Virtual Vatican

The Vatican has decided to venture outside the traditions of their past and host on Internet and youth culture featuring executive from Wikipedia, Facebook, and Google. The Church is hoping this will help them expand their popularity to younger viewers.The conference is being held by the European bishop’s media commission and is intended to uncover questions relating what the Internet culture means for the church’s mission and how the Vatican relays that means to the public.

Pope Benedict XVI has actually attempted to “digitize” the Vatican prior to this. Earlier this year the pope actually launched a Vatican youtube channel. However, this effort has been deemed insufficient and the Vaticans reputation has taken a hit. His Holiness recently displayed his displeasure that a simple internet search was not done to uncover the Holocaust-denying comments of an ultraconservative bishop whose excommunication he had lifted.

The Vaticans top communication official recently outlined the goals of the Vatican to be,

“”Our dream in this global village created by new technologies is that the church and Jesus’ disciples can have their tent — Jesus’ tent — so that the attention of men and women who walk the streets of the world is turned toward it.”

It is important that Pope Benedict XVI continues to stay technologically savy and help the Vatican increase its popularity amongst people of all ages. It is understandable that the Vatican may be reluctant to accept technology and use it to promote its beliefs. However, no matter how rich the tradition, in today’s society a culture, group, or even religion need to take advantage of technologies in order to gain, or even maintain popularity. It can also be noted that several incidents have occureed that the Internet could have resolved quite easily. The amount of data found on the internet can lead to extensive background checks of all Vatican employees.

Clicker finds it Quicker – a television guide for the online generation

Whether it’s increasingly busy schedules or a strong distaste for commercials, more and more people are moving online to watch their favourite television shows. There’s only one problem – finding a site to stream the entirety of the episode you’re looking for, for free. Jon Healy, writer for the LA Times, recently wrote an article introducing a whole new way to search for television shows online.

 Sites like Google video and YouTube provide search engines for users, but Clicker, a new online site that serves as an internet television guide, directs users to only full-length, legal video content. Clicker received 8 million dollars in financing from Benchmark Capital and Redpoint Ventures, and after being available exclusively to invited guests since September, the site has finally gone public. Clicker provides online viewers with a direct path for finding and streaming their preferred television shows– no snippets, bootlegs, pay per view or user generated content.

If you created TV Guide in 2009 instead of 1953, you’d create something like this,” said Jim Lanzone, Clicker’s chief executive, who previously served as the chief executive of Ask.com, the No. 4 search engine.

Clicker’s advantage over sites such as Hulu and Sling.com is due to its small database of videos, so the site often sends users to other video libraries across the internet, better ensuring both quality and availability of most television episodes. Clicker also notifies users if the show they are searching has not been made available online (ahem, HBO) so that fans don’t waste their time searching for footage that doesn’t exist. Eventually, Clicker hopes to expand its digital television guide to be compatible with other devices, such as the iPhone and even the television set itself.

Being a poor student, my roommate and I currently don’t subscribe to cable, and instead, stream all our television shows online. However, watching a one hour program in six separate parts on YouTube is hardly the best viewing experience. Clicker provides an attractive alternative, as the site does the work for you, finding the best site for your desired television show amongst the mass amounts of search hits. Sadly, all of this seems a little too good to be true. Since Clicker sends most of its users elsewhere, ad revenues for the site are limited. Therefore, revenue will eventually have to be sought out either from paid subscriptions to the site, or payments from video aggregators that Clicker sends new customers to (which will in turn, limit the sites list of references). In short, Clicker currently meets the growing demand of users who view television content online, so enjoy it for free – while you still can can.

Burberry: Trenchcoat Treasures Move Online

When I was a little girl, holding my mother’s hand going from shop to shop and admiring the beautiful things was a biweekly tradition. She taught me many important lessons about shopping. Number 1; never have a list of what you want to buy because then you’ll feel guilty for purchasing those few extra things you just had to have. 2; Always wear an outfit that is easily taken off so as to not waste time in the dressing room. 3; don’t shop with a coffee in hand, it’s too hard to carry 3 or 4 bags and pick out clothes from the top racks while holding a venti latte. And number 4; either go it alone, or bring a friend who is equally as stylish, if not even more so than you. That way you can make the decision for yourself or put your faith in someone else’s style savvy hands. But the most important rule of them all was always sport a trendy trench, for the Burberry trench never goes out of style, and has just the right amount of class as does any single strand of pearls. Those raincoats, a 95-year-old fashion icon, still remain Burberry’s best-selling item.

