no penny necessary

I was reading the New York Times online and I came across an article called "The Future of Telecommunications May Be 'Comminfotainment.'" In it, Victoria Shannon summarizes her interview with Alcatel- Lucent's Chief Technology Officer, Olivier Baujard. Baujard believes that as early as 5 years from now, the telcos and mobile operators will be no more. In their places will be broadband providers offering channels of communication that will provide customers with voice, data, and video.

Already we are seeing the shift to service bundles as the cable companies and telcos expand their markets and compete directly with one another. Baujard envisions a future where customers can decide how they want their bandwidth to be used and what type of traffic gets a higher priority. While faster downloads will continue to be important, the increase in file sharing and online communities that allow members to upload their own creative content will begin to influence the available rate of upstream throughput.

With the migration to "comminfotainment" comes a need for changes in policy as well as the need to adapt to economical changes. Baujard points out that distributors and retailers will not be as important to the equation when data and video can be sent directly to the home over broadband. Talk about information renaissance, this will be an interesting transformation, indeed.

For the original article, visit http://www.nytimes.com/iht/2006/12/21/technology/IHT-21ptend21.html?ref=technology

Posted by hathomas at 12:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

When I was an undergrad and my life revolved around AIM (Aol Instant Messanger, just in case you didn't know), I would pride myself on the cleverness of my away messages. Hey, don't hate. Anyway, one of my favorites went something like this. . .

"Wouldn't it be great if life were a musical. I'm not here right now because I'm wandering around campus waiting for an opportune moment to burst into song."

I'm not ashamed to admit that I was raised on musicals. My brother and I (sorry bubba) would run around the house and the neighborhood singing the classic songs of the silver screen. I can think of several moments of my adolescent life that were excellent opportunities for a jazzy walk through the halls of my school or a solemn ballad lamenting the troubles of the dating world--if only I had an orchestra to back me up. All this to say, I know why ipods and mp3 players have taken off as must have gadgets. This desire to live a real life musical lies deep within all of us.

It reminds me of an episode of Ally McBeal (did anyone else watch that show?). Basically, someone told Ally (Calista Flockhart) that to help give her confidence she should have a theme song that she sings in her head as she walks down the street. One day, she started dancing to her theme song and one by one all of the people walking next to her started to get down. It was hilarious. I have had several personal theme songs since then. Perhaps, my dear readers, I shall one day share my current theme song with you. Until then I say unto you, good bye, "gooood byeeeeeeee."

Posted by hathomas at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During my senior year English class in high school, we did a unit on Renaissance England complete with field trip to a Renaissance Fair followed by the production of our own renaissance fair in the hallways of our school. We researched the era, made or own costumes, and even learned a dance that we performed every 20 minutes or so for the visitors (underclassmen and teachers). It was actually a lot of fun and not cheesy and embarrassing at all. The best part was trying to speak Elizabethan English for two hours.

Usually when people break into their best Elizabethan speak, they end up quoting from Romeo and Juliet. But I would like to submit for your enjoyment, a poem by Edward de Vere.

LOVE THY CHOICE.

Who taught thee first to sigh, alas, my heart ?
Who taught thy tongue the woeful words of plaint ?
Who filled your eyes with tears of bitter smart ?
Who gave thee grief and made thy joys to faint ?
Who first did paint with colours pale thy face ?
Who first did break thy sleeps of quiet rest ?
Above the rest in court who gave thee grace ?
Who made thee strive in honour to be best ?
In constant truth to bide so firm and sure,
To scorn the world regarding but thy friends ?
With patient mind each passion to endure,
In one desire to settle to the end ?
Love then thy choice wherein such choice thou bind,
As nought but death may ever change thy mind.

Earle of Oxenforde.

Posted by hathomas at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

While studying art in my undergraduate years, I sculpted a rough block of soap stone approximately 4x5x10 inches into three figures. Soap stone is so named for its relative softness (a chisel and mallet were still involved), and my first time around, I managed a figurative expression of human beings. I think it turned out pretty good. After having that experience, I am all the more amazed at the detail with which the renaissance artists created realistic--and large--figures in marble and bronze.

