Task 6 - New Interactive Environments

Kiousis, S. (2002) Interactivity: a concept explication. New Media & Society, SAGE Publications, Vol 4(3):355–383. Available at:http://rcirib.ir/articles/pdfs/cd1%5CIngenta_Sage_Articles_on_194_225_11_89/Ingenta866.pdf

Summary

In his article, Kiousis tried to define again the meaning of interactivity. He suggested that definition of interactivity could be a hybrid of conceptual definition and operational definition. In his research, he analyzed previous studies, which tried to define interactivity.

He used a two-dimensional analysis of literature, which compared object emphasized theories with intellectual perception theories. Object emphasized theories concerned technology, communication setting and perceiver. Intellectual perception theories considered the fields of communication and non-communication. Non-communication fields, where the term interactivity is used are for example sociology, psychology, computer sciences, etc.

The author brings out several definitions given by academics through time. He also brings out the problems with these definitions, as why they are not sufficient for explaining the concept of interactivity. He also states that the definitions do not have consensus and are often described from a point of view of different fields, which also changes the meaning of interactivity. The author does not want to alter the efforts of other researchers, but rather eliminates the not essential components and merges the essential ones.

Finally he concludes that interactivity consists of structure of technology, communication context and user perception.

Kiousis suggests that interactivity is in one hand media and in the other hand a psychological variable. Interactivity is media in a sense that it needs some kind of technology, which makes the communication possible and mediates the communication. Interactivity as a psychological variable means that interactivity reveals, when the users perceive the interaction. Thus it can be concluded that interactivity depends on both - the technology as well as human perception.

Projektijuhtimine - kodutöö 2

Magistritöö WBS

Task 5 - New Interactive Environments

Task:

Jensen, J.F. (1998). Interactivity: tracking a new concept in media and communication studies. Nordicom Review, 19(1), 185-204. Available at: http:// http://%20www.nordicom.gu.se/%20reviewcontents/%20ncomreview/%20ncomreview198/%20jensen.pdfreviewcontents/ ncomreview/ ncomreview198/ jensen.pdf

Have a look at the article, think about the concept of “interactivity” and put out a Weblog post summarizing its main message (300-500 words).


Interactivity – summary of “Interactivity: tracking a new concept in media and communication studies” by J.F. Jensen (1998).

In his article “Interactivity: tracking a new concept in media and communication studies” J.F. Jensen discusses the concept of the term Interactivity. He claims it to be a kind of a buzzword, like words which, within a certain topic, appear to refer to something very important and which – for a given time – are heard constantly, but are often difficult to understand since in reality nobody seems to know what they mean.

As he goes further with trying to find a background for the definition of the term, he describes the concept of the term in three academic fields: sociology, communication studies and informatics. After the discussion and analysis of the term ‘interactivity’ in the concepts of all these academic fields, he states: ‘Obviously, as far as the concept of interaction is concerned, there is already considerable confusion’.

Then he describes the term ‘interactivity’ as a prototype, criteria or continuum. Prototype example only describes the certain services or devices, which are considered to be interactive and finally leads to the understanding that the one truly interactive activity is face-to-face communication. Interactivity as criteria says that it is a kind of feature which needs to be fulfilled. He stays longer on the subject of interactivity being a continuum with different dimensions. First dimension being the most elementary mediums and their one-way communication from the sender to receiver. Then moving on to other levels of dimensions where the technology develops and communication part is getting more interactive. In the end of this research he states that it is difficult to find a certain concept of the term ‘interactivity’ when there are so many different dimensions.

Finally Jensen suggests a definition of his own. He suggests that interactivity is a measure of a media’s potential ability to let the user exert an influence on the content and/or form of the mediated communication. He divides the concept of interactivity into four dimensions: transmissional interactivity, consultational interactivity, conversational interactivity and registrational interactivity, which are presented in 3-dimensional graphic model.

As a conclusion Jensen states that he did not find a solution for defining the term ‘interactivity’, but he hopes that his efforts have made the understanding and concept of the term ‘interactivity’ a little more clear.

The article is a good overview of the different values given to the term ‘interactivity’ over the years. Although there are probably many more definitions suggested since 1998, when this article was published. I personally liked the idea that the closest example of total interactivity is face-to-face communication – using direct two-way verbal communication as well as physical reactions and mental perception of the person about the other person. Maybe interactivity is a constant try to reach the same level of communication as in face-to-face communication by developing technology and user interface. The purpose is to create such media, which makes the communication natural and totally interactive as in face-to-face communication. Just a thought.