Today, Burberry faces one of the biggest challenges many companies have had to deal with: maintaining momentum within the economic chaos, as well as keeping shoppers in shopping heaven, both in store and online. In Julia Werdigier’s latest article in The New York Times, she discusses Burberry’s wish to move the British brand into the age of the internet to attract a whole new generation of shoppers. Ms. Angela Ahrendts, current C.E.O. and owner of Burberry, said she is proud that Burberry has more than 699,000 Facebook fans. The company, founded as a maker of outdoor wear in 1856 by the British draper’s apprentice, Thomas Burberry, is also attracting customers via Twitter and Youtube. Ms. Ahrendts accredits most of this internet revelation to her 3 children, whom she watches spend countless hours on social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as buying the majority of their clothing online. Burberry associates believe that this step into the internet realm will reflect a broader move by more high-class, luxury goods companies; which have already shown to have failed within the online circus of knock-offs and counterfeits being sold worldwide on sites such as eBay. On Monday, Burberry launched a new social-networking site, artofthetrench.com, on which members are encouraged to post pictures and comment on how other people all over the world treat their trench.

“The biggest thing that keeps me up at night is how can we continue to evolve this organization in order to stay ahead of the curve,” Ms. Ahrendts said during an interview at the company headquarters last month. “My job is to always look two to three years ahead and look round the corner and see what’s coming.”

 The trench coat — originally designed for the British army in 1914 and later associated with Audrey Hepburn’s character in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and Humphrey Bogart’s in “Casablanca” — has come a long way since then. The website is the company’s newest idea to give the classic trademark plaid, a more modern twist.

Crimes Forged in Cyberspace –How your firewall could prevent you from being framed

Child pornography – possibly one of the most severe criminal activities present in the online world.  Now imagine logging onto a coworker’s or loved one’s computer to find this disturbing and illegal content. Do you inform authorities? Before you go labeling anyone a pedophile, you should be aware of a circulating virus that is capable of making any PC owner an unsuspecting collector of child pornography.

Jordan Robertson, writer for the Globe and Mail, wrote an article disclosing the findings of a recent Associated Press investigation that revealed how many innocent people were branded users of child pornography after their PCS became infected with a virus. Michael Fiola, an investigator for workers’ compensation in Massachusetts, was fired from his workplace after child pornography was discovered on his computer. The charges not only meant five years in prison, but Michael was shunned by his friends, experienced death threats, had his tires slashed, and had to take a second mortgage to cover the 250 000 dollars he spent to fight the charges.

It ruined my life, my wife’s life and my family’s life,” – Michael Fiora, wrongly accused of viewing child pornography

 

Michael was found innocent after further investigations showed that while he and his wife were out at dinner, child pornography inexplicably flowed into his computer for an hour and a half. The virus was programmed to visit up to 40 different child pornography sites in just over a minute, clearly going beyond human capabilities. According to security software maker F-Secure, around 20 million of the 1 billion worldwide PCS are infected with viruses that can give hackers ultimate control, which includes the downloading of pornographic content.  While the virus’ existence and ability to frame the unsuspected has been proven, it still remains difficult to determine the innocence of those who have been caught with child pornography on their hard drives.

 It’s an example of the old ‘dog ate my homework’ excuse. The problem is, sometimes the dog does eat your homework.” – Phil Malone, director of the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society

Viruses have always been a nuisance for PC users as they disrupt regular computer activity, but this time, hackers have found a way to enter and destroy personal lives. Ridding your computer of the odd spam or worm is nothing more than a minor inconvenience, while having your reputation ruined and facing the possibility of hard jail time is life altering. Although there is now proof that such a virus exists, there’s no full proof way of separating the guilty pedophile from the innocently hacked. Therefore, PC users should protect themselves by running regular virus scans, opening emails from only recognized users, and avoiding obscure websites. I’m sure once Michael Fiora gets back on his feet financially; he’ll also take necessary precautions – most likely, investing in a Mac.

Facebook: The Solution to a Fear of Public Speaking

Facebook, Twitter, and other forms of online communication seem to be popping up in our every day lives, yet it has always seemed to have a negative connotation in the professional and educated worlds.  It seems that schools and universities have constantly attempted to rid it from their environments deeming it a distraction.  However, Cathal Kelly, a reporter for The Toronto Star contributed an article called “Facebook Gives Power to the Pupils,” stating quite the opposite of this assumption.

