Week 9 - Readings/Lecture

When most people think of hackers, I can guarantee you that they are thinking of some fat guy sitting at a computer. Some guy who has nothing better to do with his time than to make some viruses just to piss people off. This is the image that hackers have gotten (mainly implemented in by the media) as times gone. Where as in reality hackers in a traditional sense is far different to this according to (Stockwell, 2008).

In fact people became hackers so they could simply better understand the computer programs and systems better.

Stockwell, S. 2008, We’re all hackers now: Doing global democracy, viewed 21^st September 2011, <http://ajax.acue.adelaide.edu.au/~allan/createworld/Stockwell_2008_Hacking.pdf>

Week 9 - Final Video

All photos used in this video are now apart of Creative Commons. However the music used in the video is not as I do not have the rights to it. The band used has been credited at the end. This video does focuses on the theme of New Communication Technologies and how they are such a big part in our lives. The video is a montage of the ‘life’ of a young male’s Mac book Pro and in doing so gives the laptop personification.

The software iMovie was used to edit the video, which is proprietary software. Due to it being free software, which came with the laptop the video, is not at a high standard. Next time I will use a program that is more suited to making higher quality videos. 

Week 9 - Weekly Task

Political participation through the Internet

The weekly tasks were to find how many opportunities that I can find for political participation via the Internet. Also to see how many of the following can I achieve and stick to my political beliefs?

E-petition:

Found at: http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/work-of-assembly/petitions/e-petitions

The petition I signed was: Restoring the natural integrity of Lake McKenzie (Boorangoora) Fraser Island

Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site.

When looking for a professional blogger at a major news site I was able to find some information at ABC News. However once I was on the website I was unable to comment on the blogs.

What is Barak Obama up to today? Can you send him a message about the importance of freedom on the internet?

To see what Barak obama was up to I used me personal twitter account. However, I was unable to see what he was up too, only that that young Americans now have health insurance. I Tweeted to Obama:  “Freedom on the Internet is more important than health insurance :P”

What are the Australian Government's plans to censor the internet (the so-called "Clean Feed")?

When looking for information on the Australian Government’s plans to censor the Internet I found an article by Sydney Morning Herald, which explains it in great detail. The Link to the article is: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/internet-censorship-plan-gets-the-green-light-20091215-ktzc.html

What place does censorship have in a democracy?

Censorship is about restricting people viewing abilities meaning that you have the right of privacy.  Democracy is about having the power to vote on issues such as censorship. Meaning in Australia you have the right to say that you want censorship unlike other countries.

Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are. Send one a message.

My local representative is Ross Vasta in the elective of Bonner. 

Week 9 - Essay Preparation

Essay Topic: Does the extensive use of computer/video games have an adverse impact on the health of young people?

Skeleton:

·      Introduction

·      Social health

o   Pros/Cons

o   Social Life

o   Impact on friends and family

o   Education

·      Physical health

o   Pros/Cons

o   Weight/strength

o   Tiredness

o   Overall 

·      Mental health

o   Pros/Cons

o   Overall

·      Conclusion

Week 8 - Readings

This weeks reading was on copyright and its history with a bit of information on creative commons. Amazingly copyright has been around for four-hundred-odd-years. With it only being applied to “a special class of works, generally those created with the intention of commercial exploitation" (Doctorow, 2007). In the modern era however it seems that copyright is used for everything, restricting creative minds.

Creative commons (CC) is good ways to get past copyrights, as it’s the content owners are letting others to use. Copyright is still useful in many areas such as company names, but it prevents many creative masterpieces. "Copyright lasts, fundamentally, forever. It applies, fundamentally, to everything. And this is all happening at the moment when the net is giving more people the chance to communicate to more people in more ways than we ever imagined". (Doctorow, 2007). Copyright will always have a place in this world but when it comes to everything creative then creative commons should take copyrights place.

Cory Doctorow (2007) Cory Doctorow: Creative Common, https://learning.secure.griffith.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_101249_1&frame=top accessed 15 September 2011. 

