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!