3D Worlds and Socialising on the Internet

The 3D chat room environment I chose was habbo hotel. Firstly I registered and designed my little made up character and got chatting. There are a range of different places in habbo hotel to chat, such as, party rooms, dating rooms, trading rooms, game rooms, the pool etc. I can definately tell that majority of the users are young, ranging from 10 - 16 years old. I found this out because people were telling eachother their ages and the content of the conversation was definately immature. Personally I rather talk to my friends and only the people I know on msn messenger for several reasons. Firstly, I know exactly who I'm talking to, we can send songs, files to one another and thirdly, it's realistic! However if I was young, naive and bored habbo hotel would be a fun place to play games, meet new people and hide behind a fictional character. The 3D aspect of habbo hotel might help make chatting more exciting for younger people but for me it was actually tedious going on to the site. Ultimately if you want to simply talk to a friend in a personal atmosphere then instant messenger is the way to go, but if you want to talk to people you don't know, play games and interact more then the 3D chat world is best for you.

Media? Web 2.0? Social Media?

This week's lecture was all about the internet, technology and media. Technology is the actual physical object, whereas media is used for social and cultural communication where technology becomes the medium for that communication. There are certain themes for internet studies such as; virtual community, where people chat to each other long enough to form real feelings and relationships. Another theme is individual identity, where we can create ourselves over the internet through facebook pages, blogs etc. The internet is becoming increasingly popular and becoming normal to meet people with similar interests to you. It may be hard to meet someone in a bar, who probably doesn't hold the same interest as you but you can do specific searches on the internet. There is a new element called ego centric social network where the focus moves away from groups to you, the individual. Take example myspace, where people take countless photos of themselves and talk about themselves like they're advertising themselves to the world.



Then comes web 2.0. Out with the old and in with the new. Web 2.0 features folksonomy, using 'tags' on posts or items, the idea of user-generated context, where people make stuff such as photos, videos and put them on the internet and open API, where you can share data between services. Additionally there is social media which features blogs, social network services and content sharing communities. However with all these exciting new features, our personal details are becoming more easily accessible and it's our privacy we need to think about.

Language of Cinema

Week three's lecture was about cine-speak, which is learning the language of cinema. There are many different shots to create different effects and meaning. Therefore, the close up answers the question of 'who' by showing the character in detail. The mid shot answers the question of what by showing the actor in action. The long shot answers the where in the establishing shot. The wide shot and the close up can answer the when question, however time can be a difficult thing to capture on screen. The big close up can answer the why question by revealing more about the character, trying to see inside them. To answer how we can use a single medium shot or a range of close ups to explain an event. 

Additionally there are other elements to cine-speak such as; headroom, talking room, rule of thirds (balance in a shot), the 180 degree rule where there are cameras on one side of the event, inserts and cut aways (providing extra information inside or outside the scene) and most importantly the scene needs to make a statement and drive the narrative forward.

Video Killed the Radio Star

Just a funny vid about video taking over radio and how technology is always enhancing.

Search Engines

How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?

Early search engines ranked pages based on page contents, formatting and based on the content of metadata tags. However when Google arrived it ranks by how frequently other sites link to you, not by what you do or don't say on your site. (http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/misc/searchworks.html)

Who, or what, makes one page more useful than another one, so that it is put at the top of your search results?

If you're searching diabetes and the word diabetes comes up over and over then it is likely this would be at the top of the list as well as how many hits it has gotten. (http://www.monash.com/spidap4.html)

What are some of your favourite search engines? Why do you like one more than others?

My favourite search engine is Google as it is precise and easy. It shows up much more then yahoo or ask which I used earlier in the scavenger hunt. I just think it's the most dependable search engine.

Scavenger Hunt

Try to answer these questions without using Google or Wikipedia.

