Archive of ‘Miscellaneous’ category
In this week’s readings, Manovick describes the internet as a database with no beginning, middle and end. Databases store data that is utilised in the digital space for organisation and ease of retrieval via search engines.
I tend to agree that the internet in itself does not follow traditional narrative structure as a book would. The internet does not follow a story. It is made up of a collection of various websites, that contain their own stories and narratives within.
Databases stored in print form, such as encyclopaedias, still have a narrative structure, as they are arranged for example alphabetically by topic. This can be true to the internet too, as stories within the overall database are arranged in their own narrative sequence. It may not be the overall internet that is a narrative, but there are narratives within the big database.
All rights reserved: photosteve101
In the lab this week, we discussed the confusing topic of neutrality. When discussing amongst small groups, we defined neutrality as technology not being responsible for the outcomes it produces, but rather the trigger using the technology as being responsible for what the technology can produce. This is particularly relevant in relation to the iCloud hacking scandle.
Although in a class discussion, we furthered this idea and explored it from a different perspective. We considered that nothing is neutral. Everything has a purpose, or something that it is defined by. One of the major take aways from this discussion was the idea that everything may not be neutral, but that is only because once we identify something as having meaning and a purpose, its neutrality disappears. Therefore, what we do not know can be considered neutral until it is discovered.
Fellow blogger and classmate George discussed the issue of who is to blame in the iCloud candle. He pointed the finger at the hacker, not the victim of the hack and I tend to agree. Why should the innocent people who have put trusted their personal content on the Cloud, take the blame for their content being shared all over the world? Although one does wonder why they would store their personal content on the Cloud and trust that it would not be hacked. Nonetheless, it is not their fault.
Jane discussed the issue of ‘sad shaming’, something that I had not considered before. She talks of the dangers of people sharing their personal and hearbreaking stories online for all to see, and how this would make people in similar situations who don’t want to share their story feel. I have always wondered, why do we feel the need to write an RIP post for a family member that has passed away, particularly if they don’t have Facebook!
Nethaniel has a humourous way to look at last week’s Apple announcement. Why do we feel the need to watch special events and announcements as they happen. FYI, I was in that 8.30 class and still got the same information you did at 6.00am. Bless you sleep.
I didn’t even realise how much information I was giving away with this simple Instagram Post.
Where I will be on a particular day, where I will be sitting, who I will be with. It’s very ironic I posted this photo at the very time we were talking about privacy and the internet. It really highlights what was discussed in the readings.
All rights reserved: Denise Krebs
This week fellow blogger Rebecca expressed her outrage about Instagram’s plans to introduce sponsored Instagram posts, AKA advertising. I tend to agree with what Rebecca is saying. If you have a good thing, why ruin it? I understand that Instagram is a business and their prime objective is to make money, although one of the most frustrating elements of other social channels is the advertising and infiltration of information I am not interested in. Sort of like the advertising discussed in this recent blog post of mine.
In Carli’s Blog she discusses the idea of teenagers preferring to live in the technological world rather than the real world. I was able to see this occur at a birthday party I was at recently. A teenager at the party was sitting at the table with headphones in one ear, constantly texting. Other teenagers at the party preferred to play games on their iPad than engage in conversation and socialise with the other 70-odd guests.
I couldn’t agree more with Dom’s blog post this week about privacy online. I had a similar situation that he did regarding being tagged in an incriminating photo on Facebook. Long story short, I didn’t give permission for the photo to be uploaded and it was. It was a photo that incriminated me with my employer and I received disciplinary action because of the image, even though it wasn’t on my account!
All rights reserved: Steve Bridger
This week Stephanie spoke in her blog about how her younger sister has become network literate, purely through self-learning off YouTube. It made me think about how Generation Y have come to learn about network literacies where a lot of other generations get left behind. Take my Mum for example. The other night my Mum insisted I show her how to ‘check-in’ on Facebook. I was baffled at how she did not know how to do this. It’s not like myself and all of my friends had learnt how to ‘check-in’ on Facebook. This was implicit knowledge that we just… knew. So why was it so hard for my Mum and my other family members to grasp? Do they not have the same underlining curiosity that the ‘younger’ generation do with technology? Will I one day be as tech illiterate as my parents? These are all questions I think of on a regular basis.
