| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

InfoTechSoc10_2010FA

Page history last edited by helianth 13 years, 4 months ago

Welcome to Information Technology and Society

Week 10

 

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.

 

 

Today's class (13 Nov 2010) was primarily in voice.

 

 

 





[11:00]  Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...
[11:00]  Aphilo Aarde: Hello Roman!
[11:00]  Connected
[11:00]  Roman Takacs: Aloha ....
[11:00]  Aphilo Aarde: Aloha ... how are you?
[11:00]  Roman Takacs: So far, I've only landed directly in the chair once !
[11:00]  Roman Takacs: Maybe I should just pratice that skill :)
[11:01]  Aphilo Aarde: :) You can probably create a landmark out of it, but not with a 'sit here'
[11:01]  Aphilo Aarde: script, as far as I know ...
[11:01]  Roman Takacs: Otherwise fine ... it's a sunny, 52 degrees here in burlington ... got my bike ride in, and have 80 km to go (2 more rides) to hit the 3000 km mark !
[11:01]  Aphilo Aarde: Go to World in the menu above, click on "Create Landmark Here" while you're sitting
[11:01]  Roman Takacs: (except that the neighbors have their leaf blowing machine on ...)
[11:02]  Roman Takacs: (and we live next to the woods !)
[11:02]  Aphilo Aarde: and then go to your inventory next time, and then "Landmarks"
[11:02]  Aphilo Aarde: Burlington sounds lovely - especially the weather at this time of year ... it's nice
[11:02]  Aphilo Aarde: here in Berkeley, as well :)
[11:03]  Roman Takacs: I can imagine ... my first year out there I spent the month of October sitting on the steps in Sproul Plaza !
[11:03]  Aphilo Aarde: long rides!
[11:03]  Aphilo Aarde: I find California weather dreamy :)
[11:03]  Roman Takacs: I live next to a bike path, and that taks me from my end to the far end ...
[11:04]  Aphilo Aarde: What years were you at Cal?
[11:04]  Roman Takacs: 61 - 64 ,,
[11:04]  Roman Takacs: was involved in the Nelson Rockerfeller activities that led to the FSM :)
[11:05]  Aphilo Aarde: I just found "Women of the Beat Generation" in the Berkeley Public Library dating from 1996 ... but starting with women from the 50s ... who were influential
[11:05]  Roman Takacs: (Registering Democrats as Republicans to block Barry Goldwater in the primaries)
[11:05]  Roman Takacs: Ah !!!!
[11:05]  Aphilo Aarde: What did you get up to ?
[11:05]  Roman Takacs: Does Melvina Reynolds count as a "Beatnik" ? :)
[11:05]  Roman Takacs: Up to ?
[11:05]  Aphilo Aarde: Beats were around in the 50s ...
[11:06]  Aphilo Aarde: not in this collection ...
[11:06]  Roman Takacs: There was still some in my time there ... but things were beginning to move to the "underground film movement" (Stan Breckage, ....)
[11:06]  Aphilo Aarde: Did you know Mario - in the 'it's a smal world" world
[11:06]  Roman Takacs: No, never met him. And never had a chance to visit his barl.
[11:06]  Aphilo Aarde: Don't see Melvina Reynolds in this collection
[11:07]  Roman Takacs: She's probably in the Pete Seger Folk Set tradition, I guess ...
[11:07]  Aphilo Aarde: Would be great to show some of these films at World Univ & Schs 'Film' subject ... and WUaS's Beat subject
[11:08]  Roman Takacs: Which films ?
[11:08]  Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Film - relating to o the "underground film movement" (Stan Breckage, ....)
[11:08]  Roman Takacs: (kenneth anger ...another Underground person)
[11:08]  Roman Takacs: (Ah !)
[11:09]  Roman Takacs: (Kustom Kar Kommando ... redating "AmeriKa" :) )
[11:09]  Aphilo Aarde: And in this subject: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/1960s
[11:09]  Aphilo Aarde: You got around ...
[11:09]  Aphilo Aarde: what did kenneth anger do?
[11:09]  Jules Baguier: Hi!
[11:10]  Aphilo Aarde: (I'm young).
[11:10]  Aphilo Aarde: Hi Jules
[11:10]  Roman Takacs: He was abnother film maker that was active ...
[11:10]  Jules Baguier: Cool!
[11:10]  Aphilo Aarde: http://socinfotech.pbworks.com
[11:10]  Jules Baguier: Ahh
[11:10]  Roman Takacs: The "gap" between the Beats and the Hippies :)
[11:11]  Roman Takacs: "culture" and the culture of the late 60s and early 70s influenced cyberculture :)
[11:12]  Aphilo Aarde: I'm very interested in the culture vis-a-vis the 1960s ...
[11:13]  Jules Baguier: Hopefully, as this goes on!
[11:13]  Aphilo Aarde: There two ways to communicate in this class
[11:13]  Aphilo Aarde: Feel to free to speak - observations questions ...
[11:13]  Jules Baguier: Though I'm feeling guilty for interrupting the Beats vs Hippies discussions. Who are the Beats?
[11:13]  Aphilo Aarde: AND also to generate conversation in the type chat ... which perhaps can be responded later ...
[11:13]  Aphilo Aarde: :)
[11:16]  Roman Takacs: Beats? were there ever more than 6 of themm ?
[11:16]  Roman Takacs: :)
[11:16]  Aphilo Aarde: Roman - what would you add?
[11:16]  Aphilo Aarde: :)
[11:17]  Aphilo Aarde: Are you all able to hear alright?
[11:17]  Roman Takacs: They were never a "mass " movement ...
[11:17]  Aphilo Aarde: yes
[11:17]  Jules Baguier: I hear you well
