The Memex

I was happy to find out this week we were doing research on the Memex, due to the fact that we read about it in another class in our FIG and I was intrigued by the idea. I think it's amazing that years before the personal computer was available, Vannevar Bush was able to think of this place where everything belonging to a single personal could come together within one device. Since we had only read As We May Think, reading Memex Revisited presented new ideas to me. I like how Bush was able to develop his idea more to more accommodate the ideas with the time period (1967). The technological availabilities from 1945 to 1967 changed dramatically, one of those being that the first computer had been developed. When I went to google about the Memex, the results I came across including a Wikipedia article, information linking to Vannevar Bush, articles written about the Memex, and most interestingly, a group who tried to simulate an actual Memex. There were also many pictures depicting what the Memex looked like, and an advanced video of how the Memex would operate. I think the Memex was a great idea in its time, and as many people recognize it, it was the first model for what we know as hypertext today. Hypertext is an essential part to using computers today, so it is admirable that Bush was actually able to think of hypertext in a usable manner, that he called the Memex.

Reconsidering the Memex

After reading Vannevar Bush's article "As We May Think," and reflecting upon the advancements in Internet technology since the conception of the Memex in 1945, I can confidently say the Internet has come about as the conglomeration of several different approaches to the web. Those at MIT in 1995 agreed that the Memex was the origin of an idea that has evolved into the infinite, dynamic world of the Internet. Most notably, Tim Berners-Lee's thought processes behind the World Wide Web seemed to coincide with those of Bush; the Memex and WWW both were created upon the idea of "trails," which we now know as hyperlinks, that would help us navigate the recesses of the Internet.

A Google search turned up a few interesting results when using "Memex" as the keyword. I found a Youtube video diagramming the operations of the Memex, as envisioned by Bush that was created at the 50th Anniversary of the Memex conference. While it is definitely technology that has been surpassed by faster, more efficient creations, it still holds merit as an early example of what information technology could have developed into, had there not been the development of APRAnet, email, and other pre-WWW achievements.

I think the Memex was clearly the best example of early activity trying to find an outlet for streamlining information of many different sorts and allowing ease of use and storage for said information. Since time has began there has been a need to organize information in a way that would lend itself to fast, seamless access, analysis, and utilization. At this point in time the Internet is our go-to source for this data process, but the Memex will always represent a revolutionary, if impractical, suggestion to bridge the gap between information processing and information access.

Exploring the Memex Today

Ever since first reading "As We May Think" at the beginning of Com Arts 346, I've been interested in the concept of the memex. It's very interesting to me to see how technology is thought of before its time. The memex, while essentially a desk, was a precursor to internet technology that follows. It just didn't pan out like Vannevar Bush thought. The memex used mechanical processes such as electromechanical controls, levers, microfilm cameras and microfilm reels. In today's world, the concept of the internet is a network of wires across the world with signals constantly bouncing back and forth with incredulous speed. There are not levers. There are not little microfilm reels being sent in the tubes under the ocean. While Bush did create the ideas for hypertext and mass information storage, his idea for a device, while theoretical, never made it into fruition. I think, however, that technological advances often take this path of the unexpected. Who would have thought that phones like this would eventually turn into smartphones with advanced computing technology? Someone may have thought of an idea, but any prototype they tried to develop most likely looked like that technology of the time, large and tan-colored. Nobody would expect the sleek five inch by two inch supercomputers we have today.

While searching for the memex on Google, I found some interesting results. First, I found a video of an animation of a memex and how it would have worked. The animation was from a program made for the 50th anniversary of Bush's article. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the original program anywhere on the web. Secondly, I found a site where a man is trying to build, according to the page, "a memex that looks and acts like it was built in 1945 according to Vannevar Bush's specifications." I don't know how long the project has been in production, but it would be cool to see the finished project.

Memex Search

While researching the history of the Memex, some recurring themes arose. At the time, the Memex was a hypothetical machine that would allow essentially work as a form of hypertext, allowing the user to search through materials and create connections between materials, in this case a form of digital books. Bush’s concept what the Memex could achieve relates to the concept of hypertext. However, hypertext is not the main focus of the Memex, rather Bush was focused more so on allowing the user to connect between documents faster, and make information more accessible.

When I searched Memex on Google I surprisingly received a variety of links. Obviously Wikipedia was the first site that Google offered, there were some concept images for the Memex’s design, and even a YouTube video of the Memex animation. While digging through the labyrinth of Google, I discovered an “ancient” webpage about the Memex, which pretty much gave a summary of the concept of the Memex (link). Also, there was a site that linked to a Microsoft Research page titled “Memex –Digital Memories” in which Microsoft has an “initiative focused on research around storing all of an individual’s lifetime information, novel capture methods…, linking of information, and use of meta-data”. Microsoft Research also gives Memex awards, which are focused to aid in “further research and teaching the fundamental aspects of Digital Memories (Memex) research…”. On a side note, when I looked under Google’s blog option, almost all of the search results listed are related to the LIS 201 blog, or the discussion blogs.

