1389 Blog: tech industry

Monday, May 7, 2007

It's Time To Change Congress

With today’s technology, Congressional offices could be established in the represented locale. The locale that voted in the politicians and expects them to represent it...Most of the trappings and procedures currently used in Congress are archaic. They are simply traditional and outdated. Major corporations daily use the Internet and video conferences to conduct their business. There is no real reason to continue Our current methods except to provide easy access to Congress by every lobbyist and special interest group.

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Saturday, April 28, 2007

I'm currently in the final stages of my Ph.D. program (Instructional Design for Online Learning), and the topic I've chosen for my dissertation is "The Learner Profile for an Online Social Networker." My particular area of interest for research is the role of Web 2.0 in online education and training.

When I explain this to friends and acquaintances, the question inevitably arises, "So, what, exactly, is Web 2.0, anyway?" Good question. The best person to answer this question is Tim O'Reilly, the person who coined the term. For his explanation, see What Is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software.

Web 2.0 affects our lives online in the form of blogs, online citizen journalism sites (social news), wiki's, folksonomies, social networking sites, collaborative bookmarking sites, podcasts, aggregators (e.g., RSS), semantic web, collaborative software, and other online scenarios in which users create and share content such as graphics, news, information, technology, creative writing, software, photos, and videos. The original World Wide Web gave us the opportunity to share information by posting what we had to say, and by reading what others had to say. Web 2.0 takes that concept to the next level, by giving us the opportunity to collectively influence what information is available and how the information is distributed to ourselves and others.

Because of Web 2.0 technology, there is a growing body of knowledge online that is taking on a life of its own, and it is very influential. If we are interested in the accuracy of the information that is being distributed online, we need to have a voice in this increasingly important global discussion. We need to understand and utilize Web 2.0 if we want this body of knowledge to at least partially reflect our values, attitudes, respect for history, and vision for the future.

JennSierra