Questions for the documentary “Virtual Revolution” part 1, 2, and 3.

1.     The web is celebrated as the revolutionary technology that is great leveling of humanity creating equal opportunity, equal access, and equal potential. However, there are only a quarter of people on the earth who can use it. How do you explain the controversial argument here?  The web has the potential to be reached by everyone.  Eventually we all may be connected to the web and it will fulfill its potential.

 

2.     How is Wikipedia the best example to implement the leveling ideas of the Web rooted in the cultural revolution of 1960s, namely the Libertarianism in the counter culture? How does it explain some of the digital convergences? Wikipedia enables knowledge to be produced from the ground up instead of from the top down.  Knowledge retrieved from Wikipedia removes the elitism of knowledge.

 

3.     How does the Web make it possible for different kinds of digital convergence?  The web is a free and open area making it available for anyone to add content.  This allows for the addition of different media from many sources.

 

4.     How can the Internet become a challenge for traditional authority? Use the political landscape changes in some countries to illustrate your answer.  The Arab Spring would be an example of the internet challenging traditional authority.  Another example would be Kenyan blogger Ory Okolloh creating the site Ushahidi after a contested election.  By having this site available to the people of Kenya they were able to keep a minute by minute tracking of the violent fallout due to suspected ballot rigging.  Ushahidi was able to out-do the media in terms of coverage of the crisis and gave people a voice.

 

5.     Do you believe that getting information free can set us free eventually? Why or Why not? Do you see any concerns of the complete freedom or self-expression without limit on the Internet? Why or why not?  Access to information is certainly a wonderful thing and it will open many opportunities for people.  This makes us free to access any information we choose.  The only problem I can see with self-expression without limit is that sometimes people go overboard and push the envelope for all of the wrong reasons.  It is valuable to be able to have complete freedom, but some people will abuse that and the affect could be detrimental.

 

6.     In traditional media communication, it has the “vertical” authority. In the Web communication, it becomes “horizontal?” How do you explain the change? How does this create the possibility for digital media convergence?  In traditional media information comes from the top and is disseminated down to the masses.  In web communication the masses are able to create the content, which is than accessible by anyone.  With the expansion of the web people realized that they could become content creators and tell their side of the story, instead of listening to what traditional media was telling them.  The user created content opens the door for all kinds of media to be added to the web, this along with the availability of traditional media has created endless possibility for digital convergence.

 

7.     Why is that the Web is free critical for the success of the Web itself? How does that clash with the corporate business ideology? How does that pose challenges for copyright issues at the same time? What will happen if the Web is not free?  The web needs to be free to continue the horizontal communication and further digital convergence.  Free access to web allows for anyone to become a part of the web and give or receive any desired content or information.  This obviously clashes with corporate business ideology because there not making money off of web access.  Corporations would want to charge fees for all web access, which would further commercialize the web and detract from its current free state.

Questions for the article “Historical Development”

1.      Why is broadband service the key for the success of online communication? What are the social effects of broadband service? How does the broadband service make digital convergence possible? The expansion of broadband will allow for greater access for everyone.  With broadband people are able to gain access to greater amounts of content.  This access allows people to become more informed and connected.  Broadband also allows users to create and distribute content much more easily.  Convergence happens through broadband because of the higher quality audio and video.

2.      Why does the use of World Wide Web open the door of the Internet communication to a much wider audience? In what way does the Web with graphical web browsers move the online communication to “acoustic world” discussed in the previous class?   Since the web is so vast it almost becomes a place with no boundaries (similar to the “acoustic world”).  Not only that, the web also allows for greater interaction that is becoming more and more natural.

3.      How might telecommunication change if the government supported the development of broadband Internet for everyone?  With greater numbers of people connected more content and ideas can be created and shared.  Communication could reach new potential.

4.      News organizations were changed by the telegraph, and a whole new business of news, that of the wire services, was created because of the telegraph. Discuss other industries that could benefit from rapid dissemination of information and how and why they would benefit from it.  Other than news organizations, other industries that might benefit would be government agencies, emergency information sites, among others.  If government and emergency information sites were able to put out information at a faster pace people would be able to access it and become informed of important information instantly.

5.      Choose one of the common methods of online communication and think of how it could be improved in terms of facilitating communication between people, ensuring quality communication, and enabling the greatest number of users to distribute information.  I think communication tools like Skype could benefit from greater amounts of bandwidth.  The idea of video calling is great, but the quality is often subpar and could use a boost.  If the video quality were to become crystal clear and the calls could remain uninterrupted more people might use Skype more frequently.  It could eventually become our primary means of telecommunication.

Questions for the article “Digital McLuhan”

 1. What are the differences between the pre-literate acoustic world and the alphabetical visual world? How does the media of television become a part of the acoustic world?  The pre-literate acoustic world lacked boundaries and therefore information came from anywhere and without specific direction.  The alphabetical visual world on the other hand has boundaries and direction.  Television relates to the acoustic world through its musical, mythic and immersive tendencies.

 

 2. Why does the alphabet have the segregating tendencies? How exactly does the printing press reverse the segregating tendencies?  Prior to the printing press only small groups had access to the alphabet.  It was reserved for more elite groups and thus created a larger divide between literate and illiterate individuals.  Once the printing press was invented more people were able to gain access to literature (the alphabet) and over time close the gap towards literacy.

 

 3. How does the alphabetic communication in online communication make cyberspace acoustic? How is the online acoustic world different from the television, radio, or print acoustic world?  The endless openness and interactivity of cyberspace have formed it into an acoustic world.  It is the fact that cyberspace requires our undivided attention to participate that separates it from other media.  We use TV, radio and print often as secondary communicative processes, but that is not the case with how we use cyberspace. 

 

 4. Not only do we invent media and media technologies but also we select their uses in different contexts. What are the two selection criteria? According to the selection criteria, please discuss what will happen to our online communication in 20 years?        1) We want media to extend our communication beyond the biological boundaries of naked seeing and hearing.  2) We want media to recapture elements of that biological communication which early artificial extensions may have lost.  It seems that people want media that is not only an extension of our communication, but also a more organic and natural means of communicating.  We want something that is technologically advanced, but also fits into the flow of natural human interaction.  With these circumstances, we may be headed towards further advances in virtual reality or interactive holograms.  These technologies would allow humans the interaction they crave and push the boundaries of current communication.