Sunday, February 29, 2004

I believe this is a good place to end - the library, the once known "house of information," now the pickup window and computer access center. Oh what an obscure and unpredictable future for libraries. I would like to move us on into next week's questions though. Here they are:

Question 1: We have seen trolling exampled as a negative phenomenon in online communities. Although it does produce a distrustful environment resulting in possible hesitation by its participants to share intimate thoughts, etc, I think trolling may also carry a positive outcome as well, sort of a ying and yang. In an earlier chapter it was mentioned that conflict in moderation results in strength. Trolling or mention of sensitive subjects then should also strengthen its members (whether it moves people towards apathy or betterment, we cannot really know), and I think we can extend this to also identifying and shaping the community's ethos. Although it forces the ethos to be shaped, can these conflicts that we see so negatively also have a positive impact?

Question 2: Big Sky Telegraph was an example of someone motivating technology into one room schools for education purposes. Although it had its failures and successes, it makes me wonder how a similar project would work in a different field, possibly something such as forest rangers. These people can become very isolated, and how would Internet connectivity improve their situation or worsen it? Would the same problems ensue? I would think something like this could be very useful for weather reports/patterns and connection to other rangers and the outside world, but costs would most likely be phenominal.

Question 3: First, out of curiosity, I wanted to find out what happened at Jervay Place. From www.beazer.com/OutReach/metroDetail.asp?MetroProjectID=9 I found this statement: "The new development will consist of 14 homeownership units in Phase I; 100 rental units as well as two community buildings in Phase II and 40 units of Lease Purchase/Ownership in Phase III. All of these will be built on four sites within four (4) miles of each other. Beazer’s current portion of the project consists of 100 units and two community centers - two 21-unit and one 18-unit all brick apartment buildings on Jervay Place; three duplexes on Water Tower; two all brick 15-unit buildings and one four-unit building with a community room on Covil Avenue; and three single family houses and four multi-family units on Dove Meadows." I am not sure who "won" the battle according to this statement, maybe someone can find more information on it. As for my question, has having this information access increased minority group's involvement overall, even when it does not necessariliy pertain to them? We can see in the examples that it has given minority groups a voice when no one would listen, but has this changed their overall involvement? Is this an important thing to be thinking about, or is it just important that a minority group was able to be heard?

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