Gaining Digital Confidence: Reflective Blog Post

As I look back at the semester, I realize how far I've come as a digital citizen. I think the most important thing I've learned this semester is this: "I CAN." I can be in control of my education; I can direct my own learning; I can be current and knowledgeable about what is going on in the world; I can keep up with the digital age, and I can contribute to the world around me now in meaningful ways. This is what I call "digital confidence". I have developed digital confidence throughout this semester, and I feel empowered. Digital Civilization was much more than a class for me; it was a paradigm shift.

I must admit, the style  of the class still gets me. I thrive on positive feedback on how I am doing in the class, facilitated by test scores and grades throughout the semester. I'm really not ready to have all my classes run the way this one was. Still, there are some incredible things that I have gained through this class that could not have been gained any other way. (This image is Creative Commons Licensed by Adalberto.H.Vega.)

It was amazing to me that in the first half of the semester, each of the groups came through with really creative, awesome presentations to teach the class. I was quite impressed. It was then that I first noticed a change in myself. We were not given a grading rubric, nor were we even given a visible "grade" after our presentation. Still, I was motivated to create a quality product, despite the lack of a tangible grade attached. I fully participated, and sometimes acted as a leader in my groups. I felt driven because I felt responsible to teach the class.

The second half of the semester was even more incredible to me. It seemed like everyone wanted to do their part, and help where they could, for the sake of the project. It did take some grades to motivate us. The first release was a bit of a shocker to everyone... After that, however, I was excited about our project simply because we were doing something that would meaningfully contribute to our school, and hopefully our society. I felt a great connection and investment in our eBook, such that I felt sad and disappointed when we realized we would not get it finished in time to publish it by the end of the semester. This experience was not a bad one, though. It taught me other lessons in itself: accountability and team work. I realized that I could have done more to make it happen--there is always more that could be done. Still, it also depends the group, and everyone willing to do their part. I am glad that our eBook will live on, since some of the students will be finishing it. I am planning on working with my group to get together the Library Research 2.0 video and lesson plan after the semester ends.

Through the course of this semester, I have become both digitally savvy, and digitally responsible: from learning about TED Talks and Social Bookmarking websites, to using Creative Commons-licensed works.

Following is a list of the learning outcomes for the class, along with links to demonstrate my learning and development in these areas.

 History

 I was assigned the 20th Century, and my book was Globalization: A Very Short Introduction. My book mostly covered the present era, but I used self-directed learning to discover more about the other centuries.

• Elephants and Globalization 
• Economic Globalization, Free Markets and the Growing Divide   
• Hero from the 19th Century: A Woman Called Moses  
• History of the Trans-Atlantic Cable

Core Concepts

• Control
• Can You Hack a Refrigerator? 
• I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT SOPA  
• Birth Control and Small Businesses
• Information
• Predicting Technology's Effect on Society  
• Presentation is Everything--Especially in the Digital World 
• The Truth About Alternative Energy 
• Openness
• The Definition of Open Science: What Went Wrong With Cold Fusion?
• Participation
• President Obama's Weekly Address 

Digital Literacy

• Consume
• Getting Started with Inquiry
• A Counterargument For Inquiry: Making our Project Stronger (A narrative of of my personal experience with "consuming")
• Connect
• A Proposed Tweethis (Using social proof to refine our Tweethis)
• Spreading the Word--Inviting People to Our Event 
•  Create
•  Inquiry: Consume (My portion of the eBook chapter)

Self-Directed Learning

• Federal Research Public Access Act (I stumbled on this article that I thought would be useful for the Openness group. Even though the internet was invented in the U.S., the WWW was invented by CERNS to share academic articles.)
•  Coding a Better Government

Collaboration

• My groups have used Google Hangout, Prezi, and Google Docs to collaborate, as well as email, texting, and Google+
• Information Group Presentation

Spreading the Word--Inviting People to Our Event

I was surprised that I didn't have to look far to find people to invite. I went back to my blog post I wrote for the bibliography/social graph for the Inquiry chapter in the eBook. Since most of my research and social graphing has revolved around libraries, most of these people have something to do with libraries and how the digital world is integrating with them. Here is a list of the people I invited, and why:

