Week 13

The internet of things, the technological utopia. Whatever you call it, it's on its way and no one can stop it. As more and more devices are being entered into cyberspace it is a matter of time before every last thing in your room, outside your room and everything in between will be entering some sore to data into the internet. Although, since this is still in the implementation stage all we can do is speculate how this will benefit us and what the consequences will be.

Lets begin with benefits and they are easy to see. As more things are linked to a network, information on that thing is easily accessible and can be monitored at any time. Even the most inanimate things can hold great deals of useful information. If everything was linked to one network, nothing would get lost, ever. If looking for keys a quick internet search could come back saying: Sock, Shirt and table have all seen keys and they are currently in that location. Instantly i would know that my keys are in my pile of clothes near my table, and just like that my need to think becomes redundant.

With that last point it neatly brings me in to consequences. The first one being that the need to assess any situation or any problem would become redundant. The constant stream of information would mean that we would be demoted to merely following orders than to make individual decisions. Instead of knowing i need new shoes by how they look and feel, i would wait for a message from the shoes to tell me to buy more, until that time they must be fine. Also their is no guarantee that this constant feed of information would go specifically to me. There would be nothing stopping Nike from impleneting this technology so that they would discover every Nike customer's walking habits and adapt their products to suit you i.e. they are watching everything you do. Lastly i cant end this last blog without voicing the potential of a 2001 a Space Odyssey scenario. For those who don't understand click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkyUMmNl4hk.  I fear the last words I would hear are "I'm sorry Chris, I'm afraid I can't do that"

Week 12

In the past we have had Coca Cola vs Pepsi, McDonalds vs Burger King, Woolworths vs Coles and many other duopolistic battles. The new craze for this modern age: smartphones aka Apple vs Google. Gone with the days of the dominance of Nokia over the mobile communications industry, now it is merely a whisper of what it used to be. The focus has now changed from hardware to software or more specifically operating software. This battle is unlike the previously mentioned battles they consisted of two very similar companies offering very similar products with subtle differences. This time Apple and Google are two very different companies with different strategies and philosophies offering two extremely different products.

Ted's lecture ended with the focus on freedom vs comfort. When put in these words it is easy to assume that people would choose to be free over being controlled given any situation. However, not every phone user can fully understand the capabilities and the functions that the phone possess nor can they keep up with constant updates. Using a personal experience as an example, my mother recently purchased a new LG phone with Android technology. She is not tech savy in the slightest and has hence given up using the phone. The reason being that since Android is apart of Google, the phone did not come with any clear instructions as to how to use it, in her eyes the more options make it more complicated. Of course she is not alone which is why many people have invested in Apple's Iphone. Since there is no option as to how to use it, instructions can be very clear and people can learn how to use it knowing there is no alternative.

In my opinion, Apple's days are numbered as they will be swallowed up by competitors. There are three reasons behind this statement. Firstly, Apple software is produced solely by Apple and controlled by Apple. Any apps are bought on the Apple App Store and music can be bought from Apple Itunes, i think you can see a trend here. With such a narrow focus customers are restricted to anything Apple. However Android is produced by Google and sold by Samsung, LG, HTC etc. This amount products in the market mean Android phones easily outnumber Apple phones and offer greater freedoms. Secondly, Apple's breakthrough was by its 'revolutionary' technology. This technology spent years in research and development in the Apple garage. With so many competitors using Android, every one of those competitors has a R&D department, put them together and Apple looks miniscule. Lastly, Apple is predominately a fashion statement. The same with any fashion statement after a while people lose interest and before you know it will be a piece of history.

Week 11

Twitter and Facebook have been proven to be more than just sites to talk to friends, to invite people to parties and to grow digital crops. These social media sites have proved to be quintessential communication mediums of the new decade. Volume of people using these systems and the speed at which they operate is unlike any other communication format ever seen before. Henceforth it wasn't long before people were able utilize these sites and use them to spread awareness for certain causes. As we have seen in the Arab Spring no less than 17 different countries holding protests against their current government, many of those admitted to using social media websites to drum up support hence creating a Twitter Revolution.

Of course giving all the credit to these sites would be wrong and foolish. These demonstrations were created by people with ideas and beliefs who spread their message and create a following. Without the instigators and their followers the revolutions would not have had as near an impact and would have failed to be successful. However at the same time, the use of Twitters #tag and Facebook's event creation meant that all demographic factors could be overcome. Anyone of any age, any race, any religion living anywhere was able to see this message and choose to support it, ignore it or help spread it.

