The Digital Revolution and the Information Age

The digital world becomes more integrated into normalcy everyday. New words are brought into our lexicon, new rituals are created, and more information is surmounted every moment, all thanks to the Internet. The digital revolution has been occurring for many years now, but recent technological developments have made it more thought provoking. What is this digital revolution that has been changing our world, and what are we going to do about it? As people of the 21st century we are having a hard time wrapping our heads around the immense paradigm shift brought about by information and computing. This website is an attempt at explaining some of the complex concepts that surround our interactions with the digital world, such as "information pollution," "convergence culture," and the next phase of the digital revolution, ubiquitous computing. As Adam Greenfield wrote in Everyware: the Dawning age of Ubiquitous Computing, now is the time when we must "make sense of the wave of change even now bearing down upon us (Greenfield, p. 3)."

Too Much Information

Each year we accumulate enough information to fill "half a million libraries the size of the Library of Congress...92% of it stored on magnetic media (Morville, p. 44)." The number of transistors per circuit today is close to 1 billion, compared to only 5 in 1965 (Morville, p. 43)." How are we expected to organize, sift through, and retain that much information?

Imagine the enormity of Google's goal of organizing all of the world's knowledge for us. "The gap between how we access information and how the computer accesses it is at the heart of the revolution in knowledge. Because computers store information in ways that have nothing to do with how we want it presented to us, we are freed from having to organize the original information the way we eventually want to get at it (Weinberger, p. 99)." Google is a perfect example of how and overabundance of information can become accessible. Their algorithms organize the world's information for us, and all we have to do is access it once in awhile. By accessing information we create patterns in the same way that early humans wore down paths through well-traveled areas. In Everything is Miscellaneous, Weinberger points out that if you "Search Google for 'American History,' which is just one Library of Congress subheading, and you'll get 750 million Web pages--about twenty-six times the number of books in the Library's entire book collection. The Library of Congress's carefully engineered, highly evolved processes for ordering information simply won't work in the new world of digital information (Weinberger, p. 16)." Organizing the Internet through call numbers or subject categories donít work because there is too much information to be categorized. There would be too many errors because users would never agree on how items should have been categorized. For example, there are twenty-four user-made categories on Wikipedia for Abraham Lincoln. This means that users found the article on Lincoln not just by looking at "American Presidents," or "Union political leaders," but also through articles about "Welsh-Americans," and "People from Springfield, Illinois," That's one of the many amazing things about the Internet. There are so many different ways of getting at information, and the Internet makes it possible for any number of those ways to happen. "Now that everything in the connected world can serve as metadata,knowledge is empowered beyond fathoming. We can not only find what we need based on whatever slight traces we have in our head we can see connections that would have escaped our notice (Weinberger, p. 105)."

Now all we have to do is worry about whether or not our information is credible and true, although the ease of getting that information may causes users to ignore this problem. Some users forfeit truth for access, but Robert McHenry, former editor of Encyclopedia Britannica points out, "The user who visits Wikipedia to learn about some subject, to confirm some mater of fact, is rather in the position of a visitor to a public restroom. It may not be obviously dirty, so that he knows to exercise with great care, or it may seem fairly clean, so that he may be lulled into a false sense of security. What he certainly does not know is who has used the facilities before him (Weinberger, p. 132)."

Ubiquitous Computing

Ubiquitous computing, also known as everyware, pervasive computing, tangible media, or physical computing is the next phase in computing. As MIT's Project Oxygen prophesizes, ""In the future, computation will be human-centered. It will be freely available everywhere like batteries and power sockets, or oxygen in the air we breathe. It will enter into the human world, handling our goals and needs and helping us to do more while doing less (McCullough, p. 7)." With ubiquitous computing, microchips will be in everything. In fact, this is already happening. Today, less than one quarter of the microchips made at Intel actually go into computers. Ubiquitous computing can be an intuitive thermostat, or a lighting system that changes with daylight. But it is morethan just computer-operated homes or offices. Ubiquitous computing is also the end of the desktop computer, and the beginning of hand-held and integrated devices. The desktop computer has been around for twenty years, a very long time for any Information technology to be around. "Pervasive computing has been hailed as an escape from the desktop and a chance to start over. On the other hand, unless design can intervene, it is also a chance for computer technology to become even worse, and far less escapable (< The desktop computer has been around for twenty years, a very long time for any Information technology to be around. "Pervasive computing has been hailed as an escape from the desktop and a chance to start over. On the other hand, unless design can intervene, it is also a chance for computer technology to become even worse, and far less escapable (McCullough, p. 68)."

