Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Essay #2


Developed in 1981 by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis, Usenet is a pre-World Wide Web communication medium that allows people to discuss their opinions through message boards, forums, discussion groups, and e-mail lists (Kollock). Prior to this assignment, I was unfamiliar with Usenet and the many components that it had. After observing for the last couple weeks, I’ve learned how fun and informative it is to read and participate on these message boards. Although there is a great exchange of information, there are some problems that are common across all Usenet groups. With this medium, people have the opportunity to create any “character” that they want, which is intriguing to some, but can also be deceiving. The main problems that greatly affected the group that I observed included the inappropriate use of bandwidth (capacity to carry and store information) and the free-rider problem (Kollock). These two re-occurring themes seemed to dominate the message board and really set the tone and behavior of the members that were represented.



As stated before, I have been observing a Usenet group. I decided to observe and subscribe to a group that was dedicated to the New York Knicks. I found this through Google groups and it's called alt.sports.basketball.pro.ny-knicks. Most of the interactions were humorous; this is due to members either mocking each other, Knick players and coach, or George W. Bush. There were also some disputes between people on player’s abilities, trades, and who should coach. I would receive an e-mail when and where people posted messages because I joined their e-mail list. This was very helpful because it kept everything organized by having the link right there, instead of me going to the message board and finding it myself.



There seems to be some dominate people in the Usenet group, including Dan Gater, Doctor Chen, Frank Rizzo and CaptnO. Discussions ranged from trades, players, politics, and even a player’s blog. Dan Gater took on the role of a journalist, posting articles and then asking a question at the end. Although just asking questions and not answering them is something a free-rider would do, I do not believe he is one in this case because some posts he would comment (Kollock). There is also a woman who decided to blog and I know this because of her signature, “Laurel T In the eyes of the political elite, dissent is acceptable... until it becomes effective” (alt.sports.basketball.pro.ny-knicks). It’s quite obvious from her signature that she’s not just here to talk NY Knicks, which ends up being the case. She turned the message content from the reputation of Josh Howard as he disrespected the national anthem by saying how he doesn't celebrate it because he is black, to a political debate about how the national anthem isn't American. She is an example of using bandwidth inappropriately. She completely changed the topic, and when people try to change it back, she again turns the discussion into something else political. By being off-topic, she threatens the organization that the Usenet is being supported by (Kollack). More examples of this include when Dan Gater’s would post a long article, to which people would paste the whole article and then reply, as opposed to just summarizing or just copying the part they wanted to comment on. This made it difficult to tell where the previous post ended and where they’re new post started. It also made it difficult to want to keep looking for people’s responses because there were just so many words.

Another characteristic of the Usenet group was the theme of role-playing. Someone actually pretended to be a player from the NY Knicks, Jamal Crawford. They put it in a blog format, meaning it was almost out of a diary. “He” talked about seeing himself on two magazine covers in the airport, how hard he has been working out, and an update of the guys on the team. At first I honestly thought this person was Jamal Crawford. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Some person, Syfo-Dyas, takes on the role of Jamal and deceives people into thinking that they are actually him. I am sure this person gets a thrill out of it, since he gets a whole different outlook on Usenet and the group. I wish I decided to take on a role, but I made the mistake of using my AOL screen name, which has girl in it, as my nickname in the group. I wanted to tell people how I actually went to basketball camp with two Knick legends, but thought because of my screen name, I would have no credibility. This is where gender comes into play. From the names of people and what I observed, it was definitely a made dominated group and I just didn’t think I would fit in.



Although free riding was a problem, it’s hard to tell who’s free-riding and who’s not. One of the biggest free-riders I would say was me! I gathered information about the Knicks and kept it to myself and I read ongoing discussions for the last couple of weeks and never once commented on them (Kollock). There are 120 subscribers, but I only saw about ten members actually contribute to the discussions. Although there seems to be a lot of free-riders, there also seems to be the problem of spam. For every 3 or 4 topics posted, there would be a spam topic about a nude celebrity or something of that sort. Even with these problems, the group does a good job of keeping on topic and having informative, fun, and thoughtful discussions.



After observing this Usenet group, it’s safe to say that I will continue to look at people’s discussions and maybe join another group. It’s hard to think that people use such an early medium of the Internet to interact with other people and get their opinions across. I became much more familiar and realized how the themes we read in class apply to people’s behavior in these forums. Whether it is intentional, or unintentional, people are always going to be free-riding and abusing bandwidth. For now, however, it’s still a fun, interactive way to talk about what you like and not be afraid to voice your opinion.

