Digrevo template 092305 Digrevo: November 2007 .comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Friday, November 30, 2007

 

Online Activism Facilitates Participation, Movement and Communication

Having the power to control online activism results in high volumes of effectiveness and contributes to a powerful tool for outreach and advocacy. The article entitled "The Web Rewires the Movements" sets a prime example for why this is so. The article highlights that online activism cuts down on the evils of bureaucracy and hierarchy which in today's society is paramount. Participants all over the web is able to get involved in reports or events, simultaneously spreading their concerns or beliefs without a central power. The beauty about online activism is that it is easy to advocate or demonstrate a particular goal such as petitioning citizen's rights, and identifying people on your side is ultimately the priceless result. In addition, most of the issues and Concerns are addressed and accordingly discussed.

posted by K.J. McIntyre @ 1:44 PM 1 comments permalink
 

Organized Hackers


I think that cyber hactivism is a very scary concept. After watching the video in class and reading " JAPAN: Organized Chinese hackers hit official Japan sites", from The Japan Times it seems to me that this is warfare. In the article, hackers from China attacked Japanese and Taiwanese websites. They did this because of attacks on their websites from Japan and Taiwan. These attacks were carried out by a large number of hackers coming to the websites simultaneously.



" The newspaper Wen Wei Po said groups organized 1,900 hackers to launch a
massive attack on more than 200 official Web sites in Japan and Taiwan on
Monday. The attack was scheduled to continue for a week, it said.The daily said the hackers were divided into five groups, each responsible for different tasks."



I'm confused about why attacking websites is so dangerous.
"Dozens of Japanese official Web sites, including the Foreign Ministry, National
Police Agency, Japan Coast Guard and Defense Agency, and some official Taiwan
Web sites were shut down, the report says."
I can understand hacking into secret databases or defense computers but just hacking into websites seems minor. Maybe because the next step could be ruining the economy through computers or maybe I'm just missing something. Hopefully I can gain more insight.

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posted by Supa Starr @ 1:13 PM 1 comments permalink

Thursday, November 29, 2007

 

DIGREVO TO AID IN LANGUAGE DECODING

In an article written for Red Herring magazine, a business and technology paper,it is stated that the US Pentagon has enlisted three technology companies to develop software that will decode Islamic languages and aid the US in its war on terror.

"The ultimate goal of the endeavor, dubbed GALE for Global Autonomous Language Exploitation, is to turn the staggeringly large volumes of recorded foreign language broadcasts, phone conversations, and Internet traffic into something national security analysts, spooks, and soldiers can actually use. "

From reading the article, I found out that there are many who think that the US's inability to understand , and translate the mass amount of information they uncover about Islamic terrorist activities, the war on terror has been an even harder one to fight. According to the article companies that include IBM, SRI, and BBN will be given 50 million dollars to develop the software over a two year period. I think that this is a reasonable investment being made by the Pentagon. It is important to know what your enemies next move is and if the amount of evidence they has supposedly gotten there hands on is as much as they see, translating all of this can be a tiresome and time consuming process. Enlisting top technological companies at the cutting edge of the digital revolution is a smart way to get the job done. These are the leaders of the digital revolution and therefore that would be very successful in developing a machine or software described above.

what I would also like to point out is that something like this could be used by the government to violate the rights of legal US citizens, who just happen to speak several languages. They could have their hardware scanned and there words flipped around against them. The development of this type of machine or software is good for the war on terror, but it could start a war at home against people the government should be protecting and not fighting.

posted by jboone1264 @ 12:43 PM 1 comments permalink
 

YouTube Debate

Last night(November 28, 2007) the the Republican national debate aired on T.V. With the success and popularity of the Youtube website and debate organizers decided to allow the debate's questions to come from Youtube videos. The result of which was, individuals were granted the opportunity to directly ask the candidates questions that pertained to what mattered to them most, essentially giving them a voice in democracy that no longer falls on deaf ears. As you can imagine this was both good and bad for the debate. While it allowed for the general public to ask hard hitting questions that launched candidates into quarrel and disarray, it also presented candidates with the other side of the American public, stupidity, as some questions were irrelevant and childish. (I.E. Ending the debate with asking Giuliani to defend himself for supporting the Red Sox in the World Series) Which raises another question. Who are the gatekeepers of these questions? Are enough videos sent in where almost all questions are asked? If so would Gate- keepers be able to mold the debate into whatever they choose?

posted by BT @ 12:34 PM 1 comments permalink
 

Hackers With Borders

Traditionally the hacker culture as been seen as an international movement and society. However this is not solely the case. Independent groups in both China and Japan have made attacks on each other in an attempt to disrupt Internet site viewing. On August 7, 2004 the Japan Times reported in their article "Japan: Organized Chinese hackers hit official Japanese Sites" that a group of about 1900 Chinese hackers attacked over 200 official web sites in Japan and Taiwan, in retaliation to Japanese hacker's attack on the China Federation of Defending Diaoyu Islands website. Allegedly they replaced the site with a page containing a Japanese nationalistic expression:

"the Uotsuri Island belongs to Japan"

It is interesting to imagine how these major governments would handle such confrontation. Do these governments support the actions of their private hackers forces? With such bad relations already existing between these countries could this trade of blow escalate to war like scenario?

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posted by BT @ 12:13 PM 1 comments permalink
 

Video Share, See What i See When I See It

ATT has introduced to their customers a new kind of technology that allows consumers to share video. I"m not talking about a multimedia message, where someone records something on their phone and sends the video. Att now with their high speed 3G network has a new thing where they allow their customers to share live video with a variety of compatible phones. What this is Att has a vision that they feel now a days people are too busy, and they don't have time for important things like seeing family. Att feels that this innovation would be good because such things as seeing a grandchild first step for a grandparent that lives a thousand miles away is now convenient, and can be easily done with a phone. Att feels this will be a great feature for families to have, shopping for the opposite sex would be easier now, cause you can ask them first hand. All it takes is a simple phone call to be anneciated and with the hit of a button, and the approval of who's on the other line video can be enabled allowing one-way video stream of footage at a time by both people. Video share can be said as simple as this See what i see when i see it, and that means exactly what it allows you to do. Att is becoming a even bigger corporation with exclusiveness to things like this along with their exclusive iphone.
Something like this is great that Att introduced to the everyday people for a low price of 5.99 to 10 dollars a month. This was something that most big businesses used, and people with alot of money had access to.
Cnet shows video share in action, http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phones/at-t-video-share/4505-6454_7-32553715.html

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posted by hodge1 @ 10:42 AM 1 comments permalink

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

 

The War Within The Net


Net War and Cyber War are a issue today with the Internet. Most people don't think too much about it but somehow it affects everyone. Ever get one of those e-mails that was actually a virus? You have been the victim of cyber terrorism, depending how you define cyber terrorism. The idea behind cyber terrorism is the hacking of someone else's computer to disable it or cause harm in some way. This of course can be a simple mass e-mail with a virus or something more dangerous like hackers getting your credit card information and identity theft.

Hackers are all over the place now and some of them do cause harm but some also do good. I believe when a hacker unlocks a cell phone for instance, its a good thing and it opens up the software to a better service perhaps. We can't rely on the big companies to provide us with the best software because they wont all of the time, and hackers can force them to do better by improving technology. However hackers do cause a great deal of danger on the Internet. The risk of identity theft is so great this day and age. The other day i saw a news piece that talked about big retail stores such as best buy and target that operate with Wi-Fi to store and transfer information. Including customers credit card information.