                                                                                                                  

In today’s world, the physical form of the Memex would have looked like has shifted, the concept of connecting documents still exists in the form of hypertext. Hypertext is what essentially created the internet, which allowed for greater sharing of information and a pooling of resources, which was the main goal of the Memex. Now a days, the Memex’s desk like contraption has been replaced with laptops, tablets, smart phones, etc. Almost anything that can have access to the internet allows the user to gather information through the use of a machine.

The Memex

It is astounding to see the similarities between the Memex proposed by Vannevar Bush and the information technologies of today. Back in 1945, Bush proposed the idea for this technology that could be used to store and access immense amounts of information at a time. Today, we use modern computers for very similar purposes in ways brought up by Bush. The notions of trails of information and the idea that encyclopedias could use this to link associated bits of information have been realized today through things like hyperlinks and Wikipedia/Wiki-style pages. In addition to this, Bush brought up that it would be possible to search both libraries of information and individual documents for specific terms and ideas. These are both possible today through thins like search engines and search bars which can be used to look for specific terms and phrases within a document.
Doing a Google search for the term "Memex" gave me an even greater idea of the technology that Bush imagined. Most interesting was the wealth of diagrams of the Memex that were available online. When I first read Bush's article "As We May Think" for another one of our FIG classes, I was confused as to th exact mechanics of how the machine would work, bu the diagrams available online helped me greatly in my understanding of the Memex. Also available was a YouTube animation that was uploaded in 2009 which showed exactly how the Memex would work. This makes it clear for those who are not necessarily tech-savvy enough to understand the technical elements of Bush's Memex. in addition to the diagrams and animations available through a quick search, there was also a breadth of articles available on the topic that elaborate on its functions and specifics. Overall, it is astounding how close this image proposed by Vannevar Bush so long ago has come so incredibly close to how modern technologies work and manage information. It will be interesting to see what developments occur in the future and if anyone from today becomes the sort of visionary of tomorrow that Bush has become in our minds.

The Memex

To think that Vannevar Bush came up with the idea of the Memex in 1945 is really fascinating and unbelievable to me. He thought of what we would see as a very early version of the computer. In his article, As We May Think, he describes what the Memex is and its functions that he had envisioned for it. It is also very interesting about the ideas that he came up with, which today we see and use, and these include hypertext.

When I did a Google search for the term "Memex", I came across a website that describes the early history of the Memex and it's main ideas. The information about the Memex was on the website "The Electronic Labyrinth", and it talked about how the Memex was an early form of hypertext. On the website there is a quote from Bush that states, "When the user is building a trail, he names it, inserts the name in his code book, and taps it out on his keyboard." Bush wanted to find a way to navigate all of this data and to form an early version of what we know today as the World Wide Web. This idea was used by people like Tim Berners-Lee and many others to help influence them with what they created.

It came as no surprise to me that people like Douglas Engelbart and Ted Nelson have acknowledged Bush because of the influence that he had on them. His ideas have influenced most of what we know today about the internet and the world wide web, and I believe that sometimes we forget about where it all started. Bush's revolutionary thoughts that were ahead of his time have helped shape our technology and what we know of the World Wide Web and hypertext today.

The Memex

Since we have discussed the Memex and its relation to hypertext, I was not surprised when reading the article describing others having the same idea as the World Wide Web.  I was interested to find out the names of the other programs, such as Engelbart's NLS and Reddy's AI.  All of these used the idea of interlinking documents, some even with other networks.
When researching the Memex, by simply typing Memex in Google, I found many links defining the Memex.  I also found this video of an animation used to describe the Memex in a visual context.  I also typed in "Modern Memex" to see what people interpret could be the Memex today.  Obviously, many people linked the idea of the Memex to hypertext.  Although hypertext is not the Memex, it does maintain the main idea of the Memex: to create paths between documents so that they may be used by the collective interest.

I found another site proposing the idea that the modern version of the Memex could be the iPhone.  The iPhone, like many of our technologies today, connects people to the Internet.  This, in turn, connects people to hypertext.

In my opinion, our laptops, phones, and iPods can all be considered the "Modern Memex."  The Memex was simply the tool used to few the data, much as our technologies are.  Though it may also have allowed people to record their own ideas on the documents, this can be done on the Internet through comments.  Frankly, the main point is that data is linked.  Of course, at the time of writing, Bush didn't know that data could be stored digitally.
Overall, I think the idea of the Memex has been hypnotized in different formats, and because of that, would be, in some form, created.  Using technology to easily see linked documents seemed like a good idea to so many people that it would be created, and it has.  I think without the idea of the memex, or ideas like it, we would not have the technology that we have today.

The Memex

As I was searching for the topic of the Memex, I actually found that it's something people are still talking about. Not just about the idea of the Memex, but about actually making it come to life. Of course, we know have the technologies that fulfill what the Memex was supposed to do, and a lot more. People now though seem to be trying to create Vannevar Bush's original desk idea. One of the things I found was a transmutable work page, Trevor F. Smith, published a page about his attempts to actually build a Memex desk. One of his most recent posts was only a day ago, where he finished the control panel. This is the link to his page: https://transmutable.com/notes/trevorfsmith/mqm/

Other, older mentions of the Memex that I found where earlier mentions, these had to do more about the idea of the Memex, what it did and worked for and other developments derived from that. From these I found an example from Microsoft Research. This was a power-point presentation about the Digital Memories Software published on July 19, 2006. With this project something called a SenseCam would have been available for purchase, and it would collect ands save everything one needed it to and have it readily available by always been running. Again, other new technologies have been developed that makes technologies like the Memex and the Digital Memories Software unnecessary, but without their invention, technologies like the ones we have now would not hve been possible.

