While I feel that niche and specialized search engines that focus in a specific area, like yellow pages, are currently popular and do a good job of providing information confined within a certain area of interest, I think that they will die out over the next couple of years. I believe that major search engines will only refine and develop more specific search offshoots, such as Google scholar is to Google. Why would people use multiple sites in order to find the information they are looking for when they could just go to one source they are familiar with? I also think that Google will move away from having a homepage for their search engine (www.google.com, although I think they will still keep it around) and will rely on search boxes built right into the browser’s GUI, or the Google tool bar. Also, it seems logical that Google will use a side search option that allows users to search on the side of their browser within a separate panel, rather than in an entirely new web page. When you think about what is displayed on a major search engine’s dynamically generated page after you perform a search, it could easily be condensed into a side panel and would still be perfectly readable, and more convenient, especially in this panel was collapsible and expandable. It is in this manner that I believe Google and other major search engines of the net will move away from their existence as a web page, and more towards being built into browser GUIs. We can already see the beginnings of this with Firefox (www.mozilla.com) utilizing a search engine box built into the browser.

The next exciting step to watch for is how search engines will continue to transform and better integrate into portable multimedia devices. Using an internet search engine on most cellular phones at the present can be a little rough and tedious, but will technology becoming cheaper, as it always does,  cell phone processors, memory, boards, buses, displays, etc. are all improving to the point where we can use them as miniature PCs. Sure there are already, and have been for some time, cell phones that allow you to browse the internet, use mobile messanging services, and of course, make phone calls, but I have yet to use the cell phone that allows me to do all of these things while making the claim “this is as fast and easy as using my desktop”, and I do believe we will get there. Portable media devices may even outdo desktop PCs in terms of ease of use because they demand it, the are used on the go. As the book mentions, location based technologies are being integrated into cell phones that allow search engines to display results who’s relevance is dependant upon your geographic location. With GPS systems becoming ever more popular, this is essential, as we will see this feature become standard in phones over the next 10 years. Search engines will need to recognize that you are using a mobile device, detect your location, which currently they can do via IP address, but not down to a 30 foot radius, whih also raises some security questions. There needs to be a trust system built into portable media devices that determines which sites to lend GPS information to, or else any website out there, or more importantly, and individual using the net, could easily track your ever footstep. The search engines who excel in this area, providing speed, a user friendly interface, and the most relevant results, will dominate. This is one more reason why niche and context specific search engines will die out, is because users will not want to establish trusts all over the internet with their portable media devices, they will find it much easier to trust one site, and then use it’s many specific offshoots as mentioned above.

Introduction

1. What are the current tribulations and dilemmas in computer mediated dating?

2. What are the positives resulting from online dating?

3. What are the current issues and circumstances in face to face dating?

The Bias of Online Dating

1. One of the major problems in online dating has been predators and pedophiles preying on young adolescents and young adults.

2. Many Internet users lie about anything from their appearance, age, geographical location, income, anything in order to enhance an opportunity to date someone online, thereby deceiving the person they are trying to court.

3. With face to face dating, there is a more immediate connection with the person, where as the Internet almost acts as a filter between the dating participants.

4. By putting personal information and pictures online, protection of privacy and staying safe has become a real risk factor among the online dating scene.

5. What are the methods of online dating and how do they differ between adolescents and adults? How does exposure to different types of applications or websites (AOL chats, match.com, etc.) sway the way they choose to date?

Coverage does Matter

1. Accuracy is of utmost importance when covering sensitive issues, such as pedophilia in the world of online dating. It’s important in order to warn and not scare those who are interesting in the online dating scene.

2. By revealing a wealth of information about online dating, facts will be extracted in order to shed light upon associated stigma.

3. Information about online dating seems to be more accurate and relevant in published articles and blogs, rather than books, since the subject is relatively new.

4. A comparison between how much emphasis is put on the potential positive results of using an online dating service versus the emphasis on the potential negatives (in the form of warnings, etc.)

5. A comparison between how much emphasis is put on the potential positive results of being apart of face-to-face dating versus the emphasis on the potential negatives (in the form of warnings, etc.)

6. Ending relationships online versus face-to-face relationships.

Articles available about our subject of online dating

1. There is a significant amount of information available in shorter online scholarly sources.

2. Many published books have been found which can aid in putting this research paper together.

3. The longest articles are in the areas of managing impressions online and the reasons why people choose to online date.

4. Some of the most recent articles mention the popularity of online dating within dating websites.

5. Online dating coverage has become very popular since the emergence of popular sites such as match.com for example, and how people within our society have been successful with these types of sites.