Hackers got to this information. How you ask? They drove around the parking lots of these stores and with a simple laptop and free software program boosted all the customer information. This included credit card information as well as social security numbers, phone numbers and anything else retail stores may have that belong to you. Since these retail stores carry so much information and are so connected, they feel Wi-Fi is the best way to do business, and it is. No wires, no mess. But these stores were using an outdated firewall that hackers could sleepwalk through. The news piece was on 60 minutes and the opening lines were very clever i thought, Lesley Stahl said
Do you think twice when typing in your credit card number online, but have no problem handing over your plastic card at a store? Well actually, you may have it backward. Your personal information may be more secure in cyberspace than at the mall down the road.
It's true, most people take caution when buying online but cant swipe the credit card fast enough at the store. Here is the 60 minutes story link

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posted by S. Colgan @ 9:47 PM 1 comments permalink
 

X BOX 360 LIVE




Xbox LIVE® and Games for Windows LIVE comprise the first and most comprehensive online entertainment network, uniting gamers on Xbox 360™ and select Games for Windows titles. LIVE connects millions of members across 25 countries, making it easy for gamers to find friends, games, and entertainment regardless of their preferred platform. With LIVE, members receive rich presence information about their friends, they can easily communicate with each other, and they can track their gaming achievements and their Gamerscore.

Below is the list of countries where the LIVE service is supported. Game features that require the LIVE service are only available in these countries. If your country is not on the list, please check back with us soon—we expand our services frequently and may be coming to your country in the near future.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/introduction101.htm

posted by DBOWEN @ 12:26 PM 1 comments permalink
 

Text Messaging the New Wave?

Has it really become this big and powerful?

Text messaging is something that I, along with all of my other fellow college students, tend to only use when they want to say something to a friend and don't feel like actually talking to them, if they can't talk at the moment or if the want to tell them something during class. Texting is a luxury but has become a necessity for anyone with a cell phone. I myself just got texting back on my phone after being without it for months and already I find myself looking for things to text to people. I really do believe it is the better part of the phone and makes more of an impact and that is why I like this article so much.


It is in this article where the power of text messaging is exposed as 16 year old Lee Chun-Kil texted his friend in class without looking to tell him about a protest going on about taking a college entrance exam. His friend then relayed the message to others and the next day, there were 400 protestors. " I don't think the rally would have been big if we didn't have cell phones," said Im Soon-jae, one of the organizers.

Texting and the internet are becoming two of the most powerful influences in technology today and the cell phone is becoming a device that is used a lot more than just for making phone calls now. It's being used to change the world. Without talking on it.

posted by DImondi @ 12:30 AM 1 comments permalink

Monday, November 26, 2007

 

Text This

Text messaging is how most of us college students interact with one another throughout the day as we sit in class and listen to our professors’ talk and talk. Well as most of us college students and basically everyone with a cell phone uses texting to communicate about random things, there are people in other countries who are using it for much greater issues. It is a cheap way to talk to people or get a group together in a short amount of time. Such is the case in countries like China where almost every move the public makes is monitored by the communist government. They cant track every text message so the public uses this to their advantage and forms large groups and protests when needed. All in a matter of days or hours.

In nations such as China, where the Internet is censored, cell phones may play an even more important role. They're one of the few means to get the word out without being monitored. China also happens to have the largest cell phone market, with approximately 350 million users. Last December, 12,000 Chinese workers went on strike against a supplier of Wal-Mart. Although they weren't part of a union, they mobilized through the use of SMS (Cathy Hong)

This coming together of people in this manor is called a smart mob, a term coined by Howard Rheingold. People using technology to come together for a better cause in a limited amount of time is what a smart mob is. Think about it, if you wanted to organize a large rally or protest by conventional means such as word of mouth or even e-mail may take a while to do, but since most people have cell phones on them at all times, text messages can be used to let people know about it, and in no time you have yourself a protest or rally.

Cell phones are cheap for the most part and they also are a small technology that can fit in your pocket. This makes them very accessible to everyone and also allows more people to connect with one another. Texting is now being used as a political tool too. No longer are local and national candidates calling your home and leaving messages, but they are calling your cell phone and laving voice mails or sending text messages. It seems that we are so connected to everything now and some people are putting this to good use.

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posted by S. Colgan @ 10:54 PM 1 comments permalink
 

Trusting an Internet Encyclopedia

Wikipedia is one of the most popular website that people use to search for definition of words. People wants to know if Wikipedia is a good website to use. Its a good website to use because when I need to look for words, wikipedia have been helpful for me. Wikipedia, in case you haven't heard of it, is built and maintained by anyone who wants to contribute, on the fly. Not everything in the website in 100% accurate but most information can be found on the website.

posted by A Phillips @ 11:37 AM 1 comments permalink
 

What is Hacktivism?

Hacktivism plays a major role in society today because hackers try to get information from the computer by tapping into the computers. Hacktivism is also act of getting information from a Website or a computer system to communicate socially. It is the use of one's collective or individual ingenuity to circumvent limitations, to hack clever solutions to complex problems using computer and Internet technology.

posted by A Phillips @ 11:17 AM 1 comments permalink

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

 

Cellphone Journalism

As "Citizen Journalism" continues to grow many news organization are looking to capitalize on the photography of pedestrian current event photographers. The digital revolution has provided much advancement in the field of cell phone technology. This technology has given the devices user the ability to part take in journalism. Due to this advancement news teams are looking to utilize the mass power. Considering the abundance of these phones news reporters have for seen much benefit of incorporating the public's documentation of current events. Joyce Cohen in her article, "Armed With The Right Cellphone, Anyone Can be a Journalist" writes "You, too, can be a television journalist. The news staff of WABC-TV, the ABC affiliate in New York, started soliciting cellphone pictures and amateur video last week from people who witness a news event". As a result of this the line between amateur and professional journalism has dulled, while over reporting has improved. This improvement can be based manly on the primary resources provided by citizen journalist.

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posted by BT @ 12:38 PM 1 comments permalink
 

Books on Their Way Out?




Amazon.com has introduced an electronic book reader that some say, will change the book industry. The Kindle, will be for books, what the ipod is for digital music. Amazon.com allows the user to download books in under a minute from their online book store. Amazon.com will also offer readers the opportunity to subscribe to newspapers and blogs at a monthly rate. (The NY Times: $13.99/mo, The Wall Street Journal: $9.99), as well as a number of blogs.






Some say the Kindle is nothing special. I think the only thing that this device has going for it is that it connects to the internet wirelessly. Opinions on the Kindle's impact on readers are definitely mixed:




"30 lbs of textbooks","Price Tag","Ripple Effect"



Kindle Tutorial



Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and Bestselling Authors








The trend towards online newspaper readership and e-books is one that will not outlast their physical counterparts.





posted by llopez @ 2:02 AM 1 comments permalink

Monday, November 19, 2007

 

Wiki Identity


I read, "A Contributor to Wikipedia Has His Fictional Side", by Noam Cohen. The article was about a man who contributed to Wikipedia under a different name but also pretended to be someone that he wasn't. He was used the name "Essjay" and he said he was "a professor of religion at a private university with expertise in canon law". This made him seem more credible than other people who may edit wikipedia entries. The problem people had was that he was not really a professor but a 24 year old named Ryan Jordan.

For the most part, I don't think that he did anything wrong because that is how a lot of internet sites are run. People make up alias and use them in certain situations. I do think that he crossed the line by saying that he was a professor. There was no reason why he couldn't just be himself and make the same intelligent entries that he made. Another mistake that he made was getting a job based on the lie or alias. But he was given the job and therefore that is also the mistake of wikipedia.

