Welcome to Information Technology and Society
Week 12
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.
[11:03] Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...
[11:03] Connected
[11:04] You decline Friends Meeting, Sea Turtle Island (188, 21, 25) from A group member named Scot Jung.
[11:04] You decline Friends Meeting, Sea Turtle Island (188, 21, 25) from A group member named Scot Jung.
[11:04] You decline NSS in SL Machinima Contest Info - FINAL from A group member named Archivist Llewellyn.
[11:04] You decline Science Friday Members, SCIENCE FRIDAY (219, 211, 28) from A group member named Bjorlyn Loon.
[11:04] *Ministry of Motion owned by Nomasha Syaka gave you 'THE MOST WONDERFUL MOCAP ANIMATIONS IN SECOND LIFE' (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dance%20Animations/57/18/13 ).
[11:04] You decline VWs-why? 22 Apr, 12 noon SL, Infolit iSchool (129, 242, 22) from A group member named Sheila Yoshikawa.
[11:05] Aphilo Aarde: Hi Buffy
[11:05] Buffy Beale: Hi! where is everyone?
[11:05] Aphilo Aarde: Class begins at 10 past, so I think people will arrive soon.
[11:05] Buffy Beale: thought I missed a time change
[11:05] Buffy Beale: ohhh lol
[11:05] Aphilo Aarde: :)
[11:06] Buffy Beale: does that happen in real university courses?
[11:06] Aphilo Aarde: SL times changes seem to reflect Pacific Time, and not the location of the end user.
[11:06] Aphilo Aarde: Place-based universities are tied to their local clocks
[11:07] Buffy Beale: ok, but an 11 start is the same in any timezone
[11:07] Buffy Beale: isn't it?
[11:07] Aphilo Aarde: The cool thing about a virtual university which is wiki based is the potential to call a class
[11:07] Buffy Beale: I mean to me reflects not taken so seriously if peeps can just arrive late
[11:07] Aphilo Aarde: when one wants to - which is in the World University Subject Template
[11:08] Buffy Beale: ok, I get that but I don't get why we start late every week
[11:08] Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/SUBJECT_TEMPLATE
[11:08] Buffy Beale: here I mean
[11:08] Buffy Beale: this being the first virtual course
[11:08] Aphilo Aarde: and therefore potentially in all subjects
[11:09] Buffy Beale: lol, can you tell me why we start at 11:10 and not 11?
[11:09] Aphilo Aarde: I suspect that 1o minuate after the hour start time reflects on the ground reality at Harvard and Berkeley, where this has become the real start time
[11:10] Aphilo Aarde: And I thought this would be realistic here to in Second Life Time
[11:10] Buffy Beale: ok thanks
[11:10] Buffy Beale: so it's 11:10
[11:11] Buffy Beale: My point is to make a class in virtual worlds work then the groundrules should be the same
[11:11] Aphilo Aarde: Yes ,the question I wonder about is how to get people excited about sharing ideas - somewhat academically informed - so that lots of folks are here all the time talking, conversing and sharing ideas ... like improvised music
[11:11] Buffy Beale: unless nobody else is coming today
[11:11] Buffy Beale: yes, get the spark going
[11:11] Buffy Beale: first they have to have a common interest
[11:12] Aphilo Aarde: Folks usually wander in a little gradually - but you have a point ... state 11 as the official starting time, and default to 11 10, instead of starting at 11:10
[11:12] Buffy Beale: then a common problem/issue etc to solve
[11:12] Aphilo Aarde: and defaulting to 11:20 :)
[11:12] Buffy Beale: haha yes
[11:12] Buffy Beale: good thats my point although just started out as a curiosity
[11:12] Buffy Beale: have you heard of Urgent Evoke?
[11:13] Aphilo Aarde: That universities exist - that universities in modernity are BIG - is a reflection of the role of ideas and knowledge and in society - knowledge important and integral
[11:13] Aphilo Aarde: especially now in the informaiton technology revolution
[11:13] Aphilo Aarde: One class 3 weeks ago, only Xiu was here ... so we may do this again
[11:13] Aphilo Aarde: Yes ... thanks for your recommendation
[11:14] Buffy Beale: that would be good, I missed the first ones
[11:14] Aphilo Aarde: too at Urgent Evoke ... I posted your comments to my blog
[11:14] Buffy Beale: yes, silly me lol you're my mentor lol
[11:14] Buffy Beale: so, it's starting to be recognized that networking is taking a new level
[11:15] Buffy Beale: and groups of like-minded people are connecting
[11:15] Aphilo Aarde: that's great
[11:15] Buffy Beale: and, that the next step is how to get them collaborating
[11:15] Aphilo Aarde: in new ways ... given the challenges now of so much information and so many disparate interests.
[11:16] Aphilo Aarde: And Urgent Evoke is a key focus for this ...
