Postpostpostpostpostpostpostpostpostpostpostpostpostpost

I am a little lost on what to talk about. Throughout this course we have touched on multiple concepts that are symbiotic of our communications platforms and the economic forces of globalization. This melds into post-modern thought. I never really know how to trust that stuff, or even give it worth. I enjoyed the copyright section, even if it is just a grey box that is rather untouchable at the moment. Of course it makes more wonder if people even care about their own wants, over the wants of a corporation. When we started this class Wikipedia was black in protest over SOPA. I haven't seen much action for CISPA. 


This is important for planners. If we understood the complex conditions we are in and the ever evolving hyper reality engulfing ever higher rates of per capital productivity, we all may be a little hesitant to even turn on the computer we are staring at right now. Or would we: 

Guess it is time to buy gold.

Sources in order of Use:
http://www.globalization101.org/
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~abhishek/sokal.html
http://www.elsewhere.org/pomo/
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/morse-demonstrates-telegraph
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57422693-281/how-cispa-would-affect-you-faq/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBQf23EAyOI
http://www.monex.com/prods/gold.html

Postmodern Party Line

The Second Life class has come and gone. After the class I got to thinking about low tech alternatives to a chat room as elaborate as second life. The first old timey technology that came to my mind was the telephone and all the glory that was the party line. A party line can be seen as an early chat room, anyone could log on (pick up the receiver) and engage in conversation. The technology continues today, with a slightly more capital purpose. Way back before smart phones, limited access systems electrical talking machines were all the rage. These telephone machines are clearly older technology. In those photos you will see buttons, switches, knobs, wires, and even what appear to be a type of display using cathode ray tube technology. Today we have a fancy interface for chat rooms and communications in general, but are we really do anything new?


(Will Drakes post regarding "The Jig Is Up: Time to Get Past Facebook and Invent a New Future" on facebook inspired this post)


Sources in order of use:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n92a6LOkSaU&feature=related
http://secondlife.com/
http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventors/a/telephone.htm
http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2010/01/early_telephone_operator_recal.html
http://blog.sfgate.com/thebigevent/2012/02/02/long-distance-fifty-years-of-telephones-in-san-francisco/#2821-14
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/the-jig-is-up-time-to-get-past-facebook-and-
invent-a-new-future/256046/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/330720543616565/

Second Life applications to First Life (real life)

Second Life like most other online role playing games have a variety of real world aspects incorporated into them.  However, in the case of second life any individual can alter or create worlds and platforms to promote ideas, educate on topics, and interact socially like actual life.  I used a Wikipedia (don’t hate) page as an outline for all effective uses of second life. These real life uses include:  Education(scholarly and job), arts, science, religion, embassies, competition, and relationships (digitally sexual and social).  Since a good amount of these overlap the actual uses of the game I tried to distill them down to certain categories.  These categories include:  Education, Expression, Group Cooperation, and Social Experiences.  Each of the original uses outlined by Wikipedia can fit into two or more categories but fit the best into only one. 

Education:

Education through second life can be divided into two types and they are scholarly, such as elementary or college, and employment or life skills, like emergency responders and community activists.  In the case of scholarly education various different institutions use second life.  This can be an effective way for students to meet and discuss topics in a digital way (example of crossing categories such as group cooperation).  As for employment and life skills second life provides training programs saving huge amounts of money that could have been spent on actual simulations of scenarios. 

Expression:

The ability for any user to build and create sets Second Life apart from almost every other online game like it.  Through this ability to create users have made various different art galleries of original works of art as well as digital duplicates of real works.  There is also many galleries devoted to natural areas to show the beauty of the areas online with people who could never others wise get a 3d view.  Furthermore, second life’s highly detailed editing mode and availability to any user allows for unbound creative works of art.  Also, on a side note social expression can call into the category.

Group Cooperation:

Cooperative work is becoming an increasingly important aspect in many dimensions of employment, government, and social constructs in our world today.  Second life provides a platform for that to occur in a 3d way miles and miles away from one another.  Whether it is a company or a real life social group that wishes to meet in second life all are welcome.  When related to planning this could be a particularly useful tool for citizen participation.  A town council meeting could be held via second life where everyone could have their own avatar and even the town could be recreated.  This may be a long way away since it is a relatively informal game and many people may not be technologically savy creating bias. 

Social Experiences:

One of the major reasons online games like second life are so popular in comparison to games off the internet is the availability for social interactions.  Making friends you would never meet in real life who may be from exotic places and have interesting perspectives.  In second life various people and groups have created clubs and bars and social places to interact.  There are even the possibility of relationships and marriages in second life.  The addition of age verification and “adult” features to second life came with increased media attention yet seemed to be preferred by some users.  It was the cap to the amount of real life social interaction you can have in second life.  

Horizon Report: What we have encountered so far

New Media Consortium’s Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education provides insight into the emerging technologies relating to education.  I decided to write a report on how we all have most likely interfaced with the technologies chosen for the Horizon Report.  The Horizon Report also provides the time likely that it will take for each learning tool to be fully part of the educational realm.  As for the technology that is four to five years away I cannot write on because it is still in stages of development and very little information is able to be found on the internet.  Furthermore, here are some of the technologies we interface with every day.   

