Tutorial Task #7

• Sign an e-petition.

http://quesmo.epetitions.net/

This petition was regarding on the spot fines for smoking in cars with children.

• Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site.

http://malcolmturnbull.com.au/MalcolmsBlogs/tabid/105/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/697/Senate-Rejects-ETS.aspx

• What is Barak Obama up to today?

Obama is participating in the Jobs and Economic Growth Forum at the Whitehouse today. Found using : http://twitter.com/BARACKOBAMA

• Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are.

http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/members.nsf

Local: Geoff Provost

State: Nathan Rees

Federal: Tony Abott

• Look up the Queensland or Australian hansard to find the last time your local member spoke in parliament.

http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LA20091202008
Geoff Provest's last speech was about the crimes amendment bill on the 2nd of December, 2009.

• Let your local member know what you think about their last speech.

• Read the lecture and the readings, pursue a couple of the topics that you find most interesting and then post your blog with your well-considered thoughts about the theory and practice of politics.
  

Political Possibility!

Todays lecture was on the influence the internet has over contemporary democracy, presented by Stephen Stockwell.

Stephen discussed the role of opinion polling in elections.... a point he made was that scientific opinion polling does serve a purpose in contemporary politics by informing politicians about public opinion and in the most desirable of instances persuading political decision making.

An interesting concept discussed was the idea of the Athenian experience..... which I presume alludes to a time when greek philosphers like Aristotle and Plato's themes of democracy dominated. The contemporary Athenian experience refers to utopian ideals of the ability of the internet creating a place where everyone has the opportunity to get online and voice their opinions. Logic however, informs us that this is not the case.

The internet has created a shift in the political experience, what used to be secret is now more transparent. Social media sites like Twitter provide insight into political party rooms, with constant status updates informing the public as decisions are made. New technology, like Twitter, has the ability to get between gaps of institution and create new possibilities in understanding how politics work!

Overall, the internet provides the public with alot more opportunities to voice their opinion.

Research Essay

I am thinking of doing this question for the essay....
What are the uses/limits of the internet in terms of politics and/or democracy? Should we rethink the nature of the political? What happens to the nation/state in the age of networks that have the potential to span the whole planet? What has happened to the idea of "community" in the age of networked digital media? Discuss with an example.
I have found 6 references that appear to be relevant to this topic.
1. Papacharissi, Z. (2002). The virtual sphere. New Media and Society, 4, 9-27.
This journal discusses both sides of the argument over internet access promoting and facilitating contemporary democracy. The main argument is; for those who have access to computers, the internet is a valuable resource for political participation. This seems to be a standard point made across numerous research papers on the same topic.
2. Levine, P. (2002). Can the internet rescue democracy? Toward an on-line commons. In R. Hayduk & K. Mattson (Eds.), Democracy's movement: Reforming the American political system for the 21st century (pp. 121-137). Lanham: MD.
This chapter discusses the unjusts in America's democracy, paying particular attention to the poorly educated. It argues that many of America's poor do not vote thus there lies a major bias in elections, where powerful officials dominate voting. With the internet and the relatively easy access it provides American citizens there lies hope that these voices will be heard.
3. Srinivasan, R. (2004). Reconstituting the urban through community-articulated digital environments. Journal of Urban Technology, 11, 93-111.
Social, economic, and political factors dynamics influence the environment and create a sense of community that extends the neighborhood and geographic location. Digital environments all an individual to be a member of multiple social groups.
4. Jankowski, N. W Creating community with media: History, theories and scientific investigations.
This chapter explores the relationship between new media and community. It provides a historical overview of traditional forms of media and their relationship with community and discusses the transformation of new media with relevant case studies.
5. Clift, S. (2000). An internet of democracy. Communications of the ACM, 43, 31-32.
Raises question to: Do we want to build the Internet into the very nature our many democracies? Or will we maintain the default course where democracy is a burdensome add-on and side application that happens to run on the Internet? Just as we spend time and resources to make the Internet safe for e-commerce, shouldn't we do the same for e-democracy? Article is extremely short, but brushes over the author's answers to these questions. Very subjective. Do not think I will use this article for my assignment.

Virtual Philosophy

Taken from The Matrix character Morpheus:
"What is real? How do you define real? If you are talking about your senses, what you feel, taste, smell, or see, then all you're talking about are electrical signals interpreted by your brain."

This lecture is my favorite so far...... I found the content challenging and extremely interesting.

Adam related the concept of virtual philosophy back to Plato and his writings on the "essential truths." Plato suggested that "essential truths" relate to objects in the world having an ideal form. We do not see what is truly there, instead we see a shadow of reality.
Following discussion about Plato and his allegory of a cave the lecture then moved on to philosopher, Guy Debord. Debord wrote "Society of the Spectacle" which grounds itself firmly in teaching the individual how to become accustomed to mediated life.
Following this Adam discussed the ideas of Eco. Umberto Eco wrote of a "hyper-reality" which builds upon McLuhan's idea of the media being an extension of ourselves. Thus, virtual worlds of the internet allow us to experience reality like never before.
The lecture concluded with the ideas placed forward by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. They perceive reality as a string of moments (Platonic essences) in which all the different paths and outcomes (possible forms) make up the virtual reality.

