NEW interactive research paper

student.elon.edu/emaddox/interactive_paper/controller.swf

digital dilemma

Power Browsing has become the new way to read thanks to Google.  People are becoming more and more antsy and are becoming less able to sit down and read a lengthy article or a book.  Bruce Friedman says “I can’t read War and Peace anymore,”; but lets be honest, can anyone actually sit down, read and enjoy that book.  I have never been much for reading unless it is a book that I enjoy or something that I am interested in.  I like reading on paper and not on a screen; it just all depends on the topic. For example I did not like reading The Hobbit, but I like reading the Harry Potter series and some of those books get long.  I liked reading Dan Brown books and Jane Austen novels and The Odyssey but I didn’t like reading To Kill A Mocking Bird.  I even got a bit anxious reading this article because one I had read it before but two it was kind of lengthy and it was on a screen.  I think what it really comes down to is time and if something is worth your time.  If a person decides it is worth their time, for whatever U&G reason, then they will pursue it otherwise it is considered a waste of time.

At least for me, websites like Google, and any other search engine, are a double-edged sword.  Sure search engines have their perks, and I am on Google constantly and on a daily basis, but search engines’ presences walks a thin line of a love-hate relationship for me.  I Google just about everything; when I need directions, when I am writing a paper or if I am shopping.  Google is good because it has lots of information that is easy to find.  The bad part is that anyone can have a website and I would assume that some of the SEO is monetary driven. For example when I am looking for information about a topic for a paper, one way I verify sources other than .org or .gov site is that if I see the same information pop up in multiple websites, of various domains, it must be true.  But is too much information a bad thing? For me not necessarily, I think having a lot of information where you can read all sides of a story and make your own informed decisions is best, the problem is, is that not all people think and behave this way.  I guess the argument about Google making us stupid, is that people have become lazy and just do all research online because it is there; it is convenient.  And it is convenient to research things online but also more and more books are becoming available online so it is a valuable time saver.

interactive research paper

http://student.elon.edu/emaddox/interactive_paper/controller.swf

here is my research paper in interactive form

AR apps

According to TechSplurge.com it seems that AR apps are becoming a rising trend and the future of most apps.  Though growing slowly AR apps for android seem to be overtaking QR codes.  In particular, Layar. 

How Layar Works

Layar Mobile

Layar is an app that displays the real world, through the use of your camera, and then displays real time digital information on the top of the real world based on your location.  (see links above).  Similar Apps to this one are Wikitude World Browser.  This app is useful for planning a trip or things like getting information about landmarks and surroundings.  

Another similar AR app is the Weather Reality app.  this app allows for current conditions, real time radar and severe weather alerts.  It also has the ability to geo-tag weather pictures on social networking sites.  

There is even a fast food reality app to make it quick and easy to find nearby Fast Food Restaurants like McDonalds.  

33 awesomeARapps

I think that AR apps like these are starting to pick up is that it is quick and easy, point and shoot with your camera (because basically every phone now comes with a camera) and information pops up.  While it is just as easy to download and install the Scan app for QR codes, i think that people like seeing real time so that they have visuals of distance and surroundings.  these AR apps could be especially helpful when it comes to finding your way around a city or if you have gotten lost somewhere.

Not only are AR apps good for getting information about weather and directions but they can also be used to help market a product.  For instance RED BULL has just launched a new app to boost their product sales.  From what I understand of it the app is to create your own race track by taking photos of cans of Red Bull and then it creates a race track where your phone then becomes the controller of a race car.  I dont really get how this is beneficial to marketing but I suppose it is an interesting way to market a product.