The Memex

As I researched the history of the Memex, I couldn't help but think of modern innovations that materialize the concept of the Memex. Although various concepts came to mind, the one that seems to stick out is the World Wide Web. The term is broad and, in the context of 2013, too much so. Essentially anything can be found, researched, archived, etc on the Internet, so how is the Memex - a tool that was designed for information, not for entertainment - similar? Bush's statement in his 1967 essay, "Memex Revisited" that, "It is a problem of how the great mass of material shall be handled so that the individual can draw from it what he needs - instantly, correctly, and with utter freedom. Compact storage of desired material and swift selective access to it are the two basic elements of the problem", essentially characterizes the Internet as the response to this problem he outlines on a larger scale. In other words, I see the Internet as the modern response to the Memex in that it includes the "compact storage and swift selective access" to any and all information, yet includes non-academic elements as well.
One interesting Google result that I came across was a blog post by someone who discusses the invention of a "Personal Memex" or a "comprehensive Personal Knowledge Management System". This person, Eric Blue, describes this machine as being having the following capabilities:
+ A centralized place to store interesting information
+ Ability to store "notes"
+ Personal diary
+ Comprehensive search capabilities
+ Ability to store meta-data
+ Ability to import, export, and share information
+ Integration with mind maps
I found this interesting for two, semi-conflicting reasons. First of all, I felt that his description of this "Personal Memex" very much aligned with my earlier thought that the Internet was a modern, larger-scale Memex. At the same time, however, this cancelled out the need for this Personal Memex, because in my mind, it already exists; the Internet. As I read further into his post, it sounded more and more like this Personal Memex would exist as a webpage on the Internet - sort of as a lower dimension to the Internet. I still feel, however, that this isn't necessary. With social media, Google Drive, and other already-existing webpages, is a Personal Memex site necessary? On one hand, it consolidates all this information into one space, but on the other, the process of consolidation may not be worth the award.

Memex

If nothing else, this assignment has taught me that I cannot be a computer engineer, or any type of engineer for that matter, as the two Vannevar Bush articles and the synopsis of the "Bush Symposium" were absolutely mind-numbing for me, and I have no idea how I am sitting here alive to talk about them.

Aaaaaanyway, besides that, I think it is interesting to see the ways that As We May Think and the concept of the memex have been so influential in regards to modern computer technology. The marginal notes put it so nicely in part of the "Memex revisited" article: "This is just search" (in reference to the concept of the memex indexing the documents stored within it). I had similar thoughts throughout the entire article (where I actually understood what was being said, at least,) in that I also saw tons of ideas that have been adapted to today's technologies, such as "trails" (hyperlinks) and a "new encyclopedia" (Wikipedia). He even foresaw the enticing nature of smaller technology that is reflected in today's smartphone and tablet market, and predicted the path from the large, university-used computers to personal computers. As the "Symposium" article notes, it is more probable is that we are following Bush's example rather than building things that just so happen to resemble Bush's ideas, but the fact that these wild predictions have pretty much come to fruition in today's technologies is still remarkable.

In my Google searching, which can coincidentally also be traced as a Bush-inspired action, I found some interesting results on the first page. First of all, memex.com is not even Bush-related, and is owned by some sort of security company. This must be disappointing to Berners-Lee today, who would probably want that site on his own invention to be in homage to one of the first conceptualizations of his work. There's also a Canadian machine company named "Memex," which also has nothing to do with Bush or his ideas. Second, there is actually an animation on YouTube of a theoretical memex working as it is laid out by Bush, which shows the amount of reverence internet users still have to Bush's concept, even 70 years later. My third most interesting finding was that Microsoft actually has a page dedicated to the Memex on its "Microsoft Research" site, which shows that even the biggest players in the software game right now are indebted to Bush's ideas. Overall, these results and the other ones not mentioned here show just how powerful Bush's ideas were, even to the internet community we have today.

The Memex

The Memex was the name of a hypothetical proto-hypertext system that Vannevar Bush described in "As We May Think." The Memex machine didn't necessarily come to fruition but the actual idea behind it influenced the development of many early hypertext systems. I watched a YouTube video made in 2009 titled 'Memex Animation: Vannevar Bush's diagram made real'. It was an animation that showed what the memex would've accomplished and could have done if it became a reality. Bush's ideas influenced Tim Berners-Lee in envisioning and eventually leading to the development of the World Wide Web. Bush basically thought up the idea of a computer. 

When looking Memex up on Google, the first things that popped up were two Wikipedia articles, one on Vannevar Bush and the other on The Memex. Right below that was a video on YouTube that I watched. I also found informative articles on Bush's Memex idea and a page for Weblogs someone has been writing on the Memex. 

Today, if the Memex existed, I feel like it would be uncomfortable and hard to use. We would eventually get used to but it would be difficult. I also think it would be very confusing to use. The most important thing to gather from Bush's Memex is that it was an innovative idea ahead of its time and made way for other people to expand on his vision. Basically what Bush envisioned was a computer at a desk.  Bush envisioned the memex as a device in which individuals would compress and store all of their books, records, and communications, "mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility." 

