Iphone gets some competition

In 1979 the first commercial mobile phone was launched by NTT in Japan and shortly after, in 1991 cellphones became more widely used with Finland being the frontrunners. Since then cellphones have evolved in many ways.

The first text message ever was sent on the 3rd of December in 1992 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_messaging) and Nokia was the first cellphone manufacturer to intergrate text messaging into the cellular phone. Since then many other manufacturers have created cellphones with this feature including Motorola, Sanyo and Alcatel.

Nowadays we can send picture messages, voice messages, and even video messages. Along with this we can take photos, listen to music, download music and videos, surf the web and of course listen to the radio on our cellphones.

Last year Apple, which has been a market leader in technology created the Iphone which hit the stores in the United States on the 29th of June this year. The Iphone is a cellphone, Ipod and Mini computer all rolled into one. It is very easy to operate with just a touch of the screen and has inbuilt features such as a dictionary and spell check. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphone). There were 270,000 phones sold in the first 30 hours that it went on sale. It is not yet available in New Zealand.

It looks as though Apple has already got competition with search engine Google rumoured to be releasing a similar phone (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10455627) which naturally would be called the GooglePhone.

This is very exciting of course that two global companies should release cellphones but I have a question, who really cares? Nobody jumps up and down when Sanyo release a new phone and yet when a computer company does it is such a big deal. I mean I understand that it's a big deal considering the market share google has and the money they draw in from advertising, but surely it is just another phone and surely it is normal for a technology company to expand into other areas, especially these days.

Which phone gets your vote? the googlephone or the iphone and why?

Art and the public domain

The great thing about the internet that I have noticed recently is that since there are now lots of cool free movies and books. Here are a couple:

www.librivox.org - thousands of free books mostly classics which is a comlaint only if you like contemporary novels but definetly worth a look.

- This is a link to all the films in the public domain. There are a few gems here actually. Film Noirs in such. If you are a lynch fan watch "Detour" it was a major influence on "Lost highway" in terms of the sotry etc.

Have fun!!!

Wow, its bigger than wrestling.

Ever heard the term, MMORPG? What about World of Warcraft? If you're net savvy enough to even be reading this blog, you have probably heard a little about them. The former is a tongue twisting Acronym for Massively Multi player Online Role Playing Game. The latter is Blizzard Entertainment's wildly popular game, sweeping across the world and igniting interest in PC gamers like a cash loan from Tony Soprano.

Blizzard claims over 9 million subscribers worldwide, all paying approximately $30NZD a month to immerse themselves in a persistent online world. Its a phenomenon that has Blizzard laughing all the way to the bank. MMORPG's are not entirely new, Ultima Online and Everquest have been around for a long while now, and prior to even those behemoths, text based MUD's have been around about as long as the Internet. But never in the history of gaming, both online and off, has there been as popular a world as that of World of Warcraft.

Warcrack is what we call it, on account of it being so addictive. Prior to even playing it myself, I had heard all the horror stories, and urban legends about MMORPG's and being a true skeptic myself, I approached the game initially with caution. Three years later, I still play. In today’s droll society, its little surprise to me at it’s popularity. Its pure Escapism. Why not forget the doldrums of your own boring life to immerse yourself in a rewarding, fun and richly detailed fantasy world that’s populated with other players of a like mind. In game Ive joined forces with a mother of three from Milwaukee, a third former at Kings College and a quadriplegic aboriginal gardener from Queensland. This thing is dam fun and appealing to a broad socio demographic. Before you laugh at the geek in the homemade Chewbacca costume, have a crack at war crack. You might enjoy it.

Were selective not criminals

I cant help but feel disgusted when i hear that 'illegal downloads are distroying the music industry' line, over and over again. I don't see anything wrong in downloading music for free. I see downloading music for free as a form of sampling, similar to listening to the radio or watching a chart show. I have downloaded a couple of albums "illegally" and then gone out and physically bought them. I have also deleated illegal music from my computer when i realised i didn't like it. This is not an argument to clear my concience. If any one is ripping of muscians it is the major record labels who have a shared monopoly and apparently apple aswell. According to http://downhillbattle.org/itunes/ apple makes three times as much money than the artist for every song sold on the site. So much for the artist getting a better deal under itunes.
Lastly I dont see itunes as revoloutionary, i see the way people are selectively using music as been revoloutionary. No one wants to listen to the radio if they have an ipod or another mp3 player. If your up with the play you hear new music through the internet now and choose what you like and add it to your ipod. I think in doing this our generation has put radio stations on the endangered list. Top of the pops is already extinct. I hope radio is next. Why not?

Blog – no ancestors?

