week9-Information/ Communication Technologies in the Snow

As an international student who comes from a sub-tropical island, I was amazed by the first snow in my life.

Expecting the snow for several days since I had known that there will be a snow from the weather forecasting software on my desktop, which was downloaded from Yahoo. I was studying in the library and hearing at the KPLU radio online when the snow fell. My friends told me about the snow in words through the MSN Messenger. I run out of the building to feel the memorable moment. At the same time I made a phone call to my friend who lives in San Deigo and told him about the great news.

When the snow became smaller, I went out to take some pictures with my digital camera. (I mentioned above that I had expected the snow for several days, thus I bring my camera all the time.) People were shrieking and playing snowballs on the street. I guessed that people were as happy as I was.

It happened that I have a friend who is coming from Washington D.C. and was stuck by mechanical problem. I was worried about the big traffic jam when he comes back near the midnight. Because I have no TV in my place, I read Seattle Times and Yahoo News in stead. There is a great function provided by Seattle Time. People can search his/her own place or location and see the volumes of traffic.

Next morning, I got my father’s Email from Singapore with great concern about the heavy snow. He said that he saw the news about the snowstorm and black traffic. I used Skype to talk with him and my mother in Taiwan, describing the snow in Seattle. Then I uploaded some pictures about the beautiful and unforgettable snow to my album.

One day after, I woke up and found that I got a bad cold. Thus, I emailed to my boss and told her that I could come to office today.

It was a wonderful snow, but was being bad to my health. :P

week9- Experience on Using Technologies

Attending to the program of Digital Media indeed push me adopt lots new technology. Recently, I use some new technologies like webcam, Firefox, Thunderbird, Roxio, Flicker, Blogger.com or TiVo.

I think that although the Internet is so called a “Global Medium,” finding the website or software which owns most users is still an important task. After all, what you see and use makes you that kind of people. Thus, I tried my best to get used to all the PC products around me in US.

Also I found some useful software to manage my life, like Active Desktop and Yahoo Widgets. The former is a schedule on my desktop which can avoid me from forgetting something important; the later is multi-function software which provides weather, photo frame, notepad, maps… and so on.

My work, as a technology assistant, also gives me a lot of chances to use new hardware and software, such as Camtasia Studio, VHS-C, conversion software, duplication software and Mac in video editing.

According to the Diffusion Theory, I think I am one of the early majorities in using webcam. Because I have the needs to connect with my family and let them know my new life, I started to use the communication system online, and teach me family to use them as well.

week8-We the Media

We the Media
Dan Gillmor
Chapter 6: Professional Journalists Join the Conversation

Gillmor mentioned the words of Oh Yeon Ho.“Journalists aren’t some exotic species, they’re everyone who seeks to take new development, put them into writing, and share them with others.”

With the growing interactions among online readers, the trend of “Web2.0” enhances the power comes from every corner. People could sit at home and announce your opinions with a click. In old days, there is a Chinese slang says that “A man could know all the things happening in the world without going out from his house.” I think it was a compliment to all traditional media. However, we could say that “A man could say his words to the whole world without going out from his house.”

Also the rapidly increase of mobile communication and multimedia facilities like phonecamera, home DV, digital camera and, of course PC or laptop make everyone a dress-up recorder. Moreover, Youtube and many other video sharing platforms provide people space to share their experiences, especially the fields that normal journalists wouldn’t ever think of.

One of the definitions of “news” is what is happening. This is also the main reason that makes newblogs so hot. Only the participators in he very moment will have the realest picture. That’s what most journalists could reach. For example, here is the video student shot in the event of “UCLA police used stun gun on student.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g7zlJx9u2E

We talked about the question-Quis custodiet ipsos custodes- last week, which means who shall watch the watchers themselves. I think newsblogs indeed break the technical restrict and make news industry a common behavior in people’s daily lives. Thus, the “mass” media is truly belongs to the mass.

week7-Notes in the class

Part A

Lecture of Phil Howard, Nov.14 2006

Almost all the donations in campaigns came to TV commercials. (About 90 USD)

The high peak: 1968, 1972, 1988, 2000, 2004(extremely high)

# Find the definition of “Registered Voter.”

The percentage of population who go online for election is gathering. And election news online indeed affected the vote choice. But people found too much useless information online. è The “only” channel became the “more convenient” channel, which showed that the function of the Internet was changed.

