Week Five - Lecture Summary

So this week we were focused on the idea of Media (or Social Media if you are so inclined) and this idea of identity. It all starts from this new generation of the web (web 2.0) and with this new revolution comes a new way to socialise and it was available to everybody not just the technology awear. An interesting point stuck out for me and it was the idea of social networking site, I mean we all use them.


I sometime feel the whole social networking revolution has gotten a little out of hand, I mean I have friends who spend about 4 hours or more a day on Facebook or Twitter. To be honest I dont really care to know if you've just gone to the toilet or have just been to the dentist. But as a very wise lecturer pointed out, this mundane content is why the internet is better than ever. These sites have made the internet so accessible that even your average Joe can broadcast his latest bowel movement.

But there are certain issues that surround these sites, particularly Facebook and Myspace. When setting up a Facebook or Myspace page you agree to a T.O.S (Terms of Service). This usually goes unnoticed due to the pure excitement of finally making a Facebook page. But what it means is that they can use your photos, text, videos, basically everything you put on your page, they can use it and they don't owe you a thing. (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/terms.php?ref=pf) I guess it's just something to think about.

Another great thing about the new generation of internet users is something called the Attention Economy. Who wants you to look at what? I took this to mean ad space on the internet. Marketing love the internet, its a quick direct way to access their consumers. And thanks to a little thing call a cookie they can track what you look at and when and then can advertize according to this information. It's not a widely used method but one big corporation was caught doing it. Sony was recently discovered to be using Cookies, this is what they had to say:
"Cookies help Sony understand which parts of its websites are the most popular, where Sony visitors are going, and how much time they spend there." (http://www.sony.co.uk/pages/privacy/Privacy_statement_en_GB.html#When-Sony-discloses-Personal-Data)

So yes the internet has allowed us to sociallise in ways that weren't even imaginable 30 years ago. So my advice? Use it wisely.

Week Five - Tutorial Task

The internet, the doorway to another world, literally. You'd have to be living under a technological rock to not have heard of MSN or any other IM programs but I wouldn't blame you if you hadn't heard of some of these online 3D worlds. World of War Craft, IMVU, Habbo Hotel or Second Life, just to name a few. Basically the idea is a chatroom where you can make your own character, or 'avatar' and interact with other characters. It's like a real person, only not. Personally they are not my forte` but I realize that some people prefer to socialise through an animated elf named 'Burog'.

So what is my point? Well an interesting idea struck me yesterday during the lecture. Is it possible that the different interactive programs (ie. MSN, IMVU, Google Chat) change the way in which we socialise via the net? I mean besides the obvious differences like the absence of supernatural creatures in your MSN conversations. Through MSN, Google Chat, Facebook Chat, Skype or AOL your probably speaking to someone you know and have met in real life and you are speaking to them without the aid of elborate characterizations and fantastical worlds.

Someone once said to me that the whole thrill of the internet is that you can be anyone, anywhere at anytime. And yes this can take a sinister turn but most of the time it is innocent online fun. 3D worlds like Active Worlds (http://www.activeworlds.com/) is giving not only stimulating conversation but also the visual stimulation of colourful characters, it encourages embelleshment of character and living status, in fact I would say if you wanted factually based interaction go somewhere else. And that's the difference between the two. This is how the qualitative differences between the sites alter the way in which we interact over the internet. Sites and programs like Livejournal, MSN, Skype etc. encourage true interaction, it is dialogue based (rather than visual) and would typically be used between people who know each other already. Whereas virtual online worlds like Habbo Hotel(http://www.habbohotel.com.au/), Active Worlds are visually based and I would say really aimed at people who have never met face to face. But that's part of the thrill.

Week Four - Scavenger Hunt

ok So we have this crazy task to find the answers to these questions:

1. What did Alan Turing wear while riding his bicycle around Bletchley Park?
2. On what date did two computers first communicate with each other? Where were they?
3. What is Bill Gates’ birthday and what age was he when he sold his first software?
4. Where was the World Wide Web invented?
5. How does the power of the computer you are working on now compare with the power of a personal computer from 30 years ago?
6. What is the weight of the largest parsnip ever grown?
7. When did Queensland become a state and why is the Tweed River in New South Wales?
8. What was the weather like in south-east Queensland on 17 November 1954?
9. Why is is Lord Byron still remembered in Venice?
10. What band did Sirhan Chapman play in and what is his real name?

Easy? Well we have to find the answers WITHOUT the use of Google or Wikipedia.

Answers:

1. Alan Turing wore a gas mask while bike riding in the park to avoid Hay Fever.
(http://www.blueyonder.co.uk/)
2.
3. 28th of October 1955 (http://www.who2.com/billgates.html) He started the business in 1975 (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/default.aspx?tab=biography)
4. The world wide web was invented in Switzerland in 1990 (http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/history/inventedwebwhere.html)
5.
6.The heaviest Parsnip on record is 8 pounds 6 ounces (http://newsdurhamregion.com/article/114524)
7.June 61859 is considered to be Queensland offical birthday (http://www.qld.gov.au/about-queensland/history/)
8.
9.Lord Byron is still remembered in Venice perhaps because of his numerous affairs with married aristocrates(http://englishhistory.net/byron/chronology.html)
10. Sirhan Chapman played in a band by the name of the "Black Assassins". (http://web.revolutionrock.com.au/oral-hist/index.php?id=36)

Week Four - Lecture Sum Up

I realize that there are different means of communication via the internet but what was brought to my attention was just how much information is broadcasted via the big screen. Even sublties like the camera angle convey information to the audience.