Personally I see blog as completely different from diary. Blog allows us to share ideas, interesting clips and promote almost anything. Although diary, documentary are said to be the ancestor of the Blog, not to completely disagree with the idea but I don’t really see much similarities between them. I guess blog has been modified into something that connects different medium together as technology progresses. As Adrian Miles mentioned about how blog is similar to documentary, I happen to see the other side of this view point. Even though documentary is based upon real story/events, documentary is shot under rehearsals, scripts and made to reinforce a particular view point. Blog in a way allows users to post anything up on the net and viewers are freely viewing the blogs, I see the blog as what is real in the virtual space as people can stay anonymous and freely discuss about anything. Not to forget that users are allowed to block off their own blog so only himself or a few people can view the blog. Blocking off the blog allows it to be a “private diary” but I believe that there are people who can unblock the blog and freely enter into the blog. In the virtual world nothing can really stay private and what is the most important feature of the blog is that it is for users to share things with other users. Vlog are now available this enables users to do much more and viewers can visualize instead of imagining. Technology is constantly changing thus affecting the media – Blog. Who knows what blog will be like in 5 or 10 years time?


-Vivian

P2P

As most of you know, this wonderful invention of “per to per” enables users to transfer files from anywhere in the world to your computer. I use it primarily to download music and use ‘Soulseek’ as my client. Every time I download a song though, it makes me wonder, how can it be this easy to rip off the music industry?! I know most of you will have done it before and it is so much more convenient to download particular songs you like rather than buying a whole album; and you save money! Why doesn’t the music industry find or create some kind of law to stop this kind of stuff? I personally download a lot of dance music and often find Soulseek helpful to get songs that are unreleased or unattainable in New Zealand. I also like to experiment with making songs myself and have found that many accomplished DJs in New Zealand and around the world use Soulseek as well to share their songs with one another; now these guys are in the music industry and use this program to share fills for free with one another. I think this benefits their music in a way that DJs anywhere around the world can have access to the latest songs from their fellow DJs on the other side of the world.

So what do you think? Is P2P a good thing or a bad thing? Is it ripping off the music industry, or is helping artists further with their career? I am on the fence with this one, while I think it is extremely bad that artists are losing out on huge amounts of money, I think that it’s beneficial in the way that artists have easy access to each other’s newest songs.

On another note, re the debate in class about whether Myspace is helpful or not for artists, I think that Myspace has revolutionised promoting artists. I personally have been able to put out one or two songs I’ve done and display them to everyone on my friends list...many friends of mine who are in bands have been able to promote concerts and gain reputations through Myspace, I think it’s brilliant!

Random Art

With all the various technology being developed today there is a lot of art turning up online that has been created using computer programs, whether directly created BY the programs, or just designed USING the programs. I thought i'd share two of my favourite digital art sites with the blog. The first is a more conventional art site created by Ryan Bliss, who started making pictures with a PC using Aldus Photostyler and Kai Power Tools in 1994. His first wallpapers were created because of his frustration at the boring default wallpapers of windows 3.1. His computer didn't come with a modem and the only way for him to change that wallpaper was to create his own pictures. He is entirely self taught, and now uses many different programs such as Lightwave 3d, Vue d'Esprit Infinite, Apophysis, World Builder, Poser 6, and Adobe Photoshop to create visually stunning wallpapers which he markets on his site, Digital Blasphemy. Below is a thumb of one of his wallpapers:

They are full size wallpapers and are very visually stunning. I reccomend you check out his site, http://www.digitalblasphemy.com/

Secondly, something that really interested me was art that is created solely using computer programs. These programs use formulas to determine the color information of each pixel in a picture. The operator enters in a minimal amount of information, and the program will take that information, and randomly generate a picture. The site that originally introduced me to this method of creating pictures is a site called Random Art. On this site, you can suggest a title for a picture, and then the program will use the letters in that title to generate a picture to match it. That picture is then uploaded into the visitors gallery for people to view and vote on it. The pictures that get the most votes are added into the permanent gallery. For example, here is a picture that i generated using my name as the title:

Brook Lyons

And one of my favourite pictures from the permanent gallery:

absolutindigestion ivy falls

These pictures are all randomly generated from the names suggested. I suggest anyone who is interested should visit this site and try suggesting a few names for pictures. Start with your own name, and see what picture matches it. The formula is capital sensitive, so try writing it in several different ways. You may not get a masterpiece first try, but it's a lot of fun suggesting names until you find one that creates something really cool. And who knows, if you suggest a REALLY good picture, they may include it in the permanent gallery.

The address of the site is http://www.random-art.org/

Check it out - Brook .L

Bringing new meaning to writing a book.

