Society and Information Technology in Second Life

Wednesdays, January 9 - July 30, 2008, 4-6, SLT/PT, 7-9 pm ET

on Berkman island in Second Life - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Berkman/114/70/25

 Course homepage - http://socinfotech.pbwiki.com

 

Instructor: Scott MacLeod (not on Harvard's faculty) = Aphilo Aarde (in Second Life)

http://scottmacleod.com/papers.htm

 

 

[15:59]  Boston Hutchinson is Online

[16:01]  You: Hi Boston!

[16:01]  You: How are you?

[16:01]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi Aphilo!

[16:01]  Boston Hutchinson: Fine thanks, and you?

[16:01]  You: Fine, thanks.

[16:01]  Boston Hutchinson: Everyone's late tonight.

[16:01]  You: How's the electricity transformation going?

[16:02]  Claryssa Schmidt is Online

[16:02]  You: People will be here soon, I suspect.

[16:02]  You: I just saw Claryssa log on.

[16:02]  Boston Hutchinson: Done with everything except NSTAR (the electric company) switch-over

[16:02]  Boston Hutchinson: Last week was a very busy class

[16:02]  You: Sounds like it has gone smoothly, then.

[16:02]  Boston Hutchinson: Yes

[16:03]  You: In what ways?

[16:03]  You: Hi Seeker!

[16:03]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi Seeker.

[16:03]  You: Welcome to Society and Information Technology.

[16:03]  Seeker Schussel: Hey Aphio

[16:03]  You: Hi Claryssa.

[16:03]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi Claryssa

[16:03]  Seeker Schussel: thanks

[16:03]  Claryssa Schmidt: hi

[16:03]  Imper Fegte is Online

[16:04]  You: I don't know whether you've seen this

[16:04]  You: http://socinfotech.pbwiki.com -

[16:04]  SamBivalent Spork is Offline

[16:04]  You: it's the course wiki, and also where I post transcripts.

[16:04]  You: It is a useful resource

[16:05]  You: We've been talking about the Digital Divide recently

[16:05]  You: and we'll continue to do that this evening, and also perhaps touch on

[16:05]  You: more about the future of the Internet.

[16:06]  You: Hi Andromeda.

[16:06]  Covey Homewood is Online

[16:06]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi Andromeda

[16:06]  You: Before we begin I'm curious about all of your thoughts about how to use SL effecively in terms of interaciton and the possibility for conversation.

[16:07]  Movies1963 Beck is Online

[16:07]  Seeker Schussel: like voice vs type?

[16:07]  You: While we do carry forward lectures here,

[16:08]  You: It's also an interesting info tech for sharing exchanging ideas.

[16:08]  Eon Berkman is Online

[16:08]  You: Yes, Seeker, but also I"m curious about the multiple other possibilities that people haven't thought of.

[16:09]  Eon Berkman is Offline

[16:09]  You: For example, conversations can be saved in chat, and referred back to, thus adding to a discussion

[16:09]  Andromeda Mesmer: Sorry - was frozen in TP bug - double TP's continuing.

[16:09]  You: and not everyone has voice - e.g. I don't see Claryssa or Andromeda having white dots above their heads.

[16:09]  You: Hi Evus

[16:09]  Evus Alter: Hi

[16:10]  Seeker Schussel: What do you see in you r crystal ball?

[16:10]  You: So if ideas come to mind during this class, about how to facilitate more interaction or other possible convergences, please let us know.

[16:10]  Evus Alter: I would like tosee more voice when there is lecture.

[16:10]  01 Hifeng is Online

[16:10]  You: I would too, Evus, but two of the 6 people here don't have voice now, I think.

[16:11]  Evus Alter: Then again it seemd to work to present questions or commentsby typing

[16:11]  Seeker Schussel: more orderly too

[16:11]  Seeker Schussel: and easier to reread

[16:11]  You: I'll try, but tonight I'm not in a place where there is silence in the background.

[16:11]  Seeker Schussel: for clarity

[16:11]  You: Thansk . . .

[16:11]  Michele Mrigesh is Offline

[16:12]  Evus Alter: That is a good point. I am nt always in a quiet place

[16:12]  You: So, to continue from last week about the Digital Divide,

[16:12]  You: the debate on DEVELOPMENT

[16:12]  Boston Hutchinson: I'm not always in a quiet place either!

[16:12]  You: has been transformed in the last 10-15 years

[16:12]  You: Hi Korobas

[16:13]  You: The open trade model is a 19th century model.

[16:13]  Korobas Korobase: ooops , wrong window. hello.

[16:13]  You: And doesn't incorporate technology effectively to explain new developments.

[16:14]  You: The new debate is about diffusing information technology and human capacity to the developing world.

[16:14]  You: And this has been called the GLOBAL COMPACT

[16:15]  You: where the goal is to bring information technology to create critical mass to start an analysis of development.

[16:16]  You: So in these past few lectures, we've looked at inequality, poverty and technology to examine the Digital Divide.

[16:16]  Sonja Strom is Online

[16:16]  You: And over the past few weeks, we've also examined the difference between revolution adn restructuring

[16:17]  You: where the system's goals are distinguished from their means.

