Databases vs Design

During this week’s symposium, discussion ‘too-and-froed’ between databases and design, and it really wasn’t until about half way through until i realised just how interrelated they actually are. Network media now is simply just a mass of mega databases, and really everything we do with technology is dependent on it. For example; pretty much the only phones you see people with now are the iPhone or the Samsung. Whether this heated and business-vicious affair turns out to be just another fad or not, the point is that as a result of this, such a large proportion of society has now linked themselves in with the databases of iCloud or Dropbox. Why so? Is this really because of the technology that is being offered? Or is because of the way in which these fancy new phones are being marketed through the graphical design capabilities that are now available? When you think about the subject of ‘design’ now, it is now about creating something that is better than what is available now, but about creating something that is bigger,better and more advanced then the what people can already predict. Social technology is now changing and advancing faster than it ever has before and because of this databases are now becoming more and more crucial to maintaining security of anything you put online. Or are they? Perhaps the term personal databases would be more appropriate, given the recent celebrity nude hacks…

Taking a totally different perspective on databases is Kenton who questions the broad definition of a databases, proposing that perhaps a database could also be zoo or a supermarket.

Then Kiralee jots our her ideas in dot point form, simple and easy and an efficient way to tackle something that as we can see, can be approached in may different, albeit correct, viewpoints.

What defines technology?

A quick but necessary post during today’s symposium. The tutors hold different opinions on what is ‘technology’? In the midst of this discussion whilst searching a news website I quite coincidentally came across an article on nail polish posted under the catgeory ‘Technology’. I found this both amassing and confusing.

source: https://twitter.com/UndercoverColor

source: https://twitter.com/UndercoverColor

Validity, Credibility, Ability and a Little on Elliot’s Hair

Today we started off the lecture talking about Elliot’s trip to the hairdresser…a seemingly mundane, personal hygiene and appearance maintenance task, but no! He managed to very relevantly bring it back to the issue of how can you trust the validity of the internet? The answer simply is, that most of the time you can’t. Unless you know how to navigate through the copious amounts of pages and posts to find which ones have academic or a reputable authority, a number of links to other sources and, how many people have actually referred to this issue. That is, like what Jason mentioned, until you see how many people have written or posted about it and on what platform. For me, this issue was very relevant as only this morning had I seen the articles on Robin William’s death, and just like Jason, I too initially regarded it as a hoax. Too retrieve the truth on the matter however, I waited for about half an hour before making a post to two of my personal social media sites – Facebook and this blog. And in that time, I searched 3-4 websites and skimmed through my Instagram page and Facebook newsfeed to validate his death.

Before finishing this week’s discussion, we touched on the differences between print and network literacy, and in the eyes of some, our current inability to comprehend the technicalities that are imbedded within network literacy despite our generational reputation. We compared and contrasted the understandings that people hold of print literacy yet does not exist within the form of network literacy. Do we need to understand how toner in a printer works to fully understand print literacy? Is this the same as understanding how a website is developed in order to become network literate?

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