Searching the Memex

It was interesting to see the similarities between the Memex that Bush envisioned and the technologies that exist today. Many of Bush’s goals when developing the Memex blueprint were similar to the goals of our present technology. The article noted that, “Bush calls for a new relationship between the thinking man and the sum of our knowledge.” His ideas were very similar to the goals of other developers, especially Tim Bernes-Lee, the developer of the World Wide Web, who also hoped to create a more universal source of information for man to discover and go through.

When searching the Memex on Google, I found many other descriptions on the make up of the Memex and the similarities to many modern day technologies. A YouTube video I found called, Memex Animation- Vannevar Bush’s diagrams made real, was helpful in giving a more in depth look at the way the Memex was imagined to work. It also helped to show how similar it was to the computer and hypertext technology.

In an article online I found an interesting difference between todays technologies, especially the computer and the Memex. While there was a way to view ones history and path for the Memex, the article online notes how people often have difficulty recalling how they found certain articles or pieces of information due to the use of hypertext technology that Bush envisioned. It also notes the unimportance of the “trail” to individuals today. Rather than having a focus of knowing the thought process and sharing it with others, today people only are focused on sharing the end result of their search. Overall, although the Memex has some very different aspects of technology today, the similarities showed the need for new ways to organize and gather information from an early day in age.

How to search the library databases

Happy Monday!

The following link is to a short video I made about the value of searching the library databases for scholarly articles. It won't help you come up with your search terms, but it will help you narrow down your results to only the most relevant resources that the UW library system has (since the UW library system has pretty much everything).

http://screencast.com/t/7IyjAynYY

The Memex

Many times users of modern technology fail to acknowledge the visions of the great thinkers of the past. Bush's ideas about the Memex and other technologies are similar to the predictions that Ray Bradbury had about the technologies he described in Fahrenheit 451*. These visionaries are recognized by some for thinking up technologies long before they actually came into existence but, more often than not, technology is taken for granted and people simply forget to think about the origins of what they are using. Clearly the Memex is very different than the modern versions of computers and technology that we use today, but it certainly can be seen as an early thought about what this technology would later look like.

In "Memex Revisited", Bush defines the Memex as "a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications." It is supposed to look like an ordinary desk, except it has keyboard and levers. The Atlantic still has the original article "As We May Think" that Vannevar Bush published in 1945.

A super simple website called The Electronic Labyrinth has a small passage on the Memex and describes Bush's article "As We May Think."An article on the Microsoft Research site calls the Memex "An inspiration for the past 50 years." It only has two paragraphs about it, and then the rest of the page is filled with links of Memex presentations and awards. In the paragraphs that talk about the Memex there is a link to a PDF that talks about Information Technology research goals.

There is another very simple website called "Memex and Beyond," and it is a "a major research, educational, and collaborative web site integrating the historical record of and current research in hypermedia." It says that the name is in honor of Bush's article (this is also the website that Professor Downey linked to on the LIS 201 blog). 

So as we dream about what the future could look like, maybe we ought to take our ideas more seriously. Something that seems far-fetched now might be just what the world is looking for later on. 

*Bradbury talks about technologies that are similar to ones we have today. For example, he describes seashells in your ears that produce music--earbuds. He also talks about the "family" on the large screens in people's houses--TVs. 

The Memex: Past and Present

Vannevar Bush's idea of the Memex was revolutionary to say the least. He valued the process of information organization, an idea that would inspire the technology of today. In particular, he focused on the idea of "building a trail" between different articles, ideas, or other pieces of information. Today, we come to utilize this concept through hypertext. I also found it interesting that Bush imagined the kind of people who would own the Memex. In the article 'As We May Think,' he categorizes a user as one who "builds a trail of his interest through the maze of materials available to him," In essence, Memex users would value information for the sake of knowledge and embody Bush's idea of one convenient storage unit.

When I searched "Memex" on Google, I found many things. Among the first articles relating to Bush or the Memex was a website called MemexSim dedicated to for a project, called the Memex Simulator, dedicated to making Bush's groundbreaking idea into a reality using modern technology. I also found a link to a Linked In page for a computer software company called Memex. I searched YouTube and found many videos with Memex in the title, but not many were actually related. In fact, online the first video proved to be a relevant result as it displayed an animation of Bush's designs.

If the Memex were to be in existence today, I feel it would function as an inspirations for technologies like the Kindle, allowing its users access to a countless number of books. Through this assignment, I have come to realize two things. First, this idea represents society's innate tendency to search for "the next big thing"; whether it be a technological advancement or a convenient consumer innovation, we have been curious to push ourselves to the limit in order to create new products or services. The Memex embodies such a mindset through its design qualities. Second, I began to wonder: where would we be technologically if this design had come to fruition? If the knowledge and technology had been available and had the Memex been created (indicating a much earlier start to technology's influence over society) how advanced would our world be? With his idea of the Memex, it is clear that Bush had a revolutionary thought process and a note-worthy interest in innovation.

