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Emerging Technologies

Emerging Technologies. 1 March 2006. Agenda. Assignments Recap More on digital divide in the US Lecture Discussion Leaders Lab. Assignments. Paper due Friday Presentation order (M/W) online Max five minutes! Send me files early and I will upload to main computer. Recap.

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Emerging Technologies

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  1. Emerging Technologies 1 March 2006

  2. Agenda • Assignments • Recap • More on digital divide in the US • Lecture • Discussion Leaders • Lab

  3. Assignments • Paper due Friday • Presentation order (M/W) online • Max five minutes! • Send me files early and I will upload to main computer

  4. Recap • Access is only part of the Digital Divide story • Although most of the DD story is outside our borders, it’s not just outside • Look at these data from Pew: • Broadband @ Home: • Rural: 24% adults • Suburban/Urban: 39% adults

  5. Emerging Technologies • Nature of bits puts pressure on many sectors of society • Sometimes the pressure is referred to as “convergence” • The latest sector is telephony

  6. POTS • Mature technology • Dedicated voice network • End-to-end guaranteed bandwidth • Exception: disasters • Reasonably good security • Meets 9-1-1 regulatory requirements

  7. What is VoIP? • VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a way to first digitize voice and then encapsulate it into packets before transmitting over a (non-voice) packet-switched IP network. • It is sometimes called “internet telephony”

  8. Differences (1/2) • Packet-switching versus circuit-switching • “Internet” technology allows several calls to use the same bit of bandwidth, because the bandwidth is not dedicated • This is possible because our voice is “digitized” and then that file is broken into small packets (bundles of bits)

  9. Differences (2/2) • Power requirements • POTS corded phone works when the power goes out. (Cordless does not! Neither does VoIP.) • Telephone line is multi-use infrastructure • Some people use it for broadband (DSL) • Security systems, DVRs (Tivo, RePlay) “phone home” on it • 9-1-1

  10. Locked to Computer? • No! Businesses already using • No! Homeowners already using • Computer-to-phone: Skype and (soon?) Microsoft/MCI • “Portable” VoIP phones use wi-fi networks • Who provides “hot-spots”? Mostly telephone companies (AT&T, Verizon, Cingular etc.)

  11. PC World, Feb 2006: • * My People is an Internet phone service provider with a cute name and features like wake-up calls and voice dialing . * EQO is a mobile-phone app with a hard-to-pronounce name (actually, it's easy once you know, but it's "echo"--not "E Q O") that lets you place and receive Skype calls. * Chili is a wireless gadget from a company with a weird name (ZinkKat) which is designed to let teenagers make VOIP calls, listen to music stored on a PC, and hear text-to-speech versions of RSS feeds--but the demo made it a bit difficult to figure out what exactly was going on.

  12. VoIP: The New Phone • Subscribers end of 2005: 4.5 – 5.1 million • Subscribers end of 2006: 7.9 million • US Households by 2010: 115 million

  13. Discussion Leaders • Group 5

  14. Exercise: • See if service is available at your current address and determine the cost of service at Vonage and Speakeasy.net • Keep your current number (why?) • Make sure equipment costs are included

  15. Questions: • Despite of all the cool features and great rates of VoIP, what are the factors that may prevent people from NOT going to VoIP in the household? • Do you think the impacts of VoIP on society are positive or negative? And why? • How will VoIP change the landscape in how we communicate throughout the world? • What about those caught in the digital divide – will they be left behind?

  16. Summary (1/4) • Digital technologies are transforming society at many different levels • Characteristics of new media are disruptive • “Zeros and Ones” • Modularity • Transcoding (tech layer & cultural layer) • Impacts on time/space

  17. Summary (2/4) • Nevertheless, “new” media are more evolutionary than revolutionary • The growth in new media communication has led to info overload • How do we determine credibility? • Who/what used to do this for us?

  18. Summary (3/4) • Network effects • Can affect adoption of new (exclusive) technology • Value of network increases exponentially with the size of the network • New forms of organization • Impacts on media, politics • “Emergent democracy”?

  19. Summary (4/4) • But Many/Most are being left behind • What is our responsibility to them? • We live in a privileged place in time

  20. Lab • Help with projects, website, PPTs • Help your neighbor?

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