At Purdue University, located in Indiana, a professor has employed the use of Facebook, Twitter, and handheld devices in order to digitally engage his students within his classes.  He uses a program called ‘Hotseat,’ which allows students to post comments and questions while the professor delivers his lecture.  These posts are used as a News Feed during class, appearing on a viewscreen for students to see in the hopes of initiating class discussion.

In my opinion, this program offers a slight advantage for students with regards to asking the professor questions, as it appears to avoid the fear of embarrassment with public speaking during lectures.  I know that I always fear asking a dumb, irrelevant, or previously mentioned question; therefore this program would give me a slight boost in confidence.  Students are also able to rate these questions, in the sense of a poll, allowing other students to see just how common their question may be.  Furthermore, the more rated the question, the higher the priority it becomes to the professor.  Again, this can be intimidating as your name is still associated with your Facebook account, but I believe it is much less intimidating than asking the question in person – in most cases, the professor is unable to correlate a name to a face anyway.  Although this may appear as another online communication contributing to the decrease in face to face interpersonal communication, a class lecture creates a very intimidating environment for certain shy students, therefore it gives these students the opportunity to participate in class discussions in a less public format.

It is interesting to see how articles like this are becoming more common and continuing to shed light on the upsides of social networking websites, as the professional world initially feared the creation of these social media sites expecting a decrease in work efforts.  However, based on many posts in this blog, it appears that the professional world is finally embracing social networks.  As previously mentioned in past posts, new jobs are being created, such as “social media experts,” where companies require a professional in the field of social networking to manage company Facebook pages, websites, and twitter accounts.

Especially interesting for this course is that many professors presently face the debate of the use of technological devices during class time, viewing it as a major student distraction – but is a ban the proper solution?  Or should technology be embraced like Purdue University and employed as an application to engage in class discussion?  The main question is would it actually yield success?  It is hard to say, especially basing this question on my own personal use of social networking sites – a form of distraction.  Although an active class discussion can be inspiring, it is certainly difficult at times to develop the confidence to engage with an accredited professor and other intelligent students. While this program has the possibility of fostering a more in depth class participation, it also holds the risk of further legitimizing and increasing class distractions.  But do the possibilities outweigh the risks?  I guess this is essentially for the professor to decide…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz6TUhcGf6s&feature=player_embedded

Google Inc. Grows Again

In today’s Bloomberg News, columnist Brian Womack discusses Google Inc.’s newest addition – AdMob Inc. The idea behind this $750-million purchase is that it will help Google to expand sales of advertisements that appear in smartphone applications. According to Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt,

The purchase [of AdMob Inc.] will allow advertisers to get their brands in front of consumers who use games, personal-finance tools and music programs on the iPhone and other devices, such as those using Google’s Android software.

Apple Inc. released its iPhone in 2007 and to date there are more than 100,000 applications available for download. Google’s Android system, which first became available last year, offers more than 12,000 programs. The addition of AdMob Inc. to all smartphones will be interesting to say the least. The advertisements will appear as most advertisements do online in the form a banner across the top or bottom of the screen. These advertisements will also be present within applications and games.

Advertising industries must love that they can now reach their audience on smartphones. You can see the CEO’s sitting in their offices now: Internet websites? Check. Park benches? Check. Newspapers? Check. Magazines? Check. Busses and taxis? Check. Smartphones? Heck yes, baby!

As a consumer, I enjoy the fact that I can browse and play games on a smartphone without being inundated with advertisements for different products. Sometimes it’s nice to just get away from it all. By having even more ads thrown at me, and with ads become more personalized, it is intriguing, but also worrisome to see just how much farther technology will go before things start to really unravel.

Since this addition, and due to the 27 per cent increase in smartphone sales worldwide, Google is back in business. Schmidt comments however that despite all of their large purchases (YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006 and DoubleClick Inc. for $3.2 billion in 2008), Google is not going to make such extreme purchases the norm. Due to their increase in sales, Schmidt says that

Our [Google's] mobile revenue is growing faster than our regular revenue.

This is definitely good news for people looking for a career with Google Inc. After cutting back in staff from more than 20,000 employees to about 19,665 employees due to the recession, Google Inc. is back, booming, and ready to take over.

Extreme Make-Over: Mouse Edition

Mickey Mouse has been the face of Disney for decades, and this beloved mouse has been preserved inside the Disney vault, regarded as the more than the company’s symbol, but as a beloved character for generations of young people all across the globe. On November 4^th, in the New York Times, Brooks Barnes writes on how Walt Disney is deciding to change the squeaky clean image of Mickey Mouse, and turn him into something completely different and unexpected, but will these changes be welcomed with open arms?  Will Disney’s risky step into the future affect the multibillion empire as a whole? And why exactly do they feel the need to change?

