Internet, Digital Media, Media Covergence Flashcards
The technologies become our existential state
i.e. iPad therefore I am
ontology
• Along with computers, digital music players, and a new generation of touchscreen devices like the ipad, smartphones are part of the general shift to media CONVERGENCE in media devices over the past decade
Smartphones and Media Convergence
The 3 C’s of Convergent Media
- Communication Networks
- Computing/Information Technology
- Content (media)
• The Internet and the WWW in the centre
• ARPAnet
o Created by Department of Defense to enable researchers to share computer processing time
o EMAIL improved communication
o Each computer hub had similar status and power
o No master switch to shut it down
The Birth of the Internet
Distributed Networks
- Centralized network (broken model)
- Decentralized network
- Distributed network (more powerful and useful as a learning technology)
Number of connections in a network =
n(n-1) [approx. n^2]
FILL IN!
Manuel Castells
The Net Widens
• Entrepreneurial stage (the priestly class)
• Early 1970s and to late 1980s
o Microprocessors
• Signaled the Net’s marketability
• Allowed for the first personal computers
o Fiber-optic cable
• Became the standard for transmitting communication data rapidly
Signaled the Net’s marketability
Allowed for the first personal computers
Microprocessors
Became the standard for transmitting communication data rapidly
Fiber-optic cable
Doubling leads to ________; it is exponential
the singularity (29 when technology will become smarter than us?)
- WWW - developed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in late 1980s
- HTML (hypertext markup language) – allows computers to communicate
- Web browsers – allow users to navigate the Web
The World Begins to Browse
• The Internet is ______ than the Web; we don’t have access to them
BIGGER
Users link in through Telephone and Cable Wires
Internet Service Providers (ISP)
• Connect users to proprietary Web system
• Broadband connection have largely replaced dial-up ISP services
Four MYTHS about commercial search engines that the industry has been very good at sustaining:
- Search engines are impartial information tools
- Search engines search the entire Web, gleaning the most relevant results
• Search engines vary greatly, thus offering choice and a competitive marketplace
o Bing vs Google; similar algorithms, similar results
• Search engines are the only place to go for relevant information of the Web
What is being sold?
We are.
Search engines were once considered a failed business idea bc they were only a conduit to other pages
- Lacked stickiness; no one stayed long enough to see advertising
- Search engine portals began experimenting with sponsored links – a list of two or three paying sites that appear above the actual search results
- Bc sponsored links are so highly targeted (they directly relate to search terms that users type in), they become enormously profitable
- Instead of “searching the entire Web” search engines intentionally search through a greater number of PAYING sites
- There is hardly any difference among search engines bc since only a few search engines power almost all the others
- Most discouraging, their results are becoming less and less relevant, marginalizing non-profit-generating information
the software packages that help users navigate the Web
browsers
broadband connections
fill in
an image, text, or sound converted into electronic signals represented as a series of binary numbers (1 and 0) which are then assembled as a precise reproduction of an image, text, or sound
digitial communication
instant messaging
fill in
social media
fill in
enabled people to easily post their ideas to a web site
blogs
enable anyone to edit and contribute to them
Wiki Web sites
exist for the sharing of all types of content from text (fanfiction.net) to photos (Flickr and Photobucket) and videos (Vimeo and Youtube)
content communities
most visible examples of social media
social networking sites
Telecommunications Act of 1996
overhauled the nation’s communications regulations
entry point to the Internet
portal
gather user locations and purchasing habits; these data collecting systems function as consumer surveillance and _____ operations
data mining
the buying and selling of products and services on the Internet
e-commerce
common method that commercial interests use to track browsing habits
cookies
more unethical and intrusive info-gathering software often secretly bundled with free download software
spyware
stronger regulation of policies, such as requiring Web sites to adopt _____ or ____ policies
opt-in or opt-out policies
opt-in –> favoured by consumer and privacy advocates; Web sites must obtain explicit permission from consumers before the sites can collect browsing history data
opt-out policies –> favoured by data-mining corporations allow for the automatic collection of browsing history unless the consumer requests to opt-out of the practice
Internet identity theft which involves phoney email messages that appear to be from official websites asking customers to update their credit card numbers, account passwords, and other personal information
phishing
growing contrast bt information haves and have-nots (those who can/can’t afford internet services)
digital divide
refers to principle that every website and user has the right to the same Internet network speed and access
net neutrality
amateur programmers develop software on the principle that it was a collective effort
open-source software
