make up assignment -innovation and mobile internet

The development of the internet was one of the great innovations of technology brought to society. As we continue to expand our horizons today we find ourselves in a virtual world of these new innovations each and everyday. Once internet was introduced as just being able to gain access that linked you to others in a network, it was a huge step for the entire world. Today, this is a common aspect that is helped by virtually anyone who owns a computer. It is nothing new, especially to those who had grown up in this technologically advanced generation.

The introduction of the internet having a mobile aspect was unheard of a not too long ago, probably because dial up was the primary way of having to connect to the internet. Today, it is something that is used universally by all sorts of people. Mobile Internet has been an innovation that has led us to create many other technological opportunities regarding the internet, as well as being able to renovate existing technologies. Since the existence of mobile internet, there have been many other inventions and creations that have benefitted society in many different ways. Innovating ideas is what runs our world today. If someone has a new idea that they think they want to give a shot at, they might as well because there have been so many different ideas that have helped the community of technology.

There are many different ways in which innovation that the mobile internet can be linked. First of all, the creation of mobile internet was more or less a renovation of the primary internet that everyone was only able to access in their homes. Now that people have the option to carry around their laptop and be able to surf the web whenever they want, that makes the internet all that much of a better aspect. The main link that I think is shared between innovation and the mobile internet is the way that it has created more options, opportunities, products, and even jobs for the entire society. Innovation is roughly defined as something new being created; a new idea. What this is saying about mobile internet is that they can be used together to get at ideas that were once not even heard of. For example, the primary way that people access the mobile internet is through their laptop. Having to walk around and be able to surf the web and do your work is quite a convenience for some. Today, people have gone far beyond that point and have taking the idea of the mobile internet and compounded it with other innovated products, such as cell phones which are a huge jump in this area of advancements.

Now that you have people walking around with internet access on their cellular devices, you have to think that the people who were coming up with this idea did not want to stop there. It is true, they did not. Virtually, you can do anything you want with a cell phone today as you can with a basic home based desktop computer. Anything task you can think of doing on a computer, such as playing music, organizing events, email and instant messenger are all results or parts of the surge of mobile internet. If someone can gain access on a device the size of your hand, I think they can do virtually anything they want with it. The way I see this is that it is sort of a domino effect in a way. People innovate and create something new, which in turn leads to another new idea, and that leads to another new idea and so on. It is something to think about when recognizing the ways that innovation had affected our lives with mobile internet.

com 125 #12

Network Neutrality is a type of subject that is very much overlooked by society both in reality and on the internet. It can be defined as “a principle that is applied to residential broadband networks, and potentially to all networks”. In other words, broadband providers will discriminate between what sites will be accessed and what sites won’t. This is where the concept of network neutrality comes into play. It permits everyone to be able to access whatever they want. It is something that is not really recognized as a major conflict because so far it has not been. With the institution of so many new aspects of technology and the internet combined, you can see why their might be a problem with network neutrality. Some people who are launching new sites, new products or anything or revolutionized on the internet are obviously in favor of network neutrality. It gives them a better chance of having their site or service over the internet to be recognized. Without this, many users over the internet would not be able to witness some of these services provided because they would be blocked by their broadband provider.

The people whose interests are at stake here is virtually anyone who has ever used the internet. It is not fair that some users are able to view some service or use it for that matter, and others are not because of the decision that a broadband provider or whoever is running their internet had made. People who are everyday users, just normal people in society I think are at the biggest loss in this issue. Much of their work, communication and daily living are done over the internet, so why should some of them have access to other things that others may not? The types of interests that are at stake here are essentially the ones that all people have. Whatever the interests may be, whether it is shopping online, playing online games, doing work over the net, running a business, the list is endless. It is basically every interest that had been incorporated from everyday life into a computer networked with millions of other computers. Many applications that probably a lot of users are interested in can be blocked, for no reason, but the decision made by the network provider. This may discourage them and find them selves asking questions about the internet and about the service that they are running the Web on as well.