I did some research into the multi-million dollar industry. An idustry that can make and break dreams, an industry which we all have taken part whether it be ilegally downloading movies (God forbid), going to the movies and paying outrageous amounts to sit in an uncomfortable chair, buying dvd's, renting dvd's (via itunes or the old fashioned video store).

I wonder how much harm we are doing by watching, uploading and downloading films online. The internet is a great way to get a name for yourself hey ask the Awesometown Boys (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo39df-9588). Now on Saturday Night Live. People think that by downloading movies means the end of the industry. I think this is well I won't say. The cinema business will always flourish, its not an entertainment think it's a social thing. People like to go out to the movies, heck my first date was to the movies. Believe me there are plenty of tweeny boppers to keep the movie business moving.

So do I think the movie business is suffering because of the internet? Perhaps but not enough to cause it to end.

Week Three - Tutorial Task

On the subject of online privacy at the hands of sites like Facebook. During my daily raiding of the internet I found this article on a News.com.au. It's about 5 people suing Facebook for not repecting their privacy.

I thought this was an inetresting article and it points out exactly some points I made in my earlier blog. Privacy is a big issue especially with sites like Facebook and Myspace. So check it out and let me know what you think!

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,,25950973-2,00.html

Week Three - Tutorial Task

After the second lecture I'm realizing how much I use these revolutionary technologies in everyday life. It used to be a luxury to have a mobile phone, only the big company executives had them. Now I see ten year olds with them on the bus. The internet used to be a tool for accedemic research, now it's a tool for socialising. We have a world of information at our fingertips. The world has shrunk to the size of a hand held computer. I got my first mobile phone when I was thirteen. My brother got his a couple years later when he was eleven. They weren't the colour screens and polyphonic ringtones, there were black and white screens with monotone ringtones. In the space of 10 years we have entered a new genreation of technology.

Looking back, I realized I probably wouldn't have a use for said technologies if it weren't for a tight social circle in which to use it with. When you think about it communication is the soul reason for all technology. Thousands of years ago we hit logs to communicate, now we hit numeric keys.

The internet. Once a highly advanced system out of reach to the average Aussie Jo, now a way to invite people to parties, keep people up to date with your life, to let others know that vital information, like when you go to the dentist (I'm looking at you Twitter). There are now sites dedicated to simply building social networks ie. Facebook and Myspace. We post our photos on sites like Flickr and yet we ignor the privacy issues. All of these sites are open to everyone, even this one. But this is of little consequence in this day and age, it's actually part of the thrill. People even have friends that they have never met in person and are strictly friends online. Me personally? I don't have any friends that i haven't met in person. Call me old fashioned but I think it's important to meet and befriend a person in the flesh. It's part of the thrill of the internet. You have the freedom to be who you want to be. I think befriending a phantom of a person could be problemmatic.But that's just my opinion.

Week Two - Tutorial Task

Walking away from the first New Communication Technologies lecture I realized how far we've come in they way of technology. Thirty years ago the fact that you could send information through phone line was staggering, yes I'm talking about the humble Fax machine. Now, as the video (above) suggests a Japanese Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) have developed a fiber optic cabel that can send 14 terabits per second. (http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=564) This video really put it perspective for me, we are living in times that are moving faster than we ourselves can comprehend.

But what does it all mean? We now socialize over the internet, shop over the internet, date over the internet, research, play and share. It has become a tool for agonized teenagers to share their inner most thoughts, it has inspired a whole generation to take photos of themselves looking depressed at 2 am in the morning. As the video points out, we are living in exponential times, hopefully we will be able to keep up.

Week Two - Tutorial Task

Hi, my name is Kate, I'm a student at Griffith University and I'm enrolled in a course by the name of New Technology Commuunications. It's basically a course on how we as a society communicate through different ways. It's pretty interesting, however I fear I may have to be a technological genious to understand half the things people are saying. Unlike most people I dont have interesting interests, I like to do nothing most of the time. Exciting no?

If you follow this blog I can assure that every week there will a new and exciting sum up of the lecture (so it's like your at uni but without the tuition fees). So enjoy.

So sitting in the large lecture hall, awfully content in my little technologically ignorant bubble. Then the great boom of my lecturers voice invades this bubble with his talk of IBM's and Apples. I was silly enough to think 0f the fruit. To be honest I took this course because I thought it would be a breeze. Little did i know what i was getting myslef into. The rage and anxiety I felt about not being able to enrol in this course because the Learning@Griffith site was so flooded with other enraged students seems a little misguided.


But alas, I refuse to drop out. So here I am sitting in this hall listening to the talk of the history of communication. From typewriters to intel pentium processors. Technical words and phrases flying at me left right and centre. I thought I was pretty computer savy, I mean I do belong to Generation Y, apparently that comes with an assumed knowledge of computers. Did they hand out manuals or something? I look around, everyone's looking like they understand. My anxiety reaches its peak but the the lecturer puts up a youtube video. And I realize with much relief that all those technical words are a form of communication, a method of conveying information, a vessel for knowledge. The internet has become a society, a culture. One in which I am a keen member.

Walking out of the first New Communication Technologies lecture I felt inspired and, i'll admitt it, a little enthralled with the idea of weekly blogs. Who knows what the future may hold?

Steve Wozniak

What you see on the left is a picture of the cofounder of Apple, looks like he's looking for divine inspiration for the next technological revolution.












Publisher: Edward Wood 2007

Cocain Jesus

Really enjoyed this video. Kudos to Boscutti