Week 9 -- 28 November - Snow Day!
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Blog Assignment #1
Think of some piece of technology that you have recently purchased or a piece of software or feature of an existing piece of technology that you have recently started using. (For example, I recently upgraded my version of MSN Messenger.)
Think about why you made this decision - what factors caused the "adoption."
Now - talk about your experience ... and then think about the theories
we've talked about in class. Which theories help explain your behavior?
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Since beginning MCDM I bought a new laptop and had one of my friends from a Microsoft family set it up. He insisted on installing Opera 9.0 to avoid problems that come with the Microsoft Explorer, agreeing that avoiding viruses is a good idea, I decided to join the Opera community.
My experience has been positive…that is until the past week…I began having trouble connecting to wireless, opening email, websites and video stream…the screen screamed (not literally) error, error! So, I downloaded Explorer 7 which works just as well…I’m sure my Opera trouble came from the secret Microsoft monopoly police told to catch non-Explorer users (just joking!).
The decision to switch to Opera models the five steps (Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision adopt/reject, Implementation, Confirmation) of the Everett Roger’s Linear Innovation-Diffusion theory (process by which innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among members of a social system). I was informed of an alternative, Opera, through my social circle and persuaded to adopt it. However, after difficulty using the new browser, I became an “un-gratified” user, and thus as an unintended consequence resulted in my returning to the critical mass (point at which enough individuals have adopted an innovation so that the innovation’s further rate of adoption becomes self-sustaining) Microsoft Explorer.
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Blog Assignment #2
This one is more fun, possibly more so for us old folks than you youngsters. :)
How have you used information/communication technologies over the course of the past 2.5 days -- since snow began falling on Sunday. How has the ubiquity of the Internet changed your behavior? In other words, in some pre-Internet storm/event ... how did you communicate? How did you learn about the storm/event?
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The past couple days I have been sick and indoors semi-away from life, weather and technology (sad, sad) – missing out on the fun snow days I remember, back when my family moved from Seattle to the middle of nowhere (or so I thought at the time, we live in suburb-boonies i.e. unincorporated King County, close enough to the city but far enough to feel out of touch with civilization at times) and the few neighborhood kids on our hill would trek through the woods for snowball fights, angel and snowman making after eagerly listening to the radio and TV report that school was cancelled!
Normally I learn about a storm/event after the fact, by being in it, or beforehand from my dad’s cautioning (he is a daily viewer of the TV news), a storm is coming, be prepared! In Washington I’ve learned to wear layers, ready for any weather…the only reliable forecast is “dark through the evening, with widely scattered light in the morning, and the possibility of showers 24/7”. Because I live in the techie NW I should have a PDA or latest Microsoft gadget to check weather but I don’t, I check the sky for clouds or no clouds and hardly carry an umbrella (a native Seattleite). With the exception of my 7th grade science class which had a tower cam at our school feeding weather pictures to the Internet and local news, today was the first time I checked the weather online (after seeing blankets of white outside, I wanted to find out how many more pretty snowflakes might fall…I didn’t find a number for that but rather the temperature, hourly forecast and driving conditions). This proved to be a convenient experience provided the electricity and wireless were still connected; I plan to use this feature for the remainder of winter in hopes of finding more days to use my ski pass.
Today my communication behavior was relatively the same, telephone calls (relatives and supervisor from work telephoned to see how I was doing, surviving sickness and snow and I phoned out to cancel appointments), in-person communication (being stuck at home I was privileged to listen to my dad’s stories of road ice, random drivers and frozen water pipes) along with computer connection (com class online – I could definitely get used to virtual/telecommute on snow days!).
Blog Assignment #1
Think of some piece of technology that you have recently purchased or a piece of software or feature of an existing piece of technology that you have recently started using. (For example, I recently upgraded my version of MSN Messenger.)
Think about why you made this decision - what factors caused the "adoption."
Now - talk about your experience ... and then think about the theories
we've talked about in class. Which theories help explain your behavior?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since beginning MCDM I bought a new laptop and had one of my friends from a Microsoft family set it up. He insisted on installing Opera 9.0 to avoid problems that come with the Microsoft Explorer, agreeing that avoiding viruses is a good idea, I decided to join the Opera community.
My experience has been positive…that is until the past week…I began having trouble connecting to wireless, opening email, websites and video stream…the screen screamed (not literally) error, error! So, I downloaded Explorer 7 which works just as well…I’m sure my Opera trouble came from the secret Microsoft monopoly police told to catch non-Explorer users (just joking!).
The decision to switch to Opera models the five steps (Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision adopt/reject, Implementation, Confirmation) of the Everett Roger’s Linear Innovation-Diffusion theory (process by which innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among members of a social system). I was informed of an alternative, Opera, through my social circle and persuaded to adopt it. However, after difficulty using the new browser, I became an “un-gratified” user, and thus as an unintended consequence resulted in my returning to the critical mass (point at which enough individuals have adopted an innovation so that the innovation’s further rate of adoption becomes self-sustaining) Microsoft Explorer.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blog Assignment #2
This one is more fun, possibly more so for us old folks than you youngsters. :)
How have you used information/communication technologies over the course of the past 2.5 days -- since snow began falling on Sunday. How has the ubiquity of the Internet changed your behavior? In other words, in some pre-Internet storm/event ... how did you communicate? How did you learn about the storm/event?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The past couple days I have been sick and indoors semi-away from life, weather and technology (sad, sad) – missing out on the fun snow days I remember, back when my family moved from Seattle to the middle of nowhere (or so I thought at the time, we live in suburb-boonies i.e. unincorporated King County, close enough to the city but far enough to feel out of touch with civilization at times) and the few neighborhood kids on our hill would trek through the woods for snowball fights, angel and snowman making after eagerly listening to the radio and TV report that school was cancelled!
Normally I learn about a storm/event after the fact, by being in it, or beforehand from my dad’s cautioning (he is a daily viewer of the TV news), a storm is coming, be prepared! In Washington I’ve learned to wear layers, ready for any weather…the only reliable forecast is “dark through the evening, with widely scattered light in the morning, and the possibility of showers 24/7”. Because I live in the techie NW I should have a PDA or latest Microsoft gadget to check weather but I don’t, I check the sky for clouds or no clouds and hardly carry an umbrella (a native Seattleite). With the exception of my 7th grade science class which had a tower cam at our school feeding weather pictures to the Internet and local news, today was the first time I checked the weather online (after seeing blankets of white outside, I wanted to find out how many more pretty snowflakes might fall…I didn’t find a number for that but rather the temperature, hourly forecast and driving conditions). This proved to be a convenient experience provided the electricity and wireless were still connected; I plan to use this feature for the remainder of winter in hopes of finding more days to use my ski pass.
Today my communication behavior was relatively the same, telephone calls (relatives and supervisor from work telephoned to see how I was doing, surviving sickness and snow and I phoned out to cancel appointments), in-person communication (being stuck at home I was privileged to listen to my dad’s stories of road ice, random drivers and frozen water pipes) along with computer connection (com class online – I could definitely get used to virtual/telecommute on snow days!).
posted by Stephanie Wilder at
9:51 PM
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