COM546 - Introduction

Kathy E. Gill

6 January 2010

Our Brave New World

• We’ll set the stage for the quarter with EPIC2015

• We’ll define technology & communication

• We’ll talk about “what’s new” in new media

What is “technology”?

Technology Is …

1: technical language;

2a: applied science; 2b: a technical method of achieving a practical purpose;

3: a totality of the means employed to provide objects necessary for human sustenance and comfort

Technology, Simply Put

• Knowledge used to solve problems and extend human potential.

• Technology is about enabling change and amplifying its direction.

• Think of it as facilitating the journey not (necessarily) setting the destination.

Technologies Facilitate

• Dominance/influence of any technology is a function of many things (later!)

• The ones we care about have an impact on

communication

Communication

• A process in which participants

create and share information with one another in order to reach mutual understanding (Rogers, 1995).

Non-Mediated

Cave Painting Repro

Printing Press - Type

Mediated – Personal - PDA

1. Concept of Scarcity

• Gone!

• Bits can be easily shared; atoms cannot• Implications for intellectual property (content

owners now use digital rights management)• Implications for business models (Skype)

• Potentially devastating for an economic system built upon scarcity

2. Distance

• With global networks• Work becomes independent of geography• Consumption becomes independent of

geography• Social groups become independent of

geography• Anything else?

3. Time

• Time Shifting facilitates asynchronous communication• Podcasts• Tivo, ReplayTV• E-mail, voice mail (not IM)• Directly impacts the advertising model for TV,

radio

• For work• Distributed teams• 24x7 work flow

• Anything else?

Credits

• Presentation by Kathy E. Gill• CC share-and-share alike, non-commercial use• kegill@uw.edu, @kegill

• Flickr CC Images:• Pencil: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ozlady/3353025268/• Two men: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedrosimoes7/174516788/• Cave painting repro: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mharrsch/116025048/• Printing press type: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/172495285/• Telegraph pole: http://www.flickr.com/photos/spodzone/754711341/• UNIVAC: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marals/3821484254/• Girl with PDA: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drew/3127318/• 3 : http://www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00/88615334/

• “Reflection”: http://csem.flinders.edu.au/courses/Computing/DigitalMedia.jpg