What’s the value of a bit? It seems that going after folks who have traded songs or movies online is a huge expenditure of effort and money. Is DRM-protected content the way to go? If you don’t agree, propose another method for the distribution of digital multimedia so that content creators can still be compensated.
I think that DRM (Digital Rights Management) is the way to go because it is basically controlling the access and limiting the technologies and devices. There are many companies that use DRM but it is a topic and issue that continues to stir up controversy. I do agree however that it is a good way to go despite the problems that it has encountered with limiting and sometimes preventing access of digital content. The more I thought about it the more I realized how big of a problem it is to try and control the rights of digital devices or content that is being distributed. It seems to me that there have always been ways around it. Too many individuals or copyrighted companies (creators) have lost money to the ways around DRM. I believe that most of the time the creators are not compensated as much as they should be and no matter what method is taken, there have always been ways around it. I didn’t know much about it until after reading this chapter and it was interesting to me how everyone knows the risk’s and what can happen if you are caught illegally downloading music but still continue to do it anyways. It also made me think of my own music on my iPod, I do not download any music on my computer; I only upload songs and play list from different friends. I have however failed to ask where they have been getting their music from and now curious as to see the answer to that.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
eBay and FOAF-style network
1.Considering the Prisoner’s Dilemma in this chapter, provide your own insight on how sites such as eBay “work” for most participants of this popular online auction site. Do they really work? Or is there too much risk?
I personally have never used eBay to buy anything because I think that there is too much risk. I know for others though, especially a lot of my friends tend to use it to buy so many different things. I do think that it works, but I always have in the back of my mind that when I pay for something is it really going to come to my address and receive what I paid for? There is always the risk too of giving out your personal information and expecting it to stay private. I feel like we have talked about this throughout the semester and it is pretty clear that once something is on the internet there is always that possibility of the security being broken and your information getting into the hands wrong person. I also think it depends on experience on whether someone thinks there is too much risk or if it is okay for them to give out their personal information.
2. What professional benefits do you see by investing some time in a FOAF-style network?
I think there are more benefits to FOAF-style networking that comes to mind. To put your name out there in more than one way and be able to network yourself is a great tool to have and be able to use. By doing so you can benefit your career greatly, it’s like the saying “sometimes it’s not about what you know but who you know.” I think this holds true always. That is how I got my internship this summer and through my mom knowing the boss. I also formed more connections and ways to market and network my skills to others. This style of network can not only benefit you, but your friend and the company or profession as well. If your friend already has a job and is well established and happens to put your name out there as a worthy candidate and the company already knows your friends capability, you have a very good chance of getting that position. Especially in today’s society, where the economy is struggling, there are so many qualified people who are in running for a position but FOAF-style network could be what sets you apart from the rest.
I personally have never used eBay to buy anything because I think that there is too much risk. I know for others though, especially a lot of my friends tend to use it to buy so many different things. I do think that it works, but I always have in the back of my mind that when I pay for something is it really going to come to my address and receive what I paid for? There is always the risk too of giving out your personal information and expecting it to stay private. I feel like we have talked about this throughout the semester and it is pretty clear that once something is on the internet there is always that possibility of the security being broken and your information getting into the hands wrong person. I also think it depends on experience on whether someone thinks there is too much risk or if it is okay for them to give out their personal information.
2. What professional benefits do you see by investing some time in a FOAF-style network?
I think there are more benefits to FOAF-style networking that comes to mind. To put your name out there in more than one way and be able to network yourself is a great tool to have and be able to use. By doing so you can benefit your career greatly, it’s like the saying “sometimes it’s not about what you know but who you know.” I think this holds true always. That is how I got my internship this summer and through my mom knowing the boss. I also formed more connections and ways to market and network my skills to others. This style of network can not only benefit you, but your friend and the company or profession as well. If your friend already has a job and is well established and happens to put your name out there as a worthy candidate and the company already knows your friends capability, you have a very good chance of getting that position. Especially in today’s society, where the economy is struggling, there are so many qualified people who are in running for a position but FOAF-style network could be what sets you apart from the rest.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Finding Revolution Online
Based on the quote from this chapter, ““revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new technologies--it happens when society adopts new behaviors,” do you agree or disagree? Cite examples to support your position.