[11:16] Buffy Beale: here's a link that illustrates my observation: http://microsoftontheissues.com/cs/blogs/mscorp/archive/2010/04/23/globalizing-great-social-projects.aspx
[11:16] Aphilo Aarde: Measuring its efficacy, even as its successes develop, is an interesting research project
[11:17] Buffy Beale: yes Urgent Evoke is just the beginning
[11:17] Aphilo Aarde: I suspect that there are other related sits
[11:17] Buffy Beale: I believe there will be an explosion of social networking starting to make real change for good in the world
[11:18] Aphilo Aarde: Thanks ... yes I'm familiar with Ashoka mentioned in the article.
[11:18] Buffy Beale: before it was just socializing
[11:18] Aphilo Aarde: *sits =situations
[11:18] Aphilo Aarde: And this is an advertisers dream too
[11:18] Aphilo Aarde: Yes, agreed - there are many already ... but how they disseminate is interesting.
[11:19] Aphilo Aarde: World University and School lists a lot of great free sites focusing on teaching and learning ...
[11:20] Aphilo Aarde: that are also networking oriented in their own ways
[11:20] Buffy Beale: I don't know them all, but to me Evoke is the first to change from just socializing
[11:20] Aphilo Aarde: Here's another one from Creative Commons - http://wiki.creativecommons.org/ODEPO
[11:20] Aphilo Aarde: It's name focuses on speed ...
[11:20] Buffy Beale: great ty
[11:20] Aphilo Aarde: And ODEPO is already on World University and School
[11:21] Buffy Beale: fantastic!
[11:21] Aphilo Aarde: But Urgent Evoke's idea is primarily a focused meme approach - replicating cultural unit - in some ways
[11:21] Buffy Beale: Ok, so education and learning is organizing but what about social innovators
[11:21] Buffy Beale: how so?
[11:22] Aphilo Aarde: Here's World University and School's "Course Listings' Aggregates" where ODEPO is listed
[11:22] Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Course_listings.27_aggregates
[11:23] Buffy Beale: I'll share this with the Evoke network :)
[11:23] Aphilo Aarde: Social innovators in what sense? Like nonviolent direct action work - or Grameen Banks, for example?
[11:23] Aphilo Aarde: Thanks :)
[11:24] Buffy Beale: Social innovators who are needing to collaborate to make their innovation happen
[11:24] Aphilo Aarde: Some examples?
[11:24] Buffy Beale: so can be all kinds of ideas
[11:24] Buffy Beale: thinking
[11:25] Buffy Beale: ok
[11:25] Aphilo Aarde: Are twitter posts an example of aggregated social innovators?
[11:25] Buffy Beale: no
[11:25] Aphilo Aarde: Is Myspace with music groups an example?
[11:25] Buffy Beale: but could be depending on who they follow
[11:26] Buffy Beale: these are still social driven but nothing happens as a result
[11:26] Buffy Beale: one listens to common music
[11:26] Aphilo Aarde: Or are you thinking more in terms of Ashoka?
[11:26] Buffy Beale: yes more like Ashoka
[11:26] Buffy Beale: so here we have all these people connected on twitter
[11:26] Buffy Beale: lots of talking and sharing
[11:26] Aphilo Aarde: On the web, social innovation has often involved hacking
[11:27] Buffy Beale: but if one of those people has an idea which could change the world
[11:27] Aphilo Aarde: engaging open source and free ware innovatively to create new software or social networking possibilities
[11:27] Buffy Beale: how do they get in a group to collaborate
[11:27] Buffy Beale: am I making sense?
[11:27] Aphilo Aarde: webnographers.org may offer some interesting focuses for you - http://www.webnographers.org/index.php?title=Papers#Open_Source_and_Innovation_vis-.C3.A0-vis_Virtual_Ethnography
[11:28] Buffy Beale: great link, thanks
[11:29] Aphilo Aarde: Much of the first part of this course involved looking at a whole variety of information technological innovation that gave rise to the Information Technology revolution and thus contributed to an ongoing revolution of Information Technology.
[11:29] Aphilo Aarde: So people were excited about talking about information technology in the 1950s thanks to the
[11:30] Aphilo Aarde: and chip making outside of work ... leading to new forms of social innovation ... talking about ideas is at root
[11:30] Aphilo Aarde: There more related links at world university and school
[11:30] Buffy Beale: makes my head spin :)
[11:30] Aphilo Aarde: sorry, at webnographers.com
[11:30] Buffy Beale: yes see it's loaded
[11:31] Aphilo Aarde: Here are some key books about innovation itself - http://www.webnographers.org/index.php?title=Books#Open_Source_and_Innovation_vis-.C3.A0-vis_Virtual_Ethnography
[11:31] Aphilo Aarde: And one of the points of this course is that much of the Information Technology revolution has been unplanned, the result of synergies between technologies and innovations, and accidental, even.
[11:32] Buffy Beale: good reading
[11:32] Buffy Beale: yes, technology is in the drivers seat
[11:32] Aphilo Aarde: So, in extrapolating innovation to more specific processes of sociality ... your question, I think ...
