Part 2 - Reflection on Group discussion
In Online Tutorial 4 you discussed what factors make a person's contributions
important to the development of a new technology and why some personalities
go down in history, while others remain unknown and excluded from history
books.
Describe how the online tutorial discussion helped you to choose the
personality selected for Part 1 of the TMA.
The online tutorial discussion helped me to choose Paul Baran as
my personality for Part 1 of this TMA through discussions about the factors
that make a persons contribution important. Some of the important issues
discussed, and which helped me were:
- The importance of being first to invent a new technology.
Baran was the first to have the idea of a distributed network and invented
packet switching.
- Inventing technology that works better or more efficiently.
Baran did this also, as packet switching is more efficient than circuit switching
and a distributed network is more robust than a centralised network.
- Demand for a new product. A new structure of communicating
was certainly needed in order for computers to communicate and this is what
Baran invented.
So, I concluded that a discussion on Paul Baran’s invention
of the distributed network and packet switching fitted with Part 1 of this
TMA. In my opinion he did make a significant contribution to the development
of the Internet because without the means for computers to communicate there
would be no Internet or World Wide Web.
You should provide copied of two messages from
your online tutor group conference as evidence of your participation in this
discussion. The first should be a message indicating your own views on this
subject (message A). The second should be a response to another group member
about their contribution (message B).
Message A
Hello everyone
If a person’s contribution is for ease of use of an application
this would be an important factor as it will also help sell the product.
Similar to the development of the mouse, which enabled point and click, and
the development of the GUI (Graphical User Interface) enabling mere mortals
like ourselves to interact with computers.
A person’s contribution may be the beginning of an idea that others
can develop and progress, this initial idea being an important required factor.
The idea may not be realised for many years like Paul Baran developing message
switching in the 1960s but not being fully utilised until years later. The
initial idea was not important at the time but it is now, now the technology
is needed and used widely.
I think some personalities go down in history because they have
been marketed very well, Bill Gates being the biggest example. He releases
his operating systems with bugs and errors and we all put up with it rather
than changing to other more reliable operating systems such as Unix and O/S2.
We stick with Microsoft because it seems the most popular.
People may be excluded from history books for their contributions
because they want to be. Or, they may work for a huge corporation, within
a team of developers so their names are not mentioned.
Message B
Hi Dot
You are always first in our conferences, well done.
I like your ideas on the factors that make a person’s contributions
important. I also think that an idea has to be original, something that is
worthwhile and may improve our lives. Certainly if a housework robot can
be developed as Zoe dreams of in a previous message, and I think may even
be in development, I will buy one. Well, when they have been around a while
and the price has gone down a bit.
Yes, I think an idea has to be exploitable as with Bill Gates
selling Windows Operating Systems, they don’t actually work without errors
and we’ve all been exploited into buy it with the intention that it will
make our lives easier. I think we have turned into a culture of users of
Windows Operating Systems. It reminds me of the VHS/Betamax race back in
the 1980s, VHS was marketed better and it won the race, buyers of Betamax
hardly got any films to watch.