Final Reflections

Wow! What a semester! Experimental class. Digital literacy labs. Missionary fireside. Epic final showcase. This has been one of the most fun classes I have ever taken. It has also been one of the most time intensive classes. Here are some things I learned.

• Blogging consistently is HARD!
• Maintaining a blog gives you more credibility
• The Value of knowledge is multiplied when it is shared 
• Knowledge is like networks, it is only as valuable as the number of people it connects
• Digital technology is a tool to facilitate human interactions more easily
• You can learn a lot from books, but it's sometimes better to find an expert and learn from them

These are only a few of the things that I have learned. I would like to post a few of my 'new year's resolutions.' Or ways I will continue to use the things I have learned.

• Continue a blog, at least one about my next adventure (teaching english in china) and another about venture capital and start-ups
• Continue to connect with experts to learn more 
• Connect others. I have helped at least one person get an interview and I want to do more
• Continue to stay up to date on technology with my own digital literacy labs

Throughout this semester we have learned a lot about history, technology and human interaction. Sometimes it is easy to get enamored with any one of those, but when you can manage all three of them effectively that is when you can create value and help people. We learned a lot about tools but I realized that the tools only facilitate human interaction, they don't compensate for poor content. This class has actually made me want to live a more exciting life. Mark Twain has a quote that goes something like this,

"If you don't have anything to write about in your journal, then change your life"

This class has had a tremendous impact on my academic career, technological knowledge, business prospects and social life, and it will continue to do so long into the future. Just remember the 3 c's Consume Create Connect. See you Soon!

Blog recommendations

This week's topic is about recommended blogs.

Consume-
First recommended blog is Eric Collyer's. First, he uses Wordpress, which I think has a nice format (I am tempted to switch from blogger for the backgrounds alone) and second he is an interesting person that has unique insights. The blog I recommend of his is a book review about a book he read concerning Einstein and Picasso. Eric does a great job of outlining enough of the book that I get a solid feel for what it is about, yet leaves enough to the imagination that it piqued my interest to learn more.

Connect-
I think Ariel does a great job of sharing how to be involved in web 2.0. She probably didn't have that as her intent when she wrote this blog but I think this blog perfectly illustrates the 'wisdom of the crowds' and web 2.0. She is in her linguistics class, finds a resource that is useful for getting ideas for papers and she shares it with her classmates. Boom, instant value created. She didn't have to read a manual about how to be involved in web 2.0 or anything else. She just added value to her friend's lives and that is really what is at the heart of successful bloggers and web 2.0

Digital Latter-day Saints - SUCCESS!

Well, last Sunday was a success. The missionaries decided to make a last minute change and came in person to the fireside instead of skyping in. It was fun though because the audience got to interact with them more comfortably.

There were four people that sang a musical number, and a girl shared her experiences sharing the gospel with her friends and making a mormon.org profile. If the missionaries gave the most inspiring message of the night, she gave the most motivating portion because it showed that what we were talking about was possible.

James Wilcox added his experiences of translating a Prezi presentation that the missionaries use into another language.

We ended by showing a slide show of all the websites that the church maintains.

It was a great and uplifting experience. The next event we have planned is the final showcase. December 9, 7-9pm in the JKB.

Come check it out!!

Web 2.0 - Advergaming

Web 2.0 as we become for comfortable with the internet we are discovering more ways to use it in innovative ways. One of the ways that I found interesting is Advergaming.

When the internet was new, advertisers and marketers applied old marketing tactics to the new internet medium. If they wanted to advertise a certain product or service they would have a standard picture with text advertisement. They even called these, ‘banner ads’, like the billboards and banners they were modeled after.

The problem was, banner ads fell woefully short of the potential of the internet. The beauty of the internet is that it doesn’t have to be static. It can be interactive. A natural defense of humans is to notice quick motions as compared to static images or subtle changes. Marketers discovered they could capitalize on this natural instinct if they made a moving advertisement. They noticed the advertisements that had motion were much more effective at catching people’s attention.

This idea has gradually been developed until entire games have been produced with the sole purpose of advertising a product and boosting brand or product awareness.