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posted by Supa Starr @ 9:21 PM 1 comments permalink

Thursday, November 15, 2007

 

Citiizen and Professional Journalists

Blogging has revolutionized journalism around the world. Due to this revolution journalism is no longer solely controlled by professionals but rather a reporting mass. Initially blogging and journalism clashed because journalist did not respect amateur writers. Some say that journalist felt threatened by this new form of reporting. As time has gone on, there relationship has evolved and blogging is now embraced by professional journalist as a tool to more fully present the news. Jo Twist in his article "Citizens Do Media For Themselves" writes, "The traditional relationship of professional media publisher farming out content to consume has been digitally eroded since the net started. " He later comments on how respect for blog writing has given people a voice. "The Internet is giving people a voice, a chance to self-publish, and the ability to rapidly share what they say in ways never quite possible before." This is especially significant in places like, Myanmar were technology and citizen Journalism are providing the opportunity to report on this isolated regime. Geoffrey A. Fowler writes in his article "Citizen Journalist Evade Blackout on Myanmar News", "In the age of YouTube, cellphone cameras and text messaging, technology is playing a critical role in helping news organizations and international groups follow Myanmar biggest protests in nearly two decades. " The are technologies that if we were without Myanmar would remain shrouded in secrecy.

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posted by BT @ 1:33 PM 1 comments permalink
 

IS WIKIPEDIA GOOD SOURCE OF INFO?

Is Wikipedia truly a good source of info or is is hurting the scholarship of the world's students? This is a question that was asked by Jeremy Wagstaff, a journalist, for the wall street Internet journal . In the article Jeremy questions the accuracy of wikipedia,The hugely popular site where random viewers can edit articles on an array of subjects.
In the article Jeremy writes,
"Wikipedia, in case you haven't heard of it, is built and maintained by anyone who wants to contribute, on the fly. Literally, anyone...In the time it's taken me to write these three sentences (four minutes, say) entries have been updated or altered more than 150 times."

Jeremy goes on to speak of more credible encyclopedia and information sources that have been found to be inaccurate in the past by several well respected experts. These respected sources include the Oxford Dictionary. He writes,

"Well, first off, we shouldn't get too defensive about the infallibility of more traditional encyclopedias. British newspapers had a field day a few months back with the Oxford University Press' massive new edition of the Dictionary of National Biography, quoting experts on Jane Austen, Florence Nightingale, George V, Edward III and Patrick O'Brien as saying entries contained factual errors, were "written by the constitutionally illiterate" or, in one case, "was entirely fictitious."

This goes to prove that even respected names in information can be proven to have errors. Even if they have big respected names such as the oxford dictionary. When someone hears that you got your information from the Oxford Dictionary they expect it to be accurate. But, even the Oxford dictionary apparently has its flaws.

Wagstaff went on to do a poll of some leading experts and found that most of the information on the site is accurate. he also goes on to bring up the point that t6he sire is regulated by individuals who make sure that the information is correct and unbiased.

My conclusion is that it is ok to use Wikipedia as a source of information, but not as a primary source. If your just looking to learn a few quick facts or get a general overview on a subject, that is completely fine. Its when you try to base a whole paper or essay on it that you run into problems. One of the big things that most good college professors focus on are attention to detail and more importantly your analysis of the subject. You cant get that from Wikipedia. On the same token you cant knock the site all together.

posted by jboone1264 @ 9:18 AM 1 comments permalink

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

 

Pogue on Technology

While searching for a current article dealing with the digitial revolution I came across New York Time columist and Emmy-Winning CBS news correspondent, David Pogue. He is known for his great articles and humorous videos spoofs on technology. His most recent article on new technology"Reaching for Apple, Falling Short" talks about the Apple iPhone's phone design and how because of it, it took veto power away from other phone carriers. He goes on to talk about T-mobile's newest smartphone the Shadow. Pouge claim is that T-mobile tried to do with the Shadow what AT&T did with the iPhone but fell short. In his joking-like tone he points out how T-mobile fell short and ends the article by saying
"The Shadow does maintain “all the powerful calling, messaging and picture sharing capabilities people crave.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t “significantly reduce the complexity often associated with many feature-rich devices.”


Some of David Pogue's interesting and funny videos can be viewed here Videos by David Pogue

posted by Kpeyton @ 5:42 PM 2 comments permalink

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

 

Wikipedia, The New Medium

Wikipedia offers anyone with a internet connection the ability to post and edit articles about basically anything. And I don’t think this is a bad thing at all. Yes, there are some people who have the mind of a seven year old and like to screw up articles with slurs or pornographic photos, but there are even more people who don’t do this and who post the facts.

And if you post an article and its wrong, then someone will come along and correct you. It’s the new way to gather knowledge because it includes everyone and not just a professor or scholar. It’s the new medium for people to look for information, or at least start at Wikipedia and then continue their search. Much like blogs let people talk about anything they want, this new wiki media lets people contribute their knowledge to the world.

Its not all correct of course, its not written in proper English with proper grammar like those old encyclopedia Britannica’s but that’s the best part about it. There is an edit button, where you or anyone and make a change. It may be hard to determine the validity of some articles that are more opinioned because they will have been edited many times, but for simple facts I believe its good. It opens the world to information because it’s free but also opens the world to correcting one another and gaining even more knowledge.

String enough of these addicts together, add a few thousand casual users,
and pretty soon you have a new way to do an old thing. Humankind has long sought
to tame the jungle of knowledge and display it in a zoo of friendly facts. But
while the urge to create encyclopedias has endured, the production model has
evolved. Wikipedia is the latest stage (Daniel H. Pink)

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posted by S. Colgan @ 10:29 PM 1 comments permalink
 

Moyers Interviews Copps on Media Consolidation

PBS reporter Bill Moyers' show NOW has posted an interview with the FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps

posted by A. Mattson @ 12:20 PM 0 comments permalink

Monday, November 12, 2007

 

CNN Enters Second Life


CNN has entered the realm of second life and is asking the residents of second life to be the reporters.


When Second Life residents observe an in-world event they deem newsworthy,
they can take snapshots, shoot video, or write a report about the event and
submit to CNN

The reports will be sent to real time CNN I-Producers and then they will select the ones they feel newsworthy and send them back to second life to be viewed by its residents. CNN hopes to really find out what second life is like and what its residents think of it. CNN's journey into second lift will also include a news desk and report hub as well.


At the I-Report hub, residents can also meet other resident reporters, as
well as access I-Report kiosks, free-standing terminals where residents can pick
up free gear and tools for gathering and viewing in-world user-generated
content

Second life boasts millions of users, but only has about 40,000 lodged on at any one time, so i wonder what CNN sees in second life. I understand its a low risk situation in second life because it costs little to nothing but i don't know what news could happened in second life and be really newsworthy.

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posted by S. Colgan @ 10:07 PM 1 comments permalink
 

Current Events: Mozilla Firefox's new venture

As many people may know, Mozilla FireFox is a web-browser intended to serve Internet users free of cost. It initially started as a non-profit encounter when it was seen as an extension of the Netscape-Microsoft. The details of the article entitled "Will Success, or All That Money From Google, Spoil FireFox?" surrounds the issue of FireFox branching off into a corporation, and temporary straying from the non-profit venture. It is reported in the article that this decision has led the Mozilla Corporation to invest in millions of dollars while collecting millions in revenue. Their strategy according to the article will manifest the power of competition while embedding their services into service search engine companies...in that way revenue can be multiplied.

