Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Post 10: Your Ideas

For this posting I would like to ask for your ideas about our online class meeting on Nov. 15:
What kind of topics do you want us to discuss in the chat? Any specific technology issues or current examples of technology diffusion that we could focus on? Should we have a required reading beforehand? A moderator for the chat? Any rules for our virtual community?

Look forward to your feedback and suggestions.

25 comments:

Xiaomin Qian said...

We have talked about blog, facebook, TV, cell phone, how about instant message software next? Like MSN, OICQ, QQ.

Everybody can talk about his or her friend list. Who did you usually talk to by MSN? Did you try to talk with some strangers? What did you and your MSN friends talk about? Did you feel any differece when talking on MSN compared to other communication methods? Why did you choose MSN? How much time did you spend on MSN everyweek in average? Would you tell some advantages and disadvantages about MSN?

Cyclone said...

Let's all speak in 133t. Erm...

I wonder if there's scholarly research on Internet smileys or acronyms. One prevailing theory is that they arose because of limitations in the media. However, as technology advances, we're still ROTFLOLMAO. Why is that?

(Alternatively, we could keep track of how many such references we get in the course of our conversation.)

Etse Sikanku said...

I like Xiaomin's suggestion for a discussion on instant messaging. This will particularly be useful because the online class if i'm right will be done along these lines. I never really found any use for the yahoo instant messenger or msn until i was away from family and friends. In this regard i'll say i was a late adopter with this particular feature.

Sometimes through certain features one can view the person whiles chatting. I'm not sure if this is available for all other types of instant messaging networks.

I also remember Dr D talked about skype and its usefulness in talking at a cheaper rate especially internationally. Perhaps it is more convenient to talk rather than to write and will be a useful way of communicating with people who for one reason or the other will not want to use the keyboard.

tammy said...

I wouldn’t mind doing some more readings and discussion from Dr. Bugeja’s book, Interpersonal Divide. I think he makes so many observations about how technology is affecting our lives and about the future of technology that it would provide plenty of material for a chat.

Mel said...

I really like Xiaomin's idea to talk about instant messaging.

I know for me that my use of chat clients has significantly changed over the last 7 years. I've also noticed changes in use by my family and friends over the same period of time.

HAHA 133t! I love it. I <3 133t speak!

Alternatively, maybe something in Dr. Bugeja's book Interperonsal Divide could be incorporated into our discussion. I do think his observations are valuable.

Mel said...

And in response to the acronyms many of us use while typing to each other...I have two stories. hehe.

1) I was on the bus this afternoon and a guy was talking to a girl. He said, "So you're going to pay, right?" Then he said, "J/K." It's like in those cell phone commercials that promote unlimited texting... "IDK, just my BFF Rose."

2) When I was a freshman at BVU one of my friends thought something was funny and said "LOL" and didn't realize she'd said it.

hehehe

tammy said...

I feel like a total idiot to say this, but I have to admit I’m not sure what instant messaging is or how to do it. If you guys are willing to start with the basics and help us technology illiterates along, I would love to learn something new.

Etse Sikanku said...

Tammy, in response to your question on instant messaging, my experience has mostly been with yahoo and msn messenger. But i'll say i use yahoo messenger the most. There are several other types which others use. You can only use the yahoo messenger with other people who have a yahoo account. It’s really easy to use. When other friends are online you can chat with them at the same time, exchange photos etc. It’s really interesting and costs nothing at all. Here's a link to downloading the yahoo messenger, that is if you have a yahoo account.
http://messenger.yahoo.com/webmessengerpromo.php
Have fun!

Mel said...

Tammy -

In addition to Etse's comment, you can check out this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging

It's Wikipedia, but the information is fairly accurate most of the time.

titun said...

Pondering upon Xiaomin‘s idea, I think it will be wonderful to chat abut MSN, and it’s advantages and disadvantages or what we talk about in these chat groups.
On second thoughts, I also have this idea to- PLAY DETECTIVE. We all talked about how technology has made out life easier than ever blah, blah, but amidst all these technological advancements, and the world becoming a melting pot, there are threats looming over us. We as today’s younger generation as much as we love to use the newest gadgets we knowingly or unknowingly are abusing it in some form or other. Technology today is making our personal life into public life. From posting our personal pictures and information on the web, storing them on different sites, for people to see and have people Goggle to find our home, telephone number, credit card information, our history and even directions to our house , all with just a click of mouse.
Taking these hints let’s shortlist people whom we know and are comfortable, try to play spy, and come up with as many personal information e.g.- their address, phone number, their place of work etc. It will help us better understand how much technology has seeped into our life that is hard to differentiate between personal and public life anymore

Eva said...

Have someone do the likeness quiz in facebook? there is one quiz of "Choose from MOST favorite to LEAST favorite way to waste time on the internet". Did someone try it? It lists 10 choices:
Facebook; Chat (AIM, ICQ, etc.); YouTube; Ebay/shopping; Blogs; iTunes; WebCT; Email (non-work); Online games; X-rated material

What will be your No.1 choice?
Or you can log in facebook, and connect this website: http://apps.facebook.com/likeness/quiz.php?q=21&quizowner=&src=fdt_o_6

Thanks.

