This weeks reading was all about DataBases and what the specifically mean . . . a whole 20 pages of it. . .

I will get to databases in a second but can I be the only one that stumbled at the “data and algorithm” section? Video games are an algorithm. *double take*
They’ve tricked us all, we doing math for fun, we even pay for it, whaaaat? Instead of looking at this as a negative lets try and turn it around into a positive, why not install video games into the curriculum as a math subject . . . This could be the beginnings of something great!

Anyway, back on topic: data
There are different forms of data and how it can be stored and everything, the internet being the main focus for us. The argument is that the internet doesn’t have a story thread or a narrative to it. They believe that new media does not have a story to it. Which I will spend the rest of this blog disagreeing about.
Firstly the internet has its own story – the history of the internet, how it came to be, what happened as it grew and although you could argue that it doesn’t have an ending it definitely has chapters in it, the term Web 2.0 should be enough justification for this notion, so at least each chapter has a beginning middle and end.
Secondly, I disagree that there is no story or narrative within the internet. In the argument about algorithms being in games brought me to certain conclusion: everyone has a goal when they’re doing something, whether it be working in order to get money or watching copies amounts of videos on youtube to cure boredom there is always a goal and as the reading said, the game ends once you reach your goal. So if you’re on the internet you must have a certain goal, you might be researching something for instance, you’ve reached your goal when you’ve found the information that you’re looking for, so although abstract, stories exist within the internet, it is created when the reader/audience begin it and is finished when they end it.

I think I got a tad off topic there but just some food for thought.

Bell Curve vs Power Law

And here I was thinking that i’d never have to use Math in such a way once I left school . . . well I suppose I’m still at school so my point is still valid.

The main point that I get out of this reading is that Bell Curves relate to networks that are concrete, the example used in the reading is the roads and highways connecting the major cities of the USA. I’m assuming you all know what a bell curve is . . .
On the contrary to this, any network that isn’t concrete shows the Power Law, the example being the aeroplanes’ flight paths between any the cities. Each city is a node in the network and the major cities obviously have more paths in the air going straight to other cities then roads do.

So because the internet is regarded as lucid and not concrete in terms of its networking capabilities then there is a relation to that and the Power Law. Is this helpful? Well it helpful for those wanting to target mass audiences because then they know which nodes in the network they need to be on, advertisement would obviously benefit in this way. Heres a thought though, the internet is expanding and expanding all the time, each time a new node comes in those previous to it have the potential to get into the peaking 20% of nodes in the structure, but human knowledge can only go so far surely, does the placings of the nodes change if the growths stops or are the nodes still fluid? Especially in a network that isn’t concrete . . . who knows? not me . . .

This weeks reading was all about networks, and not just that which you could find on the internet or in media.

‘How is it that assembling a large collection of components results in something altogether different from just a disassociated collection of components?’
This reading got me thinking about what is a network specifically. An assembly of a large collections of components, does this mean that we as human beings are a network? We have several components that make us up, organs, bones, muscles etc. We are also apart of a bigger network know as a society. We know our power grid is a network, is our world a network? Are the planets that orbit our son apart of a network? Is our Galaxy apart of a network of Galaxies !!!
Is a network apart of everything we do and simply just how we function ? . . . some food for thought.

Technological determinism.

This theory seems pretty self explanatory as the name states, technology determines the ways that humans exist within the world. It has some very good points and examples about how it is the case, for instance the creation of writing transformed the oral culture of humans into a literacy based one and that because of the creation of writing it has transformed the human consciousness. A fairly big statement but seeing as I wasn’t there when our race was predominantly oral based i can’t comment. Does technology determine everything though? I would be inclined to disagree, after all there must be someone who creates the technology. Thats why I would move to create another party in the theory. Technology is in the middle, below is the consumers of the technology who are very well determined by the technology, but then above the technology there are the creators of the technology who create it for one reason or the other. This is just another theory and i would be more then happy to agree that it is rather a big subject and the simplicity of all the theories in comparison don’t quite sum it up.

