Transcript Technical Foundations of Digital Media DMST

Overview digital media...
Discussion -- revisit theory
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What does ‘the media’ refer to?
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Press, cinema, broadcasting, etc.)
The ‘new media’ as a term?
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Less settled, known, identified
Intensity of change
Ideological connotations of new
Non-technical inclusiveness (gui)
New Media…
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New textual experiences (hypertext, cgi)
New ways of representing the world
New relationships between subjects
Shifts in the personal and social experience of time,
space and place
Unclear distinctions between human / artificial,
nature / technology
New patterns of organization and production
“Key terms in discourses about new
media”
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Digitality – (vs. analogue) – assigning numerical values
to phenomena
Interactivity – an opportunity to manipulate and intervene
in media
Hypertextuality – when a work is made up of discrete
units of material in which each one carries a number of
pathways to other units
Dispersal – distribution of information – for new media,
through multiple input / output channels
Virtuality – immersive experience, or identification of
being in a space (MMORPGs, Second Life)
Key Terms...
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Postmodernism – a sense of blurring of boundaries
between previously distinct or opposite phenomena: high
culture / popular culture, local/ global, public/private
Technoculture – Concept of a modern culture where
technology has so deeply saturated into cultural
practices that the two distinctively different spheres are
seen to be inseparable
CMC – Computer Mediated Communication
Convergence – the coming together of previously
discrete media forms and processes through digital
technologies
But how did we get here?
Before personal computers...
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Mechanical computers
Vacuum tubes
Mainframe computers
Transistor (Bell labs / Shockley, Bardeen,
Brattain)
Integrated circuit
Personal Computers
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World’s first personal computer? (kit)
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First mass market personal computer
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MITS -- Altair 8800
Apple II
IBM impact / open architecture
Compaq clone
First GUI (PARC - Zerox) / Apple / Windows
Mouse / Ethernet / wired / wireless
ChromeBook? Tablets? Cloud Computing?
Vannevar Bush
(1890-1974)
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Many consider Bush to be the Godfather of our
digital age, often making reference to his 1945
essay, "As We May Think."
Bush described a theoretical machine he called a
"memex," which was to enhance human memory by
allowing the user to store and retrieve documents
linked by associations.
This associative linking was very similar to what is
known today as hypertext.
Others…
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Gottfried Leibniz (math, logic, philosophy)
Charles Babbage (invented first mechanical computer)
Alan Turing (father of computer science and artificial intelligence)
Ted Nelson (‘discovered’ hypertext)
Roland Barthes (structuralism, semiotics)
Bill Gates? Steve Jobs? Jaron Lanier?
Tim Berners-Lee?
Who else?
Internet Review
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Advanced Research Projects Agency
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LANs and WANs
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Pentagon / University relationship
Single location / wide geographic area
ARPANET combined with LANs and WANs
became the Internet in 1983
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Made possible by...
TCP/IP protocol (Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf)
Packet switching and IP addresses
Domain Name System (DNS)
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IP address 158.135.172.2
Text-based DNS translates human language into the
computer’s ‘phone number’
TLD -- .com , .net, .edu. (also gTLD -- generic)
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ccTLD -- country code -- .ca , .uk (list)
Determined by IANA -- Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority
Organizational identifier -- tamu-commerce , google
Domain names administered by ICANN -- Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
Programs on the Internet…
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WWW -- Tim Berners-Lee devised HTML
language which led to Mosaic
A browser interprets the HTML
What else has come along?
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XML--extensible markup language
SOAP--simple objects access protocol (based on
XML
XHTML--another form of XML
VRML
HTML extensions…
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Continued HTML development...
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CSS
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HTML 5
Cascading styles sheets -- a way to style HTML. Whereas
the HTML is the content, the style sheet is the presentation
of that document.
PHP
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An HTML-embedded scripting language. Much of its syntax
is borrowed from C, Java and Perl with a couple of unique
PHP-specific features thrown in. The goal of the language
is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated
pages quickly."
Programs on the Internet…
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E-mail
Newsgroups / Usenet (link)
Chat / IM (AIM, Google Talk, Meebo)
Telnet -- remote access to server
FTP -- like Fetch (file transfer protocol)
Internet Phone (Skype, MagicJack)
Web 2.0 (blogs, Second Life, podcasts…)
Video streams (Bittorent, Veoh, Hulu, clicker)
Web 2.0
Top 10
Broadcast
Media
Top Video Sites
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http://websearch.about.com/od/imagesearch/t
p/popularvideosites.htm
What’s going on today…
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Blogs / moblogs / vlogs
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RSS feeds
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Journalism / bloggers
Podcasts, etc. / newsreader software
New economic models -- Google
Legal issues -- RIAA, MPAA
Other issues
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Malware, Digital Divide, charging fees to Internet
sites, net neutrality (Comcast)
Mobile Computing Devices
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PDAs -- Functions / changes through the years
GPS
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Cell Phones -- iPhone example
Portable Video Games
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GameBoy, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP / music, movies
Ultra Mobile PCs
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Vehicle fixed / portable
Satellite connection vs. most others
CES -- Focus on touch technologies
iPad
Readers
Wearable Computers?
