Reflections

I must confess, after essentially living in the Tanner building for the last two and half years, it’s been a refreshing and eye-opening experience to come out of my accounting “cocoon” and take part in a fascinating digital civilization class. It’s been intriguing and stretching for me. I feel like my major (accounting) has helped prepared to better under concepts from this class (especially the computing concepts). However, there are some many topics that I have been very unfamiliar with (e.g., digital culture concepts). I have enjoyed expanding my horizons and learning concepts that I have enriched my perspectives on my major and life.

CONNECT- Searching Blogs

For my digital literacy lab I decided to explore the blogosphere by learning tools designed for searching blogs. The main tool I focused on was IceRocket. Ice Rocket allows users to search for blogs across the internet by content, author, language, and date. (The date feature is really nice).

I had two really interesting experiences while using IceRocket that I want to share:

The Auzzie:

What do School Teachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have In Common?

Freakonomics: A Review

                                    

One of the best books that I have read about understanding economics, capitalism, and people’s incentives is Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. Freakonomics uses unusual and memorable examples to illustrate economic principles.

One principle that I believe that the book illustrates particularly well is that how people respond to incentives. One of the interesting questions posed in the book is, “What do school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?” The answer is: they both have incentives to cheat.
 

IceRocket, Laissez Faire, and Uncle Sam

For this blog post, I decided to use IceRocket to find other blogs related to the ideas and history of the Royal Society of London and the Enlightenment.

One of my favorite blogs I found was a blog from Australia that posed an interesting question. The blog essentially asked, “How did the way that nations/countries publicly funded their intellectual movements affect the way that those intellectual movements progressed?”

Of Algorithms, Atheism, and Francis Bacon

Using MIT’s OpenCourseWare I was able to find some amazing essays written by Francis Bacon. Reflecting on our class conversation about the New Scientific Method, I felt like there was room to say that people started to replace religion with skepticism and empiricism in their “algorithm” of finding and identifying truth.

Accounting and Open Government

As an accounting major, the idea of open government is a fascinating one. In recent years, the U.S. government has passed landmark legislation to ensure the openness and transparency of businesses within the US. However, as USAToday reported earlier this week, the US Government is currently asking to be exempt from new legislation demanding a similar type of transparency in how they (the government) police businesses.

Connect – Online Digital Imagery

ETSY.com is an example of a website that allows people to connect with and find local artists. The website allows users to buy and sell various crafts/works of art, to post community art updates, and to comment on an ongoing art forum.

Perhaps one of the coolest features of ETSY.com is the ability to search artist and works found locally within their own community. To achieve this, you go to the ETSY.com homepage => then click to the Shop Local tab. Doing so enables you to search your city/zip code to find local artists.

Maddy, one of our group members, is an illustration major and a very talented artist. To highlight the extensive reach that ETSY.com can have, she commented that she has sold some her art via ETSY.com to people in New York and other cities because those people were able to search by classification and find artists that they liked.

I feel like the development of online websites where people can connect and find great works of art is similar to the development and expansion of printing. With these two developments, the influence of peoples’ ideas (or artistic works) can now travel both near and far. Additionally, Maddy commented that finding art and artists in other countries have helped to significantly influence her art and the type of artist that she would like to be.

To check out more of Maddy’s art, check out her art Blog http://ididnotdrawthis.blogspot.com/

An Apology!!

I recently wrote a blog post entitled "Gutenburg and the Drudge Report." In the post I attempted to draw a parrell between the development of the printing press and how that changed who guarded the "knowledge kingdom."

In my comparison I used a news aggregation website to illustrate the fact that the internet news aggregation websites have changed the traditional "knowledge kingdoms" once kept solely by newspapers.

However, I made a grevious error. The news aggregation website I referenced was one that had heard about but was one that didn't know very much about. After doing some initial research, the website appeared to be good. However, as two people commented on my blog after the fact, some of the news links are less than wholesome/uplifting or even appropiate in some cases. For this I apologize tremendously!!! I had no idea and I am so sorry and embarrased by that!

This experience has taught me a valuable lesson about thoroughly during due diligence before you post something that could be offensive and ultimately embarrassing. I thank you again for patience and the great comments which brought it to my attention.

A Whole New World.

So besides considering a favorite Disney character of mine or someone who has incredible falsetto (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9-CS2v8wcc) the phrase a New World and also new Worldviews has got me thinking...

Throughout our lecture I couldn’t help but think about my favorite P-word I eever learned in a beginning computer class: Paradigm. Paradigms, like tech-tonic plates, tend to shift. A paradigm is defined as an example that serves as a pattern or model for something, especially one that forms the basis of a methodology or theory. For example, society longed believed that the sun revolved around the earth (a geocentric view). That paradigm, or way of thinking, changed or shifted when it was discovered and proven that the earth actually revolves around the sun (a helio-centric view).

The rate at which paradigms shift now is astronomical. Luxuries of the past have become everyday commodities. It may now sound very strange to my kids when I’ll tell them that I didn’t have a cell-phone until I was 21.

The rapid development of technology has caused many paradigms to shift: from education, science, communication, to how we perceive and learn about the world. Wikipedia enumerates a few such changes. I feel the key to success in navigating the magic carpet of changes we constantly experience is to be willing to open to new ideas, products, and ways of doing things.

Welcome!

Hey all, welcome to the first post! My name is Dave and the name of my blog is spanish for the red head (el pelirojo). The URL (la isla me ecanta) means I love the island in Spanish. I served an LDS mission in the Canary Islands, Spain and it was beautiful and I am excited for the new class!

This pic is from an accounting study abroad I did this summer in London.