Chloe

Week8- Phase4: Build and Integrate

2007-02-27T01:19:00.001-08:00

This article provides a great overview to assist us for the website production. It introduces some new concepts like client spec sheet, slicing, splicing, backend & front-end integration, and some QA methods. I believe that they will be useful in our project and my future job.

Before the construction begins, we have to review the usable space, what the client wants, technical support, and our goals of the website. As far as I’m concerned, in this stage of the project, what’s the most important is QA (Quality assurance). We should make sure that we have already included all resources with time for fixes. If QA is completed carelessly and even ignored, some embarrassing or frustrating situations would happen.

Nowadays, the website plays a significant role in most companies. A nice website not only allows audiences to understand more information about the company, but also brings a lot of revenue from its clients. I believe that as long as we can do QA as well as possible before we publishing our website, we would gain much unimaginable benefits.

Three Websites For E-entertainment

2007-02-18T19:52:00.001-08:00

The definition of the entertainment website: the websites where people like going to in leisure time for fun/amusement.

MSN Games
http://zone.msn.com/en/root/default.htm
The Msn Zone offers hundreds kinds of computer games for players by two different ways. First, players can download games into their PC and play them without connecting internet. Secondly, players can play games online without paying anything. However, it will have some advertisements emerging during playing games, and it also has some drawbacks, such as it would limit the functions of the game or limit playing time.

E! Online
http://www.eonline.com/
This website shows us many news and information about celebrities, movie stars and provides a lot of pictures and gossips for amusement.

GameSpot
http://www.gamespot.com/
This website provides a lot of information about video and computer games. Players can get useful details of all games there and understand some relative news; besides, players can download some interesting online game or buy games and related equipments on this website.

Week7- Visual Design & Web 2.0

2007-02-16T13:49:00.000-08:00

When we visit one website which has both a great visual design and nice interface design to lead audiences to use easily, this experience is like listening to wonderful music, enjoying a play, and reading a poem. We would enjoy in the pleasant atmosphere to see the content of that website. Aesthetic experience occurs everywhere and gives the feeling of what is the difference between reality and simulation. In my opinions, a good and well designed website enables the users to have a unique experience that no other site can offer and what is defined as aesthetic. The article “Aesthetic Experience and the Importance of Visual Composition in Information Design” provides some key tools to help create aesthesis: Grid System, ABA Form and the rule of thirds.

The author stressed the importance of visual composition in information design, which is often neglected by the usability-orientated designers. The “look and feel" of a website is an integral part of the information design structure, rather than merely serves as a decoration of the information. The visual composition of information should be simultaneously applied with the structure and the information design. Hence, a good visual composition could enhance the communication ability of the website. As far as I’m concerned, visual composition and usability is correlated without confliction. Except for underlined links, color change in links for visited pages, and common terminology with a familiar and comfortable environment when accessing the website, designers should create a wonderful visual design on the content layout in order to bring more interests to the website for the users.

Another reading “Web 2.0: Mistaking the Forest for the Trees” mentions that Web 2.0 is user-centric. What works for the user will shape the future of the web. Content should be organized in a way that users understand and easily located in a flat navigation; besides, designers have to take into consideration multimedia, like flash, video and animation, should be appropriate for the bandwidth and typical modem setup for audience. I think that we should try to think about how people would use the site rather than thinking about what content we were going to put on it.

I extremely agree with Dave Rogers that Web 2.0 is really about users and users’ rule-- all that Web 2.0 talk of systems, applications and platforms is ultimately about empowering end-users to achieve their dreams on the Web without restriction. Web 2.0 is more interactive and interesting. For instance, many websites have provided Blog or Wiki function in order to let users to share their opinions and ideas. Besides, designers become more and more aware of the necessity to know users’ habits on using the Web, so as to design the Web content that can effectively reach the users. In a word, the design of the website should serve the user first and be flexible with users.

I found a good clip about "Web2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us" from Youtube:

Book Review- Design for New Media

2007-02-13T00:16:00.000-08:00

Book Title: Design for New Media
-- Interaction design for multimedia and the web
Author: Lon Barfield

When I shot a glance at this book, I was immediately attracted by its cover and title. This book points out a unified approach which provides many basic skills and principles for new media design to let designers to understand how to build a nice media.

There are four parts in this book; at first, the author discusses the current state of new media design and interaction design. The second section introduces the elements in media design, including sound, color, video, and animation; besides, it mentions how to arrange these elements in the new media or the web to make users to use them well. The third part presents the process of interaction design and uses GAS (Goal, Audience, and Scope) analysis to understand the user model. Finally, the book concludes with some practical methods for media design. As far as I am concerned, this book certainly brings a lot of knowledge in new media design. Because I am a novice to the world of web design, this book has led me to enter the web design world.

Wee5- Group .3.

2007-02-03T15:24:00.000-08:00

To me, a good website design must have wonderful graphic design with cool flashes and nice background music. But, after reading these articles, I know that I’m wrong. What is worth noticing in website design is how the audience can understand the information easily and exactly. Thus, designers don’t need to use too complicated and fancy visual design. If you have a fancy website with rich information, but lacks organization and it’s hard to navigate, it would be a useless website.