[11:17]  Aphilo Aarde: Jules - do you want to do a sound check?
[11:17]  Aphilo Aarde: And Roman ? - sound check?
[11:17]  Roman Takacs: like the civil rights, antiwar, musicic festivals ...
[11:17]  Aphilo Aarde: great
[11:17]  Jules Baguier: I'll go on typing, probbably. I hear you well.
[11:17]  Aphilo Aarde: ok
[11:18]  Aphilo Aarde: How familiar are you with Second Life?
[11:18]  Jules Baguier: Pretty much!
[11:18]  Aphilo Aarde: :)
[11:22]  Jules Baguier: this means I'll be going through the course's PBworks :)
[11:24]  Aphilo Aarde: PEN program - in Santa Monica
[11:26]  Aphilo Aarde: OASIS - OPen Source Standards
[11:26]  Aphilo Aarde: http://Webnographers.org
[11:27]  Aphilo Aarde: http://www.webnographers.org/index.php?title=Papers#Open_Government_and_Virtual_Ethnography
[11:28]  Aphilo Aarde: CEN -
[11:28]  Aphilo Aarde: European Standards' agency
[11:28]  Aphilo Aarde: LegalXML
[11:28]  Aphilo Aarde: XML - is a computer language - a development from html - hypertext markup language
[11:28]  Aphilo Aarde: which is language of web pages - still - significantly.
[11:29]  Aphilo Aarde: xml - unlike html - allows you to write your own tags - as well as vary the content inside the tags
[11:29]  Aphilo Aarde: <p> content on open government </p>
[11:30]  Aphilo Aarde: LegalXML
[11:32]  Aphilo Aarde: Amsterdam Digital City
[11:32]  Aphilo Aarde: started in 1994
[11:32]  Aphilo Aarde: still exists
[11:32]  Aphilo Aarde: DDS website
[11:33]  Aphilo Aarde: most sophisticated at that time
[11:33]  Aphilo Aarde: Neal Stephenson "Snow Crash"
[11:34]  Aphilo Aarde: where in about 7 pages .. .he outlines in writing the possibility of a virtual world .. which then inspired a number of folks to code Second Life
[11:35]  Aphilo Aarde: Squat
[11:41]  Jules Baguier: =)
[11:44]  Aphilo Aarde: Galactic Hackers' party - 1st open party
[11:44]  Aphilo Aarde: in 1989
[11:44]  Aphilo Aarde: and in 1990 - Zero Postivie ball
[11:46]  Jules Baguier: hm... no...
[11:46]  Roman Takacs: There used to be "Diversity University", a university in MUDS
[11:46]  Roman Takacs: And Usenet Univeresity, which was it's predecessor ...
[11:47]  Aphilo Aarde: (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University)
[11:47]  Roman Takacs: Markus Speth (I think that's the spelling), taught quantum mechanics there ..
[11:47]  Roman Takacs: 1992 aprox
[11:48]  Roman Takacs: I'd have to dig out some stuff ...
[11:51]  Roman Takacs: "Less is more" :)
[11:52]  Aphilo Aarde: That concludes what I have to say about social change and networks
[11:52]  Aphilo Aarde: New topic -
[11:53]  Aphilo Aarde: The New Economy and Technology
[11:53]  Aphilo Aarde: Road Map
[11:53]  Aphilo Aarde: not the economy of .com companies, or internet companies
[11:53]  Aphilo Aarde: It's the economy of companies that work by the internet, and around the internet
[11:54]  Aphilo Aarde: ... so what used to be the industrial economy ... which was previously originally about electricity
[11:54]  Aphilo Aarde: NEW ECONOMY
[11:54]  Aphilo Aarde: 3 interrelated features
[11:54]  Aphilo Aarde: 1 Global
[11:54]  Aphilo Aarde: 2 Networked - ebusiness
[11:54]  Aphilo Aarde: 3
[11:54]  Aphilo Aarde: Information
[11:55]  Aphilo Aarde: Networking form - eBusiness
[11:55]  Aphilo Aarde: and it's organized around electronic communications
[11:55]  Aphilo Aarde: Producitivty depends on knowledge generation and information processing
[11:56]  Aphilo Aarde: Globalization
[11:56]  Aphilo Aarde: 2 aspects (that I'll focus on)
[11:56]  Aphilo Aarde: 1 Dimensions of trade
[11:56]  Aphilo Aarde: 2 What happens in terms of globalization?
[11:56]  Aphilo Aarde: ... at the world level
[11:56]  Aphilo Aarde: Who is included?
[11:56]  Aphilo Aarde: excluded? And why?
[11:57]  Aphilo Aarde: the economic model is based on Information Technology - which is microelectronics- based
[11:58]  Aphilo Aarde: thanks to chips and processors, this new economy becomes possible
[11:58]  Aphilo Aarde: With the microelectronic economy - you wouldn't have globalization
[11:58]  Aphilo Aarde: My argument is:
[11:58]  Aphilo Aarde: (vis-a-vis questions of technological determinism )
[11:59]  Aphilo Aarde: is that it is NOT technology that creates society
[11:59]  Aphilo Aarde: but the network society wouldn't exist without it
[11:59]  Aphilo Aarde: Our society is not produced by technolgoy ... but this techology makes possible these new kinds of organization
[12:00]  Aphilo Aarde: GLOBALIZATION
[12:00]  Roman Takacs: (get a skate board :) )
[12:00]  Aphilo Aarde: :)
[12:00]  Jules Baguier: Awesome!
[12:00]  Roman Takacs: ....
[12:11]  Roman Takacs: Comment on globalization: Joseph Weisenbaum, in Computer Power and Human Reason, argues similarly … corporate pressures towards globalization (record keeping, communication, …) nurtured the technologies needed to get there … which partly explains why the prediction that the world only needed 6 computers was mistaken :)
[12:11]  Roman Takacs: Note on earlier online universities: Diversity University on Wikiversity …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity_University

