I recently read a article from pcworld.com the headline was “Gangs use Facebook to rob houses” this article talks about how “police in Nashua, New Hampshire, broke up a robbery ring that was using Facebook to plan their heists” the article describes how the gang was using Facebook to monitor people within the community and investigate when they will be out of their homes this wasn’t a difficult task as the facebook users never thought anything of telling people they were “going on holiday” or out on a day trip, not only did the gangs have access to when people would be out of their homes but information like “bought a new car” or “my new 42″ tv is fantastic” meaning the gangs had clear access to the homes but knew what they were going to find when they broke in. The article reads -

“Some 50 home robberies were reported in the city with a population of 85,000 during August alone, although only 18 have been linked to the Facebook gang so far. As a result of breaking up the gang, Police say they’ve recovered $100,000 to $200,000.”

In the month of august alone there was 50 robberies and police connected 18 of them to facebook that is around 40% of one months robberies had a connection with a social network site. This is a very negative point of view when considering the reflection on the social role of technology but I personally feel its one of the most important. I think because people believe its only my friends on facebook it won’t matter people forget how important it is to keep personal information like that to themselves, for instances someone might right a comment saying “I bought that new television you told me about” to a friend and they know they have the privacy on their account so they will be fine, But what about their friend ? Who is their friends ? Facebook and other social network sites is a very long and vicious circle. Just because you think your sharing information or pictures with your trusted friend doesn’t mean you are you could be sharing it with a criminal, a convicted pedophile  has the right to sign up to Facebook and can easily search through peoples photos of their kids and not appear to be doing anything wrong because the person they are looking at on Facebook is of the correct age.

I feel society has adapted to the social role of technology and accepted it too quickly yes there is still generations out there that are very aware that this can be a bad idea and take similar negative views on it as I am but then there is the younger generation that grow up with these sites its part of their everyday routine they find it normal, Facebook as a an example require users to be a minimum age of 13 but a recent ofcom study has shown that not to be a case they discovered that -

An Ofcom study revealed that 54% of 8 to 15 year olds and 1 in 5 10 year olds have a social networking profile on sites such as Facebook, up from 45% in 2009. This equates to the same percentage of adult users. Furthermore a study by Mintel reveals over one million British children under 12 use Facebook daily, with only 5% saying they did not use the site at all. That’s a staggering statistic for a site that requires users to be 13 to sign up

These statistics are staggering considering facebook policy is a minimum age of 13 yet there is over 1,000,000 children aged from 7-12 using Facebook everyday. Who’s responsibility is it to keep them off Facebook is it the duty of Facebook to tighten their signup process or is it down to the parents ensuring that their kids aren’t signed up to websites they shouldn’t be ? If a parent took their child to the park they would be aware of the other people in the park who are looking at their children so why shouldn’t it be the same online, why shouldn’t parents be aware of who is looking at their kids and who their kids are interacting with.

Overall I feel that the social role of technology is a great development in the 21st century but also a very dangerous tool which should be used only by people who understand what they are doing, I think people should be made more aware of the dangers and not just willing to accept that “everyone uses it, it must be safe” I have highlighted two groups in his article but we have to be aware that everyone can fall into the dark side of facebook if they are careful.

References

http://www.pcworld.com/article/205295/gang_uses_facebook_to_rob_houses.html

http://www.neoco.com/news/facebooks-illegitimate-children-why-parents-help-kids-sign-up-to-underage-accounts/

I used imovie a video editing software on a mac pc to edit all clips that I had recorded I originally wanted to place the programme I created for my device onto a clear piece of glass but I thought the best way to show case this programme would be on my Ipad this would clearly illustrate the colours and design of my device but again unfortunately looked too much like a ipad app. If I was to re-do this project I think I would like to place myself outside of my comfort zone and look into creating some technology which doesn’t exist, I can see in myself that I created this project by playing it to safe, I stuck to the technology in which I knew and understood which may cause me to loose marks.

I am overall happy with my final outcome as this was the first time I had used some of the software that I had never used before I hope in the future to become more and more familiar with this kind of software and use it alot more in the future.

We found the staff at the museum to be very helpful and interested in our assignment, throughout the day I received some questions about what we were doing in the museum, I explained to these select few what we were doing and asked their opinion, every customer had the same opinion that “Technology moves so fast” I got the feeling they really thought this was happening but I was also happy with the fact that the current user group visiting the museum could adapt to possible changes that could be made in the future.

