UWB

What might you do with access to UWB radio transmissions if you had a receiver in a car?

Ultra Wide Bandwith radio seems as though it could have endless possibilities in the future, this new technology seems to be the next step in our society.  UWB radio allows for a lot of information to be sent to your car wirelessly this would allow for a person's entire music library to be at their disposal while in the car, this would eliminate the numerous wires used throughout car.  Furthermore this could potentially allow for increased safety while driving, rather than have people on their cell phones this could allow for wireless chat with friends and family.  This new technology seems as though it is the future and possibilities seem endless, what could achieve with having such wireless capabilities in our cars? 

ken zeran

What might you have done differently if you were in the position of artist Ken Zeran, mentioned in this chapter?

The whole situation encompassing Ken Zeran and AOL is very unfortunate, however I feel as though Zeran did as much as he could have given the predicament that he was in.  Therefor I don't think I would have done anything differently then Zeran did because I do not see what else he could have done.  I may have tried to keep contacting AOL over and over again  more so then Zeran did so as to remove the posts sooner then AOL did, though I do not know the even more persistent calling would have been effective.  I think what need to change in this case was the actions of AOL, Zeran pleaded with them to remove the posts due to the harassment he was receiving, and though the posts were removed it could have been done in a more timely fashion.  I believe what Zeran did was all that he could really due and that it is more so on AOL for not removing the posts fast enough that is at fault here.  

DRM

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.


The value of a bit does not necessarily have a single price bestowed upon it, but regardless a bit is highly valued in today's society because of the vast amount of damage a bit can cost.  Most individuals believe that record companies make more than enough money, which may be true, however by illegally downloading a song the company could be losing a significant amount of money as stated by Abelson.
 Illegally downloading various forms of media may save the individual some amount of money though is it really worth it?  For individuals that do not download a lot it may be because they are at a lower risk of getting caught and having a lawsuit against them, nevertheless they are still at a risk of getting caught. 
Currently the DRM-protected content is surfacing, which is protecting the songs on a cd from being shared on the internet.  However it comes at an inconvenience to individuals, as technology has grown people have adapted to it, in this case ipods are owned by many individuals.  Though CD's hve not fallen off completely they are not being used as frequently as they once were.  DRM protection does not allow you to put the MP3 files onto your computer and eventually onto an ipod or other device.
What then could be a proper solution if DRM-protection not the most useful, Fortunately there are proper ways to obtain music, such as itunes or rhapsody.  Resources such as these allow individuals to obtain music but they must pay a small fee.  As a society sites such as these need to be emphasized more as well as the consequences of illegally downloading music.  By doing this individuals will diverge from illegal downloading and begin to use proper websites.  Though this would not eliminate illegal downloading it would certainly decrease it.   

FOAF network

What professional benefits do you see by investing some time in a FOAF-style network?


FOAF networks or Friend of a Friend network are becoming a staple of society today by allowing individuals to communicate with one another and establish connections with one another.  FOAF network sites like facebook and linkedin have created benefits for both companies as well as individuals.  Companies have the ability to expand their customer and interest base through such social networks, hopefully resulting in more popularity and revenue.  From and individuals standpoint the use of FOAF networks develops constant contact, user may be connecting with friends and from there they may begin to communicate with a friend of a friend building their own social network and possibly/hopefully expanding their professional career.  To some it may seem far fetched but there is a possibility that certain FOAF networks can lead to an individual being discovered and gaining a job in a desired field.  FOAF networks do not ensure any results, but in this day and age it can't hurt because there is little downside to presenting yourself through a FOAF network.

EBAY and Trust

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?


The prisoners dilemma is based on trust, trust that the other individual will not give you up and ultimately allow for the most favorable outcome for both individuals.  For many this is a hard concept because there is a possibility that the other person may blame you, which would result in one individual getting off scott free while the other endures all the punishment.  EBAY in a sense works the same way, at least in regards to the trust factor; Ebay is a live auction that poses buyers and sellers together.  Buyers seek to purchase a good at a cheap price while sellers look to get the most money for their good.  If a price goes to high certain buyers will stop bidding because it is not in their best interest to go any higher.  These laws of economics require that buyers and seller work together much like in the prisoners dilemma to achieve the best result for both individuals.  However there happen to be other trust issues associated with ebay.  Sellers must trust that buyers will pay for what they won and buyers must trust that sellers will send them what they had won.  I personally have used ebay before and though my experiences have tended to be good on a few occasions the seller did not send me the item and ultimately resulting in me losing money.  For certain individuals ebay is a big risk and therefore they do not use it, but for others that are trustworthy ebay can be a goldmine as long as everyone works together, which promotes the best results.

information cascade

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?

