Week 7- Tutorial task

1. What is creative commons and how could this licensing framework be relevant to your own experience at university?

Definition of: Creative Commons

An organization that has defined an alternative to copyrights by filling in the gap between full copyright, in which no use is permitted without permission, and public domain, where permission is not required at all. Creative Commons' licenses let people copy and distribute the work under specific conditions, and general descriptions, legal clauses and HTML tags for search engines are provided for several license options.

http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=Creative+Commons&i=40468,00.asp

Creative Commons can be relative to my experience at Uni because it gives me freedom to embark on an old idea. I can build on the work of others if i stick to the copyright laws that the creator has set. This would allow me to take an idea further or alter something to make it better, i can experiment with someone else's work legally. Dj's do this quiet often as they remix songs together and create a single song into different genre's whilst obiding the copyright laws. In uni this makes it legal to put my work into practise in hopes of learning and expanding my degree. Appropriating art, using images in my slideshows, post things on my blog, edit music, learn from other creations. Creative Commons.org explains this more clearly..

We provide free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof.

Creative Commons

This video is what its all about

2. Find 3 examples of works created by creative commons and embed them in your blog.

#1

#2

#3

3. Find an academic article which discusses creative commons using a database or online journal. Provide a link to and a summary of the article.

http://www.informaworld.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/smpp/section?content=a727322970&fulltext=713240928

This article focus's on copyright laws of folk music and its commercial control. It talks about thelengths a copyright should be restricted to and the rights folk music should have to prevent people changing it completely. It also speaks about the gradual extension of copyright regulation and how it has changed over the years. '1) continuity, whereby the same songs can be found in different places, (2) variation, whereby subtle differences may be found in each manifestation of the song and (3) selection, whereby variants of the song will be judged by the community and accepted and passed on or, if not favoured, discarded.' are the three things a folk song should have. Compilations, infringement and copy right and leasing are all big threats to the folk music industry. They state 'the folk song is, by definition, and as far as we can tell, by reality, entirely a product of plagiarism' and question the right of Creative Commons.

4. Have a look at Portable Apps (a pc based application) – provide a brief description of what it isand how you think this is useful.

(2) An application stored on a USB flash drive that can run on a computer without leaving any trace of itself when the application is finished. It is designed to restore all changed settings when the program is closed. Non-U3 portable applications are typically dependent on a particular brand of USB drive. U3 applications require U3-enabled flash drives.

RFRNCE

Portable Apps allows people to carry information on their USB, ipod or memory card without leaving any traces of it behind when it is disconnected. Portable apps are a free collection of games, computer applications and files that can be put onto a USB for easy access. Its handy when on the go. People can download programmes they want and use them on public computers that wouldn't normally have these programs and when they disconnect the USB all information will be terminated off the public computer.

RFRNCE

Week 6- Tutespark

Leading on from the lecture on online privacy & social networking....


Who owns the content you put on the internet on various sites?

This includes pictures, video, text, etc?

Think about all the content you upload onto social networking sites - Do you own it?

Who has the right to use your creations?


I found this quote on a website.....'You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.'

We have the right to delete our account but facebook is still aloud access to all of our old stuff that was on their. Its pretty shocking, we don't realise the power they actually have against us.

There terms and conditions state: 'You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.'

Its all written in the small detail that nobody bothers to read. Even though we know this agreement is risky we still agree to join it. But why? Why do we all spend half our time looking into lives of friends virtually. Why not just be with them.

The thing about facebook is that it creates a whole new world of oppurtuintys. I have immagrated from South Africa and experienced every birthday party, funny event or the latest gossip via facebook. I am still connected to the people that are no longer a part of my current life. I don't know what i would do without it. It is highly addicting, highly entertaining and informative and a link to a virtual world i no longer live in. For this reason, i personally will risk my information on the net to be apart of this social community.

I choose what goes on there, i limit photo's and comments. My personal details are just that, personal. They are not available on facebook and therefore i feel confident enough to allow facebook to have control of my photos, videos and comments.
I do however think they have created a 'treaty' that is very risky and rather unfair. Why would they want the right to our personal information? Its manipulative and really suspicious and probably i cannot relate to it until something has been used against me.

I must admit, when seeing a drunk tagged photo of me i do believe that when i am famous some 'virtual-only' friend will exploit it to the media and it will be spread across gossip magazines circling area's of my body to highlight the result of to much booze.

