I really love the phrase "History and the Future". It is for the last part of Prof. Turkel's course of Digital History and we had a very interesting discussion in class yesterday. Talking about the "future" in such a beautiful spring is a fascinating thing. Although I am not sure whether it is spring now, the small blue flowers ready to blossom at the west gate of the campus warm up the coldness in my heart. And the Winter Jasmine placed in a jar on the front desk in the library started to bear some yellow flowers yesterday. In China, we call this pretty flower "welcome spring flower". They remind me a lot of my hometown, my family and my friends. My grandma must have been looking forward to the "Cold Food Festival"; my parents and eld sister must be ready for their first spring picnic on Xiangshan Mountain; My best friends in Jinan should be enjoying the cherry blossoms full of our Alma Mater! Everything tastes so good in spring!
As to digital humanities, technology is an important issue. I am always wondering whether the science and technology actually exceed all imagination under the action of the international armament competition. Take the military technologies during WWII for example, it is shocking for me to see some pictures of the UFO-like transportations made by the German army more than 60 years ago, as well as some weird mind weapons from the KGB secret lab in the former Soviet. Therefore, based on the mounting money each government puts into military and science every year, it is a mystery to what degree the human scientific applications have developed today. There is a depressing saying that the nuclear explosive each person in this world shares is equivalent to more than 10 tons of TNT, which is capable of destroying the earth completely 25 times. Yes! this is a pretty scary math, so is my imagination on the unknown technologies under the veil of national security. Of course, there are many advanced technologies familiar to the public, such as space travel, nanotechnology, genetic engineering, computer and internet, etc. All of these advance the possibilities that technology may serve this world better, or I would say, technology diversifies people's options and patterns in communication and speculation.
The digital products make the world more complicated. Last month I went to the Rogers in my area to change the prepay into a plan because of the high expense. When the shop assistant helped me with a new cellphone, I was stuck in the options for the different designs, styles and functions. After tussling with myself for a long time, I chose the thinnest one that suited my hand well. Then the nice man told me I made a good choice because the cellphone was pretty good at music. I felt a little absurd for an Itouch was just lying in my right pocket of the coat. I never put music in my cellphone for the purse of not forcing my Itouch to retire, just like I barely use the Itouch to surf the internet so as to leave my Mac Air an excuse to stay on my desk. I still don't understand why my fiance insisted to buy me the laptop since he is aware of my hatred to it. This hatred comes from my first laptop my father gave it to me as a college gift. It was a 2.42 kg Compaq but kept breaking down while I was playing the electronic game of the Starcraft. So when my fiance graduated from the same college and left me with his big-head desk top, I was so excited that my roommates called me a fool since everybody was throwing out the desk top for a lap top at that moment. But I still think that was the happy time I really enjoyed computer and internet, because it never failed me due to out of memory or disk space. Then I got the Mac Air from my fiance and kept being frustrated again for its optimal design for the sake of decreasing the whole weight. Undoubtedly, it is successful at this point, but the only two USB plugs existing in my computer leave me no choice but use a bunch of accessories alternatively, such as the CD driver, USB and the mouse. And I need to endure its slow speed while operating some softwares that take up relatively big EMS memory. I really miss the big head but it seems impractical to carry it around with me while the Wi-Fi is available in any place and time on the campus. I don't mean that this portable design is not good, because, first of all, it meets different needs of a lot of people either for fancy technology or practical purpose, such as me who is a small person. And it is a fact that no universal technology exists in this world. But it seems a dilemma that while some technologies are trying to combine more functions into one object, others tries to simplify as much as possible.
What is the digital world like? Whenever I think about this question, one episode of a very popular TV show "Star Gate SG-1" flashes in front of me. The scientific story starts with the expedition's routine exploring in another planet through the Star Gate, a powerful device capable of creating traversable wormholes from one part of the universe to another very quickly. Then the team finds this advanced society in which children never go to school for education but wear a very small memory-like equipment attached to one of their temples. Whenever they need to learn about some knowledge, they just connect to the device using their mind. Isn't it amazing? This episode really reminds of the Wikipedia, because they share the common feature as a collection of knowledge. However, the question is Wikipedia is not an accumulation of dead information, but an outcome of different, even opposite, opinions and perspectives interactive with each other. Even in the field of Science or Physics, one established law is displaced by another along with the development of knowledge. Therefore, it is funny to imagine the confusions or mistakes the device might lead to in that society.
When I was working for a provincial archives in China during one summer vacation, one of my main jobs was to digitalize the old files in the storage, and index on the computer. This is a common case of the digitalization and network-characterization process in the archival work in China as part of the E-Government project started at the end of 20th century. The number of local governments involved in this movement has been increasing at an accelerated rate. By 2005, the coverage was about 81.3%, including institutions both at the provincial and city level. Contrasting with the delightful figure above, organizations not funded by the government do not take digitalization as their top priority, but financial budget. The real estate company I once worked with focused on bridging the reference number of the old files and the new computer index for the benefit of the operation of each department. However, I never doubt the possibility that the profit-making organizations will catch up with the governmental bodies in the process of informationalization. But I do doubt the perspective that technology is the main reason that China has lagged behind its rivals in addressing the fast growing informative revolution. Once the problem, that Chinese government holds an passive attitude in communicating with the public, exists, the digital world being constructed in China will be like a pool of dead water without outlet and inlet.
The application of some technology could be compulsory. A good case is the "Blackout Event" Microsoft company started in Oct. 2008 as a way to fight against software piracy in China market. This event was ranked the first place in the 2009 IT Expense Market March Fifth Annual Report in China for the high public attention up to 12.3%. Compared to the second place of the "Human-powered Search" with 7.4% and the third "China's Telecom Industry Restructuring" with 7%, the Blackout did not influence the Chinese society as significantly as I expected, partially reflecting the reality that Chinese governmental bodies and various corporations both large and small sizes go on relying on the genuine softwares for information security, trade secrets and privacy. However, the most important reason for this phenomenon lies in the fact that Microsoft only blacks 1% of the Chinese consumers' desktops for using piracy Windows XP. It is more like a feeler put out to gauge the reactions of the Chinese IT market. I don't give any sympathy for that part of software developers and consumers in China, but I have to question the conspiracy Microsoft company has planned all these years. Isn't it much easier to crackdown the piracy right from the start, rather than a decade of tolerance of the relevant piracy products popular in China? Obviously, this marketing strategy is far more successful. According to the report of the Multinational Corporations' Anti-competitve Practice and Solution in China released by the State Administration of Industry and Commerce in May 2004, the Microsoft company had a 95% market share in Chinese market, which demonstrates its established monopoly status. During this Blackout Event, Microsoft also reduces the prices of its products. The price of both the family and student versions of the Office 2007 and Windows XP were lowered even by 60%. In addition, among the consumers who are blacked out, there also exists many people who actually own the genuine Microsoft product Vista. As a matter of fact, with the rapid market penetration of the PC brands from both native and foreign agencies, such as Lenovo, Tsinghua Tonfang, Peking Founder, HP, Dell, Acer, Toshiba, Hewlett-Packard, etc, it is pretty common to for these products' agencies to present a genuine operation system to address the competitive Chinese market. However, when the Vista is pushed by Microsoft to the Chinese market, it becomes a compulsory choice for all users. Many consumers preferring to the Windows turn to the piracy products to cut down the extra expense, but have to endure the blackout per hour.
No comments:
Post a Comment