Globewide Network Academy
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Globewide_Network_Academy
[12:17]  Aphilo Aarde: Hello
[12:17]  Aphilo Aarde: Thanks ... for that link
[12:18]  Roman Takacs: (I was looking for the new electric skateboard replacement ... :)
[12:18]  Aphilo Aarde: I'm looking for the list of both great universities at World University and School - with their growning open, free teaching and learning resources
[12:19]  Aphilo Aarde: as well as a list of university and school projects that are open, free and fascinating
[12:19]  Roman Takacs: There used to be a large collection at Rice University
[12:19]  Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses
[12:19]  Roman Takacs: "Learning is free, degrees cost money"
[12:19]  Aphilo Aarde: Both lists are on the 'COURSES' page
[12:20]  Aphilo Aarde: at WUaS including the Rice courses
[12:20]  Aphilo Aarde: There's a also a free Harvard Doctoral degree (on the ground) in education for 25 students
[12:20]  Aphilo Aarde: in 2011 and 2012 listed at WUaS
[12:20]  Roman Takacs: (with 3500 higher ed universities in the US alone, each offering 500 - 1000 courses ...)
[12:20]  Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Free_Degree_Programs
[12:21]  Aphilo Aarde: Great Univerities' free open content: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#University_course_listings
[12:21]  Roman Takacs: I saw the harvard one ... harvard has the endownment to provide free college for all of their students ...
[12:21]  Aphilo Aarde: And here's where Wikiversity et al are listed: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Course_listings.27_aggregates
[12:22]  Roman Takacs: They don't need tuition ... at least for the financing of education ...
[12:22]  Aphilo Aarde: But nothing I've seen compares with MIT OCW
[12:22]  Roman Takacs: (nothing copares with MIT :) )
[12:22]  Aphilo Aarde: :)
[12:22]  Jules Baguier: :)
[12:22]  Roman Takacs: MIT press is a mindboggling publisher ....
[12:25]  Aphilo Aarde: Global Economy today
[12:25]  Aphilo Aarde: has the capacity as a unit to work as a unit in real time on a planetary scale
[12:25]  Aphilo Aarde: Capacity:
[12:25]  Aphilo Aarde: 1 technological
[12:25]  Aphilo Aarde: 2 organizational
[12:25]  Aphilo Aarde: 3 institutional
[12:29]  Aphilo Aarde: 1 Liberalization
[12:29]  Aphilo Aarde: 2 privatization
[12:29]  Aphilo Aarde: 3 deregulation
[12:31]  Aphilo Aarde: 1 Production
[12:39]  Aphilo Aarde: 53,600 multinationals
[12:39]  Aphilo Aarde: 416,000 auxiliaries
[12:42]  Jules Baguier: lol...
[12:42]  Jules Baguier: love your description
[12:43]  Jules Baguier: I often think of what could be an alternative, in case if world-wide governance was available... Like banning multinationals, forcing them to became local franchises!
[12:44]  Jules Baguier: exactly
[12:44]  Roman Takacs: . o O (I suspect the "financial management:" would trump this ...)
[12:46]  Aphilo Aarde: Foreign Direct Investment
[12:46]  Aphilo Aarde: 2 Mergers and Acquistions
[12:47]  Aphilo Aarde: 2 Trade
[12:50]  Aphilo Aarde: Competitiveness
[12:50]  Aphilo Aarde: Produce a) BETTER
[12:50]  Aphilo Aarde: or b) CHEAPER
[12:52]  Roman Takacs: I've always have "peak oil" in the back of my mind ...
[12:52]  Roman Takacs: so I think about other things vis a vis that ...
[12:53]  Roman Takacs: e.g. "cellphone" versus "oil"
[12:53]  Roman Takacs: "rice" versus "oil"
[12:53]  Roman Takacs: etc
[12:53]  Jules Baguier: I was thinking about the financial trade --> use of technology to "never fail" the trader --> current G20 currencies war.
