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METAFORIX MAIL Volume 1, 48 July 27, 2001 Sites and insights for the Information Age With this
issue, Metaforix Mail completes its first full year of publication. Thanks
for staying with us as we continue to evolve. CONTENTS AT A GLANCE: ON
MY MIND: Alone in Cyberspace ON MY MIND [From the Editor] Only Connect You may remember a news item that got a great deal of play several years ago: A social scientist at Carnegie Mellon University studied the social and psychological effects of Internet use. Based on his research, he concluded that heavy Internet users are prone to loneliness and isolation. They suffer more depression, spend less time with family and friends, and have social networks that diminish over time, by comparison with people who don't spend large amounts of time online.This week, Lisa Guernsey reported in The New York Times that the researcher, Dr. Robert Kraut, has completed a three-year follow-up study of the original sample. He and his team now report that "the negative effects dissipated," for extroverts, in particular. Critics of the original study, who have believed all along that the Internet "fosters connectedness," reportedly felt vindicated. Members of the "isolationist" camp contend that surfing the Web is, "by definition," a solitary activity. A number of the scholars Guernsey interviewed mentioned the complexities of designing and analyzing studies of Internet use. The problems are magnified by the rapid evolution of both the technology and the availability of the Web. Dr. Norman Nie of Stanford University is, at first glance, an "isolationist" whose research supports Kraut's earlier conclusions. Even he notes that his original analysis may have underestimated the positive effects of e-mail and of having a large and growing group of wired friends and family. Personally, I have believed that the Internet fosters community ever since I observed its impact on college students whose first language was not English. These students typically find it difficult or intimidating to participate in the classroom. But they were much less hesitant to contribute their thoughts in the perceived anonymity of cyberspace. This is hardly a scientific study -- just a personal observation that made intuitive sense. Another point I believe can't be overestimated is the phenomenon of more people travelling the information superhighway. More people are wired, more people have heard the vocabulary, more commercials and print ads and stores feature computers and their associated paraphernalia, more news articles and broadcasts focus on technology. In short, the territory is more familiar and attracts an increasing number of workers, visitors, and tourists. Not only online, but in off-line conversations, the Internet is no longer an exclusive club. It's on its way to becoming as universally available and understandable as the telephone and the television. That's not to say there is no association between the Internet and some instances of isolation, loneliness, and depression. But my guess is, that's also true for TV, newspapers, and even books.
Cordially, Lois C.
Ambash, Editor MORE: Global Positioning Systems with a Vengeance GPS in Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow's Wildest Imagination It seems we're not the only ones thinking about GPS. Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow recently played out some pretty spooky scenarios in Salon.com. Take a look.
INFORMATICON "Think
Useful, Not Cool" "When it comes to our customers, we need to realize that the vast majority of people use technology not for what it is, but for what it does. The problem has been that most of us who write about technology tend to be early adopters. Early adopters tend to first like technology for what it is, figuring that we'll find a use for it later. Unfortunately, as the lessons of the past year and a half have taught us, most consumers aren't early adopters. They're regular folks who are looking for solutions for their problems and aren't necessarily impressed just because something's new and different. Unlike the early adopters, most people are more interested in technology for what it does, not just because it's new. They want useful, not cool."
