Using Text Messages to Provide Food Aid

I found a very interesting article that was posted on October 28th on the UK Telegraph's online newspaper. The article was written by Richard Spencer, and it was about a very innovative way of delivering food aid to Iraqi refugees who are still living in Syria. This program is being initiated by the United Nation's World Food Programme.

The plan involves the use of cell phones and the oploading of the food aid vouchers by way of a text message, the vouchers could then be redeemed at any government owned food outlet that caters to the refugee population. The rational for this type delivery system is based on the fact that most of the people who would use the current aid program already have cell phones.

Spencer's article went on to explain how the changing profile of refugees is driving aid organizations to adapt their means and methods of delivering aid. By taking advantage of the resources provided by new technology and the expanded capabilities of the mobile phone and it's infrastructure, food aid can be less centralized and can actually get to the intended recipient and closer to where the recipient lives.

The future of newspaper, book and magazine

Apple recently announced a new devise that might lead to a new stage of newspapers, books and magazines publishing. When you look at the picture of the new devise, you would see the devise is a little bit bigger than the i touch. Nonetheless, it is thinner than a laptop computer that it seems to have the capability of internet connection. This new devise would allow people to read newspaper, books or magazines online at anytime anywhere. Indeed, it would provide convenience to consumer because they do not have to worry about taking tons of paper when they are going out. Nevertheless, it would solve the environmental problem of recycling paper. However, it would create a problem for the publisher in how to generate revenue from the reader if everyone is reading online. Would the new technology from Apple change the nature or reading? More particularly, would it change the nature of text book in education? What if this devise has the capability of watching video, would it change the nature of TV broadcasting?

Bellow is a article about the new devise of Apple posted by Jason d. O'Grady at ZD Net:

October 27th, 2009

Apple pitching media companies on tablet?

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 8:49 am

Categories: Rumor, Tablet

Tags: Media Company, Apple Inc., Fairfax Media, Tablets, Notebooks..., Advertising & Promotion, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Marketing, Jason D. O'Grady

10 TalkBacks

If you read between the lines in yesterday’s post, one could conclude that Apple is talking to the New York Times about it’s upcoming tablet product in an effort to get buy in from the media giant on what’s presumed to be a completely new form-factor for distributing editorial content.

A new piece in the Sydney Morning Herald indicates that Apple’s also shopping the device to other media companies, including some in Australia:

Apple has sent specifications of the device to Australian media companies in an effort to sound out whether they would be interested in delivering their content to the tablet.

Fairfax Media’s Robert Whitehead hinted that he was aware of an Apple tablet in August.

We’re continuously examining all options for extending the reach of our mastheads and we’ll be very interested to see what Apple comes up with.

While the new Apple device isn’t strictly an ebook-reader it appears that Cupertino is setting the stage for a completely new platform for deliverings, books, newspapers and magazines.

Should the Amazon’s and the Sony’s of the world be worried at the impending ebook threat from Apple?

Take an action for safer and better environment

I recently received an invitation via email, to sign a petition in order to clean Iraq. Radioactive contamination caused by the successions of war that has taken place in Iraq and the Arabian Gulf region, has left the country polluted with depleted uranium radioactive material to the detriment of the local population. Depleted Uranium (DU) weaponry has been used against Iraq since the Gulf War 1 in 1991. Estimated (DU) expenditure of 320 - 800 tons were mainly shot on the withdrawing Iraqi troops from Kuwait to the north of Basrah City.
The initiative launched by Dr. Kadhim Al Mukdadi and supported by activists and professionals in environment, hopes to bring attention to the dangers of radioactive contamination and how it is affecting the people of Iraq at the present date. Already there has been a significant rise in birth defects and cancer that may very well be related to the radioactive materials left behind.
The main goal of this environmental watch group, is to ensure that the Iraqis population of both present and future generations will be healthy. As promised since the fall of the former regime of Iraq, the United Nations and the US and Iraqi had agreed upon the reconstruction of Iraq which includes economic aid and assistance in issues concerning the environment and scientific advancement and health care.
The environmental watch group, cleaniraq.org invites anyone concerned about the safe and expedite removal of radioactive contamination from Iraq, to sign the petition with full name, occupation and country. They require everyones help in the reconstruction of Iraq.