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.sports.basketball.pro.ny-knicks/topics

Kollock, Peter & Smith, Marc. (1996). Managing the virtual commons: Cooperation and conflict in computer communities. In Susan C Herring (Ed.), Computer-mediated communication: Linguistic, social and cross-cultural perspectives (pp. 109-128). Philadelphia: John Benjamins

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

What is Web 2.0

For Wednesday’s class, we had to read the chapter called “What is Web 2.0” by Tim O’Reilly. There are different meanings to the term “Web 2.0” and in this chapter he attempts to clarify exactly what it means. According to the chapter, “Web 2.0” is a more advanced version of “Web 1.0”, but there are certain characteristics that make them different. One of the most important aspects that I believe O’Reilly talks about is how people need to remember that the internet is not a product, it is a service. With that in mind, it’s important to make the services cost efficient so people are interested and not turned away. It is also to important to be able to trust the people that are using the services, because people add value (O’ Reilly). Another important characteristic of “Web 2.0” is that it has to understand how important long tailing is. According to the text, “the long tail is the collective power of the small sites that make up the bulk of the web’s content” (O’Reilly pg 6). By understanding this concept, companies like Google and Overture were able to place friendly ad’s on any web page, which opened up their market (O’ Reilly). He later goes on to talk about iTunes and TiVo which are very popular now days. TiVo and iTunes are the first applications that are able to bring together web content to portable devices. They also show collective intelligence, which in this case is the collaboration of different media (O’ Reilly) To me, “Web 2.0” is still confusing. I use Google, iTunes, and Wikipedia all the time, but never thought of what category they fit into.

As I sit here and write this blog, I am listening to iTunes and also looking up lyrics to my favorite song on Google without even taking into account all the hard work that goes behind it. O' Reilly helped me realize how competitive the web is and how "being a platform will beat an application every time" (O'Reilly pg 7) Microsoft is an excellent example of this, taking over Windows with Excel, Word, and Internet Explorer (O’ Reilly). The main point in O’ Reilly’s chapter is that if the application does not become a platform and follow the core competencies, it doesn’t look like it’s going to last in “Web 2.0” very long.


O’Reilly, Tim (2005). What is Web 2.0: Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software. Retrieved August 21, 2008 from http://oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html.


Blog 5

So on my final observation, there was the re-occurance of spam. However, there was one post that caught my attention. Someone pretended to be a player from the NY Knicks, Jamal Crawford, and post a blog about the team and what his predictions are. This person, Syfo-Dyas, acts as if hes Jamal Crawford by going as far as to talk about landing in the aiport and seeing himself on the cover of two magazines. He later goes on to talk about each returning player and give updates on how they are doing and what they will be offering the team this season. Syfo-Dyas is obviously role-playing and pretending to be a NY Knick. This person actually gets feed back from obviously Dan Gater and Capn'O. By their responses, its obvious to tell they dont believe this person is acutally Jamal Crawford either. They respond with critism to what he says about each player, calling him out on just trying to be nice and not saying the truth.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Blog 4

After observing today, there seems to be a continuing pattern. Dan Gaters appears to be a journalist who writes something about a player or something that's going on with the team. Group members in turn respond with their feelings on each topic. Today, he wrote about a former player, Allan Houston, and whether or not he's going to come back after a devastating injury. No one has yet to reply to this message. From what I have previously seen, the only responses that people are probably going to write are negative ones about Allan Houston because he was not a force for the team last year. There was again more spam posts. There was also another post today about acquiring someone from a trade, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Im excited to see tomorrow what people have responded to these two posts and if my prediction was right.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Blog 3

Today, for the first time, I observed that there was a woman who actually blogged on the Usenet group. The reason I knew this was because after her comment, she had a signature note at the bottom revealing her name. Also for the first time, there was an actual debate among people in the group. I hate to say this, but this female member actually turned the message content from the reputation of Josh Howard as he disrespected the national anthem by saying how he doesn't celebrate it because he is black, to a politcal debate about how the national anthem isn't American and then turned the topic to about the war. I think this could be a reason why people may disguise their gender because here is a woman that turns a basketball related story, into something completely differnet. Although the members of the group don't mind and actually apologize for what they said or even agree with her, what Josh Howard did was completely forgotten.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

blog 2

On my second observation, I noticed how Dan Gaters again started a message and people began replying to it. He asked if people thought that Marbury should be waived or not. Some of the responses were funny and the debate even turned somewhat political. One guy said Marbury returning is like letting Bush return for a third term. Another guy commented on the economy and asked if people would still want Marbury if the alternative was Republican Vice President Sarah Palin. There doesn't seem to be much arguing, most people agreeing that Marbury is a cancer to the NY Knicks. Dan Gater seems to dominate the postings on what I observed today. There also seems to be some spam, but not as much as the other groups I looked at joining before which is good.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Essay 2-Blog 1