The answer will be the introduction next year of a new video game, Epic Mickey, in which the formerly squeaky clean character can be bad tempered and shrewd, as well as heroic, as he traverses a forbidding wasteland. Alongside the new developments of this computer game, Disney is reaching out and grasping a hold of the new online generation, and bringing Mickey to household computer screens as well. This whole new look will essentially affect the way Mickey walks and talks, to the way he appears on the Disney Channel and how children interact with him on the Web. There is even discussion on changing what his house looks like at Disney World. The Disney executives are attempting to keep a low profile regarding these changes, but the buzz has now gone public, and has people talking about a whole new look for Mickey Mouse. Mr. Spector talks about how the character of Mickey, however would not be the one to go around killing amidst the game, he just does not want the Mouse to be seen as being bland.

“Holy cow, the opportunity to mess with one of the most recognizable icons on Planet Earth,” – said Warren Spector, the creative director of Junction Point, a Disney-owned game developer that spearheaded Epic Mickey.

 Epic Mickey, designed for Nintendo’s Wii console, is set in a “cartoon wasteland” where Disney’s forgotten and retired creations live. The chief inhabitant is Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a cartoon character Walt Disney created in 1927 as a precursor to Mickey but ultimately abandoned in a dispute with Universal Studios. In the game, Oswald has become bitter and envious of Mickey’s popularity. The game also features a disemboweled, robotic Donald Duck and a “twisted, broken, dangerous” version of Disneyland’s “It’s a Small World.” Using paint and thinner thrown from a magic paintbrush, Mickey must stop the Phantom Blot overlord; gain the trust of Oswald and save the day.

“This is a huge opportunity to create more relevancies for Mickey and pull him into the fastest-growing entertainment medium. If it’s a good game — and given the strength of the developer and I.P., the likelihood of that is high — people are going to buy it.”- said Jim Wilson, the chief executive of Atari’s North American business.

But will people purchase this game?  Has Disney lost all charisma, and hope for childhood dreams? I remember the Mickey Mouse I grew up with, he was caring and made me dream, giggle, and created my childhood wonderland of make believe. I wonder what will happened to the generation of children now, since all beloved childhood characters have been altered into video games starring violent and unintelligent characters. Will these changes forever change the face of Mr. Mickey Mouse causing Walt Disney to turn in his grave? Or will these changes be accepted by society? Personally, I wish they would leave Mickey’s image alone, after all, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!’

Oh Apple Inc. What are we going to do with you?

Sometimes you have to wonder what people are thinking, and why they do what they do. Recently, Apple Inc. released a new iPod Nano which can do more things, but still causes people to question what the designers were thinking. On November 3, 2009, The Ottawa Citizen reporter Vito Pilieci wrote an article about the new Nano. In his article, ‘TOO MUCH ADO ABOUT NEW NANO‘, Pilieci discusses the new featuresthat have been added, as well as the old features that deserve to be updated.

The iPod Nano is now in it’s fifth generation. Ergo, one would think that it would be up-to-date – and maybe even ahead – of other personal media players. However, the new Nano is still holding on to original features. I’m not saying this is bad, I’m a strong believer in “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. Sometimes though, things need to be revamped. For example, the iPod Touch, iPhone, and even Microsoft Corporation’s Zune players have been re-worked to offer consumers visually appealing graphic interfaces which still allow for quick finds. The Nano on the other hand, is still holding strong to the original blocky black-and-grey text-based interface.

Another area of interest in the new iPod Nano is the video camera it now holds. It makes sense that a personal media player would have a video recorder. It does not make sense however that the video camera would not be in high-definition. In this day and age, consumers are being spoiled with high-definition. We expect it. We demand it. Why are we not getting it with the new Nano? No high-def? All you can expect to capture are grainy videos – and that won’t suffice for little Jimmy’s big soccer game.

The quality of the video is one thing, but the ability to store it is another issue altogether. The amount of space a person has to record video is limited to the amount of free space on their Nano. This means that for those of us who enjoy a large musical selection on our iPod library, we are probably not going to be able to house much video – if any at all. Just as well though – it’s not even high-def.

Don’t get me wrong. The new iPod Nano has some excellent features. With it’s sleek design, small shape, and beautiful look, the Nano can hold between 8 to 16 gigabytes of memory, includes a speaker, a 2.2 inch screen, an FM tuner, pedometer, and camera. Not bad considering it’s miniature size!

