Week 13

Well this is the last post for DIGC202...it's kind of sad. We discussed the 'Internet of Things' this week and it was an...interesting...topic. I think that it is really cool how everyday objects can be incorporated with the internet. I think it would be cool to have a refrigerator that knows what is inside of it, but the Ericcson video personally creeped me out. When I saw it the first thing I thought of was the Disney Channel Original Movie, Smart House. In the movie the house is 'smart' and can communicate with the family. The house cooks dinner, cleans, and eventually develops a personality. The house thinks it is part of the family and evolves into a holographic image. It just takes over everything and they have to shut it down. Yes, having our everyday items connected to the internet may seem cool, but what if they do evolve? I don't want my house to revolt on me. Maybe it would be OK if some things were connected to the internet, but I do not think it is necessary for everything to be connected to the internet. My house should not have a personality I can socialize with.

Week 12

OK, Apple vs Google. Well I am currently typing on my MacBook Pro, my iPod Touch is charging, and I think(?) I want an iPhone when I get home. When I was going into my first year at Uni in the States, I received a letter saying that all Communications majors should buy a Mac laptop. All of the computers I use at my Uni in the States are Macs. I love using my MacBook. I really can not use a PC laptop for the life of me. I just get all confused with them. Macs are just easier for me to work on and all of my Uni work at home goes over well when I use a Mac. I guess I am a Mac person.

However, this lecture really got me thinking. I know some of my friends and family have Android phones and they are not bad. I just don't like using them because I do not know how....I am not comfortable with them. If I bought my own Android phone, I am sure I would get used to it though. Then there is the App Store business. I always knew that Android apps were cheaper/free compared to Apple apps, but I never realized there were so many more Android apps. This changes things. Not only does Android have cheap apps for a poor college student like myself, but they have more. Maybe I will want to invest in an Android phone when I get home. This means freedom I guess. Comfort vs freedom...I have always been the one to choose comfort in every situation. However, after my amazing study abroad experience I think when I go home I will be choosing freedom and hopefully a new Android phone will be in my pocket.

The conclusion I am going with is that the debate of Apple vs Google will continue in my mind. I think Android phones will overtake iPhones, but I think that the iPad will dominate the tablet market compared to Google. When it comes to computers I will always choose my MacBook, but everyone has their own opinion on that.

Week 11

This week was the case study about the Arab Spring. Since this is the same topic as my final paper, I guess I have a pretty strong opinion about the revolutions and how social media came into play.

Actual human beings started the revolutions, not social media. Social media did however make the revolutions much larger. Prior to social media protesters and activists had to rely on old forms of communication; radio, letters, phone, TV, word of mouth, for example. Social media allowed the entire world to see what was happening during the revolutions in real time. Citizens of the countries were filming the protests and riots with their phones and cameras and uploading them straight to Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. The revolutions immediately got world-wide attention and most of the revolutions were successful for the countries. Without social media the citizens in the countries would not be able to post their thoughts, opinions, and videos of what was actually happening around them. I agree with what Ted said in class, the videos that these citizen journalists are uploading are much more valuable than the videos that are seen on television. TV cameras would not be able to get the shots that the citizens can see.

Also, I want to point out another thing Ted mentioned in class; the women who are leading the protests. I myself am not really a feminist, but I have done a few readings about the women in the Middle East and North Africa and the fact that they are actually leading revolutions is astonishing. They will defiantly be in history books one day. It surprises me that men are allowing the women to lead the protests and it also surprises me that men allow the videos of the women leading the protests online, but if it gets word out to the world about the revolution then I guess they do not care.

Week 9

How do I feel about hacking? Well it kind of freaks me out. I do not have a firewall, I do not have any virus software; I have a Mac. I thought I was protected. I believed the rumors saying "Macs can not get a virus." Well after the class discussion, I fear for the protection of my computer. What do I have floating around on my computer right now? Can someone see everything that I am doing?

On the topic of the "Civic Hacking" reading, I agree that if people are not interested in politics, moving politics online is not going to interest them. If a state representative is not available to meet in person, what makes you think he is available to answer his email, Twitter, or Facebook? There are already forums online that citizens have made about politics and government. I think those forums are working fine. Let's use the example of walking your dog in a restricted area. Are you going to go online and email a town representative asking if you can walk your dog in the area? It will probably take days if the representative even answers you at all. You could also go to an online forum and ask who else wants to walk their dog on that land. You will most likely get a response quickly from residents and together you could come up with a solution for the problem.

Week 8

As a journalism major in the US, I have actually studied citizen journalism before. Citizen journalism scares me somewhat because it is possible that citizen journalism can take over and there will be no need for professional journalists. I certainly hope that is not the case because I would really like a job when I graduate. I do think that professional journalism will need to be around to validate sources. When someone posts on a citizen journalism site, they need to back up their facts. Unless they were an eye-witness, they need a credible source or many people will not believe them.

