Welcome to Information Technology and Society

Week 6

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 (16 Oct 2010) focused was primarily in voice.

This is a transcript from the Fall 2010 course - http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/w/page/InfoTechSoc6_2010FA

[10:58]  Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...
[10:58]  You decline Friends Meeting, Sea Turtle Island (188, 21, 25) from A group member named Scot Jung.
[10:58]  Connected
[10:59]  Deanya Zenfold: :)
[10:59]  Deanya Zenfold: not rendering quite right
[10:59]  Aphilo Aarde: Hi All :)
[10:59]  Roman Takacs: is it from segway ?
[10:59]  Deanya Zenfold: hey!
[10:59]  Roman Takacs: i can barely ride a trike without doing a face plant !
[10:59]  Deanya Zenfold: lol
[10:59]  Aphilo Aarde: Are you riding a Segway or a unicycle, Deanya?
[11:00]  Aphilo Aarde: :)
[11:00]  Deanya Zenfold: it's a unicycle
[11:00]  Aphilo Aarde: or something else?
[11:00]  Deanya Zenfold: my head is supposed to be in the jar
[11:00]  Deanya Zenfold: but it's not rendering quite right
[11:00]  Deanya Zenfold: yes
[11:00]  Roman Takacs: Is there a pollution alert ?
[11:00]  Deanya Zenfold: :)
[11:00]  Deanya Zenfold: lol co2 i assume
[11:00]  Roman Takacs: No2 ?
[11:00]  Deanya Zenfold: sounds good so far
[11:01]  Roman Takacs: It sounds like your head is in a jar !
[11:01]  Deanya Zenfold: i don't think steve will be here again -- he's having to work
[11:02]  Ju Roussel: Hello!
[11:02]  You decline Welcome to Info Tech & Soc from A group member named Aphilo Aarde.
[11:02]  You decline Welcome to Info Tech & Soc from A group member named Aphilo Aarde.
[11:02]  You decline Welcome to Info Tech & Soc from A group member named Aphilo Aarde.
[11:02]  You decline Welcome to Info Tech & Soc from A group member named Aphilo Aarde.
[11:02]  Roman Takacs: Aloha !
[11:03]  You decline Welcome to Info Tech & Soc from A group member named Aphilo Aarde.
[11:04]  Roman Takacs: . o O (Twitter has allowed us to see directly into the brain of 50 Cent. And it's not pretty » http://j.mp/dCDvxL)
[11:04]  Aphilo Aarde: http://blog.ted.com/2010/07/22/a_headset_that/
[11:04]  Roman Takacs: or semi-hemi-demi consciousness ...
[11:05]  Roman Takacs: (FOX-TV consciousness; ...)
[11:05]  Aphilo Aarde: http://www.ted.com/talks/tan_le_a_headset_that_reads_your_brainwaves.html
[11:06]  Aphilo Aarde: Welcome to Info Tech & Soc
[11:06]  Aphilo Aarde: Welcome to Info Tech & Soc
[11:08]  Aphilo Aarde: So Brain to Brain communication in SL with head sets like Tan Le's
[11:08]  Aphilo Aarde: are now a reality ...
[11:08]  Roman Takacs: (or, perhaps, more closely brain to computer to computer to brain)
[11:08]  Aphilo Aarde: Global Consciousness vis-a-vis Marshall McLuhan
[11:08]  Roman Takacs: (oops ! theres a mindvirus !)
[11:08]  Ju Roussel: Won't a difference in IQ mean difficulties of "translation"?
[11:09]  Aphilo Aarde: Internet Protocol
[11:09]  Roman Takacs: Or google protocol, or "filterwall" protocol, ...)
[11:09]  Roman Takacs: Unless you are in a repressive regime...
[11:11]  Roman Takacs: Are you familiar with Herbert Marcuse and the idea of "repressive tolerance" ...
[11:12]  Ju Roussel: google *makes me shiver*
[11:14]  Ju Roussel: did you see the smear campaign against the Open Office?
[11:15]  Deanya Zenfold: no i think the openness is happening
[11:16]  Deanya Zenfold: so no comment really
[11:16]  Ju Roussel: it might be an illusion
[11:16]  Ju Roussel: true information is very costly.
[11:16]  Ju Roussel: and accessible to few, relatively.
[11:17]  Deanya Zenfold: lost voice too
[11:17]  Aphilo Aarde: OLPC is in deployment phase
[11:17]  Ju Roussel: lost your voice, Aphilo!
[11:17]  Roman Takacs: . o O (Oppos ... your voice vanished ! evil IP ! :) )
[11:17]  Aphilo Aarde: And type
[11:17]  Ju Roussel: Googlification creates that feeling of empowerment, and I observe it as delusional... oftentimes
[11:17]  Deanya Zenfold: it's in and out now for me
[11:17]  Aphilo Aarde: My voice audicons
[11:18]  Aphilo Aarde: look like their working
[11:18]  Deanya Zenfold: now you're back
