After the Dotcom Crash
I know very little about the "Dotcom Crash". It happened during my elementary years, when I was more concerned about getting sweet Pokemon Cards than large economic happenings in The United States. That being said, this article was hard for me to comprehend. Although I believe I understood the basic assertion of the article (the dotcom crash lead to different business practices within the industry), a good deal of the jargon was lost on me. If anyone can sum up this article in a comment below it would be appreciated, although I'm sure we'll go over it in class.
History of the Internet and Flexible Future
Definitely my favorite article. One quote that resonated with me early on was "The secret power of the internet lies in the fact that it encourages everyone to contribute their creative ideas, knowledge and works and make them available to others interactively on the internet". I find this to be very true. The appeal of the internet is the mass amount of data available to you, social, political, scientific, you name it.
One thing that kind of freaked me out a little was the prediction of "Body Net". I think that yes, one day computers and humans will be linked, but not in the way that the author was describing. The idea that my thoughts, biometric readings and other "personal" aspects of my body might be susceptible to cyber assault or hacking is not very pleasant.
However, the last section of the article on smart phones was spot on. Technology is rapidly condensing into one single unit, namely the smartphone. I was not a believer in this until I played with my girlfriend's smartphone. It's amazing! You can do anything on it, and I'm currently in the market for one.
Market Ideology and Myths of Web 2.0
Not as big of a fan of this article. If found the first half to simply attempt to dispel any sort of preconceived notions I had about the internet. Namely, that recent developments that people are heralding as "breakthroughs" are really decade old norms of the internet. Does this affect me in any way? I think not.
The one thing I did find interesting was the idea of "crowdsourcing" and how it's not constricted to the virtual world.
A memorable quote: "The social web cannot be the all mighty teacher, healer and redeemer for everything that went astray in society"
Amen.
Mass Psychology of the Net
The author sounds like a burnt out beatnick reciting one of his poems. A lot was lost on me. However I did like the section (stanza?) where he discussed the coming regulation of the internet. This is something that I fear: that the internet might one day not be as free and open as it is now.
Recent Futures of the Internet
Oh, this guy again. To me it seems like the author is lamenting the loss of individuality and revolutionary momentum that the internet had in it's early days. Get with the times, man. The internet, like the people who created it, is a organic and ever changing body. We can't get hung up on what was, rather, we should direct where it is going.
The Past and Future History of the Internet
A lot of the content here I found while doing research for our timeline. Like the first article, a lot of the technical jargon was lost on me. I did, however, like the section where the author predicts the future of the internet. It's exciting to me to think about where technology could take the human race in upcoming years.
This is an excellent post. I appreciate that you engage all the articles. Your comments on 'After the Dotcom Crash' make me think that it might be a good idea for us as a class to go over the text in detail (a close reading).
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to comment on your paragraph about the "Body Net," you assert that it won't happen just because you don't want it to. I don't know if that's what you meant, but either way I see this as somewhat of an inevitability.
ReplyDeleteAssuming that it won't be mandatory (at first, right?) you will likely be enticed into it by some combination of marketing and peer pressure like with most things in commercial society.
"Oh man I was just watching a movie on the back of my eyelids while downloading mad beatboxing skills directly into my brain, excuse me while I pick up a car and move it out of my way so that I can leap over this building without smashing it"
It might be hard not to sign up for the vulnerabilities (and the subtle mind control!)
Then again, it will probably be something that divides the rich and privileged from the poor... I think the question is which of this two groups is the one without the chip? :)