Thornburg (2009) aptly explained that disruptive technologies are a completely new type of tool that changes how things are done, but they are not gradual extensions of the older type of technologies. Recently Second Life was considered a disruptive technology because it interferes with the way people interact with each other on the internet. In Second Life, people create avatars that represent who they are or who they want to be (alter egos) in order to set up relationships in the virtual world.
If this new world is a disruptive technology, it would replace how and where people go to meet others on the Internet. Instead of using chat rooms or having to interact with people on a face-to-face level, people now have the ability to create a new world and develop characters for how they want to be seen in their virtual environment.
Since disruptive technologies seem to come out of nowhere and make an existing technology obsolete, I am not quite sure it will totally replace how we can interact with others. Second Life, has been around for several years, but I do not see it being replace with another innovation within the next 5 years. I do see it being used more in education because in certain situations it can be an effective tool for learning. By using virtual worlds, teachers and students can travel to worlds and access information that we cannot obtain in face-to-face environments.
Laureate Education, Inc. (2009). Emerging and future technology. Baltimore: Author.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Rhymes of History
Rhymes of History
After reflecting on Kevin Kelly’s speech on “The Next 5,000 Days of the Web,” which can be found at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html, I decided to re-explore the technologies we use to communicate. Doing so, I was able to see the plethora of technologies that are in existence for communication. Currently we use landline phones, cell phones, video conferencing, email, and even cloud communications, but the tool that I associated the most was Skype. Skype is a communication tool that is also a rhyme of history, and it allows users to make phone calls, participate in video conferencing, collaborate with group members, send instant messages, and share documents all live on the Internet.
Being able to correspond in this manner reflects man’s desire to reach out communicate with the world around him. What was once only possible through clay tablets in Mesopotamia, Egyptian hieroglyphics on papyrus paper, Chinese script on bamboo, and printed books in Europe to text messages on cell phones, email on the Internet, and now Skype. By rekindling communication in this manner, we are able to communicate more effectively with others and at greater distances. Skype has many attribute that make it a wonderful rhyme of history, but the most impressive is the fact that it allows individuals to communicate for free if both parties have access to a computer and the Internet. With the availability of computers and Internet access in libraries, one only has to be able to set up an account to “reach out and touch” someone across the world.
http://www.siemens-enterprise.com/us/products/openscape-cloud-solutions.aspx?gclid=CITeoJe9u6gCFYhM2godwXtQDA
http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html
After reflecting on Kevin Kelly’s speech on “The Next 5,000 Days of the Web,” which can be found at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html, I decided to re-explore the technologies we use to communicate. Doing so, I was able to see the plethora of technologies that are in existence for communication. Currently we use landline phones, cell phones, video conferencing, email, and even cloud communications, but the tool that I associated the most was Skype. Skype is a communication tool that is also a rhyme of history, and it allows users to make phone calls, participate in video conferencing, collaborate with group members, send instant messages, and share documents all live on the Internet.
Being able to correspond in this manner reflects man’s desire to reach out communicate with the world around him. What was once only possible through clay tablets in Mesopotamia, Egyptian hieroglyphics on papyrus paper, Chinese script on bamboo, and printed books in Europe to text messages on cell phones, email on the Internet, and now Skype. By rekindling communication in this manner, we are able to communicate more effectively with others and at greater distances. Skype has many attribute that make it a wonderful rhyme of history, but the most impressive is the fact that it allows individuals to communicate for free if both parties have access to a computer and the Internet. With the availability of computers and Internet access in libraries, one only has to be able to set up an account to “reach out and touch” someone across the world.
http://www.siemens-enterprise.com/us/products/openscape-cloud-solutions.aspx?gclid=CITeoJe9u6gCFYhM2godwXtQDA
http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html
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