I am a definite supporter of network neutrality. I am a person who believes that all people. Regardless of what the subject is, should have the same rights to everyone else in that applied aspect. Network neutrality is something that keeps all users of the internet on the same page. It keeps the basic line of unity of all users who access the net on a daily basis in order. I think that with out the concept of network neutrality then there would be much chaos, confusion and disorientation through out the net. Companies would probably go out of business or be bought out by other ones, as well as the interests of people would start to have a declined because of possibly the services, applications or programs that may be blocked or inaccessible. We see today that the internet is obviously better when network neutrality applies, so why would anyone have second thoughts about it. No, it may not be the safest place due to rapists, stalkers, pornography or any of the dirty stuff, but try to imagine what it would be like with it being disoriented because of the discouraged users.

com 125 #11

The use of online virtual realities can be very deceiving to society today as technology continues to grow. As we watch the amount of innovation that technology has brought to our world, we can also observe that the amount of change that we have had to adapt to as well. Certain aspects from specific parts of people’s lives can sometimes be interfered by these online virtual realties. Within them, the realities each posses some sort of economy where funds are exchange, whether they be real or fake.

The use of these online realties does cost some sort of real fee to be access them to their full potential. For example, an “open” virtual economy that is very popular that I had recently been exposed can be “Second Life”. This is a 3-D world where you can travel to all sorts of places, purchase and by property, all for the cost of real money. They have something called linden dollars, which is translated into real money that you end up having to pay. Since this cost is coming directly from you and the actions that you take as a user who is actively involved with this virtual reality, it is considered an “open economy”. The reason for the start of this was that some professors had come together and decided that if people were interested enough in this and it became an actual reality for them then they would start to make a profit off the types of actions they could perform, and it would also benefit and profit the game itself. This is all regarding the use of open virtual economies.

The use of closed online virtual economies is a different story. An example of something like this is World of Warcraft, which has recently become one of the most, if not the most played user-to-user game on the internet. I personally think it is the most popular game out there, and I don’t even play it. The reason that World of Warcraft is not considered a open virtual economy is because users are not investing money in it to make money. Yes, there is a cost of something like 15$ for every months pay, but then that is it. There is not any money being exchanged between users or something, nor is there any sort of property or land that can be exchanged, or sold between users like you can do on Second Life.

The reason that World of Warcraft discourages this online virtual open economy is because it is there for the sheer interest and amusement of the users. I think that there is a much greater risk involving virtual open economies because it is affecting the user’s actual bank account, and their personal life. People can and will mistakenly get too involved with these online open virtual economies, and start to develop a sense that it is their “life”, when in reality, it is a game online. People start to “lose it” I think when they get caught up in these sorts of online realities. I’m not saying that these are a bad idea; I just think that people should probably be investing their money in something worth it.

COM 125 #10

When hearing about a certain topic in the news today, you tend to hear the same basic information about it over and over. Depending on the type of subject it is based under politics, business, sports, or whatever, you will usually hear the same crap about the article. When comparing two different articles on the same topic, one of which was from the internet, and one from a news paper, as a reader you catch certain things about the articles content, as well as the structure and formality of the article. It is not all the same when you read in depth of the article from the perspective of two different sources.

The two articles that I have chosen for this assignment have both been based on a familiar topic all sports fans are aware of, which is the upcoming rivalry game between professional footballs top two powerhouse teams, the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts and Pat’s square off this coming Sunday in the RCA Dome, home of Indianapolis. The information that I had taken for this topic came from two well known sources. The internet based one I had viewed ESPN’s perspective and read about what they had to say about the upcoming brawl between these two teams. For the newspaper source, I had read through the front page story of the sports section on the Colts/Pats game of USA Today. After reading both of these articles, there were some significant differences in the way that some internet based articles and newspaper based articles take as their approach to getting their news feed to the public. In USA Today’s article, they gave some different information about the past of these teams. There had seemed to solely base their article on the upcoming event and the reasons to which team they though would win the game. The article pointed out some significant statistics of each team their best players, and the recent games of the past between the two. It was more of a general article, something you were likely to expect from a nationally recognized newspaper.