A few days ago I saw an article here, http://www.stuff.co.nz/4143021a28.html about an Italian man who had written a book using only his cellphone and I was really interested in this because it really shows two things and the first one is just how time poor we are these days and because it also showed how technology is liberating us and allowing us to do things that we wouldn't otherwise be able to do.

Blogs as personal therapy.

I am interested in the social element of Blogs. I remember Luke Goode mentioning the fact that blogs allow a certain sense of release. As in people can let out issues that have been bothering them and let others help with certain issues.

Recently i read a blog about an individual and his childhood. Now i am reluctant to copy and paste it. But i feel that i should in order to support my argument that blogs are a good sanction for therapy. Now before i post up this blog ill add in some background. This individual is a very nice person online and has never treated anyone badly. Some people call him a stalker because of his strange behavior. He sends people private messages asking if they want to go out for a drink. It is quite strange because it is the internet after all.

He also has got a strange liking for his garden. But quite often people forget about his past. So this was actually the second submission he made in order to reaffirm with people as to why he acts like this. So here goes his post by "MR":

Click here to read the post. [Note from Luke: With Matt's agreement I have swapped the text for a link because I didn't think it was appropriate for the front page of our blog. This way, people have a choice about whether they want to read something pretty unpleasant which involves the abuse of a child.]

So that is what he shared. I know its quite disturbing. But my point is that blogs have become a new kind of social therapy for people. A way for individuals to get things off there backs and share it with the World Wide Web. It also ensures that others in the same situation can also contact this individual and share thoughts and ideas. Because it is extremely difficult to have contact with the outside world if individuals are unstable. Blogs are beneficial in this sense no doubt. They are a tool used for the people on the benefit to explain why they are. Quite often a notion is built around people on the benefit as greedy and freeloaders. But lately i have been seeing the use of blog entry's to spread a better understanding as to why they are on the dole.

Blog's are a social sanction for many. They are however so diverse and used in so many different ways. My argument is of only one way that online blogs are used. But with the rise of depression and issues of sexual and brutal child abuse in New Zealand i am really suprised that the mental health organizations have not come forward into the future and started a website blog for these types of situations and problems.

I think the next step for the adverts about depression and mental disorders should be a campaign for a national blog for depression and violence in such nature. I can see big things with placing advertisements with a website dedicated to this issue, where people can share thoughts and feelings about abuse.

Quite often the blog is under estimated as just another form of internet gibberish. But i can visualize huge things with blogs in New Zealand.

With the issues we have at the moment. I think blogs should be brought forward by the government in order to target cases of abuse. I mean the hospital staff members are now asking women some sensitive issues. Why not also point them to the direction of a blog. So everyone can share and help each other out.

Ultimately using the internet as a social tool has revolutionized the way we communicate. It may extend our social awareness. But also amputates (Howard Reingold) that physical presence and help that most people need. In order for change we need to find alternatives to New Zealand's rather weak ways of communication.

(For subject i have used, could you please keep it within the Technoculture blog for reasons of respect. Thankyou)

David Firth - Prosumer

1) Devvo.

A tribute to prosumerism (pissing around in your free time and stumbling across a 'formula' that equally as bored people around the world will watch - all using readily available consumer level technologies).

For the low-down, check the Wikipedia article. Absolutely mindless mockumentary style crap about a git who can't talk properly... yet so popular it's being prepared for DVD release. And who said lonelygirl15 was 'random'?

2) Check out David Firth's flash animations including the hugely popular Salad Fingers. Turn off all the lights, lock all of your doors. This is flash animation at its most disturbing. I highly recommend watching at least the first few episodes of Salad Fingers (in order), if only to mimic his haunting voice. Rusty spoons everyone! Enjoy.

Hugs not Drugs

Are these personal publishing systems of the new media really providing society with a positive/genuine virtual community of discussion? The anonymity of these online forums can allow for almost anyone to play an active role in any virtual community. Blogs have the potential to focus on illict subjects, those that are not condoned by reasonable society, but do so to help readers make informed decisions about these issues.

As an avid supporter of the dance music scene I have read numerous blogs on topics that society would frown upon: recreational drug use.

Tripme is a site in which educates and promotes the discussion of responsible drug use. It not only describes the differing types of recreational drugs available, but as in the link above provides an analysis on how 'clean' currently available ecstasy pills are. To me Tripme sidesteps the issue of whether or not people are going to take illegal drugs. Instead, Tripme accepts drug use and provides a forum for dicussion and approval of certain ecstasy 'batches'. Tripme places huge emphasis on shared knowledge and education to ensure its posters minimize the risk of harm in their recreational drug use.

