10 Matching Annotations
  1. Apr 2018
    1. E-commerce start-ups have feared they could end up on the losing end of paid prioritization, where their websites and services load slower than those run by internet behemoths.

      By repealing net neutrality, small-scale and independent creators are the ones who lose, when in fact they need the Internet the most to run their businesses, share and distribute their art, and connect with potential consumers. The small business is already a dying breed, one that has only continued to stay afloat because of the Internet; take away the low cost and convenience aspect of the Internet, and many independent artists will be left floundering.

    2. Another major concern is that consumers could suffer from pay-to-play deals. Without rules prohibiting paid prioritization, a fast lane could be occupied by big internet and media companies, as well as affluent households, while everyone else would be left on the slow lane.

      I remember being extremely angry the day these net neutrality laws were repealed and this is why. The Internet has long been one of the only level playing fields for everyone, regardless of age, social status, or location; changing this benefits only the wealthy, as most government measures seem to.

    1. Copyright extremists need to recognize that there is a growing move-ment of abolitionism out there. Kids were convinced that copyright was for another century and that in the twenty-!rst century it is just not needed. Now, I am not an abolitionist. I believe copyright is an essential part of a creative economy. It makes a creative economy rich in both the monetary and cultural sense.

      I agree with this standpoint, as I do not identify as on of these "kids" who think copyright laws are outdated. While they can be restricting in some ways, copyright laws protect intellectual property and save artists from being copied and having someone else profit off of their idea. Ultimately, I think the advantages of strong copyright laws far outweigh the disadvantages.

    2. Now the Internet, of course, has produced both commercial and sharing economies. #e Internet has commercial economies where people leverage knowledge to produce !nancial value, and it has sharing economies like Wikipedia or free sound resources like FreeSound.org or SETI@home, where people make their resources available to discover information about the uni-verse.

      Since this article was published a bit ago, it is interesting to reflect on how the "community" aspect of the web has evolved since then. So much of the Internet nowadays is focused on collaborative space and creative production; you can build a website, produce a song, or run a podcast with someone who doesn't even live in the same state as you. Similarly, you can utilize resources from every corner of the web to create new products.

  2. Mar 2018
    1. "unprecedented openness" that fostered the "amazing and demo- cratic" achievement of the Net and its "cooperative culture."

      As per my last annotation, this is another line that has direct relevance to today's online community. I can see why the early days of the Internet were lauded as being "open" and "amazing"...there were no social media platforms, gossip sites, or message boards back then.

    2. Thus it becomes clear that computer systems were invented for the Cold War, which provided the justification for massive government spending, and were pushed in particular technological directions. But these same computer systems, in turn, helped to support the discourse of the Cold War; they sustained the fantasy of a closed world that was subject to technological control

      In reading about the relationship between the Internet and the Cold War, I can't help but be struck by how much the Internet has gone on to increasingly affect politics and world events. We have discussed in class the role of Facebook in the 2016 election, and now I can't help but wonder how technology will be affecting political events another 50 years from now.

  3. Feb 2018
    1. There's also the issue of surveillance. If every product becomes connected then there's the potential for unbridled observation of users. If a connected fridge tracks food usage and consumption, takeaways could be targeted at hungry people who have no food. If a smartwatch can detect when you're having sex, what is to stop people with that data using it against the watches' wearer.

      I always wonder about this when I see commercials for devices like Google Home or Amazon Alexa. Is a slight convenience worth potentially giving up our privacy? Are we so eager to not have to lock the door ourselves that we put hours and energy into training our devices? While I appreciate their functionality for certain situations, it is concerning to see people become increasingly dependent on devices instead of on their own brains and bodies.

    1. We may live in a digital age, and the privileged among us might feel closely connected to our digital devices, but the sensations we feel as we touch our keyboards and screens are analog feelings, rich in continuous input and gradations of the sensory. We must remember that the digital is embedded in an analog world even as it increasingly shapes what is possible within that world

      I also think it is worth noting here that digital affects what happens in the analog/real world. What is written, posted, or viewed online can affect the real-life experience of the writer, poster, or viewer. Interactions between two parties online can directly affect how they interact in the real realm.

    1. Google, by contrast, began its life as a native web application, never sold or packaged but delivered as a service, with customers paying, directly or indirectly, for the use of that service. None of the trappings of the old soft-ware industry is present. No scheduled software releases, just continuous improvement. No licensing or sale, just usage

      I think this simplicity of use and dedication to making the site effortless for the user have heavily contributed to Google's longevity and its position as the primary search engine. There are no hoops to jump through, no work for the consumer to do, no updates that slow down or impair usage.

    1. The history of cybernetics, for Hayles, began with information being separated from its material "body," being treated as a mathematical abstraction. This has had the effect of a general emphasis on disembodiment that Hayles' earlier work explicitly addressed. The mixed-reality model, however, emphasizes the role of human and machine within complex environments "though which information and data are pervasively flowing" (149). In other words, like Gibson, she recognizes in this 2010 essay that what was once imagined as a realm apart is now discovered all around us in the physical world, as information and data are seen as complexly material phenomena, everywhere embodied.

      I think this idea of the human and machine as two separate but connected entities is especially relevant now that creations like Sophia the robot are becoming realities of the marriage between tech and humanity. Technology is not only "all around us", it is in us now as well.