On ESPN’s website, the leading source for sports news and information, they gave more of an in depth analysis of the upcoming game. They gave some general opinions and stats of both teams, to look to decide which one of them will finally be beaten after the 9^th week of the 2007-2008 NFL Season. As you might or might not know, both the Patriots and the Colts are the only undefeated teams left in the NFL this year, so this game is pretty big for both clubs. With the article online, it seemed that when reading it you had a better sense and a better knowledge of what you thought about the game, as well as football in general. The articles content consisted of a many inputs from former pro players, and hall of famers in the NFL. Their interviews with ESPN had seemed to give them an edge in reliability in terms of information, over USA Today’s article. This is just my opinion. It may seem reasonable that ESPN’s article seems more reliable because they are “the leading source in sports news”, according to their motto. This may seem that I am taking the side of the ESPN article, but I think it is natural because they are a sport based website that delivers information. This is probably not true for every article in general that is printed There is a major difference in general, however between print news and online news. It seems as if online news you get more of a real insight to ones opinion, where as if you are reading an article from a news paper, you seem to just be getting the “facts of the story”. To me it seems this way. IN the online article, it gave me a better way of understanding the upcoming game. In the print article, it seemed like they were just reiterating stats and the story of the game itself. Both get the job done in delivering information, but some may consider one to be a better prospect then the other.

References:

Bell, Jarret. "A Rivalry thats tough to beat". USA Today. 1 Nov. 2007: C1.

Garber, Greg. "View from the top: Hall of Famers analyze Brady, Manning". ESPN. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=garber_greg&id=3088115&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1. (1 Nov.2007).

Community #7

So much of society today revolves its use around the internet. There are many different groups who base a lot of the information they distribute to others through the internet, using it as a type of medium where everyone can share the same aspects of something. Many large corporations, if not all of them solely run a good majority of their business over the internet, and continue to do so as the technology for the access to the web increases dramatically all the time. One group in which I belong to that uses the internet for mediation is me being a part of the student body hear at UB. There are over 27,000 students that attend this university and it would be very difficult if the use of the internet as a mediated source for communicating to students was not possible.

In a narrower sense to better explain this, I can say that our com 125 class is a group in which we use the internet as a mediated source. As many of us have learned from the beginning of the semester, almost all of the work we complete in this class is done online. Along with that, we can include that the blog posts, the emails we receive and comments we make are all parts of this medium through the internet. As the growth of technology continues to expand, I think that the social ties in which me make with the others in our class does as well. I can say that I have personally experienced this because of the current project my group and I are working on for our presentation. Since this class started, I knew absolutely no one in the class. In order to be able to get a group together to complete this project, I had to make ties with some people. Initially I did so face to face in class, but as days went by, I started using blogger and email in order to get on a better level of trust and familiarity with one everyone in my group. This had definitely helped my gain a better sense of comfort as I continue to work with the group I am in.

The way that the kids in the class interact with one another over the internet reflects the way in which they perceive themselves in class. I see this in a way that on the first day of this class, no one had said a word to each other, we were all strangers to one another and the ice had yet to be broken with the vocal barrier that surrounded us all. I know that through blogger, posting comments, through emails and all sorts of online sources that connect everyone in the class, I feel more secure with what I am doing and who I am interacting with. This also includes Derek, who has made atmosphere in the class a lot more reasonable and comfortable then it did on the first day of class where it lacked theses aspects because of the unfamiliarity that each one of us possessed with each other.

If there is one thing that the use of technology through the internet does with people within a common group is that it strengthens the ties between all of the members of that group. There is not too many ways in which the internet breaks people apart before they even know each other, of if they know each other already. As stated before, the use of internet within a large community or a small community is a vital part of the processes of relationships that are built between two people.

IDENTITY WOO WOO

Identity is the way that something represents someone. Identity Theft is one of the most common crimes in the internet world today. People who commit identity theft are usually more or less after either money, or to ruin a reputation. Other things that can be taken from identity theft are personal information that the user who actually owns that name hold. The discovery of this by a thief could be disastrous for the victim who has the theft being done to them. Things like credit card numbers, social security umbers, bank account accesses, anything that the person holds can potentially being taken , depending on the type of identity that the thief is trying to impersonate. Identity theft is also commonly known as fraud, where one person is acting as the identity of someone else. A broad definition of identity theft or fraud is “a deception made for personal gain”. Carious forms of identity theft is considered in things like email, avatars, instant messenger screen names, user names, pretty much anything that you can think of that is use to represent someone on the internet.

For anyone who has ever used internet in the modern day, which is roughly everyone, then they are probably familiar with the use of a screen name or email address. If u ever belonged to any sort of site or had any reason to use a password somewhere, then you will usually more likely have a user name or avatar to represent you. For kids today, such as myself, the use of AOL instant messenger is one of the primary ways of communicating with their peers. When you sign on your buddy list, your name pops up on your friends buddy list, letting them know that you have signed on and are available for chat. Will it always be you as your name signs on though? To you it will be, to them it may not be. The instance of someone else being able to obtain the screen name and password of someone else is an example of identity, as well as identity theft. Being typical like most kids are today, I have a screen name, and I’m pretty sure almost everyone in this class does as well. The way that the screen name works on AIM is pretty basic. Mine is Mfinnro22, so when I get online my friends see that I am there. I have my buddy list sorted in a few different categories, my best friends in one, kids from UB in another, and then girls and guys. An example referring to the interaction between my name and my friends name is straight forward. If I’m looking for something to do on the weekend while at home and I am on my computer then I will most likely look through my best friends list, or if I’m at UB I look through the UB list. It’s a pretty basic way of interaction the name with the correlation to my friends. The names on my list represent my friends, its nothing that complicated.

Finally, being able to assume this identity as me is easy. Who ever has the ability to get my password, or anyone’s password for their screen name can potentially have someone’s reputation screwed up. If someone you know gets online with your screen name, your friends with see that your name has signed on, and automatically assume that it is you. A lot of time when one of my friends get online, as its one of my other friends, or someone I don’t even know saying that its my friend who owns the screen name, I can usually tell by they type to me whether or not it is them. In general, when someone assumes your name as it is represented, then they will usually believe it is you. But when its not, things can go really wrong.

#5 privacy

Privacy is the ability that someone has to control what information that person reveals to others. This has the same general idea for internet privacy, what information that one wants or does not want to be able to share with other internet users. A huge challenge in todays privacy is determining what is public or what is private to other people. People all over the world desire at least some sort of privacy in life, regardless in which aspect of life it may be. My perspective on privacy is the information that people would like to keep closed off from others and not let them know anything about it. There are so many ways around people’s privacy today, especially on the internet. There are many sites today that allow the access of strangers into the lives of other people. Certain sites consist of ones like MySpace and Face book. I think that MySpace is one of the bigger problems with privacy today because it allows anyone on the site to be able to access any user on MySpace’s account. Within these profiles is information about whoever you want to know information about. Although it may not seem like a big deal, sites like these can lead to major problems. This is how stalkers on the internet emerge to innocent people and have their lives affected.

These sorts of cases are a big of enough deal, but there are also other aspects of people’s information that is affected out there on the internet. People all over the internet commit fraud everyday, an in a sense are able to access very private information to others, such as financial and banking info. People can gain information to others through things like cookies and ISP’s. Cookies are huge privacy risks, and are a piece of information stored on a computer to help its web browsing. ISP’s are they way that people are access the internet, more or less an address. If someone else can obtain your ISP, then it could be disastrous. What we have here are a few ways in which are processes for others being able to access others privacy through the internet, which may seem harmless, but really aren’t.

A scenario in which I can relate internet privacy too is something that did not directly happen to me, but to my twin brother who also goes to school here. It really wasn’t that big of a deal but it was something that definitely can be correlated with privacy. I think it was last yea during Christmas break, and my mom and I him were taking care of all the school stuff for the upcoming spring semester. In doing this, we each had to go online to the UB website and fill out our housing application and put the down payment on our dorms for next year. Each down payment was 200$, and we each had to take that from our checking accounts. I did mine with no problem or anything that had interfered with being able to successfully complete it. Nick had some trouble with his, not at the moment he actually completed it, but in the future. He had been able to put the payment down with not trouble, but a couple weeks later he noticed that something wasn’t right. He noticed in his checking account that he was actually missing four hundred dollars from the process of the housing rather then the 200 hundred. It turned out that somehow instead of him having to complete the process of housing, the process had already been completed on its own or something like that. I did not really understand the full details that my mom and him and let me known about it, but for some reason his was already paid for before he had actually paid for it. He was reimbursed with the other 200$, but I think it was something to think about when that kind of transaction happens without. This is the sort of situation where you can’t really help but trust, since it’s through a huge academic institution, but it may be something to question.