koren's blog

writing assignment #3

2005-06-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

For my final individual project, I will be researching the uses of text-messaging and its impact it has had upon the idea of a community as well as upon society. Then I will be looking towards new technologies which have come about in Asia with relation to text-messaging and how that may indicate what is to come in the future for the United States.

My research project of text messaging definitely contributes on impacting society and how we interact with one another. With text messaging there is a new form of conversation. In terms of culture, text messaging impacts society in becoming this whole new phenomenon. From text messaging there is the introduction and creation of new lingo as well as a new language. Text messaging requires a user to be concise due to the amount of character restrictions a user can send in a single text, and there forms new ways to spell things to accommodate this.

In terms of politics and the environment, text-messaging has been able to become an outlet where campaigners as well as protesters can quickly organize to come together for a cause they all support. Politicians can campaign to the voters through text messaging making it seem more personal when it comes through someone’s personal cellular phone, and protesters can come together in a hurry by sending out text messages to the masses through their networks by means of text-messaging communities as sms.ac and upoc.com.

Impacting society in terms of the economy, text-messaging can also be seen as a means of earning revenue. Through advertisements and other services that can come about from text messaging, this all leaves opportunity for profits. From advertisements acting as a form of spam is one way to lead to profits, but by also offering other services as being able to send color pictures, sound bites, interact as form of interactive media, also leads to another type of profits. Typically to be able to use these other services and other forms of text-messaging, a user needs a cellular phone capable of functioning in this manner. As a result users also need to upgrade their phone which yet again leads to profits.

A place where text messaging seems to have a negative effect is the area of education. It has now become commonplace where a student may be found cheating because of text messaging. Because the use of text messaging is quiet, students can easily be text messaging during an exam because text messaging allows for a user to stay connected all the time. But this constant connectivity can prove beneficial for families as when there are family emergencies, a user can be contacted at all times privately through the usage of text messaging.

Ronkainen, S. & Marila, J. (2004, May). Time-out in user interface: the case of mobile text input. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 8(2). Retrieved May 30, 2005, from Proquest Database.

This article discusses the nature of text-messaging and the possibility of time lags. Though voice conversation is instantaneous in feedback, text-messaging creates a time lag and the responder can choose to respond at anytime versus right away. This relates to my topic in some of the challenges text-messaging needs to address in the future. I know this is a credible site because it comes from the proquest database which also has the backing through subscription from the University of Washington.

Durkin, A. (2005, March 8). Realeyes3D brings handwritten messaging to Samsung phones. Asia Pulse. Retrieved May 30, 2005, from LexisNexis database.

This article discusses the new technology Samsung is bringing forth. This relates to my topic by discussing what my come to the United States in the future, and what text-messaging may evolve to as well as what it has perpetuated in idea. Credibility is given to the LexisNexis database which is a well known source for news articles as well as being sponsored through subscription by many universities including the University of Washington.

Davis, Z. (2004, December 22). Asian phone explosion. PC Magazine.com. Retrieved May 30, 2005, from LexisNexis database.

This article also talks to new technologies and discusses other such features which are already put in use throughout Japan and Hong Kong. This also relates to what my come to the future of the United States as the above article. This was found through LexisNexis and is credible for the same reasons stated above.

If I were to pick another technology to explore, I would choose the ipod. Apple has seemed to have created a phenomenon with the apple ipod, next with the ipod mini, the ipod shuffle, and the photo ipod. Though there may be similar options out there that may even have more storage than the ipod, people still seem to gravitate toward purchasing an apple made product in contrast to a competitor. I think it would be interesting to see why that is so, and after hearing individual project presentations in class, and with a few students doing research on the ipod, I would have liked to see what apple plans to market in the future for the ipod, and what else they have in the making. Technology is an amazing sector, and it is always interesting to see what’s new. We always tend to think that an idea is so incredibly new, but forget that the idea most likely came years before the actual release of the product. It would also be interesting to see they types of progressions inventors went through with the ipod and what led it to become what it has today.