Ethics and Law in New Media homework - Week 6

Find and blog about an illustrative case of hacktivism

I remembered some cases of hacktivism in Estonia in April 2007. It was a critical time in Estonia, because of the cultural clash between estonian and russian speaking people. In May 2007 Estonian Prime Minister had ordered a statue called Bronze Soldier to be removed from its original location. The statue played an important role in the culture of russian-speaking people in Estonia and therefore they were not satisfied with the Prime Minister's actions. The situation concluded with a public rage in the streets of Tallinn, during which many buildings were damaged, shops were robbed and people were arrested.

Soon after these events in April 2007 someone hacked in the Web site of the political party Reformierakond, which was the party the Prime Minister belonged to. The main page of the site consisted of an apology in russian by the Prime Minister. The government press department disproved the content and announced that the site had been hacked.

During the same time period several attacks were also made to other governmental Web sites, which made the IT-specialists and the public understand the vulnerability of government Web sites. The attacks continued for a few months and brought people's attention to the fact that Internet is not private and the security issues should be considered more important.

Blog about a case of social engineering

One of the most vicious cases of social engineering involve the "request for help" e-mails, which use the human factor and rely on human empathy. The scammers send e-mails or write to forums about some sad situation they or their loved ones are in and request financial help.

There are several cases about deceitful people taking advantage of others by relying on their empathy. One case I found about this kind of fraud was about a woman called Dina Leone who lied about having cancer for 3,5 years and it is believed that she got thousands of dollars from donations through Facebook. Firstly she looked up her old classmates and aquaintances from Facebook and soon told them that she was dying from stomach cancer. She posted pictures of herself with bald head, wrote emails about her treatments and suffering after surgeries and asked for financial help from her friends.

People started to question, how come she doesnt know much about her treatments and how did she go all bald overnight, rahter than loosing hair gradually, etc. Police investigation showed that she had not received any treatment.

These kind of people make the public suspicious of every person asking for help and make them seem as scammers and liers. But it is one of the most effective ways of manipulating, becaus most people emphatize for others.

Formulate some measures which can reduce the effectiveness of social engineering attempts

1. Background research - Use Google, Facebook or any other search engine and find out about the person sending the message. Especially in Estonia, as the country is so small everyone knows someone who knows that person, etc.
2. Inform the public - Each time you receive a suspicious email, let your friends and family know that they should be careful. It doesn't hurt to repeat the same message again over a period of time as people tend to forget.
3. Use junk mail filters and do not open suspicious email attatchments.

Introduction and Theoretical Foundations of New Media homework - Topics 4 and 6

Concept map of Interactive Media and Interaction Styles

Ethics and Law in New Media homework - Week 5

Browse the Jargon File. Write a small blog entry about a term/definition which was the most intriguing for you.

Portrait of a hacker

Education
Nearly all hackers past their teens are either college-degreed or self-educated to an equivalent level. The self-taught hacker is often considered (at least by other hackers) to be better-motivated, and may be more respected, than his school-shaped counterpart. Academic areas from which people often gravitate into hackerdom include (besides the obvious computer science and electrical engineering) physics, mathematics, linguistics, and philosophy.

The thing I found interesting while browsing the Jargon File was the way hackers parceive education. The self-learners are more motivated and respected than the educated hackers, who have been shaped by the school system. This kind of attitude could actually be overtaken by many employers from other fields as well. Who says that a degree defines persons skills if today so much information and learning materials are freely available. The person educates himself and forms his own opinions rather than studies the opinions of someone else. The degree should not be a prerequisite of its own to get a job as it is almost everywhere today. Therefore I find the hackers opinion about education fair. Important is to "walk the walk not only talk the talk". :)


Write a short blogged analysis about the hacker ethic found in today's world (is it there of not, how much of it etc).

The research by Steven Mizrach showed that the hackers in the 90s had not forgotten about the original Hacker Ethics conducted in the 60s. But the old ethics were combined with new ones. He also described the new ethics in his research. I believe a form of Hacker Ethics exists to this day, because if it didn't, it would create a chaos and be a great risk for the computerized world. New ethics are probably also just modified old ethics which take into consideration the changes taken place in todays IT world.


