Post 2: Innovation Attributes

Please choose an innovation that you are familiar with and rate it according to each of the five innovation attributes discussed by Rogers. How do these attributes affect the adoption rate in this particular case? Are there any other attributes that one may need to consider?

Post 1: Self Introduction

Welcome to our class blog! In your first posting, please introduce yourself and tell us where you are from and what brought you to Iowa State University. What program are you in and what is your ultimate career goal?

We will use the Blogger system throughout the semester. Feel free to add a photo or other details to your profile. Please be aware though that the information you provide is public. Use appropriate language and professionalism in your exchanges with other students.

To respond to this post, please use the comments link below. Be sure to come back and read the posts of your classmates. You are expected to comment at least once on someone else’s blog post each week. Look forward to rich and thoughtful online discussions!

Post 7: Global Digital Divide

The global digital divide affects all countries around the world. Choose a foreign country you are interested in and report the percentage of Internet users and how this percentage has evolved in the past five years. Are there any gender, age or other demographic gaps among the users? Next, please describe a recent policy that has been adopted in order to bridge the digital divide in the country. Is that policy similar to the One Laptop Per Child initiative? Is it funded by the local government, a private company or an NGO? Do you think it is likely to reduce the technology gap?

Post 6: What Determines Social Change: Society or Technology?

When it comes to the roots of technology diffusion, there are two competing theoretical perspectives: social shaping of technology and technological determinism. Which of these two perspectives makes more sense to you and why? Can you provide an example with a specific communication technology to support your argument?

Post 5: Technology & Interpersonal Relationships

New communication technologies have redefined interpersonal relationships. What is the impact of such technologies (e.g., cell phones, Facebook, Skype, twitter, match.com, etc.) on your social ties? For this posting, please describe some of the effects, either positive or negative, that you or someone you know have experienced.

If you don’t have any direct observations, please comments on the video The Social Web of Things (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5AuzQXBsG4) that was part of the last Prezi lecture.

Post 4: Technology at Home

In this posting, list all the communication technologies you own. Then discuss (1) the purpose of each technology—i.e., what you use it for; (2) how much time you spend using each technology; (3) what are some of the intended and unintended consequences for you and your lifestyle.

Post 3: Create Your Adopter Categories

For this posting, come up with your own adopter categories. Name each one of them and describe the characteristics of each group. How are they similar or different than the adopter categories proposed by Rogers in our main text? 

Relative Advantage of a Technological Innovation

No doubt one of the most influential contemporary technological innovations is Apple's iTunes store.

By creating and promoting a place where billions of people can legally and easily download their favorite song, television show, or movie Apple has truly provided a service that has changed the way people access the media they demand.  When discussion the relative advantage of Apple's iTune's store, an obvious question may be, "relative to what?".

Here I would argue that the advantages (or lack thereof) that existed prior to iTunes is a great place to look.  Particularly the older paradigm of physically having to go to a store and purchase a CD with it's time consuming inconvenience speaks to the improvements that the iTune's store has fostered.  Now consumers, with a few clicks can acquire the same or better value of a media product in less time and for less money.  Gone are the days of having to purchase an entire album on CD if you only really like or want to listen to one of the artists' songs.

Another relative advantage of the iTune's store is the ease by which small, independent media producers can get their creations to the market place.  There is no bar to admission from music promoters, or skeptical distributors.  Now, if artists want to find folks who might be interested in their produces they can do it with less hassle.

Relative Advantage: Mobile Phones Vs Earlier ICT platforms for enabling information transfers from lab to land

Mobile phone is the new communication technology that I am familiar with and would like to discuss its adoption in agricultural extension systems for disseminating information from lab to land.

From the ages, agricultural extension has been recognized as an essential mechanism for enabling information and knowledge transfers from agricultural research labs to farmer fields. The research-farmer linkages mediated by the extension system played a crucial role in the advancement of food security during green revolution. Today, extension systems are in a state of decline in many countries. Many of the extension agents have come to believe extension has to escape from the narrow mindset of transferring technology packages while moving toward a constantly innovating knowledge transfer mode that supports decisions, innovation and personal growth among farmers and seed entrepreneurs.

Advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) provided enormous opportunities to explore web based knowledge sharing and extension functionaries in transferring technology packages from laboratory to farm to the broadest number of farmers, for example Agropedia, AgMark, Market Maker, eXtension etc. However many of these web based extension portals have limitations to establish the last mile connectivity.

The advent of mobile technology has addressed a greater array of earlier ICT platform last mile connectivity issues – infrastructure, connectivity, training needs, literacy issues etc.  It also further reduces the investments on capacity building activities.  As the farmer’s started owning mobile phones it is relatively advantageous to use mobile as a communication medium than the array of earlier ICT platforms (information kiosks, web, fixed phones etc.) for transferring information from lab to land. 

Based on its relative advantage, I believe the speed of adoption of the mobile phone technology in the future is higher than the array of earlier ICT platforms.  For example, in the year 2003 in Africa there were 6.1 mobile subscribers for every 100 persons as compared to 3.0 fixed line subscribers per 100 persons. In 2005, there were 52 million mobile subscribers compared to 25 million for fixed lines.  The commission for Africa estimates that the number of mobile subscribers in Africa will continue to expand at the rate of 35 per cent over the next few years.  

Hello,

My name is Colter.  I am a graduate student in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies program at ISU.  I have a Bachelor's of Science from the University of Minnesota.

My long term goal of mine is to earn my Phd in Human Computer Interaction from ISU and I hope to do well in this course so I will be admitted to that program. 

Introduction - Dileepkumar Guntuku

I am Dileepkumar Guntuku, graduate certificate student of Human Computer Interaction at Iowa State University.  I am an off-campus student. 

I have joined HCI program, when I was working at Iowa State University as a program specialist, to understand the finer nuances of Human Computer Interaction theories. I have resigned my job at ISU in December 2011 and accepted a position at an International Organization in India.  At present I live in India, but I continue my association with Iowa State University as a student and also a collaborator on few International development projects.
 
I have a PhD in Information and Communication Technologies.  I am interested in studying the applications of contemporary Information and Communication Technologies for promoting food security and socio-economic change in developing countries, especially in remote rural regions .  My research interests are development communication, Information and Communication Technologies for Development, Rural Resource Information Systems, Elearning, EGovernance etc.  I look forward to learn diffusion innovation theories and communication technologies for social change from this course. 

Introduction

Hello Everyone,
My name is Anand Tripathi and I was born in India, came to US for my undergrad. For my undergrad I went to Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Currently I live in Chicago and have been working with many Chicagoland organizations as a Lead Quality Assurance Analyst in capacity of a consultant. The good part of being a consultant is that I move from client to client within the 2-3 years hence I get to learn new applications, meet new people and there is never a dull moment.
In my spare time I love to run, play tennis and cook. I have done a few half marathons and now contemplating on running a full one although the time and dedication that it will require deters me.
Currently I am a first year Off Campus student pursuing a degree in Human Computer Interaction from ISU. With a degree in HCI I want to transition more into UX and UI field as I think applications get utilized more if they are user friendly and easy to operate.

Post 2: Relative Advantage

Of the five innovation attributes discussed by Rogers in the our main text, relative advantage seems to be most important. Please choose a new communication technology that you are familiar with and discuss why it is (or it isn’t) superior than earlier technologies. Can you predict the speed of adoption of this technology in the future based on its relative advantage?