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. 

Mental Transaction Cost

Explain and give an example of a mental transaction cost.

            A ‘mental transaction cost’ takes place anytime you go to buy something; a thought gets triggered in your head anytime you think about having to pay for something. As we heard in Anderson’s “Free” chapter he says it’s our, “Is it worth it flag?” that pops up in our head. He also says that when there is a price put on something, even if it’s only one cent, we can’t help but hesitate and think if we really want or need it enough to pay the price for it.  One example that comes to my mind when I think of mental transaction cost is when you are going to buy a song on ITunes. I want to get all of these songs on my IPod and seeing a lot of the songs go up from 99 cents to $1.29 makes me hesitate to buy that song more, even though I really want to have it on my IPod. These prices, even though they aren’t necessarily expensive, they have me hesitate to buy them and think more about getting them from a website where they are free, though they are illegal.  I never stopped to think about this whole concept but when I look back on it I completely see how every single time, without, a doubt I see something I want I always think about if I really want it and if the price is worth it.