Rheingold

I found the article by Howard Rheingold to be very complex, but still pretty interesting. He focuses on the emergence of a new, self-sustaining social structure called a Smart Mob. These are created on the grassroots level by people who have the technological power to network with other grassroots individuals to help advance a cause. One example is how protesters at the 1999 meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle coordinated their protests around the entire city, using everyday technologies. People used Palm Pilots to provide real-time protesting information to others in the Seattle area by uploading maps, photos, and whereabouts of police activity to the internet, where others participating in the events could then protest in the areas less-covered by police. Cell phones and SMS were widely used, and it resulted in what analysts have said was a victory for the protesters.
But while Rheingold praises all this new technology and how it is changing peer-to-peer communications, he says we must not forget that what can be used for good, can also be used for bad. Rebels in Chechnya and Colombia have also used "netwar strategy" to advance their own causes.
Overall, in my opinion Rheingold's perception of the changes being brought on by new and inexpensive communication technologies is a little embellished, but not far off from reality. I think the greatest change will be "peer-to-peer" journalism, which the book describes as "Rodney King video meets the power of Napster." Changes in this direction are already taking place, with the sudden rise in popularity of YouTube being one example. Basically, this article was long and too often combined fantasy with predictions of what the future holds for us.

Leary

I enjoyed this article. It was my favorite out of all the ones we have read so far. I totally agree with Leary and his opinion on cyberpunks. Cyberpunks really are the new role models for the new millennium. I think that people like cybepunks are going to change the world even more than they already have. After I read this article I realized that I am a cyberpunk because I mirror the definition of a cyberpunk; someone who uses all available data-input to think for myself. I believe that everyone in our generation has a little bit of cyberpunk in them, as long as they think for themselves. I like how Leary talks about the cyberpunk counterculture in the Soviet Union. What once was a strong bureaucratic controlling government is now being changed to somewhat of a self government because of cyberpunks. I would have never pictured Christopher Columbus or Mark Twain as a cyberpunks. I guess it is misleading to call them that because the word cyberpunk makes me think of computers but the word cyberpunks has many different meanings from Greek and Roman culture. The evolution of countercultures was very interesting. I liked to see how the moods, attitudes, intellectual viewpoint brain-tech, politics and cosmic views have changed over the years until now the “New Breed”. I think that cyberpunks will continue to make an impact on the world as time goes on.

Thieme

WOW, this peace is very well writen and i love the fact that Thieme continues to dwell on the fact that the internet is a peace of access that cant always be trusted. Thought when he mentions the fact that "Roswell" may or may not happened and that most of this incident did not happen he kind of goes agaist what he is saying in his own article. He even goes on to mention that no witness or military personel is alive today, so then how can we ever really get the truth unless we dive into the military data base and dig up some files? The truth is we will never know the truth about that night because i feel that the government not only dosnt want to know the truth but they want our minds to wonder adn make up our own opinion. To me i feel at home when he said how Schmitt uses the word "Roswell" like evangilist use the word "Jesus." and like many others use these words in the same terms i feel as if the UFO comunity along with other comunities like "Nes" and "Big-Foot" are just like you and i with a bit of a twist. We grow up knowing God and believe in him, weather or not he is real or just something made up like Santa Clause to keep us from getting into trouble and keeping us on the right path to good and away from evil. The basic fact is that we believe.
I like how Thieme discusses the internet as copies of copies or copies of originals and or a copy of nothing and that its just made up. Being manipulated is a big part in todays world and with everything and everybody going to the web for research and daily news i am sure and quite positive that there are things on the WWW world that fall short of the truth. But like Theime states, "there's no way to know if we are looking at a copy of an original..........or a copy that has no original. i love the section of how this makes money, boy aint that the truth. but if it was not real then how come it made so much comotion with the government? if there were witnesses that came forward with information how come it was written down and never talked about again? (discovery channel)
As a whoe i loved reading this peace of literature, it brought light to maybe rethinking about doing your research online and maybe we should stick to reading books!

308jnighttheblog Woolley

Reading this article has given me a very interesting look at "Cyberspace". I like how it started out as a fictional concept in Sutherland's work and has become the reality that it is today. It just shows how yesterdays fiction can become tomorrows future, as technology expands. In the article they describe cyberspace as the annihilation of space. McLuhan then says "As electrically contracted the globe is no more than a village." Its kind of odd to think of the world as a village, but through "cyberspace" or the internet its a really easy concept to see. I've never thought of it in that way but the technology really does make it a small world. At any minute I can send a message to someone on the other side of the globe with a response from that person in a matter of seconds and its almost as easy as shouting across the room to a friend. Another thing in the Woolley article that was interesting to me was his section about the virus. Woolley says that the computer virus like the aids virus acquires a moral resonance, and he says that infection is guilt. Like he said the people most vulnerable to the "October 12" virus were the people most deserving of the damage. Most deserving because of their swapping of illicit software and so on. One thing from the article that I didn't quite agree with was the idea that a virus could become an evolving lifeform. I don't know about you guys but I thought that the Matrix was just a movie. It kind of seems in a part of the article that he believes that the machines could take over, and we rely on computers for so many aspects of our lives. I just don't see how it could do any more than what a programmer tells it to do.

308jnighttheblog: January 2007

308jnighttheblog: January 2007

Being an English Education major, the first thing that stood out to me in Birkerts piece was the story he told about the professor who was selling all of his books. The reason this sparks some intersest in me is because I am currently battling the decision to teach and the professor made it sound like it was the most horrible experience of his life. I personally cannot imagine a world without books. I agree with Birkert when he says technology is taking over. Like him, I still think books are very important, but I don't think that technology is such a bad thing. They recently took the librarys out of the local elementary schools in my home town because they didn't have enough money to support it. However, they have quite a few computers in every classroom. This to me is just ridiculous.
I think that the upcoming and new technology that arises everyday is amazing. We can do so much more today than we ever could and that to me just shows a developing world. I can't see this phenomenon as a negative thing like Birkert does. We still have to be able to read when we access online information for the most part. There are some sites that will probably talk to you. The internet is a quick easy access for everything too. It is convenient for everyone. Maybe a lot of older people don't know how to use one. For those of us that do, we should consider ourselves priveledged.
The last thing I want to comment on is Birkert's first thought about what will happen with the rise of our electronic future. The first thing he says will happen is language erosion. I have to agree with his thought on this. Especially in the cases of young people like us. When we are chatting or texting even we find ourselves abbreviating even the smallest of words. u for you. bc for because. and there are so many more I can't think of right now. I usually see the negative effect of this coming when I am writing a paper. I always accidently abbreviate things that I shouldn't or leave out punctuation throughout the entire paper writing process. I have to agree with him when he says that our language skills may deteriorate due to the rise in the electronic world.

Welcome

Hello Everyone - we are going to be spending some time here this quarter, and I hope we manage to have some fun.