Finally AR and AR apps can be used just for fun.  For example http://gamesalfresco.com/2008/03/03/top-10-augmented-reality-demos-that-will-revolutionize-video-games/ featured a video about 3D graffiti AR (number 5).  I found this really cool and interesting because I like well done graffiti and being able to see this and art in 3D could be cool and educational or just fun. http://toucharcade.com/category/games/augmented-reality/  this website featured another fun AR app, the Star Wars tie fighter app. in this app you aim your camera at something real and the game makes the real object interactive.  

virtual realms

(posts for the week)

On the article about retail drama in the metaverse, I suppose I am having a hard time grasping the concept.  When I purchase something online I expect to receive something in the mail a few days later.  I guess i just don't get why someone would purchase something with no physical return. And for that matter I dont quite understand how people make legitimate money from Second Life.  But it might just be that I need someone to explain this better.  I could however understand how observing interactions on Second Life, when shopping, could benefit real world stores/customer service.  

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On the Ethical Issues/Copyright issues article, I want to be empathetic with those who may have been affected from various "crimes" in Second Life, but at the same time the virtual world itself does seem to invite a lot of these problems. I feel like there are too many unknowns and not enough structure for people to get too upset.  Your avatar doesn't have to look like you, you could be anything and the person behind the avatar could be anyone.  Also I feel like this makes it hard to track down a SL criminal because of all of these unknowns and personalities.  I feel that this brings a lot of sketchiness to SL especially related to the different scenarios mentioned in the article.  You want to feel bad for the person but at the same time it is like well they knew the parameters of SL before they entered the world.  

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To be fair I dont know anything about Second Life or World of Warcraft except that they are massive multi people virtual worlds.  I still dont really see what McGongial was trying to get at with W.o.W in her book, Reality is Broken, but now I can at least see that if you have a team of people, who you know or dont know, you have to trust them to stay in formation and stick to the plan--this requires a lot of coordination and planning otherwise you end up with Leeroy Jenkins,  but other than that I feel that these skills could be learned elsewhere.  

Branding Identity

So, lets face it, America is a brand driven society.  McDonalds, Chick-fil-A, Pepsi, Coke, Frigidaire, Kenmore, Craftsman, Apple, Walmart, Starbucks, Polo, Tommy Hilfigure, Coach, Gap, Marlboro, VA Slims, Heinz, Hellmann's, Volkswagen, Honda, Toyota, etc. the list goes on and on.  It it even getting to a point where you yourself has to become a brand.  You must market yourself in a way so that people will want to buy your brand aka hire you for a job.  And as with any brand sometimes you can oversell or talk your product up so that people buy into your brand but then it is not what they expected.  Enter politics.  I really don't keep up with many politics. I don't know who is running for city council, or mayor or senator, i rarely know who is running for mayor, heck i don't even know who any of these people are for VA, I really only know the presidential level politics. 


"Getting party or candidate messages out can be increasingly difficult as they are presented within an emerging genre that Caulfield (2008) calls ‘infoenterpropagainment’. Using this term to cover much mediated political communication, Caulfield argues that both politicians and media blend political information with aspects of propaganda, including media or political bias, and present it to the audience in a way that entertains. " 


I couldn't agree more.  I think that political parties/campaigns have tried to brand themselves in a "hey look at how cool I am" flashy way.  it has almost become a superficial popularity contest rather than focused on the issues.  The party wants to win so bad that they appeal to the publics commercial interests.


And perhaps this is where citizen journalism and social journalism come in to play.  People are sick of this "campaigning" and they want to know how that person or party will benefit the public. 


But the flip-side to this kind of negative thought on branding would be that if you really are honest in your branding and then follow through you then build consumer/client trust and the stronger that trust is the more likely people will vote again for you/your party. 

citizen journalism

questions on journalism:

• what benefit does social journalism offer that isn't already happening with social media?
• how has citizen journalism and social journalism affected political campaigns.?
• how are both of these different or related to WikiLeaks?
• why this shift in change of news sources? is it because people want to be trendy? or have their 15 min of fame? or do the general public want the truth and are tired of what the media sources are feeding us?
• just how reliable are all of these sources putting this "news" out there? are they credible? do they have a hidden motivation behind putting this content out in cyberspace?
• how are news centers using this citizen journalism? like how do they follow up and stuff? because sometimes they show clips from someone's cell phone in news segments.

