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The Protect IP/SOPA Bill Threatens the Entire Internet, Video Explains the Flaws in This Hurried Legislation

Tell Congress not to censor the internet NOW! – fightforthefuture.org/pipa

Source: fightforthefuture.org

Looking For Love: Drexel Researchers Put Online Dating to the Test

Today, one-in-five Americans finds his or her spouse via online dating websites, but according to Drexel researchers, marriage isn’t the only measure of success among people looking for love in cyberspace.

Rachel Magee and Christopher Mascaro, both second-year Ph.D students in The iSchool at Drexel, College of Information Science and Technology, and their advisor Dr. Sean P. Goggins, completed a study that takes a closer look at the success stories of online daters. Their results point toward a more accurate interpretation of why people decide to use online dating technology, why they choose a specific site and what they consider a successful online dating experience.

“We each had used online dating sites, and were both fascinated with how and why people use these services,” Magee said “We started to look at the research out there, and realized that what was missing was research into what constitutes successful online dating experiences. This is an extremely important part of most people’s lives, and we wanted to look at the big picture.”

The Drexel study, entitled “Not Just a Wink and a Smile: An Analysis of User-Defined Success in Online Dating,” examined data gathered during a two-week sample period in the spring of 2011 from success stories listed on the dating sites Match.com, eHarmony and OkCupid. The researchers looked at a random sampling of 20 percent of the success stories from each site.

Their findings concluded that a vast majority, 84 percent, of users who reported “successful” experiences on eHarmony where referring to marriage. By contrast, 46.7 percent of the reported success stories from Match.com were marriage stories and only 23 percent of the success stories on OkCupid were about marriage.

“What we found in our research confirmed some of our experiences and anecdotal evidence, that certain dating sites fostered certain cultures and the range of success stories indicated as much,” Mascaro said. “Our findings also indicate that even with the proliferation of technologically and mediated social networking sites, real world social networks still play a significant role in technological adoption and mate selection.”

Each of the sites broke down their results into three categories of success: dating, engaged and married. An analysis of the data revealed that most users who had a successful experience on OkCupid, considered dating to be successful with slightly fewer stories of engagement and the fewest stories in the category of marriage.
The frequency of stories for both eHarmony and Match.com increased in each category from dating to marriage.

The researchers also examined geographic distribution of the people who logged on to write about their online dating success stories. Success stories followed population trends across the country. The region with the most respondents was the South Atlantic, while California boasted the most success stories as a state and Houston, Chicago and New York, respectively, were the top cities in generating online dating stories. The stories and locations of successful online daters indicate that in-person social networks may influence why individuals select online dating sites.

“Geography might not play a big role in dating site selection, but the people you know, especially if they are successful at online dating, might influence site adoption,” Magee said. “This has implications for the design of online dating sites, and for people using these sites or interested in participating in online dating. There are so many sites out there, and many different success stories.”

Via Newswise

Released: 1/5/2012

Source: Drexel University

Related Link:

http://www.newswise.com/articles/looking-for-love-drexel-researchers-put-online-dating-to-the-test

Looking Ahead to the New Year…..Top Tech of 2012

Newswise — Retinal Prostheses: Implantable chips will apply a grid of photosensors to the optic nerve, giving blind people a form of vision.

LED Lighting: Super-efficient, affordable bulbs based on the Philips L Prize winner and other designs will replace incandescents and, in many cases, compact fluorescent lamps.

Windows 8: Microsoft has so far been sidelined by the industry-wide move to mobile platforms, such as smart phones and tablets. This new operating system is the Redmond, Wash., company’s last, best hope to turn things around.

Chinese Supercomputers: For the first time China is building world-class supercomputers based on home-grown processor chips, and experts say this could be the beginning of that country’s push into the highest-tech regions of high tech.

3-D Printing: This idea, which began as a tool for designers and evolved into a toy for hobbyists, is now maturing into a new, one-off kind of fabrication, one that will find its way into routine manufacturing as well as the production of spare parts.

