Most children who were born in this age of time and have access to technology and are often regarded as “digital native”.
I’d say that I too come from that category since I am not new to this technology.
I have had a PC since I was 8 years old. I remember the period when I first used Windows 3.1 IBM DOS computer back in the days.
I also remember playing my first DOS computer games such as Outrun, Alley Cat, Battle Chess, DOOM, etc. Games that had very few colours graphically weren’t great and neither did they have multiplayer online support.
Months later that year, I got my first dial-up internet connection. Because I had a passion for chess, I began to play chess regularly online with other players from around the world.
For me at that time it was truly fascinating. Since the internet speed was nowhere near perfect. But this at the same time made chess a really exciting game to play online. Since it was one of the fewest games I played since childhood on dial-up internet connection.
Several times my connection got disconnected even when I was on a winning position. Yes, sure it was frustrating to not have my win/rating recorded in my stats, but it doesn’t mean I should give up with online chess or this new technology! I knew that technology was still in its peak. The network culture back then was not strong enough either, it only just kicked-off so I had to be philosophical.
Since then, technology has rapidly changed. We now not only have stronger computers. We now have better games with much more intense graphics, animations, etc. Nearly all of our games today support multiplayer online, something that was a dream for me when I was a kid.
Now we also have high speed broadband connection that does not disconnect as frequently as dial-up.
I could have barely played chess online back in the old days. But now I don’t just have chess, I have fast paced online games, hardly any interruptions or difficulties playing online either!
Also not to forget the system requirements of nearly every game, back then I’ve struggled to run games smoothly with no lag/stuttering. I was struggling to play games at lower resolutions, details, etc.
Now I see myself maxing out nearly every game on the market. Running games such as “Crysis” at max 1920x1200 resolution all high with 8x anti-aliasing, etc. If someone told me that I could run games like that on all high settings 5-10 years ago with no problems. I would think that I was dreaming!
The good news is that I have learnt to appreciate this technology. In a way at the same time I was kind of a digital immigrant. I was learning through step by step over the years. I wasn’t completely sure about the technology I had back then. In a way I was experimenting at times, things weren’t going perfectly for me. But I was enthusiastic, I never gave up despite all the problems with the technology that I’ve had back then.
Sadly the new generation of young kids wouldn’t have experienced all that. They’ve been born to see technology in its almost perfect state. They don’t have any experience with DOS 3.1 OS, nor do they have any experience with slow dial-up internet connection that also disconnects frequently. They're also playing fast paced 3D games without being able to appreciate it that much.
In a way we are all digital immigrants in some way or another. We aren’t totally up to date with technology. Even though we may think that we know a lot. It is still not enough.
Also the younger ones in our society may tend to be more arrogant than the older ones when it comes to technology. As we read 'Hierarchical violence and the place of the teacher' we can see the differences between the digital natives and digital immigrants.
There is a possibility that younger ones of the digital native could show more superciliousness than the older ones. They may think that they're far more informed than the digital immigrants. This in a way may be bad for society as well. Younger ones obviously feeling that they are more superior than the older generation. This may mean that they would show less respect towards the older ones and less reluctance to learn and take the words seriously of the older ones.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_native [accessed 09/11/10]
'Digital Natives' video. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwKD-GuKkFc&feature=player_embedded [accessed 09/11/10]
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf [accessed 10/11/10]
'Hierarchical violence and the place of the teacher', page 2. Available at:
http://www.malts.ed.ac.uk/staff/sian/natives_final.pdf [accessed 14/11/10]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dial-up_Internet_access [accessed 01/12/10]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband_Internet_access [accessed 02/12/10]
Monday 15 November 2010
Authorship/Copyright/Piracy
In general terms authorship is an explicit way of assigning responsibility and giving credit for a creative work. The two are linked. Authorship practices should be judged by how honestly they reflect actual contributions to the final product.
Authorship is important to the reputation, academic promotion, and grant support of the individuals involved as well as to the strength and reputation of the institution they are involved in.
It is nearly impossible to protect an authorship completely. There is always a possibility to insert the word “copyright” or the copyright symbol.
This can be easily erased using Adobe Photoshop or any other kind of software.
The only case scenario is if the text/symbol is in a large scale and placed across the whole entire work. At this point, the authorship might be contained but the work loses its visual effect as the composition is heavily damaged. The author needs to make a decision when showing his/her work to the audience.
Also the person who’s stole that work can easily claim it as his own and create a copyright for that particular work and everyone will think that that’s his own work.
The same applies for computer software/games and movies. People can easily download from torrent nowadays. Especially now that broadband speeds are so fast compared to before when people had dial-up.
It is not difficult to download a 5-20 GB software, game, etc from the internet and then install it with no problem. It only takes a few hours for that depending on the speed of your internet connection.