What i don't like about social networks- Every1 knows everything about what you say and do, you cant say 'i hate my job' cause ur boss is always around, i cant write a status about just anything it is limited and has to be appropriate to the friends i know are watching. 'Dam my boyfriends moms annoying.' whooooooooooooops.

its annoying. For this reason twitter is the shiznizz! no one has twitter accept celebritys who only care about themseleves anyways. My account is on private, no-one can follow me accept the ppl i choose, no-one knows where im from, what i look like or who i am. Its great.

Even still people own my posts. They own me. Facebook owns me. Twitter owns me. They can pretty much do whatever they like with my information. This is why the virtual world is not as fun as it could be. There are always limits. So if i cant trust twitter, or myspace or facebook or possibly even tumblr. I just blog. My friends dont know about it, my email is different and my name is not used or location. Its a way to release and connect with other people that you feel you can be open to. No embarassment, no limits. Its a freedom like no other.

Week 6

If you are reading this, like me, you are involved in a virtual community. Meaning we are people who communicate with others via the internet. What makes us different from each other is when we choose to express our individual identity. First signs of this may have been chat rooms- a place to create a name that presents yourself. A place to talk to unknown people about things you wouldnt usually say to a stranger, or a friend even. A place where 'hot_lad101' could be a fat forty year old whos spent the last 15 years of his life sitting on a couch scoffing dorito's. BUT if he is creative, can say the right words, never show his picture and lie about every aspect of his life, he might actually be the guy for you ;) ha!

Internet dating is also a way to have a second hope of finding the perfect soulmate. My aunty actually met a guy online while she was in South Africa and him a South African living in Australia. They talked for about a year, she came over for a few holidays. Eventually she sold her house, immagrated and married him! 3 years ago she never thought she'd be living in a different country, married to a man she didn't previously know and be pregnant at 42! The internet has given her- and many others- hope. Its like having a best friend with you all the time.

Sharing interests is a whole lot easier online. You can admit to having a nasty rash is a random area and people who arn't doctors can help you sort that shizz out! Its amazing! You can get a recipe, a quote, lyrics, order pizza, dictionary, movie times and every other thing you need in your daily lives in seconds!

The ego-centric social network has taken over where people have formed more of their own individual identity instead of joining groups. The individual is becoming the main source of entertainment or information. No longer is it about 'you or me' its about I. I went to the beach today. I hate julia gilard. I have this nasty rash that wont heal.

Social netweorks have grown over the last few years, facebook -as we know- has expanded the most. What i have noticed in the 3 years of having facebook is that the more my friends grow the more addicted i get to facebook. With every new friend an extra few minutes a day is added on to stalking people, writing on walls, replying to notifications, making my profile give me a good image, wonder who's stalked who, check up on X boyfriends and hope their still single etc.

But why? why do we care? Why do we care who is at the gym and 'apparently' not really working out as they update their status. Its small minuscular things that dont matter but by knowing these things we connect, share interests, agree, disagree, get educated, laugh and so much more. I am highly highly addicted to facebook and twitter. As my alarm goes off at 6.30 i lie in bed with blury eyes trying to focus on anything i may have missed in the last 8 hours. Im on it so much that i get each notification one by one, sometimes ill be on twitter on my phone and facebook on my computer so that i can see both at the same time.

It is ridiculous and because its information and socialising with friends i think of it as harmless. But it actually is harmful! Its harmful to my education at Griffith that i put on hold to talk to friends that i hardly talk to in real life, its harmful to my internet bill, harmful to my body as i sit here all day in a room while the sun is shining, harmful during a breakup, harmful having to have a connection with your parents friends who you find very rude but felt obliged to accept their friend request, harmful to real life socialising as we sit on our phones and harmful to our eyes that forget to blink. I actually had a twitch in one eye for months and had to go to doctors and message therapists to make it stop. how ridiculous is that!

HOMEWORK

'There is a false rumor that Facebook shares your location without your knowledge or consent. You control your information on Facebook. With Facebook Places, you choose when to share your location by checking in or allowing friends to check you in. Your location is never given to anyone automatically.'

http://www.facebook.com/careers/life.php this video is inspiring!!! just found it now!

What the 2009 Horizon report predicted

I wrote this essay a while ago on the 2009 Horizon report. I enjoy reading them yearly. Its interesting how predictions are normally so accurate. When writing this previously i was astonished and excited for these new innovation and now that most of them are here it seems so normal.

We live in an evolving decade that innovations are fluid and ever-present. We constantly have access to technology that presents us with freedom and endless opportunities while protecting our freedom of expression and privacy (Anton, 2009). Technology has not only made our society more independent but also made information easily accessible from anywhere in the world, at any time. The Internet has presented a global platform for information, personal expression, innovation and economic development that has not only shaped our lifestyles but our minds too (Anton, 2009). Few could have predicted that at the start of 2009, one-and-a-half-billion people worldwide access the Internet. It has also globalized education and enabled educational institutions to be able to offer courses to students anywhere in the world (Bonga,2007).

