Ambient Findability

Look at the title. Now back to this body. Now back to the title. No, the title does not say Fidelity, but findability. What exactly is finability, though? And why is it next to the title word, Ambient? Is that a book?

Yes, the book, Ambient Findability was written by Peter Morville in 2005. Though I haven't completed his book yet, Morville I feel that I've gotten at least a small grasp on understanding what Morville was trying to  say about findability, and it's really amazing. With technology constantly getting more and more advanced, the internet is constantly advancing, too. With the internet advancing, there has to be an accessible way to find all of the information that people want to find. This is findability.

Today, there is a constant use of findability through words and tagging. If you see within all of the blogs, there are always tags that help people better find some information that they might want to find within my blog. The way in which you might search on Google to find information, is tagging findability. The way in which people search to find a video on Youtube is also findability. Searching for a friend on Facebook is finability. The whole internet is set up by tagging words to make them findable.

This is what I believe Peter Morville was really trying to express would happen. Most everything in technology is made to be more accessible, easy to use, or just better. For people to be able to find what they want, all information needs to be made findable. This is one of the things that I think Morville was really trying to express.

How Do YOU Network?

Social Networking Devices I Most Commonly Use

Device	Use	How Often Used	What Could Be Changed
Cell Phone	I use it to text and/or call people as a direct one-on-one conversation	I use it every day, and on average at least once every hour I am awake	Honestly, I would just like to change the type of phone I have
Facebook	I use it to communicate with as many people as I want; whether many or just one. I also use it to remember birthdays, express my personality, document pictures, and organize some events.	I use it on average around 3 minutes for every hour I'm awake.	I miss the old chat set up on facebook
Twitter	I use it to put up little tid bits of my feelings or emotions, but also to say things that I don't have to censor	I put at least one tweet on Twitter a day, but sometimes more.	I wish when I am searching friends, they would be in alphabetical order

A Little Privacy?

Privacy...honestly, just to start this blog, I'm going to  throw out there that privacy is rhetorical. Everyone has their own view of privacy; what exactly it means, and to what extent each person wants it put into affect. To some, privacy is brutally important, while others could care less about their private lives, and in fact want there to be no privacy in their lives at all. Thankfully though, we have the Merriam-Webster Dictionary to at least have some type of broad definition. This dictionary defines privacy as:


1.  a : the quality or state of being apart from company or observation : seclusion

b : freedom from unauthorized intrusion 

2

a: archaic : a place of seclusion

3

a : secrecyb : a private matter : secret

Clearly, privacy can have different meanings. There seems to be a common reaction when people feel that their privacy has been violated, though; horrified, embarrassed, and/or surprised. People don't like feeling that they have been betrayed.
Technology has brought on a whole new wave of betrayal. How many times have we all seen a girl horrified at the fact that one nude picture she sent via cell phone to a boy become widespread to many different people? How many times have we seen Facebook and Myspace accounts get hacked, and many messages and comments become splurged all over the account? How many times have we heard about the debate of whether all phone calls should be wiretapped, and all calls are regulated? How many Youtube videos have we seen that have been of a person secretly recording another person during an embarrassing or terrible moment?
There are many other examples in which people have felt the absolute betrayal of privacy rights dealing with technology. Now what can we do about it? Reject and veto technology? In this day in age, that is almost if not absolutely impossible for a person on the job market or for a teacher. Technology is essential for this generation, but there needs to be some standards or at least some type of ground for ratification. In the end, even though I might find some private Youtube video hilarious, the person who it is about might be appalled and embarrassed of it's circulation, yet have no control whatsoever of who views it. What can we do?

Forgetting Something?

Within the book, Technology and Literacy in the Twenty-First Century, Cynthia Selfe devotes chapter two over explaining the different views of technology. On the literacy boom side, Selfe states that "according to this representation, American technological know-how, fostered within our system of education, has helped us develop the knowledge of skills needed to create a national information infrastructure that will link people around the country in productive ways." On the literacy bane side, Selfe explains that the opinion is "an opposing pessimistic narrative about technology, especially in its relation to literacy. It gains its potency, in part, from the fears and uncertainties that Americans continue to have about the implications of technology and its use." 

The polemic ("an aggressive attack on or refutation of the opinions or principles of another" according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary) according to Selfe is that basically the intense argument on which opinion is right has led both arguers astray from the importance of technological literacy. As Selfe states, "they end up contributing to a common and undesirable end: neither group pays productive attention to technology issues or to the complicated relationships between technology and literacy." 

In the end, there are almost always people with differing viewpoints, but to focus on your own particular viewpoint too thoroughly can sometimes lead to not seeing the big picture anymore. If two people argue over who was the best actor of a particular movie, they could get so into the argument that they forget how much they liked that movie as a whole, and why. That is the problem with polemic. 

Helpful or Frustrating?

So let's be honest. Who here texts and drives? Anybody? Bueller?

Well I definitely used to. Granted, I had a phone that had keys on the front. So because my fingers knew the feel of each key, I could literally text a long message with one hand, and not even look at my phone. I loved it. I would read the messages that people would send back to me while at a stop sign or stop light.

Now that I have a phone that has a touch screen on the front and a keyboard, texting with one hand is hopeless, and I definitely would never text with my keyboard while driving (unlike many people I know.) The crazy part is that so many people text and drive. Recently here in Indiana, a law has been passed making it illegal to text and drive; if caught, the fine is $500.00. This was enforced after statistics were shown that 25 percent of crashes are caused because of people texting and driving.

With such a high percentage of crashes being caused by texting and driving, Sprint decided to step in to help make highways safer. According to an article in my Google Reader called, "Sprint App Disables Phones While Driving," by Sara Yin, Sprint has made an app that parents can install on either one or all of their phones, and make it so that a phone is automatically disabled if going up to the speed of 10mph. The idea of it is actually quite brilliant; especially when you think about how many new drivers think they know everything about driving when they first start, and go ahead and text and drive. "The app determines how fast your car is going by using GPS and cell tower triangulation." If your car is detected at going more than 10mph, it automatically locks the phone. All incoming calls go to voicemail, all incoming texts are automatically responded to, and the app silences all audible notifications. As soon as a person stops driving, the phone is reactivated. If a person tries to override the lock (which they can), a notification is sent to the person who enabled the lock in the first place. 


This seems like a great app; especially for parents to install on their kids' phones. There are a few interesting points in which I would like to find out more about, though. The first one would be, how would the phone know if you're a passenger or not? It would be very frustrating to have to keep unlocking your phone, and then telling your mom or dad that you did it just because you were a passenger. Another point would be to find out if the phone can tell the difference between being in a car, or say running or biking. Not that many people can text while doing those things, but I've seen enough people doing it to know that it's possible. I feel as if this could be a great app, but I would have to have answers to my questions before fully deciding what I really think of it. What do you think about it?? Also, just as a tip if you do check out the article that writes about it, the video was the most helpful for me to understand the whole thing.