Guiding hand and safety net... or promoter of unlawful activities?

Ben Palmer

"Room 401" viral marketing web phenomenon

Disclaimer: I'm not entirely sure if this is at all relevant to anything that we're discussing at the moment in class, but I thought I'd post about it anyway since I find it interesting.

Xeni Jardin at BoingBoing posted an article yesterday [our time] entitled "Ashton Kutcher's doing some kinda ARG thing?" The article is about what appears to be some sort of ARG that may or may not have something to do with a (fake?) recent VOIP startup called Ooma which Mr. Kutcher has endorsed.

Room 401 is "a television series on MTV, executive produced by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg. It is named after the room Harry Houdini passed away in at Detroit's Grace Hospital in 1926." (Wikipedia)

Someone has set up a wiki documenting all the bits and pieces that make up this strange puzzle. This is the first paragraph on it: "I was watching "Room 401" on my TiVo when I noticed some weird flashes. When I slowed it down frame by frame, I found a bunch of subliminal messages being held by Ashton Kutcher -- at first, they didn't make any sense..."

So far the online portion of the campaign comprises only a few short, very strange videos, and the starting point for all of it appears to be 43475359616771.com... The videos are all linked to in various formats from the 401wtf wiki, and it would appear that the people creating this large-scale prank are broadcasting their material episodically; there are clues being left in each episode of the TV show, and people are talking about it as if it were a video podcast.

Another piece of the puzzle is 812007.com, which as of right now (6pm NZST) reads as follows:
WELCOME TO 812007.COM!
The Secret Will Be Revealed On AUGUST FIRST TWO THOUSAND AND SEVEN.

There's a forum attached to 812007.com, but, in an ironic twist, it's been invaded by spam bots.
It's quite fun to watch an event like this unfold in real time; a marketing prank like this would not have been possible without the instantaneousness of new media technologies like the internet.

I'd be interested to see what other people think of all this...

--Hugh.

I christen thee.....

Okay, hi people.

This is my official first blog entry EVER.

Yes, believe it or not, i actually mean it when i say, EVER, i am a frequent beboer (and proud) and im sure it has its own blog entry thingymajig, but that does not mean i use it to record my daily routines blah blah.. i mean, my dear fingers can only handle so much..

And to mark this wonderful occasion. I christen thy blog... Bloggy. Therefore, any activity concerning this particular blog (ie; updating etc) shall be called, bloggin'. Bloggin' shall be the new 'it' thing, as it is a crucial 20% of the overall mark of this paper. Yay, okay, lets play!!!!

I took up this paper, not only because it was required, but also because i wanted to learn as much as i can about this 'culture' that seems to be surrounding the new types of media (and old-now evolved or still is evolving). I reckon it would help further my understanding about a lot of issues and concerns that are currently causing people to worry and fret over. For eg; who would have thought that cyber-adultery (is it?) or something of the like, would have been possible a decade or so back? I mean, like Luke said, it DOES raise questions about HUMANITY and the good and the bad, it also raises issues about society now versus society then? Homosexuality was NOT acceptable back in the day, NOW however, society is becoming more and more open towards it... Same can be said about A LOT of things, and in this case, technology? Someone stop me if they think i am going off track! I tend to do that A LOT!!! LOL

Basically..
Technology will continue to evolve and so will the culture/s surrounding it.. and i intend to be fully prepared when new technological fingys pop up in the near OR FAR future..*does war-cry*..alelelelleleleleleleeeeh!!

But for now, im hungry, so until next time Bloggy dearest,

Ta ta
xo

More Blogging Related Resources.

I was asked in tutorial today to make available some more of the resources I discussed. I'm now thinking of ways to frame them that'll make them comprehensible without robbing myself of material to discuss in the other two tutorials.

This could be challenging.

Anyway.

A site to explore: ThatHomelessGuy.com.

In previous years, I have used a website called The Strange Machine as a resource for this class. This year I find I am unable to do so, but I do have a page I made of my own favourite links that came from it. That page is available here. It's full of links that can be pasted into your browser, and will hopefully be interesting, even if it doesn't give you the full experience of what The Strange Machine Project tried to be.

Cryptic? Hell yes. Why is this relevant? Want to know more? Come to tutorials!

(Also: Be warned. Adult content involved in places, but you're second year university students, ergo you can cope.)

And here we have some variants on podcast-based fiction magazines. There are more, but these two are free:

Escape Pod (Science Fiction)

Pseudopod (Horror)

So there we go. Enough blog-related pieces that anyone interested in the subject has some interesting stuff to chew on.

- Kevin.

Free Music Online.