[16:17]  You: When you change the goals, you have revolution

[16:17]  You: and restructuring is when you change the means but not the goals.

[16:18]  You: In the information technology revolution - the technological paradigm suggest

[16:18]  You: suggest maximaize technology to enhance information processing.

[16:19]  Jeande Laville is Offline

[16:19]  You: To recap what has happened in terms of inequality and poverty

[16:19]  You: from 1975 to 1996, and from 1996 to the turn of the millenium and beyond

[16:19]  You: . . . Before 1975, there was a deep economic crisis, that started a new cycle.

[16:19]  You: especially in the US

[16:19]  Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...

[16:19]  Connected

[16:20]  Spider Mycron is Offline

[16:20]  You: (There was gas rationing and stagflation, and a massive infusion of capital into the US system to create a kind of perestroika in the US

[16:20]  You: - perestroika meaning restructuring in Russian)

[16:21]  You: And in 1976, the crisis was overcome, which lead to a full-fledged restructuring under Reagan.

[16:21]  You: In 1996, 20 years later,

[16:22]  You: there was a full fledged development of the information economy through massive investment

[16:22]  Juria Yoshikawa is Online

[16:22]  You: and in the 1980s and 1990s, we saw the emergence of networking, and the Network Society, vis a vis IT

[16:22]  You: Overall, during this period ,the American economy increased substantially

[16:23]  You: and employment increased dramatically

[16:23]  You: transforming the ability of the US to create jobs.

[16:23]  You: There was massive incorporation of women into the labor force

[16:23]  You: There were downturns

[16:23]  You: ...downturns in 1991, and 1992

[16:24]  You: with the end of the Cold War and a reduction in Defense spending

[16:24]  You: And also joblessness

[16:24]  You: was particualrly concentrated in sourthern California

[16:24]  Mad Thunder Combat HUD 2.3 shouts: Milena Brandenburg has entered Tombstone!

[16:24]  You: 25% of jobs were lost in LA

[16:25]  You: But overall, there was properity and job creation with low inflation

[16:25]  You: At the same time, what happened in household income in real terms

[16:25]  You: (meaning adjusted for inflation)

[16:25]  You: is that real household income stayed the same in the 1970s and 80s, and from 1990 to 95, it went down.

[16:26]  You: And average weekly earning for productive workers declined in real terms.

[16:26]  You: For all workers, except high level managers

[16:26]  You: men's wages declined in real terms.

[16:26]  You: And women closed the income gap, moving

[16:27]  Draxtor Despres is Online

[16:27]  You: from 62% of what men earned for the same work to 75%

[16:27]  You: party because men's wages went down.

[16:27]  You: Flat wages persisted for a long time.

[16:27]  You: And men's went down, while women's rose

[16:28]  You: And household income remained static

[16:28]  You: meaning that women had to work more

[16:28]  You: From 1990-98, in the SF Bay Area

[16:28]  You: the average wage declined by 2%

[16:29]  You: But staggering wealth had been created

[16:29]  Cindy Ecksol is Offline

[16:29]  You: and not just through high stock options, but also through salaries.

[16:29]  You: But an average is an average

[16:29]  You: and although I don't have precise calculations,

[16:30]  You: a strong likely hypothesis

[16:30]  Draxtor Despres is Offline

[16:30]  Juria Yoshikawa is Offline

[16:30]  You: is that clearly 1/3 of the population had increased 30% in income, and 2/3rds had experienced a substantial decline.

[16:30]  You: ... leading to increasing inequality

[16:31]  You: There was an extraordinary increase, then, in the income inequality

[16:31]  Daisyblue Hefferman is Online

[16:31]  You: The richer you are, the faster your income grew, and the poorest 10% in these years, had negative assets

[16:32]  You: And poverty increased over time also

[16:32]  You: 14% of the US population was living below the poverty line

[16:32]  You: --25% lived in poverty in 1996

[16:33]  You: and increasing inequality

[16:33]  You: increasing polarization

[16:33]  You: and increasing poverty all occurred

[16:33]  You: at the same time that the economy was doing well!

[16:33]  You: From 1996 - 2000 things improved

[16:34]  You: in terms of polarization

[16:34]  Sonja Strom is Offline

[16:34]  Arawn Spitteler is Offline

[16:34]  You: This segment grew in terms of the % of what htey had grew faster than the other groups

[16:34]  Diego Ibanez is Online

[16:35]  You: And improved income at a faster rate than the rich's income improved

[16:35]  You: The poor and the not poor became poorer

[16:35]  You: The middle remained stagnant

[16:35]  You: and the rich got richer

[16:36]  You: But poverty also went slightly down to 12%

[16:36]  You: And 18% of the children at this time were in poverty

[16:36]  You: But extreme poverty declined in relative share of the population

[16:36]  Aidan Aquacade is Offline

[16:36]  You: As inequality kept growing.

[16:37]  You: And while the exctreme poor got better,

[16:37]  You: most f the populations vis a vis the top decreased their share

[16:39]  You: How does this work?

