COM257: Media History and Theory

This week's text by Farley covers the history of the mobile telephone. The concept of mobile phones originated before World War II, with New York City public service departments having the use of radio telephones. After World War II, landlines were expanding and some research into
mobile phone communication was expanding. The first mobile radio-telephone
service began in 1946. These were all car based radio telephones. Service began expanding in 1949 when the FCC allowed more frequencies, to the Bell System as well as other companies that wanted to sell mobile service. The first fully automatic service, without the need for
an operator, came in 1948, though the manual operation continued until the late
1960s.

Mobile phone development was slow in Europe compared to the
U.S., but development in Japan was picking up speed. The government sponsored
development, and equipment eventually became exported to other markets. There was not much development during the 1950s, but in the 1960s the Improved Mobile Telephone Service from Bell System was introduced, which operated mostly like a regular telephone. Other countries also began updating their mobile service
during this time. While there was high demand in the U.S., the FCC did not
allow for enough channels to really support much expansion of mobile phones
until the 1970s.

Frequencies were reused in small areas by the Bell System on public payphones to form the first real cellular phones, in metro areas and places like passenger trains. Competition was on the rise in the U.S. in the 1970s, namely between Motorola and AT&T. They began competing to see who could create a working cellular device, such as for dispatch services that Motorola already made
equipment for. Motorola created the first prototype phone in 1973, and this was
the first handheld cellular phone. Meanwhile, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph
was field testing their own products in Japan, and used quality methods that
forced other companies to examine their own quality control and policies.  Companies began leaning towards Japanese equipment in their products because of better quality, such as Hewlett-Packard’s use of Japanese chips as they found the worst Japanese chips had a failure rate six times less than American chips.

The Advanced Mobile Phone Service began in July 1978 and six
months later paying subscribers were able to lease the equipment for cars. The
first commercial cell service was offered in Chicago in 1983. One of the first
handheld mobile phones was the Motorola Dyna-Tac. North American mobile systems were analog while Europe worked to create a digital system that worked across all of Europe. European manufacturers began creating a new radio band, Groupe
Special Mobile (GSM), with the first commercial GSM networks appearing in 1991.
Qualcomm developed the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) cellular system in
North America. Pacific Telephone invested in Qualcomm, helping to fund the CDMA
network and support it. CDMA was approved in 1993 and allowed for two mode
functionality, where a mobile would default to analog signal when the primary
digital (CDMA) signal was not available. These networks began expanding and
spreading throughout the 1990s. Meanwhile, the uses for mobile devices was
expanding. The Nokia 9000 Communicator, introduced in 1996, had a full QWERTY keyboard and had messaging, calendar, and limited Internet capabilities. It was
the first PDA, though it came at a time when there was still limited data
networking available. Cellular phones essentially shrunk to as small as they
can be by the mid-1990s, and since then have been adding more capabilities like
the Nokia Communicator. The early Blackberry devices only did SMS messaging and e-mail. Satellite mobile phone service was unsuccessful with the Iridium project of 1998, lead by Motorola but going bankrupt after 16 months.

It is interesting to see that mobile phone technologies date
so far back, and just as interesting to see how quickly they evolved from
devices like the Motorola Dyna-Tac to the phones like we have today. I have to
wonder how cell phones would be today if the FCC had allowed for more frequencies
earlier than they did. There are several old commercials on YouTube for early
cell phones and similar, and many are of the “bag phone” variety. I’ve also
seen an old AT&T commercial with a video-capable pay phone, which seems
like an evolution of the first cellular phones as seen in metro areas and
trains as mentioned in Farley’s text. Although we no longer see the built-in car phone as it previously existed, it is possible now for cell phones to connect through the
car’s audio system for a speakerphone effect, allowing for hands-free
conversations. Some are even going so far as to be able to read text and e-mail
messages, and allow the driver to “talk-to-text” to send messages.

My father used to work for Ericsson, and although I was
young I did get to see the evolution of some mobile phones and the technologies
for a time. For example, as phones became slimmer and lighter, and
then as color screens were implemented in phones. I remember as camera phones
were becoming more popular, and a couple phone styles offered an attachable
plug-in camera. Shortly after this, one phone style debuted with built-in
camera phone and Bluetooth capability, and the evolution of cell phone Internet
capability. Now, more and more phones also feature music player functionality,
effectively replacing MP3 players, and we have touch screen phones that eliminate hard keys.  The cell phone has practically become a personal accessory and a means of expression for many, and this will only continue as more phone technologies are combined.

This introduction to Half-Real by Juul details video gaming culture.  Juul explains that the title means to play in a fictional setting under realistic rules, and this interaction is one of the most important aspects of modern video games. The player can choose between imagining the setting of the game, or imagining as a background for the application of the rules. The rules can either be observed as in a hard copy of an instruction manual, or they can be learned and the player’s skill improves.

The first game, says Juul, was Spacewar! in 1961, and the video game essentially became part of popular culture roughly a decade later, so this new cultural form has been popularized for over thirty years.  Video games are somewhere between a evolution of new media forms and a evolution of games that have been played for thousands of years. As such, video games enable users to play games in new ways, including old games as well as games previously not possible.  The rules of games are meant to be easy to understand, but not as easy to overcome, and the player must improve throughout play, making it a learning experience. Juul states that emergence and progression are the ways games provide structures for users.  Emergence is the series of rules that allow for different variations of gameplay, and is evidenced in action and strategy games. The newer progression is the basis for adventure games and separates challenges, and allows for storylines in games. The user’s observation of fiction in the game can differ and often the user can choose how they imagine it, although the fiction is more likely to be accepted in progression-based games.

