Tute Week 9

So, this week have had alot of different tasks to complete.

Sign an e-petition

The petition I signed was to protest against the governments cuts to Youth Allowance. You can find the e-petition here. Evidence that I signed the petition below.


Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site

The blog I responded to is by Amanda Mead, she writes a Media blog for The Australian. I commented on her story about a new show on the ABC by John Safran, a comedian who hosts a show on Triple J radio.


What is Barak Obama up to today?

Apparently he just went on David Letterman!



Find out who your local, state & federal representatives are

Local (Southport) - Ron Clarke
State - Peter Lawlor
Federal - Stuart Robert


Look up the Queensland or Australian hansard to find the last time your local member spoke in parliament

Thursday 17th September 2009.


Let your local member know what you think about their last speech

I went to Peter Lawlors website and found his contact details so that I could email him. See my message below.



Read the lecture and the readings, pursue a couple of the topics that you find most interesting and then post your blog with your well-considered thoughts about the theory and practice of politics.

One of the issues I was interested in and chose to investigate further was that of the citizen hacker. Stephen Stockwell provides a useful definition; "Hacking extends to cover any militant and creative intervention into any aspect of the media flow". The idea of the 'citizen hacker' proposes the notion that everyday people, through the use of new communication technologies such as social networking sites, YouTube, email, SMS etc can open up new channels of communication & deliberation, and therefore bring about social change. The internet has definatetly opened up many new channels of communication for people, and if they use them for beneficial purposes such as researching and voicing their political opinions, then this is definately better for society. A well informed society means they are more likely to elect the right people, and be aware if their government is decieving them and needs to be pulled back into line.

Another one of the interesting points raised in the article was that forwarding a political satire sketch could class you as being a 'citizen hacker'. On this note, here's one I thought was midly entertaining.

Another interesting (but confusing...) issue was Plato's Allegory of the Cave. The story goes that a bunch of prisoners are tied up for their whole lives so that they can only look at a wall. Behind them is a fire and between the fire and them, other people walk, carry things etc. The prisoners, use words to describe what they see eg 'man', 'cow' etc. However in reality they have never actually seen a 'man' or a 'cow', what they have actually seen is just a shadow. Having only ever seen the wall & the shadows, they believe this to be the only reality that is possible. If then, one of the prisoners is freed and he is shown the 'man' and the 'cow' who made the shadows, he would not be able to recognise or name them. If he was shown the outside world he would feel betrayed that this 'alternate' reality existed as he had only known the cave and the shadows. Plato argues the prisoner would be much happier to go back to his life of the cave and the shadows, to what he knows and is familiar with.

I'm going to have my own informed guess as to what this all means. I initially see examples between this story and the movie The Matrix. The character Cypher has been removed from the Matrix but wants to be put back. He knows that the Matrix is fake and that the real world is reality, but he would rather be put back into the Matrix and continue to live in ignorance. This is like the prisoner in Platos story that would rather go back into the cave of shadows than live in the outside world.

I also think it relates to the issue of our perception of reality. If for example, the government did implement a censorship program on the internet (see below for futher discussion on this issue) then they may block sites that criticized the government or provided information that the governement did not want the people to know. If society is uninformed or recieved a distorted version of reality, then we cannot enact our rights to stand up against corrupt government or campaign for our rights. It is our perception of reality that shapes our knowledge, opinions and therefore actions.

What do you think of the Australian Government's plans to censor the internet (the so-called "Clean Feed")???

From what I've read and heard about the issue, it doesn't sound like a good idea at all. Some issues include;

• legal as well as illegal material will be blocked
• what age group will the internet be made appropriate for? 15 years olds? 5 year olds?
• who decides what material is acceptable for Australians to view?
• how will these lists be created and who will maintain them?
• a filter will decrease internet speeds considerably, some say up to 80%!
• testing shows that up to 10,000of every 1 million sites would be incorrectly blocked
• the task of maintaining the list of 'blacklisted' sites would be overwhelming
• the lists of blocked sites will probably be secret, how are we to know what else the government has blocked?
• no other democracy has such a filter on their internet
• misses other issues people face on the internet eg cyber-bullying, identity theft etc
• expensive, money better spent elsewhere
• raises issues of free speech
• public does not support it

All in all I think its a very bad idea, mainly because we won't be able to know what sites the government has blocked. We could be like China where they block any sites that say bad things about the government so their people remain ignorant. Democracy is not possible without free speech. By filtering the internet as the government proposes, they will be eliminating free speech as anything on the internet that the government does not want us to see, they will be able to block.

