English 342 (NU) discussion

Hey everyone and Happy Thanksgiving!

The first article - "Entrepreneurs See a Web Guided by Common Sense"

Web 3.0 has not yet happened but will in the near future. This "world-wide database" will not only connect documents, but connect data as well. According to designers of the new "semantic web" the web 2.0 qualities are not detailed enough and do not meet the needs of every single web user. In web 2.0, travel look-up takes hours to completely put together a package. In the new Web 3.0, the same search would be put together as if it were done by a travel agent. The ideas of web 3.0 are decided, but what is still left up in the air is how and when these systems will be built. One agreement is in place, and that is that the new search will be more valuable than today's engines. It is hard to have users vote as to what they feel is important in a search engine. Web 2.0 uses "Page Rank" to list systematically what is important to users. In Web 3.0, there is thought of using Radar's technology. This allows users to collaborate and add their thoughts on all aspects of the web. This is done by storing associations as opposed to text or numbers. "One sample system created using the technology is Opine, which is designed to extract and aggregate user-posted information from product and review sites." In today's web, you have to sort through user comments according to when they left them and not relevance. In web 3.0 the web would automatically weigh and rank all comments and find the right thing for a specific user. The main idea is to have machines doing intelligent things to help users more thoroughly and less stressfully. Lenat building Cyc (an A.I. system) shows that we are moving towards more advance technological machines, and also more human-like and knowledgeable ones.

The main debate in this article is whether A.I. will be the driving force behind web 3.0 or of it will happen in a more natural manner.

Questions:
What is your prediction on the main debate?
Would you prefer the new web 3.0 rather than the 2.0 version that we are using right now?
What personal benefits would users get from the new version of Web 3.0?
in what ways is Web 2.0 losing appeal?


The second article - "Web 2.0 isn't Dead"

This article is about Web 2.0 not losing its steam. Although there is a lot of talk about the Semantic web, or Web 3.0, there is not much action. There is a lot of creativity and enthusiasm, however. The fact that the machines will be more than basic search tools and have "intelligence" will take time. 2.0 is not going anywhere anytime soon because 3.0 still needs to be fully developed and made perfect yet. It will be added to the new web, not replacing it and there will be a ton of them connecting together over time. There has been emphasis on A.I. while talking about this new web, but Spivack says that it is not necessary for the goal of Semantic web. Web 3.0 is not to be set apart from the now, it is to be worked in slowly. It is already being used with some companies (i.e. yahoo food is using it) but it is not available to the public yet. 2.0 will be around for much longer than we may think.

Questions:
Are you looking forward to Web 3.0?
How much longer do you think it will take for 2.0 to become 3.0 and why?
Do you think that the new web will really fit right into the old web or do you think it will be a lot different and harder to use?

The third article - "Web 2.0 vs. Bubble 2.0"
(I am a bit confused because this article says nothing about Bubble 2.0, but I'm just going to go with the article and not the title)

A cartoon is what starts the article. "I know! I keep writing in my blog .... and you pay me!!" Web 2.0 is a lot of groups or projects connecting to each other. Joi states that it actually may be the platform for the future of greedy people. On web 2.0 anyone can publish it's content whereas 1.0 was overly complicated. The content can be retrieved very easily by a broad audience whereas in 1.0 was just sending people what they already know in mass. In 2.0 you control and own whatever you your content is, and in 1.0 as soon as you uploaded it to a site they owned it.

Questions:
Which do you believe is//will be larger - the jump from web 1.0 to 2.0 or the jump from web 2.0 to web 3.0? Why?
Do you think that everyone has control over their content on a site? If not, give an example.
What do you think that Joi meant when stating "it's possible that Web 2.0 is becoming the platform for the short-term future of greedy people?"

Hey guys i'm sorry it took me so long to get this to all of you, I was on a student govt. conference and thought I would have access to the internet, but i didn't.