1. Jason Griffey:  He was named a "mover and shaker" of the library world by Library Journal in 2009. He gave a presentation at the VALA (Victorian Association for Library Automation) 2012 conference entitled "Libraries and the Post-PC Era", which just took place this February. I watched an encore of this presentation that was embedded into his blog, given at Perth, Australia. He is very interested in the integration of technology into the library world.
2. Brian Kelly: I read his blog post entitled, "Is Web Interoperable Being Led By Global Social Media Services?", and I thought he might be interested in our event. He talks about social media being used in conferences and, I mentioned that we are using Twitter for our question and answer session. I also noticed that he wrote a paper called Implementing a Holistic Approach to E-Learning Accessibility. Our whole course has been dedicated to studying the issues that have come up in our world society due to digital technology, and this paper covers the limitations E-learning has for those with disabilities.
3. Brad Matthies: he is the Head of Access Services at Butler University, and he did a presentation entitled: "The Academic Library's Role in Fostering Digital Citizenship", which is right up our ally. He also had a list of authored articles and presentations that have to do with integrating the digital into the library.
4. Simon Barron: he is the E-resources Coordinator at Durham University. On his Linkedin Profile, it listed his "Specialties" as follows: "Digital asset management, use of technology in libraries, digital libraries, Web 2.0, the Semantic Web, library advocacy."
5. Johann Van Wyk: he is an academic librarian at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. On his professional home page, he listed his "Interests" as being Library 2.0/Web 2.0, E-Research, and Social Media Tools, among others.
6. Tim O'Reilly:  he is the inventor of the term Web 2.0. He is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc., which host several technology conferences on various topics. He is a supporter of open source and free software movements, and is the author of a number of books and articles about Web 2.0
7. Julie Still: She posted on Google+ about a conference called Library 2.0 (TEDx for Librarians), and she gave a presentation at this conference called, Librarians Use of Social Media Profile Photos. She is a reference librarian at Rutgers University.
8. Jessamyn West: She is the founder of librarian.net, a website in favor of getting a better image for the librarian profession. She was named a "mover and shaker" of the library world by Library Journal in 2002. Her presentation entitled Web 2.0, Library 2.0, Librarian 2.0, and why it's no big deal, seriously has some great examples of how libraries have implemented Web 2.0 technologies into their services.
9. Steve Hargadon: He is very involved in Classroom 2.0 and Library 2.0. He is the author of "Educational Networking: The Important Role Web 2.0 Will Play in Education". His blog is entitled : "Educational Technology: Web 2.0, Educational Social Networking, Free and Open Source Software, and the Future of Education." (I was thinking, "Jackpot" as I read this.) He also has a website called "Web 2.0 Labs", which shows all the projects he has consulted.
10. Karen Coombs: She is the product manager for the OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) Developer Network. She was named a "mover and shaker" of the library world, and was instrumental in developing "Five Weeks to a Social Library", which is a free online course about implementing social software in libraries.
11. Tyler Mix: My husband, who is a Chemistry major at BYU, working on his Masters' degree. I invited him because I thought he would have some useful feedback, especially about the science presentation.

In addition to this, I went and made an announcement about the event to Dr. Adams' Communications 101 Mass Communication and Society class. I told them that we were presenting a TEDx-style event about how we can become better digital citizens in the digital world. There are about 100 students in that class.

I was joyfully surprised that I received responses from four people plus my husband. The four said that they were unable to attend live, but that they would be sure to watch the recording. I found out that Steve Hargadon has two daughters who go to BYU, and he was very interested in learning more about our class, so I sent him the link for the description of it. My husband came, in person, to our event.

It was a learning experience to write to these people, and it was an example in social proofing itself. I received emails from two of the people before I finished inviting the rest, and they were confused about what I was asking them to do. They didn't know what I wanted feedback on exactly, the format of the presentation, or the content. I was able to tweak my email invitation to be more clear, thanks to the feedback I received from them.

Overall, it was a great experience to invite these people, and I was surprised again by how easy it is to get in contact with people interested in the same topics.

Inquiry: Consume

Most university libraries currently have excellent databases which aid students in consuming scholarly information. However, it is not enough to use these databases as an inclusive form of research, nor is it the most efficient way to do research. Students will gain a more current and accurate understanding of research topics, will gain enthusiasm for the material, and will save research time by using Rich Site Summary (RSS) Feeds, social bookmarking sites, social networking sites and blogs to find material. While these tools cannot usually be used as scholarly sources themselves, these methods actually lead students to find pertinent, quality scholarly articles in the shortest time possible. When used correctly, these methods point out sources that have already been deemed as being valuable by other researchers, and even experts, thus giving the student a spring-board to quickly decide what is current and what is important in their research area. It helps them see why other people are interested in the topic, fostering enthusiasm for the research. These methods also lead to students connecting with real people in the field, which is covered in the next section. Overall, students will get the most out of the research time they have. They will be directed to the areas that they need to focus on and cut out time spent trying to find what is most important in that field.

