Hi,
This is my evaluation for New Communication Technologies. I'm not really sure how to set it out, but I guess I'll start with the lectures, and then with the assignments we were given over the semester.
The lectures were only an hour but they were always really packed with information. In the lectures I found that they often just chatted and used examples, but I couldn't really understand the lecture notes. The lectures didn't really get that much into the theory of the topic so I found it hard so get my head around the notes. The topics we learnt about this semester were challenging and I had never heard of most of them! I liked how I was familiar with a lot of the ideas, I just didn't know the terms used to describe them. I liked how they incorporated Plato's philosophies at a few different times throughout the semester (especially the allegory of the cave a couple weeks ago). I also liked how many of the topics we learnt about, like shot lengths and sizes, I could relate to historical films which is what I really wanted to focus on this semester. As the semester progressed we moved more into technology and science fiction so it became harder to do this.
Some of the assignments were really hard!! We had to find information about stuff I had no idea about, but it helped with my research skills I think. I like the idea of doing blogs instead of regular paper assignments, it's fun and I learnt a lot (before this course I was really not tech-savvy). I think it would have been better in the Tutes if the tutor talked about the lecture notes a little bit to help us get out heads around it. I liked how all the tutors and lecturers were young and know a lot about pop culture (My history lecturer said Bookface instead of Facebook once...). It was also handy when we were talking about Cyber Punk, any movie we would mention the lecturers and tutors would be familiar with.
I'm not really sure what else to say, this class has been fun and I've learnt way more than I ever thought I would. Some of the topics were a bit difficult and the only change I would recommend would be to have a bit more time in the Tutes for the tutor to go over the notes.
Thanks for a fun semester!
Emily
Friday, September 24, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Week 9 - Tute Task
Hi,
Initially when I looked at the essay questions, it was so daunting! The questions looked so difficult, especially since before this course I wasn't familiar with most of the topics. I read over the topics a few times and started to get my head around each of them before I made my decision.
The essay topic I'm choosing to do is:
2. Explain what creative commons is and, using examples, show how it is different to other forms of copyright.
I chose this topic because the idea of a copyright has been around for a long time, so there will be a lot of information on it. When we learnt about creative commons the other week, I had no idea how strict copyright was and now I want to learn more about it.
Before I did this course I hadn't heard of creative commons so I thought it would be a good topic to explore.
I think I'm going to set out the essay with an introduction, four paragraphs and a conclusion. The first body paragraph will explain what creative commons is and what copyright is, this will be followed by three more paragraphs which will explain the difference between the two. I have a tendency to write A LOT in essays so hopefully I'll be able to reign it in and not get sidetracked.
That's pretty much everything I've been thinking about for this weeks Tute Task.
Thanks,
Emily
Week 9 - Lecture Response and Tute*Spark
Hi,
The lecture this week went deeper into the idea of Cyberpunk. It's part of the science fiction genre, though often it draws on he hard boiled crime fiction of the post WW2 era. I never thought about it in regards to Cyberpunk before but it's so true: The Running Man, 1984, Repo! The Genetic Opera and Oryx & Crake all have science fiction elements as well as elements of hard boiled fiction and film noir. The books and films of this genre have a real gritty aesthetic, and are often very existential. The stories are often told in fragments, rather than the long descriptive paragraphs commonly found in fantasy stories.
The stories often deal heavily in self-interest and have anti-heroes as protagonists, which is something found in hard boiled fiction. I think the film Repo! The Genetic Opera is a really good example of Cyberpunk. It's set in the future, where everything is controlled by a company that grows organs and you can rent them out in your body but if you fall behind on payments the Repo Man comes to collect it. The city is dark with lots of drugs, sex and crime. There is a drug found in the city the film is set in that eases pain when getting surgery (and since everyone gets plastic surgery, a lot of people become addicted). While many of the films topics discuss self-interest and lust, the film also discusses the ideas of the fear society and private corporations having too much power.
In both the Running Man and 1984 (which have both been made into films), I found similarities in the protagonists. They both were screwed around by the government and were disillusioned with the state of the world while everyone else seemed to be going with the flow. They tried in two different ways to become free, and it cost both of them their lives. In 1984 the government is the all powerful thing, and in the Running Man the media outlets are all powerful.
