Chapter 22 the final blog

There have been many inventions that have lead up to what we now call the internet. of course the invention that makes viewing the internet possible is the computer. The computer has many inventions that have have come before it and lead up to its creation. These inventions consist of the abacus, steam engine, the loom, and many more. All of the inventions play a huge role in creating the computer, a functional interface and the internet. Another invention that does not create material objects, but information is the clock. As stated in our classroom lectures "Clocks are the ancestors of the computer"(Strate). Clocks have been existence to perform many functions and one of those main functions is a form of control to synchronize every individuals actions through out the world. Even though we are in different time zones we are all based on a system that allows everyone to operate and function together. Many of the financial markets in Asia and other countries open and close at different times than that of the United States. In order to keep track and be punctual in these markets we figure out the time difference and relate it to our own time. This is a universal sense of synchronization and has enabled our society's to live and work in conjunction with each other. To prevent crashes in one lane rail road tracks railroad companies configured different time zones within the United States to aid those traveling from places like Philadelphia, which there time is five minutes later than our time. This also created the ability for interstate transportation and travel. As time goes on Professor Strate believes that time will become more and more universal through out the world. Even though this transition will take time and be difficult it is a very large step into synchronizing individual society's into one and making trade, transport and many other things much more simple and logical. This class has been very influential in the teachings and history of New Media. The lectures and constant blogging have proved to be essential in mastering the beginnings of New Media. Thank you for the opportunity to par take in a class like this and I hope everyone has a great summer.

Communication and Cyberspace chapters 8-9

Chapter 8 offers a brief history of the internet, beginning with the ARPAnet, which was a network solely used for research by military and defense agencies. It also details the "culture clash" between the Department of Defense and the computer scientists in the academic community who helped build the ARPAnet in the first place. The computer scientists believed that this technology should be free and open to all individuals, whereas the defense officials were secretive and rigid and wanted it to themselves. Eventually, the ARPAnet declined because it did not support a free flow of information. Giese writes that, "the turning point in the growth of the Internet was the advent of USENET NEWS in 1979 - a 'poor man's ARPAnet.'" USENET eventually spawned discussion boards, and the Internet continued to grow and develop from there.
Chapter 9, written by Ron L. Jacobson, addresses "Questions Concerning Public Interest in and Access to the Information Superhighway." He writes, "What the Internet is really about is the transformation of information rather than its growth." In other words, the world still has the exact same amount of information contained in it as it did before the advent of New Media; New Media is just making it digital and more accessible. The information isn't changing, it's just going from books to online forms. Other questions that come up pertain to literacy and access, and what social consequences come about from this access to information.

Logan Chapters 23-33

In chapters 23-33 of Understanding New Media, the author finishes describing how certain old media have been influence by new media. Ads are now ubiquitous on the internet. Videogames have changed our idea of games forever. The telegraph is now extinct, and the typewriter is almost extinct; however, the QWERTY keyboard lives on. The telephone answering machine has been replaced by voice mail, and smartphones, which are telephones that contain computer functions, are everywhere. Music playing and recording has also been influence by new media; many, if not most people listen to music on iPods or other mp3 players. Movies can now be created by anyone that has a videocamera and shared with the world via YouTube. Radio has been influenced by new media due to the use of satellite radio, online radios, and podcasts. Television shows are now widely available online and can be watched at any time due to the use of DVRs. Last but not least, weapons have even be influenced by new media because many are now robotic or unmanned.