As we know, organizing website content in accordance with everyday conventions is the best way to ensure that visitors have a good experience at the website because designers can expect about an interface’s behavior based on users’ previous experiences with other interfaces. Moreover, designers have to clearly know what they want the users to see at first. It’s a very important question to ask themselves and think about before starting their design. Moreover, they should not only figure out how to create a balance between creativity and usefulness, but also understand the concept of hierarchy in order of importance is very crucial.

I obtain some important concepts in website design from these articles:

1. Understand your audience: Both articles mentioned the use of visitors and designers have to know what attracts your audience. Christina pointed out how to assure a usable web site organization by doing a simple card sort, which is a useful exercise to organize your contents into categories for easy browsing. She also reveals how to invite potential users of the web site to participate in the design by card sorting, thus assuring the web site creator of a usable organization system. I really think that card sorting is a nice way to understand users, and even their psychological factor for accessing the website. Moreover, user testing is helpful for designers to understand people’s ways of organizing and how they may perceive the designed website. Not only can the user testing enhance the designed website, but it can also prevent some errors or inconvenience that might happen to the use of the designed website.

2. Visual hierarchy and Simplify: Using visual relationships to tell a coherent story and elements are arranged in an easily understood order of importance. Designers need to measure the degree of the visual weight by audiences’ demand and interest.Also, I believe that sometimes simplicity is the best key because too much unnecessary graphic design and flashes would annoy audiences. If a website has too much "noise", it would confuse audiences. For example, I like to use some white space in my assignment, like a design chart, PPT, and so on, to make it clearly and easily to be read. Last week, we knew Gestalt theory. It is also useful for visual hierarchy.

Just as the article “Cognitive Psychology& IA” said, “In most cases websites just support one categorization approach for content and accommodating everyone is impossible. “ Therefore, one thought is bothering me. I know that a website design would be efficient if it meets users’ expectations. However, how can we control and understand all of our audiences and potential users? Do they have similar opinions? How can the website satisfy their all needs? This is the most difficult question to answer. All users are different because of their age, education, culture, vocation, and even personality. It’s the hardest part of design I think.

Imaginary Forces

2007-01-30T19:15:00.000-08:00

=Web videos=

1. Click "projects" on the right hand
2. Click "experience design" and backtrace
3. Click "Identity" and backtrace
4. Click "Interactive"
5. Click "Featured projects" and backtrace
6. Click "MTV virtual…."
7. Click "+ view MTV....."
8. Find the web videos
Also click other buttons, like XBox360, and you will find some videos.

=East coast office=

1. Click "contact" on the right hand
2. Click "map and driving directions" and go Google map to insert its address
3. Find out the map you want.

This is my first time to visit Imaginary Forces. At first, I’m so surprised in website graphical design and their cool flash. However, after careful consideration, those background music and flashes annoy me very much. Also, its homepage is not clear; we need to move the cursor on the right hand, and some directions could emerge. Thus, it is hard to find what you want to look for. Moreover, each“ Click” takes too much time for loading because there are too much unnecessary flashes. In my opinion, it’s not a good website for new users to search effortlessly and efficiently.

Week4- Gestalt Theory and HCI Design Principles

2007-01-28T14:45:00.000-08:00

User interface is the first contact between designers and internet users. Designers have to try their best to make nice communication with their users. In fact, the user interface on the primary stage easily scared users because we need to know a series of commands and a few mistakes would possibly make the computer out of control. More unreasonably, the computer can’t indicate those mistakes to users. As Internet popularizes and e-commerce prevails, human-computer interface design is worth noticing for designers. All designers are always thinking what is the most friendly and understandable interface to users.

In my opinion, Gestalt theory is closely related to human-computer interface design principles. One of Gestalt’s principles, continuity, is also applied in HCI design. As we know, people like continuity in their interactions; thus, when they visit some website, they hope that they can feel seamless and operate every function effortlessly. In order to get continuity, designers need to keep the website’s consistency (HCI). Using relative menus, color, fonts, and icons helps users have a great trip in their websites. In Gestalt theory, it indicates that people used to using their imagination to make things to be organized, so HCI should apply some relative icons, fonts to connect its functions.

Moreover, the similarity and proximity principles will help human-computer interface Design. They will lead users to get familiar with the interface, make those contents to seem more manageable and more relative. Others principles like Continuity or Closure, Area & Symmetry help people classify and help people organize things effortlessly and effectively. Besides, the principle of figure & ground is so interesting to me because it make me to understand that sometimes we haven’t comprehensively seen the entire thing.

To sum up, some psychological theory will support practical works and can be applied in other research area. I think that designers have to understand Gestalt principles because it will help designers attain their goals efficiently and easily.

Exercise 4: Ideal Websites & Adoption of IM

2007-01-17T01:24:00.000-08:00

Some Ideal websites:

A good website not only looks cool but also leads audiences to search something they want easily and provide them much useful information. As new technologies changes and constantly advances, the website design becomes more varied and creative. There are some wonderful websites:

1. Louis Vuitton
http://www.louisvuitton.com/
2. Celine
http://www.celine.com/
These two websites of famous brands is created with international view. There are different languages that can be chosen in their homepage, so people from different countries can visit their websites conveniently and understand easily. Also, they made the wonderful sensorial design. They used some flash animations to introduce their history, products, and events with some impressible music. When I enter their websites, I can enjoy the music and see their products, just as I go to the fashion show.

