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Contents contributed and discussions participated by TaylorJ j

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TaylorJ j

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information_change

shared by TaylorJ j on 04 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • In the 2000s the Internet grew to an astounding level not only in the number of people who regularly logged on to the World Wide Web (WWW) but in the speed and capability of its technology. By December 2009, 26 percent of the world’s population used the Internet and “surfed the web.
  • The rapid growth of Internet technology and usage had a drastic cultural effect on the United States. Although that impact was mostly positive, the WWW caused many social concerns. With financial transactions and personal information being stored on computer databases, credit-card fraud and identity theft were frighteningly common.
  • Hackers accessed private and personal information and used it for personal gain. Hate groups and terrorist organizations actively recruited online, and the threat remained of online terrorist activities ranging from planting computer viruses to potentially blowing up power stations by hacking computers that ran the machinery. Copyright infringement was a growing concern
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  • At the turn of the century, most users accessed the Internet by a dial-up connection in which computers used modems to connect to other computers using existing telephone lines. Typical dial-up connections ran at 56 kilobytes per second.
  • raditional communications media such as telephone and television services were redefined by technologies such as instant messaging, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), mobile smartphones, and streaming video.
  • The Internet changed the production, sale, and distribution of print publications, software, news, music, film, video, photography, and everyday products from soap to automobiles.
  • With broadband, Internet users could download and watch videos in a matter of seconds, media companies could offer live streaming-video newsfeeds, and peer-to-peer file sharing became efficient and commonplace. News was delivered on websites, blogs, and webfeeds, and e-commerce changed the way people shopped. Television shows, home movies, and feature films were viewed on desktop or laptop computers and even on cell phones. Students researched online, and many parents began working from home for their employers or started their own online businesses.
  • It was also becoming increasingly easy for users to access it from Internet cafés, Internet kiosks, access terminals, and web pay phones. With the advent of wireless, customers could connect to the Internet from virtually any place that offered remote service in the form of a wireless local area network (WLAN) or Wi-Fi router.
  • In January 2001 Apple launched the iPod digital music player, and then in April 2003 it opened the iTunes Store, allowing customers to legally purchase songs for 99 cents. Although federal courts ordered that music-sharing services such as Napster could be held liable if they were used to steal copyrighted works, Fanning’s brainchild realized the power of peer-to-peer file sharing and the potential success of user-generated Internet services.
  • Email was the general form of internet communication and allowed users to send electronic text messages. Users could also attach additional files containing text, pictures, or videos. Chat rooms and instant-messaging systems were also popular methods of online communication and were even quicker than traditional email. Broadband made other popular forms of Internet communication possible, including video chat rooms and video conferencing. Internet telephony or VoIP became increasingly popular f
  • or gaming applications.
TaylorJ j