[11:33] Aphilo Aarde: how do networks form in ways that spread social ideas quickly, seems to be one
[11:33] Aphilo Aarde: question
[11:33] Aphilo Aarde: And what are examples, and how can these communication technologies be used to extend this?
[11:34] Aphilo Aarde: And, in general, one of the empirical findings of research about the internet has
[11:34] Buffy Beale: yes exactly
[11:34] Aphilo Aarde: been that social processes on the internet emerge from social processes in life
[11:35] Aphilo Aarde: For example, people become very social on the internet through new networks, but family life on the ground does change.
[11:35] Aphilo Aarde: That it's this real time world wide communication network which
[11:36] Aphilo Aarde: makes these networks and sociality changes and new ideas spread ...
[11:36] Aphilo Aarde: There are infinite web site addresses which
[11:36] Aphilo Aarde: and all of us can become producers of information much more easily than before the web and with 2 billion people who have computers - on the have side of the digitial divide
[11:38] Aphilo Aarde: So sometimes, I think, a person with a sense of urgency, can talk and share his or her ideas, and spread the ideas they have urgently ... but why email was adopted or the web was adopted in such a wide spread way, compared with technologies that haven't been adopted is interesting.
[11:38] Buffy Beale: I'm talking all this in
[11:39] Aphilo Aarde: With World University and School, building on the existing university, it becomes easily understood ... and this social idea will spread, I think, I hope, maybe not urgently, though, because
[11:40] Aphilo Aarde: the university and schools in modernity are important, essential, part of the social fabric of the industrialized and developing worlds.
[11:40] Buffy Beale: yes agree
[11:40] Aphilo Aarde: Are there ways, using this example, to spread its idea - to evoke it - in ways more urgently than is happening? Probably, but not
[11:41] Aphilo Aarde: obviously (to me) engaging information technologies.
[11:41] Buffy Beale: World University is a foundation for whats to come
[11:42] Aphilo Aarde: Or to use other examples, how have some ideas which seem not so significant in the context of modernity, as say an open university and school, spread
[11:42] Aphilo Aarde: ?
[11:42] Buffy Beale: using the technology to provide free education
[11:43] Aphilo Aarde: I hope there will be a lot of world universities and schools ... there's so much to learn and think about... and although world university and schools vision is far-reaching and will cover a lot, I think, there's still much more room for more universities and schools.
[11:43] Buffy Beale: in a medium (online) that will be mainstream in a few years
[11:43] Aphilo Aarde: There are an amazing number of budding educaitonal projects online!
[11:44] Buffy Beale: yes, and we must stay current if we are to reach the next generation is my belief
[11:44] Aphilo Aarde: If this is what we're talking about in terms of social innovation to use a specific education example, it's already happen ...
[11:44] Buffy Beale: but... not the collaboration part hasn't
[11:44] Aphilo Aarde: How then to bring these all together and make them high quality.
[11:44] Buffy Beale: yes
[11:44] Buffy Beale: thats the next phase of this revolution
[11:45] Aphilo Aarde: The great thing about wiki technologies, is that they welcome new ideas produced by anyone - so they are very current -
[11:45] Aphilo Aarde: but, more importantly, they are GENERATIVE
[11:45] Aphilo Aarde: as is the web, so they generate CURRENTNESS and INNOVATION
[11:45] Buffy Beale: yes would be useless if not kept current, like using old textbooks
[11:46] You decline Apr 24 & 25 Early Music Weekend with Thom Dowd at Music Island from A group member named Kate Miranda.
[11:46] Aphilo Aarde: by making the conversation in real time and
[11:46] Aphilo Aarde: editable by all through a group knowledge production process - think Wikipedia with its around 272 languages.
[11:46] Aphilo Aarde: Textbooks too are at World University and School, for example,
[11:47] Aphilo Aarde: and will be, I think, kept current because of wiki, when people start to engage these open, free University and Schools.
[11:48] Buffy Beale: yes but that will present another problem
[11:48] Aphilo Aarde: Here are a number of different links at WuaS after I searched on 'textbooks' -
[11:48] Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Search?search=textbook&go=1&x=0&y=0
[11:49] Buffy Beale: that off the information which is not validated or correct
[11:49] Aphilo Aarde: There are one or two explicit text book sections, where people can add new textbook links, as well as collaborate on textbooks
[11:49] Buffy Beale: or, perhaps the community will self monitor?
[11:49] Aphilo Aarde: Good point, Buffy ...
[11:49] Buffy Beale: the wiki community
[11:50] Aphilo Aarde: I think people can tend to the credible on the way, and teachers, too, who are responsible for teaching ...
[11:51] Aphilo Aarde: so MIT Open Course Ware, although not yet wiki, is an example of open, free, credible content, which like MIT textbooks, I would trust.
[11:51] Aphilo Aarde: So people have to become selective, but people can base this selectivity on history.