The Memex

I find Bush's idea of The Memex very interesting and complex. The idea was too good for his time, it seems. If the Memex was produced during his time, it would have been revolutionary and made the accessibility to information a lot easier. For him to think of such a complicated piece of machinery that basically seems to fuel the ideas of similar modern technology today is fascinating. He basically thought of an early computer system.  Although  this technology was never made in its entirety, as he thought of  it, it was a great idea of his time.

In The Memex Revised I enjoyed how he mentioned more productive and efficient opportunities. There are so many technologies that store information.In searching the Memex on Google I was surprised about the number of hits I received with discussions and information about the idea of this technology. I'm surprised I never heard of the memex before attending college. With so much information about the Memex out there I do not understand how did I miss this, and why didn't my high school computer teacher mention something this early idea.

To think of if or how the Memex would be used in the modern days today, I would probably never use it, unless I was in a business where I had to. I barely read books and I am not a huge fan of files. When/if I decided to read books outside the educational realm, I would most likely prefer to have the book in hand. The Memex however does resemble the modern computer in a majority of ways. It seems to have to most of the same functions, in just a different form. He mentions ideas that resembles files and search results. Which is basically having accessible files in one place, and having all of ones knowledge in one place. This, in all, is exactly what a computer is capable of.

The Memex

First, I thought that it was interesting how Bush came to coin the name "Memex" for his machine in storing all kinds of information. While I was reading Bush's Revisiting the Meme article that he wrote in 1967, I thought it was interesting how he went into describing other technologies that held information in them such as the computer and the advancements that have changed over time. I think that his idea and innovation of the Memex to store mass data was pretty interesting.

After reading the Bush's two articles, I looked up "Memex" in Google. The first few things that came up were different definitions for the memex, the Wikipedia entry for the Memex,  a website for the memex, memex on social networking sites, blogs on the memex by someone named Eric Blue, history of the Memex, and the memex and hypertext/ hyperlinks. To my surprise, when I went further into the pages, there was also information on a Dj called Memex. But a majority of the links that came up were related to Bush and his idea of the Memex being part of the modern technology

What do I think about the Memex? I think that it is very similar to what we have today which is the computer. However, Bush said the Memex is nothing like the computer because it won't do our work for us. Unfortunately, I think that when new technologies are innovated, they will always help us to make our daily tasks be easier. So, they will always be doing our work for us in some way, shape, or form.

The Memex Today

Looking at the formulation of the concept of the Memex, it reminds me of a concept we often see when looking back at the past. Throughout all of history, people have attempted to envision what the technology of the future will be and it seems that few of these predictions end up being true. Rather than being fully realized as their initial visions, they end up almost predicting other innovations of the future.

In particular, the Memex itself may have never come to fruition, but the ideas behind it did. Bush's original concept seemed to have predicted several pieces of technology that wouldn't be fully realized until almost half a century later. The concept of the Memex included precursors to things like hypertext, personal computers, and even Wikipedia. There were many ideas in the concept that were incredibly ahead of their time and even more interestingly, they all seemed accessory to the central idea of the Memex.

But the most interesting thing I found about the Memex was something I find interesting about past visions of future technology in general. They're always modeled after currently existing technology. The Memex is envisioned as a desk, for the sole reason that the idea of a standalone machine for all of this seemed absurd. The most simple things we see with our technology are the most bizarre to those in the past. This applies to us, as we'll likely never be able to guess what the technology of the future will look like.

Quiz Answers

In the interest of transparency, here are the answers to our first three quizzes! 

QUIZ 1
What term from the lecture was defined as a "fundamental break with the past?"
Answer: modernity

QUIZ 2
In Tuesday’s lecture, what information technology did Professor Downey use as an example during his demonstration of using library databases?
Answer: Sesame Street

QUIZ 3
In Tuesday’s lecture, what was the name of the alternative search engine Professor Downey described, designed to protect user privacy by not recording user information or search history?  
Answer: DuckDuckGo 

Have a spooky scary Halloween weekend!

"Technologies of Choice?"

                  I originally began my search by typing "Information Society" into Amazon to see what it came up with. The books on the first page seemed to either be way too long (around the length of 700 pages) or were much too expensive (200 dollars).  I played around on Amazon, adding keywords to try and yield a specified book title. When that didn’t work, one of my friends suggested an author named Bruce Sterling who had written a slew of books about technologies of today and their uses in the modern world and best of all, the books were published in a timely manner! However, the problem with many of the books was that they had strong romantic overtones to give the story a plot, which didn’t fare well with what I was trying to write about. The book that Sterling wrote which would have been absolutely perfect for my story was written too long ago, and his present books were too wrapped up in romantic love plots to work for a technical paper. I resorted to googling random terms from the class in order to find a book to read, and still I came up with nothing. Finally, in hot desperation, I typed “The Information Society Books” into Google, verbatim, and just began clicking on books. I didn’t know what would happen and I was angry that I couldn’t find anything. Then I found the website name MIT press, which gave a slew of fine books about modern technologies and their workings. I picked the first book on the list which is named “Technologies of Choice?” by Dorothea Kleine. It is said to explore the relationship between people and these new technologies and hoe the rich seem to be more privileged in this field. The book sounded interesting enough, so here we are. I hope to be interested by what is to be said by Ms. Kleine, but I don’t think that should be a problem.