For further information on this issue see the No Clean Feed website, they provide alot of detailed information and valid arguments regarding the issue.

What place does censorship have in a democracy?

As discussed above, democracy cannot exist without free speech. It is a democratic right. Once censorship is used to delete messages the government doesn't want its people to hear, then democracy fails.

A more graphic example of this issue can be seen in the below YouTube clip. In this instance, the censorship that is being used in Nepal is alot more extreme than an internet filter. This video is about the murder of journalists in the country as a form of censorship. Luckily as Australian's we don't have to face issues like this, however its good to be aware of situations such as this so we can be thankful that we live in a fully functioning democracy.

Lecture Week 8 - CyberPolics and eDemocracy

This week we had a guest lecturer, Stephen Stockwell. He talked about politics and the internet and the many options available for politically minded people to express their opinions online, and the ways in which political parties & leaders attempt to use the internet to influence voters.


Democracy

Firstly, CyberPolitcs is about the use of the internet for political activity, the politics of the internet and any political activities that are carried out on the internet.

eDemocracy is about the internet's influence on politics and democracy. Its about more active participation of the people in political activities, thanks to access to the internet. It covers everything from political parties campaigning on the internet to people using blogs & forums to critcise the government in power.

Democracy is a system of government in which either the actual governing is carried out by the people governed (direct democracy), or the power to do so is granted by them (as in representative democracy) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy). Common definitions include 'the rule of the many', 'the rule of the majority' and 'government of the people, by the people, for the people'.


Mass Media

The Second Media Age is said to be characterised by decentralised media systems with global reach that are readily accessible to all. This availability of communication of many to many is said to produce a new type of politics. We are said to be experiencing the second media age now, due to the invention and wide use of the internet.

The internet may be open to more effective and invasive manipulation than older media forms due to its rapid commercialisation and potential to record and analyse all information transmitted.

There are also problems associated with the use of the internet as a means for political communication. For example, those who produce the political message cannot control how the audience reads the information, they may interpret it in a variety of different ways. For example, they can simply accept the message, they can draw an alternative reading from the material or they can simply oppose the provided message. People produce their own interpretations of the messages they receive.

Television is an example of communication that reaches across class, gender, ethnic, national, and other boundaries and as such, allows the audience to be citizens of a symbolic community. In this situation, the only political power the audience has is to change the channel if they do not like the message being received.


Free Speech & Censorship

The idea of free speech is an essential part of democracy, however in Australia, we don't have the constitutional right to free speech. The internet poses threats to free speech with issues such as copyright and censorship hampering peoples ability to speak their minds.


Hackers

Hackers are computer programmers who have a desire to understand the intricacies of computing systems. They break into systems to look around and understand. They seek to free information and don't see computer systems as corporate property. Hackers are different from crackers who damage or steal data. Hackers adhere to The Hacker Ethic, their code which states their belief in the free sharing of information, and their intent to never harm the data they find. We are all hackers when we seeks ways around bugs, use tricks or guesses not fully understanding what we are doing until the program works the way we want it to.


Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk is a science fiction genre based on the possibilities present in computers, genetics, body modifications and corporate developments in the near future. These films often involve megacorporations, artificial intelligence, hackers and/or advanced science and their effects on social breakdown or radical social change. The Matrix is one example of a cyberpunk film.