The Arab spring would not have succeeded in places like Egypt and Libya without people power. The sheer number of people willing to stand up for what they believed in was the reason that these protests were successful. Social media sites contributed dramatically to this cause yet credit can not be given to this technology. Credit is given to every person who walked the streets calling for improvements to their nation.

Week 9

The picture that springs to mind when the word Hackers is mentioned would be a geeky mid 20s guy with nothing but bad intentions. However is this a inaccurate interpretation of a hacker. we have seen that in fact hackers can be used for good and even help fight crime (literally). With constant threats of viruses, Trojans, worms, malware and various other things that can potentially take over and destroy your computer, it is easy to forget that hackers can and actually do work to help us.

White flag hackers have been around just as long as black flag hackers and are just as effective. Many hackers have a full time career helping companies set up networks and systems that are fully protected and cannot be hacked. how do they do this? By actually hacking into the system to start with, which kind of makes sense when you think about it. However these skills can be used against systems albeit in a positive way. Take anonymous for example. Although this group is highly controversial and have been blamed for hacking into well known systems, it is a way of making a protest. Looking at the groups targets: Sony, Facebook and Amazon, each one of these companies were targeted due to the way in which they treated their users and the user's details. A normal protest would consist of hundreds or thousands of like minded people shouting and waving signs outside a store or down a street usually halting business for that organization. But these companies are completely virtual so using conventional methods would be useless. Henceforth using a new type of protest, hackers are able to halt business for a company in order to get their message across.

Of course i can not sit here and praise all hackers as it is well known that hackers can and are very dangerous. Hackers have been known to steal information for personal gain which can include anything from money to a persons details. As Ted stated in the lecture some of these hacker groups are in it mainly 'for the lulz'. It is these groups that are in my opinion the most dangerous. Without any agenda or real targets, these groups simply operate to cause anarchy. These groups are not looking for any for information to steal or use, instead they seek only to corrupt. Without the help of the white flag hackers the internet as we know it today could have been very different.
p.s. This blog was a little behind the times i know but better late then never.

Week 8

For centuries people have merely been 'consumers', only able to buy what is offered with little alternatives. Suggestions fell on deaf ears as consumers were seen as powerless. However with the introduction of citizen journalism, consumers have transformed into 'prosumers'. People are able to write their own opinions, free of charge and with an absolute guarantee it will be published on a page albeit in cyberspace. This expansion of free and extensive publications whether it is news, opinions, reviews or articles, has meant that the fate of traditional media is that it will soon become merely a tradition. As discussed in previous posts physical information will not die such as newspapers, CDs and other outlets, yet they are doomed to become the new vinyl attracting only a small niche market.

The catalyst of this surge in citizen journalism is that it is free from editors and hence the thoughts of the writer are published unaltered. There is no gatekeeper, nor is there any filtering. This has meant that prosumers have gained a sense of freedom that of which previous generations could not experience. It is no longer 'All the news fit to print', instead it is all the news plus everything else uncensored. A great example is the blog http://www.abeerfortheshower.com/. Written independently it is a genuine good read that would never have seen the light of day if sent to the New York Times.

This prosumer revolution has not only created an excess in information, it has become some people's source of income. It would be hard to write a blog about citizen journalism and not mention the website YouTube (i assume you've heard of it). YouTube is one of the most popular viewed sites everyday and is mostly filled with prosumer material. Probably the greatest prosumer on YouTube and is ironically the most subscribed person in the world, is Ray William Johnson. I say greatest because of the fact that he has become so popular by talking about other people's viral videos. Hence he is a prosumer of prosumer information (a double prosumer?). This new wave of free, uncensored information has meant that traditional controlled media is losing its effect on people and in the future we will see a vast decline in traditional media.

Week 7

The long tail is a very interesting concept which explains why so many businesses have survived the dot com crash of the late 90s and have excelled. With fixed costs at an all time low, virtual businesses are able to offer goods and services and unbeatable prices compared with shop fronts. Also the ability to cater to the infinite amount of niche markets has resulted in a dramatic increase of profits. However the way in which these businesses reach these niche markets is somewhat intrusive. A users movements online are tracked and recorded. These records are then used to 'suggest' to the user what they might enjoy. Although this is a clear breech of privacy, people are generally unaware that this is happening right in front of their eyes. The documentary Erasing David explains this issue and is clearly shown when the creator receives requested documents concerning what information certain businesses have about him. When comparing the amount the government knows to what private companies know is staggeringly one sided.

