After several months and several drafts, I've finally received the go-ahead from my advisor, and am currently awaiting the results of my ethics application. Considering the banal nature of my survey, I don't expect ethics to take too long, and imagine that I should get that one back within a few days. As soon as that happens, however, the actual study must begin... as soon as I return from Las Vegas. Actually, I'll hopefully send out the survey BEFORE I leave, and have some results by the time I return.
Over the few drafts, the study has evolved slightly. Before it was essentially asking if young people and old people have different comfort levels with technology. While the answer to that would likely prove to be an obvious "yes," we dont' really learn much other than what we already know. Instead, I'm looking at what factors actually influence the different levels of technology acceptance in different age groups. What I expect to find is that other factors are more influential than age... many of them just happen to correlate to age.
Anyway, I'm excited to get started. But also dreading the mountain of work at awaits.
So... it's almost time to put my head down and start hammering. But first... VEGAS!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Thursday, October 16, 2008
That didn't take long...
About 20 minutes later, Terence was no longer... Seriously, they don't give you a lot of time to prove that you're interesting, famous, or important!
Social Biography Experiment
Today at work, we decided to run a little experiment. My friend Terence said he wanted to open his life up for editing through the magic of Wikipedia. After creating a blank page with his name on it, he started filling in details (so far, completely accurate) about his life, but we're encouraging everyone we know to create a far more impressive biography for him with ensuing Wikipedia edits. I will add my own shortly.
While fundamentally this goes against everything that makes Wikis good, we're hoping that it grows in that way that only viral internet things can. A new form of non-factual infotainment will be born. Now, we've already been made aware by Wikipedia that the page was the target for rapid deletion because they didn't know who he was... but we've jumped through the first hoops, and can now watch it bloom...
Without further ado, please help us write the life story of Terence Yip.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
New Obsession: Google Earth
After reading Alex Roy's "The Driver," I became immensely interested in his cross country trips, and the technology he used to prepare for his drive from New York City to L.A. In the book, Roy talks about his quest to break the accepted NY to LA record of 32 Hours, 7 minutes. After 2 test runs for research and reconnaisance purposes, countless calculations for gas consumption, listing and mapping known speed traps, and developing a protocol and backup for any possible snag, he took off from Manhattan headed for California, went as fast as he could (safely) and avoided cops, traffic, and stops along the way. Along the way, he had a series of toys (GPS, Radar Detectors/Jammers, Police Scanners) to play with. Overall, however, it was the use of technology and the extensive preparation that fascinated me. A pimped out BMW M5 added to the glamour a bit, I'll admit.
Fast forward a couple years... Roy has since mapped out his famous run in a Google Earth .kmz file. People who have GE installed (free here) can run his file and see a map pinpointing where they were at what time, where they stopped for gas and tolls, and how fast they were going at various checkpoints, using data from either of the GPS receivers in the M5. They kept the GPS data to verify that their super secret cross-country dash actually happened in the time they claimed (along with gas receipts, toll receipts, and time-coded video), however, that file and my ensuing fiddling with GE have turned me in to a GPS-obsessed, .kmz-generating nerd. What's more exciting these days, is that it's possible to generate and update these files real-time. Recently, Roy was approached with a business opportunity and turned his experience and passion into a company dealing with real-time GPS tracking. He speaks about the technology, his car, his run, etc. in the Authors @ Google series here...
Pocket-PCs, iPhones, and Blackberries all have the capability to capture GPS coordinates in Google Earth formats, upload them to live servers, and broadcast current locations across the internets in near real-life times. Within seconds, my whereabouts can be uploaded and downloaded, and the pushpin that indicates my location on the Google map, will move to indicate my progress.
While I'm still in the "holy crap, that's awesome" phase, there are countless opportunities to turn this technology into useful and profitable ventures. Already companies can run tours, advertise their services, and build their store (or a 3D model of the building at least) in Google Earth, but with real-time tracking, options become more and more exciting.
The kind of surveillance usually reserved for secret government operations suddenly becomes a reality if you can get your hands on the right cell phone... Scary, but also pretty friggin cool.
