2. Communication Infrastructures Thom McCain 2006

3. Perspectives on Media, Culture, Politics, and Economics Two lenses: Political economy Technological evolution How people use media – How people are used by media Implications for the public interest

4. Communication Infrastructure Below the surface and usually taken for granted. Necessary for all human societies Other Society Infrastructures utilities (heat, water, etc..) transportation banking/money

5. Stakeholders and Convergence A stakeholder is an organization, public or private, with a substantial “stake” in the outcomes of alterations in the infrastructure. The Old Four Communication Industries: newspaper/book/magazines (print, content) telephony (wires, no content) broadcasting/cable (air & wires, content) computers (hardware, software, no content)

6. Online Learning Most college students today (90%) will take at least one course online. 70% of college classes today are computer “enhanced” The political economy of course management systems and other software is driving many teaching/learning decisions K-12 Education’s fastest growing trend is in online schooling Cyber course catalogs Cyber schools New stakeholders in K-12 learning are changing the landscape

7. Markets, Technology, and Policy are inseparable aspects of the same phenomenon

8. Global “Flatteners” (Thomas Friedman) Berlin Wall – cold war Netscape goes public – from a PC platform to an internet based platform (TCP/IP, HTTP, VOIP, etc.) Work Flow Software – interdependent production and re-assembly – Paypal & ebay) Open-Sourcing –self-organizing collaborative communities (apache, moodle, sakai) Intellectual Commons Wikipedia – the people’s encyclopedia 250,000 articles in English 600,000 articles in 50 other languages Freeware

9. Flatteners continued Outsourcing – sending work to other places: “want fries with that?” Offshoring – moving the whole factory to another country Supply-Chaining – Eating Sushi in Arkansas – the Wal-mart effect Collaborating horizontally – among suppliers, retailers and customers to create value Insourcing – What the guys in funny brown shorts are really doing.

10. Flatteners In-forming: Google, Yahoo!, MSN Websearch Play on the googol, the number represented by numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros The opposite of being taught Reputations damaged earlier and more often “Always tell the truth, that way you won’t have to remember what you said” (Mark Twain) The Steroids – digital, mobile, personal & Virtual Today’s students have never known life without them

11. Critical arguments about changes in infrastructure Locus of control central authority -- switching periphery -- desktop Funding Options -- Economics advertising subsidy/tax subscription combinations of these

12. Access, equity, ownership Private vs. Public Cross industry ownership Monopolies, duopolies, oligopolies What about access for those who can’t afford it? Haves / Have Nots Knowledge Gap Theory

13. Content/function/application Should the infrastructure be for information and learning? Should the infrastructure be for entertainment and play? What is the public’s interest in all of this? How does the public’s interest get known? Government policy Marketplace of goods and services Public Opinion

14. From Information Age to Conceptual Age – Daniel Pink Neuro Psychology Left hemisphere controls right side of body, right hemisphere controls the left. Left hemisphere sequential, right hemisphere simultaneous. Left hemisphere specializes in text, right hemisphere in context Left hemisphere analyzes the details; right hemisphere synthesizes the big picture

15. Abundance, Asia, Automation Abundance 70 percent own homes (13% are 2 nd homes) Self storage -- $17 billion industry U.S. spends more on trash bags than 90 other countries spend on everything Asia One in four IT jobs will be offshored by 2010 Automation Big Blue beats Kasparov

16. Recap of the Pink perspective The scales are tilting in favor of R-directed thinking. Abundance, Asia, Automation Boosting the significance of beauty and emotion and accelerating individual’s search for meaning. Increasing need for relying on skills that can’t be shipped overseas Requiring L-directed professionals to develop aptitudes that computers can’t do better, faster or cheaper

17. The Six Senses of the Conceptual Age – High Concept & High Touch Design Story Symphony Empathy Play Meaning