Carrie Dowling

Wi-Fi in Philadelphia hits snags

2007-12-07T06:21:11Z

3 years after the Mayor of Philadelphia announced they would be the first major U.S. city to have it's own wireless network, the project with Earthlink is delayed by delays and cost overruns.

]]> According to the Associated Press, complaints about the providers services have reached the city councilman, who also acknowledges having problems connecting to these hotspots around the city (Associated Press, 2007). The provider, Earthlink (www.earthlink.com), based out of Atlanta, is currently undergoing a restructuring, which is partially blamed for the unavailability of service and problems with the network even though they won a 10-year contract for the city's network.

Unfortunately for Earthlink, in August they cut nearly half of their workforce to reassess the business plan. As a result of the problems in Philadelphia, the company has pulled out of the San Francisco Wi-FI project.

Recently, they paid 5 million dollars to Houston for contractual violations and are currently trying to decide if they should try to find partners for the networks or if they should abandon altogether.

City-sized Wi-Fi networks are, I believe, a thing of the future and should be watched carefully. Wi-Fi is already very popular among small areas like restaurants and businesses, but in the future could be a standard for laptops and cell phones and available just about anywhere that you would go.

Just another subject to watch...

Source:
Associated Press (MSNBC.com). 2007. Retrieved November 26, 2007 from:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21840429/

Google + iPhone = ?

2007-12-07T06:06:48Z

Google, following its history as it continue to take over the world, has developed a new application for the iPhone.

]]> Before my purchase of the iPhone in October, I wouldn't have thought another second about reading this story. But, I find a new feature about the phone that I like everyday and it has definitely already paid for itself with what its saved me. However, Google seems to have offered a way to make things even easier.

Google has developed an application for the iPhone that combines the e-mail, search and calendar all into a single application. According to Reuters, Google is doing this in hopes to replicate its success on the desktop computer in the mobile phones division. Also, Reuters reports that Google is continuing to work on developing new technologies that are faster and easier to use and available on more devices.

Reportedly, Google is also making an effort to expand in wireless by announcing last week that they would bid in an upcoming U.S. wireless airwaves auction.

Lastly, in this Reuters story, Google is developing an operating system for mobile phones known as Android thats based on a Linux technology.

Source:
Reuters, 2007. Retrieved December 2007 from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22113729/

Information Renaissance, Take 2

2007-12-07T05:46:03Z

Before I posted my first blog on the Information Renaissance, I did not research the topic because I wanted to post a non-biased idea of what I thought that it might be. Now after googling "Information Renaissance," I've made an interesting discovery.

]]> I've located the website of a group called Information Renaissance. Instead of it being a concept or a movement, I've found a group that call themselves that. The goals of the group are as follows (from the website):

Goals: Access, empowerment and inclusion: using technology to enable people to participate more fully in their communities and in the democratic process.

The group has been around since 1996 as a non-profit organization and continue their work today.

This is a group that is utilizing the technologies that are available in order to encourage people to contribute and participate more in their community and democracy as a whole. The encourage members of our society to learn about and comment on the national legislation or public policy during the process instead of just conforming to whatever is decided for them.

Specifically they target underserved people in communities and they try to reach large audiences and add technology to their lives that will serve them in a meaningful way.

If this doesn't serve the purpose of an Information Renaissance, then I'm not sure what does.

Source:
http://www.info-ren.org/info-ren.shtml

My Definition of the Information Renaissance

2007-12-07T05:36:29Z

The Information Renaissance is not a concept that has been concretely defined by Merriam-Webster or an established event in history such as the European Renaissance. In my opinion, it has a somewhat fluid definition, similar to that of Web 2.0

]]> Without actually searching, or doing any reading (or googling) of the topic, I would assume that the Information Renaissance is somewhat related to that of the European Renaissance. The Information Renaissance presenting a complete change of what we've seeen in the past and taking us into a new generation of collaboration (probably mostly online). I say mostly online because we've had books and magazines and newspapers all as modes of conveyance for information, but the internet, becoming popular only about 15 years ago is offering a new and easy-to-use medium for people interested in it.

As the internet increases in popularity, its been easier to access for people now and learn how to use. I have a grandmother, having never even turned a computer on before, who pays her bills online now and sends emails out weekly.

The original Renaissance was fueled by innovation. Innovation in art, science, mathematics, architecture and other areas. Now we're seeing innovations in information technology and the way that it's available to users and the way that users are able to employ whats now available.