Plug-ins Proliferate: This will be the year in which plug-in gas-electric hybrid cars go from curiosity to mainstay, as the number of manufacturers offering models rises and the market for their wares matures.

EV Charging Stations: A fast-charging infrastructure, partly based on super-powerful direct current, will begin to service pure-electric vehicles, thus allaying drivers’ “range anxiety.”

3-D Chips: A long-anticipated foray into the third dimension will turn flat chips into thick cubes, increasing the density of elements in integrated circuits in an entirely new way and thus giving Moore’s Law a new lease on life.

Extreme UV Lithography: This is the year of decision for an expensive chip-fabrication technology that uses hard-to-handle extreme ultraviolet light to draw finer-than-ever features on silicon chips. Whether EUV lithography succeeds or fails, the result will be of critical importance to the industry.

Private Spacecraft: Millionaires are doing what government cannot–they are creating companies that will take people and cargo into space at a fraction of the cost of NASA launches.

Exoskeletons for Paraplegics: People who have suffered from spinal-cord injuries will for the first time strap themselves into robotic exoskeletons. Initially, these machines will help rehabilitate patients; later, the exoskeletons will take them where their own legs cannot.

4G Networks: Smart phones and other mobile platforms will carry real-time video and do other network duties with a zip never before seen, thanks to this new and very capacious wireless standard.

Grid-level Batteries: As the electric power distribution system–the grid–comes to depend on variable sources of energy, such as the wind and the sun, it will increasingly smooth out the power by using enormous battery stations.

Another Earth: New telescopes and instrumentation will guide astronomers to hundreds of planets orbiting foreign stars and will reveal candidate planets of a size, composition, and temperature suitable for life as we know it.

Released: 12/22/2011

Source: IEEE Spectrum Magazine

Related Link:

http://newswise.com/articles/top-tech-of-2012

Marketing Trends in 2012: Traditional Expensive Advertising No Longer Effective, Says Expert

Newswise — Traditional product advertising — full-page magazine ads and 30-second television commercials — may be going the way of the rotary phone. Emerging concepts such as crowdsourcing, viral Internet campaigns, product placements and guerilla promotions will dominate the marketing and advertising landscape in 2012 and beyond, says a marketing expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

“Traditional expensive advertising is no longer effective given all the clutter, as well as the emergence of technologies, like digital video recorders, that block the ads from even being viewed, much less absorbed, by consumers,” says Seethu Seetharaman, PhD, the W. Patrick McGinnis Professor of Marketing at Olin Business School.

Seetharaman says the success of “ingeniously crafted” inexpensive viral ad campaigns, such as BlendTec’s “Will it Blend?” YouTube campaign for its blenders, indicates that such non-traditional, low-cost/high-impact promotional campaigns will be on the rise moving forward.

Product placements, though they’ve been around a long time, will continue to gain popularity as well in place of more traditional advertising, he says.

“The movie Transformers 3 created a record, even by Hollywood standards, in terms of the number of brands that were ‘product placed’ within the movie,” Seetharaman says. “This will catch on in the future, although the concept of product placements goes back to the times of the Marx Brothers.”

The reason for its reemergence, he says, is that there are very few opportunities these days to get consumers in a “captive” mode of having no choice but to take in the brand being advertised.

“One of those few opportunities is being stuck in a dark auditorium, consuming entertainment, having no choice of whitening out a brand on screen, or using a DVR to fast-forward,” Seetharaman says. “In fact, product placements are also on the rise in sitcoms, video games and other media for the same reason.

“In fact,” he says, “pre-movie advertising interspersed between movie trailers will increase as well.”

Social media will play a critical role in product development, as well as advertising.

“I think crowdsourcing is only going to increase,” Seetharaman says.

Crowdsourcing refers to the open innovation model, pioneered by sites like Threadless.com, where customers design and vote on new product designs.

This allows them to take active charge of the new product development process, rather than reacting to product concepts developed by firms, he says.