[11:18]  Ju Roussel: in and out
[11:18]  Aphilo Aarde: Yes, Googlification is fascinating ... need more companies with vision ...
[11:18]  Aphilo Aarde: World Univ & Sch?
[11:18]  Aphilo Aarde: Using consensus-process?
[11:19]  Ju Roussel: oh, I listened to an interview with "father" of OLPC today. He said that if he was starting today, they would be tablets :)
[11:19]  Aphilo Aarde: Might be an additional parallel open oriented university and school - to Google that is
[11:19]  Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University
[11:19]  Ju Roussel: good for now!
[11:19]  Aphilo Aarde: How is my voice working?
[11:19]  Aphilo Aarde: OK
[11:19]  Roman Takacs: stilll breaking up here ..
[11:19]  Ju Roussel: As soon as/IF I get some work with living wage, I promise to contribute.
[11:20]  Roman Takacs: Here's a quick link to Herbert Marcuse, see 1D man.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Marcuse
[11:20]  Aphilo Aarde: Thanks for the Marcuse link
[11:20]  Ju Roussel: I'll try to look it up - the name, not sure which podcast it was.
[11:20]  Aphilo Aarde: You're very clear
[11:20]  Deanya Zenfold: both of you are breaking up a bit for me so maybe it's SL
[11:20]  Roman Takacs: now your back ok ...
[11:20]  Ju Roussel: right now- loud and clear
[11:23]  Deanya Zenfold: lol yes!
[11:23]  Aphilo Aarde: :)
[11:23]  Ju Roussel: that's the issue - "crowdsourcing" is expected to be zero cost in-kind contributions...
[11:24]  Ju Roussel: I understand! [funders don't LOL)
[11:24]  Roman Takacs: As MIT says, "knowledge is free, the degree costs money"
[11:25]  Aphilo Aarde: unlimited levels of funding for World University - like IT development in general?
[11:25]  Aphilo Aarde: Freedom
[11:25]  Aphilo Aarde: for academics
[11:28]  Roman Takacs: not so much "missed" the boat, but kept off ... the "appropriate use policy" prohibited commercial applications.
[11:29]  Roman Takacs: They had their own boat ....
[11:29]  Roman Takacs: Their model was more like ISDN ...
[11:29]  Roman Takacs: (Pay by the bit)
[11:37]  Ju Roussel: yep
[11:38]  Deanya Zenfold: lost you again
[11:38]  Roman Takacs: yup
[11:38]  Ju Roussel: ok, back.
[11:38]  Deanya Zenfold: about a minute
[11:38]  Roman Takacs: just after last mile
[11:38]  Aphilo Aarde: Did you hear the 4 kinds of broadband technologies?
[11:38]  Deanya Zenfold: missed the last one
[11:39]  Aphilo Aarde: 4 main kinds of broadband
[11:39]  Aphilo Aarde: 1 Cable, 2 DSL, 3 Fiber Optic 4 cell phone / radio / satellite
[11:40]  Aphilo Aarde: dial up which isn't broadband
[11:40]  Aphilo Aarde: and these allow for bit transmission over Internet Protocol
[11:40]  Aphilo Aarde: IP
[11:41]  Aphilo Aarde: the Networking technologies are often a STAR system - making this distributed network possible
[11:41]  Aphilo Aarde: *
[11:42]  Ju Roussel: yes
[11:43]  Roman Takacs: ;) ...
[11:48]  Roman Takacs: (no one thought that young people would have cell phones :) )
[11:52]  Roman Takacs: ok
[11:52]  Ju Roussel: well
[11:55]  Aphilo Aarde: RFC
[11:56]  Aphilo Aarde: disagreement > lead to agreement > a protocol
[11:57]  Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University
[11:57]  Aphilo Aarde: open committees
[11:58]  Ju Roussel: lost voice
[11:58]  Roman Takacs: what are domains ... /// lost voice ////
[11:58]  Aphilo Aarde: Domains are sets of urls
[11:59]  Aphilo Aarde: Wikipedia.org is a domain, which refers to a url pop.opo.pop.123
[11:59]  Roman Takacs: (oops ... "what are domains" was the last bit package before your voice got lost ... now it's back ...)
[12:00]  Ju Roussel: Amazing... I'm in charge of a website hosted with DreamHost, and setting up a media wiki (Wikipedia platform) now takes seconds... I wonder how the world would look like if this was accessible to lay people with no technical knowledge 10 years ago.
[12:00]  Aphilo Aarde: Jon Postel
[12:01]  You decline Manor Great Hall, Renaissance Island (99, 226, 26) from A group member named Kate Miranda.
[12:02]  Aphilo Aarde: ICANN
[12:03]  Roman Takacs: (a polite way to put it :) )
[12:03]  Aphilo Aarde: :)
