My AHA! Moments

My Self-Assessment of the Course

2005-12-15T01:45:00.000-08:00

We are required to submit a self assessment of the course as well as our performances within the Digital Governance class. Since I have become familiar with "blogging" I have incorporated it as my main source of communicating and conveying information. I have posted my readings on here, so feel free to check them out. I have also created links to documents and/or sites that pertain to that blog's theme. What was new for me was trying to incorporate pictures within my blog. I had some successes and a gaggle of failures but the point is I learned how to do it. Maybe the more blogging I do the more tech savvy I'll become. As for this class, I've come to the realization that I am a small fish in a giant bowl. I wasn't aware of half of the concepts we addressed in this class and I think that showed. Some of the weeks I sat quietly, observing, trying to grasp what exactly was going on. The readings helped. In particular the three I read were very helpful in understanding the basics of eDemocracy, eRulemaking and the like. I totally and completely fell in love with the Snyder book because it explained fluency of information technology in a way I could comprehend. I have even suggested it to my Organizing Information professor as an accompaniment. I think that my performance in the class can be broken down into two topics:Class Participation and Assignment Completion. Class participation was a high point for me in that I was able to express my concerns and even ask "stupid" questions without feeling embarrassed. It is from many of my off comments that I learned about the magnitude of digital governance. Assignment completion is a state of mind in that I have completed them but not in the appropriate format. I took a cue from Patty and Piotr about posting their essay and at the time it made sense. That is where my essays are and unfortunately I can't cut an paste them elsewhere for submittal. That was my mistake but it's all apart of the learning process. Also, I had my sights on doing a power point presentation on the work that I do but the connection between it and this course were marginal. I opted for the paper which gives me the opportunity to explain some of what I do and try to make the connection of this type of information to the course. I hope that it works. Overall, I think that this was a wonderful growing experience because I am not open to new things I thought scary. After recording my voice for the power point presentation and discussing with Luke his podcast ideas, I am inspired to want to contribute and possibly learn even more about how global governance will affect us all. I have to thank all those who were in my class for inspiring me to want to understand the internet beyond just emails and chat rooms. I want to also thank Dr. Shulman for allowing us an environment to express our thoughts and concerns constructively and create a platform to investigate these processes.

Milestone 10-Now It's Time to Say Goodbye

2005-12-14T11:52:00.000-08:00

Wow, we are at the end of this journey into digital governance. I must admit I had quite a rocky start. I felt like a fish out of water but I think by the end of this I've learned at least the mechanics of swimming. Like an onion there are so many layers to this thing that it'll take forever to truly deconstruct it all. I know that when this class began I stepped out on faith because I really thought I'd be surrounded by a sea of uber geniuses. I think I said that quote earlier in my blog actually. What I found out was that they are geniuses but geniuses with heart but also common sense. We know the potential power of this technology but the need to abuse it does not resonate in the class mates I've worked with. They understand the importance of creating a digital universe as close to utopia as possible and the need to incoporate those from all walks of life to experience this amazing transformation of democracy. It still frightens me. I worry about who's behind it all and what they intend to do with it. But in the same respect I think of how everyone thought the world would end in 2000. We ran around frantic and when it did become a new millenia nothing happened. I think that about eDemocracy too. Perhaps we're hyping it up so much that when it does arrive it's a whimper rather than a growl. I have been inspired by my classmates to learn more than the conventional web. I have learned to really think about how paper democracy and eDemocracy will coexist or will they? I don't quite know the answers to that but what I do know is that as long as there are people out there questioning and encouraging this thing to grow it'll be okay. I worry when there aren't any voices out there and things become easily accepted without any deliberation.

Presentations-A reflection of sorts

2005-12-12T11:16:00.000-08:00

I just want to say to all those who did their presentations that they were phenomenal. David Totten's NPR-esque presentation of the Wi-Fi connection in a small Native American town in Alaska was brilliant. I think that it's amazing this small town understood the importance of the internet and incorporated it into a marketing campaign of their traditional art work. One of the issues I brought up in the class was the concern for those individuals upon their success. As we have seen with many groups that are considered impoverished or economically depressed, when they begin to make money Big Business comes in wanting their share of the profits.
As for Piotr's presentation I must agree with Dr. Shulman that he is definitely wise beyond the norm. Every point was met with a counterpoint and some of the concerns about Wiki were easily and effectively explained. Piotr is definitely a genius in his own right and his plan is to create the world in the image and innovation of Wiki.
Damiem's doctoral presentation is very specific. Some of the ideas he posed were a bit over my head but I enjoyed the creative powerpoint. I would like to learn more about what he was discussing.

