The growth and development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has led to their wide diffusion and application, thus increasing their economic and social impact. The OECD undertakes a wide range of activities aimed at improving our understanding of how ICTs contribute to sustainable economic growth and social well-being and their role in the shift toward knowledge-based societies. Technology is growing and growing every day with more and more popularity. The web has millions of users each day. You can find virtually anything on the World Wide Web, and you can use almost anything to access the World Wide Web, whether it is an iPhone, iTouch, cell phone, laptop, or the now-becoming-old-school desktop computer. Just how popular is the Internet? It boasts billions and billions of users each month. A NeXT Computer was used by Berners-Lee as the world’s first web server and also to write the first web browser, Worldwide Web, in 1990. By Christmas 1990, Berners-Lee had built all the tools necessary for a working Web the first web browser (which was a web editor as well); the first web server; and the first web pages,[8] which described the project itself. On August 6, 1991, he posted a short summary of the World Wide Web project on the newsgroup. This date also marked the debut of the Web as a publicly available service on the Internet. The first server outside Europe was set up at SLAC to host the SPIRES-HEP database. Accounts differ substantially as to the date of this event. The World Wide Web Consortium says December 1992,[10] whereas SLAC itself claims 1991. This is supported by a W3C document entitled A Little History of the World Wide Web. The Internet is a wonderful communication tool. Take, for example, this post: Speed… With electronic mail, written messages are delivered to the recipient within minutes of their transmission. Messages can be read at the recipient’s convenience, at any time of the day. Or, the recipient can respond immediately, and an asynchronous dialogue can develop which resembles a telephone conversation or a meeting. The ease and speed with which messages transmit often changes the writing style and formality of the written communication. These changes can lead to misinterpretation of messages, and a need arises for a new set of standards for the interpretation of message content. Permanence… Electronic communications appear to be a volatile form of communication in which messages disappear when deleted. However, messages can be stored for years on disks or tapes, or they can be printed and/or stored in standard files. Unlike paper copy or a telephone message, a message also can be altered, then printed, without evidence that it is not original. Electronic messages may also be reformatted, then printed, as more formal or “official” correspondence. Accessibility… Organizations develop channels of communication to filter paper or telephone messages to ensure that only appropriate individuals receive the information. Comparable mechanisms may not yet be in place for electronic mail. In using electronic communication, organizations may need to reevaluate office procedures to ensure consistent documentation of correspondence and to prevent inappropriate correspondence burdening individuals. Security and Privacy… Currently, no legal regulations exist regarding the security and privacy of electronic mail. The vast majority of electronic mail messages are delivered to the correct addressee without intervention. How else can the internet be used for communication? The Internet could be used for communication in many different ways. For example, email messages are sent over the internet. When people make websites, that is using the internet to communicate information to the readers. The internet can also be used for instant messaging (texting) or even Voice over Internet Provider (VoIP) which allows live video/audio conversations with people across the internet at other computers or even telephones. Most studies of how people communicate with members of their core network focus exclusively on in-person contact. This includes the General Social Survey, which, in 2004, asked only one question about interaction with core network members: “How often do network members talk?” This focus privileges a certain type of communication, mainly that which can take place in person or possibly over the telephone. It leaves little room for the possibility that important social contact takes place through other forms of communication, such as postal mail, email, instant messaging, text messaging (SMS), and social networking services. To calculate frequency of contact across various communication platforms we asked participants how many days per month they were in contact with each of their core ties using a variety of media, including face-to-face. We averaged the answers respondents gave across all core ties and extrapolated to a full year of communication activity per core tie. We found that Americans take advantage of a wide range of media to maintain their core networks and that “talk,” whether in person or over the telephone, is only a fraction of the total supportive exchange between core network members. Traditional media: The average person sees each member of their core network 210 days of the year, talks to them using a landline telephone on 125 days, and sends each core network member an average of 8 letters or cards. ICTs: If they have a mobile phone, the average person talks to each core network member by mobile phone on 195 days. Email users send messages to each core tie on 72 days of the year. If a person uses text messaging (SMS), on average they send text messages to each core network member on 125 days. Those who use instant messaging contact core ties by IM on 55 days of the year. Of those who use social networking services (SNS), SNS are used to message each core tie an average of 39 days each year. People can