Week 12 Questions

Group 8: Virtual Reality 

"A Brief History of Virtual Reality and its Social Applications" 

My initial understanding of a virtual reality is a computer or technology-generated world, where a virtual life or interactions can be created. I rarely interact with virtual realities, if ever.

1) What is the different between virtual environments, artificial reality, and augmented reality?

2) In the article, it says that virtual reality is “an alternate world filled with computer generated images that respond to human movements”, so would the video game Wii be consider a virtual reality?  What qualifies as an alternate world?

3) Does a communication medium need to be present for the digital world to be classified as a virtual reality? Would internal communication within the game itself (so communication with fictitious characters of the game) count as the necessary interaction or communication component? 

Group 6: IT Privacy & Security

“The Transparency Grenade”

1) Why is it necessary for Corporate and Governmental transparency?  If this type of information is made publicly available how will this impact our national security and for businesses how will this affect how they maintain their competitive advantage?  Concerning businesses, why should they have to disclose their private information to the public is they not involved in the decision?

2) Is ‘network insecurity’ necessarily a bad thing just because it impacts our freedom of speech?  There are many things in the real world, not digital world, that also impact the extent to which we express our freedom of speech but I think this type of informal restriction provides many advantages as well.

3) What does it mean when the article states that it is a ‘one-off object’ and how will this original core concept still live on as an app for Android devices by ‘invisibly’ running as a background application?

“Device identification in online banking is privacy threat, expert says”

1) When did companies begin using the 41^st Parameter technology? Has this new technology been useful in preventing fraud?

2) Are there any laws specifying exactly what the companies can and can not do with this data?  Do consumers have the option to opt out of this data collection during log in?

3) If this information is not personally identifiable when it is sold to advertisers how do they use it to market to specific individuals?