“This product development model has already moved to information markets like the Huffington Post, and is now moving to high-ticket products such as furniture and cars, albeit for limited target markets for now,” Seetharaman says.

Given the popularity of campaigns such as the T-Mobile Flash Mob, one is more likely to see non-traditional “grassroots” campaigns get more noticed than traditional billboard advertising in city streets.

“With the explosion of smartphones, these grassroots campaigns are swiftly recorded by people and then posted on YouTube in short order, which then makes these guerilla campaigns go viral in a big way,” Seetharaman says. “This ‘guerrilla promotion’ style of advertising will blossom in 2012 and beyond.”

Released: 12/21/2011

Source: Washington University in St. Louis

Related Link:

http://www.newswise.com/articles/marketing-trends-in-2012-traditional-expensive-advertising-no-longer-effective-says-wustl-expert

Experts Offer 15 Predictions for 2012

Newswise — For the 31st consecutive year, The University of Alabama Office of Media Relations offers predictions from faculty experts for the coming year. So, what’s ahead for 2012? Look for President Barack Obama to face, and defeat, a surprise Republican nominee, online doomsday groups to spike, the Occupy Movement to re-emerge, fuel prices to remain unstable and much more.

Expanded versions of each of these guesses is available atwww.uanews.ua.edu

Obama to Battle, Beat Late-Entry Republican

President Obama is likely to win re-election in 2012, but his Republican opponent will not be one of the current candidates battling one another in the early primaries, a University of Alabama political scientist predicts. “I think there are a lot of Republicans who are not going be satisfied with the best of who’s out there now,” says Dr. Richard C. Fording, chair of the UA political science department. “They don’t have a candidate who can beat Obama,” he says. Although a new candidate – for example, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, businessman Donald Trump or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — might be behind in organization and fund-raising, she or he would avoid the scathing political battles under way in the debates and in the Iowa caucuses.

Cuba May be State’s Next Big Customer

The Alabama business community needs to practice its Spanish, and that suggestion has nothing to do with the state’s controversial immigration law. Dr. Jase Ramsey, an assistant professor of marketing at The University of Alabama, predicts the United States will continue to ease trade sanctions on Cuba and, as early as this time next year, some U.S. businesses will visit the island nation on state-sponsored trade missions to size up market potential. “Alabama’s proximity to the Communist country makes our businesses especially attractive for potential foreign direct investment into Cuba,” Ramsey says. “A key component that will determine who gets access to Cuba is prior relationships with the Castro regime and with Cuban politicians.

Online Doomsday Groups to Spike

Warnings about apocalyptic cataclysms in 2012 potentially will serve as a catalyst for Internet hysteria, a University of Alabama psychology professor predicts. According to some scholars, the ancient Mayan calendar predicts that the world will end in 2012. Figures in popular culture and the Internet are taking this prediction seriously. The result could be panic on the level of the Y2K scare of 1999, says Dr. Rosanna Guadagno, assistant professor of psychology. “We’re going to see a lot of doomsday groups grow online,” says Guadagno, an Internet scholar. “If one of them gets big enough, we’ll see hysteria spreading over the Internet. Then we’ll see the kind of crazy things some people were doing on New Year’s Eve in 1999.”

New App to Displace Craigslist, Professor Predicts

Application software, also known as an application or an “app,” seems ubiquitous these days. The computer software is designed to help users perform specific tasks. You can play games, learn guitar, set up a workout program, shop and a jillion other things. Dr. Craig E. Armstrong, assistant professor of management at The University of Alabama, says he expects someone to create, within the next year, an “app” that performs “Craigslist” functions for the exchange of goods and services. Need to find someone to paint your house? Check the app. Want to earn some extra money by applying a skill you have? Check the app. The app platform will displace Craigslist because it will enable transactions with less traction and allow buyers and sellers to create reputations, Armstrong says.