[11:51] Buffy Beale: so building trust is important then
[11:51] Aphilo Aarde: And wikipedia has handled the question of credibility and quailty
[11:51] Aphilo Aarde: , while not a textbook, through
[11:52] Aphilo Aarde: a information technological variety of processes
[11:53] Aphilo Aarde: including the idea of the encyclopedia, its neutral point of view
[11:53] Aphilo Aarde: a talk page, stewards, citation practices,
[11:53] Aphilo Aarde: saving each edit, and the ability to see every change made
[11:53] Aphilo Aarde: the ability to lock pages ...
[11:53] Aphilo Aarde: Do we trust wikipedia?
[11:54] Buffy Beale: good question. I do for the most part
[11:54] Aphilo Aarde: I think many people online go to Wikipedia first, as a starting place, when interested in knowledge related information
[11:55] Buffy Beale: hmmm. I think they search google or yahoo
[11:55] Aphilo Aarde: No books yet at Webnographers.org on Wikipedia, for example http://www.webnographers.org/index.php?title=Books#Wikipedia
[11:55] Aphilo Aarde: probably first, buffy
[11:55] Aphilo Aarde: you're right
[11:55] Aphilo Aarde: but there are a fair number of papers - http://www.webnographers.org/index.php?title=Papers#Wikipedia
[11:56] Buffy Beale: so why is that then?
[11:56] Aphilo Aarde: Why no books on Wikipedia (that I know of - as I'm a main aggregator of webnographers)?
[11:56] Aphilo Aarde: There are some books on wikinomics and related questions.
[11:57] Aphilo Aarde: I think someone who has written a number of papers about wikipedia may be the first
[11:57] Aphilo Aarde: book writer about wikipedia ... just a matter of time, I imagine.
[11:58] Aphilo Aarde: So urgency of idea spreading is curious because it isn't predictable.
[11:58] Aphilo Aarde: And yet ideas do spread like wild flower ... sometimes arbitrarily - the Tulip Mania in Holland is one example, when tulips became very desirable, and prices went very high!
[11:59] Aphilo Aarde: But cost isn't an issue with digital technologies to speak of
[11:59] Aphilo Aarde: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania
[11:59] Buffy Beale: Yes, with the likes of twitter and facebook ideas can take off
[12:00] Buffy Beale: one tells another who tells another...
[12:00] Aphilo Aarde: The idea of democracy is another fairly wide spread idea, and valued ... as curious as its history has been, from ancient Greece to the present, now in conjunction with the internet.
[12:01] Aphilo Aarde: Yes, and this is amplified by the media, the power of symbols ... in one to many communication - eg TV and radio and now many to many communication which is the internet.
[12:01] A group member named Kate Miranda owned by the group 'Music Island Concerts' gave you Music Island, Sea Turtle Island (52, 11, 21).
[12:01] Aphilo Aarde: Nice to converse with you ... Let's take a little break, and come back in 10 minutes
[12:01] Buffy Beale: kk
[12:01] Aphilo Aarde: and we can continue ...
[12:02] Buffy Beale: brb afk
[12:02] Aphilo Aarde: 12 after -ish ... see you in 10
[12:02] Aphilo Aarde: minutes
[12:12] Aphilo Aarde: Hi again
[12:13] Buffy Beale: back
[12:13] Aphilo Aarde: Are you in Canada? Do I remember correctly?
[12:13] Buffy Beale: my clock is 1 min off lol
[12:13] Buffy Beale: yes British Columbia
[12:14] Buffy Beale: currently living on a small island in the wilds
[12:14] Aphilo Aarde: :) sunny or rainy today?
[12:14] Buffy Beale: both :)
[12:14] Aphilo Aarde: sounds beautiful ... and with internet ... it's sunny in Second Life, and today with mountains ...
[12:14] Aphilo Aarde: A new development
[12:15] Aphilo Aarde: rainbows, then, with sun and rain?
[12:15] Buffy Beale: today is Beach CleanUp day, I get to unload bags of plastic bits I've collected from my beach walks
[12:15] Buffy Beale: yes some awesome rainbows here
[12:15] Aphilo Aarde: sounds like an enjoyable walk, in addition to the good work
[12:15] Aphilo Aarde: :)
[12:15] Aphilo Aarde: Which island?
[12:15] Buffy Beale: and it's like living in a postcard
[12:15] Buffy Beale: Quadra Island
[12:15] Aphilo Aarde: I can only imagine ... sounds lovely ... don't know it ...
[12:16] Buffy Beale: we have a wonderful community
[12:16] Buffy Beale: and caring people who speak out against violations against our environment
[12:16] Aphilo Aarde: Well, I would have continued to examine studies which both defined questions of sociality
[12:16] Buffy Beale: one of the first to stop using plastic bags for instance
[12:17] Aphilo Aarde: and were among the first about the internet in the mid 90s, but many folks are not here, so it might be
[12:17] Aphilo Aarde: Stopping to use plastic bags, and lessen the build up in landfills has great merit.
