The Future of New Media

Posted on by p.basra

Technology is constantly evolving and adapting improving upon its predecessor. Which causes it to remain so dynamic, which makes what we now as “new” eventually become “old”; creating an on going cycle of new and old media. Personally I feel that as technology is moving forward at an exponential rate which we have no control over. However with growth some people find it difficult to accept change. For example we have created 3D printing which allows for unimaginable capabilities. It can produce organs, tissues, and bones that could theoretically be implanted into living humans. There are Universities which are developing printable organs. They have already developed bio printed body tissue and are now trying to focus on creating organs in which they can save lives and perhaps be the catalyst for eliminating the idea of transplant waiting lists altogether one day. Although on the opposing side the issues of cheating death and over population arise. The idea of avoiding death to some seems to be amazing because we will have the capabilities to potentially live forever. Which would lead to an ethical dilemma because nothing is meant to last forever and now there is a way to cheat the “system”.

(3D printed cartilage and ear tissue)

As far as what will change, personally I believe that everything is subject to change and or improvement. There is nothing stopping technology from advancing so I don’t see how anything can stop something from changing. We are a species and will only survive when they adapt to change. Its an evolutionary cycle the ones who don’t adapt or can’t adapt die much quicker than those who do. Technology is just going to keep moving forward and there has been a huge focus on artificial intelligence, but the entire topic is a very touchy subject because it creates ethical issues.

Inventions are created because there is a need to improve something or a desire for something new. Although creating a new invention or improving on an existing one takes a great deal of ingenuity. For example we are in a age where own a smart phone is viewed as norm, but with said phone we are limited to what its capable of. So originally the idea was of a dutch designer who wanted a modular phone in which he could customize his phone and be able to personalize it the way he wanted. The idea was later then adopted by Motorola and Google. The idea was originally called Phonebloks and now it is referred to as Project Ara. The original idea of Phonebloks was to help eliminate electronic waste, then it was followed by customization. The idea is brilliant but the support isn’t completely there yet because major companies feel threatened that they will loose their businesses, so they try to avoid it or science it. I feel that this will be the way of the future for smart phones, Apple limits you to their confined box. Android is an open source platform which is subject to change. Its entire idea is based off the fact that you have user control over everything. There is no room for growth or expansion when limits are placed it makes it impossible for the mind to be creative and explore. Without creativity it becomes difficult to invent different and unique things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intua_p4kE0

UTSA Doctor Predicts that Researchers May be Bioprinting Organs in the Next Year

http://qz.com/616185/this-3d-printer-creates-human-muscles-and-tissues-that-could-actually-replace-real-ones/

https://www.androidpit.com/project-ara-release-date-news-specs-features

democracy and technology

Posted on by p.basra

(trump is an idiot)

Government in today’s society is greatly influenced by technology. For example this can be seen within the 2016 presidential election, where many of the candidates are using social media now more than ever to gain popularity. Donald Trump the republican candidate, who completely opposes democracy, uses twitter to engage the public much more aggressively in which he targets a specific demographic. Trump’s rallies cause a monumental amount of violence to occur against immigrants, but the people who take part in the rallies also forget that they are from a family of immigrants themselves. His rallies cause a lot of protest; the protesting is showing Trumps true colors. Also now there is a nonviolent resistance movement against Trump in which popular movements have brought mainstream attention and support to issues that had previously been mostly limited to the public’s knowledge. Many of the projecting issues in the 2016 election are wealth inequality, the dangers of foreign military interference, and racial inequality are part of the massive national debate because multiple social actions have used nonviolent action to bring these outlying issues into the mainstream realm.

Twitter is an example of a Lessig’s hybrid economy because it uses the posts or hash tags to help gain a support into a specific goal or allow for leverage for said goal; “A hybrid economy is one where a commercial entity leverages a sharing economy or a sharing entity leverages a commercial economy”.  In this case Trump uses twitter to help gain support for his extremist’s and fascist ideals. According to Mandiberg Support is what fuel the ideas of creative commons, Creative Commons is a free culture movement so without support we let creativity die and the creative become viewed as pirates instead of innovators. “Our kids live in an age of prohibition. All sorts of aspects of their life are against the law. They live their life against the law. That way of living is extraordinarily corrosive. It is extraordinarily corrupting of the rule of law and ultimately corrupting to the premise of a democracy. If you do nothing else, after you’ve supported Creative Commons, you need to support this movement to stop this war now.” Within the Tim Berners article he talks about how the internet is the reason for almost all of the new media and social capabilities that we have today. Its base structure is rather simple, although it allows us to process much more complicated forms of data. Twitters structure for sending tweets is also very basic but it manages to create so much attention to a particular subject just by a simple hash tag or tweet. The new presidential campaign is following the ideas of Chris Anderson in a way because it the candidates use ideas and beliefs to get the support of the people to achieve a long term goal. These candidates are using social media to draw attention to them. For example Trump makes extremely racist comments and the press is drawn to him because of his ignorance. Within the target article they discuss how target gathers information about individuals by their purchases. The press uses Trumps statements to raise awareness about his fascist beliefs.

