Final Paper DONE

After finishing writing my final paper, I must say that I am surprised at my conclusion. I feel like until I actually began getting towards the end of my paper I only saw the dependence on technology among colleges and ignored the importance of the people who work/attend them. It might sound cheesy, but technology enables many things to be easier/more orgnanized but could NEVER take the place of a person or compare to their abilities (after all, we created these technologies). Although technopolies are dependent on technology (which campuses are without a doubt), this dependency does not render humans "useless" or "less" than the technology. I actually really enjoyed writing this paper more than I expected to. I feel like I'm so amped off of my conclusion that I don't even want to be on a computer any longer, ha.

Final paper progress 1

I started my paper a couple days ago but have been so busy with finals that I haven't had a chance to write about it until now. I decided to write on Postman's "Technopoly" because I believe that college campuses are just that. I have made a list of the pros and cons to technology on the college campus and although there seem to be a pretty even amount on both sides. I understand that there are two sides to everything and I feel that my argument is shaping more as I continue to write and examine this topic, but I think in the end technology is for the benefit of higher education. Reading through the book for quotes to support my arguments has been a bit painstaking as I did not enjoy reading it the first time too much, but I do enjoy the topic of the paper so it's well worth it. I must admit that I have been experiencing first hand one of the cons to technology on the college campus: checking facebook while attempting to write my paper(s). This is something I know everybody battles with, but being so connected to the world also has many benefits that I will be discussing.

Current Event

I did my current event on an article from Foxnews.com titled "Tech Breakthrough Could Mean Disposable E-Readers" (found here: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/28/tech-breakthrough-mean-disposable-e-readers/). Basically the article discusses a new ink-like technology called "electrowetting" which would allow a flexible piece of organic/disposable paper to contain multiple pages. This is similar to E-readers such as the Kindle, except it is not as fragile or expensive. Dr. Steckl claims that this is the future of electronic paper and believes that in 3-5 there will be a prototype on the market. The technology of electrowetting is even said to be capable of containing video. With all this being said, this technology could completely change the way books/magazines/newspapers, etc. are sold and distributed throughout the world.

While talking with the class I wondered how people would feel disposing of a piece of paper with this kind of technology contained in it. Most people gave the same answer that I believed to be true myself: It seems pretty wild/strange now, but if the product is organic and mass produced I guess it would be easy to get used to.

Facebook (pt. 2)

In reading the second part of "The Facebook Effect" the chapters focus on the business aspect of owning a new company and provides a lot of insight into the process of getting investors. It was actually very enjoyable to see this perspective of how Facebook got started and I found it interesting how a 20 year old was handling being in serious conversations with people double his age and much more experienced then him. Also, there was a lot of information in these chapters that documented where Facebook came from and how it developed into the best social networking site in our lives today. Hearing Graham (of the Washington Post) talk about the similarities between what Facebook allows students to do in regards to leaving comments on pictures/posts and the ledgers that contained articles of the Harvard Crimson shows that many of the ideas that created Facebook weren't necessarily new, just tweaked and put on the internet for a much easier platform to gain many followers. The Washington Post's initial investment offers opened my eyes to the different approaches one could take while shopping a company around for investors. The fact that their plan focused more on the long-term development of the site and not the "sell fast" mentality seems to be what influenced Zuckerberg the most for planning Facebook's future. This approach is more risky because the company has to overcome many obstacles and establish a dominance, but the pay-off at the end is much bigger than the quicker approach. The fact that Viacom took an interest and wanted to merge Facebook with Mtv.com displays the endless possibilities and different roads the website could have went down. In the end, Zuckerberg goes with Accel and obviously the decision pays off for him. The rest of the chapters document the development of Facebook (which as a user I found awesome since I experienced these developments myself) and the development of Zuckerberg as a CEO. Interestingly enough, the struggle of trying to keep Facebook closed off to only students is something that I tend to forget ever existed. The eventual switch has made the website one of the main tools for family/friends keeping in touch no matter where they currently are in the world. Also, it was funny that pictures were not "unlimited" or even a big part of Facebook in the beginning since now that is why many people love the website so much.