RSS Feeds

Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds display search results from selected websites on selected topics, allowing you to stay current on a topic, as well as gain background information. A students’ research paper will be higher in quality if it includes acknowledges the current discussion that is being made on the subject, and students can be aware of the most recent discoveries about the research. If students focus so much on scholarly articles, that they leave out the context and the world conversation on the topic, their paper will be missing the binding factor of their paper, and even the point of them researching the topic. This would be an unfortunate case, since this is where most of the meaning in writing the research paper comes to the students. There is an assortment of free Feed Reader software available to download, and there are a number of books that provide more information on using RSS feeds. [Ref 2a, Ref 2b]

Social Bookmarking

The idea behind social bookmarking is that you are able to save, share, and manage internet links and scholarly articles. This also provides a convenient way of searching for content, whether it is an initial, get-your-feet-wet search, or in the concluding stages of a research project.  Searching social bookmarking sites helps students to find content through finding people. Once a student finds a person who is either interested in, or has expertise in their topic, they can find the material that person has bookmarked. Depending on the social bookmarking service used, students can find links to webpages or scholarly articles. Then, the student can see who  else has bookmarked that article, adding a number of new people to their list of interested parties. The student can then search the articles those people have bookmarked, and continue outward until a whole spiderweb-like network of people and sources has been discovered.  (Photo taken by Alan Reeves)

Following is a list of free social bookmarking services, along with a short description. Unless otherwise indicated, these sites will allow you to search them without setting up an account. Some of these services are strictly for scholarly articles, others have everything from news articles to blog posts, and some have a combination of both. It is important to choose the service that best fits the material being researched. The student, however, can use as many of these services as is needed to find sufficient content.

• BibSonomy (www.bibsonomy.org): Allows for bookmarking of both websites and publications, and will allow searching without getting an account.
• Citeulike (http://www.citeulike.org): Specifically for scholarly references.
• Delicious (http://www.delicious.com): Covers a wide variety of topics, scholarly and non-scholarly; organization of this site is by “stacks”, or topical bundles of links.
• Digg (http://digg.com): Has both search capabilities, as well as general topic pages. Links indicate how many people have bookmarked them, giving a sort of rating system.
• Mendeley (http://www.mendeley.com): Strictly academic; allows downloading of PDF files, annotating of those files, and generating of citations and bibliographies.
• Newsvine (http://www.newsvine.com): Includes news and many other topics pages; features a unique tool called “Conversation Tracker” that allows you to keep track of discussions you have taken part in as well as track discussions of Friends.
• Reddit (http://www.reddit.com): Covers a variety of topics, has a ranking system that determines the order links appear on a webpage.
• Zotero (http://www.zotero.org): Has the ability to collect bibliographic information from a given website, and provides the ability to organize online references. Currently, it stores the references on a specific computer or a portable storage device, and it does not have an easy way of sharing sources. This research tool requires a log-in and download in order to use.

Social Networking
    Becoming part of a social network can greatly enhance consuming information, if it is used properly. Students can search social networks, such as Google+ or Twitter for people who have posted on specific topics, and then find both people and sources, as well as stay current with the most recent discussions on the topic. This is similar to the method used to consume information using social bookmarking. Consuming information by finding people who are invested in the topic will save time, and provide a more inclusive search.

Terry Wassall, a Principal Teaching Fellow of Sociology at Leeds University, shared the following about his use of social networks in doing research:

“I think social media made me a better researcher because I find stuff out a lot quicker. I now have a network of individuals I respect and am confident in their work. The network discovers and filters and discusses. I have connected my research to the real world in a way that would not have been so easy before and maybe not possible. For curriculum development and teaching this has connected with real issues that interest and engage students and has helped them become student researchers in their own right with a broader and more critical take on issues.” (Ref 2c)

With traditional research methods, the results that the student finds depends entirely on what the student searches for. The value that social networks add to consuming information is that the student can find facets of the research topic that they didn’t even know existed. By researching through people, the student can find significant information they didn’t think to search for. In addition, the student will gain enthusiasm for the research, since they are seeing how their research fits into the overall conversation on the subject.

Blogs
           Blogs can also be an extremely effective means of consuming information. Students can find out what others are saying about their topic and what is currently being done about a certain issue by exploring blog posts. Whether the blog is by an enthusiast, or a professional in the field, there is value in students understanding the entire picture of the topic. Also, if there is a clear central conflict or debate about the topic, most blog posts will refer a student directly to the source or original site of a conflict, allowing them to start their research with a clear understanding of the background of the issue. Some research groups and individual researchers have blogs that lists their publications and authored books, so students can find scholarly sources by searching blogs as well (See The Neuro Times). Again, the value here is that students can find developments on their topic that they did not know to even search for. The student’s research will be more complete and current. The following list contains some effective blogging platforms:

• Blogger (http://www.blogger.com/home)
• LiveJournal (http://www.livejournal.com/)
• TypePad (http://www.typepad.com/)
• WordPress (http://wordpress.com/)

Inquiry Bibliography Post

I found these people by searching Google+ for library research 2.0, and by looking at some of these people's links:


People interested in library 2.0:

• Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus at UKOLN: Blog
• Karen Coombs, former Head of Web Services for the University of Houston Libraries in Houston, Texas, Product Manager OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) Developer Network at OCLC: Blog
• Jason Griffey, Head of Library IT at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, USA, Presentation given

• Brad Matthies**, Head of Access Services at Butler University: Link to his academic articles

• Simon Barron**, E-resources Co-ordinator at Durham University: Blog, List of publications
• Johann Van Wyk**, University of Pretoria, South Africa, Academic Librarian
• Tim O'Reilly, publications

Some Elaboration on Consuming

Consuming:

                It can be tempting for the average student doing research to simply do a Google search, and take sources from the first few pages of the search results. Even a student using academic search engines may struggle to sort through several articles, let alone searching the many academic databases that are available. Library Research 2.0 tools can help students find information that has already been pointed out as valuable by other researchers, thus giving the student a spring-board to quickly decide what is current and what is important in their research area.

