Identity: Should Facebook know everything about you?

   With Web 2.0 becoming increasingly popular and the amount of information we share and post online viewable by almost anyone we should stop and spare a thought: who can actually view this?

  Social sites like Facebook and Twitter are amazing and I think a crucial tool when using the internet but information that is posted online especially associated with our personal lives should not be made visible to the World Wide Web to view. Sensitive information such as our full name, home address and email address if posted without a thought of privacy can be a fatal error in your security and identity. Even Facebook's central function of 'status updates' could be jail-worthy or even fired-worthy! The thing about status updates is that its not hard to write "what is on your mind" in relation to a certain person, place, religion or sex. For example, this girl who lost her job due to her insensitive thinking of who could actually read this update:

A certain mistake!

Or perhaps this, a call centre worker who posted his 'sickie' plan on Facebook for all his so-called 'friends' could see.

   It is this exact reason why things like social updates should be thought through as all of your connected people may be able to access your information without actually knowing you. Your friends on Facebook can reach to a high number, such  numbers as 600 or 900 :O wow popular person eh? well, yea on the screen yes but a person with that amount will not know every singe person they have added or  had a 'friend request' from. It seems to have become a social race and popularity contest to see who has the most friends and is more socially active.  But in an article by the Daily Mail as human beings' we only have the capability of  "managing a maximum of just 150 friendships" and that "people obviously like the kudos of having hundreds of friends but the reality is that they’re unlikely to be bigger than anyone else’s." The reason for this is because we actually look at only a handful of peoples' profiles and that some of the other friends may not even be a person you know, trust or would even talk to in the real world. It is here where the Internet can become dark as recent stories have circulated of abductions as the person has changed their identity even as far as sex and age to get on 'the good side' of their targets. Once trust has been gained on both sides of the screen a meeting place is then arranged and horrific terms often end up on the news and in the papers. 

    

Augmented Reality - What do they really offer to the 'Real World'?

   The advance in computer graphics is ever increasing, I mean looking back in 1970 to when Pong was first introduced and then to now, 2010 the journey has been massive.

Wow! They're having a blast!
Pong 1970

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Too Human - Xbox 360 today! Wowza!

 As the technology has advanced the line between the game world and the real world has blurred together and researchers and tech boffins are now "pulling graphics out of your television screen or computer display and integrating them into real-world environments" (howstuffworks.com).

 This new technology is named Augmented Reality and is quite something I have to admit!

So, what are the uses and potential of this new technology? you might ask, well my friend, keep reading and all your questions will be answered.

  At the moment Augmented Reality (AR) is still in its infancy but to be honest some of the things achieved at this stage is amazing. Take a look at how AR could change how we interact with the world.

  In that video notice how all the AR elements were triggered by a 'marker'. This uniquely designed image is programmed into the software meaning that at this stage, unfortunately they can only be used with that specific camera but the glasses that people were wearing allowed the AR to be that more portable like the children's book. The book had the specific markers on the page and when the child looked through the glasses the images were created. But do people want to walk around with large glasses? This debate is very similar to the new 3D technology where allot of people negate the possibility of buying a 3D tv because of the glasses. As tv culture is very much social and communal; wearing 'geeky' glasses is barrier. 

But has this been over come with the introduction of designer glasses? 

Not just any 3D glasses. These are premium Armani
3D glasses! Would you wear them?

  I wonder if the 3D glasses from Armani would improve the progression of AR, just imagine walking down the street with those snazzy shades and getting information all around you: hmm very tempting in my opinion!

  

  AR offers the real world more, in the area of advertising. In the future if you are wearing your designer glasses and glance over at a store such as HMV then there could be a list that appears giving sale information, new releases and special offers. But at this time, in its infancy the methods are still developing but there are some that look pretty cool. 

  Using the unique printed markers companies can print them in a magazine and instruct the customer view them through their web-cam through their site. An example is with cars, a customer can see a digital 3D projection of the model: A Mini Augmented Reality. 

AR is used to show what you would look like if you were wearing a particular item of clothing, a shade of makeup or even watches which is what customers experienced at Selfridges, London. The markers are still used here but the technology and the concept is still amazing, in the future the markers may not be there and the software knows where to place the 3D image. 