Cyberpunk Themes

• Technology & Mythology - morals such as knowledge brings awareness of suffering & attendant responsibility, technological advancement comes at a price, scientific advancement & technological development have unexpected consequences. Cyberpunk seeks to de-mythoologise technology and re-mythologise technology.
• Utopia & Dystopia - Utopias are imaginary places where everything is perfect because people and technology are in harmony. Technology is sometimes seen as Utopia, we can create our own perfect virtual world and get rid of the real one...until someone turns off the switch! There are also examples of modern technological dystopias such as George Orwell's 1984.
• Cities as Machines - this is focused on the idea that the shape of a city dictates the kind of lives that people in that city will lead. Three conflicting ideas central to this theme are the city is a machine for living, creating human life whilst also being created by humans, the city is a natral thing created by humans like a bee-hive or ants nest might be, and the city is a living being, a cyborg which combines human tissue with synthetic infrastructure.
• Technological Change - The earliest forms of communication were created by one source and consumed by many receivers. There was only a small number of people who were able to be the producers of the message. The internet has now changed this and allowed anyone to produce the message and to also allow the receivers to interact with the message. Does this use of the internet signal the start of a second media age?
• Modernism to Postmodernism - new media brings with it new issues; the need to protect rights of access, equity of access, the means to strenthen & enhance existing community structures, the development of the democratic process, the development of a global community, the development of strategies for implementing and enforcing global laws, intellectual property laws, freedom of speech.

Below is an interesting and informative YouTube clip about cyberpunk. It provides some useful examples of movies that fit the genre that helps to give you a better understanding of what cyberpunk is all about.

Tute Week 8 - download some freeware

So, our tutorial task for this week was to go to download and use one of the freeware sites Jason mentioned in the lecture.

I chose to download iTunes because I have always been a media player girl so I thought I'd give it a go.

It was very easy to download and super easy to use. I especially liked the different views it had where you could import the album artwork for all the cd's and make it look like you were flicking through your record collection.

Its also really easy to create playlists and sync them with your iPod. And it was easy to import music and burn CD's. Other things I really liked was the shuffle option and just the overall asthetics and ease of use. Its clearly a program that has been designed for ease of use rather than Media Player which is often confusing and frustrating to use, and not very pretty to look at at all. I'm converted, I love iTunes :) Check out how pretty is looks below.




I also had a look at another freeware site Jason mentioned, KeyPass. I downloaded it & checked it out. At first it was a little hard to find the right one to download as I was using a Mac, but once I found the right one, it only took a minute or so to download. It was also easy to use, to add new passwords in and to copy and paste the passwords once into the sites when you entered them. I can see how this would be a very useful program for someone who has alot of different passwords for email, work, banking etc. Although for me, I use Firefox and it automatically remembers all my passwords for me so I don't really need to use KeyPass at the moment.

Lecture Week 7 - Open Source Software

This weeks lecture was about open source software or freeware. Open source software are programs and applications that are available for free on the internet. They have been created from scratch to mimic other popular programs that you usually have to pay alot of money for (such as programs made by Microsoft of Adobe). Another important feature of these programs is that they have open coding, which means that other users can view and edit the code and collaboratively evolve the program.

Some of the pro's of open source software are that its free and that you can get specific things (eg you can just download the one specific program you want rather than being forced to buy an entire software package just to get the one program you want). Con's however are that there is a risk of getting a virus when you download the program, and the free programs don't have automatic updates like most of the programs you pay for, so if you want to keep your software up to date you need to keep constantly updating it.

Some examples of open source software/freeware include;

Mininova - a directory and search engine for torrent files.

Portableapps - provides access to free portable applications, computer programs you can download to your USB, plug in & use on any computer, and then unplug & take with you without leaving any of your personal data behind.

Sourceforge - provides services to help people build open source software.

Freewaregenious - provides reviews & links to various freeware sources

Download.cnet - free trial versions of freeware

iTunes - free media player

KeyPass - a secure way to manage your passwords

Mozy - provides you with 2GB of storage for free where you can store your documents.

Recuva - restores files you've accidentally deleted on your computer.

Skype - allows free calls between computers. You can also call mobiles & landlines for a small price.

Linux - we talked about Linux in an earlier lecture, its an operating system which is an alternative for Windows that you can download for free.

Redhat - provides support for open source software programs.



Below is an online tutorial I found on how to use iTunes. It proved very helpful to me during our tutorial task where we were to download and use some freeware such as iTunes.