This blogpost is mainly to discuss the availability of free music on the web and how easily accessible it is for your listening pleasure. There are many places online that has music that's ready to be streamed on to your computer, a small list of these sites are; youtube, Myspace, Podcasts.

These are all viable ways to find music that you like and listen to. However there are other alternatives as well. The one I'd like to share today is Musicovery.
This website is basically a radio where you can choose to play the sort of music you like. You select the genre's of music you'd like and what tempo and mood your interested in then it will set up a play list for you. This play list is able to be manipulated and will start streaming the songs onto your computer and they will start to play. Which a broadband connection there should be no lag or waiting for downloads.
The reason I find this website really cool is the way you can listen to a spectrum of music that you wouldn't normally ever hear. You cant download the songs so nothing is taken away from the artists. If anything its free advertising. The idea of being able to listen to music where anywhere that there is internet is a pretty cool in my opinion.

I know of other sites that do exactly the same thing as Musicovery however most of them are not available to be used from a New Zealand IP address. When I rediscover them online I'll edit this post to show them.

A Site of Interest for Blogging

The Dionaea House.

I'll be bringing this up in tutorial this week, but this is a website that uses the tropes and forms of webpages and blogs to make the story more evocative, in the same way that radio-show fiction is shaped to be read over the air. I'll be interested to see what people think of it.

As instructions go, follow the Next button at the bottom of the page until you reach a page called "Updates and Other Resources." Then read in date order for best effect.

When you reach a link that goes to a blog, the oldest posts are at the bottom of the page, so reading in date order means you start there.

And instantly, I have made this sound far more boring than I found it. Go me.

- Kevin.

Virtual Terrorism

The Australian claims that terrorists are training recruits using World of Warcraft, using "weapons that are identical to real-world armaments."

Not even sure where to begin on this one. Unless they're expecting an elf in a turban with a dirty-great sword to attack an airplane, this sounds a little suspect to me.

It also leads me to this Op-Ed piece from FOX News on a similar subject. I love the exploding van, and all the evidence that they've completely misunderstood the context of what they're seeing - but that's irrelevant and geeky detail for our purposes.





- Kevin.

My 1st Blog

Right so far I have figured out that our class contains many who are completely in tune with whats going on in 'cyberspace' ... and then there are people like me who know how to use it but haven't a clue what MUDs, VBlogs, or any of the other technical jargon is!? So as my first post I'd like to take a huge amount of time to explain my relationship to this suppousedly new phenomenon. And being the wonderful Blog/Internet site that this is, if you don't care... You can just keep on scrolling down!!

So my most vivid memory of our classes so far has been the documentry we watched of the two girls and their 'fake boyfriends' on BEBO, slightly disturbing yet equally intriguing as well. So basically the story is framed in such a way that personal sites such as MySpace, Bebo and the like are highly dangerous, and opens us up to the weird and wild dangers of the world?? My opinion on this matter... those kids were naive, the internet will only be dangerous if we chose to use it in such a way that makes it harmful i.e. putting your real name, address, phone numbers etc in a place where anyone, anywhere can read it. Go figure.

I myself, am indeed a self-confessed BEBO addict, not only does it allow me to keep in touch with my mates around the world but I can let them know what I'm up too as well (pretty sure thats why the site was created). But I have never made personal contact with someone I don't know, given my number out to anyone over the public sites and thus never fallen victim to some psycho 15 year old girl pretending to be a charming young boy named John?! I have a 14yr old niece whos father forbids her from having a personal webpage for the same old argument that it entices stalkers, paedophiles etc. I then wonder is the internet blogs, personal web pages etc not like alcohol, drugs, underage clubbing etc. Parents know that kids are going to do it, so shouldn't they just teach them safety and precautions... Maybe I'm naive.

Anyway I'm pretty sure this is far from what I'm suppoused to be writing about, but theres my opinion on Personal Webpages...

Lena W

Blog VS Traditional Media

A few years ago, blog was only a tool for people to chat with others, there were not much newsbreak or space for discussion. Yet, characteristics of blog were emerged after the 911 even, all traditional medium included newspapers, magazines, even news website, were seems running slow and overcautious on their reports. Obviously, it was hard to satisfy those audiences and readers who wanted to know more immediately. For some people who do not read newspaper (like me), the only way to get information would be sitting in front of TV and waiting that piece of short and perfunctory news. Even though the TV can present live broadcast, it is still not ‘deep-going’ enough. Therefore, the flexible and quick tool – BLOG, became the best choice to express. People were sharing their stories, ideas and feeling through the blog. Moreover, many other significant even like tsunami in Southeast Asia as another example evidence blog can present news and broadcast as well as traditional medium.
In some countries, the news restriction still be held, it results more people prefer read news and communicate information through blogs, rather than getting those selected or restricted information from the government news, and listen to the monotonic government answers. As a citizen, I believe that we should have rights to know the facts rather than blindly listen to the government keep telling that everything in our country is going so cool and advanced( Not mean it is not cool, I’m a patriot ; )).
Bloggers share their information and offer space for people to speak out their real idea. In this regard, blog become the express way to know the ‘truth’.
- xiaofei hu

