LEVEL 13 - The Final Countdown

I may or may not have just wanted an excuse to play this song, however I do believe it has a tiny bit of relevance to my final blog post.

The Internet of Things, it seems, has begun to take its own life force. We are not just comparing media use to our nervous system any more but rather the media is creating its own nervous system.

"The world of matter has become a great nervous system"

- Nathan Hawthorne

Think Apple, pretty soon there could be an entire Apple system that runs your home. I don't know if anyone else was a little frightened in this weeks lecture but I certainly was. Trying to understand that one day our media usage could rule our life, make decisions for us, even choose your friends, it's a scary thought. 

Now that information is free from physical carriers and we can carry around that information in our pockets, to me that screams ADDICTION! But what if it isn't an addiction? Merely just the next station on the train of life.

We have stopped being the most active users online, it is now media tools and objects that have the capacity to talk to one another. As Ted referenced in the lecture:

"Entities take their form and acquire their attributes as a result of their relations with other entities"

-John Law

Without trying to bring out the Sci-Fi nerd in me I will end by saying this, I already have a relationship with my laptop, perhaps it loves me back...?


To all the DIGC202 people, thanks for reading and commenting. You have been a truly great audience. The countdown to my levels are complete.


Au revoir.

LEVEL 12 - The post-PC era

Mobile computing is the way to go, says Apple and Google. But who will come out on top?



The invention of cloud computing is not a new concept but has been derived from having already-established programs that allow you to access your work from any computer. Think IM Creator (the online website-making template). Originally programmed for business marketing strategies, cloud computing is making its way into the handheld devices we carry around with us everyday. 

How Apple and Google differ their system is in the way in which they perceive what users want. A journalist for Computerworld.com writes that

"Apple is focused on keeping the experience of viewing and working with documents and data the same while providing ubiquitous access from a smaller set of solutions. Google wants to make your documents and data available from the widest possible array of sources, with the expectation that your hands-on experience may vary greatly from one device or app to the next." (Faas, 2011, pg 3)

Both platforms have been under scrutiny ever since the premiere of Google's Android system in 2008. While you can access Google's cloud system through any smart phone you can't do the same with Apple's iCloud. Apple's system is walled in to only Macintosh facilities. Even Wired magazine marked the system with disdain  

"Apple's device was an end in itself — a self-contained, jewel-like masterpiece locked in a sleek protective shell"(Roth, 2008)

With the new release of the iOS 5 system for the iPhone means we can cloud compute from any where at any time which is exactly what Google and Apple are fighting for.

SOURCES:

Faas R, 2011, 'How the Apple iCloud compares to Google's cloud', Computer World, 8 June, accessed 18/10/2011, http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217438/How_the_Apple_iCloud_compares_to_Google_s_cloud?taxonomyId=158&pageNumber=3

Roth D, 2008, ‘Google’s open source Android OS will free the wireless Web’, Wired Magazine, 23 July, accessed 18/10/2011, http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/16-07/ff_android?currentPage=2

LEVEL 11 - Revolution two point ohhh

Tunisia and the role of social media

I am sure Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey are now beginning to see what genius creations they have truly made. Facebook and Twitter have gone above and beyond what was traditionally known as the social networking giants. They now apparently start revolutions.

At the start of this year Tunisia was thrown into an almost media blackout, having being unable to visit many websites, including YouTube. This wasn't a new idea, Tunisia has had aggressive censorship since 2005, but the ironic thing is that social networking was NOT censored. The revolt to overthrow power had begun.

Foreign Policy magazine wrote in an article that:

"Ben Ali's government tightly controlled all forms of media, online and offline. Reporters were prevented from traveling to cover protests in Sidi Bouzid, and the reports from the official media, characterized events as either vandalism or terrorism." (Zuckerman, 2011)

However, many people had received an alternative view through the social networking site of Facebook. Viewers were beginning to upload videos and pictures to communicate with neighbouring countries. The videos were a symbol for the rest of the world to catch on and eventually Tunisia became a hot topic on the 'Revolutions' page.

