1. Items discussed that I already know:
- Google
- Using quotations on search engines
- Vocabulary (URL, http, etc.)
- Gmail
- Blogger
- Using proper sources in bibliographies
2. Items discussed that are new to me:
- Google Scholar, iGoogle, Google Books, etc.
3. I would consider the (1) authority, (2) angle and (3) topic relevance of my sources.
4. The web is the greatest mass communications medium that champions the ideal of free speech. It's a circus in which everyone can participate, and they can even choose to be the ring master; the clown; the strong man, hell, they can choose to be the lions. Although, most decide to be the audience, stimulating themselves with an emotional kaleidoscope that bizarre carnies the world round have to offer. The only pitfall is that you might not like the show.
2 comments:
Good start. I'm interested in your idea about "the ideal of free speech." Do you think that will continue? For how long?
I also like your imagery and the idea that most people are the audience rather than participants. What would be the effect if everyone participated and there was no simple audience?
Free speech doesn't seem to be changing much on the internet, but the ways in which it is handled has changed a lot.
Firstly, after 9/11 government monitoring of the internet has increased tremendously. Anything that mentions, even jokingly, any matter that threatens national security will be taken seriously (arrests, investigations, etc.) The same is true for schools after Virginia Tech, many schools have begun monitoring websites such as Myspace and they've taken all threats seriously.
However, the biggest threat to free speech is the debate over Net Neutrality. I can't explain the entire issue in a paragraph, but as summarized by Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu:
"Network neutrality is best defined as a network design principle. The idea is that a maximally useful public information network aspires to treat all content, sites, and platforms equally."
Communications corporations have been lobbying to prevent the reinstatement of Net Neutrality, many suspect they want to allow them (the corporations) to give favor to certain websites that may pay them a royalty; thus allowing certain sites to receive more bandwidth than another. This COULD mean the end of things such as personal websites; similar to how small businesses have subsided to global corporations. Who knows what can happen if control over Internet bandwidth has its regulation removed and is thrown into the hands of communications corporations...
Onto the second question: if everyone participated (as in contributing content) there would be a surge of information of all kinds. The major problems would be organizing all this information and finding enough data storage space to contain it. I think a better question is, would everyone participate? I think the fact that a majority of the people on the Internet are watching and not contributing, says something about our culture...
Post a Comment