Martin+Chui

Martin Chui

Lab 2: Q: What "digital innovation" do you feel best deserves the title of "revolutionary" and why?

A: In my opinion what deserves the title of a revolutionary digital innovation would be the leaps of improvement in screen and resolution display. By creating more shaper and detailed screens, devices can achieve a closer sense of realism and life-likeness. Products such as the iPhone have capitalized on this by introducing their Retina display. Features such as Facetime on the iPhone gives the user very clear and vivid quality creating the illusion that you are physically there with them.

The importance to create and produce the most realistic and vivid display is realized by many. Samsung with their mobile phone the Galaxy S with its Super OLED boast the blackest blacks and a color gamma that goes beyond Apples iPhone retina display. Both companies have strive to create the best displays, but with different ways of achieving it. Thus, I feel better graphics and display deserves the title of a revolutionary innovation.

Lab 3: Q: What do you think about the Mac App Store?

A: The Mac App Store provides Apple users with an easy way to assess additional applications and programs aside from the ones it comes pre-installed with. This allows the user to tailor their device to their liking. The App Store is easy to navigate with minimal text and well organized via app genres. Take for instance a business man/women who has no interest in games. Various finance and personal organizers are available at the "touch of a button". By creating an Apple ID requires the user to bound it to a valid credit card. This has two implications. First, it makes purchasing apps very easy because the user wont have to enter their credit card number for every visit to the app store.

Second, it allows Apple to distinguish what "type" of user are you, and possibly advertise apps that suit the users lifestyle. Another issue surrounds the bureaucratic authority Apple has over which apps are sold and presented to the public. The possible problem of Apple being bais over the types of apps poses issues that all monopolistic markets have. On the other side of the argument, others may oppose the point previously mentioned by describing how Apple chooses which apps to be sold on the App Store for ensuring its reputation and caliber of apps it provides. Overall, I feel that although the App Store has the final decision to whether an application becomes available to Apple users, what it has provided to its customers is monumental.

Lab 4: Q: Story - "The essence of persuasion has become the ability also to fashion a compelling narrative"

A: The use of a story or a narrative in advertising is very common and widely used. A narration of a person/story is very powerful which evokes human emotions and feelings. It is more effective for a message to revolve around a story or an emotion as oppose to building up an argument solely surrounding facts and figures. Just recently I saw a Sick Kids advertisement on the TV promoting people to become members of the Miracle Club. Donors who gave more then $20.00 a month would be sent an identical teddy bear to that of the same child they're helping. The advertisement for Sick Kids starts off with a story of a child who was in dire need of help. Interviews of parents and love ones are shown heart broken and sad. They go on and provide a short biography of how this particular child was so innocent and loving. The narrator then explains how without the help of donors "like you", this child was given a second chance to fight for her life. Then the advertisement shows the child who was sick, living healthy and happily with his/her family.

In this example, the use of a narration combined with the story of a child and his/her fight to live deeply touches most viewers. Emotional advertising is proven to be much more ingrain and affective as oppose to statistical and argumentative advertising. The use of a compelling narrative using the style previously mentioned has a great amount of persuasion, urging the viewer to act upon the advertisement. In my opinion Sick Kids campaign was very successful and heartfelt that I, after watching that a couple of times, acted on my emotion and signed up. I am currently a Sick Kids donor and has been for the past year.

Lab 5: Q: A repose to "Alone Together": An MIT Professor's New Book Urges Us to Unplug.

A: The quote, "technology... proposes itself as the architect of our intimacies" suggests that many of our social networking is done in person, but extending our friendship into its intimate levels are widely done through the internet. The title, "Alone Together" in my opinion truly encompasses the possible situation that our tech-savvy generation will face. Together we are united through social networking sites, but at the same time we are alone in the sense that people who we physically come into contact with, are less invested. It can also be assumed that while we spend more and more time facing a computer screen interacting and expanding our social circle of friends online, one often feels surrounded by many "friends", but in actuality that person is in an empty room. People that we meet in our physical social realm may not always appeal to you. Thus, the incentive to get-to-know one another is lessen because social networking sites allows for people to mutually "check out" each other, to see if they are a suitable "type".