Once authorities understood where the information was coming from they started to use "phishing" techniques on activist's Facebook pages and locked people out of their own accounts.

What I do find interesting about this particular topic is that, if the Government had the resources to stop social networking, then why didn't they? Perhaps former President Ben Ali didn't want to miss out on his weekly Facebook chat with the other diplomats.

Whatever the reason, it is clear that social networking as a tool, has opened up many more portals in the conversation of advocacy. And as we learn more and more about the current Arab Spring, we begin to understand just how vital our virtual self can really be.

SOURCES:

Morozov E, 2011, 'Facebook and Twitter are just places revolutionaries go', The Guardian, 7 March, accessed 10/10/2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/07/facebook-twitter-revolutionaries-cyber-utopians?INTCMP=SRCH

Zuckerman E, 2011, 'The First Twitter Revolution?', Foreign Policy, 14 January, accessed 16/10/2011, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/14/the_first_twitter_revolution?page=0,0

LEVEL 9 - Cyberspace Victory

What seems to be the question of the week and perhaps the year


Do you think Wikileaks is wrong?


I know I should have an answer but I don't. Yes I think Wikileaks is a fairly good idea and yes Wikileaks seems to give a fair voice but there are no absolutes here. Obviously Julian Assange is not as confident as he was, but who would be after being labelled a "hacker".

What good can come from hacking? What does one achieve from breaking into personal information  and revealing it. Should businesses who have invested in an e-commerce strategy be under constant fear of hackers getting into their system? Where is the line drawn if even the hackers are scared of hackers? Even Assange admits to being paranoid sometimes.

"A low grade fever of paranoia runs through the Wikileaks community" (Khatchadourian, 2010, pg 2)

It seems that the power now lies in the virtual world instead of the real. Comparing this to activist campaigns who, in the past, have walked the streets and created picket lines, it looks like we are now creating a cyberspace battle field. The website Crowd Surfing writes that the new phenomenon is "slacktivism", whereby people join virtual petitions that can assist with activist campaigning. Crowd Surfing believes that social media is 

"reawakening popular activism" (2010) 

So I guess we can thank Julian Assange for opening up the eyes of some more ignorant folks to hactivism and slacktivism. Let's just hope that the cyberspace activist community protect themselves from open fire.

                 

SOURCES

Khatchadourian R, 2010, 'No Secrets: Julian Assange's mission for total transparency', The New Yorker, June 7, http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/06/07/100607fa_fact_khatchadourian?currentPage=2

Crowd Surfing, 2010, accessed 21/9/2011, http://www.crowdsurfing.net/2010/12/18/the-year-of-slacktivism-and-hacktivism/

LEVEL 8 - Even Hot_Mumma69 is a Professional

The story of South Korea's struggle to citizen journalism.

Imagine this:
Hot_Mumma69 writes an article for the Hankyoreh newspaper in South Korea, she discusses her political preference and gives evidence based on her research. She’s proud of her work, hands it to her boss and he tears it up in her face. BAM! Bye bye career. 




So maybe it wasn’t that harsh but in the 1980’s freedom and full advocacy was hard to come by. Media outlets and major news stations were the watchdogs of the Government, in a time where no one could discuss any political allegations, the audience was given a one-sided view on almost everything.

In Isozaki's books he discusses the ways the Government has control and what they have control over.

"The South Korean state controlled resources and their distribution in all spheres, including politics, economics, social welfare and autonomous activities by non-governmental groups" (2002, pg 288) 

It looked as though South Korea was plummeting into the dark abyss of full Governmental control and Hot_Mumma69 was out of a job.  But not all was lost. By 2003 a new Prime Minister was elected, Roh Moo-Hyan, (we’re going to call him Roh03). Roh03 was given the opportunity to turn the current state of South Korea around and his first order of action after he was elected was to allow his first interview as PM to OhMyNews. OhMyNews was one of the first online newspapers that made room for the public to speak. It is an open source style of news reporting where people can send in their stories and they can be published online. Their slogan ‘every citizen is a reporter’, fits well in the topic of citizen journalism and as discussed in the tutorials can have issues. However, considering OhMyNews has almost 15 million visits per day, I would say it’s working. Not only as an online portal but as a place where South Korean’s can safely have a voice. There are still some restrictions in South Korea, for example, the current Government is able to limit the expression of ideas that circle the communist party of North Korea. In other words, they don’t like it when you are pro-North Korean. But apart from that you are practically free. 