Types of political websites: local, official, non-partisan, candidate, partisan, special interest (the most traffic).

Political Games

Voice Robot

Knowing the profile of voters could save money and time.

Branch Picture of sponsor-- theyrule.net

Vote.com

Calculating a campaign-- exist time and explosion (vertical/ horizontal)

80% banner ads/ 1% click-through rate/ 9% buy message/ 10% passionate enough to write

Political Narrowcasting

MyBestSegment

Jurgen Habermas on the Public Sphere (link)

1. The public sphere is space where we exchange ideas and challenge opinions. Requires: shared text, conversation, and room for action.
2. Ideally: all relevant voices are heard/ best arguments float to the top/ agreement based on reason, not force or privilege.

The trend of “don’t vote.”

Because of…. the issue? the way that TV companies operated?

The power of “American Ideal.” / The “big head” in China.

# Group 4 Discussion

1. Democracy’s Public Sphere— Democracy is ruled by people.
2. Democracy should provide a place where people can share information.
3. Democracy is alternative to corporate owned mass communication.
4. Two-way Medium
5. Bottom-up v.s. Top-down communication
6. “Access” is everything.
7. Libraries help people access the Internet.
8. Economic Development v.s. University Service
9. Free Market v.s. Government Regulation
10. Suggestion: a) Establish permanent public computer access. b) Pay people tp participate in their government.
11. The role of ISP.
12. Net Neutrality

week7-The Tragedy of the Commons

This week’s reading made me a little dizzy. It may due to my poor economic knowledge. I tried to find the main point among the chaotic concepts. When it comes to the concept of “public aspect in Internet,” can everyone get his/her own biggest benefit?

What if we operate the Internet like a kind of “Public Broadcasting System” that we already do to the public media? We could gather capitals from governmental finance or public foundation, and then operate a non-profit medium. Under certain non-profit organization, the Internet could be developed in a way and could produce contents about public issues, art, education and knowledge. Without a doubt, “Public Internet” would accelerate the birth of a civic society.

But it’s all about a Utopia, the character of Internet is based on the diverse opinion market. And also the author mentioned that “The result is administrative law, which is rightly feared for an ancient reason--Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?--"Who shall watch the watchers themselves?"”

And there exist an essential problem, since the Internet needs a series of facilities to access. We face an inevitable digital divide among all people. Not everyone is affordable to all facilities, and also not everyone has enough knowledge to access the Internet. Thus, people with better knowledge will come out better lives, and people with less knowledge will stick in his/her level all the time. It’s unfair, and will defiantly cause serious social problems.

And the author mentioned about the advertising. Is “watching advertising” a type of “labor?” Living in a capitalism world, maybe we are too familiar with all kinds of advertising and don’t care about the 24-hrs bombing. Is that really good? Or is it just a devil to arise your desire?

As to the E-Government and E-Democracy, here are some links to shoe the present status.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/OMB/egov/

Expanding E-Government is the President’s goal of utilizing technology to improve how the Federal Government serves you, citizens, businesses and agencies alike. This website provides an overview of the program, the Presidential E-Government Initiatives and the Federal Enterprise Architecture. Please discover the many ways Federal employees are serving citizens, businesses and local communities via E-Government.

http://www.e-democracy.org/

E-Democracy.Org - Building online public space in the heart of real democracy and community since 1994.

week6- Gorup 3 (What New Media Is Not)

What New Media Is Not from The Language of New Media by Lev Manovich

# Differences between new and old media:

1. New media is analog media converted to a digital representation.

2. All digital media share the same digital code.

(which means digital media allow different types of files to be displayed in the same computer)

3. New media allows for random access.

4. Digitization inevitably involves loss of information.

5. Digital media can be copied endlessly without degradation.

(especially in quality, like tape or VHS)

(the JEPG format, which is used to store still images, and MPEG, which is used to store digital video on DVD.)

