Media Technologies Summary

Media Technologies

E-Mail: E-mail, short for electronic mail, is an advanced means of transmitting data, text files, digital photo files, and audio and video files from one computer to another over the Internet. It gained its popularity in 1990 and has become a major means of both business and personal communication. Most e-mail programs have programs which enable you to compose the message you wish to send to one or more recipients.

E-mails can be simple directives from an individual to subordinates, or they can be informative means of sharing information with multiple individuals. An e-mail can be circulated in-house within a corporate office, or it can be circulated to many offices worldwide.

Because of the ability to attach various types of documents to an initial e-mail, businesses can share information with the recipients, thereby saving on postage costs as well as other types of expenses like paper, toner, et cetera. Using e-mails is rapidly becoming a popular form of “greening” the corporate world with the conservation of the printed page.

E-mails also have extreme popularity outside of the corporate world application. Families are able to share pictures with loved ones in an instant, bringing their extended family up to the minute with the latest happenings.
When I first began scoping for court reporters, I was lucky enough to land a client in Michigan, even though I lived in Illinois. We were able to share documents through the use of e-mail, and I was able to edit her transcripts, thereby saving her an enormous amount of time outside of the courtroom.

Online (Web) Conferences.

With the launch of web conferencing, businesses were able to usher in a new type of communication productivity. Web conferencing offers features such as the ability to exchange documents, the ability to view PowerPoint presentations, the ability to share data, and even the ability to take real-time polls, among others. Even before the conception of the Internet, the idea of web conferencing had been conceived at the University of Illinois when the University of Illinois created a small, self-contained system that supported a single classroom of terminals known as PLATO (http://www.thehistoryof.net/ history-of-web-conferencing.html). Following the introduction of PLATO came Talkomatic, an instant messaging tool, developed by Doug Brown (http://www.thehistoryof.net/history-of-web-conferencing.html). Ray Ozzie and Tim Halvorsen designed Lotus Notes which was released in 1989. Lotus Notes offered document sharing and remote communication, creating a “relation-based” environment and its use exploded in the corporate world (http://www.thehistoryof.net/history-of-web-conferencing.html).

The decade of the 1990s ushered in various types of software, including PlaceWare, which was developed by Xerox. This program offered full web conferencing features. Another type of software introduced was Groupware, which was a more complex program than PLATO. It offered document sharing as well as scheduling capabilities (http://www.thehistoryof.net/history-of-web-conferencing.html).
Technologies in use today include voice over IP (VoIP) that offers quality digital audio sound. This rather inexpensive means of communicating offers businesses means by which savings from unnecessary travel is realized. Finally, with the introduction of WaveThree’s “Session,” the longstanding incompatibility between Macs and PCs was resolved, thereby resulting in more open communication between businesses which previously had not been able to take advantage of web conferencing (http://www.thehistoryof.net/history-of-web-conferencing.html) if they had varied computer systems.

Teleconferencing

American Telephone and Telegraph, better known as AT&T, started the revolution of teleconferencing in the 1960s with its Picturephone device (http://www.accuconference.com/blog/ TheHistoryOfTeleconferencing.aspx). During the time of its introduction, business travel was a lot less expensive than it is now, and executives failed to see the potential benefits of the Picturephone. Now, though, after millions and millions of dollars spent both in finessing the features of the Picturephone and in travel costs, many companies worldwide have come to use teleconferencing as a means of communication.

The three basic types of teleconferencing devices include: 1) audio, or verbal, communication using the telephone; 2) videoconferencing, using telephones for both voice and video feed, operating through the use of a computer; and 3) computer conferencing which allows printed media conferencing via a computer terminal (http://www.accuconference.com/blog/ TheHistoryOfTeleconferencing.aspx).
Participants in teleconferencing can be as near as the next office and as far as various offices spread around the globe. Meeting with teleconferencing in a virtual office space allows for the exchange of ideas anytime the participants wish. Benefits to teleconferencing include reduction in business-related travel expenses, the ability of individuals unable to attend the teleconference to have a transcript of the session, and the ability to schedule a meeting in a relatively short period of time.

On a more personal note, I am particularly fond of Skype as it enables me to communicate with my son (who is in the Navy and currently stationed in Virginia) and talk with him over the computer. Not only are we able to talk through the use of VOIP (voice over Internet protocol), but we are also able to see each other “face to face.” It’s amazing technology that I would have appreciated when my husband and I were stationed overseas 25 years ago.

Cell Phones/Smart Phones

Motorola unveiled what was considered to be the first truly portable cellular phone in 1983. It was known as the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (http://www.topbits.com/history-of-cell-phones.html). Motorola spent over 100 million dollars in research and countless years developing the technology before unveiling this particular phone. At the time it was considered to be lightweight, a whopping 28 ounces, and measured 13 inches x 1.75 inches x 3.5 inches (http://www.topbits.com/history-of-cell-phones.html).

Second Generation Cellular Phones

Cellular phones introduced during the early 1990s are considered to be second generation (2G) phones. These particular phones used digital circuit switched transmissions which enabled faster network signaling, lowered the number of dropped calls, and also increased the quality of the calls placed (http://www.topbits.com/history-of-cell-phones.html). These phones were smaller in size than first generation phones, ranging in weight from 3.5 ounces to 7.0 ounces. Battery technology was much improved, and computer technology was more advanced, thereby leading to an increase in cell phone usage.

Third General Cellular Phones

Most cellular phones in use today are referred to as 3G, or third generation, phones. Very recently Sprint introduced what has been billed as the iPhone breaker, a 4G phone known as the HTC EVO. The 3G phones have advanced technology and offer a variety of services such as SMS text messaging, e-mail access, Internet access—even innovations as advanced as streaming radio and TV http://www.topbits.com/history-of-cell-phones.html.

With each generation of cell phone, the technology has advanced giving individuals greater capacity and usable features in their phones. It is commonplace today for many people to have completely replaced their land line home phones with a cellular unit. Our household still holds on to the landline, mostly out of a sense of safety, knowing that in the event of a natural emergency (let’s just say we were once without power for 6 days), we are still likely to be able to utilize our home phone because we did not need to worry about the phone losing its battery charge.