What is "fair" game for our blogs?

In thinking about Professor Galligan’s question about potential copyright infringements in relation to our own blogs (and other fair use issues), I found a wealth of information on the Internet. The most informative cites that I perused were hosted by various law schools (for example, AU had a manual about “best practices” for the use of video content, and the Stanford site was also interesting to explore). In Googling the term, however, there was an important difference between simply typing in "fair use" and "fair use blogs." Similar to our discussions in class, legal precedent is seemingly playing a significant game of catch up in the arena of what governs "fair use" for online content.

The applicable US statute on fair appears here. Nevertheless, and not unlike most legal precedent, I found the legalese to be rather vague and subjective, leaving a lot of room for interpretation. Much of the information contained on the web, however, seems to be in our favor. Stated differently, this "grey area" in the law allows us, at least for creative purposes, to include in our blogs what otherwise would be considered copyrighted. There does seem to be 4 broad areas that we should do a "self-check" on before proceeding and posting:

1. What is the purpose of the material we are using?


2. What is the nature of the material?


3. What is the amount of material we are using?


4. What is the ultimate effect of the material?

These factors are summarized with more detail and background information here.

I do have a question for the group, however relative to how to proceed if we do decide to use a video or photo that is not our own. It would seem to me that we should still find a way to cite the unlicensed material or pay homage to the original creator, where possible. For instance, we could include a caption for an unlicensed image, or at least mention somewhere in the text of the blog what the external source is for a particular video clip.

Did anyone else find anything similar or different in their quest?

Jindo Sea Festival

Like Moses' Red Sea miracle depicted in the Bible, the sea at Jindo divides into two, revealing a pathway in the sea. This sea in south Korea, is the location of the Jindo Sea festival in which certain times of the year, the sea parts and the tide allows a massive sand bank to be uncovered .

At the banks reveal, millions of people have lined up to walk the seaway during the festivals held at at Jindo, South Jeolla Province. Every year, the water level in the sea located between Modo-ri of Euishinm-yeon and Heodong-ri of Gogun-myeon falls due to a neap tide, creating a long sea trail that is 40 meters wide. The festival begins in Jindo when the sea has parted and the pathway reaches its greatest width.

During the one-hour period when the route is completely exposed, visitors enjoy various Korean traditional dances and performances such as Ganggangsullae and Field Songs. Some opt to catch fresh seafood such as seaweed, clams and octopi as they walk along the trail.

The Jindo Sea Parting Festival became known overseas when former French Ambassador to Korea, Pierre Rendi, wrote of the ``Korean version of Moses' Miracle'' in a French newspaper after witnessing the festival. Since Rendi's reporting, millions of people have visited and participated.

On May 5th, 2009, a total of 5, 632 people volunteered to fill the 2.308-kilometer seaway in order to record ``the largest number of people standing''' in the ``longest seaway in the world.'' The results of this challenge has been submitted to the Guinness Book of World Records for approval.

Balloon Boy Breaks the Time Barrier

I thought that I had heard the last of the saga of the balloon boy on Tuesday evening in class, but I saw this item on youtube on Thursday. It seems that the story was so large and so pervasive in the media that it actually crossed the time barrier reaching back into history and effecting a major figure central to the course of WWII.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM5Bpz9HA5k&feature=player_embedded

I thought it was a very imaginative way to use this film clip, which portrays a scene between a certain infamous leader and his general staff. While the spoken language is German, the subtitling was done in such a way as to create a satirical view of the most current news media circus.

testpost

Picnik and My Pictures

I had some browser issues when trying to use Flickr, so instead I went straight to Flickr's affiliated editing site, Picnik. Though some of the tools are "premium" and require payment, there are a lot of free options as well. I particularly enjoyed the "Halloween" effects, the various frames available ("Polaroid" and "museum matte" are shown here), as well as some of the other special effects (i.e turning a photograph into a black and white "sketch").