For the second essay, I decided to observe a Usenet group that was dedicated to the New York Knicks. I found this through google groups and it's called alt.sports.basketball.pro.ny-knicks. I observed that most of the posts were about the NY Knicks, although there was some spam about celebrities and nudity. There was some debate between whether or not the Knicks made a good trade. Most of the replies were in favor for the trade, but the debate really was about whether Patrick Ewing Jr was any good. There seems to be some dominate people in the Usenet Group, including Dan Gater, Doctor Chen, Frank Rizzo and CaptnO. It also seems to be dominated by males. Doctor Chen seems to use profanity and be somewhat confrontational. It seems he likes to push people's buttons. Dan Gator seems to be comical and CaptnO and Frank Rizzo just like to put their two senses in. It's fun reading all of these people's replies and agreeing and disagreeing with them. At one point one person made a reference to Doctor Chen actually really being a doctor. They didnt think he was because of his "bedside manner."

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

The Internet: The basics

For class today, we had to read the article The Internet: The basics by Jason Whitaker. I thought this was going to be a straightforward reading about the many basics of the internet, but it was very complex and a lot of the information he talked about went right over my head. Although much of the information was hard for me to understand, I was able to grasp many of the basics he did talk about and was able to gain information from this article.

Whitaker talks about the fundamental component of the World Wide Web, which is hypertext. Hypertext is the ability to link information to other information and he claims without it, the web would not exist (Whitaker, 2002). Whitaker later goes on to talk about what the core of a web page is, Hypertext Markup Language. HTML is the “basic set of commands used to format pages for display across the World Wide Web” (Whitaker, pg 74)..

Whitaker begins to talk about the elements of a web page that HTML makes possible. This includes text, color and images, the layout, and hyperlinks. All of these are important to making sure that the website is conveying the information necessary and is also not distracting or turning away any visitors. If the text is too small, the colors represent different meanings in different cultures, the layout makes it difficult for the viewer to navigate through the window, and there are no hyperlinks; the web page is not going to get the full potential of viewers the designer wants (Whitaker, 2002).

The reading goes on to talk about how there are some problems with HTML that the inventor could not foresee. This includes the separation between design and content. It states that through the use of style sheets or CSS, the cascading style sheet system, this problem can be overcome. Style sheets “provide information governing the position and styling of text and can also be created separately to HTML files and linked to them” (Whitaker, pg 77). Through this system, Whitaker says that the burden of presentation design from HTML will be removed.

When Whitaker was talking about the font and colors of a webpage, it brought back the memory of making an AOL profile circa 2000. All these codes were needed to pick the font and color people wanted, which is the same process used to make web pages. Although I did not understand a lot of what he talked about in this article, I did understand web production and new media. Apparently, the basics of the internet are not that basic to me and the internet continues to be something that boggles my mind.


Whitaker, Jason. (2002). The Internet: The Basics (chapter 3). New York: Routledge

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The Pre-Web Internet-Usenet

In COM430z, I was assigned to read “The Pre-Web Internet-Use Net” in the book Managing the Virtual Common: Cooperation and conflict in computer communities. This article discusses the problems of cooperation and social dilemmas in cyberspace, especially with Usenet. This includes the free-rider problem and not using bandwidth wisely.

According to Kollack, “Usenet is on of the largest computer-mediated communication systems in existence. It is similar in many ways to conferencing systems and e-mail distribution lists.” In the reading, it talks about how Usenet has a number of newsgroups that contain requests for information, replies to requests, discussions of the validity and accuracy of replies, and other further questions brought up by the discussion and members involved.

Although Usenet provides a great environment for people to give and exchange information, I read in the reading that there are many conflicts that make it incapable to provide collective goods to everyone. Bandwidth is a key resource on Usenet. The term bandwidth refers to “the volume of information per unit time that a computer, person, or transmission can handle.” Basically it means the amount of information that can be carried and stored to its members. According to the reading, there are great concerns on Usenet of overusing bandwidth which include: the posting of extremely long articles, not summarizing previous posts and instead reproducing long sections, posting articles that are off-topic, and posting the same message to many newsgroups, as appose to just one.

