Week 13 - The Time Space Bubble

I can’t remember if it was in this blog or another, but I’ve said in the past that the phone in your pocket is only as good as everything else it lets you do. We don’t just want to make calls, we want a phone the takes pictures, plays music, acts as a GPS, can scan QR codes, process word documents, check emails, read the newspaper, tweet, update Facebook *deep breath* and text. Ultimately, this means everyone is living in their own little time-space bubble. A physical object is made digital by connecting us online. So for brief periods, whether it’s 30 seconds as we text, 10 minutes as we Facebook, or an hour as we play a game online, we’re living in a bubble defined by online time.

With physical objects now being connected, they cross onto to the realm of being able to communicate. Are we using a device to communicate, or is the device itself communicating?

But before looking specifically at inanimate objects going online, the relationship between people and “things” needs to be addressed. This has been analysed through the “Actor Network Theory”; a social theory, which analyses the relationship between both material and semiotic entities. Not only does Actor Network Theory analyse the objects that interact, it analyses the actual communication (i.e. the intangible) and it’s relationship with the tangible. This is a complex theory, much to in-depth to detail here, but is definitely worth looking at.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5pTKqKaElA

I wanted to embed that video, but Blogger and YouTube won't let me at the moment :(

Week 12 - UFC 92 App Anarchy

In the red corner, from Cupertino, California, weighing in at $65.23 million, the iOS Incinerator, Apple!

And in the blue corner, originally from Menlow Park, now residing in Mountain View, California, weighing in at $29.32 billion, the Open Source Obliterator, Google!

So let me start off by saying I don’t have a smartphone. I did, but not anymore. I had an iPhone for nearly 2 years, then it died and I was forced to use some ancient Nokia for about 3 months till my contract ran out. I decided to renew my contract, but go for high-end Android phone. A Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc. I hated it. I used it for 3 months and wanted to break the thing because of how sluggish an unreliable it was. Effectively I was without a functioning smartphone for nearly 6 months, which changed the way I use my phone. So now all I want is a phone that can message and make calls. Remember that’s what a phone is? As a result, I bought a Nokia X3-02 last week.

However, in the debate of Apple v. Google, iOS v. Android, I am on the side of……Apple. Why? Because of the level of control Ted was discussing in the lecture. Apple control the hardware, the system and the software on the system. The result is, in my opinion, a fully functioning system, with hardware and software synchronised to work perfectly with each other.

I believe the problem with Google’s idea of everything being open is that it leaves the door open to sub-standard development. In an ideal world, the open freedom of a system like Android attracts independent developers who are yet to be employed by a company. Kind of like a musician yet to be signed to a label. Unfortunately though, the app market (both Android and Apple) attract wanna-be developers. Apple’s setup filters out the garbage, whereas the Android system doesn’t.

An article on ZDnet.com identifies 3 key flaws in both the Apple and Android setups. Apple’s are software inflexibility, productivity limitations and fewer hardware choices. To me these were a stretch, Software inflexibility is it’s strength, the productivity limitations it discusses are inaccurate and it’s screen is the highest resolution one on the market. The android limitations it mentions however are much more accurate.

Ecosystem chaos – an open source OS, allowing hardware and software manufacturers to do anything they want with it, with minimal-to-no regulation.

Wildly inconsistent experiences – Identical versions of an Android OS running on two different manufacturers phones will do completely different things, resulting in the reliability of a particular version of Android having completely different public opinions.

Leadership vacuum – A lack of top down control from Google means there is no centralised framework or standard to build upon. Ultimately it gives hardware and software vendors free reign to manipulate Android however they please.

I could quite literally go on for 8 pages about the Apple v. Android debate. But I won’t. It’s a topic I know a fair bit about and have strong opinions on. 

Week 11 - #vivalarevalutione

“A network of peripheries – what was a permanent periphery can now become a new centre”. I loved that quote in the lecture. The idea that any node in a network can become a hub. A network of hubs. Or a network with no hub, and only decentralised control. This is essentially how SNS’s thrive. Of course any successful SNS has a centralised hub, but it is only necessary to support the network, not spread information.

This week we’re looking at the protests in Egypt and Tunisia. Back in January, Wael Ghonim reached out to Egyptian youths through Facebook, to encourage them to participate. For his efforts, he was thrown in jail to 12 days.

The ability to mass organize an event such as a protest in a Middle Eastern country, shows the true power of social networks ability to reach people. A few years back we had parents calling talkback radio shows and writing in to morning shows about how they’re worried their kids are going to post details of their party on Facebook, and an entire suburb will show up. Social networks have become so powerful now, it’s reached a point where Governments are worried about social revolution spreading on Facebook.

All through this semester we’ve been talking about social revolution in the digital world. And that is what this all is at the core of it, social revolution, which is nothing new. There’s just a new way of going about it.