Digital Latter-day Saints- This Sunday

We skyped again with Elder Spencer and confirmed our outline for the fireside this Sunday. A few of our team members were not able to make it but it was nice to be on the same page with the elders about what they will talk about.

We asked them to talk about 4 topics

1. Their story and how they came to serve in the Referral Center Mission
2. Tools they use to teach others about the gospel of Jesus Christ
3. A success story of someone they have taught
4. Commitment to the audience to get involved with missionary work


We noticed that although our fireside had a good program, we were lacking a historical element for the final project. Kurt with his quick thinking and Andrew with his mad computer skills decided to build a website that outlined how our ancestors heard about the gospel and how people can hear about the gospel today.

It used to be that the only chance people had to hear the gospel was if missionaries showed up at their door. Now, there is a multitude of resources that people learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

So for our final project, we are going to report a media portion about the fireside and a historical portion about the accessibility of the gospel.

Come on Sunday and learn more!

Digital Latter-day Saints update

BYU 61st ward is going to sponsor our digital missionary fireside! The event is this Sunday November 21 from 7:00 pm - 9:00pm.

We recently skyped with LDS missionaries Elder Spencer and Elder Ahlstrom at the Referral Center Mission in Provo, Utah. We learned about their teaching techniques and how they use the internet to teach people about the gospel of Jesus Christ and His restored church on earth. 

Passwords, Future Shock and Bookclubs

I recently learned in my Digital Civilization class how poor most passwords are. I was amazed to learn that my professor had hundreds of passwords. He creates a new password for every site that requires password authentication. He does it through a password program that creates and remembers his passwords. So I decided to experiment.

Blog role model. Blogmodel?

In my Digital Civilization class we were asked to review an offer suggestions of another classmates blog. I reviewed hsmaggie's blog here. We reviewed our findings in class and discussed blogging best practices. One of the major suggestions was to have a standard theme to your blog. If a blog becomes too diverse it tries to become everything to everyone and losses quality content. If you have a lot to say it is best to have multiple blogs.

This lead me to look for a blog role model. I mentioned connecting with this blogger early in the semester. He never mentions his name on his blog so I assume he doesn't want people to know it so I won't share it here. His blog is great because it is all about his experiences with investment banking. His successes and failures. Lessons he has learned and advice he would like to pass on. It has been a great resource for me in learning about investment banking and now, how to blog correctly. His blog has a consistent theme and is always full of relevant, useful content. He is my role model of how to make a great blog. I want to start a similar blog but instead of investment banking I would write about Venture Capital. The link is here.

America on the move - AUTOMOBILES!

Henry Ford

Henry Ford himself called it a car for the great multitude. It was functional, and simple, like your sewing machine, or your cast-iron stove. You could learn to drive it in less than a day. And you could get any color you wanted, so long as it was black. When Ford first conceived the Model-T, it took thirteen hours to assemble. Within five years he was turning out a vehicle every ninety seconds.
                                                                                       -Seabiscuit (2003)

HSMaggie -Blogger extraordinaire

Wow. What a blog. I just reviewed hsmaggie's blog. It was amazing. We are supposed to review another student's blog in class and offer suggestions. I really can't say anything negative about her blog, it was great. The only suggestions I would have that could improve are things that I have heard but haven't implemented myself. Having occasional top ten lists, for blogs is supposed to be a good format because people like to see rankings and it also gives them a knowledge of how long a post is going to be.

Reflections II

This class has been very different. I have tremendously enjoyed some aspects and have been stretched in others. I love history and really enjoy the historical concepts we cover in class, although I have already covered many of the topics in previous classes. I also enjoy learning more about computer technology and how we arrived at where we are today and the possibilities the future hold. The difficult part has been consistently keeping a blog.


1. Historical Content; 2. Computing Concepts and Digital Culture; and 3. Self-Directed Learning.

The Mormon Way of Doing Business - Connect

This is book is a great read about the Latter-day Saint (LDS) presence in corporate America. I even had the opportunity to meet one of the people mentioned in the book, Rod Hawes, at the National Advisory Committee gathering at BYU last week.

Jeff Benedict, the author of The Mormon Way of Doing Business followed around and interviewed eight prominent LDS members to find out what they have in common and how being LDS affects their business lives.