[16:39]  You: the average age for this was significantly below what it was in the late 1996

[16:39]  You: In 1996, there was a moderate reversal of trends in extreme poverty

[16:39]  You: for 2 reasons

[16:39]  Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...

[16:41]  Disconnected from in-world Voice Chat

 

[16:46]  Imper Fegte is Online

[16:46]  01 Hifeng is Online

[16:46]  Gentle Heron is Online

[16:46]  Andromeda Mesmer is Online

[16:46]  Dnate Mars is Online

[16:46]  DJWeyayman Howlett is Online

[16:46]  Jon Seattle is Online

[16:46]  Daisyblue Hefferman is Online

[16:46]  Abigail Tinkel is Online

[16:46]  Gwyneth Llewelyn is Online

[16:46]  Bjorlyn Loon is Online

[16:46]  Boston Hutchinson is Online

[16:46]  Barbie Starr is Online

[16:46]  Movies1963 Beck is Online

[16:46]  Geo Meek is Online

[16:46]  Joseph Tisch is Online

[16:46]  JenzZa Misfit is Online

[16:46]  Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...

[16:46]  Connected

[16:46]  Covey Homewood is Online

[16:46]  Diego Ibanez is Online

[16:46]  matrix05 Infinity is Online

[16:46]  You: Hello Again!

[16:46]  You: Sorry!

[16:46]  Evus Alter: welcome back

[16:46]  You: ...for the interruption

[16:47]  You: In 1996, there was a moderate reversal of trends in extreme poverty

 

[15:58]  Gentle Heron is Online

[15:58]  Arawn Spitteler is Online

[15:58]  Jeande Laville is Online

[15:58]  Dnate Mars is Online

[15:58]  Cindy Ecksol is Online

[15:58]  SamBivalent Spork is Online

[15:58]  DJWeyayman Howlett is Online

[15:58]  Jon Seattle is Online

[15:58]  Gwyneth Llewelyn is Online

[15:58]  Abigail Tinkel is Online

[15:58]  Bjorlyn Loon is Online

[15:58]  Barbie Starr is Online

[15:58]  Geo Meek is Online

[15:58]  Andromeda Mesmer is Online

[15:58]  Michele Mrigesh is Online

[15:58]  Joseph Tisch is Online

[15:58]  JenzZa Misfit is Online

[15:58]  Spider Mycron is Online

[15:58]  matrix05 Infinity is Online

[15:58]  Aidan Aquacade is Online

[15:58]  Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...

[15:58]  Connected

[15:58]  You decline Cecilia's at Muse Isle (59, 162, 28) from A group member named JenzZa Misfit.

[15:58]  You decline ::CONTACT:: 3.1  on ::SATURN:: from A group member named Sonja Strom.

[15:58]  You decline ::CONTACT:: 3.1  on ::SATURN:: from A group member named Sonja Strom.

[15:58]  You decline ::CONTACT:: 3.1  on ::SATURN:: from A group member named Sonja Strom.

[15:59]  Boston Hutchinson is Online

[16:00]  You: Hello Boston!

[16:01]  You: Hi Boston!

[16:01]  You: How are you?

[16:01]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi Aphilo!

[16:01]  Boston Hutchinson: Fine thanks, and you?

[16:01]  You: Fine, thanks.

[16:01]  Boston Hutchinson: Everyone's late tonight.

[16:01]  You: How's the electricity transformation going?

[16:02]  Claryssa Schmidt is Online

[16:02]  You: People will be here soon, I suspect.

[16:02]  You: I just saw Claryssa log on.

[16:02]  Boston Hutchinson: Done with everything except NSTAR (the electric company) switch-over

[16:02]  Boston Hutchinson: Last week was a very busy class

[16:02]  You: Sounds like it has gone smoothly, then.

[16:02]  Boston Hutchinson: Yes

[16:03]  You: In what ways?

[16:03]  You: Hi Seeker!

[16:03]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi Seeker.

[16:03]  You: Welcome to Society and Information Technology.

[16:03]  Seeker Schussel: Hey Aphio

[16:03]  You: Hi Claryssa.

[16:03]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi Claryssa

[16:03]  Seeker Schussel: thanks

[16:03]  Claryssa Schmidt: hi

[16:03]  Imper Fegte is Online

[16:04]  You: I don't know whether you've seen this

[16:04]  You: http://socinfotech.pbwiki.com -

[16:04]  SamBivalent Spork is Offline

[16:04]  You: it's the course wiki, and also where I post transcripts.

[16:04]  You: It is a useful resource

[16:05]  You: We've been talking about the Digital Divide recently

[16:05]  You: and we'll continue to do that this evening, and also perhaps touch on

[16:05]  You: more about the future of the Internet.

[16:06]  You: Hi Andromeda.

[16:06]  Covey Homewood is Online

[16:06]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi Andromeda

[16:06]  You: Before we begin I'm curious about all of your thoughts about how to use SL effecively in terms of interaciton and the possibility for conversation.

[16:07]  Movies1963 Beck is Online

[16:07]  Seeker Schussel: like voice vs type?