3. Cancer Information
http://www.cancer.com/
The design of the cancer information website is simple and looks very comfortable. It’s a useful website and provides much helpful knowledge about cancers to the public. We can understand the symptoms of all kinds of cancers and know their relative therapies. People can easily to find their needs. It also uses some pictures which let people feel safe and reliable to attract audiences’ attention.

4. Bobbi Brown
http://www.bobbibrowncosmetics.com/
Except for their nice graphic design, we can shop online effortlessly because its direction is very clear. Thus, we can follow its steps to choose our favorite products, add to our shopping bag, and checkout in a free and easy way.

5. Argosy Cruises
http://www.argosycruises.com/
You can see the scenes of Seattle in its homepage because there is cool flash there. Moreover, we can listen to the sound of the steam whistle and surf. Meanwhile, we can watch the video of a cruise online. These functions would be appealing and force you to join their cruise.

Adoption of IM:

E-mail is defined as a point-to-point communication between computers on the network. It’s not only a great way for sending a short message to one person, but also is the communication technology most widely used in business. However, as some new technologies emerge and the demands of people increase, IM becomes one of the most important communication tools. We use it to communicate our friends, contact our customers and share some opinions with our co-workers.

Compared to e-mail, which is a single way communication, IM is more interactive and a multi-way communication tool. Based on TAM model, there is no denying that IM, such as MSN, Skype, ICQ, AOL, is useful to us. As far as I’m concerned, the use of IM is so easy that it can be used from grandma to her grandchildren; thus, IM fits those two variables of TAM (1) perceived usefulness and (2) perceived ease of use. Furthermore, we can get some gratification from using IM because we could obtain our friends’ care, and even customers’ order of products. Therefore, IM is a good invention for us.

What’s worth noticing about the IM adoption is that the inconsistence of using IM may cause some problems, for example, people can’t communicate with other people who don’t use the same IM systems. If a company wants to use IM systems for their internal communication, it has to ask employees to set up the same IM system, and then employees can communicate with each other more quickly and easily.

I think that the number of users in IM systems will constantly increase. Also, they will combine other technologies, like wireless cell-phone. That will make our life and our company to become convenient and successful.

Exercise 2: Personal Goals

2007-01-16T20:14:00.000-08:00

I would like to learn most about project management. I love to communicate with people and organize activities and events, so in my college life I participated in many organizations. For example, as the vice president of the PR Department of the Student Council, I had polished up my abilities to handle contingencies, marketing, and networking in media and business fields. Moreover, I was the chief of advertising team of National Taiwan Universities Competition, and the team made a series of film clips and a good website which brought in unprecedented numbers of contestants and audiences to promote the competition. Therefore, the two team roles I am willing to take on are content and graphic designer or marketing executive, because I enjoy to translate my ideas to some words and pictures, my experiences may help my team project, and I think that I’m sensitive in color and a little skilled in Photoshop.

Of course, I would like to learn all sense of the entire project. But the position I prefer not to be assigned is HTML developer because I’m not familiar with these technical skills.

In this quarter, I would like to learn all senses of in website design, from analyzing existing websites, understanding the process of the website design, to designing a convenient website. Moreover, I like to acquire more knowledge in content creation in order to understand what content or materials would fascinate audiences and lead them to visit our website again. Recently, I have begun to learn Dreamwaver and Flash although I still think that they are too difficult for me. I hope that I can learn them well in next several months.

Exercise 1: To Develop A Feeling of "We-ness" !!

2007-01-16T18:37:00.000-08:00

As a project manager, what is worth noticing is that I have to fully communicate with the team and know what is going in order to help each member of our team develop a feeling of “we-ness”. Because our team comes from all parts of the division, I have to break down the barriers of time and place so that employees can communicate from different divisions.

The virtual team could be more flexible and convenient to communicate anywhere and anytime via the Internet. Besides, because each member of our team is from a different branch, we can easily gather different ideas and more extremely improve our website or intranet. However, there are some drawbacks in the virtual team. For example, it's hard to manage team members' schedule and resources. Furthermore, there are potential communication problems, such as we may doubt if other members do their best in our mission, or we can’t completely express our opinion via a virtual community.

If I want to help our team develop the feeling of “we-ness”, I would like to do these below things. First of all, I would like to know everyone and ask them to introduce themselves, show their personal information to help them understand each other more. Next, I will assign different missions according to their professional specialty and interests. Also, I will apply some software that we could post and save our files and respective information together. Moreover, we need to have an online chat room to discuss some demands and share experiences or opinions in real time. Also, I would like to ask each member to use instant messenger, such as MSN or Skype and lead our team to meet when they need to discuss or in a regular time. Last but not the least, we must know everyone’s schedule and arrange the meeting time in the virtual community. It’s important to understand the entire process of our website redesign for each member. Each member needs to catch the latest news about our project on the go. That will support our team to perform well.

Week1- Web Team

2007-01-16T00:06:00.000-08:00

In my junior year, because of my interest in communication, I was the emcee and the chief of advertising for the National Taiwan Universities Music Competition. Except for planning many activities for promote the competition, our team made a series of short films and designed a website which brought in unprecedented numbers of contestants and audiences. Since then, I understood that a good website is very important to a group, an activity, and even a company. It will help customers or audiences know some information and understand the details of the company easily and conveniently.

