Course Reflection

COM 300 was a fun course to take. Even though it was a lot of work, I really enjoyed it. I liked the idea of first learning about a new technology, and then trying to use it myself. I have never kept a blog before, and now I am thinking about continuing with what I have started in this course.

Another aspect of the course that contributed to my learning were the weekly reading reflections. Having to write a few paragraphs each week helped me form my opinions and be better prepared for our class discussions. It was also nice to be able to submit the weekly reflections in the form of a blog. This way, I was able to have a direct experience with this medium.

I regret not being able to go more in depth on certain topics such as, for example, creating a website, or how to become a more creative blog writer (both textually and graphically). I also would have liked to spend more time on critical evaluations of websites such as we did in the class exercise on Cantwell and McGavick.

The course overall presented a good variety of topics. I am not aware of not enjoying learning about any of them.

Discussion Leader Remarks

I had a very good experience with presenting my article to the class. I was pleased to see that my classmates showed interest in what I had to say about my topic. At the end of the presentation, we engaged in a discussion on VoIP technology. Going into the presentation, I believed that Skype was a well-known software, and that everyone would be at least familiar with VoIP. It was interesting for me to see how few people were aware of Skype, or VoIP in general. Another surprising aspect was that almost half of the students were skeptical about VoIP and that they did not think that they would adopt this technology in the near future.

Here is a reference to my article:

Holtz, S. (2006, January). Cutting the Cost of Calls with Skype. Strategic Communication Management, 10(1), 3. Retrieved May 13, 2006, from ProQuest database.

If you would like to see my PPT presentation, please go to http://students.washington.edu/janap/com300/ and click on “Skype Presentation.”

Reading Review Week #9

The VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology is impacting not only its users but also its competitors. The user impact is quite obvious. While five years ago, a 10-minute call from the U.S. to Australia would have cost around twenty dollars, with VoIP technology, one can make this call for free. As long as the two callers have broadband internet access, they can talk unlimitedly. One can talk about the same impact on small businesses and organizations. By cutting the cost of phone calls, a small business owner can reduce his/her monthly business-related expenses substantially.

This, of course, can be worrisome for the big telephone companies that charge money for long-distance and international calls. They are unable to compete with the service that the VoIP provides. The only factor that still plays to the advantage of analogous telephony is reliability. When using VoIP, one has to be prepared for occasional blackouts of the system. The analogous system, on the other hand, is very reliable. However, because the VoIP technology constantly improves, reliability might not be much of a factor in the future.

If the big telephone companies want to compete with VoIP, they will need to adopt some of the same strategies that VoIP is using. First, they will need to lower the cost of calls by incorporating the VoIP technology. Second, they will need to enlarge the spectrum of services. One of the VoIP software called Skype offers about eight additional services such as Chat, Video Calling, Voice Mail, and so forth. Unless the big telephone companies adopt to the market, they will sooner or later lose their market share.

QUESTIONS:

1. How can the old telephone companies maintain a good portion of the telephone market share?
2. Should the FCC regulate the VoIP technology in order to equal out the playing field for all telephone companies/software?
3. Because the telephone industry tends to be either partially or entirely owned by the state (Europe, South America, Asia), with the rise of VoIP, the state will begin to lose a great portion of its revenue. Assuming that more and more people will use VoIP instead of analogous phones, what will be the reaction of the state? What is the possible outcome for the taxpayers?

Reading Review Week #8

We often talk about the Internet as being a public place. We certainly want the same rules to apply to the Internet as those that apply to the public space. Public space should be open and welcome everyone to freely express one’s ideas. However, not everyone has access to this space. Even though majority of public libraries in the U.S provide Internet access, many people still live more than 30 miles from the closest library. The Internet access is even more scarce elsewhere in the world.

Based on this knowledge, one might easily question the idea of Internet as a public space. However, according to the study by Michael Best, some good news is on the way. He sees a great potential in the wireless fidelity applications. As he describes in the text, this technology offers a cheap and easy way to support broadband data as well as voice. He tells about a number of successful projects in India, Bhutan, and the Dominican Republic. This would mean a greater Internet coverage around the world. Once people around the world have an easy access to the Internet, then maybe the comparison between the Internet and the public space will be more valid.