Wikipedia Audit Experience

I do not believe that Wikipedia should be used as a scholarly source. The strengths of Wikipedia are that it is a quick and easy way to get a decent background on whatever topic you would like to research, but part of the many weaknesses is that this information should be taken with a grain of salt. Another weakness of Wikipedia is even if a piece of information is cited from a legit source, the information could still be misrepresented or non existent. From the source that I audited with my group (Jersey Shore) there was a statistic that was cited from Fox News but never appeared in the article sited...this is problematic because many people probably see Fox News and assume that this is a legit stat, but in reality it is completely fabricated. This example shows that technology is not a reliable source for quick information. If a person is willing to put the research in, i.e. follow the citations, evaluate the sources, etc. then it could be a legit reference, but most people who want to use Wikipedia are using it because they don't want to have to put the extra work in. I think the fact that people can deceive the public by citing a source that has nothing to do with what is being cited is also a problem. It shows that as technology keeps advancing as well as sites like Wikipedia that allow "everyone" to participate, the more you must question everything you read. I learned that Wikipedia is not reliable for anything but getting the "jist" of a topic most of the time. I will never believe anything I read on Wikipedia again without following the citations and really discovering where the information is coming from.

Facebook Effect pt 1

Reading Kirkpatrick's "The Facebook Effect" I immediately expected to read something similar to the premise of "The Social Network", not that there is anything wrong with this assumption (because Mark Zuckerberg is obviously important while discussing this topic), but I was glad to be somewhat wrong. The fact that Kirkpatrick begins the book with a story about a Colombian man who used Facebook to organize a group against FARC (terrorist group who were terrorizing his country) was honestly an amazing intro. Instead of focusing on the standard "college, girls, partying" that one would expect from Facebook, the reader is given a legit example of how powerful, useful, amazing a website like Facebook can actually be when used at it's full potential. The first chapter does eventually move into what is expected when talking about Facebook, and discusses how there are negative aspects to such a website existing (especially in a country like the US), "What does it mean that we are increasingly living our lives in public? Are we turning into a nation--and a world--of exhibitionists?" is the question that Kirkpatrick asks and I find myself wondering very often since Facebook has been a part of my life. The next 2 chapters in the book discuss the standard story that I was expecting it to begin with and I think because I was caught off guard with how interesting the first chapter was, it made me more interested to read these chapters. It was cool to hear about the white board and how Zuckerburg was being taken around New York City to meet big time investors while he was still a sophomore in college. It was also interesting to see how Friendster creator admitted his social network was not built on "new ideas" but rather just modified to enhance older ideas of social networking (which is essentially what Facebook does to dominate the market). The Chapter "Fall 2004" was the most interesting to me because it shows how powerful Facebook or "Thefacebook" was when it tells the story of Harvard's President Lawrence Summer's used the website to check out profiles of incoming freshman students. It goes on to say how it became a standard in many other prestigious schools (Stanford, Columbia, Yale, Dartmouth). In the first 105 pages of this book I believe that Kirkpatrick does a great job of first displaying the power that this website has on a worldwide scale which then gets the readers attention and allows him to begin explaining how the website has gotten to this point.

5 ways that the web is helpful

chegg.com - allows students to rent textbooks for a much cheaper cost

familydoctor.org - contains descriptions/hand-outs for common medical conditions, a great website for anyone with children who has to wait to get into a doctors office

Online Banking - Allows you to view/manage your bank account from home. Quick and simple, but very important to our everyday lives.

OneClickAtATime.org - Charity website with different categories to choose from (children, animal, medical, etc.) where you can donate online quick and easy.

Kik Messenger - Recently got this application for my iPhone. It is essentially bbm (blackberry messenger) that works across iphone, blackberry and droid networks. BBM was a hit but only able to be used by blackberry owners, this app allows for even more "instant" messaging between a larger group of people.