Juul lists six concepts of a model that defines a game: the game is a rule-based formal system with outcomes that are variable and quantifiable, and these outcomes are assigned different values which the player tries to influence, feeling emotionally attached to the outcome. The results are optional and negotiable. Juul mentions the work others have done into games, such as Ferdinand de Saussure’s look into the game of chess, where in the rules the pieces hold different meaning and value depending on their placement on the board, and in relation to the other pieces around it.  Humans play chess in many different ways, and not always with a particularly strategized method of play.  While there has been much study into people playing games, says Juul, there has not been as much of the user’s actual experience.  The issue is whether to study the video game itself, or the experience of who it is played by.  However, it must be taken into consideration that different users will get different experiences from playing video games. Juul says that video games are based on both rules and fiction, while Roger Caillois stated (admittedly before video games were popularized, and therefore referring to games such as chess) that rules create fictions, and so games are ruled or fiction.  Juul states that it would seem that fiction is not vital to a video game, as rules are what ultimately makes a game and it is possible to have interesting nonfiction games and poor fiction games. Part of this can be based on the worth of a storyline in a video game, as storylines can improve the player experience.

Juul next questions why we play video games with rules if there is the potential for essentially unlimited options of gameplay, and answers this by saying that video games provide a context for the actions, giving some reason for what happens. Similarly, multiplayer video gameplay provides a context for social interaction. Ultimately, a video game’s worth is determined by its rules, rather than its fiction.

It is easy for many to relate to Juul’s text for, as stated, some form of video game is likely to appeal to one person or another. In recent years, we have seen some forms of games that use no fiction at all appear – namely, music-based games such as Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, etc.  These games fit Juul’s piece very well, as the gameplay is based on the rules, and users must gradually improve their skills on these games as they play with these rules.  Additionally, I can relate to the subject of observing and accepting fiction in games.  In some genres, the limits of fiction have been changing. For example, I’ve seen several differences in the way the gameplay is set up in many racing games. Graphics have improved to be almost lifelike, but there is still a difference between driving a real car and driving a virtual car.  The Gran Turismo series of racing games has for some time aimed to provide a realistic driving simulation (so much so that is the tagline for it) on track settings, although it received criticism for not featuring damage modeling. You start off with so much money, purchase a car, tune it up, race it for more money. Sometimes, the game gets to a point where the realism of it, the limits of the rules, are frustrating and the game becomes less enjoyable. At the same time, some racing games offer much less realistic driving, and the city-based games offer freedom of roaming the entire area. However, at these times the lack of rules and limitations can be equally frustrating as the track-based, such as when you have to drive across the area to a destination (as opposed to selecting from a menu) or if you get very far off the ideal path for the race (often guided by an arrow or some other markers).

Juul’s piece relates to what we’ve talked about with virtual spaces, and I think it is interesting to look into how an area rather becomes a virtual space depending on how into the game the users are. Having watched my friends play anything from fighting-based to adventure-based games (and often, fighting/action/adventure/etc. are blended into a game, blurring the lines between genres), the users can get equally involved in the game, seemingly regardless of how fictional it is. It’s often next to impossible to communicate with them as they’re playing, and the acceptance of how fictional the game is often more noticeable when a loss (lose a battle, life, etc.) occurs.  They tend to be more outraged (to put it best) when it happens in fighting/action games, which are more of the emergence style, than in the adventure, or progression style. This likely is because imaginative, engaging storylines in adventure games seem to be generally based in fiction.

This week's text by O'Reilly covers the World Wide Web following the burst of the "dot-com bubble" in 2001. Several terms and symbols that were characteristics of Web 1.0 take new forms in Web 2.0, as he calls them. This includes mp3.com and Britannica Online in 1.0 becoming Napster and Wikipedia in 2.0, respectively. Some of these he addresses in the first of seven Web 2.0 principles he discusses, which include The Web as platform, harnessing
collective intelligence, Data is the next Intel Inside, End of the
software release cycle, Lightweight programming models, Software above
the level of a single device, and Rich user experiences.  In "The Web as platform," Netscape, a Web browser and more of a commodity, was popularized as the platform for the Web in 1.0. Meanwhile, Google began as an application and a service for the Web. Google is a function that utilizes what Netscape helped popularize. The next, DoubleClick, is another application, dealing with advertising. Overture and AdSense are similar but are able to advertise on a much larger amount of sites than DoubleClick. The Web 2.0 applications demonstrate that the best advertising reaches to the entire web. Akamai also has a fairly central target like DoubleClick, while BitTorrent in the 2.0 promotes every client as a server, meaning the more who use it make the service better.

O'Reilly lists a number of services that still carry the Web. Hyperlinking remains its foundation, and even as Yahoo! continues to expand it continues its role as a gateway to the Internet for many. Google's PageRank used the Web's link structure and helped make Google the dominant search engine. eBay and Amazon, in their own ways, enable the users to have more control on the site, such as bidding on eBay and features like user reviews on Amazon. Newer sites have appeared in 2.0, such as Wikipedia, del.icio.us, and Flickr, that have more user-generated and modified content.