6. New media is interactive.

(in this way the user becomes the co-author of the work)

# Take cinema into an instance.

# Old types of Animation

http://www.west.net/~science/animate.htm

http://www.privatelessons.net/2d/sample/m01_04.html

1. Thaumatrope (flash)

2. Flipbook (pic)

3. Phenakistoscope (pic)

4. Zoetrope (pic)

# The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

http://www.siggraph.org/s2006/index.php

http://www.siggraph.org/s2005/index.php

# Cubic Tragedy (Electronic Theater)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klgUgR0l-nc

Ming-Yuan Chuan
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan

http://www.ntust.edu.tw/focus/sigg/

ACM SIGGRAPH 2005 Computer Animation Festival's People's Choice Awards.

A polygonian girl tried to make herself prettier by using her new cosmetic tools (for polygon modeling of course), and by doing so accidentally ruined her own face. This tragedy may have inspired one of the world's most famous paintings.

VHS-C See the evolution of technology

Today, I was amazed by the evolution of technology. My boss assigned me a job to find a “VHS-C adapter.” What’s that, I asked. Then we turned over the whole office to find the little stuff. Let’s see what we got. A VHS-C Camera, lots VHS-C tapes and a VHS-C adapter. It‘s totally a camera between a traditional VHS Bata Cam and a digital camera. Seeing this, I nearly could imagine the thinking process in people’s minds. Wow~~ My English is limited to show my surprise, but I really appreciate to the special experience. I found some interesting information from Wikipedia about VHS-C.

VHS-C is the compact VHS format introduced in 1982 and used primarily for consumer-grade compact camcorders. The format is based on the same videotape as is used in VHS, and can be played back in a standard VHS VCR with an adapter. Though quite inexpensive, the format is largely obsolete even as a consumer standard and has been replaced by digital video formats.

A size comparison between the original VHS format, VHS-C, and the more recent MiniDV.

The magnetic tape on VHS-C cassettes is wound on one main spool and used a sort of a gear wheel which moves the tape forward. It can also be moved by hand and so is the spool. This development hampered the sales of the Betamax system somewhat, because the Betamax cassette geometry prevented a similar development.

Bottom and top view of VHS-C, compact video cassette

Example of a VHS-C adapter

VHS-C was one of the pioneering formats of the compact camcorder market, and was released to compete with Video8. VHS-C was larger than Video8, but was compatible with VHS tapedecks, making the choice between the two non-obvious, and splitting the market; VHS-C also eventually crowded full-sized VHS camcorders out of the market. A higher quality version of VHS-C was released, based on S-VHS, known as S-VHS-C, that competed against HI8, the higher quality version of Video8. The arrival on the market of inexpensive S-VHS-C camcorders led to the inclusion on many modern VCRs of a feature known as SQPB, or SuperVHS Quasi-PlayBack, but did not make a significant impact on the market as the arrival of MiniDV as a consumer standard made low-cost, digital, broadcast quality video rendered analog camcorders largely obsolete.

Although Video8 acquired a digital variant, Digital8, it is extremely unlikely that D-VHS will be adapted to a compact format, as the consumer camcorder industry (particularly VHS's inventor and main proponent, JVC) has largely standardized on MiniDV and small-format recordable DVD. Nevertheless, a few VHS-C and S-VHS-C camcorders are still available from JVC at extremely low price points (~US$200), and the media is relatively inexpensive compared with MiniDV tape.