Communications and Society Program
Communications and Society Program
Appendix - Glossary of Terms
Glossary of Terms
Aggregator—see Connection Aggregator and Content Aggregator
Application Programming Interface (API)—a source code interface that an operating system, library or service provides to support requests made by computer programs (2)
Bluetooth—a wireless system that allows communications devices to communicate with each other across very short distances
Common Carrier—a telecommunications provider that provides service to the public without discriminating among different consumers or content
Common Short Code (CSC)—see Short Code
Competitive Representation—the competition among representatives in a given area for the time and attention of the citizen-consumer of government services
Connection Aggregator—an organization that facilitates connectivity to the networks of participating wireless service providers so that a message addressed to a common short code (CSC) can be routed from the wireless network to the proper application; typically, the first point of wireless network connectivity for a mobile campaign
Content Aggregator—An organization that combines information such as news and entertainment, sports scores, weather forecasts, photographs and video from a variety of sources and makes the combined content available to its customers
Crowdsourcing—outsourcing a task traditionally performed by a paid individual to a large, undefined group of unpaid individuals, generally through the use of communications technology
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)—an established technology-based process that allows a business to communicate with consumers in order to best understand their evolving needs and wants
Flash Mob—a group of individuals amassed and dispersed with little notice for a specific purpose through mass text messaging
Global Positioning System (GPS)—a system using signals between terrestrial devices and earth-orbiting satellites to track such characteristics as location and speed
Handset—a hand-held mobile communications device, such as a cell phone, that transmits and receives wireless signals
Mobile application—a software program that allows a mobile device to perform a new task
MMS (Multimedia Message Service)—a standard defined by The Open Mobile Alliance for sending and receiving messages with rich content (e.g., video) over mobile telephony networks
Mobi-sodes—a broadcast television episode designed specifically for a small mobile-device screen and short duration
Municipal wireless—a wireless Internet network providing broadband access to an entire geographic community
Network neutrality—a principle requiring Internet providers to act as common carriers, i.e. not discriminate among content or users in regards to the delivery of information
Open Platform—a software system which permits any device or application to connect to and operate on its network
Short code—special telephone numbers, generally of fewer than the traditional seven digits, used to address text messages from mobile devices
Smart phone—a handheld device capable of advanced tasks beyond those of a standard mobile phone
SMS Messaging (Short Message Service)—a system that allows the exchange of short text-based messages between mobile devices
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)—an international technological standard enabling Internet access for mobile devices
Wi-fi, or Wireless Fidelity—a simple system allowing enabled devices to connect to the Internet within short range of any access point without cables or adaptors of any sort
Wiki —software that allows a group of people to collaboratively edit a single website
Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP)—Internet service providers with networks built around wireless networking, typically found in rural communities where cable and digital subscriber lines (DSL) are not available. WISPs have been subject to limitations on range and bandwidth due to equipment quality and line-of-sight issues and are subject to interference from a range of natural and manmade sources.
(2) Definition from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/API, April 24, 2008.
Aspen Institute Roundtable on
Mobile Media and Civic Engagement
December 10-12, 2007 • San Francisco, California
Forum Participants
Jeffrey Abramson
Professor
Department of Political Science
Brandeis University
Jed Alpert
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Mobile Commons, Inc.
Joaquin Alvarado
Director
Institute for Next Generation Internet
San Francisco State University
Ken Banks
Founder
kiwanja.net
Chris Boyer
Assistant Vice President
External Affairs and Regulatory
Emerging Services & Technologies
AT&T
Steven Chen
Chief Technology Officer
and
Co-Founder
YouTube
Barbara Cohn Berman
Vice President
Fund for the City of New York
and
Founding Director
Center on Municipal
Government Performance
William T. (Bill) Coleman
Founder, Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer
Cassatt Corporation
Mary Evslin
Board Chairman
Vermont Telecommunications Authority
Charles M. Firestone
Executive Director
Communications and Society Program
The Aspen Institute
Jon Funabiki
Professor, Department of Journalism
and
Director, Center for Renaissance Journalism
San Francisco State University
Amy K. Garmer
Director of Journalism Projects
Communications and Society Program
The Aspen Institute
Tessie Guillermo
President and Chief Executive Officer
Community Technology Foundation of
California
Evan Hansen
Editor in Chief
Wired Digital
Susanna Hietala
Manager
Community Involvement
Nokia
Ken Ikeda
Executive Director
Bay Area Video Coalition
James Katz
Director
Center for Mobile Communications Studies
and
Chair, Department of Communications
Rutgers, The State University
of New Jersey
J.D. Lasica
Co-founder and Executive Director
Ourmedia.org
David Lee
Executive Director
Chinese American Voter Education
Committee
Deb Levine
Executive Director and Founder
ISIS, Inc.
Derrick Oien
President
InterCasting Corporation
Ben Rigby
Founder and Co-Executive Director
Mobile Voter
Ariel Rosen
Director of Pro Social Initiatives
Virgin Mobile USA
Leslie Rule
Director
Digital Storytelling Initiative
KQED Inc.
and
Co-director
Center for Locative Media
Theda Sandiford
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Theda Dotcom LLC
Jan Schaffer
Executive Director
J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive
Journalism
Mike Sundermeyer
Vice President, Experience Design
Adobe Systems Incorporated
Katrin Verclas
Co-founder and Editor
MobileActive.org
Staff
Kate Aishton
Project Manager
Communications and Society Program
The Aspen Institute
About the Author
J.D. Lasica is an independent strategist, journalist, author and social media pioneer. He is a partner in Bid4Vid.com, a new marketplace for producing professional-looking videos. He is president of the Social Media Group, a firm that offers social media and video consulting services to companies and organizations.
