Resource Post “What digital divide?” Due 8/17 – Is having internet everywhere critical?

Everything we learned in class concerning this digital divide tends to point to it being a problem. Here in Seattle and the states, we are so use to having internet access at our fingertips and the thought of not having access to it seems morally wrong! But, is this really the case?

Reading Response Due 8/15

After the readings these week, I found myself very interested in the one about remote controls and televisions. At first, while reading, I kind of chuckled because how amazing or vital can an invention like the remote control be that great? But, after further reading… it really is something that has gone towards shaping our lives in a significant way.

Before remote controls there were few channels and I feel people were more patient or at least willing to give things a chance. You didn’t have freedom to immediately look for something that gave you quick satisfaction. You didn’t have freedom to be picky about what you consumed. As the years went by and television became more popular there were more and more people watching the same things.

When the remote became more popular it changed the way people watched television but I also believe it changed more than that. With remotes and more channels, people become more picky about what they watched. It was easy to change a channel from your couch as soon as something wasn’t entertaining enough for you. This has caused programming to change and the product we are offered is different.

I believe that has translated into us having less time for things. The easier things get… the more things we try to squeeze into a tiny time frame. With TiVo, we can save television shows to watch later. We can budget our time more, but when that TiVo gets full… we have to watch things before they get deleted to make more room for newer programs. Instead of us deciding when to watch, it is like we are forced to watch things.

Cell phones are another great example. With internet access and quick texting and phone calls… people plan less. We don’t research diners and showtimes and work with friends to find times to do things as much. We go on the fly and don’t bother writing addresses down because we can look them up later or make someone else do it for us and text or email us the info. I remember planning to do something on a Friday night and then actually doing it. Now it’s more like… “Call me Friday and tell me what you are doing, I’ll decide if I wanna join you or not based on what I’m already doing!” Maybe the remote was the first step!

Internet and Politics Due 8/8

I believe the most difficult part of being a politician is getting
supporters actively rallied around you and raising the money needed for a
successful Campaign. It’s not enough just to get people to say they will vote
for you, you must get them to actually show up to vote when the time comes and
to help you raise money to fund your cause.

With the thanks to technology over the last couple of decades, life
has become more convenient and things can move along more quickly with easy.
Things are easier. Life is easier. But, I believe this is one of the things
where the ease that technology gives us… makes things more complicated. We can
pack our busy schedules with even more things to do because we can get things
done so much faster. I believe this can make it even more difficult to get
simple things done like show up for an election.

With Joe Trippi’s campaigning strategy, he is able to make the
campaigners’ lives a little easier by making supporters come to them. With the
use of the internet… supporters from all around can reach out easily to the
politician and their campaign… making it easy for the campaign to keep track of
them and be sure they get out to vote. What’s amazing about the power of the
internet is you can reach so many people… so much faster… and for so much
less money.

We have all seen this in our own social circles with the use of
social media. We can keep tabs more easily and an increasingly larger number or
people. For a politician, it takes far less time to collect money online from
1,000 people than to call each one individually. The internet is no doubt an
incredibly valuable resource.

 

8/1 Online News week!!!!

This week’s readings on online news were interesting. I especially enjoyed the reading about NPR turning to podcasts after much demand from their listeners. These popular news companies are smart to take a listen to what their listeners want and adapt their business model accordingly.

Reading Post Digital Economics Due 7/25

It is becoming increasingly obvious that what’s out there and online is extremely valuable. The question is… how do we tap into that to make a profit? There are many ways of doing that and because there’s no scarcity of available space… our options are limitless.

Resource Post: Google + and learning networks

So far working with Google + I have found it to be very clean, simple, and useful. I have been personally hoping for something to arrive that can steer us away from Facebook and get back to basics. It seems like the common pattern with social media is that when they first arrive they are clean, simple, and easy to use. Then after the network grows and gets bigger, they get more complicated and too busy for my liking.

Reflection of Leading Discussion!

Today I sat down with several small groups of my peers to discuss with them online and distance learning. As discussion leader I chose a research article that I found to relate well to this week’s topic of personal networks.