Just as those readings said, for a large website each part will be performed by many people. Also, because no one is perfect, thus we need experts. Our team was divided into three groups: content, graphic design and technical team. Each person is responsible for their respective mission according their professional specialties and interests. After we discussed about how to lead audiences to understand our competition and how to attract people to join out activities, we confirmed our goal and do our best to try it. In the process of designing this website, I found that the important thing is communicating with each small team and our sponsors. Why? Because we had to completely understand the demand of each part and fully mediate, we could firmly go toward the direction where we all want to go.

There is an old saying “United, we stand; divided, we fall.” Each part of a web design team is closely connected. As long as we can go for the same objectives and play our proper role, the website would be great for our company. These readings make me know more information about the process of a website design/redesign and comprehend that there are so many and indispensable steps in designing a website. Thus, I believe I will enjoy the atmosphere of a team work and seek my own position to do well.

In this quarter, I hope that I can help our team operate better. I can share some experiences of the Asian users in some websites to compare some websites in United State; besides, I’m more interested in visual design because I’m sensitive in color and a little skilled in Photoimpact and Photoshop. Moreover, I would like to acquire more knowledge in content creation in order to understand what content or materials would fascinate audiences and lead them to visit our website again. Of course, I would also like to have a better sense of the roles of others. Recently, I have begun to learn Dreamwaver and Flash. Although I still think that they are too difficult for me, but I’ll try my best. Hope I can use them well in the near future.

~ Winter 2007~

2007-01-16T00:03:00.000-08:00

Happy to see you guys in winter 2007 ! Good luck~

Week 9- My Experience on Using Technologies.

2006-11-28T23:14:00.000-08:00

As a student abroad, in order to share my life experience and feelings with the relatives and friends in the hometown, I created my blog before I came to Seattle. Accidentally, I found my friends near around have their own blogs. Blogs have already become a significant medium that can allow us to understand each other more and more. Meanwhile, I also upload some pictures on my blog to let my parents closely know my life.

Moreover, I used to communicating my Taiwanese friends and my family via MSN Messager and Skype. They not only cost less instead of the traditional communication method, such as the telephone, but also let us to see each other via webcam. Then, we won’t feel that we are at a distance o the Pacific Ocean. Recently, I upgraded my version of MSN Messenger. It becomes easier to use and allows me to add more people in my MSN list.

What are the factors that drive me to adopt these technologies? Uses & Gratification theory will help me to explain that. Except for the above reasons, I can utilize my blog to express my opinions and show myself whom I want to others know. By getting others’ responds and comments, I can receive a lot of gratification and know there are some friends who are concerned and care about me. In the same way, I can use MSN and Skype to chat with my family and get happiness. That will decrease my nostalgia and lead me to have more energy to face future challenges.

When I was writing my past paper, I knew TAM (Technology Acceptance Model) theory. This model points that exogenous variables of acceptance for a new technology are (1) perceived usefulness and (2) perceived ease of use. It can assist me to realize why I adopt these technologies. There is no denying that blogs and MSN/Skype is useful to me and they have fit in with the first variable. As far as I’m concerned, the use of blogs is so easy that it can be used from grandma to her grandchildren because setting up a blog needs no special skills or knowledge, and MSN/Skype does, too.

We talked about “The tragedy of the commons” two weeks ago. I think the theory of the commons also applies on the Internet because people may do whatever they want and excessively abuse these virtual resources; thus, there might be more and more pollution on the Internet, such as spams, Ads, and even viruses. Therefore, I bought the software—McAfee-- Computer anti-virus software and internet security to prevent that my computer is bothered and invaded by Spams and viruses.

Internet in the Snow

Since snow began falling in Seattle on Sunday, I went Internet to check about the weather condition and to know news everywhere online, such as traffic situation and some accidents. I sincerely recommend some weather website ( http://www.weather.com ), which can suggest me to wear what kind of clothes and tell me about what the weather feels really like because sometimes, the temperature will not show the actual feeling when we go out. Also, I downloaded the software about the weather report, and then it can show the temperature anytime on the desktop of my computer.

In the cold weather, everyone does not want to go out. At that time, we may not meet each other by face-to-face, but we can use MSN or Skype to talk with our friends. Next, we can send our work about our job to our manager via MSN or E-mail immediately, so we can still deal with many things. In these days, I bought some clothes online because I need some cozy jackets but I can’t go outside to go shopping. Nowadays, it is very convenient to shop on the websites, such as E-bay or yahoo. Recently, there are more big companies focusing on this kind of markets. Because shopping on the internet possibly needs no tax, and there may be sometimes no shipping fee, I am interested to shop on the internet now, especially in United State.

However, snow seems decrease Internet speed a little and destroy the flowing passageway of Internet. If the snow becomes heavier, our Internet would be blocked and then we can’t go online smoothly. That will make me to dislike this romantic snow in Seattle.

Week8- We the Media

2006-11-21T13:36:00.000-08:00

Chapter 1 “From Tom Paine to Blogs and Beyond”, Gillmor introduces the evolution of journalism chronologically. At first, Gillmor pointed out that telegraph is a revolutionary tool in 1844 and it could gather news of distant events. Later, Broadcasting has played a key role. Radio and TV attracted readers and advertisers away from newspaper in 1960s-1970s. Cable’s advent was bringing more choices for audiences and Internet also provides people to get information easily. Nowadays, whether on the radio or Internet, “Conversation” is the most important feature. For example, the modern talk radio has allowed audiences to participate. In the blogosphere, people can choose some specific issues they interested in to respond with their opinions.

