Howard Rheingold's 'The Virtual Community'

The Virtual Community

Within today's society 'virtual' communication is one of the top ways people interact with others.There are many websites, forums, and apps that allow those of us with access to this new technology to become more 'sociable' online. There are new ways to 'meet' people- i.e. chat forums- over the internet, and can help people keep in contact with special ones in different countries.

Back then, when technology was hardly around, if people wanted to interact then they would meet face to face, and discuss future plans together that way.

Now, society has become a 'Virtual Community' (Howard Rheingold, 1993). Howard Rheingold wrote a book about this exact community, and explained both the positives and negatives of interacting online. He also describes exactly what he means when referring to 'virtual community'.

The book was originally published in 1993, and since then technology and communication has only progressed. To many today, it's almost impossible to imagine a world without the internet.

Online Identity - Alan Turing

oh hey :)

Alan Turing here, it seems so wild to be writing a post out to the world like this by myself..

In all honesty wouldn't it be better if, say, a computer would be doing this all for me?

Like... Hear me out okay. I could just sit back and relax with a cup of tea and talk non stop about my opinions whilst the computer in front of me types it all out for me. Amazing...

Well.. I guess I could do that with siri, but I don't quite enjoy her voice. No hard feelings, love.

Isn't it amazing to think that the things that computers produce can fool human's into thinking that it came from their own species? Like I said before; wild...
 

Oh, before I forget. If you want to contact me you can reach me on my email, type in my username, or copying my URL for this blog.

Email - alan.turing.12@gmail.com

Username - ATuring

URL - www.turingtester.blogger.com


This machine looks so damn annoying...
How would you even crack anything that's coded into it?


This bad ass looking machine on the other hand is just how I like it.

OH! I also stumbled upon this one page recently that discussed enigma's and 'code cracking' that ignited my interest, so I literally hit the follow button immediately.. lol. Anyway.. Thta's all for today. :)


Comments: 
@ladylovelace commented: lol!! that doesn't look too hard to decipher
@JohnTuring commented: damn brother... back at it again with the computer talk :p
@ATuring replied to @ladylovelace: You sure...? Well, I guess you're right. With a little will power and the motivation I think something like that would be able to be cracked :)


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Catfish

Being as I enjoy the Catfish series, it came to as a surprise for me that it was actually derived from the movie itself: Catfish.
The documentary follows the story of Nev Schulman and how he, upon his journey of 'meeting' Megan, found out that things weren't as what they seemed.

There is the ongoing conflict of whether the movie is real or not, being the whole thing staged or an actual occurrence.

It had been given a high 80% from Rotten Tomatoes, and a 3.5/5 from the viewers.

Even if the documentary was set up, I still think that the way they go about informing viewers of how people online may not always be who they say they are is important. I think that people need to be focusing more on the issues that Catfish brings to thought instead of whether it was 'all too coincidental'.
Catfishing is something that happens a lot in our society today, considering a lot of our interactions with other people are online and through social media platforms. It focuses on the scarier, darker side of the web, and how the little things mean a lot when piecing together the larger picture.

The Guardian best described just how intriguing the entire documentary was, and how the sudden decision to go and see 'Megan' had those of us watching suddenly sitting on the front of our seats in a thrilling anticipation. 

The US Presidential Election- Social Media In The News

Throughout the entire Presidential Election of 2016, social media played major parts in how certain aspects of the news was portrayed, and how we all as a society acted upon what was being fed to us by the news and social websites.

News reports and the candidates of the Election brought uproars of mass arguments during the debates, and many shared their views of the situations that were unfolding in front of us.

On twitter, I noticed that a lot of my mutual followers are in fact from America, and so a lot of the time my news feed was a mess of memes, updates, reports and back-lashings against the candidates; mostly Donald Trump.

Here are just three of the many articles referring to just how social media portrayed its own views about the US Election:

 http://www.cio.com/article/3125120/social-networking/how-social-media-is-shaping-the-2016-presidential-election.html

http://www.npr.org/2016/11/07/500977344/social-media-s-role-increases-in-2016-presidential-election

http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2016/08/social-media-election-role

I noticed that while there were some articles on twitter being posted and re-tweeted that were for Trump, many that popped up on my news feed were against.

One of the many Donald Trump memes on twitter

Which, comes down to those I follow.
Social media has both negatives and positives when regarding how the portray things within the news, and will always have a say; whether you agree or not.

TED Talks- Can A Computer Write Poetry?

The society we live in today is constantly shifting and upgrading the way we are able to communicate with those close (and not so close) around us through the technology we use.
However, when the technology we are using talks back to us, how do we react?

In this video titled Can A Computer Write Poetry, Oscar Schwartz talks about how we view computers, and how we react to a computer doing something as easy as forming a poem together through algorithms.
In the video he discusses The Turing Test, which is something I find pretty fascinating, which puts computers through certain trials to decipher whether or not said computer can respond in the way a human can.

I decided to talk about this video in particular because, as it is scary to think that computers can have (so to speak) 'human thoughts', it is also quite amazing in its own sense.
We have come a long way within our technology; I just hope robots don't end up taking over.