The most important thing that I learned this quarter through the new media class was the idea of communities as well as learning new technological lingo. Now when someone or some article mentions dreamweaver or VoIP, I will actually know what they are talking about, and has led to me be a bit more technologically educated. Things are changing within technology all the time and I think that this class was great in updating my outdated technological knowledge. It was also really important to learn about communities, and see how these networks work, and can be used for future reference.

post for 5/23/05

2005-05-22T22:32:00.000-07:00

I expect VoIP to impact telephone and cable networks in creating another set of competition to deal with. As VoIP is more widely used over time, and with the added features it provides within the costs of just using VoIP versus having added charges for certain features on a regular telephone plan, VoIP is likely to become cheaper, adding competition to the market. This could also lead to creating a closer community with a cheaper option for making long distance phone calls. Since it also has a greater level of efficiency, this could lead to a preference for VoIP and there is easier use of the whole picture with conversation idea. Hopefully as VoIP becomes more popular, there aren’t too many restrictions as to discourage use so telephone companies can keep their monopoly over the market and keep costs high.

blog post for 5/18/2005

2005-05-17T23:37:00.000-07:00

In the first article, it refers web accessibility to be “the design of a webpage that embraces the requirements of Universal Design in order to ensure that all users can access the information on the page (Waddell, C),” which directly relates to cyberspace as public space. In relation to web accessibility, the last portion of that quote, where it says that all users can access the information, to me sounds like what cyberspace as public space refers to. The article also dives into how web accessibility allows for a wide arrange and different types of users to be able to use the site. Websites should be user friendly enough to appeal to the widest array of people; otherwise, this is just another barricade in cyberspace, where if someone doesn’t know how to use it, it only allows for a smaller portion of the population access. Web accessibility has a lot of different meanings, but one group that slipped my mind as the article referred to, are people with disabilities. I think a lot of times these people are forgotten about, and web accessibility applies to them too. If it doesn’t appeal to as many people as possible, that means there are barriers to others. But I do come to ask, how can anything have full web and user accessibility? Everyone has different backgrounds and different levels which need to be addressed.

post for 5/16/05

2005-05-16T00:50:00.000-07:00

I believe that internet technology does impacts political activity through many forms. For one, politicians can now campaign and make themselves known through networks. When people are contacted through networks, this makes it seem a bit more personal and can make it seem as though a politician really made contact with each individual person they are trying to campaign to. The internet also makes it convenient for political parties to campaign for donations and funding. The ease and convenience the internet provides, may appeal to people, as well as the political party also being able to advertise to more people. And in emergency situations where you need supporters, you can send out a mass alert more quickly with the internet than with other forms communication. Conversely, there can be just as many negative impacts where rumors can spread more quickly, and more in-depth background information of a political candidate can be found than what is just simply stated in news reports. There could be information politicians are trying to withhold from themselves while campaigning, but can be easily revealed through the internet. This can address the whole idea of security which was touched on by the Jones article. What if people hack into the voting system through the internet? That definitely has an impact. And as we are continually moving into a digital age, and voting more through the internet, I believe this creates a new type of voter.

Assignment #2

2005-05-16T00:48:00.000-07:00

As of now, I have decided to focus my final project once again on cellular phones, but how the overwhelming dependence of text-messaging in Asia is far different from the United States. I can also look into how there is more potential for profit in text messaging than has yet to be explored in the US.

There are communities and networks which relate to this topic. One such community is the text-messaging community, which is generally used by the younger generation. Within this text-messaging community is another community which was just stated, the community of the younger generations, they are more likely to use this technology, and create a community all in itself. A third community concerns people who own cellular phone, where text-messaging occurs.

5 search queries
§ Communication Abstracts database using “text messaging,” retrieved 4 results
§ Encyclopedia Britannica Online through the journal and magazine search using “text messaging and Asia” retrieved 100 results
§ ABI/INFORM Global using “short messaging service and Asia,” retrieved 28 results
§ Engineering Village 2 using “text messaging and Asia,” retrieved 8 results
§ Social Sciences- Proquest Social Science Journals using “text messaging and Asia,” retrieved 4 results

Taylor, A.S. & Harper, R.(2003). The gift of the gab? A design oriented sociology of young people’s use of mobiles. Abstract Retrieved May 15, 2005, from communications abstract database (CAX0280030000067).

