Welcome to Information Technology and Society

Week 2

 

Here's the wiki with course material: http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/FrontPage.

 

 

In this class we'll focus on how the information technology revolution developed, especially vis-a-vis long time Berkeley Professor Manuel Castells' research on the Network Society, as well as http://webnographers.org - a wiki bibliography on virtual ethnography.

 

I invite your questions, and I'll post a version of the text from each class to http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/FrontPage over the weeks.

There's already a lot of information on this wiki, which will develop with this class.

 

And please join the Google Group for World University and School - like Wikipedia with MIT Open Course Ware -

http://groups.google.com/group/World-University-and-School.

 

 

This is a transcript from the Fall 2010 course - http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/InfoTechSoc2_2010FA

 

 

As class started, Aphilo Aarde / Scott MacLeod posted some links to the important 

source materials for the class.

 

[2010/09/18 11:09]  Aphilo Aarde: http://www.webnographers.org/index.php??

title=Papers#Second_Life

[2010/09/18 11:10]  Aphilo Aarde: http://www.webnographers.org/index.php??

title=Papers#Virtual_Worlds

[2010/09/18 11:14]  Aphilo Aarde:

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University

[2010/09/18 11:14]  Aphilo Aarde: http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/

[2010/09/18 11:14]  Aphilo Aarde:

http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/Fall2010_Class1Transcript

[2010/09/18 11:16]  Deanya Zenfold: I will be pasting notes into transcript text that

Aphilo Aarde is saying, and I will show those with an "AA:"

[2010/09/18 11:17]  Deanya Zenfold: Last week we examined how this information

technology revolution

 like previous industrial revolutions

 creates synergies between a wide variety of technologies

 and that it's these synergies that become a revolution in many ways.

[2010/09/18 11:18]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: So this information revolution is about

Information.

 

 And it derives from previous industiral revolutions.

 

 And this new paradigm is based on three technologies

 

 1) Microelectronics

 2) Computers

 3) Telecommuncations

[2010/09/18 11:18]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: and it's also based on

 4) Genetic engineering - which is the decoding, recoding and reprogramming of

information codes of living matter.

[2010/09/18 11:22]  Aphilo Aarde: Castells " The Rise of the Network Society"

[2010/09/18 11:22]  Steve100 Juanos: he has some 2nd ed

[2010/09/18 11:22]  Steve100 Juanos: is that the one we should look at

[2010/09/18 11:23]  Aphilo Aarde: http://www.webnographers.org/index.php??

title=Books#Network_Society

[2010/09/18 11:23]  Steve100 Juanos: his 1st ed was in 2000 but apparenlty newer ones

out there

[2010/09/18 11:24]  Deanya Zenfold: http://www.webnographers.org/index.php?title=Books

[2010/09/18 11:25]  Deanya Zenfold: Castells, Manuel. 2009. Communication Power.

Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

[2010/09/18 11:25]  Deanya Zenfold: Castells, Manuel, Mireia Fernandez-Ardevol, Jack

Linchuan Qiu, and Araba Sey. 2006. Mobile Communication and Society: A Global

Perspective. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press

[2010/09/18 11:25]  Deanya Zenfold: Castells, Manuel. 2000. End of Millenium. (Vol. 3 -

2nd ed.). Oxford, England: Blackwell.

 Castells, Manuel. 2003. The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business,

and Society. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

 Castells, Manuel. 2000. The Rise of the Network Society (Vol. 1 - 2nd ed.). Oxford,

England: Blackwell.

 Castells, Manuel. 2004. The Power of Identity (Vol. 2 - 2nd ed.). Oxford, England:

Blackwell.

[2010/09/18 11:26]  Deanya Zenfold: Stalder, Felix. 2006. Manuel Castells: The Theory

of the Network Society. Cambridge, England: Polity.

[2010/09/18 11:27]  Steve100 Juanos: thx

[2010/09/18 11:27]  Steve100 Juanos: ok

[2010/09/18 11:27]  Deanya Zenfold: Steve wants, in future, for us to think about how

technology is being used to forward social media more today.

[2010/09/18 11:27]  Steve100 Juanos: ok

[2010/09/18 11:28]  Deanya Zenfold: http://www.webnographers.org/index.php??

title=Library

[2010/09/18 11:28]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: Computers came from an attempt to build fast

mechanical calculations

[2010/09/18 11:29]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: WWII calculators - the British Collosus and in

Germany the Z3 ... were the precursor to the computer.

