Digital Diversity

Presentations Twitter eddition!

2010-04-23T16:44:00.000-07:00

@Mark:

Mark argues online communities enable citizens to connect and share info about environmental issues and shows how they may become more productive. In class we add to the topic of including mobile technology to spread your thought like peanut butter.

@Sarah:

Sarah demonstrates how people represent themselves in online spaces specifically social networks. I believe we discussed the use of mono and polycommunications.

@Cassie:

Cassie showed how social networks worked in the classroom and how using them as an educational tool. She had good points as to how they assist individuals and how the manner in they go about assisting in both responsibility online and how to interact in Virtual space.

@Dena:

Dena states there is no governing body for social networks? If you minimize the amount of 'ideas' and bring them to a centralized topic it will all fall together.

@Michelle:

/win you've got direction run with it.

@Brittany:

Marketing mobile technology you had strong points and just two clear cut examples will give you the pathway you need.

@Mark:

Wow shows its entirety and how it functions to control or assist the population bringing in new content to build community.

@Kris:

/win you got what it takes.

ROUND 2! FIGHT!!

2010-04-16T19:29:00.000-07:00

Katie S. - Proposal - "How to bridge the digital divide in low income schools"
Beau Y. - Proposal - "Video games integrated into culture"
I liked how your presentation came out and how and what you showed really was applicable to your topic. The one thing i have to add would be a clear cut example of here's video games/ here's what they have to offer/here's how they're integrated into the system.
James-Gaming
Loved your presentation but want more out of your idea. I know that you could pull specific thoughts and processes for your gaming paper but you were pulling 3-4 rather than that you could just pull the one that breathes the hardest and go with that where your ideas such as the braille could be fully explored and explained.
Spencer T.- Proposal -"Do Games Generate Better Soldiers?"
I loved how you took the back road to this topic where most would say that better soldiers are made by games. Your paper is developing nicely just watch out for the 'going against what your claim is'

All the first week

2010-04-09T17:33:00.000-07:00

Lorena:
China Communication in crisis

I loved the way you gave your presentation you did a grand job of putting together your presentation and the way you held yourself in front of the class. Communication crisis was a good topic to pick up and it was easy to follow along with what you were discussing on technological censorship. We have modesty concerns with having a heavy religion base so we do have censorship with no connection along with what is vividly out there. The Chinese government has a take it or leave it attitude and trying to keep a country under its control makes for a very limited place. I believe if you go through why the Chinese government is being the keeper of the key "your paper would be as powerful as that execution picture in class. Great job."

Sheila (NEW NEW):
Gender issues in Social Networks

Going with club Penguin would be a great asset to your presentation especially with the Yo's and Hi's explanation. You could really pull from your other presentation as well from andrea's. I think that if you had examples of how facebook/myspace really brought out gender identities by their layout or color choices that could relate more to your topic as a whole it would really help. So if you helped focus on the view of how the space creates our inner instinct to want to branch out and become more gender identified. Your presentation was done well and i loved the prezi.

Smiley:
Mobile devices closing the digital divide in farming

I liked your presentation but it left me wanting more. I was curious on to your thoughts but I know that your paper is heading in the right direction but I do believe that you had a strong point with the big farmer little farmer on the same level.

Corrinda:
Education through gaming

You'll have it right if your comparing Gee and Gardener with their learning because learning is a multi model and it matches kids with their desire for technology. Your paper could go as a extended mid paper with the addition of Gardner to really thicken your discussion.

Kathleen:
Technopolotics

I wanted to do this technopolitics because it was such a grand idea and I know your going to enjoy talking about the recent president election. If you focus on the type of technology and how it related to the progression or even went into the view of what the technology did for them then you will have a stronger argument as to where to go.

Kudos to the first that went this week!