O'Reilly next covers blogging, which is essentially an online journal at its most basic. This is further enhanced by RSS that notifies a user when a page is updated. RSS allows for other ways of viewing a web page, and has been promoted for the use of other new information notification. The next topic is who ultimately "owns" the data existing on the Internet. This is important as new companies can come in and take market share, such as the example of MapQuest (which, says O'Reilly, could possibly have maintained a hold on the market had it been updated with new features before the competition could widely implement it).  O'Reilly also gives examples of things the sites do in order to keep up with the rest of the Web. Google updates their spam filtering, while responding to many search queries and generating ads for it. The Web users also are "co-developers" says O'Reilly, in that sites monitor user actions on the pages.

The Web has also expanded elsewhere, such as iTunes and TiVo, which aren't PC/Internet applications but do utilize the platform of the Web and in data management. There is still more potential for Web 2.0 and expansion, as applications such as Gmail have begun to do, and things like the address book may be redefined.

This article demonstrates how important the Web continues to be and how it is constantly changing for the user's needs, even going so far as to allow the users more control over the content. Possibly the most significant is blogging and RSS. Blogging has become such an important part of society that it's not unusual to now see news sites displayed in blog formats now. The concept and use of RSS is increasingly expanding as well, with even Facebook notifying you of wall posts, status updates, etc. whether you're on Facebook on on your computer, or if you're in your car. Recently I read an article that said that one car manufacturer will offer Twitter integration, with text-to-voice converstions of "tweets" (and voice-to-text for updating from the car).

Additionally, O'Reilly mentions the "tagging" feature of Flickr, which has come to also be found on anything from identification in photos on Photobucket and Facebook, to identifying (and essentially linking) people on Facebook, to even serving as topic search identification on message boards and in news blog posts. It would seem that there is a standardization of many sites across the Web, between tagging, commenting systems, and messaging features.

This week’s text by Abbate concerns the history of the Internet.  As the Internet developed into what we now know, becoming less a research tool and more a common product used by many, the Internet endured much in subjects including economics and politics. The features and benefits of the Internet helped it to overcome these things, however. During the 1980s, the Internet, as ARPANET, shifted from a military tool to being used for academic research. Lawrence Landweber of the University of Wisconsin helped to initiate a drive for more network accessibility, and the research for this was funded by the National Science Foundation and ARPA. A new network named CSNET was eventually proposed, and the University of Delaware’s Dave Farber suggested a more cost effective network that utilized telephone links. When implemented, this broadened the use of the Internet for research as well as links to other countries. In 1983, the Department of Defense created separate networks, MILNET for military use and ARPANET for civilian use, which now allowed the needs of each segment to be better addressed.

At the same time, ownership of personal computers was on the rise, as were local area networks. Ethernet was a simple and effective way to create a small local network, and these local area networks were quickly adopted. ARPA was not out to limit who could access the Internet or the cost for it. 

The “old” Internet required a different naming system, including a table that required frequent updating listing the other names and addresses of Internet hosts. To resolve this, it was decided that hosts would be accessed through smaller domains, and named “user@host.domain” (Abbate, 189). To find these, the user would send a query to the host’s domain. Six large domains were created: “edu (educational), gov (government), mil (military), com (commercial), org (other organizations), and net (network resources)” (Abbate, 190). 

By the late 1980s, ARPANET was nearly 20 years old, and its managers felt it was time to retire it. As these networks were developing, the National Science Foundation set about creating its own national foundation. It was decided that ARPANET and NSFNET would eventually be connected. For the next couple years, ARPA sites began transferring to NSFNET, and ARPANET was taken down in early 1990. This was a smooth transition, but it also was related to the end of military control of the Internet. It was civilian controlled but run by a government agency, and the decision was made to privatize it. The Commercial Internet Exchange was formed by the three new major Internet providers, which were PSINet, CERFNet, and Alternet. The CIX allowed any network user to reach all the users on other networks, and other providers eventually joined. U.S. Government ownership of the Internet ended in April 1995 and opened the Internet up to even more of the American public.

AT&T’s Unix-to-Unix Copy System in the late 1970s allowed for computer file sharing, and university students began using this as a form of e-mail. A similar system was the IBM Remote Job Entry protocol. Students at Duke University and the University of NC created a dial-up news sharing network which quickly spread to other universities.  As home computers became more common, so did message board postings, such as Tom Jenning’s Fido bulletin board that permitted information exchanges between Fido machines. More email systems began appearing in the mid 1980s. Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailleu helped to make the Internet from what it was to become the World Wide Web. Internet browsers appeared, which made it much easier to use the Web as they did not require the user to know a direct address and offered more flexibility than navigating through links.  

It is interesting to get a more detailed description of how the Internet got to where it is today. It seems at one point, the terms “the Web” and “Internet” were not quite as synonymous as they are now. The development of the Internet progressed fairly quickly in a relatively short amount of time, with most of the materials for widespread Internet use to already have existed (such as the early Xerox PARC Ethernet systems), but it just needed a little further push to become widespread. E-mail is another one of these that clearly had its start, such as with the AT&T UUCP. We see that early message boards like FidoNet required the Fido system; however, now there are hundreds of forums and boards on the Internet accessible from anything, be it different operating systems or different electronic devices (like cell phones with Internet). This text relates to the earlier reading “Technologies” by Kellerman and the amount of time it took before certain technologies were widely used by the general public, offering a detailed explanation of the Internet’s transition into widespread use.