Unfortunately piracy can't be completely stopped. Even if companies implement serial numbers or other DRM protection system, hackers can always make a crack to disable that protection. That way they get the full software for free.
ISPs can't quite track who pirates and who doesn't because piracy as a whole is massive! This in a way is a problem.
They would also lose customers as even blocking their internet connection is not a solution.
Since still there are people who will leave their ISPs and switch to another ISP. Although the next ISP provider may try and block their internet connection too there would be a limit to that.
ISPs still get profit from people paying money to use their internet service.
As American musician Gary Wright once said "The Internet is both great and terrible. As a source of information, a tool for delivering music and art, it's great. But spamming ads and piracy of music is terrible. It's stealing."
He is right and indeed that's the case today, not just with music, this is something that happens with all sectors of the world of entertainment.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy [accessed 12/11/10]
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/piracy.html [accessed 28/11/10]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Wright [accessed 28/11/10]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement_of_software [accessed 13/11/10]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/pda/2010/nov/29/isps-must-help-combat-piracy [accessed 14/11/10]
Authorship is important to the reputation, academic promotion, and grant support of the individuals involved as well as to the strength and reputation of the institution they are involved in.
It is nearly impossible to protect an authorship completely. There is always a possibility to insert the word “copyright” or the copyright symbol.
This can be easily erased using Adobe Photoshop or any other kind of software.
The only case scenario is if the text/symbol is in a large scale and placed across the whole entire work. At this point, the authorship might be contained but the work loses its visual effect as the composition is heavily damaged. The author needs to make a decision when showing his/her work to the audience.
Also the person who’s stole that work can easily claim it as his own and create a copyright for that particular work and everyone will think that that’s his own work.
The same applies for computer software/games and movies. People can easily download from torrent nowadays. Especially now that broadband speeds are so fast compared to before when people had dial-up.
It is not difficult to download a 5-20 GB software, game, etc from the internet and then install it with no problem. It only takes a few hours for that depending on the speed of your internet connection.
Unfortunately piracy can't be completely stopped. Even if companies implement serial numbers or other DRM protection system, hackers can always make a crack to disable that protection. That way they get the full software for free.
ISPs can't quite track who pirates and who doesn't because piracy as a whole is massive! This in a way is a problem.
They would also lose customers as even blocking their internet connection is not a solution.
Since still there are people who will leave their ISPs and switch to another ISP. Although the next ISP provider may try and block their internet connection too there would be a limit to that.
ISPs still get profit from people paying money to use their internet service.
As American musician Gary Wright once said "The Internet is both great and terrible. As a source of information, a tool for delivering music and art, it's great. But spamming ads and piracy of music is terrible. It's stealing."
He is right and indeed that's the case today, not just with music, this is something that happens with all sectors of the world of entertainment.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy [accessed 12/11/10]
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/piracy.html [accessed 28/11/10]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Wright [accessed 28/11/10]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement_of_software [accessed 13/11/10]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/pda/2010/nov/29/isps-must-help-combat-piracy [accessed 14/11/10]
Thursday 4 November 2010
Race in/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism & Racial passing on the internet
Role-playing sites such as LamdaMOO offer programming features such as the ability to physically set a gender, race and a physical appearance in the game for their own character.
Stereotype is something which is very common on the internet. Gamers online can describe themselves as somebody who aren’t really what they are. Someone with black hair can put blonde hair. He/she could put blue eyes, etc.
What Nakamura means by ‘passing’ is when players who describe themselves in a way which does not give us the evidence to suggest whether the character that they’ve created really matches their own characteristics. It is impossible to tell if that player who designed his/her character really does represent him/her in real life.
The various skin tones that users can create for their own character. They can select between male/female genders, create a male or female hair style for their own character. Depending on the particular role-playing game, users can select from a list of national flags/countries & type in the identity in which they come from.
Players who want to create the impression that they are playing as “Samurai”. They portray themselves as Asians for that reason. They want to feel that they are ones that belong from a continent that has powerful characters such as Samurai, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, etc (characters that can really fight). Those players are proud to portray themselves as Asians for that very own reason.
The fact that the personae chosen by users are so robust, Asian stereotypes blocks this possibility by reinforcing these stereotypes.
Users that can do whatever they want on the internet with full freedom, such as in LamdaMOO. Nobody knows these people and it’s highly unlikely that they’ll ever be met in real life.
The term Nakamura uses for racial identity in cyberspace is "cybertype".
According to Nakamura the appropriation the appropriation of an Asian racial stereotype enables a white player to feel powerful.
Nakamura did not find it acceptable to discuss or "perform" race in LambdaMOO. Which thus led to talk about online space as "whited-out", with any extra visible ethnicity as "other". She finds it problematic that race became taboo on lambdaMOO. This disengages any argument that the internet can be a liberal space where disembodiment means we could potentially be free of racism.