There is a reason that Facebook has become one of the hottest companies in the past decade. Of course it is a way of communicating with people from all corners of the globe, but what does Facebook actually own? What are its assets?  The reason why it is so valuable is because it is the largest free marketing database. The asset that they have is all your information and states in the terms and conditions that they can do what they like with this information. Henceforth advertisements are catered for your page, companies can find out exactly what makes you tick.

This however can be deemed as a good thing and a new and innovative way to target marketing. Personally i have discovered many a new bands and movies through what was 'recommended for me' and i am thankful that i was able to experience them. However it does raise the ethical issue of privacy and begs the question, who is really reading your Facebook profile?

Week 6

Everything you buy is multi-functional in this day and age and almost nothing is made for a specific purpose, nothing electrical anyway. Manufacturers have worked out that we like as many functions as possible no matter how insignificant and mundane they may be. New products being released are not simply a phone or only transmits TV signals, not at all. Now they can access the internet, download apps, record programs and even tell other electronically devices what to do without actually physically picking them up. Is this the dawn of innovation or the beginning of a new age of laziness?

The internet itself is constantly spreading to every inch of the globe through portable devices such as phones. This has left users with a constant stream of information and has given us endless applications. Users are now able to listen to music, read a newspaper, download a documentary and watch a cat play a piano all by looking at a 12cm x 6cm piece of plastic. Innovative, yes. Necessary, hardly. It now seems to be the lazy mans way of releasing a 'new and improved' product into the market place. Instead of really altering the product e.g. a phone, by means of making it faster or changing designs, instead they install every single piece of technology that is on every other phone on the market. At the present time finding a phone which can simply make calls is almost impossible, instead they all have to have WI-FI with 3G and be able play music while shooting birds at pigs. It seems as though these manufacturers have found this inspiration in the strangest places. In the words of Homer Simpson: "People are afraid of new things. You should have just taken an existing product and put a clock in it or something."


I personally have around 6 different electronic devices in my room alone, whether it be a phone, an iPod, a computer or an alarm clock. All of which serve a similar function: they tell the time.

Week 5

Copyright, the hot topic for this week. There are two arguments to this copyrighted debate, one saying it is great and needed throughout all industries, the other calling for an abolishment of all copyright and intellectual property laws. Both of which have advantages and disadvantages and will displease some people.

At the moment copyright plays a huge part in any industry, allowing businesses to gain competitive advantages over their competitors. As a new product is released, the copyright laws are promptly put in place to stop other manufacturers copying this product. This makes sense, a company should be able to protect their innovation which they have spent x amount of money on researching, developing and producing. It would be unfair for a rival company to be allowed to take that from them at no cost. However there seems to be little to no limit as to have far copyright laws can go. A products image, packaging, production process and function can all be copyrighted. For example, Cadbury has recently copyrighted the colour purple forcing rival company Darryl Lea to change their main colour to blue. Also have you ever notice why there are no other drinks available with a bight shade of red on the bottle or can, you can thanks Coca Cola for that one. Looking at this it is scary to think how far copyright laws can go, don’t even get me started on apple.

The other side of the argument is to rid the business world of these laws which only hold people back. In theory business would strive to innovate as quickly as possible and be the first to release a new state of the art product into the market place. Big business products would be easily copied by smaller businesses allowing a better allocation of income. It would also give greater freedom to smaller business that can freely alter and update products. At the same time this abolition could have an adverse effect. Businesses would slow development as each would wait for others to spend the money in research and development only to steal their idea and produce it cheaper. Not only this but there would be an increase in cartels and insider trading as companies would constantly try to steal these ideas before they are released. Small businesses could also be affected as big businesses could take their new and innovative products and manufacture them at an increased rate with better resources resulting in taking the market share from them.

The only fundamental way to make everyone happy is to find a middle ground, but what is the middle ground. That would mean finding logic in copyright laws which is merely a pipe dream.

