Social and Community Informatics

Linked

2007-04-17T18:36:00.000-07:00

In Linked by Barabasi, he discusses the idea that everything is interconnected and there are networks in so many things that we experience in our daily lives. He discusses graphs and networks along with the inherent constraints that they bring. I agree with his interpretation of these systems. It makes sense that the way that a graph or network is constructed will directly affect how they are used. Topology is an amazing field of mathematics. It has so many applications and wondrous ideas that allow many people to realize the elegance in everyday systems. One complex example of how topology can lead to great discoveries is evident when dealing with string theory. Barabasi had briefly mentioned "superstrings" when discussing the reductionist point of view. These are tiny vibrating "strings" of energy that are present at the plank level and are the fundamental building blocks of matter. String theory is not yet proven, yet the mathematics that it takes advantage of involves complicated topology that is utilized in an 11 dimensional space. Physicists and mathematicians have come up with a representation of space called a Calabi-Yau manifold. The topology of these multidimensional spaces allows for many of them to exist, yet only one is what physicists expect to accurately describe our universe. Another example of an interesting topology theory involves maps. If someone were to make any number of shapes on a map, such as countries or states, they would only need a maximum of 4 colors to differentiate between the different shapes. Another more familiar topology application is a Möbius strip. All of these applications of topology require a strict set of rules and regulations or else they would be completely different.

Barabasi also discusses "random graph theory" and "random network theory." He talks about how at a party, or any other event, each person can represent a node. These nodes can be connected indirectly to any other node by a series of other nodes. This idea is the basis for the game 6 degrees of separation. The theory that all of these nodes can be connected after such a short number of node interactions is a powerful idea. One example that comes to mind that demonstrates this well is the social network website Facebook. On Facebook, people add friends to their list of friends. When they see that those friends have friends that they know, they often add them to their list as well. After only a little while, there is a giant web of people who are added that all know each other either directly or indirectly. It is this idea of "random network theory" that gives an incite as to how information is spread so rapidly. The longer a network is able to develop, such as the network of Facebook friends, the more nodes are added through other nodes, at what appears to be an exponential rate.

Community Service Progress Report

2007-04-16T06:58:00.000-07:00

We are making lots of progress at the Capital City Rescue Mission in Albany. So far we have been able to successfully publish our remade homepage onto their servers. We have also become more familiar with the software they use called IPSwitch. It allows us to transfer files to and from their hosting server. With this program, we will not only be able to post new pages, but also retrieve their current files that are more updated than the ones in the data backups. We will also use this to help them schedule regular backups to prevent this from happening again.

On the new homepage, we had taken their old page and completely recoded it to get it to read in the Dreamweaver WYSIWYG Design interface. This is necessary in order to easily modify the page in the future. The new homepage was uploaded onto the server soon after we finished it. Unfortunately, the rescue mission had changed their mind about how they wanted the content displayed on the page, so we were not completely done. Fortunately, our template for a three column page did not need to be changed, so we only had to move content and create new images and text. This is the beauty of Dreamweaver templates. We can simply modify the dynamic content, while the basic template of the static content, such as the header, footer, and navigation bar, can remain the same. They feel that the homepage is the most important because it has much higher traffic, so it should naturally have information that is important. We had spent a lot of time modifying the homepage and tweaking it to their specifications and changing it when they decide on a different organization, but we also feel that it is worth it because they are now very happy with the page. If they decide to change the information on the homepage, or any page for that matter, they only need to make a simple modification. All of the text formatting styles will be consistent with the use of CSS. This will allow them to have a great dynamic page while still having the comfort of knowing that the new content will naturally take on the look of the rest.

For the future we are going to recreate the rest of the pages in a Dreamweaver readable format. We have started on a few pages so far, and they are looking good. The reorganizing of the pages is time consuming but fairly simple. The difficult task will be creating the CSS for things such as all of the special colored boxes that encompass and separate information on the page in a way to keep with their current style and layout. We are already working on many of these pages and they are expected to be completed soon. Some of the work will be done outside of the rescue mission to save time because we already have their input on many pages and all that is left is to code them.

