Category Archives: Networked Media

My Fellow Colleagues

Posted on by under Blogs 'R' Us, Networked Media

Another time to reflect on what everyone else has done, catching up from last week!

Stefan talks about the integration between technology and culture through technological determinism.

Kiralee talks about the idea that authors loose control over their work when they move it to an electronic platform in  terms of story order.

Carli talks about how vulnerable are large infrastructure networks like the power grid of the internet to random failures or deliberate attacks and gives an article about ‘Four Ways The Internet Could Go Down’.

Rachel goes on to discuss whether or not we are becoming mindless users of technology, with multiple examples, one being The Candy Crush Saga.

And last but not least, Jamie talks about the Week 8 Reading by saying we have become accustomed to a certain level of comfort, and noticing that we are talking about electricity and the author’s last name is Watts.

Sharing is Caring

Posted on by under Blogs 'R' Us, Networked Media

Time to review everyone else’s blog posts, I love reading what everyone has to say, and most of the time they explain things, which is a lot easier to understand.

Carli gives notes on the lecture which is always good to read to see the opinions of my fellow colleagues. One point was that technologies are not neutral although they may be geared towards a certain use over others, they can still be used for other purposes.

Rachel asks what comes first the chicken or the egg in one of her posts for the readings. She suggests that technology and change are much like this.

Jamie brings up a discussion about symposium #5 by saying that intent is getting lost more and more these days as the way we are communicating is more text based.

 

The Connected Age

Posted on by under Networked Media

Week 8 Reading is all about everything and everyone being connected. An example that was used was a spider’s web. We all weave around and into each other, whether it be through friends or internationally. This reading started off with electric power. This is everything for the world, it is how we live, what we depend on. It is the backbone of the economy and of civilised life. It is the most essential feature of the modern world. Electricity is everything in the world, and most people would never consider living without it. Is it that we can no longer or that the idea is too scary because without electricity how to we connect to the internet? From what we consume to what we do as a society, power is needed to function. For example in a lightening storm and the power goes out for a couple of minutes, what is the first thing you want to do, turn the lights on? Update your status on Facebook?

“The power grid is not really a single entity, but several regional networks cobbled together under the rubric of greater connectivity for the good of all”. The grid is made up of individual components that all link in together. Just like a network. The reading gave an example that I liked about it being like a football crowd. Can be orderly or it can be chaotic and confusing.

Some questions out of the reading I found influential, these being:
“How do norms and conventions evolve and sustain themselves in human societies, and how can they be upset and even replaced”
“How does individual behaviour aggregate to collective behaviour”
-It is all about interacting with each other and our surroundings. A Network is a collection of objects that connect to each other in some way. “The science of networks is lending the concept real analytical power”

Networks are continuously evolving and is a self-constituting system. There is a set of relationships between individuals, leading into the six degrees of separation. We all know someone who will know another person that will know someone else. If you think about it for long enough it becomes confusing, but makes sense that somehow we all know each other. We have connections through not only family but friends, and work colleagues also. Networking is a global interlocking pattern.

social_networking

A spider’s web vs a knitted scarf

Posted on by under Networked Media

The very last point of the week 7 reading is my favourite, where it talks about a plot being like a knitted scarf or a spider’s web. With the scarf you can tell where the beginning and end is, and there has so be a sequence or pattern the whole way through. However with a spider’s web you wouldn’t know where the beginning or end is unless you watched the spider weave it. It could be attached to multiple places and branch out to other trees or furniture. It is up to us to interpret its patterning. This sounds a lot like Networked media, where there is not distinct beginning and end, however everything is connected to each other. I like to say it is the same as hypertext/hyperlinking.

Symposium 7

Posted on by under Networked Media, Networked Media Symposium

Symposium 7 Questions:

As I couldn’t make the symposium I decided to answer these questions in my own way.

  1. Which is more important in making a great book, form or content? To begin with it is this an online book or a hard copy? Print Literacy or Networked Literacy? Throughout this semester there has been a huge discussion on books. Every week we see the little book and find ourselves listening to why networked literacy is the future, why it is better and how it benefits us. I feel as though depending on if you read a book or if your reading a webpage the form will be different. Networked Literacy has no edges. There is room to move, so I would say the content here is what makes it great, however it still needs direction. I would say that both form and content are important in making a great book, because they go hand in hand.

 

  1. Without a conventional narrative structure, how much control does an author lose? What is a conventional narrative structure these days? Again, Networked literacy has no edges, it is interactive through hypertext. It is a new way to communicate. It is clear that the majority of us read information off the internet rather than a book, and when we read off the internet we do not end up where we started. We will click on links and find ourselves deep within the web, finding all of this information that we didn’t know existed. If an author changes with technology, I believe that with a bit of knowledge, you can be just a great of an author without having a contents page that says this will be on page ## and nowhere else. Being an author on the internet opens up endless opportunities where you can communicate and interact globally, and learn new skills along the way.