Social Media to Serve as New Opinion Polls

One of the biggest changes from the 2008 presidential election to the 2012 election is the increase in social media outlets and usage. Dr. Kristen Heflin, assistant professor of advertising and public relations in The University of Alabama’s College of Communication and Information Sciences, says she expects the public to have more access to candidates than ever before – and that access will include the good, the bad and the ugly. “Social media will continue to serve as an echo chamber for candidate gaffes, as we’ve already seen …” Heflin says. “Social media will be mined for information on public opinion. Social media buzz will serve as the new opinion polls. News organizations will base their stories off of social media buzz.”

Has the ‘Occupy’ Movement Faded? Don’t Bet on It

As Occupy encampments around the country seem to be fading as we move into a new year, some analysts and media personalities are criticizing the movement for lack of focus and mission, and they are voicing the inevitable predictions of doom and failure for the movement. But, not so fast, my friend, says Dr. Gary Hoover, a UA economics professor. He says the movement only appears to have gone dormant in places like New York and Oakland where demonstrators were forced by police to leave their staging grounds. “ … I predict that we have not heard the last of the Occupy Movement. In fact, I think they will be heard again and re-emerge on the political and economic landscape more determined and forceful than ever.”

Female Running Mate May Determine Election

Whereas many eyes were on presidential candidates in the final days of 2011, one University of Alabama professor believes the vice presidential race is the one to watch. Dr. Janis Edwards, associate professor of communication studies, says the VP slot may actually determine the outcome of the 2012 presidential election. “On the Republican side, none of the current candidates is likely to beat Obama, despite his perceived weakness,” Edwards says. “Romney is not popular, nor a good campaigner. Gingrich will produce buyer’s remorse. Therefore, the partner on the ticket could be very meaningful for Republican momentum, especially if there is great appeal to women voters.” Edwards says there is an outside chance that current vice president Joe Biden could assume the role of secretary of state, opening up the vice presidential spot on the Democrat side.

Stressful 2011 Could Make for a Depressed 2012

2011 has been a turbulent one for the people of Alabama, and a professor in The University of Alabama Capstone College of Nursing thinks many people will feel the effects mentally during 2012. “I predict an increase in the number of patients seeking care for a new-onset of depression, anxiety and mental health conditions,” says Dr. Amy Bigham, assistant professor of nursing. Traumatic events can cause anxiety, stress and depression later, once the initial shock wears down. “The year 2011 was stressful for many Alabamians due to changes in the economy, increases in job losses and natural disasters,” says Bigham.

Year of Natural Disaster to Bring Changes in 2012

The United States was particularly hard hit with a string of natural disasters in the past year: unprecedented summer heat and drought in the Southwest, deadly tornadoes, a massive blizzard in the Northeast, major river floods in the Midwest, an earthquake on the East Coast followed by a hurricane that caused massive flooding. So we can expect municipalities around the nation to look for ways to mitigate losses caused by natural disasters. “The U.S. can no longer afford to ignore the management of catastrophic losses at the state and federal levels,” said Dr. William Rabel, professor of finance and head of the insurance program at The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce. “They will have to identify and evaluate exposures and then select the optimum tools for controlling and financing losses. “Every state and the federal government will need a chief risk officer.”

One of Least Productive Years in Congressional History Ahead

The 2012 congressional elections will see Republicans hold onto the U.S. House of Representatives and Democrats hold onto the Senate, a University of Alabama political scientist predicts. But, new faces may emerge as Republican and Democratic candidates challenge incumbents in primaries. “This will be a status-quo election for Congress in terms of the partisan breakdown,” says Dr. Stephen Borrelli, professor of political science. Borrelli also predicts continued stalemate in Congress as the presidential election approaches, particularly if unemployment continues to fall. “You’re going to see one of the least productive years in the history of Congress,” Borrelli says. “It will be all they can do to keep the government running …”

Tablets, Other Mobile Devices to Become More Evident in Hospitals

iPads aren’t just on little Bobby and Susie’s list – medical workers also have an iPad or other tablet device at the top of their holiday gift-wish list. Dr. Heather D. Carter-Templeton, in The University of Alabama Capstone College of Nursing, says there will be a surge in the use of tablets and mobile devices in the hospital and community health clinical settings in 2012. “Recent studies have found rapid growth in the use of mobile technology among health-care professionals, such as physicians and nurses,” she says. “They’re small, easily portable and can carry a tremendous amount of evidence-based information accessible at the point-of-care.” However, the industry must adjust, she says. “The type of work, the physical space of the nursing unit and who will be using the devices needs to be considered when planning for the use of mobile technology within the clinical setting.”