This week's text by Aarseth begins by discussing nonlinearity, which he says is based in mathematics. There are several variates that Aarseth applies to nonlinear texts: topology, the difference between linear and nonlinear; dynamics, the difference between static and dynamic text; determinability, the stability of the transversal function; transiency, the relationship between time and transiency; maneuverability, the ease of access of the scriptons of a text; and user-functionality, the ability of the user to change what occurs in a game and its ending. Newer scripts, Aarseth says, are questioning the concepts of this model, and as such Aarseth proposes four categories of nonlinearity: the simple and the discontinuous nonlinear texts, and the determinate and the indeterminate "cybertext." In "The Readerless Text," Aarseth discusses the user's ability to navigate what they choose in nonlinear media. We cannot both read the whole and see all of a nonlinear text at the same time. Aarseth's next subject is hypertext, which at its simplest definition is a connection from one place in a text to another. Hypertext originated from Vannevar Bush, who sought to create a sort of "private mechanized library" for easier access to the growing amount of research. Hypertext uses discontinuity in its jumping from one area to another, and "pure hypertext is actually among the least topographical modes of nonlinearity" (Aarseth, 771). Hypertext systems counter this with mulitple views and indexes.

This text opens up a lot of discussion concerning the play of video games. Aarseth's coverage of the game Adventure reminds me of the text command-based games as we have discussed in class. While the text-based command is less and less prevalent now, the basic idea of adventure games such as this still continues, simply evolving into new forms. The element of nonlinearity still exists almost equally whether completely text-based or with modern games with images provided. The game Myst is great example of the nonlinearity of gameplay, where your actions in the game ultimately determine the outcome. In fact, I was also reminded of my presentation of the Ornament of Grammar when Aarseth discusses I Ching or Book of Changes, which has many symbols and shapes, and manipulating the coins and stalks creates one of the thousands of possible scriptons. This is a communication between the book and the user. Similarly, the Ornament of Grammar features line drawings in its pages, which are computer generated and through the manipulation of the parameters of the program that produce the drawings. It is up to the user/reader to make sense of what is on the pages.

The second section of Briggs and Burke's text details the age of television. With the hold that radio had in broadcasting by the 1930s, it was difficult for many to judge how television would fit in, considering the long development time it had and not helped by the economic situation of the times. Television's use continued to be limited until the major networks CBS and NBC began limited television broadcasts following United States entry in WWII in 1941. Rather than one of the networks, a newer broadcaster without a radio arm named DuMont Laboratories broadcasted regular television programs during the war. After the war, television remained a fairly limited player and did not have the driving forces behind it as radio did before. The focus of the FCC was towards radio broadcasting, and television development was set further back when the FCC stopped the setup of any new stations for four years following the end of WWII. Part of this was driven by the misconception that only a few buyers, namely those in higher income groups, would like the idea of the television, which was disproved by factors such as the greater than 20 million televisions in use by 1952 - more than a third of the population. The television's popularity was growing quickly.

As television's popularity increased, movie attendance was decreasing despite the "Age of Cinema" line. Some film companies pushed for pay television, or tried to purchase television networks such as Twentieth Century Fox and ABC. Broadway served as an influence for American live television, while magnetic videotape meant that television could be broadcast at any place and time. By the late 1950s, the film industry was on the rise as television was airing more films, both old and new. Other programs aired included game shows and soap operas.

Outside of the United States, the television broadcasting of other areas was moving in different directions. Britain's BBC got off to an uneasy start in television. By the early 1950s, more than half of Britain's television viewers were of low income, which agains showed that television viewing was more and more ranging. Queen Elizabeth's Coronation had a large viewing audience in Britain and even in America, through air transport of film. Eventually, the decision was made to allow for more competition of television broadcast. Advertising revenue was still controlled by the Independent Television Authority of 1954. It allowed for advertisements to be short in length and be placed between programs, as commercial breaks. In both Britain and the U.S., professionalism became an important factor in television broadcast, demonstrated by some such as Walter Cronkite's success in the U.S. Many other programs enjoyed success, such as Britain's Z Cars as well as Dr. Who.

By the mid-1960s television stations existed in more than ninety countries, and stations had affiliates in several other locations in the world. The American style of broadcasting, which aired the entertainment seen as most desired by viewers, was accepted in many areas outside of Europe. Latin American telenovelas proved popular in that area, while in Japan events such as a royal wedding and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics helped drive the popularity of television in Japan. Some areas, such as France and Italy, went through television structure reorganizations, the biggest one being in Italy in the 1970s concerning the need for public broadcasting led to a subsequent rise in private companies.

Briggs and Burke next discuss some of the past critics as television developed. Some found television to trivialize programming, while others claim it altered the news and issues. Broadcasting, says Briggs and Burke, was treated differently than print media, and cable television different than network television. The moral values of television broadcast frequently came under debate, and the role of family. Different areas treated them differently, as some even viewed children as consumers when it came to broadcasting. Different cultures held different values on how broadcasts should be. Even broadcast of religion was affected, as millions of viewers can tune into these religious broadcasts even in different countries, and reaches more people than otherwise could be [even held] in a church.  Events in society can affect media history, such as the Vietnam War as Briggs and Burke point out out, as this was the first time war images could be so readily shown to the public. Newspaper still held a strong influence on public opinion. Historical events are also media events, such as the multiple times that astronauts were shown on television. An ongoing debate has been how educational and entertainment material ends up broadcasted through television. Many federal companies try to ensure that there is an adequate amount of educational programming. Overall, the ages of broadcasting, television, and cinema overlapped and no one age replaced another, as is the case in society, where railroads and automobiles coexist, and letter still are sent by mail. The use of television resulted in the need to check the overall influence of other past new media forms.