talk so much using mobile phones and the internet. “Exaltabo! focuses on the issue of communication to young people; How do young people communicate? How do they access information? What are the ‘languages’ which they employ? What are their influences? One aspect of answering this question is finding out what they say themselves about their sources and influences. We may believe that young people are besotted with the web. We may believe that they don’t want to listen to their parents. We may maintain that they don’t read any more. But we ought, at least, to take some soundings about what they actually do. The ‘Connected’ survey doesn’t pretend to answer all these questions. In the nature of a quantitative survey (and material referred to by Jayne Ozanne in her conference paper ‘Do we mind the gap’ provides a valuable qualitative counterpoint), interpretation has to read between the lines. The survey took as its brief focusing on technologies, media, influences and trends, rather than tackling deeper questions of language and meaning. The responses are inevitably shaped by the questions, which is why we have provided the raw data here. Given the above provisos, we believe the information gained from a reasonably broad spectrum of respondents raises some telling points. Are we all getting sucked into the ‘web’? No – not right away. Young people don’t appear to be absorbed with the Internet. Media such as Internet chat seem to have a mixed reception. The usage of the web doesn’t appear to be as significant as music and phone usage, for example. Ignoring the older generation? – Possibly not. Parents scored as highly as friends in influencing young people’s attitudes and opinions. Perhaps the most interesting responses are to the questions at the end of the survey – ‘Tick which of these you use more, and which you use less than a year ago’, and ‘What do you think has most effect on shaping your attitudes and ideas?’ Bear in mind that the ‘trends’ question is being asked of people who themselves have grown a significant year older in the last year – so may reflect an age related trend. Do we know how many people really do use cell phones, though? “Current statistics indicate that two billion people currently have subscriptions for cellular phones, referred to in Europe as “mobiles,” enough phones for one third of the planet’s population. In fact, there are some countries with more cell phones than people. In the United States, 66% of the population owns a cell phone: U.S. population stands at 297 million, with 197 million cell phone users. Collectively, people spent 675 billion minutes talking on cell phones in June 2005. The ring tones industry, which allows people to hear popular songs when their cell phones ring, is now a $5 billion a year market, an instructive instance of an ancillary industry arising from the ubiquity of the cell phone. Smaller industries now market mobile games and “mobisodes,” video content designed specifically to be viewed on cell phones. Other creative uses have arisen, including Short Message Service (SMS), text messaging, and fake talking (in which people pretend to talk on their phones to combat loneliness or fear); cell phones have also proved useful for social interaction in places like Saudi Arabia, where young men and women are restricted in their ability to socialize. Cell phones affect our built environment, most notably in the form of widespread advertising, not just in industrialized cities, but also in the third world. Unlike the Internet, which has sparked fears of a “digital divide” between the industrialized and developing worlds, cell phones have become popular all over the world. The cell phone is portrayed as glamorous, but also inexpensive. Many users decorate and personalize their phones, giving rise to folk art cottage industries. The cell phone has become a kind of art in itself, in which a user’s choice of phone and decoration acts as a kind of personal statement. The ubiquity of the cell phone has caused changes in certain cultural norms, as well. Businesses, movie theaters, parks and restaurants are just some of the spaces in which the appropriateness of cell phone conversations is disputed and unclear. The Metropolitan Museum of Art doesn’t allow cell phones, but this doesn’t always stop people from using them. (Katz shows a picture of a museum patron crouching to avoid being seen while using his cell phone.) Cell phones seem to prioritize communication with distant people over those sharing one’s space, and the ethics of this new behavior are not universally agreed upon. Classrooms are another area that have clearly been changed by cell phones, but how, and how much? Women were more likely to use phones, while men were more likely to use music players. Four percent of students said they thought it was acceptable to use a cell phone in class. 41% said they had used them to check messages in class. About half said use of text messaging was acceptable, while about a third considered playing games appropriate. Despite the comparatively small screen sizes, people have begun watching television on their cell phones, to distance themselves from crowded situations and prioritize their attention. Despite the widespread acceptance of video technology on cell phones, consumers remain wary of two-way video, due to concerns about surveillance and privacy. Cell phones have been used to mobilize supporters of political causes. Cell phones have been credited with helping to augment the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. In France this past month, demonstrators used text messaging to coordinate activities and avoid police. In China, text messaging figured prominently in anti-Japanese demonstrations. To summarize: Cell phones are enabling people to create their own micro-cultures; they are changing cultural norms and values, and demonstrating consumers’ ability to modify and repurpose technology