Middle East Unrest, Sputtering Economies to Keep Fuel Prices Unstable

Fuel prices will remain unstable in 2012 as pressure from all sides influence the cost of crude oil, according to a University of Alabama engineering professor who follows the petroleum markets. A decrease in demand the last month or so of 2011 slightly reversed jumps in gasoline prices in the United States, but there is too much political uncertainty ahead to believe that should continue, says Dr. Peter Clark, professor of chemical engineering. If anything, demand in the U.S. should increase with the slow-recovering economy and the annual price spike from the summer thirst for fuel. “Volatility in the oil market translates to volatility in gasoline prices,” Clark says. Continued unrest in the Middle East and instability among European economies, combined with a recovering economy at home, could mean higher prices at the fuel pump in 2012, he says.

Health Care Will Continue to be a Pain in the Head

If you think the health-care reform debate has been intense and confusing so far, take two aspirins and try to follow it through 2012. “I think that in 2012, Americans will begin to seriously debate the entire health-care question,” says Dr. William Rabel, professor of finance and head of the insurance program at the Culverhouse College of Commerce. “Not just how it is financed, but how it is created and delivered as well. Whether Obamacare is upheld by the Supreme Court or not, it is only a transitional phase as we grope our way to a health-care system that will have substantial differences from the one we know today,” Rabel says.

Occupy Protesters Unlikely to See Increase in Court Victories

Recent events surrounding the Occupy Wall Street movement have led to questions regarding the First Amendment rights of citizens. Dr. Matthew D. Bunker, Reese Phifer Professor of Journalism, says protesters could expect mixed results in litigation. “Public places such as parks and streets have traditionally been considered public forums for the expression of ideas, but the government retains the ability to impose reasonable restrictions based on the time, place or manner of the speech,” Bunker says. “That means that courts will often side with local officials who try to regulate tents and 24-hour campsites for reasons of public health and safety.” For media members covering the events, Bunker says results were likely to be similar but that the courts might see an increase in individual actions for false arrest or excessive force.

Low Interest Rates Ain’t Gonna Last

So, if interest rates are at record low levels, it’s pretty safe to predict that they are going to increase, right? “Right,” says Dr. Benton Gup, professor of finance at The University of Alabama, “but let’s not make the same mistakes that led to the failure and consolidation of thousands of financial institutions in the 1980s. Simply stated, when market rates of interest were low in the 1970s, lenders borrowed short-term funds at low rates and made long-term fixed rate mortgage loans at slightly higher rates.” Gup says the important point is that mortgage lenders should not make long-term fixed rate loans unless they can hedge their interest rate risk or match the maturity of their assets and liabilities. So, look for interest rates to go up but in a more constrained lending environment.

Released: 12/20/2011

Source: University of Alabama

Related Link:

http://newswise.com/articles/experts-offer-15-predictions-for-2012

New Website Lets Us Examine Our Automatic or Unconscious Associations About Mental Illness

Newswise — Nearly half of all people in the United States will experience a mental illness at some point during their lives, yet talking about mental illness remains taboo for many. A new website, Project Implicit Mental Health, allows visitors to examine and gain insight into their associations about mental health topics that may exist outside their conscious awareness or conscious control.

Visitors can discover their automatic associations relating to anxiety, depression, alcohol, eating disorders and persons with mental illness, using tasks such as the Implicit Association Test. The website is a collaboration among researchers at the University of Virginia, Harvard University and University of Washington.