Choose a minority group and describe how they can make use of Internet to reduce alienation and prejudice.

Today I found an ad from my mailbox, which included an invitation to the South-Korean culture days. As I clicked on the event's web site I was pleasantly surprised by the site's design and content. I could say that it influenced my opinion of South-Korea in a positive way. Which leads me to the idea that every minority nation in another country can create a positive image of itself by offering quality content in the Internet. Basically it doesn't matter if it is a web site, a social network account, videos, photos or even adequate comments under a news piece, everything creates an image. If the minority representatives represent their country in the right places and in a right way, the image of these specific people will carry on to their entire nation.

New Interactive Environments - Task 3

Comparison of descriptions of creating a study plan

I compare the blogs of: Taavi, Ilya, Maria, Kristo and Valeria.

What elements, components, etc. have been used to describe their activity?
All of the blog posts consisted of an explanative text and some visual material, either a concept map or some other scheme. The most interesting solution was probably Valeria's. The colorful bubbles and yes/no answers in the concept map gave a good overview of her tools and actions in choosing the courses. Kristo's and Taavi's concept maps were easily understandable, simple and laconic. Ilya's and Maria's maps could not be so easily followed as they were more complicated.

What level of detail?
None of the maps were very detailed as we all have basically the same things to consider while choosing our courses. Maybe the most detailed and thorough plan was Ilya's, who took into consideration study card and academic points. But he is preparing to graduate soon therefore he needs to count his academic points more carefully then us, first year students. Taavi's map was the less detailed one, but it is because he is currently studying in a host university, has collected most of his points and has little to choose from.

What structural aspects are showing up in their descriptions/visualisations?
The structures of the maps show in my opinion the complexity and difference of people. Some like it simple and direct, others prefer it pretty, anothers just describe their thoughts and don't care about the visual result and some go into detail and thoroughly dissect every part of the process. It is interesting, as I think it shows much what are the people like.

What is missing?
I can not say what is missing as the task was relatively free. Maybe it would have been more interesting if everyone would have described the tools used in the process as well. And not only the ones used in the process of selecting courses but also the ones used daily while managing school assignments.

What are pros and cons of the different approaches?
The pros and cons probably depend on the purposes each approach is used for. Considering this specific assignment it is probably more useful to use an approach which is visually attractive and easily understandable as was Valeria's plan. The concept maps in general are good tools but they should be structured in a way which makes them easily comprehensive. Visual materials are in general better than plain text as they give a better overview and are easier to follow.

Ethics and Law in New Media - Week 4

Investigate and describe an illustrative case of digital divide in your country


The digital divide is not a big issue in Estonia in my opinion and it is decreasing constantly. According to Esonian statistics up to 75% of people aged 16-74 year use Internet in Estonia. Although there is a difference between the usage of Internet in rural areas and cities, it is nothing dramatic. Basically anyone, who wants to get information from the web, gets it.

Another matter which may cause digital divide is the unwillingness of people to learn to use the computer. People who have not spent their time on learning how the internet, digital devices and computers work feel left behind and can not keep up with the pace. I can see this situation daily at work. I work for public sector.

People working for public sector in Estonia should be able to use the digital signature, different document administration systems, administrate web content etc but many of them haven't found time or will to learn these steps. The systems are developing fast and if they don't keep up with all the updates they are soon able not to do their work. Which leads to the fact that they will be set on side and new more computer-literate people take their places. It can be seen that some of them feel threatened and find excuses why they have not been able to learn the new systems, but the fact is that there is no point of escaping anymore.


Analyse and describe Internet availability in your country. How big is the availability difference for urban and rural regions? Do you consider this a problem?

According to Estonian statistics, Internet is available in 69% of the homes in cities and 65% of the homes in rural areas. Therefore it can be said that the difference is not very dramatic and I don't consider it as a problem. People who don't have Internet at home can use it at work or public Internet places.


Compare the current situation in Estonia to the four scenarios of "Estonia 2010". Which one is the closest to the reality?

Probably the closest to reality is the scenario of "South-Finland". Estonia has become a part of Europe and wants to distance from Russia. I would not be so pessimistic about low innovation capacity though. I think that the capacity is increasing and the potential is there if only it is used in the right way.


How important do you deem the social cohesiveness (or caring) in reaching ubicomp?