Milestone 9-Perhaps I Shouldn't Be in Movies

2005-12-10T10:37:00.000-08:00

If ya'll remember that initially I wanted to do a powerpoint presentation on the web based information system I work with for Allegheny County. At the suggestion of Dr. Shulman I changed that to the paper and I find that to be a better medium. The more I thought about it and upon seeing the masterpieces from my fellow classmates, the better the idea sounded. I have been constructing what I think is a pretty good paper but enough of that for now. My milestone similar to the title is that I shouldn't be attempting Powerpoint presentations that loosely tie to the course. Yeah it's a harsh reality but I honestly am very much torn and in some instances undecided on the effectiveness of eRulemaking and eDemocracy. I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about this class and when I proposed some of the benefits of eRulemaking he scoffed. When I asked him why he quickly replied " Although you can do things instantaneously such as email your Senator or discuss in realtime with other people on important topics doesn't mean the process is instantaneous. I thought about that for a moment. He was right. Even if I email the Senate or any one of the subcommittees they usually have a return "dummy" email that says thank you for your email. We'll get back to you. It's almost the same when you try to call the telephone company or the cable company. They redirect you to all these automated voices and you have to keep pressing the buttons until an actual voice is heard. Applying that to the whole concept of eRulemaking it's just another prompt we have to push buttons for.

Happy Turkey Day!

2005-11-24T12:36:00.000-08:00

I just want to wish everyone a Happy Turkey Day. Please travel safe and for those who are not going anywhere eat til your belly pokes out.

Lessig-The Saga Continues

2005-11-18T11:59:00.000-08:00

I just want to say that this book is one of the must reads. I don't wanna sound like a groupie here but Lessig has brought up some deep issues concerning where we're heading as it pertains to copyright. How can we try to fit a circle in a square peg? That's how I see government trying to apply the current laws to cyberville. It's so transparent and formless yet at its core it's completely structured albeit weirdly. Not only that, the added issues are how do you prosecute an individual when they work from a URL that makes them foreign? We have seen the government's attempts to snag hackers and/or recruit them to work for the greater good. That's a partial solution but the problem is bigger than that. As Lessig might say you're constricting the air pipe of the creative throat. We fear change. We fear chaos. But we have to understand that order does result from chaos and with the web as it is, things will find order. Wikipedia is a model example. At the onslaught of such an idea people feared that contributers would post whatever came to mind and it would be a hodgepodge of useless information. A further examination shows that there is a structure. They do post often but there is also a deliberative element that regulates what things are posted. It's a wonderful and effective process but government tends to look at everything in the negative or worse case scenario. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Image_copyright_tags

Milestone 8-If all the World's A Stage, Where's My Check

2005-11-15T10:48:00.000-08:00

I must admit, my milestone headings can be quite extravagant but they are relevant. I decided to take a line or two from a famous quote and slightly change it. Now for some they may say that the above statement is a unique idea and therefore I should copyright it. Granted I may consider such things but I'm trying to prove a point. The play on a line may inspire others to add, edit, or manipulate that verse to further derive meaning. Lessig's book discusses how just slight changes by the right business minded individual can lead to millions of dollars in success or millions of dollars in lawsuits. I was completely blown away at the part in the book where the guy wanted to use a small segment of the Simpsons and when he asked Matt Groenig he said sure. His gut told him to ask Groenig's company and they said no. He then asked how much it would cost to include such a small segment and when they gave him the price even I shook my head. What have we become? We are so obsessed with the thought that our ideas will be stolen but we disregard the important issues like the ongoing war in Iraq, homelessness, and famine. It's as if we are saying that if you can't profit there's no point in doing it. Now to tie this in to this class, which ya'll make think is a stretch. At this current juncture eRulemaking and deliberation is free. Heck, even blogging is free. But as we all remember, emails used to be free too. There are some that still exist but the storage space is so limited we are encouraged to buy more. eRulemaking may go that route too. "For a nominal fee you can access hundreds and thousands of chat rooms integral in the global policy making process..." It's just around the corner. We as digital citizens will one day pay for the right to deliberate, a thing we've been able to do for free in the real world. Again what will incur are cliques and an elite that will monitor and censor comments made against the majority. Perhaps I'm going off on a tangent a bit but Lessig alludes to it also. He calls it a restriction of creativity.

