Two weeks after the contested election in Iran, David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun spoke of the ground breaking changes that had taken place in journalism. Parisa Khosravi, senior vice president of international newsgathering for CNN Worldwide was quoted as saying," In my 22 years, I have never seen antyhing like this -it is amazing the flood of information that's coming in. The China Quake and Mombai bombing wern't even close to this"
BBC was broadcasting out of London via satellite to Iran and Afghanistan, and was doing several daily interactive programs in which people could text, email and phone in so there was no shortage of people willing to participate on the day of the election.
An explosion of the use of user-generated content was created, with thousands and thousands of files, stills and videos being sent every day from people in Iran with mobile phones and cameras.
News was truly a two-way process.
This doesn’t mean that the journalist’s role was gone. In fact, BBC journalists were called to account more and more since they have to source and analyze the material but it did mean that they had huge potential to cover things as they happened.
For BBC, the main problem was that you could not know the accuracy of the material. There were pressures from both sides about what was being said. It was largely unfiltered and had to be contextualized by the journalists of BBC Persian for the rest of BBC.
There are people who teach, and then there are those who seek (the knowledge). Isn't the internet revolution making it so easier for both to reach each other. When I was a kid, I used to wish while going to school, if the process could be reversed, that is instead of me going to school, the school could come to me. Well, that has somewhat happened, now a big knowledge reserve reaches me home through internet, in fact I don't have the capability of taking in all the knowledge that is available. But still I can absorb the knowledge I am looking for.Moreover, there's a variety of online interactive courses colleges offer these days, that use internet blogging chains as an alternative for class discussions. I have taken a few and the interaction is very powerful and interesting, not only with the teacher but with the other co-students also.
With everyone being able to make their written content blogs and video blogs and provide it anywhere on the internet, the reach of this is far beyond a set group of people. This is what Salman Khan who graduated from Harvard University did. One of his cousins at the other corner of the world needed help with Maths, he made and posted a youtube video for her, it helped her so much, she frequently asked for it, and the other relatives joined in.Soon other people were finding and watching his videos on youtube and about 80,000 people were watching those. He finally made his own website where you can browse more than 1800 educational videos by topic. you can find topics ranging from Finance and Mathematics to Chemistry,Biology Physics and History. Working from a small room converted from closet at the back of his bedroom, CNN called him "Bill Gates' favorite teacher".This is not the only example of educational experience online.You can find so many websites like these, and it is so interesting that these people have the passion of taking out the time and doing such an extraordinary work that is benefitting countless people around the world
Nowadays everyone has a computer and everyone knows what youtube is but is everyone using it to they're advantage and its potential? Recently I had a wedding to attend and had no idea how to tie a tie knot so what do you think i did? i didn't call my dad because I'm not to sure he knew how to do it either. i went straight to youtube and followed alon with someone who was excellent at tying tie knots and in about 45 seconds it looked like i was tying a tie my entire life life. The point is there is information on how to do just about anything on youtube and its advice from people who know what there talking about. My little cousin wanted to know how to do a trick on his skateboard called a kick flip. He asked me and when i tried to explain it he got confused so he went to youtube and watched a video in slow motion and by the end of the day he was starting to land most of them. The point of all this is that youtubes user generated content is way more valuable than anything we could give on our own to our sons and daughters. When i have a kid and he or she wants to learn to tie there shoelaces I'm gonna sit them in front of a computer and pull up youtube and they will be taught by the best shoe tiers in the world, those who make videos about it. You want to know how to do long division, you want to know how to build a tree house? Go to youtube and type it in something will come up.
Do you remember where you were when the rangers won the stanley cup in 1994? Maybe but if you want to relive that nite just type it in and you will see the last 1.6 second face off in the third period. There is nothing of worldwide notable importance that isn't there so if your bored one day check out all the dumb stuff our fellow human beings are doing whether there break dancing on broken glass or tuna fishing in the middle of the ocean youtube brings it to you
This week we discuss Surveillance to Sousveillance: Who's Watching?
After 9/11 the Bush administration authorized secret surveillance of the American citizens. The aim of the program was to rapidly monitor the phone calls and other communications of people in the United States believed to have contact with suspected associates of al Qaeda and other terrorist groups overseas. While some are saying its an absolute necessity others are calling it an invasion of individual privacy. You be the judge.
