Unit 1: Assignments - Questions for Week 7

Week 7 Discussion Questions

Required Reading:	Johnson, Steven. (1997). Interface Culture: how new technology transforms the way we create and communicate. Basic Books.  ISBN: 0-465-03680-5 Chapter 1:  Bitmapping Chapter 2:  The Desktop As We May Think. Vannevar Bush. Citation. Vannevar Bush, As We May Think, The Atlantic Monthly, 176(1):101-108, July 1945 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/3881/#
Deeper Dive (opt):	Fang, Irving (1997) History of Mass Communication.  Focal Press.   Chapter 5:  The Toolshed Home  http://home.lu.lv/~s10178/sixrevolutions.pdf  Start reading Chapter 6:  The Highway

Textbook:  Interface Culture: how new technology transforms the way we create and communicate (Steven Johnson)

Please staple this cover sheet to your printed and numbered set of answers. Please answer the questions as clearly and thoughtfully as possible. Use the textbook and outside sources as necessary to complete the following questions.

Chapter 1: Bitmapping

1.       In 1968 Douglas Englebart introduced “direct manipulation” of data.  How was this different than how data was interacted with before?

Before direct manipulation, the interaction between human and computer mostly relied on a conversation like a command line interface that was indirect and abstract. Direct manipulation promoted a more in depth way of interacting with computers. 

2.       By creating an “information space,” how did Englebart’s advancement change the way people thought about machines/computers?  In what ways did it lead the way not only to interfaces as we think of them today but virtual spaces and augmented reality?

Douglas Engelbart changed the way computers worked, from specialized machinery that only a trained scientist could use, to a user-friendly tool that almost anyone can use. Now i think we're thinking of ways to do the same but without the tools

Chapter 2: The Desktop

3.       As discussed in Chapter 2, describe some of the advancements that took place at Xerox PARC, the people involved and what they contributed.

a part of Xerox Corporation, PARC has been responsible for things like laser printing, Ethernet, the modern personal computer, graphical user interface, object-oriented programming, ubiquitous computing, and much more.Stephen Wozniak and Steven Jobs—started a new computer manufacturing company named Apple Computers.

As We May Think

4.       Vannevar Bush’s vision inspired the next few generations of technologists, and his idea of a “memex” resembles devices we use today.  What was the “memex” and what benefits did Bush think it would have?

Bush envisioned the memex as a device in which an individual would compress and store all of their books, records, and communications. He thought it would be like an enlarged intimate supplement to one's memory.

week 6 study questions

Week 6 Discussion Questions

Alicia Matthews

Required Reading:	Textbook Chapters 9-10
Deeper Dive (opt):	Fang, Irving (1997) History of Mass Communication.  Focal Press.   Chapter 3:  Mass Media, The Third Revolution  http://home.lu.lv/~s10178/sixrevolutions.pdf  (pp. 89-99 on radio & movies) Chapter 4:  Entertainment, The Fourth Revolution

Textbook:  The Soft Edge: a natural history and future of the information revolution

Please staple this cover sheet to your printed and numbered set of answers. Please answer the questions as clearly and thoughtfully as possible. Use the textbook and outside sources as necessary to complete the following questions.

Chapter 9: Survival of the Media Fit

1.       What were the years before T.V. Like for radio? What types of content was provided? families were close together , imagination was needed,  fake things on the radio like martians landing. Boxing matches, News, Sports, Shows, Music was not played like now, Comedy shows.

  

2.       Explain the economic impact of T.V. On radio.

Impact of tv on radio was major, you can now visualize what you're hearing. Radio minimized the effect because you couldn't see it like civil rights movement. Economically you could use your mind to see the product but now you can see it and buy it right off the screen.

  3.       What is the economic model for both radio and T.V.?

Radio -advertisers are interested in getting their message out to the audience and seeing conversions from that ad placement. 

T.V. - TV stations broadcast news, sports and entertainment for free and made their money by showing commercials. That might not work much longer.The future is arriving faster that anyone expected.  It is playing out in the biggest pay-TV provider, Comcast’s  takeover of NBC and Rupert Murdock’s battle with Time Warner cable. 