A character on Lambda named "Tapu" that creates "Hate-Crime" speeches on the sole intention to harass other characters on the basis of race. Race online in my opinion should be stopped, even though nobody knows each other personally enough to feel offended by these racial remarks. Racism is extremely wrong in the first place as that simply isn’t true. There are good and bad people all over the world so why should people throw insults towards people online or in real life without really knowing them well?
I think some sort of punishment is needed online. Just because they are taking the advantage of offending others on the internet by getting away unpunished, doesn’t mean that they should inflict that kind of behaviour. It is immoral and the players online should know that. Of-course racism should be taken seriously, not just in real life, but online on the internet as well. After-all we are interacting with real human beings on the internet.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LambdaMOO [accessed 06/11/10]
http://www.kalital.com/Text/Reviews/Nakamura.html [accessed 09/11/10]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_tourism [accessed 07/11/10]
http://www.hnet.uci.edu/mposter/syllabi/readings/nakamura.html [accessed 08/11/10]
Stereotype is something which is very common on the internet. Gamers online can describe themselves as somebody who aren’t really what they are. Someone with black hair can put blonde hair. He/she could put blue eyes, etc.
What Nakamura means by ‘passing’ is when players who describe themselves in a way which does not give us the evidence to suggest whether the character that they’ve created really matches their own characteristics. It is impossible to tell if that player who designed his/her character really does represent him/her in real life.
The various skin tones that users can create for their own character. They can select between male/female genders, create a male or female hair style for their own character. Depending on the particular role-playing game, users can select from a list of national flags/countries & type in the identity in which they come from.
Players who want to create the impression that they are playing as “Samurai”. They portray themselves as Asians for that reason. They want to feel that they are ones that belong from a continent that has powerful characters such as Samurai, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, etc (characters that can really fight). Those players are proud to portray themselves as Asians for that very own reason.
The fact that the personae chosen by users are so robust, Asian stereotypes blocks this possibility by reinforcing these stereotypes.
Users that can do whatever they want on the internet with full freedom, such as in LamdaMOO. Nobody knows these people and it’s highly unlikely that they’ll ever be met in real life.
The term Nakamura uses for racial identity in cyberspace is "cybertype".
According to Nakamura the appropriation the appropriation of an Asian racial stereotype enables a white player to feel powerful.
Nakamura did not find it acceptable to discuss or "perform" race in LambdaMOO. Which thus led to talk about online space as "whited-out", with any extra visible ethnicity as "other". She finds it problematic that race became taboo on lambdaMOO. This disengages any argument that the internet can be a liberal space where disembodiment means we could potentially be free of racism.
A character on Lambda named "Tapu" that creates "Hate-Crime" speeches on the sole intention to harass other characters on the basis of race. Race online in my opinion should be stopped, even though nobody knows each other personally enough to feel offended by these racial remarks. Racism is extremely wrong in the first place as that simply isn’t true. There are good and bad people all over the world so why should people throw insults towards people online or in real life without really knowing them well?
I think some sort of punishment is needed online. Just because they are taking the advantage of offending others on the internet by getting away unpunished, doesn’t mean that they should inflict that kind of behaviour. It is immoral and the players online should know that. Of-course racism should be taken seriously, not just in real life, but online on the internet as well. After-all we are interacting with real human beings on the internet.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LambdaMOO [accessed 06/11/10]
http://www.kalital.com/Text/Reviews/Nakamura.html [accessed 09/11/10]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_tourism [accessed 07/11/10]
http://www.hnet.uci.edu/mposter/syllabi/readings/nakamura.html [accessed 08/11/10]
Consumer Products & disadvantages of our network culture
The power of technology is intriguing. Through technology, corporate and large multinational companies are controlling the world like they have the monopoly on how people should be and what products they should consume.
Technology has changed the world and our life. It has endorsed for a new way of communication. Phoning people with a mobile phone and being reachable 24/7 is now easier than ever before. Life has become much more comfortable and more exciting as a whole thanks to technology and related products people are consuming.
On the other hand, technology may become detrimental towards our lives.
The fact that we can gather information so easily by searching through Google, searching in Wikipedia without the need to read that many books is harmful in my opinion. Because this makes people search for the information directly without looking through books. They learn the answers that way, but they haven’t researched much as to how they learned it. If they had read books for the particular information they were looking for, they would know it in much more detail and they’ll be able to tell you how they know these answers.
There are indeed people who would search for books and read through carefully to gather that given information. But that tendency of going to buy books or visit the library is not so frequent nowadays. Also visiting the library can be hectic for some when they can get that information straight from the internet sitting in front of their computer at home.
Like Oscar Wilde once said, “In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody.”
Even though he has said that over a hundred years ago, it still has relevance today.
There is a growing tendency that we are getting socially more and more isolated because we are too engaged with technology. While we can talk to our friends on our mobile phones, we don’t go to each other’s houses for social contact like we used to do twenty years ago.
