Group Presentations in our Virtual World Class

Yesterday was the first day of presentations and we had two groups that presented. The first group presented on a book written by Lee Siegel, titled “Against the Machine, Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob.” The basic message of this book is that the internet is separating us from the “real” world and it is promoting self enclosure. The first chapter is titled “Bait and Switch”. This chapter talks about profit and idealism, how the internet is being sold as a form for consumerism. The message that the presenters got out of this book is that Siegel believe that the internet contributes to the destruction of culture and knowledge. Web 2.0 is creating homogenization. In other chapters Siegel talks about the culture that participates in the internet use. He states that the internet contributes to the intermingling of different cliques and to him this is a negative thing. For Siegel cliques that were found in high school are the best way of doing things. Siegel also believes that artists and professionals are sliding into a gray area because of their internet use. He believes that the corporate world is going to take over the “pure form of art”. I’m not going to go into more detail about this book because I believe that you get the point. This author is a critic and he wrote this book to be critical of other people. The presenters stated that they were very frustrated with the book. This can be a good or a bad thing.

The other group of presenters consisted of 5 guys… that was interesting. They were presenting on a book written by Howard Rheingold. The book is called “Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution.” The author starts out by talking about texting and the changes that it brought to Tokyo and the rest of the world. Tokyo- is the place of the world most advanced texters. He also talks about I-mode and how it revolutionized the internet on phones. In the next few years we will see a new phenomenon 3-G generations that will be able to used their phones for a life style remote control. Rheingold also talks about the fact that technology is driven by cooperation without cooperation technology is not truly possible. Community Computation is talked about in chapter 3. Examples are Peer to Peer (P2P) sharing, Sharing Central Processing Unit (CPU). Chapter 4 talks about the “era of sentient things” which includes virtual reality research. Virtual Reality Research includes: smart rooms, digital cities, sentient objects, tangible bits, wearable computers. What sentient Technology is: Sense, Receive, Store, and transmit info. Sentient technologies open up a new media sphere. New technologies are making microchips cheaper, more easily accessible. These chips can be embedded into money. UPS is one of the users of the few technologies, it can track trucks when they pass certain points and they can know to the dot when your package will arrive.

Technology is a very interesting thing and different people have different perspectives of it. On Monday we will see in what directions the rest of our presentations go in.

Final Presentation... outline =)

Intro to the Virtual world has been a very interesting class. U might ask why? The reason why it has been interesting is in part due to the teacher and partly due to the subjects covered, blogs written and projects done. Do to the fact that we are nearing the end of the autumn quarter we are going to have one more test coming up and a final group project. This final group project is centered on a book of our choosing, which in this case titled “World without Secrets” is written by Richard Hunter. Our group consists of 7 team members and we have decided to split the reading up by chapters with me getting chapter 8 & 9. What I am going to do is summarize these chapters and use this blog as a draft in preparing for my group project.

Chapter 8 is titled “Distracted consumers, mentats and Timothy McVeigh”. The chapter starts out with the thought that we know and believe that we know what went down on April 19, 1995 at the Oklahoma City bombing. Hunter states “We know what we’ve read and heard. We heard it from the media, who heard it from the FBI, who learned it through dogged investigation” (135). What Hunter is trying to get at here is to get us to think outside the box as he further explains his theory. “Does it matter that some will-informed observers—independent Mentats—believe that that message (that McVeigh committed the bombings all by himself) is false, or even fraudulent?” (135). Now u are going to ask me what is this person advocating here, and what are u advocating by repeating it? What Hunter is trying to say here is that sometimes we are feed what we want to hear, and in this case, the fact that McVeigh was the sole perpetrator of this crime. “We want to believe them”. When we take their explanations at face value, we allow time to go along for the ride. “We are so glad that there is nothing more to learn. We want out of this horror show, fast.” The people in charge know of our desires and they give us what they know and believe that we desire. The networks that surround us, the internet, radio, TV all amplify the story that is given and that is what gives the story power. This fact makes everything known, but at the same time no one will know that truth. The question that Hunter poses for us as readers begins with the premise that the government, the Federal Bureau of Investigations made a choice for us in regards to what they believe that we want to hear. “ Are u willing to accept that the bureau made the right decisions for you when it decided what not to tell you about how it investigated the case and what it did or didn’t find?” (140). Chapter 8 helps us to reexamine our true values, the real truth to them, and to reexamine how much do we really desire the truth. We as the generation of knowledge have the world at our hands. Are we going to be easily led by what we prefer to hear?

