Author Archives: William Maldonado

William Maldonado:Criticizing Beef Chili documentation

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The documentation on a video which explains how make Beef and bean chili recipe made by George which was very clear and straight forward. Although nothing is written down and most of it is visual they do explain each ingredient they’ll use as it is added. The documentation on how to cut and prepare the ingredients is mostly visual with a little bit of vocal explanation since it is a video if one misses something one can always just rewind the video to the section you last remember listening to. After they show you how to prepare the ingredients they tell the viewer how to cook it, when to add it, and how long to cook it along with additional documentation on more specific details provided in a link which is in the about section of the video post on YouTube.

Footnotes Vanishing:William Maldonado

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What I got out of reading this is that to be careful how to save online citations although online tools like the wayback machine offer a way to securely save your citations they can’t always save the what all websites in the world wide web looked like at a certain time. The reason being that the wayback machine mostly saves what high profile websites looked like also they need to get more servers if they do wanna cover every single website. The only secure alternative I think would be approved by more people as an online citation is if we take screen shots of resource and add it as an extension of our citation just in case.

Mapping Brooklyn:William Maldonado

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The map that captured my interest the most was the map by Sharon Zukin because it didn’t really look like a map due to the fact that is wasn’t from a sky view or include different sections of a city but just simply her view while sitting in the A train at 1am. This broadened my horizon to thinking that anything in our sight is a map as long as it could be mapped out. That it doesn’t necessarily need streets to be considered a map. Sharon proved that in that drawing of her ride home the way she mapped out not only what she saw but also what she thought about what she saw.

Sharon Zukin – Naked City

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Research Topic Refinement:William Maldonado

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In the beginning of developing this research paper I had difficulties thinking of a topic that would be interesting to me as much as the reader. After selecting a topic I had difficulties figuring out what would be the best way to ask my research question that would set the base for my research paper and after changing it four times I am finally content with the question i came up with. My strategy for writing  the research paper is to get arguments from both sides and then explain my view on it, also to concentrate on specific smaller examples  and explain them thoroughly to explain a bigger broader picture.

Database searching with keywords and hierarchies:William Maldonado

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In chapter 3 of Badke’s book I found it interesting how some search engines for some databases use commands just like in some programming languages to find or show certain files except it is a lot simpler. I also have never used none of the commands mentioned in chapter 3 but i think i will incorporate them and make them a habit when I am doing research. Although badke stated a couple commands he also stated that we should look at what other commands certain search engines use like Google. A great example is when Prof.Leonard used the “ti: project x”  to better find works with the title project x.

Metadata:William Maldonado

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Metadata is a very resourceful tool and can become even more resourceful If it could be read properly. The Immersion program made by Deepak and Daniel is a great example of showing this because it takes all the metadata and builds a understandable interface which it makes it easier to read. I like immersion for most of the statements they made they made but its also scary because big companies have the money to have a software such as immersion built to see their users data and habits, through doing such thing they can personalize advertisement according to the users metadata information. Although it is nice to see things advertised that we might actually like, I feel like letting companies have such information be at their finger tips without our consent is violating our rights and if letting them use this information increases their profit the least they can do is pay their users for using their metadata maybe then it might be a ok. Now in the folksonomy article I agree with Jessica Dye when she states thats folksonomy isn’t a anarchy. The reason I agree is because if a community sets the rules for using tags for categorizing data to be found easier and the community follows the rules then  there isn’t need for a higher authority to keep everyone following the rules and personally I like the use of tags.

Net Neutrality: William Maldonado

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When Tom Wheeler classified  broadband internet service as a utility letting our internet service providers know that just because they provide the public with internet service they do not have the right to control what we see or affect the speeds of our service, I couldn’t help but let smirk. The reason I smirked is because finally we making big companies get off their high horse, also because many people as I believe that the internet is one of our last outlets to truly express ourselves without limitation. Another person I believe would have also smirked is Aaron Swartz. The reason I believe he would have smirked is because as an internet innovator he would’ve appreciated this win against the big man. What he did for the internet community and for the people was very admirable. It is because of people like him that other people have the guts to stand up and fight for our rights, and we need that now because now there is more threats towards our one of our last outlets to be truly free. The internet is being attacked with CISPA once again. What CISPA does is that it allows for government agencies to watch us as we go about our daily lives using the internet without even letting you know and frankly I don’t even let my family watch me like a hawk as I go about my daily internet use, so why would I let the government do it for a profit. If you want to join the fight new CISPA click here.