Fast forward a couple years... Roy has since mapped out his famous run in a Google Earth .kmz file. People who have GE installed (free here) can run his file and see a map pinpointing where they were at what time, where they stopped for gas and tolls, and how fast they were going at various checkpoints, using data from either of the GPS receivers in the M5. They kept the GPS data to verify that their super secret cross-country dash actually happened in the time they claimed (along with gas receipts, toll receipts, and time-coded video), however, that file and my ensuing fiddling with GE have turned me in to a GPS-obsessed, .kmz-generating nerd. What's more exciting these days, is that it's possible to generate and update these files real-time. Recently, Roy was approached with a business opportunity and turned his experience and passion into a company dealing with real-time GPS tracking. He speaks about the technology, his car, his run, etc. in the Authors @ Google series here...
Pocket-PCs, iPhones, and Blackberries all have the capability to capture GPS coordinates in Google Earth formats, upload them to live servers, and broadcast current locations across the internets in near real-life times. Within seconds, my whereabouts can be uploaded and downloaded, and the pushpin that indicates my location on the Google map, will move to indicate my progress.
While I'm still in the "holy crap, that's awesome" phase, there are countless opportunities to turn this technology into useful and profitable ventures. Already companies can run tours, advertise their services, and build their store (or a 3D model of the building at least) in Google Earth, but with real-time tracking, options become more and more exciting.
The kind of surveillance usually reserved for secret government operations suddenly becomes a reality if you can get your hands on the right cell phone... Scary, but also pretty friggin cool.
Monday, May 26, 2008
SI Wrap Up
I've returned to Toronto and spent a few days settling in to my regular life. Unfortunately, however, it seems to be taking a little while longer than expected. I keep thinking about things like social capital, facebook's implications on corporate networks, and the benefits of instant messaging in the workplace (while I waste time in the workplace on MSN). The fact is, however, 506 was a very useful course for practical things in the context of social networking... who knew?
So... to wrap up this learning journal, I'm going to review and comment on each of the 5 groups and their presentations to see what nuggets of wisdom I can pull from my memories of each presentation.
Group 1 - Facebook for non-profits - There were two very different sides to this issue. One I agree with, and one I do not. Facebook is a great way to promote events, using the social networks of people who are connected to your cause. A "cause" page is a good thing to have, as is a business/organization profile page. All good things, considering how many people use Facebook these days, especially when you take into account that there is no cost for these things. However, the idea of using facebook as a corporate directory to build social capital within the company is a bad one. If people want to do that, they can. But don't encourage people to do it when some people have social lives that they don't want to mix up with their business lives...
Group 2 - Social Bookmarking - I admit to not knowing much about the whole digg/technorati/etc. bookmarking craze, and I think this group's presentation did a good job of showing how it could be used in a real-life situation. I was more intrigued, however, by things like Google Notebook that allow you to flag specific sentences, pictures, etc. on a site and have them displayed when you return to that site.
Group 3 - We were awesome. Enough said.
Group 4 - Jeet Kune Do - I found this presentation to be a little confusing. While the design and delivery was very well done, I was left wondering what the proposed technology actually was. I reread the briefing document, and it confirmed that most of their effort was about addressing social capital problems without much use of technology, let alone a specific one. I heard some talk of the group lamenting that they didn't really have a technical person among them to take charge of technical aspects (this is grapevine chit-chat, so it may not be entirely true) but I feel that we've been in enough of these courses that somebody could have figured out a way to pick something a little more specific. Group 2, for example, deliberately chose something they knew nothing about.
Group 5 - Model UN video game - I found it unfortunate that I was supposed to respond to this presentation because I honestly thought it was the most innovative and well done. Of course, my role was to challenge them, ask tough questions, and pick their brains for possible explanations to issues they may have overlooked. Like most groups, they tap danced around the bits they didn't expect, and threw statistics and studies at the ones they did. Overall, I thought that it was a brilliant idea... I also thought it was brilliant to include a massive grant from Bill Gates to address any potential funding problems.
Overall, I found the 506 experience to be very thought provoking. As stated in previous entries, I'm a very social person, and perhaps that influences my thoughts on social interaction. It's a fascinating area of study and I could see myself spending more time in the study of such a field. Not now though... I'll be worrying about technology acceptance for the next year or so. Perhaps the PhD project will be more relevant to these topics. ;)
So... to wrap up this learning journal, I'm going to review and comment on each of the 5 groups and their presentations to see what nuggets of wisdom I can pull from my memories of each presentation.