Free Culture-The Lessig Method

2005-11-11T10:40:00.000-08:00

Upon reading the first half of Lessig's book Free Culture, I must say I'm amazed. For me, this book was a history lesson in how the very powers that be are trying to censor creativity when in fact they are guilty of bootlegging and piracy. I find it hypocritical on especially the music industry's behalf to vehemently seek out individuals and sue them for exorbitant amounts of money. The only thing they accomplish is stripping that person of their finances and their dignity. Maybe that is the point but maybe they should look to the example Lessig makes about piracy in I think Japan. They have a highly successful Manga or graphic novel business but equally successful is the pirate mangas that parody the legitimate novels. They initially tried censorship but when that attempt failed they gave in or as I like to put it "If you can't beat em join em" approach. The success story in that is that both mediums are making a profit but in addition to that it's spurning the growth and innovation or art in the Japanes culture. Lessig even likened it to the early motion picture years when there was not only steamboat willie but another similar character. Later Disney's version became the more successful one which led to them cornering the market on Mickey for the next 80 or so years.

Chapter 18-Kippen and Jenkins

2005-11-02T11:09:00.000-08:00

Grant Kippen and Gordon Jenkins have written on the importance of e-democracy and essentially its connection to how we will do politics in the upcoming future. Kinppen and Jenkins begin the reading by stating that governments across the board since the advent and popularity of the Internet to transition from paper government to e-government. Both authors point out the many pitfalls governments have reached as a result of this process. Political parties as a whole have witnessed the following changes:

The rise and influence in single missioned groups that claim universal "integration" of the multifacetd society
Voters that don't participate in the election process.
Lack of loyalty amongst traditional political parties.
A deficit of accountability for inferior improvements technologically speaking compared to what citizens expect.

It is with these changes which threaten the very existence of paper democracy that the authors argue the significance of e-government. In a slightly off topic example, Kippen and Jenkins cite the success of business online. The authors point out that businesses through e-commerce learned to, above all else, strengthen the customer-business relationship. In doing so, the customer is more inclined to patronize and work exclusively with the business. The results as stated in the example of Dell is an even larger and more profitable company. Other businesses followed the Dell model which has created a multibillion dollar industry that hardly sees its customer in person. The restructuring to a more flexible hierarchy or what the authors call "disaggregate and reaggregate" yields success. So how does that connect to e-democracy? The answer is that with the successful of business in connecting to the individual to enhance the experience the government followed suit and got "online." In doing so however they just transferred the same paper concepts to electronic form. What businesses did was either scrap or reorganize paper business and adapt to the new medium. This adaptability is what both authors are stressing. In order for the e-democracy to effectively work government has to immerse itself in this new way of doing things and adapt to reconnect with the very people they represent.

Chapter 11-Digital Deliberation:Engaging the Public Through Online Policy Dialogues

2005-11-01T13:30:00.000-08:00

Thomas Beierle's essay is based on data gathered by the EPA that focused on how people engage in online dialogue. This dialogue set up by the EPA yielded some interesting results primarily as it concerns how we interact online and its effectiveness. Beierle explains that there are four types of ways citizens previous interacted as it concerned policy making and government: One-way communication or reciprocal dialogue, information exchange, recommendations, and agreements. Interactive dialogue would be the fifth form, one which allowed a greater range of brainstorming and information sharing than the previous four. Beierle defines the four modes of interaction given them validity for the times they serviced so to speak, but stresses that the natural course of government is already going online. The advent of chat rooms with their ability to bring large groups of people together easily and far more cost efficient than the traditional modes.

Emerging From the Famous Bat Cave...

2005-11-01T12:13:00.000-08:00

Greetings fellow bloggers(classmates and/or otherwise),

I have been hibernating in a cave off the coast of Nova Scotia and am now back in action. For those who don't know it's mid-semester and tensions are high. Priorities seem to compound further causes emotional and physical exertion. With that fun tidbit being said come my apologies.
First off, I apologize to my happy classmates, I have completely forgotten to post the previous weeks chapter. Hey I am human, and I know that my professor understands...sorta. This weeks chapter unfortunately will be well past the 36 hour time frame. So I'm apologizing now. Yes I know tardy work will be downgraded but there is good news to all of this. I had to read the fantastic(and I use that term loosely) book Freakonomics. On my site will be a link to the official website. This book is controversial. It's also based in statistical data. How does it connect to our class? We as the purveyors of knowledge and governance know that in order to prove or disprove a point you must you statistical data. This book attempts to use "non-judgmental" data to uncover the hidden truths of society. I will not spoil the book for anyone until Thursday in which I will divulge all its secrets. So classmates be warned! What's also cool and relates to our class is the site does have a "blog section." But that is my report that I'm now out of the Bat Cave and ready for action. Signing off til tomorrow.