QUESTIONS:

1. Should the U.S. and other western countries subsidize the technological development in the developing countries? Explain.
2. Is it possible for the all the radio and microwave bands to get saturated? If so, what happens then?
3. Is it healthy to live in such a densely signal-saturated environment?

In-Class Exercise: Cantwell vs. McGavick

My first impression of the two candidates and their websites is very different for each of them. Maria Cantwell’s website is very simple with a simple message. It is very easy to navigate and there is not too much information. However, the reader can find all the important information such as volunteering opportunities and contributions. Mike McGavick’s website contains a lot more information. However, it is also more difficult to navigate. It uses very strong colors and can almost be overwhelming at once. There are opportunities for interaction with candidates on both websites. But again, Cantwell’s website makes it easier to find this information.

If the websites were my only source of information about the candidates, I would vote for Maria Cantwell. I identify with the issues that she stands for and value her political experience. As for McGavick, I do not agree with his stance on issues, such as the Kyoto Protocol, drilling in ANWR, and other energy and environmental issues.

Extra Credit Week #7

Reading the article on website design made me think of how difficult it has to be to create a website for a wide audience. The challenge for the website designer is that he/she has to tailor the website to both the decided and undecided voters from all over the country.

It also brings up the issue of politics as business. Winning a presidential race is not about the values and beliefs of the candidate, but about the way he and his team can present these values and beliefs. In other words, how well they can package them. The creation of a campaign website allows for such packaging to take place.

Reading Review Week #7

The Internet technology has had a huge impact on politics, and the impact will be even more profound in the future. The Howard Dean’s campaign is a great example of how the Internet allows for grass roots organizing of political campaigns. The fact that Joe Trippi was able to get tens of thousands of people to support the Dean’s campaign shows the power and the great potential of the Internet.

In the future, any successful campaign will need to use the Internet as a means to raise support and money. Now that politicians have had a chance to learn from the Dean’s campaign, it would play against them if they did not implement some of Dean’s strategies into their own campaigns.

In the study on “The Role of the Internet in National and Local News Media Use,” the authors predict that the Internet news will over time become a leading news source rather than just a supplement for traditional newspapers and magazines. There are many reasons for why people prefer the Internet news to the traditional newspapers such as price, or convenience. However, what makes the Internet news different from traditional newspapers is that it offers an up-to-date and in depth coverage of an event. The Internet news allows the reader to follow links related to the topic, and some Internet news sites offer even a short video coverage of the event. In summary, the Internet News is interactive and gives the reader a complete freedom to pick the news he/she wants to read. It is the lack of interactivity that will play against the traditional newspapers and magazines and will eventually force them out of the market.

QUESTIONS:

1. How can the traditional newspapers and magazines prevent their own demise?
2. If the Internet technology could “spare” the political candidates from traveling around the country by allowing them to talk to their supporters through a computer screen, would this online meeting effectively replace the face to face interaction? Explain.
3. What do you predict will be the Internet strategies used in the next presidential campaign?

In-Class Exercise Part #1

BBC News

The BBC News provides 20 different RSS feeds. There are feeds such as Politics, Business, Technology, and so forth. There is no subscription fee for the RSS feed, or the archives. BBC also has its own Blog Network that can be accessed from http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/.

OhMyNews.com

OhMyNews provides 13 RSS feeds. The RSS feeds are free of charge. There are no blogs on the OhMyNews website, however, a person can become a global citizen reporter and contribute stories to this website.

Both BBC News and OhMyNews are trying to incorporate modern technology such as the RSS feed or blogs into their websites. Even though OhMyNews does not have any blogs on its website, it allows every-day citizens to contribute to the creation of news. BBC has a stable team of reporters, but gives a lot of space to non-journalists to contribute to the website. They do so in the form of blogs, or by providing a comment section at the end of each article. In general, the new technologies seem to have a significant impact on old media. New technologies force old media to be more open and allow non-journalists to actively participate in the world of news.