Works Cited: Kleine, Dorothea. Technologies of choice?: ICTs, development, and the capabilities approach. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2013. Print.

Summary of Google's Ways and Means By Sivia Vaidhynathan

“We allow Google to determine what is important, relevant, true on the web”

–Sivia Vaidhyanathan

Siva Vaidhyanathan is a cultural historian and media scholar. Currently, he is the Robertson Professor, and Chair, of the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. He teaches in the University of Virginia School of Law as well.  He is also a frequent contributor to media and cultural issues. As the author of The Googlization of Everything And Why We Should Worry, he examines, one of the key cultural issues that he notices, as he addresses everyone society.

The Googlization of Everything And Why We Should Worry was published at California University in 2011. In Siva Vaidhyanathan’s chapter, “Google ways and means”, in The Googlization of Everything And Why We Should Worry. He examines how society’s reliance and expectation of “newness, “nowness”, speed, and convenience” is causing us to lose our sense of wonder, and amazement, we once had in technology. As a society, he feels that we are starting to take a lot of the things the Internet does for granted. An example he gives of this includes a show with the host Conan O’Brien where the main character is excited about the fact that he can receive internet on a plane. Once the Internet encounter’s a problem, however, is when problems arise with other passengers. Not only are we becoming frustrated, as a society, when the speed, or connection, to the internet runs short. We are also not paying attention to what is actually going on inside of the technologies we use. We are so concerned with the output that we are paying attention to all of the work inside that technology.  For example, we pay so much attention to the speed of Google that we do not realize that Google is collecting data from us. As Google users, society is blind to the invisible process that goes on behind closed doors on the site. Ultimately since we have this “insatiable hunger” for speed, speed matters more than anything else when it comes to Internet and service. This causes firms to want to expand markets and revenue to satisfy its customers.

In addition to that point, Vaidhyanathan continues on to talk about Google and how it is Google’s “magic that hooks us in”. The magic that we believe Google has caused us to instill to much trust into the product itself. This magic comes from the fact that we believe “Google has measured and understood us better than we have assessed ourselves”. Google works so well, and delivers information to us so simply, that it seems magical and trustworthy. As a society we need to further examine this trust and ignore the cultural assumptions of instilling this “blind faith” in Google. 

So in all, Vaidhyanathan expresses that fact that through relying on speed, we are putting faith in Google that is dangerous.Google causes an increase in our “appetite” for these services and efficiency to continue. As Google users we have to understand this appetite, and the complexity of Google’s operation. Those who should understand this complexity of Google does not just include the users of society,  it includes those who work for Google as well. We cannot let Google continue to “affect our expectations and information about the world.” We need to indulge into decisions and actions that “enrich us” rather than “satiate us”.

Many people have made reference to Vaidhyanathan’s article in a way that is highly positive. Many people support and appreciate the fact that Vaidhyanathan has opened the eyes of everyone who puts faith in Google. Many scholars agree with his ideas and expand on his views. Vaidhynathan has many people questioning their faith in Google indefinitely now. Nevertheless, there are those that disagree. For example there are those who work for Google that state that Google is only trying to give the society what it wants and what it deserves, Google is not evil. However,  Vaidhyanathan is not expressing the fact that Google is evil, he is merely analyzing an issue he notices in society.

Other scholarly Articles include:

Gleick, James. "How Google Dominates Us." The New York Review of Books Aug 18 2011: 24. ProQuest. Web. 23 Oct. 2013 .

Keen, Andrew. "Google's Crown is Slipping." New Scientist Mar 2011: 52. ProQuest. Web. 24 Oct. 2013 .

Morozov, Evgeny. "DON'T BE EVIL." The New Republic Aug 04 2011: 18. ProQuest. Web. 24 Oct. 2013 .

Works Cited:

“Sivia Vaidhyanathan” Department of Media Studies. University of Virginia. Web. 24 Oct. 2013

Sivia Vaidhynathan, “Google’s ways and means,” in The Googlization of Everything And Why We Should Worry (2011)

“Sivia Vaidhyanathan” University of Virginia School of Law. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.

Something Helpful

Are any of you struggling with writing this paper because of the silence of your dorm room? Well the site that I am writing my paper about is called Coffitivity. What is really unique about this site is that it plays the audio from coffee shops, which supposedly helps us to be more creative and focused. I know it has helped me quite a bit while working on homework. Enjoy!

Link: coffitivity.com

Week 8 Blogged Critique: Bamford, Snowden, and the NSA

After the events of September 11, the response most people had was the hate for it to happen again. Work is being done to keep terrorist attacks like that of September 11, and others such like it, from happening again, but when is this work and attempts to prevent its re occurrence too much? James Bamford, in his article “They Know Much More Than You Think,” offers an example of how the US government if perhaps trying too hard to “protect” the American people. 

Bamford’s article starts off by introducing Edward Snowden who earlier this year shed light on the government agency known as the NSA or National Security Agency, and its programs like PRISM and UPSTREAM, releasing classified federal documents which were then published in the UK’s newspaper The Guardian. The NSA had not been a secret agency and described itself as an effort to keep surveillance on the information running in, out, and throughout the United States to look for any terrorist activity. Now though, after the incident with Snowden most description of the NSA are those such as “violation of privacy,” “government interception,” “illegal,” “untruthful,” and to some extent parallel to George Orwell’s ideas of “Big Brother,” and “telescreens.”

