Article #1
1. What does the author mean by political polarization?

Political polarization, to the author is the idea that the web provides so much information an individual is now capable of finding information on any topic therefore creating more of a divide between all sides of the issue.

2. What are your thought about the statement, "Governments feel they are royalty to some
degree"?

I think there is a certain air of royalty that emits from the government but royalty is established based on blood lines and even though in the government many of the individuals come from blood lines in which have ties to government in the past there is always a chance of a non-blood line individual making it into government. I think the government is charged with a big job of keeping the people protected and in doing so they have to make very difficult positions and are held responsible to know all sides to every issue in order to make the best decision. I think because the everyday people may not be as educated on all topics and issues they are quick to judge the government and it’s decisions.

3. Do you agree/disagree with the statement, "We've literally experienced an information tsunami-but more information does not mean better decisions"? Why?

I completely agree that we have experienced an information tsunami and that it does not mean better decisions. When a person is faced with a choice between black and white they have to choose on or the other but when there is black, white, grey and red how do you know which to choose? The more choices and information given the harder it is to figure out which one is the best.

4. The author states that "the very technology that is meant to solve problems merely makes people more emotional-not more reasonable". Give an example of a real life digital convergence that can be viewed to make people more emotional.

Blogging is a perfect example of people becoming more emotional due to digital convergence. People can start a blog for any reason, for example a former co-worker of mine had triplets three years ago and she started a blog so everyone could follow the progress of the triplets. It turned out one of the triplets was diagnosed with being profoundly deaf and had cochlear implants. Through her blog she was able to express all the feelings she encountered during the journey she has embarked upon and was able to gain support from other people who have children with the same condition as well as others who could not be near to her but could show their support through blogging.

Article #2

1. The Web has been a platform for the creation of a wide and unanticipated variety of services. Name one of the commercial services and how you apply the service to your daily/weekly routine.

I use Google on a daily basis in both my work and home environment. I use it to search for answers to questions I may have or to search for help on applications I am using in the business world that I may be unfamiliar with.

2. What does the author mean by "Semantic Web"? How does this effect the future of convergence?
The Semantic Web is a way to link data from web pages more effectively. This way pages can be linked based on the data they hold not necessarily on key words like how it is today. By linking the data in a more effective way the web will be more able to converge and become a very powerful tool.

3. The future of the web has created substantial privacy challenges which are barely addressed by our current privacy laws. What are your thoughts on new data integration? Is the thought of this legal?

The new data integration will cause more transparency for the individuals who produce and this leads to a big privacy issue. On the other hand it may lead the individuals to be held more accountable for the information which is published by them and in the end making the web a very powerful tool. I do not see any legal issues behind making the web and individuals who post more transparent unless you get into personal information. I know I would not want all my personal information out there for everyone to see so I would like to think that type of information would stay protected, if not then the legality of it would kick in.