RSS Feeds

                A RSS (Rich Site Summary) feed allows you to stay current on a topic by displaying search results from selected websites.  This can be effective for an initial background search as well.

Social Bookmarking:

                The idea behind social bookmarking is that you are able to save, share, and manage internet links. This also provides a convenient way of searching for content, whether it is an initial, get-your-feet-wet search, or in the concluding stages of a research project.  Following is a list of free social bookmarking services, along with a short description. Unless otherwise indicated, these sites will allow you to search them without setting up an account.

• ·         BibSonomy (www.bibsonomy.org): Allows for bookmarking of both websites and publications, and will allow searching without getting an account.
• ·         Citeulike (http://www.citeulike.org): Specifically for scholarly references.
• ·         Delicious (http://www.delicious.com): Covers a wide variety of topics, scholarly and non-scholarly; organization of this site is by “stacks”, or topical bundles of links.
• ·         Digg (http://digg.com): Has both search capabilities, as well as general topic pages. Links indicate how many people have bookmarked them, giving a sort of rating system.
• ·         Mendeley (http://www.mendeley.com): Strictly academic; allows downloading of PDF files, annotating of those files, and generating of citations and bibliographies.
• ·         Newsvine (http://www.newsvine.com): Includes news and many other topics pages; features a unique tool called “Conversation Tracker” that allows you to keep track of discussions you have taken part in as well as track discussions of Friends.
• ·         Reddit (http://www.reddit.com): Covers a variety of topics, has a ranking system that determines the order links appear on a webpage.
• ·         Zotero (http://www.zotero.org): Has the ability to collect bibliographic information from a given website, and provides the ability to organize online references. Currently, it stores the references on a specific computer or a portable storage device, and it does not have an easy way of sharing sources. This free research tool requires a log-in and download in order to use.

A Proposed Tweethis

This week I sent an email to Jessamyn West, founder of librarian.net, and named a "mover and shaker" of the library world by Library Journal. She gave her contact information on  her blog and said feel free to email her, as long as it wasn't "spammy." I'm still kind of new at this contact thing, so I just asked her a couple questions related to our project, and I was thrilled that she replied!

The first question I asked her was if she thinks there is value in teaching students Library Research 2.0 techniques beyond the typical research methods. She said  that she thinks it is a really good starting point to teach people that research doesn't have to be complicated and awful, in regards to these methods having good information and being easy to use. She also said it is important to cover the fact that there are still things you cannot get online in doing research. I think she is right, and in actuality we are not trying to do away with the curriculum in place, but rather add to it. I think it would be a good idea to include that idea, maybe even in our tweethis. What if we did something like this:

"Exploring the frontier of Library Research 2.0 will add cutting-edge techniques to the toolbox of the standard researcher." 

Ok it still needs some work, but I think we can get around saying anything about saving time and getting better results because really, that is entirely up to the user. These techniques are still a little underdeveloped as far as if they really will save time, but hey, we're walking on new frontier here. And I'm still a believer.

The second question I asked was if she knew of any university libraries that have tried to incorporate these techniques into their research "helps", since she had some great examples of Library 2.0 on a slideshow she had posted. She gave me the link http://libguides.com/ which has thousands of libraries, mostly of colleges and universities, and their library guide websites. I was not surprised that BYU has a guide on there. She also suggested doing a Google search of various libraries "discovery layers", which I found out are interfaces that libraries can choose as a platform for searching databases. An example of this is EBSCO. One thing I've learned from looking at the examples she listed as Library 2.0 is that Library 2.0 is a bit different than Library Research 2.0, as we're defining it. A lot of Library 2.0 is just libraries making more digital resources available to their patrons, or connecting to their patrons through digital means.

A Counterargument For Inquiry: Making our Project Stronger

We were able to focus the Inquiry group's project today in class, which was very exciting. We have decided to focus on librarians and teachers and try to get Library Research 2.0 incorporated into the BYU library research curriculum. However, I've thought of some counterarguments that we need to face before our project will really be marketable. The problem is, how can we really prove that Library Research 2.0 will actually improve and/or  save time for students' research? It is VERY true that students could waste loads of time by using these tools. There. I said it. The thing that will make our argument successful is if we demonstrate how to use it in order to save time.

