The Future is Already Here..

I can’t believe that it’s already week 12. Time passes so quickly nowadays. It seems as though just a few weeks back I was at home with my family, packing my suitcase to head back to Melbourne. That was January. Today, it’s almost June, halfway through the year, and soon enough I can celebrate the end of the semester. In fact, I have been for the past week and it’s time for me to get serious now.

As I mentioned in the previous blog, throughout the whole semester I have learned in Social Media that the Internet has not only acted as alternative means of distribution but is also used by various people, even organisations, as an alternative to larger movements, larger audiences, to speak up their opinions and in the case of social activists, even extend on their campaigns.

Another thing that I have come to notice is that as people become more dependant upon the different types of social media; blogging, facebook, twitter, second life, YouTube, Wikipedia and other social media platforms, at the same time, technology is also constantly evolving and offering us different types of medium.

I remember the days when we used to imagine the future with all these fancy gadgets; phones where we can see and talk to one another, computers, where we can touch the screen, instead of tap on keys. Where we have everything we need in just one compact device, and that there will be no more need for books and magazines, because everything is electronic. We are so used to visualising that this future is still so far away, that when we stop to think about it, we realise that we have already arrived the future.

We can say that Donna Haraway’s theory that one day, we would all become a part of everyday technology, that we would all become cyborgs, is actually happening right this moment. Think about the iPad for instance. I heard that, they have applications where we can read magazines and are actually allowed to virtually flip the pages. How cool is that?

I would definitely say that not only the mobile phone, but technology in general; the convergence of mobile phones, laptops, the Internet and especially the applications available to us will dominate the eLandscape in the future.

My housemate has an iPod. He downloaded an application that enables him to control his laptop from his iPod. This would mean that no matter where he was, whether outside, in class, or even in his own living room, he will have access to his laptop as long as it is turned on. This also means that he no longer needs to carry around his laptop or his thumb drive, for that matter because he now has a little gadget that can solve all his problems!

You know what else this means? This means that the future will be filled with lazy people. We are now all too dependent upon technology that we can almost agree with the dystopian life, the potential that human beings will become more like robots, and robots adopt feelings and personality to become more human. At this point, there will be no distinction whatsoever, between robots and human.

I may be getting ahead of myself, but if what we imagined twenty years back is happening now, there may be a possibility that what we imagine now will in fact, occur in twenty years to come. Now, I hope that I have given everyone something to think about.

Amateur Documentary-making: A wake-up Call

Most of you may not care but I really need to let this out. I do not have television at home. “Phew, that felt good.” It’s not that we don’t a have television set, we do, but it’s just that we can’t watch anything from it. It’s frustrating for me, especially because I’m studying media but what good is a media student with no medium to get the latest news from? The majority of you who knows a little about penguins must have learnt it from the documentary, ‘March of Penguins’. I learned about penguins from watching the animation, ‘Happy Feet’.

So anyways, everytime someone mentions the word ‘documentary’, the first thing that comes to my mind is always ‘National Geographic’ or ‘Discovery Channel’ and even ‘Animal Planet’. Yes, those are the only documentary I know of or come across if I get my once- a- month chance of watching T.V when a friend invites me over for dinner.

The truth is I never really thought much about documentaries although they are one of the more interesting things to watch on television. Come to think of, if ‘Keeping up with The Kardashians’, Paris Hilton’s ‘Simple Life’ or ‘E True Hollywood Stories’ can be considered as documentaries, then it can be said that I watch documentary all the time! That is, back in the days when I could watch T.V at home.

Today, the tradition of targeting television audiences or the more sophisticated audiences is broken when the Internet has become an alternative for distribution. Technology is now allowing amateur documentary making such as the ones we find on YouTube, VoD, and Wake-up Call for Truth Seekers.

The question is, “Does the Internet have any distinct, useful, or unique characteristics that offer anything more than just another means of distribution?” (Birchall, 2008) I would say, “Yes, indeed.”

The 'red tape' required for funding and distribution of documentaries via the professional film industry can work to prevent would be filmmakers, particularly social activists, from creating content that is often critical of the status quo. How relevant do you think online documentary is in ensuring the potential for all voices to be heard, and more importantly, freedom of speech?

In search of some answers, this is one of the documentaries I have found online that is not even posted on YouTube because it keeps getting deleted.

To watch it, you must click on this link

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=155978340240&oid=71787857408

This is just the introduction of a very controversial series of documentaries, where the main topic is about religion, or Muslim, to be more precise. It discusses the coming of ‘Judgment Day’ or more commonly known, as the end of the World, and it is this kind of ‘freedom of speech’ that will never be allowed to broadcast on mainstream media.

