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.