The whole idea of Library Research 2.0 is using social media tools online in order to find sources for your research, and/or collaborate. I personally know plenty of people who already waste so much time using social media. Adding the distraction of using social media to the research process may just be too much for some students to handle. How do we handle these kinds of arguments?

I am personally a believer in Library Research 2.0 because I've tried it, and it works. However, I think I have a biased opinion because it is my project, and I've only tried it on doing research about Library Research 2.0. There's not much scope to my experimentation.

Here's how I did research about Library Research 2.0: I used Gideon Burton's Diigo bookmarks to find some sites about social media and research. (Site1, Site2) I found a link on the first site that gives a whole list of Library Research 2.0 tools, and their respective links. GROUP: there is a nice infographic-like representation of this that maybe we can get some ideas from, published by the Research Information Network (I think Prezi should be added to the Presentation Sharing Tools). They also published a nice paper called Social Media Guide. What I think is cool about their website is that they have several case studies of real professionals who use Library Research 2.0 tools in their daily work! 

By perusing these sites, I also found a blog that talks about why academics should blog. This Clarkson University blog is all about Neurology, and I looked at the sidebar and found some cool things there! They have a list called "Our Publications" which shows the articles they've published. They also have a link where you can send in a book or article you want them to review! I mean, they probably wouldn't appreciate getting a Freshman's research paper, but he gives you his contact information via the faculty directory link. Use it! There is a secret I've heard that if you've read a professor's papers, and you contact them, they are more than willing to talk to someone who has read their work, and is interested in what they are doing.

Woah, woah. Ok. So I've gotten a little side-tracked. I know I'm not supposed to be researching about Neurology, but if I was researching about it, I could find this blog, and it would be very helpful. Anyway, I didn't spend any time reading the articles, I just wanted to recognize the tools that are there.

This was quite effective in doing research. I was able to find starting-off points in just a few clicks. If I was doing research in Neurology, I might be even further along in the research process. The trick is finding people who are also interested in the subject, and you're set. Maybe we should demonstrate how to do that. I'll have to try it myself first, I mean, it was easy to find Gideon Burton because he's my professor.

The bottom line is, how can we demonstrate and convince that this will save students time and energy, and will make their papers better? Use academic articles as supporting evidence? Anecdotes? Case studies? An experiment?

Getting Started with Inquiry

I've spent a couple hours today doing a literature search about Organic Radical Batteries, which I am currently researching under a professor in Chemical Engineering. I realized that I do have some good research skills, but I am still far from being an excellent researcher. Since I am in the Inquiry Content Group, I want to post a couple of the helpful things for doing research in the sciences.

I really like the Elsevier search engine ScienceDirect accessible through the HBLL Database Search. However, this only does a search of articles published through Elsevier. Also, a great tool I've found is called RefWorks. This is basically like a library shelf for journal articles. The nice thing is that you can export citations directly into RefWorks from ScienceDirect, and you can then organize all your references into folders. You can log in using your BYU NetID and password. This is great since you already have a bibliography when you're done. I learned to use this in my first-year writing class, so it is probably already part of the  curriculum. (The picture came from the slideshow linked below by Jessamyn West.)

I also found if you log into your account on the HBLL website, you can create Database Search Sets. Once your set is created, you can do a search of only those selected databases as many times as you want. This is a helpful tool that I just discovered, and will use in the future.

I am still trying to wrap my head around what exactly what our project will include. I learned from Gideon Burton's post that Library Research 2.0 is conducting research by looking at other people's inquiry processes, utilizing social networking tools to do so. It includes using free tools such as RSS feeds, citation tools, social bookmarking, and Google Docs. Lynsie Hammond posted a list of  research tips from First Year Writing Professors.

There have been some things already put together about Library Research 2.0, like the Slideshare and Webcast, "Libraries meet research 2.0" by Guus van den Brekel. Jessamyn West created a slideshow called "Web 2.0, Library 2.0, Librarian 2.0 and why it's no big deal, seriously."

I think one challenge we have is trying to make our project specific enough to BYU students so it can be incorporated into the BYU Writing and Research Center, and yet broad enough that it can be used by other students and possibly universities. Maybe we'll just want to make it generic enough that it applies to everyone. Still, I think this would cut out some cool tools like RefWorks, which require the school to have a subscription to. Should we keep it general? Ideas on this, anyone?

The Truth About Alternative Energy

In order to understand where we stand with regards to alternative energy (energy derived from sources that do not use up natural resources or harm the environment), one first must understand the magnitude of various energy sources that are currently consumed each year.

Imagine a mile. Now imagine a mile wide by a mile long by a mile deep. This is a cubic mile. In order to make comparison easier between these various energy sources, all the units are in cubic miles of oil (CMO), meaning the amount of energy equivalent to that provided by a cubic mile of oil. (These numbers came from my Chemical Engineering in Society class, and I am sure they are credible.)