New Media and the CIA

I found the article that appeared in WIRED yesterday very interesting and relevant to class members, as it was reported that the entire Intelligence Community (IC) is investing in a technology company that promises to help monitor social networking sites. The CIA has apparently recognized the importance of "staying current" with new media trends.

In the "post-op" of 9-11, intelligence officials recognized how much the 9-11 attackers relied on email, chat rooms and other "modern" tools to coordinate and communicate. When you take this lesson into account, it is almost surprising that the IC has not taken steps earlier (or at least ones that we know about)!

Up,Up, and Away.....Balloons, Cable TV News and Credibility!

What do balloons and cable network news have in common?
Until last Thursday nothing much. Since then, it is the credibility of the news that cable networks report to the believing audience of cable news. The old TV networks lost their credibility for reporting the news when Bill Clinton's libido pre-emptied the historic visit of John Paul II to Cuba. Fidel and Il Papa on the tarmac.......that was news! The soiled blue dress, the parsing of the verb and Fidel and the Pope had had their fifteen minutes. The news hounds beat a quick exit back to Washington to begin the coverage of the farce orchestraed by many of the same folks who are trying to get the goods on Barack Obama!

Young Falcon Henee and his wife swapping (only make-believe, I think) Dad, fooled the media and a good part of the cable news audience by staging the Phineas Fogg adventure in a beautiful balloon over Colorado. The local sheriff is not so sure New York Times story Sunday October 18. The coverage by the principal cable networks, CNN, Fox, and MSN, the chase helicopters, the touchdown, the Dad running to the balloon to embrace his little Falcon were exciting to begin with. About halfway through the drama reality bit! The balloon was moving too fast to have been occupied. Dad and our hero's brother contradicted themselves. And like Dorothy, Falcon was safe and sound in the root cellar. Aunt Emm and Toto breathed a sign of relief.

The sad part of this tale is the cable news and its credibility. Many get their information, if not their news, electronically. The print media is all but embalmed and buried. The news reporters, who methodically checked and cross checked sources and details have been replaced by the sensational talking heads who report the "news" in shifts on the cable networks. If its two PM, it must be Heather....if its six PM it must be Clyde. These folks are personalities and not reporters. Most of these people, probably did graduate from a journalism program or may have been political science majors in college. But they are not reporters. And the directors and producers are hungry for ratings and market share. News has become a by product of the market share of the potential audience.

Our dilemma, as news consumers, is do we believe the reports and what filter do we use to decide? The events in Iran this past Summer has perhaps given us a frame to ponder. The "man and woman in the street" may be our news source in the future. The flood of electronic communication devices, accessing many medias, may become our primary source of events. The news analysts of the past may be replaced by the blogger-at-large.

It will be a brave new world of information......the depth may be left to the receiver to determine. The breadth of information may startling. Sifting through it will be the fun!

JOS

News from YouTube?

Couple days ago, I found a video from Youtube about a fight in San Francisco,CA. I think it is what we talk about from the last class about new/old media and the way of reporting news. In the video, a Chinese woman was auguring with a African American Woman about a seat in a bus then they started to fight with each other. The video was expanded globally and people from oversea do discuss the video. The local news of San Francisco did report the video and claim why the bus driver did not stop the fight. The most interesting thing is when we take a look at the videos from youtube and the news. We eould finr that we would have different kind of thinking or feeling about the video. The video form the news would give us detail information about the video but not sure is it the real story. The video from youtube would have no informaiton about the story and we have to made the judgement by our own eyes.

What do you guys think?

What is real?