§ This was collected from the communication abstracts database using the search “text messaging.” This article discusses how young people are finding a new form in using text messaging, and focuses specifically on the youth. This can be useful in my final project in focusing on how youth in particular integrated text messaging into their everyday lives.

Coronel, S.S. (2001). The media, the market and democracy: the case of the Philippines.Abstract Retrieved May 15, 2005, from communication abstract database (CAX0250010000121).

§ This was also collected using the communication abstracts database but comes from a different academic journal which is peer-reviewed using the search “text messaging.” The article elaborates on how through the use of text messaging in the Philippines, the youth in that country was able to create a quick political mass demonstration. This can be used in my research how this technology is already being taken advantage over in Asia.

Johnsson, J. (2004). Moto to let fingers do the talking. Crain’s Chicago Business, 27(42). Retrieved May 15, 2005, from Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

§ Using the Encyclopedia Britannica Online’s search , this article explains how even text messaging is being revolutionized, and one such company, Motorola is already going about this, by being able to trace Chinese characters with their fingers on a keypad as another form of text messaging. I can use this for how this technology is still being improved upon currently.

Madden, N. & Qassim, A. (2002). Text messaging ads on fast track in Asia. Advertising Age, 73 (48). Retrieved May 15, 2005, from Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

§ This article, found through the Encyclopedia Britannica Online talks about how companies are starting to target the youth generation by advertising through text messaging, or to what they refer to as SMS, short messaging service. I can use this as viewing Asia as a mark for how things may come to be in the United States as well.

Yan, X. (2003). Mobile Data Communications and China. Communications of the ACM, 46 (12). Retrieved May 15, 2005, from ABI/INFORM Global Database.

§ Using the ABI/INFORM Global Database and searching for only scholarly sources under “short messaging service,” retrieved this document which seemed like a good source of information for my final project, falling right into the topic category. It argues how a simple service like SMS in China can be more lucrative way of making profits than even paying fees to mobile subscribers. This can ground my research to more of an economic aspect.

Shen, J., Sun P., Zhang, J., & Song, S. (2004). iMMS: Interactive multimedia messaging service. IBM Journal of Research and Development, 48 (5/6). Retrieved May 15, 2005, from Proquest Database.

§ This document argues how enhancement of short messaging services will enhance and enrich the users experience by being more of an interactive form of media, adding potential for more profit in this sector. This definitely shows how SMS can be made for profit, and can be capitalized on, which is another portion of my research topic.

In relating to theories and readings from the class, I can relate my final project to this idea of communities, and looking into text messaging. Is it not interactive enough like an actual phone conversation would be? Is this taking away or adding to the community? As when looking at networking sites as friendster and building that kind of community, I can relate my final project to how text messaging my create another sort of community, where there are people who prefer text messaging over phone conversation and vice versa, can this actually segregate the community.

My topic can also be related through the whole concept of human-computer interaction. Will we come to depend on this sort of technology too much? Is this just another way of making things more complex, or are we making things simpler with SMS? People are starting to replace email with SMS, but SMS limits the amount of characters one will use, can this be a way of making things simple, or is the whole idea of SMS just making things more complex? These are all questions I need to pose and address.

In the remaining weeks of the quarter, I plan on doing more research using other words within the search engines I have used. This is because text messaging goes by more than one name, as I stated before, short messaging service as well. I need to look into other possible forms of names text messaging services might come in. Next I will continue on formatting a way in which to break down my research, and begin to organize.

blog response for 05/09/05

2005-05-08T22:16:00.000-07:00

To me, the concept of public space in cyberspace means that everyone is free to look at what is there in the public space. I think that it is crazy to hear that there are such country-wide firewalls restricting a person from looking up anything that might question the government who has control over these firewalls. I feel as though this is just power being used to continue to stay in power, and not looking over the actual welfare of their people who might benefit in having access to more information. But on the other hand, I can see how having access to certain free public space can be abused as well. When just anyone can look up how to make there own home bomb, it seems as though information like this should be restricted in some form, so as this information doesn’t fall in to the wrong hands, or just irresponsible hands. So I think that there is a fine line as to how far public space in cyberspace, should be in full force public. But as with everything you will run into problems with people who defy all aspects of this, in this case, hackers.

