Artifact 10

I found the article "Out There in the Dark, All Alone" by Manohla Dargis very interesting. How the attendance of movies was on average around 90 million in 1948 and how much it has dropped since. Back in the 40's movies were sometimes seen in theaters several times because the people may never see it again. With the current technology it is understandable as to the dramatic drop in numbers. With our current technology everything is just a click away and movies are much more accessible. In 1975 the release of the video cassette gave people the opportunity to view the movie several times. Today movies are accessible through things such as youtube, cable, phones, and laptops ext. In my opinion that is the reason for the dramatic drop in attendance to movie theaters. Movies can be viewed through these devices very easily. Also when going to a movie theater it is now extremely expensive for snacks or drinks. Also being able to view the movie peacefully is not always a guarantee.
Mass Customization- Production of personalized or custom- tailored goods or services to meet consumers diverse and changing needs to near mass production. 

Summary (Presentation)

Political Power

-For some people meeting face-to-face, talking on the telephone, or sending letters to friends and family is forbidden due to the politics that living in another country sometimes has. There was an example of this in the book from a man who lived on an island that was divided into Turkish and Greek sectors. He was unable to reach his family in the neighboring country by face-to-face, telephone, or writing letters due to the politics.

-CMC has afforded some dramatic opportunities to connect with others in politically charged situations. CMC has provided us with the opportunity to use things such as Skype, email, and chat rooms to visit with ones close to us.

The Internet

-CMC in repressive governments sometimes allows people to express their views much easier. Also allows them to reach a wider audience across the world. It helps people speaking for an underrepresented group, or challenging authority. Certain websites are provided to discuss these topics. A lot of websites are provided so that people can communicate about certain topics some concerning politics. It also helps them confront these issues much easier.

CMC

-It is both political and politicizing this is because it can be used to confront the authority of government powers, resist dominant social, cultural and political ideologies. It also allows us to view current events from more than one perspective. News groups exist to confront certain authorities of government powers. It is common to see issue concerning politics being discussed online.

Participation and Resistance

-Some politicians set up information sites, CMC can be used to subvert and resist government authority. These information sites that politicians set up give many the opportunity to confront certain issues that they may want to reveal.

-E-democracy is when governments, elected officials, media, political organizations and citizens use the Internet to engage in debates about the processes and practices of governance.

Cyberactivism

-Cyberactivists use CMC by contacting a larger audience with the use of email, listservs, newsgroups, IRC and the web to communicate with their network of supporters. These ways of communication are helpful for cyberactivists to get their opinion out to a wider audience.

-Some cyberactivists have chosen to take direct action to shut down dominant discourse and organizations. A good example of this is within the first week of the war in Iraq in 2003, around 1,000 websites (including military sites) in the U.S were allegedly hacked by anti-war activists.

Online Libel

-Flaming is not only aggressive but can sometimes be libelous. With the increase in online publication, it follows that there will be an increase in online libel charges. It is important to know that some CMC can land you in court with the recent legislation in the area of cyberlibel. A lawsuit by Wal-Mart, for example, demonstrated that you can make general critical remarks about rival major retailers on our website, but mentioning a specific company could get you in legal trouble.

Cyber-Crime

-An email was sent out in the 1990’s that claimed to give the people who assisted to free a huge amount of money being held by an undemocratic regime in Africa a percentage of the money (an amount that could reach millions)

-It was a email scam and most had never dealt with email scam because of how uncommon it used to be. This scam drained many bank accounts. By 2001, the Internet Fraud Complaint Center reported that 2,600 people had filed complaints about the scam – of those, 16 reported losses totaling US$345,000. This is still a huge issue today and people are stilling falling for this scam. Many have even traveled to Nigeria in Africa and attempted to get their money back. After many were nearly killed they did not get their money back.

Cyber Squatting

-This is when people buy domain names using well-known brand or celebrity names in the hope of subsequently selling them to the companies or people who probably should have secured them in the first place.

-In most cases of cyber squatting with high-profile domain names such as harrypotterbooks.org, bccnews.org, and madonna.com were transferred back to those who had pursued them through courts.

Summarization of Unit 4 task 1-2

Political Power

-For some people meeting face-to-face, talking on the telephone, or sending letters to friends and family is forbidden due to the politics that living in another country sometimes has.

-CMC has afforded some dramatic opportunities to connect with others in politically charged situations.