Fresher

The lecture on Monday, 30/07, was in fact the first I have attended for this class, and I was amazed at how enthusiastically some of the students were contributing to the lecture. It sure made for a lively and interesting experience! With so many opinions and points of views in one room, it is inevitable that disagreements are going to arise, in fact I hope for them! Quality debate can not only be educational but also highly amusing!
One aspect of the lecture that I would like to comment on here concerns blogs and vlogs etc… Comments were made in regards to what was interesting, worthwhile, mundane and boring. Lonelygirl15 especially bore the brunt of the critics in the class. I am a newcomer to the world of blogging, so do not have a wealth of knowledge on the topic, but isn’t the whole point to say whatever the hell you want? Anonymous, staged or legitimate, blogging is merely a public arena to share information. If you don’t like, don’t look at it. Another perk of the internet, there is so much random stuff to be surfed through, you are bound to find something that floats your boat.

Sophia Fogarty

CONTROLING BLOGGING

When one posts on the internet, not every one would know whether you are creating a persona of someone else or yourself. Freedom of thought and expression is a great democratic value portrayed by online blogging community, but misusing it and bending ways around it is a threat to the whole concept of blogging theory and against the very core deal of ethics. I am committed to the idea that blogs are a huge and wide communication tools ever, but that is were you have the problems of falsifying information being provided too.

No one would know whether you are just an average Joe or a CEO when you post on the internet. I came across an interesting article in the TIMES magazine about CEO of Whole Foods John Mackey who had an online handle “rahodeb”, in personifying as some one who has been a good customer of Whole Foods. He posted articles in favor of his own company and criticizing his rival Wild Oats. He continued this for a long period of eight to nine years. If some one gave a bad review of a product we straight away take into consideration that “maybe the product is bad”. After a long run as rahodeb, Mackey ended up buying the company Wild Oats, which he despised as rahodeb. One might consider it a clever approach but it is a crime and an immoral way of making his business profitable and betraying the community.

We need to confront the anonymity of users, but again confronting has its own disadvantages. One cannot exchange information on certain forums without anonymity, as there is a back lash to it. The Malaysian government has imposed strict ban on bloggers who defame the king and the Government. People who are against the Government rule and oppose them on forums could legally face detention without trial. Controlling the fourth media has become a necessity in certain countries where democracy has fewer choices.

Blogs are a vocal power to the world and they stick out as a poisonous scorpion in context of being against the government’s corruptions and it is also a useful guidance tool to many information’s and events that happen around the world. Controlling blogging may not be a good idea but also one should think about how we can overcome the issues such as Whole Foods and the falsifying informations that are being provided over the web 2.0.

LonelyGirl15 on Youtube

I've just been watching a clip of Lonelygirl15, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06_mNdOrxkc and if you look and listen closely to this clip, you can not only tell that she is wearing make up (why would you wear make up in your room?!) but you can also tell that the music has actually been added afterwards.

Did nobody compare webcams? To my limited knowledge the AV quality of a webcam is not as good as that which has been used in this clip, and if she was supposed to be from the states then why did she have a kiwi accent? Surely people would have started putting two and two together (obviously considering she was exposed as an actress from Auckland).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQMnaTiAKRA which is shot at Thanksgiving supposedly. Looking at the camera angles etc it is fairly obvious that it is a professional shoot rather than just a girl at home in her bedroom. Also why would someone film their lives and then post it on Youtube unless it was fake?

There is this other clip here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65k7cjUj6zc&mode=user&search= which is shot outside. Now this was posted in July as you will see so I think that the soap opera theory can be applied her. People know its phoney and yet they are still watching, and that makes it a drama and I found evidence of this on wikipedia just now, "The series, which began June 16, 2006, is still running, with new videos appearing regularly on YouTube, Revver, metacafe, LiveVideo, Veoh and Bebo.
A spin off show, KateModern, premiered in July 2007 with a video featuring Kate's art on Bebo. It can be viewed at www.KateModern.tv". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonelygirl15) The article on wikipedia even has a character list and past characters so it is definitely the new generation of the soap opera.

Blogging Code of Conduct: Censorship or Civility?