Now just because I am scared of citizen journalism does not mean that I don't like it. I actually think it is fantastic. It even gives professional journalists something to bounce their ideas off of. I find the iReport feature on cnn.com amazing. People can post what is happening around them and interact with other people about their own story or stories of others. There are also the comment boxes on online newspapers. I think that they are fantastic and will hopefully help keep newspapers alive a little longer. It is just like the old days when someone would write a letter, only this gets published directly online.

Week 7

The long tail concept made complete sense to me this week. Amazon would make their most money selling books from niche markets. If I am looking for a specific book, I usually head to Amazon, not to my local bookstore. I do love bookstores, but I know that they will not have it and will probably have to order it. I know that I personally can't be bothered to drag myself to the bookstore just to be told I could have done the same thing online at home. So what does that mean for the future of bookstores? Well, look at Borders. I had a Borders five minutes from my house and just before I left to come to Australia it closed its doors. I honestly didn't know why until we discussed the topic in class. Maybe Borders should have been paying attention to the technology more and created something that would have given them a chance at survival. Barnes and Noble at least has the Nook.

E-Readers are extremely handy to have, and I know many people that love them. I also know many people that hate them and want to feel a solid book in their hands. I personally think that e-readers are awesome, but they bring up the topic of media convergence again. The new e-readers can browse the web now and some even have pop-up advertisements. Is it a good thing to converge the two together or should the e-reader be simply for just books?

Week 6

Currently I am using my cell phone (not a smart phone, because I am too cheap to buy one while I am in Australia for five months), my computer, my iPod, and I am occasionally taking breaks to look at the pictures I took yesterday on my camera. I have three windows open on my computer and one of the has five tabs. That is a lot of stuff going on.

However take a look at media convergence. Let's start with my iPod. I have an iPod touch. It has music, movies, TV, photos, and games. I need to upload everything on to the device, but it is one device that stores almost everything I need. (Well it could use some more space, but that is a different story). Let's say I have an iPhone. The iPhone takes pictures, makes phone calls, sends texts, is a media for viewing movies and TV, and you can play games. Not to mention you can buy or download an App for almost anything. This is media convergence at its finest.

Companies are also involved with convergence. Look at Disney for example. They do movies, TV, music, merchandise, games, everything. I feel like even their stars are forced to be diverse. Take Miley Cyrus, she acts, sings dances, has a clothing line, comes out with toys; she has and does everything.

I think media convergence is a good thing. I like how there are so many uses for one device. Although I think eventually there is going to be nothing left to converge. I don't really know what is the future of media convergence. In class we talked about how in Futurama they came out with the EyePhone. It would be cool to have the information available right in our brain, but it also made me think of Wall-e and when all of the humans were riding around in their chairs with the screens in front of their faces. They never looked at the world around them because they were too busy looking at the technology. I do NOT want to end up like this. There is a point where the technology goes too far.

Oh, and this is slightly random, but I think that Apple TV is one of the coolest things ever. You just hook up the device, and you can stream music, movies, TV, Youtube, etc on your TV. I personally really want one haha.

Week 5

This week we discussed copyright and intellectual property. The minute I heard of intellectual property I thought of The Social Network. In the movie Mark Zuckerberg is being sued by the Winkelvoss twins for stealing their intellectual property. They claimed that they gave Zuckerberg the idea for Facebook and he stole it from them. The case ends up being settled out of court.

It does not matter if large corporations steal someone's idea because they have so much money. They can settle out of court for a set price and it is over with. I personally do not think this is fair. If someone worked hard to create a product, they should have the credit for it and they should make the profit. If they want to sell their product that is a different story. A copyright is there for a reason.

So yes a copyright is there for a reason, but then we move into the topics of downloading movies, TV shows, and music. I was raised where it was wrong to steal. However, my parents could not control everything I did on the internet. I wanted to get songs for my iPod and my friends taught me how. They used illegal downloading websites so therefore, I used the illegal downloading websites. I had no idea that what I was doing was wrong. Eventually my computer got a virus (from the websites of course) and my parents found out what I was doing. All of the music had to be deleted and I had to purchase it through iTunes or use a CD to put it on my computer. Music artists need to make a living and illegally downloading their music is not going to help them. I am not going to say if I continued illegally downloading music or not, but I do think that copyrights are there for a reason and they should stay around. Maybe prices could be adjusted so the poor college students can afford things, but other than that I think the copyright is a necessary.

Week 4

This week's discussion was really interesting for me. I am going to focus on two discussion points though. What hit home most for me was work in personal lives and the need for re-training when it comes to computers and technology.

When it comes to work during personal time, I do not consider it a good thing. I mean if you are working on a big project with a deadline, that is different. You actually need to finish that. But if you just decide to check your email, that should not happen. My mom has a work Blackberry, and she is always checking her email every time she walks by the phone. My aunt also has a work Blackberry. She is always getting calls, texts, BBMs, every type of message that she "needs" to respond to because she is upper management. I do not find this necessary. If you are on vacation, or even just home for the weekend, you should not be dealing with work.

