Reading 5/23

I think that as VoIP becomes more popular it will begin to impact cable and telephone networks negatively. This is because VoIP allows people to talk long distance to one another for less money than telephone companies. People are able to use VoIP wherever they can get broadband connectivity, which is a huge draw to consumers. Also, VoIP is fairly inexpensive. There are service plans much like cell phones where people are charged a flat fee for a month and are then able to have as many long distance calls as possible. VoIP also offers a lot of features in its package that phone companies usually charge extra for, such as caller-ID. The fact that people can get so much more for less money by using VoIP rather than basic cable and telephone networks is definately going to impact them dramatically.

Reading 5/18

While reading the articles i did notice that there was a clear releationship between cyberspace as a public space and accessibility standards. First of all the internet is supposed to be intended for everyone to view, hence "cyberspace as a public space." The accessability standards make sure that this holds true. The asseccibility standards are in place so that everyone is able to access whichever website they want to on the internet at anytime. It would be unfair for website publishers to create a website that is accessible to some people and not others. That is why the standards are in place, they want to make sure that the internet remains a place where it is easy for everyone regardless of age or disability, or the limitations of their computer equipment.

Reading 5/11

Internet technology can impact political activity because many people in charge of the voting process are not trained enough to handle the technology. Because these people are not properly trained, many problems can arise. Since they are not properly trained, they are unable to fix the problems. And if this technology fails as it does often, it can cause an error in the election results and therefore affect the political parties. In order for there not to be as big of a problem, those who are administering the election process need to be properly trained to try to eliminate this problem.

Reading 5/9

After reading these articles i feel that everyone has a right to see anything they want on the internet. Everything that is on the internet is meant for anyone to see at any time. Yet there are firewalls up to prevent people from accessing certain websites. I don't think that it is right for the government to put up firewalls to prevent others from looking at certain websites. I dont think the government has the right to tell people what they can or cannot see on the internet. Of course there is a lot of information on the internet that i believe is inappropriate (such as porn) and should not be available for just about anyone to see. But it is still there on the internet in public space therfore people have the right to look at it and the government shouldn't be allowed to block people from it. If people do not want to see this type of material in their homes, then i feel that they should be the ones to make that decision by creating their own firewalls instead of having the government make the decision for them.

Midterm Progress Report

I think i am doing pretty well with my project so far. The research assignment we did helped me a lot and i am really glad i did that assignment because it made me get started on y project. From that assignment I have found quite a few articles that will help me with my project. Since then i have also looked for more scholarly sources, although i realized it is a little harder than i thought to find these articles on my topic, so i will just have to be creative about it. So for this weekend i am really gonna focus on finding books and journals that are scholarly that will help me out with my project. And once i find those i will be able to put everything together to finish my project.

Corrected Citations

Apple Computer Inc. (2005). iPod. Retrieved April 24, 2005, from://www.apple.com.

Crockett, R & Burrows, P. (2005). Major Hangups Over the iPod Phone. Business Week, (3927), 44. Retrieved May 4, 2005, from ABI / INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 815103551).

Move Over, iPod? (2004). New Scientist, (2465), 183. Retrieved April 24, 2005 from Expanded Academic ASAP Plus.

Sanford, G. (2004). Company History. Retrieved May 4, 2005, from http://www.apple-history.com/noframes/body.php?page=history&section=h1.

Hilary Hurd Anyaso. (2005). In With the New. Black Issues in Higher Education, 22(2), 4. Retrieved April 24, 2005, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 808804721).

Reading 5/4

When reading these two articles I did see some of the same ideas brought up in the articles that relate to the open source software. First of all, social-networking software is all about creating a community with other people. You do this by being able to optimize your social interactions by networking with people in which you are similar to, meet new people, maximize existing relationship, etc. This idea of community is similar to open source software because when people have open source software they are able to change the software however they want. They are able to interact with other people who are also using this software and in a sense those people create their own community with one another. Another thing that I found similar between the two is that they are both free. Social-networking software such as friendship and its competitors are all free. So anybody who wishes to maximize their network of friends can join friendship for free. Same goes for the open source software. Anyone who wishes to have a free operating system for their computer can get open source software and are then able to tweak the system however they wish.