Instentaneous Outlet

2010-04-02T16:46:00.000-07:00

For those reading my blog if you didn't have time to do the extra credit you should still check out"The Internet in the Aftermath of the World Trade Center Attack" (CR 638-650)by Holcomb, Bakelaaar, and Zizzamia. It's a well done piece that describes the interaction of the internet at the time and after 9/11 describing how at that time it effectively functioned as it was produced for. The authors describe how the internet was first designed to function as a relay to be used in case of a nuclear attack and be responsible to recieve and transmit information across the country. They then go into detail of the good and bad uses that were brought along with the use of the internet how there were supposed encrypted data in pornographic images to send orders to terrorists or how false images were posted after as well as how individuals were able to communicate in the airplane as they were crashing. The fluid tranfer of information had become astounding at the time having the capability to reach and react at a far greater speed with the assistance of the internet.

This has also been seen with the help towards haiti and other places around the globe affected from natural disasters. Haiti is a great example of their argument where we as people are affected by how we are reached through twitter, social networks, and video sites of the pain coming from that country. Twitter has helped locate individuals stuck in collapsed building and other media outlets have also given views to the devastation that has occured and how we are in different countries and have the ability to view what is occuring real time in their location.

Blog #10 Internet Reach

2010-04-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

There are plenty of instances on the internet that have created opportunities for hackers and bloggers alike to become activists for their interest. It's apparent that technopolitics have become widely accepted and apparent of their ability to pass information on certain topics crazy fast. One that comes to mind are the views of ACORN. ACORN the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities. On September 9, 2009, conservative activists Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe released an edited hidden-camera video in which Giles posed as a prostitute and O'Keefe posed as a pimp in order to elicit responses from ACORN. In the video, two employees in ACORN's Baltimore office appear to advise the two regarding home loans, tax evasion, and disguising the identities of underaged sex workers trafficked from El Salvador. This was a video that broadcast the scandal coming out of acorn making its association dwindle due to their connections.

Videos, socail networks, and other aspects that the internet provide give an open area to prosper information invoking others on a wider scale. Derek has a great example of how that scale effectively reached out to 18 to 29 year old's reaching within that voter age group to push out the needed reach at an amazing pace. With each day the internet spreads its fingers Kahn and Kellner's essay could likely turn into many editions with how social online spaces are being used and how they affect individuals like you and me.

Who are you .com

2010-03-26T16:58:00.000-07:00

My final project will be investigating escalating function of Avatar representation and reproduction as they have become relevant to online spaces and the virtual community. With this topic my thesis will be something like: With the coming of online spaces exploration of avatar representation of a virtual embodiment has become an essential necessity of visual cultures, where they are enhancing virtual communities as well as creating a data space of your individuality on the web.
Representation in online spaces has been a varying issue where all individuals look or reproduce the same view or aspect without individuality. They may just have a blank template or defaulted icon without much ado where in metaspace there is a quite vivid complexity of race, gender, and views which give a large pallet of individuals. I want to argue the simplicities and views of avatars give communication as well as structure to online communities promoting connection of individuals online. I’ll use Nakamura’s “Avatars and the Visual Culture of Reproduction on the Web” to help provide insight to the functionality of visual communication meant to connect communities.
-I also hope to integrate the visuals of online social networks such as Facebook and Myspace and the differences that individuals represent themselves on said spaces.
The loss of existence through Avatars has become an issue concerning many across the digital illiterate where much of their metaspace has been lost to digitalspace. The argument has yet to be defined but I wish to go into how representation on online spaces and hybrid spaces have enhanced the relations from culture to visual culture.
Social Life is the concept of online spaces. Schroeder discusses in his paper the effects of avatar relations in terms of online communities “They prove to be the material out of which relationships and interactions are embodied” Said interactions bring new meaning to the variety on the internet and how communities are are enhanced. Communities on the internet are 100% participatory where you are in existence through your interactions on the web where I intend to display through Schroeders example how the embodiment enhances the social community.

Bib:

McCann, Phillip. "Global Village or Global City? The (Urban) Communications Revolution and Education." Paedagogica Historica 39. 1/2 (2003):165 Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 26 Mar, 2010
Silva, Adriana de Souza e. "From Cyber to Hybrid: Mobile Technologies as Interfaces of Hybrid Spaces." The Cybercultures Reader. Ed. David Bell and Barbara M. Kennedy. New York: Routledge, 2007. 757-770.

