Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Week 10 - Tutorial Task

Essay progress

This week I went onto the below sites as recommended by our tutor to try and get some helpful tips on planning and writing my final essay:
  • http://www.diigo.com/
  • https://bubbl.us/
  • http://www.timetoast.com/
  • http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/templates/essay-plan-TC102410918.aspx   
I found the last one especially helpful in writing my essay plan as it put my research notes more into perspective, making it easier to organize the order of my essay.

Diigo I have found, is also a great tool for organizing my essay research notes. It allows you to take screen shots of particular parts of a web page or all of it, highlight parts, and add interactive sticky notes, which all then collectively go into 'My Library' where I can access from any computer or Android/iPhone which is a great idea.

 

Sunday, 25 September 2011

Week 9 - response to content

Cyberpolitics and Hackers- are we all somehow one?

An interesting quote by Blankership (1986) from the article titled, 'Citizen-Hacker: Doing Global Democracy' from the weekly readings this week mentions "This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons? We explore... We seek after knowledge?."

This statement got me thinking about how true this statement was back in the late 80's and how relevant it is today.

A question that could be raised is are many of us today in fact, citizen hackers? Curious and simply wanting to explore and delve into the knowledge mind of a computer to gain 'digital inclusion and universal access'? (Lenczner, Townsend & Proulx et.al 2011).
I know myself, that I am forever curious as to how and why software is the way it is as I gain further knowledge, and therefore the more I want to find out about.

That's also why I believe open source software is so important and something that I have a strong ethos towards and the fact that there should be much more of it readily available for users to share with one another.

Another point that springs to mind is the fact that many years ago when they use to have meetings in the public sphere, and those who wanted to voice their opinions or share information were able to do so, I suppose it could be somewhat similar where today particular kinds of 'hackers' simply want to find out more information that they believe should be readily available for all to use and share, but cannot, therefore they hack into a system to somehow try to find it themselves.

So could it be possible that we really all are somehow a 'hack' at some point in that we wish to seek out knowledge and information that perhaps we so rightly deserve to know?

Reference:
1) Lenczner, M, Townsend, A, Proulx, F, Hall, J, Kaplan, A, 2011,
Citizen Hackers: Their Disappearing Role in the Community Wireless Movement, viewed 22 September 2011, http://www.cuwinpdf




Friday, 23 September 2011

Week 9 - Tutorial Task

Final essay topic and plan:

My chosen essay topic question is:

"What is communication? Do whales communicate? Do birds? Do atoms? Does DNA communicate? What would you suggest as the limits to communication? When does a failure of human communication occur?"

My plan of attack is outlined below:

I will first give a definition of communication and give a very broad mention and discussion on a few different forms of communication e.g, technological and non-technological communication, how particular animals communicate, perhaps types of physical and non-physical (speech) communication and perhaps touch on inter-cultural communication. I would also like to perhaps briefly discuss it's close relativity to psychology.

I will come to a conclusion after I have done more extensive research.

Some research I have found on the topic which I may use is below:

1) Communication Theory
    Volume 2, Issue 3, pages 251–259, August 1992

2) The “Concept” of Communication
    Frank E. X. Dance, Journal of Communication
   Volume 20, Issue 2, pages 201–210, June 1970

3) Deviation, rejection, and communication.   
 Schachter, Stanley
   The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Vol 46(2), Apr 1951, 190-207. doi: 10.1037/h0062326
http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/abn/46/2/190/



My Political Participation on the internet:

1) Sign an e-petition.
2) Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site:
3) What is Barak Obama up to today? Can you send him a message about the importance of freedom   on the internet?
4) What are the Australian Government's plans to censor the internet (the so-called "Clean Feed")?
5) When will the NBN get to your place? What are the benefits?
6) Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are. Send one a message.
7) Look up the Queensland or Australian hansard to find the last time your local member spoke in parliament.

1) E-PETITIONS CONFIRMATION

Thank you Miss Morgan   
Your name has been added to the Support for whaling ban E-Petition as specified below.

Please print this page if you require confirmation.

Click here to return to E-Petitions

 TO: The Honourable the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland





Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House that some reports indicate that approximately 1,400 whales are hunted and killed each year and at least 7 species of giant whales are endangered and the global whale population continues to decline.


Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to join with the Federal Government in advocating for a total global ban on whaling and for strong international action to be taken against those countries who continue to support national whaling programs.
2)
comment submission completeX
Thank you for submitting your comment.
http://health.ninemsn.com.au/blog.aspx?blogentryid=35690&showcomments=true
It may take up to a day for your comment to be approved and published on the site.
3) President Obama's Schedule for Wednesday 21/09/11 is found here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/schedule/president/2011-09-21
4) Australian Government's plans to censor the internet: "Exact plans and implementation dates for the government's so-called "clean feed" remain uncertain, but testing is due to take place with a number of ISPs. Chief amongst the arguments against the plan are the detrimental effect it will have on connection speeds (doubly ironic given the government's plans to fund a massive increase in broadband speed), and the lack of clear information on just what will be blocked."
5) There are no definite dates on when the NBN will come to the Gold Coast. The map that is on the NBN official websye (link below) only shows the first and second release sites - Brisbane city is one of the second sites.
And it states: 'There will be a rolling 12 month plan that updates every ¼ with specific details about the next locations for the next 12 months and a rolling 3 year plan. The first copy is due out 3 months after the Telstra shareholders deal.'
6) -Local for Burleigh/Miami area: Mrs Christine Ann Smith MP
     -Australian federal representitives:





Week 8 - Tutorial Task

Progress on video assignment

This week we created a facebook 'page' for our video titled "Information Fighters'. Our idea behind this page was to add some depth to our video concept by using an additional technology medium to portray our ideas and to even see how many people we can get to 'like' the page.

My job is to create this page, which only took about 45 minutes. After I got it up and running I asked my other group members to collate any pictures they had that we will possibly use in our video and upload them all to our facebook page/photo album, that way we will be able to see all the pictures as well as attract curiosity to our page.

In addition to this I have started to broaden my picture/image search to the following sites, which are both royalty free content sites:
1) Dreamstime.com
2) Shutterstock.com

I found these sites by searching in Google.
All I have done is sign up with a free membership and that enables me to browse and use thousands of royalty free images under the condition that I recognise the source of the image and the site it came from in correct format, and use them in the following ways, as stated on the FAQ page of their website:



  • Web sites


  • Multimedia presentations

  • Displays for trade shows


  • Billboards/banners


  • Packaging/labels


  • Broadcast video


  • On business letterhead

  • Brochures


  • Business cards

  • Office decoration


  • Decoration for restaurants

  • Public areas

  • Decoration in stores

  • And many other uses outlined in our Standard and Enhanced Licensing Terms


  • In our case, we can use them in our video.

    We also met up this week to start putting our images/music and voice overs into Final Cut Pro to make our video.
    We went to the Mac computer lab at uni with all our images and music ready to upload to the Final Cut Pro and realised it wasn't on those computers!

    So we have had to use iMovie instead - a little scary being that none of our group members have used it before.
    We have managed to teach ourselves how to upload all our images/music to it to start creating and editing the video.

    We haven't ended up using all the images we collated on our facebook page for the video, because we've found while editing the video, that the short 1.5 - 3 minute time limit is rather quick!

    Finally after inserting all our images and text into the video, (we decided against using voice recording too as it takes away from the legitimacy feel of the video) we have completed our video!

    It has taken roughly 7.5 hours to get it the way we want it, well considering the short time frame of just 3 weeks that we have had to think of an idea, research images, music and copyrighting laws and put it all into video form, we have done well.

    The last thing we have done, and after seeking advice from out tutor is credit every single one of the images and the song that we used in our video.

    We have done this by attributing them all in the description part beneath where we uploaded our video to You Tube.

    A great job and here it is for your viewing:



    Reference:
    Frequently Asked Questions, viewed 19 September,
    http://www.shutterstock.com/faq.mhtml#FAQ_Q_HOW_DOES_SHUTTERSTOCK_WORK_.

    Tuesday, 20 September 2011

    Week 7 - Tutorial Task

    Why I believe Facebook works:

    I believe facebook is one of the most useful and participatory web applications I have ever seen for reasons such as:
    1. Cures Boredom
    2. Assists in finding lost friends/family members easily
    3. Keeps you up to date with events
    4. Allows you to upload, view and share photos with friends
    5. Great marketing/networking/advertising tool
    6. It's FREE to use
    I know this due to the phenomenally high number of users who are registered on Facebook - over 8 million active users (Facebook 2011). In addition, more than 2 billion posts are liked and commented on, on a daily basis.

    Reference:
    Facebook: Statistics, viewed 17 September 2011,
    https://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics


    Progress on video assignment to date:
    This week we have all been researching sites with uncopyrighted content that we can possibly use in our video.
    I started my search at http://creativecommons.org where I've been looking through various pictures that we could use to portray our main theme and ideas for the video.

    I'll admit it's not the ideal site for a large range of pictures but they should be adequate.
    I have found about 5 pictures that we can possibly use and import to Final Cut Pro (software program found on Mac computers).

    In terms of ideas, we are thinking the video will have some voice overs, pictures and music. Finding the content shouldn't be too difficult, it's putting the video itself together that will prove a challenge!

    I have never used Final Cut Pro, but one of our group members has as she owns a Mac computer and plans to show us how to use it in producing our video.

