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.