Today i discovered how difficult it can be record the “Perfect” shots, I personally went to the museum with the opinion of “I’ve seen everyone do videos on youtube” thinking it would be perfectly easy to do it myself. I soon discovered when I arrived there it is hard to pan the camera without shaking, Or to move it to the correct angle that you wish to use for each shot. I was pleased with the footage that I gathered today but I feel I might have to re-visit the museum.

I have decided to edit a lot of the aesthetics within the device, The colour scheme currently on the device is too pale and needed greatly approved I am currently trying a few different colour schemes I hope to stick with the the greens as it is a prominent colour featured within the museum.

At this stage I am worried that my device will become too much like a standard Ipad application, At this stage it worries me that its to late to change but I have decided to look into other forms of technology such as a lens that can be placed into the eye of each user or a pair of glasses this would allow the user to walk around the museum hands free and interact better with the exhibits my main concern is after our feedback the main issue raised around the older generation using the museum.

We decided to record audio and video footage of our interviews at the museum this allowed us to visualise what the members or the expert team would like add to our device, we then produced a video to show our results to other members of our class and asked for feedback on weather they agreed with the staff at the McManus.

After we gathered all the information we possibly could from demonstrating the paper prototype we then moved on to creating a digital version we used the original computerised version we created and edited it to look more professional with easier to understand text and placed the buttons in the correct positions of where we would like them to go, we then loaded this version onto a online site which allowed us to create a digital prototype that we could load onto a Ipad and use it like a fully developed working app. We also were able to demonstrate this to the focused user group at the museum and gather their feedback they were really pleased with the concept and fully grasped the concept, this allowed them to add their own opinions and feedback about the device.

I also choose to add the additional features of a social community this would allow like minded individuals to sign up to a online community and make friends among the other visitors to the McManus museum, some of the features of this discussed was the ability to comment about exhibits or to suggest similar exhibits of interest. We decided to create our storyboard based on a couple entering the museum they both collect a device and go their separate ways they can communicate and interact with each other throughout their experience and of course other members of the social community. The story board shows a detailed plan of how we would like our device to look.

Throughout my visits to the museum I was very disappointed with the lack of up to date technology, the interactive touch screens around the museum where either not working or didn’t work or where very hard to operate. I found that the interface on the screen was boring and very our of date, and the sound effects which went along with the screens were either too loud and put people off or again weren’t functional.

The next theme which I discovered from my visit was the dramatic changes in the social groups which attend the museum on both of my research visits I discovered it was either a group of elderly people or young adults (Teenagers) I observed them both closely and on both occasions it was similar routine, the elderly group spent their time reading the information about each exhibit but didnt get round the whole museum before they were tired. The teenagers went round the whole museum but had nothing that interested them and spent most of the time on their phones.

The last theme which became apparent on my visit was the unorganised use of space in the museum there is alot of open space but it isn’t used to the maximum effect, There isn’t a clear way finding path throughout the museum and this causes alot of the visitors to choose their own route but miss things they might be interested in and because they haven’t taken a clear path in the first place wouldn’t be worried about going back because they think they have seen the complete museum.

The Brief stated that we have to imagine the year is 2023 and the McManus Galleries, A local Dundee museum has been completely transformed and every surface is a screen, we have been asked to create some sort of device that will enhance the users of the museum and particularly focus on the user group of couples visiting the museum..

It became clear quite quickly that there was a few to many in the class who hadn’t visited  the McManus galleries and didn’t know a awful lot about it. So as a introduction to the project and allow us to get a feel for the museum we went on a class trip to the museum where we teamed up in pairs and observed the museum and the people visiting to gather our own insights on what we feel peoples experiences of the museum really are.

This was a useful trip as it allowed me personally to interact with the museum and lead me to start thinking of ideas and processes I would take create a device to enhance the experience for the future visitors of the McManus Galleries.

We feel our critique went well and we understand the criticism that was given to us our site went live during the week and we have been working behind the scenes on our php and information for our website, this week is going to prove a busy and hectic week as we are having to add all our php to our website and allow it to gather the relevant data from the website.

There will be many busy days ahead but we are very hopeful that we shall have our website completed by monday and shall be ready to give our presentation with a full working website.

(Below : Image of our current website live online)