Information cascade describes when a person or a group of people observe an individual doing something and from there they take up those same actions.  Shirky shared awareness/information cascade in chapter 7 describing the three basic principles of shared awareness.  One of the most famous examples of information cascade is the fall of the Berlin Wall, the wall that separated East and West Germany after World War 2 the wall still remained intact only to stir up protest from individuals.  These protest grew larger and larger each day until finally in 1989 the wall came down by the hands of these very individuals.  The idea of poor information cascade is the when a protest is seized and dismantled by the government or by authorities when a small number of people begin to protest and eventually become arrested or worse injured or dead because of their actions.   

Technology and revolution

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 agree with Shirky's statement that revolution doesn't happen until a society adopts a new behavior.  Technology is ever growing becoming faster, smaller, lighter and more user friendly such growth in technology drives individual desires to own a a piece of technology.  However this does not start any sort of revolution it is when a certain technology becomes part of the society and part of individual behaviors that a revolution is created.  When a certain form of technology essentially becomes life part of life itself is when revolution is created.  This revolution if from an individuals norms and past behaviors because some sort of technology allows for the process to be done much more easily.  In today's society it seems as though social networks such as facebook and twitter are changing people's behaviors.  Never before did individuals spend countless hours examining pictures, status' and wall posts, but in today's society it has become a norm a revolution has occurred changed the social aspect of our society.  Shirky makes a reference to e-mail in chapter 6, and how email changed society and its behaviors.  When email was developed there was no more need for postcards or hand written letters email was the new technology that allowed individuals to communicate with one another.  Furthermore email was far superior to sending anything by mail because it was faster and more inexpensive.  Therefore it is not the development of a new technology that begins a revolution but rather the adoption of new behaviors.

Mental transaction

Explain and give an example of a mental transaction cost.

a mental transaction cost is when an individual is making a purchase, but has varying thoughts enter into their head whether the purchase they are about to make is necessary or worth it at the current moment.  Mental transactions occur on a regular basis for many individuals, especially when people in today's society are trying to save money.  This goes along with the number "zero", when an item is free there is not any mental transactions simply because there is no costs associated with a free item.  Mental transactions are present every day for most individuals making changes to daily purchases and activities, many times without the individual realizing such transactions are being made.

zero

Why is “zero” such a hot-button word?

Zero is such a hot topic issue because zero is much more then just a number, because it has psychological implications on individuals.  Regardless of quality of the said good an individuals reaction to a "free" item changes, something that you may not normally buy changes simply because now it does not cost you anything.  This is evident in Chris Anderson's book "Free" the experiment was selling chocolate; swiss chocolate for 15 cents and Hershey kisses for a penny.  Initially the swiss chocolates sold better because they"re better.  However when the price was dropped a cent, making the kisses free sales immediately changed.  Simply because the kisses were free, they sold more even though there were of a lesser quality they took there psychological effect on the individual, which made them choose the free item.  Most people are always seeking to save money therefore the lesser priced item will usually win out, and when something is free most individuals cannot resist because there is no cost for them.

Scratch

After reading the article about Scratch and exploring the Scratch website, what are some observable benefits in creating a space to share student work?

Our generation as well as generations after us rely heavily on the internet for finding information upon other endless possibilities that the internet provides.  Scratch is a great new website that allows individuals minds to flourish, by working on various projects and showing the world or at least the internet world what they are capable of.  Also Scratch allows individuals to learn, learn various knowledge that might now be achieved anywhere else.  For these reasons Scratch is nothing short of a success , the website allows people to express themselves through things that interest them in a place where they do not feel so vulnerable.  This allows others to see thee projects and learn from them, which ultimately allows are society as a whole to grow and flourish.

power law distribution

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?


A JMU only wikipedia site in my opinion would not be very successful.  I feel as though a JMU only site though would allow for many individuals to provide and share their knowledge the site would also lead to a lot of misinformation.  Though college students can be very knowledgeable there are those individuals that will ruin it for others, by making the website nothing more then a joke providing wrong information just to get a laugh.  Furthermore I feel as though a JMU only website would also lead to biased information on certain subjects, and the lack of wide diversity would also impact the information on the website.  The lack of age and experiences would hinder the website.

wiki-wiki

I really enjoyed the wiki presentation and learned a number of things that I never knew before. 