Andrea said...

I like Tammy's idea of looking at Bugeja's chapters again. It's always fun to see how cynical the future of technology can become :). Maybe we can brainstorm about how awesome the future can be with the right tools and thought processes?

It might also be fun to discuss for a moment during the class whether or not we think the class in general and the conversations we've had has made us more or less "active" with communication technology. For example, during this semester alone, I've looked into Skype, implemented a USB microphone into my thesis methodology, and became an owner of an iPod. Have other students become more active like this too? Or have we started watching less TV, for example, because of what we've heard from Tammy and Erin's experiences with too much of it? Maybe we've all changed a little - for the better, hopefully - just from taking this class alone!

Andrea said...

I think instant messaging could be an interesting topic, however I'm not sure it's the "future" of communication technology. From my experience, many of my friends and myself have drifted away from im'ing in the past one or two years. I feel like it was a high school into undergrad phase. My friends and myself seem to be moving on, getting jobs, becoming busier. I'm not so sure how often people are really im'ing much anymore in our age group.

BUT, it's also very likely I'm totally wrong. My experience might just be on the margins compared with others'. From listening to some of the posts so far, IM'ing seems to still be very big, especially for Xiaomin, Eva, Etse and Titun who have a ton of long distance communication going on with family/friends back home. Maybe IM'ing becomes less frequent with age? Maybe my US age group is moving on to different communication technologies which are replacing IM'ing? Either way, international IM'ing still seems to be huge right now.

Erin said...

I completely agree with Andrea's IM comments... it was something I used heavily in high school, but fewer than 10 times in the last three or four years. It could be interesting to see how heavily it is used by those of us who are communicating with friends and family in other countries though.

I like the idea of talking more about Dr. Bugeja's book and some of the issues that he brings up. I also really liked Melissa's accountability presentation, and it got me thinking about all of the ways that people have completely misused and taken advantage of the freedom that the Internet allows, (pedophile chat rooms, hate groups, etc.).

I think everyone has made some good suggestions though, and I would be happy to talk about any of them!

Eva said...

I keep using msn, but I sign in with "appear offline" statues. It is the same situation when I use another chinese instant message. Most of time I "appear offline", or "busy" though I am so not busy. Yet I am able to get messages from my parents and friends, and then I can choose to respond them now or later. Or I would show up for a while when I see someone whom I expect to chat with. Most of my friends do so as well.

So I am not just a virtual resident, I am an anchoretic virtual resident.

Scott Schrage -- Program Assistant said...

I think a discussion on IM could be interesting, especially because I've never subscribed to any version and have barely ever used it. I suppose that I (and Tammy, from the sound of it) would provide a sort of outsider's perspective, which can prove useful.

I also believe that media failures / controversies would be an intriguing topic of discussion. For instance, we could examine the relative lack of adoption for e-books, or analyze the controversy over the introduction of the News Feed feature on Facebook. There are countless examples that have arisen over the years, and we could each introduce one that we believe is meaningful or holds some particular interest to us.

Scott Schrage -- Program Assistant said...

In response to Melissa's reference to using 133t speak in everyday conversation: My roommate does this on a regular basis. He considers it to be pretty absurd, but this is one of the primary reasons he chooses to use it. He uses J/K, Noob, and a few others. At the same time, I'm sure that many have not considered the fact that they utilize these acronyms / phrases in conversation, and how others might perceive them because of it.

Mel said...

My number 1 choice was email.

Erin said...

After Tuesday's class, I really like Titun's idea of "playing detective". I think this is a really interesting aspect of technology that we haven't really spent much time on in class. It's incredible, (and I think kind of scary) what kind of information can be found in just a quick search online, I think this could be a really interesting way to spend the class time.

Etse Sikanku said...

I agree with Erin about 'detective'. I think it's related in a way to privacy and what people can or cannot find out about us. That was a good suggestion by Titun and i'll go for it.

Mel said...

Here's an update for OLPC

http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/H/HUNDRED_DOLLAR_LAPTOP?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-11-07-10-56-03

Mel said...

Here's another link from Wired.com that I found very interesting.

Read the article and then think about the questions listed below.

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/magazine/15-11/st_trouble

1. How much time per day do you spend wasting time?
2. How much time do you spend optimizing?
3. Do you spend more time optimizing (or planning) to get things done than you use to actually do things?

Mel said...

Eva - you did a great job on your presentation!

Etse Sikanku said...

Nice job Eva, and you got me investigating about Wii here's a story i found

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7094069.stm

Daniela Dimitrova said...

The online class was a fun learning experience.

For those of you interested in looking at the entire transcript, here is a PDF of the log:

http://www.jlmc.iastate.edu/courses/jlmc574/jlmc574_online_class_log.pdf