Overall, Apple Inc. has the potential to blow consumer minds. They just have to work on the little things. After all, a little bit goes a long, long way.

The Dangers of Technology

It is always re-assuring as a citizen to see the government use precedents to establish new laws. This has become the case regarding cell phone usage while operating an automobile. This has developed into such a prominent issue mainly because the majority of people operating motor vehicles now own a mobile phone. As Elisabeth Rosenthal reports in the November 1st edition of the New York Times, many incidents like Phillipa Curtis/ Victoria McBryde case have caused judges to start treating mobile usage while driving in a similar manor to that of drinking and driving, or street racing.

On the night of Nov. 20, 2007, the victim, Ms. McBryde, was on her way to visit a friend when she got a flat tire at night on the highway. She pulled over to the edge of the road and called the towing service and her mother. Around this time Ms. Curtis had rear-ended the Victoria McBryde’s car, killing her instantly. In the hours proceeding the accident she had sent over twenty text messages most concerning her encounter with a celebrity singer she had served at the restaurant where she worked. Even though she was not texting at the time of the accident she was charged under new British sentencing guidelines, citing her as having caused “death by dangerous driving”. These guidelines state that even though Ms. Curtis was not texting at the time of the accident, the fact she had been texting while driving preceding the accident is enough to warrant “dangerous driving”. The accused had a twenty-one month prison sentence handed down upon her.

I completely agree with the nature of the harsh sentence. Operating an automobile commands your full attention. Using a hands on cellular device completely hinders the focus needed to operate a vehicle. Although most European countries and a minority of American states now ban the use of hand-held cell phones while driving, Britain has become one of the more aggressive countries in attacking the problem. It is vital that all developed and developing nations follow the precedent set by Britain and set out punishments for hands on cellular usage, similar to that of impaired driving or street racing. Cracking down on cell phone usage works in two fold. It will decrease the number of traffic and highway accidents, and will also stimulate the technological economy by promoting the sale of wireless mobile devices, like Bluetooth.

Father Facebook Reaches Out From Beyond the Grave

Leslie Taylor, a staff reporter for The Toronto Star contributed an interesting and somewhat disturbing article for Monday October 26’s issue. Just her title alone, “Facebook urges users to reconnect with dead people,” explains it all.

As we all know, Facebook continues to update and refurbish the social networking site, and it’s latest update is the new and improved ‘Live Feed/News Feed,’ which has been causing a significant amount of uproar.  I will even admit that before reading this article, my fellow Facebook users expressed their distress with this application, ironically enough, I caught these feelings via the news feed tool itself.

To introduce you to this Live Feed, it not only provides constant updates on what your friends are doing every second, but it further offers a reconnect tool, giving you suggestions within a side bar of which Facebook friends you should “reconnect with,” or whose wall you should write on, and most particular to this article, it suggests who you should befriend based on the number of mutual friends.

Apparently Facebook does not remain up to date on the status of some people, as nearly 700 people expressed their distress about Facebook suggesting to befriend someone who has recently died.  While this would definitely be a sore spot for those that are grieving, other Facebook users are even annoyed with Facebook merely suggesting to connect with someone from their past.  Users respond to this with “you’re not my real dad,” meaning that they do not appreciate being told what to do by this modern day technology.  Others are further distraught by the suggestion of reconnecting with an ex – just when you think you are over him, bam, there he is, staring you straight in the face on your very own Facebook page.

As Facebook continues to develop its site, the users seem to perceive its updates as more and more intrusive into their personal lives. Yet Facebook states that they have the mere goal of “[crunching] all of a person’s cross-connections and [suggesting] people they should link up to or reconnect with.”  So really they just want to make users’ experience on the site more useful and to live up to the full potential of the site’s purpose of connecting and sharing with the people of their life.  But it appears that people just wish to be left alone and thus make their own friend decisions based on personal judgment.

I’m not sure about you, but I use Facebook as a means of communication.  I don’t use it to reconnect with people that didn’t care enough to keep in touch with me for the past 10 years and just want to get their friend count up.  I prefer to actually use the site for communication, not just to watch my numbers go up and make myself feel popular.  It’s today’s version of the ‘olden day’ MSN, or e-mail, you wouldn’t send an e-mail to someone you aren’t currently in contact with, so why would you befriend someone who isn’t actually your friend?  And furthermore, if Facebook ever suggested for me to befriend my dead grandmother, I’d be pretty pissed.