[2010/09/18 11:31]  Aphilo Aarde: 1947 ENIAC

[2010/09/18 11:31]  Aphilo Aarde: Mauchly and Eckert

[2010/09/18 11:32]  Aphilo Aarde: UNIVAC I

[2010/09/18 11:32]  Aphilo Aarde: 1951

[2010/09/18 11:36]  Aphilo Aarde: Ed Roberts

[2010/09/18 11:36]  Aphilo Aarde: 1974

[2010/09/18 11:41]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: in 1981 IBM decided to enter the market with a

device called the PC.

[2010/09/18 11:41]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: To ensure maximum techological development,

they opened these technologies ,and diverged from Apple

[2010/09/18 11:42]  Steve100 Juanos: IBM used to call the open technology "vendor"

tech. and it was a radical departure. most ibm chips at the time were called "cans" and

were silver and all about the size of a 50Cent peice

[2010/09/18 11:42]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: Apple didnt' think anyone could produce

cheaper, bigger and better personal computers.

[2010/09/18 11:44]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: PCs didn't have software, until a Harvard

dropout, Gates, and his high school friend, paul Allen, who were hackers

[2010/09/18 11:45]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: took Altairand Roberts' computer, and set up a

software company in Albuquerque

[2010/09/18 11:45]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: They had a key commercial strategy:

[2010/09/18 11:46]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: to develop an OS and sell the OS to the biggest

player, IBM.

[2010/09/18 11:46]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: they convinced IBM to buy their Operating

System

[2010/09/18 11:46]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: But there was one problem - they didn't have an

Operating System

[2010/09/18 11:47]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: They found a Seattle company with as OS, and

bought it from Tim Patterson at Qdos, I think, for $50,000, and sold it to IBM

[2010/09/18 11:47]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: IBM retained the machine royalites, nad MS got

the software royalities.

[2010/09/18 11:48]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: Overall, the average cost of processing

infromation fell $75 / million operations to 100th of 1 cent / million operations.

[2010/09/18 11:55]  Steve100 Juanos: sure

[2010/09/18 11:56]  Aphilo Aarde: http://www.webnographers.org/index.php??

title=Videos#Medicine_in_Virtual_Worlds

[2010/09/18 11:57]  Steve100 Juanos: re: med school etc. wow

[2010/09/18 11:57]  Aphilo Aarde:

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Medical_School_and_Hospital

[2010/09/18 11:58]  Second Life: Items successfully shared.

[2010/09/18 11:58]  Aphilo Aarde: http://brainfingers.com

[2010/09/18 11:59]  Aphilo Aarde:

http://www.ted.com/talks/tan_le_a_headset_that_reads_your_brainwaves.html

[2010/09/18 11:59]  Deanya Zenfold: oh yeah!

[2010/09/18 11:59]  Roman Takacs: . o O (would be fantastic in a classroom of AD fols

:) )

[2010/09/18 11:59]  Roman Takacs: ( folks)

[2010/09/18 12:04]  Steve100 Juanos: cool.

[2010/09/18 12:05]  Deanya Zenfold: yes

[2010/09/18 12:05]  Steve100 Juanos: y

[2010/09/18 12:05]  Roman Takacs: Burloington VT

[2010/09/18 12:05]  Steve100 Juanos: see you.

[2010/09/18 12:06]  Deanya Zenfold: sorry I'm not posting more notes, but I can't quite

find the ones that he's saying.

[2010/09/18 12:06]  Deanya Zenfold: If my computer were faster, I could transcribe a

bit,, but I lag very badly. :(

[2010/09/18 12:07]  Deanya Zenfold: kk i'll brb soon too

[2010/09/18 12:14]  Deanya Zenfold: i'm back -- think I'm going to try transcribing, so

ppl just bear with me and forgive my mispellings> :)

[2010/09/18 12:15]  Aphilo Aarde: Hello again ...

[2010/09/18 12:16]  Roman Takacs: howdie !

[2010/09/18 12:16]  Aphilo Aarde: Future? still TCP/IP ... for example, http / html /

url ... head sets like http://brainfingers.com and

http://www.ted.com/talks/tan_le_a_headset_that_reads_your_brainwaves.html

[2010/09/18 12:18]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: Steve was asking about the future before we

took a break -- about the aspects of the information tech revolution.

[2010/09/18 12:18]  Aphilo Aarde: vis-a-vis virtual worlds

[2010/09/18 12:18]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: What I think is still ahead -- and will be

ahead forever -- is the current backbone of the internet.

[2010/09/18 12:18]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: access to TCPIP

[2010/09/18 12:19]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: VOIP and other protocols that are related to

TCPIP will continue to be very important. URL and SLURLs for example.

