Ken Zeran

1.      What might you have done differently if you were in the position of artist Ken Zeran, mentioned in this chapter?

If I were Zeran I would have tried to take more legal action. I think Zeran’s case is similar to the anti-abortion group case. The anti-abortion group posted personal information like names, addresses, and license plate numbers of doctors who performed abortions on the “Nuremberg Files” website and because “true threats of violence were made with the intent to intimidate” (251) towards doctors on that site, the group was found liable. I know Zeran’s case was different in some manners but some of his personal information was also used (name and phone number) and was used as a hoax; but one where he actually got threatening phone calls. AOL didn’t take immediate action and with the fact that Zeran felt he needed security around his house for that week shows this was a serious matter; one that clearly should have had more legal action take place. I know AOL isn’t a publishing company so they technically didn’t do anything, but I still don’t understand how the anti-abortion group got charged and AOL didn’t. I would have tried to get a lawyer and taken more legal action, or maybe even started a blog like we saw in the cell phone story in Shirky’s book so at least people would see how AOL can be used against them and what the company will and won’t do to help protect you against something like this happening to you personally. A blog could have gotten more people involved so maybe legal action would have been taken against AOL.

UWB Radio

What might you so with access to UWB radio transmissions if you had a receiver in a car?

Ultra Wide Band, or UWB, radio uses very low power and is able to not interfere with any conventional radio receiver. This technology would definitely be very useful and convenient. That would be so cool if you could upload pictures or write emails or download songs straight to your car without having to worry about having a connection to your internet or dealing with your phone's signal to be strong enough to get wifi access. Although I don't completely understand the whole technological side about it completely, this UWB radio sounds very cool and sounds like it could help a lot of people if they were for instance stuck on the side of the road and needed assistantance. It could even save people money because you wouldn't have to worry about buying mp3 players to take along with you in the car or buy a GPS system because you could just simply access it through your radio. Hopefully this whole UWB radio will come along soon or at least soon enough that our generation will be able to use it because I definitely would like to try it!

DRM: Good or Bad?

What is the value of a bit? It seems that going after folks who have traded songs or movies online is a huge expenditure of effort and money. Is DRM-protected content the way to go? If you don’t agree, propose another method for the distribution of digital multimedia so that content creators can still be compensated.

DRM, according to Abelson (2008), stands for digital rights management and DRM-protected content is content that has a wide range of restrictions to keep people from using that information in any way that would be illegal. Reading about DRM in Abelson’s book I learned that just like everything else, DRM has both its advantages and disadvantages.

I think it’s good that someone has come up with a way to help stop those from illegally downloading massive amounts of black market music or those trying to sell copies of illegally downloaded movies, we definitely needed some system to help stop those people since it became so easy with the rise of the internet. On the other hand, DRM and its restrictions may be a little too much, even though it is doing good. I would be disappointed if I wasn’t allowed to go onto a website, like Pandora for example, and just listen to music without having to buy it beforehand just to see if I like the song or the music that I like. I don’t see any problem with this if I don’t plan on somehow illegally stealing those songs, but with DRM in place this wouldn’t be allowed because the restrictions would stop my computer from playing that music. Stuff like that I think has gone too far and where I think the DRM system breaks down. Overall I think DRM is a good thing because without it people have that much of an easier time stealing and copying whatever they want whenever without having any obstacles in the way and that ultimately hurts everyone. I think the only suggestion I would have is to continue working with the DRM system to make positive change that make more restrictions to make it harder for those to encrypt and work around the codes but at the same time have less restrictions on things like not being able to view a video or listen to a song online. The only problem to this suggestion is that I don’t even know if it’s possible because if it is they probably could have come up with that system by now; maybe one day they will.

Prisoner's Dilemma and FOAF

Considering the Prisoner’s Dilemma in this chapter, provide your own insight on how sites such as eBay “work” for most participants of this popular online auction site. Do they really work? Or is there too much risk?

I think overall the sites works in favor of both the buyers and the sellers. You personally know how much you are or aren’t willing to spend for an item so in most cases a person isn’t going to bid more than they can afford. The biggest risk in a site like eBay would be trust; is the seller’s product really up to the standard they say it is and is the buyer really going to pay the price they said they would? This is why eBay has its buyer and seller guarantees and processes both sides have to go through in order to sell and buy on the site to help ensure everyone that no one will lose. People who sell online have ratings from past buyers so that future buyers and everyone else can see whether or not the things they sell and the way they go about their business is trustworthy or not. This helps relieve some of the risk of whether or not you can trust a person to sell you the quality product they claim they are selling. But still, as with everything else, many people are still skeptical because the site is online; anything on the internet will never be a 100% guarantee to some people. Again, this is where the site’s protection codes are enforced to help relieve that Prisoner’s dilemma between both parties. Sellers have ratings and buyers usually are required to pay with credit card or PayPal to ensure they are going to pay, so this again relieves some of the stress that one party is going to lose in the exchange.

I personally haven’t used eBay before but my dad has, and has explained to me some of the features of eBay that help ensure him neither party is going to be less successful than the other; that in most cases the site guarantees satisfaction for everyone. From Googling more about eBay I also found that they still update their protection guides which is a sign that the company continues to try and fix any problems or mistakes that have been made in the past for customers so this helps ensure me that the site can’t be too risk, that and the fact that so many people use it on a daily basis.

