Gutiérrez: We can have law and order and justice and compassion

This is a very, very good man who explains the problem and what we need to do to humanize our system. He speaks from his heart. God bless him. Watch this speech, please, and understand what he says: " We can have law and order and justice and compassion" (Congressman Gutierrez, 2014).

The Outernet Just Might be the Answer!

Although the Internet has made access to information potentially accessible to more people, emerging technologies have also created a digital divide between economic classes in our society (Laureate, 2009).  Emerging technologies have created a digital divide between economic classes in our society (Laureate, 2009). This same sentiment is expressed in the sentence, “The future has arrived; it just wasn't distributed equally” (Gibson, W n.d.; Kennedy, 01, 12, 2012).

So how can we, as educational leaders, help narrow that divide? Well, the answer is that we need to help make technologies more accessible to everyone while providing an income for those that work in the technology industry. Dr. Elliot Soloway (2009) suggests that profits are now going to be made by disruptors in the industry who understand that the money to be made will be through providing services for the consumer, no longer by providing purchasable items (such as bits of software) (Laureate, 2009).

Metcalf's Law is the law that the power of the network increases by the number of people involved squared. As technology leaders, then, it stand to reason, we want to keep as many people involved in the Internet as possible. The value of our network is found in its global reach. One way that access is becoming more available to more people is that Smart phone sales are growing globally. Right now Smart phones are the future of technology. The Smart phone provides opportunities for the average person in ways that have the potential to narrow the technology gap. (Laureate, 2009).

Another way that the growing divide could continue to be widened if we, as technology leaders, allow it to is that the Internet may no longer remain neutral. What this means is, the FCC may cave to pressure to allow for companies to pay for faster Internet services, making the Internet less neutral. Right now almost anyone can access the Internet for a small monthly fee, and no one is given priority for faster service. If the FCC passes what the FCC calls, in a strange Orwellian double-speak term, new “net neutrality” rules there is a possibility that the rich corporations will have access to an Internet fast-lane, while the rest of us normal folk will be left out (Selyukh, 2014). This has the potential weaken the positive global effect that our current Internet has had in making information more equally accessible to all, in a way that is more more prevalent than ever before.

The disruptors, the technology leaders, the inventors, and the innovation champions are already looking for ways to counteract any form of censorship or special rights for certain groups that could occur through FCC regulations and financial strong-holds on the Internet. There is now an “Outernet” in the works that would allow for free access to all of humanity through WiFi from space, despite attempts to close down the openness we now enjoy on the Internet (Outernet, n.d.. @ https://www.outernet.is/). We can, and should -as technology leaders-, develop U.S. and global policies to protect this, and we can encourage all citizens to exercise their voice and speak up for their right to access to information.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (2009). Emerging and future technology: Diversity and globalism. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Outernet (n.d.) @ https://www.outernet.is/

Kennedy, P. (01/13/2012) William Gibson's future is Now. The New York Times. @ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/books/review/distrust-that-particular-flavor-by-william-gibson-book-review.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Selyukh, A. (May 15, 2014). Amid protests, U.S. FCC proposes new 'net neutrality' rules. Reuters, WA @ http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/15/us-usa-internet-neutrality-idUSBREA4C0SF20140515

Wired. (2014-05-02 18:45 UTC). Outernet: A space-based alternative Internet designed to evade censorship. Interactivity will be limited (no uploads). @ http://hiw.me/WIRED/status/462301794304282626

Red Queens: DVDs and Video-on-demand technologies

One competitive force behind emerging technologies is the the "Red Queen," based on Lewis Carol's character from Through the Looking Glass (Thornburg, 2008c). An emergent Red Queen has an undeniable and obvious impact on the evolution of technology, because of the fierce competition between technologies. The consequence of a fierce battle between two Red Queen technologies; each one racing to keep ahead of the other, results in the other similar technologies becoming obsolete (Laureate, 2009).

When I needed to find a way to view the movie based on a Philip K. Dick book, A Scanner Darkly, I was able to find a vendor that offered this service to me for free, on demand. This current competition between DVDs and video-on-demand is an example of a Red Queen rivalry. When Video-on-demand became available to the public, all of Blockbluster Video Outlets open as retail rental outlets for DVD rental and purchase were put out of business, they are all literally closed directly due to the availability of Video-on-demand technology. This shows that DVDs and Video-on-demand are Red Queens, based on Thornburg's definition (2008c).

According to McLuhan’s tetrad (2008b), Videos-on demand enhance current technologies because it accelerates accessibility, improves price, and convenience to the consumer. It obsoletes rental video stores available for rental as physical retail outlets, retrieves the access to programming once available from your living room when televisions were first invented, and could be replaced in the future by a wild card technology not currently in existence, thus reversing the enhancing features that it originally introduced.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (2009). Emerging and future technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Thornburg, D. D. (2008b). Emerging technologies and McLuhan's Laws of Media. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.

Thornburg, D. (2008c). Red Queens, butterflies, and strange attractors: Imperfect lenses into emergent technologies. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.