[12:53]  Aphilo Aarde: Developments of and changes in "peak oil" may transform aspects of shipping and distribution in this global economy but not its real time as unit aspect due to IT
[12:53]  Roman Takacs: World finance gives me a headache :)
[12:54]  Jules Baguier: Do you perceive cellphone then as a more "ethical" object to produce..?
[12:54]  Aphilo Aarde: IT perhaps allows for a lot of new ways around loss of an oil economy
[12:54]  Roman Takacs: Oil, though, shapes at least the American economy (cities, suburbs, distribution, ....)
[12:54]  Aphilo Aarde: Here's a fascinating video about energy possibilities ahead at Columbia University
[12:55]  Aphilo Aarde: will get it shortly
[12:55]  Aphilo Aarde: Good questions, Jules
[12:55]  Roman Takacs: Oil, though, is also tightly linked to world finances ...
[12:56]  Aphilo Aarde: Y2K was a widespread media concern 10 years ago ... about computing technology not being designed to deal with
[12:56]  Roman Takacs: not just petro dollars but evaluation ...
[12:56]  Roman Takacs: $500 a barrel oil "shock"
[12:56]  Aphilo Aarde: the year 2000, due to lack of planning - and on a planetary scale ... as a recent example ...
[12:57]  Aphilo Aarde: But what redundancy is built into the system as a network, for a global financial meltdown?
[12:57]  Roman Takacs: Y2K is now reincarnated by "cyberwar"
[12:57]  Jules Baguier: some of that is touched upon in this week's BusinessWeek
[12:58]  Aphilo Aarde: and the expansion of financial instruments is another example of technologically influenced new forms of finance
[12:58]  Jules Baguier: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_47/b4204010295206.htm?chan=magazine+channel_opening+remarks
[12:59]  Aphilo Aarde: Vis-a-vis the cell phone ... in one sense, I see the social criteria of socially consciousness mutual funds - e.g. Domini, Vanguage Social Index, TIAA CREF social equity
[12:59]  Aphilo Aarde: as important ethical criteria - and cell phone companies are generally in these companies' holdings
[12:59]  Roman Takacs: @jules ... thanks for the hint ... saw the "How Baidu won China" [sic] article ...
[12:59]  Jules Baguier: I was impressed by "2 miliseconds" per full transaction - starting with data analysis - in High-frequency trading.
[13:00]  Aphilo Aarde: so, yes ... but when social fabric of life - parents committing their daughters to factories occurs - I wonder ... you?
[13:00]  Roman Takacs: *1/10 the time it takes a cat to get a sip of milk from a plate to it's mouth !
[13:01]  Roman Takacs: ... I made a note of that ... which countries ? (Thinking about the chinese family model of 1 child with boys heavily favored ...)
[13:01]  Aphilo Aarde: that is impressive ... and certainly advantages some traders
[13:01]  Jules Baguier: Yes... I get sick everytime I read about Amazon's Mechanical Turks... - it does not even take a multinational to abuse workforce in developping countries. You can do it as an individual.
[13:01]  Aphilo Aarde: but only some ... many loose ... it's such a HIGH RISK business
[13:02]  Jules Baguier: Roman, one child per family is not the reality. China is performing census now... lots of second/third children resurfacing.
[13:02]  Aphilo Aarde: Yes, I worry about this to ... but it does build on the benefits of crowdsourcing IT ... how to do this ethically - the efficiencies can be great
[13:03]  Aphilo Aarde: Two videos - one on Energy and Global Warming - v-a-v your earlier question, Roman
[13:03]  Aphilo Aarde: Select WebsitesEdit href= Edit