Group 1 - Facebook for non-profits - There were two very different sides to this issue. One I agree with, and one I do not. Facebook is a great way to promote events, using the social networks of people who are connected to your cause. A "cause" page is a good thing to have, as is a business/organization profile page. All good things, considering how many people use Facebook these days, especially when you take into account that there is no cost for these things. However, the idea of using facebook as a corporate directory to build social capital within the company is a bad one. If people want to do that, they can. But don't encourage people to do it when some people have social lives that they don't want to mix up with their business lives...
Group 2 - Social Bookmarking - I admit to not knowing much about the whole digg/technorati/etc. bookmarking craze, and I think this group's presentation did a good job of showing how it could be used in a real-life situation. I was more intrigued, however, by things like Google Notebook that allow you to flag specific sentences, pictures, etc. on a site and have them displayed when you return to that site.
Group 3 - We were awesome. Enough said.
Group 4 - Jeet Kune Do - I found this presentation to be a little confusing. While the design and delivery was very well done, I was left wondering what the proposed technology actually was. I reread the briefing document, and it confirmed that most of their effort was about addressing social capital problems without much use of technology, let alone a specific one. I heard some talk of the group lamenting that they didn't really have a technical person among them to take charge of technical aspects (this is grapevine chit-chat, so it may not be entirely true) but I feel that we've been in enough of these courses that somebody could have figured out a way to pick something a little more specific. Group 2, for example, deliberately chose something they knew nothing about.
Group 5 - Model UN video game - I found it unfortunate that I was supposed to respond to this presentation because I honestly thought it was the most innovative and well done. Of course, my role was to challenge them, ask tough questions, and pick their brains for possible explanations to issues they may have overlooked. Like most groups, they tap danced around the bits they didn't expect, and threw statistics and studies at the ones they did. Overall, I thought that it was a brilliant idea... I also thought it was brilliant to include a massive grant from Bill Gates to address any potential funding problems.
Overall, I found the 506 experience to be very thought provoking. As stated in previous entries, I'm a very social person, and perhaps that influences my thoughts on social interaction. It's a fascinating area of study and I could see myself spending more time in the study of such a field. Not now though... I'll be worrying about technology acceptance for the next year or so. Perhaps the PhD project will be more relevant to these topics. ;)
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Bongwarrior: Wiki Jedi
Today, we discussed wikis and knowledge sharing, and more specifically, Wikipedia. The class discussed just what it was that made contributing to Wikipedia, or any online forum worthwhile. There is no money involved, there is little or no prestige involved, and yet people spend hours, days, and months of their lives adding and subtracting facts, fixing punctuation, and removing vandalism to any number of posts.
As the discussion leader for the day, I was clicking around on Wikipedia and we decided to check out the Pop-tarts page that was mentioned in the article we were reading. The page has over 1000 edits, the most recent change taking place just two days ago. We checked out recent change by a user who calls himself "Bongwarrior." He decided to include the fact that microwaving a pop-tart can actually turn the middle into an amorphous solid. While we had a good laugh about his screenname, I wondered what motivated him to write such a thing. I figured he was just high and he thought it would be funny.
A bit of resarch (Wikipedia makes this very easy) showed me that Bongwarrior is not a a stoner bonehead vandalizing posts under the influence of medicinal canabis, but actually quite the opposite. In the last week alone, he's made more than 500 edits, mostly patrolling recent posts for vandalism and reverting to the most recent acceptable versions.
According to his user profile page, he enjoys heavy metal music, supports the legalization of canabis, likes Stephen King, plays acoustic guitar, and claims to know pi to two decimal places. Sounds like quite a scholar!
Not surprisingly, however, the only posts he's actually made recent text edits to (as opposed to reverting to non-vandalized versions), are about Stephen King and Megadeth. By recently, of course, I mean in the last two days. On May 14th alone, he made a total of nearly 50 adjustments.
What does he get out of this? What does anybody get out of this? Sure, a sense of sharing knowledge, a chance to be "right," and the feeling of some sort of community, I guess. There must be more to it though, because people obviously get hooked and go at this thing with great fervour. And what does it say that of the 500 edits he's made in the last week, 3 of them were actually his contributions to a post. The rest were fighting vandalism. Has Wikipedia jumped the shark? Or will this army of moderators keep up with vandals?