Fusion vs Fission

What is the difference? Atomic bombs and H-bombs? Are they the same thing?

There are two options available when it comes to nuclear reactions, Fusion and Fission. Fusion is what takes place on the sun and has therefore been around as long as the sun. Fission was developed first in America under the name Manhattan Project during world war II. Scientists were able to divide elements with large nuclei into two elements with smaller elements.

Atomic Age

If you would like a quick glimpse into what the cold war was like watch the movie, Thirteen Days. It is about the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cold War and John F. Kennedy. The movie follows the literal thirteen days where America and the Soviet Union almost went to nuclear war.

Crowdsource = Samasource

Logo from samasource.org

I learned about Samasource through a friend that actually did a documentary on/for the company. Dusty Hulet, djembe extraordinaire, monster run enthusiast, social entrepreneur aficionado and budding documentary producer, teamed up with the Peery Institute and traveled to Calcutta India to film a 5 minute promotional video about Samasource here.

Bazari - Connect

Logo from Bazarimobile.com

Economies are constantly changing. From mercantilism to Adam Smith then John Maynard Keynes and Milton Freidman, we try to construct models to predict what drives an economy. What is the next iteration of the Economy going to be? Will it be a text economy?  There are some cell phone service providers in developing countries, (ie Africa, Central and South America) that are becoming banks to their customers in addition to a wireless service company.

Final Project - Digital Latter-day Saints

Have you ever googled yourself? If someone were to google your name and they had to base a judgment of who you are based only on what they find, would it be accurate? If you would have googled Rhett Ferrin two years ago, you would have seen a news paper article that mentioned me for wrestling in high school and a facebook profile. If you google me today, you will find a LinkedIn account with my previous work history and interests.

Economics...

Mercantilism (1400's - 1700's): A nation's wealth is how much gold it can accumulate for it's monarch. Positive balance of trade (imports > exports). Governments role is protectionist, encouraging exports and discouraging imports, this is enforced by the use of subsidies and tariffs. 

Turning Over a New Leaf...

New Goal: Blog Every Day!

Ever get behind in school? Well I do sometimes too. This blog post is me making a public commitment to do better. I would also like to outline a few things that I would call my 'keys to success'. It might sound weird to have a blog start by committing not to get any more behind in school, then continue with keys to success. You're probably thinking, 'If this guy is trying to dig himself out of a hole, why is he offering advice on how to succeed?"

Let me explain. First, this list is mostly for me to organize my thoughts in one place. Second, this is a list of how to be successful. When I follow them, I am successful. It's when I stop following them is when I get behind. So here we go, Rhett's Top Five List of how to be successful.

1. Go to bed early. This has been the single most important success factor for me at school. If I am drowsy in class my retention goes to almost zero. This doesn't mean sleep 8 hours it means go to bed before midnight. For some reason the amount of sleep you get before midnight is much higher quality. So if you want have a great day, start the night before. 
2. Wake up early. It is a weird thing but sometimes I can get more done in the six hours from 6:00 am - 12:00 am than I can during the rest of the day.
3. Use a planner. Franklin, freshman planner, palm pilot, google calendar, ical, iphone, whatever it is, use it! If I don't write something down it doesn't get done. I usually forget or schedule conflicting events. The best time to do this is the first week of the semester when you first get your syllabi for all your classes. Write down every assignment and major event.
4.  Prioritize and make goals. Now that you have all of your tasks for the day in your planner. Take ten minutes at the beginning of each day and write a number next to all the events assigning them relative importance. One through however many things you have to do for the day.
5. Read the Scriptures. There is power in reading the scriptures and showing God that you need his help and want to follow the will he has for you. When I read the scriptures, I find that my time is magnified and I am able to get all or at least most of what I wanted to get done for the day completed. 

I am going to use the skills to meet my new goal; blog at least one blog everyday for the rest of the semester.

The Count of Monte Cristo part 3

This is the final and last segment of the Monte Cristo series. Our last task before our mini-book club was disbanded was to present our findings in a way that would be interesting for others. None of us in the group are particularly tech savvy but this digital civilization class has really given us a lot of fun opportunities to stretch ourselves and use the incredible new tools that are available to us in the 21st century. Since you can't get much more 21st century than YouTube, that's where we decided to focus our efforts. 