[16:07]  You: While we do carry forward lectures here,

[16:08]  You: It's also an interesting info tech for sharing exchanging ideas.

[16:08]  Eon Berkman is Online

[16:08]  You: Yes, Seeker, but also I"m curious about the multiple other possibilities that people haven't thought of.

[16:09]  Eon Berkman is Offline

[16:09]  You: For example, conversations can be saved in chat, and referred back to, thus adding to a discussion

[16:09]  Andromeda Mesmer: Sorry - was frozen in TP bug - double TP's continuing.

[16:09]  You: and not everyone has voice - e.g. I don't see Claryssa or Andromeda having white dots above their heads.

[16:09]  You: Hi Evus

[16:09]  Evus Alter: Hi

[16:10]  Seeker Schussel: What do you see in you r crystal ball?

[16:10]  You: So if ideas come to mind during this class, about how to facilitate more interaction or other possible convergences, please let us know.

[16:10]  Evus Alter: I would like tosee more voice when there is lecture.

[16:10]  01 Hifeng is Online

[16:10]  You: I would too, Evus, but two of the 6 people here don't have voice now, I think.

[16:11]  Evus Alter: Then again it seemd to work to present questions or commentsby typing

[16:11]  Seeker Schussel: more orderly too

[16:11]  Seeker Schussel: and easier to reread

[16:11]  You: I'll try, but tonight I'm not in a place where there is silence in the background.

[16:11]  Seeker Schussel: for clarity

[16:11]  You: Thansk . . .

[16:11]  Michele Mrigesh is Offline

[16:12]  Evus Alter: That is a good point. I am nt always in a quiet place

[16:12]  You: So, to continue from last week about the Digital Divide,

[16:12]  You: the debate on DEVELOPMENT

[16:12]  Boston Hutchinson: I'm not always in a quiet place either!

[16:12]  You: has been transformed in the last 10-15 years

[16:12]  You: Hi Korobas

[16:13]  You: The open trade model is a 19th century model.

[16:13]  Korobas Korobase: ooops , wrong window. hello.

[16:13]  You: And doesn't incorporate technology effectively to explain new developments.

[16:14]  You: The new debate is about diffusing information technology and human capacity to the developing world.

[16:14]  You: And this has been called the GLOBAL COMPACT

[16:15]  You: where the goal is to bring information technology to create critical mass to start an analysis of development.

[16:16]  You: So in these past few lectures, we've looked at inequality, poverty and technology to examine the Digital Divide.

[16:16]  Sonja Strom is Online

[16:16]  You: And over the past few weeks, we've also examined the difference between revolution adn restructuring

[16:17]  You: where the system's goals are distinguished from their means.

[16:17]  You: When you change the goals, you have revolution

[16:17]  You: and restructuring is when you change the means but not the goals.

[16:18]  You: In the information technology revolution - the technological paradigm suggest

[16:18]  You: suggest maximaize technology to enhance information processing.

[16:19]  Jeande Laville is Offline

[16:19]  You: To recap what has happened in terms of inequality and poverty

[16:19]  You: from 1975 to 1996, and from 1996 to the turn of the millenium and beyond

[16:19]  You: . . . Before 1975, there was a deep economic crisis, that started a new cycle.

[16:19]  You: especially in the US

[16:19]  Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...

[16:19]  Connected

[16:20]  Spider Mycron is Offline

[16:20]  You: (There was gas rationing and stagflation, and a massive infusion of capital into the US system to create a kind of perestroika in the US

[16:20]  You: - perestroika meaning restructuring in Russian)

[16:21]  You: And in 1976, the crisis was overcome, which lead to a full-fledged restructuring under Reagan.

[16:21]  You: In 1996, 20 years later,

[16:22]  You: there was a full fledged development of the information economy through massive investment

[16:22]  Juria Yoshikawa is Online

[16:22]  You: and in the 1980s and 1990s, we saw the emergence of networking, and the Network Society, vis a vis IT

[16:22]  You: Overall, during this period ,the American economy increased substantially

[16:23]  You: and employment increased dramatically

[16:23]  You: transforming the ability of the US to create jobs.

[16:23]  You: There was massive incorporation of women into the labor force

[16:23]  You: There were downturns

[16:23]  You: ...downturns in 1991, and 1992

[16:24]  You: with the end of the Cold War and a reduction in Defense spending

[16:24]  You: And also joblessness

[16:24]  You: was particualrly concentrated in sourthern California

[16:24]  Mad Thunder Combat HUD 2.3 shouts: Milena Brandenburg has entered Tombstone!

[16:24]  You: 25% of jobs were lost in LA

[16:25]  You: But overall, there was properity and job creation with low inflation

[16:25]  You: At the same time, what happened in household income in real terms

[16:25]  You: (meaning adjusted for inflation)

[16:25]  You: is that real household income stayed the same in the 1970s and 80s, and from 1990 to 95, it went down.

[16:26]  You: And average weekly earning for productive workers declined in real terms.

[16:26]  You: For all workers, except high level managers

[16:26]  You: men's wages declined in real terms.

[16:26]  You: And women closed the income gap, moving

[16:27]  Draxtor Despres is Online

[16:27]  You: from 62% of what men earned for the same work to 75%

[16:27]  You: party because men's wages went down.