What professional benefits do you see by investing some time in a FOAF-style network?

I see a lot of benefits that could come from investing time in a FOAF-style network but the number one would be getting a job. In many ways FOAF-style networks do a lot of the work for you because so many of us are already members of social networks so using them in ways that can automatically connect you to a friend-of-a-friend that could have a major impact in your life. For example a friend-of-a-friend that you get in contact with could be a boss of a big company where you have been trying to get a job, or someone who knows a lot about the field you are interested in pursuing a job in. I’ve learned in so many of my classes that today it’s all about who you and perhaps allowing your name and profile to fall in the hands of the right FOAF. I personally have experienced FOAF-style network, except not on the internet. I’ve gotten one of my jobs through meeting someone my aunt knew who knew the owner of the company and although none of the contact was through the internet it still worked the same way and was helpful and successful for me.  FOAF networks allow those who are driven and motivated but may have not gotten a chance to completely get their foot in the door in a field they are interested in to come across the right person to help them. Overall FOAF is definitely a good tool to invest in because meeting new people can never hurt and in many cases will just help you.

Revolution and New Technologies

Based on the quote from this chapter, "Revolution doesn't happen when society adopts new technologies- it happens when society adopts new behaviors," do you agree or disagree? Cite examples to support your position.

I completely agree with Shirky's statement "Revolution doesn't happen when society adopts new technologies- it happens when society adopts new behaviors". Chapter 6 of Shirky's Here Comes Everybody talks about how technology has enabled society to communicate more and better than in the past, and new technologies to communicate arise almost daily. The one point Shirky makes, though, is that all of these new inventions of how to communicate more effectively and all the cool new tools we have on our cell phones, etc. are based off our basic need to communicate with others; we've just jazzed them up a little bit. As he says, "It is a curiosity of technology that it creates new characteristics in old institutions," so society being curious on how to send a letter to more than one person and maybe even in a faster way than postal mail ultimately lead us to email and part of the reason for the invention of the telephone was so people could communicate over lengthy distances and faster since mail would take even weeks to reach its destination, and so on. All the technologies that have been discovered today have been based off of many and many people's curiousities put into real life, but ultimately are based off the basic communication skills people are innately born with already. Also as Shirky says, "Seen in that light, social tools don't create collective action- they merely remove the obstacles to it," so again the tools we have to use to communicate today haven't appeared out of nowhere, they are instead useful tools to make it easier to do what humans were made to do- socialize. For these statements above and reading Shirky's chapter is what makes me agree with the quote above. Behaviors of society that are foreign to existant ones are the things that are revolutionary, but new technologies just stem from current or even old practices that already exist in society.

Information Cascades: College Style

Look deeper into the concept of a "information cascade". Can you cite an example of where following the actions of others was a sound idea? Where doing so ended up being a poor choice?

Besides studying and attending classes, college life has another side that can be put under the subject of an information cascade: drinking. Many people in college go out to parties every weekend, expecting to drink a lot and have fun with their friends, while others choose to go out and not drink or to partake in other activites; regardless partying exists at many colleges across the country. There's nothing wrong with wanting to have a good time with your friends, but taking it too far can have its consequences. Just as with the Leipzig protests, heavy drinking consumes more and more students, especially freshman. Many kids hear about others going out and getting drunk and having such a good time and think they can do the same. Especially with freshman, college kids go out and drink a lot, trying to keep up with their friends thinking it's a good idea because they see and hear about so many people having such a good time at parties, etc. The problem arises when students drink too much for their body to handle and get themselves into positions they otherwise wouldn't if they were in the right mindset, allow people to take advantage of them, and so on. Some students even go too far to the point of no return; they end up killing themselves because they think they can handle more than they really can.
Obviously peer pressure has a lot to do with binge drinking, especially in young adults, but it's also what many students see and hear for themselves. They hear and see their friends getting away with illegal stuff, such as underage drinking, and having such a good time, and see more and more people doing the same and think that they won't get in trouble and will have as much of a good time, which clearly many times isn't the case. In this example, letting go of your individual thoughts on something and following others can have many personal consequences, and many serious ones. I have personally seen so many people get too drunk and have no idea where they are or what they're doing and it's scary to know that the most likely reason they even got to this point was that they just wanted to have a good time just like everyone else.

Hot-button word

Why is “zero” such a hot-button word?’’

            The word “zero” can have many different meanings, which makes it such an interesting topic/word. Zero, when you hear about it right off the bat, usually brings a negative thought to your brain but when you really think about it and how much you take advantage of things being “zero” it can really be a good thing. We are all about things being free, or costing nothing (zero), so much so that we forget the downsides of taking something that’s free. This is one example of how we don’t stop to think about zero being a good thing; we never hesitate to take something that doesn’t cost anything because we think we don’t have anything to lose from it.  Even though we designate zero as a negative thing, such as when we rate things on a scale from zero-ten, we don’t realize the negative implications zero can have like I said before, taking something you don’t need or settling for something because it’s free, even though it doesn’t completely fit what you want. Sometimes things that don’t cost anything can end up being more a cost or hassle because you could decide later on that you really do want exactly what you had pictured in your mind of the product you wanted, and you now have to go out and buy it, wasting more time and money when you could have just spent the money in the first place. I have had this happen to me, settling for something that my friend gave me because its free, but end up going out to the store anyways to get the same product, but that has more features that match what I needed/wanted.