P.S Me aculpa for the lateness of my chapter summaries.

Milestone 7-Hey Hey We're Bush Monkeys!!!

2005-10-31T10:28:00.000-08:00

Greetings fellow bloggers!

For your enjoyment I have for you to view Bush Monkeys. I think that the issue of the Bush Monkeys which was just recently brought to my attention reflects how much we as Americans are censored. Also it's a bit of a shout out to a fellow Allderdice High School Alum, Chris Savido. Please go to the link provided of course by our friends at Wikipedia. Look very carefully at the picture now. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Savido

In case you're wondering how is this revelation an actual milestone I will tell you now. Look at the picture. It doesn't appear the least bit offensive but when you look at it more closely you can see that there are monkeys wading about forming our president. As I have stated above its appearance is harmless but if you tie in the monkey to how Bush is running the country you can see why there are some pretty ticked off people. Furthermore, in discussing this piece with the artist he told me that when he tried to sell this art on eBay he was prohibited. Ouch! Talk about the power of government and the vendors who don't want Big Brother raining on their parade. I hope that with the further growth and ensuing power of eRulemaking things like this will change.

Milestone 6-Wiki Be My Guide

2005-10-22T13:50:00.000-07:00

I must dedicate this page to a student who has definitely changed my outlook on Wikipedia. Piotr in my opinion is a guru of this medium, possessing an optimism rarely seen. I hope he doesn't find this as a worship blog or anything. I just find it really neat that he has participated in something that many look at as a way to unite a globe of people for a cause. I have in the past used wikipedia and I even did a presentation of it in my introduction to technology course over the summer. Unfortunately, I didn't take its significance serious enough and in retrospect did a mediocre job at presenting such a fascinating site. I now find myself correcting those who would try to discredit or disclaim wikipedia as a schlock site. Thank you Piotr you've turned me into a believer.

Milestone 5-Evil Empire?

2005-10-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

Upon reading the Perez article in Shane's book I had an "AHA" moment. I did not know how connected the powers that be are to this technology. Often times I hear about all this talk of the internet being one of the last bastions of free speech. It's supposed to be the place where "free" is really supposed to mean that. A place where thinkers from every social background can discuss and perhaps mobilize to change the "real world." Reading Perez it reminds me that big business, big brother, and his/her band of merry "people" are working hand in hand to control the flow of information. Questions I think about are how come some of this wasn't told to me or at least why wasn't I given the memo.
I have placed a link to a site called "http://www.eparliament.org/" I don't know if it'll actually direct you there but it's a site designed to help the world mobilize. Perhaps it will help to unite the world though I am skeptical. Some of the major problems with this site is it's lack of attractiveness. Yes I know it sounds shallow but we are a visual society. We in essence have been programmed to know what a website is supposed to look like. If it doesn't have color or some type of animation we easily lose interest. Big business knows that and therefore they control what we feel as a reputable site. I myself, am quite disillusioned and need time to gain my faith to a certain extent in the internet.

