When Good Ideas Go Bad!

I was reading our dear friend, Mr. Neilson's article about the end of industrialization, thanks to the Internet. In it, he suggests that the Internet is so empowering that it will end things such as mass production and the end of large companies. But I disagree. I think we have seen that these large companies, who use mass production, still use the Internet for the marketing of their products. Further, this is a "Which came first?" situation. Computer companies, such as Dell or IBM, are still large corporations, and use mass production methods to produce their products. These products, in turn, would be used to end themselves? I find that highly doubtful. While his premise is thought-provoking, it does not lead to the conclusion that is intended.

Pocket Change for Tunes - Why Not!

Reading the articles about micropayments, I began thinking about the examples of micropayments that were presented to us. While I don't really know if I would pay 50 cents for an online comic, the music micropayment has mushroomed and grown exponentially. Further, I agree with the point that they can lower production costs, leading to a price reduction. It will be interesting to see if book publishers and other allow micropayments to take off the way that smaller media have.

Don't Be So Mean to this Poor Guy

Everyone else has been SO hard on Neilson this semester, and since its almost over, I thought I would take a chance to defend the poor martyr of our class. He raises a valid point in his analysis of the newsletters that the presidential campaign sent out during the last week of the campaign. Like most things in their operation, I have to really question the operations of the Kerry campaign at the end of the election cycle. If you haven't raised the money by the last week of the election, it isn't coming! Neilson's conclusion that the entire election was won because Bush used the newsletters for turnout rather than fundraising might be a stretch, but it certainly contributed to his success. So today, I pay tribute to you, Mr. "I Look Ugly and Get Slammed by the New Media Class" Guy!

Commons Are Problematic on the Net, too!

One of the websites listed in the last class' outline is is called Creative Commons. The tagline says that it offers protection to artists and authors and provided some "voluntary copywrites." To me, this raises a big question about the level of protection that we expect for our intellectual property. Granted, some level of protection is needed, or advancements could stagnate. However, I have to wonder why there is a need to build upon the "all rights reserved" that are already protecting the products. I may not completely understand what this site is attempting to do, but, to me, I really don't feel that this is necessary.

La Resistance Lives On!

In Winning Campaigns Online, there is a section about the "undead" campaign. That is, campaigns that do not solicit votes, but only want the money of their supporters. In fact, the book makes the point that in the 2000 Republican Primaries, Gary Bauer posted "good news" that he was running third in the Iowa polls, even after he had already finished fourth. This made me start thinking about the solicitation of funds after campaigns. Many campaigns fail to raise enough money during the campaign to pay their expenses. That is why they continue to raise funds even after the election. But on the Internet, especially without truthful information, this type of deceitful fundraising raises a question of ethics. This is clearly an unethical practice. I am anxious to see if this will continue to be a common practice, especially with the fundraising race towards the next Presidential election.

Is the Enemy of My Enemy My Enemy?

In politics, there are enemies. One of the most villainous, treacherous enemies are journalists and the media. In The Control Revolution, Shapiro talks about disintermediation of news and information. That is, bypassing journalists and delivering the news and message straight to people, without journalistic interpretation. However, this, in itself, raises ethical questions about information dissemination through a medium like the internet. We all know that all information on the internet cannot be trusted. In fact, most of it is garbage. Therefore, by maintaining these intermediaries, we are able to filter some, but obviously not all (i.e. Rathergate), of the inaccurate information on the web. Shapiro makes the point that we need to rely on these intermediaries to place emphasis on being right rather than first. So, in fact, the enemy of my enemy (disintermediation) is my enemy!

Owning Up To Responsibility Is Not My Job

Yet another ethical issue that Fogg raises about computers that I take issue with is that computers cannot shoulder responsibility. He says, "To be an ethical agent of persuasion, I believe you must be able to take responsibility for your actions and at least in partial responsibility for what happens to those whom you persuade." Since computers assume no responsibility, they are not ethical agents.

I have to disagree with the author on this one. Computers, in my opinion, are not responsible for their actions, because they did not program themselves to do certain actions. Skynet didn't tell these computers what to do - a person did! Therefore, responsibility should fall, not on the computer, but on the person who told the computer to take action.

Fact Check - Keeping Integrity In a Shameless Game

The reading for this coming week's class from Factcheck.org about the MoveOn PAC ad was an interesting read. I read this website quite frequently during the previous election cycle. I always used it to knock down ads that the President had put out in attack of Democrats. However, I had read about instances, precisely like this one, where my fellow progressives had used the same dirty tricks as the opposition. As this selected reading shows, the editing of video and audio to fit your needs raises serious ethical questions.

As my name implies, I am no friend of the President. I voted for Sen. Kerry in the last election, but did so with great reservation. My grandfather used to use a phrase describing instances like the ones listed on Factcheck.org - "If you lay with dogs, you're gonna get fleas!" Political ads are so shameless today, with nothing off limits. Both sides - liberals and conservatives - should really consider the consequences of these ads.