The website provides users with opportunities to try one or more measures of automatic associations relevant to mental health. The site then gives feedback on what each measure reveals. The site is free, has no advertising, and each measure can be completed in less than 10 minutes. The measures do not diagnose a mental health difficulty and the site does not offer therapy, but does offer links to many resources for seeking mental health help. Project psychologists use data from the tests, which does not identify participants, for research into mental illness associations.

Automatic associations are evaluations that occur rapidly and are very difficult to consciously control. These associations can differ from our slower, more intentional evaluations either because we do not have access to the automatic associations in memory, so cannot consciously reflect on them, or because we may not be comfortable sharing these associations, which can sometimes feel embarrassing or socially unacceptable.

Substantial research evidence already links change in automatic associations to how much somebody will improve in treatment for anxiety disorders, and automatic associations can even help identify individuals at risk for alcohol problems and suicidal behavior.

Researchers use the Implicit Association Test to assess mental associations that may be different than what people know or say about themselves. Research suggests that people sometimes have implicit belief systems that contradict their declared beliefs. These implicit beliefs can affect actions, such as how they view people with mental illnesses, including themselves.

“People may not always be able to tell us about their mental health difficulties, either because they lack insight into the problem or do not feel comfortable reporting such sensitive information,” said Bethany Teachman, principal investigator of the Project Implicit Mental Health site and an associate professor of psychology in U.Va.’s College of Arts & Sciences. “With this site we may improve our ability to identify and help people who are suffering by including automatic measures of mental illness to complement what people are willing and able to report.”

The site uses the latest psychological science to raise awareness about the role of automatic associations in mental health issues. Many forms of mental illness are characterized by ways of responding that seem to happen very rapidly and can feel uncontrollable. Thus, learning about automatic associations (which capture fast and relatively uncontrollable ways of processing information) may help researchers better understand why mental illnesses develop, what maintains them, and how to best reduce the suffering associated with mental illness.

“We want to share some of the new tools that the science of clinical psychology has to offer, and we are hopeful that this website will help raise awareness about, and reduce, the stigma associated with mental illness and its treatment,” said Matthew Nock, a co-director of Project Implicit Mental Health and professor of psychology at Harvard University. “Learning about one’s own automatic associations may help reduce the tendency for people to hold negative attitudes toward mentally ill individuals – such as exaggerated beliefs that mentally ill people are dangerous or untreatable.”

Project Implicit Mental Health is the newest site for Project Implicit, an international collaboration of researchers investigating thoughts and feelings that occur outside of awareness or control. Visitors to the Project Implicit websites have now completed more than 13 million tests of automatic associations since it was launched in 1998.

“Mental health is the cutting edge for research with automatic measures,” said Brian Nosek, director of Project Implicit and a U.Va. associate professor of psychology. “Many mental health challenges occur despite the person’s intentions and efforts to think, feel or behave otherwise. Automatic measures offer an opportunity to investigate how unintended thought processes contribute to dysfunctional behavior.”

Released: 12/14/2011

Source: University of Virginia

Related Link:

http://newswise.com/articles/website-lets-us-examine-our-automatic-or-unconscious-associations-about-mental-illness

New Study Finds Online Chat Boosts Lying and Email Has the Most Lies

Newswise — AMHERST, Mass. – A new study by University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers finds that communication using computers for instant messaging and e-mail increases lying compared to face-to-face conversations, and that e-mail messages are most likely to contain lies. The findings, by Robert S. Feldman, professor of psychology and dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Mattityahu Zimbler, a graduate student, are published in the October issue of the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.

The research paper, titled “Liar, Liar, Hard Drive on Fire: How Media Context Affects Lying Behavior,” looked at 110 same-sex pairs of college students who engaged in 15 minute conversations either face-to-face, using e-mail, or using instant messaging. The results were then analyzed for inaccuracies.