According to the National Gallery of Art, the monumental statues of the church of Orsanmichele in Florence created by Nanni di Banco, Donatello, and Ghiberti are the first recognized works to be considered Renaissance Art. The statues combine the realism of antiquity and the spiritual expressiveness of the Middle Ages, but one cannot fully appreciate the detail and craftsmanship of these works without examining them for oneself. Since I cannot take you Florence (and indeed, I have not been myself), I'll do my best to explain how wonderful these sculptures are, in particular, Nanni di Banco's Four Crowned Martyrs Saints.

The four figures were carved out of three pieces of marble. The details that stand out to me are the soft folds of their clothing. It's a paradox in stone. Originally, their hair, beards, and the edges of their clothes were also gilded. The original white marble and gold gilding must have been breath-taking. Over the centuries, the statues have lost the white glow, but I still long to go to Florence and see them myself.

For more information about the statues of Orsanmichele visit the website of the National Gallery of Art at
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2005/orsanmichele/index.shtm

Posted by hathomas at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since a weblog is essentially an online journal, and my name is shared with someone whose career path draws a lot of attention on the internet, I decided to give my blog a name that had relevance to both the concept and my experiences in CICS. The title of my weblog originated from the saying “A penny for your thoughts,” but my colleagues at the Center can also appreciate it for the reference to a practice by one of our professors. Dr. Jay Gillette has the habit of giving someone a penny as a token of wealth in exchange for a piece of information, because “information is wealth.” In this case, I am offering my thoughts, and any information they might contain, free of charge.

Posted by hathomas at 01:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A major catalyst of the European Renaissance was the invention of the printing press. Books could be made cheaply and were distributed to people that didn't have access to such writings before, spurring growth in the economy, human thought, and artistic expression. Thanks to the internet, another type of renaissance is occuring in our lifetime. But the internet with its millions of pages would be impossible to navigate without search engines like Google.

In The Search, John Battelle writes about the search engine revolution that has both changed the face of business and the way we use the internet. Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google while studying at Stanford University in the mid to late 1990’s. It began with a project called BackRub that determined what sites were back-linked to a URL. The two then created an algorithm called PageRank that ranked links in importance in relation to what it was linked to. Page and Brin realized they had created something that would be incredibly useful as a search engine and Google was born. Since that time "to google" has become a verb, and the internet is a useful tool for millions of people around the world. It has spurred technological advancements in the way we communcate with one another, how people do business, and even how we express ourselves. Welcome to the new renaissance.

Posted by hathomas at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The European Renaissance is the period following the Middle Ages that spans the early to mid 1400’s and 1500’s and is noted for its advances in the availability of information due to the invention of the printing press, economic changes that led to a more informed and affluent middle class, as well as profound changes in philosophy, art, and architecture.

In the same way, the era in which we live today can be called the Information Renaissance. Thanks to the internet, information is literally at our fingertips. We can communicate with one another from different sides of the world in real time and can exchange, collect, and supply information with the touch of a button. It has changed our economy as well as the way we create and share artistic content.

As I thought about the European Renaissance, I came to see a similar transformation in my life. I’ve always been a pretty good student--sometimes referred to as a nerd for enjoying school and making small talk with the teachers. However, as an undergrad I remained unfocused, jumping from major to major. I graduated with the plan to get a masters degree so that I could eventually support myself and earn a comfortable living. In the mean time, I would see what the world was all about. Of course, life doesn’t always turn out as we plan, and I found myself in need of some immediate direction as far as my career was concerned.

I found direction at the Center for Information and Communication Sciences at Ball State University right here in my hometown, and with it, my own personal renaissance. I find myself constantly flooded with new information and different ways of thinking about the world around me. It is a “rebirth” of my own intellectual and professional existence, a period of transition into the next phase of my life.

For more information on European Renaissance http://www.learner.org/exhibits/renaissance/index.html

Posted by hathomas at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)