I happened upon a New York Times article from back in April about a proposition to develop a blogger code of conduct. This idea is being developed by techno-moguls Tim O'Reilly and Jimmy Wales due to recent outrage over 'blogger antagonism.' The article talks about topics we discussed during our last class, including ideas brought up in the news segment we watched about the evils of 'liberal bloggers.' I think the article also addresses the question brought up about the supposed 'echo effect' that is achieved when people only read blogs that fit into their agenda. With a blogging code of conduct as described in the article, it it may become unallowable to post anonymous comments on blogs. Well this may seem like it would decrease the level of democracy blogging achieves by allowing everyone to take responsibility for their words (and therefore censoring them), the problem of belligerent activity that occurs is a real one, and in some cases it destroys lives. More than one person cited in the article received death threats because of their blog content and opinions. They also felt physically unsafe in the world outside of their virtual free speech haven. Is that really free speech, then?

On the plus side, whatever set of rules for blogging does emerge, it will have been put together by the people to whom it matters most: the bloggers themselves. Jimmy Wales, the creator of Wikipedia, is being true to his nature by taking comments and suggestions on the proposed code of conduct. Also, the whole concept would only be enacted by the blog community itself--no third party outside of the internet would impose these rules. In my opinion, this idea is generally a good start to some kind of agreed upon civility between blogging peers, but is highly unlikely to take off. The only other solution to maintain law and order online is a stronger policy that is consistent among all blogging communities and consistently enforced. This may indeed mean bringing in a third party, like the government, to install some sort of internet police with reaches beyond illegal pornography and black market activity. I personally wouldn't know how I'd feel about something like that until it was actually infringing on what I felt were my rights.

The question becomes, What is the lesser of two evils?: censoring the seemingly democratic blogosphere that has provided an outlet for nearly every agenda and thus created exciting and important dialogue, or letting people be bullied by those who feel as though the virtual world protects them from taking responsibility for their behavior (which in some cases, would be punishable by law if it occurred in the real world)?

I am interested to see how many people would be for or against a 'blogger code of conduct.'

- Erin O.

Blogging, Vlogging and Youtube

Ugh, I really cannot be bothered blogging but Mondays are the best day I think because the lecture is still fresh in my memory.

Anyway, I found it really weird that some people were saying that whole lonelygirl15 thing on Youtube is boring. Are you honestly telling me that your life is always 100% interesting?

I think that I raised a very good point in class today; so what do you think? Was this a deceptive blog designed to get viewers or was it a soap opera moving to a new medium as the soap operas did when television first came out?

Virtual life

The blog entry from the class member who attended the Xlan gaming competition and met his on-line associates in the “real world” initially interested me because of the somehow anti-social idea of socialising on-line with people one has never met. Having often felt that I didn’t have enough days in the week to keep up with my friends in the real world, I have been absolutely uninterested in beginning virtual friendships – or so I thought, until further reflection reminded me of several virtual episodes in my past!

As a child I had about ten pen-pals in different countries around the world. They sent me photos of themselves and letters about their lives, and I only ever met one of them once (my Japanese pen-friend came to New Zealand on holiday) – so essentially they were virtual friendships. Having pen-pals was a way of connecting to life beyond the Christchurch suburbs that I was too young to physically escape from. Relating this to the ideas discussed in the lecture about the extent to which on-line communities or social networks take people out of their comfort zones or promote open-mindedness, I remember that having pen-pals could sometimes be challenging. My pen-friend in Alabama stopped writing to me when I criticised Ronald Reagan, after three or four years of exchanging letters about ballet recitals and cheerleading.

For several years in London I subscribed to the Shooting People network. This was a daily email service connecting independent filmmakers all over the UK (it still exists and has greatly expanded its scope – www.shootingpeople.org ). Members could post technical questions, calls for crew or cast for projects, or opinions on the topic of discussion for that week. The daily email consisted of these postings. Shooting People created a virtual community according to the definition of a clearly bounded group – it was only for filmmakers, and postings on any other subject were rejected by the administrators. I met and worked with many people in (real) London through postings on Shooting People. A Copenhagen-based cinematographer even travelled to London to work on one of my projects, after an on-line sharing of scripts, film clips and ideas. On the issue of on-line identity and misrepresentation – at one point there was a question I wanted to post anonymously, so I went to the trouble of creating a hotmail account under a false name in order to do so. A year or so after that Shooting People changed the rules so that only registered email addresses could post.