Individual project update

2005-05-06T01:32:00.000-07:00

After completing assignment one, is was easy to see how my topic could be too broad of a research topic. So now I have narrowed my search to technology of cellular phones of one company, Samsung, and how they market in their home country, Korea, versus the United States with the different options they provide in a cellular phone. To ground this topic to more of a scholarly research project, I am going to take an economic approach to this topic. I will research in how much cellular phone technology has become a larger portion of Korea's exports, and possibly look at how much cellular phone technology as a whole the US is importing from other places.

blog post for 5/4/05

2005-05-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

The relationships that I see exist between the readings and the open source software movement is the general idea of trying to get everyone in this world eventually interconnected through some form all having to do with the internet. They are both trying to build more communities, breaking down physical barriers that were in the way before. It seems as though communities were being created based upon people who have common factors and the goals of these social networks was to bring them all together. With the relationships discussed in the readings, now, people are able to see all those connections and relationships. They are essentially showing people the “six-degrees of separation” visually. People are capable of physically seeing their networks, and the open source software is a part of creating those networks.

blog post for 5/2/05

2005-05-02T02:09:00.000-07:00

Blogging software is able to facilitate a community by providing a forum where everyone is allowed to contribute from all parts of the world in a very short time period. As the author’s example of when he posted a short message on compuserve, he was greeted with different solutions to the problem he had posed from cities all across the US and even Australia all within the time span of a day. Bloggers are provided with the luxury of being able to be tapped into a worldwide network, not quite possible before. Bloggers can be exposed to a whole other diverse community where it may not be in their actual physical community.

Some challenges that come about from blogging and facilitating a community, can be when a controversial topic is brought about and there are those radicals who will make their points be known without any restraint. New forms online bullying and harassment can also appear. Then the problems of getting accurate information when asking for solutions to problems can be a challenge as well, since most anyone can respond to a blog post, or vice versa, who knows if what the blogger is stating is accurate in their information?

blog post for 4/27/05

2005-04-26T22:41:00.000-07:00

The implications for wifi technology for communications scholars could mean that the world can be more connected than ever, being able to provide cheaper and faster connection to even the most rural areas. For communications scholars, this could lead to more exposure to direct sources. But on the other hand, this could also lead to many problems as do many technologies. As with the internet, security has been an issue, as well as things such as SPAM. But that fact that wifi technology is made available, can lead to more connectivity world wide, especially for the developing countries. Now things as information such as medical remedies can be at the click of a button, which could be very helpful in the long run. Though wifi will have its set of problems to bring about with this technology, looking at the big picture, I believe it will have a positive effect for everyone, as well as communications scholars and having access to more and different types of information.

blog post for 4/20/05

2005-04-19T22:28:00.000-07:00

After reading about electronic voting, it really got me thinking about how there is a constant movement to try and get more of the younger generations to vote every election. But how can we motivate more people to go out there and vote, when there is a lot of doubt and distrust in how these votes are being counted. I believe that we need to be keeping the method of voting as simple as possible, so that it can be clear to every person, as well as trying to set up uniform standards for how things should be done. This way there can be more testing done on just one system, then having to test multiple systems, and hopefully increase the efficiency levels of how these votes are to be counted. And I do agree that we the public need to voice these concerns in order for changes to occur. How is anyone supposed to know, when these concerns are not heard loud and clear? And lastly, I believe there to be nothing wrong with importing different ideas of technology, as with the Bombay ballot, and we need to get rid of this “technological chauvinism.”

post for 4/18/05

2005-04-17T23:44:00.000-07:00

The reading has changed my view of the man-machine relationship by making me look at things from more than one point of view, the human view. Before, I would have never thought about looking at things from a machine perspective, to see how negatively and inefficient we can be seen. Another way in which this reading has changed my view, is how I do tend to look at digital as being better, or more good than anything analog, when that shouldn’t be the case. Humans have created this world in which things must be accurate, and be done in precise fashion. The world is intensely complex these days, and we humans have made this so.