Lasica is co-founder and chief executive of Ourmedia, a free community site and learning center for user-created video and audio. Lasica explores the personal media revolution and the emerging media landscape in his book Darknet: Hollywood's War Against the Digital Generation. He blogs about citizens' media, digital rights and grassroots video at Socialmedia.biz, Darknet.com and RealPeopleNetwork.com. CNET named him one of the top 100 media bloggers in the world.
In a previous life, Lasica was an editor at the Sacramento Bee and served in senior management at several Silicon Valley startups. He has written for the Washington Post, Salon, Legal Affairs and other publications. He lives in the San Francisco area and is a frequent speaker and panelist at new media and technology conferences. He welcomes email, but not spam, at jdlasica at gmail dot com.
Previous Publications of Interest
by the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program
Media and Values: Issues of Content, Community and Intellectual Property
Richard P. Adler, Drew Clark and Kathleen Wallman, rapporteurs. This report examines how the new media paradigm intersects issues of content values, intellectual property and local community. The report frames the debates surrounding such topics as offensive, harmful or missing content; fair use, new business models and international approaches to intellectual property; and local media and the future of democracy. It also offers constructive suggestions for resolving several of the more contentious challenges that have accompanied developments in new media. The report stems from the 2007 Aspen Institute Forum on Communications and Society. (c)2008, 90 pages, ISBN : 0-89843-488-2, $12.00.
The Mobile Generation: Global Transformations at the Cellular Level
J.D. Lasica, rapporteur. This report examines the impact that cellular phones are having on personal behavior cultural norms. It also includes predictions of future trends resulting from the diffusion of mobile technologies, as forecasted by roundtable participants. (c)2007, 66 pages, ISBN: 0-89843-466-1, $12.00.
Next-Generation Media: The Global Shift
Richard P. Adler, rapporteur. This report examines the growth of the Internet and its effect on a rapidly changing area: the impact of new media on politics, business, society, culture, and governments the world over. Specific sections examine user-generated content, social networks 01and marketing to the next generation. The report also sheds light on how traditional media will need to adapt to face the competition of the next-generation media. (c)2007, 76 pages, ISBN: 0-89843-469-6, $12.00.
The Rise of Collective Intelligence: Decentralized Co-Creation of Value as a New Paradigm of Commerce and Culture
David Bollier, rapporteur. This report describes how collective intelligence affects business value creation and passion-based collaborative learning resulting in new user generated business and media models. The Report includes an account of "The Cloud” or utility computing. (c)2007, 64 pages, ISBN: 0-89843-481-5, $12.00.
A Framework for a National Broadband Policy
Philip Weiser, rapporteur. Condensing discussions from the 2007 Conference on Communications Policy and Aspen Institute Roundtable on Spectrum Policy (AIRS) into a single report, Professor Philip Weiser of the University of Colorado at Boulder offers a series of specific and concrete policy recommendations for expanding access, affordability, and adoption of broadband in the United States. (c)2008, 94 pages, ISBN: 0-89843-484- x, $12.00.
About the Communications and Society Program
The Communications and Society Program is an active venue for global leaders and experts from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds to exchange and gain new knowledge and insights on the societal impact of advances in digital technology and network communications. The Program also creates a multidisciplinary space in the communications policymaking world where veteran and emerging decisionmakers can explore new concepts, find personal growth and insight, and develop new networks for the betterment of the policymaking process and society.
The Program’s projects fall into one or more of three categories: communications and media policy, digital technologies and democratic values, and network technology and social change. Ongoing activities of the Communications and Society Program include annual roundtables on journalism and society (e.g., journalism and national security), communications policy in a converged world (e.g., the future of video regulation), the impact of advances in information technology (e.g., “when push comes to pull”), advances in the mailing medium, and diversity and the media. The Program also convenes the Aspen Institute Forum on Communications and Society, in which chief executive-level leaders of business, government, and the nonprofit sector examine issues relating to the changing media and technology environment.
Most conferences use the signature Aspen Institute seminar format: approximately 25 leaders from a variety of disciplines and perspectives engaged in roundtable dialogue, moderated with the objective of driving the agenda to specific conclusions and recommendations.
Conference reports and other materials are distributed to key policymakers and opinion leaders within the
The Program’s Executive Director is Charles M. Firestone, who has served in that capacity since 1989. He also served as Executive Vice President of the Aspen Institute for three years. He is a communications attorney and law professor who formerly was director of the UCLA Communications Law Program, first president of the Los Angeles Board of Telecommunications Commissioners, and an appellate attorney for the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.
About the Center for Renaissance Journalism
San Francisco State University
The Center for Renaissance Journalism conducts research, training and convening to identify and to spark promising journalistic models and practices that serve, strengthen and empower communities. The Center was created by San Francisco State University’s Journalism Department at a time when journalism and the media are experiencing revolutionary change. The Center seeks to ensure that the concerns and interests of community are served as media, technology and business evolve. Discovering new opportunities will require varied approaches, such as working to improve the burgeoning ethnic news media, examining new business models that will sustain community-oriented journalism, forging improved relationships between journalists and community, and empowering community leaders with new tools for storytelling and networking. These explorations will require an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach that connects the media, the community and the academy. The Department of Journalism enjoys a strong reputation for emphasizing the interests of the community in training new journalists, and the San Francisco Bay Area offers a rich and diverse setting for this work. The Center is led by Professor Jon Funabiki, a former international affairs journalist and Deputy Director of the Media, Arts & Culture Unit of the Ford Foundation.
Previous Return to Beginning of Report
