It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year....Part II (Final Paper)

Hello dear followers, once last time! So another semester is almost over and I have yet another paper written. I enjoyed writing this paper since it was on a topic I enjoyed researching. Will our country move into "going green" or will we continue on the path to being a disposable society? Unfortunately, not being much of an optimist at times, I feel as though we will continue on this path of being a throw away country. While looking online at e-waste I couldn't believe the amount of e-waste that sits in developing countries. There are workers in these countries such as Nigeria and Ghana that take this waste and burn it everyday, sending horrific toxins into the air to pollute their cities and townspeople. More regulation on the dumping of e-waste needs to be looked at for fear of future problems to the people of these countries.

I had a great time in Professor Ferguson's class. I really learned a lot when people brought in different technology events that were happening all over the world: from cars that can park themselves, to cell phone trackers and 3D televisions. I especially liked when we all presented our Wikipedia articles to the class; it was nice to see different perspectives from people as to how they perceive Wikipedia. In regards to the books we read for class my two favorites were: "Made To Break" and "The Facebook Effect". It's amusing that we learned about Mark Zuckerberg and he has recently been named by Time Magazine for "Person of the Year, 2010". With all this said I hope to take away a lot of information from this class with me. I will now be much more alert when it comes to new technologies and I will try my best to understand how they will benefit or hurt our society and its future.

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year....Part I (Final Paper)

Well to some, "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year" as in the rush to buy all those holiday gifts, get them wrapped and delivered. For me on the other hand I have to somehow begin to focus on my final paper for my Technology & Culture In America class, and pause the holiday rush. Ok, let's get to it! I have decided after reading both proposed paper topics (thank you Professor Ferguson-I love choices), to focus on Giles Slade's book, "Made To Break". The question at hand is, "With the recent rise of the environmental movement in this country, will America continue on a path of a disposable society described in Slade's work or finally turn to the path of going green?"

I can tell you this dear followers I am not sure the angle that I will take on this. I feel as we are trying to move into the "green revolution" yet on the other hand as we move just a step or inch for that matter closer to going green I hear nothing about us actually doing it. Well as the librarian in me comes out, I must now go ahead and do some research on this topic to support my answer, assuming I have one. Until soon.

Reading Assignment #12 Kirkpatrick's "The Facebook Effect" pg. 215-end

Hello dear followers. So I finally finished the long, exhausting book, "The Facebook Effect". In conclusion, The Facebook Effect, is really a story of delirious success, both financial and world changing. Even for those not so keen on geekery and computers, the political wrangling of the company supplies plenty of drama. I loved the irony when the "newsfeed" was added it allowed users easy access to groups they might want to join, which promptly lead to mass numbers joining anti-newsfeed groups.

Love it or leave it, Facebook has done what Zuckerberg intended it to, it has changed the way we conduct our social relationships and thus changed society itself. Employees, employers and public figures are re-evaluating how they manage their very public profiles on Facebook, with some pundits predicting that rather than people tending towards circumspect and professional Facebook profiles, society will just come to accept that Facebook will reveal certain aspects of our lives that we don't necessarily want public, and not judge too harshly. Even if you don't have a profile yourself, there is no way you can prevent others from posting photos of you, or revealing personal information about yourself (although one might question why said acquaintance is doing so) so perhaps a society that doesn't judge our drunken photos too harshly is more preferable to trying desperately to keep such things from the internet.

My only real criticism of this book is it left me wishing that I had a friend on the verge of creating a billion dollar company who just needed a small amount of investment to get started and that I got to be one of those lucky fools who gave thousands only to have the investment return in the millions.

How the heck did we socialize before Facebook? My God, it must have been a horrible way to live our lives. Can you imagine that a person would have to actual pick up a phone or even worse pick up a pen and write a letter? Now I admit, I have not written a letter by hand in years and years. Let’s face it e-mail has made it easier. How on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers' birthdays, bug our friends, build and maintain farms (Farmville) and cafes (Café World), before Facebook?

