Author: hkg245

http://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~hkg245/week01/index.html

In making my about page I found the whole process to be much simpler than I expected, and it was fun to experiment with different tags. While there are some layout and style changes that would make the page look much more appealing, it was surprisingly easy to format content in a relatively nice way.  Images, especially, were fun to add and resize. One thing I tried doing in several ways but couldn’t figure out was how to make a paragraph of text appear next to an image rather than above, below, or in line with it. Overall it was a lot of fun to try out different combinations of tags and reordering lines of code even when the results weren’t what i intended. I’m looking forward to learning more and creating a more complex webpage 🙂

“Long Live the Web” starts almost like an advertisement for the web, but rather persuading us to use it (which we most certainly are) the article asks that we protect it and ensure that the accessibility and shared-ness of the information stay intact. At the same time, data security and privacy are major issues to be reconciled, and in some ways clash with the open sharing of information that makes the internet so valuable. Throughout the piece the article seems to idealize the sharing of data but doesn’t seem to give the risks and downsides enough attention. One the one hand, personalized websites such as facebook are “silos” that “fragment…[the] universal information space,” the article critiques. One the other hand, the articles says, if such a site were to get too large (though this would mean more sharing of information) this would limit innovation. Additionally the example of itunes as limiting access is problematic in the sense that–while it does detract from the free-ness of the web– it is also necessary in order for companies to make money and continuing making items available. While the article does an excellent job of pinpointing many of the current issues facing the web, and distinguishing the web from the internet, it is difficult to understand how the authors vision of the world wide web could be practically realized.

The article “The Strange Geopolitics of the International Cloud” highlights the logistical and geographical aspect of the web and the influence these have on international data and law. The widespread, fast, and constant exchange of data and the political significance and potential threat of private data being accessed is a very new issue in international relations. As the law suites in the article go to show, legal boundaries and definitions surrounding data on the internet are still being developed and disputed. Who has the right to use which data, when, and where, and how are major questions that have sprung up in the last decade especially and we can’t expect a simple answer. In a sense, data is a new form of power, and this power has not yet been properly put in check.

Machine and technology exist for the most part to improve lives and diminish the hardships or discomfort of completing tasks. In “The Machine Stops” Foerster invents a world in which people have delegated all tasks and reduced all interactions to the Machine. Vashti’s thoughts and dialogue demonstrate an ironic contrast between the uneventfulness of her life and the urgency with which they seek to come up with ideas. Meanwhile, anything that might inspire ideas is hurriedly dismissed. While we use machinery to reduce the effort of completing tasks and leave ourselves time to develop ideas, the development of ideas requires interaction with others in a way that the Machine destroyed. The value and importance of machinery and media is not just the interactiveness between the user and the media but the interaction it facilitates with other people. The story is a grim cautionary tale about human dependence on machinery and a statement that connection, communications, and free thought are put at risk by a life of pure comfort and ease. In relation to this class, the story emphasizes the importance of interpersonal interaction and communication through media, rather than mere interaction with media itself.