Since the invention of the Internet, our dependency on this virtual space only continues to increase with time. When the Internet was first created, it was a space we turned to once or twice a day for special purposes, and now it seems as if we never really leave the Internet. Overtime, the Internet has continued to grow and to make its way into our everyday routines.
The average person today owns a smart phone, which allows them to walk around with Internet in their pocket. These smart phones are equivalent to mini computers, and make it possible to serf the web from almost anywhere. These phones also contain applications for hundreds of functions, such as paying bills, checking the weather, shopping, downloading, social networking, etc. However, with such great capabilities and endless possibilities we tend to forget that our privacy is at stake with almost every single move we make.
In many ways the Internet is a blessing and a curse. It has blessed us by allowing communication and dissemination of information amongst people around the world. However, this completely free and open space has also made room for negative and malicious things to occur. With the Internet, it seems as if for every positive thing there are twice as many that are negative. For example, for every amazing shopping website there are hundreds of hackers waiting to try and steal your credit card information.
Another huge concern today is the extreme and popular use of social networking sites like MySpace, Face book, and Twitter; which encourage people to basically publish their identities online. Although amusing, these websites in particular can be harmful to young children who are not aware of the dangers of the Internet.
An article titled "Ten ways to protect your privacy online" by Andy Bloxham, covers a very interesting side to online safety. Rather than focusing on technological things people can do to protect their identities, he covers very simple things that can make a huge difference. His number two advice was “change your name.” According to him, with the level of private and inappropriate content young people post on the Internet everyday, by the time they reach adult hood the best thing to do is change their name. To me this was extremely disturbing to hear, since most people myself included never really think about the future when we post things on the Internet.
The rest of the tips included things such as create strong passwords, untag yourself from certain pictures, apply security settings on everything, always log out of websites, and completely stay away from social networks if you can.
The tips in this article were very straight forward and to the point. Although they offered very simple and common advice, I found them useful because these are things we already know but often overlook. With the use of the Internet our privacy will always be in some potential danger. However, our jobs as consumers is to educate ourselves as much as possible, and make sure we educate the upcoming generations to simply take precautions and hope for the best. Like with everything in life, education and becoming computer savvy is key towards enforcing privacy online.
There are many websites on the internet that say your information is protected. However, there are criminals who hack into these sites and steal information which makes these sites not so safe. If I call people criminals who steal information and hack into these sites then i would have to call some pharmaceutical companies criminals as well. Some of these companies formed an alliance and tracked exactly what there consumers were looking at while viewing their sites. One company toysmart was sued by the federal trade commission by trying to sell their consumer database to the highest bidder.
There was a law passed name the Amy Boyer law named after a digital stalker victim. Her social security number was stolen offline and was sold to a man for only $45 and he murdered her. This digital stalking is real and it is scary. People can find out your most personal information and even use some things against in a blackmail attempt. Thats why they say if you do not want something to be found or recovered do no put it on the internet.
The National Fraud Information center did a study and it showed that one quarter of everyone surveyed said that they do not buy anything on-line anymore because they are afraid their information will be stolen. I can not say that i blame them. Everyone is out for themselves in this world and i believe that any company that is offered the right kinf of money would kindly give up any information that is asked of them.
At this day and age the average person should be aware that the government is monitoring almost everything that we do. Phone calls all the way to what you are what we are viewing on the internet. heres a link that gives some in-depth information on us: everyday normal people Surveillance. Its like we are being watched like some usteam video. No one knows when they’re being watch and what they’re really watching for.
Online privacy doesn’t exist anymore It died when the government decided to use terrorism as an excuse to check into peoples day-day lives. Here’s a article by Glenn Greenwald Project Vigilant and the government/corporate destruction of privacy. In the article it show how the United States government buy pass the legal restraints on getting information on their citizens. He also states how they move in secret and violate the freedom of information Act.
this a direct quote from the passage “This group is comprised of as many as 500 operatives, some of whom have experience in data security and surveillance after leaving top-level positions at organizations like the U.S. Department of Justice, Homeland Security, the Pentagon, the NSA, the New York Stock Exchange… and they are exploiting loopholes in ISP contracts to mine data on every step you take online.”
this is very hard to intake knowing that each thing that i am doing is being watched by the government. i only person or being that i'm ok with watching me all the time and knowing everything that i am doing is god. the government is acting as if they are god and this doesn't sit well with me. its no reason why people have to be watched in this way. i think that this is a start of a " One World Government"
The term sousveillance was coined by Steve Mann, a professor of computer engineering at the University of Toronto. Mann is the inventor of the hydraulophone. According to him it’s a public water feature that is a fun and playful musical instrument similar to a woodwind instrument but using pressurized water instead of air.