 

Copyright & Fair Use:William Maldonad

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Lawrence Lessig made good points that I agree with. One of them being how copyright laws don’t help advance education but hold it back instead even if its a person that’s autodidactic. The second statement is when he pointed out his generation watched TV but the newer generation makes TV, the reason i liked this statement is because I feel like in a way he’s saying that thanks to technology the newer generations have have the advantage to make a change to the way the copyright law works. The change being that we can freely use copyrighted material for creative purposes only and not have to be afraid of facing criminal charges.

After reading and watching all the videos my take on copyright and the fair use act is that the copyright law extended from being a law that protects ideas and creative works to a law that helps companies protect their money, I feel that such things should be copyrighted but should also allow free use of their ideas and creative works but only for creative and educational use and the copyright law should only step in when the creative use is starting to turn in a commercial product that provides income but if not let it be allowed to be altered and played with and see how these ideas and creative works spark more ideas and creative works. This free use of copyrighted material for creative use should be added as an extension fair use act and become a solid law.

Open Data/Gender Gap/Visual & Statistical Thinking: William Maldonado

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Reading the information on about open data made me think of the outro song “Note to self” by the hip hop artist J. Cole, when he says “you were inspired by the world, allow the world to be inspired by your s**t and use your s**t“. The artist said this because while working on his album he couldn’t clear some samples he used for his album. Although the artist said it in a derogatory manner I believe he has a point that data should be free for anyone to use. I also agree with some of the for open data arguments on wikipedia that facts cant be copyrighted because it’ll get to a point where if I write in a research paper that the sky is blue i have to give credit to someone that has copyrighted that information and thats just ridiculous. The other argument that was subtly touched upon was about how by not letting information to be accessible to the public for free, we are preventing the progression of humanity’s knowledge and advances. In the end I believe that open data should be handled the same way open source software is where the user pays the person providing the service whatever they would like if they’d like and surprisingly people do pay.

The gender gap article really surprised me, I had no idea that only 15% of publications on “public thought-leadership forums” are contributed by women. This reading sparked my to think about how women “supposedly” have equal rights in todays society but the media and upbringing of women deprives them of thinking they do have these equal rights. For example women in media women are always portrayed as a damsel in distress or in a weaker position than a man, then there are the young girls watching these things and subconsciously are being told that a man is suppose to be in a stronger position even though they can be the ones in a stronger position. Another example is how young girls are told by parents or anyone things like “thats not a girls sport”.  Although with each generation the thoughts of portraying women in such a way is slowly diminishing, sexism is still alive under it all along with racism. Personally I would like to see women be more active in more “public thought-leadership forums” and support equal rights all the way!

What caught my attention in the visual and statistical thinking article was how oblivious the nasa official was to the warnings from the engineers that the Challenger was not ready for launch and they should stop the launch. Now because the nasa official didn’t heed their warning 7 people passed away. This made me realize how it is better to visually show your evidence no matter your position in an organization. Also how important it is to test out your equipment before a presentation.

Critical Thinking/Zines

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In the first passage I read written by Thomas Eland, he really spoke about how most of the media shown by major corporations has pretty much biased or distracting information making the public that watches their television shows, films and reads their books blind from other kinds of topics that mostly have to do with humanity and the economy. Thomas further elaborates on this by stating that most of what is shown to the public by these corporations is to make money or to gain some sort of profit from it. He makes many valid points and I cant help but agree with most of it  considering news stations like “FOX” show favoritism to republican parties. This isn’t the only news station thats a bit corrupt, other news stations only show dramatic events that will get them more viewers, higher rating  or pull in a certain crowd that they lacking. It is true that the media is the strongest weapon of all because of its ability to control the masses.

With all these media forms throwing biased ideas or profitable garbage at the public I am not surprised something line “Zines” came about. While reading the passage about zines,its history and viewing its definition, I am convinced that this is a very Interesting way to show unfiltered information to the public. I liked the fact that If you post something that actually wont be tolerated by another site rules and regulations, it would actually stay there. Also the because nobody is gaining any profit from their Zines it makes it a more honest and trustworthy source of information although information could still be biased. In the very near future i see myself becoming a “zine-ster”.