Television and Communication

In almost every household around the world, it is a guarantee that there is a television inside.
Even when it's turned off, the programs continue to run, forever slipping through the signals. Television is a good way of communicating, in many different ways.It can bring people together, tear people apart (for the night, or until they agree on which side is better in The Saga Twilight), inform us of stories that occur throughout the world.

such sparkles

so dreamy

 

And it has been doing so ever since Sep 7, 1927, thanks to Utah native Philo Taylor Fransworth who was 21 at the time the first electronic television was displayed. 

Philo Taylor Fransworth

So thanks, Philo, for giving us a new form of technology.

A Timeline of Communication Applications

CD ROM - 1985

The CD was first invented in 1926, however was denied opulence due to the gramophone-type wax disc was unsuitable. Short for Compact Disc-Read Only Memory, at the beginning of manufacturing it was impossible for anything to be recorded onto the disc.

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Mini Disc - 1992

The Mini Disc allows you to record, where as before the CD was unable to give you this. It uses ATRAC (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding).

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Betacam - 1982

DigiBeta was the most professional transmit digital recording video tape format used. At first development, the Betacam was used to broadcast activities and people for television news. They are still used throughout today, however are not as common since new technology has come about.

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Microcassette Recorder - 1969

Used thinner tape than the original and half (to a quarter) speed time than the original compact cassette, it can still hold up just as much recording length. Three different devices are used to store microcassette's. Olympus SR-11 model only lasted 2 years on the market, due to the battery deficiency.

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Jog-Dial VCR Remote - (1990's)

The spinner on the remote allowed people to flip or 'jog' through video and audio media. It was the small dial on the bottom of the remote, and was most used throughout the 1990's. 
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Super-8 Film - 1965

This film made it easier for aspiring artists or proud parents to make their own home movies. It only had enough film to make a three minute length movie, however the footage is often described as soft, grainy, and colourful.

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Dial-Up Modem - 1958

A networking hardware device that modulates wave forms to convert digital information for communication, and demodulates signal to convert the transmitted. Since recent years, the use for dial-up has declined. 
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4.5" Floppy Disk - (Late 1960's)

Used mostly in the mid 1970's- late 2000's, before advance technology took over. The floppy disk was able to create backup for home computers, as well as transfer data and distribute data. Other devices (such as USB's) can store more data than the floppy disk.

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Hi8 Video Camera - 1989

The Hi8 has higher quality than that of a VHS and Video8, but is still lower than a S-VHS. The bandwidth (parameter of signal processing) of the luminescence signal is increased, with a resolution of 400 lines reach, where as in the VHS and Video8 it is only 250 lines.

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Rotary Phone - 1904

The rotary phone uses pulse dialing, and transmits the destination telephone number to a telephone exchange. The dial is used by rotating your finger around within the digits of the circular wheel until the fixed stop position. Each of the ten digits has a pulse signal, encoded signals of up to ten pulses.
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Google Hangouts

We often have certain websites, apps, or social networks that appeal to us all, and for some it is more than others.
Most of these networks are used on devices such as mobile phones, tablets, and/or computers that make it easier for us to gain access to said networks. One in particular that has come to stand out recently is: Google Hangouts.

Now according to the Cambridge Dictionary, the word hangout is defined as 'to spend a lot of time in a place or with someone', and, if we type in 'definition for hangout' in Google, it says something similar.
So what exactly is Google Hangouts?

Well, upon researching what this term meant, I was struck with quite a lot of information regarding it all. Google Hangouts is a communication service that allows users to upload their own ideas formulating in different medias such as: text, video, voice, or even chats. It is a platform that allows people to engage with others members, chat with friends, and even start video calls one-to-one or to a group. Its initial release was back in May 15 2013, and has only progressed throughout the passing years.

Google Hangouts seems to have a certain target audience that uses this service more than others, and that audience is those in business and enterprise. It seems that Google Hangouts is a new kind of way to help those wanting to promote a product, discuss business ordeals, etc. are using the network more than your everyday average Joe. It helps businesses promote their ideas and products in many different ways, some of which prefer to do this live so that they may be able to engage with the users that are following along. It helps people gain audiences for a variety of things such as- live performances, live shopping, or interacting with your favourite football star.

A platform owned by Google, Google Hangouts can be accessed by a wide range of devices. This includes the web, OS X, Linux, Chrome OS, and they even have an app available for iOS and Android users.

Hangouts are made into Gmail and Google+, and also Google Voice.

Google Hangouts wasn't exactly something that I had known about, let alone even used. According to firstpost.com, the Google Hangouts app is not mobile friendly, and is reported to become laggy and is just not all that appealing to the eye. In my personal opinion, the hangouts seem just like any other form of messaging forum. They all have the same purpose, and there aren't any differences that help it stand out from other popular social networking apps. It does make things useful by combining all the varieties of communication together, however there are other places, other services that you can benefit from better by using instead.
Will it ever be something that I will use to stay in contact with friends? No, I have other apps and sites that I favour more.

Here, you can find a video link containing all other information not covered in this post.
What are your opinions on Google Hangouts? Are they effective for you?