Where are the flying cars?

 Its 2012, where he heck are the flying cars?  I remember as a kid that flying cars were something definitely in our near future, but it does not seem to be happening at the pace everyone thought.  While flying cars do indeed exist, the price tag makes them out of reach for most.  

If I were to determine the reasons why flying cars were not around, the Delphi research method would yield the best results.  Automotive giants must have considered this, so they would be some of the experts involved.  Federal regulators have made rules for the current flying cars, so they would be involved too.  Current companies producing flying cars would be another group of experts.  Through these experts we would be able to see why there is a slow adoption and what it will take to get the infrastructure up and the price down. 

While everyone wants flying cars for convenience, there are many factors to consider.  Some positive factors:

·         Getting to your destination faster is one of the main reasons for the use of the flying car, from a consumer’s perspective

·         Saving money since we don’t need physical highways is a money saver for the government. 

Some negative factors:

·         Mass amounts of aircraft on the road increases the chance of collision, causing a projectile to fall on cities

·         Vehicles could be used as flying missiles by terrorists  wanting to blow up something

Keeping all parties anonymous ensures the opinions are not given based on any peer pressure.  Given the stature and high visibility each participant would have, making them anonymous ensures they can give a non-politically based opinion on the subject matter. 

You Tube. Why we don't have flying cars. Retrieved January 27, 2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKqow8jzUDc&feature=related

Make Data More Human (Jer Thorp)

In the TED video, “Make Data More Human”, Jer Thorp, a NY Times Data Artist, outlines the importance of fitting data into a human context to give it meaning. 

Reading pure data is boring to most people.  Seeing tables of information laid out in series after series often makes seeing relationships and trends near impossible.  By taking that information and laying it out graphically we make better sense of the information.  Since we think in pictures it only makes sense that the graphical representation of information is more pleasing than the information itself. 

Two innovative ideas stemmed from this concepts of making data more human.  The first was a project called Cascade, which is an exploratory tool created for social networking.  The basic premise was to track the initial release of a piece of information and follow it through its sharing with social networking tools such as Twitter.  Comparing the number of people involved and the time taken to share, a better view of how social networking happens emerges. 

The second project was called OpenPaths.cc, which used iPhone data from participating users to map their locations.  The iPhone tracks the cell tower being used and what time it was in use.  From this information, vendors can gather your location data, should you grant it to them.  From this data, this particular application can map out where you have gone visually overlaid on a map of the world.  So rather than seeing lat/long coordinates, you can visually see where and when you were at specific places. 

Jer makes a very interesting case for the intelligent use of data for understanding.  Through these techniques, we can continue to visualize, construct and share meaningful information about the data we rely on. 

Thorp, J. (2012, March).  TED Talks. Make Data More Human.  Podcast retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/jer_thorp_make_data_more_human.html.

2011 Horizon Report - Augmented Reality

The Horizon Report seeks to understand and forecast technologies coming to fruition in the next five years (Johnson, 2011).  Of these technologies, one I see as promising is Augmented Reality (AR). 

The basic concept of AR is to overlay the world around us with a computer generated layer giving additional information.  The technology is broken down into 2 basic categories, visual metaphors and position based. 

An example the visual metaphor can be seen with one of the many sky applications on the iPhone.  By holding your phone up to the nighttime sky, the stars are sampled and named on the phone.  The program knows the star’s layout/relative positions and with a little math, the ratios of distances between the stars can be calculated giving the location in the sky.  Through a visual metaphor, information can be obtained from a background software based service to enhance what is being observed. 

A position based system we are all used to is the GPS mapping used for navigation.  We see the same streets we are driving on in a computer screen that is intelligent enough to tell us where to go.  A newer technology developed by Microsoft, the Kinect, allows the user to perform gestures to play a game.  Having a sword fight in this environment is much more realistic than using a simple controller—although it does get tiring a lot faster. 

Augmented Reality has been in use and will continue to evolve making our world and the virtual overlay interlaced through technology to such a degree that we will come to take it for granted, much like many of us do with the internet today.  

