Technology and Family Dynamics

So, we had an interesting situation at my house this weekend. We had a main line water back up into the house- wet basement, ruined carpeting and furniture, the whole nine yards. The Roto Rooter guy attempted to open the drain for 5 hours Friday night (which cost the equivalent of a mortgage payment) and was unable to unblock it. They were unable to send out someone with a camera until Monday, so we had to go the entire weekend without water- very difficult to do. The camera guy took a look inside the pipe and ascertained that we needed to have the junction between the city's line and our line replaced- requiring them to dig up the street and lay new pipe- very costly indeed. We were then told we would have to go another day without water. At this point, we had had enough. We checked into a hotel- splurged on a suite- and spent Monday in water-filled splendor. Our room had free WiFi, so I was able to log into my work network and get some stuff done, while Sarah spent the afternoon chatting with friends both here and in Japan. I also had a chance to update this blog, and fix the coding that messed up my widgets when using Firefox.
But what was interesting to me was the communication dynamics between my daughter and myself during that time. We set up our laptops with our backs to each other and even though we were in the same room together all day, did very little real speaking. We spent more time talking to others- me emailing and IMing work, and her on Skype with international friends. This is kind of becoming the norm for us. In fact, one day we were testing Skype in anticipation of having to use it when she goes on her 2-month Japan extended stay, and we were talking over Skype to each other while in the same room, sitting not more than 10 feet from each other.
When I think of how much technology has created changes in the way people communicate with each other, it is amazing. But, are we losing something in the process? 15 years ago, we would not have had laptops and wireless connections, and would have spent the day hanging out together, talking and enjoying each other's company. All of our gadgets just affords us a way to be "always on" and not be in the moment with the person we are with.
I remember, as a child, sitting on my grandparent's back porch on a warm summer evening, just watching the sun set and chatting lazily. Now, I would probably view doing that as "wasting time" that could be better spent on the internet getting some work done. That is a sad commentary indeed.

Cyberbullying

Our reflection topic for class last week was cyberbullying. We didn't get to discuss much about it, but I find it a fascinating topic. My daughter has a LiveJournal account, and has had nothing in the way of cyberbullying on that blog. She avoids it by restricting it to "friends only" comments, but has seen friends' blogs on which random users have left hate comments and offensive pictures.
One of my daughter's hobbies is collecting Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls (ABJDs- often also called Super-Dollifes). These dolls have become very popular in this country, especially with those who are interested in anime/manga, Japanese music and fashion, Japanese culture, and also with doll enthusiasts. Unfortunately, as with anything that draws a lot of attention, the world of Super Dollfie collecting has its detractors and critics. One of those critics went so far as to create a Wikipedia article which slammed the dolls and particularly those who collect them. The author of the entry made personal attacks on the collectors, going to far as to refer to people who participate on the ABJD Forum, The Den of Angels. He actually named names and posted pictures, calling the collectors "losers and deviants". The entry flew under the radar of the editors for a long time, but has since been removed.
This was an example that usually does not come to mind when thinking about types of cyberbullying. Even though the hateful words and comments did not happen on a blog or forum, it is bullying nonetheless. It is amazing to me the time that people will take in the attempt to make people feel bad about things they enjoy doing. It must have taken the person who created the Wikipedia article several hours to write- it was not a random comment that could be fired off in a couple of minutes. It is very unfortunate that such an undesirable facet of our society has to find its way onto the internet. But, of course, the internet really is a reflection of ourselves, flaws and all.

City Wide WiFi

My mother is looking forward with great anticipation to the WiFi projected being completed in Minneapolis. She is in the section of Northeast which will be completed last- according to the city's website, sometime during the last weeks of December. I think it is a great thing to provide wireless to a community- the going rate will be much lower than that of Comcast's or Qwest's, thus creating some competion in that area.

I read an article on msn.com's tech section talking about how Minneapolis' wireless network was first intended to be used for public safety and to connect city agencies. However, after the 35W bridge collapsed, the city learned how the network can be utilized during an emergency. They opened up the network to all users, allowing those with dual mode WiFi phones to connect with people without adding to the already strained cellular networks. In the days and weeks that followed, the Wi-Fi network was also instrumental in rescue and recovery efforts around the disaster site.

Many cities are reluctant to spend the money on creating a wireless network for their residents, but after a disaster such as the one last August perhaps they will reconsider, recognize the value, and make wireless internet available for all.

One More Thing....

While I was writing this post, an error popped up letting me know that Blogger's site was unavailable. I did that little internal scream "Nooooooo!" that everyone does when they have been working on something and technology goes ka-flooey and you lose everything. Luckily, Blogger has a great feature- it autosaves a draft of your blog every minute, in case of power outages, server problems, etc.

Two thumbs up, Blogger!!

Coincidentally

After having just done the research on Web 2.0 for my wiki page for class, I found myself in an interesting conversation an acquaintance about what she thinks it is. I read specifically that the term does not refer to any specific change in technology on the Web, but rather a change in the way that people use it- specifically, the interaction and collaboration of Web 2.0 sites. She spent about 15 minutes "correcting" me- according to her, Web 2.0 is all about the coding that triggers the informational windows that popup when users mouse over certain parts of the screen. For a demo, take a look at Ask.com and search for anything. The results are listed similarly to Google's but there is a little binoculars icon you can mouse over next to each search result that lets you see a thumbnail of what the site looks like. You can quickly eliminate sites you know don't have what you are looking for with this feature.

This is a wonderful feature, but is not what Web 2.0 is all about. There is so much more to it, as I myself am still realizing realizing.

Finding Web 2.0 Sites

I just stumbled across this great site that calls itself "The Complete Web 2.0 Directory." I don't know if they have all the Web 2.0 sites, but they sure do have some interesting ones. TuneSquare looks like a really good one for musicians trying to get their music heard. TuneSquare is an online music community where unsigned bands and artists can make some money while listeners from around the world can download their songs for free.

Trivago is another great site, where users can find useful information to help them plan a European vacation. There are reviews from people who have already visited a destination or stayed in the hotel, holiday home, etc., that users are interested in.

One that looks really fun to me is Retroland, where users can talk about and create a virtual scrapbook of things from their childhood. Think platform shoes, Shrinky Dinks, air hockey, and Slinky.

Top 50 Wikis

Heres a link to AdVolcano's ranking of the top 50 wikis:
http://www.advolcano.com/blog/?p=11

Technical Communication Blogs/Wikis

I received my copy of Intercom the other day (the magazine of the Society of Technical Communication) and was pleasantly surprised to see the topic for this month's issue is "Web 2.0". All the article's subjects have to do in some way with features of many of the things we have been discussing in class- Flickr, de.licio.us, wikis, cloud tagging, RSS feeds- and what the role of a technical communicator will be in a Web 2.0 world.

I have added links to some of the blogs and wikis discussed in the magazine. One of the most interesting articles was about structured wikis which combine the elements of a database with wiki-authoring environments. One of the most popular is TWiki. Users of TWiki can catagorize content by subject, area, author, date created, etc. Several large corporations, including Morotola, Disney, SAP, and Yahoo use TWiki as internal information systems.

Surgery=Not a Good Time

So, I am a bit behind on my blogging. I went in for sinus surgery one week ago, and am still somewhat in recuperation mode. I can breathe a bit better now, but still have a residual nagging headache and sore throat. Makes me wonder why some people would voluntarily put themselves through rhinoplasty just to look better!