social networking sites

      Well for starters they are called "social" sites so I wouldn't necessarily call information private and public.  Because lets face it things you put on the internet become published and public, though certain things can be deemed classified, confidential and require access via password or some kind of limited day pass that you have to pay for etc. In other words I think that there are varying degrees of public information.
but my question is, what kind of message is it sending that we tell young kids not to be on these sites then have them join for classroom purposes like to get their daily assignments? in a way doesn't this subject them to improper usage of SNS potentially subjecting them to online bullying.. but then again maybe teachers use more sites like blackboard or something which allows young students to have the same experience but in a "safer" environment that is only for their class.

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it's nice that Facebook has privacy settings and allows you to customize them to suit your needs and uses but why is it that every time Facebook decides to update the settings it changes your current settings or resets them to where you have to go back and reset them yourself? why cant they stay the same with the new update? I'm sure these questions cant be answered unless you get a hold of the Zuck man himself but it is just interesting to ponder.  and maybe it is good that they reset because it reminds you to go and reassess and readjust your settings but how come you never or rarely if ever get an email about your privacy settings changing? and also why is the privacy setting menu not more prominent on the page? just some design to think about..I also don't like how when Facebook changes, like with this new timeline thing, how you are just forced to change with it, what if you don't want it, what if you want to keep your old setting? is there a way to do that? should there be? could there be? and also how will this timeline feature affect privacy? will it make it easier for people to find old posts that you may not necessarily want shown? and similarly with this opt-in stuff why isn't the default to select opt-in instead of automatically being opted in and you have to select opt-out?

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Just how free is free?

There is no such thing as free.

Whether it is monetary or labor, something always has a price.

I think the tension with information wanting to be free and expensive is an interesting point, it kind of reminds me of Gollum/Smeagol from LOTR.

It’s like this really expensive tea store in Short Pump, VA.  It is called Tevana and I suppose it is trying to be like the über spoiled rich cousin of Starbucks.  It has a bunch of different samples of the tea that they sell to taste, and it is very yummy tea but it is like 5$ for a small tea and the prices rise for the other sizes and are worse if you want to purchase the tea leaves to brew at home.  Then they get you will all of the “accessories” of cups, kettles, honey, spoons, canisters etc. 

So case in point, though things may seem free, there is pretty much always gonna be a catch (or a small trial period before you have to pay ie some free versions of apps for iPod/iPhone and Netflix).

Other “free” items are also known as “freemiums,” where users can use the basic for free.  Examples include Skype, Google Books, Hulu (Hulu+) and Wordpress, just to mention a few.  With these you can get pretty good usage from the basic versions but for a certain amount of money per month you can have unlimited access and access to premium benefits.

Lessig-Code: "they are more like guidelines anyway"

[reference is from Pirates of the Caribbean] 

Technically you could say that I have taken two ideas and mashed them up together to create a catchy title. And that is what remix/mashup is about, taking old ideas and giving them a fresh look.

Lessig is the man when it comes to copyright and remix! In a segment of Rip Remix Manifesto he says what is wrong with remixing…I’m creating…expressing,…I’m spreading ideas.

In his book Remix, Lessig says, “[Y]ou have to ‘give people a sense of being part of something that has meaning.’...Contributors to this community ‘feel they’re being part of something that’s big and important…They feel like they get to focus on things that they really want to focus on.’”

In this video, Lessig talks about how copyright are stifling creativity.  Clearly he is not saying that piracy is right, but I think this is where a lot of confusion and misunderstanding is with copyright and the law and mashups.  At least for me, I think that if I purchase and download a song from iTunes and then use it in something that I create, and give proper credit, I should be ok to use it.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXwB9FlkNXA

I don’t know if I necessarily agree with Michael Moore on some things but he does make a good point in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVYhwKu7J5E&NR=1&feature=fvwp

boom!