World Energy Use Per Year (CMO)

Oil:                  1.16

Coal                 0.99

Natural Gas      0.78

Hydro              0.15

Nuclear            0.19

Biomass           0.15
(burning wood, etc.)   

Biofuel             0.01

Wind&Solar     0.02

Total                3.45

This is the magnitude of our energy appetite. Although there has been a great push towards wind and solar energy, they still make up less than one percent together.

Here are some cost estimates for replacing the oil alone (1.16 CMO) with alternative energies:

• Solar: $80 Trillion (not to mention the threat to national security this poses since China produces and controls 95% of the world's supply of Rare Earth Metals)
• Wind: $5 Trillion to build. We would need to build 1000 2-Megawatt wind machines every week for the next 50 years to get them all built.
• Nuclear: $50 Trillion. We would need to build 2,500 900-Megawatt plants.
• Hydro: we don't have enough suitable rivers to create enough hydro-electric power. (We could maybe double current production.)
• Biofuel: Cost ??, but we would need to turn 25% of the cultivatable land into cropland for biofuels.

 Basically, it would take a lot of money, and physically a long time before we could substitute alternative energy sources for oil, not to mention natural gas and coal. Besides this, there are a lot of controversies about these sources of energy, such as there being hundreds of thousands of birds of prey killed each year by wind turbines; food shortages associated with using our cropland for growing fuel; the environmental and civil costs of building dams, real and imagined risks of nuclear plants and nuclear waste, and more.

Here are the numbers for the currently-known reserves for fossil fuels (which make up 85% of our energy sources):

Coal: 125 years at current consumption rate (the rate's increasing, but so are the number of reserves)

Petroleum: about 44 years of known reserves, but the amount of accessible reserves is increasing
Natural Gas: total amount left is unknown, but the amount of known reserves continues to grow

Besides these constraints on our resources, there are a slew of environmental impacts from using fossil fuels (which I'll leave for another post).

While it is true that we need to come up with alternative energy sources because fossil fuels will not last forever, the truth is that if we were to just stop using them, there would be about 60-70% unemployment OVERNIGHT. The cost of energy would double or more. If no one buys cars or fuel, no one travels, and the economy shuts down.

In short: availability of cheap energy drives the standard of living. The price of energy will steadily increase as we have to work harder to mine fossil fuels, and as the resources continue to shrink. While we need to find alternative ways of providing energy, it is important to recognize the magnitude of the task we are talking about, and the costs of switching to alternative energies.

My Thesis in Progress

As I looked through my past blog posts, I've realized that I have covered quite a breadth of subjects. I've categorized my posts into groups:

Science
The Definition of Open Science: What Went Wrong With Cold Fusion

Technology's Effect on Society and Government
Amusement
I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT SOPA
Predicting Technology's Effect on Society
Presentation is Everything--Especially in a Digital World
How Safe is Paperless vs. Paper for Digital Information?

Health Care and Government
Birth Control and Small Businesses

Education
The Barometer Story: A Superficial Learning Environment

Globalization
Elephants and Globalization
Economic Globalization, Free Markets, and the Growing Divide

History
Hero from the 19th Century: A Woman Called Moses

After categorizing my posts, I realize I have focused more on posting about technology than about history. Partly this is due to the fact that I am in the 20th Century group, but this actually does not excuse me since there are a lot of great connections between the digital concepts and the history of the 20th century, such as Lenin and Stalin in relation to "control". I did post historical-related posts on Google+ about the Trans-Atlantic Cable for the Telegraph, the origins of Black History Month, and a few others.

Still, I think I can do a better job of relating the things I am learning about technology to historical content. It would add depth to my thoughts.

Honestly, I was disappointed a bit at the lack of response to my Globalization posts. I guess they were too dense to catch attention. I was really excited about sharing the things I am learning from reading my book. Perhaps if I had relayed the information more like this:

African nations spend more on debt servicing each year than the UN estimates is needed to curb AIDS in Africa.

Exxon-Mobil has higher revenue than the GDP of Saudi Arabia.

Wal-Mart Stores has 2X as much revenue as the GDP of Thailand.

Out of the top 100 largest economies in the world in 2005, 42 were corporations, 58 were countries.

It is incredible to me that a single company can have more economic power than an entire country.

Overall, I think my thesis is still developing, but I am leaning towards something about technology and its effects on government and society.

Birth Control and Small Businesses

Today I attended a lecture by Scott Moscrip, founder of 10 companies, including Internet Truckstop, which holds the biggest share of its market in "matching up" Trucking companies with companies wanting to transport goods in the $3 Trillion trucking industry.

I really enjoyed hearing about his big break in entrepreneurship, which was in 1995 when he founded this online company, right as internet companies were taking off. Besides talking about his corporate jet he took to come speak to us so he could leave on his own time, he also brought up something that is going on right now in the U.S. government that I was not aware of.