4.       In the brief description of film history, Levinson discusses the work of D.W. Griffith, Sergi Eisenstein, and Lev Kuleshov. What methods did they use to help develop a visual vocabulary for film?

5.       Technology alone was not the sole savior of radio. Explain the roll of Rock and Roll in radio's transformation.

Rock and Roll was new that people never heard before, it somewhat brought races together. You didn't know the race of what music you like. You could use you imagination, distilled a lot of stereotypes. 

6.       “Talkies”, replaced silent films entirely, but T.V. Did not replace radio, why?

The radio has not been replaced entirely because people don't always have access to a T.V like in a car, but how long will this last. Radio is a means of quick entertainment, news, traffic. 

Chapter 10: Remedial Media

7.       In your own words describe Levinson's parable of the window shade as remedial media.

8.       Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the VCR as a remedial medium.

advantages - record and watch later like tiro, miss something or not want to see something and you can rewind it and fast forward.

disadvantaged - It was a progress. is there a disadvantage to progress. You get addicted and like anything else it may not work when you need it to. Less interaction

Chapter 5: Telegraphy & Chapter 6: Telephone

Chapter 5: Telegraphy

1. What are telegraphy's strengths as a medium? How do these compare to the then existing media forms?

Telegraph freed communication from the constraints of geography, changed the gathering of information for news reporting. Led to the gradual disappearance of different forms of speech and styles of journalism and storytelling

2. What are some of the reasons that telegraphy was so distrusted?

 Telegraphy was so distrusted because of their inability to remain in tune during action.

3. Levinson discusses the introduction of “noise” into our various systems media forms. Explain what he means by “noise” in the system and discuss some examples of media systems and the way “noise” is introduced.

4. What roles did the telegraph play in increasing more immediate/instantaneous public awareness of events around the world? How did the press evolve with the use of the telegraph?

It changed the gathering of information for news reporting. Media language had to be standardized, which led to the gradual disappearance of different forms of speech and styles of journalism and storytelling.

Chapter 6: Telephone

5. In your own words, Explain and describe Levinson's term “anthropotropic".

Anthropotropism is the principle that technologies work better when they respect the nature of the human body and the human mind. "...media must respect human nature, and satisfy human needs."

6. Why hasn't video phone taken off ? What is Levinson's stance on the video phone? Would/do you use a video phone? Explain your answers fully.

Maybe this is also technological, but it's too much hassle to sit in the right place, have the right lighting etc. to make it worthwhile. I remember when I first used webcams (low res, choppy etc.) the excitement of seeing someone from another part of the world was quickly overcome by constantly wanting to 'place' them such that I could be 'eye to eye' with them, and be able to see their face properly. I don't really like holding the phone up. Video phones would require you to not only hold the phone, but also hold it at a certain distance and in a specific area with a specific angle so as to frame your face in the camera.

7. What is the telephone's main strengths over any other existing forms of media? What power does the telephone have over people?

The telephone is like immediate, either the other person answers or not. Compared to a text where the person has to wait to see if the person will or wont text back. The telephone is such a convenience and when people don't have their phone they feel like they're out of the world and can't communicate.

8. Explain what Levinson means by “remedial media.” Give an example of a remedial media that was developed recently in communication media.

Levinson means is that a new information technology may serve to provide a corrective for an imbalance in the existing communications system. The spread of radio broadcasting restored to the evolving mass societies of the 20th century some of the immediacy and directness of personal and oral communications. Example - TiVo

9. Levinson describes how the telephone promotes a level of intrusion beyond other media. Does this still hold true? In what ways has telephone technology been adapted since Levinson wrote this to reduce or increase this intrusion?

None, the government call listen into your conversation whenever they feel, yes it still holds true

Week 3 Study Questions

BALES  | HISTORY OF COMMUNICATIONS

1. Gutenberg's printing press , 26-letter phonetic alphabet used in European societies, the already well thought out principle of movable type, and the machinery associated with the  grape press. Also, the development of oil-based inks and high quality rag paper, which also came after Gutenberg's breakthrough.