I think that for the most part the Internet is pretty self-regulated.  However there are a few outliers that create problems where the government must step in, but how do they regulate with all of the ambiguity and without infringing on people’s rights.  In his book Code, I just want to know Lessig’s views on the Jake story example.  Where would he see fit regulation? Because for me I don’t think posting these stories about rape is harmless.  What are his ideas on how on how cyberspace should be if it doesn’t have to be like it is now? And finally if he is for collaboration and sharing ideas, as seen from clips from Rip Remix Manifesto and YouTube, how do these match up to his views on regulation?

Inspector Gadget: go-go Lanier knowledge

I can certainly see Lanier's point about how certain aspects of the Internet can detract from other areas of life. Most of us are all very connected to some form of technology and feel lost or empty without it.  I can also see how this would apply to how this time spent on the Internet affects our ability to develop social skills.  For instance, when I was in Ireland this summer, the first two weeks we had very limited internet capabilities unless we went down to a small computer lab or to an internet cafe.  My point is that the time our group would have spent in our rooms being anti-social and social on Facebook was spent truly getting to know each other and to explore Ireland.

I think were Lanier falls short a little bit is that he fails to see that we are all still individuals.  The new remix culture that has formed allows us to express our individual ideas, opinions and creativity.  By posting our piece of work to Facebook or twitter or a blog or YouTube (or what have you) we are able to share our individualism and creativity--these social sites are merely a tool used to get them out to mass audiences at a fast pace.

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I was a little offended at his comment about college kids stealing music.  This is a mass generalization, more than college students do it, not to try to justify stealing but seriously.  and related to that most artists/musicians aren't too concerned with this sharing of music.  It is more the labels and record companies that fear some loss of profit in their already overstuffed wallet.
(http://ripremix.com/)

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I think my favorite part of the book was the part in chapter 8 about Songles.  I am not sure if this, or Dongles, is a word or a real thing but I liked the first sentence; "A songle is a dongle for a song." He then goes on to explain what a dongle is but no clarification on a songle.  I just like the phrasing of the words, it makes me smile

Research Proposal redo

Elizabeth Maddox

Research Proposal

(re-edited)

Title: Simulation training in the Military

After watching a PBS special called digital_nation I was interested in how the military uses simulation in training and wanted to take a closer look.  I suppose some questions to look at further would be:

-how effective is simulation?

-why use it?

-what is the connection between simulation and the military experience center?

-why is this center an effective approach to generate interest? Or is it not?

-what skills does simulation offer?

-what do people think about simulation training?

-what does the military think about simulation training?

-what skills are gained? If any?

I also want to take a look at some of the history of simulation training and how it has evolved and also compare military training simulation to medical simulation training and how people feel about that and how those feelings differ in each field.

My feelings about simulation training fall more on the side of the military and that it is an effective tool.  But there are some drawbacks (and I also agree with the parents that for the military experience center that 13 is too young for boys and girls to be going, perhaps 15 is a better age because they are more mature)

This is a side note but I kind of want to touch on how I think that simulation is different from video gaming.  I feel that it is like all video games can be a simulation but not all simulations are video games kind of thing.

Henrry, Jenkinsss...

(in case you have never heard of Leroy Jenkins, that is what the title is referencing) 

What I gathered from Henry Jenkins' reading was that we are a collective culture that likes to remix things in our society and create new meaning.  Just like what i did with this title, I have changed the content to fit my need.  His example was with Star Wars and how culture has remixed it, spoofed it and parodied it.  People have taken this huge pop icon and added their unique take on it to be funny or make a point about something.  

I think this quote from his article sums up his point very well, "Technological convergence is attractive to the media industries because it will open multiple entry points into the consumption process and at the same time, enable consumers to more quickly locate new manifestations of a popular narrative."

After reading some of Lanier I got the feeling that he would be against this and he certainly has an opposite view of Shirky.  Though it seemed like he was against collectivism and remix I'm not really sure what he is for.  While I liked where some of his thoughts and points were going some of them seem to be just as scattered and broken as the stuff he is against.