Chapter nine is titled “In the exceptional economy, be exceptional”. What does this mean? Hunter starts explaining this by stating “When everything is known, no one knows everything” (145). Do to the fact that there is so much information available in our world people, over time will only pay attention to the deviants of information. These exceptions, the highs and lows, will be the focus of our attention. Exceptions will not only be the focus of our attention but they will be the driving forces of the economy. The reason behind this is that humans get used to everything very easily and they need new objects to stimulate their electrons. Hunter also talks about relationships and how they matter. People don’t trust what they don’t know, and relationships authenticate us. These relationships protect us against the “seas of information” that are out there. In the context of economy mentats, people who are who are well known, who can vouch for someone or something, matter greatly. This singling out may be a good thing or it may be a bad thing, it can make or break a company or a product. In the context of earning money or of becoming someone, being at the right place, at the right time is very significant and networking adds to the spice of life to a business. Hunter also talks about business and why it’s imperative for it to share information. One of the reasons for this sharing of information is because modern businesses are networks. Businesses depend on each other too much, and successful businesses will be able to focus more on what they do better then anyone else. The way this can be achieved is through the sharing of information. The more networks expand the less the choice a business will have in sharing information because everyone is and will be dependent on everyone else.

Finally! I am done summarizing all these points, some I covered in more detail while others in less. What are the basics of these two chapters? Chapter 8 teaches us not to take everything at face value because we might be buying into the information that someone believes, knows that we want to buy into. We should look for the truth because it is available to us; we have the resources to reach for it. Chapter 9 talks about the sharing of information, those businesses will not be able to survive without it. This chapter also talks about how in the world of much information only exceptions capture our numbed mind and this exception is the driving force of the economy.

Virtual World Scavenger Hunt

We are all done!! Yay.. 19 questions. =) So what have we learned? that Google is not the answer to all searches but very important place to start at. Secondly, the online world is very interesting and informative.

Scavenger Hunt

This scavenger hunt is going pretty well so far. Katie and i have answered 7 questions. This blog is technically part of number 9... and number 2 needs some work on it. Gtg and finish the rest so ttyl. =)

Virtual World

A virtual world according to Wikipedia is "is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars." This blogging post should be talking about virtual worlds and if i were to travel to one where would i go. The question is where would I go? The answer is I don't know. I love the internet, using the computer, being able to find what I'm looking for, being able to interact with other people (friends) via email, Myspace etc. but virtual world is not my thing. I have no interest whatsoever in creating an avatar, wasting my life away online.

First of all what does a person gain from this virtual world? Besides if you think your so good at something why cant you do it in real life anyway? I also think that virtual worlds can change a person's psychology. If a person spends all their time online, in a virtual world shooting people, what makes you think that he will obtain from doing it in real life? The line between virtual and real for that person has already become gray. The only thing that is stopping that person is time. When a person spends so much time online, its the same as watching TV. When a person is involved in those activities they abstain from real relationships because they don't have time, they don't value real social relationships. These kinds of actions make them more social outcasts and then they have no choice but to recede into their virtual world.

I believe that there is much to be done to make my real world a better place and hiding in my mind or in a virtual society is not necessarily going to make it a better place. Another thing is that the people that you meet online act more differently then they would in real life do to the fact that they can remain anonymous. The people online could be felons or other weird people. They could be preying on you. They could be stalking you. There is no true way to know the motives of people. Basically abstaining from virtual worlds is in a way a form of self preservation.

