Wednesday, June 4, 2014
TWIF Flattener #4 - Uploading
Use one of the current events sources linked at http://svhs-hwc-fall2014.blogspot.com/2014/06/approved-sources-for-twif-current.html to find a recent news article that relates to, supports, or refutes Friedman's assertion that uploading was a "flattener." Your comment should include the title of the news article, a link to the article, and a summary of the article including an explanation of how the article relates to this point. Don't forget to check your rubric for evaluation criteria!
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“Wikipedia Blocks 'Disruptive' Page Edits from US Congress” by Joe Miller
ReplyDeleteBBC News: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28481876
In The World is Flat, Friedman talks about how Wikipedia allows anyone to upload information onto its pages in order to create an free online encyclopedia. He explains how, although anyone can edit these pages, other users can check the validity of this added information. He also says that anyone can add false information onto the website and can ruin the reputations of people like John Seigenthaler Sr., who found that a Wikipedia user accused him of assassinating the Kennedy brothers. This article supports Friedman’s argument that false information often plagues Wikipedia. This article states that Wikipedia banned the House of Representatives from editing any pages on the web site for ten days as a result of many inaccurate edits. These edits include calling Donald Rumsfeld an “‘alien lizard who eats Mexican babies.’” However, many politicians feel that punishing the entire House is not fair since only a few people are probably making these changes. This article relates to the book in showing how false information can spread on Wikipedia and demonstrates what the web site is doing to stop it.
Facebook removes Hezbollah sites
ReplyDeletehttp://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=4&sid=9777d804-e065-49b2-b53c-758efdf261e2%40sessionmgr4002&hid=4101&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=n5h&AN=B92W229213652
In chapter 2 of The World is Flat, Friedman talks about the development of community uploaded content, blogging, and podcasting. These advancements in technology significantly flatten the world just as Friedman proved throughout this section of chapter 2. In addition to useful content being posted on these blogging or community sites such as Facebook or Myspace, several terrorist groups popularized the act of posting frightening messages or intention of violence on these sites. According to the article above, Facebook removed Hezbollah sites from Facebook due to infractions in the company’s rules and regulations. Facebook does not allow content that “incites violence” to be posted on their site. Also, Hezbollah’s appearance on the State Department List of Foreign Terror Organizations combined with their breach in the company’s policy explained the permanent ban. One of the Facebook pages was the main site for Hezbollah's al-Manar television station which is now included in United States’ Terrorist Exclusion Act List of 2004. This article corresponds with Friedman’s argument that any community uploaded content site such as Wikipedia or Facebook is open to dangerous groups and twisted liars as well as gracious charities and people who are actually dedicated to supplying accurate information.
"'Sockpuppets' Lurking On Wikipedia"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=241145305
In the second chapter of The World is Flat, there is a section about how the ability to upload is a flattener of the world. One major way that people are uploading information is through the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. It is already stated in The World is Flat that since Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, that the information is not always reliable. This article explains an example of a way that information on Wikipedia can be unreliable but seem reliable. There are people on Wikipedia called "sockpuppets." These people put out false information onto Wikipedia articles, often to do some sort of promotion. However, these people attempt to make their information look more credible by creating fake accounts, and doing multiple edits on a page using their different accounts, as well as commenting to themselves complementing their own editing. Wikipedia does not know if these people act individually or as some sort of group, but they do want to stop the "sockpuppets" by banning them. This article reinforces Friedman's statement that false information exists with user uploaded information on websites such as Wikipedia.
“Open Source and the Challenge of Making Money” by Quentin Hardy
ReplyDeletehttp://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/23/open-source-and-the-challenge-of-making-money/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
This article talks about the fantastic idea of open source software, a great place of collaboration and freedom, and how it didn’t really work out. In recent years, “‘customers wanted products...They didn’t want to get involved in writing things themselves.’” Many open source software companies have accordingly focused on putting out proprietary software to make a profit and just do open source software on the side. These companies have come to realize that open source is not good for business but for production. Open source work gives multiple options and helps to eliminate mistakes, truly evolving software, but due to its free nature, it does not rake in nearly as much profit.
