Information Ecology

This reading is Information Ecology

Network is full of information and knowledge. In order for the network to work, it needs nodes and flow of information. The author state that “Flows without elements of structure would be noise and nodes without flows would be dead.” The nodes carry the information and they are interconnected with each other. It constitutes the pattern in the flow of the information. They need each other in order to function. We get information from the nodes and communicate with each other through network. The author had come out with four dimension of information ecology.

 Four dimensions of an information ecology:

1.      Interdependency

The nodes are dependent on each other in order to work. The nodes are interconnected with each other and it can’t work alone. The purposes of network are sharing and get information so the nodes have to connect to each other to allow the flow of information and with this we are able to get the information and connect to each other.

nodes are interconnected with each other

2.      Change

Change means that the change of the flow of the information. The flow can go through different path or nodes to get to the destination. Because the network is decentralized, the information can flow through any nodes to get to the final destination.  

3.      Time-boundness

The author stated that “In an environment where information flows very quickly, at the speed of light through computer networks, and the new interrelations are born as fast as old connections die time is a supreme factor.” This means the information flow on the network is very fast and people can get the information in a blink of eyes. For example, when you sent an email to a friend in the opposite of the world, he or she will get the email in the blink of eyes. The flow of information is very fast regardless or the physical borders and time. It can reach to the targets immediately.

4.      Differentiation

“Information is difference and the nodes survive as long as they can make a difference, which is for as long as they can produce information that is valid for others.” So, differentiation at here means that, each node have to be special and unique. It should hold different information to differentiate themselves from the thousand thousands of nodes in order to survive.

In conclusion, network is made up of many nodes. Nodes and flow of information need to work together and they need each other to work in order for the network to work well. Nodes are interconnected to each other and its hold the information while the flow of information carries the information to us. Nodes and flow of information are “business partner” inorder to make the business called “network” to work properly.

Economies in Networking Citizens

This week reading is Economies in Networking Citizens (pp. 25-31)

Link >> http://www.demos.co.uk/files/Network%20citizens%20-%20web.pdf

The author said that “Technology is the only part of the answer to why it is that networks have remained in such sharp focus, and have occupied thinking around work and businesses.”The rapid growth of the technology have make network become very important to us. We can easily access to the network because of the new technology like iPad and smart phone at anywhere and anytime. This makes it easier for us to access to the network and make the network become convenient to us. For example, people are frequently updates their status through their mobile phone on Facebook or Twitter to let people know what they are doing. With these reason, network has become very important to business too.

social network

Network changes the way people conduct their business. In the past, people need the physical office to start a business but now, you just need a laptop and access to network and do business online. For example, there are many people selling clothes on the popular social network, Facebook. There are also a lot of organizations or company using Facebook to promote their service or product to millions of the Facebook user. They created a fan page for the company and update their company’s information for their fans in the fan page. They also keep in touch with their customer on Facebook. They can also advertise at the Facebook to create awareness towards their services or product. The labour had change from industry labour to liquid labour which means that the business had change from the factory machine assembly lines to the computer which processing information. Many company or organization had computerized their systems to be more systematic, convenience and flexible. With this, it is easier to find the data in the company when the data is computerized. It will save a lot of time for the staff to look for the data where time is the money for the company.

Besides that, network can help the organization or company in interact with client and customers.  I had just mention that many organization used the popular social network, Facebook to keep in touch and updates with the customer and clients. Network is a must for business especially when dealing with the client at different country. Organization or company need to keep in touch with the client frequently by email or have video conference. Network breaks the physical border in the real world and with this; it’s easier for the organization or company to make business throughout the whole world. The time on network is homogenization which means that the sense of time is less obvious on network. People can send the email or data anytime and can contact the people on the opposite on the earth at anytime.

Interact through Network

Because of the network, business can be done easily and faster. So, network is helps in economic. According to the author, he stated that the last two decades have seen a shift away towards service and knowledge-based work. In this century, the Katerina Rudiger has argued in a report for the Work foundation, ‘this shift to “intangibles” is underpinned by modern economic growth theory, which acknowledge the vital role that technological progress and knowledge play in generating long term growth. Network is full of different types of information and knowledge, it also can stores the organization data and helps to contact and deal with the clients. The employees can find the information on the network easily and make their work easier and can complete it in short time. Network also can help the employees from different department to communicate at anytime and anywhere. This helps to save time and make the work more effective.