1. Wiki for me has always been associated with wikipedia and nothing else, a way to search and gather information on a certain subject.  I never knew the various uses of wiki's such as meeting agendas, collaborative spaces, internal blogs, compact focus groups, documentation, a collection of action items, and they can be focused on an existing group.

2.  I found it very interesting that Wikipedia is 7 times larger than the Encyclopedia Britannica

3. Wiki's seek to involve the visitor in an ongoing process of creation and collaboration

4.  Wiki's promote topic associations between different pages by making links available to that page or showing whether that page exists or not. (blue words indicate a page that exists where as red words indicate a page that does not exist yet, but can be created.)

 5. Wiki-Wiki invites all users to edit any page or to create new pages within the wiki website using only a plain-vanilla web browser.

6.  I've always known wikipedia as a site that can be altered by anyone, but I was unaware of the "locks" that wikipedia has for certain pages.  Different types of locks allow only certain individuals to edit the respected page.

7.  Prior to the development of wiki's was hypercard which was developed on macs, but not used through a network it was oriented for a single computer.  Though it used hyper text and linked together pages much like wikipedia does now.

Patriot Act

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


My initial reaction to the Patriot Act was that I was totally opposed to it, I did not agree with what the Bush administration was doing and what the Patriot Act imposed on the citizens of the United States.  However as I have grown up and matured my opposition to the Patriot Act has diminished, The Patriot Act seeks to protect the citizens of the United States my retrieving "private" information.  The Patriot Act does not infringe on any sort of rights that we have for it does not hinder the first amendment or any other it simply seeks to protect the citizens of the United States.  For these reasons I think that citizens should be willing to give up a small part of their privacy for their overall well being.  If an individual has nothing to hide then why worry about others seeing their emails?

Protecting your wifi internet

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?


Protecting your internet is a major priority in this day and age.  Unfortunately not every internet user is a nice considerate individual some people are seeking to gather information from various  individuals and exploit that information.  First off some emails can contain valuable information from mother to son or from one individual to another, though providing such valuable information is not the best choice it is used to communicate information.  Secondly individuals looking to exploit others could begin to hack into someone's email and from there can gather information about them or can begin to send viruses to them as well as their contacts.  Therefore I believe it is a necessity to protect your own internet, because protecting your internet is protecting all of your personal information.  

Drug companies coming clean

The official website for the drug Olanzapine probably didn’t mention the fact it might cause diabetic symptoms in patients. Another website obviously did. Commercials on TV now are required to mention possible side effects. Should drug companies be required to come clean about situations like the one with Eli Lilly’s Olanzapine in their commercial websites? Why or why not?



 I think drug companies need to come clean and should be required to inform consumers of possible side effects and known problems with a specific drug.  Though this may not be appealing for a drug company to do because it essentially can limit the amount of consumers of your product because they are afraid of the side effects.  However it seems only ethical to inform consumers of such conditions.  Though a side effect may not seem life threatening, every individual is different and what might not harm one individual can and will harm another.  Overall these drug companies are playing with the lives of individuals by not providing information regarding side effects to their consumers.  No one is asking these companies to a big flashing presentation stating all the side effects there drugs is known to produce, but by simply adding a section to their website that provides this sort of information is essential.  By doing this lives can be saved even if that means a few less dollars for the company.  Overall the companies need to ask themselves is someone's life really worth a few extra dollars?

propriety software

Currently computer and internet users have access to a wide variety of software, which allows them to achieve their desired result, whether its reading an article online or finding a location on the earth.  Currently there are both open source software as well as propriety software.  Both types of software carry there own sorts of advantages, though I believe that propriety software is superior to the open source software.  Propriety software provides individuals with the software they desire, but does not allow the individual to change the make up of the software.  The best example is that of wikipedia, any individual has the ability to log onto wikipedia and change a certain form of information at their will.  This hinders the original make up of the software as well as makes the software less reliable.  However propriety software is not like this as the individual using the software cannot make changes t the internal structure of the software.  In my opinion this make propriety software much more reliable, like such examples of adobe reader or google earth.  The software programs allow an individual to gain access to an online document or the ability to pin point a spot anywhere on the earth, though the internal structure of the software cannot be changed and therefore I believe propriety software is much more advantageous then open source software.

online buying and selling

Have you used a website like Craigslist or EBay to buy or sell something? What was the experience like? Would you use such a service again? If you haven’t, detail how you have sold or bought something outside the environment of a retailer.