What Feldman and Zimbler found was that while there is some degree of deception present in all three forms of communication, it was increased in both instant messaging and e-mail, with e-mail messages the most likely to contain lies. Underlying this was the concept of deindividualization, where as people grow psychologically and physically further from the person they are in communication with, there is a higher likelihood of lying, they say.

In addition to the distance one person is from the other, e-mail communication has the added component of being asynchronous, not as connected in real time as instant messaging or face-to-face conversation. Feldman and Zimbler conclude, “It seems likely that the asynchronicity of e-mail makes the users feel even more disconnected from the respondent in that a reply to their queries is not expected immediately, but rather is delayed until some future point in time.”

“Ultimately, the findings show how easy it is to lie when online, and that we are more likely to be the recipient of deceptive statements in online communication than when interacting with others face-to-face,” says Feldman.

“In exploring the practical implications of this research, the results indicate that the Internet allows people to feel more free, psychologically speaking, to use deception, at least when meeting new people,” Feldman and Zimbler say. “Given the public attention to incidents of Internet predation, this research suggests that the deindividualization created by communicating from behind a computer screen may facilitate the process of portraying a disingenuous self.”

Feldman, who has been the dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at UMass Amherst since 2009, is an expert on lying and author of the book “The Liar in Your Life,” published in 2009.

He is a frequent commentator in the media on issues related to lying. Feldman joined the faculty of the UMass Amherst psychology department in 1977 after teaching for three years at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has been a visiting professor at Mount Holyoke College and Wesleyan University and was a Fulbright lecturer and research scholar at Ewha University in Seoul, South Korea in 1977.

Released: 11/15/2011 1:00 PM EST
Source: University of Massachusetts Amherst

Related Link:

http://www.newswise.com/articles/online-chat-boosts-lying-and-e-mail-has-the-most-lies

Wireless Demand Soon Outstripping Capacity

Newswise — A new report from the Global Information Industry Center at the University of California, San Diego examines the projected disconnect between U.S. wireless infrastructure capacity and consumer demand. According to “Point of View: Wireless Point of Disconnect,” wireless use is growing rapidly and if present trends continue, demand will often outstrip capacity, causing congestion.

“We’re currently experiencing a mass migration from wired networks to wireless networks, which under the best of circumstances have far less capacity,” said Michael Kleeman, author of the report and senior fellow at UC San Diego. Wireless is much more convenient than wired connections for many purposes, but “we must understand and accept the trade-offs we will face for the convenience of accessing limited wireless capacity. Alternatively, as citizens we need to dramatically lower our expectations for wireless services in the future.”

Wireless data capacity is inherently different than fiber optic cables, which affects its performance. Among other differences, wireless is allocated a small portion of the available spectrum, and its signals are susceptible to interference from numerous sources, including weather and buildings. According to the report, even with advanced wireless technology, the capacity available to all network users in a given cell can be less than 1/000th the capacity of a fiber optic thread. Wireless demand is also mobile and hard to predict, and when it exceeds capacity the result is dropped connections and slow downloads.

The How Much Information? 2009 American Consumer Report found that in 2008, Americans consumed 3.6 zettabytes of data including nearly five hours of TV viewing per average day. This is more than 3.5 pettabytes per day, which exceeds the wireless data network’s entire 2010 throughput. Increasing use of mobile video will be a major source of growing demand for wireless capacity.

The 2011 “Wireless Point of Disconnect” report highlights three strategies for addressing this disconnect, all of which have drawbacks and tradeoffs. First, a key limiting factor is spectrum, and increasing and optimizing available spectrum are effective ways to increase network capacity. A combination of public and private strategies to optimize spectrum use should be employed and encouraged. However, many of the public solutions will take as much as a decade to implement. Second, carriers will increasingly need to manage traffic and develop triage and prioritization protocols, potentially including pricing-based mechanisms with real-time customer feedback to help manage network load. Third, the industry can invest in more infrastructure, including cell towers and “backhaul” cables. This will require community support.