MOBILE APPS

I only recently got a smart phone and still have not figured out everything I can do with it.  Even though I am new to mobile apps the potential is enormous.  With apps like Adobe reader a student can access and read pdf files in almost any situation.  Mobile apps continue to help students arrange courses and syllabi to keep up with classes, provide platforms to view flashcards and memorizing techniques, and even order textbooks for courses they are taking that semester.  Furthermore, this being the rise of a booming industry where creatively turning tasks and tools into mini computer programs that generally sell for ninety nine cents there is unlimited potential.

 

TABLET COMPUTERS

Tablet computers were prominent in higher learning institutions since the ipad hit the market.  The conversion from laptops to tablets though has not been particularly fast or steady until recently.  Paired with the increase in applications available for tablets and the variability in the market has propelled the frequency of use very high as lately.  There have been various studies saying that tablet use increased from 7 to 25 percent among college students.  I myself have seen similar results in my classes as well as observed how easy it can be to take notes, read documents, and use apps to collaborate and create interactive learning. 

GAME-BASED LEARNING

Other than the guest lectures we have had in our class about game based learning from professor Zahm at Virginia Tech I have not experienced much of the sort.  This is in line with the horizon reports prediction that Game-Based Learning will not be adapted for two to three years.  Colleges across the countries have developed programs to pursue initiatives relating to Game-Based learning such as Amherst and Drexel.  I myself have dabbled in various video games throughout my entire life and can testify to its effects.  I am not particularly competitive but games force you to try and try again till you get it right a valuable aspect for education.  Although I could see this more actively applied to younger age groups colleges could create the programs that are used for the younger age groups. 

Second Life, Anonymity, and Anomie

Weird one, right? To being, I am not able to log on to Second Life. This is for Wednesday's class. I was able to sign up as SuperJackWhitmore, as what I believe to be in the guise of a 60's VW Beetle. I plan to turn it into Herbie from the Disney motion picture "The Love Bug" featuring Dean Jones. This assumes that I can actually get onto Second Life.

You see I have a program on my computer called Peer Block. I don't know what other people use it for, but it is interesting to see other ip addresses that are pinging you. CNN goes nuts, Fox News doesn't, very strange. What is really strange was how Second Life made Peer Block go bananas. I try to log on and I get to a screen known on the internet as the Regional Hand Shake, or The Reginald Hand Shake. The Regional Hand Shake looks like this:

And it does this:

This is happening on a Windows 7, 64 bit machine. Meanwhile, Peer Block is doing this:

The wild thing is that I have it set up so Linden Lab (Second Life) IP's can go through this wall permanently, but still no dice. So many IP's, Someone does not like Linden Lab. This is a known issue. It got me thinking though.

Second Life and other virtual public/private spheres (things like public commons, community engagement, even private material), do not allow for the user to be truly anonymous. This could negate a function of anomie. Louis Wirth's 1938 “Urbanism as a Way of Life,” makes a case for the ability of the city or urban area to move the individual so far out of the rural context of community, that their lives are now fundamentally changed as a result. For Wirth, this change leads to Durkheim's notions of anomie. What does that mean?

It means that because community becomes so diminished in an urban area, social deterioration can occur. The reason why is due to the individual no longer having contact with a distinct community. Imagine living in a farm community back in the nineteenth century compared to a city. This relates to being anonymous in real life. In a city you don't interact with people the same way as in tight knit communities, it is more commercial transactions than conversations. People don't have to know who you are in the city for you to survive, no so much in small communities (except maybe survivalists, and those with lots of money).

With Second Life requiring the user identify themselves (at least to some extent), I am thinking it would encourage some kind of restraint on the user. Is restraint appropriate, especially for participation purposes? Imaging a plan meeting. Wouldn't it change user responses in such a way that the people who actually engage with the physical outcome, a building or some other kind of real property, may be overruled by people who fundamentally aren't engaged with the same level of community? Something seems flawed.

Sources in order of use:
http://secondlife.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064603/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0427894/
http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Second-Life-Server/Region-handshake/td-p/988977
http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Account/no-regional-hand-shake/qaq-p/1343355
http://forums.peerblock.com/read.php?3,5246
http://sociology.socialsciencedictionary.com/Sociology-Dictionary/ANOMIE
http://periplurban.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/wirth_urbanismasawayoflife.pdf OR:
Wirth, L. (1938). Urbanism as a Way of Life. American Journal of Sociology,44(1), 1-24.

The Violent Video Game Debate

In today's society, violent video games are the norm. In fact the more violent the game, the larger the monetary return for the company. But what is it doing to our kids? Are they responding to this violence like it is a normal everyday thing or do they still know that it isn't reality?

In 2008, 97% of children ages 12-17 played video games and 10 of the top 20 best-selling games contained violence. But what do these numbers mean? Some people say that violence in video games keeps violence down in real life. But I'm not so sure, what if the violence just gives people ideas that they never would have thought of before. I know in most of these games if you want something, you take it by force, it's no longer bargaining and paying.

