Week 9 - Tutespark

The next piece of assessment for this course is a 1000 word essay to be posted in this blog. There were a few topics to choose from – 6 to be exact- but it wasn't hard for me to pick one. For me question 2 was the most interesting topic:

Explain what Creative Commons is and, using examples, show how it is different to other forms of copyright.

 

I really like the whole idea of Creative Commons and Open source software, I really enjoyed writing my blog post on it – hopefully by picking this topic I can minimise the pain involved in these 1000 words.

As I have already researched and written about the history and beginnings of Creative Commons, I would like to learn more about the positive impacts CC has had on creative industries. I'm not sure if it's possible at this stage yet, but it would be very interesting to do a specific case study on how CC licences had changed the way an individual, such as a filmmaker, works.

Week 9 – Lecture - Cyberpunk

To be completely honest, I don't really understand what Cyberpunk has to do with this course.

To gain a better understanding of present communication technology we have looked at the past. So it makes sense with my current knowledge on development from the first communication technology to today we should be able to roughly predict it future.

However, to me Cuberpunk is a rather obnoxious genre. From my research, every Cuberpunk story's are cliché, featuring the same marginalised protagonist. Fiction is often a great medium to express an idea that is not fiction at all, but I get the feeling that Cyberpunk is simply a fantasy of some sad lonely writer, trying to heroisice their own existence.

I do agree with some of the issues raised. Questionable morality of technological advancements are becoming a major concern for some scientific disciplines, particaly concerning genetic modification and experimentation. Perhaphs, just as Geroge Orwells's 1984 raised concerns about the future of communism vs. capitalism, Cyberpunk is making the public think about the possible consequences of science and technology. I suppose my major concern, as a literally student, is the repetition of cliché characters and overall substandard writing in this genre.

This short story is just one of the many examples I came across, The Mission part 1 by 'That Girl". Under of the usual theme of, Corporate control over society this story is rather dumb. Perhaps I am just unfortunately coming across the wrong stories, but modern Cyber punk has nothing on classic fiction. Do yourself a favour and read George Orwell instead.

 

 

http://www.short-fiction.co.uk/newstories/show_story.php?story_id=4858

Week 8 – Tutespark & Tutetask

Cyberpunk, as I've mentioned, is not really my thing – I really struggle to enjoy the genre. But this tutetask/spark helped me to understand why Cyberpunk has some relevance. Cyberpunk is a dark version of the future. The writing may not be in a style I enjoy, but the writers are trying to get a message across to their audience. Trying to warn us about the dangers of what can happen when we chose to ignore the negatives impacts of a technology based society.
I came across a very interesting article about our planet and the increasing rate of animal extinction. "There have been three major mass extinction events throughout history and biologists widely agree the world is currently suffering from another."- http://www.news.com.au/weird-true-freaky/world-facing-mass-extinction/story-e6frflri-1225913659680#ixzz126icWIq4 This is a major concern for many scientists, but worries me too.

 

This is my version of this news story, explaining this mass extinction in relevance to Cyberpunk.:

 

Earth 'facing mass extinction'

 Major marine extinction in process - study

 Organisms not coping with environment

 Humans to blame

Janne Järvinen, celebrated Cyberpunk fiction writer has published various online works, focusing on the negative impact of technology on humanity and the environment., but recent studies from Macquarie University palaeobiologist Dr John Alroy is suggesting that perhaps not all of this is entirely fiction.

He compiled data from nearly 100,000 fossil collections worldwide, tracking the fate of marine animals during extreme extinction events some 250 million years ago.

The findings, published this week in the international journal Science, showed a major extinction event was currently underway that had the potential to be more severe than any others in history.

"Organisms that might have adapted in the past may not be able to this time," Dr Alroy said.

The research shows a combination of human behaviour and climate change could have devastating affects on species across the planet.

"When there's mass extinction all bets are off and anything could happen," Dr Alroy said.