Climate-L.org. 2010. Climate-L.org - A Knowledge-base of UN and Intergovernmental Activities Addressing Climate Change Policy. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada: International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Reporting Services.

Gagosian, Robert B. 2003. Abrupt Climate Change: Should We Be Worried?. Woods Hole, MA: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Heede, Richard. 2002. Cool Citizens: Everyday Solutions to Climate Change: Household Solutions. Snowmass, CO: Rocky Mountain Institute.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 2010. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Geneva, Switzerland: IPCC Secretariat.

McKibben, Bill. 2010. 350.org. (350.org is an international campaign that's building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis--the solutions that science and justice demand. Our mission is to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis—to create a new sense of urgency and of possibil
[13:04]  Aphilo Aarde: Here: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/12/cool-climate-film-takes-on-truth/ - part way down
[13:04]  Aphilo Aarde: Also, here: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Ocean_%26_Climate_Management_Plan
[13:04]  Aphilo Aarde: And about crowdsourcing writing - for academics -
[13:05]  Aphilo Aarde: http://www.webnographers.org/index.php?title=Videos#Crowdsourcing_and_Virtual_Ethnography
[13:05]  Roman Takacs: Hasn't academic writing always been crowdsourced ? (to graduate students :) )
[13:05]  Aphilo Aarde: but not necessarily about Mechanical Turk
[13:05]  Aphilo Aarde: :)
[13:06]  Aphilo Aarde: Bernstein, Michael S. 2010. Soylent: A Word Processor With A Crowd Inside. (Soylent is a crowd-powered add-in for Microsoft Word. It enables interactive shortening, smart proofreading, and open-ended requests by recruiting help from crowd workers on Amazon Mechanical Turk). Cambridge, MA: MIT.
[13:06]  Jules Baguier: What do you mean? Grad studies are the loneliest times of life :)
[13:06]  Roman Takacs: (There's that MIT Press again !)
[13:07]  Aphilo Aarde: So ... thanks for coming ...
[13:07]  Jules Baguier: http://collaborative-futures.org/
[13:07]  Aphilo Aarde: Thanks, Jules!
[13:07]  Jules Baguier: Thank You Aphilo! Lots to think about!
[13:07]  Aphilo Aarde: Let's talk further ... likewsie ..
[13:08]  Jules Baguier: Take care. Bye.
[13:08]  Roman Takacs: thanks ... good sesssion ...
[13:08]  Aphilo Aarde: Bye for now ...

 

 

 

 

http://socinfotech.pbworks.com

 

 

 

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.