Technology Interview 4

This is my fourth interview via phone conference with Jessica. I know that the sound is slightly difficult to hear, but if the volume is turned up a little, it sounds great.

The Downfall of MySpace

I was reading an article the other evening from this past issue of BusinessWeek and the issue contained a lengthy review of exactly how MySpace ended up in the position they are currently facing. Among the areas mentioned within the article, I was extremely surprised to find that many of the early problems MySpace encountered dealt with technology. Rather than placing greater efforts towards other dire departments, MySpace continued to work tirelessly to achieve new levels of applications for its users, such as video uploads, music players, and profile schemes. During this period, however, rival companies, such as Facebook, began to simply pay outside providers for the creation of those applications - much of their force was then focused on tactics to gain market share and capture unsatisfied users from MySpace. Granted there were other traps MySpace fell into, negative public perception being among them, but this early inability to keep up with other rivals focusing on stronger security measures for their sites appears to have cost them dearly. Soon after, other more damaging perceptions began to injure MySpace's legitimacy. Ultimately, their numbers began to slide and even now the owning company views the site as an "eyesore". Perhaps, MySpace will climb out of this very deep hole. Regardless of their fate, I was still shocked at the lack of vision when it came down to technology and the extreme role it played in MySpace's eventual demise.


http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_27/b4235053917570.htm

Technology Interview 5

This will be my fifth video for the technology based interviews. This recording was completed at the Incarnate Word campus with Jason.

Sheepish Technology

According to some articles I have read lately, the program known as Firesheep may be battling a recently designed counterpart to its spying capabilities. When i first heard of the defending program, I was uncertain as to its success at repelling the intrusive actions of Firesheep users. However, from the information I have gathered, it appears that this Firesheep blocker has indeed provided protection against the program. This programs name - BlackSheep. Since Firesheep is a Firefox plugin, meaning it can only be used in conjunction with Firefox, BlackSheep serves as a Firefox extension which can be enabled to both detect and defend against Firesheep users. Under BlackSheep, the cookie, which Firesheep attempts to capture in order to spy into accounts, is faked. The victimized user is then alerted that Firesheep is being used by another party and the IP address of the offending party is also displayed.

As far as I can tell, the program is highly useful to guard against Firesheep users; both programs cannot be used in the same session of Firefox, but one would imagine that if BlackSheep was enabled, Firesheep wouldn't be. Even though Firefox is taking steps to limit the use of Firesheep (it can only be used under specific older versions of Firefox), I still believe that downloading BlackSheep would be the best action for most users who want their accounts and privacy protected to a better extent. An article which speaks to the usefulness of the BlackSheep extension is below as well.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/08/firesheep-blacksheep/

Savvy Sites

During the course of our classes, we were introduced to a few new websites which are always useful when searching for information regarding technology. i have since visited a number of potential sites on particular subjects about technology, specifically concerning the iPhone 5 or 4S. Of the sites I visited based on both references as well as simplistic Google searches, I found that the two main sites mentioned in class were, in fact, quite up to date and knowledgeable. The websites in question are Mashable.com and Techcrunch.com; of the two, I would recommend Techcrunch - it appeared to have a wider array of tech topics and was up to speed on current trends in a manner superior to Mashable. What I have discovered about the iPhone 5 is that it was previously scheduled to be released this year, however, due to factory issues they were forgo that release date. According to articles on these sites, the new date may be next year, yet it appears that many rumors regarding the iPhone 5 or 4S are still spiraling throughout the news and web circuits. As such, it's difficult to determine which rumors may come to pass and which are entirely untrue. In any case, I wanted to share some Techcrunch articles for those who may wish to read them.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/27/iphone-5-iphone-lite/

http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/27/ios-widgets-and-revamped-notifications/

http://techcrunch.com/tag/iphone-5/

http://mashable.com/2011/03/28/apple-iphone-5/

http://mashable.com/2011/02/15/iphone-5-rumors/

NewTek

Just the other morning, I was introduced to several technology based companies around the San Antonio area. Most dealt with communication or business related technologies, however, there was one company in particular which stood apart from the rest. This company was responsible for developing and implementing technologies within the film industry, as such it was not the typical IT corporation. The company we researched was known as NewTek; they have created impressive technology involving divergent areas of film production, from lighting functions to portable production devices. Their work is so extraordinary that they received various awards for their specially designed products, among which resides both Emmys and an Academy Award. This company is astounding as well as groundbreaking in their work, please visit them and see for yourselves a quality focused and truly exceptional tech company.

http://www.newtek.com/focus.php

http://www.crunchbase.com/company/newtek

CIO

On Saturday, my class was visited by a guest speaker, Marshall Eidson via a UStream video. Mr. Eidson spoke to us about technology and the roles he played as Chief Information Officer for the UIW campus. Among the functions which Mr. Eidson mentioned were managing budgets, hiring personnel, governance, and strategic planning. For each of these areas, subcategories were distinguished by our visitor. He stated that each area consisted of other subroles to be addressed, such as requests for proposals and reevaluating contracts, committee involvement, performance appraisals, selecting appropriate projects for funding, and numerous other functions. In addition to these roles mentioned above, Mr. Eidson also listed for us the 6 main tasks for a CIO under IT. The 6 tasks included infrastructure support for the University, technical support services (such as the Help Desk), enterprise systems (specifically Bannerweb), instructional technology (classroom setups), institutional research, and the Northwest Datapoint Team (a team working primarily at the School of Optometry for UIW). All of these tasks are crucial to the continued day to day operations of the campus. Even though many students realize that a department is responsible for these actions, it isn't until someone takes you through these everyday tasks that an appreciation begins to appear.

I can honestly say that I was extremely surprised and impressed at the sheer volume of tasks and roles associated with the position of CIO. Still, perhaps the most memorable area of conversation was when Mr. Eidson recalled his educational background. Evidently, he had spent a number of years do charitable work and it affected the way in which he viewed technology. In fact, I remember him stating that technology is a tool to do what we couldn't do before and that technology is about relationships between people. Accordingly, you must possess the interpersonal skills in order to have any hope of understanding technology properly. I have to say that I had never viewed technology in that light before. Thinking back to his video, I was truly moved by his beliefs and views when it came to technology. That is why I will share the UStream link with Mr. Eidson, CIO for The University of the Incarnate Word.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/15557480