The Internet

-CMC in repressive governments sometimes allows people to express their views much easier. Also allows them to reach a wider audience across the world.

CMC

-It is both political and politicizing this is because it can be used to confront the authority of government powers, resist dominant social, cultural and political ideologies. It also allows us to view current events from more than one perspective.

Participation and Resistance

-Some politicians set up information sites, CMC can be used to subvert and resist government authority.

-E-democracy is when governments, elected officials, media, political organizations and citizens use the internet to engage in debates about the processes and practices of governance.

Cyberactivism

-Cyberactivists use CMC by contacting a larger audience with the use of email, listservs, newsgroups, IRC and the web to communicate with their network of supporters.

-Some cyberactivists have chosen to take direct action to shut down dominant discourse and organizations.

Online Libel

-Flaming is not only aggressive but can sometimes be libelous. With the increase in online publication, it follows that there will be an increase in online libel charges. It is important to know that some CMC can land you in court with the recent legislation in the area of cyberlibel.

Cyber-Crime

-An email was sent out in the 1990’s that claimed to give the people who assisted to free a huge amount of money being held by an undemocratic regime in Africa a percentage of the money (an amount that could reach millions)

-It was a email scam and most had never dealt with email scam because of how uncommon it used to be. This scam drained many bank accounts. By 2001, the Internet Fraud Complaint Center reported that 2,600 people had filed complaints about the scam – of those, 16 reported losses totaling US$345,000.

Cyber Squatting

-This is when people buy domain names using well known brand or celebrity names in the hope of subsequently selling them to the companies or people who probably should have secured them in the first place.

-In most cases of cyber squatting with high-profile domain names were transferred back to those who had pursued them through courts. 

Response to Artifact 9

It was surprising to me that art museums are taking advantage of the technology that our society provides. I always considered museums to be more antique. That's the opposite of "new technology". Using Facebook and Twitter to their advantage is useful for providing information to the new age. It seems they are finding new creative ways to reach out to a younger demographic by mixing social sites with ancient history. The Internet also provides the museums with the opportunity for the customers to give them feedback. This, in turn, gives them an idea on ways to improve. However, there are unfortunately set- backs. The old buildings make it very difficult to have wireless Internet set up. This is going to require the museums to become more creative in their outreach.

Artifact 8

It is not surprising to me to find out that people use the internet to find out health information. I find myself getting online to try and diagnose myself because of the efficiency that webmd has. This technology is great for people who do not like going to the doctor. Or if it is a minor thing but not common knowledge to discover a cure for it, using the internet to find a solution is great. Having apps available for certain phones makes this even more accessible for people. The games are great for children to understand what is happening inside their body and in fun way. Having people together with the same problem is good on the internet to compare the illness and the best way to cure it. Sometimes these websites are questionable because if someone was to use or do the wrong thing to cure their illness it could be bad in certain situations. For the most part it is a handy thing to have webmd so accessible at home and on cell phones for minor illness.

Response to Artifact 5

"Thank Sex For Making The Internet Hot" really surprised me because I had no idea that porn had so much of an impact on the internet. Hearing that private chat rooms, live video, and having contact over the internet was contributed by porn. Also that a lot of the top searches on "Yahoo" were some what sexual related was a huge surprise to me. They also talked about how everything can be bought over the internet which surprisingly seems to be true with technology today, and seems to becoming more and more popular. Also people paying to view porn over the internet was something I was not aware of. From the information I received by listening to the tape it seems to me that a lot of money is made through porn websites, and the porn industry will probably continue to grow.

Artifact 4

In the first video it seems to be a girl sitting next to a computer. There is a man sitting next to her using some sort of web cam to interact with her. As the camera moved in on the girl it was actually a robot. This was extremely fascinating to me because I did not know that technology such as this existed already. The robot had a skin like look to it which was extremely real. It was also able to function it's eye's and different muscles in the face which was impressive. This is a huge step in the direction to having robots in households and being more common. The man sitting next to the computer seemed to interact with the girl robot in some sort of way. He was controlling the actions she was making by videoing himself. Technology is making huge steps and it will be interesting to see where it goes over the next few years.

In the second video it seemed to be an instructional video on how to use a pencil sharpener. This was kind of funny after watching the first video and was not really any sort of technology. The man in this video gave a step by step way to successfully sharpen a pencil the correct way. This was an easy task that only took a little over a minute. It had almost no comparison to the first video