I think that social cohesiveness is not essential in reaching ubicomp but it certainly fastens the process. Adopting new technologies and trends has always been a curved line like this:



The cohesiveness can essentially fasten the processes of adopting and accepting new trends which leads to ubicomp.

Locative technologies - Task 1

Description of an existing locative application

Live Tracker www.minurada.ee

Minu Rada is an application, which is used in sports competitions for tracking the competition in real time. Mostly for locating sailing yachts in open sea regattas. The tracking is carried out online. There are special positioning devices put on yachts, which send information to the map application after a certain period of time. This allows to track the event and related statistics in real time. The viewer can see a Google based map, where the routes of each yachts are marked. The map also consists of sea navigation marks. The table shows the rank, name of the boat, speed and distance. It is possible to watch the track of competition after the race. The tracker helps the athletes to analyze the process of the competition and look back at the most intriguing parts.

Positioning device

The main problem with this application is that the positioning devices work on batteries and therefore their working time is limited. In yachts, it is possible to load the batteries using the power source of the boat. But on long open sea regattas the teams want to reserve the boat batteries just in case if something happens, they do not want to load the positioning device and spend the battery power. Therefore these devices should have batteries which last longer of use some other power resource.

As the sailing race organizers started using this live tracker device during this summer, there are still a lot of improvements that needs to be done. The application could be made visually more attractive, design specialists should be involved. It also sometimes happens, that the application frozes, which could be annoying. Another addition I would suggest is that the terms like knots, seamarks and other should be explained for the application users. Maybe it would attract also people, who are not personally involved in sailing and are not familiar with the culture and terms. If the application is made more attractive, faster and user-friendly, it could be one of the best sources to introduce sports, which can not be easily tracked on spot, like regattas and long distance marathons, etc.

New Interactive Environments - Task 2

How did I plan my studies for Fall 2010?



While plannings my studies for this semester I considered four main aspects: the curriculum, available courses for this semester, my personal and work time schedule and my personal interests. When I found a compromise between all these aspects, I added the selected course blogs and web sites to my bookmarks and ordered RSS feeds where possible to my Gmail mailbox. IMKE Google calendar was a big help for getting an overview of the course timetable. Because of pretty big homework load I started using Remember the Milk for keeping up with all the assignments. My tasks in Remember the Milk are also connected to my mailbox. Basically all the necessary information is in Google calendar, bookmarks and mailbox.

Introduction and Theoretical Foundations of New Media homework - Week 2

Concept map 2 - What is social interaction?

Essay question:
How does a community serve as a “cultural interface” to mediate communication with computers?

Manovich said that operations embedded in software are the general ways of working and thinking. I think that the ways of working and thinking are influenced by culture. A community usually shares a common culture or belief, therefore it can be said that it defines the way members of the community communicate with computers. In my opinion culture influences the ways we interpret the message, therefore culture also interprets the way we interact with computers, software, online environments and operations we use and create.

Ethics and Law in New Media - Week 3

Read the "Inside Echelon" by Duncan Campbell. Write a blog opinion about the present situation of the system, what it is used for and how it can influence the global community. You can also draw a couple of hypothetical scenarios (what if...).

While reading the article, a sentence which caught my attention was this:

In the information age, we need to re-learn a lesson now a century old. Despite the sophistication of 21st century technology, today's e-mails are as open to the eyes of snoopers and intruders as were the first crude radio telegraph messages. Campbell (2000)

In a situation, where the large part of peoples life goes on in the Internet, it is not comfortable to realize, that we are basically living under surveillance. Our every e-mail, blog post, web browsing history could be watched by someone. But as people are creating more and more online content, it must be getting hard for the system to grasp everything going on online. Therefore there probably aren't enough resource to keep an eye on every individuals actions in the Internet.

In the other hand, the system probably has prevented many crimes and maybe even wars. I imagine that knowing that this kind of system exists, should also discipline people, who are planning to commit some crimes or frauds. Therefore the system's existence is justified. As long as the system is in the hands of people, who's intentions are sincere and pro peace and balance, it should serve our best interests. But if somehow the system should fail or get into the hands of wrong people, a lot of damage could be done.


Write a blog description of an Internet fraud (scam) scheme.

Although there are much more complicated Internet frauds around today, I would like to talk about the most simple ones. The e-mails which I discover from my junk mail inbox couple of times a week. It says that either I have won some lottery or inherited a big sum of money and should send my personal data or even some kind of fee for them to send me the money. Of course, no heritage or lottery win actually comes from there.