A couple of years ago all of my friends seemed to be trying internet dating. The concept appeared to be that you could type in the details of your ideal man, hit enter, and there he would be – a far more accurate method than randomly meeting drunk blokes in bars. A Jewish friend was meeting guys through a Jewish dating site, and an Indian friend was searching the world for men who spoke the same south Indian language as her family. I overcame my old-fashioned prejudice against “personal ads” and tried yahoo dating, specifying the London area. I contacted the only man I was interested in, only to find out that he lived in America and had joined the London search because everyone his age in his Southern state was already married. So, coming full circle twenty years later, instead of a date in London I acquired another pen-pal in the Bible Belt.

echoes of an empty bottle

In what I would call a personal interest piece, Modern Drunkard Magazine is an online space where contributors celebrate the right to be intoxicated. The website is an online version of what is also a print magazine with an illustrious history. The Modern Drunkard website thus provides an interesting fusion of traditional print media with new online forums (nothing beats a communal blog or chatroom to express personal devotion to alcoholism). The most interest aspect I found, was a well developed hatred towards America's 'booze Nazis' or modern Teetotalitarian figures. It seems some things never change - the same prohibition era frustrations surviving all the way to the digital age. For a good laugh and to see a) extremist viewpoints clashing via email corresspondence b) a whole lot of name calling check out the site's hate mail section.


Lucas Cooney
(your friendly class drunk)

Dear Blogg,

Some of the Ideas discussed in today’s lecture regarding the use of blogging had me consider a few ideas that did not come up during the class.
In regards to how legible a piece of writing is does this effect who reads it?
Although I do agree that at one extreme, if a piece is simply too difficult to decipher potential readers might not even bother, leaving the author to appear nothing but a fool.
In saying this, it is also apparent that people will read interesting or news worthy articles even if it is not to a high academic standard. Take the newspapers for example, all New Zealand newspapers are written to the reading age level of a 12 year old, and many people do read these and are subscribed nationwide.
Also to consider the idea of a blogg as a new form of entertainment, rather than just pure self-expression.
Reading another’s daily blogg/diary maybe considered by some as a sort of live-novel, keeping up with new chapters each day. Although some may find this idea mundane or absurd, I’m sure there are people out there who consider the reality (or virtual reality) of it all only adds to the readers interest.

Hopefully this piece of mongrel media has been considered somewhat literate enough for a few people to read.:)

Signed
Elyse.

Roll Call

Hi everybody.

Now we have what's likely to be a weekly feature for a while, where I try to figure out who some poster's are where I can't connect logins to names.

So far it's a short list.

We have:

Gray

and

Power_Pod.

If you could send me an email or respond here, that'd be great. And this could also be a quick reminder that you can pick whatever you want as your login name, but it'd be greatly appreciated if you signed off your posts with a name. Most people have been identifiable, one way or the other, which is a vast improvement on previous years.

- Kevin.

My first Blog

Ok, this my first ever blog and being in this class and listening to the opinions of my fellow class mates and their apparent savy of new media and technology, and considering myself a techno-realist, I pretty much feel out of my league.
Because also when reading in our course outline the blog' I had no idea what it was and what it would expect of me to do. So I hope this is on the right path and I will probably need to read more of the blogs to see if I am.

Anyway, in the first reading about MUDS(had no idea what it was either) it had me thinking that I could become quite addicted to them.
I could possibly live my desired life on a MUD to help me feel better about the things I cant control in real life.
For example, I could have seen the car in front of me and would now not have a written off car and I would be have less debt on my student loan if I had passed my papers last year.

Picasa - photos made easy

Digital photos have overtaken the traditional approach to making and preserving memories. But once photos have been downloaded onto someone's desktop and filed away, they are often long forgotten.

However there are many advantages to digital photography. Home users now have the ability to remove red eyes, crop images, and change contrast or colour; tweaking that would have been impossible in the past. Picasa includes numerous basic features that allow the average person to produce an extensive album.

Picasa is a free programme which facilitates the digital photographic technology. The Picasa software that Google produces and sponsors is very easy for techno-realists and even neo-luddites to navigate. For this reason it is superior to Photoshop which is used by graphic designers; and Fireworks which is utilised by web designers, as they are both very technical.

Other programmes such as Photoshop Elements are easy to navigate, but can't compare to the simplicity of Picasa.

Photos can be easily sorted and altered in Picasa so they are not lost in the eternal abyss of technology. Below are two links to tutorials on how to use Picasa.

Picasa is available for Windows here. At the moment you can't use it on a Mac but iPhoto is a good alternative.

Picasa Tutorial (part 1)

Picasa Tutorial (part 2)

- Hannah

BlackBerry in bed...

From the Guardian: "Six in 10 US BlackBerry users check emails in bed, survey finds. They're doing it in bed, in the bath and in the back of cars. America's CrackBerry addiction has got worse."