privacy, what's that?

After reading The Death Knell of Privacy, I found myself aghast at the extent that corporate executives and the government are using technology to prove to their employees or constituents how little they trust them. I lived in London briefly a few years back, and I remember the buses having the CCTV system set up, and how my friends and I thought it was so cool that we could see our friends sitting on an upper level if we were lucky enough to snag the seat in front of the CCTV system. However, after reading this article I more fully understand the significance of the CCTV system and how it and other technologies, such as the mobile phone tracking device can truly threaten a person's sense of privacy. I personally hate that through blackberries and cell phones, employees are reachable 24/7, and as a result are expected to keep up with any developments at work once they've left the office. To be able to be physically tracked, however, is a new level of absurdity. I could be at the beach with my family in the future and be forced to do a favor for my boss because I'm the closest person or risk being fired? That just boggles my mind, yet I'm worried that this and even more invasive measures are in our future.

the anarchist in the library....

Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons has said, in regard to the proliferation of peer-to-peer music-sharing networks, 'This is very profound moment historically. This isn't about a bunch of kids stealing music. It's about an assault on everything that constitutes the cultural expression of our society. If we fail to protect and preserve our intellectual property system, the culture will atrophy. And corporations won't be the only ones hurt. Artists will have no incentive to create. Worst case scenario: The country will end up in sort of a cultural Dark Ages.

Worst-case scenario? How about never going to happen? I am someone who doesn't understand why rich CEOs and artists whose albums go platinum are complaining that they are losing money or that they are being robbed of some aspect of the creative process. I enjoy peer-to-peer networks because they allow me to discover new artists and more obsucre songs by an artist that I never would have heard otherwise because I won't buy a CD having only heard one or two songs. Many people in my generation feel the same way. If the system works properly, it is more about sharing than stealing. However, I agree with the author that these networks will not be harnassed as powerful machines for the common good. For everyone out there who uses technology the way it was intended, there are others who see it as an easier way to cause corruption.

And it all makes sense...

So I've actually done a website revamp for a small company before as I noted in my last post, and I wish I had the experience of this class before undertaking that particular challenge. While most of the things Jessica Burdman points out in her chapter from Collaborate Web Development: Strategies & Best Practices for Web Teams are fairly obvious, when faced with the massive task of looking at a website and breaking it down into what every little thing needs to be improved and how to do it all in order to make the site work as a whole, and how to afford the project in the first place, it can be quite daunting. The site for the Independent Green Party of Virginia, which is the site I will be working to improve this summer, is almost a blank slate since there is very little good on it to work with. I can't wait to dive in and use all of this newfound information to see what I can come up with.

finally getting around to fogg...

As I was reading about the Reciprocity Study in Fogg's book, Persuasive Technology, my first thought was: when was this study done? It seemed fairly elementary and didn't seem to actually prove much of anything. I'm not convinced that people really feel like the computer has done them a favor worth returning. As an avid Google user, I understand how a computer can make my life much easier. However, I do not see myself more likely to fill out a Google survey, for example, just because it helped me find an answer in under a minute. Perhaps now that computers and search engines are so mainstream, people take them more for granted than they did just a few years ago.

website design...

Class just ended and my mind is full of all sorts of thoughts on the strategic plan project. I actually had to do something similar for a company I worked for last year, but with no formal training. I sat in class thinking how much easier my job would have been if I had done a proper prototype. I actually tried doing something similar, but much less "professional," it was much more experimental and mostly consisted of sketchings. While I may not ever do anything like this professionally again, I am excited at the prospect of creating a functional yet visually appealing website. I think a campaign or party's website are soon going to be as important as its logo or theme. It will be the thing that they are identified by, and it needs to be impressive.

two great minds are sometimes not enough...

Well I'm still at the beach, but since class is tomorrow, I'm going to do my best to post something somewhat intelligent while down on the NC coast as opposed to a DC office.

I've done a lot of other research on the Internet and its ability to transform political campaigns for other projects and classes. Bimber and Davis have both come up quite often in that past research, and while I knew they had finally collaborated, I had never gotten the chance to read their findings before. While not exactly beach reading, I've always enjoyed both men's ability to write about a fairly complex topic at a level someone with little experience could understand. They both understand the difficulties in studying something as intricate as Internet usage because it can be extremely tedious and seemingly impossible to track who is using what page how often and for what purpose. To do one of these things is much simpler, but does not tell you very much. I applaud their efforts, recognize their limitations, and hope that in the future they will continue their research, either individually or together, and expand their predictions and findings for the upcoming midterms and the 2008 campaign.