There are many people do business through network to cut down the transaction cost. For example, organization or company can promote their service and product through social network which cost nothing like set up a fan page on Facebook. It can make a big impact on the audience and create great awareness. Besides that, people that do the business online also save down a lot of cost because they do not need to setting up an office for business.

As a conclusion, the network helps a lot in business. When the business or transaction had increase, our economic will increase as well. That means network will directly affect the economic. But there are some disadvantages of network in business as well. The network make the work become easier as well as cut down the job opportunities. The technology had replaced the job for us and the many people is losing their job. The author stated that “high-tech manufacturing declined from 443 300 jobs in 1996 to 288 000 in 2006”. It had become an issue in many develop country. What do you think?

I'm unemployed =(

What do you think about Cyberspace?

This week reading is “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace” by Barlow.

Cyberspace - A world without fresh and bones

What is cyberspace? Cyberspace is the electronic medium of computer networks, in which online communication takes place (Free Dictionary). For me, I think that cyberspace is a virtual world. It is not a physical environment; all it need is just typing and clicking. There are no rules, no laws and no control in it. It also can say is a perfect world, a world that can satisfy each and everyone’s need. People can do everything and anything at cyberspace at anywhere and anytime. Everyone used cyberspace for different purposes and needs.

Get connected to the world - find information

Released Stress

Connect to the social network

Cyberspace has no central authority. Nobody owns the cyberspace. You can have total privacy in the cyberspace and you do not need to report to anyone when you use the cyberspace. The cyberspace is independent as well as you in the cyberspace. You can communicate with different people in different country without restriction and borders in cyberspace. People can also share information, files and so on on the cyberspace. Because of this, there are huge copyright issues on the cyberspace. For example, people can upload and download songs on the cyberspace for free.

According to the Barlow, cyberspace is free from law. Barlow said that “We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth.” People can do whatever they want and like on the cyberspace. No people will restrict anyone from doing anything. Basically people can do anything on cyberspace without worrying about the law.


“We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.” quoted by Barlow. This means that people have the freedom of speech that they do not have in the reality. You can post up their opinion and speak whatever they think is right on the cyberspace and you will not get arrested because there are no rules on cyberspace.

When there are no rules and law, people will tend to do things that will hurt people, post up the fake information, news to affect the peace of the world. For example, people will fake their identity in the cyberspace and try to cheat money from people. People may post up the fake information that will make people panic and affect the peace of the world. Is it good that there are no rules and laws to control the cyberspace? It is a very subjective question, for the author, he thinks that there should not be any law for the cyberspace; they are forming their own Social Contract on cyberspace. He thought that cyberspace is different from the physical world and the government had no right to set a rules or law against them.


There are some country are trying to set laws for the cyberspace to try to control it. According to Barlow, United State had created a law, the Telecommunications Reform Act. In Malaysia, there are ISA – Internal Security Act. ISA is an emergency act to fight against the terrorist and to maintain the national security. So, ISA have the rights to detent anyone that posted on the cyberspace if they found the content of the post is harmful towards the society of it will affect the peace in our country.

Everyone is equal in cyberspace

Everyone is equal in cyberspace. Everyone have the same rights on cyberspace. There are no stereotyping, no discrimination on cyberspace, people do not need to expose their identity to each other, and they have total privacy. With all this reason, people feel save while using cyberspace, they can freely speak out their thought and secrets without worrying the other parties will betray them. They can do things in the cyberspace that they are afraid to do in the real world.  But is the cyberspace really safe? If it’s really safe, why there are many hackers around and there people around tend to steal people’s personal data and fake their identity?

As a conclusion, I personally think that there need some rules or laws to control the cyberspace for the sake of people not for the sake of government. We need some laws or rules to protect our rights in the cyberspace. What do you think about it? Do you think that a cyberspace without any law and rules is better?