The question that arises from this story is,how far will citizen journalism really go?

                                          

I believe there is still a long road ahead for the boundaries of professional vs amateur to blur completely, but I also argue that without citizen journalism there would not have been civil disobedience and ultimately Non-Governmental Organisations. We want the amateur to become the professional. We want the girl to become the journalist. As Bruns states in his article:

“the very term ‘journalist’ has been broadened to include not only core news professionals, but also commentators, hosts, and a variety of other media personalities” (2009).

Because not only do we want Hot_Mumma69 to be a professional in the bedroom, we want her to become a professional journalist too.

           

SOURCES:

Bruns A, 2009, 'News Blogs and Citizen Journalism: New Directions for e-Journalism' 
URL: http://produsage.org/files/News%20Blogs%20and%20Citizen%20Journalism.pdf

Isozaki N, 2002, South Korean Advocacy for Democratization,the state and NGO's: Perspective from Asia, Shin'ichi Shigetomi ed. Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore

LEVEL 7 - If you like that then you'll LOVE this!

"If you liked The Italian Job then you'll probably enjoy the movie The Town."

Just a day in the life of an employee at Video Ezy. I feel I say this all the time. I refer to popular movies to make my customers watch a non-popular movie. Classic selling technique, or so I thought.


The readings by Chris Anderson and Clay Shirky point out that success is no longer through popular demand but rather through specific niche markets. The "Arthouse" movies I would call it. But the majority of them are not Arthouse films they are either small-budget films, film festival movies or word of mouth films that slowly make their way up to the top of the food chain. For example, The Lost Thing, is in popular demand at Video Ezy because of the amount of awards and nominations it has.

My boss has had to change the way we market our DVDs because popular movies are not making us enough money, therefore he has opened up a market for the customers who want obscure titles and TV series that are difficult to get. His target is the niche market of movies that are continually in customer demand. Anderson calls these titles "misses".


"A hit and a miss are on equal economic footing, both just entries in a database called up on demand, both equally worthy of being carried. Suddenly, popularity no longer has a monopoly on profitability." (Anderson, 2004)


So when Anderson disccusses the rise of these niche markets due to the Internet, he is also talking about my part time job, because I use these marketing strategies to create hype of good movies. I never thought a reading could hit close to home but this has topped it for me. The ever-changing market of these niche titles will only get bigger.




So if you liked this blog then you'll enjoy working at Video Ezy.

LEVEL 6 - Not baby making, media making.

Were we born from a computer? I think some people were. Some people were just born to create things, create simple yet structured media for everyday use. 


In this day and age, we create things for media every time we go online. Whether it be creating:
 a Facebook status

Or uploading a new image to Flickr

Or if you're as computer-savy as Andreas Illing you'll create an iPhone app that will give you about a million dollars in revenue and you'll never have to work again. Tiny Wings

Deuze discusses in his writing that convergence culture is important to study when looking at major corporate control, because it isn't just about the big guns any more. It's about the creative class, like Andreas, that keep simple mediamaking a business. This everyday creativity gives more control to the user and we are able to control the flow of media around us. Deuze sums this up like this:

"Media forces us to retreat into our own personal information space, where we exercise an unparalleled degree of control over what we watch and what we hear, what we keep discard of forward."


So when Deuze goes into the case studies in his article, he isn't just referring to the genius' who created Amazon and Counter Strike, he's referring to the fact that they have opened up a window of opportunity for users and consumers to become one. These platforms enable people to be creative and pick and choose what they want rather then the media controlling them. It is't just about professionals and amateurs any more, it's about being that person to create something as simple as an iPhone app. Perhaps Andreas Illing was born from Apple, who knows...