[2010/09/18 12:20]  Roman Takacs: . o O (MIT Internet of things, where every device has

an IP address)

[2010/09/18 12:20]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: in the richness of avatar-mediated

communication -- headsets and locations will be important.

[2010/09/18 12:22]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: Roman mentioned MIT's internet of things

[2010/09/18 12:22]  Deanya Zenfold: There's an interesting talk by Neil Gershenfeld

[2010/09/18 12:22]  Deanya Zenfold: Internet Zero

[2010/09/18 12:22]  Deanya Zenfold: at the Library of Congress

[2010/09/18 12:22]  Aphilo Aarde: http://www.c-span.org/congress/digitalfuture.asp

[2010/09/18 12:22]  Deanya Zenfold: Gershenfeld?

[2010/09/18 12:23]  Aphilo Aarde: http://www.webnographers.org/index.php??

title=Videos#Library_of_Congress

[2010/09/18 12:23]  Deanya Zenfold: "Neil Gershenfeld, director of the Center for Bits

and Atoms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Gershenfeld is the author of

"When Things Start to Think." His new concept Internet Zero (0) proposes a new

infrastructure for the existing Internet that would give an IP address to all

electronic devices - from light bulbs to Internet addresses and URLs - and interconnect

them directly, thereby eliminating much intermediating code and server technology. His

topic is "From the Library of Information to the Library of Things." "

[2010/09/18 12:23]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: It is more and more IP ahead is how I see it.

[2010/09/18 12:23]  Roman Takacs: Neil Gershenfeld, http://ng.cba.mit.edu/

[2010/09/18 12:23]  Steve100 Juanos: sure. not right now really.

[2010/09/18 12:24]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: so the third major technology in the revoltion,

in the equation of the synergies that gave rise to the revolution, is

telecommunications.

[2010/09/18 12:25]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: so the first major advancement was node

technology, having to do with switchers and routers, and how calls, early telephony,

were sent.

[2010/09/18 12:25]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: By the 1930s, at Bell Labs, ESS1, and other,

you had the emergence of these technologies.

[2010/09/18 12:27]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: ESS1 was a sophisticated technology that was

not yet digital (I don't think) by the 30s.

[2010/09/18 12:27]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: By the 70s, switches were not manually

manipulated by people.

[2010/09/18 12:28]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: As digital switches can in by the 70s -- a

remarkable transmission technology

[2010/09/18 12:28]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: Since the 30s we had the development of new

cable and new materials for cable -- leading up to fiber optic cable

[2010/09/18 12:29]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: Transmission development in cable, in 1956,

included the Transatlantic cable

[2010/09/18 12:29]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: In 1956 there were 50 circuits -- you could

transmit 50 separate channels of information.

[2010/09/18 12:30]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: In 1998 compared to 1978, data transmission

capacity was 50,000 times larger via satt. communications

[2010/09/18 12:31]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: Cellular techs and transmission since maybe the

1920s, but it was only when chips could be incorporated in cellphones.

[2010/09/18 12:32]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: This growth of cellular tech is an

unprecedented explosion of possibility and they of course will also use TCPIP to link

together and transmit signals.

[2010/09/18 12:33]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: Digital signals can be broken into packets and

sent on diff routes and then rejoined, as opposed to analog signals

[2010/09/18 12:34]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: So that allows for other developments.

[2010/09/18 12:34]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: The US is backward in many ways because of

excessive deregulation and standards

[2010/09/18 12:35]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: These technologies -- transmission and node --

still define how the future can be defined.

[2010/09/18 12:36]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: So these are the three main techs that have

given rise to the revolution: microelectronics, computing, and telecommunications

[2010/09/18 12:36]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: when these converge, you have a global system

of networks, which is represented by the internet.

[2010/09/18 12:38]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: The internet was designed in 1969 by ARPA

[2010/09/18 12:39]  Roman Takacs: Agency

[2010/09/18 12:39]  Deanya Zenfold: Advanced Research Projects Association (I think)

and was fundamentally linked together by scientists in research areas.

[2010/09/18 12:39]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: ARPA was computer scientists working together

to develop these techs that are the internet.

[2010/09/18 12:40]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: The first network became operational in 1972

and it became privatized in 1995.

[2010/09/18 12:40]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: What ARPA made is a key example in the

convergence of computing techs.

[2010/09/18 12:40]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: I want to bring in genetic engineering, in

brief, as the 4th key aspect of this revolution.

[2010/09/18 12:41]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: The genetic engineering revolution has its

beginnings at Cambridge when Crick and Watson discovered DNA.

[2010/09/18 12:42]  Deanya Zenfold: In 1973, scientists Burke and others found ways to

manipulate DNA

[2010/09/18 12:42]  Deanya Zenfold: They found ways to perform gene splicing.