Because of the change of technologies, communications in journalism had completed a transformation from point-to-point communication, like telegraph and telephone, one-to-many communication in our current age, such as television, broadcasting, and even many-to-many medium, such as blogs, wiki. After reading this chapter, I came to realize what is Big Media and know the way of communication and journalism revolutions itself were modified by the need of society and technology. Also, millions of people have begun to use blogs to obtain updated information and news and many journalism businesses have created their blogs as a publishing tool to announce news.

In this age of information, anyone can be a journalist. Thanks for Internet, big media companies no loner monopolize news. Grassroots journalists can own the right of service. The emerging of PC or laptop, Mobile, and digital camera possibly makes audiences to become true recorders. They change the form of news. For example, we can publish news or express our commentary on our blogs, which work in something close to real time and capture all over the world. As far as I’m concerned, it is worth noticing- how to report real events and prevent ourselves to spread rumors. That’s important to a responsible reporter!!!

Another thing I’m interested in is the reasons that blogs become a significant journalism tool. I think there are some factors:
1. Easy to use: setting up a blog needs a few minutes without special skills or knowledge. In, addition, publishing a blog is extremely easy. You just click the link to the” publish” button, enter a title, type some words. It’s easy and good for everyone to report news.
2. Cost less: you should not pay for setting up a blog. Some companies provide blog’s space for everyone to use.
3. Multi-way communication: in the blogosphere, we can discuss some issue with different people. Also, you can link other attractive blogs from a original blog.
4. Blog contents can be retrieved from word documents, pictures, and even videos. Audiences can understand an event more by watching real a documentary film.

Week7-The Tragedy of the Commons

2006-11-12T21:31:00.000-08:00

Garrett Hardin mentions population problems based on the theory of the commons. Hardin thinks that a finite world can support only a finite population and even given an infinite source of energy, population growth still produces an inescapable problem.Furthermore, Hardin pointed the tragedy of freedom in a commons. Because everyone has an equal right to share resource and as a rational being, everyone seeks to maximize our gain, this freedom of the commons will ruin the commons.

In addition, the pollution is another factor that causes the tragedy of the commons. Hardin indicates that the pollution problem is a consequence of population; thus, in order to avoid the tragedy of the commons, population control is required. We not only have to legislate and enforce the laws to control the population in the commons, but also need a education to put an end to the tragedy of the commons to lead people to be capable of making the corrective feedbacks on the legislation and administration of laws.

The tragedy of the commons is a conflict for resources between individual interests and the commons. As far as I'm concerned, the theory of the commons also applies on the Internet. Each netizen may do whatever they want and excessively abuse these virtual resources on the Internet (commons) because they think that their behaviors are not restricted by others in the commons. Therefore, there might be more and more advertising pollution on the Internet, such as spams, Ads, and even viruses. Those pollutions have impacted the internet and make people to feel bothered because they have to take more time to delete the spasm during their searching or browsing websites. I believe that the advertising pollution heavily degrades the value of the Internet.

In the age of information, the convenience of Internet will lead the development of democracy. It provides a communication platform that allows people discuss some public issues, like politics or economics. In contrast, because of the convenience of Internet, people can intend to spread rumors or improper things on the Internet without limitation and then cause the government unstable and the entire society disordered. If the government wants to promote E-government or E-democracy, like E-voting, it must establish some relative regulations to restrict people’s behavior on the Internet.

Week6-Communities In Cyberspace

2006-11-05T18:20:00.000-08:00

In Taiwan, especially in universities, students like to use BBS (Bulletin Board system) as a medium to communicate others and share some information and opinions. Six years ago, I initially knew how to use BBS, and then I’m captivated in BBS everyday. My friends near around have personal boards on BBS, so I can know and understand their life and feelings by reading their personal boards. Just as the article” Communities in cyberspace” said, BBS is a form of asynchronous communication that refine email discussion lists in a number of ways. A group can interact without everyone gathering at a particular time and they can still exchange messages and sustain discussion on very different schedules or in distant time zones. Thus, even though I study abroad, I can still read those boards of my friends and respond to their articles.
I sinenrely think that BBS is so convenient that I cannot understand why people in other countries don’t want to use it . The interface of BBS is simple and clear;besides, you can go through every kinds of boards in one BBS . That's so great to me.

What’s more, one thing that has not been mentioned in this article is Blog. In recent years, more and more mass media have discussed blogs, and perhaps as a result, more and more people have begun to use blogs. In the blogosphere, the author of blogs will provide the links that they like or recommend and usually read those blogs and leave a message or issue impressions to some specific articles. At the same time, the author of blogs is also the audience of others in the community. Except for personal writing, the most important characteristic is “Conversation.” Bloggers interact by way of interlinks and mutual responses; thus, we can see some forms of social network in the blogosphere.

In a virtual community, I think people would like present another self and in order to present a better self, they will do some adjustments to conform the request of other people on Internet. They might decorate themselves and deceive other community members. This is a difference between a real life and a virtual community.

However, I agree the study provided by Wellman and Gulia “Virtual communities as communities” and Wellman found that CSSNs(Computer Supported Social Networks) can still sustain some network relationships, such as strong ties, intermediate ties and weak ties that exist in the real community. (Wellman, Barry. (1996) For A Social Network Analysis of Computer Networks: A Sociological Perspective on Collaborative Work and Virtual Community. ACM.) I like and used to communicate with my friends and relatives in this kind of virtual communities. I think I can’t deviate from BBS and blog, because they have become some parts of my life.

