CCT205-+Labs

CCT 205 Labs

Lab 1: __**Answer:**__ I feel that the digital innovation which should be named "the most revolutionary", is a close call between Facebook and YouTube, but ultimately I would hand the title to YouTube. My reasoning for this, is that I feel it has connected people in a more meaningful way and is more globally productive than Facebook, or many other recent innovations.
 * __Question:__ Which digital innovation do you feel deserves the title "revolutionary".**

YouTube allows people to communicate in a very powerful way that dwarfs the effect of a wall post or a "poke". YouTube allows people to share real experiences, interests, likes, dislikes, and personal interests/videos, many times without having to type a single word. Facebook is nice when you want to contact people using words and digital gestures, but if a picture says a thousand words, it is awe inspiring to think of all the things that can be communicated in a 5 minute video. The more recent features, such as the ability to "like" and "dislike", to rate, to comment, and even send personal messages to other registered users. All of these aspects are helping to expand the social effect on this staggering repository of information, music, video blogs, ect. YouTube is also a phenomenal development in regards to it's ability to teach, and be academic, something that Facebook is hard-pressed to do, (some might say Facebook is even the anti-christ of academia). Though Facebook gives its users the ability to provide feedback on comments and photos that may or may not have any relevance, YouTube acts not only as an engine for sharing likes, and interesting footage, but also for its ability to help people learn and teach without ever physically meeting.

YouTube has changed the world, and I think most would argue it is for the better. It is the ultimate communication device, with many more applications than Facebook, and is helping people around the world to share themselves in a meaningful way. By "meaningful" I mean that it involves the exchange of artistic endeavours, cultural differences, and other forms of what I believe are "real" entertainment. I don't want to believe that our society's idea of entertainment has deteriorated into updating a Facebook status before and after you shower.

Lab 2: __**Question:**__ "What do you think about the Mac "App" store?" __**Answer:**__ I think the concept of this app store is very innovative and will usher in a completely new way to purchase and play mobile games. It allows the user to purchase games at their will from a myriad of different categories and genres to suit the needs of the user. The variety in these games is what I believe will eventually counter some of the less "user friendly" aspects of the App Store. What I mean by that, is that it is becoming apparent how many restrictions and controls Apple implements to ensure they have strict control over the content of their games, who makes them, and which ones can be produced and sold. However, I believe that by catering to such a variety of people, Apple will eventually have to face the decision between keeping total control over the monopoly that is the App Store and all of it's productions, or catering to their customer's wants and needs in the pursuit of money. Eventually I believe they will cave in to popular demand and the range of applications avaliable will greatly increase in both the variety of game types, as well as the maturity level required to play them. I think the issue that Mac should be focusing on is how to regulate which age groups have access to which applications. This will help remove some of the negativity surrounding their App policies, as well as promote sales. This concept of gaming/application downloads and usage in the manner of the App Store is still in its early stages, and as such I do not condemn the policies that have been implemented to control them. Total freedom of this concept of entertainment and technology can easily get out of hand, and the effects would be widespread and chaotic. I believe the mobile application concept will function like most other new technologies, people will love it, people will condemn it, and then the final product will fall somewhere in the middle.

Lab 3: I would like to examine Pink's concept of Empathy as something that I am hoping will be implemented into everyday life, and will almost absolutely lead to a better world. Empathy is an emotional process, and more importantly a //shared// emotional process. When it comes to human communication, I can think of few forms of communication that are more powerful and more influential than human empathy. I believe in this because I believe all humans have the capacity for compassion, and I believe that being able to communicate on an emotional basis is one of the most important self-actualizing processes that animals are able to do. Through passion, and compassion, both of which I believe constitute foundations for empathy, people are able to involve themselves personally in issues and ultimately put more of themselves into it, and ultimately will achieve a more favourable outcome. I am a psychology student specializing in human communication, as well as a musician/songwriter, and thus I feel like I am in a good place to assert the importance of passion and empathy in how we communicate our messages. I believe that Daniel Pink's other senses of Story, Design, Symphony, ect. all stem from, or can at least be dramatically enhanced by the act of empathy. I hope that as we progress further into the "Conceptual Age" that more people will begin to see the benefits of allowing one's emotions to be involved in their work, and not simply confining oneself to cold, calculated logic.
 * __Question:__** Chose a real world example of one of Daniel Pink's "six senses" and how they will affect people.
 * __Answer:__**

Lab 5: I believe that the future holds a very bizarre twist on what privacy used to imply. Privacy has historically been treated as something personal, confidential, and not to be seen outside of a very intimate group of people. I believe the future holds just the opposite: privacy will be considered an asset for "sale", and the release of this information will be a determining factor of ones social status: "look how much of my life Im willing to share with the world, ergo I must be popular." An effect such as this can already be seen in the modern day Facebook phenomenon. People who are very popular tend to be very indulgent with respect to how much information they put up on their profiles. Of course, there is a number of people who are popular and do not want much of their information to be viewed by the public, but a recurring theme that I've noticed is certainly that the display of private information/photos generally correlates with how often the person interacts with others on Facebook. It is almost as though privacy has lost all of it's original meaning and is now used as a display of social status. If this is the case already, one can only imagine what the word "privacy" will imply in the future, or whether the term will even be applicable in our culture. Sort of a disturbing thought for me personally, as I am one that tries to confine my Facebook use to personal messages, the new chat feature, and event planning. However, even with limited use, a Google search of one's name brings up photos, personal information (a persons job/school) as well as other compromising information that should for no reason fall into the hands of a stranger. We are accustomed to the belief that the future is uncertain, but won't the future have even more access to answers and information (personal and public) than we have today? Certainly.
 * __Question:__** Views/concerns on the future of privacy.
 * __Answer:__**

Lab 6..or 7...maybe 8?: I think Web 3.0 should be about the hybridization between data organization and artificial intelligence. At the moment, Google and wikipedia are fantastic example of a system that is quite proficient at the retrieval of specific pieces of information. Sites such as google and Youtube have also developed a method of suggesting what future searches should be, which in my opinion is a stepping stone for artificial intelligence. I think web 3.0 will have computer systems which will be able to extract and manifest preferences into search results in a more intimate way. The computers will interpret exactly what and why a particular video is liked, and will be able to further link and individual into not only similar bits of information, but also bits of information in different contexts. For example, if you like a particular section of bands, the computer will break it down by genre, presence of certain instruments, fan base, record label, early years, and not only suggest similar bands, but suggest new and upcoming bands, and also textual information about that genre. Artificial intelligence is going to enhance the way we view information by doing most of the thinking for us. It will be able to interpret and extrapolate, and perhaps even convert people based on the "facts" that it finds, contrary to an individuals preference. Web 3.0 will be a pinnacle of machines guiding humans, and unfortunately, will drastically increase our dependence of it.It is going to be the manifestation of the Xanadu, as proposed by Ted Nelson. It will be a thinking, creative manifestation of all information, ever. Kind of a humbling premonition.
 * __Question:__** What will/should web 3.0 be about?
 * __Answer:__**