I expect that we are making good time on the project and that we will have it done by the deadline along with many inevitable modifications. More information will follow with the final report.

Leonardo's Laptop Chapters 1-4

2007-03-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

The book Leonardo's Laptop by Ben Shneiderman gives a great perspective on how technology should be developed. The book is even more interesting because of the way that it incorporates the genius of Leonardo into the ideas of development for a user centered design. Chapter 1 describes the differences between "old computing" and "new computing." Old computing involves a technical approach to computer systems and data structures. It discusses the power of computers rather than their practical application. Old computing stresses the importance of speed and capability. The faster the CPU, the better the computer. On the other hand, the new computing ideas would require a user's needs in mind while developing. Instead of the the quality of computing measured in megahertz and gigabytes, it is measured in how well the users are able to use it and the quality of software it uses. The speed of the computer meant nothing if the software on it was not effective. There would be visually appealing graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Information would be visual and easy to understand.

There have been many frustrating experiences I have had with technology. There have been so many that I have probably forgotten over 99% of them. Therefore, the following is not really an accurate representation of the most frustrating, but rather some that have haunted me enough to be in my active memory.

Blue Screen of Death - The Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) is one of the most notorious computer error screens in the history of modern computing. Microsoft Windows has been known to have bugs that cause the entire system to become unstable and crash ever since some of their earliest operating systems. It is often caused by either the operating system or a client program attempting to access/modify corrupted memory that the kernel allocated, buggy drivers, etc. The problem with this error message is that it is too cryptic to be useful, even to experienced users. It will display the memory address at fault, but this is practically meaningless since the computer will then go through the process of a physical memory dump and clear the RAM. Note: These types of errors may be notorious for their occurrences on Windows, but they also can appear on a Mac OS, Linux OS, and various other operating systems involving memory allocation and bad programming.
Cryptic error messages - While this is very similar to the first example, I placed it in another category because for this frustration there is only one program crashing or just an error message without the entire system restarting. For the average user error messages can be scary. Many people do no know if they lost data or if there is any other problems that they should attend to if an error message appears. I personally would want more information about why the program crashed or had an error. This would help in cases where I cannot repeat the error consistently in order to know what not to do. Even if the message is cryptic, the user should have the option at least to see it. My frustration, however, is that the messages are difficult to understand. The user should now have to know what the exact technical problem was, but rather that there was a bug in the program. The bugs themselves should be fixed quickly, but in the mean time a user friendly error message should be displayed.
Compatibility - There are many programs that only work with one operating system and not another. There are also many programs that have conflicting settings with others. In my opinion, there should be standards (which I will discuss next) that a program should follow in order to have better compatibility. Anti-virus programs for example often have live scanners that monitor file activity. These programs conflict with each other many times and cause problems with security as a result. They have gotten better recently by alerting the user when there is such a conflict, but they should collaborate with the other program developers to further prevent such problems (despite the obvious economic disadvantages of this).
Bad Standards - There is a constant need for standards to be created in order to help with comparability between different ICTs, but there are also many other reasons to use them. Coding, for example, is much easier to edit and debug if certain measures are taken to make consistent code. Also, wireless internet and other wireless devices are assigned certain frequencies in order to standardize them. Unfortunately, problems often occur when there is a conflict in standards. For example, many cordless phones run on a 2.4 GHz frequency. This can often interfere with wifi enabled routers. Also, when people do not follow standards early on in projects, it is increasingly difficult to perform maintenance and upkeep when the standards change.
Security - Another thing that Microsoft Windows is known for is their security holes. They have sent out numerous updates and patches for their operating system as well as their many other applications and there are still known security flaws. There has been one such incident recently that caused what was predicted as the biggest computer exploit in history by finding a bug in the way images in a .JPEG format were rendered. This effected all operating systems back to Windows 3.1. These operating systems were no longer supported, yet they still were in use and were being attacked. Security experts had claimed that the bug was so large that they wondered why nobody had found it before and even speculated that could have been intentionally placed as a back door.