This week's text on television is interesting in its detailed history, and it seems to say that the development of television's uses, even in different cultures, has a very deep history. It took a while for television to really take off, and it took much development and time before the television was closer to where it is at today, between the airing of movies, news reports, game shows, and other featured programming. The role of morals in programming will never be solved, but the degree that morals are used certainly changes. Briggs and Burke mention the moral implications of early game shows, which is still very much the case with reality shows today. This also includes the socially acceptable standards. They mention the program I Love Lucy, which in its time had to deal with Lucille Ball's pregnancy when that was a subject that was considered taboo for television. Eventually they decided they could state Lucy was "with child." In today's time, we have reality shows about families with more than half a dozen children. Briggs and Burke also discuss the separation of the networks of Britain and the U.S. Today, it is not unusual to have programs broadcast in both countries, including those outside the realm of public events.

This week's text is about broadcasting, and begins by covering some early broadcasting sources, such as NBC and CBS in the U.S. and BBC in Britain. Broadcasts often included important newscasters such as Ed Murrow, and the radio dramas of Orson Welles. The broadcast of news through radio became especially important during the times of World War II, where radio broadcast was often more useful than that of newspaper. During this time in Europe, radio could be controlled to keep the broadcasts of other countries out, and the same could be done with wired radio. President Franklin D. Roosevelt took advantage of radio in addressing the nation, which came to be known as "fireside chats," as these speeches seemed to put the President in the homes of the citizens as though he were speaking directly to them. While radio broadcast in Britain was government regulated, the networks still had control of U.S. radio. We then learn of some of the early BBC broadcasting, where Reith did not want broadcasting to simply give the people what they desired and that it should be for more than just entertainment. This created a sort of monopoly on radio broadcasting. Meanwhile, the U.S. set up the Federal Radio Commission in 1927 which concerned broadcasting issues. Another difference between the two areas was that Britain paid for radio through license fees while the U.S. based it off of advertising, and which programs were more successful on the air. Most other countries did not have a radio broadcast system that served as a model, but overall, they all had the same goal of offering new programs to a large audience. This would continue to be the case and develop over the time radio is used.

I found this week's look into the history of radio broadcasting interesting, as I am considering working in radio in the future. I think it's interesting to note the decline in the use of radio for news broadcast and the primary use it has of (music) entertainment, which is very different from Reith's desired broadcasting in Britain. Ultimately it is like the U.S. broadcast system has been, where the more successful programs will last on the radio (in this case, being music). While part of the original purpose of radio, including news broadcast and entertainment programs such as that of Orson Welles, has declined in its use in favor of showing this on television, radio will still continue to serve a purpose as other entertainment forms as well as the still-frequent news, traffic, and weather bulletins that are given. Radio allows for the use of multi-tasking, including doing work or driving a vehicle, which are not quite as possible with newspaper and television. Like the newspaper, radio's uses may change in time, but it likely never will really be replaced by other, newer forms of media.

This week's article by Carey discusses the telegraph. For all the significance the telegraph had in early industrial America, Carey says that there is very little coverage on its use. This is partly to be expected, he says, as the telegraph changed the way communication is spread but did not replace them. The telegraph opened up communication from the tethers of geography before the railroad did. Carey then moves on to describe how the telegraph and capitalism played a role in development, as well as a role with religion. The telegraph required many new developments for its use. Additionally, business relations were less personal and more dependent on a new structured form of impersonal communication. The telegraph helped to change how time and space affected communication and kept America able to be together with communication. No longer did "transportation" relate as much to "communication." Journalism was affected, as news pieces became simplified as news was more quickly spread. With more news readily available, newspieces had to be much more to-the-point. The telegraph also spread overseas expansion. The barriers of time were eliminated, bringing the future time as an uncertain zone in business.  Carey also discusses time zones, and up through the first half of the 19th century there were over twenty time zones in the United States, which caused much confusion when railroads spread across the country. By adopting a geometrically-based pattern of time zones closer to the end of the 19th century, this helped the railroads have a standardized time. The railroad was effectively the new time standard.

 Carey's piece is interesting in its perspective of the telegraph. Much like other technologies, the telegraph did not necessarily replace, but accompany other technologies. Even with the telegraph, there was still the railroad and the newspaper. Often these technologies will work together to advance. The telegraph and the railroad both modified the business and industrial world. The telegraph brought more information for newspapers, which had to then have more specific, clearer newspieces. This continues today as we find more technologies, including mobility technologies as we have discussed before. While perhaps not used as much, the railroad still has a place today, even with bicycles, automobiles, and airplanes. The telegraph has evolved, with telephones, cellular phones, and the Internet the more primary forms of communication. Much like the telegraph changed the way information and newspapers worked, the Internet did the same, opening up even more information, where the information shown has to be picked and the most important information is given.