Can we stop with the book bashing!

“the end of Books” – really? Just like the telephone killed face to face conversation I guess.

“[A] possession that has lost so much of its utility that only the well-to-do can afford to have one around anymore” – umm what ? I live in a small town, in this small town is a thing called a library, in this library there are books which I can read for free! Whilst on the internet reading this weeks reading about hypertext once again degrading the use of books, I’m spending money on power keeping my computer on, paying the phone bill so I can have access to the internet to read this, so although the page in particular didn’t cost anything to get access it still costs on other ways. I’m not saying that the books in the library didn’t cost anything to begin with but it is all relative. I know we touched on the fact that the internet is not the ideal hypertext and is only a primitive form but still, are there going to be absolutely no costs whatsoever to this all powerful hypertext in the future? Of course there is, because although it is a communistic dream we live in a capitalist world.

It is stated briefly in this reading but I think a big factor to this argument, they are two different things and are not fighting for the one position.

I understand that being able to chose where you go in terms of hypertext and having that liberty is good in certain ways. but it is far too shallow a thought to encompass every notion that goes towards information and story telling in particular. Why do we have stories? Where did they come from? Lets take the example of Oedipus, for those of you who don’t know Oedipus is a Greek tragedy. Oedipus is given the prophecy that he will kill his father and will wed his mother, Long story short; he attempts to change his destiny but in doing so actually fulfils it. If you know the whole story you’ll understand my point much better. If we chose Oedipus’ fate in a hypertext type state then how are we to get the essence of the story, how can we get the moral of the story and learn from it if we go by what we chose. I guess what i’m trying to say is, stories are a way we can learn, by hearing other peoples stories we take on their knowledge. If we create it all ourselves won’t that stunt our learning capabilities? It may not turn out that severe but worth thinking about in the hypothetical.

And sometimes its good to have a beginning middle and end.

 

 

Even though it is probably not the main point of this weeks reading I wanted to draw special attention to one point in particular that clarified something for me. It was, once again, to do with the concept of blogs. On pages 78 and 79 the mention of blogs came up and I thought to myself, here we go again, more about how revolutionary blogs are. I’m obviously still unsure and sceptical of its full potential, as I’m treating it as diary type thing, and to be honest who really wants to read my diary; but I digress. . .
The idea that they are all connected and can be connected to other things is nothing new, what I didn’t realise before is that blogs are dated into chronological order. Which is something I already knew but it got me thinking about other things on the internet not being dated, or at least not showing when they’ve been dated, this can fit in with the wk 4 question of ‘how can you trust the validity of the internet’, checking when it was published and how ‘up to date’ it is might help.

The other thing I picked up is the notion of blogging about medical research, how awesome is that! This is something worth blogging about, this not only shows the public about what’s the latest in, say, cancer research but it also connects all the separate organisations searching for the cure to join together and share information so easily.

I’ll admit that there are definitely some advantages about blogging that have come to light in the last few weeks.

Extract from: Nelson, Theodor Holm. Literary Machines 91.1: The Report On, and Of, Project Xanadu Concerning Word Processing, Electronic Publishing, Hypertext, Thinkertoys, Tomorrow’s Intellectual Revolution, And Certain Other Topics Including Knowledge, Education and Freedom. Sausalito: Mindful Press, 1992. Print.

Wow . . . was that one confusing; not sure if it was because I’m only half awake and been staring at the screen too long.

This first reading is a type of history lesson I guess. The whole talk about networks and unifying information and all did pass over my head a bit except for the fact that they were talking about hyperlinks or something to bring it all together. To be honest, when I was reading it I was mostly thinking about how this could make for a great sequel to Pirates of the Silicon Valley.

I found his outlook on the future quite interesting. There were desserts and the collapsing of civilisations, a very apocalyptic out look on the year 2020 but the night in shining armour, our saviour will be computers. Computers will protect the intellect of humankind. Although I admit that his predictions for the future in regards to computers were extremely accurate, that computers will evolve and help mankind, his predictions on the rest of the happenings of the world are somewhat further from the truth, he should stick to computer talk. His outlook on computer technology is very positive, obviously the Matrix and i-robot and the likes were before his time.

