Essay Research

The idea of the internet as cyberspace has been a part of our contemporary culture for some time, particularly in the popular medium of film. But is the concept of cyberspace still relevant to our contemporary society? Discuss with reference to your own experience of contemporary media.

1. Communities in Cyberspace (Smith & Kollock 1999)

I chose this book because it entails information about communities in cyberspace, which was once a small niche and now it is everywhere. Computer cyberspace can be used for political debate, social networking, public interest, popular culture and the list could go on. Instead of people talking to machines, computer networks are working on connecting people to people.

2. Virtual worlds and the social realities of cyberspace (Schroeder 1995)

This journal will be helpful because it outlines that digital technologies are playing huge roles in our lives in contemporary society. It also outlines media speculation and questioned how these technologies will affect us in the future. It also entails interactivity and realistic generated worlds in cyberspace.

3. The End of Cyberspace and Other Surprises (Thomas 2006)

This journal reports on Web 2.0, the possible end of cyberspace and the internet. It also depicts how technology has changed and enhanced and outlines the pros and cons of the world wide web. As well as stating that the internet has become a barrier with social face to face networking.

4. Information and Communication Technologies and Society (Fuchs 2009)

This article introduces the concept of Critical Internet Theory and gives an analysis of the accumulation strategies employed by corporations. As well as asking the question, what theoretical foundation is needed for studying the internet and society?

5. Embedding the Internet Into the Lives of College Students (Ogan, Ozaka & Groshek 2007)

This journal puts forth of how the internet is increasingly embedded into our lives, especially college students or should I say university students! This study reports the results of a web survey of a group of university undergraduates exploring the nature of both online and offline in five areas; the use of news and information, the discussion of politics, the seeking of health information, the use of blogs, and the downloading of media and software.

Evaluation

This subject has been quite insightful. I thought it would be something complete different with just history of the internet, where it came from etc. But it has been very interesting and interactive. The topics that stuck out for me were things such as, internet socialising and 3D worlds and actually having to witness them yourself and interact was quite new to me. As well as learning about consumption and production, where everyday, normal people can create digital media such as fan videos and trailers. More over, I enjoyed learning about creative commons, which helps people use and share media over the web, without breaking copyright rules.

Making the short video clips was interesting too, which just shows that amateurs can make decent videos, simply, easily and quickly. The tutorial tasks were also very interactive and interesting and just show that people can interact with anything and anyone over the net, by signing e petitions, contacting members of parliament etc. 

New communications technologies is something everyone should learn about because the internet and technology plays a huge part in todays society and that we all need to be in the know about what is happening in the ever changing web. New communications technologies is eye opening in knowing how much we depend on technology and how technology enhancement is changing how we live and the world around us.

Utopia and the Web

This week's lecture was done by Jason Nelson. Who basically focussed on the top of Utopia, which in theory is a word for an ideal community of society. But, he talked about web Utopia. Jason put forth that when the web first came about, companies put a lot of money into web technologies but then came the 'dot com' crash, where the stockmarket wiped out millions on internet technology, however by adding .com to the end of their site, the stocks would shoot back up again. This just demonstrates how much the internet changes, where putting something as simple as .com can bring back viewers. However, people can get bored of certain internet sites and move on to the next (Facebook instead of Myspace), hence that the internet is so unpredicable.

A lot of people are searching for Utopia but creators need to target specific groups in order for their web business to succeed. This can be achieved when producers continuously work, change and produce interesting material. Maybe that is why Facebook always changes with new elements added.

Political Participation Via the Internet

1. Sign an e-petition: I signed an e-petition on a new law against racism, so every person receives respect (http://alagarac.epetitions.net/).

2. Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site: I responded to an article on the Courier Mail website about 'Dead koalas delivered to Parliament'. I left a comment saying, "I do believe Koalas should be saved but putting dead koalas outside parliament is a bit too far."