    Friday, 16 September 2011

    Week 8 - Lecture response

    Free or open source software

    After reading an article by Matt Lee (2011) titled  'What is free software and why is it so important for society?', it answered a lot of questions I had about what free/open software is.

    As a brief definition it's basically the opposite to proprietory (commercial) software and allows software users to be able to share knowledge and content, study it or add/modify it.

    I think this is a fantastic idea and have since then, been using different types of free software including GIMP a  similar type program to Photoshop but the difference being that it comes as a free download as opposed to Photoshop which is a very expensive commercialised software program.

    I also found that Kingsley-Hughes (2007) has a list (below) of free alternative software programs which can be downloaded from the net.
    I will endeveour to use some of these without a doubt over the last half of the semester.

    References:
    Kingsley-Hughes, A 2007, Free Alternatives to Commercial Software, viewed 17 September 2011, http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/free-alternatives-to-commercial-software/968

    Lee, M 2011, What is free software and why is it so important for society?, viewed 17 September 2011, <https://learning.secure.griffith.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_101249_1&frame=top>

    FreeCommercial
    7-ZipWinZip
    CDBurnerXPNero
    OpenOffice.orgMicrosoft Office
    ThunderbirdOutlook
    Paint.NET/GIMPPhotoshop
    AVG FreeSymantec/McAfee etc
    UBCD4WinNorton SystemWorks
    Any Linux distro…Windows/Mac

    SoftwareDescription
    FoxItPDF reader
    Real
    Alternative
    RealPlayer/Real One alternative
    avast!
    4 Home AV
    Anti virus
    ZipGeniusCompression tool
    ImgBurnISO burning tool
    Serif
    software
    DTP software
    Google
    Pack
    Misc
    CCleanerSystem optimizer/privacy
    InkscapeVector drawing tool
    AdAwareAntispyware
    Spybot
    S&D
    Antispyware
    AudacitySound editor
    FreeMindMind mapping
    Gantt
    Project
    Project manager
    Open
    Workbench
    Project manager
    ScribusDTP
    Blender3D creation
    SoftMaker
    Office
    Office suite
    Timidity++MIDI sequencer
    PDFCreatorPDF creator
    HuginPanorama creator
    OpenDiscISO crammed with high quality apps

    Week 7 - Lecture Response

    Producers and Produsage


    Produsage - 'the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement' (Bruns 2005).

    The more I read about this topic the more I liked the idea of user led content production, better known as produsage.
    For example, and as mentioned by Bruns, Wikipedia is a perfect example of Produsage and is where 'the production of ideas takes place in a collaborative, participatory environment which breaks down the boundaries between producers and consumers and instead enables all participants to be users as well as producers of information and knowledge'.

    I think this is a fantastic way of users getting the best opportunity to showcase their knowledge and allow participation in the sharing of knowledge on a interactive platform.

    I believe if users have or think they may have the knowledge to contribute to a topic then they should be given the opportunity, and of course the correct procedures should be in place to ensure that what they have stated is correct.

    On the other hand there is nothing wrong with the tradition of Producers, I just believe now that we have the technology and opportunity to contribute to worldwide knowledge we should use it.

    References:
    Bruns, A 2005, Towards Produsage Futures for User-Led Content Production, Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, Retrieved 17 September 2011 via Learning at Griffith site, Griffith University.

    Week 6 - Lecture response

    Mischief Marketing

    I have come to learn that mischief marketing is: 'unorthodox, bold and most importantly, successful' (Bahadur 2011).
    Two examples of mischief marketing are:

    1) When Netscape sued Microsoft due to the underlying fact that Microsoft was apparently violating monopoly rules with Internet Explorer. Such a daring move for Netscape, but the effectiveness of this campaign came out of the attention that they received in doing so.

    2) The Blair Witch Project creators got people talking predominantly (through viral marketing) in online chat rooms about this mysterious documentary which was centred around the legend of the Blair Witch.
    They purposely talked up the horror film to gain public attention and to spread word of mouth about the film. This turned out to be a very successful film grossing over 200 million dollars. Not bad for a film that cost around 22 thousand to make.

    I believe viral marketing is, if used correctly a very effective method of marketing, though in saying that do not believe that there is much of a theory or technical explanation to it either.

    It's success seems to be in it's spontaneity and unorthodox way.

    References:
    Bahadur, S 2011, Mischief Marketing : going UnOrThOdOx, viewed 1 September, 2011,  <http://marketingbrainstorm.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/mischief-marketing/>

    Tuesday, 30 August 2011

    Week 6 - Tutorial Task

    Hollywood on struggle street?
    In response to the lecture, I researched into whether the rise of the Internet is actually affecting Hollywood's day to day business.