Week5-The World is Flat!!!

2006-10-29T23:27:00.000-08:00

I have read this book “The World Is Flat” in Taiwan. It’s a bestseller in every bookstore and its contents actually shocked me . After 9/11, Friedman paid less attention to globalization. He spent three years to travel the Arab and Muslim world to try to get at the roots of the attack on the US. Finally, he realized that while he was writing about terrorism, he missed an even bigger story: Globalization. Thersfore, he wrote "The World Is Flat" to explain his updated opinion on this subject.

Nandan Nilekani at Infosys said to Friedman, "Tom, the playing field is being leveled." These words invade his mind. He thinks that Indians and Chinese were going to compete for job market like never before, and Americans weren't ready. Several technological and political forces have converged, and that has produced a global, Web-enabled playing field that allows for multiple forms of collaboration without regard to geography or distance.

=============================================
Flattener #1
The fall of the Berlin Wall on 11/9/89 unlashed forced that ultimately liberated all the captive peoples of the Soviet Empire. But it actually did so much more. It tipped the balance of power across the world toward those advocating democratic; besides, it unlock enormous pent-up energies for hundreds of millions of people in places like India, Brazil, China, and the former Soviet Empire. It also allowed us to think about the world differently-to see it as more of a seamless whole. Because the Berlin Wall was not only blocking our way; it was blocking our sight.

Furthermore, it paved the way for the adoption of common standards- standards on how economies should be run, on how accounting should be done, on how banking should be conducted, on how PCs should be made, and on how economics papers should be written. In the early to mid-1980s,the information revolution began. Thanks to the spread of fax machines, telephones and PC, too much information started to slip through the Iron Curtain. In this information age, the emergence of more and more across communication lead people to clloect information and increase personal power.

Flattener #2
Netscapes is the second flatttener. There are three reasons: Netscape brought the Internet alive with the browser. They allowed the Internet to could be used by Grandma and even her grandchildren. The second thing that Netscape did was commercialize a set of open transmission protocols so that no company could own the Net. Moreover, the third is that Netscape triggered the dotcom boom, which triggered the dotcom bubble, which triggered the overinvestment of a trillion dollars in fiber-optic cables.

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The speed of the world’s change is faster and faster, and the globalization is impossible to take a rest because of resistance of someone, enterprising or the country, so you can’t evade from the trend. The only method we have to do is to join the trend, we have to substantiate ourself and do many effort to learn skills and knowledge and don't be evicted from the trend. Just as said in the book: '”The world, just like a football game, if you’re not good enough, you will only sit and watch the game.”

There is saying that I like ver much in the film " Jurassic Park " : Life will find the way out. In this flatten world, knowledge is extremely easy to obtain, but you should to receive voluntarily and assiduously. I believe that chances are always provided for person who have an adequate preparation. If you do not dare to buy the flight ticket, you have no chance to travel around the world!

Week5- Neil Postman

2006-10-29T17:16:00.000-08:00

In the article “Ecologizing Mobile Media”, Howard Rheingold applied Postman's "Ten Principles of Technology” to imention the present of cell phones. Although I think that technologies will allow people have more convenient life and bring a lot of benefits, I still agree Postman's "Ten Principles of Technology”- new technology sometimes destroys more than it creates.

Here are some websits about Neil Postman:
http://www.bigbrother.net/~mugwump/Postman/ http://www.preservenet.com/theory/Postman.html

In my opinions, the history of human society has proved that technology itself is neither good nor bad; depends on the way in which people use it that determines its influence on the whole society. Just as the coin has its two sides, technology is a two-edged sword.

Granting that technology has undoubtedly provide us lots of problem, but no one can deny that it provide us more comfortableness and convenience than its demerits by enhancing the development and application of technology and offering the human a better living environment. By the invention of electric bulb, we no longer live in the darkness. Through the telecommunication system, we may gain the information and reply as quickly as possible without consuming us too much time. Due to the help of computer, we may have more free time to do whatever we like. And with the recycling system, we may to some extent solve the shortage of water in cities. In general, whether it is bad or good in itself, it benefits us in almost every aspect of our life and completely changed the whole world. More importantly, it is indispensable for the human to continuously improve the living standard and the environment.

Also, technology has helped to solve the problem it brings us when it’s used improperly. Take the nuclear weapon threat as an example. No one would definitely argue that Germany would not be able to invent the atomic bomb to reach, but in fact it would destroy the world. Another example can be provided that the automobile gives out the gas which pollutes the air and threatens our health. Therefore, technology also causes many disadvantages in our life.

To sum up, it is not a wise view to regard technology as the source of evil or goodness. It's just a two-edged sword; to use it properly for the whole human’s benefits will bring positive changes upon human and the society, but if used by some authoritarians for their selfish purposes, it will create more new problems and even damage the whole society.

Week4-Supplemental Resource

2006-10-23T02:58:00.000-07:00

1. The History of Computers (1936~1985 )
http://inventors.about.com/library/blcoindex.htm
"Who invented the computer?" is not a question with a simple answer. The real answer is that many inventors contributed to the history of computers and that a computer is a complex piece of machinery made up of many parts, each of which can be considered a separate invention. This series covers many of the major milestones in computer history with a concentration on the history of personal home computers.

