Discussion Questions

1. What parallels can you make between the “information explosion” of the fifteenth century and the “information explosion” that is happening today on the web? How have they affected the lives, livelihoods and societies that they touch? Find sources beyond the lecture to support your ideas. Use direct quotes from the lecture and the sources you find to validate your answer. Use MLA style to correctly cite your sources.

2. Name four major typefaces developed during this period (early printing) that are still used today?

My response:

The parallels between the information explosion of the 15th century

and today are too numerous to cover in just a few days. The boom of

information dissemination due to the invention of tools that increased

the volume and speed of information publication is thoroughly covered

across the world wide web. I chose to look a bit deeper at this

subject by researching how specific aspects of the technology affect

us.

For example, a company called Worldreader is using the Amazon Kindle

to improve literacy  in developing areas of Africa. One Kindle holds

thousands of books, uses very little power, and may be used as a tool

to learn how to read the books it holds. The information is updated

via downloads so the investment does not become obsolete a few years.

This effort may close the circle that began in the 15th century.

Just as rural farmers were once years behind the information spread in

the cities so are developing nations today. A little more than six

centuries later and we are finally connecting the few pockets of our

population that have remained unreached by that initial effort:

“Having already put more than 100,000 e-books into the hands of 1,000

students in Africa, Worldreader is committed to further increase

access to digital books in developing nations. Children in the

Worldreader program have access to materials ranging from hundreds of

local African textbooks and story-books, world newspapers, and classic

literature from around the world. For the first time, students in

these areas can read books from African authors like Meshack Asare and

Chika Unigwe, experience the imagination of Roald Dahl and the joy of

the Magic Tree House stories, and learn from local Ghanaian and Kenyan

textbooks. With immediate access to books on health and science

students are discovering how to better diagnose, treat and prevent

diseases in their communities.” (Enhanced online news)

Looking deeper into the aspect that makes this new era of literacy

possible; programers, or coders. [Is this sentence finished?] Similar

to the 15th century in which only a small percentage of the population

knew how to read, today only a small percentage of our population

knows how to code the programs we use every day. Having access to

books if even to just look at pictures drove the culture to literacy.

Information design in programing is doing something similar with us. I

recently downloaded a GIF maker form the AppStore on my Mac. I still

have no idea how to use it but I am confident that I will figure it

out when I make the effort. I have a blog, read blogs and have started

to wonder when exactly I missed the boat in learning how to make these

cute short animated clips I see all over the place. Is everyone a

hobby coder and I missed the memo? No, but programers are making it

easier for us to take baby steps toward gaining these skills. Mayor

Bloomberg pledged to learn how to code in 2012 and some people think

the idea of everyone learning to code is as useless as everyone

learning to become a plumber (Coding Horror) but I disagree.

My belief is more in line with those who feel it has just as much a

place in our education as sports, foreign language and the arts, “it

gives you a new way to understand our world, software permeates almost

every corner. Some people might go on to become professional

programmers, while others will only scratch the surface. But surely

everyone should have the opportunity to exercise their mind with

programming in the way they currently can with foreign languages,

mathematics, art and music.” (should everyone learn to code?)

How is our new information explosion affecting our lives on a whole? I

believe positively. I know there are opinions that assert the Internet

is diminishing our inter and intra personal relationships because we

increasingly connect electronically instead of face to face. I feel

this concern is shortsighted and baseless. The Internet has broadened

our reach and helped keep new and existing bonds fresh. We are more

likely to attend an event hosted by someone that we communicate with

on Facebook, text or Twitter several times a month than we are with

someone with which we have rare face to face encounters. So we are in

touch more but what about the concern that the quality of what we say

is diminished with “text speak”. “Is this explosion of prose good, on

a technical level? Yes. Lunsford’s team found that the students were

remarkably adept at what rhetoricians call kairos—assessing their

audience and adapting their tone and technique to best get their point

across. The modern world of online writing, particularly in chat and

on discussion threads, is conversational and public, which makes it

closer to the Greek tradition of argument than the asynchronous letter

and essay writing of 50 years ago.” (Clive Thompson)

Part two

During this weeks book and lecture reading I noticed three of the

four fonts created in the 15th century that I chose to reference

loaded in my font book. Only one did I have to seek out and download

so I could use as an example in this assignment, Cicilite. Bodoni is a

version of the original named “Bodoni SvtyTwo ITCTT” and is the font I

used for this assignment. Didot is my personal favorite in the serif

typeface style. I have used Didot in works meant to give off  the

impression of classic beauty, timeless and trustworthy.

Didot

Baskerville

Civilite

Bodon

 Sources cited:

Enhanced online news, Worldreader, 24, 2012 07:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Web June 22, 2012

Should everyone learn to code, soft talk blog, May 28, 2012, web June 23, 2012

Cive Thompson on the new literacy, Wired magazine, August 24, 2009 web June 23, 2012

Jeff Atwood, Please don’t learn to code, Programming and Human factors, May 15, 2012, web June 23, 2012. 

Font Yukle, Web June 22, 2012

My Professors comment:

Interesting, Tiffany! I particularly like your points about computer language literacy. It is valid to consider that if we all knew computer languages, the way information was spread would certainly be different. Well done. Good thoughts, writing, and citation.

Dr. C

(Source: tiffanyneumann.com)