Chapters 16-22

Chapter 17 is about how Webcomics and online comics.  People who publish comics find it easier to find a target audience, along with a cheap and inexpensive way of spreading their works.  Publishers can also make money off of their comics through advertising, sale of merchandise, and the use of an electronic tip jar.  It is also worthy to use the web for comics because comic strips can go infinitely in either direction, making it easier for people to read, as opposed to having to turn pages.  It is also better for creators to use computer software to make images and pictures if they are not the best illustrators or can better portray the image in their head on the web.  Chapter 18 describes the printed work and books.  I thought it was interesting that Logan said the sale of books continues to increase.  I would think that the opposite is happening with inventions like the I-pad and Kindle.  But it is obvious that there are huge concerns in the percentage of time younger people spend with books ever since the emergence of new media.  Like Alan Kay said in class when he came to talk, it is easier for the human eye to read a book close up than it is to read from an I-phone or computer desktop/laptop.  Like Logan says in this section, the left side of the brain needs to read hard copies, making books a medium that will always be a popular medium.  E-books are mentioned in this chapter and although I do own a Kindle, I prefer to read books in their original hard copy.  An interesting concept in this section is called VSTF (visual-syntactic text formatting), which transforms block-shaped text into cascading patterns that help readers identify grammatical structure.  Audio book is also an alternative way to reading and more popular than the e-book.  Listening to an audio book can help people more understand the content of the book by the use of enthusiastic reading.  One disadvantage is that it is more difficult to reread a section than it would be through normal reading.  Chapter 19 is about the wheel, bicycle, and airplane and how it is easier to order airplane tickets online.  Chapter 20 talks about the photograph and how much photographs have changed throughout the years.  It is also just as easy to snap a picture on a cell phone and change the filters to make it look like a professional camera took it.  Chapter 21 discusses newspapers and the news and before I read this chapter, I assumed that it was going to tell me that newspapers are becoming obsolete and news is much easier to get via twitter, the Internet, and other resources.  “One of the concerns journalists have with the ‘new media’ is that they might obsolesce newspapers.  Newspaper readership is in decline.”  More people are signed up for newspapers online, making it easier for people to find out information.  The last chapter, chapter 22, talks about motorcars and how GPS has changed everyday lives for humans.  Telemetrics is an interesting concept because it allows drivers to make payments automatically at the gas pump or at drive-thru restaurants.  Bluetooth technology allows the radio to connect to your phone which adds a hands-free concept.

Chapters 8-15

The first line that caught my attention in chapter eight was in the first paragraph—“The spoken word therefore extends the mind.”  The Internet has many different forms of language, including email, instant messaging, IRC, Usenet news groups, the World Wide Web, etc.  Media will have a numerous amount of effects on the spoken language.  Before writing and mass printing, each village had their own language and after the emergence of these two steppingstones, language has changed in a different way.  New media has a huge impact on spoken language as well as text-based language.  Chapter nine discusses the written word and how new media has impacted it.  “The written word, an extension of the spoken word, is ultimately an extension of the mind.”  New media encourages the use of written word, however, there are so many different types of written language based on different generations, in my opinion.  E-mail, instant messaging, and text messaging cause an instantaneous form of written language as opposed to older forms.  I was rather nervous when I read that William Crossman stated that writing be wiped out by the year 2050.  Chapter ten states a website that I am very comfortable with, Mapquest.com.  I love the fact that technologies in new media can possibly have automated tolling booths.  I am not sure if McLuhan writes this before any knowledge of the EZ Pass, but it has made driving long distances extremely easier and it was an unbelievable invention.  Chapter eleven talks about binary codes, which are used for almost everything nowadays.    Digitization has made the world a much easier place.  New media plays a large role in design, distribution, marketing, and sale of clothes, as stated in chapter twelve.  Everything can be done through the Internet in present day, including one of my favorite past times, online shopping.  I can buy an unlimited amount of clothing online without having to leave my house.  As said in chapter thirteen, new media is everywhere in houses today.  It can regulate lighting, heating, cooling, humidity, and security.  It has made living much easier.  Ecommerce is a huge invention today.  I can get money out of an ATM or charge a purchase to a small piece of plastic called a credit card.  Special cards have been invented for those who are loyal customers and want to know about sales and items of interest, like that of Stop and Shop.  Websites like Amazon and Ebay make it easier for people with less money to find items that have the lowest prices.  Chapters fifteen and sixteen talk about clocks and the print.  Every electronic machine today has a clock, including microwave, TV, cell phones and cars.  The last part of the assignment is about how print is becoming obsolete with the new emergence of “digital images, computer graphics, and the hard copy output of printers connected to computers.”

Internet and Blogging

6/12-chp. 44-46

In addition to the amazing benefits the computer provides, the book also discuses the disservice of the computers. For an example, students usually bring their laptops to class and rather then taking notes they are visiting social media sites and chatting with friends. As a consequent, people fail at developing healthy social lives. Furthermore, the Internet was originally called the “information super highway (236).” I found it interesting that information scientists working for the American military to provide backup communications in case the U.S. had a nuclear attack by the Russians created the Internet. Furthermore, the chapter also discussed blogging. Blogging is important and useful to both the blogger and viewer. This is because there is a mutual effort being made because, the ability to comment allows the reader to give feedback. Furthermore, the blogs also are a news medium. For an example, the book said that people in Iran would use blogging to get across information that would usually be blocked by the government. It is also important to note the problem with Wikipedia. Wikipedia is the 7^th most popular site on the Internet. The problem is it may provide misinformation since it is an open source that anyone can edit. As a result it is important to be careful when using the information.