    Asharya (2010) mentions that Netflix, a well known digital distributor of online content has been substantially growing in revenue and power. She goes on to say that this has been making executives at major Hollywood media conglomerates nervous because, their customer base has grown to 16 million and their stocks have tripled.
    Aside from this the fact that customers (the public) are shifting from traditional TV to online streaming has also got Hollywood worried (Asharya 2010).



    I am an avid user of streaming TV because it is that much easier, more convenient and instantaneous than going to the movies or video store. I do believe that this is the way of the future and perhaps Hollywood needs to do something about it if they are starting to feel the pinch.

    References:

    Asharya, K 2010, Hollywood grapples with the rise of Netflix, viewed 30 August 2011, http://www.itvedia.com/news/619.html




    For our group assessment I sifted through some production tools that we may use for the production of our video:


    1) Photoshop/GIMP - We may use this  program to change or edit photo's (our own and with the owners knowledge) in some way and then embed them into our video.

    2) Final Cut Pro - We are thinking of using this program as one of our group members has a Mac conputer and knows a lot about this program, I know very little. I believe we will use it to embed all of the pictures that we are using for the video (as opposed to acting in it ourselves) to make up the three minutes, as well as to edit music into it and text.

    3) Creative Commons website - This site is what was suggested to us by our tutor to source pictures/music from for our video. Reason being, the content on this site is for public use and as stated on the 'about' page of the site they 'provide a free, public, and standardized infrastructure that creates a balance between the reality of the Internet and the reality of copyright laws.'

    Reference:
    Creative Comons: About, viewed 30 August 2011,
    <http://creativecommons.org/about>

    Tuesday, 26 July 2011

    Week 5 - Response to Content

    The topic covered in this weeks lecture was 'The Language of Film.

    More closely defined the lecturer discussed in detail what a typical movie nowadays is made up of.

    This being the 'Three Act Structure', which is made up of:
    1) Setup
    2)Confrontation
    3)Resolution

    The lecturer also went through the five essential plot elements of a film:
    1. Believable/sympathetic lead character
    2. Urgent/difficult problem
    3. Attempts to overcome or solve problem (hurdles)
    4. The last stand/climax
    5. Resolution/succeed or not?

    The film Rubber which was viewed in this weeks lecture enabled us to get a grasp at the three act structure. This film was definately not your 'average story' type movie.

    The first half hour set the audience up with the first plot point which was a bunch of people, acting as a kind of tour group (representing the audience of the film) out in the desert in California watching out over a hill, a rubber tyre come to life and start to roll through the desert.

    As this tyre rolls it's way around it starts to learn that it can psychokinetically blow things up, starting with a plastic bottle and eventually moving into a rabbit and then a human persons head.

    With much regret I have not seen the end of the film but can imagine what happened - the tyre perhaps found another tyre to be with? I came to this conclusion because the music played throughout the film indicated that the tyre was lonely.

    This lecture was quite interesting and also works in with my subject 'Communication Performance' where we have also learnt the basic camera shots when filming eg. Close-up, Long shot, Medium Close-up.

    Week 5 - Tutorial Task

    1) Where was the first University established and in which year?

    Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. Established around 969 A.D.

    http://ask.yahoo.com/20030501.html viewed 26 August 2011, via Bing.

    2) What is Stephen Stockwell’s band called and what does he play? Can you name a couple of their songs?

    ‘Steve’ Stockwell is in a band called the Black Assassins. 
    Plays the Keyboard and sung vocals for the band. Some of the Black Assassins greatest hits include: ASIO, Azaria, Drugs, Death Take Me Now and Multinational Corporate Lifestyle.


    3. What is the weight of the world’s biggest machine? How much did it cost to build?
    The world’s biggest machine is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and it weighs in at 564,763 tons.
    It cost approximately $6.4 billion to build.


    4. Who is Justin Bieber’s lawyer, and what is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact the lawyer?
    Scooter Braun and the best way to get in contact with him is by emailing his team at: info@scooterbraun.com



    5. What is the cheapest form of travel from the Gold Coast to Melbourne?
    The cheapest form of travel from the Gold Coast to Melbourne is a flight, costing $79.


    6. Who is Hatsune Miku? What company does she belong to? What is her birthday? 
    Hatsune Miku is a Japanese “vocaloid” created by Crypton Future Media.
    Born/Created 31 August 2007.

    http://vocaloid.wikia.com/wiki/Hatsune_Miku viewed 26 August 2011, found via Bing.

    7. Find a live webcam in Belarus. Find a place to stay in Antarctica.


    http://www.maplandia.com/antarctic/hotels/  viewed 26 August 2011, via Ask.


    8. What song was top of the Australian pop charts this week in 1991?
    The song at the top of the Australian pop charts this week in 1991 was ‘Everything I Do, I Do It For You” by Bryan Adams, which spent 11 weeks at number 1.