[16:27]  You: Flat wages persisted for a long time.

[16:27]  You: And men's went down, while women's rose

[16:28]  You: And household income remained static

[16:28]  You: meaning that women had to work more

[16:28]  You: From 1990-98, in the SF Bay Area

[16:28]  You: the average wage declined by 2%

[16:29]  You: But staggering wealth had been created

[16:29]  Cindy Ecksol is Offline

[16:29]  You: and not just through high stock options, but also through salaries.

[16:29]  You: But an average is an average

[16:29]  You: and although I don't have precise calculations,

[16:30]  You: a strong likely hypothesis

[16:30]  Draxtor Despres is Offline

[16:30]  Juria Yoshikawa is Offline

[16:30]  You: is that clearly 1/3 of the population had increased 30% in income, and 2/3rds had experienced a substantial decline.

[16:30]  You: ... leading to increasing inequality

[16:31]  You: There was an extraordinary increase, then, in the income inequality

[16:31]  Daisyblue Hefferman is Online

[16:31]  You: The richer you are, the faster your income grew, and the poorest 10% in these years, had negative assets

[16:32]  You: And poverty increased over time also

[16:32]  You: 14% of the US population was living below the poverty line

[16:32]  You: --25% lived in poverty in 1996

[16:33]  You: and increasing inequality

[16:33]  You: increasing polarization

[16:33]  You: and increasing poverty all occurred

[16:33]  You: at the same time that the economy was doing well!

[16:33]  You: From 1996 - 2000 things improved

[16:34]  You: in terms of polarization

[16:34]  Sonja Strom is Offline

[16:34]  Arawn Spitteler is Offline

[16:34]  You: This segment grew in terms of the % of what htey had grew faster than the other groups

[16:34]  Diego Ibanez is Online

[16:35]  You: And improved income at a faster rate than the rich's income improved

[16:35]  You: The poor and the not poor became poorer

[16:35]  You: The middle remained stagnant

[16:35]  You: and the rich got richer

[16:36]  You: But poverty also went slightly down to 12%

[16:36]  You: And 18% of the children at this time were in poverty

[16:36]  You: But extreme poverty declined in relative share of the population

[16:36]  Aidan Aquacade is Offline

[16:36]  You: As inequality kept growing.

[16:37]  You: And while the exctreme poor got better,

[16:37]  You: most f the populations vis a vis the top decreased their share

[16:39]  You: How does this work?

[16:39]  You: the average age for this was significantly below what it was in the late 1996

[16:39]  You: In 1996, there was a moderate reversal of trends in extreme poverty

[16:39]  You: for 2 reasons

 

 

 

 

[16:46]  Imper Fegte is Online

[16:46]  01 Hifeng is Online

[16:46]  Gentle Heron is Online

[16:46]  Andromeda Mesmer is Online

[16:46]  Dnate Mars is Online

[16:46]  DJWeyayman Howlett is Online

[16:46]  Jon Seattle is Online

[16:46]  Daisyblue Hefferman is Online

[16:46]  Abigail Tinkel is Online

[16:46]  Gwyneth Llewelyn is Online

[16:46]  Bjorlyn Loon is Online

[16:46]  Boston Hutchinson is Online

[16:46]  Barbie Starr is Online

[16:46]  Movies1963 Beck is Online

[16:46]  Geo Meek is Online

[16:46]  Joseph Tisch is Online

[16:46]  JenzZa Misfit is Online

[16:46]  Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...

[16:46]  Connected

[16:46]  Covey Homewood is Online

[16:46]  Diego Ibanez is Online

[16:46]  matrix05 Infinity is Online

[16:46]  You: Hello Again!

[16:46]  You: Sorry!

[16:46]  Evus Alter: welcome back

[16:46]  You: ...for the interruption

[16:47]  You: In 1996, there was a moderate reversal of trends in extreme poverty

[16:47]  Claryssa Schmidt is Online

[16:47]  PuTzI Fredriksson: h#

[16:47]  PuTzI Fredriksson: Halllooooo

[16:47]  You: hi

[16:47]  You: for 2 reasons

[16:48]  You: 1. the 1996 change of the minimum wage

[16:48]  You: This is the most important measure to alleviate extreme poverty

[16:48]  You: and it went from $5.50 / hr to $6.00 / hr

[16:48]  You: a .50 / hr increase

[16:49]  You: The other significant change occurred because

[16:49]  Michele Mrigesh is Online

[16:49]  You: 2 economic growth became so intense that there was full employment

[16:49]  You: The best antidote for poverty is employment

[16:50]  You: Because the hot new economy created full employment > but there were still pockets

[16:50]  You: of structural unemployment, for example, involuntary retirment >

[16:50]  You: and this led to discouraged workers

[16:51]  You: And overall, because of the minimum wage incrase, and full structural poverty - and with

[16:51]  You: the increase in inequlity >

[16:51]  Alexicon Kurka is Online

[16:51]  You: this inequality and poverty are unequally distributed in terms of income

[16:52]  You: What is the connection betwen the new economy and patterns of inequality?