Community Service Progress Report

2007-03-18T11:21:00.000-07:00

Chris and I have been working at the Capital City Rescue Mission. They needed help with their website in order to help them promote their organization to the rest of the capital area community. On of our major goals is to help them have a more dynamic and easier to update website. On our first visit, we had gotten familiar with the buildings and learned of their objectives to help others. We also saw the different software ICTs they used to keep information current. They seemed to have this area well taken care of. The next few visits we began to work on their website and learn how they were currently taking care of it.

The current website (as seen in the above image) is very outdated as far as content and technology goes. It has information that has not been updated in months. When the website was originally designed, the code had a mess of HTML tags that overlapped, had incorrect parameters, etc. They also did not take full advantage of CSS in order to keep a constant website style. Currently, Chris created a template that will work in Dreamweaver. Their previous website would not render correctly in Dreamweaver because of how many mistakes there were in their code. The best thing we felt, was to start from scratch with a new website that was based off of their old layout and design. This way, they will easily be able to update it with new information, while their current visitors will still being able to navigate it with the ease.

In addition, we plan on having a blog incorporated into their new website so they can add new news items easily. We will show them how to use the Blogger interface and how to maintain a blog. This way, they can update their news page and inform their visitors of new events. Currently, due to the difficulty of maintaining the website, their latest event is from October of 2006. I have set up a temporary blogger account and will transfer it over to their new website once all of the current pages are recreated.

Even though there is already a running website and we will be keeping the say layout, it takes a long time to transfer over all of the information into a new template. Coping and pasting works for some things, but it will not work for most. We need to redo all of the text formatting in CSS and start from scratch. Once this step is completed, however, it will be much easier to update the website with newer content. As we move the information from the old to the new website, we are constantly making many small changes to correct image alignment, page loading time and stress on the server, various typos, and layout improvements to help with navigation. Over all, the new website is coming along very nicely. It still has a long way to go, but recently we were making great progress.

Blogging and RSS

2007-02-25T18:55:00.000-08:00

Blogging has many advantages in and out of the classroom. The article The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom by David Huffaker discusses some of these. I think that blogging is a great way to share information and hold online conversations on focused topics. The idea behind a blog being something that has a main text, a title, and a way for comments to communicate with the author and others has grown in epic proportions. I think that storytelling through blogs is good for some purposes, but does not always use blogs to their full potential. In a classroom such as ours, I use blogging to communicate and discuss information in a one way manor. I allow for comments on the blog, but nobody seems to respond to the entries. From this perspective it can be shown that blogs may not be as beneficial in the classroom as they could be. However, I think that for a classroom that is small such as our own, it can be very beneficial, but only if there is more collaboration and discussion on the blogs. If the bloggers would all discuss different topics and respond to each others, I believe that the blogging experience could be better. On the other hand, the story telling method can also work in many cases. The uses of blogs really needs to be customized to particular needs. For this classes needs, for example, the current method works fine because the things that need to be taken out of the class are responded to individually in the blogs. The article describes how young so many of the bloggers are and cites two studies. I agree with these findings, but also feel that I should point out that there are many blogs from older bloggers that are very popular because of the topics they discuss and how they can only be related to older people and students who are interested in the fields being described in the postings. In other words, the quantity of blogs does not always represent the same quality.