2. Here are some videos about the first computer ENICA and some other related videos.
http://news.com.com/2009-1006-6038105.html
1. Computer history on display : A museum's guided tour through the beginnings of the computer, including the ENIAC.
2. ENIAC: A public debut
3. ENIAC creator shares memories

3. Surviving & Thriving In The Information Age: Ten suggestions for finding meaning in the chaos of the Information Age. By Knute Berger
http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC23/Berger2.htm

Although I’m not a person who can predict the technology of future, like Bush, I still hope that I can follow the technological trend and try hard to accommodate it. The author, Knute Berger, pointed that it's easy to be overwhelmed by the deluge of data, rapidly evolving technologies, changing rules and roles that are hallmarks of the Information Age. Therefore, we should do some action for finding meaning in the seeming chaos.

Week4-Computing power/ Forecast 2050

2006-10-22T20:48:00.000-07:00

( This picture : ENIAC.--> So Huge)

Computing Power to Communication

In 1946, John Mauchly and J Presper Eckert developed the ENIAC I (Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator), the first large-scale electronic digital computer. The U.S. military sponsored their research; they needed a calculating device for writing artillery-firing tables (the settings used for different weapons under varied conditions for target accuracy). It was incredible to behold- 100 feet long, 10 feet high, weighing 30 tons, used more than 18000 vacuum tubes, and cost nearly a half million dollars to build. That’s amazing! Could you image that you use a computer as large as our classroom? That’s so inconvenient!!!

Because of the development of technology, the computer became more and more multi-function and complicated, but its appearance became much smaller. People can easily carry a computer/ laptop and communicate with other people, even all of the world.

The most importance of computing power to communication is the invention of Personal computer and Internet. They reveal a microcosm of conversation and interaction. People communicate each other via Internet and construct the social network. This kind of social network is a collection of the relationships between individuals, indicating the interaction on Internet. It’s like a web of interconnected people who directly or indirectly interact with or influence each other. The computing power is originally for military purposes, but nowadays, it’s also used for government, businesses, educational field, even family and personal purposes. By the way, computing power also changed the traditional business model, e-commerce has changed many people’s shopping ways.

What might Bush forecast today, if he were looking to 2050?

Bush’s view is amazing! He predicted many kinds of technology before they were invented, including hypertext, PC, the Internet, the World Wide Web, speech recognition, and online encyclopedias. I think Bush is a tech-optomist, not like some tech-pessimists who thought that new technology sometimes destroys more than it creates. Bush might integrate present technologies and prodict the future developmant. I think that he will combine some high-tech advances and cite that some devices will be created. For instance, a device could constantly track the movement of everything from products to people; easy-to-use health diagnostic tests that give immediate results for a large range of infections; and environmentally friendly manufacturing methods.

What is worth noticing is that since we are not Bush, what should we do next? What kind of ability and skill should we have to face the new technology in the future? I think that we have a ability to accommocate the trend, acknowledge that we involve in high-tech, and try to slove problems. There is an old Chinese saying goes that People are great because they have a dream. Actually, these dreams constantly lead scientists to stride forward to every new technological stage. I think our dreams will also lead us to move on the wonderful future. Therefore, we have to try hard to make our dreams come true!!!

Week3-Supervening necessity/unintended consequences/U&G

2006-10-15T16:23:00.000-07:00

“Supervening necessity” is what drives technological invention as a result of consumer’s wants and needs. It’s a concentration of the generalized socail forces to determine the process of invention and concerned with how people come to choose to initially use this technology; besides , after becoming “invention”, supervening necessity will examine the capacity again that this new develop of invention to a product is combined with spin-off(Winston,1998). See? “Supervening necessity” is very important in a product’s life cycle; as it likely led to the product’s creation and will its replacement.

Further more, there are many factors or events to bring the appearance of people's needs, such as War, disasters, and so on. After suffering disasters, people need some food and want to reconstruct their house. Nowadays, I think that people always want to get the best thing and never feel satisified, so inventors should create new products to replace an outdated technology in order to accommodate consumer’s needs. For example, 2G/3G cellphone replaced BBcall to become the main personal telecommunication. Several more examples of “supervening necessity were when the DSL/Cable replaced the traditional modem and the LED/LCD replaced the cathode ray tubes. These were all examples of consumer wants and needs leading to new inventions and show the importance of “supervening necessity” in the creation of new technology.

The law of unintended consequences tells us how many seemingly innocuous innovations can become something much more harmful than their inventors had ever imagined. Here is some information about it.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/21/unintended_consequences/
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/UnintendedConsequences.html
The above article mentioned that there are five sources of unanticipated consequences.
1. ignorance
2. error
3. imperious immediacy of interest
4. basic values
5. self-defeating prediction
For example, the internet and computer provide many examples of unintended consequences. Though they both provided us alot of advantages they also brought many drawbacks. For example, children play computer video games and forget to write their homework; people rely on via MSN/Skype for communication instead of talking on the phone and possibly become estranged; and people staring at the computer screen can lead to nearsightedness. The article “Informing ourselves to death” said, technology giveth and technology taketh away, and not always in equal measure. To be sure, new technology sometimes destroys more than it creates; but it also can lead to many advantages that ultimately outweigh its unintended consequences.