[16:52]  You: The long term trend >

[16:52]  You: focusing on productivity and a dynamic economy

[16:52]  You: was at the same time a transformation of the economy

[16:53]  You: and moved from manufacturing > to services for large scale corporations

[16:53]  You: and a NETWORKING MODEL

[16:53]  You: How does this work?

[16:54]  You: It used to be that workers were able to extract higher wages through the ability to bargain collectively > to negotiate

[16:54]  You: - And this dramatically changed over time

[16:54]  You: - and corresponds to the decline of organized labor

[16:54]  You: - and the emergence of individualized bargaining

[16:55]  You: that depends on the bargaining power of the indiviudal

[16:55]  You: which, in turn, depends on the educaiton of the individual, and a college degree

[16:55]  You: Fundamentally, it's related to self-programmable labor

[16:56]  You: and this depends on access to education and self-development

[16:56]  You: and it's a highly unequal system

[16:56]  You: So let's stop here for a ten minute pause

[16:56]  You: Questions? Observations?

[16:56]  You: Let's return around 7 minutes past the hour

[16:57]  You: Andromeda?

[16:57]  Andromeda Mesmer: Just that I read somewhere, that labour unions declined during Reagan's time in office.

[16:57]  Andromeda Mesmer: Some laws passed -- not sure of the details.

[16:57]  You: dramatically, and for a variety of reasons . . . we'll explore more of them in the second half of class

[16:58]  You: So, let's meet again at 7 minutes past the hour . . .

[16:58]  You: See you shortly . . . :)

[17:00]  Diego Ibanez is Offline

[17:02]  Alexicon Kurka is Offline

[17:02]  Alexicon Kurka is Online

[17:04]  Maggiedoll Alter: hi

[17:05]  Alexicon Kurka is Offline

[17:07]  Andromeda Mesmer: Hi, Maggie

[17:07]  Dnate Mars is Offline

[17:07]  You: Hi Pella

[17:07]  Pella Nightfire: hello

[17:07]  You: Hello All

[17:08]  Andromeda Mesmer: Hi Aphilo

[17:08]  You: Welcome to "Society and Information Technology" vis a vis long time Berkeley and USC Professor Manuel Castells' research on the Network Society

[17:08]  Imper Fegte is Offline

[17:09]  You: We've been looking at both questions relating to the digital divide, as well

[17:09]  You: as income inequality

[17:10]  You: And before we start to examine a little more about the future of the Internet at around 30 minutes past the hour,

[17:10]  You: let's examine further income inequality

[17:11]  You: Unequal access to jobs depends a lot on education and re-education in the netwrok society

[17:11]  You: and this in turn depends a lot on where you live, and

[17:11]  You: where you live depends a lot on money.

[17:11]  You: So in the Network Society

[17:12]  You: education amplifies structurally the general trend of the individual

[17:12]  You: becoming more significant in the Network Society

[17:13]  You: It's statiscially rare that a barrio dweller would rise - only a

[17:13]  You: small proportion do so

[17:13]  You: To get to university, you first need to graduate from high school, and for this you need some acadeic level

[17:14]  You: Overall, the more you individualize, the bigger the role the market plays

[17:14]  matrix05 Infinity is Offline

[17:14]  You: In the 1970s and 1980s, social benefits were curtaield

[17:14]  Dnate Mars is Online

[17:14]  You: and the social sector was largely diminished

[17:15]  You: Also, siginificantly, the incorporation of women into the market place created inequality

[17:15]  You: because they earn less

[17:15]  You: and also, SIGNIFICANTLY, the

[17:15]  You: crisis of the traditional family (the patriarchal family)

[17:16]  You: had a consequence, leading to a dwindling number of people living together

[17:16]  You: If you take today the typical picture

[17:16]  You: Dad, Mom, and kids - only about 23% of families live in this way

[17:16]  Covey Homewood is Offline

[17:17]  You: Many women who for anumber of reasons couldn't live in the patriarchal family found themselves with children

[17:17]  You: And the growth of immigration

[17:18]  You: had 2 impacts that were major sources of contributions

[17:18]  You: For one, most of this labor are people procuded by other societies

[17:19]  You: If we receive people from other countries, that's a great deal - the cost of producing labor is low

[17:19]  Abigail Tinkel is Offline

[17:19]  You: , if it's procuded in, for example, India or Mexico

[17:19]  You: And secondly, much

[17:20]  You: of the growth of immigration led to a proportion of people coming to the US at a younger age to work

[17:20]  You: So, on the one hand, immigration continues to gorw and on the other hand, they can be paid less

[17:21]  You: Undocumented workers have to accept wage conditions

[17:22]  You: if one then adds them to the calculation, they contribute significantly to increasing inequality

[17:22]  You: These are structural relationships between growth, the economy, and something else

[17:22]  You: - social exclusion by racism

[17:23]  You: For example, William Wilson, in "The Underclass" in 1957, and again "When Work Disappears" in 1997

[17:23]  You: showed overall that there is a huge difference developing between 3 groups of African Americans

[17:24]  You: about 1/3 of whom are the Middle Class

[17:24]  You: through affirmative action in the new economy.