The Blogliness RSS Aggregator is a very nice product. I have used it in the past, but had preferred Google reader due to some specific features that I had not seen in other aggregators. On taking a second look at the reader for this class, it seems that there have been many improvements. There are many of these services out there and they seem to all have their own special abilities. The online aggregators are nice because they naturally allow for multi-platform use. On the other hand, downloadable programs can give better features and more direct control over the information. Again, customization is key and depends on the user preferences. I have subscribed to many feeds, especially technology ones. I love reading about tech news and really enjoy the website digg.com. This website gives users the ability to decide what is and is not news. People vote on stories in the form of "diggs" and can also give the thumbs down to stories to control the quality of content. When a story is popular enough, it makes front page. If the story gets too many negative votes, such as a lame news article or spam, it will be buried so people do not have to waste their time with it. This idea has been successful and is similar to community controlled Wiki articles. I did not subscribe to all of the feeds on my RSS feed at the time I created it. Instead I transfered many of them from another reader in the standard OPML format. RSS in itself is, in my opinion, one of the best new technologies to hit the internet. It gives people the ability to skip the website that the content resides on, and instead go directly to the content itself. This gives views extremely fast and direct content without having to go through the website filled with distracting ads and other media. RSS also is great for podcasts and other sequential short clips of information. RSS is going to be a widely used technology in the future because of its great benefits and time saving potential.

There are seven key Social Informatics ideas....

2007-02-11T18:56:00.000-08:00

There are seven key Social Informatics ideas. One of these concepts describes how ICTs are configurable. This is true because of the way they are set up. There are many individual modules within each ICT that come together in order to produce the larger and more complete technological system. They ICT can act as a system because of its many complex elements that make it up. When a socio-technical network implements and makes full use of these ICTs that are fully customizable, they become more productive. Since the ICT can be manipulated in order to work with each individual networks needs, they are optimized to be the most efficient for the network. This will cause each network to have different ICTs that are each tailored to fit their unique and specific needs. Since ICTs are not a one size fits all tool, they work so much better when used for the exact needs of the users. Rather than the developers personalizing the ICTs for every network’s special needs, the networks themselves can do the customizing in order to have a much more efficient development process. This means that the developer can spend less time on meeting specific requirements, and more time making the product more general, yet allow for an interface that permits expansion and customization.

One such real life example that allows for this personalized customization is Firefox. Developed by the Mozilla Foundation, Firefox is an open source browser used on multiple platforms. Before even customizing the application itself, the many operating systems on which it can be run allows for a larger user base and gives the users more options on where to run the program. For the applications customization, Firefox gives the user the source code so they can change the program how ever they want and compile it themselves. If the user is not experienced enough to do so, they can also download and install add-ons in the form of browser plug-in and extensions through an easy to use, user friendly interface. These add-ons give the user an extremely large array of options. The users can customize the browser to do anything from checking the weather to automatically checking email to blocking website advertisements. Even the user interface is fully customizable through the use of Themes. Almost every aspect of the application is modifiable with easy to use add-ons. When millions of users download the program, they start with a blank slate. They then begin to change and modify different aspects that they find useful. They can go back and change any of the tweaks they made at any time.

There are many people that would benefit from social informatics research. In addition to some of those mentioned by Kling, Rosenbaum, and Sawyer in the book Understanding and Communicating Social Informatics, one other group that can profit is managers. Business managers often deal with ICTs because of the complex networks in which the employees that they oversee must work in. The employees will usually deal with ICTs in inefficient ways. It is the job of the managers to direct the workers in ways that will boos productivity. In order for this to happen, a manager would need to have a firm grasp on how the technologies are being used. By doing this, the managers could better fix the right ICT for the right job. A goal of SI is to help reduce the gap between what an ICT is used for and what it was designed for. If managers were able to see and analyze how technology was being used, they could easily spot the wasteful resources and therefore be able to fix them. Just as ICT Professionals are able to use SI to modify the ICTs to fit the users’ needs, the business managers would be able to choose the ICTs to fit the employees’ needs.