References

Johnson, L., Smith, R., Willis, H., Levine, A., and Haywood, K., (2011). The 2011 Horizon Report.

Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Animoto GECI Future Innovation

Global Enterprise Cloud Identity Animoto video. 
http://animoto.com/play/850MxlN9z8WJ4WoPiL1ZqA

My attempt to make a single sign on capability like the military uses for home users.  It also includes some expanded functionality for businesses.  It's limited to 30 seconds, so it's rather short. 

Problems with the Global Web

After watching a video presentation from Kevin Kelly (Kelly, 2007), I found myself at odds with some of the ideas he was proposing.  The video briefly looked at the first 5,000 days of the web and entertained what will happen in the future 5,000 days. 

I do think the web is amazing and it has come a long way.  I couldn’t do the job I do today without it.  I do feel what he is saying will likely come to pass in the next 5,000 days, but I have reservations with the consequences of what that could mean. 

The primary problem I have is with one system knowing everything about me.  While I don’t do anything wrong (legally), and I’m sure it would help to catch criminals, I have a problem with Big Brother (or Big Sis these days) watching my every move.  Not that I’m particularly interesting, but I don’t want to be a target of a future government.  Look at what Hitler did with the Jewish people during the Holocaust (Browning, 2004).  That was without technology; just imagine his reach to classifying and identifying individuals with a technology like this.  I do think most humans out there want the world to be a better place and will do the right thing, but I do feel there is always a minority of these insane individuals that may somehow grab power.  Our US Constitution and its protection of our freedom is something I take seriously.  Handing a vile leader the means to usurp our society on a silver platter is not my idea of a technology I would want in my world. 

Browning, Christopher, R.  (2004).  The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942. Lincoln, Nebraska:  University of Nebraska Press. 

Kelly, Kevin.  (2007, December).  The Next 5000 Days.  TED Talks.  Podcast retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html.

Problems in the Military using Emerging Media

Classified Information
The primary problem all branches of the military face is the use of classified information. Using Emerging Media tools like Twitter and FaceBook may result in the enemy getting information that they are not supposed to have. Information that is classified is handled seriously in the military and a breach of that information could easily land you in jail.

Marketing to Recruits
Keeping fresh bodies in the military is always a problem when the economy is doing well. Having a good marketing strategy is necessary to get people to join. How do you convince someone that the small amount of money they pay you is worth risking your life?

Internet Use
Most Emerging Media technologies are internet bandwidth hogs. If you are at a site in Kuwait with a few thousand people and only a few satellite feeds, internet access is not freely given out. Mission critical circuits need the data lines--morale and welfare for the soldier come last. So the use of Emerging Media is discouraged in wartime theaters due to these bandwidth restrictions.

Death by PowerPoint
It seems the military loves PowerPoint presentations and wants one for about everything. While this tool is useful, there may be better ways to convey information that Emerging Media can reveal.

Metaphors and Media Literacy

Metaphors are used in our language to give life to our language by using concepts that are often unrelated to our word that is being used. An example of this is describing a person as cold or hot. The person is not being physically described as cold or hot, but we are identifying cold as treating others with indifference or scowl while hot means that we think they are attractive. It should also be noted that not everyone takes the same metaphor the same way. Our past experiences often lead to differences in how we interpret metaphors, but generally a consensus can be obtained.

An improvement process that I feel would work the best would be to expose someone to the many different tools out there. Here is what I feel would be a good mix:
1. Visit a blogging site and create a blog.
2. Visit a slide sharing site and upload a presentation.
3. Visit a social media site such as Face Book.
4. Visit a virtual social media world such as Second Life.
5. Visit a cloud based architecture such as Windows Azure.
6. Watch some videos on a video site such as YouTube about Media Literacy.

These steps will give a good introduction to someone about Media Literacy.

References
Geary, James. (2009). Metaphorically Speaking. Retrieved June 12, 2010, from http://www.ted.com/talks/james_geary_metaphorically_speaking.html
MNL Staff. (2008). The New Media Literacies. Retrieved June 12, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEHcGAsnBZE