Week Eight Lecture

This weeks lecture discussed Cyberpolitics and e-democacry (the politics of the internet, the actual structure and functioning from blogging to games and the way the internet intevenes and contributes to real life politics mainly occurring off the internet covering campaigning on the internet and how the government uses the internet as tool to raise awareness and give general information to the public). So basically what I took away was how politics and the media affect the way in which people communicate and freedom of speech on the internet.

It looked at the freedom of speech and the battle between censorship on the internet and the ideas of free speech and copyright. There appears to be no black and white side of this issue, only grey areas depending on age, race and even gender when it comes it comes to the usage of the internet.

The 1986 Hacker's Manifesto captures to heart of the hacker ethos: 'This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons? We explore... We seek after knowledge?' (Blankenship 1986) (Lecture material, week 9, 2009).

I think this quote is really powerful. It expresses the feelings of those who are simply consumers in the eyes of some but so much more in their own eyes. They feel power at their finger tips by typing what they think and feel.

Cyberpunk (a genre) was created as a reaction to the overly safe stories that circulated the internet, acting through unique and strong qualities.

I think this is really interesting as I had no idea such politics existed so strongly amongst the cyberworld- but when I think about it I suppose it would have been an issue that rose very quickly with the invention of the internet.

I think censorship can be a good and bad thing. The internet is accessible to anyone and so anyone can view your content and words, and there are cases of false identities being created online and exploited because many people hide behind the wall that is their computer screen and speak their minds, it's when people get a bit too carried away and topics of conversations lose relevance...

Interesting topic anyway! Certainly a thought provoker...

Week Seven Lecture

Todays lecture discussed free/open source software vs proprietary software. Personally I really didn't have any idea that there was such a market and that there are so many 'open source' software versions available. The computers I have used have already been set up my my parents/school/library so I never stopped to think that the software I was using actually cost money! Clearly being naive, I assumed the software was on the computer ready to go when you bought it...maybe that's not a great thing to admit...

I realise how big of a deal it is if an individual decides to 'crack the codes' on these type of proprietary software versions such as microsoft and that it is illegal to simply copy the software for your own use or anyone elses use on another computer. What surprised me further was the efforts that have been made to make free software available to everyone, such as the free software foundation started by Richard M Stallman in 1981. I think it would benefit everyone if software was more accessible and able to be shared and edited. People aren't going to make a software version worse by editing it, they will generally be trying to enhance and improve it so then everyone can benefit...well almost everyone...apart from those guys who have made their money or proprietary software...

I'm happy to know that there is an option/alternative out there if I take a look and completely agree that if you have bought a computer the expense should end there and you should not have to pay for the software.

Week 7 Tutorial- 3min movie

It's a movie...kinda?

Tutorial 6-Home Movie Madness

Just a glimpse of a normal saturday night in the world of Erin!

Week Five Lecture

Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend this lecture or the following tutorial so I missed out on the actual presentation. However I have read through the available notes in Course Content.

I found the notes interesting about social media and the idea of Web 2.0 or the read-write web. It is the internet in a more interactive way. I will admit that I check my facebook account almost everyday... At first I think I was a consumer because I was new (from Myspace) and everything was different and I didn't know how to operate my account properly, now I feel I am a creator- perhaps not to the extent of some though.

I use facebook and social media for exactly that- socialising. When I graduated high school and all my friends went separate ways it became increasingly difficult to stay in contact and meet up when we are all together due to the demands of work, study, sport, family and life in general. Facebook helps us chat to each other and organise those rare outings and keep each other updated. I have 'friends' on facebook who update just about everything except maybe their bowel movements. I feel that isn't utilising facebook properly.

Everything I post I like to think I own. They are usually my thoughts, my words, my opinions, my photos, my friends in the photos (the important word being MY). I created these original pieces of work and I suppose I would like to feel as though they would remain mine. I remember someone telling me that Facebook 'owns' your photos and can use them however they desire. I think that if the picture is on your account only friends can view it and if you want to delete photos or even delete your account; all traces are deleted with it. If Facebook really has that much control, why is there so much cyber-bullying occurring at the moment??

I'm kind of going off track as a new thought pops into my head, but all these issues are related. I think if I were to lose my account tomorrow I would be ok because the photos etc are from my own personal collection already saved on my computer and I don't use the 'wall' to talk about anything serious or really personal, but I would still like to think that everything would be erased from the cyber world.

This is a really interesting topic and I'm annoyed I missed the lecture! I think it's really relevant to today’s society, especially when the age of internet users are constantly decreasing and privacy is becoming more and more harder to protect.

Week Four Lecture

When this lecture began I was kind of confused and wondered if I was in the right class for a second. Cine-speak was the topic and was rather interesting. One point I liked was that in filming shots are used as words. They explain the what, where, when, why, who and how by using different types of shots and their selection of people/objects. It's when these questions are answered accurately and effectively that the audience knows what your talking about.



We were given fun facts and more about the cinema and filming such as headroom, talking room, the 180 degree rule, that the first full length feature was The Kelly Gang made in Australia and that the first USA cinemas were called the Nickelodeons because it used to cost a Nickel to get in....still wondering if I was in the right class....



Then we were informed how when Blockbusters were then released to T.V viewing many people stopped physically going to the movies and paying to see it when they could stay home and watch T.V instead, this then lead eventually into the topic of the internet and the viewing and pirating of movies and T.V shows that now occurs and how this NEW COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY affected the process of the industry dramatically.



Sites like Youtube (which upon its launch date, the same amount of traffic went through equal to that of the amount of people who had gone through the INTERNET that whole year!) allow this easy access to TV shows and other sources of media. So I suppose it was important to understand the processes of the cinema and film and how it has travelled and where it is now compared to then...



An enjoyable lecture which I took a fair amount away with me.

Search Engines

How do search engines rank what they find?

Generally the results will be ranked depending on the most related sources which are categorised by matching keywords. Some search engines will highlight the words from most related to least related, others will give you a percentage in regards to a match.

What or who makes one page more useful than another, so that it is at the top of the search results?

Organisation of the webpage generally helps for example in topics, so you aren't lead to a big chunk of writing and have to scour through the information looking for the piece you want to know especially doing activities such as the Scavenger Hunt.

Favourite search engine? why?

I use Google to assisst me in my quest for finding answers. Easy to interpret, navigate and well presented with many other features such as books and scholar so the search can become alot more specific and make the whole process a little quicker.