"The foundation has been used for a for-profit subsidiary, the Mozilla corporation, to collect tens of millions of dollars in royalties from search engine companies that want prominent placement on the browser. And by collecting that money as a war chest to compete against giants like Microsoft and Apple, the foundation has, at least temporarily, moved away from the typical activities of a non profit organization."
Google, the giant Internet corporation has paved the way for Mozilla FireFox and has laid a foundation for their services, contributing to 85% of their revenue. The question lies throughout the article; Can FireFox stay independent of Google's services and be as successful without Google? There are arguments that support the latter, stating that it is not Google's money that makes them successful but it is more so the community; "Mozilla is successful because we have this giant set of people who care about it."
The bottom line is that Google is in a partnership with Mozilla just like it is with many services. When millions of subscribers use Mozilla FireFox free of cost, they use this browser to access Google's products and services. Therefore, it is not so much depending on Gooogle's money, but it is seen as a way for one service to assist the other. A Google spokeswoman sums up this theory in a perfect manner, stating that "we're living in a cold war between open and closed systems, and Google is happy to lend support to entities that it sees as allies."

posted by K.J. McIntyre @ 6:56 PM 1 comments permalink
 

"Web 2.0"

From Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. Web 2.0 came about from a brainstorming conference meeting with Tim O'Reilly and MediaLive International and was just a "buzz word" to the next step in internet advancement. Which at first people were skeptical about this new form of the web, will it be successful and advance technology? And is now begun a new era that has over took the dot-com era and is a more advanced system with the technologies of better and improved communication, servicing and data sourcing.


Web 2.0 has changed and uplifted the internet system. Opposed to being a software engine, it is a "platform" system with a do it yourself servicing. You organize and set up what you want. This system goes beyond the norm. Like earlier software and servicings that gear towards the center of internet communication and data, Web 2.0 goes outside the center and also expands to the edges of internet life. A few examples of the advances of Web 2.0 are mp3.com to Napster, personal wedsites to blogging, etc. The list goes on and on with the formations of more advanced web technologies with Web 2.0.

"The Web 2.0 lesson: leverage customer-self service and algorithmic data management to reach out to the entire web, to the edges and not just the center, to the long tail and not just the head."


The list above is what O'Reilly highlights as just a few of the principle features of Web 2.0. for the understanding of it and also to have users be aware of companies that say they use Web 2.0 to match up the list of technologies that the company should provide and use with Web 2.0, that they are living up to the standard of having that technology.

This is becoming more and more widespread over the web and it seems that their is not many if any limitations to this system. That this will keep growing with the contributions of users world wide who invest and use Web 2.0 that help the development and feed to all different aspects of Web 2.0.






posted by christina @ 12:58 AM 2 comments permalink

Sunday, November 11, 2007

 

web 2.0 phenomenon

web 2.0, what is this? you see and hear about this everywhere so what does it do? Web 2.0 Refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration and sharing between users. The term gained currency following the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use webs. web 2.0 is just the better or newer way of some older versions on websites, like Britannica Online>Wikipedia,mp3.com-->Napster etc. the phrase "Web 2.0" hints at an improved form of the World Wide Web. Technologies such as blogs, social bookmarking, podcasts, RSS feeds and all other forms of many-to-many publishing, social software, web application programming interfaces (APIs), and online web services such as eBay and Gmail provide enhancements over read-only websites. the term web 2.0 was coined by Tim O Reilly He is the founder of O'Reilly Media (formerly O'Reilly & Associates) and a supporter of the free software and open source movements and is an American media company established by Tim O'Reilly that publishes books and web sites and produces conferences on computer technology topics. the whole phenomenon of web 2.0 is just the revolutionary change of the web which makes it more social and personal. matter of fact it is the new wave internet as it was made to do more intemate more for all people to connect.

posted by jdavisjr @ 6:27 PM 1 comments permalink

Friday, November 09, 2007

 

What is Web 2.0


What exactly is web 2.0? Web 2.0 started out as a "buzz word" without a core definition. Web 2.0 was created in a brainstorming conference between O'Reilly and MediaLive International. The main idea of web 2.0 was using the internet as a platform for better and greater means since the falling of the dot-com era. Naturally web 2.0 is better and more advanced then web 1.0. Below is a list containing applications, websites, browsers ect. in web 1.0 and their more advanced counter-parts for web 2.0.

Web 1.0 Web 2.0
DoubleClick --> Google AdSense
Ofoto --> Flickr
Akamai --> BitTorrent
mp3.com --> Napster
Britannica Online --> Wikipedia
personal websites --> blogging
evite --> upcoming.org and EVDB
domain name speculation --> search engine optimization
page views --> cost per click
screen scraping --> web services
publishing --> participation
content management systems --> wikis
directories (taxonomy) --> tagging ("folksonomy")
stickiness --> syndication

In this article O'Rielly goes in great detail between particular applications which failed in web 1.0 and the application that will replace it in web 2.0 ie. netscape vs google.
Netscape framed "the web as platform" in terms of the old software paradigm: their flagship product was the web browser, a desktop application, and their strategy was to use their dominance in the browser market to establish a market for high-priced server products. Control over standards for displaying content and applications in the browser would, in theory, give Netscape the kind of market power enjoyed by Microsoft in the PC market. Much like the "horseless carriage" framed the automobile as an extension of the familiar, Netscape promoted a "webtop" to replace the desktop, and planned to populate that webtop with information updates and applets pushed to the webtop by information providers who would purchase Netscape servers.

At bottom, Google requires a competency that Netscape never needed: database management. Google isn't just a collection of software tools, it's a specialized database. Without the data, the tools are useless; without the software, the data is unmanageable. Software licensing and control over APIs--the lever of power in the previous era--is irrelevant because the software never need be distributed but only performed, and also because without the ability to collect and manage the data, the software is of little use. In fact, the value of the software is proportional to the scale and dynamism of the data it helps to manage.

Also in this article he speaks about the seven principles of web 2.0 which are: Web as a platform, Harnessing collective intelligence, data is the next intel inside, end of software release cycle, lightweight programming models, software above the level of a single device, rich user experiences.



posted by Kathy Nguy @ 1:41 PM 1 comments permalink

Thursday, November 08, 2007

 

Revisiting Colts v.s. Patriots


The Colts and the Patriots the clash of the football titans has been a remarkable game to watch every year during the football postseason. The Colts demolished the Broncos, 49-24, in the wild-card round, as Manning was the star of the show with 457 passing yards and four touchdowns. The odds makers gave Indy a better chance to upset New England this time around, as the Pats were only one-point favorites.
It was a different year, but the same old story. The Patriots demolished the Colts, 20-3, giving Mr. Manning a 0-7 lifetime mark in Foxboro. The difference in this game was Corey Dillon, who rushed for 144 yards, far better than the 39 mustered up by Edgerrin James. The Patriots controlled the line of scrimmage and held a 38-22 minute advantage in time of possession. Last season was a wasted year for the Pats, with Denver preventing them a chance for a third straight title. Plus, they had lost to the Colts earlier in the year, at home no less. The whole country watched as the Colts, who were favored on the road by four points, crushed the Patriots on Monday Night Football. Indianapolis scored on seven of 10 possessions and rolled to a 40-21 win.
The two teams met again this season, once again in New England, but this time the Patriots were favored by three points. The public felt confident that Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and company would provide payback for their first loss to Indianapolis since Belichicks first season as coach back in 2000. By the way, the Colts' win in 05 was the first time since the first meeting in 99 that New England had failed to cover vs. Indianapolis, a string of nine games.The contest was a seesaw battle in the first half, and Adam Vinatieris field goal gave the Colts a 17-14 halftime lead. It was a lead they would not give up.
For two straight seasons, the Colts had defeated their archrivals, with both games played in New England. This time around, the roles are reversed with Indianapolis hosting the contest. The Colts are even favored by three. Despite their previous lack of postseason success, I still think the Patriots will be the Colts this up and coming Sunday November 4, 2007 the final predicted score will be 24 to 20 Patriots win!