Cell phone Generations
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‘two-way radio’ style, then cells
‘cellular’ process developed by (‘old’) AT&T
IG -- analog -- 1983 -- AMPS -- ‘advanced mobile
phone service
2G -- digital introduction -- early 1990s
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CDMA, TDMA initially in the U.S. (CDMA: Sprint, Verizon)
GSM type adopted first in Europe (AT&T / T-Mobile)
3G -- higher data transmission speeds -- switch to
packet switching (AT&T article) -- 1-3 mbps
4G -- up to about 10 mbps -- download speed
Broadcasting vs. streaming
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DVB-H (digital video broadcasting handheld) standard for broadcasting to
handsets
DMB (digital multimedia broadcasting) for
multimedia broadcasting -- not available in
North America
Streaming allows VOD -- AT&T Mobile ,
Verizon
Development of Technologies
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3G cell phones -- packet and circuit switching
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Wi-Fi
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EV-DO example
4G LTE -- ‘not true 4G’
802.11 and 802.11x refers to a family of specifications developed
by the IEEE for wireless LAN technology.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, pronounced Itriple-E
WiMax
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Also known as IEEE 802.16--intended for wireless "metropolitan
area networks". Provides broadband wireless access (BWA) up
to 30 miles (50 km) for fixed stations, and 3 - 10 miles (5 - 15 km)
for mobile stations.
WiFi/802.11 wireless local area network standard is limited in
most cases to only 100 - 300 feet (30 - 100m).
Why 802?
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The 802 group is the section of the IEEE
involved in network operations and
technologies, including mid-sized networks
and local networks. Group 15 deals
specifically with wireless networking
technologies, and includes the now
ubiquitous 802.15.1 working group, which is
also known as Bluetooth.
Other Wireless Technologies
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Bluetooth
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Name comes from Harald Bluetooth, king of Denmark in the late
900s
There are lots of different ways that electronic devices can
connect to one another--Component cables, Electrical wires,
Ethernet cables, WiFi, Infrared signals…
Bluetooth is essentially a networking standard that works at two
levels:
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It provides agreement at the physical level -- Bluetooth is a radiofrequency standard;
AND, it provides agreement at the protocol level, where products
have to agree on when bits are sent, how many will be sent at a
time, and how the parties in a conversation can be sure that the
message received is the same as the message sent. (cell
phone, GPS, PDA--Starfield example)
Other Wireless Technologies
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ZigBee
The set of specs built around the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless
protocol.
Name "ZigBee" derived from the erratic zigging patterns many
bees make between flowers when collecting pollen. The
standard is regulated by a group known as the ZigBee
Alliance, with over 150 members worldwide.
Bluetooth focuses on connectivity between large packet user
devices--laptops, phones, major peripherals….
ZigBee is designed to provide highly efficient connectivity
between small packet devices -- thermostats, home
appliances to the home network
Developing Technologies
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WPAN
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RFID
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Wireless personal area network
Bluetooth and Zigbee
“IBM Uses RFID to Track Conference Attendees”
“New chip promises to track kids from miles away”
Tracks things and people
DTV? / HD Radio
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Multicasting channels -- data transmission?
Two way interactivity
FCC approval
Technical changes
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Copper wires to fiber optic cable
Circuit Switching to packet switching
Landline to wireless
Convergence of technologies and companies
Technical examples
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Fiber Optics, satellite, microwave
Making ‘free’ phone calls
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(VoIP)
Skype
Magic Jack
Netzero Voice / Messenger / iChat
Jajah.com
Cell phone as a hybrid medium
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Delivery of video to cellular phones is becoming
more widespread… voice / data … and
Verizon’s V-Cast service; Sprint’s MobiTV service.
Both use the cellular network to deliver the content.
New service and technology, MediaFlo, developed
by Qualcomm, uses part of the television
broadcasting spectrum (channel 55) to send multimedia content to mobile phones. --see FloTV
Allows wireless carriers to offer video content
without taking up much needed bandwidth in their
cellular network.
