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September 12, 2011
THE OPEN COLUMN: Learning to read ... again

When I was young, life was simple. Or should I say, reading was simple. Am I getting old? Certainly, but looking at the pace things have changed over the last two decades, this statement is true even for my students. What I mean is, that after seamlessly accepting all the technological advances supporting consumption of the digital content, we are starting to have problems with reading. I believe it is not even clear what we mean by reading anymore. Let me explain why.

When I was young, life was simple. Or should I say, reading was simple. Am I getting old? Certainly, but looking at the pace things have changed over the last two decades, this statement is true even for my students. What I mean is, that after seamlessly accepting all the technological advances supporting consumption of the digital content, we are starting to have problems with reading. I believe it is not even clear what we mean by reading anymore. Let me explain why.

April 18, 2011
THE OPEN COLUMN: Technology, Society, Culture

On many occasions in the past I have felt uncomfortable with the claim that we live in the era of knowledge, rationality, technology and primacy of empiricism. The source of this unease felt like a dissonance in some deeper insides of me. Postmodern philosophers prophet the decline of religion and the rise of rationality, professionalization, constant self-actualization, expert-dependence, pragmatism, dominance of market-like relationships (panmarket), cynicism and egoism, resembling a dehumanized world of characters from Philip K. Dick’s novels. One who claims we are leaving in romantic times would be considered out of mind, no doubt. Meanwhile if you type 'rational' in Google search you will get some 50 mio hits, when you write romantic you get some 200 mio hits. Of course it does not prove anything but you may find this fact curious, curious enough to consider some other clues that inspired my thoughts before it even occurred to me to make this awkward comparison. I encourage you to expand the list by posting comments below.

On many occasions in the past I have felt uncomfortable with the claim that we live in the era of knowledge, rationality, technology and primacy of empiricism. The source of this unease felt like a dissonance in some deeper insides of me. Postmodern philosophers prophet the decline of religion and the rise of rationality, professionalization, constant self-actualization, expert-dependence, pragmatism, dominance of market-like relationships (panmarket), cynicism and egoism, resembling a dehumanized world of characters from Philip K. Dick’s novels.

October 29, 2010
A platform to re-invent the Internet?

Many experts today propose enhancements for the Internet. They claim that the 30-year old concept, originally designed for a handful of military bases and universities, cannot cope with today's challenges of more than a billion of participants, and new features such as VoIP, VoD, IP-TV, videoconferencing etc. Many ideas and concepts to improve the Internet have been proposed. Among the many trends which can be observed is the re-introduction of connection-oriented communication based on flows or streams, like the flow transfer mode (FTM), which has been proposed by van As.

October 29, 2010
Innova-Sutra

Don’t you think that a persistent part of today’s social communication patterns is that we are aggressively attacked by buzzwords that are infinitely generated and disseminated with the intent to attract our attention? Contemporary Alladins of public relations keep using them as incantations to open the sesames’ of our minds. I’m sure you do!

Don’t you think that a persistent part of today’s social communication patterns is that we are aggressively attacked by buzzwords that are infinitely generated and disseminated with the intent to attract our attention? Contemporary Alladins of public relations keep using them as incantations to open the sesames’ of our minds. I’m sure you do!

September 24, 2010
THE OPEN COLUMN: Technology, Society, Culture

From this ICaST issue on the magazine will feature a column on topics that bridge technology, society and culture. The editors and co-authors of this column, Mieczysław Muraszkiewicz and Jan Kaczmarek, will share it with other invited authors to trace and discuss two-way impacts between technology, society and culture at large. In their first introductory article the authors set the background for the column’s main main theme.

May 25, 2010
Virtual Community Interactive Games (Part 2)

In the last segment Newton Lee has introduced “Virtual Community Interactive (VCI)” for a new genre of games and interactive entertainment. In this new installment we go a bit deeper...

A VCI game may integrate a diverse number of technologies including A.I. personalities, expert systems, full-motion video, 3-D animation, multimedia database, search engine, downloadable music, VCI feedback channel, multi-player compatibility, VoIP phone, proactive/reactive user interaction, and multi-title story interaction. In the following example of a VCI game, you play a “virtual doctor” to save a patient’s life and you interact with a “virtual FBI agent” and a “virtual musician.”

 

May 21, 2010
China Web 2.0 Report – Twitter Voted Most Recognized International Service in China

Gang Lu, Asia editor of ICaST has brought to you some interesting survey results from the grassroot web communities of Chinese netizens.

Between  January 11-25 2010, an open vote was held  to determine the Most Recognized International Web 2.0 services in China initiated and operated by 14 of the most influential Chinese tech bloggers.

Within 2 weeks of public vote stage, 121.446 votes in total were counted. And today, we are happy to reveal these best internet service/sites of 2009 voted by Chinese grassroots web community. The results can not represent every Chinese netizen's opinion, but I believe, it's an honest result which is worth your attention.

January 28, 2010
Social Media for Health and Safety

Social media is transforming healthcare. Thirty-four percent of Americans turned to social media for healthin 2008, a number that is only growing.

Social media is transforming healthcare. Thirty-four percent of Americans turned to social media for healthin 2008, a number that is only growing.

January 28, 2010
Virtual Community Interactive Games

What is the future of interactive edutainment games based on what we have been experiencing on MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Skype, iTunes, and other community-based Internet websites?

What is the future of interactive edutainment games based on what we have been experiencing on MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Skype, iTunes, and other community-based Internet websites?

January 28, 2010
Welcome To The Era Of Generation Mobile Community

I was working in the department of Research & Development for a mobile messaging company where we spent years on building some backend platforms for 2G, 2.5G networks...

I was working in the department of Research & Development for a mobile messaging company where we spent years on building some backend platforms for 2G, 2.5G networks, such as Ringtone download, SMS voting system, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) platform.