The Count of Monte Cristo part 2

The Count of Monte Cristo is so COOL! Last class we broke up into mini-book clubs and chose a book to read. We chose the Count of Monte Cristo and this is my experience. My first step was to get a general overview of the book, so the first stop was Sparknotes.com

The Count of Monte Cristo part 1

For my digital civilization class we were assigned mini book clubs. In my 'mini book club' were First Lieutenant Andrew DeWitt and Kurt Witt (very distant relation and an interesting story, ask them about it sometime). Our task was to find a book from the romantic time period. Read it, and present our findings to others using a new media. Neither Andrew nor Kurt had seen the Count of Monte Cristo. I think it is such an exciting story that I wanted them to read the book to enjoy it too. I was actually a little jealous because they were going to experience Edmond Dantes' betrayal for the first time.

Cycles in Art

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. 

                                                                         - George Santayana

If history is doomed to repeat itself, and if art is a reflection of history then it stands to reason that art repeats itself. Some people don't like history because they say they aren't good at remembering dates. Or, they say they don't like to read hundreds of pages of complicated language about people that lived centuries ago. I suggest taking a short cut and experiencing the "picture book" approach to history. For me ancient art can be summarized into three time periods, Archaic, Classical and  Hellenistic. Then later in history those periods closely mirror the Medieval, Renaissance and Romantic period.

Grooveshark :)

If you want to listen to music online, use Grooveshark.

I would like to share with you my nearly half a decade long quest to find the perfect music source.  It has been a long a winding road for me to get to Grooveshark.

The reason I bring this up is because we discussed peer-to-peer sharing today in class.   Dr. Zappala used Napster as an example of the evolution of peer-to-peer sharing. Napster still had a central server but facilitated platform where people could easily connect with one another and share music back and forth.

The Crystal Palace

I was recently talking with my friend, David Diehl about my digital civilization class. In class we began discussing the industrial revolution. As part of the revolution we quickly discussed The Great Exhibition in England.

The Great Exhibition is a great symbol of the industrial revolution. Even the building the exhibition was housed in is a symbol/ product of the revolution. Because I like architecture I wanted to learn more about the building, which was nicknamed, The Crystal Palace.

Digital Civilization = More Employable

My Digital Civilization class is paying off more that I could have imagined and with immediate benefits. As a student I am on the look out for jobs that I can do while in school and hopefully after I graduate. I was speaking with a classmate in another class recently and he mentioned that Boostability, where he works is looking to fill some positions. I asked him what he does and he told me about Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Reflections...

Reflections on a Digital Civilizations Class.

A digital civilization class is one of the rare times when university education happens to collide with real life.  I stated in an earlier post that I have always wanted a class to help me keep up with advancing technology instead of ancient history. I mentioned how the internet and 'technology' today is just as crucial as the printing press was during the renaissance. And if you don't keep up, you'll just be left in the stone age. So here are a few of my thoughts as I look back over the first part of the semester and review my progress.

Free capitalism vs $0.00 capitalism

Can business models that give successfully give away their products only apply to software? The discussion in Digital Civilizations today was about Adam Smith and economics. The main question asked was, "Was Adam Smith right or wrong?" I haven't made a conclusion yet if he was right or wrong but I have found some evidence to suggest that businesses can create a profit at extremely low prices.

RSS Revisited

I had a lab with Andrew DeWitt and Kurt Witt from my Digital Civilizations class, and he taught me about RSS feeds. Quick definition RSS can stand for Real Simple Syndicate. It is a program that automatically updates information from a website on the internet. I started using Google reader on my mac when I began this class, but I wanted to take RSS feeds to the next level... on my phone!

Twitter = Mind reader?

This is a quick post. I was contemplating Twitter as I walked between classes on a busy campus sidewalk. As I was walking through the 'herd' of students walking between class I thought, "this is like twitter" (After thinking this through, its more like twitter is like real life but that is a side note) My mind is usually focused on where I am headed between classes and what I need to do or needed to do for my next class. But today I took some time to listen.

