Rachel realises she can’t write down what she wants to happen for her life, as she could for a story. Personally I don’t think that’s diddly squat about network media (I’m not criticising Rachel, I’m the one who did bring it up), but it is a good thing to learn in general, and I’m very interested in learning things that make differences. To any and every thing. Brady thinks perhaps the internet is a story, but I think here what is actually described is history, and there is plenty of what is known as historiography which demonstrates that while history has traditionally been a narrative, cause and effect linear discipline, this isn’t how things really work (Hayden White is the person who has shown the history is actually story, not ‘truth’, while something like Manuel de Landa’s A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History shows how history isn’t, well, linear and sequential. Anyway, I think Brady is describing history, not a particular story, so it confuses the general with the individual. Karlee gets the role of materiality (what is known as the linguistic turn in theory in the 1960s and 70s is partly to blame here, language become the house of everything) which is a good thing to begin to grapple with. Amy tries hard to make her use of the internet a story (I’m always intrigued at the lengths we go to try and force a square peg into a triangular hole when it comes to stories). Just because things end and begin they are not a story. A highway, desk, cup of coffee, line on a piece of paper – all have a beginning and an end, none are stories in themselves. We can tell stories about them, but that is a very different thing to saying they are stories.
commentary
Literacies
Angus likes the convenience, but is sceptical about how it leads you astray. Rebecca realises that her train trip is a sort of living demo of network literacy (I don’t think it is, but hey). The really weird thing is to realise that since it is wireless, we’re all sitting in it. Alexandra realises that print literacy is a deep shared knowledge, unlike network literacy, and Carli is surprised to realise that the internet isn’t like a book.
Ashleigh has very useful summary points, and note, parts stay parts and we then weave. This is radically different to what was before (BW — Before Web). Ellen realises that using the web is not the same as being literate. For me this is like using a car, just because I can drive a car it doesn’t mean I’m ‘literate’ about cars, even if I drive a car a lot, even very well.
Blogs and…
Evelyn recognising that blogging isn’t easy. No, but also don’t confuse blogging with extroversion. I’m an introvert, and blogging works very well for me as I am interested in how it gives me a place to think, and to share that thinking (introverts aren’t shy, they just get value in other ways to extroverts). I guess I’m just wanting to say that blogging isn’t really about “me, me, me” if you don’t want it to be.
Stories and Materiality
Sarah wonders if children tell stories differently to how we ‘learn’ to what they are supposed to be, which relates to Seonaid too who picks up the key thing. It isn’t that books are wrong (they’re great) but surely this is not the only way we can tell stories? George thinks things probably do have ends, using the blog post as an example. I think a great question is “where does my blog begin, where does it end?”. Samuel has a really interesting conversation with himself about books, ebooks, sound and movies, some of us do fetishise the book, which isn’ a bad thing, but it is good to recognise it. Alexandra is realising that she might not fall in love just the way she hoped, world travel, foreign partner (no, network media is not taking the rap for that!).
Books and Not Books
Very nice read from Stephanie on stories, shapes, and what happens if the shape of our containers changes. Anna has a nice thing about if my day has a beginning middle and end then isn’t it a story? I’ll say no. A story requires causation between the parts, and unless I’m a god, the sun doesn’t come up in the morning because of what I do. Simone has links to other stuff and thanks about how we take things for granted when in fact they are not ‘natural’ or forever (book for instance are only a few hundred years old).
Michael is a fan of reading books electronically (and I’d note these are old fashioned books read on screen, and not yet the sorts of things that books might become when digital only).
More Legals
Copyright is a big topic. Changing too. James has things on SOPA and creative commons. Laura has a great summary, and Michael links to a story about piracy and discusses one reason why it happens. Many share this view by the way, the bigger issue is to try and solve the issue (it is what we call a wicked problem). But industry reacts and so wants to make the walls, the punishments, etc bigger, harder, harsher. It is a stick rather than carrot approach, and anyone who wants to change behaviour will tell you, carrots work better.
Network Literacies
Niamh with notes from the reading, finding the analogy of print versus network literacy useful. Jamie has notes on double loop learning, network literacy and the essay. Tilly realises that while the internet has been there all along for her, there is not an understanding of it beyond the surface, and worries that no one cares that she writes. You’ll have to take it on faith that this question is asked by every writer, even published ones. Mia has a brief, informed, discussion about network and print literacy, doing a good job of outlining differences. Evan has an excellent summary of the network literacy reading including an excellent take away, and some details about RSS, XML and the rest of that alphabet soup.
Let’s Remove This Concept?
To begin with think of it as an ecosystem, and then there really isn’t competition (the idea that nature is a competition was understood to be wrong in about 1960). So we aren’t really competing in any way, academically or otherwise (there is no rule that says only 10% can get mark x).
More Legal Matters
Luke on some of the issues of copyright in film making and music. Nethaniel on Creative Commons licences, Simone on YouTube, music, creative commons, and hive species. Sarah has a dot point summary. Monique thinks about creative commons in relation to ideology and courtesy, which is a cool way to approach it. Seonaid outlines things about copyright, and creative commons. Ashleigh brings in Lessig from another class (always good to see) to discuss copyright and its unreasonable restrictions. Maddison realises that publishing a blog post means it is copyrighted (yep), publication is all it takes.