Also in the reading, there is the problem of free riding: asking questions but not answering them; gathering information but not allocating it out to other people, or just simply reading discussions but not contributing or adding information to them. By providing several thousand different types of topics, Usenet allows individuals with common interests to find and interact with each other. According to the reading, this helps the success of a newsgroup. In the reading it states how there has also been designs to have successful communities. They include decreasing group sizes, having set rules and institutions, and monitoring and sanctioning of people’s behaviors.

I believe that the free-rider problem and abusing bandwidth are two huge problems that affect cyberspace. I know that I have been in a forum and reading people’s post even on Blackboard and had people post unnecessary and irrelevant information. When one person disrupts ongoing conversation like that, it can potentially ruin the whole persona of the discussion. The ways that Usenet is trying to eliminate the problems are cost effective and hopefully can work. However, cyberspace has a double edge. Kollack concludes with monitoring people’s behavior but sanctioning behavior does not. Communication costs of large groups are decreased, but free-riding is increased. Lastly, having several thousand newsgroups that have interests that people exchange information make it easier for people who want to disrupt them do so.

Kollack, Peter & Smith, Marc. (1996)

Monday, September 8, 2008

Defining Characteristics of the internet

Many people say that the Internet is different from television, and that is a correct statement. I believe that there are five defining characteristics of the Internet that make it unique and different than other forms of communication Medias. According to the Adam’s and Clark’s reading, Rafaeli and Newhagen (1996) suggests qualities that define the Internet including how it is multimediated, hypertextual, (a) synchronous, interactive, and digital. These characteristics of the Internet have had foundations in other media that have come before it including books, newspapers, telephone, radio, and of course the television (Adams and Clark pg 8). Through the Internet, people are able to interact with one another, have the Internet interact with them, watch videos, listen to audio clips, play online games, and research information. The Internet is able to do and access many things that the television and other medias are not, which makes it but both very helpful and entertaining to people all over the world.

In this class, I read Adam's and Clark's chapter "How Did We Get Here?", which gives a brief history of the Internet. In the reading, it talks about how in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, the cold war and the fear of nuclear attacks led to the conceptualization of the Internet. However, not until the early 1990’s was the Internet actually opened to commercial institutions and was it able to become something that the average person could learn to use for everyday things. The Internet was a very important concept because it would allow people to communicate and interact with each other in ways that no one had ever seen before. A characteristic that makes the Internet different from the television is that it is multi-mediated. Although the television combines audio and visual forms, the Internet goes way beyond this and combines all different forms and a wide range of media. Now days, we are seeing more convergence because our television and computer are becoming one in the same. (Adams and Clark pg 9). As I stated before, people can listen to music, play games, and watch their favorite videos. The reason that people are able to do this is because the Internet allows for Plug-in’s which are “supplemental programs that work with Web browsers or other applications to expand their communicative capability” (Adams and Clark pg 10). Some of these plug-ins include documentation, multi-media, audio and video streams, and virtual reality, all characteristics the television does not have (Adams and Clark pg 10-11). Although people are able to watch videos on television and listen to music on the radio, the Internet allows people to watch and listen to their favorites at anytime they would like and also to have the luxury of not having to watch commercials.

Another key characteristic that makes the Internet different is hypertextuality. “Hypertextuality is essentially the ability to link any type of content to any other type of content” (Adams and Clark pg 11). This means that when you are visiting a site, clicking on an underlined word may bring up a completely different document or clicking on any type of graphic may produce a sound (Adams and Clark pg 11). A great example of this is wikipedia. When someone researches say DJ Tiesto, not only can information be accessed from this page in reference to him, but people can click on other links that link them to the place he was born, the Olympic games he performed at, get a sample of the music he plays, and can even get a video of him performing. Hypertextuality also makes the web easier to navigate because it is three key implications: intertextuality, multivocality, and de-centering. These three things make a person’s internet experience much more educational and better.

Another characteristic that makes the Internet a great communication medium is interactivity. The user experience with the Internet is a lot different than with any other media. With television and radio, content comes to them. With the Internet, ability to go looking for content that you want gives the person a lot more control than with the television and the radio (http://techdirt.com/articles/20060406/0326237.shtml). People can choose to interact with other people through instant messages, chat rooms or emails, and people can purchase items off the Internet. In both of these instances, people receive interaction which is not something other Medias contain.

Another characteristic of the Internet is (a) synchronous. On the Internet, people are able to communication at the same time. This includes instant messages, video conferences, e-mails, and web pages. Both televisions and telephones have the capability of being (a) synchronous, but both are augmented by the use of answering machines and VCR’s (Adams and Clark pg 14). This is an important characteristic because I would say this is one of the more popular qualities that people use because it is efficient and fun at the same time.