MEDIA The Flip Side of Convergence We read a great deal lately about the "convergence" of communications technologies.The form and content of various print, broadcast, wired, and wireless computer technologies have a mutual impact. In addition, publishers make similar branded content available simultaneously in a number of different media. You can track your stock portfolio, for example, using text, video, or audio format, hard or digital copy, wired or wireless transmission. E-commerce, however, seems to be a horse of a different color -- green, to be specific -- one that legislators throughout the land would prefer to keep separate from the trend toward convergence. At present, there is a moratorium on collecting sales taxes for online purchases, except from purchasers who reside in states where the seller is physically located. The moratorium will expire in October, and Congress is considering how to deal with the situation. Extending the moratorium is one option. Two others among many in the hopper have garnered considerable attention. The Jurisdictional Certainty Over Digital Commerce Act, sponsored by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), would give Congress the right to regulate and tax "purely digital" Internet transactions, such as the downloading of software, music, and e-books. The rationale for this legislation, according to Stearns, is that such digital transactions are "inherently interstate" in nature. In addition, the cost of compliance with state and local regulations could "stymie development" of e-commerce. A contrasting approach has been introduced by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and backed by the National Governors' Association. Dorgan's bill calls for Congress and the states, acting collaboratively, to establish a "streamlined" sales tax system. Proponents of the Stearns approach say that it would affect less than one percent of online sales. Furthermore, they say, Dorgan's approach would set up the equivalent of a national sales tax. Opponents, including a spokesman for the National Governors' Association, fear that "digital services" could "potentially be interpreted to cover everything from online banking to gambling to buying a car." Internet marketing analyst Aram Sinnreich, of Jupiter Media Metrix, notes a "blurring of the lines" between "digital" and "physical" products. "If [Congress] has the ability to regulate digital music files sold at Barnes&Noble.com," he asks, "do they also have the ability to regulate digital music files sold through a kiosk at a Barnes & Noble store?" Good question. And not one we should expect to have answered very soon. Source consulted: http://news.cnet.com
Access previous issues of Metaforix Mail by date by visiting our archives. Or use the search box on any page of the Metaforix site (www.metaforix.com) to search by keywords.
"The One-Stop Source for U. S. Population Data" AmeriStat.org makes it easy to get a quick demographic snapshot of the United States -- even if numbers and graphs normally cause you to break out in hives.The AmeriStat site is co-sponsored by the Population Reference Bureau and the Social Science Data Analysis Network, a joint project of the State University of New York at Albany and the University of Michigan. The data it presents has been gathered from a variety of sources, including many publications of the United States Bureau of the Census, and organized into thirteen major topics. Bibliographic references and links to all sources appear on the site. What makes AmeriStat so appealing is its journalistic, sometimes almost conversational, approach to demographic data and projections. For example, the section on "Political Arithmetic" -- unfortunately posted before the November election -- provides numbers, graphs, and explanatory notes in answer to the question, "Why aren't more of us voting?" The "Older Population" section uses existing trends to predict changing demographics among the over-55 portion of the population. To explore this site, go to: www.ameristat.org
CYBERSPEAK Pop-Unders As if pop-up ads weren't annoying enough, web surfers have recently been innundated by an even more irritating form of Internet ad: the pop-under.Unlike pop-ups, which, well, pop up on top of the web page you are trying to view, pop-under ads reside in separate browser windows that open beneath the page you are viewing and lurk there until you try to close the browser. The ads then reveal themselves in a manner "tilting toward the obnoxious," according to The Washington Post. Even software executive Richard V. Hopple, whose company manufactures multimedia technology for pop-up ads, contends that running a pop-under ad is "like running a commercial after I tried to turn off the television set." Consumers seem to agree. The most ubiquitous pop-under is X10.com, a Seattle manufacturer of video cameras. Because the pop-under appears so frequently, it attracts huge numbers of visitors. By one measure, X10.com is the fourth most popular site on the Net. Other Web traffic experts claim the traffic generated by pop-unders should not be measured at all. Regardless of whether or how visits are measured, "X10 has sparked the most violent reaction from consumers," according to Marissa Gluck of Jupiter Media Metrix. Almost three-quarters of visitors leave the site within 20 seconds or less, behavior that is considered indicative of an extremely negative response. From a lexicographer's point of view, Word Spy Paul McFedries notes that pop-under, both as a noun and as an adjective, became widely used in the media within a month after its first known citation. Any new word that pops up in so many places must be filling an unmet need. If you've spend much time on the Web lately, you'll probably understand.
Please note that the links contained in Metaforix Mail are current as of the time of publication. Some of them may no longer be operative at the time you access past issues. To
Volume 1, Issue 47 July 19, 2001 |
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