for their own use. I believe that cell phones, by allowing people to insulate their private interactions from the culture around them, will encourage a kind of “walled garden” of micro-cultures that is complex, but exclusive. Jing Wang: There are many angles from which I can discuss Chinese cell phone culture. It is widely known that East Asia is advanced in the production of “killer applications” for mobile technologies. In this presentation, I’m going to take a different approach and use marketing as an entry point, drawing on a project I was involved in for Motorola. Linking marketing and cell phones leads us to music marketing. Cell phone penetration is expected to outstrip computer penetration in Asia for several years, and most cell phones are used by people under 25. My focus is thus not only on music marketing, but youth culture in general, both in China and the world as a whole. After the advertising agency Ogilvy took over Motorola’s global account, I was assigned to a project in summer 2004 that intended to map out the relationship between Chinese youth and their musical tastes. Motorola’s vision was to develop an alternative iPod. They had obtained a deal with iTunes, and sought to become the dominant supplier of mobile media content. Motorola had two specific aims: getting consumers to buy Motorola phones, and getting them to buy content from corporate partners of Motorola. Now we’re just starting to come with terms of how many people really do use the Internet every day for various reasons. ICT (information and communications technology – or technologies) is an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning. ICTs are often spoken of in a particular context, such as ICTs in education, health care, or libraries. The term is somewhat more common outside of the United States. According to the European Commission, the importance of ICTs lies less in the technology itself than in its ability to create greater access to information and communication in underserved populations. Many countries around the world have established organizations for the promotion of ICTs, because it is feared that unless less technologically advanced areas have a chance to catch up, the increasing technological advances in developed nations will only serve to exacerbate the already-existing economic gap between technological “have” and “have not” areas. Internationally, the United Nations actively promotes ICTs for Development (ICT4D) as a means of bridging the digital divide. Thousands of different things can be used to communicate, not just cell phones and the internet. Although cell phones and the internet are the preferred form of communication there are dozens of other forms as well. Here was our old system of sending messages back in forth: Telegram: Message is sent as dots and dashes. Postal Mail: Messages written on paper and posted. Birds: Messages are written on paper and tied to doves and the doves got to it’s required destination. Messengers: Messages are communicated through messengers. Is our new way of internet system much better and much more reliable? Yes, yes it is. How and when should we use the internet? These days, many of us are turning to electronic mail for communications we used to handle by phone, letter, or even face-to-face meetings. E-mail is easy to send and does not depend on both parties being available at the same time. It even provides a written record. E-mail may seem to be the perfect form of communication, but it does have some limitations, and it is not always the appropriate choice. It is important to understand its pitfalls and how to work around them. The four major pitfalls of e-mail are missed signals, lack of context, permanence, and unfamiliarity. Lack of context A note stuck to your door is informal; a signed memorandum on departmental letterhead is official. The way a message is sent tells the recipient a lot-people have learned to recognize the status of a message from its context and formatting cues. In e-mail, however, both kinds of message look the same. You can’t send an e-mail message on letterhead or on scented stationery. As a result, your recipient not only lacks the non-verbal content of your speech, but he or she also lacks the traditional symbols that would show its status and context. If people in your department receive an e-mail message saying “Please get all grades in by the 25th,” they don’t necessarily know whether it is an official statement of policy or a plea for help from an overworked administrator. As we start to use e-mail interchangeably with all of the other communication methods available to us, we have to develop ways of making the context of the message clear. Eventually, we may have “electronic letterhead” for verifiable official messages. Until then, the best solution is to explain your message’s status and context right up front. You might, for example, state, “This is a formal announcement from the office of the director” (if indeed that’s what it is). Unfamiliarity Most people learn to use the telephone and to write letters as small children. Appropriate phone or letter etiquette is second nature to most adults. Most people on your campus, however, have had electronic mail for a much shorter time-maybe one to five years. Many incoming students have their first experience with e-mail during orientation. Electronic mail is a very new method of communication for most of the people worldwide who use it-and they’re still learning the ropes. As a result, they make mistakes. This isn’t surprising; e-mail etiquette is no more intuitive than phone etiquette, and everyone has heard children answer phones with “Who is this?” or simply with silence punctuated by giggles. People do all kinds of things that offend experienced e-mail users-copying entire messages just to add “I agree,” passing on chain letters, replying to entire discussion lists instead of just the sender, typing