    9. What type of car is used to make ‘Google Street View’?
    There are many different cars used to capture the images for Google Street View.
    One of them in Mumbai, India was an unmarked Maruti Suzuki.


    10. Translate these questions into Spanish and then translate them back into English.

    1. Where the first university was established and in what year?

    2. Which is Stephen Stockwell’ the bandage of called s and what he does plays? Can you name a pair of your songs?

    3. Which is the weight of the greatest machine of the world? How much it cost to construct?

    4. Who is Justin Bieber’ lawyer of s, and which is the best contact of the way (possible, more fast most reliable) the lawyer?

    5. Which is the cheapest form of route of the Gold Coast to Melbourne?

    6. Who is Hatsune Miku? What company she belongs? Which is its birthday?

    7. It finds webcam alive in Belarus. It finds a place to remain in Ant3artida.

    8. What song was the cover of Australian letters of the outbreak this week in 1991?

    9. What type of car is used to make the opinion of the street of Google of?

    10. It translates these questions to Spanish later and tradúzcalo again within English.

    Translated using Babelfish - http://babelfish.yahoo.com/ - viewed 26  August 2011, via Bing.

    Week 4 - Response to Content

    Did social media cause the British Riots?



    From my research I have found that social media did not actually cause the London riots. If we look at it from a common sense point of view, it is obvious though that sites like Twitter and Facebook may have helped in spreading offenders locations, enabling them to meet up in mass groups.

    According to the CNN website (cited below) the use of Blackberry phones and the instant message chat application which is free for users on the phone were used to aid in organizing gatherings of some of the rioters.

    So I will not be so bold as to say that social media caused the London riots but it certainly helped to 'fan the fire'.

    In contrast to this, I also came across as article which discussed in depth about teenage violence in the United Kingdom. The author (Wood, 2010) mentioned that the rate of teenage violence has not increased since 2008 when her study was conducted.
    So this makes me think that even though social media was also around in 2008 and many teenagers were potentially using it as they do now, the medium itself has not caused violence amongst teenagers.

    What the issue here is, is that social media networking sites and instant messaging applications, such as the Blackberry one mentioned earlier certainly have the potential to spiral and spread mass communications to others in an instant but, the same goes with a handgun or a knife.

    In concluding, it may even be fair to say  that when such acts of violence as the London riots occur, perhaps there needs to be a protocol in place for the correct authorities to be able to 'switch off' the offending site so to prevent the violence from escalating even further and in doing so, perhaps prevent the loss of lives along the way.



    References:
    1) viewed 20 August 2011, <http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/12/overheard-on-cnn-com-social-media-didnt-cause-uk-riots-people-didhttp://news.blogs.cnn.com>.

    2) Wood, R 2010, 'UK: the reality behind the 'knife crime' debate', Race Class, vol. 52, no. 97, viewed 27 August 2011, via Sage database.

    Week 4 - Tutorial Task

    I have chosen Facebook's Terms and Conditions to write about the below:
    -what are the kinds of content they allow? 
    -what can the service do with your content? 
    -what guarantees of privacy do they offer?

    Facebook's Term's & Conditions:
    When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and
    direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in
    order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content
    on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you
    automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you
    have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable,
    perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide
    license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly
    perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in
    whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any
    purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion
    thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into
    other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize
    sublicenses of the foregoing.
    (http://www.broadstuff.com/archives/324-Facebook-Copyright-have-you-read-the-small-print.html)


     1. No responsibility of Facebook owner for your contents. It means, if you show any link, picture or any video in facebook, you will be responsible for this. Facebook owner has right to delete your content at any time.
    2. You can not send or show any spam information on facebook.
    3. Any body who is below 13, can not use facebook.
    4. You can not break any copyright and if your contents are copied from any other site, your account in facebook may be disabled.
    5. You will sell user data.
    6. You have to follow the rules of video privacy protection act in facebook.
    7. Anybody can not issue press notice relating to your relationship with facebook.
    8. You can not transfer your account in facebook to third party.
    9. You can not misrepresent your relationship with facebook to others.
    10. You can not show share at facebook button at any site which violates facebook's term and conditions.
    (http://www.svtuition.org/2010/10/facebook-terms-and-conditions.html)

    -So as we can see above, the kinds of content Facebook allows can be pretty general in terms of everyday conversations. But it does mention that if any links/posts/content that go up that they do not approve of they have the right to delete them at anytime. This seems like a fairly reasonable condition though being that they do need to 'censor' the website.
    -What is a little worrying is that in facebook's terms and conditions, when it comes to using our content after we have posted it, they have used words like 'copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute. This does make me a little nervous and apprehensive about posting photo's especially on facebook because for all I know, they could be using my photos for advertising, or in a very far out example, if I was to run for a seat in parliament or appear in court from some reason, what's to stop the media/opposition from coincidentally bringing these photo's up?? It's also rather amazing, in these type of situations what copious amounts of money can achieve.
    -After doing a little bit of online research, I cannot seem to find that Facebook has any guarantee of privacy at all. It's basically what content you place on your 'page' you are then agreeing to share it with the public, whether that be your online friends or if facebook chooses to use your information in some other way, as outlined above.