More on Blogs ‘R’ Us…

Posted on by under Blogs 'R' Us, Networked Media

There are a couple more blogs that i have to talk about, ones that i enjoy to read, not only because we have to but also because they bring up some really good points.

Kiralee found herself surfing through her favourite Youtube channels to find their collection of Interactive adventures, emphasis being on the Interactive adventures!

Kenton’s blog is an enjoyable read, getting a laugh whilst looking through the photo montage! On a more serious note, he writes about getting his head around the symposium and says that Ted Nelson is a smarter version of himself. He also goes into detail about hypertext and its full potential which was not only beneficial, but also a really good read.

Lastly Stephan brings up the never-ending debate resting back to my symposium post, that technology depends on us, however we rely on it!

I find this exercise to be beneficial, as it allows interaction through hypertext, it is a way to communicate, and it is also a way to learn. Sometimes peers can be the best people to explain something that you don’t fully understand.

Blogs ‘R’ us

Posted on by under Blogs 'R' Us, Networked Media

The new thing to do now is to not only read everyone else’s blogs but write about them also. Its hard to write short pieces on fellow colleagues when they all come up with strong and valid points that help me understand aspects of Networked Media.

First up is Carli. For this weeks reading she talks about hypertext as experiential, then goes on to discuss experiential learning as the process of making meaning from direct experience.

Ellen uses examples of the Sims and Neopets to show her understanding of Hypertext.

And, lastly Maddison discusses how the blogs that we are using are hypertext, and explains all about the interactive screen.

 

Symposium WK 6 – The web is huge, the web is everything!

Posted on by under Networked Media, Networked Media Symposium

This weeks symposium focused on questions about the relationship between technology, art and culture, and the potential of hypertext, and whether we will ever be satisfied with it.

1. Can technology progress independently of art and culture?
-There was a debate over this question as the tutor’s shared their different views and opinions. Some said that technology is not separated from culture. That technology comes from artistic and cultural desires. As a species we have always used technology. Everything is technology, culture and art. Art is a technology practice. Art is a technology oasis. There is no art and culture without technology. There is NO separation. However on the other hand, technology has a logic of its own. It can progress independently from art and culture. Like everything there is always two sides to the story.

2.What is the untapped potential of hypertext? Will we ever be satisfied with it?
-Most of this question was targeted at Ted Nelson and his views on Hypertext. To answer this question the tutor’s suggested that the web is huge and the web is everything. Everything is as close as everything else. Media online does not have edges, and if it does not have edges how does it have an ending. This leads onto the notion of hypertext and how it works not only in the past and present, but also the future. From the term technological determinism, does technology shape us or do we shape technology, it shows both sides of the argument to whether or not we will ever be satisfied with hypertext. Will society continue to change because technology does, or is it trying to keep up with the ever-changing dependencies from society?

Week 6 Reading

Posted on by under Networked Media

“What if you had a book that changed every time you read it?”

In today’s society, interaction is how we live, we depend on this activity to socialise, learn, and communicate with people globally. This reading talks about how hypertext and the book are different and how the world is leaning towards the web for everything. This is where Adrian leads to with his book examples every symposium, explaining that the web does not have edges, therefore does not have a set ending. What if you had a book that changed every time you read it depending on your mood, whims and latest fetish?

Hypertext is a highly refined technology  that allows for an interactive narrative where future readers will interpret it differently from the way we do now. A quote about hypertext: “Describes a tool that lets us use the printed word as the basis for a technology that considerably extends writing’s reach and repertoire“. Hypertext is a tangled network of texts and links, that is the form of technology where the future is leading, and where the present is at. It feels that now, we are transitioning between networked literacy and print literacy, and from the past few readings it all seems to represent the same notion, that hypertext is the way of the future, the way to communicate and the way to interact. Hypertext is the new and improved book that allows the viewer to decide on the ending that they want.

Out-smarted by Technology?

Posted on by under A little Something Extra, Networked Media

New York Times wrote an article about the future improvements of a smartphone and how it is smarter than its owner by the way it uses data programming. This links to Network Literacy and also Technological determinism, showing just how dependent we are on these items, and how they organise parts in the users life to potentially benefit them. Are we becoming that inept in our own lives that technology is creating new ways to out smart the human race?

The article states: “As our phones merge with our cars, houses and other connected devices, we could well drown in data. There will be more apps, contacts, messages and other digital bits than any sane human has the time or cognitive capacity to make sense of.

As that occurs, the phone will have to morph into an intelligent filter; it will need to be able to figure out who needs you, and why, and decide when to demand your attention. In other words, the smartphone will have to finally start living up to its name?”

To read the full article, which I encourage you to do so, click here!

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