2.22.10 Answers

1.The new term “produsers” made us think about how the vast majority of those in the viewing audience are not only consumers, but producers as well. Therefore professional production values are forced to increase rather than decrease because not only are they creating for consumers, but for other “produsers” as well. We believe that it's not production values that are dropping, but more changing to match the style and popularity of “home grown” media. For example, the Disney show “iCarly” is about a young teen with her own “web show” which many teens actually have in real life. The show mixes both the amateurish style and professional style of production, which allows the young audience to easily relate. This will also cause the “produsers” of the amateur user generated content to match the quality of professional producers.

2.Obama’s Plan for Health Bill Largely Follows Senate Version Our tag ideas were, President Obama, Health Bill, politics, senate, Health Care reform, Law and legislation. Many of our tag ideas were similar, since they were easy to spot and come up with. Tags that we didn't think of however, were a little more abstract, and we had to really read and analyze the article to see the connection. Compared to the tags we found on delicious.com, they were generally just as strongly related to our tag ideas for our article.

3. Transparency is such an important concept because it allows people to communicate things and feelings, and at the same time can hide certain motives or authenticity. For example, you might “tweet” that you're going to a charity event because you support a certain charity, but at the same time you want attention and praise from other people that you're doing work for charity. In the offline world however, we believe that transparency is less important only because it is more difficult to be “transparent” when your not masked a computer screen. It is more difficult to hide certain agendas and or hidden motives while face to face or over a phone, so therefore, we believe that transparency is not as relevant to the offline world as it is to the online world.

Digital Nation Conclusion

After watching the remainder of the Digital Nation videos, I am truly convinced that technology and "life on the virtual frontier," is a detriment to society. The video gave countless examples of how modern technology is hindering society. They touched on how distracted and multi-tasking this generation is, which really made me start to compare the past and the present.
I thought of earlier forms of communication, like letter writing for example. Because people were unable to see each other and talk to each other any time they wanted, the things they said in letters and in person were important, and really meant something. Now with the click of a button we can talk to whom ever we want to. I feel like our language and actions have become less thoughtful, and less meaningful with modern technology, and we have lost some of the elegant, beautiful language, and customs that used to be the norm. The digital nation video also touched on that thought of mine, saying that with any new innovation, we lose something along the way. In a way I believe that to be true, our generation, I believe, can be incredibly lazy, and less hard working, yet still be successful in the world today.
After watching the videos, I found that I was often reminded and referencing the Digital Nation Videos. For example, the other day at a rehearsal, my instructor blew up at us and said that the problem with our generation is that we don't have to work hard for anything, and that everything is at our disposal. It reminded me so much of what Mark Bauerline, author of "The Dumbest Generation" had to say in the videos. After reading a little about the author and his book online, I absolutely agree with most of his claims, especially his claim that though technology was supposed to make us more aware and improve our knowledge, that the opposite affect occurs. It has led to addiction, distraction, obsession, and a false sense of reality. It is especially scary because our technology is only going to become more advanced and more a part of our world.

"Digital Nation"

This post is in regards to the "Digital Nation" videos by Frontline that we started watching in class on Monday, Feburary 8th. So far, the videos have really interesting and have kept my attention, which seems to be a big feat according to Frontline.

I found the research at the colleges and institutions to be quite shocking. It was funny to see how the students and others thought how there mulit-tasking and their constant connection to the digital world, was beneficial to getting work done and being efficient. The research however, proved to be the exact opposite. It is almost paradoxical, that with so much technology, and ability to stay connected, we are able to get more done faster than ever before, and yet we end up getting less done with all the distractions. Blackberries and iphones have become nearly embedded and attached to the body, so now even real life interactions are clouded by our technologies.

I'm actually very interested to see more of the "life on the virtual frontier" videos. I hope they do a study on how working without digital distraction would affect efficiency and the brain. I want learn more about why the different parts of the brain are reacting the way they are when people are surfing the web compared to reading a book. I'm very excited to watch the rest of the videos.

I created this collage with images that reminded me of the GPS. Each image has significant representation of some aspect of the GPS, and together they come together to create a powerful image.

WEB 2.0

User-generated Content- any kind of media content that is publicly available and created by a user

Long Tail- a retailing concept and strategy that sells large numbers of unique items in small quanties, and are able to make profit from selling small amounts of hard to find items, such as Amazon.com does

Folksonomy- a combination of "folk" and "taxonomy," folksonmy refers to the practice of collaboratively creating tags to annotate and categorize content. Often applies to social softwares.

Syndication- where website material is made available to multiple other sites in order to provide people a summary of the websites activity or recent content changes. This benefits both the websites providing the information and the websites displaying it, for it adds greater depth and immediacy of information, and increases the informations exposure.

Mass Collaboration- when large numbers of people work independently on a single project using the internet. An example of this Wiki technology is Google docs, where multiple people can work on a single document independently. Computer Supported collaboration differs in that it focues on the technology that affects the groups, organizations, and communities.

Mashup- digital media content containing a mix of text, graphics, audio, video and animation all from previously existing sources to create a new piece of work.

Blogs- a type of website maintined by an individual usually with regular entries and commentary. Can be compared to "online diaries" which other people are able to comment on and read.

Wiki- a website that allows easy creation and editing by multiple people

VVideo Sharing- allws indivduals to upload and share videos on the internet for the public. Videos reach a vast audience.

Social Software- a wide range of software systems that allow users to interact and share data, such as myspace, facebook, flickr, and youtube.

Web Application- an application that is accessed through a web browser over a network.

Hosted Service Provider- a business that delivers a combination of IT functions, such as infrastructure, secturity, monitoring, storage, web development, email over the internet. Combines the abilities of an application service provider and internet service provider.