In the last class, we talked about how technology improved the editing in pictures. Because of the technological improvement in the past couple decades, we are able to edit a picture easily by using some computer software and it has better quality. Nevertheless, we can see some cameras in the market are able to do the editing right after you take the picture. It reminds me a experience of my friends taking pictures in a party. One of my friend has a cameras which has a feature of making the skin look better then the original. Then when I saw the picture she took of herself and other people, I feel surprise that my friend look totally different from the picture. Then I ask my friend what is the reason of making yourself look better in the picture? She said it is because she will be posting the pictures on the internet and people would not say she is not looking good in the picture. Then I started to think of the pictures people post online nowadays. I saw that people would edit their picture specially themselves before posting it online. Then I come up a question in my mind. Is it the real look of that person or the object? How can I know it is not edited?

For instance, when you go online and find a apartment to rent, you would see the pictures of the place look pretty and nice. You would feel interested to see the place and call for a appointment to visit. However, when you are at the place and find it is totally different from what you saw online, you would have a feeling of being cheated. Therefore, I would concern the technological improvement in editing pictures might create problems in truth vs optimism.

What Can't We Do with an iPhone?

When I was reading the blogs, I had a chance to remind myself how much technology I have been using every single day to accomplish basic tasks. Reading a newspaper, of course one from Turkey, is an online task. Then talking to my father who is back in Turkey is an online conversation. Ordering grocery, online, checking emails, checking blogs, looking at homework assignments, checking the weather... almost everything I do except for taking a morning shower and breakfast is online :)

Taking into consideration our brainstorming with Ravi a few weeks back in class, and looking at that blackboard photo, I thought of this question: What Can't I Do with my cell phone? Especially a smartphone which is now the market leader in cell phone sales. Please click the image I posted to the left. And ready to be amazed what would we do if we didn't have a cell phone today? Or even worse, can you imagine a future without an online device that you can carry with you all the time?

This is not a Corona ad!

A breathtaking sunset in a warm clime! Balmy breezes whispering their sighs while seabirds dart and glide over the gently swelling waters. The clear bottle with the amber liquid and the lime just barely into the neck. Ah, it must be a Corona ad!

The combination of the visual and the written text or "copy' has been the staple of advertising since the introduction of the process of compositing in the layout rooms of the print media. The art of the compositer and the creator of "copy" will soon be a forgotten skill. The demise of the print media and the continued march of imaging technology will be called progress. But will the joy of sitting with a good cup of coffee or a glass of wine or something more fortifying while a print media - newspaper, magazine or the like is examined with some degree of care be lost?

There is nothing as pleasurable as enjoying an hour or two on a Sunday AM with a good Sunday edition of a newspaper and a steaming cup of Joe. The nation's news is first, the regional news follows, and the local scuttlebutt is finished in time for the second cup of coffee. The features follow along. Sports with the fortunes of the locals at risk; business and the rising or crashing markets; the op-ed pages that bring about expletives or the "I knew that!".

The electronic media or internet connections will be where our world views will be formed. The television networks such as Fox, CNN and the like are but passing disractions on the road to being informed. And being informed may take a new meaning. Blogging and opinionating will be our future sources that will contribute to our formations of opinions.

Are we ready for this future?

JOS

Hello from oversea

I don’t remember when the media comes into my life until I realize that I can not live without them. It because of I live in Boston where the place that I have to stay far away from my hometown, so there have a few ways to contact the person who I love such as my family and my friends. MSN is the first chatting online which I usually use with my friends. However when the time goes by , MSN is not the only way I can use once I down lode Skype I also found that Skype become the important thing in my life because I can talk with my parents and my friends oversea in the same time of using video call. Although Skype became the part of my life, but cell phone is still in my heart . I can talk with my parents oversea anywhere as long as I can and also I do not have to go back to my apartment to open Skype or MSN in order to talk with someone who live in oversea such as I can call them and say “I love you” after school. Not only saying I love you, also I can contact them directly and tell them where am I.