Computer mediated online dating versus face-to-face dating

1. What are the major differences?

2. What are the dangers?

3. What are the advantages?

4. How does online dating work? Do users prefer chat rooms versus registered dating sites?

5. How does face-to-face dating work? Do people meet at work? Clubs? Bars? Libraries?

6. How fast does an online relationship progress as compared to a face-to-face relationship?

7. How do one-night encounters compare in online versus in real life?

8. At what point does online dating move to a first face-to-face encounter?

9. What is it like for teenagers to date online? What about teens dating face-to-face?

10. What is it like for adults to date online? What about adults dating face-to-face?

Risks and Responsibilities

1. Do the businesses that own these websites have just as much of a responsibility (or should they), to ensure the safety and privacy of their clients?

2. What common cautionary measures do online and internet dating share?

3. There might be an issue with the importance of information the articles have regarding our subject.

4. Examination of the attempts of online networks and dating sites to separate minors from adults, and their effectiveness.

5. Privacy policies and agreements of online networks and dating sites that users agree to when they sign up.

Conclusion

1. The full truth, the good and the bad, about online dating will be revealed in this white paper.

2. The vast differences between adults and teens dating online will be exposed.

3. The risks will be made prevalent about interacting online with strangers and possible pedophiliacs.

4. Face-to-face dating will be compared with online to show the similarities and differences, in hopes of raising the stigma of online dating.

5. Online works provide a good gauge of coverage, but we are not using these sources as prime sources.

6. Will our topic become more prevalent in published books in the future?

7. What is the outcome of online dating participants? Who (teenagers or adults) will be apart of this outcome?

8. What approaches will be taken if matters of online dating will become a problem in the future (e.g. pedophiles and privacy)?

The behavior described in this chapter, with respect to Shibuya teenagers, seems to parallel that of American youths’ behaviors. I can see many similarities between the two in that many American teens prefer to communicate via text message rather than land line phone calls or even cell phone calls. I can see why though, it is more private, wastes less time, it is generally cheaper, and you can text message pretty much anywhere in a discrete manner as to not attract attention, especially useful in school. I can also see swarming present in our culture. I’m not a teenager anymore but I still consider myself part of the cell phone generation. I text message in order to organize nightly plans, meet with friends or fellow students, or just send pointless comments to a good friend or significant other throughout the day. I might not send 80 text messages a day like the members of the thumb tribes of Shibuya, but I definitely exhibit the same behavior on a smaller scale.

In Czerwinski’s Digital memories in an era of ubiquitous computing and abundant storage (Czerwinski, M., Gage, D.W., Gemmell, J., Marshall, C., Pérez-Quiñonesis, M., Skeels, et al (2006). Digital memories in an era of ubiquitous computing and abundant storage. Communications of the ACM, 49(1), 45-50.) he discusses the idea of wearing a camera that would video tape our life daily and give us a digital record of our memories. This idea of having a digital record of our memories is flawed in that memories consist of emotion, perception, mood, and many other factors which are not captured in video. They may be evoked while watching the video, but it is not the same as simply remembering an occasion. The author also discusses the notion of having biometric devices attached to use that would process different data about our biological status, such a temperature. He gives the example of an older gentlemen being able to tell that a fever is coming via a device attached to him that reads his temperature. I found this particular example to be a little far fetched in terms of it’s practicality. If someone has a fever and is sick or getting sick, there are signs, not only visible to yourself but other’s around you. Unless the elderly person was living alone and was so detached from reality that they could never even recognize that they were not feeling well, I don’t see it being of much use (even in this example, if the senor told them they had a temperature, chances are they would not react accordingly). I really did not see the need for a record of our memories, which was the premise of this writing, since we usually currently record the ones we consider to be important, unless they occur spontaneously. What I would however find extremely useful would be to have cameras in cell phone, that actually took decent quality pictures and videos, are very easy to use, are quick, stream photos and video to a PC or server, and are small in size. You might be saying that these already exist, which is half true (i have one), put I have yet to see the camera that has all of these capabilities and provides a quick, smooth, easy experience for the user; I have yet to meet the person who is perfectly happy with their cell phone camera, they are always lacking in some way or another. If cell cameras are refined to this level in the next few years though, which I believe they will be, I believe that this will ultimately be the device we use for capturing “memories” on a daily basis. I just don’t think people (most people…) really care to record every moment of their life and are generally turned off by that idea at this point in time. Granteed, there are always exceptions and I’m sure some people would go nuts over having a head mounte camera to capture their ever waking moment. The author also mentions dangers inherant in this type of technology, in that people could essentially break into your memories and steal a record of them, your memories could be sepinad for court use, and we may record things that we do not wish to remember.