[12:18] Aphilo Aarde: Some plastic bags have come along since earth day in 68 which were biodegradable
[12:18] Aphilo Aarde: , but more expensive, and not as convenient ... so haven't been widely adopted,
[12:19] Aphilo Aarde: and the ethos has changed from idealism to pragmatics over these decades, as I see it ...
[12:19] Aphilo Aarde: but let's look more explicitly as some examples
[12:19] Aphilo Aarde: of social innovation in the history of the internet,
[12:19] Buffy Beale: great
[12:19] Aphilo Aarde: to further a question you were asking ...
[12:19] Aphilo Aarde: about earlier in this course ...
[12:20] Aphilo Aarde: We began this course by asking
[12:20] Aphilo Aarde: "What is Information Technology?"
[12:20] Aphilo Aarde: What came about?
[12:20] Aphilo Aarde: Who did it?
[12:20] Aphilo Aarde: Its history
[12:21] Aphilo Aarde: occluding, initially, the history of the internet
[12:21] Aphilo Aarde: We looked a l ittle at its Geography - where many of these innovations developed - and this significance - socially, too
[12:22] Aphilo Aarde: And we've been asking in an ongoing way
[12:22] Aphilo Aarde: What has been the process of diffusion into the economy and society.
[12:22] Aphilo Aarde: And we also have looked at some key historical developments vis-a-vis brad societal and economic trends.
[12:23] Aphilo Aarde: To understand some of its social implications
[12:23] Aphilo Aarde: it's helpful to ask what technology actually is
[12:24] Aphilo Aarde: The definition I use in this course, I draw from Manuel Castells, who
[12:24] Aphilo Aarde: in turn draws it from Harvey Brooks, who draws it from Daniel Bell.
[12:24] Aphilo Aarde: Technology is the use of scientific knowledge to specify ways of doing things in a reproducible manner.
[12:26] Aphilo Aarde: but the changes that occur CLUSTER together to form a system, coming together to reinforce each other.
[12:27] Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...
[12:27] Connected
[12:27] Aphilo Aarde: For example, this occurred in Britain in the late 18th century.
[12:27] Aphilo Aarde: signficantly.
[12:27] Aphilo Aarde: In the Industrial Revolution
[12:27] Aphilo Aarde: around technologies to generate and distribute energy and power.
[12:28] Aphilo Aarde: Many other discoveries occur concurrently ... e.g. here chemical, mechanical, etc ...
[12:28] Buffy Beale: one idea leads to another
[12:28] Aphilo Aarde: That these cluster together around a major theme is what makes these processes into a Technological Revolution.
[12:29] Aphilo Aarde: And while this occurred in Britain in the late 18th century,
[12:29] Aphilo Aarde: there was a second MAJOR revolution
[12:30] Aphilo Aarde: in the late 19th century - clustering around electricity
[12:30] Aphilo Aarde: in the U.S. and Germany, especially ...
[12:30] Aphilo Aarde: And this technological revolution around electricity
[12:31] Aphilo Aarde: was linked to a chemical revolution in the late 19th century, too
[12:31] Aphilo Aarde: which is critical to understanding the way we do things.
[12:31] Aphilo Aarde: The information technological revolution started in the beginning of the 20th century.
[12:32] Aphilo Aarde: with the INVENTION of the telephone by Bell in 1876
[12:32] Aphilo Aarde: the radio by Marconi in 1898
[12:32] Aphilo Aarde: And the vacuum tube by de Forest in 1906 - which led to transitors
[12:33] Aphilo Aarde: (For these historical developments, see Alfred Chandler's "Nation of Information" (2000)
[12:34] Aphilo Aarde: And these technological revolutions -we've mentioned three - have long precedents
[12:34] Aphilo Aarde: as systems clustering together technologies
[12:34] Buffy Beale: this is very helpful thank you
[12:35] Aphilo Aarde: (It will help contextualize social networking innovations, as well as World University and School )
[12:36] Aphilo Aarde: In the mid 1970s, the Information Technology revolution, with these significant precedents of two previous industrial revolutions)
[12:36] Aphilo Aarde: as a system became apparent
[12:36] Aphilo Aarde: And this system had 2 features
[12:36] Aphilo Aarde: as do all technological revolutions
[12:37] Aphilo Aarde: 1 PERVASIVE
[12:37] Aphilo Aarde: the effects of technological revolutions on economy and society are PERVASIVE
[12:38] Aphilo Aarde: The paradigm infuses into the entire realm of society and economy.
[12:38] Aphilo Aarde: For example, the steam engine allowed one to do things ina specific way you couldn't do before through the entire social structure.
[12:39] Aphilo Aarde: 2 The second thing about this IT revolution was there was a fundamental change at the core in GENERATING and changing INFORMATION
[12:40] Aphilo Aarde: The information technology revolution is about INFORMATION, a derivation from the
[12:40] Aphilo Aarde: Industrial Revolutions.