Oryx & Crake focuses on one character, a man who has given up on life and hides in a tree from predators. He believes he is the last real human on earth (Crake, before his death, had created a new species of 'perfect' human beings). He drinks alcohol and lies to the new species of humans to keep them content. Before the humans were wiped out, the world used genetic engineering and focused on commercialism. The world is full of lust, with heavy emphasis on child pornography and other taboo topics. The book focuses on the ethics of genetic engineering, the idea of living for eternity (if you don't know you're going to die one day, does that means you're invincible?) and the overall aesthetic has a feel of existentialism.
The main writers of Cyberpunk are: William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Neal Stephenson, John Shirley, Lewis Shiner and Rudy Rucker. In the lecture we went into some detail about William Gibson, and talked about the trilogies he has written including the Bride Trilogy and the Blue Ant trilogy.
Cyberpunk is really interesting, and before this week I never knew I had read and seen so much of it.
This week there is no Tute*Spark.
Emily
The lecture this week went deeper into the idea of Cyberpunk. It's part of the science fiction genre, though often it draws on he hard boiled crime fiction of the post WW2 era. I never thought about it in regards to Cyberpunk before but it's so true: The Running Man, 1984, Repo! The Genetic Opera and Oryx & Crake all have science fiction elements as well as elements of hard boiled fiction and film noir. The books and films of this genre have a real gritty aesthetic, and are often very existential. The stories are often told in fragments, rather than the long descriptive paragraphs commonly found in fantasy stories.
The stories often deal heavily in self-interest and have anti-heroes as protagonists, which is something found in hard boiled fiction. I think the film Repo! The Genetic Opera is a really good example of Cyberpunk. It's set in the future, where everything is controlled by a company that grows organs and you can rent them out in your body but if you fall behind on payments the Repo Man comes to collect it. The city is dark with lots of drugs, sex and crime. There is a drug found in the city the film is set in that eases pain when getting surgery (and since everyone gets plastic surgery, a lot of people become addicted). While many of the films topics discuss self-interest and lust, the film also discusses the ideas of the fear society and private corporations having too much power.
In both the Running Man and 1984 (which have both been made into films), I found similarities in the protagonists. They both were screwed around by the government and were disillusioned with the state of the world while everyone else seemed to be going with the flow. They tried in two different ways to become free, and it cost both of them their lives. In 1984 the government is the all powerful thing, and in the Running Man the media outlets are all powerful.
Oryx & Crake focuses on one character, a man who has given up on life and hides in a tree from predators. He believes he is the last real human on earth (Crake, before his death, had created a new species of 'perfect' human beings). He drinks alcohol and lies to the new species of humans to keep them content. Before the humans were wiped out, the world used genetic engineering and focused on commercialism. The world is full of lust, with heavy emphasis on child pornography and other taboo topics. The book focuses on the ethics of genetic engineering, the idea of living for eternity (if you don't know you're going to die one day, does that means you're invincible?) and the overall aesthetic has a feel of existentialism.
The main writers of Cyberpunk are: William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Neal Stephenson, John Shirley, Lewis Shiner and Rudy Rucker. In the lecture we went into some detail about William Gibson, and talked about the trilogies he has written including the Bride Trilogy and the Blue Ant trilogy.
Cyberpunk is really interesting, and before this week I never knew I had read and seen so much of it.
This week there is no Tute*Spark.
Emily
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Week 8 - Tute Task
Hi,
This weeks Tute Task we had to discuss a Cyber Punk film and then find a modern article to explore the similarities. The film and book I chose to do is '1984' originally written by George Orwell in 1949. It was made into a popular film in 1984. In the film there are cameras everywhere. They can see what you're doing, and quickly stop people who are doing anything the government disagrees with. I feel like this falls under the category of 'Corporate control over society.' Every house has a screen built into the wall that doubles as a camera. It plays propaganda 24/7, you can turn it down, but never off. A whole new dictionary has been created with dangerous words like 'protest' taken out of it, if the word doesn't exist how can people think it? Children are encouraged to turn in their parents for crimes against the state, and sex is designed to be purely for reproduction.
My own words are in red.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23391081-george-orwell-big-brother-is-watching-your-house.do
George Orwell, Big Brother is watching your house
George Orwell’s 1984 may not be as unlikely as we all thought. While North Korea and China have been compared to George Orwell’s totalitarian Britain before, signs of this political control are being seen in Western countries now.
The Big Brother nightmare of George Orwell's 1984 has become a reality - in the shadow of the author's former London home.
It may have taken a little longer than he predicted, but Orwell's vision of a society where cameras and computers spy on every person's movements is now here.
According to the latest studies, Britain has a staggering 4.2million CCTV cameras - one for every 14 people in the country - and 20 per cent of cameras globally. It has been calculated that each person is caught on camera an average of 300 times daily.