[12:03]  Deanya Zenfold: scott, did you say that since 1998, ICANN has been separate from the US gvmt?
[12:04]  Deanya Zenfold: oh you will talk about this when we get back?
[12:04]  Deanya Zenfold: :)
[12:04]  Aphilo Aarde: In ICANN's democractic origins, Europe was less sure that ICANN was separate from the US
[12:04]  Deanya Zenfold: ah!
[12:04]  Aphilo Aarde: :)
[12:09]  You decline Manor Great Hall, Renaissance Island (99, 226, 26) from A group member named Kate Miranda.
[12:15]  Ju Roussel: good
[12:15]  Ju Roussel: I think they might be away for 1 more min.
[12:16]  Roman Takacs: i'm here ...
[12:16]  Deanya Zenfold: kk back sorry
[12:16]  Roman Takacs: tea was slow in brewing !
[12:17]  Roman Takacs: (or Eurpopes role in the Internet age :) )
[12:17]  Aphilo Aarde: China - Rebecca MacKinnon
[12:18]  Aphilo Aarde: CNN correspondent in China
[12:19]  Ju Roussel: "democracy vis-a-vis the internet"... LOST VOICE
[12:19]  Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...
[12:19]  Connected
[12:19]  Deanya Zenfold: scott, watch the top of your head and you can see when your voice drops out
[12:19]  Aphilo Aarde: http://www.webnographers.org/index.php?title=Papers#China_and_Virtual_Ethnography
[12:20]  Ju Roussel: looks like its connected to Scott's browsing ;)
[12:20]  Deanya Zenfold: it's been pretty accurate so far, but we'll keep saying "lost voice" :)
[12:27]  Aphilo Aarde: Xaox cluib
[12:27]  Aphilo Aarde: club
[12:29]  Aphilo Aarde: chaos
[12:29]  Aphilo Aarde: Xaos club
[12:30]  Aphilo Aarde: HIstory of the internet could have been very different
[12:30]  Aphilo Aarde: It could have been top down
[12:30]  Deanya Zenfold: we may be about to get griefed
[12:30]  Aphilo Aarde: It might not have been distributed
[12:30]  Aphilo Aarde: it might not have been free
[12:34]  Aphilo Aarde: good technology
[12:35]  smokey Acer: btw deanya ur head aint aint in the jar lol
[12:35]  Aphilo Aarde: Welcome Smokey
[12:36]  Aphilo Aarde: This is a class on information technology and society, Smokey
[12:36]  smokey Acer: nice
[12:36]  Aphilo Aarde: http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/
[12:36]  Deanya Zenfold: if y'all got voice it's in voice
[12:36]  Ju Roussel: the 2 are not on voice...
[12:37]  Roman Takacs: . o O (RFC is sort of non-blind peer review)
[12:37]  Ju Roussel: Smokey and Chain: this is in voice :)
[12:37]  smokey Acer: ummm let me relog
[12:39]  Aphilo Aarde: Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age - Pekka Himanen, prologue by Linus Torvalds, and epilogue Manuel Castells
[12:39]  Deanya Zenfold: lost voice
[12:39]  smokey Acer: now on voice i think
[12:39]  Roman Takacs: http://www.amazon.com/Hacker-Ethic-Pekka-Himanen/dp/0375505660
[12:41]  smokey Acer: likes robin hood lol
[12:41]  Deanya Zenfold: :)
[12:43]  smokey Acer: chain there talking about u :) lol
[12:43]  Ju Roussel: Chains, enable your voice...
[12:43]  Chains Lowell: oh?
[12:44]  smokey Acer: u got voice chain?
[12:44]  Chains Lowell: i'm afraid i'm on a second window
[12:44]  Chains Lowell: so voice is in the main window
[12:44]  smokey Acer: hes quite interesting tbh
[12:45]  Ju Roussel: bring the alt it, then [the primary window, lol]
[12:45]  Aphilo Aarde: Linux
[12:45]  Aphilo Aarde: Freix
[12:45]  Ju Roussel: he's in Finland it seems: http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/torvalds/
[12:50]  Ju Roussel: oh so it's community-interest-driven (vs. "communitarian" is a quasi ideaology)?
[12:51]  Roman Takacs: "file sharing" ???
[12:51]  Roman Takacs: (thinking of napster ...)
[12:51]  Roman Takacs: Ok./
[12:54]  smokey Acer: talk aboutandroid:) lol
[12:55]  smokey Acer: awwww
[12:55]  smokey Acer: i might forget ab this group lol
[12:57]  smokey Acer: thats what im woried ab android lol
[12:57]  Aphilo Aarde: http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/
[12:57]  Roman Takacs: Thanks again ...
[12:57]  smokey Acer: year thankx to lol
[12:57]  Roman Takacs: See ya next week ... Mole Day, I believe !
[12:57]  Aphilo Aarde: :)

http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/w/page/InfoTechSoc6_2010FA