The other topic of re-training made me laugh a little. The first thing that came to mind was my grandfather. My grandfather took a computer class 10 years ago and then bought a computer last year. He expected everything to be the same, but was surprised to learn that everything was different. He needed to take yet another computer class to learn how to work his new computer. People need to stay on top of new technologies so they have a better advantage at work ect.

Week 3

"A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" was discussed this week and in the lecture, Andrew Turner, my fellow American in class, leaned over to me and whispered, "This is just like the Declaration of Independence." I do not know how much Australian's study the American Declaration of Independence, but the Cyberspace version is amazingly similar. I can understand why the Cyberspace version would be similar though, I do not want to sound like "a conceded American," but if the Declaration of Independence has been working since 1776, why not use it?

In the tutorial we also talked about the monitoring of the Internet. I personally do not think this can be done. The Internet is too large and it was created to be free. It isn't supposed to have all of these blocks and monitors. Look at China for example. I actually tweeted a link the other day to the "Great Firewall of China". It amazes me how China can have such a strict hold over their Internet.

Basically this is how I see things: there needs to be someone or something out on the Internet patrolling for things such as people who deal with child pornography and child prostitution, but when the Internet gets to the point of the "Great Firewall of China," that is too extreme for my taste and the government needs to reevaluate their system.

Week 2

I thought the readings this week were extremely interesting. I'll start from the Information Ecology reading and go from there. =]

Information Ecology describes how networks need to be made up of different parts. Each part works together to make a whole. This reminded me of a company. There could be a few people, hundreds of people, or even thousands of people going to work in a building (or multiple in some cases). Each of these people going to work has a different job to do. If they work hard and achieve their individual goals, then the company will thrive. The company needs each department to work together so that it can continue to be a success.

The next reading, A Short History of the Internet, was well written, but it made me laugh. It was published in 1993 and the article kept talking about what the Internet will be or what the Internet can do, but 18 years later and....the Internet HAS achieved these things. Not only has it achieved the networks the article was talking about but it has achieved so much more. The article did not even mention anything along the lines of Skype. I find Skype fascinating.

The last reading, Four Puzzles from cyberspace, was different. I did not know how the author was going to sum each story up, but he did it nicely and made his points about regulation.

Jake's Story about the guy who wrote rape and murder stories online intrigued me. I understand that it can be creepy, but he had a large group following his stories. Clearly he was doing something right if people were reading them. I do not support rape, murder, or anything along those lines, but it is creative freedom. As long as he is not hurting anyone in real life he has every right to go and kill whoever he wants in cyberspace.

The online gaming story also brought up issues of cyberspace gaming and real life. It made me think of Grand Theft Auto. I personally find the game extremely fun. Your character will run around, steal cars, blow up the road, shoot people, and just go crazy. Yes, I said I find this fun, but I would NEVER walk up my street, shoot a guy in a car, steal it, and drive away. There is a difference between cyberspace and reality. People need to acknowledge that difference.

The worm story was also interesting. It brought up issues of the government looking through your computer for information specific to them. They can't see anything else, just the information, and if you're innocent then you have nothing to worry about. Now I'm sure that many people feel violated by this, but I personally could care less. I have nothing to hide so if the government wants to look for terrorist documents or whatever else they're looking for on my computer, feel free. It is for the greater good and if it helps me stay safe then I completely support it. The one issue with this is that the government can not overstep their boundaries. Let's say they start looking at pictures or something along those lines. The government should not be looking at pictures of me on the beach and that I do not support.

Week 1

The reading this week week by Castells was interesting. I found it somewhat difficult to read, lack of focus probably, but it was still interesting. I do not know much about networks and the size of them amazes me. The fact that everyone can communicate globally is quite remarkable. I also thought it was interesting how he talked about civil society being reconstructed at local and global levels through networks filled with activists. It is amazing how people can communicate almost instantly over the internet and networks and plan something that will change the course of the future. Also, the power aspect of networks is interesting. The power within a network is always changing, and I think that is a good thing! After reading Lauren's post she had me thinking about "cyber bullying." It is terrible that people get harassed daily over networks and many young people do not know how to handle the situation and can cause harm to themselves. Hopefully with the power in networks constantly changing, people who are harassing others can be stopped.

Yes, it is astonishing how a network, even a social network, can change governments. I even discovered Osama Bin Ladin was dead via Facebook.  One of my teachers at Roger Williams took a poll in class and out of 20 students, 18 of them found out Bin Ladin was dead via a social network. The other two discovered he was dead via another social media. It amazes me how fast information can travel over a network and the impact it can make on lives.

About Me

Hi I'm Kathleen. I am 20 years old and I am from Massachusetts. I attend Roger Williams University in Rhode Island where I study journalism, but this semester I am studying at the University of Wollongong in Australia.

At Roger Williams I am on the campus radio station, 88.3 WQRI, where I am on the executive board. I have also interned at 105.7 WROR. I love working with radio and I enjoy broadcast journalism. I also enjoy radio because I get to give people free stuff. I love giving people free things; it makes them so happy.

I am looking forward to this semester and my time in Australia!

Cheers!
-Kathleen