Reading Assignment #11 Kirkpatrick's "The Facebook Effect" pgs. 107-214

Good evening dear followers. This week we were asked to read the second section of Kirkpatrick's book, "The Facebook Effect". Kirkpatrick starts this section off by speaking of the investors who were willing to invest in thefacebook.com. At this end of this chapter I found it quite interesting as to what happened to Mark Zuckerberg the day he had signed the papers with Accel as the investor. While on his way in the wee hours of the morning to visit his girlfriend who was a Berkeley student, Zuckerberg was gettting gas when a man approached him with gun in hand ready to shoot Mark. Luckily, the man was so drunk or high that Zuckerberg took a chance and was able to jump into his shiny new Infiniti "the Warthog" (p. 127) and get away. He took a calculated risk by doing this, just as he did when he created thefacebook.com.

In 2005, the company dropped The from its name after purchasing the domain name facebook.com for $200,000. On September 20, 2005 the company officially became just, Facebook. What to do next? Zuckerberg and his cohorts wanted to broaden the membership of Facebook but which demographic should they turn to next. Facebook launched a high school version in September 2005, which Zuckerberg called the next logical step. At that time, high school networks required an invitation to join. Facebook later expanded membership eligibility to employees of several companies, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft. Facebook was then opened on September 26, 2006 to everyone of ages 13 and older with a valid email address.

Even though Facebook kept growing and growing Mark never for a second thought like a CEO of a million dollar company. He didn't think if profit or advertising venues in the least. He also didn't dress like a CEO as he was still wearing his college garb of a t-shirt, shorts and of course his trademark Adidas flip-flops. As time went on Facebook started seeing problems getting the "adult" demographic to join Facebook. People lead and start a bandwagon once someone else has, so adults didn't want to join until other adults were already there (p. 173). Perhaps facebook was all about students and the adult population didn't need to concern themselves with such a website; yeah right! Many advertisers started getting onboard and used Facebook to get college and high school students interested in their products; for example Chase, Apple and P&G.

In 2006, Facebook saw that its users wanted to know what was happening with their friends, what happened last night at a party, was "so and so" still single; but the clicks were endless for users to find out this information. Facebook became the page that one can turn to find out, "How are the people doing that I care about?" (p. 181) By the end of 2006, "Facebook had 12 million active users" (p. 198). It had come so far; from a dorm room at Harvard to a billion dollar business.

Until next time my dear followers when I conclude my thoughts and insight on, "The Facebook Effect".

What Did Wikipedia Teach Me?

1. Should Wikipedia be used as a scholarly source? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this source?

Wikipedia is one of the most controversial information sources on the web today. It serves as a socially edited database source for information on virtually any topic. Wikipedia is gaining an increasingly bad reputation in schools all over the world. Teachers will argue that Wikipedia is not a reliable source with credibility to be cited in a formal essay or term paper. Teachers believe that due to the multitude of anonymous updates, there is not enough reliable information to base ideas upon. Even if Wikipedia can detect obvious errors there is no way that it can monitor every single error. Wikipedia is easy to use and therefore any normal person can make anonymous edits. Many college professors believe that Wikipedia should not be used as a scholarly source due to the fact that students have been taught extensive research skills up to that point and should use them to their advantage. Students should have the ability, by the time they reach university, to research more reliably published information and develop a coherent argument. Younger children, however, may need extra encouragement to develop their arguments; but not necessarily their researching skills. The fact that articles on Wikipedia are not written in a complicated manner certainly may encourage its use among younger children. In my opinion Wikipedia should be used as a learning tool and not a research tool.

2. What so these strengths and weaknesses tell us about the impact and potential effects of technology on American culture?

Wikipedia to me is the future that anyone can edit. It's funny how we all seem to "knock it" yet still seem to flock to the website daily.The impact of technological change on culture, learning, and morality has long been the subject of intense debate, and every technological revolution brings out a fresh crop of both pessimists and pollyannas. Embracing new technology people fear, will result in the overthrow of traditions, beliefs, values, institutions, business models, and much else they hold sacred. Our current Information Revolution has had its share of techno-pessimists and techno-optimists. Indeed, before most of us had even heard of the Internet, people were already fighting about it, or at least debating what the rise of the Information Age meant for our culture, society, and economy. The world we occupy today is a world of unprecedented media abundance and unlimited communications and connectivity opportunities. I believe that the Internet and digital technologies are reshaping our culture, economy, and society in most ways for the better, but not without some serious aversion along the way. 

3. What did you learn? What will you take away from this project?

I've enjoyed working on this project. I learned that Wikipedia is an amazing example of intelligence at work, but I also understand it is not without flaws and limitations. I believe Wikipedia is a wonderful complement, but not a complete substitute, for other media and information sources and inputs.  