Chapter 6-Global Governance and Electronic Democracy by Oren Perez

2005-10-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

Greetings, I have had the unfortunate incident of not saving my first draft which resulted in a power failure and I lost it. Saving does work, now I know. My disclaimer is that the opinions expressed are my own. I think for the sake of still being in shock over what happened this will be shorter. Also, forgive me if paragraphs run on because I am not able to start a new paragraph. I don't know if it's the effects of the outtage or what but here goes. The reading by Perez is loosely based on a conference " Prospects of Electronic Government" that was hosted in part by Carnegie Mellon University. At this conference there is a discussion of a group called the Internet Corporation for Assigning Names and Numbers(ICANN). This institution is apparantly highly influential in global citizenry. Perez is for the formation of a global democracy however, groups such as ICANN concern him primarily because their aims are not egalitarian in nature but are insensitive to social and humanitarian issues. Perez expresses his opinion of utilizing the internet in a way to herald true global democracy. Perez's main question is as followed: Can the Internet contribute to the development of a more inclusive decision making structure? In the reading he breaks down democracy down into two groups: The Unidimensional Structure of Democratic Institutions and the Internet as a Multidimensional Medium. The unidimensional way of doing things according to the author is based on two fundamental principles, autonomy of the citizen and the belief in equality. In theory Perez believes that to be autonomous one is devout of all influences, making decisions on their own but realistically we as a society are always being solicited to support a person, cause or organization. The idea of equality also is a pipe dream, just depends on who you ask. Perez delves further by catagorizing two kinds of what he calls social pluralism. The first kind is the diversity based on societal visions, an amalgam of multiple discourses. The second kinds is diversity based on the principle that people have distinct, innate structures. How does this all tie in you ask? Well if I'm following Perez and he does tie it in, is that these break downs in people and how they function directly effect their embracement of the Internet. Those inclined to react to structure constructs are more prone to be fearful of the 'net versus those who are less constricted. Perez discusses the Internet as a multidimensional medium three fold: As an efficient means of transparency, A means to elicit public comments or votes on its normative output, and to facilitate dialog between the institution and public. Perez's conclusions are that the Internet will help to easily herald the fundamental concepts of democracy which are dynamic rather than stationary in thinking. Perez feels the internet is the appropriate vessel to convey a social or global conscious with the government(s) acting on the group consensus via an internet public forum. Perez does realize that even that concept is a bit idealistic but more possible with the intenet. I will post a second blog with my further opinions but I am going to have to call it a day.

My Project

2005-10-17T06:06:00.000-07:00

My project though undefined during our class discussion will deal with the databases that I currently use through the county on Drug and alcohol prevention. Here is the site even though you can't get in http://bdap.health.state.pa.us/pbps/. The Prevention Based Provider System also known as PBPS evolved from floppy disks that were sent in quarterly to a website in which providers input data on clients that utilize the various programs. Prior to the website, there was a trust that agencies would input the appropriate data on the participants and not "fudge" the numbers. With the onset of the website there is a "big brother" aspect that can check at their discretion who puts in the data and at what time. In addition to such surveillance the website is constantly updated and meetings are held at least twice a month to discuss the direction the system is heading. In essence the site is eventually going to herd the agencies into inputting data relevant to the county. Let me explain that a bit. Initially the county told all agencies to input every and all activities associated with prevention. Then, they suggested we input more of the ongoing activities and limit the one time activities since they are harder to scientifically measure. The whole idea of scientific measurements and such is explained on the SAMHSA site. Just follow the link. Limiting the ongoing activities was just the tip of the iceberg. Next they have pre-selected surveys in which we have to administer to the participants. It used to be our choice. But what I've gathered is that they are doing so in order to fulfill their requirements to either the state or the federal government. Mind you that's just my opinion. This may raise some overall issues on digital governance such as how much power does the creator of the website have in tracking your activity on their site. Similar big brother activities can be seen on Amazon.com where they "intuitively" track where you go and then give you helpful suggestions on other products that may interest you. There is also the fact of certain programs that will gather your internet activities and then instantly their advertisement will pop up on your computer. All though my instance and the other instances I've given are on the extremes it ties in to the question I think I'm trying to pose: How anonymous are you online and who is really watching your activity? Perhaps my classmates and/or Dr. Shulman will help me to streamline that question or re-work it.

Milestone 4-The Mystery of History

2005-10-12T12:16:00.000-07:00

I have named this digital nugget loosely on the fact that we are more clueless as we go about this digital journey. Again, this class never ceases to amaze me with the knowledge of the internet. With that being said on with the show... History in my humble opinion is cyclical. We are doomed to repeat it. The internet, eRulemaking, eDemocracy, and the like are reinventions of the wheel: Just happens to have more bells and whistles. We as a society are completely ecstatic about the potential of being able to express our concerns and issues automatically via email and chat rooms. Reviewing chapters like Witschge and Samuel convey the point. We have gotten into analyzing the issues attached to the world transparent and have come up with a complete universe solely centered on this. Of course that's nothing new but this technology should not be squandered among the intellectual elite. I think the purpose of the internet was to bring people together not create a hierarchy of those who know how and those who get mad at those who know how. Here's a link to a pretty interesting site http://www.tartarus.org/~martin/essays/burkequote.html

Milestone 3-Reflecting on Our Previous Classes (Issues Of Confidentiality)