Open source animals?

Continuing the discussion from class about open source, both in programming and government.

The comment I wanted to make in class but didn't want to detract too much from the material is this, "If open source is the answer to everything, can it save the whales?"

St. Peter’s Basilica as a symbol of the counter reformation

I took an art history class in highschool, and after highschool for a senior trip went to Europe to see all the things that I had learned about. Because we have been talking about the Protestant reformation in my digital civilization class I decided to talk about the St. Peter’s Basilica as a symbol of the counter-reformation.

St. Peter’s Basilica’s architecture can be broken down into three contributions by three architects; Michelangelo, Moderno, and Bernini.

Skype to the rescue!

For our digital civilization class we had the assignment to explore new digital tools, then share what we learned with other members of our group. Brian shared with us what he learned about Skype.

Brian already had a skype account and decided to set his mom up with an account as well. Brian didn’t describe his mom as particularly computer savvy but he said that she was able to pick up quickly the concept of Skype and was able to intuitively use its interface. 

Exactness, Order and Meticulous Detail

 “In the art movement as every medium evolved, Printers sort of got left in the dust”

Lithography Press

                                                                                                     -Heidi

The Three Crowns

I was just introduced to Francesco Petrarch in my Digital Civilization class. Petrarch is attributed as being the "Father of Humanism,"  but he wasn't alone. That is what I found so intriguing when I dug deeper to learn more about Petrarch. Petrarch ) was one of a group of three influential men that are given the name, "The Three Crowns" in Italy. One you will probably recognize, Dante Alighieri,

What does it take to discover a New World?

The topic of class discussion today was discovering New Worlds. The men of the Renaissance discovered Classical Greek literature. Copernicus and Galileo discovered that it is the Earth that rotates around the Sun and not the other way around. Before they succeeded however, Copernicus and Galileo had to oppose the accepted Catholic position that Ptolemy was correct.

This concept of defying convention in order to discover something new reminded me of a book I read last year. The title was Longitude:The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time. (Amazon $3.51) The setting is during the mid 1700's, and the English Parliament has offered a  prize to whoever can solve the longitude problem. At the time, sailors knew how to find how far north or south they were relative to the equator by using a sextant, but they didn't know their position east or west. The favorite to win the prize was the Royal Society, where all of Britain's brightest gathered to discuss new topics. The current opinion was that the secret could be found in increasingly complicated Star Maps.

Enter John Harrison, a self-educated clockmaker by trade. John Harrison designed a clock (which he named a Chronometer) that could keep remarkably consistent time. Sailors would set the time for their home port (Greenwich, England). Then while they were on they ocean they would determine what time it was at their position, compare that to the time in Greenwich and be able to identify their location.

John Harriso had to defy the accepted source of authority and prove that knowledge is not dependent upon social class or economic status. We don't need to own a boat or a space ship to discover new worlds. Sometimes we can discover new worlds by discovering something that makes us change the fundamental way in which we view the world.

What do the Protestant Reformation and the Blogosphere have in common?

Have you ever noticed how the internet and the blogosphere closely resemble the Protestant Reformation? The  Protestants were breaking away from the Catholic Church, the established source of authority of the time and creating their own churches. The internet is similar because now, anyone can publish whatever they want with only themselves as a reference of credibility.

I am in a Digital Civilization class this semester and am so excited to see how the class unfolds. It is like a semester long analogy of the similarities of the Reformation and Blogosphere. I have often thought that the internet and to some extent, the ability to understand/program computers is the current equivalent of the printing press during the middle ages. One of the complaints I have about a university education is that they don't have very many current event classes. If you want to learn about ancient graffiti in France, there are TONS of classes and some even required.  But if you want to know how twitter works or how to find communities of information on the internet, you are out of luck.

Thank goodness for this class. It is team taught by two professors. One is a History professor that specializes in the renaissance, he covers the historical setting, literature movements and the general feel of the time period. The second is a Computer Science professor, he covers the evolution of computers and the development of our digital civilization.

I haven't been able to post until now and I really wanted to record my thoughts from the first day of class.

I'm going to be a little late...