Gershenfeld, N. discusses (Gershenfeld, N. (2005). Fab (Selection). New York: Basic Books.) his research and development experience at MIT with respect to personal fabrication machines. These machines would basically create anything that has mass by arranging atoms in a specific configuration in order to reproduce from atomic blueprint whatever it was that you desired. The first thing I thought of while reading this article is recycling.When we recycle something, let’s say a plastic milk bottle, we take an old milk bottle that may be used, damaged, etc., break it down, and recreate a new bottle from the same material. In re fabrication, we are taking atoms and rearranging them to create something from scratch. One point the author fails to make (please correct me if he mentioned it) is that you would need to continuously supply of material which could be broken down in order to create these desired items. The law of conservation of mass states that you can not create or destroy matter (Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī (1201-1274)). Therefore, you are always recycling something else in order to create something new, which would essentially take care of waste materials. Another positive of using these types of machines would be that everything would be built with atomic precision, in that there would theoretically never be defective items produced by one of these machines since they would all be exact duplicates created from the same atomic blueprint (as discussed by the author). Computers and other precision part and devices woul be built perfectly, with their only possible area for flaw being in the original design. If this new type of neo-alchemy being described was actually utilized by the general public on a massive scale, when coupled with the internet, they would essentially destroy most of the goods and services industry, turning most everyone into a DIYS (Do It Your Selfer).

My computer broke…

I think that company blogs are a good idea, and should be utilize by all companies since they are low cost and allow for direct interaction between company and consumer. I think that it does indeed promote a positive image of the company that says that they care about their customers and want to know their thoughts and opinions. I would not put company blogs on as high a pedestal as the authors do though, in that I don’t believe it will be as essential as they claim over the coming years. Also, I think only certain types pf comapanies could really use blogs to their full potential. Blogs should be set up for companies who consumers are really interested in and care about, or at least exist within the realm of an area of great interest to a significant amount of consumers. Basically, if it’s an area customers do research in. Some examples would be tech comapies (as mentioned), fashion, sports, music, game, and movie related companies, basically any area consumers are already interested in. Otherwise, I do not see companies drawn a large amount of consumers into reading about a company that exists within an area they had no previous interest in, even if they like/purchase their products. I can’t see myself posting a comment on or reading Charman’s blog about their new type of toilet paper…although that new quilted stuff is fantastic. I just can’t see the consumer interest.

Blogs to riches (Thompson, C. (2006). Blogs to Riches. New York Magazine, February 20. 26-35.) ocused mainly on blog popularity, it’s difficulty to achieve, and it’s causes. Th article describes how there is only a very small portion of blogs out there that receive high amounts of traffic (from the article I would categorize high traffic as in the hundreds of thousands of views per day). Even if a blog is essentially just as good as a more popular blog on the same topics, or even if the lesser known blog is pretty much a clone of it’s parent blog, it will often still not draw nearly as many visitors, and this is largely due to how many other sites link to that blog. These higher traffic volume blogs are referred to as A-list websites by Thompson, with the lowlier ones being B and C list. The article stresses the importance of “inbound links”, which are links on other websites that direct users to your website. Basically every time an outbound link is placed on a site, readers are diverted to another website. One can easily see why having tens of thousands of inbound links is the biggest contributer to an A-list site’s success. Thompson does mention though that inbound links are not always the only means for achieving success in the world of blogging, and gives the example of fleshbot, which is an adult blog which many people would not want to openly admit they visit, or link to, yet it has become very successful.

Huizinga tries to determine what play is from a relational perspective, in that he compares it to things such as laughter and non-seriousnesses, saying that they are related but not synonymous. He also tries to characterize play by defining some traits which always apply to it such as that it is always voluntary, play exists within a definite time span, play begins and ends at distinct times, play exists within a certain defined space, and play has a defined set of rules. I disagree though in that I don’t think play exists within a definate time spawn, I think it can be in spontanious spurts, and that play exists within a distinct space; play can start in one place, and move into another physical space without breaking play. I see where he was coming from when he said that play has a set of rules, because I do believe that there is a general unspoken set of guidelines, limits, and social norms when playing, but not a strict ridged set of rules, unless it is an organized game.

The second half of the first chapter is dedicated to examining how play relates to rituals, with a specific focus on the rituals of “savages”. Huizinga describes how rituals are rooted in play essentially because they involve acts that that do not affect the “real world”, but instead the participants know that what they are experiencing is in a sense false. It seemed to me through the second half of this chapter that the author really want to apply this concept to major religions, and even hinted at it, bu kept shying away from it, maybe out of fear? He also quotes Plato to put a positive spin on things, basically stating that we are God’s play things, so we should act as such, and play, because only God is worth of true seriousness.