Hobart and Schiffman's piece begins with the history of printing. As they describe, the use of printing opened up many areas, particularly Europe, to a vast amount of information. While there was not necessarily new information added, the spread of the exisiting information was significant as it was, and did much to change and "[transform] the intellectual landscape" (89). Many more people had access to books, and could use this in a number of ways such as religious movements. Hobart and Schiffman say that there was an overload of information that developed due to printing.  The need for printing was set up by the arrangement of information on a page, namely during the Middle Ages.

 Later, Aristotle helped to fix the separation between philosophy (matters of truth) and rhetoric (probability), and took note of both sides when dealing with questions. Readers would later take note of certain things they'd see and store the information in "places" in their mind, which would be ethical concepts known as "commonplaces" that they would use to create and understand moral character. Eventually, commonplace books existed, that "encompass all one needs to know" (100).

Fifty years after the printing press began use, over 8 million books had been published. Features common to books now came into place during the sixteenth century, including table of contents pages, pagination, and more. Printing presses made this easy to achieve, and it made it easier to read not only a book in itself but also a book in a collection of volumes as well.  Hobart and Schiffman also say that lists are a sign of an overload of information, and the sixteenth century was a major time for listmaking. For example, Rabelais' inventory of childhood games, as well as his lists of synonyms for several words.  The advent of printing also brought out skeptics of philosophy and rhetoric, who now had to support their claims one way or another. Many became greater skepticists.

Hobart and Schiffman's article is very detailed in its history of printing, and the methods that led up to it as well as the other results it had after. This serves as a reminder that most any new media and technology form derives from something else, and also has a number of consequences (be it good or bad). Much in the same way printing helped the spread of information, I think we can see things such as news websites and informational blogs doing something similar on the Internet nowadays, as an example. These sites move news to a user more quickly and effectively than any printed source from before, such as newspapers and magazines. The printed forms are becoming nearly obsolete at this rate. The letters sections of these publications even serve as modern glosses. The spread of such gloss is even greater now that many news sites/blogs have commenting systems and message boards/forums. It is clear that the forms that spread information will continue to evolve for some time.

Manovich begins by speaking of augmentation and monitoring. In this section, he states the Internet "cyberspace," considered harmless, has become incredibly prevelant in today's society.  Much of this has now infiltrated the physical space, where you can use the Internet in a number of locations through a PDA or cell phone.  Manovich states three applications that make a physical space into a dataspace: videocameras that record much of what we do in physical spaces; cellspace technologies that can deliver data to a user in a physical space; and computer and video displays that show information, which are evolving to new shapes and advancing in technological quality. They all extract or augment data.  Next, Manovich lists 12 research paradigms that all expand the dimensions of personal space as they ultimately put data into it. In his next section, he discusses augmentation and immersion, citing that how immersed a user is depends on the scale, or relative display size. Large video game screens take over the viewer's attention, while a PDA does not take over you and you are still aware of your physical space.  The next comparisons Manovich makes are that of architecture, and how it will be affected by the creation of dataspaces in the future.  Manovich uses Prada NYC as an example of the addition of technology to a store to create a type of space like what he talks about.

I found Manovich's inquiry into the future of architecture and spaces interesting. We see this on a smaller scale, now with more and more touch-screen telephones that combine the once-tactile keys to be on a screen that has already evolved to handle varying functions, including phoning, messaging, email, GPS, camera/photo editing, datebooks, etc.  Additionally, I can relate to the creation of a dataspace in a place of business such as Manovich's Prada example. While at a job I worked at beginning two summers ago, they added a large flat-screen television with a loop of images and music to advertise the products. This serves as an eye-catcher and helps to support what Manovich says about emulating the images presented in advertisement.

I have to contend one point, however, where he says that with smaller screens, devices like PDAs do not cut the user out of the physical world as much. Some people can be so involved in their cell texting or Blackberrys that they really seem to forget about what is going on around them; devices like MP3 players can allow the user to essentially mute the physical world, be it they actually cannot here or they are simply pretending to be.  Things like this contribute to the debate on allowing cell phone use while driving a car, which is another architecture that is becoming a dataspace like Manovich states, and also relates to last week's selection from Kellerman about technologies.  Some situations such as driving a car require the user's full attention to the physical world, and shouldn't be concerned with dataspace aspect. Though, as we move to voice activation and Bluetooth connectivity (along with in-car navigation systems and DVD entertainment systems), this gap is being bridged, which supports Manovich's statements about architecture, and incorporate some of Kellerman's different technologies.  This will still take some time, however, for a great deal of technology to make the vehicle into space. For many years now, there have been touch screens in concept cars, and even a few production cars. Many of these concepts flashed the ability to check e-mail and such in the vehicle, making the vehicle as much a workspace as is the area the vehicle is used to commute to. We have begun to see touch screens come back into favor with in-dash navigation systems, that may sometimes also include controls for the radio and/or heating/cooling. We've begun to see satellite television featured in car entertainment, and one manufacturer recently began offering wireless in-car Internet; however, the connection is so slow and tedious that it will still take some time before the architecture of the motor vehicle is a true dataspace.