The conditions of humanity in Jarvinen's work are eerily coming into actualisation. Bio-diversity is a key factor in maintaining quality of human life, so what will happen if all the animals become extinct? Will humans survive this extinction, and if we do, how badly will our quality of life and freedom be damaged? Jarvinen has possible answers for society in her fiction novels, but for all we know, they may not be fiction for much longer.

 

 

Reference:

"The World Through Mirrorshades

Next, I will name some of the themes or aspects which belong in my opinion to the cyberpunk genre. First of all, and what "the general public" usually forget, cyberpunk is a DARK vision of the future. The industrialization has polluted earth to almost uninhabitable state, nature is suffering, all the animals have become extinct, except for those cloned from the DNA-libraries afterwards. The gap between the poor and the rich has got bigger, governments' authority is run over by multinational corporations, which care little about anything else than their profit. Crime levels increase all the time and violent solutions are being made for everyday problems. Most of the people live in comatose-like state and submit silently to the "new world order". Concepts like "the System" or "the Corporate" are present in almost every major cyberpunk story. The not-always-too-heroic heroes, "Cyberpunks" live on "the Edge" of the system desperately trying to make their weight in battle for a better society. This battle is not an open war against something, but an everyday behaviour and not accepting the part corporations have planned for them. Postmodern themes include globalization, commercialism, mixing of different cultures and ideologies in one huge media flow. "

 

• Janne Järvinen
  
• http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/aspects_and_expectations.html
  

Week 8 – Virtual philosophy

 

 

Week 8's lectured focused on the idea of virtual reality. In all honesty, this was something I found very hard to comprehend. While I accept that technology is a part of modern reality, I struggle with the idea of technology replacing physical reality with virtual.

 

I feel that, no matter how realistic a virtual reality may seem, wouldn't you always be conscious that this is in fact not real? And wouldn't that consciousness ruin the experience for you?

Perhaps people more involved in the gaming world will be more optimistic about it. Personally, I hate video games, I think they are a waste of money, time and a big waste of your brain – so I'm obviously biased against this, I agree with Sidney Blumenthal's quote -

 

"Image-making, no matter how manipulative, doesn't replace reality;   it becomes part of it."

• The Permanent Campaign
  

 

Although in theory the concept of The Matrix makes sense, I don't believe it could ever really work. Just like people used to believe that the world was flat.

Week 7 – Tute Spark

This week's Tutespark was a bit more hands on. We have been asked to try some free software alternatives.

I chose to try out two – Firefox and Openoffice – and got two different options.

Let me start with Firefox.

Great program. Quick to download, very functional ... I'm not sure what it is about this program I like so much, but it has certainly replaced Internet Explorer for me!

OpenOffice... Not such a fan. To begin with I never really liked Microsoft Office programs, but hated OpenOffice. I guess I have been using Microsoft office programs for the last 15 years, and even though OpenOffice is free, iI'm still convinced Microsoft is better for my needs as a student.

I'll stick with Firefox, but OpenOffice is already in my trash can

Week 7 – Tute Task

This weeks Tute Task is to research and provide answers to 4 questions, so here goes:

1. What is creative commons and how could this licensing framework be relevant to your own experience at university?
Creative commons, as Adam explained to us yesterday, is a type of Copy Right License. Instead of the usual rigid 'All Rights Reserved', CC License has 'Some Rights Reserved'

"Creative Commons is a world wide project that encourages copyright owners to allow others to share, reuse and remix their material, legally. We offer a range of free licences that creators can use to manage their copyright in the online environment, each providing its own specific protections and freedoms. We have built upon the "all rights reserved" of traditional copyright to create a voluntary "some rights reserved" system."

• http://creativecommons.org.au/learn-more
  

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

There are countless works online , licensed under the creative commons.

They can be photographic;

Video (I really want to try that origami!):

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/p9xKxEV1FkY?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/p9xKxEV1FkY?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9xKxEV1FkY&feature=fvsr
  

Or even Audio:

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.

