Interactivity and Multimedia Interfaces by David Kirsh presents arguments and observational data that humans interact with their environments in various different ways. Kirsh gives several examples of ways we interact including: preparing the environment, maintaining the environment, and reshaping the cognitive congeniality of the environment. From these, Kirsh says that our understanding of how these examples simplify the complexity of our mental processes is the first, and arguably most important, step in designing the right sort of resources needed to design a learner controlled learning environment.
1) With which one of the network laws do you
most agree? Why?
Of the networks
laws which we discussed in class, Reed’s Law, a summation of Web 2.0, seems to
be the most relevant and applicable in our networking society and the law I
most agree with. Reed’s Law states
that the utility of large networks, primarily social networks in today’s age of
networking, can scale exponentially with the size of the network. Reed states
that a network that has “n’ members increases its utilities by 2 raised to the
power of “n.” Compared to laws such as Metcalfe’s and Sarnoff’s, Reed’s Law
shows much more rapid growth.
This directly explains the age of “viral” we
are experiencing on the Internet today. Take for example the Vine trend in
which someone makes fun of another shoes by pointing at the person’s feet and
yelling, “What are those?!” This started as a man with less than 200 Vine
followers posting a video in which he performed this comedic act towards a
police officer. “What are those” videos can now be found all over the Internet
with thousands of victims. This can be said for many other Vine trends, such as
“The Nae Nae,” “Or Nah,” and “Just Girly Things.”
Here are a few examples of vine trends portrayed through compilations on YouTube.
"What Are Those?!?!"
"Nae Nae"
"Or Nah"
2) How do you think people might get their
information five years from now?
Technology has, over the years, proven to be
anything but predictable; however, I find it hard to imagine a more efficient
system in which people could gather information. We have actively found
ourselves in the Google-age of technology, simply meaning that we have nearly
any information imaginable at our fingertips. As if the ability to search for
information is not enough, social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and
Reddit can also steadily provide users with information on various topics from
news to fun arts and crafts. While I can imagine there will be upgrades to the
systems already in place, I do not foresee the Google-age being introduced to a
new platform for gathering information.