In his article, Bamford quotes from the famous book 1984, “The telescreens have hidden microphones and cameras. These devices, alongside informers, permit the Thought Police to spy upon everyone…” At one point the thought of having a world like the one Orwell writes about seemed simply scary and a warning of what we didn’t want. I don’t think it was ever meant to be a description of what was exactly going to happen. As from what Bamford writes, and through the records that Edward Snowden released about the NSA, thought, we can see that it is exactly what it happening. By partnering with “supposed” companies such as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Google, Yahoo the NSA has gathered the “microphones and cameras” it needs to keep track of just about everyone in the country. And as Senator Frank Church said in 1975, the US now does have the means to become “a tyranny” and it is up to us, the American public to “see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over the abyss.”

The question is though, does the NSA have a place in our lives? When we experience attacks like that of 9/11, we want the government to protect us through whatever means possible, but at the same time, we don’t. Are we not willing to give up our privacy in exchange for security? In the about page, on the NSA website,nsa.gov, they explain how they use different types of technologies to “gain a decision advantage for the Nation and our allies under all circumstances.” After identifying himself as the “whistleblower” as The Guardian saying “I'm willing to sacrifice all of that because I can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building."  If collecting phone records and e-mail addresses, and building “this massive surveillance machine” means the government is doing whatever it can to protect the American for “any circumstance” is it a justifiable institution? 

History of the term "Social Networking"

I thought that social network would be an interesting word to look up because a lot of our daily activities include being online on social networks whether it is to chat with people or for other reasons. It plays a big role in how we communicate with each other in today’s information society. When looking up the work “social network,” I started my research with ProQuest. From ProQuest, a newspaper article was found from the New York Times. The time of the newspaper article was “Social Network Sites Seek Common Software Standard.” In this news article, Facebook of the United States and Bebo of United Kingdom were mentioned as the two country’s most popular social networking websites used by billions of people. When created, they originally called the social circle “OpenSocial.” It then later became the standard for all social networks. The purpose of the standards is to encourage people to use social networks more and more and also encourage developers to create more useful tools online and from there, opensocial turned into social networking. I thought that it was really interesting to know that the social networks are trying to set a standard to reach the same goals and how they planned to do it. Nothing came up when I typed it up in Chicago Tribune or Lost Angeles Times.

          Next, I search it up in Project Muse and JStor. For Project Muse, several examples of how social network should be like in society came up as a PDF file from books that were written. An example was in a book called Community Networks and Civic Engagement: A Social Network Approach by Andrea L. Kavanaugh; in this book, the author discusses the proper ways of socially connecting with others through face to face rather than through technology. Several of authors also argued how social networks should work.  Other examples talk about importance of Social networking in society. I am surprised by how many topics are out there just based on one term (Social networking) and how it came to be.

              The way that social networking is used today is still the same as it was back then. We still used online technology to communicate to each other just as they did back then. The only difference is that social network back then needed to push itself out there to be used and be discovered by users whereas today, we all know that it is already available for us. Even today, it still plays a very important part in our daily lives.

History of the Term "Televison"

For this assignment, I decided to do a search on the word television. Although it is not a revolutionary idea as it was 30 years ago, and we now take it for granted, it was not always an easy idea. My first article that I came across was in the New York Times, and it was about how pictures were being transferred over telegraph. The article hinted at the possibilities of being able to transfer "views" over telegraph, which we would now call videos. Upon searching the Chicago Tribune, I came across a brief article titled Television Solved By A German. The article went in-depth to describe this complicated system that was considered a model for televison, and it was simply, once again, just an access to viewing images. The Los Angeles Times article was very similar to the Chicago Tribune one, except this time a similar television-like technology was developed by a group of French scientists, although they do acknowledge the work of the German scientist.

While searching the scholarly article databases, I had different results than from searching newspapers. First off, many of the articles were not available to look at online (which was frustrating to me in doing this assignment). I could not find specific articles that included the first mention of television, but while browsing through, it was clear that in many of the articles, the television had become more commonplace, however it was viewed in more of a "revolutionary" light and it was being praised for what it offered.

Today, when we hear television, we all think of the device we had in our homes. We think of our DVR recordings we have. We think of the shows that we have to catch up on on Netflix. It is a part of many people's daily lives, and something that most of us do not think very in-depth to. While doing this research, I can see that it was not always common. It changed from a new invention that needed plenty of tweaking, to a revolutionary device that provided a new service that was available to the public, to something that is part of all our daily lives and is not something we need to think twice about.