Last month the Department of Health and Human Services ruled that all employers must provide free access to birth control for female workers. This has had a lot of opposition by the Catholic Church, since they do not want to be forced to pay for things against their moral beliefs.  President Obama gave an "accommodation" to religious institutions to force the insurance to pay for them, however, the Catholic Church in Washington D.C. is self-insured, meaning they would still have to pay the bill. This ruling is part of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, supports the ruling.

Scott Moscrip brought up an interesting perspective on this: he said it is just another impediment to entrepreneurs and small businesses. I can't imagine my employer having to ask me what birth control I would like so they can provide it/reimburse it! It seems to me that the government is just getting too involved in our personal lives. Overall, Scott Moscrip believes that the government's purpose in business is to prevent it from happening. I tend to think he's right. Maybe the government should stop using birth control on businesses.

Hero from the 19th Century: A Woman Called Moses

I was thinking more about this being Black History Month, and I thought about Harriet Tubman. As I did some research about her, I found that she was an incredible woman who had a strong faith in Christ, served many people throughout her life, and was extremely brave and courageous.

This video from history.com gives an overview of Harriet's role in the Underground Railroad, and how that even more than the 70 people she helped escape to freedom on the Underground Railroad, she was a symbol that thousands of slave owners feared. She led 20 dangerous missions back to the south to lead slaves to freedom, and she never lost a "passenger". She was nicknamed "Moses" by her people, and was a symbol of hope.

Harriet also served the Union Army during the civil war as a cook, laundress, nurse, scout and spy. She helped hundreds of slaves transition from bondage to freedom with the help of missionary teachers. She led a raid of Confederate property that freed nearly 800 slaves. She was the matron of the Colored Hospital at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, and cared for many injured soldiers there. She raised money for freedmen's schools, and she turned the home she had purchased for her family into the Home for Aged and Indigent Colored People. She was also a delegate to the first annual convention of the National Association of Colored Women in 1896, and was an advocate for woman's suffrage (See this website for where I got this information).

As I was thinking about slavery, I remembered a post (Click Blog #5 Assignment) I made in my Honors 240 American Government class my Freshman year. This post expresses my thoughts and feelings on slavery. I re-read it and I was surprised; it was actually really good. That's another great reason about posting the things we write for classes online. It is great to have a documentation of my learning, and go back a couple years later and remember what I learned from a class.

Can Your Hack a Refrigerator?

A couple weeks ago, I saw a commercial for USPS on TV (the first clip on the video embedded in the webpage). Apparently, this advertising campaign was started last year because USPS lost $10 million in the last fiscal year. I found this discussion about why the US Postal Service is struggling, which I think has some good points, like what would happen if it went out of business, and how FedEx and UPS would have reign over mailing prices.

Anyway, the commercial got me thinking about how secure our paperless, digital forms of storing/sending information really is. It says, "A refrigerator has never been hacked. An online virus has never attacked a cork-board." This is true, but my credit union highly encouraged me to go with paperless statements a couple years ago, claiming it was more secure, so I did. The nice thing about it is that in order to view my statements, I have to log into my bank account online, so I feel very secure about it. They claim that it is a greater risk for people to steal my statement from my mailbox or the garbage than online.

But what about other kinds of information? What about credit card numbers and buying things online? What about businesses storing sensitive information on networks and servers? Here is a website with tips for individuals and businesses for protecting online data. I think there are definite issues with security of digital data, but I think that it is so much more convenient, earth-friendly, and cost-effective to store and send information online that these benefits outweigh the risk.

On a personal level, I think that most of the responsibility lies on the individual to take the necessary precautions not to share sensitive personal information (especially social security and credit card numbers) online, and to have adequate virus protection on their computers. Still, there are some things we cannot control. A personal experience with this is that I have gotten emails from acquaintances (including a BYU professor) claiming that he or she is stuck in some country and needs money. Prior to this, I had heard about my friend's dad getting his email account hijacked and an email like this sent out from his account. Someone actually did respond, sadly, and lost some money. When my friend's dad finally regained access to his account, all his emails had been deleted, including all his business ones (he owned his own business). I think it would be very annoying to have my email account hacked, and for my BYU professor, it was due to him using a computer in an internet cafe in France that apparently was bugged. It was no fault of his own.

However, the data shows that small business to medium-sized are quite susceptible to hacking. GFI Software conducted a survey of 200 small to mid-sized U.S. businesses in October 2011, 40% of which have suffered due to hacking. The problem is that small businesses do not take the possibility of being hacked seriously. This person on Yahoo claims there is no way to actually know how many businesses are hacked because businesses don't want to reveal that and cause doubts about their company. I think that this is probably true.

My overall perception is that use of the internet to store and share information has increased the amount of crime. I think this is due to ease of crimes being committed from a removed place, so people can steal with little chance of getting caught.

Presentation is Everything--Especially in the Digital World

Here are some clips that prove that in this new digital market, presentation is everything. For those Steve Jobs fans out there, compare the introduction of the iPhone to the introduction of the Nexus One...BIG difference.