posted by dropout1 @ 6:22 PM 1 comments permalink
 

Ajax and the "Web 2.0"

At the start of "Web 2.0" the name mean nothing more than a name of a conference. In a very short time the name turned into much more that the name for a conference. ""Web 2.0" seemed to mean was something about democracy" and the growth of the web and it sources.
With the 'creation' of the "Web 2.0" many new programs and applications were created or changed to help make the idea of the "Web 2.0" more useful. One of these many programs that were created was Ajax. Ajax simple means "JavaScript now works." In other words web-based applications were now able to work much like desktop applications. Now Ajax uses the web-based applications it creates as a result of the "Web 2.0"
Every moment, new software is being created to take advantage of Ajax. "There hasn't been such a wave of new applications since microcomputers first appeared." The fact is that both Microsoft and Goggle are watching a new generation of software being written to fast to take control of it. Their own hope is to buy up as much of the best Ajax startups. Google has an advantage as they have had a "big head start in buying mircostartups as it did in search a few years ago." One example is Google Maps, with is an Ajax application. This shows that web-based applications are a large part of the "Web 2.0".

posted by T Molina @ 3:08 PM 1 comments permalink
 

What Will Web 3.0 Be Like?

If Web 2.0 one cant help but to think how fast and what new things will come by Web 3.0? Web 2.o is already faster than T1, Cable and DSL connections. We are also able to play, fast forward and rewind through video and audio on the web because of 2.0 but what we'll we be able to do wit Web 3.0.

At the Technet Summit in November 2006, Jerry Yang, founder and Chief of Yahoo, stated [4]:
“
Web 2.0 is well documented and talked about. The power of the Net reached a critical mass, with capabilities that can be done on a network level. We are also seeing richer devices over last four years and richer ways of interacting with the network, not only in hardware like game consoles and mobile devices, but also in the software layer. You don't have to be a computer scientist to create a program. We are seeing that manifest in Web 2.0 and 3.0 will be a great extension of that, a true communal medium…the distinction between professional, semi-professional and consumers will get blurred, creating a network effect of business and applications.
”
—Jerry Yang

At the same Technet Summit, Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix, stated a simpler formula for defining the phases of the Web:
“
Web 1.0 was dial-up, 50K average bandwidth, Web 2.0 is an average 1 megabit of bandwidth and Web 3.0 will be 10 megabits of bandwidth all the time, which will be the full video Web, and that will feel like Web 3.0.
”
—Reed Hastings

The big players in the in huge software companies are thinking about what 3.0 brings to the table and how much it can improve how we use our software and how much faster it will be and instead of watch 5 or 10 minute videos we can watch the whole 30 minutes or the whole program your watching on the web.

posted by JSalazar @ 12:51 PM 1 comments permalink
 

Word of Mouth

"Word-of-mouth via the Internet is worth a fortune in promotion."
It is said about marketing, that word of mouth is much more valuable to a product or service than all the advertisement and promotion in the world, the same applies to the opportunity that Web 2.0 gives to different people.


"Although millions of opinions and videos, often very amateurish, only add to our information overload, a significant advantage to user-generated content is that truly talented authors, artists, musicians and moviemakers can gain an audience much more easily than they could in the past."


Promotion through avenues such as Facebook, Myspace and Youtube can be invaluable to talents of all kinds, and can help promote events that may not be otherwise.


posted by llopez @ 12:51 PM 1 comments permalink
 

Google’s Monopoly On Mind Power

Reaction to John Markoff’s article “I Robot The Man Behind The Google Phone”

Google’s greatest investment in the Web 2.0 era would have to be in its people. The billions invested by Google to obtain the most qualified lawyers, and progressive, innovative thinkers are ensuring their success in years to come. This information age especially the new Web 2.o era is driven by the invention of individuals. Individuals like Andy Rubin who is currently responsible for overseeing the development of the Google phone software. If successful Rubin can revolutionize mobile communication and computing and propel Google into the fore front of OS software market the way the PC launched Microsoft and their windows software. Their goal would to be to become the standard OS in Smart Phones giving Google customers (Advertisers) accesses to the majority o f people who own Smart Phones. Eventually as Smart Phones begin to encroach on the PC and Laptop market Google could be controlling the way the majority of people accesses the web. I foresee the Laptop and Smart phone synthesizing into a new market that replaces both. Call it whatever you want but expect whatever it is to have Internet browsing and telecommunication only as features.

posted by BT @ 12:44 PM 1 comments permalink
 

FATHER OF WEB 2.0 BASHES GOOGLE

As reported by Tom Sanders of vnunet.com, the father of Web 2.0 has released a statement slamming Google’s new open social software. Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media, the man thought to be the father of the web 2.0 phenomenon, said that Google’s new open Social Program was “boring” and “a full blown disappointment”. For those of you who don’t know Open Social offers a standard for applications on social networks that enable software developers to market information on any site or network that supports the standard. It gained considerable early support from companies such as My Space, Plaxo, Linkedlin, and Google’s Orkut. As reported by Sanders…
“The standard does not unlock data from the participating network, however, which might have allowed a MySpace user to exchange messages with a Linkedlin user, for example.”
“The service also will not allow the use of social search engines that let users locate friends across all networks.”

O’Reilly posted a statement on his company blog stating the following about the lack of data sharing on the Open Social site.
"If all Open Social does is allow developers to port their applications more easily from one social network to another, that's a big win for the developer as they get to shop their application to users of every participating social network,"
"But it provides little incremental value to the user [who is] the real target. We do not want to have the same application on multiple social networks. We want applications that can use data from multiple social networks."

I agree with O’ Reilly that the elimination of certain types of sharing would undermine the whole ideology behind the Web 2.0 Phenomenon. Sharing through social networking sites,web based communities, and other such places on the net help for the spread of new ideas and concepts. It also facilitates an environment where one person can improve upon an idea or innovation of another to creates something almost entirely new. Any sort of limiting on sharing would greatly endanger the web 2.0 movement. I think that Google should take a step back and evaluate what they are doing. When the father of a movement that you are a huge part of starts a backlash against you, you be going about things the wrong way.

Here are some interesting links about web 2.0.

What is web 2.o? WEB 2.0 Summit Web 2.0 Song

posted by jboone1264 @ 12:31 PM 1 comments permalink
 

What Does Web 2.0 Mean?

The answer is: Nothing really. It means everything that the relationship between you and your computer has and what the Internet is good for. My link has this guy on YOUTUBE.com talking about it better than me...Take a look!

posted by Anonymous @ 11:25 AM 1 comments permalink
 

Freedom of Web 2.0

From my understanding of web 2.0, it is a newly introduced phenomena that aims to improve or create applications from various web developers. According to the article i found on Wired (http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2005/10/69114), entitled "Are You Ready for Web 2.0?", This is a second generation Internet that boosts creativity because applications are added to respective websites; an example is found when Zimbra, a company that developed open-source enterprise would display the calendar when the mouse goes over a mentioned date. it is also aimed at sharing collaborative information as application such as structured blogging. Tim O'Rielly, a sponsor for web 2.0 reiterates the premise of the second generation world wide web

"This architecture is based on social software where users generate content, rather than simply consume it, and on open programming interfaces that let developers add to a web service or get data."

