Thesis: Yep I'm doing it.

[txtaz]

Well after months of working with an advisor, I have the hours for a PhD. from the University of Texas. We have agreed on "The social effects of computing" to be my thesis.

So who better to get material and ideas from...YOU!

I've broken it down to several areas:
1. Computers as tools
2. Computers in the workplace i.e. efficiency
3. Computer automation
4. Computer abuse
5. Computer/internet addiction

If anyone has any ideas or wants to add to the subject, please do.

Thanks in advance.

Dr. Taz<---I'm almost there, just need a few hundred more pages.

[onesubdrvr]

Wes,

IMO you forgot a biggie - Computers and effect on tradtional shopping;

besides the economic effect, there is something to be said for the effect on the small retail businesses / etc.

Also, Computers as a social tool - take for example the networking / etc. we have here, we've all made some good friends, but how has that effected the way people meet other people / etc.

[ajochum]

I have sold computers since my first day on the job in 1974 by learning to program a Victor 4500 programable calculator. It was so powerful, about the size of a calculator. We all said if only it had a wide "carriage" so we could print paychecks. Then along comes Apple, Commidore, then IBM with the PC and finally Gates and company with Microsoft, who in his genius managed to effectively "lease" his software to IBM but retain the rights to the operating system.

To me the biggest thing in the Microsoft takeoff was the total change in how computer operated. Think of it Burroughs (Unisys), NCR, IBM, etc all had their own operating systems and you made a choice to choose one or the other and then be married to that company for the next 20 years, pay their high prices, develop your own software, etc.


What Microsoft did was to standardize and make all computers talk to one another, which allowed for anyone to create software on that platform. It drove the cost of computers down, created competition within the platform so you would choose WordPerfect vs. Word, Excel vs. Lotus, etc. - and that's just at the low end. It created a standard that still works today. Even Apple (which bucked the system and won in certain areanas) now talks to Microsoft and vica-versa.

It has allowed all of us to communicate immediately. It has spurred greater research for students, opened up and changed the music industry, books on-line, created challanges for local libraries, raised havoc with small business, cost local economies millions of sales-tax dollars with on-line buying, etc. etc. etc.....

On a related topic I really see the next generation of energy running along the same lines (read the way Microsoft beat the big guys). Will small start up companies beat Exxon, BP, Shell, etc. by going down another path, or will those big guys join the party and move into new directions, as we may be seeing.....

Best of luck in your thesis. Should be a fun topic.

[Formula Jr]

MMOG Virtual Economies as business models.

The buying and selling of World of Warcraft Avatars, also "Gold Farming."
Buying and selling of virtual real estate with in these games.

Eve and Second Life.
All are investigating relationships with major trademarked brands.

Virtual sex cites such as Red Light Center.

The relationship between real economies and virtual ones.....

[txtaz]

Wes,

IMO you forgot a biggie - Computers and effect on tradtional shopping;



Thanks Wayne, I was putting that into two separate categories. Computers as tools and computer addiction. "Much like people addicted to QVC".

Buying online can be very easy. For most of us it saves time and money. However I bet there is an E-Bay addiction going on.

A requirement of my thesis is that is it explores unknown areas. And we all know much has been written about the porn, facebook, social networking aspect of the net. However, I don't think a comprehensive thesis has been done. My idea is to explore all aspects of the social implications.

Consider:
The unhappy wife who chooses to chat on IM for consulation.
The husband who wants to look at porn.
Or the 14 year old who wants to play grown up and the perves who pray on them.
Least not forget the Donzi nuts. OK, I'm guilty.

All of these are facilitated by a computer.

Yet there is still much good thaqt has come from the advances of computer. FormulaJr has some very foreward thinking ideas. Virtual real estate...I see it happeneing. It has before with the IP buy out of the late 90's.

ajochum, Thanks for the info and well wishes.


Also if any one wishes not to used, named or quoted please let me know. I will respect what you want..

Dr. Taz<---Rx pad....WHAT!!! I can only prescribe over the counter.

[Formula Jr]

Don't have a lot of time tonight to flesh this concept out entirely
but here goes:

Relationship of the internet to school shootings.
This is something I've thought a great deal about.
And have it fairly well diagramed as a theory.

Children have always had access to guns
and there have always been bullies and those that are picked on.
So what new aspect made these so prevelant during the mid-nineties and even to this day.

What was missing before was what is called a "reinforcing community," in behavioristic terminology.
With the internet, children that have these thoughts of suicide and murder can readily find others of like mind in the privacy and anonymity of various chat rooms and bulletin boards. They can play out and develop their fantasies and encourage each other with out any adult intervention. The values of this community that are shared are very different than real world social values. Status and attention may be accorded by the degree and depth of the proposed shooting and suicide plan. And web pages can be designed as their our tribute to themselves to be uploaded just before the act. If you look, you will find that there is always some net based reinforcing community behind most of these events. Some are even encrypted now just so sniffers can't find them.