(Only need to watch the first three minutes to be wowed by this one. I suggest putting it in full-screen mode for maximum effect):

(This clip luckily only shows under two minutes of the presentation...I don't know if I could take much more of it.)
















(Still, in this new domain of technology called the smart phone, there are room for mistakes--even for Apple.)

(Let's not let Google off the hook for technical difficulties during important presentations.)

Economic Globalization, Free Markets and the Growing Divide

 “Amount of money the United Nations estimates is needed annually to curb the AIDS epidemic in Africa through education, prevention, and care: US$20-23 billion. Amount of money African nations pay to service their debts each year: US$21 billion" (page 45 of Globalization: A Very Short Introduction by Manfred B. Steger). 


     One way economic globalization has taken place is through the internationalization of trade and finance. This includes the establishment of open economies and free trade. There is evidence that shows some national economies have thrived because of free trade. However, it appears that these benefits are spread very unevenly throughout the world. According to Steger, “Most studies show that the gap between rich and poor countries is widening at a fast pace.” The line graph to the left is a great visual representation of this (taken from page 108 of Globalization: A Very Short Introduction). Economic globalization is actually leaving part of the world behind: the Global South. Essentially, rich countries are able to exploit poor countries, making them more in debt to them and more dependent on them for survival. According to a couple websites I found, between 133-157 countries are in the Global South out of the total number of 195. See the graph below for the percentage of populations living on less than $1.25 a day (taken from Wikipedia).

     It is true that many international organizations give a lot of help to countries. In addition, as was talked about in the Google+ chat with President Obama, the United States gives financial aid to several countries. However, consider this: in 2005, developing countries paid US$355,025.5 million in debt servicing, and received only US$80,534.1 million in aid (page 55 in Globalization: A Very Short Introduction).

     If you still don't believe that there are ill effects from economic globalization, have you ever heard of the South-East Asia crisis in the 1990s? I hadn't heard of it until I read this book, but it demonstrates that global speculators often take advantage of the emerging financial markets of developing countries. This link has some in-depth background to some of the cultural and economic reasons for the crisis. Basically in the 1990s, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, and the Philippines slowly opened their markets to attract foreign direct investment, and linked their national currencies to the US dollar. Investment in stock and real-estate by foreign investors skyrocketed, but by 1997, prices had inflated so much that investors panicked and withdrew $105 billion from these countries, forcing them to remove their currency from the US dollar standard, resulting in a huge economic fallout that threatened to put the global economy into recession. The combination of international bail-out packages and the rock-bottom-price sale of South-East Asian commercial assets to foreign investors saved the global economy, but at a great cost. The citizens of this region are still suffering today from the consequences of this economic crisis.

Elephants and Globalization

When I read Thomas Freidman's book, The World is Flat, I was convinced that globalization is happening quickly, and that it is this incredible, wonderful thing that is enabling more people to have more opportunities than ever before!

However, one of the books I am reading for this class, Globalization: A Very Short Introduction, has helped to convince me to see both the positive and negative of globalization. This book is very unbiased towards the positive or negative of globalization. However, the facts show that some aspects of globalization are not so peachy. (Note: I have several thoughts for blogposts based on this book. I am only sorry I did not begin sharing this knowledge sooner in my reading of it.) The question I pose is, "Is Globalization Good or Bad?"

First of all, it is important to understand the definition of globalization, as this book defines it. Globalization, it claims, is a "set of social processes" that are weakening the importance of current national, geographical, and other boundaries to shift towards an eventual "globality", or a social condition of which "global economic, political, cultural, and environmental interconnections" render current borders and boundaries "irrelevant." To be sure, the book does not claim that "globality" is yet upon us, in fact it claims the world has not yet reached it. However, it claims that globalization is indeed occurring.

There is a lot of argument going on about how globalization is occurring, what is causing it, and in what ways is it occurring. The author, Manfred B. Steger, brilliantly compares globalization to the ancient Buddhist parable of the blind scholars. Basically some blind scholars did not know what an elephant looked like, so they each touched the elephant, attempting to gain a mental picture of the animal. Each of them touched a different part of the elephant, one claiming it was lively like a snake (trunk), one claiming it was like a huge, rough column (leg), one claiming it was like an artist's paintbrush (tail). Each held firmly to his own idea, because his scholarly reputation depended on the veracity of his findings. The point of this story is that globalization is like the elephant. It cannot be reduced to a single dimension, but it effects several dimensions, and each must be examined to have a good picture of globalization. This book covers the following dimensions of globalization: economic, political, cultural, and ecological.

In my following blogposts, I will cover each of these dimensions, and relate them to some of the ideas that have been discussed already. I believe there is no answer to the question I posed above because there are too many dimensions to lump globalization into a "good" or "bad" category. As for the individual dimensions, the answer still is not clear, but at least a discussion can be made.