The 2009 Horizons Report aims to predict upcoming successful technology that will be used to expand teaching, learning, research, or creative applications within the next 5 years. Six merging technologies including Mobiles, Cloud Computing, Geo-everything, The Personal Web, Semantic-Aware Applications and Smart objects aim to create an evolving future of excellence.

Mobiles, single portable devices that can make phone calls, take pictures, record audio and video, store data, music, movies, and interact with the Internet all in the palm of our hands. The mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the Internet for most people in the world in 2020 (Rainie, 2008). Mobiles have enabled student’s information of every kind so satisfy their every need. They have become a gadget consisting of very educational need possible thus eliminating other necessities being calculators, watches, laptops, cameras, iPods, video recorders and diary’s as mobiles continue to combine every technology into one device.

In 2007 a platform called Android was created to allow devices to communicate with one another creating social applications. Privacy is of a concern to fellow consumers as some might not want to notify others of their vicinity. This insight to an open virtual world includes voice texting with automatic spelling correction, direct uploads to you tube and a 360degree-rotating screen (Chu, 2008). These devices should be seen in the next year.

Like Mobiles, Cloud computing is also seen to appear in one year or less. Cloud computing aims to create a platform where applications are easily accessible by users on the web instead of their computers. This benefits us as it is in a virtual space therefore no destruction can be done to it and the user will have permanent access to their files form anywhere in the world. Tools are easily available on the Cloud, sharing data is fast and simple and applications are always available, saving clients large amounts of money and time. It is estimated that within the next five years, the annual global market for cloud computing will surge to $95 billion (King, 2008). While this seems like the perfect innovation, people worry about the possible misuse of their information as secondary data (Horrigan, 2008).

There are also worries of privacy with Geo-everything. Geo-everything refers to a program that is used to show location with just two co-ordinates. It determines and captures the location of a person, an object or a place. By taking a photo of an object or area a built-in geolocative program tags it and can track down where it is. The device incorporates our experiences in the real world with the virtual world online changing the way we think, behave, and interact. By looking at your mobile handheld map, your photos will appear in the areas they were taken in (Pash, 2008). A virtual geocaching is a drop box online used to store images and other media of any specific location, a perfect set-up to educate virtual tourists.

Many are concerned the upcoming technology will be abused and made sleazy, isolating as well as the abuse of people privacy. GPS has improved convenience of our life, it has also degenerated and worsened our integrity and privacy. As Iphones can upload images directly onto a map, one can trace another’s photos. If some of these images include a persons house or many photos from one area, people can instantly know where one another live, making it very dangerous. Cell phones can be used to pinpoint your location and a skilled hacker could likely get that data from your mobile carrier (Honan, 2009).

The personal web explores tagging, aggregating, updating, and keeping track of content of a persons personal need. Personalized windows to the networked world display ones interests, social and professional activities. Facebook, Twitter and Myspace are in the mainstream and encouraging personal web use, being a member of all three myself I find them very addicting, enjoyable, sociable and very time consuming when trying to write a Horizons report. It aims to educate at the same time as a means for personal and professional reflection. People are able to interact, voice their opinions and see things in a different light. Friends are updated on your online actions, which can be seen as stalking to a degree. As profiles educate others on your life it may cause real life social interaction problems as some can only socialize in the virtual world (Holland, 09).

Semantic-aware applications are tools designed to make the use of a search engine, a whole lot easier and more like the human mind. No longer will keywords be necessary in a few years as use this tool aims to understand a question being asked and provides a direct answer saving time and effort when researching. As it still has programming faults it is expected to be seen in 4-5 years. However for the first time society can see a foundational shift in technology well in advance of its arrival (Ohler, 2008). It is a Pro-based invention that many others and I wait in suspense for.

In a similar time frame, it is expected for smart objects to head into the mainstream in 4-5 years too. They aim to connect the physical world with the world of information, as objects will know what they are, where they are and why they were made. By scanning your objects you give them a sense of being. This smart object can identify your belongings, tell you the weather, guide you to a destination thus incorporating the Internet into every object in the world as the virtual world will be the heart of every appliance. They will aim to make every day life simpler and faster, soon some objects will be able to know a lot more about what you want to know. One of the major problems people think will arise from smart objects is our own personal security, privacy, and safety. People can be tagged just as easily as objects. The question is, will people care about being tagged when their Smart Fridge texts them to tell them their low on milk (Timo, 2008).