Anyway gotta go...
good luck..

[Ghost]

Two more to throw on the fire:

1. Lack of traditional social behavior, replaced by computer-based interaction. (Think: taking people who don't know their neighbors to the next level of dysfunction.) A good example of where this leads: adults don't know unruly kids around them, or their parents, and have no healthy relationship with them, and are thus afraid to to confront the kids or report misbehavior to their parents. With this, a long-standing efficient network of cooperating parents dies, and within a generation or so, much of the whole understanding of what was once useful and normal can be lost.

2. This one will be close to home here I think. How about the limitations of the computer medium in the subtleties of communication? (Think: the childhood game of telephone as a metaphor.) Forums, email, and other written media are subject to all sorts of mistakes about inference and implication. (I suppose they may be better in some ways as well.) We had some interesting examples even today about what was or was not meant in a discussion of Reggie Fountain and Don Aronow. But when you couple the limits of the media with so many less-committed, non-face-to-face relationships, I think the social consequences *can* be a little messy. Makes me wonder if it loops back into the face-to-face world, where people seem to be growing surlier and surlier.

BTW, kudos to the folks here for working to overcome such things--I think there are a LOT of pretty uncivilized online communities out there that might learn a thing or two from people here.

Also, given your course of study, if you haven't seen "Idiocracy", I think you might find it an entertaining flick. I predict it will become more and more respected as time passes. Closer to the foresight of "Network" than many would think at first blush, especially since it is hidden in a lower-budget, less polished package.

[txtaz]

Gates and company with Microsoft, who in his genius managed to effectively "lease" his software to IBM but retain the rights to the operating system.


I'm sorry I missed this, however I have to disagree. Gates made a deal to provides an OS for the new IBM PC. He did not have one. He paid $100 for DOS 1.0 from a guy in Seattle (I don't remeber his name). Granted his license scheme was very good.

Windows came from Apple when Steve Jobs let them into their shop for two weeks and Gates just made a copy and said see ya.

Genious? Sounds more like crook to me. There is a good book called "The model railrod company" which is very good and depicts the beginnings of computing at MIT.

I will give Gates one caveat: He would stay up all night, sleep in the halls of the computer room just in case someone missed their time slot so he could run his cards. Funny thing though, he never graduated.

Dr. Taz<----Man I have to buy a new gown, one with all those colors and stuff. Black worked just fine before.

[txtaz]

JR, I here what you are saying and I agree. And don't think that concept is limited to disgruntled kids.

The problem is anonymity or the ability to lie/hide behind a computer screen. I think the reduction of social interaction has through younger generations that it's OK to be wild, weird, sexy or whatever. To them they think "they don't know me". Take a look at myspace or facebook you would be shocked at what is posted there. And I bet the parents don't even know. By Ghost's comments he agrees also.

I also want to add that the annonimity has allowed other of all ages to explore???(need a different word here) all kinds of things. Since I decided to research my thesis I HAVE BEEN FLOORED...by all the sick things (leagal also)people do and now they have more access to communicate with others of like mind. Let's not mention the preditors. I live in Texas, I highly doubt I would be charged for shooting a child molester. As it should be.

It's not all bad, you have just got to love the sports sites. News is good, I do all my trading online and banking. I get free checks for life...give me a break, I haven't written a check in years.

AND Ghost nailed a good one. Limited communications, or the now subset of the English language. LMAOL, LOL, ROFL, BRB etc. Are we getting to lazy to write or say what we mean? Thanks Ghost, I will have to add that one.

[txtaz]

JR, I here what you are saying and I agree. And don't think that concept is limited to disgruntled kids.

The problem is anonymity or the ability to lie/hide behind a computer screen. I think the reduction of social interaction has through younger generations that it's OK to be wild, weird, sexy or whatever. To them they think "they don't know me". Take a look at myspace or facebook you would be shocked at what is posted there. And I bet the parents don't even know. By Ghost's comments he agrees also.

I also want to add that the anonymity has allowed other of all ages to explore???(need a different word here) all kinds of things. Since I decided to research my thesis I HAVE BEEN FLOORED...by all the sick things (legal also)people do and now they have more access to communicate with others of like mind. Let's not mention the predators. I live in Texas, I highly doubt I would be charged for shooting a child molester. As it should be.

It's not all bad, you have just got to love the sports sites. News is good, I do all my trading online and banking. I get free checks for life...give me a break, I haven't written a check in years.

AND Ghost nailed a good one. Limited communications, or the now subset of the English language. LMAOL, LOL, ROFL, BRB etc. Are we getting to lazy to write or say what we mean? Thanks Ghost, I will have to add that one.


Dr. Taz<---So when have we needed a cell to do more than make a call?

[txtaz]

Ohhhh HM or fuzzy one. Any idea why I can't edit or delete a post?

For some reason my last post double posted and I cannot delete it.

Dr. Taz<---I prefer .Net over php. Shaken, not stirred.