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  • The first computers, constructed during World War II, employed radio valves, which were switched on and off to represent binary digits. But soon thereafter, the semiconductor was invented; it used much less electricity and thus did not overheat so easily, and it was sturdier. (V. Ramamurti, an Indian scientist, believed that the semiconductor was invented because the Allies feared the loss to Japan of India, the Allies' prime source of mica, which was essential to the making of radio valves.) Technological development of computers and of their multifarious applications has since been driven by the progressive reduction in the size and cost of semiconductors.
  • The first computers in the 1940s were as big as a house; by the 1960s, however, miniaturization of semiconductors had made it possible to create computers that were no bigger than a small room. At that point, IBM began to make a series of standardized computers; its 1620 and 360 series of mainframe computers found users all over the world, including India. The Indian government imported a few computers from the Soviet Union, especially EVS EM, its IBM 360 clone; but they were not popular, even in the government establishments where they were installed. IBM computers dominated the market. They were used for calculation, accounting and data storage in large companies, and in research laboratories. Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest software producer, was established in 1968 to run the computers acquired by the Tata group and to develop uses for them.
  • By the 1980s, computer chips were becoming small enough to be embodied in almost portable minicomputers, and these were getting cheap enough to be used in small businesses. Manufacturers began to build into minicomputers a selection of programs that performed the most common operations, such as word processing, calculation, and accounting. Over the 1980s, the mini-computers shrank in size and weight and were transformed into personal computers (PCs). Indian agents who sold imported minicomputers and PCs also employed software engineers for sales assistance and service. Thus, in the latter half of 1980s, Indian software engineers were scattered. Some worked in CMC; others serviced the surviving IBM machines in companies, government establishments, and research facilities; and still others serviced minicomputers and PCs.
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  • By 1985 satellite links made the export of software possible without having to send programmers abroad. At that time, however, the Indian government did not allow private links, so Texas Instruments gave it the equipment, which it then proceeded to use from its Bangalore establishment. IBM, which wanted to set up a link in 1988, ran into the same problem: the government insisted on retaining its monopoly in telecommunications, the rates offered by its Department of Telecommunications were exorbitant, and it was inexperienced in running Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) links.
  • In 1991 the Department of Electronics broke this impasse, creating a corporation called Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) that, being owned by the government, could provide VSAT communications without breaching its monopoly. STPI set up software technology parks in different cities, each of which provided satellite links to be used by firms; the local link was a wireless radio link. In 1993 the government began to allow individual companies their own dedicated links, which allowed work done in India to be transmitted abroad directly. Indian firms soon convinced their American customers that a satellite link was as reliable as a team of programmers working in the clients' office.
  • In the 1980s, an importer of hardware had to get an import license from the chief controller of imports and exports, who in turn required a no-objection certificate from the Department of Electronics. That meant going to Delhi, waiting for an appointment, and then trying to persuade an uncooperative bureaucrat. In 1992 computers were freed from import licensing, and import duties on them were reduced.
  • Satellites and import liberalization thus made offshore development possible, with a number of implications: It enabled firms to take orders for complete programs, to work for final clients and to market their services directly. Work for final clients also led firms to specialize in work for particular industries or verticals: it led in particular to India's specialization in software for banking, insurance, and airlines. It gave India a brand value and a reputation.
  • The late 1990s saw a surge in the Indian IT industry. To assure potential clients of their permanency, Indian software companies built large, expensive campuses, where they made working conditions as attractive as possible, to help them retain workers. Trees grew and streams flowed inside buildings, and swimming pools, badminton courts, meditation rooms, auditoriums, and restaurants were provided.
  • The IT boom in the United States was the source of India's software exports.
TaylorJ j

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  • The blog is a publishing innovation, a digital newswire that, due to the proliferation of the Internet, low production and distribution costs, ease of use and really simple syndication (RSS), creates a new and powerful push-pull publishing concept. As such, it changes the power structures in journalism, giving yesterday's readers the option of being today's journalists and tomorrow's preferred news aggregators.
  • Blogging is a concept whereas publishing text on the web is combined with its syndication. Users or other bloggers subscribe to these syndication feeds (RSS-feeds), which automatically appear on the subscriber's website, blog or in a newsreader.
  • Though Mooney calls the blogosphere a marketplace, blogging is also the roaming—as in cellular network—of ideas in marketplaces or networks. These roaming networks are growing and gaining importance. Blogs number 30 million worldwide, promoted by the often-free blogging service providers like Blogger and Wordpress.
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  • The marketplace for technological ideas is not dissimilar from the marketplace for political ones. Lessig's reasoning applies, maybe even more so, to the technology arena where blogging is more common than in any other space, except maybe in politics.
  • Blogs are goldmines for journalists doing professional and crafted work. The blogosphere is a huge source to tap, using services like Tecnorati.com (a blog search engine) and Googlenews, for new ideas, arguments and leads to new stories and for follow-ups on stories on other sites.
  • raditional printing is an expensive process, especially in metropolitan areas. And as sites like Craigslist.org, free after text ads, demolish the traditional revenue model for papers, the cost of printing will be harder to justify. Papers are slow and money-sucking operations, or as Shel Israel, author of the book Naked Conversations, put it "In the Information Age, the newspaper has become a cumbersome and inefficient distribution mechanism. If you want fast delivery of news, paper is a stage coach competing with jet planes." By blogging some beats or sections that normally run in print, publications would expand their audience as well [as] attract new readers through blogging using fewer resources.
  • Blogs are also a way of using journalists more effectively. All information, given that it is relevant, that actually does not fit into the paper can be channeled through blogs, allowing the readers to choose what to read or not. This enables a dialogue, a sense of ownership and participation that is essential in creating communities.
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