Review of Blogging

I like the way that we blogged for this course. I think that the content response format makes us doing the reading so that we are all prepared for class and have something to bring. It definitely makes the discussions more interesting. But I would have liked to incorporate a research log. It's better than posting on courseforum, and I think it would be good to keep up to date on how the research is going. If more people read the blogs then people could comment if they had something that might help the other person with their research. But I think that people are lazy and won't read everyones blogs. Maybe they would if it was more personal because it would be more interesting to read instead of reading peoples comments on the same articles.

LAST BLOG POST!!!

Wiki's

After reading some of the articles and browsing wikipedia.org, I am thoroughly impressed. Wikipedia.org is a huge database full of interesting information. After reading the articles about wiki’s and how easy they are to create and edit, I was expecting something that looked like a forum, however wikipedia is very professional looking and the links take you anywhere you might want to go. In order to edit an article, I thought you had to be a registered member of the wiki, but when I tried I was actually able to edit anything I wanted! I did not actually edit anything, but just the idea that I could randomly insert something into an article seems kind of unreliable.

Of course, the way that wiki’s operate is from the editing option and they would not be successful if anyone could not edit them. This is how information is built up and refined, from compiling knowledge from a lot of people. I understand this concept, however it seems to me with a large database such as wikipedia, a small change could be made to alter a sentence that would go undetected. Are there actually people who sit and monitor every article to see if minute changes are made? Wikipedia seems too big to keep track of every change that goes on.

After browsing some articles on wikipedia I was also impressed with the quality of writing. The articles are written in an academic manner and it does sound exactly like an encyclopedia. It is definitely a huge source of information that is easy to use – I was able to jump around to different pages at any time because of the great links. My one question is though, if you were to use wikipedia as a resource for an academic paper, how would you site it as a source, and if you did how reliable would it make your research look? There is still no guarantee that the information is accurate, the information is only a product of what a large group of people believe to be true.

IM

After reading the two articles about IM in the Stanford Daily, I tend to agree with a lot of the points made by the author of “AIMless addicts”. I found this article really interesting to read because his analysis of IM was so true! One of his main arguments was that IM has become a popular social network because of the anonymity of the users. Your screenname provides a certain “identity” but since you are not face to face with a person during a conversation, people tend to feel more comfortable. As a result many people say things during IM conversations that they would not necessarily say in person. However, the author does not see this as a social isolator because it encourages more social interaction. I agree with this statement, I think that IM does encourage people to talk to a variety of people, many of whom you wouldn’t normally talk to; however, I think that IM is a social isolator if you define “social” as “human interaction” as opposed to any form of communication, be it online or otherwise. While wasting away hours on IM is classified as “communication”, in my opinion it is not necessarily healthy when people start replacing face to face conversations and social activities with IM conversations.

The prospect of a new IM network for Stanford is very interesting, something I did not know about before I read this article. I am a little bit confused as to how it would work because the author did not provide details. I am a little bit apprehensive as to whether IM would add to our communication on campus – would it start replacing email and office hours? It mentioned that people’s screennames would be listed in the StanfordWho, but personally I wouldn’t want anyone at Stanford to be able to have this information. Right now my use of IM is limited to my friends and I would like to keep it that way. I would rather deal with academic and administrative issues separately from social activities, and I think that a Stanford IM network would mix the two together too much. What if you are signing on to talk to a TA and your friends are trying to talk to you? Do you want you professors reading your crazy away messages? I sure don’t!

Hypertext

At first when I went to the page “Hypertext Gardens” I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Was this supposed to be a demonstration of a well organized and easy to use hypertext that took into account certain ‘rules for writing on the web’? Or was this more of an informational article of how to create an effective hypertext. As I started glancing navigating through the site and reading the pages, the first thing that struck me was how difficult the site was to navigate! After clicking on about 2 different pages I already found myself lost. There appeared to be no navigation bar at the bottom of the page that would take you back to the index page. Where was I in the sequence of articles? I had no idea, so I had to result to the pain of clicking the back button, something that all web users hate to do, and when forced to do this, many people will not even bother to look through the rest of the site. Yes, it was frustrating, but since it was recommended for the blog prompt I kept reading. I managed to read all of the pages, but I still cannot figure out the navigation! I clicked on links that I thought would take me to the next page in the author’s sequence, and I ended up in remote places. I found this whole experience ironic, since the web author specifically addresses the fact that providing a navigation system that is simple and efficient to use is essential in creating a hypertext. Similarly, the author mentioned that having uniform pages with a similar set up make the site easier to navigate, yet each page of the “hypertext gardens” site was set up differently - different placement of text, paragraph structure, and navigation at the bottom. So after reading this site, I still fail to see the authors point. Maybe I am just technologically incompetent, but so are a lot of other people browsing the web. However, after just re-visiting the homepage titled “The limits of structure: the virtue of irregularity” I think it was perhaps the authors intent to confuse the visitor. Well, he certainly accomplished his goal!

Powerpoint is Evil

The authors' resentment towards powerpoint clearly shines through in this article! Edward Tuft's argument is that instead of being a supplement to a presentation, powerpoint has become a substitute for an interesting and cohesive presentation. He says that as a result “it induced stupidity, turned everyone into bores, wasted time, and degraded the quality and credibility of communication”. I do not fully agree with Tuft’s opinion. I do recognize that powerpoint can be used as a “crutch” because often people let the slides speak for themselves instead of using it as an accent to their presentation. Contrary to Tuft, I believe that powerpoint can be used to enhance a presentation if it is used wisely – as an additional source, not the entire presentation. Some things can’t be done without powerpoint, like using graphs and charts to illustrate data and make it easier for the audience to comprehend. Tuft’s opinion is that powerpoint is boring for the audience, making them “consequently endure a relentless sequentiality, one damn slide after another”. However, I see it as the exact opposite; powerpoint makes the presentation more interesting for the audience by providing visuals in addition to the vocal script. One downfall of powerpoint, as Tuft explains, is that “a PowerPoint slide typically shows 40 words, which is about eight seconds' worth of silent reading material. With so little information per slide, many, many slides are needed”. Unfortunately, it is easy to get caught up in the bullet point format of powerpoint, which can result in a choppy presentation. I agree with Tuft that if powerpoint is not presented professionally, excess colour and graphics can definitely be a distraction, but I think that when used intelligently and in moderation, powerpoint can be an effective way to deliver a presentation.

Research project ideas

I have a few ideas circulating for my research project at the moment. One of the topics is biometrics, the new technology on the rise that uniquely identifies a person through physical features such as fingerprints, face/hands, voice, and retinal and iris scans. One of the main uses of biometric technology in the future will be for security purposes. The use of fingerprint authentication technology could come into play in the near future by replacing current ID cards and usernames and pin numbers. It is said that utilizing this technology will be able to better secure your computers, avoiding having to remember passwords and enabling better security for online services such as banking. Fingerprint scanning will also work on cell phones so that only one user will be able to activate the phone. As well, use of biometrics could significantly reduce the amount of time taken for security measures, for example in the workplace, for all modes of transportation, and through security checks getting into major events. Although this appears to be a convenient and fool proof technology, there is much debate about the use of biometrics invading privacy and taking away personal freedom. Could we be getting sucked into a new generation of society, monopolized by technology that eliminates all forms of human interaction?
Links: http://www.isl-biometrics.com/solutions/biometrics.htm
http://www.vnunet.com/news/1157752

Another area that sounds interesting is the technology of wearable computing. As if having a blackberry wasn’t enough, researchers are coming up with computers that people can wear just like clothing that will enable them to keep in touch 24 hours of the day. Extensive research is going on everywhere; this program at MIT looks particularly interesting. They claim that with features such as “heads-up displays, unobtrusive input devices, personal wireless local area networks, and a host of other context sensing and communication tools, the wearable computer can act as an intelligent assistant”. There is no doubt that the wearable computer will blow away all previous wireless technologies, but it is another technology that is consequently eliminating the need for one on one human interaction in everyday life.
http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/ (with PICTURE! Check it out)

First Post!

Hello, this is my first post, so I'm just trying things out.