The main goal of our collaborative web resource is to give students at Niagara University the opportunity to find out what there is to do on and off campus, where to go to eat, hang out, shop, as well as where to go for the necessities. The primary audience for our site is the students at Niagara University. These students will mostly be between the ages of eighteen and twenty two, both males and females. At this age many students are looking for something fun to do and are always looking for something new to try, both educational and recreational. These are the students who make Niagara their home for four years and the people who will get the most out of our creation.
The students will view our site to find out what stationary things there are to do around Niagara (The Fashion Outlets, restaurants, and information on the State parks, anything fun that they can do around the school). The students will also view the site to find out things happening around campus that are not always here (The Peach Festival, concerts, celebrations). The students will return to the site because of the way it is updated. When a Niagara club is hosting an event on campus it may be posted last minute, but students are going to want to know about it. When something new is opening off campus, this will be a great place for students to find the information they need. Students will return to find information on places they have not yet visited or restaurants they have not yet chosen. With the sections that are permanent and the sections that are ever updating students will not come back because they have too, but because they want to. Also students will return because they will have the opportunity to put the things they love about the area, things that may otherwise go unnoted. We believe that students would want to participate in the growth of their web resource, and would come back in order to both learn and spread their knowledge.
On top of the students we will have secondary audiences including those students parents as well as faculty. The site is an excellent way for parents to find hotels to stay when they come to visit family. Its also a good way to know that their children are able to have opportunities for fun while at school. The faculty at Niagara University will also be able to use the like the students because they also live in the surrounding area and this is a perfect way for them to find out what is going on in the communities they live in.

Proposal for the site
NU WooHoo

Cathleen Cuddahee, Melissa Higgins, Kristin Peworchik, Jason Nufryk, Molly Lizzio, Nick Hasbrouck, Tiffany Jacobs

The Purpose
The purpose of this site is to give users information about different events and activities in the Niagara Falls or Buffalo region and provide Niagara University students with examples of things to do. Different attractions as well as current events taking place around the area would be listed. For example, things such as restaurants, movie theatres, museums, bars/clubs, dance halls, malls, parks or even other things such as hair salons could be listed. Each suggestion would be accompanied by the location and an explanation. Although the main purpose of this site is to provide possible entertainment outlets for students and their families, convenience is also a consideration. We would want to provide students with information about places all around town such as grocery stores, department stores, beauty salons, automobile shops, etc. Also the places suggested would fall into a restricted range surrounding the campus. Major events or attractions outside of Niagara Falls will be included but as for general needs they will fall under a twenty mile radius.

Similar Sites
Syacuse.com is a site that Syracuse natives live by. Most of it’s content is linked through The Post Standard, which is Syracuse’s local news paper. However Syrauce.com is a much more interactive way of reading the paper. There is a forum with several topics of running conversation to choose from. This feature was especially popular with high school sports. Parent’s coaches and athletes of opposing teams could talk about games and other districts.
The main difference between out site and Syracuse.com is that not only are we not linked through The Buffalo News, but any user will be able to update because our format is a wiki. Just like Syracuse.com we will be able to talk about the local football games and movie times but we can also have a place for activities that might not have made the papers due to a small venue.
A similar site to what our site will be like is the myspace.com group site the New Paltz World Order. The site is dedicated to making connections in New Paltz, NY. On their site there are two blogs, one is Things To Do For New Paltz Newbies and Where do you work. The two blogs enable user to find people who are interested in similar things. It is similar to our site because it gives users the ability to find fun and interesting things to do. It also allows people to find friends who are interested in the similar activities as they are. On this site anyone that is a member of the group can post information. Our site will be different because our site won’t include as much stuff as the NPWO site does. The NPWO site has a spot to buy New Paltz clothes and view pictures from New Paltz which our site will not include.


Primary and Secondary Audiences



Site Content and Categories
The base of this web site will be content based. The best way to break up the information on this site is to create categories. These categories should have their own web site so they could be broken up into subcategories and explained. There should be a few broad categories which would break up the information by region. These regions will start big such as United States and Canada, and get more specific with cities. The major cities we are concentrating on are Niagara Falls, N.Y. and Ontario, Lewiston/Youngstown, Niagara on the Lake, Grand Island. There will be a site in relation to the Buffalo region. However, due to its farther distance away from Niagara University only main events will be posted. There will be additional sections for general area maps and links to sites such as Mapquest.com and Google Maps as well.
Some examples of detailed categories are: Area Restaurants (which can be broken up with fast food, coffee, high scale and low scale, Lodging, Attractions, Driving Directions, Shopping (grocery & malls), Theatres, Museums, Bars/Clubs, Automotive stores and shops, Public Transportation, Parks, Current Events, Beauty Salons (for nails, hair and tanning), Historical Sites, Video Stores, Super Centers ( Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart), Gas Stations, Drug Stores.
Further development of these categories will be very detailed. Listed will be the name of the destination, its address, phone number, hours of operation, and website. It may be beneficial to have rating systems or even tags that show which ones are our personal favorites and a comment section as well. This would help viewers who are unfamiliar with some of these recourses with their options.

How People will Collaborate and Foster Community and Possible Problems
We will create this site as a class project. We start out by each taking responsibility for a certain part of the site and posting our portion on the course discussion community. This will allow all of the students to view each part and make suggestions or ideas as needed. After the sections are complete and the whole class has agreed on them, one person will edit the different portions to become one document.
This site will foster community within both our classroom and within Niagara University by allowing students to comment on the specific places or things that they have experienced themselves. By the students sharing their experiences and opinions they can see who has similar or opposing opinions and learn from each other, which is a major factor in building a community
With the collaborative and open-ended nature of wiki software, potential problems could arise in the process of developing our Collaborative Web Resource. One of the foremost difficulties could lie in our opinions on a certain subject that we are writing about. For example, someone may believe Restaurant X is exemplary, while another may think the exact opposite. How we decide to transfer these opinions into articles (if we do at all) is important to the value of the community. The best route to take in these matters is discussion and attempts at compromise, and if we are unable to do this in class, we should put the discussion on the wiki ala Wikipedia. Here we can engage in civil discussion to reach the overriding goal of improving the article.
Although unlikely at this point, another concern is that of potential vandals attacking the site. Since the site is established by us, I feel it would make sense to give us administrator rights, assuming this is a feature in PBwiki. This way, whether it's someone inserting obscenities into random articles or purposefully injecting false information, we can easily revert the damage and block the offender. If administration isn't an option, we can always just monitor the site with a watchful eye and track changes not made by one of our classmates.
Ultimately, the best way to safeguard against edit warring, vandalism, and changes that are inappropriate for what we are trying to accomplish is to set reasonable guidelines that will determine how our site functions. They don't need to be too in-depth; they'll just be there to lay out the basics. These guidelines should be readily available on the wiki for all users when they enter the site. This could be integrated with a welcome page so that new users are immediately acquainted with how the site is intended to run.

Timeline
The site will be complete and accessible during the last week of the semester. We have three weeks to complete the site. During the first week we will write the proposal, and decide how the site will be arranged. The next step is to split up tasks for all the members of the class. Generally, there will be a few categories given to each student and completed within the second week of the assignment. During the third week we will spend class time putting it together through Dreamweaver, and do some final editing. Also, we need to address how the site will be updated after the project is over.

i mean question # 5, not 3 sorry

1st and 2nd part of question #3

We will create this site as a class project. We start out by each taking responsibility for a certain part of the site and posting our portion on the course discussion community. This will allow all of the students to view each part and make suggestions or ideas as needed. After the sections are complete and the whole class has agreed on them, one person will edit the different portions to become one document.

This site will foster community within both our classroom and within Niagara University by allowing students to comment on the specific places or things that they have experienced themselves. By the students sharing their experiences and opinions they can see who has similar or oppositing opinions and learn from each other, which is a major factor in building a community.

A similar site to what our site will be like is the myspace.com group site the New Paltz World Order. The site is dedicated to making connections in New Paltz, NY. On their site there are two blogs, one is Things To Do For New Paltz Newbies and Where do you work. The two blogs enable user to find people who are interested in similar things. It is similar to our site because it gives users the ability to find fun and interesting things to do. It also allows people to find friends who are interested in the similar activities as they are. On this site anyone that is a member of the group can post information. Our site will be different because our site won’t include as much stuff as the NPWO site does. The NPWO site has a spot to buy New Paltz clothes and view pictures from New Paltz which our site will not include.

for part of question 2

Syacuse.com is a site that Syracuse natives live by. Most of it’s content is linked through The Post Standard, which is Syracuse’s local news paper. However Syrauce.com is a much more interactive way of reading the paper. There is a forum with several topics of running conversation to choose from. This feature was especially popular with high school sports. Parent’s coaches and athletes of opposing teams could talk about games and other districts.

The main difference between out site and Syracuse.com is that not only are we not linked through The Buffalo News, but any user will be able to update because our format is a wiki. Just like Syracuse.com we will be able to talk about the local football games and movie times but we can also have a place for activities that might not have made the papers due to a small venue.

Purpose of the Site:

The purpose of this site is to give users information about different events and activities in the Niagara Falls or Buffalo region and provide Niagara University students with examples of things to do. Different attractions as well as current events taking place around the area would be listed. For example, things such as restaurants, movie theatres, museums, bars/clubs, dance halls, malls, parks or even other things such as hair salons could be listed. Each suggestion would be accompanied by the location and an explanation. Although the main purpose of this site is to provide possible entertainment outlets for students and their families, convenience is also a consideration. We would want to provide students with information about places all around town such as grocery stores, department stores, beauty salons, automobile shops, etc. Also the places suggested would fall into a restricted range surrounding the campus. Major events or attractions outside of Niagara Falls will be included but as for general needs they will fall under a twenty mile radius.

Here's what I've come up with:

With the collaborative and open-ended nature of wiki software, potential problems could arise in the process of developing our Collaborative Web Resource. One of the foremost difficulties could lie in our opinions on a certain subject that we are writing about. For example, someone may believe Restaurant X is exemplary, while another may think the exact opposite. How we decide to transfer these opinions into articles (if we do at all) is important to the value of the community. The best route to take in these matters is discussion and attempts at compromise, and if we are unable to do this in class, we should put the discussion on the wiki ala Wikipedia. Here we can engage in civil discussion to reach the overriding goal of improving the article.

Although unlikely at this point, another concern is that of potential vandals attacking the site. Since the site is established by us, I feel it would make sense to give us administrator rights, assuming this is a feature in PBwiki. This way, whether it's someone inserting obscenities into random articles or purposefully injecting false information, we can easily revert the damage and block the offender. If administration isn't an option, we can always just monitor the site with a watchful eye and track changes not made by one of our classmates.

Ultimately, the best way to safeguard against edit warring, vandalism, and changes that are inappropriate for what we are trying to accomplish is to set reasonable guidelines that will determine how our site functions. They don't need to be too in-depth; they'll just be there to lay out the basics. These guidelines should be readily available on the wiki for all users when they enter the site. This could be integrated with a welcome page so that new users are immediately acquainted with how the site is intended to run.

The site will be complete and accessible during the last week of the semester. We have three weeks to complete the site. During the first week we will write the proposal, and decide how the site will be arranged. The next step is to split up tasks for all the members of the class. Generally, there will be a few categories given to each student and completed within the second week of the assignment. During the third week we will spend class time putting it together through Dreamweaver, and do some final editing. Also, we need to address how the site will be updated after the project is over.

I will do number 2. I think I will compare it to Syrauce.com. seeing as how that is the only site I know b/c it is the site I use when I'm at home.

Here is what I have so far, if anyone has any ideas on further expansion on this feel free to leave me a comment and I can edit! -Kristi


Proposal #4 - Site Content and Categories


The base of this web site will be content based. The easiest way to break up the information on this site is to create categories. These categories should have their own web site so they could be broken up into subcategories and explained. I think there should be a few broad categories which would break up the information by region. These regions could start big such as United States and Canada, and get more specific with cities. The major cities we are concentrating on are Niagara Falls, N.Y. and Ontario, Lewiston/Youngstown, Niagara on the Lake, Grand Island. There will be a site in relation to the Buffalo region. However, due to its farther distance away from Niagara University only main events will be posted. There will be additional sections for general area maps and links to sites such as Mapquest.com and Google Maps as well.
Some examples of detailed categories are: Area Restaurants (which can be broken up with fast food, coffee, high scale and low scale, Lodging, Attractions, Driving Directions, Shopping (grocery & malls), Theatres, Museums, Bars/Clubs, Automotive stores and shops, Public Transportation, Parks, Current Events, Beauty Salons (for nails, hair and tanning), Historical Sites, Video Stores, Super Centers ( Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart), Gas Stations, Drug Stores.
Further development of these categories should be very detailed. Listed should be the name of the destination, its address, phone number, hours of operation, and website. It may be beneficial to have a rating system for these events and a possible comment section. This would help viewers who are unfamiliar with some of these recourses with their options.

I'll give the timeline for the project, #6

I'll do the last third of number 5 (dealing with problems).