Why networks matter?

First blogs is to blog about Afterword:why networks matter by Manuel Castells.

Power does not reside in institutions, not even the state or large corporations. It is located in the networks that structure society . . .

Afterword:why networks matter by Manuel Castells
 

Links>> http://www.kirkarts.com/wiki/images/5/51/Castells_Why_Networks_Matter.pdf

For me, I used network to find information, for entertainment like playing games, file sharing, and file storage and for social purpose. For example, a popular social networking site, Facebook helps me to get in touch with my primary friends which I had lost contact. I can easily know how my friend is doing, and what are they doing currently because of social network.

With the rapid growth of the technology, network had become more and more powerful, importance and influences the society. For example, the invention of smart phone, PDA, iPad and so on, allow people to connect to the network at anytime and anywhere to communicate, to social with people. Most of the people on the social network especially Facebook 24/7 to update what are they doing, get the update from their friends and its have become an important part of their life. They can’t live without it. The time of people communicate or social with each other through network is way longer than communicate or social face to face. According to Manuel Castells, he stated that we live in a network society, not in an information society or a knowledge society.

Networks are powerful, it allows people to communicate globally and it had become an important part of our life. People can’t live without network. Thru Manual Castells, there are 7 reasons that why network is so powerful.

First, the network society is expanding rapidly and globally. It is so true that we can communicate with each other without boundaries. We can be friends with people from other countries, culture through network, especially social network. You can be friend with anyone from anywhere in this world. Although people are separate with thousands of miles, with the existing of network, they can feel like they are just next to each other.

Second, business runs well with the network. How’s the business run through the whole world? They fly here and there for a weekly meeting? Meeting with clients? Network can help to make this work more convenience and save money. They can hold a meeting through video conferencing, with this; they can have the meetings face to face with their clients from a far distance. This can save the cost on transportation, save the precious time and most importantly can save the environment too.

 

Thirdly, the politician use networks too. There are many politician blogs about the politics and their comments. People know about them by reading the blogs and update with the current politics in our country. The politician also can get feedbacks from the people while they commented on their blogs and so on. They need to be close with the people in order to get the support from people. People can update their information about the politics through other network too. For example, people can get their update on the politics in the news website immediately if something happen.

Forth, people can get any kind of information or comments from the network. People can use the search engine to find all kinds of information at anywhere, anytime thru the network. With the search engine, we can get the information that we needed immediately. According to ebizma.com the top 1 popular search engine is Google. It means that there are most people using google to search for information. The word “google” had replaced the word “search”. Why I said so? It’s because that people will said go “google” it instead of go “search” for it. With the search engine, we can get the information that we needed immediately.

Top 15 Most Popular Search Engines | August 2011

http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/search-engines

Fifth, network is more powerful now comparing the network in the past. Old days, people use networks for mail, discussion group, files transfer and so on but networks now have different uses. People use networks for social networking, gaming, forum, files sharing, e-commerce, search and so on. The networks now have more functions and people can’t live without it. Can u imagine a day or a week without network?

Sixth, media in network. Because of the rapid growth of network and technologies, there are online radio, online TV, online video, online news and so on appear in the network. People can listen to radio or watch TV anytime or anywhere with the access to internet through their smart phone, laptop, PDA, ipad and so on. With this, people do not have to carry a radio or TV everywhere. People also can read the online news to get to know the latest news and information. E-books have become more popular than the traditional books. It is because it is more convenience for people to access to the network to read the book at anytime and anywhere compare to bring the heavy books around. It also save the environment by cut down less trees.

Seventh, network is very powerful. People used it for different purpose and it can satisfy each and everyone. We can see that network is very useful towards each and every of us for different purpose and satisfaction.

Network had change so much in the past ten years. The purpose of using the networks, the people that using the networks is growing rapidly without an end. Can you imagine how’s the network will be in the next ten years? I don’t think anyone have the answer for this because network is so complicated and unpredictable.

In conclusion, network has become part of our life. A day without network is just like a day without any meal. Network has become as importance as our daily meal. We could also say that network has become one of our important “meal” everyday.  This is why networks matter.