[17:24]  You: And serious econometrics show that African Americans are discriminated against.

[17:25]  You: And this discrimination does not end with the degree of structure in a scoiety

[17:25]  You: The 2nd group - African Americans in the public sector - allow African Americans to get certain kinds of jobs - low level jobs

[17:25]  You: and William Wilson showed that another 1/3

[17:26]  You: live in poverty

[17:26]  You: and disproportionally in poor, ghetto areas

[17:26]  You: What Wilson shows is that there are a number of mechanisms

[17:27]  You: which occur to create the difficult worker

[17:27]  You: - young males to employer relationship doesn't work well for authority reasons

[17:27]  You: - bad public schools

[17:27]  You: - a crisis of family life

[17:28]  You: - and impoversihment of social networks

[17:28]  You: where braoder and denser social networks are critical to find jobs.

[17:29]  You: So, as formal work disappeared for the middle group of African Americans, who had access to poor paying jobs, in the city

[17:29]  You: they don't have the possibility to find new work, because of the above.

[17:29]  You: As soon as that happens, any individual becomes part of social exclusion ?

[17:29]  You: and studies show something similar in Hispanic populations

[17:30]  You: In California, poverty among hispanics is much greater

[17:30]  You: and a substantial portion of the Hispanic population is channelled into limiting opportunity

[17:31]  You: There are 2 key mechanisms of social exclusion, that make it difficult to provide for livelihood

[17:31]  You: 1) Homelessness

[17:31]  You: and 2) the criminal economy

[17:31]  You: So let's pause here,

[17:31]  You: before turning to questions of the future of the Internet

[17:32]  You: Are there questions thus far about social exclusion and racism?

[17:32]  You: and the mechanisms by which they work?

[17:32]  You: Thoughts? observations?

[17:32]  You: I'd like to return to Jonathan Zittrain's

[17:33]  You: "Future of the Internet" to examine where he sees possibilities for hope against a possible lockdown.

[17:33]  You: He's talking tomorrow morning at the Berkman Center's 10th Anniversary Celebration in Cambridge

[17:33]  You: which I'm attending . . .

[17:34]  You: Many of the tlaks will be broadcast

[17:34]  You: Here's the agenda - http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/berkmanat10/agenda

[17:34]  Andromeda Mesmer: Is that RL Berkman or SL Berkman?

[17:34]  Andromeda Mesmer: Or both?

[17:34]  You: And here's Jonathan's blog - http://futureoftheinternet.org/

[17:35]  You: I'm attending RL Berkman, and

[17:35]  You: I think videos will be posted after the fact.

[17:35]  You: I don't know what will be streamed into SL tomorrow and Friday.

[17:35]  You: But Jonathan Zittrain sees

[17:36]  You: more and more appliances coming to define functions and not provide platforms for innovation

[17:36]  You: and he thinks these are sterile technologies

[17:36]  You: Examples include the TiVo, and the iPhone

[17:37]  You: It's very dificult for 3rd parties to code these, and corporations can broadly

[17:37]  You: program them, or reset them remotely

[17:37]  Andromeda Mesmer: TiVo isn't sterile - it allows people a lot of freedom to set their own schedules, surely?

[17:37]  You: Jonathan thinks that Windows is a generative platform, by contrast

[17:38]  You: because anybody can do most anything to it . . . to Microsoft's chagrin

[17:38]  Boston Hutchinson: Appliances versus tools.

[17:38]  You: Yes. So what Jonathan fears is a kind of lock down

[17:38]  Boston Hutchinson: But the purpose of tools is to build appliances

[17:39]  You: And explores possibilities for how the web may remain open

[17:39]  You: And appliances will continue to be built, but the IT revolution is exciting

[17:39]  You: because of the potential for dramatic innovation ahead that is a consequence of generative technologies

[17:40]  Boston Hutchinson: Apple can't lock down the Internet with iPhone. Comcast and AT&T could if they shutdown P2P

[17:40]  You: and these are harder to plan for in terms of business plans.

[17:40]  You: True, Boston, and

[17:40]  You: network neutrality is a cornerstone of generative technologies

[17:41]  You: and worth fighting for

[17:41]  Boston Hutchinson: P2P is currently not very easy to program, because the Internet architecture exposed by the service providers does not allow easy acces to it

[17:41]  You: So Jonathan thinks that it's in a whole range of individuals

[17:42]  Boston Hutchinson: Making P2P access easy is the key to opening up the next wave of innovation

[17:42]  You: creating interesting innovations such as Jimmy Wales and Wikipedia (He's speaking tomorrow at Berkman)

[17:42]  You: and Craig of craigslist.org that innovations will occur

[17:42]  You: Yes. What I'd like to explore in the remaining time is another example

[17:43]  You: for updating the web and thus p2p (How would this work? - http://www.linux.com/feature/133558)

[17:43]  Covey Homewood is Online

[17:44]  You: Brad Neuberg now works for Google, but was hesitant to join, because of a fear of loss of autonomy

[17:45]  You: And, as he observes, he makes browsers do things they aren't supposed to...