[12:41] Aphilo Aarde: So this new paradigm which emerges with the Information Technology Revolutions is based on three technologies
[12:41] Aphilo Aarde: 1 MICROELECTRONICS
[12:41] Aphilo Aarde: 2 COMPUTERS
[12:41] Aphilo Aarde: 3TELECOMMUNICATIONS
[12:42] Aphilo Aarde: (and 4 GENETIC ENGINEERING - the decoding and reprogramming of the information codes of living matter, which we won't get into too much detail in this course).
[12:42] Aphilo Aarde: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES
[12:43] Aphilo Aarde: Microelectroincs is the foundation of the Information Revolution
[12:43] Buffy Beale: where would Augmented Reality fit in?
[12:43] Aphilo Aarde: And this can be traced back to the vacuum tube (which is electronics, not micro)
[12:44] Aphilo Aarde: where a series of electorinc impulses able to process in a binary mode of amplification and interruption
[12:44] Aphilo Aarde: And which led to the transistor
[12:45] Aphilo Aarde: where chips have millions of transistors
[12:45] Aphilo Aarde: augmented reality
[12:45] Aphilo Aarde: Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer.
[12:46] Aphilo Aarde: emerges directly from the developments which
[12:46] Aphilo Aarde: emerge from these three technologies:
[12:46] Aphilo Aarde: 1) Microelectronics, 2) Computers, and 3) Telecommunications
[12:47] Buffy Beale: ok get it
[12:47] Aphilo Aarde: The term augmented reality is believed to have been coined in 1990 by Thomas Caudell, an employee of Boeing at the time[1].
[12:48] Aphilo Aarde: It's the INTEGRATION of circuits on chips - how to squeeze more circuits into tinier spaces that has been so significant in the advances of microelectronics,
[12:48] Aphilo Aarde: and makes possible remarkable applications of augmented reality
[12:49] Aphilo Aarde: So, in 1947, the transistor was invented at Bell Labs
[12:49] Aphilo Aarde: by Schockley, Bratain and Bardeen
[12:49] Aphilo Aarde: It was a government arrangement
[12:49] Aphilo Aarde: Microelectronics was in the public domain.
[12:50] Aphilo Aarde: Transistors were much smaller than the vacuum tube.
[12:50] Buffy Beale: I remember my first transistor radio :)
[12:50] Aphilo Aarde: And transistors lead to chip development -
[12:50] Aphilo Aarde: :)
[12:51] Aphilo Aarde: and the microprocessor ... which we may look at next week .
[12:51] Aphilo Aarde: Next week will be the last week for this course ...
[12:51] Buffy Beale: wow
[12:51] Aphilo Aarde: :)
[12:51] Buffy Beale: that went fast whens the next one?
[12:51] Buffy Beale: :)
[12:52] Aphilo Aarde: World University and School hopes to offer courses in the autumn, and I may teach this course, or another then, too.
[12:52] Aphilo Aarde: We'll see ...
[12:52] Aphilo Aarde: Observations? Questions?
[12:52] Buffy Beale: lots
[12:53] Aphilo Aarde: Thoughts about the second half of today's course? ... in the last 8 minutes?
[12:53] Buffy Beale: sure
[12:53] Buffy Beale: I'm glad you brought me back on topic, I was going down the route of how to capitolize on the internet
[12:53] Buffy Beale: get social innovators connected
[12:54] Buffy Beale: but see that in order to do that, we need to understand how it workds
[12:54] Buffy Beale: *works
[12:54] Buffy Beale: the platform and the people
[12:54] Aphilo Aarde: How to capitalize on the internet is done richly through hardware
[12:55] Aphilo Aarde: Socially, people can too ... yahoo, google, apple software, microsoft software ... all inform networks
[12:56] Aphilo Aarde: agreed ... but even folks like Bill Gates have unique expressions of the "How it works" questions.
[12:56] Aphilo Aarde: He's the second richest man in the world, apparently.
[12:56] Buffy Beale: he is one of my mentors
[12:56] Buffy Beale: because he had a vision and he made it happen
[12:56] Buffy Beale: one computer on every desk in every office in every home
[12:56] Buffy Beale: well just about, not counting digital divide
[12:57] Aphilo Aarde: Gates' justice department :) paper is here at webnographers.org - http://webnographers.org/index.php?title=Papers#Impact_of_Social_Media
[12:57] Buffy Beale: of course it is :)
[12:57] Buffy Beale: So my last thought is, now that we have all these connections taking place
[12:58] Aphilo Aarde: The digital divide suggests that the IT revolution will continue robustly in a financial sense ...
[12:58] Buffy Beale: how will they be so that one talks to all, not just many
[12:58] Aphilo Aarde: How can one person talk to many via Internet technologies? A Gates, for example?
[12:59] Aphilo Aarde: Or blogging technologies, where everyone would have to be reading one person's blog?
[12:59] Buffy Beale: well going back to the examples, google microsoft etc, he would just be talking to microsoft in a way
[12:59] Aphilo Aarde: I don't know who is the most read blogger - a good example of one talking to all ... wouldn't it be?