Use of spy cameras in modern-day Britain is now a chilling mirror image of Orwell's fictional world, created in the post-war Forties in a fourth-floor flat overlooking Canonbury Square in Islington, North London.
On the wall outside his former residence - flat number 27B - where Orwell lived until his death in 1950, an historical plaque commemorates the anti-authoritarian author. And within 200 yards of the flat, there are 32 CCTV cameras, scanning every move.
Orwell's view of the tree-filled gardens outside the flat is under 24-hour surveillance from two cameras perched on traffic lights.
The flat's rear windows are constantly viewed from two more security cameras outside a conference centre in Canonbury Place.
In a lane, just off the square, close to Orwell's favourite pub, the Compton Arms, a camera at the rear of a car dealership records every person entering or leaving the pub.
Within a 200-yard radius of the flat, there are another 28 CCTV cameras, together with hundreds of private, remote-controlled security cameras used to scrutinise visitors to homes, shops and offices.
If someone is photographed that often in a day, it’s over 12 times an hour! It’s a gross violation of privacy knowing that we could be filmed at our homes, grocery shopping or at the local pub. The watchers would know everything about us and our daily habits.
The message is reminiscent of a 1949 poster to mark the launch of Orwell's 1984: 'Big Brother is Watching You'.
In the Shriji grocery store in Canonbury Place, three cameras focus on every person in the shop. Owner Minesh Amin explained: 'They are for our security and safety. Without them, people would steal from the shop. Although this is a nice area, there are always bad people who cause trouble by stealing.'
With all this CCTV footage, our privacy is being invaded by those designed to protect us. How long until they put CCTV inside our houses to ‘protect us’? When will other measures be implemented to insure our safety and the safety of the country? Soon we’ll have a TV, compulsory in all homes, that plays propaganda 24/7 (the likes of which are already found in North Korea). Things develop slowly, but they snowball out of control and this will happen with the CCTV cameras in London.
Three doors away, in the dry-cleaning shop run by Malik Zafar, are another two CCTV cameras.
'I need to know who is coming into my shop,' explained Mr Zafar, who spent £400 on his security system.
This week, the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) produced a report highlighting the astonishing numbers of CCTV cameras in the country and warned how such 'Big Brother tactics' could eventually put lives at risk.
When the government can see everything we are doing, they are going to try and quell unrest at its source. They can use the cameras to weed out opinions and ideas they don’t like, just like in 1984.
The RAE report warned any security system was 'vulnerable to abuse, including bribery of staff and computer hackers gaining access to it'. One of the report's authors, Professor Nigel Gilbert, claimed the numbers of CCTV cameras now being used is so vast that further installations should be stopped until the need for them is proven.
One fear is a nationwide standard for CCTV cameras which would make it possible for all information gathered by individual cameras to be shared - and accessed by anyone with the means to do so.
The RAE report follows a warning by the Government's Information Commissioner Richard Thomas that excessive use of CCTV and other information-gathering was 'creating a climate of suspicion'.
This idea of a ‘climate of suspicion’ naturally leads to fear, and more government control. At the rate Britain is deteriorating 1984 could be a reality in the next forty years. Forty years ago you didn’t even need a transport to travel to and from the country, now the government is controlling so heavily the traffic and trade of the country it will soon be cut off from the rest of the world. This will lead to people in Britain having to be totally self-reliant in order to survive. The government will use the CCTV cameras to ensure everyone does their part and there are no uprisings.
It’s a clear spiral that is inevitable- the British government already has the cogs in place to create a machine that they are in ultimate control over.
Only time will tell if George Orwell’s shocking predictions come true.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23391081-george-orwell-big-brother-is-watching-your-house.do
Week 8 - Lecture Response and Tute*Spark
Hi,
This weeks lecture was on virtual philosophy and virtual reality. The lecturer mentioned the 'Allegory of the Cave' by Plato, which was something I studied last semester. I never realized I could relate it to modern times.
This Cave could be compared to The Matrix, where humans believe they are living in reality and seeing things that are real, when really they are in the dark. Would we care if this happened to us? If the world was as bad as it is in the Matrix, I don't think I would want to be woken up!
In the lecture, we discussed how the 'real world' or how we perceive it are just electrical impulses in the brain. Perceptions are just as important as reality.