At some point, something's gotta give. And when it does, Bongwarrior will either be a hero in the annals of Wikihistory, or he'll be forgotten like that guy who did that thing...
As the discussion leader for the day, I was clicking around on Wikipedia and we decided to check out the Pop-tarts page that was mentioned in the article we were reading. The page has over 1000 edits, the most recent change taking place just two days ago. We checked out recent change by a user who calls himself "Bongwarrior." He decided to include the fact that microwaving a pop-tart can actually turn the middle into an amorphous solid. While we had a good laugh about his screenname, I wondered what motivated him to write such a thing. I figured he was just high and he thought it would be funny.
A bit of resarch (Wikipedia makes this very easy) showed me that Bongwarrior is not a a stoner bonehead vandalizing posts under the influence of medicinal canabis, but actually quite the opposite. In the last week alone, he's made more than 500 edits, mostly patrolling recent posts for vandalism and reverting to the most recent acceptable versions.
According to his user profile page, he enjoys heavy metal music, supports the legalization of canabis, likes Stephen King, plays acoustic guitar, and claims to know pi to two decimal places. Sounds like quite a scholar!
Not surprisingly, however, the only posts he's actually made recent text edits to (as opposed to reverting to non-vandalized versions), are about Stephen King and Megadeth. By recently, of course, I mean in the last two days. On May 14th alone, he made a total of nearly 50 adjustments.
What does he get out of this? What does anybody get out of this? Sure, a sense of sharing knowledge, a chance to be "right," and the feeling of some sort of community, I guess. There must be more to it though, because people obviously get hooked and go at this thing with great fervour. And what does it say that of the 500 edits he's made in the last week, 3 of them were actually his contributions to a post. The rest were fighting vandalism. Has Wikipedia jumped the shark? Or will this army of moderators keep up with vandals?
At some point, something's gotta give. And when it does, Bongwarrior will either be a hero in the annals of Wikihistory, or he'll be forgotten like that guy who did that thing...
Monday, May 12, 2008
Using OS to fight PSSORPGA
MMORPGs - Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. This is both what we talked about all afternoon, and something I've avoided ever since I was a young boy and decided that I might someday want to meet a real girl and perhaps even touch her. I can pretty much guarantee you that if I had ever decided to play World of Warcraft (WOW) or any such game, I'd still be trying to finish the 11th grade... but I'd be a 900th level wizard troll or something. I would also have a PSSORPGA (Pathetically Serious Solo Online Role Playing Game Addiction).
ps - i'm sorry for the nickelback... truly
Given my current addiction to the regular text and photo internet, my vivid imagination, and my love for fantasy, it's a miracle that I was never swept up in this craze. Frankly, I'm not sure how it avoided me, given the thousands of hours logged at my computer, cruising aimlessly around the Internets. My best guess is something called "Organized Sports."
As far as I can tell OS is just like WOW... We meet in these strange grassy places called "parks" and form different guilds and clans called "teams." Depending on which park you're at and when you've decided to show up, an opposing clan will offer you a challenge in the form of a physical contest. These contests all have different rules, which are agreed upon ahead of time, and overseen by an aged sage known as an "umpire." In the interests of keeping things interesting, many of the oldest and wisest sages are also blind, which makes their ability to oversee any contest simply mindboggling.
Each team has a variety of players, who frequently choose to dress their real-life avatars in matching tunics for the physical challenge. The players are all different sizes and shapes, and depending on how many of these challenges (sometimes called "games" or "matches") they've competed in, skill levels can vary from the very high to the not so high. Those with the highest skill levels or the wisest mind to orchestrate the strategy for that challenge are given titles like "Captain," "All-Star," and "Player of the Game." After the challenge is won or lost, the avatars will sit down in part of this physical world and partake of ale often provided by the guild member whose turn it is that week. They will frequently nurse wounds from battle, and tale great tales from past challenges, when a guild member performed a feat so miraculous that a challenge was won by his skill alone...
After a series of these challenges is complete, the winner of the most challenges is crowned champion and players are awarded points in the areas of pride, skill, and luck. Often awards also come in the form of physical additions a player's avatar, such as a new hat or tunic.
... but then again, I've never actually played WOW, so I can't say for sure if this is anything like it.
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