One thing I have learned throughout this whole unit is that the Internet itself has given everyone the freedom of speech. Whether through blogs, or through social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter and through YouTube, Wikipedia, and podcasting. Whichever medium suits them best. As Paul Levinson wrote in his book, “People have a diversity of talent, not equally distributed. An unclear writer will not make a very good blogger. But he may have a perfect voice for podcasting…from the point of view of the creator, the world of new media offers a menu of media avenues.”

In the case of today’s topic, the creator has found that making documentaries is the medium best suited for him to let his opinion be heard even if not through to everyone in the world, but to those who have access to the Internet by the least. In conclusion, the Internet, by offering another means of distribution, has also opened up a more diverse range of opinions, topics, and issues that without the Internet, we will never be aware of.

This is a video for everyone to watch, just for fun, because class is over and I am in a good mood. :)

Nokia 3310 WUTTT??

http://www.iphonesavior.com/images/2008/05/14/ipad_touch_mock_up.jpg

My Blackberry is my best friend now. Although it has only been in my life for less than a year, I’ve already forgotten how my previous N73 functions and how it even looked like. Alright, I’m exaggerating but when someone comes up with the topic about which mobile phones we use to own I seriously cannot remember. Since the Internet has been around, I’ve always been the type of person who used the mobile only to make and receive calls, and to text my friends, family or colleagues. Other than that, I preferred to be disconnected from the world. If someone had something important to say, they could always text me or leave a message.

And then came the evolution, the convergence of media where smartphones like the iPhone and Blackberry was created. As Paul Levinson (2009) believed, “ With the iPhone, for the first time, we had a technology specifically designed to enable not just new media but new new media literally at the user’s disposable, any place the user happened to be.” Now, everything that I relied my laptop for could be done with my Blackberry. I don’t have to wait until get home to access the Internet anymore!

Not only am I enjoying the freedom of being able to communicate and engage in the online community, but there are just so many other things I can do with my Blackberry. From online banking, to downloading songs and movies, and then listening to music or watching these downloaded movies on my mobile. The applications also allow us to take pictures and then instantly upload it on Facebook. We save time and money on outgoing calls but more importantly, we stay in touch with the people we once couldn’t contact when we were in another country.

We now come to the question, “Will the mobile phone screen become the dominant screen of the 21st century? Do we really need another screen to view movies, take photos, design art and access the Internet?” This was something I had to ponder on and finally came up with both the answers, yes and no. In my opinion, just like how new media facilitates old media rather than replace it, the mobile phone screen too is just another alternative for laptops.

For instance, the mobile doesn’t have the same storage capacity that the laptop has, making it less efficient. It is impossible to utilise softwares such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop on our mobile the same way it is used on the laptop. Another thing is that although, the iPhone has applications that allow us to take photos and edit them, the quality or effect will not appear as dynamic as the result we get from Photoshop. Also, as the mobile is designed to enhance portability, the screens are too small to watch movies, making it less enjoyable.

On the other hand, media convergence has been recognised for decades as an important principle of new media evolution. (Levinson P, 2009) Fast-growing technology has allowed development on these mobile devices since they were first introduced. It started out as these big, chunky objects, and over the years, improved in size, range, and usability. Today, we even have the iPad. It is possible that ten years from now, the mobile will able to completely replace the laptop. Until then, if I had to choose between my laptop and my Blackberry, my laptop would definitely win, any day.

Tomorrow's iPad

http://www.iphonesavior.com/images/2008/05/14/ipad_touch_mock_up.jpg

YouTube- Do Politicians Gain more benefits or risk from it?

Politics has always been a subject that I try to avoid and would rather not get involved in. I choose not to know what is going on in my country when it comes to politics, let alone the politics that is going on in other countries. But from time to time, as I am surfing the net, I will come across pictures of a young, handsome, black man whom I have learned to like. His name is Barack Obama and he is the current president of the United States.

How is it that even though I live hundreds and hundreds of miles away from the United States, people like me, who don’t really care much about politics can still come to know of Obama? I admit it, the only time I watch television is when my favourite TV series is on. Or when they’re playing reruns of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Other than that, I hate watching the news and I’m never bothered to read the newspapers. So how did Obama become such a celebrity amongst young people like me?

Perhaps, we can say that this is because politicians have been utilizing the many types of new and social media as part of their campaign. When utilized effectively, YouTube can be a great benefit for politicians. Obama has successfully done this and gained many votes especially with the under -30-years-of age voter – in the primaries and the general election- and this was precisely the group that did not go to the polls in numbers needed by Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004 (Levinson, P. 2009) and the group that most watched ‘Obama Girl’ on their computer screens in 2007.