How did a hydraulophone inventor get involved with the privacy of others? The answer lies in Mann’s documentary, Shooting Back. In 2001, the New York Times wrote an article entitled, “SCIENTIST AT WORK: STEVE MANN; Real-Life Cyborg Challenges Reality With Technology,” that discussed Steve Mann’s film and his possible inspiration for the film, SeatSale. The SeatSale is a plain wooden chair with a scrolling electronic sign and a credit card reader. Unfortunately there is more to the chair than that, like a bed of spikes.
According to the article, the Texas invention allows tired pedestrians to have a place to sit, only if they swipe their credit card in the reader and agree to terms and conditions. If this person does not follow the proper directions or avoids using their card and have a seat then the bed of spike is released.
In the film Mann wears ''eyetap'' glasses, which project an image onto the retina of his eye, a simple condom ad in a bathroom becomes a picture of a waterfall.
Glasses are not the only thing Mann has computerized though. According to the article, Dr. Mann greets a visitor to his laboratory wearing his everyday headset, an aluminum frame form-fitted to his brow, which is studded with lasers, cameras and tiny electronic parts.
A thick bundle of colored wires runs from his headset to a computer in a fanny pack at his waist. In one hand he clutches a small ''chording keyboard'' that allows him to type commands or compose messages with one hand.
A wireless connection provides a constant Internet link. With his wearable computer, Dr. Mann can see and hear things invisible to his visitor. It’s a bit creepy.
In the film, Mann outfitted with his hidden ''wearcam,'' went into chain stores and innocently asked why there were domes on the ceiling. According to the article, “He secretly filmed the employee's evasiveness and their defensive responses – ‘They're here for your own good’ -- and then reached into his bag and pulled out a video camera of his own.”
That is about the time he would be removed from the store. Can you imagine being at work and being harassed with question by a customer with a camera and tiny cameras that you cannot see?
In this time and age of technology, smartphones and terrorism, it is really hard to figure out if the government or your neighbor is the main threat.
Mann believes wearable cameras in our horizon in the next ten years. He says, “'I just see it as the thing that replaces all the things you normally carry around: cellphones, pagers, wristwatches, all those things become subsumed into one item.”
The above data taken from comScore shows how much USA online population gathering at user generation sites is targeted by the advertising companies through the user generated data available on these.
A lot of other people are using the user generated blogs as an advertising tool. Here is a story of a Chiroprator Dr. Patrick McNamara,who first built his chiropractic business through the blog system, attracting the customers and their points of view, and then sold his practice. After he sold it, he was so adept in catching the consumer fish through the user generated systems, that he became the adviser of the same field to other Chiropractors. He specializes in Social media marketing, social media consulting, social media training and blog consulting. His website 'next generation Chiropractor is designed specifically for training the Chiropractor's to use internet blogging and social media networking systems as effective tool to grow their practices into huge profits.
Is it safe to say that our government is watching us? We won’t be able to know whom when or where the government is watching. They could even be looking at the post that we are publishing in our digital revolution class. Here’s is an article that gives more insight on the topic: Big Brother Spying on America
It’s stated that the government has an eye out on our text messages, Internet, phone call records and history, and even our emails. BYRON WOLF states in the article “government is monitoring at any given time” Wolf talks about an AT&T worker was asked to provide access to the internet flies for them to view and monitor
The worker mention that there was a secret room in the building that the government was working in. he believes that there are many more offices like this around San Francisco and even the country.
"An exact copy of all Internet traffic that flowed through critical AT&T cables -- e-mails, documents, pictures, Web browsing, voice-over-Internet phone conversations, everything -- was being diverted to equipment inside the secret room," hers the video on this stroy
the question that i ask is: is it ok for these things do be happen. is it legal? just know that we are being watch by ourselves.