Virtual reality started with telegraph, a way to replicate real life conversation and words through sounds. Television shows and films are forms of virtual reality, replicating real people and real situations to make a totally different reality. Sometimes the people are made up, and sometimes they are not. When a filmmaker creates a film based on historical events, he or she creates their own virtual reality which viewers may take as fact. This can be seen in the 2004 film King Arthur, starring Keira Knightley. Many aspects of the film were made up, and I began to believe what I saw was the real legend of King Arthur.
Virtual reality in gaming comes in three forms: Desktop VR, Immersion VR, and Projection VR. Desktop VR is when the game on your computer is three dimensional, Immersion VR is when you wear a head piece that covers your eyes and you can see into the virtual reality, Projection VR is when something it "projected into extended space", like a hologram. The different forms of VR are used in a variety of areas including: entertainment, military training, and town planning. However there are some harmful side effects including simulation sickness, dizziness and eyestrain.
The lecture this week was complicated and slightly hard for me to get my head around, but the reference to Plato's 'Republic' helped clear things up a bit. We are all looking at the shadows reflected on the cave wall instead of turning towards reality and seeing the things making the shadows.
The Tute*Spark for this week was to describe and discuss Cyber Punk. Lauren directed us towards Wikipedia so get our information.
Cyber Punk works are works of fiction normally set in the near future, with protagonists resembling Robin Hood. Some people believe Cyber Punk stories are predicting the future of the Internet and technology as it develops further and could possible gain more control over our society. Popular examples of Cyber Punk fiction and films include: Oryx & Crake, 1984, The Terminator, Blade Runner, The Matrix and I Am Legend. In books like Oryx & Crake and 1984, parallels can already be seen in today's experiments and world (growing of organs for humans, propaganda radios in North Korea that can not be turned off, etc.). These stories are designed to get people to take action against things the government is doing now that could one day ruin our society. I never knew what Cyber Punk was, I always thought the movies and books I mentioned above were just weird science fiction movies. I think Oryx & Crake is one exception; after I read it I had so many questions about the future of earth.
That's pretty much everything I've thought regarding this weeks lecture and Tute*Spark.
Thanks,
Emily
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Week 7 - Tute Task
This weeks Tute Task is to answer the following questions:
1. What is creative commons and how could this licensing framework be relevant to your own experience at university?
Creative commons is like copyright, but you are allowed to reproduce someone else's work as long as they are credited properly. This is extremely relevant to university as we use a lot of referencing in our assignments, and using a source that has creative commons is much easier than using a source that is just copyrighted.
http://creativecommons.org.au/learn-more/licences
2. Find 3 examples of works created by creative commons and embed them in your blog.
I know things on Wikipedia should be taken with a grain of salt, however in this case it pointed my toward three examples of works created by creative commons (and you can view the film there!):
Elephants Dream
Al Jazeera also has broadcast footage created by creative commons. This was confirmed in the tutorial today. You can find them at: http://cc.aljazeera.net
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_available_under_a_Creative_Commons_License
The last work I found was a journal article I found on JSTOR:
California Law Review
Vol. 92, No. 5 (Oct., 2004), pp. 1331-1373
3. Find an academic article which discusses creative commons using a database or online journal. Provide a link to and a summary of the article.
I searched for AGES to find an article, and eventually came across this one: An Insider's Guide to Creative Commons.
It talks about how before creative commons, something copyrighted could not be reproduced somewhere else no matter what. It talks about the four conditions you can apply to your creative commons: attribution, share alike, noncommercial, and no derivative works. It simplifies the idea, and helped me get my head around it.
4. Have a look at Portable Apps (a PC based application) – provide a brief description of what it is and how you think this is useful.
Portable Apps is pretty much a collection of computer programs (things like the Internet, graphics, games and office programs) that you can load onto a USB and take anywhere with you. This is good when you travel a lot (or any time really). You don't need to drag around a laptop with you, and you can save things without leaving anything behind on the host computer. I've never even heard of it before, but I'm pretty keen to download it now!
These are my answers for this weeks Tute Task, thanks!
Emily
1. What is creative commons and how could this licensing framework be relevant to your own experience at university?
Creative commons is like copyright, but you are allowed to reproduce someone else's work as long as they are credited properly. This is extremely relevant to university as we use a lot of referencing in our assignments, and using a source that has creative commons is much easier than using a source that is just copyrighted.
http://creativecommons.org.au/learn-more/licences
2. Find 3 examples of works created by creative commons and embed them in your blog.
I know things on Wikipedia should be taken with a grain of salt, however in this case it pointed my toward three examples of works created by creative commons (and you can view the film there!):
Elephants Dream
Al Jazeera also has broadcast footage created by creative commons. This was confirmed in the tutorial today. You can find them at: http://cc.aljazeera.net
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_available_under_a_Creative_Commons_License
The last work I found was a journal article I found on JSTOR:
California Law Review
Vol. 92, No. 5 (Oct., 2004), pp. 1331-1373
Published by: California Law Review, Inc.
http://www.jstor.org.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/stable/3481419
3. Find an academic article which discusses creative commons using a database or online journal. Provide a link to and a summary of the article.