In the past I have used EBay to buy things, though I have never sold anything online before.  I personally like and enjoy EBay because it one giant bidding war and its interesting to see how much an individual will bid or spend for a particular item of interest.  Typically EBay allows for cheaper prices then one could find at a store or another online website.  Furthermore there are numerous vintage items on EBay that people are unable to find anywhere else.  The majority of my experiences with EBay have turned out good, as I have received the item that I won with no problems.  However there has been an occasion or two where i payed for the item yet have never received what I had won.  Unfortunately there is not much of a way to regulate this situation and make sure that the items get to those that won and payed for them.  Thoough I have experienced problems with EBay I still enjoy the website and still look to it when looking to buy something online.

answering an important question

You have an important personal question you’d like answered. Explain the procedure for getting your question answered and why this method appeals to you.


Typically when I have a question before me that I am looking to answer I turn to the internet.  Usually like many others I go for google; I just type in the question or the main idea of the question and instantaneously I'm presented with numerous websites, and articles centered around the idea, and the question that I am trying to answer.  Wikipedia is usually a good jumping off point when I'm looking or information because though it is not "reliable" it provides a good base for an individual to start from.  Furthermore if the question before me requires "reliable" information I turn to google scholar which provides peer reviewed articles from various known journals.  Since being at JMU the library resources page which allows you to assess journal articles such as jstor has become really popular for me when looking to answer a certain question.  

John's Drive In

Describe a group you are a member of (online community, church, job, etc.) and how it is organized. Is there management? How is information distributed within the group?


For the past 7 years now I have worked at John's Drive In back home in Montauk, NY its a small but extremely popular restaurant whose main focus is made to order food such as burgers, chicken wraps, fried goodies as well as it famous homemade ice cream.  My boss and wife are the owners of John's and they are obviously on top of the pecking order.  Thankfully since I've been there 7 years I've made my way up the ladder to be the manager.  However aside from the owners and the manager (myself) there aren't any other so called positions.  Though the level of importance and "power" within the restaurant is set up through experience, the workers that have been there longer have more say then those who have just started.  In all honesty we're somewhat of a family each respecting one another and helping each other in anyway possible.  Though i may have authority of others, I only use that authority when necessary.  As new individuals come into work for use the older more experienced workers help pass down information and knowledge to the new workers.  Aside from that any other information that needs to be told to everyone just circulates from one person to another or otherwise is posted for every individual to see. 

Facebook, Myspace, and Meetup.com

If managers aren’t important anymore towards the formation or control of groups using online tools, what do you consider the main role websites such as Meetup.com, Facebook, or MySpace have provided newly emerging groups?


Its obvious that social networking sites such as facebook play a monumental role in today's society.  Facebook provides a wide variety of resources for all of its users; it allows individuals to keep in contact with their friends and family who may be in other states, or countries.  Individuals are able to share pictures ranging from last weekends raging party to seeing pictures of your new baby cousin.  Facebook has now evolved even further then it was originally intended as they have been the go-to for newly forming groups.  Companies, Musical artists, restaurants, you name it its on facebook.  So many new "groups" are using facebook to get themselves out there to be heard heard from and seen by the world.  Facebook provides free advertising for such people, bands can post their tour schedule and new information for their beloved fans to follow, or a restaurant can provide their menu and special events that they may be having.  The internet is currently the way to become someone, and get your name known because so many people use the internet.  These social networks make it easy to become part of a group.  Clay Shirky provides a great example in his book Here Comes Everybody about the power of the internet.  One girl lost her phone and her friend was able to use the power of the internet to get it back by getting a group together that were all in search of the cell phone.

Grocery Loyalty Cards

Till I have read the chapter I thought very highly of food lion's MVP card as well as other loyalty cards that allow you to save money at the grocery store.  However it is a little weird to me that grocery store track what you buy when you use these cards, I don't think its necessary.  However regardless I still gonna use my MVP card considering I am poor college student trying to save every penny i can haha

Google Censorship in China

Recently google has been criticized for its policies toward China by restricting searches to the people of China and then opening them back up to the people.  In my opinion, though China is a Communist state and has rules against censorship this should not directly effect google.  Google seeks to organize all the information on the internet and allow for users to be able to locate that information as easily as possible.  I feel like it is wrong to deprive people of information and knowledge and therefore google should not censor information to the people of china. 

HI my name is Thomas Loncar, but you can all just call me Tom.

I'm a senior at JMU and I'm a Political Science major, with a ISS and Secondary Education minor

My future goals after graduation are to begin by traveling and make the most of life before actually entering into the real world.  From there I would like to get into teaching, hopefully at the high school level teaching government, history, or something along those lines.

I'm excited about this class it seems very interesting, I'm hoping to learn how folksonomy is growing in our society and how folksonomy can help categorize information within the classroom.