Mobile Web, Mobile Identity

Who doesn't love their mobile web devices! Come on, who can go a whole hour without checking their email. This was the common consensus especially among the business kids. The article by Gary Marsden talks about the ability of Web enabled mobile devices to "bridge the digital divide". That is bring those in less fortunate countries the ability to access the same content and services as the first world. Facilitating this is the steadily decreasing costs of these mobile Web Devices as well as mobile computers.

Collaborative Tagging

Collaborative tagging seems to be something that is relatively unknown or unused by most of the class with an exception made for people tagging in photos on Facebook. That aside, the usefulness of collaborative tagging in general was not in question. Collaborative tagging allows individuals to mark content they see (be it images, videos or text) as they see fit. So if someone posts a video of a Habs game they saw, tagging would allow them to use keywords such as Hockey to identify the video. Furthering that if another user saw the clip they could add Montreal to further help identify the clip. There can of course be a negative side to tagging just like anything else. For example if another user who did not like Montreal wanted to confuse people, he could tag the clip Garbage. Of course this collaborative process relies on the community being vigilant to clear up this kind of vandalism. This can create or grow a community around the artifact (the data) that may not have normally been there

Facebook, MySpace, and Friendship (concerns)

In the Information Age more than ever people are giving away their every last detail, all of their personal information everyday. One of the most popular ways to willingly give away all of your information is through social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook. Marwick focuses in his article about MySpace and perceived rise in predators. He goes on to talk in detail about the laws and regulations that have been put in place to try to stem the flow of "indecency" on the internet. In the class we discussed how placing regulations on any item on the Internet, pornography or not can be extremely difficult and can be fundamentally changing on the way the Internet works. Furthering that how we would have a hard time regulating something universal with only a Western view on those regulations.

Facebook, MySpace, and Friendship

Social Networking sites are always a fun topic to discuss with peers that are relatively the same are. Especially with a group of people who live on their Facebook pages.

In their article The benefits of Facebook ‘friends' Ellison Steinfiled and Lampe argue the pros and cons to the social capital that Facebook creates. The discussion in class as to the usefulness and value of online social capital as a whole was interesting since many people have very widely varying opinions. There was of course a strong pro Facebook camp and con Facebook camp but many people sat in between. The article sides more with the pro Facebook camp and cites research that has supported online interaction as a supplement or even a replacement for face to face socializing.

Web 2.0 Concerns

Hurray for my first 2P60 class. Discussion is still mostly centered about the basics of Web 2.0. Something brought up in class is the masses vs. the man idea that social networking sites bring fourth. This argument is raised in the article “Interactivity is Evil! A critical investigation of Web 2.0”, the author speaks about the sense of “counter-power” that is involved with Web 2.0 communities and the actuality of corporation in maintaining the framework for these online communities. Also interesting is the fact that the author speaks about strategic denial of authority by commercial Web producers. In this scenario the corporation that allows for the facilitation of the community chooses to take no responsibility or ownership over what that community creates. This can keep them safe in legal regard when the question of illegal materials being present on their sites is raised.