1. What did Alan Turing wear while riding his bicycle around Bletchley Park? A gas mask. (http://autism.about.com/b/2006/07/30/alan-turing-autistic-savant.htm?iam=metaresults&terms=build+a+motor)

2. On what date did two computers first communicate with each other? Where were they? In 1972 first email is developed by Ray Tomlinson. (www.nethistory.info/History of the Internet/email.html)

3. What is Bill Gates’ birthday and what age was he when he sold his first software? 28th October 1955 and seventeen years old. (http://www.answers.com/topic/bill-gates)

4.Where was the World Wide Web invented? At CERN in Geneva. (http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article /0,1564,1367151, 00.html)

5. How does the power of the computer you are working on now compare with the power of a personal computer from 30 years ago? 30 years ago the computer was used for educational purposes only through educational games, word processor, databases, spreadsheets and research tools. However today computers are used for nearly everything and anything, such as socializing, games, music, videos, shopping etc. (http://www.portical.org/fouts.pdf)

6.What is the weight of the largest parsnip ever grown? 5.7kg. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture /3348613/Giant-vegetable-growers-rejoice-in-wet-summer.html)

7.When did Queensland become a state and why is the Tweed River in New South Wales? 1859, the river was kept in New South Wales because it provided economic, social and ecological fabric to the town. (http://www.maritime.nsw.gov.au/d ocs/recboat/tweed-part1.pdf)

8. What was the weather like in south-east Queensland on 17 November 1954?

9. Why is is Lord Byron still remembered in Venice? Because he proudly claimed he had women on 200 consecutive nights. (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/byron.htm)

10. What band did Sirhan Chapman play in and what is his real name? The Black Assassins. (www.myspace.com/theblackassassins)

Now that is over, I actually found it quite hard without google or wikipedia. Although there are many other search engines, I feel google is most precise. I found my self changing the words around countless times to try and find the answers I needed. I still couldn't find the answer to question 8 or the second part of question 10. I really thought it wouldn't be as difficult as it was without google and wikipedia. However I mainly used yahoo.com and ask.com of which were fairly helpful in my quest for the answers!

Experience with New Communication Technologies

I've for a while now. I started using the internet in my primary school years, googling information for assignments. I later got a mobile phone when I was twelve to contact family and friends. I only started using the internet to communicate with friends and family when I was thirteen. The thing that influenced me to get a mobile phone was my parents giving me a mobile for safety and emergencies however I used it to communicate with people more then anything. New communication technology has created easy access to personal details and some worry about privacy and its affects. However if you are smart about putting personal details on your facebook page, then I think that's acceptable but it varies from person to person. But it doesn't bother me so much because I don't give out personal details I don't want strangers knowing. But I do sometimes become curious when you register for certain things and you have to give out your address and phone number etc, but I havn't had any problems concerning internet privacy. What's more is that I don't have any internet friends whom I only know over the internet that I've never met. And it is definitely different to friends that you see nearly everyday because if you do have internet friends that you've never met you would never know who exactly it is, as people could be hiding their true identity. Ultimately I purely use the internet for information for assignments, socializing with friends, listening to music and watching videos. I think new communication technology is an effective tool for everyday.

History of the Computer and Internet

'Cyberspace is poetry inhabited, and to navigate through it is to become leaf on the wind of a dream.' Novak



Week two's lecture was about the history of computing and the internet. The first computers were first commercially produced in the 1950s by IBM. The first generation of computers were large machines used only for military, government and corporate work but it was known that computers would become smaller, quicker and less expensive in years to come (Stockwell 2009). The internet came about in the 1960s when the idea arose by RAND corporation. "The internet a network of networks...to link people around the world into an information system" (Stockwell 2009). Later came the world wide web in the early 1990s and it has just enhanced significantly from there.

Are you ready?

This is a short film clip about how we communicate, collaborate and connect in faster broader ways then ever before. It takes a look at how far technology has enabled us to come and has opened up many new opportunities. I chose this video because it is so amazing how far technology has come throughout the years and how much further it will come. How easy it is to communicate with people now through email, facebook, chat, skype and many other ways over the internet. But in the olden days it was face to face or through a letter. Additionally we can purchase and sell things over the internet, look up information, watch videos, play games and countless others. Technology is always changing and will continue to change and enhance for a long time.

Welcome

I'm Despina also known as Dez for short. I'm currently studying a bachelor of communications at Griffith university. The subjects I have chosen this semester are New Communcation Technology, Youth and Society, Social Enterprise and Research and Screen History. I enjoy learning about societal issues, film and literature but still don't know exactly what I'm going to major in. I chose the course basically because it interested me and has a wide range of subjects to choose from as I ama little confused about what I want to do in the future.