I'll do the first half of number 3 (primary audience)

Melissa: I will do number 1, the purpose

I'll be doing number 4. about the site content.

-Kristi

The three articles for this week have a few different themes ranging from the construction of actual WebPages ( "Calling All Designers : Learn to Write!" ), to the ideas you should think about concerning a homepage ( "Home Page Goals" ), and finally a broader spectrum of online communities ( "Anominity and Online Community: Identity Matters" ). These articles were written with a casual tone that made them pretty fun to read and easy to learn something by reading them. These three articles really tied into a lot of things we have previously discussed.


"Calling All Designers: Learn to Write!"

This was an interesting article dealing with the process of designing a webpage. The article made clear definitions between the graphics and art of designing a page and it's text. The author feels that the words used on a webpage are essential to the way a page is perceived. "It takes more than pixels to communicate" can pretty much sum up the topic of the article. I really liked this page because thinking about wording is extremely important, and as designing a page that may not always be something instinctively one thinks about, but it really should be. The page gave fun examples of changes in wording that some sites use that I found interesting. Could the process of coordinating text and design create job related issues resulting in workers being territorial? Can you think of any sites that the text and design doesn’t flow together? What sites do this really well? What are some bad things that could happen as a result of a clash in text and design?

"Home Page Goals"

The author of this article puts a major emphasis on creating a homepage. I really liked the idea to create the home page last so that it parallels all the information pages precisely. “The home page is your first impression. And like the old saying goes, you only get one chance. So home pages themselves have a unique set of design goals” sums up the thesis of this article. The article sets up a series of 4 goals for a homepage to follow for success: 1.) Make sure your home page tells what the site and company or product it represents is about.
2.) Don’t get in the way of repeat visitors. This is where the technique of having a more dynamic home page comes into play. There should be a spot for a “sign in” area for previous users and “members” so that they don’t have to read and navigate through instructions that they are already familiar with.
3.) Always show what’s new. The article suggests blogs for their “what’s new displays first” set up.
4.) Provide constant and reliable navigation. If links appear in one place on the home page, that’s how they should appear on all pages after.
I really liked this article because it gave so many examples through out it’s explanations. The article also pointed out a lot of things that would have made the web sites we had just created as a class come out perfectly and are things we need to remember constantly while designing. What are the reprocussions of a poorly designed home page? Are there any other main points that are important when designing a home page?

"Anominity and Online Community: Identity Matters"

A main component of online use is anominity. This factor is slowly being decreased due to the many issues it has cause on some major websites. This article uses the example of Wikipedia to show the importance of having “members” and “usernames” to help a website prevent problems. We all should be familiar with the issues of Wikipedia and having the open option for anyone to submit information to their site and it’s abuse by current politicians. With this in mind why how did it take this long for sites to have issues with anominity? Why are sites like Wikipedia so popular yet they cause many problems and are the topic of controversy? I do like the suggestion of Pseudonymity through a “username.” The article stresses the fact that people build reputations on their usernames. Registrations are also a good idea for a web site to get familiar with the people that are visiting their sites. I did like the point of this article has that there should be a clear and constant communication between site managers its visitors. I also think the article had a strong point when it said they should have incentives for members so they are honest and rewarded for it. Some questions that were brought to mind with this article are:
Why do so many web sites have guidelines for what information can and can’t be put on their site, but no or poor consequences? (For example, Wikipedia has open additions but when a problem arises they have to quarantine the whole section, now allowing rightful users to add information.) Why did it take so long for many sites to get memberships especially when they know many people are dishonest on the internet?

The notion that ideas can be protected or copyrighted has gone into disarray since the everyday use of the internet.  It is a war between producers, pirates, and consumers.  The article “Wired, The Free and the Unfree” demonstrates how ownership of intellectual property has become a very messy business.  The author promotes the idea that our society is what it is because the proprietors of these concepts had the ability to benefit from, and exploit its success. 

The author asks some great open-ended questions that I would like to bring into our discussion, discussing in more detail pirating music. 

-When does market protection become a monopoly?
-Who's to say when a discovery's social benefit outweighs an individual's reward?
-When is sharing stealing?
 
