phones that are running on roads would compile an accurate report of congestion and conditions. However, the article explains that there are some privacy issues involved. This is mainly due to the fact that since they are able to track you through your cell phones GPS technology, it also gives them data about how fast you are driving. So, what’s stopping them from also using that information to give you traffic tickets? Anyways, they provided a few solutions about how they could tackle the problem. The solutions they presented were to use anonymous probes in order to only collect general data without identities involved, that way people could receive traffic reports on their phone while networks are using cell phones to track road speeds, traffic spots and congestions. The article states that right now they need written consent from all the cell phones they will use to be able to use their information. I chose this article because of the relationship between the topic and this weeks discussion topic of emergent technologies. The combination of technologies in multimedia devices has been exponentially growing at a very rapid pace. This article was posted in Twice magazine. Twice is an acronym for “This week in Consumer electronics” which I thought was perfect for this week. Furthermore, the article tries to comment on the future of using cell phones as traffic probes. Many corporations such as clear channel and GPS networks are investing large amount of money to develop this in a way that will not violate anyone’s rights or privacy and find a probable solution. 

Discussion Reflection -In reflection of being a discussion leader for the week, I thought it was a really good way to integrate digital media and independent research. I really enjoyed the flexibility with the presentation because we could research what was interesting to me personally. In addition, this made leading discussion among peers much easier because I could become much more knowledgeable on the subject and thoroughly give answers people’s questions. Since being a discussion leader wasn’t presenting in front of a big group that always took away a lot of the nerves involved, it become much easier when u only have a small group of 3 of 4 as your audience when you give a pitch or presentation. Also, I feel that it makes everything much more interactive with the group, in my presentation i incoporated a video from you tube that could be applied to everyones interest because it was about a new multimedia device much like the iphone but with some extras and differences that go beyond it. However, I do wish we were able to go around the room and hear about what the other discussion leaders conjured up, but all in all, I think everything went very well.

Sources-
Gilroy, A. (2007, February 12). Cellphones May Become Traffic ‘Probes‘. Twice, 22,(4). Retrieved February 26, 2007, from Proquest Database

Both vonage and speakeasy provide service to my home. The costs for the service for vonage comes to $24.99 a month and the equipment costs are $49.99, which actually becomes free after rebate. In addition, Vonage allows me to keep my current number for whatever reason i may have and to avoid the hassle.

Speakeasy on the other hand, provides service to my home, however, the only service that can be provided is a T1. Which, is extremely expensive for a home, consequently, Speakeasy does not provide service costs or equipment costs that are involved or at least none that i could find. In addition, i am unable to determine whether or not I can keep my current number unavailable information.

Overall, this process was relatively easy. However, it seems that Vonage does a better job at providing you information about services, costs, and equipment costs in comparison to speakeasy. Vonage, allows you to implement location information through a step by step process that is very straightforward and simple to find if the service is available in your location. On the other hand, Speakeasy is also straightforward and easy to use in the sense of searching for service availability however, speakeasy seems to be a little more complicated and confusing when searching for service costs and equiment costs. Although, this may be due to the case that only a T1 service is available for me.

My personal opinion and thoughts on these services is that even though it seems like a good service. However, i feel it to be quite unecessary at this point in time of my life. I do not need to make international calls, or any calls outside of Washington for that matter. My cell phone is my personal choice and first choice when it comes to my communication needs. However, when evaluating the availability between the two, and if i had to choose, i would prefer Vonage over Speakeasy mainly because Vonage provides broadband at a lower cost.  Furthermore, since Speakeasy only allows T1 service to my location, it would not be within my financial range of such services. However, when contemplating what would entice me to buy such services would have to fall under whether or not it is a necessity for me in my social life. Or maybe, have such services may be more convenient if i were to be someone who travels quite often.  All in all, VoIP and such companies like vonage and speakeasy are emerging into our societies at an extremely fast pace. Maybe in the future i will use these services, however at the moment i just dont see the need.

This week’s reading I found particular interesting. Mainly because I have heard of VoIP in theory, but never knew it was actually being used. For example, those Vonage commercials, I see them on the TV all the time but I never knew what it was. I thought it was just another cellphone company like verizon or sprint. To me the reading was like turning on a light bulb or a eureka because it connected a lot of information which I had minimal knowledge about.

Anyways, on the the question of the week, “How do I expect VoIP to impact cable and telephone networks (both are regulated infrastructure industries).” Well to be honest, right now at the moment I do not believe there is a major impact except for higher rates of competition. I see VoIP more beneficial towards businesses and such, and not so much for families. Although there are many benefits like the features they include, it seems like the list is really long, like being able to bring your home phone on a business trip or all the extras that other phone companies make you pay for that you would get for free with VoIP. But, it seems that there are more disadvantages that come with the network than benefits that they provide. I’m not going to go in depth with all the things wrong with it, but if I personally had an emergency, id like knowing that my 911 call is going to get through.