Logan - Chapters 16-22

Chapters 16-22 of Understanding New Media conclude Logan’s assessment of the impact of New Media on various forms of Old Media. Print, he writes, will be obsolesced by graphics and digital images. Comics are now easily sharable on the Internet. The printed word and books have been influenced by New Media in that books are being put online and are being widely read on devices such as Kindles. Traveling by plane has been influenced because tickets can now be purchased online. Photography is also being changed, due to the use of digital cameras and online photo albums. The press (newspapers) and the news are being changed due to the fact that everything is now on the Internet. The motorcar has also been influenced by New Media because many drivers use GPS to get directions.

Questions of Control

As any new invention the Internet has had many advances through out its’ lifetime. In the beginning the Net was extremely slow and it was very hard to get and maintain a connection, but there have been three new ideas or developments that have changed this. First, Graphic User Interfaces (GUI’s), which were created by Xerox Parc and are now entwined into almost every Personal Computer. Also the advancements of micro chips and there speed has aided the innovation of Graphic User Interfaces. Lastly, the creation and improvement of the Information Superhighway has increased the sufficiency of the bandwidth and has helped with heavy signal loads. Cyberspace has been continually evolving and with that the history of cyberspace is easily forgotten. Those who are working in the Cyber field today is fresh faces and have not experienced past problems that have come about. This may be a problem in the future because of their inability to cope with problems they have never experienced. A huge overbearing concern of many is privacy and how it will be maintained because of the lack of control that is currently on cyberspace. An interesting thought from the reading was that through the Internet advertising companies have switched the way they advertise. It used to be about solving problems or filling the needs of people, but now they have found ways to create needs for products that were never needed before like the iPod. Even though space on the Web seems unlimited many have worries on what that space will be used for and what happens when and if it runs out.

The Internet, Web, and Social media

Through out the beginning of the personal computer or the PC the leader of the industry was IBM. IBM is a company that is very regimented. They had all employees dress in Navy Blue pinstripe suits and encouraged their employees to communicate with each other as much as possible. This company decided to stay away from the software and manufacturing of PC's and decided to focus on teh hardware as they had always done. Apple, a competitor of IBM, had created a new image with the help of Steve Jobs. They created an image that was new and hip and attracted a very artistic and creative crowd. Apple had gone down hill when Jobs left the company, but when he came back with the invention of the iPod Apple once again flourished. In chapters 8 and 9 of "Communication and Cyberspace" individuals go on to describe the internet, which they call an information superhighway. William Gibson went on to coin the term cyberspace, which he describes as a consensual hallucination. His vision of the internet and cyberspace was that it is a transnational capitalism run amok. An obstacle in this era was Interface Message Processors or IMP's. IMP gives computers the ability to talk to each other if they were produced by the same manufacturer. The internet or computer network has been created from the beginning by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as a part of their defense strategy. Their thought was to create a decentralized network so that if one part of the network was attacked or went down the other parts would fill in and there would be no loss of connection. These networks consist of many components such as terminals and nodes. Terminals are not endpoints which are not connected to each other, but to a main frame. Nodes are interconnected within the network. In 1969 ARPAnet was commissioned by the department of defense and the key to this system was packet switching. Packet switching is where several packets are sent to one destination, the nodes reroute in accordance with how easy it is to reach its end point, and they come back together at their destination. Mosco has many views about the electronic age, but one that stood out to me was that in an electric age information has been increasingly modified. Another idea that intrigued me was the thought that cyberspace has no limits and or no barriers and will expand as information increases. With discoveries like prodigy, America online and the WEB our society has become greatly entwined in the internet and all that it has to offer. Within the text we have been reading they speak of a "digital divide, which is the gap between those who have access to and use the internet and those who do not(166)". This idea enlightens you on how the world has increasingly progressed through the years. Thoughts from the text and thoughts of my own hope that this gap is lessened each and every passing day

