Google and China

Google is one of the most popular and widely used internet search engines in the world. So it would be no surprise that such a big company would want to exist in the biggest and most populated country in the world. However, Google in China is not the same Google we know in the United States.
It is pretty well known throughout the world that China is a communist country that has strict laws on censorship and media, and frequently turns their heads on issues such as human rights and the environment. Just look at the 2008 summer olympics that took place in Beijing. Hardly any news programs were allowed to broad cast any sort of protests or backlash, and could never talk about issues of Tibet, which caused a lot of controversy. As did Google's decision to succumb to China's rules.
Because of China's strict censorship laws, Google made the choice to censor it's own search engine, so if you try to go to certain sites in China they cannot be accessed. These sites are typically sites that would not put China in a good light, the Tiananmen Square massacre will certaintly not come up in a search, but pictures of modern Tiananmen Square and information on tourism surely would. However, if Google had just pulled out and never moved it's servers to Chinese territoy, Chinese citizens would be at a loss by not being able to access information, even if some of it is censored. As Sergey Brin described, going into China, "wasn't as much a business decision as a decision about getting people information. And we decided in the end that we should make this compromise."
As people have pointed out, Google's decision is hypocritical in that their slogan is "Don't be Evil," but they are conspiring with China's censors. Google was working with the situation they had, and since China's policies are not changing anytime soon, they gave Chinese citizens something to work with.
With all the fear and anxiety that exists for the C.E.O's, bloggers, and journalists should they "cross the line" and not comply to "self discipline," it is hard to imagine a future of free speech and democracy for the Country of China. But one hopeful note that I found in the article was that it is actually slowly happening, the young generation of China is blogging and chatting online, public speech is a norm for them. And the Chinese people have taking a liking to democracy as evident in the "Super Girl" competition televised throughtout China, where people could vote and promote their favorite candidates, the article even compared it to a presidential election campaign.
Growing up and living in the United States, it is hard to imagine what it is like not being able to speak one's mind, or protest an issue that was important to me. It's very hopeful that the internet can go beyond it's technological capabilities, and not just socially connect people, but allow people to speak their minds where in a situation without the internet, they could not.

Second Life class room experience

The Second Life class room experience was very intersting, and it's pretty cool that in today's society, a class can be held in cyber space. I liked the Second Life Class because it allowed for good discussion and everyone to participate, I think people were probably less hesitant to speak out in Second Life than they would be in class. It had a small "class room" feel to it, but for the most part, it felt like everyone in class had got together to talk about cyber space and it's regulability. I still don't understand Second Life completely, how to do certain things and I was having trouble teleporting so that put a damper on my experience. I have to say I would prefer a real class room setting to the one in cyber space because it is a little more controlled, and I'm not as easily distracted as I am in cyberspace. The discussion in Second Life was good, but there were so many things going on at once it got a little confusing at times. I think Second Life class room would be fun to do a few more times, and it was definitly an experience!

Second Life Name

My second life's name is Tonya Renfold.

interesting examples

This is an article that I seen in another class, but I think it can relate to what we talked about in class today with carrying over a virtual life into reality.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/04/60minutes/main678261.shtml

The quote that most stands out to me is: "Life is a life a video game. Everybody's got to die sometime."

And Just for fun, when we were talking about napster, it reminded me of an episode from South Park that made fun of the musicians who complained about downloading music online and the punishment for doing so. Keep in mind, South Park can be pretty offensive sometimes.

http://www.southparkzone.com/episodes/709/Christian-Rock-Hard.html

Article Relations: How the Job market has changed.

The main thing these three articles, "The Social Network as a Career Safety Net," "A Company Computer and Questions about E-mail Privacy," and "An Introduction to the Information Age," have in common is an explanation of how the job market all over the world has been rapidly changing. All three articles bring up very different points that all prove how diffucult the world of employment has become.

In Wednesday's class we discussed the decline of unions and labour organizations that protect workers in the information age due to the social polarization and exclusion that comes with globalization, business networking, and the individualization of the worker. This causes problems because the worker is left to their own devices in relation to the job market and their own relationship to their company. In "A Company Computer and Questions about E-mail Privacy," a man named Scott Sidell is fired from his job and accusses his company of reading his personal emails. Apparently, companies are allowed to monitor their emplyee's email communication when they are using a company computer, but they are not supposed to be able to access their emplyee's personal email accounts. The laws for these issues are still evolving, but in the past where a labour union could protect a worker and demand certain rights, the present day situation has a more gray area. Mr. Sidell was in the process of suing his old company, and his case was raising new issues concerning the relationships between companies and their employees. Another comment in class made was statistic of the number of jobs people will now have in their lifetime, between seven and fourteen. It's going to be harder for a worker to gain any sort of power or rights when they are only working at a company for a limited amount of time.
Which leads us to the discussion of flexi-workers. Flexi-workers represent the individualizaton of work, because they will not stay at the same company for long, which is a good tactic in today's world with statistics like seven to fourteen jobs per career. And a useful tool for these flexi-workers, and workers of the information age, is their social network. Social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn are becoming very popular for workers because of the instability of our economy and the individualization of work as we discussed before. These sites allow workers to connect with people who can help them get a job or find a new one, and stay in touch with people around the world. But as Castell mentioned in "An Introduction to the Information Age," this networking stabilizes the global economy, but only for those who can afford it, and ignores the common unskilled laborer.
These three articles are extremely informative and illustrate a decent picture of what the global job market is currently like and what it will probably look like for the next few decades, however frightening that may be to college undergraduates who will be looking for jobs in a few years to come.

Book Reading vs. Online Articles

For this semester...
My classes in which I am actually reading books are as follows:
World Literature: 8 novels
Itermediate Spanish II: Two text books
My classes in which I am reading online articles:
Intro to Communications: 27 online articles
New Information Technologies: so far seven online articles...more to come

So half of my classes are online articles whereas the other half are readings from actual books.

Technology does drive history, and will probably continue to do so...but to who's advantage?

In Merrit Roe Smith's article "Does Technology Drive History?" some very interesting points were brought up. The one painting titled "American Progress" that Roe discussed represents America moving into a great and successful future with technology, and leaving behind those who are not apart of this technological journey, nature and the Native Americans. So if we jump foward 150 years to current times, which groups are the new Native Americans? We are a nation of immeadiacy, we always need the next new technology, whether it's the new i phone, i pod, etc; technology is still driving our nation and our lives, and it's expensive. Not everyone in the United States are middle to upper class, and as the technologies become more involved in our everyday life, people who cannot afford these things are getting left behind. There are going to be less oppurtunites for the lower classes because they are not going to understand the technologies that are driving our world, and thus the jobs within it. I'm afraid to wonder what the world will be like in twenty years; how much further will technology have advanced, what kind of jobs will be availible, and how will people react to it?