(Do the producers of the music industry have a monopoly over music consumer media?)
(Who is the authoritative voice over who benefits more: the person capitalizing on the idea or property, or the person learning or listening from the intellectual property… Who benefits more, and merits its reward?)
(Regards to the music industry; peer to peer websites are a dime a dozen and the music industry can’t keep up on keeping them down… When do you think sharing is stealing?)
 
In the first link Wired gives a map, labeling parts of the world in this “digital war”.  Did you notice the United States was dark blue…?  Our society thrives on control of intellectual property; government officials highly advocate copyrights and patents.  Do you disagree or agree with this analysis? 
 
            The invention of peer to peer programs was a huge milestone in the development of the internet, Napster created a file sharing program (that many would mimic) that would infringe on copyright and patent laws throughout the entire world as shown in “Streaming Media”, although the U.S. advocates copyrights and patents, it has the highest rate of piracy through p2p programs in audio, images, video, and software. 
 
(*Because there is so much information in this article I decided to focus on the music industry, because I think that it is what “we” as students can mostly associate ourselves with… I mean C’mon.. Who doesn’t have Morpheus or something similar on their own computer; It is possible one of you may even be pirating music right now…)
 
I’ve included a link to the RIAA, The Recording Industry Association of America, heading the war on piracy.   http://www.riaa.com/default.asp
 
The author pokes fun at this concept of patents when he says the man who invented farming should’ve put a patent on it, and our culture would’ve never moved past Hunting and Gathering.  The article closes with how “open sourcing” has affected our society in so many ways. 


“The Digital Divide: It's Still There” poses some alarming statistics regarding the exposure of computers and the internet to different ethnic groups. 2 of every 3 white students use the internet, but less than half of blacks and hispanics use the internet. Anyone can see how this could promote huge barriers in the work race for minorities.

Also, it is noted that although there are advances for internet use during school; only 54% of white students use the internet at home, while appx 26% of black or hispanic kids do. This is more troublesome than you would initially think, because our education system is beginning to expect the use of the internet. In today's classroom you are certainly expected to have use of the internet. This is interesting because the inernet it becoming expected of students... Do you think it is in our near future for textbooks to be obsolete?


“Wallflower at the Web Party”

One major problem of Friendster was it was not very functioning. It could take up to 40 seconds to load the web site. Friendster wasn't prepared for the massive response it got, and regardless of the amount of money and talent- it became an example of disaster within the social networking sites. Friendster certainly had some huge power players in Silicon Valley, but through mostly functional error, Friendster lost its popularity. One finger is pointed at the fact that most of the men on the Friendster board were in their 50's, much older than their primary demographic... Do you think this made a huge difference, after reading this article, why do you think Friendster failed? Or do you think it failed at all? The Ceo of Friendster said that every company has a “MySpace”, or a similar competitor. After all, Friendster has 15 million users all over the world, under most umbrellas this would be considered successful.

Politics becoming more prevalent on Facebook as the elections get closer. Not only can you show your choice of candidates which links to their personal Facebook profile but also the issues that you are concerned with/ support; which are treated at groups. This is important to me because politics play such a big role and Facebook is one of the largest platforms for our generation and we are the ones who need to be more active in politics.

Here are some questions to think about:

• Do you think Facebook can relate to real-world political issues? If so, which issues?

• Will Facebook turn into a war zone among students with differing opinions, where each posts falsities?

• Why do you think this topic was put on Facebook to begin with and do you think its creators tried to put it on there to make more people in our generation aware of current politics?

• How can Facebook HELP or HURT political parties or elections? Do you think that some people will just go for a certain political view just because most of their friends have that chosen as their status on Facebook? Politics is not something to just follow the leader, it should be by your own beliefs and Facebook may be altering that by allowing these things to be right there in profiles.

I got these ideas from the class- I am very interested to see what you think.

In going along with some of the readings- How is web 2.0 influencing how we feel about Facebook. Face book is moving with the time and 2.0 and we don’t like a whole lot of the changes. What does that say about us?


My mother personally never told people who she voted for and said that it is a personal matter and you shouldn’t tell everyone. How do you feel? Is publicly proclaiming your voting preferences or campaign issues you are concerned with a bad idea? If so why?

I don’t expect you to answer all of these questions. Give me your opinion and if you feel like it relate it to the articles. I just want to have a really honest conversation about this. It is very import—elections are coming up soon!!!