in all capitals (which is interpreted as shouting) or all lower case letters. The list of “sins” goes on and on. Never assume that another person is deliberately trying to be annoying over e-mail without supporting evidence; he or she simply may not know better. Most people, if told politely, will be happy to follow the conventions. They just need to know what the conventions are. There are some downfalls to communication online. You can communicate without a trace, meaning that if you sent an important memo and delete it, it’s gone forever. However, with the internet, phones, radio, iPod, Itouch, itunes, cell phones and regular phones, the pros tend to outweigh the cons. Now that we have all these great tools, here are some ways to communicate online. “Follow the general rule of thumb that if you wouldn’t say it out loud “in real life”, do not type it online. Period. After all, even if you are writing under a pseudonym, a person can really still figure out who you are and it can come back around to you eventually. When writing, think of all the politicians and public figures who have been caught muttering what they thought was an off-colour comment under their breath within microphone distance; it is essentially the same thing. Proofread, reread and if you are angry or emotional, step away and come back later to read your post again before sending. The worst time to send out an email or a response to someone you are disagreeing with online is when you are upset: you will undoubtedly type and send something you will want to take back later. Never threaten or slander in writing online as it can become a legal issue should that person choose to take that route with you. If you really want to complain or raise an issue online and are unsure about what you are intending to post, ask a trustworthy friend if you can read it or send it to them first, have them edit it or tell you whether it is prudent to go ahead and only then send it if you both agree that it reads well and is okay. In online forums, refrain from bandwagon jumping. Too often in online forums, cliques form and when online buddies feel that another buddy is being attacked, they will jump on board with even stronger language. In cases like this, friends and the original poster under attack should instead seek out the forum’s moderating team and advise them of the attack. This way the moderators can tackle the attacker, which is ultimately their purpose for being there. The same holds true for online chat, texting and email: in general, if an attacker is choosing to write to you, they are looking for a response and hoping to get a “rise” out of you. If it is a minor instance, you can choose to ignore the attack or if you feel that it is a more serious instance with possible threats or bullying involved, you can track their responses and proceed with reporting to a proper authority (e.g. your local police, your internet service provider, etc.) Avoid discriminatory content and swearing. There is nothing more off-putting than a poorly worded comment with misspelled expletives and terrible grammar that then also insults whole groups of people in one swipe. It is far better to be polite, concise, respectful and knowledgeable even if you are responding to someone else who is being rude, ridiculous and insulting. Choose the high road. Last but not least, here are some other ways you can communicate. There are lots of ways to communicate online, the most common being via email and instant messaging. People also communicate via social networking sites, such as myspace, which allows you to build up a large group of friends by adding people to your friends list, and they can do the same with you. Chat rooms are another popular way to communicate online, along with message groups (such as Yahoo groups), and forums. Forums allow you to have ongoing conversations with other people, though they are often moderated, meaning that you have to adhere to the moderators rules. The program SKYPE is a voice-over program, and allows people to communicate with each other either by speaking into the speaker on their PC (or MAC), or by sending messages to each other. Web cams allow to people to communicate online, and also allow people to see each other as though they are speaking face-to-face. Here are some more ways you can communicate: There are dozens of ways you can communicate and technology is just beginning to open up to more and more ways of communicating. The internet alone holds dozens: Facebook Yahoo (via answers, email, chat, news) Gmail (Google talk, email, chat, news, buzz, video, YouTube) Skype Dating online websites Online websites like Craigslist, eBay and Amazon.com, where you can find things to buy Communication is important, and the World Wide Web, cell phones, telephones, and dozens of other things can help you do it! Last but not least, a few quotes on just how communication is necessary: Any problem, big or small, within a family, always seems to start with bad communication. Someone isn’t listening. Emma Thompson As soon as you judge communication a little more rigorously, there is a possibility that the message will no t be democratized. I have to say what I believe to be right. I have to spread out the statement among all the means of expression available to us at present. Alexander Kluge But communication is two-sided – vital and profound communication makes demands also on those who are to receive it… demands in the sense of concentration, of genuine effort to receive what is being communicated. Roger Sessions But despite the universality of URLs, we often forget that they’re not just a handy way to address network resources. They’re also valuable communication tools. Jesse James Garrett Without television and mass communication, that knowledge wouldn’t exist. So I think it actually has the possibility of turning people into more understanding and more empathetic people. John Warnock