Last, but not least, the Internet is digital. What’s important about this quality is that information is now transported electronically. This makes it less time consuming and inexpensive. With the Internet being digital, it has had a huge impact on the way people use communication. Data can now be coded and even manipulated to a smaller size so it can be downloaded faster (Adams and Clark pgs 15-17).

The Internet has truly impacted the communication aspect of the world. Messages are able to be relayed at faster speeds and which has made talking to loved ones, friends, employer/employees, and teachers/students so much easier and helpful. The abundance of information people can access on the Internet is astronomical. Being able to watch videos, see graphics, talk to friends, send emails, talk in chat rooms, blog, play interactive games, listen to music, and research information have made communication in the 21st century such a huge improvement then when it was first introduced in the 1950’s.

Bibliography

Adams and Clark (Chapters 1 and 2)

http://techdirt.com/articles/20060406/0326237.shtml

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

This reading is about how the internet acts as a medium that connects us to other people and things. It allows people to interact with either one person, or hundreds of people. Therefore, it is a macromedium because it is able to reach such large audiences on a global scale. The internet has 6 keys qualities that change our communication patterns. I never realized how much I relied on these qualities whether it was for school or to gather information from my favorite website. I also never realized how much convergence the internet has between radio and television. This reading is about how the internet acts as a medium that connects us to other people and things. It allows people to interact with either one person, or hundreds of people either through instant messages, emails, or even chat rooms. Therefore, it is a macromedium because it is able to reach such large audiences on a global scale. Now a day, people are able to listen to the radio on their computer, or even watch some of their favorite television moments on the computer, like on you tube. The internet has evolved so much since it was first established and always looking to improve and get better. I also didn't realize how much easier hypertext has made the internet and people's lives. It allows you to multitask between documents, pictures, and even audio/video clips. The internet is also asynchronous, meaning that we can exchange communication but have time to think in between. An example of this is emails. I know for a fact that sometimes if I get an email that requires me to make a big decision, its nice to know I have all the time in the world to get back to the other person and not put on the spot like on a telephone. This reading gave me a different interpretation of how to view the internet. I usually see the internet as a source of information or communication, but this chapter opened up my mind to the vast opportunities that the interne holds. Although it seems the internet can not be more advanced or improved, everyday people are working on ways to make it more reliable, faster, and able to reach any and everyone. I felt a little embarrassed after reading this because I realized how much of the internet I do not use and do not even know how to use! When the reading talked about burning CD’s, I realized how I didn’t even know how to do that and how I had to get one of my friends to teach me how to use an MP3 player. I was actually confused during some of the reading when it talked about bits about bits and the technical stuff. However, I plan on learning a lot about the internet through this class so I can take advantage of this wonderful opportunity and not let it go to waste.

Reading for Sept 3

This reading is about how the internet acts as a medium that connects us to other people and things. It allows people to interact with either one person, or hundreds of people. Therefore, it is a macromedium because it is able to reach such large audiences on a global scale. The internet has 6 keys qualities that change our communication patterns. I never realized how much I relied on these qualities whether it was for school or to gather information from my favorite website. I also never realized how much convergence the internet has between radio and television. This reading is about how the internet acts as a medium that connects us to other people and things. It allows people to interact with either one person, or hundreds of people either through instant messages, emails, or even chat rooms. Therefore, it is a macromedium because it is able to reach such large audiences on a global scale. Now a day, people are able to listen to the radio on their computer, or even watch some of their favorite television moments on the computer, like on you tube. The internet has evolved so much since it was first established and always looking to improve and get better. I also didn't realize how much easier hypertext has made the internet and people's lives. It allows you to multitask between documents, pictures, and even audio/video clips. The internet is also asynchronous, meaning that we can exchange communication but have time to think in between. An example of this is emails. I know for a fact that sometimes if I get an email that requires me to make a big decision, its nice to know I have all the time in the world to get back to the other person and not put on the spot like on a telephone.

This reading gave me a different interpretation of how to view the internet. I usually see the internet as a source of information or communication, but this chapter opened up my mind to the vast opportunities that the interne holds. Although it seems the internet can not be more advanced or improved, everyday people are working on ways to make it more reliable, faster, and able to reach any and everyone. I felt a little embarrassed after reading this because I realized how much of the internet I do not use and do not even know how to use! When the reading talked about burning CD’s, I realized how I didn’t even know how to do that and how I had to get one of my friends to teach me how to use an MP3 player. I was actually confused during some of the reading when it talked about bits about bits and the technical stuff. However, I plan on learning a lot about the internet through this class so I can take advantage of this wonderful opportunity and not let it go to waste.