Week 5 - Field Trip

In my opinion 3D IM environments are drastically different from the regular MSN style IM programs. In the 3D virtual reality environments people behave in a way that mimics real life. They can get jobs and make money, meet people and get married, buy and sell, and socalise in environments that are similar to the clubs, parks and shops of reality. Regular IM on the other hand is merely a form of conversing. People can lie in conversation about who they really are but in virtual world the lie extends to behavior and appearance.

It is possible for the events in a 3D IM to cross over into reality; more so than in a program like MSN. For example people can spend real money in these created worlds; they can invest, go bankrupt and make real money. This opens up the possibility of businesses within this worlds. People can also engage in sexual behaviour that goes beyond the boundries imposed by regular IM's. It has been seen that the trauma of rape within this 3D world can cross over into reality and effect the person sitting in front of a computer. So should the laws of reality be enforcable within a 'game' or program?

Week 5 Lecture

Social Media and Web 2.0
I found this lecture thought provoking. The idea that people are creating alternate lives for themselves in virtual social media sites makes one ask a lot of questions about why and what it means. It seems to challenge the idea of individual identity that has remained unchanged for so long. As the Turkle quote in the lecture slides says, in these online social sites "we self-fashion and self-create". We have compete control over what others on the web see of us and how we are to be perceived.

I'd never heard the term web 2.0 to describe the modern web services that are all about the users experience and their input such as pictures and text. Media scholar Henry Jenkins refers to this as “Participatory Culture” (2006).

All this poses questions like, "who is contributing to the web?"; "who is viewing my contributions?"; "has this online virtual world become as much of a community for some people as the real world?"; " what brings groups of people together on the net?"; and many more.

Week four task - Search engines

Search engines search for the keyword(s) in your entry in websites. They decide whether the page is going to be relevant based on things like how many times the word appears, if it's in the heading etc. They rank them based on how relevant they seem to be, the content, and also the search engines use information about how websites and documents are arranges. The relevance or usefulness also takes into account whether the page has any links. I found when researching this that there are lots of ways businesses can change their pages to give them a higher ranking in the results - crazy.

I use Google mostly. It's in my toolbar so it's the most readily available and usually provides the answer I want - even if sometimes I have to alter my search a couple of times.

Week 4 Questions

1. What did Alan Turing wear while riding his bicycle around Bletchley Park?
Hahaha: I pasted this question directly into dogpile and got a page of links to New Communications students blogs. This course is obviously creating a web presence. I assume I shouldn't take their answers even though I found them online.

After sifting through the links to blogs I found a link to:
http://www.historyarticles.com/enigma.htm
A gas mask.

2. On what date did two computers first communicate with each other? Where were they?
I'm not sure if this is right because it's two router-linked computers - I don't know if they communicated in some other way before then.
"To those who claim that the Internet and the World Wide Web are synonymous, then the Internet/Web was born on April 30, 1993, when the scientists at CERN declared that Web technology, including the Mosaic browser, would be freely available to everyone, with no fees being payable to CERN."
OR
"On Oct. 20, 1969, the refrigerator-sized Interface Message Processor, which worked as the world's first packet-switching router, communicated with a computer at UCLA, seven weeks after they were first connected."
Both found with http://www.altavista.com/

3. What is Bill Gates’ birthday and what age was he when he sold his first software?
DOB: October 28, 1955.
Found with ask.com

4. Where was the World Wide Web invented?
the CERN nuclear physics research facility in Switzerland.
ask.com

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


6. What is the weight of the largest parsnip ever grown?
8 lb 6 oz
ask.com

7. When did Queensland become a state and why is the Tweed River in New South Wales?
June 6 1859 http://www.about-australia.com/facts/queensland/history/

8. What was the weather like in south-east Queensland on 17 November 1954?


9. Why is is Lord Byron still remembered in Venice?
Lord Byron is still remembered in Venice for his active role in the revolution at hand and many of his famous works were on or inspired by Venice itself. http://www.nndb.com/people/856/000024784/

10. What band did Sirhan Chapman play in and what is his real name?
The Black Assassins and Stephen Stockwell – the convenor for this course.

Week Three Lecture

This Lecture was all about cinematography. I think it's great that it's included in a course about new communication technology because I think films can communicate so much. This is done through the characters emotion and actions as much as their words. The cinematography of a film enables us the audience to deduce who, what, where, when, why and how without being explicitly told. Good movies can rely on a scene without words to convey emotion or meaning in what's going on. An example of this which can be seen in the lecture slides is Rocky. The scene where Rocky is climbing the stairs conveys triumph and hope and shows that he is becoming strong.

Films can communicate emotion, ideas and history, and promote empathy and understanding for other people's lives.

Week 3 task - My experience with New Communication Technologies.

I use New Communication Technologies to communicate with my friends and family on a very regular basis. Usually every day. However I was reluctant to become part of the social networking sites that I now rely on to stay in touch with the people I love.

When I first got the internet I was about 13 and I got MSN pretty soon after. Everyone at school had it but I soon bored of talking to people on the internet who I could just as easily call and I've never had any desire to talk to strangers on line. So my MSN account mostly went unused, as did the email account I'd set up.

Next came MySpace. Again everyone at school had it and loved it. I saw it often enough when I was at friends houses but I still didn't see why I'd want to comment on a friends profile then wait a day or so and hear back from them (espaecially because all my friends went to my school and in this time I could have just spoken to them in person). It all just seemed like a vainity game to me. At this point in my life this technologies weren't required to stay in touch with friends and family.

However, at the end of year twelve I finally caved to pressure from my friends to get a MySpace. I was moving to London and they posed a good argument: that I wouldn't be able to keep in touch easily without MySpace. They were right. In my first lonly week on the otherside of the world with no friends and family I relied on MySpace and my revieved MSN account to keep me connected to my loved ones.

Before long I found a group of friends in London that brought compainionship and a support system. Oh and Facebook. Not another one!

Again resisted at first. But eventually I relented and signed up to the newest account that I apparently nheeded to function as a social being.

Now I am back in Australia but once again in a new city. Facebook, MySpace and my old MSN email keep me up to date on the lives of my family, my highschool friends and my London companions.

I still don't talk to or add people I don't know on these sights. I have enough friends in the real world. I must admit though I don't have much concern for privacy on the internet. While only people I give permission to can see my profile I rarely think twice when a sight askes for my full name, D.O.B, address ect.

Oh and one of my classes this semester has required me to get Twitter. How will Twitter and my Blog effect my web presence and social life?