Something Interesting - History of the Nerd

I found an interesting/hilarious site all about the history of the nerd today. Definitely worth a look. Here a couple of choice pics to get you in the mood :)

Tute Week 7 - iReport

Here is my clip from iReport, its actually a real news story, (although I think my reporting skills may be below par...) We did a story on the dust storm as it was happening that day. Unfortunately most of the dust had gone by then, but at least our story was real... :)

Lecture Week 6 - Production & Consumption

This weeks lecture was on the production & consumption of the big & small screen.

Consumption

Traditionally, and for the most part nowadays as well, we are consume professionally created media including television shows, movies, music videos, documentaries etc. We do this through a variety of different media including:

Big Screen -

• Cinema (this is a shared experience)
• TV (shared within a private setting)
• Computer (traditionally private but now becoming increasingly shared)

Small Screen -

• Personal media players (iPods)
• Smart phones (iPhone)

Through the creation of these portable media devices, consumption is becoming increasingly personal as we move away from the shared experience of the cinema to the private experience of our laptop, iPod or iPhone.

Because of the small screen size & often slow download times the most frequently viewed information on these smaller media devices is news. However at this stage, there is a lack of quality entertainment media available for these smaller platforms.


Production

Since the invention and wide use of the internet, the production of media has now become possible for all of us. We can now all shoot footage on our mobile phones and them upload it onto a global platform like Youtube. Some examples of 'consumers' now producing media include;

Fan Films - Short films produced by fans of a particular film that parody, make fun of, take off, or rip off the film itself. For example see the below fan film "Troops" which is based on Star Wars but turns it into a cop show.



Re-Genres - this is where fans of a particular film take clips from the film, add in music and a voice over and create a trailer so that it appears that the movie is in an entirely different genre. For example making The Shining look like a romantic comedy.



ireport.com - This is a website that allows people to upload their own news story. This is an interesting way for people to actively participate in the news, however the stories do not need to be checked before they make it online, so this can end up with alot of fake stories being posted online. For example, check out the story below.



Mobile Film Festivals - since just about everyone now has access to video recording via their mobile phone, just about anyone can now make a movie! As a result of this new medium, there have been a number of mobile film festivals. However there are a few problems with making films on mobile phones. For one, the sound quality is usually horrendous once you get a few feet away from the sound. Picture quality is also bad, and then there is the 'wobbles' you get with it being a hand held device. You can see one of the better mobile phone short films below. Its successful because it keeps these limitations of shooting on a mobile phone in mind.

Something Interesting - DeviantART

Here's another one of my favorite sites on the internet DeviantART.

They have so many examples of amazing artwork. Here are a few of my current favorites.

Tute Week 6

This week, we firstly went to Persona's. You put in your first and last name and it searches for instances of your name on the web and then depicts these findings in a visualiser. Mine didn't actually have anything about me but it found stuff about another Kristen Skinner that is apparently a baseball/softball player. You can see my results below.

Then we went to googlemaps and made our own map. I did mind on The Netherlands as I lived there for 6 months on a University exchange.

View The Netherlands in a larger map

Then we went to Sketchcast (my new favorite site) and I made a sketch, check it out!

From our lecture last week they provided links to lots of fun websites. The ones I liked are;

Internet Archive

On this website you can see how websites have progressed over time from when they first came onto the internet to the present day.

Polyvore

This website lets you create your own magazine layout of fashion! So much fun picking pretty shoes and bags to match. Hours of fun. You can also put text in, it looks really professional. Its a good way to express creativity on the internet.

Disaster Maps

Disaster maps is an online visualiser of disasters that are currently happening around the world such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods etc. Its a really quick and easy way to see whats happening around the world.

SpeedTest

Speedtest is another online visualiser that shows how fast information is travelling across the internet to different parts of the world. For example you can choose to connect to Russia and then see in real time how long it takes the informaiton to get there. Pretty cool!

Tute Week 5 - Internet Movies

Here are two examples of movies that have been made for internet release.