Free culture, free society.

Creative commons: Creative commons started in December 2002. It's sole purpose is to create copyright agreements that are fair and just. It allows for the individuals creative and intellectual property to be used however they wish. It is a "non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting reasonable copyright. Instead of "all rights reserved" creative commons prides itself on it's content being "some rights reserved." Individuals can determine the extent to which their property will be bound by commercial rights, derivatives and share a like functions.

Free software movement: "Free/ libre, open source software." Free software was founded by Richard Stallman in 1981 well before propriety software came about. It allowed its users to operate the software how they chose and also gave them access to the source code. A source code is instructions written in programming languages. It basically tells a computer how to do certain things. Open or free software programs include, gimpshop, open office, mozilla firefox, VLC and many many more.

What is interesting is that many of these programs run almost identical to the proprietary software of the same nature, in many cases even better, and it's FREE!

Taking an internet field trip....

Todays lecture and tutorial content surrounded the philosophy of virtual communities. I really enjoyed this lecture and the tutorial task as it allowed me to theorize using my knowledge in psychology to help understand the motives behind people using 3D environments.
In comparison to traditional communications over the internet i.e., msn and other IM programs I think that this offers a more realistic approach to communicating through the internet. By realistic I mean something that is more tangible than text. The individual using 3D programs creates an avatar that can either look like the person or something completely out of an individual's imagination, filling voids and fulfilling fantasies. Although the avatars still communicate via text, the supporting graphics which are basically everything you find in the real world and more, allow for individuals to escape the realities of life.
The video in the lecture suggested that 3D worlds can lead behavioural researchers like psychologists into new discoveries about human behaviour that due to ethical reasons was not possible in the real world. It may also come to be very useful for marketing teams that want to try a new product out on a virtual world before they present it to the real world.

Lecture Summary # 3

MEDIA, NEW MEDIA & SOCIAL MEDIA

• "Virtual communities: When people carry on discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling to form webs of personal relationships. " H Rheingold (1993).
• Ppl can experiment with being someone different to who they are now. When the internet first started to become popular it mainly consisted of text, people communicated through online "chatrooms." Turkle (1995) explained that virtual communities allow ppl to express themselves in a particular light that they find desirable.
• Initially virtual communities allowed ppl to meet ppl from other geographic locations that share similar interests. Now it is more ego-centred, a shift that saw the "self" as the focus of networking.
• The World Wide Web (Web 2.0): In 1993 the www was first introduced to the world.... in 1995 Australia first came to know about the www.
• Web 2.0 created a new way we think about and use the www. It introduced

1. Tags
2. The start of words being written in new and innovative ways i.e., flickr
3. User generated content: photos, images, videos, text. Henry Jenkins (2006) noted this shift as the "participatory culture."
4. Open API: meaning, sharing data openly between services on the internet i.e., facebook applications

• Social media:

1. Web blogs: vlogs, twitter, moblogs
2. Social network services: facebook, myspace
3. Content sharing communities: flickr, deviant.art, youtube, photobucket

The creation of this saw individuals feeling the need to join such sites to feel a sense of belonging as stars around the world conform.

• Attention economy: refers to the advertising sites like facebook use.
• Economy of accumulation: refers to how sites like facebook can use the information you give them and sell it for marketing. (Ppl agree to this right when they sign up to facebook).
• The lecture today raised the question "Are we consumers or creaters?" I believe the internet today allows us to be creators IF WE CHOOSE TO BE.

Tutorial Task Day # 3

1. What did Allan Turing wear while riding his bicycle around Bletchley Park?

http://www.historyarticles.com/new_page_5.htm A gas mask! Found using yahoo.

2. On what date did two computers first communicate with each other? Where were they?

http://www.web-friend.com/help/general/pc_history.html 1969, the computers were located in California and Utah. Found using yahoo.

3. What is Bill Gates' birthday? And what age was he when he first sold his software?

http://www.woopidoo.com/biography/bill-gates.htm He was born on the 28th October 1955. He sold his first piece of software in 1975. Found using yahoo.

4. Where was the World Wide Web invented?

http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/history/inventedwebwhere.html Switzerland. Found using yahoo.

5. How does the power of the computer you are working on now compare to the power of a personal computer from 30 years ago?

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/cpu/fam/g1I8088-c.html and http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=37148 In 1979 a computer's power was 8-bit 4.77MHz, today it is roughly 64-bit, 3.2 GHz. Found Using dogpile.