However, we are living in the fast-moving society that full with technology, if we look carefully we will see ourselves in the digital world where the place that everyone talk to each other by typing. We are turning into the blinded-world where we never know about other feeling just because we are making the typing conversation

A New Way of Living with the New Media

Hi everybody,

I've been thinking about the new media and how it has changed my life over the last couple of years. Through the years we've all watched the new media progress yet we don't think about its effects on our daily routine.

First of all, I think the new media does more good than harm for me. For example I am typing this post from a coffee shop which would not be possible without my laptop. Also I can talk to my family and friends via skype anytime I want without paying money. I don't even want to imagine my life without skype or msn mesenger. These applications have changed my way of communication in so many ways. Unless it is urgent I use e mail to communicate my friends (overseas). I also get my news online. I read both Turkish and U.S newspapers online. Without the internet I would be detached from Turkey a long time ago (in terms of current events). Though the biggest change for me is the online shopping. I remember hearing it for the first time. At the beginning I wasn't feeling comfortable about giving my credit card information but now I almost prefer online shopping.

On the other hand, I spend so much time online doing not so important stuff such as, checking facebook or new you tube videos. It is kind of a daily habit that I do for a year now.

Here is a link from the daily show. Jon Stewart talks about the new media. I thought it is pretty funny. Hope you like it.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/videos/?term=the+new+media

Working With New Media

Generally I have found that most of the new forms of media, other than the computer itself and cell phones, have been been to some extent irrelevant to my everyday life. I do remain aware of the arrival of the introduction of new media into the market place, but until I have a personal reason to buy the new media I just let it pass. However, now I have found that it would be convenient for me to have a notebook computer.

I cannot take a desktop with me and the laptop is more than I want to carry around, but the notebook is perfect to travel with. With the notebook I now finally begun to use wi-fi. Though I do have a few concerns about the security of data in the wi-fi environment, I have found that I like using the notebook while traveling this week.

Civility

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to President Barack Obama this morning. http://NYTimes: Obama's Prize, Wilson's Legacy)You would have thought, if you read the blogs from the lunatic fringe that the Vikings had awarded the Prize and brought the wrath of Thor upon man (and woman) kind. "He has not accomplished anything"....."this is the final step in world-wide socialism".... the Nobel is just another "Dancing with the Stars" celebrity fest!
Well folks, for me, it brings back to America and us Americans a renewed sense of self-confidence. Obama has given the world another kind of America. We are not the bullying, arrogant, "with us or agin' us" fools. We are flawed and we have been self abosorb, but we are not unaware of this and we are trying to become our better half. Yes, the President of the United States is listened to when he speaks. And yes, the message will be tossed about for meaning.
Obama has brought a great gift to this country. He has restored the integrity of the United States of America. God help us if the looney birds because of their insane dislike or hatred of this man and his beliefs, manage to tarnish this. We, America, will be the butt of jokes and the laughing stock in the outside world. Let the grown-ups and the adults step-up and speak out!
JOS

Still Life again

Still life with water bottle and iPod

kdk_0031.jpeg
Originally uploaded by ravijain

Grist for Photoshop.

Communication Tools list

Transcribed from last class

Blogs
Twitter
Instant Messaging
Email
WWW (web) -- domains
VOIP -- Skype, Vonage
Ebay / E-commerce
Forums/Messageboards
Cell Phones
Text Messaging (SMS)
Talking (on phone)
Voicemail
MMS -- Multimedia Messaging Service
Online Game -- AVATAR
Photosharing -- Flickr
Social Networking -- Facebook (What is it?)
Videosharing
Multiply H15 blip.tv
Wikis
Geotagging / GPS

New Media: Building Walls or Breaking Barriers?

When I was in second grade, I "piloted" a very rudimentary version of America Online and swiftly became email pals with a Japanese student. Whenever the "you've got mail" icon popped up on my desktop, I felt so elated, as no other member of my class had the ability to communicate with a student halfway across the globe. Yet this revelation and sense of wonderment that I felt almost two decades earlier has seemed to go in and out of style as time has marched on. The advent of new media has both expanded and limited my ability to communicate; a dichotomy that has manifested itself in the ways in which I interface with my family, co-workers and friends.