I did another entry on the FordSync technology (www.syncmyride.com). 10 years ago, I do not believe that people would have foreseen themselves syncing their cellular phone with their car and using their voice to make phone calls. I think its the innovation that fuels the Renaissance, whether it be in the 14th century on the 21rst.

The not-so-glamorous portion of the European Renaissance

2007-12-07T05:21:08Z

Unfortunately, while there was so much going on in the Renaissance related to art, science, music and architecture, there was also the death of anywhere between 1/4 and 1/2 of Europe's population during this time.

]]> Otherwise known as "The Black Death," it reached Italy in 1348 and spread on from there. It was a plague, also known as an epidemic, that played out over a period of three years all through Europe.

Fear spread through the people as more people fell victim to the plague and as we know, fear in large doses can make people do some crazy things. Groups of people began living together, completely separate from all other people in an attempt to avoid contracting the deadly disease.

I'll avoid the details of the diseases and symptoms and skip right onto the affects that it had on the arts and culture.

Since this disease did now know social classes, it affected the rich and poor alike, shoemakers and scholars both. Scholars from Universities such as Cambridge died in large groups. Not only did scholars die, however. Priests and members of the church and clergy were also killed off. With no one to continue studies or to hear confessions, big holes began to form in the culture.

As for the arts, the death and destruction that we saw in real life began to work its way into the art works of the time. We see this in the Danse Macabre or the Dance of Death. The theme shows skeletons worked in with people in their daily lives.

Often, the current events and feelings affect the art of the time, and the Renaissance was no exception to this rule.

Source:
Knox. E.L.S. The black death. Retrieved November, 2007 from: http://history.boisestate.edu/westciv/plague/

European Renaissance ...the art and architecture

2007-12-07T04:54:20Z

The Renaissance, as you may well know comes from the French for "rebirth." The European Renaissance occured between the 14th and 17th centuries.

]]> Re-birth is really the only way to describe what happened during this time period. It started in Italy and then moved through the rest of Europe, completely re-shaping the world as they knew it.

I started my undergraduate degree in Interior Design with a minor in Art History (I know, quite different from my path at CICS). My art history classes looked specifically at some of the European Renaissance art and I have spent a great deal of time looking at the Renaissance art and artists.

Art started to take on a linear perspective like we'd never seen previous to this. Artists during this time were names that you may or may not have heard of; Giotto di Bondone, Fillippo Brunellshi, and Leon Battista Alberti. Then there are other names you're sure to have heard of; Leonardo DaVinci, Michealangelo, and of course, Raphael.

Art wasn't the only revamp of the Renaissance, however. Architecture (which we also studied) was given an entirely new purpose and look at this time as well. The piece of architecture that came out of the Renaissance that I enjoyed the most was St. Peters Basilica (Pictures and details of St. Peters) It combined the skills of Michaelangelo, Bramante, Raphael, Sangallo, and Maderno.

Watching the way that civilizations and societies have behaved in the past can give us an idea of how we're going to behave in the future. I think that the occurence of the European Renaissance gives us a good mold for the way the world is sort of being re-organized or 'flattened' now. Just something to ponder.

Ford ... joining the information age?

2007-12-07T04:02:20Z

Ford (www.ford.com), in a partnership with Microsoft, is offering a new system in its vehicles (2008 line) that allows you to sync your phone and music with the car and then use both with it's voice activated system. The Name? FordSync. (www.syncmyride.com)

]]> The system comes factory-installed in Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles in the United States (syncmyride.com). You can sync your vehicle with a number of portable music devices (iPods, etc) as well as most bluetooth enabled phones.

Not only does the FordSync system allow voice-enabled and hands-free calling, but it also allows drivers/passengers to use audible text messaging. Its a pretty well known fact that people in this day and age, as dangerous as it may be, spend time text messaging on their phones while they should be paying attention to the road and the drivers around them.

To put it simply, you're able to use voice commands to operate not only your cell phone, but as well as what music you'd like to hear. This enables drivers to spend less time distracted by surfing through songs on their iPod and contacts in their 'phonebook.'

Right now the system is available on 12 Ford, Lincoln, or Mercury models in North America. The system will be standard on these models, so there isn't an individually quoted price for installation. However, there are some models where it is an available modification and is priced at US $395.

Source:
http://www.syncmyride.com/#/overlay/overlay_faq

In-Flight Net?