I tend to side both ways but for the most part I actually tend to disagree more than I agree. My opinion being the opposite, in that society changes when new technologies emerge and only then are the behaviors of society changed. I think a good example is Facebook and how social media has changed so drastically. There has been a movie to show the shift in social interaction (The Social Network) and it is evident in so many aspects of everyday life. Business’ are now making their own Facebook page to further network and update their latest news and events. Even smaller organizations, such as ones within the JMU community have their own pages which allow for the behavior of students to change and become more dependent on finding their information from Facebook as a main source. Other sources of information such as email, telephones and even text messaging are still very much active but social networking is a new technology that has seemed to take over and change the behaviors and way of communication between people.
Look deeper into the concept of a “information cascade.” Can you cite an example of where following the actions of others was a sound idea? Where doing so ended up being a poor choice?
An example where an informational cascade would be a sound idea would be in school. Students who work hard and make good grades and go above and beyond to further their education and others can see that as a motivation. Another example would be the laws. The same action taken by citizens and what the rules that are obeyed by is a good concept in which information cascade is a sound idea. One obvious example that I know everyone has heard off is jumping off a cliff, if someone did that would you do it too? Another poor choice when considering the concept of information cascade is drugs. A lot of people tend to give into peer pressure, but staying above the influence and not following what others do is the best way to go in this case.
I tend to side both ways but for the most part I actually tend to disagree more than I agree. My opinion being the opposite, in that society changes when new technologies emerge and only then are the behaviors of society changed. I think a good example is Facebook and how social media has changed so drastically. There has been a movie to show the shift in social interaction (The Social Network) and it is evident in so many aspects of everyday life. Business’ are now making their own Facebook page to further network and update their latest news and events. Even smaller organizations, such as ones within the JMU community have their own pages which allow for the behavior of students to change and become more dependent on finding their information from Facebook as a main source. Other sources of information such as email, telephones and even text messaging are still very much active but social networking is a new technology that has seemed to take over and change the behaviors and way of communication between people.
Look deeper into the concept of a “information cascade.” Can you cite an example of where following the actions of others was a sound idea? Where doing so ended up being a poor choice?
An example where an informational cascade would be a sound idea would be in school. Students who work hard and make good grades and go above and beyond to further their education and others can see that as a motivation. Another example would be the laws. The same action taken by citizens and what the rules that are obeyed by is a good concept in which information cascade is a sound idea. One obvious example that I know everyone has heard off is jumping off a cliff, if someone did that would you do it too? Another poor choice when considering the concept of information cascade is drugs. A lot of people tend to give into peer pressure, but staying above the influence and not following what others do is the best way to go in this case.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
FREE
1. Why is “zero” such a hot-button word?
Free, which goes hand in hand with the word zero is…“Decline in quality and cost of money but it something next cost money we wouldn’t feel the same way.” Like the example in the listening, a free bagel is often stale but ketchup is always free and zero dollars and it is okay. Zero is such a hot-button word because it essentially refers to something being “free” or costing nothing in value. Zero means nothing and there for when used in context it can become a hot-button word when pricing comes into the picture.
2. Explain and give an example of a mental transaction cost.
The act of subscribing to a magazine is an example of a mental transaction cost. For the subscriber to pay even one cent, it is showing the advertiser that they are interested in the subscription and therefore will pay in order to read it. When a magazine is free, it is regarded as junk and not as valuable because the customer is not paying for it. The magazine is just there and available and not something that the customer would necessarily be interested in. Prescribers make their profit from advertising and tend to make up the difference and find out what makes something profitable. There is also as the audio states “controlled circulation” in which prescribers give out magazines for free. There for people often wonder why there are more readers who actually want to read the magazines that are free vs. the ones that aren’t. As stated in the audio, it’s all mind tricks of what you are and aren’t paying and what it means.
Free, which goes hand in hand with the word zero is…“Decline in quality and cost of money but it something next cost money we wouldn’t feel the same way.” Like the example in the listening, a free bagel is often stale but ketchup is always free and zero dollars and it is okay. Zero is such a hot-button word because it essentially refers to something being “free” or costing nothing in value. Zero means nothing and there for when used in context it can become a hot-button word when pricing comes into the picture.
2. Explain and give an example of a mental transaction cost.
The act of subscribing to a magazine is an example of a mental transaction cost. For the subscriber to pay even one cent, it is showing the advertiser that they are interested in the subscription and therefore will pay in order to read it. When a magazine is free, it is regarded as junk and not as valuable because the customer is not paying for it. The magazine is just there and available and not something that the customer would necessarily be interested in. Prescribers make their profit from advertising and tend to make up the difference and find out what makes something profitable. There is also as the audio states “controlled circulation” in which prescribers give out magazines for free. There for people often wonder why there are more readers who actually want to read the magazines that are free vs. the ones that aren’t. As stated in the audio, it’s all mind tricks of what you are and aren’t paying and what it means.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
JMU only and Scratch
1. The “power law distribution” or “long tail” phenomenon, as seen in behavior online on the Wikipedia, suggests that the concept of an average user of Wikipedia is meaningless. Support your answer: how do you think a local, “JMU only” version of the Wikipedia would compare to the worldwide version? Would it be very similar? Higher quality? Less quality? Why?
