The Internet...

Yesterday, in my electronic communications class, we watched this movie about the Internet. It talked about how the Internet started, and why Bill Gates is so rich (I always love learning about how people get rich!). I learned that Bill Gates plan was definitely not fool proof though. I remember seeing him be in trouble for something on the news, but I wasn’t sure of why he was being sued.

Come to find out, he illegally offered Internet Explorer for free to compete with the first MAJOR Internet Service Provider (ISP) Netscape Navigator (unfair competition in the marketplace). This is why Bill Gates had to forfeit over a billion dollars in legal costs.

I’ve really been intrigued with the marketplace lately. I’ve been paying attention to monopolies, and fair commerce. I’m reading a book that you should all check out. It is called “The Tipping Point.” It is about how epidemics and trends start. I like reading books like this because I have the opportunity to figure out how to start my own trend. Hopefully I will be a billionaire one day.

I am happy my teacher made us watch that movie in class today. As a communicator, I think it is essential for us to know about the Internet. After all, that is the medium most of us will be communicating and working through for the rest of our lives. The movie also talked about how American's will have a lot of competition in the future, and already do have a lot of competition from other countries. For instance, many Indians learn from grade 8 how to do computer programming and speak English. Many American Internet companies hire Indians to do their computer programming because they will work for lower wages. Although we are technically the super power country of the world now, I am not sure that we will be in the future (based on the growth of the internet).

Other things that were included in this movie were interesting too:

-History of the Internet (How it began, WWW beginning, Hypertext, Networking)-E-commerce availability, browsers, JAVA (Netscape first big ISP, E-world, Excite, sex drives internet)-Advertising (the Montley Fool, books on Amazon.com)

I am loving school this semester. I am such a geek, I swear.

Update on social life:

Scott and I are doing VERY well. We are both excited to go to Florida in about two weeks. Scott is working on remodeling some of the rooms in his house. They are looking VERY nice. He is seriously one of those guys that can achieve anything when it comes to home improvement. Don’t you just love guys that can work with their hands?

Anyway, my sister Emily’s birthday is tomorrow. HAPPY B-DAY Emiline! I am looking forward to the weekend, but I have LOTS of reading to do.

I’ve been really impressed with my staff writers at the Westminster newspaper this semester (www.westminstercollege/forum). We have had some GREAT stories hit the press. Our readability is up, and the stories are getting better. I am so proud… so proud. To bad this is my last semester on the paper! Oh well, maybe you will see my name on Utah newspaper by-lines one day.

I love you all!

Electronic Communication

I absolutely love my new communications class! It is seriously so interesting. Here is a paper I wrote about how we communicate as a society in this day and age.

The topic to write about was the printing press. My professor wanted us to talk about how the printing press affected people's communication in the 1450s, how the invention affects us now, and how the impacts of electronic communication are changing the way we communication in the world today.

Let me know what you think... I always love constructive criticism.

The "Message" is the Key

By Jessica Faulkner ©

In the 1450s Johann Gutenburg developed the printing press. In this paper I will discuss how the printing press affected it’s time, how the printing press affected the world’s communication and history, and how getting the “message” across in today’s society is the most important aspect of communication because of the new/different types of communication we deal with each day.

The invention of the printing press allowed the printed word to be distributed to the masses. Before Gutenburg developed the printing press, all that people had to communicate the written word, were wood-engraved letters. Gutenburg’s machine was used to advance communicated technology further for years to come.

After researching the topic a little more, I found that according to thinkpress.com, “Rome developed a printing press in 1465, but, because the rulers of many countries felt that the printed word encouraged people to rebel against their authority, they strictly controlled the amount of material that printers were allowed to produce.”

This made me think—if people were so concerned about how the word encouraged people to rebel against their authority back then—think about how shocked they would be if they saw how many ways we communicate with the printed word today! Thanks to the first amendment, only laws can control what people write today (such as libel, copy-write, and slander). And come to think of it, these laws really aren’t limited compared to what writers had to deal with back in the 1400s. Today, we don’t have the government controlling our journalism or writing.

J.D. Biersdorfer from The New York Times said, “cyberspace is a constellation of printing presses and bookstores, and these fundamental entities solidly covered by the First Amendment should not be shoehorned into broadcast-style Government regulations.”

Communication was able to grow and flourish because of Gutenburg’s invention. Like I mentioned above, it also paved the way for future communication inventions. Today, there is a new electronic communication invention every day. Whether it’s cell phones, game boys, palm pilots, blackberries, etc., there is new improvement and emphasis in communicating.

Rather than being concerned about the population getting “rebellious” with their communication (like in Gutenburg’s time), now the concerns for communication are if we are actually getting the message across. With how fast everything moves in today’s society, it is hard to know if people are communicating their message effectively. We have all of these outlets for communication, and yet we take them for granted by not communicating effectively with each other.

According to ecie.org, “Communication and information are the keys to understanding and knowledge.” So, if we as participants in a society don’t communicate effectively, is our society bound to have less knowledge and understanding? I say yes—based on the message we are trying to communicate. With the way our technological society is growing, we tend to lose grasp of certain topics because we are only choosing to communicate through certain mediums or with certain inventions. As communicators, it is essential that we make sure we are communicating as effectively as possible and remember that the “message” is the key.

In conclusion, electronic communication mediums are growing, and more electronic communication inventions are being developed each year—that is no reason to let the message that you are trying to communicate get weaker. We, as a society, need to strengthen our messages. In doing this, we will have a better knowledge and understanding of our surroundings and be able to take advantage of all of the new inventions we have the opportunity to use.