Kellerman's "Technologies" covers the multiple forms of technologies involving mobility that we have in our society today. He begins with the spatial aspects of mobility, particularly those dealing with personal mobility. Among these technologies are transportation devices like the motor vehicle and communications devices such as telephones and the Internet. Under "Development," Kellerman details the standardization of these techonologies and compares how long it took for these technologies to be adopted by the majority of the country, while also theorizing why it took time for the adoption. While both the telephone and the mobile telephone began mass production relatively quickly, the regular telephone took more than half a century to be adopted by many. The automobile took longer to begin mass production, but was adopted about the same length of time the mobile phone was. A great amount of time passed before the Internet was mass "produced," but it was adopted much faster than any of the other major mobility technologies.  Next, we have "Structure," or more specifically, the structures the mobilities use to operate. For example, the road is basically universal to any car or transportation device, but it must be updated to accomodate changes in its users (particularly a growth in the amount of vehicles). Communications technologies are more flexible, not always requiring an actual physical infrastucture (but typically useful to do so). Airwaves can be used, and routers for Internet can be wireless. The logic of these technologies is dictated by the code of how it is used, such as the need for a driving license or the general freedom of the Internet. The contents of the mobilities deals with the technologies, which are not concerned with how the transmission or interaction occurs. It is not important who drives the car; who uses the Internet; who speaks on the phone.  Kellerman next describes "Operation" of the systems. Based on their structures, the operation of the mobilities involves the networks of the system, the things that flow through them, and then the use of this all.

Kellerman's next sections detail the characters of the mobility technologies, and he observes them through the aspects of Individuals, Society, and Space. He begins with the transportation forms of walking and cycling, followed by automobility. While on the decline, Kellerman details reasons behind walking in the present day, before comparing walking and driving. Driving is quicker and more powerful, but both walking and driving provide their own forms of flexibility and pleasure. Before moving into automobility, Kellerman examines the significance that cycling (both bicycles and light motorcycles) still has in some European areas.

There are many interpretations of the automobile that Kellerman lists, but he summarizes that it gives "a higher level of personal autonomy and individualistic mobility." The freedom of driving is also limited by costs to run the vehicle. Overall, automobility has helped to expand the spread of people. There are future transformations that the car will undergo in transportation, suggesting a "post-car system."  Telephones are the oldest form of virtual mobility, says Kellerman, though it developed differently than did automobiles. Both allow for speed, though each in their own context since telephony does not deal with time and space changes. Both are flexible and give the user freedom. Telephones do not have laws regulating their use, and do not require maintenance. While there is less land-use now in telephones, they did help to spread the population like automobiles did.  Next is "Internetness," and Kellerman says that the Internet is comparable to the telephone and automobile in its "mobility facilitation." It is not regulated like automobility and it provides co-location like telephony. The Internet has spread "personal virtual expression," says Kellerman, and it requires no real extra land-uses, instead utilizing existing devices such as phone lines. Finally, we have "Wirelessness," including cell phones and wireless communications. Mobile telephones have expanded the development of virtural communications, all with a convenient package. Wireless communication for laptops brought mobility to computerized information. Kellerman says mobile phones cancel out isolation qualities other mobilities have, and it, along with wireless communications, are mixing private and public.

Finally, Kellerman compares the use relationships between automobiles and telephones, Internet and automobiles, and wireless communications and mobility media, before concluding with a summary of what he attempted to demostrate in the chapter.

Kellerman raises several interesting points. The decline of walking is evident in many ways, such as the Segway transportation device, though walking is not a lost cause as the Segway did not quite become the evolution of walking as its creator hoped (or so it would seem). The importance of freedom and pleasure is especially relevant, I would have to say, especially at this age. Many of us can easily identify with the sense of freedom we got from our first cell phones and our driver's licenses. I can attest to the pleasure factor of driving as well, as one of the main things I miss about home is the freedom to drive my car when I want (though the points of maintenance that Kellerman brings up I can relate to as well). Within these mobilities, there are many smaller freedoms that also come. For example, a mobile phone is freeing in its own right, but the freedom of unlimited texting is an important, more recent freedom. Internetness has its own pleasures with the use of online videogaming, especially with many different gaming platforms using online gameplay (no longer limiting to just PC games).

This week's reading is about The Database, written by Lev Manovich. Manovich says that a database, while not simple, is a collection of data that is organized for fast research and to be easily retrieved by a computer. An example of this is the CD-ROM, such as an interactive disc version of a museum or as a biographical account. A more prominent use of the database is on the Internet, such as Web pages collecting text, images, links, and more all in an expandable area. Manovich then discusses "Data and Algorithm." For example, many video games hold the same kind of algorithms (such as kill the enemies to level up) throughout their varying narratives. Any task, Manovich says, is an algorithm, while a data structure is any object in the world. The simpler one is, the more complex the other needs to be. Next, Manovich describes "Data and Narrative," which are enemies competing for the same territory, to make meaning of the world. Ultimately, all new media is a database, regardless of how it is presented. "Paradigm and Syntagm" is the next section, and here Manovich details the linearity of elements with the explicit syntagm, and the commonality of elements that can be chosen from one another in the implicit paradigm. The database is the paradigm and is real, Manovich says, while the syntagm is the narrative and is virtual. Finally, in "A Database Complex," it is explained how storage media and databases are not always the same, as it can be a narrative as well. An example is a book, that can be either a narrative story or a database of information, such as pictures.