The Digital Divide

2007-02-04T17:52:00.000-08:00

A major problem that faces the world today is not the lack of technology, but rather the lack of its use. The Digital Divide is the curse put upon the modern technological world. People often will not have physical access to technology, such as the internet, or will just not use it. The reason for not using the technology could have many different causes. Gurstein discusses some of the causes and possible solutions for preventing the way people do not get effective use out of their technology. There is often too much of a stress on the access to ICTs rather than the use of them. Just because someone not only has access to an ICT and uses it, does not mean that they are doing so efficiently and maximizing their productivity. People must learn to use a device the right way, not just satisfactory. There is many times a lack of knowledge on how to use an ICT because there was also a lack of training. One main problem is the ICTs are not fully designed to be used in the ways that people expect them to be used. Some people personally decide that they do not want to use technology, even when technology is easily available. This could probably be avoided in many situations by bringing technology to an easier level with user friendly applications that suit the needs of people much better. In the end, the result is the same. Those who do not have access and those who do not have effective use will all be at a major disadvantage. Information is the most valuable substance on earth, communication is the way to spread it, and technology is the driving force behind it. If people do not know how to use these powerful abstract ideas to their advantage, then they will be inherently slower, less efficient, and all around worse off than those who have the technical ability, know-how, and motivation.

According to Warschauer, not only using ICTs effectively is important, but also understanding how to use technology to start with is a necessity. He argues that information literacy is crucial to be able to use ICTs. There are many places that have access to the technology and have adequate funding, but still have seen no improvement in productivity and usage due to the simple fact that the users do not have fundamental knowledge on how to properly use the resources to their advantage. Children seem to be the best at adapting to new technology, as seen in his description of the kiosks in the city. While they may be able to learn how to use the technology, they still do not necessarily know how to do so effectively as to increase performance and help them accomplish tasks. Some children would only use the computers as a means of entertainment. In my own personal experience, I have seen the lack of literacy cause major problems with the use of technology. The one thing that frustrates me more than anything is seeing someone wanting a computer that does not know how to use one. I get very depressed when someone asks me about how to make their computer faster, better, etc. when they do not even know how to use it. Some people just want a "better" computer for the sake of being better. If they think that a more updated computer with a better graphics card, more memory, and a bigger hard drive will make them more productive they are sadly mistaken. I have met so many people who will spend thousands of dollars on a new top-of-the-line gaming PC that is 100 times more powerful than they will ever need for playing solitaire and checking their email. What saddens me is that I also meet people who have the technical knowledge and need to use such PCs for gaming, video editing, programming, etc. and get full use out of them who are stuck with inferior computers because they cannot afford them. This mismatch between access, literacy, and need is a horrible thing. I have seen how the great literacy divide can be problematic first hand. In my old school, there were many computers, but there was a lack of training on how to use them. I would often help out and point out easier ways to accomplish simple tasks because there just were not enough knowledgeable people on the subject matter. This is a perfect example because there was in no way a funding problem, as a giant addition was added to the school. Rather, the problem was simply the education in the technological field. It was as if there were the groups of those that did not use ICTs, those who did in inefficient ways, and the few elitists that would master the use of them. Using the suggestions Warschauer gives, these problems can be fixed. Knowledge is not only power, but it can be given freely. We must spread knowledge so everyone can be literate enough to use ICTs effectively in order to eliminate the digital divide.

Chapter 4

2007-01-30T22:35:00.000-08:00

I have created a flow chart to illustrate the socio-technical network model. This includes the components that are involved in a successfully network that uses technology to help with communication. The different jobs of people are shown along with the technological devices that are used. Each uses the technology in a way that will affect each other.

By using a flowchart, the information can be presented in a clearer and more orderly way then just using text to describe the relationships and interactions between different types of people and ICTs. A complex network can be represented by simple flowchart shapes. The flow of information is not only clearly represented for one case, but can adapt to be compatible with many different scenarios. This dynamic model is valuable to any socio-technical network. It provides the users, managers, designers, and content providers with an outline for the way the information is transfered.

This was created using both Open Office and Microsoft Office. Different organizational tools were used to produce the effects. Once
the image was completed, I saved it as a PNG (Portable Network Graphics) type image in order for it to have lossless compression.

