The cyber environment is becoming more and more powerful each day. It is changing the way people can express their ideas and get their messages across. The uprise in South Korea against American Beef has become one of the few examples of the power of the internet.
Protesting is very important when it comes to fighting for something/to get an idea across. Now protesting can be taken to another level; the cyber level. A mass audience and a number of people can be assembled and gathered together in such a short amount of time. Information online spreads like rapid fire and with tools such as Twitter and Facebook, information is traveling even faster.
HCE Chapters 5, 6 and 7 – Wikipedia, A Way to Distribute and Contribute to the Work of Others
May 21, 2012
Wikipedia has become an important sharing tool. Not only does Wikipedia combine the works of many users, but it is also constantly reviewed and kept up to date. This makes Wikipedia far more superior than conventional encyclopedias. User generated content is becoming a new and great way of people to express their beliefs and thoughts without the need of a professional.
Email used to be the first simple tool to converse with one another, but now new tools such as Flickr, IM, Twitter, Facebook and even Wikipedia are becoming a new way for individuals to interact with the masses. This is changing our society and the way people access information to a great extent. Hours spent at the library going through periodicals or looking for information in the encyclopedia is no longer required, as tools such as Wikipedia can help users gather information much quicker. Looking for an image to portray what your article or passage is about is no longer difficult, as you can easily find images that have been shared on Flickr or find images through Google images.
Wikipedia is making it easier to gather information. New information is always being put up. For example, an encyclopedia is printed at the end of each year, where as Wikipedia is updated everyday. Information is always being inputted, changed and edited on Wikipedia. Just the fact that people can work together from many different locations makes this such a great process. The collaborating and organization of so many different people’s ideas and information seems like such a difficult and stressful process, but the system of Wikipedia and many other tools and platforms makes it possible. This is definitely going to get better and improve as technology improves and people continue to contribute more and more data and information.
I made a power point presentation of how to reformat your computer with Windows 7. I decided to create a tutorial on this process, as during the week I myself also had to reformat my computer. I said to myself why not create a step by step process and provide a few recommendations of software I prefer after a new fresh install. The process is quite simple, but to other people it may seem quite difficult and a major headache. My presentation breaks the process down into a few simple steps. I hope you enjoy.
New Technology Enables the Widespread of Amateur Content
March 13, 2012
As technology seems to improve at a rapid rate, the amateur content on the web also continues to rise. The increase of amateur content can be very beneficial to the public and at the same time it can be quite harmful. There are many benefits. Some can be that amateurs are able to capture certain events with almost the same accuracy as professionals and sometimes even better. For example, in the book it said that during the London bombings, photos were taken by citizens at the scene of the incident and its similar occurrences like this, professionals just don’t have the time to capture, unless they are present at that exact moment.
With social networks such as Flickr and the much newer Instagram, the individual is the reporter of the events, things and places they see. Especially with Instagram, an individual can take pictures of anything, from the food they eat, the things they see daily, and many more. Blogs such as this, Twitter, Wikipedia, online forums and many other platforms can be great ways for people to express their thoughts, feelings about certain events, provide information of certain topics and even provide news of current events.
With the improvement of technology and the time it takes for information to travel as compared to the days of the first telegraph or the telephone, the internet is greatly decreasing the time it takes information to get to a mass number of people. Thus, society is also changing, as now it’s much easier to form groups, address individuals in groups and thus, spread news and information to the greater masses much quicker.
The remarkable speed of information traveling and the rising of amateur publishers, reporters, photographers, etc., can also have negative effects. For example, reliability of the information must be questioned from amateurs as most public postings on the net are not regulated. Anything can be posted and credibility of the article or post is uncertain. Wikipedia is a great example of this, as users are given the option to edit any information on the site. Now this makes you think, if the information on Wikipedia is correct or false. Luckily, Wikipedia has certain users that check and correct the information within a day if incorrect information has been inputted.
Now imagine a small forum, or a blog that is not regulated or information is not checked to see if its correct. What happens then? This is one of the downsides of the improving technology and information spread around the net. We just have to be intelligent users, adapt to the improvements, and learn to separate reliable and credible information from those that are not quite up to par.
Fear = Demand for More Security = Loss of Rights
February 29, 2012
“Spying on the Home Front” is not nothing new, but the government has gone too far in collecting information of a numerous amounts of innocent citizens. Towards the end of the documentary, it was stated, that after all the data mining and information gathered from hundreds and thousands of citizens, none were found to be related to terrorism. How many rights are we going to lose till we are totally safe? Sure, security is very essential to our communities, but to what extent will the government go to assure our safety?
I am totally against the search of innocent citizens without a warrant or probable cause. A while back I was searched by police as I was walking home with a friend. Policemen came out of their vehicle, they aggressively searched us, made us empty our pockets and took our ID’s. They realized I was a college student from the ID in my wallet, and eased up and stopped treating us like potential criminals. They apologized and said that they were just trying to keep us and the neighborhood safe. So I replied, “In order to keep me safe, I have to get searched?” It was ridiculous. This just related perfectly to the “Spying on the Home Front” because it was stated, “treat everyone like a bad guy to begin with, if we collect the right stuff and connect the right dots we will find the real bad guys.”
Innocent citizens will definitely be caught in the shuffle as technology is not perfect. Social Media networks, for example Facebook can be a great example of the positives of technology and also the negatives it may hold. For example, as said in class, Facebook holds the information of millions of users; their daily activities, interests, dislikes, friends, families and even location. Facebook is a great innovation as it can connect many people around the world together. But this technology in the wrong hands, for example used to spy on citizens can be very harmful. No Facebook account cannot be deleted (only deactivated), so your data is definitely stored and can be subjected to be used for surveillance. It is our duty as American citizens to open our eyes and understand that even if we are totally innocent, the spying, invasion of privacy and gathering data is not only targeted towards potential terrorists and suspects, but it is aimed at all citizens, even us (process stated in documentary to rule out innocent/suspected).
Yes, terrorism and getting attacked is horrific and a fearful thought, but we can’t let fear get in the way of our overall freedom. The freedom that was fought for us, and the rights and the constitution that helped built this great country. Technology can be used positively and improve security without violating our rights; giving too much power to one entity such as the FBI or overall government, or even one individual can be harmful. We are the people, and this is our country; if our constitutional rights and freedoms are violated, then the terrorists have definitely won, as without our rights and freedom, Our Country Will Be Lost.