In this quarter, my research will focus on social network analysis on web log. I’m very interested in Uses and Gratifications theory because it is useful to me.I would like to use this theory to find out why some people are willing to show their emotion and diary to the public. Will they get gratification by doing this? Also, some people extremely like to see other’s blog. What kind of blog is their favorite? Is it relative their life style or their personality? I would like to explore the content gratification and socail gratification, especially the interaction between users and audiences.U&G can help me to explain the motivations of bloggers related continued and increases use on blog.

2006-10-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

A communications device - wireless or wireline - cannot be replaced is correct. However, if you use wireless broadband, there are no airtime minutes attached to it. Therefore, you theoretically should be able to run all your calls over the VoIP service you choose. And, as noted elsewhere, you will be paying for broadband access only. Today, if you chose that option, it would cost you $60/mo for VZ Wireless broadband. . . other than that, you'd have no additional monthly wireless costs unless there were options such as text-messaging outside the capabilities of your VoIP provider.

This option, however, is unrealistic given the substantial packet loss that is even more likely to be encountered in slower wireless broadband. . . Bottom line, calls may be free via VoIP (and some services, too), but you have to pay someone for a broadband connection as noted elsewhere in our group blogosphere!

Week2-Social Aspects of New Media Technologies

2006-10-08T23:07:00.000-07:00

Pope John Paul II said, “ If it doesn't happen on television, it doesn't happen.”
Indeed, we live in a media-dominated era. In the past 10 years or so, the controls over media have been liberalized to another stage, which has been a watershed for the media.
Combined with the Internet and digital technology, the existing media has been pushed to its epitome in development and people get used to accepting this kind of technological changes.

When I read this article- Social Aspects of New Media Technologies, I find many attractive opinions.The author thinks that our concern is more with the human and social impacts than the technology itself. There are three main theories given to explain how the new media affect the human behavior, how the society and new media interact, and how the human need impacts new media.

Because of my research paper “Social network analysis on web log-by case of wretchblog” in T.Y class, I’m very interested in Uses and Gratifications theory.
I would like to use this theory to find out why some people are willing to show their emotion and diary to the public. Will they get gratification by doing this? Also, some people extremely like to see other’s blog. What kind of blog is their favorite? Is it relative their life style or their personality? Thanks for this article. I have more ideas about my research paper.

As time goes by, the appearance of cable television allows people to have more choices. For example, Children choose some cartoon channels to make them to laugh. Businessmen choose watch financial and economical news to earn more money. In my case, I have always been a TV-baby, someone who would never let go of the tube. I was fascinated by every signal and information released from television that told me about the world, especially fashion show program. I love any beautiful things. By watching this kind of programs, I’m not only soaked in the wonderful atmosphere to see those creative works, but also lead me to obtain real gratifications.

I have learned the third theory- Diffusion of innovation-before. Let’s refer to “Media technology and society”. It mentioned “brakes” and “accelerator”. I think that can match Diffusion of innovation theory. The “accelerator” is the supervening social necessity transforming the prototype into an invention. If the number of users of some invention reaches a saturation point, the suppression of the government or the demand-supply in market would reduce its growing speed; thus the number of users won’t increase. Furthermore, because I think that this theory is similar to the economical market, besides in communication field, it can be used well in many other fields.

By the way, the most important “ah ha” to me is that my English is so poor that I can’t read and understand these articles quickly. I’ll try my best to write the ”ah ha” in the next couple of weeks. Wish you can understand my words more.

Week2- how the internet killed the phone business

2006-10-08T21:46:00.000-07:00

In the article, the author claims that VOIP will wipe out traditional telephony. Basically, I do not deny this. Indeed, VOIP is an excellent new technology. As an international student in U.S.A., I usually communicate with the family and Taiwanese friends via Skype. It is very convenient and allows me to save a lot of money, relatively in the traditional telephone; besides, I can see the relatives and friends through using Webcam.

What is worth noticing is that VOIP started to develop since 1990 and became the most important technological change of next stage. However, the number of VOIP users just increase gradually, most consumer behaviors have not changed.

In my opinion, digital divide may be a bar to promote VOIP. Why?
It’s not true that everybody is used to using the computer, and there is very great disparity between persons who can use information technology effectively and those who can’t. Education, culture, social position, and age level may make digital divide. For example, the teenager will accept VOIP easily because they are willing to absorb new information and communicate electronically. On the contrary, housekeepers and some elders couldn’t accept such new technology at once. They find adjusting to new ways a big challenge, and complicated; therefore they object to it.

Also, I think that the factor which actually threatens traditional telephony is the mobile telephone. It not only causes the declining business achievement of traditional telephony but also can’t be replaced by VOIP. In this modern society, because people like pursuing convenient life and the cell-phone will be easy to carry and has high quality, mobile telephone becomes the main tool to communicate. VOIP always accompany with a PC or laptop. It is not portable easily and sometimes its network quality is unstable. In addition, its conversation quality and stability do not reach our expectations.

In the article, it pointed the best example of VOIP –Skype. But I think that it exists the relative block, which means the user must be the customer of Skype. It limits that users must stay at a specific group, so I believe that Skype also lost the chance to strive for mastery with the traditional telephony.

See? Although the impact of VOIP is overwhelming, it still takes a lot of time to kill traditional telephony. To reduce digital divide, to upgrade the quality of VOIP, that will lead VOIP to stand stably and makes it to be accepted generally. I look forward to seeing that day.

Nice to meet you guys!

2006-10-03T20:57:00.000-07:00

Here is my online album: www.wretch.cc/album/lajumbo!