Broadband delivery -- wired
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DSL
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Cable modem (DOCSIS -- 1.0 / 2.0 / 3.0)
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Shared down trunk line (slowdown)
Information service / no open access
Fiber to the home/premises (FTTH/P)
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DSLAM / extenders (digital subscriber line access multiplexer)
IPTV (AT&T: U-verse, Verizon: FiOS)
Dedicated line (no slowdown)
Or ... FTTN -- fiber to the node (last mile is coaxial cable for cable &
twisted-pair copper for DSL
Broadband over power line (BPL)
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Interference
State approval
Broadband delivery -- wireless
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Fixed wireless broadband (FWB) (from MMDS)
3G mobile wireless (4G / pre-4G / 4G LTE)
Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) (‘WLAN’)
Wi-Max (802.16) -- www.clear.com
Satellite
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HughesNet & WildBlue
Latency problem (VoIP, games) “a time delay between the
moment something is initiated, and the moment one of its
effects begins or becomes detectable”
Some downlink only (dial-up modem uplink)
Broadband today (3)
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Sites like Metacafe.com, blip.tv, Veoh.com
Hulu.com and others are driving a whole new
category of video that could eventually be a more
popular format than 30 or 60 minute programs.
These days consumers themselves are driving this
"broadband or TV" debate into irrelevance. They're
busy accessing programming on demand - whether
"broadband" or "TV"
This is through a host of devices and services
whose popularity is only going to skyrocket in the
future. These include TiVo, Xbox, Netflix, Wii, etc.
Broadband Today (4)
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With the proliferation of available broadband
video comes a massive user navigation
challenge. Modern Feed launched (4/8/08) to
address this. Now Clicker.
Part search engine, part aggregator, with a
specific focus on indexing professionallyproduced programming, not user-generated
video. It's also focused on actual programs,
not promotional clips.
Broadband Today (5)
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J.D. Heilprin, Modern Feed's founder/CEO:
But -- check it out and see if it has managed that
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the company is targeting mainstream users providing the easiest
way to find available, high-quality video.
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It employs a team of "Feeders" charged with curating the best
videos to include on the site. The result is approximately 550
"networks" and 25,000 pieces of content now indexed
 ”Networks" is a loose term ranging from traditional broadcasters
to indies new entrants like Boston Symphony or Architectural
Digest.
What else is important? -->
Smart TVs / connected devices
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Apple TV -- hard drive / non hard drive
New Apple TV?
Boxee
Google TV
Roku
WDTV
Slingbox (?)
Tivo Premiere
MeeGo
DEVICE vs. PROVIDER (new ‘networks’?)
Home Networks
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Residential gateway (aka - cable/DSL router)
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‘the key device in most home networks’
Wired (server / hub / router) LAN
Wireless (wi-fi / WLAN / 802.11)
Interconnects all computers and other IP
devices
Connects the home network to the
broadband connection
‘Specs’ Technical
specifications or standards
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Or, the marketplace decides?
HPNA -- Home Phoneline Networking
Alliance -- technology, built on Ethernet,
allows all the components of a home network
to interact over the home's existing telephone
wiring without disturbing the existing voice or
fax services
IEEE -- Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers
Proprietary or agreed-upon?
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VHS vs. Beta (home)
DVD-R / DVD-RW vs. DVD+R / RW vs. RAM
HD-DVD vs. BluRay
WMA vs. RealPlayer vs. Quicktime etc.
codecs
HDTV (8-VSB / COFDM)
Home ‘hot spot’ Applications?
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Multiple networked computers
Computers share one printer
Integration of phone / cable or satellite systems /
DVR, Slingbox, etc. with IP
Security system connections
Control any IP device -- Microsoft has been working
with Whirlpool to allow users to monitor their laundry
with their home network, computer, TV, and cell
phone.
Continuing growth in American homes operating a
wireless network, making the US the leader in
adoption of wireless home networks.
Wireless security
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Wireless ‘cloud’ -- public places
Encryption types
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WEP -- Wired Equivalency Privacy
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easily hacked -- do a ‘Cracking wi-fi’ or cracking WEP search on YouTube
Wireless Hacking / WEP hacking / Free wi-fi anywhere
WPA -- Wi-Fi Protected Access
 128 bit encryption
 WPA Personal -- password protected
 WPA-Enterprise -- server verified
Evil Twins
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Phony hotspots to steal information
What else?
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RFID (ubiquitous?)
Smart Home (video) / robotics
Speech recognition
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Types: Discrete, continuous & complete
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Speech recognition gone awry
Better success demo (click screen when page loads)
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Ultra HD video (cinema--to replace film projection)
Electronic paper (Kindle, iPad) (e-paper demo)
Wikis
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GIGO conundrum?
LA Times experiment
Google docs as collaborative authoring?
Virtual / Augmented Reality
(RWWW)
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Second Life (promo/commercial)
Google Earth and other competitors
Education, Entertainment, etc. in a ‘virtual
world’?