 

‘Networked Literacy: The New Path to Knowledge’

This reading shows the difference in technologies between the a book and the internet (in a nutshell). The introduction ultimately shows the limitations of a book, having to go to the library, get the librarian to help you find a book or a few books on a certain topic, borrow the books, etc. The point specifically about a student, I think that books still have a place in the education system personally, I believe they can be more trust worthy in a sense because their content has been through a lot of hurdles to get to the stage of a book which gives it at lease some validity. The point made in favour of the internet can also be its downfall, its easier to publish something online, can this be considered a negative as well?

I think the main argument for internet over books as a source of information is the convenience factor. It is more convenient to look up on the internet about something because its only a few buttons away on your computer or phone and you don’t have to, god forbid, head out into town and potentially speak and be social! Unfortunately in this day and age it is the preferred option.

One problem I problem I have in regards to the discussion about links on the internet is the general outcome of the general public, it can/will lead you astray. Don’t tell me you’ve never gotten onto youtube, started with an educational purpose and found your way through the links, to end up watching voices overdubbed on cat videos . . . or is that just me. The point is that there are no cat videos in books!

Both have advantages and disadvantages but I do still find myself a bit sceptical of the internet.

First of all, I would like to praise the person whose idea it was to post those videos as a part of the weeks readings. Its great to have something different every now and again and, if I’m being perfectly honest, receives more of my attention.

The creative commons video was definitely the easiest way to get my head around what creative commons are and can do. It is simple enough to understand when explained correctly however there is obviously more to it then what is in the video but it was a good start.

I tend to find legal documents and laws quite boring to read however I understand their importance, especially now in the world of technology. An interesting point in the ‘Blogs and the Law’ reading was the idea of what happens when the problem is over different countries.  “The internet is borderless”; apart from a great quote this raises the question: what happens if a of breach of copyright happens in a different country to yours, an international case? The answer being that the laws of their country (whoever created the original) are the ones at play. Which begs the question, if there was an international company could they sue that perpitrator from multiple places around the word ? How is that for incentive !

Just a minor note that I  found fascinating, obviously a by-product of the influential media imported from America, a lot of the questions were confused with the American Law some of which don’t exist in Australia, reminding me that if 911 is called in Australia it is redirected to 000 because some people don’t even know the emergency service of their own country! (Does anyone know the number for 911!). – hope I don’t need to quote that.

The first reading of the semester seems to be an attempt to prove why it is necessary in this day and age to use blogging as a form of education. There are some very good points to this argument, not least of which is the fact that the outside world is moving onto this new age of the internet whether the education world is or not. I think that the idea of going through this (educational blogging) in order to get us into a good space for future employment, particularly in the media industry, definitely makes sense.

Some points show that it will be easier for teachers to keep track of whether their students are doing the readings or not as they are expected to blog about them. This first blog seems to be going in a vicious cycle, i’m reading the reading so I can write a blog about its topic, and the topic is that it is useful to blog about readings to show teachers that you have done the reading . . . which is about blogging . . .

Another element I’ll put up to discussion is the idea of networking between each others blogs during our study and how public our work is in this new style of assessment. There is a valid point in the reading which states we are aloud to look at each others blogs so we can see where we are with the rest of the students. The hypothesis was made that someone who isn’t putting out as much work might see a higher standard of work from another student and therefore try and better themselves on what they’ve seen. I would think that, apart from the obvious fact that there might be a few people that just copy the majority of what they see from others, the entirety of students, if cross referencing, would create a completely unwavering level of marks across all students. Personally, I would prefer a more private method of marking; purely in the the sense that a student would typically want to stand out from the crowd. Nevertheless here is my  blog on the first reading; all scavengers please enjoy.

Miles, Adrian. “Blogs in Media education: a Beginning.” Australian Screen Ed.41 (2006): 66-9