On article from NPR.org breaks down the violent video game argument into two parts. On one side, the article says that many researchers believe that violent video games desensitize young people and make them harsh and mean. On the other side, the researchers found the same thing however interpreted the desensitization as trivial compared to the senseless acts that happen everyday in modern society. In an article from CNN, a study was done comparing video game violence to actual violence and again it was increased, even compared to children that were "violent" before the study. I don't know about you, but that tells me that there is a correlation between the two. Yes, correlation does not imply causation, however I think in this case, the correlation shows that violent video games could be a major cause of violence.

Let's be honest, this is a multi-billion dollar industry, no one can stop the violence in these video games expect maybe the Supreme Court. And we've seen them strike down California's ban on violent video games as a violation of free-speech. It seems hopeless, however, we still have a say on the matter in our own homes. I know if I were a parent, I wouldn't let my children shoot people, steal cars, or massacre whole cities even if it were just a video game. We put rating on movies to keep children from seeing things like this, but it is so easy to get around ratings with video games. Is anyone even regulating it?

Links in Order of Use:

http://www.askmen.com/top_10/videogame/top-10-most-violent-video-games.html

http://videogames.procon.org/

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/07/137660609/its-a-duel-how-do-violent-video-games-affect-kids

http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/children_and_video_games_playing_with_violence

http://articles.cnn.com/2008-11-03/health/healthmag.violent.video.kids_1_violent-video-video-games-game-genres?_s=PM:HEALTH

Participatory Chinatown

Participatory Chinatown is a 3D game designed to assist with Boston's Comprehensive Planning process. I relate the public school networked Oregon Trail sessions. Participatory Chinatown allows the user to play a game of interacting with members of their community. The user picks an avatar and encounters hurdles that engage the user into provide community participation for comment on future development. The project was funded by the Macarthur Foundation at a cost of $170,000. Here is a video of game play:

Civic participation is one of the hallmarks of democracy, and our form of governance. Methods that would increase civic participation are beneficial, but costs should be examined to determine feasibility. Participatory Chinatown allows a community conversation to happen by proxy. by expanding that proxy, planners may revive more beneficial comment, at a lower cost.

I have to wonder why we need this proxy.

Soues in order of use:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA5sz-ymv6k&feature=player_embedded#!
http://www.participatorychinatown.org/
http://www.gamesforchange.org/play/participatory-chinatown/
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2010/05/06/chinatown_the_video_game/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDuSVXC7tRM&feature=related

Giving Circles

There are multiple options for obtaining funding for whatever your fancy. Traditional routes of financing revolve around bank or private lending. A emerging form of philanthropy is also taking shape in the form of Giving Circles. I first came across Giving Circles thought the book: Giving Circles: Philanthropy, Voluntary Association, and Democracy by Angela M. Eikenberry. A Giving Circle is a form of grant organization that incorporates a form of enhanced participation through collective and participatory forms of decision making. 

The size of a Giving Circle can range from a few to thousands of individuals, with differing amounts of available capital. The unique aspect to a Giving Circle is the ability to pick and choose where to spend funds in a democratic manner, as opposed to a more traditional bureaucratic top down decision making model. This is of benefit for those with ideas for business ventures that are more in line with non-profit organizations, and allow for a less paperwork and performance driven funding network.

Sources in order of use:
http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol12/bankloan.htm
http://guides.wsj.com/small-business/funding/how-to-get-funding-from-angel-investors/
http://www.amazon.com/Giving-Circles-Philanthropy-Association-Philanthropic/dp/0253220858
http://givingcircles.org/
http://nonprofit.about.com/od/fundraising/p/givingcircles.htm

Course Networking overview

The social networking craze has led to the rise of facebook, twitter, linkedin, and various other platforms.  Some have been tailored towards a certain type of client for example linkedin is for those who consider themselves business professional.  To my knowledge Course Networking(TheCN) is the first of its kind that combines social networking with education.  The Course Networking platform connects educators and students using shared classes and interests.  TheCN’s creator Ali Jafari has created various other platforms that have found success in distance learning and online class management.  For teachers especially this could be helpful as it seems like they can be hesitant to accept facebook or twitter as learning or information spreading tools.  Also, like most social media sites, TheCN is linked to the most popular sites like facebook and twitter to expedite the spread of its popularity around the world. 

Most other platforms for social networking must be bought by universities or institutions to make their money.  TheCN intends to combine that source of revenue with money made from user targeted advertising on the site itself. 

An important function of TheCN is the ability to share notes, readings, and study tools.  Sites like Koofers and Notehall do this but some of them cost money.  This also raises questions about plagiarism and cheating via TheCN.  Users are able to control which information they choose to share and with whom they want to share it with.  As information is uploaded the user is asked who they wish to share it with be that actual classmates, virtual classmates, and the open public.  All of this can be found through the terms of service on Thecn.com. 

Furthermore, from my brief interaction with TheCN it will be best utilized if teachers participate.  Some students may take the initiative to post assignment and other information but, teachers are much more likely to interact with it.  In conclusion, I believe that Course Networking can be a very applicable tool to the many aspects of distance learning and hopefully help improve overall communication between people of similar educational interests.