3. The earliest printed books were produced using wooden blocks with the letters carved in them. The blocks would be dipped in ink and then pressed onto paper. Most of the time this was done by monks. Soon, the monks, and everyone else, realized that handwriting everything took way too long. People needed a way to make printing faster and the printing press was invented. Aside from the time it took to print, there were more changes to come in printing too. Now, we are able to print in color. Before the printing press, books and reading were only for church and government leaders. Only the most educated and rich people had books. Then they had the power to teach all the regular people just what they wanted them to know.

5. Literacy standards have dropped in recent years. Is it possible to raise them in a digital age? There is little freedom -- personal, economic, religious -- without literacy.It will be crucial for  individuals to have proficient literacy skills to make a difference to their well-being.

6.Communications by road, rail, ship and aircraft, served to spread more memes faster and they in turn encouraged the creation of ever better means of travel. Before the printing press, memetic evolution was much more prominent as stories were retold/copied with changes from one person to another.But now that technology makes it easy for many people to see the same information, memetic evolution has slowed down dramatically. Before printing it would take a minimum of weeks for an idea to work itself across, say, Europe.Now it takes a minimum of milliseconds. Before the web you had to publish a paper or convene a major international meeting to place an issue in front of most of the world's experts on a subject; now you can do that in the morning and have everyone's first response on your desk by the afternoon. 

WEEK 1 & 2 Discussion Questions 

1. With today's TV, email, Twitter, FB, etc., I believe that ones mind can be swayed and that the opinion be forms my not be their own. I think that the more people let these things control their lives and take up all of their time, the more actual human communication disappears. This scares me. The information that we get off of the computer or through TV is not always correct; it may be false or they may leave things out. You also have to remind yourself who controls what we do and don't know.

2. Paul Levinson suggests that technological developments don't automatically cause outcomes, it enables new outcomes. For example, teaching and learning are of classroom interaction that are enabled by computers and the Internet couldn’t have occurred before they were invented. Maybe with these inventions the classroom wont need teachers, books, pencils, pens.

3. Advancement in Agriculture - Living off the land to Giant machines that stand alone and mass produce. -  exhausting resources, destroying the environment , global warming, and lack or employment

Advancement in Transportation - Simple desire to just get from A to B to families owning multiple vehicles - exhausting resources, global warming, and lack or employment

4. Free will and television because most productions that are on tv either have false information or stray people away from the truth. THe obstruction happens because one may be brain washed or have their mind altered based on what they watch on television. They prevent some individuals from self thinking and common sense. 

5.The advantages of the alphabet are great, you can communicate easier. The disadvantaged are far greater ; you are conformed to using the 26 letter that you must learn in order to communicate, doesn't sound like free will at all to me.

6.Ancient Egypt had a complex writing system conferred a monopoly of knowledge on literate priests and scribes. Mastering the arts of writing and reading required long periods of apprenticeship and instruction, confining knowledge to this powerful class. Monopolies of knowledge gradually suppress new ways of thinking.

7. Other than today's societies, universities have attempted to monopolize certain kinds of information, and professional associations such as doctors or engineers or lawyers, even governments. You only know what you're supposed to know. They want us to be in a stupid little bubble so we cant thing logically and all conscious thinking is gone.

8. Jargon may seem incomprehensible to anyone not part of that particular field, it does indeed make sense to anyone familiar with the terms involved, for the simple reason that jargon is meant to allow for clear, unambiguous communication between specialists: if an average computer user says "I can only connect to one network, and even then, I don't have Web or storage," a trained engineer would report this as "User can associate their NIC with only one SSID, and does not seems to be receiving an IP address from the DHCP server."

9.When it comes to cloud computing and our dependencies on it, I think without t devices , most people would completely be frantic this mean you have to physically find that person and tell them what you want. This would change schedules, emotion life, relationships. In the beginning it would be hard to get used to, but in the end it would be positive because things would go back to the normal way.