In General, this social network consist of a number of web hosting services that allow freedom in the digital revolution.


posted by K.J. McIntyre @ 11:22 AM 1 comments permalink
 

Current Event Post-Time Warner Settles Fraud Charges with Justice Department

Time Warner decided to pay $210 million dollars to settles fraud charges with America Online's unit.Under terms of the settlement with the DOJ, prosecution on charges of aiding and abetting securities fraud will be deferred for two years provided that the media giant cooperates in an ongoing investigation into whether AOL improperly helped smaller Internet companies artificially inflate their earnings.

posted by A Phillips @ 10:39 AM 1 comments permalink
 

Web 2.0 Assignment

Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services such as social networking sites, wikis and folksonomies which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration and sharing between users. According to Tim O'Reilly, "Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform." Web 2.0 helps to create web applications so people can use it for educational purposes.

posted by A Phillips @ 10:23 AM 1 comments permalink
 

What is Web 2.0?


Web 2.0 is lead up to be the second generation of web based communities and services. It consist of networking through sites and focus on facilitate creativity, collaboration and sharing between users. Tim O'Reilly made Web 2.0 popular through the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference, which occurred in the year of 2004. To O'Rielly he feels web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer field which is caused by the internet as a plat form. This lead to an understanding of the rules for success on that new plat form. In the video called Tim O'Reilly on What is Web 2.0? he states what he see Web 2.0 to be. My overall feeling about web 2.0 is that it is great because it helps developers create web applications and it can also help us the people in many different ways such as education and more.

posted by TBlackwood @ 3:33 AM 1 comments permalink

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

 

Google This...Gas

Google will not sell its own brand of gas, but it will direct you to the nearest hotel for a night of rest. Google announced this past Wednesday that it will be placing small color screens on gas pumps that will be connected to the Internet and offer you directions to landmarks, restaurants and hotels in that area. As of right now, you cannot type in your destination at the pump and get directions there, but you can get a print out of directions to one of the landmarks, hotels, etc.

“Motorists will be able to scroll through several categories to find local landmarks, hotels, restaurants and hospitals selected by the gas station's owner. After the driver selects a destination, the pump will print out directions.” (San Francisco, California (AP))

Maybe this will distract you enough so you don’t cringe when you pump gas at $3.25 a gallon. This is a nice concept because it opens Google up to even more people who may not be familiar with it, and allows Google to look good doing it. How many of us have been on a road trip and roll into a gas station late at night and try and get directions from the attendant who either does not speak English or has no idea of his surroundings. Google will save you!

As someone who is not good with directions and who also does not own a GPS, I am happy to try this out, but also if I was to go on a major trip somewhere, I think I would plan it out a bit and not rely on gas stations with Google at the pump.

Right now, this Google experiment will be used on 3500 pumps. The screens will be ad free as well.

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posted by S. Colgan @ 11:46 PM 1 comments permalink
 

WEB 2.0 THE FUTURE!!!!!!!!


The future of the net..WEB 2.0....


Web 2.0 is social, it’s open (or at least it should be), it’s letting go of control over your data, it’s mixing the global with the local. Web 2.0 is about new interfaces - new ways of searching and accessing Web content. And last but not least, Web 2.0 is a platform - and not just for developers to create web applications like Gmail and Flickr. The Web is a platform to build on for educators, media, politics, community, for virtually everyone in fact!



HERE IS A VIDEO EXPLAIN A LIL BOUT WEB 2.0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LzQIUANnHc

posted by DBOWEN @ 7:53 PM 1 comments permalink
 

What is Web 2.0 Videos . . .

Need a definition of Web 2.0?


Watch these videos:


"What is Web 2.0?," A ZDNet At the Whiteboard with Andi Gutmans of Zend.

Michael Wesch, The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version) Kansas State University


Supermarket 2.0 According to O'Reilly Radar:
"It was created as guerilla marketing for Israeli startups UrbanSeeder and Wishood. Through a mix of web and real-world cards UrbanSeeder allows you to get to know someone anonymously and at a pace of your choosing (learn more).
Wishood is a wishlist sharing site where members can comment on each other's desires. Smart way to get noticed. <viaBoingBoing>

posted by A. Mattson @ 2:14 PM 0 comments permalink
 

Going Digital


I saw a commercial the other day about how all televisions have to be digital by January of 2009 so I decided to look it up. It was very difficult to find anything recent about this. The ones that I did find were from 2005 and I had not heard about any of this until now. I found one article explaining what is going to happen. The television stations are changing their the way they broadcast their shows. This will cause problems for people who do not have digital televisions. The government will be issuing vouchers for those that will be affected. I guess that this would be a good move for the television industry because they need to keep up with the digital revolution. It's a really intriguing notice if anyone is interested.

Labels:


posted by Supa Starr @ 1:38 PM 1 comments permalink
 

Understand Web 2.0


I found an article that gave me a great understanding of what web 2.0 is all about. The article titled, "What Is Web 2.0 Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software" gave the breakdown of the difference between web 1.0 and web 2.0. Web 2.0 is more user friendly and relies more on active participation from it's users. During the web 1.0 era, the focus was more toward big businesses.


"The Web 2.0 lesson: leverage customer-self service and algorithmic data management to reach out to the entire web, to the edges and not just the center, to the long tail and not just the head."


The article give examples of how much web 2.0 needs people to work together to make the internet a better place. They talk about blogging and other ways people can transfer information around the net. "Web 2.0 principle: the service automatically gets better the more people use it."The author also talked about RSS which was something that I had never heard of. RSS is how people recieve notifications of updates to different websites. Kind of like when you recieve news updates or new gossip.


"RSS allows someone to link not just to a page, but to subscribe to it, with notification every time that page changes. Skrenta calls this "the incremental web." Others call it the "live web"."


I hope my understanding of this article is correct and I'm glad to have learned something new.

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posted by Supa Starr @ 1:07 PM 1 comments permalink

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

 

Is Web 2.0 done, or is it better then ever?

Well the answer to that question would be yes, simply because of its name…"web 2.0", it leaves the door open for a web 3.0 and so on. But that’s what this digital revolution is about right?, change and better products or applications taking the place of old ones. Web 2.0 is a term that is hard to define but can be used to describe the web as it is today and in the future. The Internet is not the same as it was ten years ago, or even five years ago. There are new ways to download and upload and view media content on the web. Its bigger faster and stronger you could say. And this is constantly being improved and changed.

So the idea of “web 2.0” is the next generating of Internet and its uses. Consider myspace, facebook, and other social networking sites as web 2.0 and anything before that as web 1.0. All web 2.0 means is it’s an improvement to the way people use the Internet. Web 2.0 not only shapes the online world, but also has a very direct effect on the outside world as well. You Tube for example has recently gotten into politics, and whale not showing any loyalty towards anyone side, it has listed all the online debates of all the candidates so that the You Tube generation can view them.

Just a few years ago MTV was telling kids to rock the vote, and now even MTV is somewhat not appealing to the youth of this country, because the youth of this country is online. And social networking sites can reach more young voters then anything else today.

