Final Project: Teaser

Check out this teaser for the DigiCiv Documentary we are making. Let me know what you think.

Web 2.0 The machine is Us/ing us

This is a video that Dr. Zappala showed in class a while ago but when i was researching more about the subject of Web 2.0 i found it again. i thought it was a really great representation of what we are talking about here.
what i found most fascinating about the concept of Web 2.0 is that the web has become much more than just a way of "getting information".  instead the web has exploded into a user directed method of creating  information. i'll go through the six points from Jim O'Reilly's article and explain more of my thoughts:

great article on facebook profiles:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/11/24/facebook.profile.shots.netiquette/index.html?hpt=C2

The Media, Printing press, and the internet

After reading the assigned readings on media theory i thought i wanted to compare the printing press and the TV and their effects on society and culture. but my research took me elsewhere. after a little research online i found a sweet online conversation about the printing press verses the internet. The conversation reminded me much of our own class. i thought this would be an excellent opportunity to connect but then the conversation was closed without any way of adding to the conversation. but these people seem like they would be good to connect into our class. so if you figure out how to connect them in let me know!

Final Project update

So i am updating everyone real quick. we are done with the filming of all the students and the professors. we had a few problems with the rental cameras from the library but we pushed on. now my responsibility is to begin editing the raw footage to start to create a coherent storyline. Maggie and Dalton are now hard at work to create a prezi that will sum up both the structure of the class and the historical content of the class. we plan on making a screen cast video of the prezi and inserting it into the video. the gears are in motion. things are going great. i'll keep you posted.

Highways: transporting our economy

The engineering marvel of the twentieth century that i spent more time learning about was the highway system of the United States. It was a fascinating learning experience. prior to the development of the interstate artery system the united states relied most heavily on train transportation for any shipping and transportation. The roads at the start of the twentieth century were poorly made at best. the lack of proper pavement and care for the roads made transport via roads very costly, in terms of time and other resources. the article stated: "it was cheaper to ship fruit by rail from California to an urban market in the East than to deliver it by wagon from a farm 15 miles away". Economically speaking this is couldn't continue.
The united states involvement in WWI ushered rapid change in the highway system. The military transported a lot of things via trucks along roads and trashed the existing roads. as a result the standard of thickness for concrete increased.

Blog Review of "Hot Chocolate News"

I found this assignment to evaluate a classmates blog quite fun. I rarely take the time to really dive deep into a single classmates thoughts and blogs but this has proved to be a great exercise. I found that I really learned a lot about Megan as I read into her blog. And I found that overall she has done a great job of meeting the course objectives and learning outcomes.