Lupton, Deborah (2000). “The Embodied Computer/User.” In The Cybercultures Reader, ed. David Bell and Barbara Kennedy. London: Routledge, 477-488.

Nakamura, Lisa (2008). “Avatars and the Visual Culture of Reproduction on the Web.” In Visual Cultures of the Internet. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 131-170.

(Online)Rheingold, Howard. The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Cambridge (Mass.): MIT, 2000. Print.

Illteration of an idea

2010-03-13T16:42:00.000-08:00

Is Your Diamond +5 Dex?

I want to display the view of Gaming (in sense of addiction and effort) and Person Representation. What i want to open in topic is view the public has with the clear conception that gaming is a bad habit and its degenerative style in the time one puts into a game. I'll bring up:
-how gamers relate to in game avatars items
-the value one puts effort into game
-the "time wasted"

In a jumbled way i want to illustrate how gaming is come across as an addiction where you spend countless hours questing for items and building up your character and how that relates to peoples image IRL when they buy the cool clothes or even diamonds which serve no purpose but to look pretty 'yeah i have a diamond that gives me plus 5 dexterity.' so to follow the idea of how games pitch into the mix

-Hans?

Optumis Manovich

2010-02-19T14:38:00.000-08:00

Web 2.0 more than meets the eye! I decided to jump straight into the boiling pot and checked out Lev Manovich and his article 'The practice of everyday (media) life From Mass Consumption to Mass Production'. Quite the title and quite the read where he goes into the past and brings it round town to the ever changing future. Some of the points that were brought up were the use of the technology where in the past (back in the day) it was used mainly professionally and the main components behind owning a computer or fishing around its know how was for work where as today he discusses web 2.0 and its recreational use. The article went into detail of its use as well as where it is heading in this day and age where anyone with a camera can challenge the internet and its endless plane.

Its weird how much Manovich makes sense in his article. I mean it's crazy how much information you can draw from this article and where it all comes from which is...our here and now! I visit YouTube at least once a day and experience their communities and function in other networks. Most of the time when I read about some philosopher or idealist speak about information today they basically restate the information as if an idiot were to bump against it seeking knowledge 'we used oooh a pencil to write down characters forming words into notes' Yeah that's what we do but Lev (were cool enough to be on a first name basis) puts it into a perspective that makes sense. Going back to Nakamora her book basically goes through and entails what we seek which is communication through our embodiment on the internet and I believe that web 2.0 is giving us a grander scheme of placing ourselves 'out there' and representing who we want to be or be seen as.

Posting Participation

2010-02-19T14:07:00.000-08:00

It's two paragraphs one on page 171 and continues on to page 172 so in summary what image pops into your head when i say laundry mat owner? Or what if I were to speak of a rising 'minority' individual in the company with promise of incorporating rising accounts? How about an individual on the USS enterprise serving as helmsman during which holds the rank of lieutenant? They all mildly represent the Asian community and the vastness of our minds portrayal. What Nakumura suggests is that [they]"...fail to measure digital production in favor of measuring access or consumption cannot tell the whole story, or even part of it."

She explains how daft it is to label and misrepresenting our connectivity in regards to the internet showing minority participation. This is where in sense we are digging deeper the digital divide and by creating this chasm it is giving in mixed policy to whether or not local communities should be needing public internet access.

On a side note google wants to plug into the cables that are already in most communities and experimenting to see whether or not they can push the connection to a Gb. "We doing this because we want to experiment with new ways to make the Web better and faster for everyone, allowing applications that would be impossible today," said Google product manager James Kelly in a video. So in a sense ISPs have been telling us that 1G in the US simply is cost prohibitive, by Google actually doing it they remove that excuse and the ISPs loose that argument.

Oh one more statement that's interesting is googles 'test' sites are communities from 50k to 500k so essentially with clearwire already here...we could just hook it up eh?

-thats your south of the boarder talk of the day chia!

Men in what?