Another example is to advertise tv programs. The Vampire Diaries has become a hit in the US and the UK and this AR demo was set up in New York and Loas Angeles with the slogan "Vampires cant see their reflection...can you?". In the video one of the ladies experiancing it says, "I would look at this [the AR advert] than the sign up there2, I think that encapsulates the who idea of the new advertising technology that is named as 'storescapes'. 

This next one is amazing in my opinion: Avatar Storescape. The idea of emailing the pictures to the customer adds another dimension making that targeted link between film and audience. 

  This sets a new era for advertising and makes the audience involved, something that didn't happen when watching them on tv or in the movies.

  One other AR I came across from Youtube is building projections. The whole building is mapped by cameras allowing powerful and precise projections to be emitted onto the surface with realistic effects. This magnifies the idea that the boundary between real life and the digital life is dissolving. Check out these amazing videos:

Ukraine Independence Building
Realistic Building Projection
Other Amazing Building Projections

  AR has some commercial products too. Restaurants are taking use to this new tech making the customer experience that much better now that it is part digital, the iBar is revolutionary although not holding any purpose but to entertain it is a great addition the the AR family: The iBar. Another example is the Microsoft Surface shown at CES 2008, this table allows users to interact digitally with their surroundings such as bar cups etc or even in shops like the man described using product tags. It becomes an interactive tool that draws the digital reality and the real life together.  

  I thnik that at the moment the main area that is homing in on AR is advertising companies, in the future it could expand further to the general public but people do not want to pay large amounts of money for new tech that is still in infancy. But the direction that AR is going is very promising and extremely exciting indeed. 

Interfaces - Making using a computer that much easier

So your using a computer and you are looking at the screen and suddenly wonder how you are navigating through the system; well, that my friend is the Interface.

  A UI (User Interface) can be seen everywhere, to you getting money out of a cash machine, calling someone on your new iPhone or Android phone or sending an email on you computer. It is these interfaces on your phones and computers that will be placed under the spotlight today.

  Beginning with a GUI: This interface allows the communication between computer and user via graphical means i.e. Windows 7's icons and windows. The GUI was a revolution in computer history as it allowed everybody access to a computer despite their computer skills which is what was need beforehand i.e MS-DOS was an  early operating system that was used on many personal computers and required text commands to be entered to give the computer commands. These text commands were often long and were not very user friendly to use for example, to copy a file to another location the user could not simply click-and-drag back then they had to type in:

"copy from [source\filename] to [destination\folder]"

Only until upgrade to MS-DOS 5 was a very limited GUI introduced including mouse operation instead of using solely the keyboard. Check out the promo vid of MS-DOS 5.

  Without the help of Ivan Sutherland and Doug Englebart the GUI would not be possible. Ivan invented the Sketchpad which was the first move toward the interfaces we use today. It allowed the user to create shapes on a screen by using a light pen and was a massive leap to how we interact with computers today.

The system still had a size problem to hurdle

The revolutionary user interaction tool

  Doug Englebart was the person responsible for allowing you to move that little mouse around the screen although back then they were massive, imagine dragging a large brick across that lovely new varnished table.

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  With technology booming in the 21st century new ways of interacting with a computer are always arising whether it being speech or now even movement (i.e. Xbox Kinect, Nintendo Wii or Playstation Move) but here I will be focusing on how websites are viewed and present on GUI's on computers and compare them to GUI's on mobile phones.

Facebook (Computer)

  This site is becoming massively popular and it is now essential to have constant access to this is you are out of the house or office away from your computer.

  On the computer everything looks simple with the 1. logo and the navigation sections along the top of the page and down the left side, tools such as your profile, photos and Fb games are located here. All your friends can be seen here too 2. Down the centre of  the page is your main personalised information appropriately named by Facebook as your 'news feed'. 3. Along the right side of the page is adverts, your events and some information about how to use the site.

Click for full size!!

The website is very easy to use and the same is for its mobile page.

Facebook (Mobile)

  When wanting to use Fb on the move there is either the application of the specifically designed mobile site. The mobile site automatically detects it being accessed by a mobile device and so links it to that format. The mobile site is very easy to use and much like it application sister condensed to the most important information. Although the facebook games cant be accessed from the mobile device that is not much of a problem because while moving around you just want to update you status once in a while.

The mobile site

The app look

   The application as you can see uses a basic GUI to make its use easier. The news feed icon looks like a folded paper and the chat looks like dialogue bubbles.

HMV (Computer)

  This site is very popular for buying games, music, films and electronics; but how does it fair on both a computer and a mobile?