Online Education

Most are familar with online higher education. Offerings such as Devry University and University of Phoenix come to mind. But what about k-12 education? As reported by Iowa's Press-Citizen private corporations are starting to bring online education to school districts across the country.The article reports on Allan Nelson the superintendent of Clayton Ridge Community School District, who started the company K12 Inc. The company provides full-time online education to students in rural, suburban, and urban districts, and is comparable to home school alternatives, as reported by the founder.

The article highlights the desires of families seeking alternatives to the traditional schooling model. Online alternatives receive similar funding as brick and mortar schools but due to infrastructure needs are positioned to provide families with more efficient use of funds. According to this listing from About.com, thirty-seven states currently provide online alternatives to public k-12 education (Vermont and Virginia are erroneously included but are dead links). Nearby West Virginia utilizes West Virginia Virtual School. and courses are taught though a variety of sources. As noted by the Press-Citizen article, legalities may interfere with the spread of such online programs, and as this is a relatively new use of education technologies ongoing research will be necessary.

Going forward will this type of learning catch on or are there to many barriers for full implementation? There are multiple stakeholders when talking about education, and many have a direct interest in the traditional teacher student classroom model. Governments may enjoy the cheaper alternative, while teachers and unions  detest the loss of a profession. Of course there is also an element of reality missing in some of these offerings. Viewing West Virginia Virtual School, I am wondering how a student can learn drivers education from an online course. These types of offerings can at least bring the student into some sort of learning environment, but additional detail may be required for full understanding of course materials.

Sources in order of use:
http://information.devry.edu/choose-devry?version=36&vc=166085&agid=0075x38642&WT.mc_id=166085&WT.srch=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=DeVry&utm_content=10318751556&utm_campaign=DeVry2_VC%3D166085_MT%3DDKS&sc_1=0075S007972GGDKS&sc_2=47a903ae-1456-e168-9a7d-00001f24738f&gclid=CN69hI-hha8CFcbc4Aod2xIe5A 
http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20120326/OPINION03/303260006/State-needs-keep-an-eye-online-schools?odyssey=nav%7Chead 
http://www.k12.com/  
http://distancelearn.about.com/od/onlinepublicschools/a/OnlinePS.htm 
http://virtualschool.k12.wv.us/vschool/index.html 

http://virtualschool.k12.wv.us/vschool/courses/coursecatalog.cfm 

KidzNGIS or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love GIS

Many planners have at least heard of GIS and the behemoth Arc platform by ESRI (pronounced as separate letters). I personally hate the program, and everything it stands for. Why? It never works and the only people who act they know how to use the program, never seem to be able to actually complete a project correctly. That is my personal observation, so take it with a grain of salt, but I am not alone.

So I was intrigued when I read this article about North Carolina incorporating ArcGIS into K-12 education. The article reads like a press release hailing the advance of GIS and the need for children to learn about spatial analysis. It is a cool license, considering ESRI charges about $1,400 bucks for one license, and a yearly $400 after that. With this scheme, NC schools and their after school club counter parts (things like 4H and the Scouts), will get free access.

I get pessimistic though. Maybe it is my age but I remember Oregon Trail and limited access early internet taking up the majority of the computer lab's computing resources. If anything, I would be a little scared if my job was in the mapping cave (seriously, these rooms exist, they move the cartographers as far underground as possible to avoid them having to interact with anyone). Now children could be coming out of high school with more GIS experience than the senior cartographer, and they work for minimum wage.

Personally, I would prefer a GIS program that actually functioned easily and was accessible by everyone. This isn't really about the main functions that GIS can perform, those really haven't changed. What has occurred is a program has been developed that every six months changes so much that no knows how to use it without going back to ESRI and spending money to figure out where the layout button has been moved to. Or even better, you think you have a program that actually works for something but for some reason this image pops up right when you get your data the way you want:

GIS in schools, Sure why not. ArcGIS in schools, stop making people slaves to ESRI! I am seriously thinking about using QGIS, and hey guess what, it is always free. Maybe VA should jump on the freeware bandwagon? Just a thought.

Sources in order of use:
http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/index.html
http://www.esri.com/
http://www.gisdoctor.com/site/2011/02/24/does-everybody-hate-arcgis-10/
http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/dailynews/2012/mar/16/news2.html
http://downloads2.esri.com/blogs/images/support_1971.jpg
http://www.qgis.org/

Too Many Links!

I viewed the United States Patent and Trademark Office website and I started counting. The website http://www.uspto.gov/, is pretty straight forward but something got me. The landing page is a series of 142 links and one search bar at the top. That seemed a little odd. I was reminded of all of the crumby government websites that use to exist, and some that still do . Others have raised issue with some of these websites as well. So I wanted to do a simple study on government websites.

I began with a literature review of e-government. I looked for articles that had been published since 2008, as material before web 2.0 would be rather poor for comparisons (that way I am not wasting my time looking at p values for images on a website, type of studies).  I found an interesting model proposed in one such study, that you might not be able to read. In any case "User-centered E-Government in practice: A comprehensive model for measuring user satisfaction" by Pieter Verdegem and Gino Verleye provides for a way to measure the effectiveness of a government website. The found that "the indicator “reduce the administrative burden” received the highest average score of importance" (Verdegem, P. & Verleye, G. 2009) implying that those services would be of the highest benefit. They used 2006 data, so things could change but I believe that reducing administrative burden would still exist as a user want.

So I came up with a study idea to see if federal websites look as though they reduce the administrative burden. I felt burden would be excessive links. Why excsive links, google isn't fond of  a lot of links, Here is some opinion saying 6 to 7 links max, others note 100 is the limit. I felt that 100 was a good standard. 

I hypothesize that federal government websites are similar to the United States Patent and Trademark Office website and have an excessive number of links, i.e. over 100 links.

I went to a federal website clearinghouse and went through all of the websites alphabetically. Every 142 websites I would save that site to be viewed, providing some randomness. For the sake of time I only went with 3 rounds of random selection. So I went over the sites and reviewed the number of links that they were sporting today March 9, 2012. I also looked at how many email addresses they had. The resulting agencies are as follows:

• Economic Analysis, Bureau of;
• Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled; and 
• National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare

First up in the review Economic Analysis, Bureau of, or as the agency may otherwise be known as: Bureau of Economic Analysis. The landing page for this website has a total of 63 links, 0 email contacts, and one search bar.

Second is Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled. The landing page for this website has a total of 78 links, 2 email contacts and one search bar.

The final website was the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. he landing page for this website has a total of 13 links, 3 email contacts, and no search bar.

So my hypothesis was wrong, at least based on this rather limited study. I don't feel like doing fancy math at the moment but none of the three had above 100 links. Is the United States Patent and Trademark Office website above and beyond link wise? To be continued...

Sources in order of use:
http://www.uspto.gov/
http://www.dublintown.org/
http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/government/info-management/225402205?pgno=6
Verdegem, P., & Verleye, G. (2009). User-centered E-Government in practice: A comprehensive model for measuring user satisfaction.Government Information Quarterly, 26 (3), 487-497.
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769
http://asitethatworks.com/how-many-main-navigation-links-should-a-website-have/
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-many-links-is-too-many
http://www.usa.gov/directory/federal/index.shtml
http://www.bea.gov/
http://www.abilityone.gov/
http://rs9.loc.gov/medicare/index.html

Just Some Copyright Humor

This past week in class we talked about Intellectual Property Rights. Meaning copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. These four have an abundant amount of information attached to them, so I've found a few things that I found humorous about copyright. To start off here is a comic strip I found on the-digital-reader website depicting the many lawsuits that come from copyright.

This comic strip isn't entirely off base either, many lawsuits do arise when copyright comes into question. This very issue was the essence of the Top 10 Copyright Crimes list that comes from a LawMeme website out of Yale Law School. This list includes many ideas about the average person and the television industry, it's quite comical and may end up being true. With limits on when you can turn the channel as an advertisement comes on or channel surfing in general.

When you search for Copyright Humor on Google.com you can find many humorous parodies about copyright law and the system in general including a dispute with the copyright holders of "The Other White Meat" and ThinkGeek.com as the latter used the former's catch phrase in an advertisement for Unicorn Meat. It seems to me that lawsuits over the use of catch phrases in an advertisement for a fictional animals' meat is unnecessary. However, for the copyright holder of the phrase it means everything. I guess the value is in the eye of the beholder...or should I say the copyright holder?!

The fight against or the fight for information about copyright has been turned into an initiative for QuestionCopyright.org. This website was created in 2007 with the intent to "provide advocacy and practical education to help cultural producers embrace open distribution." There are many articles discussing the issues with copyright and the problems that the industry faces with the use of copyright. In fact one of the contributors to QCO made a video called "Copying is Not Theft" that raises some unique questions about whether copyright limits the industry or whether copying really takes anything away from the creative industry at all. I'll leave it up to you, should copyright laws be made more relaxed or should they become even more stringent to protect our intellectual property from being stolen and used against our will?

Links in order of use:

http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2011/02/23/copyright-humor/

http://lawmeme.research.yale.edu/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=198

http://www.thinkgeek.com/blog/2010/06/officially-our-bestever-cease.html

http://questioncopyright.org/

http://ipinsiders.com/video/copyright-humor-copying-is-not-theft

Navajo Hipster

On Saturday, March 3rd, an article on cnn.com highlighted an interesting topic with property rights. The Navajo Nation has filed a lawsuit against Urban Outfitters for the use of the term Navajo. A copy of the complaint lists the alleged harms. Specifically listed in the complaint is that "[S]ince at least March 16, 2009, Urban Outfitters has advertised, promoted, and sold its goods under the confusingly similar “Navaho” and identical “Navajo” names and marks on the Internet and in stores across the United States to compete directly with the Navajo Nation’s retail goods." A number of goods are cited with the complaint, and it does look, to the untrained observer, that Urban Outfitters knocked off the styles. So why isn't this a straightforward copyright claim? Enter the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990.

The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 specifically outlaws the misrepresentation of products in advertising related to Native American goods. As noted from the Indian Arts and Crafts Board " products sold using a sign claiming "Indian Jewelry" would be a violation of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act if the jewelry was produced by someone other than a member, or certified Indian artisan, of an Indian tribe." It appears that through legislative intent, Native American goods are granted a higher level, or at least more express, copyright protection. It appears that the large corporation may get thwarted in an endeavor where they are at a capital advantage. How often does that happen?


Clearly, there is an interest in protecting the livelihoods of Native Americans and their goods. Maybe, these types of protections should be expanded to include more groups? Why should the little guy be forced to exert capital without any kind of backing from the government?

 

Sources in order of use:

http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/02/navajo-nation-sues-urban-outfitters-for-alleged-trademark-infringement/?hpt=hp_t2

http://turtletalk.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/uo_complaint_as_filed.pdf

http://turtletalk.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/exhibita.pdf

http://www.iacb.doi.gov/iaca90.html

http://www.iacb.doi.gov/act.html

The Complexity of Networks

How Complexity Leads to Simplicity

 TED talk presented by Eric Berlow.

Social Network analysis is complex. To think otherwise does a great disservice to those nodes who may not be directly linked together. Think about your own social circles and how petty some of those linkages can become and the evolution that occurs over time. Example: I can no longer talk to A, someone who is 4 nodes away from me, because B, who is 2 nodes away, doesn't like them and would be crushed if I talked to them. Sounds lame, right? But does it sound impossible? Complexity Theory or Complex Systems allows us to magnify these types of networks and understand what the actions of the individual agents affect. This is a broad topic that takes into account a multitude of actors and interrelated systems.

Sources in order of use:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThV4pnPbI8E

GIS: a tool for communities

Geographic information systems (GIS) is a widely used tool that has a variety of applications.  It can be used to interpret spatial data and display it in a visually appealing way, generally with maps.  One of the most important features of GIS I have encountered is the ability to compile layers of data together on the same visual reference.  For example, data about crimes in a given area paired with suspected causes of crime like poverty, gang affiliations, etc. can present a visual map with the data overlaid on top of each other.  This allows for an accurate analysis of the relationship of multiple different sets of data.  Furthermore, the application of GIS in the planning process can be particularly effective for a variety of planning issues. 

Zoning is an incredibly important tool for municipalities to decide the way they want their township or city to look.  Clearwater Florida has a website that uses ArcGIS to display zoning patterns for citizens.  This can help resolve issues and inform citizens what is able to be built in or around the property that they own.  The uses of GIS for community planning go far beyond zoning, a movement known as Public Participatory GIS (PPGIS) is providing various ways citizens can interact with their community.  These range from creating maps of your community for exercise or safe routes to school all the way to quantifying the health data for a local hospital.  The applications of GIS extend beyond the community and can be used to protect the environment through observing watershed data, species habitats, and deforestation rates. 

Agencies such as the EPA and USGS gather enormous amounts of GIS compatible data about the environment.  This could range from soil data to ease in site selection for agricultural production to water quality data of various bodies of surface and ground water.  Once again the ability of GIS to overlay data and create complex maps relating several types of data and aid us in intelligently using our remaining open space.  In conclusion, GIS allows us to observe different characteristics of our world at once streamlining the necessary information to make smart decisions about how our population grows and prospers.

Cash Mobs: Social Networking's New Craze

Recently in the news the new craze has been cash mobs. Many have been comparing cash mobs to flash mobs, when a group of people spontaneously bursts into dance in a public place, but cash mobs work to help small businesses rather than simply for entertainment purposes. Cash mobs come from social networking, a business of supporter will tweet out with a place to meet and patrons come to a small business with the understanding and promise to spend at least twenty dollars in cash. These efforts to help small local businesses thrive wouldn't be possible on this large scale without the use of social media. With a simple tweet or a Facebook post a hundred people can show up to support a local business that they might never have heard of before.

Cash Mobs have hit large cities across the nation including Richmond and now Downtown Blacksburg too. So head down to Mish Mish on March 8th as this is the first cash mob location, with a new storefront location being released once a month! Support Downtown Blacksburg, buy, eat and live local!

Full Website Links:

https://cashmobs.wordpress.com/

http://www.cnbc.com/id/46512433

http://money.msn.com/saving-money-tips/post.aspx?post=014a5269-19b8-40ab-8b2b-53cd13c3d4ca

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/303841/20120223/cash-mob-small-business-grassroots.htm

http://www.richmondbizsense.com/2012/02/21/cash-mobs-hit-richmond/

http://www2.wsls.com/news/2012/feb/22/blacksburg-hold-cash-mob-ar-1708769/

The Environment vs The Public: A Standoff of Epic Proportions

Throughout my time as an Environmental Policy and Planning major, most of my courses have harped on public participation being the main way that "we" as planners get things done with regards to the environment. It is easy to see why public participation is such an essential part of environmental planning and regulation... WHAT HAPPENS TO THE ENVIRONMENT HAPPENS TO ALL OF US,IT IS NOT ON AN INDIVIDUAL THING. We are all affected by how we treat and utilize our natural resources.

The Co-Intelligence Institute has outlined on their website "The Principles of Public Participation". Some of the principles they include are that there is a promise to the public that their input will influence a decision. As well as the overall idea that public participation is solely based on the idea that the people who are affected by something, should have a say in what happens. Now, these are only two of the principles outlined by the Co-Intelligence Institute, but they are the most primal. I know that I want to be included in any decision that effects me, and I'm sure that that holds true for most people.