[2010/09/18 12:43]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: In 1975, Harvard isolated the first gene for

mammalia

[2010/09/18 12:43]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: IN 1979, the first human gene was cloned.

 And in 1988, Harvard patented the first living form!

[2010/09/18 12:44]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: So this brings the info tech of patents to the

info tech of life.

[2010/09/18 12:44]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: Harvard thus had a copyright on life.

[2010/09/18 12:45]  Deanya Zenfold: AA:And in 1990, a major research program was

conceived - the Human Genome Program.

[2010/09/18 12:46]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: ... which is the mapping of the entire sequence

of genes and their location.

 The scientists in this project wanted to complete it by 2005

 Both a private company and the government did two parallel projects.

 And they finished by the summer of 2000.

[2010/09/18 12:46]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: 3 or 4 years ahead of their estimated finish

time.

[2010/09/18 12:46]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: How was this done so quickly?

[2010/09/18 12:46]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: Because of the convergence between computing

power and genetic engineering.

[2010/09/18 12:47]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: This allowed them to go 50% faster in

manipulating plants, animals, and organisms.

[2010/09/18 12:47]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: And in 1997, Dolly the sheep, in Scotland, was

cloned - spectacular, but not a big deal.

 It's much more difficult to learn how to use stem cells, which are cells that produce

other cell

[2010/09/18 12:48]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: And in 1999, the first stem cells were cloned.

[2010/09/18 12:48]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: about cloning people. That probably won't

happen for ethical and legal reasons, firstly, and then secondly, what for? There's no

use.

[2010/09/18 12:49]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: The notion of cloning is problematic and

ridiculous because everyone develops in their own environment.

[2010/09/18 12:49]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: clones don't.

[2010/09/18 12:49]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: We don't need to clone whole persons; there are

other ways to accomplish what science fiction would use cloning for.

[2010/09/18 12:50]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: BUT reengineering of genetics is going on.

[2010/09/18 12:50]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: for example, to reprogram stem cells

[2010/09/18 12:50]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: so there is a double development here

[2010/09/18 12:51]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: Microeletronics and Genetics are convergent,

through the ability to use biology and electronics within living matter.

[2010/09/18 12:51]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: heart pacemakers for example.

[2010/09/18 12:52]  Deanya Zenfold: AA: To conclude, we have entered a world that is

constantly processed by multiple sensors linking everywher with everywhere, where

sensors in our body connect with the internet, for example.

[2010/09/18 12:53]  Deanya Zenfold: Any questions?

[2010/09/18 12:53]  Deanya Zenfold: Anything you'd like to share?

[2010/09/18 12:53]  Deanya Zenfold: Would you like to see the Second Life hospita?

[2010/09/18 12:53]  Deanya Zenfold: no

[2010/09/18 12:53]  Deanya Zenfold: yes i would like to

[2010/09/18 12:53]  Deanya Zenfold: haha

[2010/09/18 12:53]  Steve100 Juanos: I have not, no

[2010/09/18 12:53]  Roman Takacs: sure ...

[2010/09/18 12:53]  Steve100 Juanos: sure

[2010/09/18 12:53]  Steve100 Juanos: lets go

[2010/09/18 12:53]  Roman Takacs: if the blood is only virtual blood ...

[2010/09/18 12:53]  Deanya Zenfold: lol

[2010/09/18 12:54]  Aphilo Aarde: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Imperial%20College%?

20London/150/86/27

[2010/09/18 12:54]  Deanya Zenfold: cool

[2010/09/18 12:54]  Second Life: Teleport completed from

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Berkman/144/117/26

[2010/09/18 12:54]  Imperial College London: Deanya Zenfold Welcome to Imperial College

Virtual Hospital. Please register at the reception to be able to treat the patients in

the Respiratory Ward.

[2010/09/18 12:57]  Deanya Zenfold: wow

[2010/09/18 12:57]  Roman Takacs: hmmm .... not a bot

[2010/09/18 12:57]  Roman Takacs: ... not a zombie

[2010/09/18 12:57]  Deanya Zenfold: yea a 1-prim

[2010/09/18 12:58]  Aphilo Aarde: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNpOfDEh9Ds

[2010/09/18 12:58]  Deanya Zenfold: haha the book on the bedside is funny

[2010/09/18 12:59]  Deanya Zenfold: naw but this is cool

[2010/09/18 12:59]  Deanya Zenfold: thank so much!

[2010/09/18 12:59]  Deanya Zenfold: :)

[2010/09/18 12:59]  Steve100 Juanos: thx