the end

10 weeks of weekly blog posts have gone by. Ten weeks in which I have discovered various aspects of our digital society. As much as I like to write in my agenda, diary and blank e-mails, writing about IT technology in a blog has not really been one of my favorite hobbies. The past few writing experiences have however led me to some worthy insights.

At the start of the assignment I was very critical towards the social media Twitter, which we had to use in order to get attention for our blog posts. To me it seemed impossible to actually like watching messages about all small and silly activities of my friends. After 2 weeks I however caught myself refreshing the twitter page every five minutes to check for some ‘small and silly’ updates. It actually was quite embarrassing for a anti-Tweet person like me to discover symptoms revealing an upcoming Twitter addiction. In conclusion it can be said that my initial Twitter hate has been replaced by a Twitter-understanding and maybe even liking.

Furthermore, the different topics I discussed in my blogs have shown me the unlimited possibilities ICT offers our generation. It provides us with ways to solve problems and make life easier, faster and more efficient. It has also shown me that due to the implementation of ICT in our daily lives, the new generation of our world consists of true multitaskers. We use google maps to trace criminals, bar codes to advertise, and Twitter to keep up with the most recent news. The amount of different mediums is creatively growing exponentially every minute and what we will really use them for is up to us. Communication is no longer one sided but interaction is the key word in our brave new world.

Though the past few weeks have given me a better view of the unlimited possibilities and the great opportunities ICT offers us, I am still glad to announce to you all that this tenth post on TheBombDotCom will be the final one. I hope you all enjoyed my blogs, and see you in cyberspace ;-)

Google earth, the new way of fighting crime

Google earth, the programme providing you with the opportunity to take a look down the streets of Bangkok or virtually cruise down America, is now also used to fight crime. More and more messages in newspapers claim that a crime has been solved with the use of these digital snapshots.

Today www.nu.nl reported that a sheriff has been capable of arresting a man with the use of Google Earth. In Pensacola (Florida) the sheriff came across a big boat of 5,5 meters dumped next to the road. Since this is a crime in America, the sheriff decided to search on Google earth to see to whom the boat belonged. The digital photographs he came across clearly showed the same white boat in the backyard of a man. This man is now waiting for a fine of 5000 dollar to fall on his door mat and there is even a chance that he will have to live in prison for a maximum of 5 years…

Google earth, a good way to fight crime, but I don’t think the man in question will be that happy with this piece of technology. But how happy will we be with it within a few years? When photographs are taken more frequently there is a chance that more crimes will be solved, but will this equal our loss of privacy? Is it necessary that everybody can see who was where and with whom?

Personally, I do not think I would be that happy with my parents being capable of watching my every move..

World peace

The Nobel prize for peace, a well-known big prize and even a bigger honor to receive. It is the prize given to the person ‘who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses’.

The last time this honor was however donated to Barack Obama - a person of whom by that time it was impossible to say that had ‘done the most or the best work’, even better; he had done about nothing yet! Such a ‘mistake’ by the organization of the Nobel prize can (maybe) be tolerated once. It has done some damage to the worth and weight of the prize, but hey, as long as they choose someone better the next time… right..?

The new runner up for the prize proposed by the American magazine WIRED might however completely destroy the image of the Nobel prize. They are convinced the internet deserves the Nobel prize for peace! The internet, out of everything! The medium open to any kind of anonymous discrimination, unabashed cursing, raw censuring in countries like China, and after all let’s not forget that the internet originates from the war between America and Russia in the times of the atomic threat. That indeed really sounds like world peace…

Personally I think the internet might have contributed something to the fraternity between nations by improving the communication, but that is about the only demand of the Nobel prize definition the internet fulfills. I can simply not see how the magazine could come up with the crazy idea to give the Nobel prize to the internet when there are so many alternatives to choose from..