I feel that as our society transitions into a culture where immediacy and multi-tasking is predominant, our generation will gravitate towards a life where social networking sites take up more of social exploring. One thing that makes Facebook so addictive is that we can know what our friends are doing without having to call them. The notion of an "update" is meant to keep us updated and keep track of events, emotions, and connections that are going on in our social world. Facebook's News Feed allows us to receive so much information about our friends that it has replaced an important aspect of socializing - asking questions. For example very close old high school friends are meeting up because a mutual friend. When you use to live in the same neighborhood, his family would be very gracious and always invite you over for dinner. You decide to look each other up on Facebook and add each other to see how different do they look and what has been going on in their life. You notice a status update of his parents dieing recently and when you do meet up you decide not to bring it up to avoid any negative feelings and vibe. If we take Facebook out of the equation, the friend would have wanted to know how his parents are doing, although this would have evoked a sad response from his friend, it shows that he cares and remembers their old childhood memories. Thus, this may have brought them much closer. Although both scenarios could result in the friend asking about his parents, in my opinion the one without Facebook generates a more "genuine" response. Even though it is easy to argue that Facebook and other social networking sites has enhanced our ability to keep in contact with my other our lost friends and family, it is undeniable that with the vast amount of information available online questions that would normally be asked, can be answered via social networking sites.

Lab 6: Q: Talk about your views/concerns about the future of privacy OR Does privacy really matter? Why/why not?  (Don't talk generally! Have a specific focus and argument)

The issues concerning a persons privacy in a public domain such as the Internet has been a sensitive topic. As our world integrates more and more tasks with the Internet, profiles must be made to keep on file. One's personal information is extremely valuable and must not be publicly broadcasted to the world in fear of identity theft. There has been a whole range of situations where criminals would take and steal peoples IDs and information using it to their advantage, abusing their credit cards and passing off as someone they're not. But this abuse of the public's information is not only taken advantage of by criminals, corporations such as Google have data mined so much information of you that much of what is advertised online is all dependent on the sites and activities you do on your computer. With the emergence of social networking sites such as Facebook, not only is your personal information regarding your address, school that you went to, phone number, and family and friends, photos are just as easily accessible. A picture can mean a thousand words, and if this is true, then a hand full of photos from a persons album collect can tell you a lot more then what is said on their personal description. Another issue surrounding photos on Facebook are those taken of illegal activity such as drugs and underage drinking. Photos that are not meant to be shown to the public and only to friends is another concern that makes privacy issues a very heated topic. In order for one to feel safe from the abuse of misuse of their personal information, they might as well stay off the Internet. I have learnt this from my own experience regarding the usage of credit cards online. When I first got my credit card, I was really fascinated that you could do your shopping at home online. This was a while back when security protocols for buying an item online was not as protected. It took a lot of convincing for me to go through with a purchase online even through a renowned site - Ebay. Although they may be safe from the average computer user, many advance hackers can easily access these servers to our profiles and be sold to the black market. Legislation and laws that have governed the internet sphere has always been slow to evolve and forever will since technology is the future and the frontier of human innovation.

Lab 8:

Lab 9: Q: What will/should be Web 3.0 be about?

A: I will start by analyzing the history of the web. Web 1.0 was basic and linear. Information was given out to society and was could not be interacted with. With the rise of Web 2.0, websites such as Wikipedia and Facebook have provided the foundation for socially generated media. Youtube would be a perfect example, where society can communicate and put forth media/data/information onto the web. My guess on the Web 3.0 will take human interaction between computer information into the next level. This level will include an increase in the computers ability to reason and analyze. A possible product of this out come will could be helpful for situations where information must be obtained in a timely manner. Example, a computer that provides aid for emergencies/casualties. This computer will be able to connect to the internet to retrieve information, then aiding the user by instructing the person what should be done and how by visual aids and verbal instructions. The user will be able to ask it questions and inform the computer with information that will help the computer asses the situation. This example was just a rough image on the human to computer interaction that will be achievable with the coming of Web 3.0. Evidence of this direction in computer intelligence has already been achieved though IBM's super computer - Watson. Web browsing will become more seamless and fluid with less "page turning".