But I digress. Environmental policy is often confusing and wordy, and the government knows this, so the Environmental Protection Agency has taken it upon themselves to break down the public participation part of the 1990 Clean Air Act into plain english. The EPA breaks down the portions of 1990 Clean Air Act that tell the public how they can participate saying, that there are opportunities to write in to the EPA about a polluter in your area, or that a citizen can even review reports from polluters in the area. However, just telling people that they can do something, without telling them how seems pointless to me. Public Participation needs to be broken down into even simpler terms.

In an article from ChinaDialogue.net this very idea is discussed in regards to the pollution in China. The author writes that without public participation, the environmental movement in China would not exist, so it only makes sense that the public needs to take action again to create reform and try to fix the environmental degradation that is occurring at an alarming rate in the country. However, this is not just happening in China. It seems to me that as the world population grows, we are becoming more and more complacent about the rate at which we are using up our natural world. Yes, there are those extraordinary people like Richard Branson who are using their billions to try to save the world, but they cannot do it alone. Public participation is going to be the answer to saving our planet.

Environmental Impact Assessments have always been a hot issue because the way they are handled can either greatly limit or greatly utilize public participation. In Canada, there are changes being made to their environmental impact assessment protocol because of the intense need for resources. In order to expedite the process of getting to "the goods" public participation is being overall cut-out. This could lead to major problems in the future with regards to public health and safety, because corporations and the government don't always know the land as well as the communities that live and thrive off of it. In an article from Global News, this conflict is discussed, and explained from the government's point of view that they want to include the "legitimate" people and concerns but they don't want the big projects sidetracked in public participation by special interest groups.

Meanwhile in the European Union, Environmental Impact Assessments are more user friendly, says an article from eGovmonitor. The changes try to make the EIA's more transparent and accessible for the public. The following is a direct quote from the European Commision about the EIA Directive's relationship with public participation; its strong....

"The Directive ensures early public participation in the environmental decision-making

procedures. During the project assessment period, members of the public concerned

must be kept informed and have the ability to comment on developers' proposals, thus

enabling competent authorities and developers to make well-informed decisions."

The European Union appears to have a strong stance on the use of public participation in environmental action, and I think it is a position that more of us should live by. After all, if I pollute in my zip code today you may breathe in the affects of it tomorrow. We are all connected by our environment, so we all need a say in how we treat it.

Links in Order of Use:

http://www.co-intelligence.org/CIPol_publicparticipation.html

http://www.epa.gov/airquality/peg_caa/public.html

http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/604-The-environment-needs-public-participation

http://www.worth.com/index.php/component/content/article/926

http://www.globalnews.ca/canada/health/health+and+safety+at+risk+in+environmental+assessment+changes+critics/6442584982/story.html

http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/46883

The Seven Common Sins Leading to Public Participation Failure

The following list is titled the "Seven Common Sins Leading to Public Participation Failure." It was developed by the Perspective Group, a firm that assists Think Tanks and other clients on Complex Systems and Organization tasks. The group's history can be found  here. Of note is their work with Stake-Holder Groups and participation.

The "Seven Sins" that we will face are as follows:

Lack of Commitment

The Checklist Approach

Public Participation Starts Too Late

Public Participation is Not Integrated Into Decision Making

Not All Stakeholder Voices Are Heard

The Public Is Not Adequately Informed

The Public Receives Inadequate Feedback

These seven issues are not the only problems that can occur, but provide a simple baseline. Generally, this list makes it clear that public involvement must be a desire of the entire organization and it must actively involve the public throughout the entire process. What is missing, at least from a rational planning perspective, would be the eighth sin, limiting the role of evaluation. As gatekeepers to information we can attempt to provide the public with everything known, but unless we continually evaluate our endeavors we will end up hitting one or all of those "sins."

Sources in order of Use:

http://www.theperspectivesgroup.com/links/sevensins.pdf

http://www.theperspectivesgroup.com/about/history.html

Crowdsourcing: Taking the World By Storm

Up until a week ago I had no idea what crowdsourcing was, I had never heard the term on a regular basis and had no idea what it meant. To my surprise, I am pretty alone in that category. Crowdsourcing is everywhere, you just have to know where to look.

Surfing on the internet I ran across a website with a list of the "10 Ways that Crowdsourcing is Taking Over the World." This article lists websites that use crowdsourcing in astonishing ways from playing a protein folding game on Fold.it that could potenially cure diseases to GalaxyZoo a website that works to identify new galaxies. There is no limit to what crowdsourcing can do in our modern world of technology.

There is a website completely devoted to compiling all of the new and exciting ways that crowdsourcing is being used. Whether it be to help design a building or spread love for Valentine's Day; crowdsourcing.org has it all! This website provides resources and criticisms for crowdsourcing ideas that will not work. Not only is crowdsourcing a way to spread ideas but it is also becoming a platform for sharing laborous tasks. Cloud Labor is the new way to split up tasks and get them done cheaply by many people rather than at a high price by one person. This virtual labor pool could be the new career for people to go into, espescially when many large companies are laying off workers in order to utilitze cloud labor.

Maybe we need to start thinking about the next generation of workers, and whether they will even need to leave the comfort of their home to go to work. Crowdsourcing may be a good or bad thing at the end of the day. Personally, I want to learn my trade and have a career rather than have a packet of work sent to me over email from a random company I don't know.