We say technology brings freedom and endless opportunities as our economy expands in many new and exciting ways, but is having your life recorded back to front on the easily accessible web really a good idea? By living in the virtual world so often, will we be set back from real life experiences as we are continuously pulled into this ever-evolving growing market? Only time will tell, but until then I look forward to these New and Emerging Media Technologies.

Culture Jamming

This is just an update on where me and my group are at..

We had so many idea's it was pretty hard to just focus on one and make it happen. We are creating it tomorrow. We are spreading a rumour that recently we have seen a homeless guy living in Griffith university. Coming to lectures for an education, sleeping in classrooms, access to free Student gilled BBQ's, free sign ups to clubs, two trial weeks in the gym free a year, friends, free showers. We have decided to create a facebook page with one of us asking if anyone has seen the homeless guy with the red jacket thats always asleep in the computer labs etc. I will explain more of it when we have created the foundations of it.

A party made for one

A PARTY MADE FOR ONE

I have never been one to rely on technology, basically what I am saying is that I have never been able to operate half of it and therefore use it minimally. At least that’s what I thought until Saturday night.

My family and I participated in earth hour. After turning off our lights, we lit candles and enjoyed the warm glow that reflected onto our faces and the walls around us. Its like we were kids again, anticipating what adventures this long hour of darkness might bring as it restricted us from using our televisions and computers and Playstation games. This time however, it felt different. The room was silent; our movements limited; our arising boredom evident. From brief looks at the time on our IPhone’s, to talking about the latest applications available we were all surfing the internet and playing various games in the touch of a second, oblivious to the fact that we were missing the idea of earth hour all together.

Over the years it seems I have become unaware to how reliant I have become on technology. When I eventually managed to pull my head away from my Ebook library (an application allowing me to download any novel in the world and access it on my phone), it occurred to me that technology devices- such as the IPhone and Blackberry Smartphone’s- create endless possibilities that wouldn’t be possible in real life. In this darkened room with no electricity, my mother was able to bake, my brother able to fish- and actually catch something for that matter- and my dad able to instant chat with his brother who lives on the other side of the world. Although entertaining, does this social environment not withdrawal us from our family and the real world?

Of course it does, this virtual world seems to be providing more opportunities than the real world, however in all that time not a word was shared between us. Ultimately the term ‘virtual’ should be renamed silent as should ‘internet’ be renamed alone because that’s exactly what it is. A party made for one.

Week 5- Tutespark

Culture Jamming
I think the best and clearest description i can find of the term 'Cultural Jamming' is from wikiHow:
'Culture jamming is the art of hijacking the mainstream media, corporate advertisers, and the public domain to get across a message against one-way communication. Basically, culture jamming is sabotage of corporate or public property for political purposes.'
http://www.wikihow.com/Culture-Jam

Culture jamming can be done to underlay issues and bring awareness to make a statemnt. They are highly political. Its almost like appropriation of something in order to make a statement.

Most culture jamming originated from art. There are many sites that say who created the first culture jam but it is very unclear. What i found is:

Nery traces the spirit of culture jamming back to the absurdist carnival traditions of medieval Europe. Most modern historians, however, would regard the brief dada art movement of the early 1920s and the absurdist Situationist International movement of the 1950s as the primary artistic influences of today's culture jamming community.
http://www2.inow.com/~sam/cultjam2.html

3 examples of Culture Jamming
Borat the movie is an example of Culture jamming in a video format. He pretty much mocks every celebrity and political issues of the typical American and typical European. Here's a short clip from the movie of him making fun of Pamela Anderson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftY2p0L8F-Q

The second one we were shown in class is- and probably the biggest!: Rage Against The Machine Shoots New Video With Michael Moore.

This story really interested me and the power of culture jamming is intense especially in situations like this when they make the new. I can see why people do it, it seems highly addictive. This video shows the band Rage against the Machine and how they made world wide news as they played for their fans on the steps of the stock exchange. This unexpected drama cause the entire stock exchange to close for like a whole day!! insane!!! The funny thing about it is, that cops and everybody knew about it- that they were going to play- but thought it was a hoax. When it actually did happen they were unprepared and chaos let loose. They did this to shoot a film clip for their new song, the clip is highly entertaining but the story behind it is like no other. Hilarious!
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x236hb_rage-against-the-machine-sleep-now_music
Info from:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1433553/20000128/rage_against_the_machine.jhtml

Adbusters is a site that constantly uses culture jamming to stir emotion.

Adbusters
This picture is pretty funny and true most likely!
Pepsie MAn
McGut
This ones also very controversial:
Ipod