    Week 3 - Response to Content

    How Google algorithms change the way we receive information.
    Inspired by the "Mind control and the internet" article by Sue Halpern.

    After reading this article it definitely made me think twice about jumping onto Google or my Gmail account or even Facebook. It made me think twice because of the scary reality of what has been named by Eli Pariser as the "filter bubble".
    The filter bubble is simply, well imagine your in a bubble and you have major news and web sites like Yahoo news, Facebook, Twitter, CNN etc on the outside of the bubble, basically sending through information into your bubble each time you search for something or get/want an 'update'.

    Another example is what Pariser (2011) mentions in his YouTube clip below, where he had two of his friends do a Google search on 'Egypt' and send him the screenshot of results. The interesting part was that one friend had the latest headlines come up in the search, whereas the other friend had holiday websites appear in the whole of page 1 of his Google search - nothing to do with the crisis that was happening at the time.

    Pariser (2011) went on to say because of the algorithms set up by Google they (algorithms) are not sophisticated enough to give ethical information and are designed to be 'personalised' for each and every individual. This meaning that instead of everyone getting the same search results we all get different results based on a number of variables including our location, the computer we are using, the browser we are using, and what we have clicked on previously.

    Enter the filter bubble.

    Pariser (2011) has gone on to say that the internet is no longer the way it was, imagine a big wide open forum used for sharing and linking people and information together around the world. Whereas now, picture a small funnel filtering information into each and every one of our computers so that when each individual person searches a particular topic, they will now get out of it what the 'internet' alorithims think they want to know rather than what they have the right to know/see.


    Don't get me wrong I believe the internet is an extremely useful source of information, a way of connecting to others and the way of the future. I am still though, a little uneasy about just how far it's going to go before we lose sight of the 'real world' and just accept that what is being fed to us will suffice.



    References:
    1) Parisier, E 2011, Beware: Online filter bubbles, viewed 13 August 2011,
    <http://youtu.be/B8ofWFx525s>

    2) Maiorana, M 2011, What's the internet hiding? Lets find out, viewed 27 August 2011,
    http://www.thefilterbubble.com/category/algorithms-2

    Week 3 - Tutorial Task

    1. Stockwell, S 1981, 'Kurinda Police Shooting', Legal Service Bulletin, vol. 6, pp. 48, viewed 10 August 2011, via Law Journal Library.

    2. Flaming Carrot Comics no. 7, 10 and 11.
        Burden, B 1952, ‘Flaming carrot comics no.7′, Renegade Press, Burbank, California.
        Underground and Independant Comics.

    3. After doing some research into the medical dangers of using mobile phones, I found one particular study and although it is a year old it, I believe it it still releveant and therefore was of much interest to me: 'the effects of the electromagnetic field emitted by cellular telephones upon the inner ear of rats, using distortion product otoacoustic emissions.'

    Forty Wistar Albino rats were used. Twenty newborn and 20 adult rats were divided into two groups of 10, one to participate in the study and one as a control. The rats were exposed to the electromagnetic field for 6 hours per day, for 30 consecutive days.

    Before and after the 30 day exposure period, distortion product otoacoustic emissions were measured in each group and a signal-to-noise ratio calculated, which was later used in statistical analysis. For both the newborn and adult rat groups, there was no significant difference in distortion product otoacoustic emissions recorded before and after exposure to the cellular telephone electromagnetic field (p>0.05).

    Exposure to the electromagnetic field emitted by cellular telephones, for 6 hours a day for 30 consecutive days, had no effect on the hearing of newborn or adult rats, at the outer ear, middle ear or cochlear level.
    I found this a rather satisfying study because I now feel a little safer using my mobile phone on a daily basis.

    *Citation:
    Kayabasoglu, G, Sezen, O S, Eraslan, G et al, 2010, 'Effect of chronic exposure to cellular telephone electromagnetic fields on hearing in rats', The Journal of laryngology and otology, Vol 125, no. 4, pp. 348 - 353, viewed on 9 November 2010 via Cambridge Journals Online.

