Why Facebook is the Future article

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1655722,00.html

This article outlines why Facebook is technically better than the rest of the internet- safer and more secure. It also casually slips in the idea that people use the internet to create a second version of themselves, who they wish they could be in the real world, and how that isn't in fact working out in their favor.

Larry Lessig and Andrew Keen debate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S6h4IXqcRs

One issue I've found with Andrew Keen is that he has a very difficult time supporting the ideas that he writes about in a verbal confrontation. When people attack him and his ideas on Web 2.0 (as Larry Lessig clearly is) he seems uncomfortable and even comes across as unintelligent sometimes. However, in his actual writings he is fiery and passionate. It makes me wonder if his strength isn't simply in writing very prettily; his words on the page are very convincing, yet watching interviews and debates I find myself wondering how I ever believed him.

Kevin Kelly

My main issue with Kevin Kelly's speech was the dramatization. I felt almost like I was watching an infomercial salesman, trying to sell his concept of Web 3.0 with charts and pictures. He brought up some interesting points, trying to use factual evidence (for instance the number of clicks per day- 100 billion- or the number of online links- 50 trillion) as support for his argument. However, some of his proposed arguments about the internet in the future seemed a little far-fetched to me. He proposed this idea that the internet would be one compact machine and that the rest of the world would just be viewing it on individual portals- computer screens, smartphones, etc. As he said, humans would become an extension of the machine. Everything would be part of the web, be owned by the web. Perhaps the reason that I found this hard to believe is just because it's such a vast and intimidating concept. It sounds almost like the plot-line for a science fiction movie. Also, the way he was proposing it made it seem like it was fact, set in stone, and that it would happen sometime in the near future. I can't see a change like that happening overnight, but a gradual process taking place maybe over the next decade or so.

Article about Web 3.0- taken over by Web 2.0

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2102852,00.asp

This is an article about Web 3.0 and the Semantic Web. Though the article itself was relatively interesting, what I found most interesting was how completely taken over by Web 2.0 it was. There was endless amounts of tagging within the article, pop up advertisements when the mouse moved over random, unrelated words on the page, and advertisements lining the article.

Web 3.0 Predictions

I forsee Web 3.0 going in the direction proposed by internet experts in Jonathan Strickland's article. I think the main changes will be in Web 3.0's ability to process information; for instance, it is proposed that Web 3.0 will not only be able to remember individual searchs but will also be able to create a profile of likes and dislikes that it can base future searches off of. As scary as it is to think about, the computer will literally be able to understand what you are searching for, not just searching keywords. This is a really big step because it will be re-creating the basic fundamentals of searching the internet. Once this is completed, there will be endless opportunities to continue building, creating a more complex yet more manageable internet.

Second Business Life

New logo for Second Life advertising the professional aspect of the cyberworld

Second Life logo

For the Illustrator portion of my midterm paper, I would like to create a logo that the website Second Life would potentially use in the future. In a similar fashion to the Sims additions (Sims: Vacation, Sims: Superstar) the creators of Second Life might realize that they have the ability to create new versions of the incredibly popular online cyber world. In my projection (based on my assumptions from my paper that the professional world will continue in the shift online), Second Life would create a sub-world entitled "Second Life: Business" or "Second Business Life", something of that nature, to encompass all the companies that use their website for professional interactions. I would like to use Illustrator (specifically the pathfinder tools) to create a logo for the new business aspect of Second Life. I plan to keep it very similar to the Second Life logo shown above, just potentially change the background to one of a boardroom and maybe change the one hand into two shaking hands and also add the word "business".