The Name's Meg: janvier 2011

lundi 31 janvier 2011

Response to Jojo Frey : Blog 1

Peer Response to Jojo's Response on:

Castells, Manuel. The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. 9-34. Print.

[done in 2nd person in response to Jojo's blog entry here]

In terms of Castells chapter, “Lessons from the History of the Internet”, he touches on a history of the Internet in a minimal number of pages in regards to the drastic innovations that actually took place.

As a dense timeline of events, I feel that you wall captured the overall evolution of the Internet going from the ARPANET and what Internet is now, in the first paragraph presented in your response. The fact that in the response you briefly summarized the overall successes and reasons for the evolution of the Internet made it easier to comprehend the vast number of events.

I found it interesting that you brought up the governmental and academic natures because for my reading it tended to go over my head- and then linking it to the questions of who uses the Internet more nowadays highlighted your overall critique and understanding of Castells chapter. As you mentioned in your final paragraph, the APARNET was initially created for the military, and how the example in 2010 with WikiLeaks.com and the released classified documents from the Pentagon regarding the Iraq war relates to the same usage of technological communications. The fact that you questioned the use of military technology exemplified your critique of the use of Internet in modern times in relation to the distribution of information, as you mentioned the negative aspects of the U.S military.
I found it fascinating that you explored this side of technology, as it was one that I sort of skimmed over through my reading as I thought more about the social aspect as opposed to relating to the initial purpose of APARTNET and what eventually became what we now call Internet.

Your ability to relate the two time periods I found to show a very concise understanding of the text and putting the examples that Castells listed into your own curiosity context.

Word Count: 311

lundi 24 janvier 2011

RR: "Lessons from the History of the Internet" (Castells)

Article Reponded To: “Lessons from the History of the Internet”

[Castells, Manuel. The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. 9-34. Print.]

Word Count: 596

The idea of Internet is still confusing and mind blowing. I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon. The cloud in the sky is expanding at an exponential rate and everyone adapts to it quicker and quicker. Well, most of us who are in the generation. Those who missed the transition may have more difficulty as we suggesting class, but after reading “Lessons from the History of the Internet” by Castells it’s pretty easy to say that’s an odd phenomena that expanded so fast without our exact perception of how it was going to transform society, and also that in its most definite explication it is a cultural creation.

In the reading, Castells touches on the main events establishing the level that technology has reached today- all being dependent on the prior events (which I find to be most fascinating). From the ARPANET in the 60’s to the eruption of the world wide web (www) in the 90’s, the Internet is the paradox of simplicity and complexity. While all of these discoveries were appearing worldwide by scholars and engineers, my generation was sitting back and learning slowly how to adapt to every incoming piece of technology or mode of transportation. The references given in the article only emphasize the domino effect and rapidity of evolution, which Castells emphasizes clearly in describing the discovery of Internet and what it has done for society up until today. Initially being a tool for military and governmental communications across borders to maintain efficiency now a tool for creating sometimes a new identity and correctly presenting one’s self in a profile digital form. These "gentlemen of technological innovation" who thrived to "learn and share" their discoveries sought ultimately to keep the openness of the network while really Castells claims they did not achieve this through government institutions or the "chaos of decentralized structure" ... They did this through a different discipline (33).

One part that I found to be clever wording was what Castells stated as “the openness of the Internet’s architecture was the source of its main strength: it’s self-evolving development, as users became producers of the technology, and shapers of the whole network” (27). The fact that users are required for its evolution is modern enough to explain not only the past and the rapidity of the rise of the Internet, but what is continuously developing in current time.

In being alive during the real integration of Internet communications into society, I only feel that I was not completely conscious of the modernity that was developing. The way I communicate now is dependent on prior discoveries that happened following each discovery world wide. The desire to efficiently communicate was always a strong need for global communication and with each step society has developed and redeveloped their systems of communicating with one another. One thing leads to the next- in the most simplest of explications. With the cliché example of Apple, the computer lead to the iPod, which lead to the iPod touch, which lead to the iPhone which now lead to the iPad which is affecting computer companies in general due to the influx of technological knowledge, and the need for people to possess such gadgets to be able to properly communicate amongst each other. I remember the Apple black and white gray brick-like laptop of my dad, and it’s hard to believe I was in Middle School discovering voice recording. Now I create videos on my iPhone and upload them directly onto YouTube. I'm anxious to be alive for even more discoveries and adaptations of gadgets.

then...