[13:00] Buffy Beale: yes I suppose
[13:00] Buffy Beale: it's one way though
[13:00] Aphilo Aarde: I think some heads of corporations talk to audience beyond their own corporations, don't you think?
[13:00] Buffy Beale: sure
[13:01] Buffy Beale: but if they had a social innovation would they be talking to all social innovators?
[13:01] Aphilo Aarde: And Gates' philanthropy - the richest philanthropy, he's the most generous giver ever, I think - is a way, too.
[13:01] Buffy Beale: yes, he supports many including TechSoup which provides reduced priced software for nonprofits
[13:02] Aphilo Aarde: Yes, perhaps ... who are perhaps the most visible thus far in the Information Technology Revolution, besides Gates and Jobs ... ?
[13:02] Aphilo Aarde: True
[13:02] Buffy Beale: good question
[13:02] Aphilo Aarde: Someone like Andrew Carnegie, of steel mill fame,
[13:03] Aphilo Aarde: And the Medicis to go back to the Italian Renaissance ... ?
[13:03] Aphilo Aarde: gave libraries and music halls in a very far-reaching way ... so about information and public and free
[13:04] Aphilo Aarde: They gave a lot ... and what a flourishing time that was culturally, artistically and intellectually !
[13:04] Buffy Beale: yes for sure
[13:04] Aphilo Aarde: yes for sure
[13:04] Buffy Beale: :)
[13:04] Aphilo Aarde: :)
[13:04] Aphilo Aarde: Thanks for coming!
[13:05] Buffy Beale: Thanks to you Aphilo, you've really opened my eyes to new thoughts and ideas
[13:05] Buffy Beale: sparking me :)
[13:05] Aphilo Aarde: Glad we can converse
[13:05] Buffy Beale: yes me too
[13:05] Aphilo Aarde: Hi Zeus!
[13:05] Zeus Papp: hi there
[13:05] Buffy Beale: Hi Zeus
[13:05] Aphilo Aarde: Next week is the last "Information TEchnology and Society" class
[13:06] Aphilo Aarde: http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/
[13:06] Aphilo Aarde: See you then perhaps!
[13:06] Aphilo Aarde: Welcome Zeus
[13:06] Zeus Papp: do you actually have classes here?
[13:06] Buffy Beale: yes for sure, take care and have a delightful week
[13:06] Aphilo Aarde: :)
[13:06] Buffy Beale: sure do Zeus
[13:06] Aphilo Aarde: Interesting classes are held here, Zeus
[13:06] Zeus Papp: How often?
[13:07] Aphilo Aarde: Harvard Professor Charlie Nesson has taught a class
[13:07] Aphilo Aarde: on Law in the court of Public Opinion, and other classes have happened here, as well
[13:07] Aphilo Aarde: since at least 2006.
[13:07] Buffy Beale: I'm off, see yo soon Aphilo, thanks again
[13:07] Aphilo Aarde: There's sometimes a class here once a semester
[13:07] Aphilo Aarde: Bye Buffy
[13:08] Buffy Beale: :)
[13:08] Aphilo Aarde: but classes happen here a little irregularly, in my experience
[13:08] Zeus Papp: how many 'students' attend those classes?
[13:08] Aphilo Aarde: In a "Virtual Worlds" class which Rebecca Nesson taught, I saw a full simulation
[13:09] Aphilo Aarde: I think - 40 ish at one point ...the maximum number of students
[13:09] Aphilo Aarde: In my classes - I've taught here for 4 or 5 semesters - between 5 and 10 students, often
[13:09] Aphilo Aarde: Are you a professor?
[13:09] Zeus Papp: OK thats interesting
[13:10] Zeus Papp: Yes I work at a teachers college
[13:10] Aphilo Aarde: Great ... teaching English as a Second Language? (in your profile)
[13:11] Zeus Papp: Right. And one of my classes is a distance teaching class as we call it. I'm looking for an interesting place to meet with my students.
[13:11] Aphilo Aarde: You might be interested in the budding World University and School.
[13:11] Aphilo Aarde: It's open, free and 'edit this page" - like Wikipedia with MIT Open Course Ware and UC Berkeley webcasts, and much more
[13:12] Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses
[13:12] Aphilo Aarde: Interesting ...
[13:12] Aphilo Aarde: Virtual worlds are ideal.
[13:12] Zeus Papp: Sounds interesting. I've tried Skype, of course, and Adobe connect - but we lack the 3D dimension
[13:12] Aphilo Aarde: Have you visited the Goethe Institute's German class and conversation opportunities in Second Life?
[13:13] Zeus Papp: No - where do I find it?
[13:13] Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Language_Learning
[13:13] Aphilo Aarde: It's free, and I've added it to World University and School above
[13:13] Zeus Papp: OK -I might check it out
[13:14] Aphilo Aarde: The conversation opportunities, with a native speaker, meet 6 days a week, as I understand it
[13:14] Aphilo Aarde: at 8a Second Life Time - M-F
[13:14] Zeus Papp: Sounds good!