Notebook computers can be a valuable resource in businesses and school. In Texas, the proposition to give all students notebooks was turned down. This may have been a good thing. The computers were intended partly to lower costs by eliminating the need for textbooks. While textbooks are expensive, the notebook computers were even more costly. This was mostly due to the cost of maintenance. It would cost $10 per month for the computer itself, while $42 per month for hiring support professionals. Using this method of organizational informatics, costs that were not typically thought about are revealed and considered. In addition, from a social informatics perspective, one must also consider how this will affect the students. Will productivity increase? Based on the authors' analysis, it appears as if there would not be a major increase in productivity that would be proportional to the cost. The amount of output by the students would not be enough to justify the cost. The price is still present, except the burden was shifted from the school district to the parents. The SI and OI analysis used by the authors is valid. The Texas decision could have benefited from a full study on the effects of this policy.

Chapters 1 & 2

2007-01-23T21:23:00.000-08:00

There is a large disconnect in how technology is used in popular media and scholarly communication. There was a large effort made to bring technology and the internet into classrooms. The problem was that it was unknown how the computing would actually improve the education of the students. In popular media these technologies seem to be used easily to solve complex problems.

If you ever watch a movie or TV show, it seems so quick to find something on a computer. Just type on a keyboard, and your answers are there. There is a much different reality. Computers can do many great things, but the users need to know how to use them. The machines are only as powerful as their operators let them be. Different people use the technology in different ways. Some people are purely followers of what teachers show them. Others teach themselves and explore the technology more throughly. Some even contribute to the technology itself in projects such as wikis, open source programs, forums, etc. The power of computing must be unleashed by the people who use it.

Saying that ICTs rarely cause social transformations is not cynical. ICTs tend to provide an enhancement to previous social structures rather than dramatic change. If ICTs created a transformation, it would typically be minimal or at least based on a previous one. Otherwise it would most likely be rejected by the community because of the radical change. Workers were never replaced due to the new technology as was predicted. This is because they computers are a tool, not a replacement. You would not say that after the invention of the tractor, farmers were no longer needed. There still need to be a human mind to operate the device (at least until artificial intelligence can take over). Social networking sites, for example, do not really change the way people interact, but rather the medium in which they do. The technology does not invent new forms of communication. Instead it enhances the previous ones.

There are, however, times in which there would be radical change from the previous methods. With faster processes and the use of computers do make hash searches, people can finding information at phenomenal speeds. This would make work much more efficient and faster, but would not fundementally change what was going on. Behind the scenes, the methods of action would change, while the results would stay the same, just with more efficiency.

Chapter 3

2007-01-28T21:23:00.000-08:00

Technology has become a necessity in modern life. It seems as if everything you do requires technological interaction. With so many aspects of life depending on ICTs, it only seems natural to have the products meet the end users needs. Developers of software, for example, will find that making a strong model for development at the projects start is absolutely crucial to having a successful product. When the users relay information back to the developers that requires the model to change, there is difficulty in adjusting the program to the new specifications. Often times, there are many things that require modifications that the user does not see. After a product is deployed, if there are any more modifications that need to be made, they are very costly. For this reason, it is very beneficial to have beta testers and direct interaction between the developers and the users.

When ICT-based systems are created, the developers do not know how they will be used. They can predict some uses, but unless they are working with a contract or in-house development, it can be difficult to target the uses when having the first version in mind. When a product development method is used, customization is perfect. This would allow for many different users to have many different uses, yet still be able to use the same program. The beauty of programs like Mozilla's Firefox is that they allow the user to have a product that is fully customizable. If there is some feature that the user wants incorporated directly into the browser, they can get an extension. If no such extension exists, they can write their own because the source code to the program is publicly available.

Not only can miscommunication between the design and use of a program be costly, but it can also be deadly. One such example occurred on July 3, 1988. Iran Air Flight 655 was struck down by the USS Vincennes which resulted in 290 deaths. The Vincennes was armed under the AEGIS combat system - a new system at the time. The system was not designed for the specific situation in which the Vincennes happened to be in that fateful day. Because of a designing error due to a lack of preparation of the scenario, the Vincennes identified the Airbus A300B2 as an F-14A Tomcat. This could have easily been avoided if there had been further preparation involving feedback from the users of the system after having it tested fully.

Test

2007-01-23T21:19:00.000-08:00

Hello World!