Whether this video alone has made the impact on the elections in 2007, we will never know. But what we do know is that, this video has made others look at Obama as a cool, interesting and attractive person.

While there is no doubt that YouTube has evolved as a tool for politicians for political gain, it appears that some of the produsage on YouTube can in fact, endanger political figures most of the time.

This clip has been disabled by request but you may click on this link to watch it-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXVIwo5fLYs&feature=related

What Tina Fey has done here, is simply made fun of Sarah Palin for the entertainment of other viewers. It may not be as offensive as some of the other clips we may find on YouTube, particularly ones that has been prodused by amateurs, to intentionally corrupt their reputation. Some of them may be a little way too much!

So although this clip may not be as abusive as the ones I have mentioned before, still, Tina Fey’s jokes has done just about enough damage to Sarah Palin, and she may never be taken seriously as a politician again.

The clips we find on Youtube are much more permanent than anything we watch on television. TV can replay parts or all of any programming but such replays are not accessible 24 hours a day, from most places in the world. (Levinson, P. 2009)

The good thing about YouTube is that it is not just a representation of anything. The government does not control the videos broadcasted on YouTube. Therefore, what we may find on YouTube, no matter how brutal, embarrassing, or unmannerly it is for the politicians, can hold more truth than any news reporting we find on the television. This is why we can say that social media can hold many risks for political parties.

YouTube, Wikipedia and the produsers

Watch this......

OK, so you might not be laughing at it as hard as I am but I still find it as hilarious as I first came across it, and that has been as long as since the video has been around. In fact, I watched this one before I watched the original "Nobody" video by ‘Wondergirls’, which made it even funnier for me, now that I understood the joke in context.

This one is the original. Take your time watching it, because the introduction is quite long.

My point here is that, you will find many videos similar to this on YouTube, as Axel Bruns explains, where the creation of shared content takes place and breaks down the boundaries between producers and consumers and instead enables all participants to be users as well as producers. They now can be called 'produsers', who not only engage in traditional forms of content production, but are instead involved in the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement, also known as, 'produsage'.

The increasing availability of media technologies of networks like the Internet has allowed consumers to be producers as well. But the term ‘producers’ and ‘consumers’ no longer exists when the trend in social media is to create these artful, clever, or simply funny mashups, that may now attract as much more attention as the original source material, which they draw from and are spread on the Internet.

Think about Wikipedia, for example. People become more reliant on it and prefer to extract the information from there, rather than from the Encyclopedia. But the information from the Wikipedia is in fact the combination of inputs from pamphlet writers, amateur software authors, or independent enthusiasts for the specific area of knowledge.

So the information we find on Wikipedia are not just products, but exists as temporary artifacts as others build, extend, maintain and improves it. This justifies Axel Bruns’s theory.

“There is an absence of producers, distributors, or consumers, and the presence of a seemingly endless string of users acting incrementally as content producers by gradually extending and improving the information present in the information commons, the value chain begins and ends.”

Only, since it is a ‘never-ending’ chain that goes around in a cycle, we may never be quite sure that the ‘value chain’ will ever end.

image - Produsage.org/

Produsers and produsage do not only exist on the Internet. It is a shift that has been going on for decades. I remember the first time I heard “Ghetto Superstar” by Pras Michael featuring Ol’Dirty Bastard and Mya. The chorus is actually a reworking of Bee Gees’, “Islands in the Stream”. At first I thought it was creative, but after a while, it seemed as though more and more artists were using the same ideas. It was as though these rappers had just run out of creativity and decided to borrow the ideas of artists who initially borrowed the idea from another artist.

And so we can see from back in the late 90’s, that the acts of participation of these ‘gangsta rappers’, or their produsage are part of an ongoing stream, that constitutes a never finished process of content development, improvement, and redevelopment.

The Beauty of Cybersex? (or lack of it)

What happened to the good old days, when sex was a pleasurable experience, a physical and affection intimacy shared between couples who loved one another? Casual sex, a focus more on physical rather than emotional satisfaction, has become increasingly common nowadays. It lacks the emotional ties that come with relationships - sex without any commitment or ties may sound appealing, and for a lot of people it can seem very attractive. Because we are often brought up to see sex outside of a long term, serious relationship as wrong, we develop a sense of casual sex being more exciting, a feeling that it is naughty or an act of rebellion that can be very appealing. It is also made easier by the fact that the majority of the time both parties are aware that the sex is not going to lead to a relationship and are therefore more likely to be able to relax and just have sex for the pure pleasure of the actual act.