Week 1

After much delay i am posting about the first reading for the subject. Overall assessment brings that the reading brings interesting thoughts to the table. On the contrary of stating that society is information or knowledge based, instead it believes that we live in a network society. This does make a lot of sense as the way information in transmitted to another person is through a network.  The globe has become interconnected due to a series of networks sending streams and streams of continuous information. Although networks have evolved from the use of the telegraph, Morse code and the telephone, the general principle and concept remains the same both in theory and practice. This expansion of networks revolutionized the way businesses do business with other businesses (now that's a lot of business). Through the use of networks companies are able to constantly access real time information from any part of the globe concerning the position of their company, its competitors or venture capital opportunities. This has led to quicker actions and reactions by both companies and governments when problems arise. As a result people have begun to expect real time responses to issues especially political issues. However are these expectation reasonable or is it that these issues need time to be properly assessed before initializing a certain solution.

Week 4

As the internet has truly become global it now means that information is constantly being created irregardless of where you are. This issue has been addressed by Reeves and Bradwell in the reading. The old rule of 8 hours work, 8 hours leisure and 8 hours sleep in a day has become redundant. In order to keep up with the constant updates of information from around the globe, company's must always have an eye on the market. As a result in order to entice workers at work, the lines between work and leisure have become blurred. People are now beginning to bring their work home or opting to do all of their work at home creating a new office from a place which was used exclusively for leisure. Also companies have become more relaxed with letting employees use computers for personal use during working hours. This may seem like more freedom for the employee, but in the long run in it could potentially lead to extension of expected working hours and work load without extra pay. Share traders are sometimes required to stay and sleep in the office to ensure they will be able to trade at the time the market opens while receiving information from overseas markets.  With the flow of information continuing to flow it seems unlikely that this trend will change, instead it seems it will only get worse as time goes on.

week 3

It is a breath of fresh air to read these readings which are ancient in computer years. It seems to be that the internet and the use of the internet is being taken for granted for. However this of course can be said about most new technology such as the telephone for example. At first it becomes a luxury or an innovation but quickly becomes expected.
The issue raised in the first reading is an interesting one but inevitably does not work in practice. It is true in the way that cyberspace was and remains to be a global community without an elected government. But the same with a real community without authority brings chaos, without control brings anarchy. This point can be proven through the increase of worms and viruses throught the end of the 1990s. I agree with the notions that the elements of free speech are lost with the implications of government intervention yet it is almost a necessary evil. Of course there has to be a limit as to what should be controlled but finding this middle ground is close to impossible and will remain to be a struggle for years to come.
The new economy reading shows exactly how the implication of the internet has effected the global economy. People are now able to invest in overseas companys in real time with a stream of information constantly being fed straight to them. As a result a countries economy is closly linked to overseas economies and at times hinders on the decisions made and the actions undertaken by those companies. Some aregue that this has created a sense of interconnectedness thorught the globe and has been a way of creating a link between boarders. However this has made the economys of the world all the more volatile as one bad decision in one country can have massive repercusions across the globe. The most recent example is of course the Global Financial Crisis. This shows the unpredictableness of he economy and advances in the economy. As said in the reading '40 years they imagined all successful companies would be like GM.' Of course the believed this as it was new, innovative, a never before seen advancement in efficiency. However people forget to realise that things are always improving whether it be behind the curtains or right in our faces, things are constantly being improved and modified.

Week 2

This week included 3 readings and each in their own right contained relevant and interesting material to ponder over. The reading 'A Short History of the Internet' by Bruce Sterling provided a retrospective view on modern internet use. Although the date by date history content while being factual was somewhat mediocre the fact that it was written in 1993 allowed me to compare the development and expectation of future development of internet services with what is actually happening today. Since the internet was a new development at that time it gives the idea that it is a privilege not a necessity and it is not taken for granted as it is in this day and age. The reading states that the internet is used for four things:
mail,
discussion groups,
long-distance computing and,
file transfers.

This is still true today yet these functions have been improved and expanded into other territories.

The second reading gets into the nitty gritty of sending packages and other magical stuff that computers do without us knowing. The explanation of the four dimensions answered the questions of what happens inside a cord when information is sent. I can safely say that with new words such as nodes and flows my computing vocabulary is starting to grow.
There is no review for the third reading as i am currently in the process of reading so comments on that one would be helpful.
Thanks for reading