Coming to an end

Since taking 21st century journalism I've learned the following:

• Miller has major sass
• mini laptops suck
• Kat is scary
• Miller doesnt know French like he thought he did
• Kellz isnt as dumb as I thought

But in all seriousness, journalism has taught be about writing well. It has given me the tools to research topics in great detail and write about them in various ways.

A contiuation of my project

I've started to research the history of digital media and how it all came about. The concept of digitalizing media came about in the 80s but hasn't really caught on until recently (I'd say the past 4-5 years). That's why the timeline so far for my project is short, even though the concepts are older. Prototypes and concepts for computers and the Internet have been around for 15-20 years. Little did we (the general public/consumer) realize what would become of the Internet and technology.

An interesting idea that Walt Disney came up with was that of a place (Disney World) was to represent a physical Internet, a place where worlds could meet in one place, a place accessible to any one.

Just an idea I had.

I'm also still factoring in the educational tie in as well as the consumer-relation part (ie ebooks/readers, online newspapers, Internet, online publishing with Google books and blogs).

Begin the Begin.. An Intro to my Tech presentation

I've been continually been researching my topic through my Google reader. Right now I'm looking at how digitalizing books and other various media (newspapers, movies, etc) are accessible to the average consumer. I'm also going to finish researching the history of digitizing media (the timeline) and hopefully sometime next week I will develop a thesis statement for my topic. I want to have Miller review it and see if it needs to be tweaked at all, additions/subtractions, etc.

I found out that one blog on my reader, Booksquare, has a lot of info about trends in digital books, etc. Very interesting stuff b/c it talks about current and classic books as well as dig. docs. Hopefully I can get in contact with one of the contributors so we can discuss the trends and ins and outs of technology and books. We'll see where that goes.

I've tried to come up with a rough thesis statement for this project. I'm willing to take any suggestions as I post what I was thinking. Also, I came up with a basic outline, going from the history of digital media to current events and all the fun info in between.

Connections all over

Social networking is the new way for people who have adapted to communicating and socializing in the 21st century. People are able to know what other people are doing within seconds. It's pretty amazing to think about. If my friend in England updates her status about her trip to France, I can know about it within the minute she posts it. The whole definition of social networking has been altered and it hasn't been until the last few years that we as a tech based society have realized and really seen how this has come about. Internet social networking is a concept that people living in the 21st century need to grasp. It makes life so much easier. It makes forming a relationship of any kind a little less painful and a little more exciting. The downside.. it's a little less personal. Well, it's really just a matter of taste whether you like sharing anything and everything about yourself on the Internet or not.

Kindle Has New Competition from All Over the Place

Amazon better watch it's butt b/c Barnes and Noble has introduced a new, better, awesomer e-Reader... The BN e-Reader or the nook(tm). This thing is so cool, it has a lot more exciting than the lame old Kindle. It has a separate screen that is also touch screen that shows the titles of books you have and so on.

There's also a brand new concept e-reader/mini netbook being introduced to a select market. This cool, practical devise combines an reader and a net book you can use on the Internet. CNN says it will run off of Google Android and you can browse the Internet and download apps and other programs. Of course you can download the books right onto the reader, making it 10 times easier to use/that much more user friendly.

BBBBBB Back it up

I've been reading hard news stories about tech and I've found that there's a lot of controversy that surrounds the rising amount of tech in the world. A huge percentage of people in the world have iPhones, Kindles, etc and have instant access to any digital docs they want.

Companies like Amazon with the Kindle and Sony with their Reader are companies that specialize in that one field. But now the iPhone has become another reader in the wide market of readers. Customers can read the latest New York Times article as soon as it's posted on their website. This crazy technology has had it's ups and downs. On one blog I read on the Kindle many commentators felt that the actions of Amazon and their deleting books from people's Kindles was a bit "Big Brother like" and felt that their privacy was in jeopardy. This raises the question "How much privacy do we really have when we wrap our whole lives around technology and adapting to the new digital age?" Will we ever really know?

Well for now people will just continue to use this crazy (and frankly awesome) technology. I know I will.

Digital Publications: Some like 'em, some don't

The ebook has been making its way onto the digital scene for the past couple of years. But now we also have digital books and books online that are in a sense sweeping the nation. I found a blog about all things about digital books and all digital pubications. Teleread.org is a site that discusses how to make ebooks and digital media accessible to the average person, someone who isn't so techy.



One article I saw that was cool was about how Japan is bringing digitalized books to its people. The libraries in Japan have been given permission to put over 900 texts online.



All over the world people are beginning to use ebooks in the home, on the go, and in the workplace. On Slate.com, there's an article that talks about how the Kindle will change the world, one book at a time. I think that in 20 years, people will still be reading hard copies of books and some people will use the Kindle. It all depends on preference.