Internet penetrates!

How have you used information/communication technologies over the course
of the past 2.5 days -- since snow began falling on Sunday. How has the
ubiquity of the Internet changed your behavior? In other words, in some
pre-Internet storm/event ... how did you communicate? How did you learn
about the storm/event?

Let’s enjoy the SNOW in Seattle!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-hrOT_16nU
Dear my fellow classmates, I got to share a very special experience to you yesterday. It almost froze me. Oh! Thanks god…some neighbors saw me and helped me to climb down. Or I might not to meet you in the class.
Since the snow fell from Sunday, I have not gone outside for two days even though I really want to take some photos of the snow scenery. Finally, on Tuesday morning, I was wake up by the sunshine and planned to go to my little balcony for taking graphs. When I walked out, the door to my house was automatically locked in the meantime. However, I didn’t realize this is a big deal that I cannot stay outside for 20 minutes in such a chilly weather. Anyway, I was trapped on the second floor and felt freezing. Neither cell phone nor laptop was with me. Thus I just stood there and tried to get the help.

Back to the question, even though the internet is ubiquitous, we still have to have the devices such as laptop or PDA as connections. Sometimes I am wondering that we are so familiar with technology and it really brings us convenience. But what was the world that we don’t have internet connection?

Remembering in my childhood, when the winter vacation came, I was always busy writing cards to give my regards to teachers and friends. At that time I imagined their smiles when they got my cards. It took a while for them to reply cards by real mail. However, as a matter of the fact that the information flow wasn’t so efficient, I really felt warm, treasured them and kept them in the little box in case of getting damaged. That doesn’t mean emails are not full of regards. Just a feeling and it’s hard to explain. Nowadays, emails seem taking place of cards because of the cost and speed in delivery. Nevertheless, I still use cards as communication tools to share my gratitude to someone who plays the important role in my life. Maybe it just is an old school thing and people would say it doesn’t matter if they receive the email or the cards. Either one do they feel the heart. Haha…Perhaps only the sender cares! (I care…)

To be honest, I remember the past days that we were not bonded by the emals and cell phones. Yet it is a brand-new world. Even though I was held up by snow, I can still have the lessons from the long-distance learning system. Take me for example, I downloaded some lectures from UW webTV in different topics. Nothing different from before, the only I noticed is that the information is much newer than the knowledge I read from books. On account that there are full of information on the internet, you can always forget the time you spend online.

Alright! Here is a point that I learned from this November snow: it is the sign of global warming, isn’t it?

iTunes & podcasts

Think of some piece of technology that you have recently purchased or a piece of software or feature of an existing piece of technology that you have recently started using.

It is a very interesting topic and reminds me about my media behavior. Since September, I have been far away from my hometown and family as well for more than 2 months. During this period, MSN, skype and the most useful “international telephone” were used as communication tools. I didn’t update anything so far, so from that, you can tell my media behavior is traditional just like the older generation. My laptop is just like for typing and reading information online.

However, from my project about podcasting started, I tried to download podcasts and use iTunes to manage my music and audio files. To understand which platform audiences are willing to use, the best way is to see through this process and the answer will pop out. That is exactly what I do now. Not only using iTunes in place of Windows Media Player, but also listening to web radio is the new trial for me.

But applied to the Diffusion of Innovation Theory, I will put myself in the group of early majority. In addition to it, there are some irrelevant elements should be mentioned. One is compatibility of iTunes. Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being consistent with the existing values, past experience and needs of the receivers. (Rogers, 1974) Another element “complexity” is also critical to users. RSS Feed also offers a great help for me to subscribe the radio programs that I want. As a result, I switch my platform to iTunes especially in audio programs.

Last, I believe that as long as the products meet people’s needs, it is easier to be adopted. In the field of new media, the landscape is changing so fast that we have to keep in pace. Otherwise, we will be unconscious of staying behind. And there is always a point can be stressed: the purpose of using different tools is information.

W8--News waves

Over the course of time, the innovation of technology has always impacted the way of the journalism. From telegraph in the early stage in U.S. history to the creation of newspapers, the influence of journalism grows immensely. It was only point to point communication for telegraph and it becomes one to many communications in the era of newspaper. Nowadays, in the computer age, the way of journalism has become many to many by Internet in a very fast fashion.

It is very interesting to me that the way of communication and journalism revolutions itself and modified by need of society and technology. The most popular and common trend to obtain updated information and knowledge is through Blogs and media publishers such as CNN and NBC websites. However, the information and news from the Blogs and media publishers are customized by publishers instead of readers. Therefore, the new technology of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is derived under the concept from the requirement and needs from the user and further permit user to select desired information.

It seems to be many positive feedbacks mentioned from the author about computer age along with the information created by Blogs. The author mentioned the easy accessibility of internet and the ability of internet to solve specific technical issue by posting questions on the internet forum to share with other professionals. However, it seems apparently to me that not most of the technical and professional issues could be solved by obtain others opinions and ideas. Difficult technical issues sometimes are not totally accessible by internet user feedbacks. Instead, technical issues are sometimes better to be solved by ones owning idea and creativity.

The change in the media landscape has tremendously changed the politics and governance in the world. The revolution in the media has made the news and information to be accessed faster and easier then ever. The publication platform of the news is going to be across the countries; in the other words, to be global. As a result, the decisions made by government need to consider globalize responses but not only the responses in the nation. Furthermore, the innovation and popularity of Blogs made the government organizations hard to influence the voice from public. consequently, government organization needs to be more self disciplined and to be able to accept advises from public.

Information is everything.

Nowadays, information almost means everything. For example, if you know there is a scholarship opportunity and you are qualified, you might consider continuing your studies in school. From the previous example, I made several assumptions in no doubt. However, that is the power of innovation. That is why many cram schools sale. In other words, information is significant.

From my experiences relating to e-government, it is a channel that the public and the government communicate with each other directly. To say it clearly, it can enhance the civil participation. Also, it enlarges the effect of one-ballot. People can recognize their positions and try to understand the operation of the government. Besides, the best thing is opening access to the government information. It can raise the efficiency and effectiveness.

My experiences of e-government are in checking census data about economics and emailing to the government employees for asking some information. That is very convenient. In my opinion, e-government not only reduces the paper waste, but also helps the whole society to speed up the pace to face the digital era. Take google for instance, in the post-industrial period, the powerful key will be in relation with information. Who can get the most accurate information? With most efficient and economical way as well? That decides who will be the winner and survive in the info-overloaded world. Recently I saw an article from newspaper, it mentioned that if the patients type some symptoms as key words and google, the accuracy of the diagnosis in disease is up to 80%. It is incredible. On the other hand, the good idea came up: the relationships between patients and doctors are going to become equaller than before.

Back to my topic, information plays an important role in the present and in the future. With the technological development, the needs of people are mobile everywhere. Under my imagination, the ultimate image of the future world is that most people work at home and bond with the work all the time in case of the emergent situation.

Are you F/M?

Are you F/M? Have you ever heard about this sentence? Or when you began to enter the online chatting room at the first time, does anyone ask this question to you? Many users will respond “Yes.” It sounds interesting to me to be honest. It means even in the cyberspace, people still want to know the background in reality whatever the answer is highly uncertain.
Nowadays, the younger generation is familiar with internet. Moreover, they are always communicating with friends online through MSN Messenger or BBS. Since my first year in college, I started my internet life. On the outset, I only had the email account and MSN messenger as well. Roommates always chat online even though we just sat next to the other. At that time, having a MSN account is necessary to social life.
However, I was not into online chatting. In my mind, I always felt the virtual world is not reliable. In other words, the real conversation I had with friends is more comfortable and can lead to less misunderstanding. Clear to say, one of the characteristics in online world is no identity. It seems equal to everyone in addition to internet access. We all look like freedom of speech without any regulations. Does it mean “we the media” era?
From the chatting community, I moved to the other one that is related to getting more information about all affairs in my department. You almost can get all you need in that community. That is another magic power of internet. You can easily get the knowledge you are looking for and also pass the information out just a click. Generally speaking, it is the main reason that grows the users of internet. You might call it “hyperlink power.”
Last, online communities are developed into many kinds as long as someone needs. Being a person of 21st century, we have to deal with the challenges that internet brought such as pornography or security problems. No doubt, the most powerful function to life is information flow and exchange. That is off-line community cannot provide.