“There is a lot of discussion about supply-demand issues for broadband Internet, but soon the same questions will be considerably more acute for wireless,” said Roger Bohn, director of the Global Information Industry Center at UC San Diego. “This report shows why future wireless systems will require adjustments, of one kind or another.”

The report is in the Center’s “Point of View” series, which are occasional overviews by noted experts. They address topical issues in technology, business, and public policy.

The report “Point of View: Wireless Point of Disconnect” is available online and can be downloaded in PDF format at http://giic.ucsd.edu/wireless_disconnect_2011_10_26.php

Released: 10/26/2011

Source: University of California, San Diego

Related Link:

http://www.newswise.com/articles/wireless-demand-soon-outstriping-capacity

Move Over Youngsters, Grandma’s on Facebook!

Newswise — BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Funny sounding words like Google and Twitter were foreign to 82 year-old Peggy Batcheler. The retired nurse had never been on the Internet, didn’t know how to get there and she didn’t have the foggiest notion that “going online” might be a remedy for growing isolation.

For years, she had been able to move along through life without the World Wide Web just fine. That is, until her fashion catalogs and church bulletin went solely online. Then, she was left in the dark.

University of Alabama at Birmingham sociology Professor Shelia Cotten, Ph.D., and a team of graduate students have turned on the light for Batcheler and her 80- and 90-year-old peers. They are introducing them to the Internet and its connections on Facebook, Google and Twitter to study the effect on quality of life.

After a few weeks in class, Batcheler is surfing the web like a teenager, and the results have been stunning. The elderly users are happier, Cotten says, because they’ve reconnected with their lost social circles, feeling good about learning something new and, in some cases, recapturing their old hobbies.

Funded by a five-year grant from the National Institute on Aging, Cotten’s team has been hosting eight-week computer-training courses for residents in independent and assisted-living facilities since 2009 in five locations; they plan to extend into 10 more.

Seniors who move into these homes often become depressed because they lose regular contact with their established social networks, Cotten says. But, communicating via email and social networking sites appears to be a good remedy. In findings to be published in Computers in Human Behavior, Cotten says Internet use reduces depression by 20 to 28 percent among older, retired adults.

Going online allows them to correspond with family and friends more often, see pictures of grandkids and watch videos of family vacations.

“They no longer feel that life is passing them by and that they are left there to die,” Cotten says.

Less than 20 percent of the study participants had used computers beforehand, Cotten says. But after a couple of weeks in class, they surf the Internet just like their grandkids.

On a recent Monday at Fair Haven Retirement Home in Birmingham, smiling white-haired seniors — some wearing oxygen masks, bifocals and hand braces — sat in front of large computer monitors with keyboards that have oversized keys and huge, bright yellow mice they jokingly called “rats.”

“We teach them everything — from turning on the computer to moving a mouse,” Cotten says. “You have to start with the basics and not take for granted that they know anything about computers, although some do have computer experience.”

In the first week of class, the students sit away from the computer, leery to even touch it, she says.

“They think they are going to break the computer.”

Then, after about a week, the seniors become at ease and lean into the computer monitors handling the keyboard and mice with finesse, she says.

They often go to Google StreetView to check out their old neighborhood or childhood home, surf over to YouTube and watch clips from old classic movies and spy on Facebook to see what their grandkids are doing.

“Every day is an adventure,” says 80-year-old Helen Frye, who had never been on the Internet before but now emails her grandkids in New York.

Older adults are one of the fastest-growing demographic groups online, research shows, for three reasons: their children and grandchildren are pulling them online to engage; an increase in courses offered for seniors; and the ease of use of technology.

Batcheler and classmates googled a burning question and found the response in .09 seconds, she says.

“Someone wanted to know if, when you get up in the middle of the night, you could heat up your milk in the waxed carton?”

The answer?

“No,” Batcheler said. “It’s best to put it in a microwave-safe container.”

Released: 10/27/2011

Source: University of Alabama at Birmingham

Via Newswise

Related Link:

http://newswise.com/articles/move-over-youngsters-grandma-s-on-facebook