2007-12-07T03:40:13Z

JetBlue Airways has decided it's going to start testing limited free in-flight e-mail and instant messaging for its passengers. JetBlue is testing this as other airlines are renewing their own efforts to offer in-flight internet.

]]> General web surfing and e-mail attachments aren't going to be allowed due to the bandwidth constraints. Services on laptops and handheld devices that have Wi-FI access will be limited to the e-mail and instant messaging from the Yahoo Instant Messenger.

JetBlue is beginning its testing soon and will be using a wireless spectrum that first brought LiveTV bought from the FCC last year for $7 million (Jesdanun, 2007). The internet access will be using Wi-Fi instead of cellular signals and therefore does not violate the federal regulations, according to Jesdanun (2007).

Don't get excited just yet, though, because latops and cellular devices will still be banned during the takeoff and landing portions of the flight. According to Glenn Fleischman, there arne't any other airlines offering these types of services right now, but will probably be debuting them sometime next year.

This testing won't be limited to just JetBlue, however. American Airlines is also going to be among the carriers that are planning to test free in-flight based Internet.

Brad Garlinghouse of Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) says that the company built special, lightweight versions of its services to function on the JetBlue flights.

While this availability of in-flight access is exciting, the limited use of Yahoo! services could be somewhat of a turn-off to potential travellers. However, Chris McGinnis, editor of quarterly industry report Expedia Travel Trendwatch points out that travellers could have their corporate or personal e-mail forwarded to a Yahoo account for the travelling. (Jesdanun, 2007).

Source:
Jesdanun, A. 2007. JetBlue to test limited in-flight Net. Retrieved December 2007 from

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8TCA8800.htm.

Online dating or social networking?

2007-11-25T03:21:01Z

By now, most of you have probably heard of the Web 2.0 evolution, the idea of the �second generation� of the internet. Web 2.0 relies on a whole net set of applications and the Web 2.0 generation is privy to all kinds of new websites that allow online collaboration with other users like Flickr (www.flickr.com) or even Google Docs & Spreadsheets (www.docs.google.com).

]]> However, it�s not just the applications that are changing, but the interests of the members of the Web 2.0 generation. According to Sarah Lacy (2007), the needs and interests of the users have changed. While users in the early 1990�s flocked to online dating sites like Match.com (www.match.com) or eHarmony (www.eharmony.com) (Lacy, 2007).

Since Web 2.0 has taken over as the way of the internet world, the online dating sites, vestiges of the Web 1.0 world, have been outdone (Lacy, 2007). Now, Web 2.0, or the social networking generation has taken over (Lacy, 2007). Instead of using the 1.0 websites such as Match and eHarmony, we�ve moved on to Social Networking sites like Facebook (www.facebook.com), Myspace (www.myspace.com) and other websites like Yelp (www.yelp.com) or Digg (www.digg.com). These sites provide the opportunity for users to meet other people and perhaps strike up a relationship, but it doesn�t provide a site just for the exclusive use of spouse hunting (Lacy, 2007).

All of this information isn�t just the opinion of one journalist, but is proven by the traffic patterns observed by comScore (Lacy, 2007). The number of people that visited the online dating sites dropped 6% in September 2007 from September 2006 (Lacy, 2007).

The implications of Web 2.0 are huge. For new applications and abilities to frame the direction the internet and users flow are virtually unheard of. Up until now, users and users needs controlled the development of the technologies and applications, but the new abilities of technologies and applications are sending the users in new directions. This change in influence is something to watched and not something to be scoffed at.

References
Lacy, S. (2007). A kiss off to online dating sites. Business Week. Retrieved on November 23, 2007 from

http://businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2007/tc20071120_688300.htm?chan=top+ne

ws_top+news+index_businessweek+exclusives.

A bas le roi!

2007-09-22T16:04:42Z

The first week of class with Dr. Gillette in ICS 602 we discussed his feelings about "A bas le roi" or a notion of eliminating tyranny of architecture. I read a story on cnn.com today about Google rolling out the rival to Microsoft's popular business and academic presentation software - PowerPoint.

]]> http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/18/technology/bc.apfn.googlesoftware.ap/index.htm

This connects with the notion of down with tyranny and architecture. Microsoft currently has a tyranny on software, but with Google "taking over the world," they might be forced to reconsider what they offer and how they offer it.

Google offers a document package (http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour1.html) with word processing, spreadsheets, and most recently, their own version of PowerPoint. When people have options, the companies that offer these options are often required to adapt to the wishes of the consumer and to compete with the other companies in the market.

