Startup.com

Startup.com was a documentary made in 2001 and to be honest, at first I thought this documentary was going to be boring and I wouldn’t get much out of it, I was completely wrong. Startup.com was essentially an eye opening and informational video that I actually really enjoyed. I say that this documentary was eye opening because it showed how these group of young people got together and were trying to start a new company from the ground up and they knew that it would not be easy. As the company begins to get started, we watch as they kinda start to crumble and take the stress of the company out on each other. I was glad that the documentary emphasized this because it just shows viewers that you cannot achieve success unless you work as a team rather than independently. For example, the CEO of the company, Tuzman let the company get in the way of his personal relationship in which Tuzman’s girlfriend left him due to his neglectfulness. GovWorks, the name of their company without a doubt had potential. The people working behind govWorks were not just amateurs who had no idea what they were doing. In fact, Tuzman graduated from Harvard and Tom Herman as well had the technical expertise. They had the experience and knowledge needed to create this successful company, but they lacked the experience in forming a company overall. They entered the business world with confidence, but made mistakes along the way. As a company they failed to look at the future of govWorks and only thought in the now, which resulted in one of the three founders of govWorks to sell out his portion of the company. 

A Visit from Brian Forth

Brian Forth is currently a CEO of a site crafting company and he works with 42 other people, he was a former fifth grade teacher and often trained kids on how to build websites. It was interesting to learn about his career and what he enjoys most about his job. One of the first things that Brian said to us that stuck out to me was, “The only constant is change.” Brian was talking about how his company had to constantly adapt and transition to new things happening involving the world wide web. Additionally, Brian mentioned how one of our world’s biggest issues as a society is data security. He asked us if we own or our own data or does Facebook own it? Instagram? Twitter? Snapchat? This got me thinking. Thinking about the very first day of class when Professor Fry told us that today is the most privacy that we will ever have. Anytime I go on any of my social media accounts, I make the decision to put my information out to the world and am essentially giving away the right to my data. This can actually be pretty scary when you think about it and I think that was what Brian Forth was trying to get us to understand. “If the product is free, then you are the product.” As a society we put our trust into these mobile applications, but do not realize the possible consequences. During class discussion we talked about how sometimes when making purchases online we hesitate to input our card information because once we do that, it is automatically saved and now your money could be at risk. These are all important things to consider when discussing the world wide web and I am glad that Brian Forth made me realize this. 

EPIC 2015

EPIC 2015 was a video that talked about the death of newspapers. The movie was science-fiction and the objective was to point out how the world wide web is going to kill off newspapers. As I was watching the video I thought about the last time that I actually picked up a newspaper and read it. It has been so long that I honestly cannot answer that question. I remember growing up and before I went into my house I would see so many newspapers in front of my house and throughout the neighborhood. As I think about it now, I realize that everyday I see less newspapers present because if I am interested in a certain topic, my first thought is to look online, not newspapers. For example, real estate no longer advertises in newspapers because of the world wide web. Where do you go when you are looking for a new house? Online websites like Zillow or Redfin. This is essentially what EPIC 2015 is trying to get us to understand. The beginning of the video states, “It is the best of times, it is the worst of times.” I believe that they say this to emphasize the growth of the world wide web and all its achievements, but as well to show it’s detrimental effects on newspapers. Additionally, some information told in the video were simply just true. News is trivialized. People only hear and see what they choose and want to while ignoring what they simply do not like. All in all, I found EPIC 2015 to be very eye opening and reflective.

