Web 2.0 is defined by Tim O'Reilley during his web 2.0 conference as the trend in web design and development. It is perceived as the second generation of web-based communities and hosted services (social net work site such as wikis, blogs, and youtube) which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users. The web 2.0 era began surfacing as a form of personal expression and media, but it is slowly developed into a mainstream tool that is able to cater to the needs of university professors and project management for many professions to replace convensional communication methods.
Podcasting is a collection of digital media files distributed and stream online through Internet such as youtube. Sooner or later it should be able to be used for online conference or lecture where the students and professionals can also greatly benefit for not being physically present. This method will also greatly benefit people who are disabled and have problem with mobility.
The future of both applications are endless. Just imagine, a world where you're suspended in the space of your own imagination. Everything you ever wanted, the things you wanted to see are customised and catered to your desires. Given the right technology that can enhance the realism of virtual experience (such as the cave automatic environment system), it is very possible that the next level of web 2.0 and podcasting can very well submerge it's user into a virtual life as a virtual avatar (virtual self). Why stop at simple 2 dimensional broadcast when all of this can be enhanced towards a full fledged virtual reality experience.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Seeking a best of… a scientific blog review
Although the subject science may not be everyone's cup of tea, but for those who are interested pharyngula (a.k.a scienceblogs.com) is the most clear and concise blog about random scientific discussion available online.
Pharyngula is a blog run by PZ Myers (professor in Biology of University of Minnesota) which focus heavily on relating biology matters. The site displays a vast span of debatable topics ranging from validity of evolutionism to topics such as genetics. Pharyngula is listed by the science journal Nature as the top-ranked blog written by a scientist, and it is easily understandable once entering the site where every blog is clearly categorized and organized into date of post as well as subject of relevance.
Pharyngula is multidisciplinary in every sense; It is informational, instructional, social, and even political. A large variety of videos, and article are the arsenals used by the bloggers to convey their opinion upon a subject matter. The style and format of these post ranges greatly, some of which are random rant upon a subject matter, some are written to make a brief statement about local happenings, and some are in depth critique of a article that includes a lot of counter thesis that are backed up by scholarly research.
The post Trading Food and Grooming for Sex from a Behavioral Neuroscience Perspective, is one that refers to the finding of such phenomena upon chimpanzees. Jake Young(the author) goes in depth supporting this finding and ties it to the Biological marker theory (a theory which implies that animals possess a host of cognitive capacities, some of which were previously only ascribed to humans). He also used the article where monkeys were trained to use little plastic wafers as currency to backup his thesis. The article finishes off with Young's interpretation of the primate brain anatomy explaining how such phenomena is possible, which is a process beyond my comprehension.
In short, the pharyngula blog puts itself ahead of the other blogs with a clean cut interface. The discussions are intriguing and engaging for those who are 'science savy'. The humours at some of the post such as Ali G's Religion Interview are just the icing on the cake.
Pharyngula is a blog run by PZ Myers (professor in Biology of University of Minnesota) which focus heavily on relating biology matters. The site displays a vast span of debatable topics ranging from validity of evolutionism to topics such as genetics. Pharyngula is listed by the science journal Nature as the top-ranked blog written by a scientist, and it is easily understandable once entering the site where every blog is clearly categorized and organized into date of post as well as subject of relevance.
Pharyngula is multidisciplinary in every sense; It is informational, instructional, social, and even political. A large variety of videos, and article are the arsenals used by the bloggers to convey their opinion upon a subject matter. The style and format of these post ranges greatly, some of which are random rant upon a subject matter, some are written to make a brief statement about local happenings, and some are in depth critique of a article that includes a lot of counter thesis that are backed up by scholarly research.
The post Trading Food and Grooming for Sex from a Behavioral Neuroscience Perspective, is one that refers to the finding of such phenomena upon chimpanzees. Jake Young(the author) goes in depth supporting this finding and ties it to the Biological marker theory (a theory which implies that animals possess a host of cognitive capacities, some of which were previously only ascribed to humans). He also used the article where monkeys were trained to use little plastic wafers as currency to backup his thesis. The article finishes off with Young's interpretation of the primate brain anatomy explaining how such phenomena is possible, which is a process beyond my comprehension.
In short, the pharyngula blog puts itself ahead of the other blogs with a clean cut interface. The discussions are intriguing and engaging for those who are 'science savy'. The humours at some of the post such as Ali G's Religion Interview are just the icing on the cake.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
What is the biggest issue facing blogging, citizenship and the future of media?
Before interpreting my opinion upon the impact facing blogging, it was essential that I understood what it is. A blog (web log) is a website where entries are displayed in reverse chronological order, and have been a medium which essentially becomes a form of public sphere in the new digital age. Although I have used web logs like Xanga as a personal diary, and specific forums to discuss my own interest with people around the world, I have never thought about the specifics of what a blog is. It is my understanding after substantial research that a blog is a very broad genre which includes Youtube as a example of a vlog, and forums which consistently participate in the act of micro-blogging.
The modern world is flooded with advertisement at every corner of our physical world, and would spare no difference within our digital one. No matter what sort of web service we decide to use nowadays, there are always going to be a form of advertisement either on the right hand column or the left hand column on your screen. It is easily understandable that some of these fabulous free service we enjoy on the web such as youtube, and google will undoubtly consist of advertisement from the sponsors of such services. All of this lead to the issues of spamming and spyware where some sites may force the web users to actively receive unwanted advertisement that covers the span of your monitor. It is a issue that is rather intrusive to a web user's experience and have been a problem that's as difficult to contain as piracy of copyrighted material. Hence creating yet another double edged sword that came out of our new digital world.
Blogging becomes a space for freedom of expression across the world, although some of these contents are questionable in it's validity, it is also a great concern as to the subjects that are created within its content. Freedom of expression is a great gift, but how far can we push the boundaries in the digital space? since we can talk about anything in a blog, is it justifiable to attempt to influence others in your believe to harm others around you? and if a perfectly normal citizen who happen to have a bad day decides to rage across his blog about his hate toward the world in a attempt ot vent out his anger, would it be justifiable to arrest this individual before harm can be done?
The modern world is flooded with advertisement at every corner of our physical world, and would spare no difference within our digital one. No matter what sort of web service we decide to use nowadays, there are always going to be a form of advertisement either on the right hand column or the left hand column on your screen. It is easily understandable that some of these fabulous free service we enjoy on the web such as youtube, and google will undoubtly consist of advertisement from the sponsors of such services. All of this lead to the issues of spamming and spyware where some sites may force the web users to actively receive unwanted advertisement that covers the span of your monitor. It is a issue that is rather intrusive to a web user's experience and have been a problem that's as difficult to contain as piracy of copyrighted material. Hence creating yet another double edged sword that came out of our new digital world.
Blogging becomes a space for freedom of expression across the world, although some of these contents are questionable in it's validity, it is also a great concern as to the subjects that are created within its content. Freedom of expression is a great gift, but how far can we push the boundaries in the digital space? since we can talk about anything in a blog, is it justifiable to attempt to influence others in your believe to harm others around you? and if a perfectly normal citizen who happen to have a bad day decides to rage across his blog about his hate toward the world in a attempt ot vent out his anger, would it be justifiable to arrest this individual before harm can be done?
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