Firstly, "Living With The Infidels" has just been released. Its a black comedy about failed terrorist attacks. I chose this movie because its been on the news at the moment because its causing a bit of outrage because its a comedy about terrorists. I thought it was an interesting example of how the internet has given people a medium they can put these sort of productions on without censorship etc and people can consume it without being judged as they can watch it in the comfort of their own home. Check it out.


The second movie I found was another one of the Clive Owen BMW ads, this one is called "The Ticker". I chose this one because I really enjoyed the other clip that was shown in the lecture and I wanted to find something similar but I couldn't find anything that was as good quality and had such big name celebrities in it. Also its a good example of how the internet has been used as another platform to advertise on. Although this ad campaign was apparently not successful when it was released in 2001 & 2002. I think these days, with the increase in the use of YouTube and the explosion of social networking sites such as Facebook & Twitter alot more young people are spending even more time online so I think the ad campaign would be more successful if it had of been released now. Hopefully another company will recognise this and have another attempt at advertising in this way.


The final movie I found was one about globalization. This short film raises issues about globalization and urges people to take action. Again, this is a prime example of how the internet gives people a platform to voice their opinions and reach a large number of people that was otherwise not possible.

Lecture Week 5 - Creative & Social Uses of the Net

This weeks lecture was very entertaining! This was perhaps the first time I have been fully awake at 8am!

This lecture was all about the internet, its uses and history and gave us many examples of the best/most interesting websites on the internet. My favorite was Disaster Maps where you can see a real time visualisation of all the disasters that are currently happening around the world eg floods, fires, cyclones etc.

Lecture also discussed the dot com boom and the rapid rise and fall of internet based businesses in the late 1990's. As there were no lecture notes I hit up my good friend Wikipedia for some more information on the topic. The dot com boom occurred roughly in the period between 1998 and 2001, and it refers to the period in which countless internet companies were founded and soon after, failed. Such was the influence of the internet that companies who simply added a '.com' to their name saw their stock prices soar.

The initial success of the dot com boom can be attributed to the 'buzz' and novelty surrounding the internet at the time. Low interest rates also helped investors to get the capital needed for investment. Furthermore, because of the new medium, online companies were difficult to value and this resulted in many of the companies being rich but only 'on paper'.

The reason the bubble burst was because so many of the companies were over valued, and people were only buying their stocks because they thought the market would continue to rise, which it obviously could not do forever. Another reason that was covered in the lecture was that many online companies that sold products forgot to factor in the cost of postage. So their products may have been cheap (as the eliminated the cost of operating a store front) but then the high postage costs outweighed any savings that the customer would have made.

An interesting fact of the dot com boom is that internet companies that were successful and are still around today including Amazon and Google did not make a profit in their early years. Instead they were more focused on increasing their awareness and customer base, which obviously paid off for them in the long run.

Click here to see the full Wikipedia entry on the dot com boom (or the dot com bubble as they call it).

The lecture also covered social networking sites and the fact that there are a variety of other sites besides Facebook, MySpace and Twitter that allow people to network online. Many of the other social networking sites are specialist sites, based on a particular theme, culture or interest. See for example Gaia Online which is for lovers of Anime, or Ravely for people to share their knit and crochet work (thrilling!)

The lecture also covered how social networking, although heralded as the best thing to come from the internet so far, doesn't really allow the user to be very creative and can also be quite boring. You often end up hearing about the dullest parts of everyone's life "Ben is going to bed now", "Sally just had a cheese sandwich" etc. Furthermore you also run the risk of your future boss checking out your facebook profile and being none too impressed by the photo of you partaking in a beer bong (oops!).


This is where the lecture got really interesting, listing a number of websites that allow the user to be much more creative than any social networking site. We looked at Google Maps and saw how you can create your own interactive map where you upload your own picutures, videos and text about a location and then share it with your friends. We also looked at Sketchcast which I thought was the coolest thing ever and can't believe my internet savvy friends had not found it already. The clip below is one of the best examples of the site being used the way I think it should be. Although its all black & white and pretty basic, it attempts to create 'real life' action, rather than just recording you drawing a stationary picture, which is actually pretty boring... :(