3. What is Barak Obama up to today? I went straight to twitter for this, his last twittered comment was..feeling fired up and ready to go on health insurance reform (http://twitter.com/BARACKOBAMA)

4.Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are: Local: Grace Grace, State: Anna Bligh, Federal: Kevin Rudd (http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/view/legislativeAssembly/members_current.asp).

5.Look up the Queensland or Australian hansard to find the last time your local member spoke in parliament: Thursday 17 September 2009 (http://parlinfo.parliament.qld.gov.au/isysquery/069d3944-d5bf-4a79-a49e-35be95c97799/21-24/list/).

6.Let your local member know what you think about their last speech: I emailed her a quick summary of her speech on opening the Windsor School of Arts. (Brisbane.Central@parliament.qld.gov.au).

Political Possibilities

This week's lecture was not on, due to a strike. But Stephen Stockwell has put up some information up for us to read. He put forth that these days, the internet can really be used for anything, even CyberPolitics! CyberPolitics is a new function of the internet, where political activities can occur on forums, between bloggers and games. There is also eDemocracy, which is the internets contribution to real world politics, where you can even sign ePetitions etc. It is handy because the government can reach more and more people with the internet. Everday, normal people can have their say about politics and government on the internet. However, there are hackers out there. But can do global democracy good as well by providing spaces for debates for voices that could never be heard through mainstream media, creating more transparent information for political debates and allow people to have their own communication solutions.

There is also a new word I've never heard of, Cyberpunk. Which is a science fiction genre which features advanced science such as, information technology and cybernetics. It is also couples with radical change in the social order.

Another thought I had, that probably in the near future instead of going into election booths to vote for elections, you will probably be able to do it on the internet.

Three Minute Video

This is my second video, so I've thrown together a few bits and pieces of photos, music, themes, sound effects, photobooth and iMovie. I checked out some CC websites, which was interesting and appropriate. Sorry about my babbling! Also, I know there is a typo but it took forever to load it onto youtube, I just left it.

Free Culture, Free Society

"Our current culture is one in which creators get to create only with the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past" - Lawrence Lessing (2004) Free Culture

This week's lecture entailed discussion about creative commons, which started in December 2002.and is a non profit organisation which promotes reasonable copy right. It enables creators to make their work available by being able to freely use and modify other people's works to create something else and share medias. So instead of having all rights reserved it demonstrates some rights reserved which is a much more relaxed copyright system.

Additionally we discussed free software, where Richard M Stallman started the free software foundation in 1981, however the name free software then changed to open source. There are two types of software propriety and open source. Propriety software is a closed source where you cannot legally share or copy for others. Examples of this are; Windows, MacOs, Internet Explorer, Photobucket etc. On the other hand we have free software, where you can share it with other people and anyone can see it, edit it and use it. Examples of this are: Firefox, Linux, Open Office, VLC etc.

Short Video

I had a look around to see what photos I had on my mac and thought these would do the trick. I found iMovie really easy to use, however I did use it years ago but it was an older version and forgot. I also never new you could film on photobooth, I thought it just took photos, which is really useful. Adding photos, clips and music to iMovie is easy and I chose a theme too, which makes it a bit more interesting to look at.

Consumption and Production

This week's lecture was about consumption and production. Josh discussed that the media was best shared with the public through cinema as it is a public shared place with lots of people. Secondly there was the television, which is shared within the home or privately consumed. Thirdly there was the personal computer which is both private and shared. Josh also spoke about the small screen such as fixed media players, personal media platers and mobile phones. He then talked about how we are consuming more media then ever before not only through cinema, tv and computer but through mobile phones where you can receive news, sport etc. Although there is a large amount of consumption he went on to discuss production. People are producing media such as fan films and fan edits with extra content from dvds. Josh showed us some fan made trailers which were quite entertaining and smart, however they were originally consumed at first. Additionally we watched a short youtube clip of a film made entirely on a cell phone which I thought was touching. I've posted it below.