First of all, I defiantly do not think Wikipedia is meaningless. The information might not always be accurate but I think it is a great way for information to get a start. I think a local version of “JMU only” would be of higher quality and more accurate then a worldwide version. Especially now, I think the worldwide version would focus on only what they know from the media and right now that would be the recent events this past spring and are recent victory against Tech. I think the local version would have a greater insight on other qualities that JMU has past parting and football and maybe what organizations are doing to give back to the community. Worldwide versions I feel tend to focus on a broader spectrum of what the over all concept of something, giving it less quality . Where as a local view would cite more detailed information and go in depth on things that the worldwide version would not have. I also think by having the different versions of something could really show how accurate and different something can be depending on the source.
2. After reading the article about Scratch and exploring the Scratch website, what are some observable benefits in creating a space to share student work?
The main thing I observed as being a benefit was how it was meaningful. When you participate and involve yourself in something that you care about you tend to put in a lot of hard work and effort. When you put other people in the equation that share the same passion that you do, I think the space created is a great place for collaborative work. It is also a great way to learn a new tool in creating something new. The one quote that summarized what Scratch was all about for me was one that I believe would get others interested and involved. “Three core design
principles for Scratch: Make it more tinkerable,more meaningful,and more social than other programming environments.” All three of these are benefits that would absolutely create a space where people would want to share their work and continue to do so. Scratch also reminds me of Facebook, or social networking because there is a community that is formed and I think it is a great way to share information and learn new things.
First of all, I defiantly do not think Wikipedia is meaningless. The information might not always be accurate but I think it is a great way for information to get a start. I think a local version of “JMU only” would be of higher quality and more accurate then a worldwide version. Especially now, I think the worldwide version would focus on only what they know from the media and right now that would be the recent events this past spring and are recent victory against Tech. I think the local version would have a greater insight on other qualities that JMU has past parting and football and maybe what organizations are doing to give back to the community. Worldwide versions I feel tend to focus on a broader spectrum of what the over all concept of something, giving it less quality . Where as a local view would cite more detailed information and go in depth on things that the worldwide version would not have. I also think by having the different versions of something could really show how accurate and different something can be depending on the source.
2. After reading the article about Scratch and exploring the Scratch website, what are some observable benefits in creating a space to share student work?
The main thing I observed as being a benefit was how it was meaningful. When you participate and involve yourself in something that you care about you tend to put in a lot of hard work and effort. When you put other people in the equation that share the same passion that you do, I think the space created is a great place for collaborative work. It is also a great way to learn a new tool in creating something new. The one quote that summarized what Scratch was all about for me was one that I believe would get others interested and involved. “Three core design
principles for Scratch: Make it more tinkerable,more meaningful,and more social than other programming environments.” All three of these are benefits that would absolutely create a space where people would want to share their work and continue to do so. Scratch also reminds me of Facebook, or social networking because there is a community that is formed and I think it is a great way to share information and learn new things.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Wiki
* "Wiki promotes meaningful topic associations between different pages by making page link creation almost intuitively easy and showing whether an intended target page exists or not."
~ I think this is a very important point and something I found very useful because I have no idea what Wiki was and to just know that it is easy and very user friendly makes me more interested to learn about it and not be intimidated.
*"seeks to involve the visitor in an ongoing process of creation and collaboration that constantly changes the Web site landscape."
~ I also really thought this was an important point to mention that it was an ongoing process and that you can collaborate with others to change the web site whenever!
* "In Wikipedia, blue links are to pages that exist. Red links, they have yet to be written."
~ I found this very useful!!! I always wondered what the different colors meant and now I know so that's really cool!
*The video Wikis in Plain English was a really cool tool to learn visually what Wiki was all about. I def learned that the most essential tools that I will need would be the edit, save and link buttons. "Edit, process and save" is the phrase used in this video to describe Wiki and helped me understand the process so much better!
~ I think this is a very important point and something I found very useful because I have no idea what Wiki was and to just know that it is easy and very user friendly makes me more interested to learn about it and not be intimidated.