  

Click to view full size

  This site is very visual and hold lots of graphics meaning that its load time is considerably longer than say, Facebook's simple design.

  The design here looks very appealing with the negative space emphasising the main information and the large icons and promo adverts. But on this site there is one element that struggles to cross platform to the mobile world and that is - flash.

  Flash can't be used on any old generation mobile device nor can it on an apple, but recently with Android's firmware update of 2.2 Froyo for its devices flash 10 is supported. But for the majority flash is a large hurdle that cant be overcome easily.

Who Are Journalists These Days??

  Journalism 2.0 is an extension to Web 2.0 (blogging, visual, audio and social networking) where by news can be covered in numerous different ways. Within this evolution of the media comes 'Citizen Journalism' (CJ) or 'Street Journalism'. This term is used to describe members of the public filming specific events with mobile phones, cameras or small hand-held shooters. The events are are usually filmed before a professional news team can get to location meaning that the video or audio captured is in its unedited state or raw footage.

  The evolution of mobile phone technology has provided  anyone becoming involved in CJ.

The Citizen Journalist Technology - quick and easy

Phone video cameras over the last few years has evolved to HD meaning that captured footage is of a higher quality making much more of an impact.

This quick and easy to use piece of hardware was vital in the 9/11 New York Bombings, without the public there would be no way of capturing the devastation that was caused.

Rooftop view of 2nd plane hitting tower  (Source: Youtube // CameraPlannetArchive)

The same is with the London Bombings, without amateur footage through CJ we would have never understood what the situation was like in the stations themselves as large news groups like the BBC or ITV were denied access by the authorities.

  The idea of Citizen Journalism has become under a large amount of scrutiny primarily from the more 'professional' individuals in the profession. For example, a letter from a photojournalist Pete Jenkins states, "This is presumably to reward people who were lucky (or unlucky) enough to have been caught up in one disaster or another, and happen to own a mobile cameraphone".

The idea that CJ has gone too far!

 Me personally can see where he is coming from (sort of), he has probably spent years and years training and learning how to provide the best story via the best photographs and to be overtaken by a random citizen capturing a 30sec clip on their phone, posting it on Youtube and a few days later have it shown on all major news networks. (An example is the notorious Cat Lady who purposely chucked a cat in a dustbin by its neck: See the video here)

  Youtube, as mentioned above, has become a world wide success fetching a mere 2billion hits per day according to newsintech.com and provides a platform where videos such as the Cat Lady can become news worthy. In a video from, yes, Youtube, respected American journalist Katie Couric explains this site and how       simple videos can become 'viral': Katie Couric explaining Youtube with Video Examples

This platform of video publishing allows the world to view, comment and discuss the content as if it was shown on TV on the 6'o Clock news. With Journalism 2.0 blog sites are becoming a very popular location for CJ set up to essentially collect this amateur footage for the world to view. Although some large news networks look away at this others embrace it and see its potential. For example, America's CNN has its own dedicated Citizen Journalism site: http://cj.ibnlive.in.com/. On its site it states, "A pioneer in participatory journalism, CNN-IBN offers the common man a platform to tell his story. Log in to join the army of Citizen Journalists and make yourself heard". The sites caption, "Be the Change" I think is a great example to use to describe this broad type of journalism, it is changing, and rapidly at that.

  One interesting type of video capture is CCTV. Over the last decade the number of cameras watching us has grown exponentially but are these cameras part of CJ? I mean, a CCTV camera in a train or on a high street is all integrated into the countries police and therefore part of the government making a massive network of cameras. But this is similar to a large news network in my opinion and therefore not a CJ device or method. On the other hand I suppose CCTV footage can be seen as part of CJ as it is there and captures a rare event as it happens. Its not  there to capture devastating events but to record small scale things such as mugings or desruptions. The CCTV cameras are available 24/7 much like a citizen and captures the event that a news network will not be able to capture. An example would be the London Bombings or the station floodings in Madrid 2007: Station Flooding Footage

This surreal footage shows the whole floor expand as it fills with what looks like water. No news teams would be able to get that footage as it has happened right-there-right-then. For citizens the chance of some filming that particular footage is slim as people were seen fleeing the station. So CCTV can both be seen as a metaphorical CJ or just an addition to the large network linked into the government.

  So who are journalists these days? My answer is that anyone can but in respect to those in the professional trade, it takes skill to set up the footage, prepare and deliver a report on TV or in the paper.