post for 4/13/05

2005-04-12T23:44:00.000-07:00

In terms of the role of the internet in national and local news media use, I do believe that in the future, Internet news sources may surpass newspapers as the selection to find political information. It is becoming a world revolving around the internet, and as people become dependant on the use of it, people will use it for political information too. It is easy to use, and you can always just search for the information that you just want to find. This may limit us in the type of news we choose to get, but in contrast, it is much easier to be exposed to more national news. And finally, you are likely to go to the internet to find even more information, since newspapers and confined to the space of pages, where the stories on the internet can be limitless.

blog post for 4/11/05

2005-04-10T20:38:00.000-07:00

With the idea of information overload, this reminds me much of the knowledge gap. Those who can who can use and know the tools of researching and retrieving information benefit the most and those who only know how to use minimal tools, must suffer from the information overload and take the extra time to filter through the many findings, and keep hindering their searches. Information literacy definitely plays a part in how beneficial this wide range of information is to a user. Information has affected my life in all aspects, but I do think that there is too much information out there. Nowadays, if you want to do simple searches, thousands of responses can come up at the click of a button. But how useful are those responses going to be, and how truthful are they going to be? I find that when doing something as a research paper, there is just too much information and a lot of things to be verified, but maybe that’s because I’m looking for something very specific, But when I look up things for a trip to a place I’ve never been to before, I feel like much more of the information is relevant to my search. So maybe there’s way too much information when looking up something specific, but just a bit too much when looking up something broader.

ah-ha's for 04/06/05

2005-04-06T03:18:00.000-07:00

After reading the quote in Networks of Remediation, “Each new medium has to find its economic place by replacing or supplementing what is already available, and popular acceptance, and therefore economic success, can come only by convincing consumers that the new medium improves on the experience of older ones,” it made me think of all the technologies which have accomplished this. They used the example of comic books becoming movies, to bring actual life into the comic book. For myself, I am reminded of video game systems. I’m not a huge video gamer, but I can remember playing the original Nintendo game system, and then comparing it to something like a Playstation nowadays. The graphics have become amazing and can make you feel very “in” the game.

In Principles of New Media, this idea of new media being converted from the old media was very interesting. The notion that new media allows us to create versions of the same thing, but with vast differences reminded me of the networks of remediation. Then all of this leads to a new kind of identification. In 10 years, I wonder how we will then define what new media is, and how interactive will computer be then?

ah-ha's for 04/11/05

2005-04-03T23:54:00.000-07:00

The first reading concerning the internet and its connections was very interesting in how something that has come to be so complicated evolved from and such a simple system. Also from this simple system, there has also evolved this connectivity, decreasing limitations communicating among the world used to have. Although there are still many developing countries either without the internet, slow internet, or internet that is too expensive, I believe with continuous innovations, it is only a matter of time before those limitations also disappear. As standards have been set and are being followed, everyone can be connected in no time.

In reading Winston’s piece on media technology and society, created a lot of questioning in how things came about. Were things really an invention, or was it really an answer to a larger social problem, therefore becoming a social necessity? What is to be called a prototype, and what is to be called an invention? The line between any one of these, seems to be blurred. This article was a bit confusing at first, but was very interesting in describing the history.

ah-ha's from readings for 3/30/05

2005-03-29T23:05:00.000-08:00

After reading Technologies of the Third Mediamorphosis, and realizing how long it has taken television and media to come as far as it has, it is still amazing to think of how it is still changing today. Considering things as On Demand, Tivo, and High Definition TV, improvements and changes are still continuously being made. Also the concept of having news in “real time” has also come a long way. If something occurs on one end of the world, it is only a matter of moments before everyone else hears about it. Then something like the internet comes along and revolutionized all of information all together.
In Social Aspects of New Media Technologies, I found it very interesting in emotions can influence what type of programming we choose to watch, as well as just having a routine of watching the same program all the time. I also thought the hypothesis that cable television drew people away from news and to entertainment, was very intriguing. We are very much an infotainment society.

today

2005-03-28T10:56:00.000-08:00

First day of COM 300.