I don't know how everyone else feels about the monopoly that Microsoft has, but I for one am glad to see options and competition coming into the limelight.

Defining Human Communication

2007-09-21T02:42:34Z

The most common definition of human communication is the verbal and non-verbal interaction between humans in hopes of being able to convey meaning or messages. These often include the words that we speak, gestures we make and our facial expressions. However, the definition of human communication goes beyond the things we do with our bodies. Our actions and acts of self-expression are also part of our communication.

]]> Communication is a difficult thing to define. Theodore Clevenger tells us that “the continuing problem in defining communication for scholarly or scientific purposes stems from the fact that the verb ‘to communicate’ is well established in the common lexicon and therefore is not easily captured for scientific use” (Clevenger, 1991, p. 351).
Contrary to Clevenger’s thoughts, Frank Dance (1970) outlines three elements used to distinguish communication. The first dimension is level of observation. The second distinction is intentionality. Some definitions include only purposeful message sending and receiving; others do not impose this limitation. The third of Dance’s (1970) distinctions is normative judgment. Some definitions include a statement of success or accuracy; other definitions do not contain such implicit judgments. (Dance, 1970, p. 201-210).
One popular model that attempts to define communication is the Shannon-Weaver model. It presents communication as a linear event. The model states that communication always involves six elements. These elements are the message, the source, the encoder, the channel, the decoder, and the receiver (Woods & Hollnagel, 2005, p. 12).
Verbal communication is the sending and receiving of messages, typically between individuals or groups, to convey meaning and understanding. This includes our language usage, phrases, words or sounds. Non-verbal communication conveys the other part of our message using hand gestures, body language and facial expressions.
Communication is the sending of messages from a sender to a receiver in a particular channel or medium. These channels can be air waves, pages of a book, newspapers, visible language such as American Sign Language or more recently developed channels such as computer screens. In our world today, which is highly technologically oriented, people have begun to communicate in new ways. These ways include, but are not limited to, telephones, cellular telephones, electronic mail, video conferencing, instant messaging or text messaging. As these new adaptations of technology appear and become more popular, senders and receivers both are required to learn how to interpret messages over new mediums and learn to use these technologies. Unfortunately, it is possible for these new technologies to negatively affect human communication. While technology often provides faster and more efficient transmission, it often can be the cause for misinterpretation by the receiver, or can result in the losing of a message in the failed delivery of electronic mail.
However, the channels of communication can extend beyond these standard or traditional written or oral communications. Communication can include expressions of self such as the bumper stickers that we affix to our cars expressing our political beliefs, body piercings and tattoos, or works of graffiti on the wall of a building. Each of the above convey a certain way that someone feels and that feeling is received by people or groups, perhaps no one specifically, much in the same way that someone who reads a book or newspaper story receives a message.
Human communication is any relay of message from sender to receiver. An important part of understanding human communication is acknowledging that it includes communications that are received or decoded correctly as well as messages that are not, due to a language barrier or a simple misunderstanding between sender and receiver. Sometimes during communication, especially during a heated argument, words or actions are misunderstood and being able to work through those is a large part of being an effective communicator. Similarly, communication also includes messages that are inadvertently sent by something we say or do, or something that we don’t say or do when the other party feels that we should have reacted differently.
Ultimately, our communication with others determines our relationships with them; whether it is a friendship, a parent or other family member, relationship with your boss, or a casual acquaintance with whom you may never communicate again. The definition or perspective of human communication will vary for each person, which is partially why it is so difficult to define accurately. It is almost a second nature for humans to be able to receive the oral messages from their fellow humans as well as being able to decode the non-verbal gestures.
In conclusion, human communication is a necessary part of day-to-day life. It is comprised of many complex aspects that most people are not even aware of and many obstacles that must be overcome. The definition of human communication will continue to evolve as long as technology continues to evolve, but it will still be necessary to understand the elements that compose communication in order to understand communication as a whole.

References
Clevenger, T. (1991). “Can one not communicate? A conflict of models.”
Communication Studies. 42. 351.
Dance, F. E. X. (1970). “The ‘concept’ of communication,” Journal of
Communication (website). 20. 201-210.
Woods, D. D., & Hollnagel, E. (2005). Joint Cognitive Systems: Foundations of
Cognitive Systems Engineering. Florida: CRC Press.