According to Anil Dash in the past few years if you made a service that let users create or share content, the expectation was that they could easily download their data, or import that data into other services with no restrictions. People spent years working on communication around data exchange purely for the benefit of the users, despite creating more competitors. Protestors who partake in the nonviolent resistance movement communicate their messages through protesting. It shows their perspective on a specific idea.  Personally I believe that technology can help improve and promote democracy because technology creates awareness for problems but it also helps find solutions much faster than anticipated. Unfortunately there is always a downfall to something and in this case technology is constantly advancing and something new is being created causing the old to become outdated and obsolete.  This allows for the dynamic society we live in today to function and survive.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-edge-on-twitter-cuts-both-ways-1460928021

http://www.vox.com/2016/4/18/11450126/nonviolence-2016-elections

Linux summary

Posted on by p.basra

linux-logo-600x300

Linux was created in 1991 in Helsinki with the beginning of a personal project by Finnish student Linus Torvalds to create a new free operating system kernel. He created the program specifically for the hardware he was using and free of an operating system because he wanted to use the functions the capabilities of his new PC.  The finished Linux kernel has been marked by constant growth throughout its history. When discussing Manovich’s eight principals he assesses technology as new media and how it’s connected to everything. When comparing his first principle to Linux it shows how it created a community to work on developing on Linus’s program. His next principal discusses how it helped create a new cultural object. When comparing his third principal to Linux it can be seen that Linux is a form of software which created more software. In his fourth principal Manovich talks about how digital data is controlled by software; Linux is an open sourced platform created for anyone to use, but not many know how to use it. The fifth principal talks about how everything once is new media and eventually becomes old, but in the case of Linux it may take longer than others have because it is used as a foundation for many of the “new” things that we have today. Manovich’s sixth principal discusses how new media is constantly adapting and changing creating more proficient ways for it to be use. Linux is constantly being rewritten or adapted in some way to cater to a different need with over 18 million source code. Next he mentions that new media is a form of multimedia which can be seen because Linux is made off of source code which is a text listing of commands to be compiled into an executable computer program. This can create anything from multimedia to software. Finally he relates how old media and technology is similar to the ideas of today. This is a little difficult to relate to because this idea was the first of its time. There might have been similar thoughts people have had but none seemed to have been followed through till 1991. Linux embraces almost all the aspects of web 2.0 because it’s an open source platform. The only one it might not comply with is O’Reilly’s 4th principal because within that principal he states that the all tools come to an “end of a release cycle” which can be argued because it’s constantly being manipulated to create new software and programs therefore it can be argued it’s endless.

Technology is a force that is constantly moving forward that has breached new barriers and has created more opportunity. With more opportunity we were able to learn and create new things. Without the creation of computers and the internet Linux would never have existed because the internet helped other people reach out to Linus to help him better his program; and without computers there wouldn’t be a reason for Linux to exist. The creation of Linux was in 1991 in Helsinki, Linus Torvalds started a project that later became the Linux kernel. He wrote the program specifically for the hardware he was using and independent of an operating system because he wanted to use the functions of his new PC with an 80386 processor. This wouldn’t be possible without having a computer already running off the basic existing command lines. Linux was and still written in “C” which is one of the most basic computer languages created.

Linux doesn’t embody a characteristic of social media because it is the reason social media exits so it becomes impossible to determine a single characteristic when it’s responsible for all of the characteristics. It has become foundation for eversion because it created all of the distractions causing eversion. Linux is an open idea which is subject to user change which Castell would support because it’s dynamic and constantly changing.

linux

Posted on by p.basra
  • Linux was originally launched in 1991
  • it was created by Linus Benedict Torvalds
  • He wrote the program specifically for the hardware he was using and independent of an operating system because he wanted to use the functions of his new PC with an 80386 processor
  • 16.% use Linux and its predominantly males from the ages of 25-40
  • Linux is monetized by other companies or clients using the system and slightly tweaking it and selling its use once tweaked or they create a specified operating system
  • Linux is uniquely suited to meet the demands of large-scale, enterprise computing
  • it created an open source platform which is the most stable and safest operating system to use. Its important because its used by major companies and is the basis for other operating systems like android
  • a major controversy about it is that its very difficult to use its not a user friendly operating system
  • i would use Linux in the future and i would recommend using it because of its stability

 

who uses it

how is it monetized

how its marketed

http://www.linuxfoundation.org/

history