I am surprised that people still fall for these schemes. Lately the scammers have learned to use the Google Translator, which makes these e-mails fun. The wrong grammar and major mistakes in sentences should convince the reader that the content can not be real.

Still a couple on times a year Estonian media together with the police or customer protection warn people about these kind of scams. It shows that there still are ignorant people out there who sincerely believe every e-mail they receive and get deceived. Maybe Internet education in schools schould help to prevent these situations from happening.


Review the scambaiting websites mentioned above. Analyse them from an ethical point of view.

The scambaiting websites are good examples of wild justice. There is an issue of ethics in every wild justice case. People who have been victims of a scam or just fed up with getting these scam e-mails have decided to step up. As the justice system is not working as effectively and fast as needed to punish the scammers, some people have taken the justice in their own hands.

I guess most people say that the scammers get what they deserve. Maybe that's why these kind of wild justice actions have not been banned for now. But where does it take us? Playing according to the same rules as criminals could make the player a criminal as well, doesn't it?

Probably the only acceptable solution would be to adjust the laws and justice systems in a way, that it would allow to punish these scammers and education systems should educate people about not falling for these kind of scams.

Locative Technologies - Lesson 1

Homework for Oct 11:
• Analysis of existing locative application
• Description: how it works. Who can use it. What tasks can you do with it.
• Technical data: which special programs, devices, server, frameworks, data flow does it need
• Possible problems: security, hardware, hard to understand
• Developing ideas. New user types, new roles, new solutions. Joining with other applications.

Projektijuhtimine - 4.10.10

Vastused eelmises loengus esitatud küsimustele:
1. Leida näide ebaõnnestunud projektist ning selle projekti ebaõnnestumise põhjused.

Sotsiaalministeeriumi ebaõnnestunud IT-süsteemi ülemineku juhtum 2008. aasta lõpus.
Sotsiaalministeerium pidi üle minema uuele toetuse ja pensionite maksmise arvutisüsteemile, kuid ülemineku ajaks ei saanud süsteem päris töökorda ning selle tõttu jäi igakuisest toetusest kaheks kuuks ilma ligi 7000 töövõimetut inimest.
Projekti ebaõnnestumise põhjus oli ilmselt projekti juhtide ja ministeeriumi möödarääkimine ja tellija vähene asjasse pühendumine. Ministeeriumi huvi oli võimalikult kiiresti uuendus sisse viia, kuid ilmselt ei seletatud neile piisavalt tõsiseltvõetavalt, et süsteem ei ole valmis kasutamiseks. Lõpuks ei tahtnud keegi täielikult vastutust võtta.

2. Otsisõnade “project mandate”, “project brief”, “project charter” ja “project initiation document” abil tutvu veebis olevate projekti esialgsete kavadega.

Project Mandate - A business proposal is a written offer from a seller to a prospective buyer. Business proposals are often a key step in the complex sales process—i.e., whenever a buyer considers more than price in a purchase.
Project Brief - Statement that describes the purpose, cost, time performance requirements and constraints of a project
Project Charter - In project management, a project charter or project definition (sometimes called the terms of reference) is a statement of the scope, objectives and participants in a project.
Project Initiation Document - project initiation document is a logical document that brings together the key information needed to start the project on a sound basis. It should be conveyed to all stakeholders and agreed and signed off by the business sponsors.

Enhanced Computing Environment Project brief
http://www.ict.ox.ac.uk/team/ece_brief.pdf

Elimination of human trafficking from Moldova and Ukraine through labour market based measures
http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_norm/@declaration/documents/publication/wcms_100457.pdf

Boosting Youth Employment – Development of Integrated Youth Employment Strategies for Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan
http://www.oit.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---safework/documents/project/wcms_110499.pdf

3. Analüüsi loengukonspekti (http://www.tlu.ee/~pnormak/PJ-2009/konspekt-proj-juht-2009-29nov.pdf) lisas 2 olevat projekti esialgset kava. Millised aspektid võiks selles olla põhjalikumalt avatud?

Võibolla võiks esiteks rohkem lahti seletatud olla eelarve kujunemine, kuidas selline summa kokku saadi. Kuigi projekt on algfaasis, võiks kindlaid osalevaid organisatsioone siiski rohkem olla. Vastasel juhul tundub, et projektil ei ole piisavalt läbiviijaid või huvitatud osalejaid.