Furthermore, I haven’t even touched on the subject of cell phones. In this day in age, someone’s cell phone is their only way of communication, or it is used as if it were their home phone. But that may be beyond the point, in the near future VoIP may be more widely accepted and incorporated with current cable and telephone networks. However, I just don’t see a major shift of the general population switching over to VoIP in the present time because of the absence of a regulated infrastructure, “hiccups” of broadband services, and all the other forms of communication we currently have, ie aim, e-mail, and video chat that are free with the internet that are also free.

Discussion Questions

1. How could VoIP affect cell phone use?
2. Who would NOT want to use VoIP? And why?
3. The digital divide consists of the elderly and many poverty stricken areas, how will this affect those currently without internet connections, or those who don’t know know how to use the internet? (i.e elderly)

Well i think its safe to say, If everyone had access to the internet and the resources like the U.S. then the internet would be a fine and dandy place. However that is not the case. The cyberworld is a public sphere. Where anyone can access with either a dail-up connection or something faster. Anywho, anyone who has this connection is able to post up their thoughts into cyberspace into a deliberative democracy. Not to mention the resources available on the internet such as information. However, not everyone is as fortunate and are not able to access these technologies, thus a digital divide has emerged.

This week we read an article called  “The wireless revolution and Universal Access”. I found this article quite amusing as well as difficult to read. Although, i found it very interesting all the different types of connections that are possible to connect to the internet. Reading this article however reminded me of something that my friend told me the other day. My friend was a volunteer in Africa for about 5-6 months. And the village he stayed in did not have any electricity. However, a trip to the city you could buy all the necessities needed and electricity was available for internet access. That how he kept his friends updated with a blog. but anyways what i found very interesting, is even though the individuals living in the village had no electricity and we in the digital divide, is that many of them had cell phones. A little contradictory in a village with no electricity huh? In order to charge these cell phones individuals would have to go to the city to have their cell phones charged. They had machines such as telephone booths or atms where you would pay to charge your cell phone. This to me represents the “Universal Access”. That people in third world countries could have access to the internet through wi-fi and other wireless connections.

However, answering the question that was posted this week. What is the relationship between cyberspace as a public space and accessibility standards? In terms of the internet as a public sphere, this entails that the cyberworld is a deliberative democracy thus by virtue everyone should have access. Although this may not be the case, and many places that have never used the internet still get by, but this also means that those from developing countries are not given the same resources. Maybe in the future, access wont be a problem, and wireless technologies will be common all across the world. But right now it seems like a club, where only some have access.

Discussion Questions-

1.  Do you believe that wireless will eventually take over direct connect access?

2.  In terms of access, if cheap affordable internet access is available, does this mean more people will connect? or will obstacles such as computer costs and WLAN routers and other accessories needed to connect contribute to implications in the digital divide?

3. Do you believe the internet is truly a deliberative democracy?

Last week we collected data on various newspapers and the various information posted on their websites. Organizing such information like the number of blogs and RSS feeds and the circulation of that specific newspaper, we have determined that many newspapers have incorporated blogs into their web site.  However, some were more informative and well structured than others. For example, something that really bothered me while i was trying to collect data, the register screen kept on popping up, keeping me from accessing the web site. Even though, it was not difficult to actually sign up, i just thought it might deter people from accessing their web site because of small annoying obstacles. However, it did make me sign up in order to collect the information.  In addition, many of the sites provided a blog index where you could easily navigate through the sites blogs accessing the ones that were of interest to you. The sites that did not have this tool seemed to be very random and unorganized when searching for information. I noticed that on the The Daily News New York, it stated there was only one blog with no index. However, through searching through various other links and sections of the site, i noticed that there were actually more blogs. Although, many citizens would not go through the effort to find the blogs, it just shows that because of the structure of the web site, navigating and searching for informative blogs on their site proved troublesome.

In a final thought, the rise of blogs into society has been a quite swift merger into the newspaper industry. It seems that they themselves are trying to adapt to the emergence of the new digital medium and are not adequatley utilizing the resources that are involved. However, as time progesses, i believe that newspapers will soon understand the effect blogs have on citizens and put much more effort into structuring their sites for easy navigations for subscribers and visitors alike.