But we all know that too much technology means little movement, less exercise, and, above all shorter lifespan!
There is a trend in recent years that we all have somehow become slaves of modern technology.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde [accessed 28/10/10]
http://www.kingkong.demon.co.uk/gsr/maxims.htm [accessed 01/11/10]
http://www.helium.com/items/1370731-modern-technology-the-internet-demise-newspapers-the-rocky-mountain-news [accessed 03/11/10]
http://www.edubook.com/is-technology-making-us-lazy/23428/ [accessed 04/11/10]
Technology has changed the world and our life. It has endorsed for a new way of communication. Phoning people with a mobile phone and being reachable 24/7 is now easier than ever before. Life has become much more comfortable and more exciting as a whole thanks to technology and related products people are consuming.
On the other hand, technology may become detrimental towards our lives.
The fact that we can gather information so easily by searching through Google, searching in Wikipedia without the need to read that many books is harmful in my opinion. Because this makes people search for the information directly without looking through books. They learn the answers that way, but they haven’t researched much as to how they learned it. If they had read books for the particular information they were looking for, they would know it in much more detail and they’ll be able to tell you how they know these answers.
There are indeed people who would search for books and read through carefully to gather that given information. But that tendency of going to buy books or visit the library is not so frequent nowadays. Also visiting the library can be hectic for some when they can get that information straight from the internet sitting in front of their computer at home.
Like Oscar Wilde once said, “In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody.”
Even though he has said that over a hundred years ago, it still has relevance today.
There is a growing tendency that we are getting socially more and more isolated because we are too engaged with technology. While we can talk to our friends on our mobile phones, we don’t go to each other’s houses for social contact like we used to do twenty years ago.
But we all know that too much technology means little movement, less exercise, and, above all shorter lifespan!
There is a trend in recent years that we all have somehow become slaves of modern technology.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde [accessed 28/10/10]
http://www.kingkong.demon.co.uk/gsr/maxims.htm [accessed 01/11/10]
http://www.helium.com/items/1370731-modern-technology-the-internet-demise-newspapers-the-rocky-mountain-news [accessed 03/11/10]
http://www.edubook.com/is-technology-making-us-lazy/23428/ [accessed 04/11/10]
Thursday 21 October 2010
Introduction to Network Cultures
Network Culture is a cultural interaction between people over the internet.
Communicarion between people through such as Facebook, MSN Messenger, Skype, internet forums, online blogs, webcam, email, etc.
Internet gaming online around the world between people has changed us. Online gaming is also part of our network culture. Rather than us playing with real people in real life such as sports activities, card games, board games, etc. We now play with video games with each other instead.
Mobile text messaging, fax sending, telephone communication. Online shopping by ordering goods online without having to go to the shop and buy the stuff directly.
Today the network not only connects the world, it reconfigures our relationship to it.
Our lives are increasingly marked by the influence of social and cyber spaces online.
As Bill Gates once said, "I think it's fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we've ever created. They're tools of communication, they're tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user."
I agree with Bill Gates. Certainly that has caused a revolution in our network culture. I think our network culture has expanded immensely due to our personal computers that we have now.
Blogspots, Amazon, Ebay, Twitter and Facebook have all become spaces that people inhabit and take up social positions.
As a whole the internet has changed us a lot. We now find information on the internet easily by searching through Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Online Dictionary, etc search engines.
References: http://varnelis.net/network_culture/introduction [accessed 20/11/10]
http://www.tmp-m.org/cms/business-and-computers-department/29/content.aspx [accessed 22/11/10]
Communicarion between people through such as Facebook, MSN Messenger, Skype, internet forums, online blogs, webcam, email, etc.
Internet gaming online around the world between people has changed us. Online gaming is also part of our network culture. Rather than us playing with real people in real life such as sports activities, card games, board games, etc. We now play with video games with each other instead.
Mobile text messaging, fax sending, telephone communication. Online shopping by ordering goods online without having to go to the shop and buy the stuff directly.
Today the network not only connects the world, it reconfigures our relationship to it.
Our lives are increasingly marked by the influence of social and cyber spaces online.
As Bill Gates once said, "I think it's fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we've ever created. They're tools of communication, they're tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user."
I agree with Bill Gates. Certainly that has caused a revolution in our network culture. I think our network culture has expanded immensely due to our personal computers that we have now.
Blogspots, Amazon, Ebay, Twitter and Facebook have all become spaces that people inhabit and take up social positions.
As a whole the internet has changed us a lot. We now find information on the internet easily by searching through Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Online Dictionary, etc search engines.
References: http://varnelis.net/network_culture/introduction [accessed 20/11/10]
http://www.tmp-m.org/cms/business-and-computers-department/29/content.aspx [accessed 22/11/10]
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