There are certain fears regarding ubiquitous computing (ubicomp), such as that it will pave the way for increased surveillance, that it will cause computers to control every aspect of our lives, or that it will not be aesthetically pleasing or user-friendly. This is where interaction designers, step in. Interaction design is a new field that how significant technologies will be in our lives through "degrees of interactivity." Because users have trouble adapting to more technology than they already have in their lives, ubicomp is both easily controlled by users, but also in the periphery, where it will keep users calm. "'Information appliances' let you carry out particular activities without having to be aware of any computers that may be involved (McCullough, p. 70)." The benefits of ubicomp are starting to outweigh the negative effects. For example, many of us have already began to trade away our on-line privacy for convenience and ease of use. There is still a nee, however for users and interaction designers to take the reigns on ubiquitous computing. As McCullough fears in Digital Ground, "Its purveyors assume no more responsibility for information pollution than nineteenth-century industrialists did for dumping sludge in the river (McCullough, p. 17)." It is important to ensure that our technologies don't become too pervasive.

Another aspect of ubicomp, in my opinion, is the new trend of highly specialized hand-held devices, such as the I-pod touch, the I-phone, and the Kindle. These devices allow users to store more media than most need, to go online, to talk with friends, and to share information, all without even connecting to a desktop computer. And best of all, they do it by being invisible, by taking away the user's perception of there being a computer in their hand. They are ubiquitous.

Convergence Culture

From Ubiquitous computing and the integration of the digital world into our lives we get the emergence of convergence culture. "Convergence represents a paradigm shift--a move from media-specific content toward content that flows across multiple media channels, toward the increased interdependence of communication systems, toward multiple ways of accessing media content...(Jenkins, p. 243)." Convergence of technologies is not new, "The computer industry is converging with the Television industry in the same sense that the automobile converged with the horse...the word-processing program converged with the typewriter...etc. (Jenkins, p. 13)." What is new is the cultural aspect of it, the collective intelligence that happens when we take hold of media and put our views in. Through convergence culture, users pick and choose media at will, but can also integrate two media into one. Because of a constant inundation of information and media, conergence culture must cause users to take media into their own hands. It helps them to understand the world around them by letting them look at it how they decide. For example, users can watch their favorite TV show while chatting about it on-line, or watch a documentary while looking up further questions on Wikipedia (perhaps even editing the article), they can read a book on their Kindle while listening to music on their I-pod. This is all a new part of our culture. A part of culture in which, "Consumption had become a collective process (Jenkins, p. 4)."

The Power of the User

The Internet is changing our world just as easily as we change it. As the Internet amasses more information, and as ubiquitous computing begins to get a foot-hold, information literacy becomes increasingly more important. The American Library Association defines information literacy as a "set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information (Morville, p. 8)." Luckily, the Internet is malleable to a user who is literate. Users find their way around the Internet in much the same way as early humans found their way around their locales. They wear away paths, one person following the paths others have worn, until eventually paths begin to fork, and signs (tags) are needed to show which way new paths will take you. Users who take their own paths on the Internet not only shape their own knowledge themselves, but they can also help change the shape of knowledge for everyone. Sites like Delicious and Wikipedia are the perfect example ofthis. For example, "At Delicious, tagging a Web address with multiple tags in effect puts it on many branches. Yet despite the lack of a well-organized scheme of categories, Delicious can make a list of twenty thousand web addresses thoroughly usable (Weinberger, p. 93)."McCullough wrote that "You don't have to distrust technology to want to keep it in its place (McCullough, p. 3),but unlike most media and technologies, the Internet and Digital technologies can be easily controlled and manipulated by users. Their algorithms and design are being specifically designed so that users can make them work in a way that is best for them.