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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

 

Text Message Monitoring


Source: Alana Semuels,
"I'm an employer, and I do not approve of this text message,"
Los Angeles Times, October 15, 2008.

Alana Semuels of the L.A. Times reports that employers are starting to install software that can monitor, filter and block text messages sent on company phones. The article discusses Onset Technology's METAmessage Advanced Compliance Tool:

"We scan and block text messages so the company makes sure there are no text messages going out that violate company policy," said Zack Silvinger, the company's vice president of business development and marketing.
That means if your company has decided that curse words, sexually explicit words, or even the word "beer" aren't acceptable, you'll be thwarted every time you try to send a text message with banned words on it. What's more, your message will be sent to the human resources department. Yikes!
This "Advanced Compliance Tool" can be used to safe guard data and prevent leaks as well as for surveillance of employees. There is another company is selling a similar software to parents so that they can read their children's text messages and block messages from unwanted senders.

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posted by A. Mattson @ 10:46 AM 2 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

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

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

 

Google May Fight Microsoft In Battle of Cell Phone Software

After our discussion in class about the flattening of the world by corporations and globalization i came across an old fashioned newspaper article about something similar. Newsday reports that Google may get in the market of producing cell phone software to rival Microsoft's, which of course is really the only show in town when it comes to devices like palm pilots and blackberries. This may be a welcomed change and freshening up to cell phone software that is old and past its time. The new Microsoft windows Mobile 6 is basically just a smoothed out version of the previous generation for example. Like we talked about in class, America is behind the time tech wise and we need some good competition to get back in the game. I don't want to go to India for a job.

I think this would be a good idea because going on Google's reputation, it just seems like everything they touch turns to gold. And rather then creating a whole new phone and possibly service to launch this new software, they can simply piggy back on existing phone companies or service providers. Google also stated that it would rely on Linux software, which is free and open to the public. This is an important step in creating an OS that will constantly be improved, not to mention Google would be reaching out to more people then ever. I do not own a smart phone that requires a OS but if i did i don't think i would want Microsoft software on it, i would rather have Apple but we all cant afford the iPhone, so Google create a nice piece of software and bring us into the future.
"The software would challenge Microsoft Corp.'s products that run Web-browsing phones. About 1 billion of those devices will be sold by 2011, according to research firm IDC in Framingham, Mass. Google plans to let phone makers and wireless companies sell handsets based on its software, rather than creating a device like Apple Inc.'s iPhone, the Times said"(Bloomberg News)



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posted by S. Colgan @ 2:02 PM 1 comments permalink

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