2005-10-07T11:04:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I've posted. My apologies for such a lapse but I'm back on course. Some house keeping items before I continue with the blog. As you may have noticed, I've figured out how to not only put everyone's blog link on my site but I have included some additional links of interest. I hope no one gets mad that I decided to put something extra by your name so as to let you guys know how cool I think you all are. Please take the time to check them out. They are connected in part to what I want do for my big project for the class. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, please allow me to continue.
The previous classes have touched on what I primarily do for a living. I am a data specialist and deal with many prevention based in particular web-based systems. By no means am I a guru but I constantly worry about issues of confidentiality on the web. The internet in many ways is like a child. It's constantly growing trying to figure out what it is and where its place is in the world. We as a community are feeding it all kinds of things in hopes that the best things will be highlighted. Unfortunately as we have seen it's a wild mix in cyberville. Drawing those concepts into my head has given me a new insight on this course. Peter Muhlberger brought up some interesting points and he delved into many "habermas-ian" concepts. Though some of the things said I agreed with but what I've found is that most of these theorists/authors have excluded a very vital population: The commoner. I tend to champion the "digitally illiterate" who will further be marginalized by such technological advances. What I've been reading is from the perspective of academics who don't necessarily understand the plight of the common people. We as students are engrossed in a culture of a technologically savvy community so there's an obvious bias. The next speaker Ellen Detlefsen who I thought did a wonderful job was a little closer to trying bridge that gap. The only objections I had was that the situations she used weren't universal norms. The field I deal with prevention is as tricky as the weather. Everyone tries to attack one head of the hydra so to speak, but we all know that it just grows back twice as large and nasty. The best approach is an all around one, but I'm going off on a tangent. Stay tuned for my next rant.

Milestone 2-Information...Or lack there of

2005-09-29T11:53:00.000-07:00

I have had some time to reflect further on the issues raised in our digital governance course and it seems to me that I am sitting amongst a sea of internet geniuses. I don't want to seem as if I am incapable of grasping the concepts and issues my classmates have pondered but, I hadn't really taken the time to do so. For example, I was not aware of half the sites mentioned amongst my classmates and it opened my eyes to limitlessness the internet has to offer. In addition to that it raises within me fear. What is meant by fear is that my lack of knowledge has made me discriminate the possibilities of not only the web but eRulemaking. I have been working on such a small fraction of the internet that I was not aware of the burgeoning development of a global community. It also makes me slightly angry. Being quite capable and willing to learn new things I find it odd that the oportunity to harness the know how was not advertised. Furthermore, if I were to ask the average student were they aware of x, y, and z there would be a resounding "no." I think that it goes back to education. There is an assumption in higher education that we already know this stuff or worse even when an introductory course is provided it insults ones intelligence.

Milestone 1-The Power of HTML

2005-09-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

The internet never ceases to amaze me. We as human beings have created HTML. It feels like something out of a science fiction book or better even an episode of Star Trek. All you have to do is click on a blue, green, yellow, etc. link and wham!!! you are instantly transported to another web site. This is definitely something the Internet forefathers never conceived.
Going off on a tangent here, I'd like to ask where all the "techies" are. I say that because our Digital Governance course is obscenely small, especially since a majority of the graduate students are getting Masters in computer sciences. I would think that one would want to be conscious of the rules and bylaws regardless of how lax they may be at this moment as it concerns cyberspace. It seems to me, and this is just my humble opinion, that this course or something similar should be a REQUIREMENT. Just as doctors and lawyers are beholding to ethics courses and classes designed to reiterate specific guidelines of conduct, a digital governance course should be just as imperative.
Back now to HTML. I am excited yet fearful of all the new technology. As it evolves I adapt but at what cost? There will be a time in the near future that generations under me will never know what was like to not have technology completely encompass their lives. I feel that there should be a movement if it isn't already happening to somehow preserve and honor the past and in that I mean a past that was not technology driven.

My Thoughts

2005-09-16T08:46:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone in blog land! As many of you guys may know this fluency blog is a part of a course I'm taking. For those who decide to read along keep that in mind. Perusing through the books connected to the class I've come to the realization that the internet is here. And by saying here I mean to say that since it's public inception many thought the internet would be a passing fad. Who could've imagined that whole "communities" of diverse people exist that get along just as well as two people that live physically next to each other. Continuing that stream of thought I think back to last weeks class and our guest speaker as far as ethics are concerned. I shared in class that I work in prevention based systems and when the decision was made to go web based it was met with opposition. People young and old, 'net savvy and beginners alike, felt that to put clients information into cyberspace raised ethical and confidentiality issues. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the act of doing so has drawbacks especially in this line of work when the return rate is inconceivable. Most times agencies can't quickly change access codes to prevent disgruntled employees from accessing confidential records and distributing them to whomever. Anyway, that was something I want to say since I didn't have the opportunity to do so.