Similar to Hayma's experience, earlier this year when my brother moved to Mozambique for six months, Skype allowed me to stay in touch with him in a cost-effective manner. This innovation, combined with the introduction of the iPhone, further enhanced my ability to communicate with him (as I was able to download Skype right onto my phone). This development was certainly favorable, particularly since it seemed to shorten the geographic distance that separated us.

Yet the reliance on instant messaging at my current job has actually decreased both telephonic and face-to-face communication, a trend that I believe is not necessarily "for the better." The reliance on this form of communication deprives us of a level of connectedness that is lost in a world of emoticons and abbreviations. In particular, it seems that the absence of the data supplied by one’s tone of voice, a key piece of information that gets lost in translation over instant message exchanges, creates confusion. For instance, when the "Can you swing by my office?" messages pops open on my screen from my boss, I can't help but wonder if I'm in trouble, or simply needed to consult on a project.

The advent of new media has also been a double-edged sword within my circle of friends. In one way, email and social networking sites have enabled me to stay connected to a large swath of college and high school friends who now live in a variety of far-flung cities, states, countries and continents. Nevertheless, it has also made the process of "catching up" more detached and less personal, as updated Facebook status messages or mass texts seem to be the preferred way of relaying news. Building on this, a new gauge of how close you are to a particular friend may be ascertained by paying attention to which mode of "new media" is used to share a new piece of information. For example, if you found out that someone was engaged via Facebook, versus a text message versus an email versus a phone call, each type of communication represents a very different level of intimacy—and in this case, the most old fashioned means of communication- the phone call -reigns supreme.

The recent Hollywood blockbuster, "He's Just Not That Into You," satirizes this technological evolution as seen in the following clip: He's Just Not That Into You: It's Not Just Texting

In short, while new media has ripped down geographic barriers, it has also built up new ones around us, something that we must evaluate before deciding which medium of communication is preferable for the desired message.

FTC on bloggers

The Federal Trade Commission issues new rules for bloggers on endorsements and advertisements (NYTimes piece on the matter).

Voice Communication

The Skype and Yahoo voice messenger makes it very easy to talk to others in real time. For instance, a person who has relatives and family overseas, not only benefits from the ease of use but also there are cost savings. The Skype and Yahoo voice messenger options are equally efficient methods compared to telephone use and some argue that these options are better. Both Skype and Yahoo additionally allows voice communication in conjunction with file sharing of document and pictures.Because both voice and digital operations are able to multitask, the users are able to both share files and speak without disturbing either process. Another positive benefit of both tools, is that a person could do school assignments and work from the same workstation. Because the integration of both phone and digital, there is no need to connect to an external source. Communication can be made easy with the use of instant messaging and phone communication at the one source location.

Class #3: The new Media

In the past 2 to 3 years, I feel that my life has changed compare the time when I was living in my hometown. When I was living in Hong Kong, TV, radio and newspaper were the most common tools for getting information about the world. Now, when I want to read a newspaper, I would go online and read the news about the world. On the other hand, I do not watch TV much anymore because I can watch the TV shows online whenever I want at anywhere. I also can download a movie from my computer at home that I do not need to go out and worry about the show time and traffic.

Nevertheless, the internet changed the way of communication between my friends, family and co-workers. Now I would use the MSN to talk to my friends oversea by typing or using video call. For making phone calls to my family in Hong Kong, I can use the internet to make a video call instead of making a phone call that might cut off suddenly. On the other hand, the technology of cell phone has improve much that it can take pictures, download mp3s or checking e-mails. In the old days, we would need other devices to do such things but now a cell phone can do it all plus making phone calls or text messaging.



I feel that the internet has provide much convenience to people's life in communication and entertainment. However, some people have a concern about the new problems from the new media. For example, the video Prometeus - The Media Revolution points out what does the society worry about the negative impact from the new media.