“While the "first Internet President" has yet to be elected—and the Internet may not be the deciding factor in the 2008 election—it's clear to senior people within several campaigns that social networking is the only way for them to reach a segment of the population that politicians have generally ignored in the past.” (Gallagher, Web 2.0, changing politics forever)

Web 2.0 is faster and more interactive then the past and offers companies a new way into the consumer and offers the political campaigns a new way to attract supporters. The only question is, web 2.0 came after the first web 1.0, so logic would tell us that there is a web 3.0 out there. How far away from that are we?

Labels:


posted by S. Colgan @ 10:19 PM 1 comments permalink
 

The Public Domain Opinion

The Public Domain, an article written by Lawrence Lessig discusses the differences between public domain and private domain in current times. He points out that a shift is occurring through stricter copyright laws that will allow for the privatization of material more easily by its owners. He believes that the emergence of new technologies has enabled the stealing and distribution of work in the private domain to be spread in the public domain. In one part of his article he says the following.....

"In response, code writers (both legislators and technologists) have created an unprecedented array of weapons (both legal and technical) to wage war on the pirates and restore control to the owners of culture. Yet the control these weapons will produce is far greater than anything we have seen in our past. "

He believes that their must be a balance between public and private domain and that these new copyright technologies will shift that balance. Lessig, a Professor of law at Stanford University is using his knowledge about current copyright laws and past ones to draw the conclusion that these tighter laws will bring about a more rigid society in which sharing is lost and instead self riches extremists, as he calls them will kill the notion of public domain or sharing materials or acquired knowledge for the benefit of the public.

I think that he is right in a sense that the government should not get caught up in a war against piracy. What they may be doing is hurting society by allowing others to privatize every piece of material they see fit. In some cases for material gain or the acquisition of wealth. though he does not directly raise the point of copyrighting ideas or materials for financial purposes. I kind of feel like that is the direction in which he is going in. For example, what if someone found a cure for AIDS, but chose to distribute it at a higher price. because of the tightening of copyright laws the public would have to pay whatever that person wanted. Just something for everyone out there to keep in mind.

posted by jboone1264 @ 12:37 PM 1 comments permalink
 

Web 2.0 Assignment

For Thursday, November 8th, find an article or other source discussing Web 2.0.
Create a substantive post with a link and at least one short quotation and come prepared to discuss it in class.

posted by A. Mattson @ 12:06 PM 0 comments permalink
 

Does Google Have to Much Control of The Internet Market

After reading "Google Prepares to Fight Antitrust Battle Over Its Search Rankings" by Pamela A. Maclean I would agree with Google that they are not a trust company. In fact it is my opinion that the are simply just the top dog at the moment in a very competitive market. In the Internet world power is constantly shifting and companies that aren't growing are sinking. It wasn't to long ago that AOL was controlling how we accessed the Internet, now AOL seems to falling into an imminent demise. Google is making every effort to stay on the top of their game and their doing it legally. Its not like they just bought yahoo.com or altavista.com. Anti-Trust agencies should be more concerned with companies like Fox. Owner Rupert Murdoch recently purchased myspace.com, granting them a great deal of control of all forms of mass communication. Fox is trying to control the way we receive information and they are or are becoming a trust. I don't feel that Google is currently a trust, but in future year's if they stay on top of the search engine industry becoming a trust may be an issue.

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posted by BT @ 9:17 AM 1 comments permalink

Monday, November 05, 2007

 

Freedom of Expansion Threatened?

The article I read about the Google Revolution has to do with the censorhip of certain things within China and the Chinese internet, using google and yahoo, according to Border's reporters.

In what has been going on for a while now, yahoo, and now google, are both trying to conquer the Chinese market and are compromising what they stand for in compromising the idea of freedom of expression.

It was stated in the article that when you type in certain things into the search engine, such as "Free Tibet", no results are displayed. It also goes on to say that for other things that are searched, only professional and official sites are displayed, not showing civilian created sites which have an opinion that goes against what the official and professional sites state, thus eliminating any possible questioning or doubt of the official web sites.

Originally, google had refused to censor but saw that their website was then struggling in China as the Chinese authorities then censored google in their country so google then obliged and started to embrace the Chinese censorship policies and everything goes from there.

I personally liked the fact that google didn't give in and didn't censor web sites because it's a person's right to have freedom of expression and for a country to take that away from you is wrong but I guess when a country has that much power and to a company, it's all about making money, they're eventually going to oblige.

posted by DImondi @ 2:21 PM 1 comments permalink
 

Gates has long to do list

Gates still has a long to-do list

Even as he moves to part time, Microsoft's chairman will keep pursuing tech such as tablet computing, speech recognition.
Video: Gates' crystal ball
By Ina Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: October 18, 2007, 4:00 AM PDT
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Gates still has a long to-do list

SAN FRANCISCO--Bill Gates has some unfinished business.

For years, the Microsoft chairman has been a fiery advocate, inside the company and out, for the notion that computers should be controlled, not just by mouse and keyboard, but also by more natural means, such as voice, touch and digital ink.

But, as Gates prepares to shift to part-time work at Microsoft next year, his vision is still more common inside the company's research labs than inside the typical home or office. Unbowed, Gates said he expects to keep plugging away as he takes on a new, more limited role at the company.

"Big screens, touch, ink, speech, that's something that I think, along with cloud computing, is the next big change in how we think about software," Gates told CNET News.com on Tuesday. (Cloud computing is the notion that many of the computing tasks handled by individual computers today will instead be tackled by servers in huge data centers connected over the Internet.) "Ray Ozzie is driving our cloud computing stuff...Some of the natural interface stuff, I think he and Steve (Ballmer) will ask me to sort of keep the energy and vision alive there."

"As we take the magic of software to new things, it's OK to be too early. We don't want to be in too late."
--Bill Gates, chairman, Microsoft

Gates continues to lobby hard inside Microsoft for investment in speech and handwriting recognition, though neither has been a huge financial success for Microsoft. The Tablet PC, a frequent staple of Gates' Comdex keynote speeches in the 1990s, remains a fairly niche product. And though the ability to control PCs through voice is built into Vista, the feature has gotten scant attention, and the operating system itself has received less than enthusiastic support in its first year on the market.

Gurdeep Singh Pall, a Microsoft vice president, who has worked closely with Gates in the areas of unified communications, said that Gates has expressed frustration with how slowly speech recognition has found its way into the mainstream. Pall noted that the software maker has been investing in the technology since at least 1991.

"Bill is a very big believer in speech and the potential of speech as a natural way of interacting with machines," Pall said. "That's an area where he is very interested and wants to understand what are the limitations and how do we get past those limitations."

A number of Gates' pet projects have yet to make it into the mainstream. The digital watches that use Microsoft's Smart Personal Object Technology have remained geek toys, and his dream of an all-new Windows file system based on SQL found itself on the cutting-room floor when Longhorn became Vista. But other big bets, like Internet television and the Xbox, appear poised to start paying off after years of investment.

Click here to Play

Video: Gates discusses future of tech
In the coming years, the conference table will be a computer, the whiteboard will be a computer, says Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.

Gates said Microsoft has been right to invest in those areas, though he agrees his company has sometimes invested in ideas well before they were ready for prime time.

"As we take the magic of software to new things, it's OK to be too early," Gates said. "We don't want to be in too late."

And, as for these new means of interacting with computers, he insists they are underappreciated, not unimportant.

"All these things about natural interface are coming to the fore, and they are probably the thing that's most underestimated right now about the digital revolution," Gates said.