Hello all, well originally my plan was to cover a few topics during my podcast. But i realize i am only limited to around 6 minutes. However i think that should be enough time to go over things such as the rise of ecommerce and online shopping.  Additionally to go over a few of the figures such as revenues and such displaying the immense growth of ecommerce in the Us. Also, I plan to implement a few online sights that display the cheapest and best deals for such things. In addition, hope to be able to touch on the digital divide. I will only touch up on this if i run out of time.

This week I had the pleasure in reading The Race of the Web Sites 2004 about the differences in web site management and structure. And Joe Trippi Reinvents Campaigning, in summary Joe Trippi seems to be the first who was able to utilize the internet for its resources in obtaining vast amounts of fundraising and support turnout. However, how does Internet technology impact politics? and Do i agree with the premise of these authors?

Well last quarter I took a course called Com Technology and Politics. And i even got to meet the libertarian candidate running for state senate. He gave us a lecture about his views and more importantly his website. To be honest, i dont think he knew anything about his website because our professor was drastically trying to keep him on track because he never spoke about the impact of the internet when thats what he was called in for. But anyways more importantly back to subject. Internet technology impacts politics in various ways. For example, having a great campaign site thats very functional and appealing may not win you the election. However, not having a web site could definately cost you the election. Politics have only recently been utilizing the resources of the internet through multiple channels such as contributions, engaging citizens, and even plainly explaining their views. However, campaign sites have been evolving and becoming much more detrimental to politics. The internet is an easy way to find out about politics and sign up for email lists to keep updated with certain campaigns.

Furthermore, answering the question of do i agree with these authors? My answer is yes. For Kathy’s article it’s quite interesting, because i had done an experiment similar to the comparisons of campaign sites. However, i personally analyzed Brian Baird’s 2002 and 2006 campaign site, noting the differences and changes to the site in 4 years. Mainly additions such as links, videostreams, and additional information was present in the 2006 than compared to the 2002. In addition, i also agree with the article about Joe Trippi. Mainly because of the events that unfolded, and how he was able to obtain such durastic contributions within such a short period of time. The internet is a very clever way to keep citizens civicly engaged and keep them updated with following events. Campaign sites also bring to the table a marketability of the candidate that was not used in prior elections before the use of the internet by politics. In my final thought, the internet impacts politics on a great scale. It can be seen as a different type of outlet, where less financially able candidates are able to reach the voters in ways were impossible before the internet.

Discussion Questions
1. How are politics using the internet as a way of competing with other candidates?
2. How are politics utilizing the networking capabilities of the internet with collaboration with advocacy groups and advocacy web sites?
3. Is there a standard in the political world that requires campaign sites to hold a certain variety or amount of information that is posted on a candidates site?

Hello all, this week’s reading was a chapter exerted out of the book, “From Tom Paine, to blogs and beyond” and an NPR article about the popular emergence of podcasts and the potential involved in business and advertising. Anywho, this weeks questions is “What are the implications of blogging technology on established media?” 

In Dan Gilmor’s book, he mainly focuses on the change between journalism and print newspaper and the web. How individuals are empowered through the ability to produce their own thoughts and opinion on the web. Pretty much that journalist’s, newspapers, and society can all do journalism together. In addition, he goes furthermore into Sept 11 and the background information in the blogging world after the events. However, back to my main point, it is true that individuals and newspaper can collaborate together. A point in the chapter that really stuck in my mind was that luring “viewers by violence and entertainment” is seen as the money maker in news. I feel we see too much of this in our news today. Sometimes stories of chaos and violence take place of the stories that we should be hearing. Thus, i see blogging as an outlet, for news and the stories important to individuals and others to make interesting news without voilence and entertainment as the focus of their words. Blogging technology on newspapers, television, and journalism are somewhat of a counterpart that includes individuals and society in the mix as well.

Furthermore, on NPR’s article on podcasting, reveals the affect podcast’s have had on the radio medium. I see blogging technology, and the emergence of radio podcasts available for download as quite complementary. Even though the article somewhat focuses on the potential of business and advertising the main point is that the public requested podcasts. Therefore NPR took into account the mass amount of requests and emails from individuals and incorporated podcasts for individuals to download. Furthermore, those podcasts that are interesting to them or relate to their thoughts and ideas are able to either post the podcast on their blog, or can post a link to the site where they are able to find the podcast. I see this as a new way to be informed. A new outlet for information to spread. In my final words, blogging technology has an affect on all aspects of established media, changing media and adapting it to the new technologies that emerge.

Discussion Questions

1.  In the future, how will podcasts be affected by advertisements and how are they affected today?

2. If podcasts were similar to mp3s on Itunes and you had to purchase them for 99 cents each, would this affect the radio industry? Would there be more room for potential business growth and income if this were the case?

3.  How have new digital media been benefited by blogging? What are the downfalls of blogging on new digital media?