I searched for AGES to find an article, and eventually came across this one: An Insider's Guide to Creative Commons.
It talks about how before creative commons, something copyrighted could not be reproduced somewhere else no matter what. It talks about the four conditions you can apply to your creative commons: attribution, share alike, noncommercial, and no derivative works. It simplifies the idea, and helped me get my head around it.
4. Have a look at Portable Apps (a PC based application) – provide a brief description of what it is and how you think this is useful.
Portable Apps is pretty much a collection of computer programs (things like the Internet, graphics, games and office programs) that you can load onto a USB and take anywhere with you. This is good when you travel a lot (or any time really). You don't need to drag around a laptop with you, and you can save things without leaving anything behind on the host computer. I've never even heard of it before, but I'm pretty keen to download it now!
These are my answers for this weeks Tute Task, thanks!
Emily
Week 7 - Lecture Response and Tute*Spark
Hi,
This week I didn't get to the lecture (someone was killed on the train tracks on my way from Brisbane - I have a good excuse!), but hopefully I can try and get my head around the lecture notes.
This weeks topic is Free Culture and Free Society. When I was looking at the lecture notes I saw a quote that really stood out for me: "Our current culture is one in which creators get to create only with the permission of the powerful, or of creators of the past" - Lawrence Lessige. This was something that really stood out for me, it seems like we have to be so careful with the words we use and how we use them, especially if someone has said something similar previously.
The lecture notes talk about www.creativecommons.org, an organisation where copyrighting something is more flexible in it's terms and conditions. Usually when you get a copyright from Creative Commons, you're work can be reproduced and distributed as long as the reproducer or distributor acknowledges the work is yours.
The lecture notes then move on and talk about Free Software. In 1981, Richard Stallman a system using only free software. In the lecture notes the idea of free software was compared to a historical bazaar, where anyone was allowed to contribute and add to it.
Also discussed were source codes, which make up a program, and give computers instructions. I have a feeling these source codes are what we see when we're restarting our computers. This is something that went right over my head, and I really wish I could have made it to the lecture!
Another interesting thing was the difference between Propriety and Open Source programs. Microsoft Office and Apple are two examples of Propriety, and Mozilla and Open Office are examples of Open Source.
The Tute*Spark for this week is to download an Open Source program, and use it for ten days. Seeing as I already use Mozilla instead of Internet Explorer, that rules that out! I think I'll used dilandau.com, a website where you can download music. This is a common alternative to iTunes, and also an alternative to Limewire which I usually use. A friend of mine showed me this website the other day, and I haven't had time to check it out yet.
Update:
For the last week and a bit I've been using Dilandau to download my music. It's faster than Limewire, and downloads straight to iTunes (I still can't figure out how to make Limewire do that!). Some songs were a bit hard to find, and there weren't as many choices as Limewire. When I typed in a song title a lot of the time other random things would pop up as well. I'm definitely going to keep using it, it's so fast!
That's all for this week, thanks!
Emily
Also discussed were source codes, which make up a program, and give computers instructions. I have a feeling these source codes are what we see when we're restarting our computers. This is something that went right over my head, and I really wish I could have made it to the lecture!
Another interesting thing was the difference between Propriety and Open Source programs. Microsoft Office and Apple are two examples of Propriety, and Mozilla and Open Office are examples of Open Source.
The Tute*Spark for this week is to download an Open Source program, and use it for ten days. Seeing as I already use Mozilla instead of Internet Explorer, that rules that out! I think I'll used dilandau.com, a website where you can download music. This is a common alternative to iTunes, and also an alternative to Limewire which I usually use. A friend of mine showed me this website the other day, and I haven't had time to check it out yet.
Update:
For the last week and a bit I've been using Dilandau to download my music. It's faster than Limewire, and downloads straight to iTunes (I still can't figure out how to make Limewire do that!). Some songs were a bit hard to find, and there weren't as many choices as Limewire. When I typed in a song title a lot of the time other random things would pop up as well. I'm definitely going to keep using it, it's so fast!
That's all for this week, thanks!
Emily
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