Chapters 34-43

     I must say that I was very excited when my book Understanding New Media by Robert K Logan came in the mail.  Although there is much to catch up on (around 30 chapters), it has been pretty entertaining.  I have not yet finished catching up, but I skipped to chapters 34-43 for this blog.
     Everything I have read in these chapters has been extremely insightful to think about.  Chapter 43 started with convergent technologies, giving a list of some examples of hybrid technologies.  Ones that were obvious that we have talked about in class thus far include clocks (embedded in almost all "new media" devices), radio (the convergence of radio and the Web through Web radio or a satellite through satellite radio), and television (the convergence of television and computing with DVR's and television and the cell phone with mobisodes).
     Chapter 35 was interesting to read about because it discussed the malfunction printer, photocopier, scanner, and fax... all in one.  This type of new media shows how technology has become so advance throughout so many years.
     Of course chapter 36 was interesting to read about because it was all about how cell phones have boomed since they were first invented.  It is interesting to note that 3.3 billion people worldwide use cell phones today.  It was fun reading about the Iphone and its definition dated back in 2007 as well because I own one myself.  The one sentence that stuck out at me was on page 220 when Logan states that a cell phone is a telephone, "but it is also a text messaging receiver and sender, a still camera, a video camera, it displays still shots and video, it's a radio, a TV, a juke box, a message center, a video game player, a destination finder, a bank for credit card holders, an Internet terminal, a hand-held computer with a hard drive, and a collaboration too."  I am aware that my phone is capable of doing all of these things and it is hard to believe that people did not have this type of technology before I was born in the beginning of the 1990's.  Cell phones have made life easier who are always on the go, but as Logan describes, it can also cause problems.  For example, "at diner at a fine restaurant is the invasion of privacy when one is forced to participate in the phone conversation of a rude individual at another table who speaks at a high decibel level, destroying the intimacy of the dining experience."  This chapter also talked about the social impact of the camera cell phone.  I used to own a "real" camera when camera cell phones did not come out yet, but with an Iphone, nowadays, it is not necessary to own a camera at all.  Iphone cameras in particular have great quality.  Like Logan describes in this chapter, it is extremely easy to snap a photo in any situation, whether it be for entertainment, journalism, or for a crime scene.
     Reading about the personal computer in chapter 37 and learning about it in class was riveting.  Looking at pictures in class of the first computer was shocking.  It was so larger I would have no idea how to work it if it was in front of me.  The first sentence that made my smile in this chapter was the first page of the chapter when Ken Olsen in 1977 said, "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."  He was so wrong.  At first computers were meant for the defense department of the government and universities teaching statistics for the use of mathematics, scientific data, and print.  Oh, how times have changed.  In recent years, the microcomputer has come into view with new computer software as well.  I loved the fact that a woman names Ada Lovelace invented the first computer programs.
     PDA's are personal digital assistants used for more of a business-oriented person, as described in chapter 38.  They now have a miniature keyboard and mouse, with a scroll device instead of arrows.  Palm pilots are an example of this, which I believe have fallen off in more recent years.  I love technology and I do not ever remember asking my mother for a palm polite.  I feel like cell phones can do this just as well.  A cool invention was the pen computing, where a the computers userface is a pen or stylus.
     The Internet in chapter 40 was a huge chapter in this assignment.  There is so much to say about the Internet.  For one, I do not think I could live without it.  It is so helpful and I use it so many more times than I can remember in one day.  Like Logan says, "it is an integral part of modern life."  The Internet can do so many things that people are not even aware of.  One important aspect is that it shares information both synchronous and asynchronous in formats such as text, graphics, video, and audio.  The Internet was first used for the military as back up incase communications failed due to nuclear attacks by the Russians.  It was amusing to me how there can be electronic crime and punishment on the Internet, as no one can take advantage of this medium.  When someone violates the rules and protocols of Internet usage, a warning is first issued.  But if this continues, that person would be banned from participation or removed from a group.  This is essential to keep groups functioning and fair.  With the Internet, information can be made instantaneously.  For example, the most common things that I google end up becoming ads on my Facebook and Twitter, two websites that I am on everyday, trying to make me aware of their products and what they have to offer.
     Chapter 41 has to do with the Internet, but with different forms of communication.  Insant Messaging is something that I no longer rely on or use nowadays, but email and SMS (short message service) is something that I use daily.  Back in the day, all three of these would be considered one-to-one communication, but as it continues to grow, it can be considered one-to-many, many-to-many, or even many-to-one.  People in my generation are huge on SMS messaging on their cell phones.  If someone wants to ask a quick question but does not feel like talking on the phone, SMS can be an alternative way to communicate by typing the question to that person.  Email and Gmail are very popular within the last 15 years and will continue to be popular for many more years to come.
     The World Wide Web discussed in chapter 43 is also one of the most important chapters in this assignment.  The World Wide Web are websites such as Google that give instantaneous information to anyone who is available to it.  The "WWW" was formed only after the Internet.  It creates an information environment which the world has never seen.  One negative of the WWW is that there is much misinformation and disinformation that can fool millions.  This is where many rumors start about celebrities, for example, that Justin Beiber was trampled to death by his fans.  The WWW is where social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Friendster, and many others started.  The World Wide Web shapes the lives of many people today.

New Media Syllabus Day Post

I think New Media are fascinating. It gives everyone everywhere the ability to put their words and opinions out there on the internet. Anybody with an internet connection can tell the world what they ate for breakfast, what they thought about the last movie they saw, and who they will vote for in the upcoming election. I'm looking forward to learning about the history and origins of New Media and discussing its present and future.