Reading Assignment #10 Kirkpatrick's "The Facebook Effect" pgs. 1-106

Good evening dear followers. This week we were asked by Professor Ferguson to start reading the book titled, "The Facebook Effect" by David Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick begins by telling us background information on a sophomore at Harvard University named Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg never thought sleep was a priority as he scribbled daily on his life-size "eight-foot-long whiteboard"; while also innocently creating an internet software which he called Course Match (p.19). Course Match which I found rather interesting was a software that allowed students to see if their friends had enrolled in classes so then also knew if they wanted to sign up for them as well. Zuckerberg had created a program that students wanted to use. Zuckerberg was full of confidence, blunt, brutally honest and often meticulous. Mark became close friends with his hall roommates Moskovitz and Hughes; they later became known as "three eggheads that loved to talk about ideas" with their extreme confidence that they would rule the world (p.22).

Zuckerberg started another project by October of his sophomore year at Harvard, known as "Facemash". This website invited users to rate another as, "hot" or "not". The photos for the Facemash website came from "facebooks" from each of the different Harvard houses. The "facebooks" were "pictures taken the day students arrived for orientation" (p.23); the facebooks were not just handed over to Zuckerberg he went and did some illicit things in order to get them. After many complains of sexism and racism Zuckerberg was accused of violating the college's code of conduct--security, copyright and privacy were all issues that Marc broke. Luckily Marc was not expelled from Harvard as he claimed Facemash was a "computer science experiment and had no idea it would spread so quickly"(p.25). Zuckerberg continued through his college years making little Web programs that attracted students to use them.

Zuckerberg ended up going online and paying $35 to register the web address, thefacebook.com, for the time frame of one year. Thefacebook.com was a blended site with ideas taken from Course Match and Facemash; as well as Friendster which was a social networking site which allowed individuals to create a profile of themselves, complete personal data such as hobbies and interests, and then allowed their profiles to be linked to those of their friends. This same time, MySpace had come onto the social networking scene but did not make such a huge impact at Harvard University. Thefacebook.com was strictly open to Harvard University students who had a harvard.edu email address; it was growing bigger and bigger everyday' so big that Zuckerberg paid a private computer server to hold the website so it had no linking to the harvard.edu network. Thefacebook.com had grown so huge that students from other universities all over the country were sending emails, texts, and calling to add their school to thefacebook.com roster.

Thefacebook.com needed investors; so Reid Hoffman the founder of LinkedIn being impressed by the site wanted to invest but not be its sole investor. Reid pulled in Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, as well to invest in thefacebook.com. Thefacebook met a need among students at Harvard and other colleges; "paper facebooks were handed out freshman year at most schools and typically showed photos of every student along with just their name and high school" (p.90); yet these had limitations. The online version allowed you to closely examine a future date, or acquaintance; while even searching your new acquaintances friends. Thefacebook.com became an obsession with the endless clicking and viewing of profiles set you into a trance. I can't wait to see how the rest of this book turns out. 

Apple computer for sale: only $160K!

An original Apple1 computer is going on auction. Estimated price? $161,600 to $242,000. An auctioneer is selling its distant ancestor and one of the world's first personal computers, the Apple1, for an estimated $161,600 to $242,400.In 1976, Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the computer out of Jobs' family garage and sold it for $666.66. The Apple1 will be auctioned by Christie's in London, England, on November 23, with a simultaneous auction held online. The Apple-1 that's up for sale is believed to be one of about 200 of those computers that Jobs and Wozniak created in 1976 and 1977. It comes in an original box  with the return address pointing back to the California garage where Apple Corp. began and features the original Apple logo, which showed Isaac Newton getting hit on the head with an Apple. The Apple1 does not have a disk drive, nor a monitor or keyboard; not very impressive. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak have stated that just 200 were made, and only about 50 are thought to survive. Labeled system number 82, this kit includes the motherboard, cassette adapter, manuals, the original shipping box in good condition, and a signed letter from Steve Jobs to the original owner! This is the forerunner of the iPod, iPad and iPhone as it worked straight out of the box.

 

What are your thoughts on this? If you could afford to, would you bid on something like this? Do you think this is just an old artifact that needs to be thrown out?