“God alone is worthy of supreme seriousness, but man is God’s play thing, and that is the best part of him. Therefore every man and woman should live accordingly”

Anfrew Hinton’s (ASIS&T Bulletin, August/September.) bulletin was much more directly related to video games in tht it discussed their evolution as multi user online environments. He describes a concept of how we essentially have 3 iving spaces, home, work, and a frequented place of non-seriousness, and how this third place is becoming MMO environments for many people. He writes about how Quake was really the first MMO game, and how it was so successful not because of the quality of the actual game itself, but because of the community that was able to develop around the game due to it being left open. When I say open I mean that users had the ability to create their own content for the game and even redesign certain parts of the game itself, then share that with the world (community).If I had to make a comparison I would say that Quake did for gaming what the web 2.0 did for the internet. It put massive amounts of control into the peoples’ hands.

World of Warcraft, another game mentioned int he bulletin achieved enourmous success for the exact opposite reasons. The game does not allow for any user alterations of generated content, but instead relies on the community within the game as the main source of appeal. The community did not develop because of how the game allowed for user contribution, but instead provided the means for users to get to know each other better through the capabilities of the game itself, such as voice chat. In WOW, Hinton says, “It turns out that a player’s level and in-game wealth end up being secondary to the personal character traits of the person behind the character in the social milieu of the game world.”

At the end of the bulletin Hinton also raises some interesting points about ubiquitous computing in that ubiquitous computing has become such an integral part of our lives, put we now have virtual worlds emerging, and the two are starting to overlap at certain points. e gives the example of someone in real life talking on their cell phone to someone’s avatar in second life. This makes me seriously wonder what the future holds in the way of communication and social interaction via technological mediums. Will our digital representations of ourselves become just as or close to as important as our real life ones?

I pose this question to anyone who reads up to this point, is it proper to say that you “live” in one of thee MMO environments. I don’t mean in terms of being alive, but, more so existing. Do you extend, temporarily tansfer, or not have existance in this MMO worlds?

With the advent of these MMO style games, many gamers are not going out to the store and picking up a CD or cartridge in order to play the game they are most interested in, they are not buying a product, they are simply downloading software then paying (often monthly) for an ongoing experience, keeping up the payments to keep the experience alive. Pine, B.J., & Gilmore, J.H discuss the concept of commodities, goods, services, and experiences in their book (1999). The Experience Economy. Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press. I feel as though their first chapter relates on online gaming in that games are, and have been, moving in the direction of creating an experience for a “guest”, that will leave them with something memorable, and an insentive to either continue paying for that experience, or to continue buying games of a particular series based soley on how it made them feel while they were playing, as opposed to how entertained they were. Games are one industry that is not in danger of becoming commoditized, prouctized, or any other “tized” that may have been mentioned, because they are already sitting right on top of the currently desirable by creating these experiences.

With many of the current online games, the companies who produce them have to put little effort into keeping their users entertained and making sure that they have a desirable experience because all of the users are providing that service for each other. The company just has to develop and maintain the virtual environment, and the whole experience production is handled by those paying for it, as opposed to the Disney land example the authors give, that is constantly challenged to innovate and utilize the newest hardware to push the limits and provide some cutting edge experience to it’s guests.

I am genuinely excited about the future of virtual worlds, mmo games, ubiquitous computing, and collaborative user generated virtual experiences in general, and seeing how all the lines that divide them slowly start to fade away until you have something completely new and unique unto itself.

Second Life

I created a second life account as well as a virtual self/avatar. I tried to make my avatar look as close to my real self as possible but that proved rather difficult. The facial features seemed very rigid and I could not get them to smooth out the way I wanted to. Also I could not achieve the texture I wanted for my hair, I know the program allows for custom textures, but, I could not really figure those out. I think I used a wood texture for everything just so it did not look plain. Upon creating my character I was dumped off on some tiny island filled with a few other new players. I eventually figured out how to bring up a world map and “teleport” to a new destintion. One feature I liked in Second life was the ability to fly, which saves time and effort when trying to get from here to there, when there might be difficult to reach, high up, or a far away place. After escaping the newbie island I headed over to what seemed like a club. The club had techno music blasting and people dancing, also, I noticed that the music was being streamed in from the internet once I heard a plug for the radio station.  I tried to talk to a few people but they ignored me and did not seem very interestedd in chatting with a stranger. Eventually I figured out how to dance (there are a few pre-set dance modes), bound the dance modes to keys like macros, and rotated them.