History of the term "Music Piracy"

I decided to follow the theme of the book I chose for the multimedia assignment and search for the term "music piracy". To my surprise, I found that each time I searched for the oldest use of the word, I either found something in the very early 1900s or something as recent as the 1980s.
The very oldest use I found was from a small New York Times news piece from February 27, 1905 headlined "SOUSA ANGRY WITH ENGLAND: Says the Government Permits Open Piracy of His Works". The famous composer John P. Sousa was angry the British government wasn't cracking down on piracy of his copyrighted compositions, and actually wrote to the Times a call for protest. The Chicago Tribune picked up on this story on the same day, noting how Sousa had addressed the Times. The other early document I found was from journal publication by the Royal Music Association called Proceedings of the Musical Association in 1904-1905. Music piracy was the name of one of the references in the appendix; I couldn't find anything more.
After these articles, I jumped all the way in the timeline to 1985 for  Los Angeles Times story named "Singapore Puts on the Pressure to Erase Status as Haven for Tape Counterfeiters", which covered how Singapore's government was trying stop the heavy trade of counterfeit music cassettes. Other articles from this period were similar in covering the piracy of physical music recordings, such as cassettes and CDs.
It seems that the piracy of music has been a topic of discussion since the beginning of the 20th century, most likely due to the increasing ability to replicate information in a variety of formats. Sousa would be astonished how much piracy has exponentially grown from the print age to the digital age.

'Instant Messaging'

When I think of the network society and the various features that define it, one of the first to come to mind is instant messaging. From AIM and MSN in middle school to Facebook chat now, I can't really recall a time when instant messaging wasn't one of the primary ways in which my friends and I communicated. One of the earliest versions of the term that I was able to find was from a classified ads section from a 1963 publication of the Chicago Tribune. Employers were looking for experienced office workers to come in and help solve the 'messaging mess' - the name for what they called the increasing number of incoming phone calls. These people were referred to as 'call management'. I found this quite interesting because I can understand how these phone calls could once have been considered "instant messaging" after the longtime singular use of telegraphs and written mail. 

Chicago Tribune classified: "Classified Ad 56 -- no Title." Chicago Tribune (1963-Current file): 1. Jun 18 1989. ProQuest. Web. 22 Oct. 2013 .

I also found an article in the Los Angeles Times publication entitled, "The Wired Office" from 1988 about how instant messaging is "increasingly enhancing the decision-making processes", a theory that I hadn't thought before to relate t instant messaging but now understand thoroughly. The article essentially minimizes the power of the instant message, clearly not correctly hypothesizing the power to which it would eventually be held (as it is today).

"The Wired Office" - Krier, Beth. "The Wired Office." Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File): 4. May 05 1988. ProQuest. Web. 22 Oct. 2013 .

In the academic database results, all the early version of 'instant messaging' searches pulled up references to electronic mail (email) and the 'instant messaging' that it allowed. For example, this JSTOR article, focusing on the changing communication devices in communities: 

Desmond Fisher

Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review , Vol. 75, No. 297 (Spring, 1986), pp. 74-85

Searching for the "Electronic Book" a.k.a. the e-Book

Throughout this class, the topic of e-books has occurred a few times, so I decide to research when the term e-book was first used. Although I quickly discovered that upon searching the term “e-book”, I quickly was flooded with articles that were not relevant to my search. Some of these articles often dated back to 1850s, most likely because they search engine focused more so on the term book. So I refined my search to be more specific, and I began searching with the term “electronic book”.

Earliest Journalistic use:

New York Times: This article describes a new piece of technology, called the Discman, that Sony was developing, which would allow users to read electronic books. It appears this was to be a successor to the Walkman.

By DAVID E SANGER Special to The New,York Times. "Sony's Newest Portable is an ElectronicBook." New York Times (1923-Current file): 1. Jan 29 1990. ProQuest. Web. 22 Oct. 2013 .

Chicago Tribune: This article describes how there was a recommendation to replace the traditional stock certificate with a “universal system of electron book entry”(Scott).

"Stock Study Bearish on Certificates." Chicago Tribune (1963-Current file): 1. Nov 29 1989. ProQuest. Web. 22 Oct. 2013 .

Los Angeles Times: Toffler describes that the electronic book is a new technology that will reshape the future. An interesting point is that he also refers to the electronic book as the techno-book.

CONNIE KOENENN Times, Staff W. "Toffler on Techno-Books." Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File): 2. Feb 20 1989.ProQuest. Web. 22 Oct. 2013 .

Scholarly Article Databases:

ProQuest: 

Smith, John L. "Vault Conversion: Transferring Securities Involves Careful Planning." Trusts & Estates 120.2 (1981): 13.ProQuest. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.

Project MUSE:

Michael Joyce. "Notes Toward an Unwritten Non-Linear Electronic Text, "The Ends ofPrint Culture" (a work in progress)." Postmodern Culture 2.1 (1991). Project MUSE. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.

JStor:

The Electronic Reader

Paul Starr

Daedalus , Vol. 112, No. 1, Reading: Old and New (Winter, 1983), pp. 143-156

Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20024840

Almost all of these articles address how the electronic book, as a technology, will revolutionize how print media will be read. In many of these articles, the authors do not that e-books will not completely destroy the market for print books, especially in the academic field. Although, an interesting note is that in the article from the Chicago Tribune and the other article by John L. Smith both talk about electronic books as a way to store and reference financial information, and more importantly a way to keep the information organized and accessible to all. Overall, the meaning and use of electronic book has not changed much since its creation. The only change that has really occurred is the shortening of its name to e-book.

On a side not, other terms for electronic book I would often find include: electronic reader, electronic text, techno-book and even one article that described electronic books as a computer software for reading.