This does not match up entirely with what Friedman says in The World is Flat. He comes to the conclusion that both commercial software and community-developed software are here to stay. The case for commercial software is obvious—because of the financial incentive and because of their high-profile, standardized nature, they will definitely be around longer. The case for community-developed software is a little weaker, but nonetheless, Friedman argues that, due to the collaborative, productive, and enticing nature of community-developed software, it will continue to grow alongside its commercial counterpart (109-12). However, since the year that the book was published, the attraction and novelty of uploading and open source software may have worn off. Additionally, it isn’t making enough money to warrant the continuation of a company that is exclusively open source. On this argument, I think that Friedman was a little bit off base and that open source software will continue to diminish in the coming years.
Source Information:
ReplyDelete“Autodesk Unveils Open-Source 3-D Printing System”
From the New York Times
Link: http://nyti.ms/1jgW0qE
Open-source code is computer software code that is made available to the community so they can edit and add to it. This article by Quentin Hardy discusses Autodesk’s initiatives to release free open-source software for 3-D printers. The company will additionally sell a 3-D printer made with the software, but make the printer’s hardware design available for others to replicate. Hardy explains that this open-source opportunity will lead to 3-D printers that are more universally standardized, cheaply available, and widely used. This will make 3-D printing, which is currently used only by hobbyists and large companies, more available to smaller companies and even individuals.
This article relates to Friedman’s discussion of uploading in Chapter 2. In this section, Friedman reveals that open-source software bestows more power to the community instead of confining that power to large software businesses. In particular, he discusses the two types of open-source philosophies: free and “intellectual commons” (commercial). These methods describe how a company distributes a product made from open-source code, determining whether they give it freely or sell it. Open-source code flattens companies’ potentials by giving anyone free, indiscriminative access to powerful community-developed software.
One point that both Friedman’s and Hardy’s writings cover is the difficulty of profiting from open-source code. This is because purely free open-source projects will often be held back by a lack of profits. For example, Hardy quotes the Autodesk chief executive: “‘As the head of a public company, I still have an obligation to sell paid-for software.’” Friedman agrees with this idea: “…if innovators are not going to be financially rewarded for their innovations, the incentive for path-breaking innovation will eventually dry up and so will the money for the really deep R & D that is required to drive progress in this increasingly complex field” (109).
The article expands on Friedman’s argument by presenting one real-life situation of open-source software, giving me a more complete picture of the open-source business strategy. When Hardy explains that open-source software renders 3-D printing more standardized, cheap, and widespread for small companies, he is essentially paralleling Friedman’s discussion of why open-sourcing is a flattener. Hardy’s article taught me that Friedman’s argument is applicable in modern business.
The newspaper article’s information leads me to conclude that although Autodesk is taking a commercial approach to open-sourcing because they developed their own printer to sell, it is allowing many components to be available to the community, such as the printer’s hardware design, and having the printer’s software be non-proprietary. This approach is basically a unique blend between free and commercial. In my mind, this combined philosophy is the best way to profit while still enjoying all the flattening community advantages of open-source.
In short, Hardy’s piece supports Friedman’s writing about uploading. It helped me formulate my opinion about a unique blend free versus commercial usage of open-source software.
ReplyDelete“New Tools: Blogs, Podcasts and Virtual Classrooms” By: Ethan Todras-Whitehill
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/03/technology/techspecial3/03ethan.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A14%22%7D
Flattener #4 in The World is Flat, is uploading. Friedman states that the three main types of uploading are community-developed software, Wikipedia, and blogging/podcasting. Blogging and podcasting are seen and heard everyday. In “New Tools: Blogs, Podcasts and Virtual Classrooms”, 3rd and 4th grade student created a podcast series that they posted on the Internet. The student had help from their teacher and used an iPod to record what they were saying. Also in the article, it mentioned how a teacher in San Francisco and a teacher in Winthrop created a blog that their classes could share. One of the blogging assignments had to do with the students from San Francisco describing how the neighborhoods were where they lived. The students from Winthrop then commented on the blog posts from the San Francisco students. Friedman’s fourth flattener makes a lot of sense because now people could comment on somebody else’s posts from far away.