Review

 I reviewed a Wiki page "The History And Impact Of YouTube" written by Tashi Kamlaldin Rwalshrangpa, Sanan Mammadli, Adeyimika Agboola Adetunji, Alejandro Ballesteros Perez and Louis Alvin.

The overall impression of this article was positive. The article is imposing, and done with  passion and devotion. The topic is tempting as most of us use YouTube on a daily basis and many of us would like to know its history and what impact it leaves on us. This topic will be actual until something happens to YouTube or a new video sharing platform will become popular. Sections of the article are separating different momentous topics concerning YouTube. Each section and each paragraph tells about inalienable part of YouTube history and present state, describing everything substantial about the platform. Those sections are also well structured and can be easily found. The viewing angle of the article is correct from the neutral reviewer position, nevertheless the article remains attractive and appealing. Each chapter combines thoroughness with more generalized view and makes reading process fast and easy to understand. This article has enough sources and referencing to other websites is done quite often. The structure, formatting and language follow the Wikipedia style. Additional quotes and images enrich article with more detail. However I would expect to see more images in the article.

Week 15. Ethical theory exmaple in IT

 

 

Virtue Ethics has a broad spectrum of characteristics and has roots dating back to ancient Greece. But its main concepts are based on acting like a virtuous person would do. That is doing intellectual and moral virtues that other human beings need to make humanity happy and prosperous. This ethical theory is widely used in IT, especially when it comes to the world's dominant web platform named World Wide Web. By using this platform people can access different resources through a web browser and gain knowledge. The mission of the World Wide Web founders was to empower humanity by giving n unlimited access to information about everything to everyone. Those ideas are the same as virtue ethics proposes, because it also stands to achieve human flourishing, and knowledge through different virtue actions. It assumes that the more moral or intellectual virtue will be done the more happiness, well-being, moral and practical wisdom it will bring to people. Those qualities make WWW a good example of virtue ethics theory usage in IT.
However, not only the web platform that is important to achieve virtual ethics. The resources on WWW and their availability to society play a crucial role. Many different websites, forums and social networks give free access to information and its exchange. People's lives have been significantly improved by free information resources like web encyclopedias, and websites about health, sports, or hobbies. People can share knowledge and improve their skills through forums, and Q&A sites. People can entertain themselves with videos and posts on social media. In my opinion, WWW and its availability of resources is one of the best examples of virtue ethics theory in IT

 

Sources:

https://www.w3.org/Consortium/mission 

https://www.w3.org/2005/02/15-w3c-short.pdf

 

 

Week 14. If a person has control over any function, it can also be used to control the computer

 If a person has control over any function, it can also be used to control the computer

 Computer is made for human to interact with it, but some people cannot interact with computers as regular people do. That may be caused due to their visual, physical or mobility impairments. However they still manage to work on computer, thanks to a wide variety of input devices made in alternative ergonomic way. That is where the rule appears: if a person has control over any function, it can also be used to control the computer. It means that if a person has the ability to consciously control any part of his body that means it can be used for interaction with the computer, thus gaining control of the computer.

The best real-life example of that is Stephen Hawking. Because of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) , that he faced in the young age he was not able to move most parts of his body, what limited him from living a normal life and talking. He was also unable to move his hands good enough so he could not interact with trivial computer keyboard. In 1986 Stephen Hawking got his first speech synthesizer computer, however it was not based on keyboard or mouse as Hawking's hands were not able to move. He had control only over his finders, so the input of this computer was made through switches operated by small movements of his fingers. Later his condition worsened, but he was lucky to meet Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel, who helped him and built a customized computer with Intel micro-processor. In addition to that a assistive technology of input was required to compensate for mobility and speech difficulties. It was achieved by his only moving thumb that served as a switch and a blink-switch that was attached to his glasses to control his computer. When he blinked an infra-red switch was activated and he was able to scan and select characters on the screen. That allowed him to interact thus gain full control of computer. He was able to compose speeches, surf the Internet, send e-mail and "speak" through a voice synthesizer. 

To conclude I can say that with the developed technology humans can make custom input devices for many cases of human inability whether it is visual, physical or mobility impairment. However a rule of controlling the computer cannot be avoided. A person must be able to control some of his functions to be able to control the computer. It can be clearly seen in Stephen Hawking's case, as his computer and wheelchair were not controlled by "magic", but by the parts of his body that he still was able to control.