[17:45]  You: And Neugerg

[17:46]  You: Neuberg now develops Google Gears

[17:46]  You: as a universal update mechanism for

[17:46]  You: browsers that could helpt keep the web free

[17:47]  You: So, now, while working with Google, he continues to urege the use of particular open standards

[17:47]  You: and suggests that smaller copanies get involved with Gears

[17:47]  You: Neuberg, like Zittrain, thinks that innovation comes from smaller companies and from grass roots

[17:48]  You: He would like more commucation with Mozilla, because their goal is similar -

[17:48]  You: to make the Web newer and more powerful, and to put more stuff onto it

[17:48]  You: hence the need for a web updated

[17:48]  Jayne Urqhart is Online

[17:49]  Covey Homewood is Offline

[17:49]  You: How to expand and extend the web is intriguting as a probelm

[17:49]  You: The question is how to help the Web evolve and to keep it free

[17:50]  You: Since the web as a potetnial applications platform has returned,

[17:50]  Jon Seattle is Offline

[17:50]  You: and HTML has been rebranded as Ajax, he thinks expectiations for the Web have incrased

[17:50]  You: but so are the problems

[17:51]  You: and a multiplicity of options exist - Adobe AIR and Silverlight, for example

[17:51]  Daisyblue Hefferman is Offline

[17:51]  You: so what's signficant to the conversation about the Intenret is how the OPen Web fits these technologies.

[17:52]  You: And also, WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE . . .

[17:52]  You: Hence the need for an update tool

[17:52]  Dnate Mars is Offline

[17:52]  Dnate Mars is Online

[17:53]  You: Neuberg also suggests that only a short time exists for creating these tools, when the web is still in great flux, just as radio and tv had similar breif windows when things crystalizzed . . .

[17:54]  You: For him it's much easier to have one update mechanism, rather than a million different improvements . .

[17:54]  You: but, to my mind, this also risks centralization . . .and risks the loss of some distributed aspects of the Internet

[17:54]  Daisyblue Hefferman is Online

[17:54]  Boston Hutchinson: Exactly

[17:55]  Boston Hutchinson: Sounds like tools to prevent us from accessing the real tools at a lower level

[17:55]  Annette Paster is Online

[17:56]  Boston Hutchinson: What's wrong with TCP/IP, and why are the forces that control the Internet making it so hard to access it?

[17:56]  You: yes, so what to do to preserve the openness, a creative set of opportunities not only shaped by the distributed nature of the Internet, but also by the tension between individuals and groups, as well as commerical interests?

[17:56]  You: What do you mean, Boston?

[17:57]  You: To some degree, it's still the 'backbone' and 'lingua franca'

[17:57]  Boston Hutchinson: Well, you can't have an IP address, for example.

[17:57]  You: but it's also outdated . . .

[17:57]  Abigail Tinkel is Online

[17:57]  Boston Hutchinson: Ports are restricted on some ISPs (less so now I think)

[17:57]  You: and very insecure, as it was designed as an open system

[17:57]  Boston Hutchinson: It's actually completely intact underneath the new stuff. It's hidden

[17:57]  You: an open set of protocos . . .

[17:58]  Andromeda Mesmer: Excuse me, folks -- I've got to leave a bit early today.

[17:58]  Andromeda Mesmer: Bye

[17:58]  You: I, too, have to go

[17:58]  Boston Hutchinson: Bye Andromeda

[17:58]  You: as where I am is closing . .

[17:58]  You: Bye Andromeda

[17:59]  You: So let's meet next week, assuming I can get an internet connection from a remote place . . . I'll post something to

[17:59]  You: the SL group list if I can . .

[17:59]  You: Is everyone here a member of Soc & INfo Tech ~ Aphilo on Berkman?

[17:59]  Annette Paster is Offline

[17:59]  You: Sara? Hifeng?, Evus?

[18:00]  sara Gartenberg: i'm not sure

[18:00]  Evus Alter: not sure

[18:00]  You: Moment

[18:00]  01 Hifeng: yes, i'm in group :)

[18:00]  Evus Alter: I checked. Yes

[18:00]  sara Gartenberg: i'm not in

[18:00]  Annette Paster is Online

[18:01]  You: You are too, Sara . . .

[18:01]  sara Gartenberg: oh okay

[18:01]  You: So let's plan to meet next week at 7 ET, 4 SLT, if I can get a connection

[18:01]  You: and I'll let you know, if I can . . .

[18:01]  Evus Alter: Have a good conference

[18:01]  You: as I'll be ina remoted place

[18:01]  sara Gartenberg: thank you aphilo - looking forward to the next meeting :)

[18:01]  You: thanks :)

[18:01]  You: LIkewise

[18:02]  You: Yw

[18:02]  01 Hifeng: thanks

[18:02]  You: See you soon - I'll post the transcript to http://socinfotech.pbwiki.com

[18:02]  Claryssa Schmidt: thanks Aphilo

[18:02]  Boston Hutchinson: Thanks, Aphilo

[18:02]  Evus Alter: Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brookline, Massachusetts