Week 8 - Copyright and Creative Commons - Lecture/Tutorial

Copyright - All rights reserved

Creative Commons - Some rights reserved 

Creative Commons (CC) license may or may not include:

·      Non-commercial

·      By clause

·      Share Alike

·      Do derivatives  

Creative Commons in my opinion should be used instead of Copyright. The reason for this is that it allows people to share products and modify it and reused e.g. Software. There are two types of software; these are:

·      Proprietary software: Generally made by large companies and source code remains confidential e.g. Mac OS

·      Open source software: Software that can be seen, used and edited e.g. Linux

Week 8 - Video Update

This week all of the photos needed for the video were taken either by myself of my mother on my sister’s camera. This did not take long it was only about ten minutes and it was done. Due to this I figured that I might as well start on editing the video. Before adding any images I clipped the songs and connected them as I had planned making sure I was under 10% of the original song. This took a while so I left the adding of the images to next week. 

Week 7 - My Essay Topic/ Video Update

My Essay Topic

Topic: Does the extensive use of computer/video games have an adverse impact on the health of young people?

To be done:

What are the most recent papers on the topic?

Clarify both sides of the argument?

Once this is achieved then and only then will I decide on whether it has adverse effects.

Video Production

I have chosen the songs that are going to be used in the video and set them out in the order in which they are going to be used. The songs used all belong to the band Simple Plan. These are:

-       Time to say goodbye

-       I can’t wait forever

-       Save you

Week 7 - Lecture/Tutorial/Readings

Wikipedia

Positives:

·      Good basic starting point for research due to it having a general overview of most things

·       The links can be used as reliable sources on the topic

Negatives

·      The content unreliable for it can be edited by anyone

Is Wikipedia's peer governance system really a good thing? The article in the weekly reading defines peer governance as: “A way in which individuals voluntarily participate and, using mechanisms of self–governance, produce digital commons" (Kostakis, 2010). The site is open to all for changes. The main characteristics of peer governance are:

·      The membership is open and widespread

·      Premised on participation

·      Geographically dispersed (Worldwide)

This form of governance lets all subscribed users to edit Wikipedia based on their knowledge of the topics. Which is good as it is free and the knowledge is uploaded quickly and bad as incorrect information may be posted. After reading the article I believe the best way to describe Wikipedia's form of governance is as "an unfinished artifact" (Kostakis, 2010).

Kostakis (2010) Identifying and understanding the problems of Wikipedia's peer governance: The case of inclusionists versus delectionists, http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2613/2479accessed on 08/09/11.

Facebook makes its revenue by selling the date that it collects from its users and selling advertisement space on its site for specific users. This is why it is such an effective marketing tool and makes has such a large turn over. When it comes to collected data on most sites once you delete your account that site no longer has access to it. However, Facebook is different in this sense as it keeps a copy of your account for 2 years.

Mischief Marketing was the key focus of this weeks readings’ and relates to the lecture/tutorial. What is Mischief Marketing? It is a type of Marketing that uses unorthodox strategies for reaching its target demographic. " One such example is The Blair Witch Project. The reason for this is that before the movie was released the creators of the movie made the public believe it was real.  This in turn made the move a sensation. 

Week 6 - Short Film

Pitch – The life of a laptop

I will be using my sister’s camera to take all the photos.

I will use songs that belong to other people but to avoid copyright laws I will use less than 10% of each song.

I will use Apples iMovie to create the final cut of the film.  

Week 6 - Internet vs Hollywood

Hollywood has always struggled to deal with new technologies such as Television and the Internet. The film industry have still had not found an effective way to use the Internet for its benefit. According to Michael Lynton (CEO of Sony Pictures) piracy is killing the cinema and nothing good has come from the Internet at all. He stated that, " due to piracy there's less money to make movies and fewer movies being made"(M Masnick, 2009). The reason for this is that it is simply too easy to torrent a movie for free. Some could even say it is just as easy as downloading it from iTunes.

Masnick, M. 2009 Internet Hating Sony Pictures CEO Insists Piracy Is Killing Movie Business; But Facts Show Otherwise, viewed 1 September 2011 <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091027/1255556697.shtml>