Experience doing the scavenger hunt

I cannot speak for my group, but personally my experience in completing the scavenger hunt was quite difficult. I struggled most of course with finding Professor’s sister or finding a home valued at between 300,000 and 400,000, three bedrooms in University Place from both Zillow and Redfin and also finding directions on how to get to them. I think I struggled with this because I did not know where to begin searching or like what to look up. With that being said, there were some items on the list that I had no trouble finding. I found the shopping cart with a total price plus delivery of “Screenplay” the book, a Segway Human Transporter and an iRobot Roomba robot and two definitions of what a “sock puppet” is from two different reference sources with ease. What I found the most interesting from completing the scavenger hunt was number 15 asking us to find information on ourselves from a site that is not a social network. Before finding this information on myself, I honestly did not think that I had information out there that did not have to do with my social media accounts. I was quickly proved wrong when I searched my name and immediately found my name and profile on a website called MaxPreps that showed my high school basketball stats. I thought that was so cool! I wouldn’t mind doing this assignment again because I feel like I was able to learn a lot and improved my searching skills.

Experience creating an HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Jovelle's Web Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Sunshine</h1>
<img src="URL">
"https://u.osu.edu/finney.77/"/>
</body>

I would describe my experience in creating an HTML document as very interesting. When the assignment was given last Thursday I immediately was overwhelmed. This is because when it comes to tech work and computers, I struggle immensely so I figured that I was going to experience some troubles. Thankfully, a student from class let me know that she was a computer science major and she would be more than happy to help me out with any problems that I come across. We ended up Facetiming and she walked me through the step by step process. I was so grateful because with her help I was able to create the HTML document much easier and I actually understood what I was doing. Kinda....., but anyways, I wouldn't say that creating the HTML was extremely difficult, but rather just very tedious. I had to remember to close the containers which was probably my biggest issue. I was able to input the image with no problem because I simply just followed the directions that you gave us, step by step. I think if I had to do this assignment again that I would be successful with no help needed and that actually makes me feel pretty good. I want to have more confidence in myself when it comes to this field of work because I know that it is something significant for one to know. Overall, I am thankful for the experience and I hope that my knowledge will increase in this type of work throughout the quarter.

What are the differences and similarities between email and postal services?

There are several similarities and differences when it comes to the idea of emailing and postal services. When I think of the similarities I think of the fact that both systems do not entirely ensure your privacy. Email accounts can be hacked. At that point, a person would have access to your personal life. What you are buying, scheduled appointments, job inquiries, the list goes on. With that being said, we all know that there is a high possibility that when we are expecting something in the mail, it may not always come. A lot can happen from the time that package leaves the postal office to its destination. For example, I have seen several content on social media where employees working for FedEx were transporting products into their truck and were basically throwing and disrespecting the items. Furthermore, there are as well differences between emailing and postal services. The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that emailing happens in an instant. If I need to urgently get a hold of my professor in regards to an upcoming midterm, I will be able to go on my smartphone, open the Gmail application, and send my professor a quick email of my concerns and he will receive it instantly. However, back in the day, it was not always this quick and handy. For example, my mom told me when she was a teenager, my dad lived in Washington and she was in Hawaii so they often communicated through letters. They would update each other on what’s going on in their lives and the other person would receive the letter in about a little over a week. I thought this was really interesting because my mom could be reading a letter from my dad that he sent weeks ago, but she is just now hearing about it. This is to show that emailing and postal services are very different when it comes to speed.

What do you want out of this class?

From this class, I would like to gain more knowledge on artificial intelligence because I am fascinated with the idea and theories about artificial intelligence. I as well am interested in learning more about the future of technology and how that will affect my life. I know that due to technology, several jobs will be taken away from people, but I would like to learn more about how that will develop. I look forward to this quarter! When I was selecting what classes to take for fall quarter, I came across this class and just because of the name “Living and Working in a Virtual World” I was instantly intrigued. Everyday, myself and everyone else in this world is surrounded by technology and sometimes we do not even realize it. We also do not realize how dependent we are on this technology and way of life. I want to learn more about this dependence on technology. I question if our society will ever be able to control or lower this need for our technological devices. For me, I use my cellphone for almost everything. Social media, school, safety, etc. It would be difficult for me to even go a day without my cellphone. Additionally, I would not consider myself to be a very tech person which I struggle with when it comes to homework assignments dealing with computers and editing, etc. Hopefully in this class I will be able to become more savvy when it comes to technology. I hope that I will be able to become more educated on these topics and I am thankful for the opportunity!