Just as the printing press revolutionized the world, the computer is revolutionizing the world today. The Protestant Reformation was a result of the tools given to the world by the printing press. So, what kind of reformation can we expect to result from the new tools we have in the digital age...
Well, just like John Milton, there is a huge reformation taking place taking place in the digital realm with open software, open data, open source. No longer are consumers bound to consuming products that others produce and lack the features that we want. Now, consumers can become the creators because there are open source programs that allow code to viewed, modified, and redistributed. OpenOffice is a great example of open source. It is basically a free open source version of Microsoft Office.
What worries me about open source is viruses. John Milton believed that man could discern good from evil, and thus censorship was a bad thing because it prevented man from being exposed to the evil, preventing him from learning the difference. Today's "censorship" is closed source. However, closed source can protect us from those who would wish to sabotage code and implant viruses. My problem with this is that even though a book may contain bad content, I can stop reading it, little harm done. If I encounter problems on my computer, the cost of fixing that problem is much higher.
All of this makes me think about RSS feeds - my digital literacy lab that I taught my group. An RSS feed is a string of data that is published by a website. This data has metadata such as title, author, date, tags. Feeds are published regularly so you can keep yourself updated with the latest information that a website is producing. Because feeds come in XML code, you need a feed reader to interpret the code and display it in a user friendly format. Having already used google reader in this class, I thought I would try something new - iGoogle. It is essentially Google's version of a customizable homepage. In iGoogle you can add widgets to you home page or you can add a feed. So whenever you open up iGoogle, the latest information from your feeds will pop right up for you to see. RSS feeds have web addresses, so that is the way you can add them to your iGoogle. You can also just click on the RSS icon and most internet browsers have their own versions of feed readers. Here is the link to one of my favorite feeds : http://www.theonion.com/feeds/onn/
If you checked out that feed you would notice that it is to The Onion, a satirical news company that produces some pretty hilarious stuff. Which leads me to my last point. With the advent of RSS feeds and the slow death of the paper New York Times (see previous blog post) I've thought about the need for new news sources. If our classical news sources start dying out from lack of revenues, how are we, of the digital age going to find out what is going on in the world. I believe that eventually, a large majority of society with be both the reporter and the news reader. Image what the world would be like if the only way to get news was for those experiencing the news to share it online through a feed, twitter, or some other medium. That's why I mentioned a few posts ago that I thought that I ought to go in and talk to the people in charge of BYU's general education core classes. Everybody in college should take a class in journalism because we may all end up being the worlds journalist. If we at BYU can get a head start in publishing news in the new digital age, all the better for us. It will ensure that we have a voice, even a leading voice, in the headlines of the future.
If we don't becoming good journalists, the only news the world might get is news like this:
Well, just like John Milton, there is a huge reformation taking place taking place in the digital realm with open software, open data, open source. No longer are consumers bound to consuming products that others produce and lack the features that we want. Now, consumers can become the creators because there are open source programs that allow code to viewed, modified, and redistributed. OpenOffice is a great example of open source. It is basically a free open source version of Microsoft Office.
What worries me about open source is viruses. John Milton believed that man could discern good from evil, and thus censorship was a bad thing because it prevented man from being exposed to the evil, preventing him from learning the difference. Today's "censorship" is closed source. However, closed source can protect us from those who would wish to sabotage code and implant viruses. My problem with this is that even though a book may contain bad content, I can stop reading it, little harm done. If I encounter problems on my computer, the cost of fixing that problem is much higher.
If you checked out that feed you would notice that it is to The Onion, a satirical news company that produces some pretty hilarious stuff. Which leads me to my last point. With the advent of RSS feeds and the slow death of the paper New York Times (see previous blog post) I've thought about the need for new news sources. If our classical news sources start dying out from lack of revenues, how are we, of the digital age going to find out what is going on in the world. I believe that eventually, a large majority of society with be both the reporter and the news reader. Image what the world would be like if the only way to get news was for those experiencing the news to share it online through a feed, twitter, or some other medium. That's why I mentioned a few posts ago that I thought that I ought to go in and talk to the people in charge of BYU's general education core classes. Everybody in college should take a class in journalism because we may all end up being the worlds journalist. If we at BYU can get a head start in publishing news in the new digital age, all the better for us. It will ensure that we have a voice, even a leading voice, in the headlines of the future.
If we don't becoming good journalists, the only news the world might get is news like this:
Obama Releases 500,000 Men From U.S. Strategic Bachelor Reserve
2 comments:
Your comment that consumers can now become creators brings up the question, how do we manage or understand all the creation that is occurring? Like you said, with problems on a computer there is much more damage. With everyone creating whatever they want and being able to share it, how can we protect ourselves?
On a simple level that is why we have things like tags. Content can have metadata that will tell you what is inside. There are services on the internet that can allow you to filter out things you don't want to consume. See: http://www.feedrinse.com/
On a deeper level, like was mentioned in class. The creators of quality content will gain a reputation for there work. If we can successfully learn how to both find and become creators with good reputations we can greatly protect ourselves from being overwhelmed by worthless content and from remaining obscure in the massive digital realm.
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