2010-02-12T16:06:00.000-08:00

Nakamura says from the bottom of pg99 to the top of pg100 how black has become an embodiment of "a cool, a cachet, an authenticity" for white teenagers where she goes through the facts of the usage of blacks in films and how they are portrayed and the long journey they've come. Nakamura really picks out the visual use of black and white in this paragraph displaying the roles of link (an African American)and the white gate keeper and the differences in there technology in use.

I really believe that this argument can be enhanced and compared to the relation of Men in black where Jay and Kay resemble the teacher and protege. Although the roles are reversed they still have the essence of cool to be black. Kay represents the old way the white worn man who is used to this world of aliens where Jay comes guns blazing excited for the new and discovery, as well as the coolness of being a MIB(men in black). It is also good to point out in the movie that all the 'agents' (MIB) are viewed in suits and are meant to fade into the background where Jay the adventurous black man stands out with an up roaring style.

I can definitely see where Nakaumura makes the point as the black coming in as the cool hero and where we place value on the cool and sleekness of the style today.

Rheingolds IA

2010-02-05T15:21:00.000-08:00

IA? AI? What's the difference? My article of choice was Comments on Intellegent Agents coming from Rheingold's idea of Intellegent Agents. Rheingold goes over Implications of Intelligent Agents In response to John Brockman's interview with Pattie Maes. In this interview Maes describes her goals to simulate life interactions to replicate an individual who would represent a tailored server assisting you in what you may like to buy. Her explanation is that of a Bookstore owner "you would go to the corner bookstore and the owner there would know you, would know what you have bought before, they would know about your interests and they could give you personalized service" where she describes the advantages to having a helpful 'Intelligent Agent'.

Rewinding back to Rheingold, he begins his discussion with what the phrase 'Intelligent Agent' transcribes where he believes that it has become another one of today's phrases which as been metamorphosed into a popular injection, going on explaining are association with those phrases. (The internet Highway)

The bulk of Rheingold's writing is taking on the idea of how our privacy should be taken into account with the coming age of AI and the machine. "It's a potential revolution in the way marketers can identify, understand, persuade, and manipulate customers. The longer-range implications of intelligent-agent hypersegmentation are worth thinking about now." His writings are going into the idea of the why; why are we storing this information, how other then data mining is this affecting me? Questions that should be answered while were so willing to give our data away. "But this is a question about the technical application of a tool for identifying people by their interests and purchases. There is another question to be asked, about where the collection and use of such information might be pushing society."

So Rheingold's whole premise of this piece is describing and alliterating the idea of the Intelligent Agent and an insight into where its taking us. It seems with this article he also wants to push in the direction of to what means.

Mobile spaces

2010-01-29T16:08:00.000-08:00

This was way too big of a picture to just post in a simple blog, but i choose to focus on silva because shes awesome and that's her picture chia!

I don't want to come off lazy, but out of the passage in its entirety the first paragraph hits it like a hammer on the nail! THE HAMMER IS TOOL! It clearly depicts how we reshape our 'spaces' through mobile devices and how these hybrid spaces incorporate a stronger connection in a wider view. It goes through mmorpgs, mobile devices, social spaces, undeniably opening the possibilities to large scale multi-user communities which no longer confine us to the physicality of a land line. Mobile devices help break the mold of our conventional views and where we first held our concept of communities last week can be completely changed through our 'ability' from this weeks reading.

"Foregrounding the pathway from the fixed internet to hybrid spaces reterritorializes multiuser enviroments, defined as social spaces that allow communication among people who do not share the same contiguous physical space." It goes without saying that mobile devices create a hybrid environment where we are no longer kept in a single location, but we have access through countless other options. Mobile connections only enhance the already growing community experience where we were once limited by time and horse back we are almost limitless to our connection we can access.

So if my experiences with others have been enhanced in this way where i can meet a chica on the internet instead of at duh club I suppose its well.

-THE HAMMER IS TOOL

p.s. Oh if anyone in the blog group has found anything on bot fighters post the link! I have Plenty of Flashmobs but i cant find the botfighters

Is this RL?

