How could mashups serve international governance? Would mashups serve to make government more effective?

Now before answering the question, let's first define the meaning of a "mash-up."
A mash-up is a web page or application that contains and combines multiple-external resources to form a new service. It is also a form of Web 2.0 application.

As we all know, the internet is a massive communication tool and can be very difficult to monitor all activities. This is why the internet is still under governance and not a government. The internet is large and the government itself cannot control and enforce everything. However, with the use of mash-up websites and applications monitoring it can help achieve better internet governance. Instead of monitoring multiple web sites which would require more effort and resources, mash-ups allows the government to simply monitor this single mash-up web site which contains multiple sources. Mash-ups in a way sort of make the internet seem smaller which would allow the government a more effective surveillance. This is truly more effective since it enables the government to better expand the surveillance and enforcement of the internet. These mash-ups tend to contain sources that have major activities which can help serve sources that require better attention for surveillance by the government. Also, mash-ups contain sources that are similar to a certain degree. If a government wanted to monitor certain types of sources, hitting a mash-up would lead to many other type of sources they seek to monitor. With mash-ups, it is like hitting two birds with one stone.



Here are some mash-up links

http://www.mibazaar.com/top100celebrities/
http://www.mibazaar.com/education/business_school.html

What does global civil society look like? Where are the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ forces located, and how do they achieve their ends?

A global civil society is a society managed by non-government Structures and it is the "people" or elites that make the decisions rather than an authority government. This society attempts to eliminate the gap between government and people.
These forces good or bad are located in many type of forms. One type of form are institutional frameworks which included legal frameworks, human rights provisions and non government organizations (NGO). The second type of form are pressure groups that usually initiate social movements. Last type of form are subjectivity which are cultures that attempt to create a social identity and personal expression.

Such forms such as NGOs tend to achieve their goals such as achieving social injustice through Information Communication Technology (ICT). ICT provides a large flow of information which NG0s use to their advantage. ICTs makes internal administration more effective and efficient, support project implementation, political mobilization and enhance external communications such as the media.
With ICTs communication between people and government improve and helps eliminate the gap between them and brings one step closer towards a Global civil society.

Although ICT is very powerful, sometimes it may not be powerful enough for a NGO to meet their goals. NG0s also communicate and interact with once another in order to support each other. The more support will make this NG0 more powerful and thus easier to achieve its goals. NG0s appear in multitudes to become stronger and more influential organizations. The greater interaction and cooperation with these organization will bring us closer to a global civil society.




http://www.mapbuilder.net/Map.Code.php?Action=Preview

Does internet democratise the consumer? Is privacy a concern?

Under the growing influence of the internet and technology, I find it difficult to state it does not democratize the consumer. Today, most countries are under the influence of democratic and capitalistic leadership especially in the United States which is the most powerful and influential country in the world of the century. With the help of the most powerful communication tool of the internet, these democratic countries will spread their democratic values to other consumers from other countries. The internet may not even need to democratize the consumer at all, since majority of consumers of the internet live in a democratic society and are already democratized. However, it is no doubt internet can easily spread information and globalize the democratic values across consumers. Naturally animals will seldom travel alone in the wilderness and prefer to follow the herd, how can we not say countries themselves will not do the same thing? Democracy is the growing powerful form of government and is clearly the "herd" of this wilderness with the United States on its side. In China and North Korea, they control the amount of media that gets presented to the public in order to preserve their government. I believe this is mainly because they fear that the internet may democratize China's internet consumers and cause a rebellion against the government since it is not a fully or at all a democratic government.

I believe privacy is a concern because if the internet can spread democratic values with ease than it can spread privacy invasion as well. With the constant activities occurring on the internet, some of these activities and information will attract attention. Many people these days include many valuable information such as credit cards and account numbers to perform online transactions. Quite often, people will attempt to obtain these private information by posing as a representative of the credit card company or bank. Also, there has been issue about government or organizations monitoring the internet and infringing the privacy rights of the consumers. Internet may have its benefits and but it has its misfortunes too.

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Here are some photos of my adventure in exploring Itune applications!





I accessed the application store easily since I have an Ipod and the application itself. They offer a range of application and put them in a list of free and payable sections. It doesn't really surprise me that the top applications downloaded mainly consist of games. :D

What are the main arguments in the two readings for this week? What version of historical change do you believe in and why?

From this week's reading, two views were presented one by Castell and one by Fraiberg.
For Castell's view, the article viewed this new digital age in a sociological perspective. The ideas presented were quite dynamic, unifying, scientific and statistical. Castell viewed in the process of globalization, politicians would unify and eventually set aside their difference to negotiate one another for an effective form of government. A very dynamic view Castell also brought up was the idea of the physical space was not simply eliminated. This physical space would instead be transformed into wires and fiber optics opposing the presumed view of cyber space transformation. As well Castell brought scientific ideas in molecular biology along with the human body. Statistics was acknowledged since empirical research is required in such form to contribute to today's information technology.

Fraiberg's view presented a more direct subject and concern over AIDS, sexuality risks and cyborgs. Common issues about AIDS were brought up such as unsafe sex which is risky and the lack of conservativeness in people's behavior and discretion. At one point, Fraiberg suggested a strategy to combat the spread of AIDS with the help and cooperation with government and politicians. He/she stated that politicians should form a policy in order to halt the spread of AIDS.