After reading this, I am more interested in the relationship between databases and narratives. Data and narratives are said to be enemies; however, I wonder if there's a certain point when they can be interchangeable. For example, would old novels and films be able to serve as data of past times for us in the present? Do old product advertisements, a form to get information/data, now provide narration for past methods of advertising, as well as the evolution of the product itself? Sometimes I find it interesting to look at older media forms for these reasons, of what it tells us now. As such, this week's reading is a useful selection. 

This week’s assigned reading, “The Interface,” also
comes from Manovich.  Manovich begins by taking
a more in-depth look at what an interface is and its purposes, before moving
into the languages that cultural interfaces use. He starts with the Cultural
Interface, in which Manovich states that instead of interacting with a computer
in the present, we are interacting with a digitally coded culture, particularly
with today’s amount of text and other entertainment. He goes further to argue
that the layout of many interfaces are determined by use of elements from other
known cultural forms. We move into an explanation of how three cultural
traditions each have their own influential cultural interface, beginning with the
printed word.

Printed word is versatile in that not only is it a media type
between people, but with single line commands it is how a user can communicate
with the computer. Text has evolved in printed form, into being displayed as
characters on computer screen—and the same text can be viewed on several
computers thanks to HTML, as well as in stages through different pages and
scrolling. These Web pages can also serve to bring multiple types of media
together. Next, we have cinema, evolving from older forms of entertainment such
as theater. Cinema now influences interfaces such as with the camera. Cameras
became a way to effectively communicate with three-dimensional programs. Additionally,
Virtual Reality has come to be a possible successor to cinema as it presents
itself as only part of a larger whole, with a user interacting inside this
realistically rendered space. Various video games throughout the 1990s use
Virtual Reality, such as through the adjustment of viewing angles or the
adjustment of viewpoints after certain events. Next is the human-computer interface
(HCI), which Manovich says elements of which are used by cultural influences.
Examples of HCI include drop-down menu boxes and scrollable text. HCI can
change and be used for different situations in any given period, such as media
access on computers can borrow the familiar interface of audio or video player
controls. Manovich brings up the point that on one hand, it seems that originality
is key, but at the same time it is preferred to have a consistent design.

All
of this is possible, Manovich says, through the use of the screen, and it is
the screen that is quickly becoming the way to access many kinds of information.
The screen is supposed to block out the surrounding presence, creating emphasis
on what is displayed on the screen (which can now be multiple images). VR
screens completely eliminate what is around. We also see the screen of real
time, such as radar, developed by scientists from several countries and used in
military settings. This is what essentially began the screen as we know it with
computer settings.  Eventually, the
screen became interactive. Manovich then looks into how the screen and the body
of the viewer relate, and looks at Roland Barthes says. An example of this is a
fighter pilot, putting himself in a VR-type situation that is synchronized to
the physical world.

This was an interesting article, and the point that
really resonated with me was that about the human-computer interface. With the
extensive applications of various forms of media and technology lately, there
are very few times that we are not around some form of common media. A
particularly standout one in my opinion is that of portable music players. For
the most part, we have evolved from the cassette Walkman to CD players and now
to MP3 players. There are many types out there, but the most popular is likely the
Apple iPod. When it debuted, the iPod brought an original navigational interface
with it, which (with some refinement) became a mainstay for all models of the iPod
line. With the popularity of the iPod, it has almost become synonymous for “MP3
player,” in the same way “Kleenex” can be a general term for “tissue” for some.
Many other MP3 players have tried other interfaces, but eventually they come
back to some kind interface that is similar to (but not the same as) the iPod’s.
Staying away from original design appeals to more users that may otherwise
choose the familiar iPod. Additionally, many newer cars and radios have cables
that hook up to iPods, but neglect to create a way to support those without
iPods (such as an opening for a USB cable). In this case, we see that the
consistency of an iPod hookup limits the functionality to only those with
iPods. Being more original with hookup options for more MP3 players appeals to
more people.

Manovich’s article “What is New Media?” begins by describing
some of the earliest developments in creating what we now see as modern media.
From devices that copied and spread information to spread to all people, to the
earliest computing/tabulating devices, it all leads to what we know and use in
our modern media. He moves on to describe media as using numerical
representations that use digital code, and the process in which this
information is digitized. Modularity comes in the way that media holds the same
structure in its elements, and many elements can be combined into larger
projects (such as in video editing programs). These lead to automation, and
things like low-level automation media creation, such as Photoshop photo
editing programs.  Automation is covered
with topics like the rise of the Internet, and the use of artificial
intelligence (AI) in emulating real human responses. Manovich discusses the
shift towards variability in modern media, and the vast amounts of media that
are available today vary. Even on the Internet, we have many varying uses and
abilities that we can take advantage of. 
Marovich questions whether we have too much access to varying media now.
Finally, transcoding refers to the duality of being able for a computer to give
information that follows the usual structure, as well as being clear to the
human user. Following this, Manovich analyzes many conceptions about
differences between old and new media, as well as the meanings of terms like
digital and interactivity.

I found this article by Manovich to be an interesting
perspective in the way technology and media is utilized in today’s society. I
am always interested in the way media has developed and been utilized over
time. With things like the Internet practically a necessity in today’s world,
and the many media forms we can get ourselves involved in (I myself have been
experimenting with Photoshop lately), I found it refreshing that this was not
another article that details how we are so dependent on the varying types of
media now available. Instead, this article gave an alternative view in how we
are able to use media, and how media has us use it (so to speak). It was an
effective, alternate way to show how we can use technology so much now.