2010-01-22T16:34:00.000-08:00

First I want to dive the thought if an online community dissolves on the internet does it make a blurb? Some communities have been founded and lost in moments without a second post or even just a pass by with some friends who no longer are connected. So if those friends no longer connect or come back to that connected idea does the community still exist? Or if ones persons conciseness persist on that sole idea is it forever living in someones memory? -just a thought-

Now on to more enlightened news! Most groups I have been apart of have come and gone (does changing count as leaving? I know Youtube and Facebook aren't the same as they originally were)such as Nerdfighters, the LOA Link dump, Facespace, Mybook, and countless others. Many of these communities are only bounded up by your participation level and their hierarchy scale is developed in such a way too(I want it to be --Stated-- --Retorted-- noted that to this you would need the basic knowledge of accessing the community and holding the ability to type).

...by this I'm trying to reach a point of where I want to say if you have the basic skills of what the community requires then there's an open invitation where most social networks/online communities are willing to expand their global friendship for some global $$$(advertisement that is). Yes there's a curve to this rule, but its not to say that a large majority of these spaces hold these values.

And full swing back to teh subject!

So my involvement is very limited yet I share this idea of togetherness of individuals who only see me as a view count. I just don't have the eager urge to get involved in such cases where I'm embodied in a virtual realm, but i do like to keep up with the stories and the lives that are lived online. Most of my updates or news of friends comes from online status updates, videos, messages, wall posts, etc.

What I believe Willson was reaching was the embodiment vs virtual world and by reading everyone's titles it looks like that's what they got too. But in the text of Willson's article, "As a paradox of 'connectivity', of participation with others in a virtual space, the technology disconnects the individual from the embodied interactions surrounding her/him" So what I gained from this quote is if the individual cannot control the interactions of Cyberspace and RL can said individual live in both worlds?

Ding Ding Cyberspace!!

2010-01-15T09:36:00.000-08:00

From the reading it's easy to see where Benedikt hit it, which was straight on the mark. One of the things I have grasped from our discussion in class is how vast cyberspace is made out to be how the ever growing convoluted tubes are becoming our digital highways creating human interaction in its many forms.

I had my 'yeah! that's what I think cyberspace is' moment once I reached "Cyberspace is the realm of pure information"(2) Uh Doh! Websites are amoral, meaning they have not a care in the world they aren't good or evil yet once you interact within that medium the sirens play you their soothing tune and you become wrapped within their spell and then you choose the idea of bad or good.

I believe that Cyberspace becomes just that an amoral object that's objected by the countless amount of people interacting within that given area. I understand that it's hard to come to that understanding due to the fact that so much of the google is changing and being made into a new product every second of it's activity yet Cyberspace is just data and how we interact with that data changes its meaning.

-On a side note if the social network/website becomes less about the user/user interface and becomes more about the creator or webmaster they have taken on the responsibility of changing that amoral idea (Facebook, Youtube, etc.) by replacing it with their own ideas [sic] morals.

Lastly twitter was brought up a bunch during Thursdays discussion and this site http://foursquare.com/ takes that idea of twitter then changes it into a competitive game where you have the opportunity to territorially own an area based upon the amount of times you check into said area.

A Late Wednesday Night

2010-01-14T00:32:00.000-08:00

I'm almost certain I've been starring at the screen for an impeccable amount of time still unaware of what to write and I'm sure that short blogging will get me no where. It seems I've stretched out this assignment to an incredible Thursday which could only mean one thing, which is Friday is just around the corner. What's so great about Fridays anyway? Everyone gets so jazzed about Fridays and weekends. Why can't Thursday be a grand affair?

The idea should be that every Thursday could hold a theme such as FIRE BIRD THURSDAY or LAZY ENOUGH TO WEAR YESTERDAYS JEANS, YET RESPONSIBLE TO PUT ON THE SECOND PAIR ANYWAYS THURSDAY. Yeah the last one will end up being an acronym. Albeit Thursday should hold on to be a cooler day other than branding their flag of Thanksgiving every year.

- I Just Did.

Quote of the Day

“Never theorize before you have data. Invariably, you end up twisting facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”
-from Sherlock Holmes (2009)