6. What is the weight of the largest parsnip ever grown?

http://www.portlincolntimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/holden-growing-more-giant-vegetables/1570577.aspx?src=rss 2.3 kg. Found using altavista.

7. When did Queensland become a state and why is the Tweed River in New South Wales?

http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/mapping/index.html In 1859 Queensland and New South Wales separated and Queensland became a state. Found using altavista. http://www.tweedstay.com/ The Tweed River is in New South Wales because it falls just over the border from Queensland. Found using yahoo.

8. What was the weather like in South East Queensland on the 17th November 1954?

http://weather.ninemsn.com.au/station.jsp?lt=site&lc=40284&list=ds&of=of_a&ot=ot_a&mm=11&yyyy=1954&submit=go Min = 19 degrees celsius Max = 39.5 degrees celsius with no rain. Found using yahoo.

9. Why is Lord Byron still remembered in Venice?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/byron_lord.shtml He wrote some of his most famous works in Venice, including Don Juan. Found using altavista.

10. What band did Sirhan Chapman play in and what is his real name?

http://web.revolutionrock.com.au/oral-hist/index.php?id=36 The Black Assassins. He did not want his real name published. Found using yahoo.

A little about me...

Write a post about how you use new communication technologies to communicate with your friends and family....
* How long have you been using these communication technologies?
I have been using new communication technologies for roughly 10 years.
* What influenced you to start using these particular technologies? How did you find out about them?
I first learnt about a computer and the internet when my next door neighbours first purchased one (they were particularly tech savvy). I remember it opened a world of knowledge and ways to communicate with others around the globe. The fact that I could talk to someone in Hong Kong, Paris, London etc. really excited me. I proposed the idea of getting a computer with the internet to my parents stating that it would really help me with my homework assignments.
* Is privacy an issue for you when using new technologies? What do you think of companies like Facebook and Google who collect information about their users? (How do you deal with issues around privacy?)
Privacy isn't really an issue for me when using new technologies, I have never uploaded anything that I wouldn't want someone else to know about (I'm not that stupid!).
* 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.
I have a rule.... to NEVER EVER accept a friend request from someone I don't know. Period.

This video summarises important key points on the history of the internet.

A Selective History of Computing and the Internet

Today's lecture was on the history of computing and the internet.
Following will be a brief summary of the main contents.....

The term computer referred to ppl who used to form mathematical equations. Teams of people would each work out small portions of the equation and then these portions would be put together to solve the whole equation. Basically it meant "forming mathematical calculations to certain rules and instructions."

• During this time (1700's), Charles Babbage invented counting machines to calculate large equations. Ada Byron helped create these contraptions, and ensured that they "worked."
• Allan Turning, an englishman, was involved in breaking the codes of enemies during World War I. The concept of artificial intelligence was strongly influenced by him also.
• In the 1970's IBM produced the first commercial computers..... with the help of Bill Gates of course! Bill Gates was responsible for creating the language of computers so that individuals would have a way that they could communicate with it and understand it. The first commercial computer's purpose were word processing, basic accounting and some games. Previously computers were only thought about for war purposes.
• A computer hacker was originally a computer expert. The term originated from the days computers were made from kits and the expert "hacked" them together.
• During the revolution of the IBM computer Apple were also creating computers for commercial use.... these geniuses went by the names of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
• THE INTERNET IS 40 YEARS OLD! (woah). When you think about it thats not very old.... but I can't imagine my life without the internet!
• Ray Tomlinson invented the email.... it's structure has not changed over the last 38 years.
• TCP/IP: the way computers "talk" to eachother. This was invented before military requested a way to communicate with eachother. The inventers of TCP/IP made a cultural decision to make TCP/IP free..... the internet would not be as huge as it is today without this decision.
• In 1979 the first online forum was created (Usenet).
• In 1982 emoticons were created...... allowing individuals to express themselves through the language of a computer.
• The internet and the world wide web are not the same! The internet is the whole spectrum of things that you can do on a computer e.g., filesharing, msn. The world wide web is one small part of the internet.... basically everything you see through a web browser.
• Cyberspace: aka the internet (represents the internet in abstract form). William Gibson wrote about computer networks in the 80's. He was a science fiction writer at the time.

Why I took this course.....

I enrolled in this course for three reasons:
1. To gain credit points to complete my psychology degree.
2. To keep up to date with new communication mediums.
3. It looks fun and I fancy myself as a bit of a blogger!

Introduction to New Communication Technologies

Today Adam introduced the course "New Communications Technologies" by asking the students to raise their hands to the various uses of the internet they participated in i.e., facebook, eBay, P2P etc. He then followed by outlining what was expected from the course and the various assessment items. The second half of the lecture introduced the basic themes "communication" and "technology" it concluded with a video of Jonathan Zittrain presenting a speech on the internet.