Of all the new ways of interacting with computers, the one that seems to be gaining the ground the quickest is multitouch, where people use multiple finger gestures to manipulate objects on a screen. Microsoft has the feature in its high-end tabletop computer, Surface, while Apple has introduced a more mainstream adaptation of the technology in the iPhone and iPod Touch

"People kind of gasp when they see how touch works on Surface, you know, when they touch their iPhone," he said. "'Oooo, wow,' you know, that's just such a natural thing."


The conference table, the office whiteboard and even the bedroom mirror are all surfaces that will one day be replaced with an intelligent computer screen, Gates said.

"Give us a 5- to 10-year time frame and we will wonder why our tables used to sit there and not do anything for us."
--Bill Gates, chairman, Microsoft

"Give us a 5- to 10-year time frame and we will wonder why our tables used to sit there and not do anything for us," Gates said.

Pall said that Gates' strength is helping the company see where technology will help previously disparate things come together. "He is amazing at spotting what are the connections that need to be made, and then moving on to the next opportunity to make the connection, and letting the rest of Microsoft and the industry innovate once the proper connection has been made."

As for the other projects Gates expects to work on once he becomes a part-timer, he said, "Search is such a fun area right now."

Microsoft has found itself in an intense battle with Google and, despite pouring tons of research into the area, it remains in third place behind Google and Yahoo.

Gates was more circumspect about another area he is working on. "There are some ideas about where Office should go...I'm really quite enthused about some things."

Others at the company say that Gates is particularly driven about the notion of how presence--the notion of a computer knowing whether someone is online or not--can be used by computers to help prioritize work.

Now on News.com
Photos: Vintage Computer Festival When bands leave music labels A higher-end sequel to JPEG Extra: Ultracapacitors to replace batteries

Kim Akers, general manager of Microsoft's unified communications effort, said Gates has been pushing her team, as it integrates various modes of communications, to also make other software programs aware of when someone is busy and when--and how--they are available.

"Once you integrate that communication, how can you use the power of software to drive productivity gains?" she said.

If, say, you have an hour free on your schedule, Akers said that Gates believes an intelligent agent should be able to look at your calendar and prioritize some of the top tasks and messages that you might want to tackle.

"It's very futuristic," she said.


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posted by Rico Paysos @ 10:33 AM 1 comments permalink
 

Microsoft defends Facebook

Microsoft defends Facebook stake

CEO says acquisition of a 1.6 percent stake in social-networking site for $240 million is an important investment, not a mistake.
Published: November 5, 2007, 5:28 AM PST
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Microsoft defends Facebook stake

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Monday that the acquisition of a 1.6 percent stake in social-networking site Facebook for $240 million was an important investment, not a mistake.

"We didn't make a mistake," Ballmer told reporters on the sidelines of a business conference in Mumbai.

Analysts have said Microsoft paid a steep price on a bet that the three-year-old company will be able to transform itself into a hub for all sorts of Web activity.

"The valuation of Facebook is still to be determined. Certainly today, it's very, very popular. So for a company like ours that wants to be a pre-eminent presence in this space, it's very important for us," Ballmer said.

"Will Facebook be worth $5 billion, $15 billion or $50 billion some years down the line is really up to their team and how they take it forward."

Ballmer, who joined Microsoft in 1980 at the request of his Harvard classmate Bill Gates, said last month that the company was focusing on up to 20 smaller acquisitions of $50 million to $1 billion each annually rather than mega-deals.

Asked if Microsoft was interested in buying Yahoo, Ballmer said: "My answer is a considered 'no comment'."

"We want to succeed in the online advertising space. What happens with Yahoo, we'll all have to wait and see."

Ballmer, who is going to China on Monday night, said the Chinese market is important to Microsoft and that they are making some progress on the issue of intellectual property rights.

"We've made some progress, and there's better respect for software intellectual property there than there was three years ago," he said.

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"That said, it's still lower than in a lot of other countries. So depending on how you look at it, life's getting better, or life's bleak," he said.

In July, officials said pirated software worth $500 million, including counterfeit Microsoft and Symantec products, had been seized in a long-running joint probe by Chinese police and U.S. FBI.

Microsoft has said more than a fifth of its software running globally was pirated and that cracking down on them can boost sales.

Ballmer also said technology companies may face a lower capital spending by businesses because of the turmoil in the financial markets.

"There are some concerns about the impact that interest rates, the debt market problem and defaults might have on business spend," Ballmer said.

"So we will have to keep an eye on it. I don't think things will collapse completely but we do think that there may be some sort of a setback or a cut down to capital spending," he said.

Story Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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posted by Rico Paysos @ 10:30 AM 1 comments permalink
 

Society Digital Divide

Many Netizens have long thought of the Internet as the great equalizer. A study released today by Bellcore Labs says that is not so.

The same divergence found in society along cultural and racial lines is found online and offline, according to James Katz, who conducted the Markle Foundation-funded study.

Katz calls the phenomenon of who is online and who is not the "digital divide."

And those on the wrong side of that divide--who are poorer, less-educated, and disproportionately African American, Hispanic and female--are losing out big time, Katz said.

Government officials, for instance, are increasingly reaching out online. Last presidential election, political parties held significant online events and campaigned online, and Netizens used the Net to get voting results. Expect 2000 to be the year that online campaigning really takes root.

Many companies are using the Net to announce jobs, and Netizens are getting social benefits, meeting people and conducting business, Katz said.

"There is a wide and growing information divide between the haves and have-nots," Katz said.

And, he said, the future does not look rosy. "I see it getting worse, not better."

"The rich are going to be getting richer in terms of information," Katz said. "The information-poor will become more impoverished because government bodies, community organizations, and corporations are displacing resources from their ordinary channels of communication onto the Internet."

In the study, he adds, "To the extent any demographic group becomes excluded from and underrepresented on the Internet, it will also be excluded from the economic fruits that such participation promises."

His explanations for the divide are surprisingly simple: People tend to log onto the Net by following friends' leads or by logging on at work, and most people have friends within their same socioeconomic class; people with more money tend to have computers in the first place; and so far, the advertising and hype over the Net is largely targeted to upper-middle class whites.

The study also reveals that all users, regardless of class, gender, or race, face two major barriers: cost and difficulty understanding how to use the Net.

The study was based on an October 1995 random telephone sampling of 2,500 individuals. Katz said another smaller sampling was conducted a year later to ensure that the data were still the same.

Katz also adds that most surveys of Net usage have been conducted by companies with financial interest. The Markle Foundation is a nonprofit organization.

Reporter Courtney Macavinta contributed to this report.

posted by Rico Paysos @ 12:46 AM 0 comments permalink

Saturday, November 03, 2007

 

Google gets Myspace

A couple of weeks ago we discussed how Microsoft invested a large sum of money in Facebook and beat out Google for that small share. Well, I've found an article on Forbes.com and it describes how Google has now gotten Myspace on their side. Google is starting something called "OpenSocial" which I had a hard time understanding what it is but it is an application that is used on different social networking sites.

"OpenSocial will allow developers to build tiny applications that can be used
across many social networks, boosting traffic and advertising on their
sites. Google and MySpace said the main benefit of the platform to
developers is that it standardizes how applications are created. "



From my understanding of the article, the entire point of having Myspace join Google in the OpenSocial project is advertising dollars. Going through these different websites to add something to your Myspace page makes people see more ads which brings in money to all of the above mentioned companies.

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posted by Supa Starr @ 4:36 PM 0 comments permalink

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