[13:14] Aphilo Aarde: and on Sundays at something like at 11am SLT
[13:14] Aphilo Aarde: and the once-a-week class meets at perhaps 9a (or 8a) on Tuesdays I think.
[13:14] Zeus Papp: Don't you think the idea of dressing up as an avatar spoils the idea of a serious meeting place
[13:15] Aphilo Aarde: (Conversation may actually happen at 7aSLT, actually - m-f)
[13:16] Aphilo Aarde: No I think avatar mediated communication enhances digital communication significantly over any other kind of digital communication, (and especially because you can have more than 2 avatars together)
[13:16] Aphilo Aarde: I see Second Life, for example, as simpy a forum, in one sense, with voice and type chat ... so focusing language learning opportunites.
[13:17] Zeus Papp: I think you need to explain that a bit further. Why 2 avatars?
[13:17] Aphilo Aarde: And of course, one can stream video into Second Life.
[13:17] Aphilo Aarde: Virtual islands can hold up to 40 avatars. Skype, by contrast, can only do 1-1 video.
[13:17] Aphilo Aarde: So you can have a class.
[13:18] Zeus Papp: How do you see all these different costumes as learning potential? I understand the video and midia part
[13:18] Aphilo Aarde: I haven't tried multiple 'real' faces on a screen yet for teaching, but that requires a lot of bandwidth.
[13:19] Zeus Papp: That's where it gets interesting seen from a teacher's point of view, I think
[13:19] Aphilo Aarde: Costumes and clothing are fun, changeable, and interesting ... perhaps in making clothing together in a foreign language, students might further their language skills
[13:20] Zeus Papp: OK - you might have a point there!
[13:20] Aphilo Aarde: but I think its type chat and voice that are the real strength - avatar appearance is secondary in my experience ... it's the word vector nature of Second LIfe - voice and type that's so great.
[13:20] Aphilo Aarde: How would clothes add in your experience?
[13:20] Zeus Papp: I see!
[13:23] Zeus Papp: When teaching theory of education and methodology, I can't really see the relevance of hiding behind avatars
[13:23] Aphilo Aarde: I don't know of any rich aggregates of web links of language teaching in Second Life yet
[13:23] Aphilo Aarde: Yes, and with virtual worlds, you don't need to be in the same place ... a remarkable development thanks to information technologies.
[13:24] Zeus Papp: You're absolutely right. In fact, I teach students from many places in Europe
[13:24] Zeus Papp: which is why I need an interesting virtual meeting place
[13:25] Aphilo Aarde: :)
[13:25] Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Language_Learning
[13:25] Zeus Papp: But many people don't think SL is a serious place to meet
[13:25] Aphilo Aarde: I just added more content here ... with some avatar learning links ... a starting place to see what else is 'out there'
[13:25] Aphilo Aarde: Yet it's a remarkable word vector - voice and type
[13:26] Zeus Papp: Thanks for your links, I save them and will return to them
[13:26] Aphilo Aarde: And people need at least a gig of ram, as well as bandwidth, as well as to become familiar with the program .
[13:26] Aphilo Aarde: yw
[13:26] Zeus Papp: I don't think that's a problem if you sign up for distance teaching
[13:27] Aphilo Aarde: People might have thought the car wasn't a serious mode of conveyance in 1920, either, by comparison, - I think people will come to see the utility of virtual worlds.
[13:28] Zeus Papp: No doubt about that - I just wonder if SL is the best place
[13:29] Aphilo Aarde: Yes ... if you check out World University and School's Subjects ... you'll the possibility for multiple virtual worlds ... but I don't know of a different one, or anyone, where language learning is excelling ... and Second Life works and has a sizable community of users and builders ... so it's one viable option.
[13:29] Aphilo Aarde: I'd certainly continue to inquire around, and find all the options.
[13:30] Zeus Papp: OK - you've given me lots of good advice and links.
[13:30] Aphilo Aarde: I don't know of any others ... but if you go to the Goethe Institute's classes, they might know of other virtual worlds ... I'd go to a lot of different languages classes in SL and ask what they've heard about ...
[13:30] Aphilo Aarde: :) yw
[13:30] Aphilo Aarde: Nice to meet you.
[13:31] Aphilo Aarde: And SL is also free.
[13:31] Aphilo Aarde: I'm planning to post this transcript for future reference
[13:31] Zeus Papp: I might do that one day. Thanks for all you help so far. There's a Clint Eastwood film coming up on my local channe so I'd better stop here
[13:31] Aphilo Aarde: http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/
[13:31] Aphilo Aarde: Enjoy ... bye for now.
[13:32] Zeus Papp: You're welcome to do that!
[13:32] Zeus Papp: Bye
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/04/black-lace-mushrooms-information.html - April 24, 2010)
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