    4. He gets angry and attacks Holden.
    Quote: ‘Leon looks shocked, surprised. But the needles in the computer barely move. Holden goes for the inside of his coat. But big Leon is faster. His laser burns a hole the size of a nickel through Holden’s stomach. Unlike a bullet, a laser causes no impact. It goes through Holden’s shoulder and comes out of his back, clean as a whistle. Like a rag doll he falls back into the seat. Big slow Leon is already walking away, but he stops, turns, and with a little smile of satisfaction fires through the back of the seat.’
    by Fancher, , H 1982, ‘Blade Runner', Based on the story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick, Draft script. July 24, 1980.-Roland, H 1982, viewed 13 August 2011,
    <http://sfy.ru/?script=blade_runner_ds>

    5. Paul Soukup said “that a society given so much to the use of diagrams and to the maneuvering of objects in space . . . should at the same time develop means of communication which specialize not in sight but in sound.”
    *Citation:
    Soukup, P 2004, ‘Communication Research trends’, Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture, vol. 23, pp. 23. Griffith Library Database.


    Task 2.

    The 'old internet community/medium' that I have chosen is MySpace. I chose it because I believe it was one of the original social networking sites which started a communication revolution.

    The very successful website, MySpace was launched in 2003 by Christopher De Wolf and Tom Anderson, 'both were members of Friendster.com and saw the potential of social networking, especially the combination of traditional social networking with the sort of personal expression enabled by other sites, such as blogs and personal Web pages (Bosworth 2005).

    Then from 2005-2006, user profiles jumped from 2 million to 80 million and MySpace started facing some big security issues when critics felt that identity theft was getting easier with millions of users personal information out there for all to see, not to mention the fact that basically anyone including PLAYBOY could create a page with various information and links to other 'sites'.

    De Wolf and Anderson then started to up their security measures to help combat these issues.

    While all this was going on, college student Mark Zuckerburg was about to lauch a much more popular and successful network media site which we now know as Facebook.

    Little did De Wolf and Anderson know at that time, that it would not only live up to the same popularity status as MySpace but surpass it internationally!
    I think part of the reason that Facebook took over was partly because it focused on purely providing sharing tools and platform to voice one's own opinion but also to enable the user to create their own community to simply post 'status's and photo's and talk about daily happenings.
    As opposed to MySpace which was fantastic for aspiring artists and those who wanted to broadcast themselves/something they created.

    What I'm getting is that 'everyday' people tend to use Facebook, whereas aspiring artists or those who want to share something other than what they had for breakfast were using MySpace, and in the end it appears the majority vote ruled.

    So MySpace in my opinion, certainly did influence the way we communicate and use technology today in that it started a trend of online social networking and communicating at the click of a mouse.

    It has also helped many artists get to where they are today, by simply being discovered on the site.

    Additionally, due to it's mass popularity and in agreeance with Corbin (2008) 'MySpace allows users to search their own channels and go where they want to go and, in doing so, it continues to push technology into new and exciting territories'.

    *References:

    1. Bosworth, Martin H. April 8, 2005. 'What’s Inside MySpace.com?, viewed 13 August, 2011, <http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/03/myspace_inside.html> .

    2. Corbin, Kenneth. July 25, 2008. 'Microsoft Searches for Revenue with Facebook.' viewed 13 August 2011, http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3761386/.

    3. A Place for Friends: A History of MySpace 2008, viewed 13 August 2011, <http://www.randomhistory.com/2008/08/14_myspace.html>


    Week 1 - Response to Content

    I believe the lecture in week one was given to help form a basis of knowledge for the course. Furthermore I agree with Stephen Stockwell when he quoted in the lecture 'Whether it be a simple smile, or a complex philosophical discussion, the need to communicate is fundamental to human life'.
    This is a spectacular statement which is also backed up by Academic, Rev. Michael D Place who also talks about the importance of communication in today's society/environment, more so from a medical perspective but still relevant. He goes on to mention that communication is 'critical to our ability to continue to thrive' (Place, 199

    Some of the main issues in new communication  technologies are:
    -Security of information, for example the Playstation hacker who got through Playstation's internal security systems and was able to potentially access millions of customer details including usernames, passwords, credit card information and addresses.

    Who knows what the hacker did with this illegal information and what's to stop them or the next hacker from doing it again?

    Sure, big corporations like Sony can 'enhance (their) security and strengthen their network infrastructure by re-building a system to provide greater protection' (Seybold 2011). This does give me some piece of mind, but I guess like most security measures there can be weaknesses and with the way that new communication technologies are headed, security issues will come up again and again.

    References:
    1. Seybold, P 2011, Update on PlayStation Network and Qriocity, viewed 27 August 2011,
    <http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/26/update-on-playstation-network-and-qriocity/>.



    2. Place, M.D. 1999, "Telling your story: The importance of communication", Health Progress, vol. 80, no. 3, pp.8.
    In this journal article, Place analyses what society and the media perceive particular health care facilities or systems. However he briefly highlights the importance of communication in today's society and the many advantages of forming lasting relationships. I used it in my reflection to help highlight the necessity and usefulness of communication in society, past and present.