I did have a laugh at Maddison’s blog post regarding coding and the HTML test that I just completed. Now that she mentions it, all I can think of when I think about coding is Mark Zuckerberg and The Social Network, geeks and uni students locked up in their bedrooms with servers and writing code. P.S The Accidental Billionaire (the book the film is based on) is awesome.
Brady’s blog post with pictures of Lego mini-figures represented as websites, is not only cute but hilarious! The Google one definitely gave me a laugh.
All rights reserved: Steven S via Flickr
Not to sound like Professor Umbridge from Harry Potter (although I am very pleased to get my very first Harry Potter reference into this blog), our world has a lot of order, structure and as Adrian discussed in the lecture, we are governed by time.
He talked about schools being like factories, in that they have set rules, standards and expectations. Students are divided into levels or grades by age, learn at the same pace and ability, despite the preference of each student.
It made me think back to my high school experience, where in Year 7 we were forced to learn English, Maths, Science, P.E, Music, Religion, Indonesian and Drama. Each subject was graded, weighted equally in our end of year report. Although we had no choice in what subjects we picked.
For me personally, I was terrible at Maths, Drama and Music and the pressure to keep these subjects that I was not good at, at the same standard as the subjects I was good at and enjoyed was frustrating and disheartening at times.
When I got to VCE, I had a lot more flexibility in the subjects that I selected and it was clear that I enjoyed what I was doing and that reflected in my grades. Today’s lecture definitely gave me some food for thought.
All rights reserved: Sean MacEntee
In the week four readings, Ted Nelson talks about hypertext as text that branches out into other areas of information, providing choices for where the reader can take their reading. Sort of like this.
This can be sequential information relevant to the topic discussed, such as the link that I just provided, or it can be non-sequential text such as this.
When you hear the word hypertext, it sounds a lot more confusing and complicated than what it actually is. We use hypertext regularly through our blogs without even realising it. Remember that cat video I embedded into my very first blog post? Yeah, that’s hypertext.
See those links down the right hand side of my blog? Hypertext.
You know when you’re reading an article on an online news service and they have a video embedded with footage from the scene of the story and links to related news stories inserted into the article? That’s a perfect example of hypertext used in everyday life; and we didn’t even know it was a thing.
Despite being told from a young age to be aware of internet hoaxes, sometimes they can be scarily convincing. I found myself in a situation earlier in the year where I nearly fell for an internet hoax.
I received an email from the “Australian Taxation Office” notifying me that I had unclaimed tax to my name, as my last tax return was calculated incorrectly. The ATO letterhead and font and the wording of the email was very convincing. There weren’t any obvious signs of a scam such as send us your credit details to receive your money.
I was almost convinced to sign up for my free money, until my boyfriend suggested I double check with the ATO over the phone that the email wasn’t a hoax. When I called the ATO, they confirmed that the email was a scam.
I was lucky that proactive thinking and actions were taken before a serious problem was created. So how do we know what is valid and what isn’t on the internet? We don’t, but one thing I learnt is it is always best to double check.
All rights reserved: Asheboro Public Library
Adrian raised a point in the lecture today about authors. He stated that authors are not actually considered authors unless they are published. More specifically, he suggested that being published meant having writing featured in print form. He then went on to say that anyone who is not published however has written something, is a wannabe writer and author and nothing more. Although I strongly disagree.
With the new technologies that have allowed for network literacy to be established, there have been new forms and ways that writing can be published. Websites have allowed for authors to publish their work online, blogs allow for new authors and writers to express their thoughts and even Facebook and Twitter have allowed for ordinary people to publish their writing online.
Network literacy and the creation of the online world has enabled a different kind of expression and a new way to get work published. It allows for writers and authors to self-publish online, and in some cases this has lead to being published in print. Print phenomenon Fifty Shades of Grey was initially published by E.L James online, and then printed after the traction it had online.
Bottom line, there is more to publishing than simply having your writing in a book. In a world that is increasingly becoming more network literate, it is essential to consider publishing beyond print.