I strongly prefered Castell's view since it seemed more focus on the topic with the information age and technology. Fraiberg did state some worth issues and arguments but I feel Castell possess a more constructive and favorable view with the information age. I believe scientific development in Castell's article is more likely to occur than AIDS which is a very concerning issue and may take decades before that issue ever gets solved.


Translation: English to French
English: Canada will advance and face off Slovakia in the semi-finals.

French: Le Canada avance et se font face la Slovaquie dans la demi-finale aux Jeux Olympiques d'hiver.

www.dictionary.com

What are the main arguments in the two readings for this week? Which one do you prefer and why?

In the article presented by Charles Ess, it portrays its view towards an "electronic global village." Ess demonstrates inevitably that the global village will eventually occur in the long run. However, in its process there are bound to be conflicts of interest and restrictions. One of the most notable issues is culture and its values, many cultures fear the uprising of globalization through modern technological communication. Many cultures stress that the global village will position itself in a Western culture and other cultures will deteriorate and become part of the Western imperialism. Like many cultures, they tend to be ethnocentric and resist the Western imperialism through globalization in order to preserve their culture. This occurs in such ways like the internet governance of China. Ess attempts to view globalization in another way as oppose to an imperialistic view. It was demonstrated that some cultures preserve their own values and language with the help of globalization by utilizing its expanding modern technology.

For the second article presented by Bettig, the article views imperialism of western culture in a different method. Capitalism is the main value western culture persist in and attempts to globalize this value. Betting argues in a extreme capitalistic culture, the ones that truly benefit are corporations that make extreme profits. With growing powerful corporations around the world, eventually a monopoly will occur and the view of globalization will be viewed from this single corporation.
Betting stresses the power a single corporation can possess with such influence and governance. The article portrays the issues that can arise if corporations become to powerful and monitor all the communication and thus infringing the privacy rights of people around the world.

By looking at both articles, I would prefer the article that was written by Ess and the electronic globalization. I believe Ess's article seems more realistic and of concern compared to Bettig's article. Both demonstrated favorable arguments and concern to various topics but I believe Ess has a more logical reasoning. Western Imperialism is an issue occurring as we speak and cultural perseverance is an ongoing issue. A monopoly corporation and governance is a notable issue worth being a bit concern about but today most governments prevent monopolies from occurring with anti-trust laws to guarantees healthy competition. Internet governance are usually governed by organizations or federal governments and not corporations. Unlike corporations, they're not under the incentive of profit. To me, I see the real interest is in Ess's article of imperialism since it is talking about an ongoing issue rather than a possible issue that may or may not occur.

podcast link--> http://216.98.153.245/podcast-respawn/

What determines the structure of a folksonomy and why? The code, the content or the social process?

Before determining the structure of the Folksonomy, I should first define it. Folksonomy is a system of categorization that enables users to manage and create tags of their content.

Today, Folksonomy is wildly used as a form of collaborative tagging in social networks and in contents. Clearly, Folksonomy makes our lives easier for us by making things less time consuming and more efficient. This system of categorization allows us to find what we're looking much faster by allowing users to "tag" their content or social process. I see this as a form of Web 3.0 innovation since the introduction of "tagging" brings more meaning to the word in the way of semantics. I believe the social process determines the key structure in Folksonomy. The whole point of the internet was to create a new powerful form of communication which was in the end to communicate with other individuals directly. Content indirectly communicates with other people by sharing information. Our social needs are the key motivation that drove people to create such powerful forms of communication. The word "folk" means people or a form of it and indicates that Folksonomy's foundation structure can be derived from social process themselves. The term folk indicates information is being passed directly to another individual by the means of a social process. Clearly, social processes determines the key structure of Folksonomy since it was used to pass down information long before any powerful communication was developed.

In terms of globalization, Folksonomy helps us understand it better by realizing that it is occurring much faster due to the quicker access of information and findings whether it is for content or social needs. Folksonomy is another factor of globalization, we may not be in a global village but helps gets us closer through social networking which can help develop this village by gathering users to enter such village. Inevitably, all users will unify into a single networks and may one day achieve a global village within the network.

Are wikis an effective (be sure to define this term) means of communication? Why or why not? Why does it matter?

Wikis are articles or websites that can be created by anyone. However, these websites or articles can also be modified or edited by anyone as well whether it is the author or reader. The information provided in wikis are usually collaboration of multiple users rather than a single user.

To a limited degree, wikis can be an effective form of communication depending on the circumstance. Clearly, wikis are a powerful form of information sharing since anyone can provide the data with ease. When I mean anyone, I mean anyone around the world with internet can contribute their data which can be an effective method of communication. Since anyone can contribute data to wikis, it is not always guaranteed that the users provide valid data. Users of wiki site would usually know nothing about other users and fail distinguish whether the data or information given is reliable. Under the circumstance that a wiki site or article is very popular and contains many data contributions by multiple users, it can be a very effective form of communication since they tend to be more reliable and valid. However, if a certain wiki site is poorly visited and contributed by very few users the site or article can be a weak form of communication and lack reliable information. In this sort of circumstance, wikis are a weak form of communication and cannot be fully reliable. This matters deeply since wikis is starting to become a very commonly used site and users need to know that the information being exposed to is not completely valid. Being misinformed and misled by unreliable information can have negative effects as well. Wiki creators are aware of this and sometimes state certain information is fully valid by indicating a paragraph may need to be revised, need more citations or has been modified many times. Today, we should use wiki with care and distinguish between reliable and unreliable data.