There are many reasons that i don't like virtual worlds that are online, that involve aviators, etc. What kind of society are we going to have if the only way we communicated was online? Some people could say that it will be better... no killings, murders, shootings. Everyone would be too busy online. But killings, murders exist online as was written on the news recently. A young woman, killed her "ex-husbands" aviator. Humans are humans and their nature they take everywhere with them. I could go on and on but i believe you get the gist. I am against virtual worlds. Besides this could lead to an even faster rise in obesity then what we already see. Its better to live in the real world, a real life. If you don't like the person you are in the real world, then change. No one is stopping you but yourself, it only takes effort. The question is do you think that its worth the effort? I do.

The Northwest is an amazing place but the city of Tacoma is even more interesting. Even though it it is not known by many it is beloved by all. The citizens of Tacoma love their city and they have put it on the global map with Seattle and many other technological cities. How have they managed to do this? By blogging about it. The city has many bloggers that are unique to it. They have exit 133, they have Kevin Freitas and Feed Tacoma, they have Andrew Fry, TacomaMama and many others.

These people care about their city and their community. Kevin Freitas, a former student of PLU and a programmer has been blogging about his life since 1998... Now thats a lot of blogs!. He visited our Technology class and we had a wonderful time. He has also created a new blog center for the Tacomians ( my new word... LOl) it is called FeedTacoma. His blog is non-profit. It is for people that blog in Tacoma and it uses analog so that it does not consume the time of its developer and does not cost much to run besides the dedication of Kevin.

Feed Tacoma is a very clean and gleaming website because of the uniqueness of Tacomians. Tacomians are very close community wise, the people you see online, you will probably meet them in real life sooner or later. This website, contains events, discussions, shops, photos, video's. Shops? Did u say shops? Yes, in fact I did. The shops are virtual and store owners are allowed to advertise themselves and their products without a fee. Very awesome.

Tacomians are very resourceful and creative people as we can see in Kevin Freitas. So what will come next from these very resourceful, unique people? We can only guess.. :)

Finances via the internet

People like shiny new things. Many people like shopping and shopping via the internet is very convenient. You can shop while you are at your favorite coffee shop, on break at work or sitting on a bench at your favorite park. Shopping online saves you money, saves you time spent driving to and from the store and it lets you bargain a bit. If you find what you are looking for it is very convenient to pay online using PayPal or entering your credit card information.

Even though there is a danger associated with shopping online people still continue to shop. The question is: is the risk not great enough to outweigh efficiency? For many people the answer is no. Some people would say that they live in too of a remote area and they can’t find what they are searching for in their nearest stores at the same price. The efficiency of shopping online and having it shipped to your house is very high and it can’t be beat. Another refute would be that nothing has happened to me or to anyone else I know…Denial. Many people are in denial about what is going on and what might happen to them. They buy Northern Virus protection, encrypt their websites and they believe that they are all set.

A person who shops online can also ask you – how safe is it to give your credit/ debit card to an employee in any store. They still have your information after you leave the store, who knows what happens to it or who sees it?

Not only can u shop online you can also bank. While banking online you can transfer funds between your checking and savings account and between many other ones you have. It is also possible to buy stock online and buy pass the middle man-the broker. Stopping by the bank, waiting in line is a waste of time when they can do the same via the internet. Besides banking is not as personal as it was ten, fifteen years ago. Also banks have set hours and you can’t wait on them when you need money right away.

Internet is a technology that has become popular by word of mouth and has become integrated very suddenly into the lives of many people. Being able to use this technology is a mark of a modern man and has also become very addictive. Convenience, saving time is very honored in our society and that is why despite the danger associated with using the internet for purchases it continues. It is the disease of the modern man. Money is the name of the game. It is the driving force of technology.