*"seeks to involve the visitor in an ongoing process of creation and collaboration that constantly changes the Web site landscape."
~ I also really thought this was an important point to mention that it was an ongoing process and that you can collaborate with others to change the web site whenever!
* "In Wikipedia, blue links are to pages that exist. Red links, they have yet to be written."
~ I found this very useful!!! I always wondered what the different colors meant and now I know so that's really cool!
*The video Wikis in Plain English was a really cool tool to learn visually what Wiki was all about. I def learned that the most essential tools that I will need would be the edit, save and link buttons. "Edit, process and save" is the phrase used in this video to describe Wiki and helped me understand the process so much better!
Privacy
If your mother uses wifi at home to send you e-mail, and your home network is not protected by WEP or WPA, what reasons would you suggest to her for enabling one of these two protocols at home if the liability of reading those e-mails still exists once her message leaves your home, on it’s way to school?
If my mother were to use wifi to send me an e-mail and my home network was not protected I would defiantly be suggesting for her to enable WEP or WPA!!! I think that it is very important, especially in today’s cyber world to keep what you can keep, private. Either of these protocols offers confidentiality, something that my mother would not have had before. It is also nice to have a little bit more confidence in that what you sending are protected and a more secure network. I do believe that nothing is ever really private anymore and I know that enabling one of these protocols doesn’t guarantee complete privacy but it is a start and will make the overall experience more reliable. I do feel that one is more advanced than the other and would be a better quality service to use and that would be WPA. This system, from my reading in class and a little bit of outside reading I found that WPA was developed in regards to the weakness of WEP, which just reiterates what I already stated; that privacy isn’t really that private and there are always flaws in a system that make it almost impossible to secure each and every little thing. But overall I would suggest a protocol to my mom so she can have a more secure and protected network than she had before.
Some news reports have suggested that the Bush administration used the USA Patriot Act to look at the e-mails of American citizens without a warrant. What’s your position if this was indeed the case? Should citizens be willing to give up their privacy? Does it bother you to know that your online communications are very potentially semi-private instead of private?
I don’t really think that looking at e-mails without a warrant by any means is right. People have a right to privacy which has really almost all been taken away by Bush. Almost everything is digital now and a large majority of people use e-mail as a way of communicating. To be allowed to have access to someone’s privacy without a warrant is really taking away the rights of citizens. I don’t think that most citizens would give up their privacy, but I don’t think that we have a choice in the matter. Most of the time it is being done and none of us even know it is going on which is the scary part. What you do, when you think something it is private, it’s most likely not. It is like a constantly being watched feeling; to know that what you do at any point can be seen by someone else with whom you did not give permission or access to see. Overall, I think this is something that is here to stay and is only going to intensify as technology increases over time.
If my mother were to use wifi to send me an e-mail and my home network was not protected I would defiantly be suggesting for her to enable WEP or WPA!!! I think that it is very important, especially in today’s cyber world to keep what you can keep, private. Either of these protocols offers confidentiality, something that my mother would not have had before. It is also nice to have a little bit more confidence in that what you sending are protected and a more secure network. I do believe that nothing is ever really private anymore and I know that enabling one of these protocols doesn’t guarantee complete privacy but it is a start and will make the overall experience more reliable. I do feel that one is more advanced than the other and would be a better quality service to use and that would be WPA. This system, from my reading in class and a little bit of outside reading I found that WPA was developed in regards to the weakness of WEP, which just reiterates what I already stated; that privacy isn’t really that private and there are always flaws in a system that make it almost impossible to secure each and every little thing. But overall I would suggest a protocol to my mom so she can have a more secure and protected network than she had before.
Some news reports have suggested that the Bush administration used the USA Patriot Act to look at the e-mails of American citizens without a warrant. What’s your position if this was indeed the case? Should citizens be willing to give up their privacy? Does it bother you to know that your online communications are very potentially semi-private instead of private?
I don’t really think that looking at e-mails without a warrant by any means is right. People have a right to privacy which has really almost all been taken away by Bush. Almost everything is digital now and a large majority of people use e-mail as a way of communicating. To be allowed to have access to someone’s privacy without a warrant is really taking away the rights of citizens. I don’t think that most citizens would give up their privacy, but I don’t think that we have a choice in the matter. Most of the time it is being done and none of us even know it is going on which is the scary part. What you do, when you think something it is private, it’s most likely not. It is like a constantly being watched feeling; to know that what you do at any point can be seen by someone else with whom you did not give permission or access to see. Overall, I think this is something that is here to stay and is only going to intensify as technology increases over time.
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