I found quite a few interesting articles about The Creative Commons, but the one that grabbed my attention the most was entitled, The Beauty of "SomeRightsReserved" by Molly Kleinman.

This was particular interesting for me because of it's relevance to my studies. Molly discusses the issues that copy right laws have created for University students, professors and libarians.

'These are difficult times when it comes to copyright on campus. Big music companies are suing fans, publishers are suing librarians, and the principle of "fair use" is under siege everywhere. Litigationhappy content holders have fostered a climate of fear in which every student is a music pirate and every professor a book thief."

She discusses how Creative Commons works and why they are such a great benefit to my , and many other student studies. – I highly recommend checking it out for yourself!

• http://crln.acrl.org/content/69/10/594.full.pdf+html
  

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

The first thing i have to say about Portable Apps is, it must be a scam right? The description provided on the website simple sounds too good to be true. Anything claiming to be this good automatically makes me suspicious. A completely free program that allows me to use my programs on any computer.

"Now you can carry your favorite computer programs along with all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more with you. Use them on any Windows computer. All without leaving any personal data behind."

• http://portableapps.com/
  

But then I researched various reviews online, and it all seems to be legitimate. This would be such a useful program for my study, ill use the example of my Photography class. Photography programs are damn expensive and take me a long time to learn all the settings. If i was to use Portable Apps I would be able to use my photography programs on any computer – I think this would save me many headaches!

Week 6 Tutespark

T


The tutespark this week raised a question that had never occoured to me before today, which is slightly disturbing considering the amount of personal information, writing, images and ideas that I have published online without a second thought.
When I put something online, who owns it? Is it still mine, even if I post it on a website owned by someone else?
So, Who owns the content you put on the internet on various sites?

For me the most content I publish, is through Facebook. And it wasn’t hard to find out my rights about the content I publish.

Facebook privacy section told me that:
"You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition: For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook."

So thankfully, I still own everything I publish. I have the rights to who can see it, who can use it and therefore am still in control of my property.
But what about the information on this blog?
Quoted directly from the privacy section of blogger

" You acknowledge that Google owns all right, title and interest in and to the Service, including all intellectual property rights."


I trawled through various other sites, flicker, Myspace etc and thankfully I found they were all much the same. We have rights to what we publish. But this has certainly made me more aware of what I publish and how important it is to view the terms, conditions and privacy rights on any of these websites to ensure my information remains mine.

Week 7 Lecture

Week 7 lecture
In today’s lecture Adam introduced me to an idea I had never heard of before – the free software movement.
In a world dominated by technology, consumers often find themselves being ‘forced’ into purchasing software – you cannot buy a computer without also buying an expensive operating system. This put software proprietors in a very powerful position to create and distribute software the way they chose, at a price they dictate. Alot of people didn’t, and still don’t like this. One of these people was richard m Stallman, and he decided to do something about it.
In 1981 Richard created the Free software foundation. Allowing people to use, manipulate and share software for free. Consumers can buy and use proprietary software, such a internet explorer, but unlike the free program firefox, the consumer has not rights to change or fix problem with the program. These free programs support the 3 C’s Adam spoke about at the start of the lecture – Community , collaboration and choice.

Richard Stallman’s free software movement has resulted in many great free programs that allow greater freedom for the users such as Linux, Openoffice, Firefox and VLC. This opened the doors for the Creative Commons . Creative Commons (CC) is based on ‘the idea that we can voluntarily relax copyrights in the interest of sharing’.

CC allows creators to utilise flexible and relaxed licenses so that information can be shared freely. Instead of rigid ‘all rights reserved’ a creator can chose to have ‘some rights reserved’, their work can be shared and manipulated freely while the creator still receives acknowledgement. Personally, I believe this make a lot more sense. There are many examples online of people ignoring copy right laws and omitting acknowledgement of the original source or creator. If the licenses are relaxed then at least the creator recives acknowledgment.
https://learning.secure.griffith.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_87375_1&content_id=_1376244_1