Crowdsourcing: Tool for public participation

One of the more difficult problems a public policy or urban planner encounters is public participation.  Planning when to schedule meeting so people can show up uncovers bias when certain demographic groups cannot attend leading to uneven participation in the decision making process.  Furthermore, sometimes policy makers must make decision for a group of people of which they know very little about.  For example, choosing where bicycle rental stations should be put may not be a subject that policy creators have a lot of knowledge about.  Therefore through the use of crowdsourcing peoples individual opinions can be submitted without a disorganized meeting with polarized individuals drowning out general public. 

Crowdsourcing is only the basic principle that makes the public participation part easier, there is so much versatility that it can be and is being applied to a variety of community issues.  For example, the application SeeClickFix allows for problems like potholes, downed road signs, or even bulky trash pickup to be reported online through a computer or smart phone device.  Many cities have programs like this some even their own smart phone application.  A more environmental turn on crowdsourcing is evident with websites like Urban Forest Map which documents where trees are and what species.  This helps provide individuals within the community with information on their own urban forest promoting awareness and if they decide to plant a tree the ability to register it for professionals to see. 

Collaborative planning can provide citizens the ability to right a vision for the future of their own communities.  This is generally a weighty process because of the ability to gather people’s preferences and ideas and then reach an understanding among the expert decision makers.  Using the internet to gather information from community members in a quick accurate lessens the load on local governments to collect data and allows them to focus on writing a policy that appeases the majority.  

Crowdfunding

I first came across Kickstarter late last year when my old neighbor, Igor, created a cash cow. The more I read, the more enchanted I become, as it appears to break away from the more draconian, Crowdsourcing. To make this seem more complicated than it should be, let us diverge:


Crowdsourcing puts the impetus on all of those people who are going to be competing as labor. The process allows for the division of labor in a non-traditional, but still legal-rational, framework. Management is retained, but labor becomes even less contractual than today's modern at will employment situation.


Imagine you own a business or are management of a business, but you don't enjoy the concept of employees. Crowdsourcing allows management to place traditional labor items they want completed into the public realm. Now here is the fun part! Instead of paying someone a standard salary, management can now allow the worker to compete against other workers directly. But wait there's more! The workers aren't competing for a guaranteed salary. Instead they are working for the hope of winning a contest. Basically, it reduces the labor into a complete Thunderdome-ish commission system. Thus I went Marxist, and  I wasn't the first!


Here is where sites such as Kickstarter come into play, with a term aptly called Crowdfunding. With this system, management is thrown out the window. Here the product of the labor is directly put to the test of the market (which in all honesty that is what the crowd is). Investors purchase pledges, anything akin to tchotchkes on the lower end of the spectrum, to more handsome products on the upper end, including basically whatever the producer wants to give. 


Instead of needling around trying to develop something with pre-determined scopes, in the hopes of winning a $20,000 contest, the worker can put their product directly out to bid. If the attempt is to make a more participatory styled workplace, Crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter appear to be the way to go. Everybody is in it to win it, and gets to share the spoils. Of course this assumes you actually can make something worth value in a material society..... Alright, no more time for Marx.


Note on Crowdsourcing links:
Read the Wired.com article for a more realistic account of Crowdsourcing. Read the Wikipedia article if you are lazy.


Sources in order of use:


http://www.kickstarter.com/
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zpmespresso/pid-controlled-espresso-machine
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/crowds.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/employment-at-will-definition-30022.html
http://www.behind-the-enemy-lines.com/2010/12/excerpts-from-communist-manifesto.html
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1838768,00.html
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/index.htm

Business of Social Networking

Social networking via the internet has exploded in popularity beginning around 2005.  There are various websites all competing to have the most users and innovate in the most appealing ways.  The top five are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and last but not least Badoo.  These companies begin with large capital investments from venture capitalists but that is not a steady flow of income.  It is up to the owners of the site to discern a way to monetize their website traffic.  This is done through various ways; some websites have user fees or advertisements.  Furthermore, the most effective is through the sale of the vast amounts of data about people’s preferences and interests.  When people interact whether it is liking something on Facebook or tweeting they are expressing what they are interested in and large companies spend immense quantities of money addressing ever year.  This raises questions of privacy and how we want our data to be used.

The different types of personal data can be broken down into six categories.  The first, service data which contains what you submit about yourself in order to start an account.  Disclosed and entrusted data is everything you post on your own page as well and what you entrust to others personal pages.  Fourth, incidental data encompasses things people create about you that you have no control over.  Furthermore, behavioral data includes your preferences for who and what you do when you interact on the network, which articles you read or other linked sites you visit.  Finally, derived data consists of assumptions made upon all the other types of data about you.  Websites generally only sell service data and behavioral data because they can be used for marketing. 

Links and website trends:

1.        Facebook

2.       Twitter

3.       LinkedIn

4.       Google Plus

5.       Badoo

http://www.schneier.com/essay-322.html

http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/2008/04/29/how-social-networks-make-money-listen-up-facebook/

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/social-networking/information/how-social-networking-sites-make-money.htm

http://www.affilatenetworking.com/top-social-networking-sites/