    Week 2 - Tutorial Task


    Part B) This video is simply called 'communication'. I chose it because: 1) I thought it was simple yet effective advertising for the cellphone company that made it and 2) It is trying to depict how far communication mediums have come since the very first inhabitants and how easy it is to use that particular companys cellphone network.
    It is of an aboriginal man who is trying to communicate with his friend some distance away through a traditional aboriginal medium of travelling sound created by swinging a long piece of material with a hard object inside the end. While he is attempting to do this it goes awfully wrong! His wife, who is minding her own business, having a bath by the creek, is hit by his flying object and knocked out! Clearly NOT what her husband set out to do.
    A bit of a laugh anyway.

    Part C) For another one of my subjects this semester we were required to produce a website (one page only though) with an artwork that we created BUT only using HTML/CSS codes. This proved fairly difficult in the beginning until after a few days of researching html tutorials, I found a website called www.w3schools.com.

    I actually learnt a lot of coding tricks from this excellent site. They had a fantastic tool on there which allows you not only to be shown how to do all types of basic and advanced html coding but also has a split screen, so when you look at a code, and then want to make any variations to it to see which code does what, at the click of a button you can see what your 'webpage' will look like! Fabulous I thought.
    I give this website application a 9.5 out of 10!


    Part 2) How I use new communication technologies to communicate with friends and family:
    Q:How long have you been using these communication technologies?
    A: I have been using new communication technologies more so since the days of My Space. The main mediums of technology that I use currently are Facebook, email, MMS and text messaging. I occasionally use Skype to communicate with a relative in the USA also.

    Q:What influenced you to start using these particular technologies?  
    A: Hearing from friends how good it was, so I thought I'd check it out and have been hooked since.
    I first started using text messaging back when I was in 14 in high-school, I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread, to be able to communicate with my friends through a medium other than in person or speaking over the phone. This would enable me to be able to text in class, and for only the cost of twenty cents per message!
    Q:How did you find out about them?
    A:Through my circle of friends/family members.

    Q:Is privacy an issue for you when using new technologies?  
    A: It definitely is an issue, I am now in the habit of checking my privacy settings on a regular basis. I always have a feeling of 'what if' in the back of my mind as well when posting things online, ensuring I don't allow too much personal information to be accessed by complete strangers.

    Q:What do you think of companies like Facebook and Google who collect information about their users?   (How do you deal with issues around privacy?)
    A: Answered in question above.

    Q: Do you have friends whom you know only from the internet and have never met in person?   Is this different to people that you know in person?  Describe the difference.
    A: No but my dad now has a fiance' from which he met via a dating site online a couple of years ago. He couldn't be any happier now.

    Below is a link to a site which gives tips on how to get more followers on your blog.
    A few mains hinters it gives are:

    1. Know what you are talking about

    2. Know your audience

    3. Write about important stuff

    4. Set the goal for your post

    5. Be different

    6. Great headlines

    7. Start with the lead

    8. Keep it short & simple

    9. Make it easy to read

    10. End with the call to action

    I think if you apply these basic rules when blogging, you shouldn't find it too difficult to attain some followers.
    http://www.dreamgrow.com/22-blogging-tips-make-better-blogger/

    Week 2 - Response to Content

    Gutenberg's invention of the printing press

    One of the main key turning points in communication history was the introduction of the Gutenberg printing press in 1436, by Johannes Gutenberg, who developed a system of cast-metal movable type and a hand press to make the printing process easier and the product more consistent with replaceable/movable wooden or metal letters -which changed the world of printing.

    Belis (2011) stated that 'this method of printing can be credited not only for a revolution in the production of books, but also for fostering rapid development in the sciences, arts and religion through the transmission of texts.'

    I am in full agreeance with Belis in her statement above especially considering religion, because after Gutenberg's revolutionary invention, the bible was then able to be mass produced for many, which then enabled the developing world access to such a popular book.

    The world would be a much different one had Gutenberg not invented his printing press. It just goes to show that if such communcative mediums were not introduced when they were, humankind may not have made it in history as far as it has.


    Communication, new and old has helped the world in moving forward as it will continue to do so.

    References:
    Belis, M 2011, Johannes Gutenberg and the printing press, viewed 16 August 2011, <https://learning.secure.griffith.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_101249_1&frame=top>

    Week 1 - Tutorial Task

    Hi I'm Tara..

    I am currently undertaking a Bachelor of Communication.
    I am in my first year, second semester and New Communication Technologies is a core course for me.

    What do I want to get out of this course?
    I believe it will help me to form a basic understanding of the way in which the world of technology has changed so drastically and the way it is heading, and not just the physical technologies that are evolving but also the psychological effect it is having in today's society.

    I am rather interested in communication theory and hope to gain a wider knowledge of past, current and future mediums of technology.

    To the future and beyond....