Overall though I found the game to be very laggy and the rendering of the enviroment to be of poor quality. Also, it was very easy to glitch the game and end up in a wall, underwater, or in some other form of black hole. I did not really understand the whole currency system, how to create or use things, and I found anything except basic movement to be a challenge and not at all intuitive.

The problem we will be addressing is the dangers of online dating.  We will focus on online predators specifically.  This topic has become more and more relevant in society today.  It has become a problem for any and everyone using the Internet today.  With sources like myspace.com and facebook.com, most people are displaying their personal information online for all to have access.  While young teens use the sites to keep in touch with friends, older predators may be using their information and preying on them, unknowingly.  Our goal is to cover the topic very specifically so this information may be directly passed onto this young age group and they can protect themselves accordingly.

The immediate audience for this presentation will be the Interactive Communication Introduction class, however our final paper will target an audience of mainly young pre-teens and teens.  Since this paper will be written at a college level, we suspect this would be read by educators of young teens, who would then use our white paper as a source to teach. 

We have had contact with danah boyd who gave the names of several people who she considered experts on the topic of online dating.  The two contacts danah gave me are Andrew Fiore and Nicole Ellison.  They were very helpful in providing their research papers as well as links used.  From these links and articles, we stumbled upon a few other authors we are now contacting.  They are Judith Donath, whom we’ve read this semester, Dan Ariely, a professor at MIT and Jeana Frost, also involved with the MIT online dating project. 

The articles we will rely on will be “Online Match-Making with Virtual Dates” written by Martha Lagace which talks about how Technology influences relationships, virtual dates and how couples communicate online, and the interfaces of dating websites and what should be improved. The next article is called “Risky Business: Why people Feel Safe in Sexually Explicit On-Line Communication” written by Diane F. Witmer which talks about fantasizing in Cyberspace and how embarrassing CMC can be and why people feel secure when doing such actions, how people communicate in the computer age by using this medium they can communicate with other people by any sorts of communication i.e. by e-mail or within social groups, Rights and Responsibilities: Thorny questions for system administrators and users which mentions about privacy and how people need to know their rights and responsibilities of keeping their passwords or usernames private and finally it mentions seeking solutions to how to know what privacy is and what is good privacy. The last article we will be using is called “The Emergence of Romantic Relationships online” written by Main Findings which talks about percentages and information about people who do online date and if they are heterosexual or just single and the article tells us the differences.

The top academic journal or industry publication that relates to the work we will be addressing is called “My date with a fraudster; Ex-colleagues. Sex Pests. Oh, and conmen. Welcome online dating” written by Catherine Murphy talks about the dating scene and how fraudsters are becoming more popular with on-line dating. This especially happens in Ireland.

A website that relates to they key ideas we will be focusing on is http://www.isafe.org/, which focuses on educating students, teachers, law enforcement, parents, and others on current internet safety strategies. The website makes use of various resources such as chat rooms, virtual training, and even contests in order to educate on principles of internet safety.

There are several key ideas that will play particularly important roles in this project. One of these is that of determining what type of personal information is safe for youths to publicly display on the internet. Another is how youths should safely interact with those who they meet on the internet and what precautions they should take when making new contacts. Finally, we will focus on what type of action parents and educators should take if they suspect of confirm that a youth’s safety may be at risk due to a contact they have established over the internet.

Our plan for assembling the annotated bibliography is simply to keep track of all the readings and sources.  We will do so by keeping a running text file which contains the names, titles, links, and any other pertinent information about the resources. This will make for a quick assembly with relative ease. 

Research Plan

The Week of October 29th: Individually we will research articles and be ready to collaborate the information we have found to put it in to our Annotated Bibliography on Saturday.

The Week of November 5th: Individually we will work on the outline by assigning each member of the group a section of the outline to work on by themselves and by Tuesday of that week we will meet as a group to discuss what we have done.

The Weeks of November 12th, 19th, 26th and December 3rd: We will meet as a team and work on our White Paper and presentation.  We will finalize and revise on these dates.

Thursday, October 18, 2007: We prepared a research plan for how as a group we will collaborate the material found so we can get a head start on our next assignment, the Annotated Bibliography. Each member of our group will be responsible for finding and sorting through research.  Finally, we worked on the proposal so it will be ready to blog tomorrow.

Saturday, November 3, 2007: We will meet today with our articles that we have found and produce our annotated bibliography. Our hope is to have all our research done and start compiling the articles to use in our White Paper format.