…. And then came the Internet. Now, you will imagine pornographic sites to be filled with men, driven by their addiction to sex, driven by the fact that they have a 24hour excess to naked women engaging in sexual intercourse with other men or women, and even more intriguing, are able to be aroused by words typed in these sexual ‘group discussions’. Believe it or not, women are also using the Internet to satisfy their sexual desires and yes, the majority of them are cybersex addicts. Like men, these women view and distribute pornographic pictures and videos, participate in sexual chat rooms and virtual locations, where their sexual activities are suggested by their viewers, and also engage in cybersex.

But we must remember that women, the more sensitive of the two species, tend to want romance and relationship out of their sexual activities, and that is why women will prefer participating in sexual chat rooms where they can relate instead of accessing pornographic sites which are more commonly used by men. The Internet has made it easier for women to seek sex online. For one, it eliminates metacommunication cues such as tone, facial expression, and body language. Secondly, it allows others to hide personal information like their age and they can now exert their power both sexually and relationally and turn themselves into another person, altogether.

So to what extent is sex in cyberspace safe for these women? The Internet can be thought of as a healthy space for women to express their sexuality but for those who are insecure about their physical attractiveness and seek the Internet for fantasy sexual activity and relationships, the Internet can quite damage their psychological and emotional health. As a woman, it is important to have a healthy relationship with our partners as opposed to those we have online. Physical touch and physical bonding, such as noticing, attraction, touching, creating intimacy, and commitment (Carnes et al., 2001) are some of the things that the Internet hinders us from experiencing. On the other hand, those who have no problem with their self-confidence off the fantasy world of the Internet will more likely engage in casual sex. In this case, cybersex is the perfect way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases, and that I might say, may be the only beauty of sex in cyberspace.

No Second Life for me, thank you.

I had, at a point of time, been really addicted to Sims. Engaging in this virtual game took up a lot of my time that by the end of the day, I realized that I had not done anything that would be considered productive at all. Assignments were put aside, daily cooked meals were replaced with instant noodles and microwavable leftovers, and don’t get me started on my social life.

http://www.armchairempire.com/images/Reviews/pc/the-sims-2/the-sims-2-4.jpg

Similarly, Second Life is also a virtual world, a place on the Internet where people create their own avatars and spend hours socializing. But unlike Sims, Second Life is not just a game. It’s an online community where the avatars that you socialize with are real people just like us. Users are allowed to customize their own avatars, choosing between male or female, selecting a body type, facial features, hairstyle, as well as the clothes they wear. And again, unlike Sims, users are allowed to fly, teleport from one place to another, participate in individual or group activities, and even start virtual businesses.

We can now argue that Second Life can be considered as a part of our real lives. As quoted by Mark Stephen Meadows, “Shared experiences create a sense of reality… People in virtual worlds build things, use them, sell them, trade them and discuss them. When another person confirms what I am seeing, places value on it,spends time working to pay for it, buys it, keeps it, uses it, talks about it, gets emotional about it, and then sells it – this tells me there is something real happening. The suspension of disbelief has become a grounding of belief.”

There is a thin boundary between Second Life and real life when users begin to live on their online experiences. Since users are able to customize their avatars from the shape of the body, down to little details like the chisel of the cheekbones, they will more likely create an avatar that may have a representation of their real selves or how they imagine themselves to be. Respectively, users may feel emotionally attached to their virtual identities.

http://www.towerengineering.it/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/SecondLife.jpg

These boundaries become almost untraceable when users find that they can do almost anything in Second Life that they can do in real life! Build intimate relationships, watch movies, go to clubs, shop for books. In fact, many people are making part or all of their income through businesses in Second Life and we can now say that the Linden dollars can be considered just as worthy as any other foreign currency.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1068/1391696855_7c023f15c6.jpg

In a hypothetical situation, woman meets man in Second Life. Woman and man, then fall in love and decidingly, gets married in real life and in Second Life. A few months later, woman finds man cheating on her in Second Life, gets really upset and divorces him. How serious can a relationship get when it is based on their virtual lives? This situation, just as any other sales trade in Second Life, proves that there is a real interaction going on and suddenly the world of make-belief, isn’t that “make-belief” after all.

As for me, I am completely aware of how easily influenced I get when it comes to virtual reality. No way will I ever want to be 'lost' in that world again. As a human, I feel that physical interaction is an essential need for our everyday lives and maybe,just maybe, the future might be based on an improved version of Second Life. Until then, I will live my life just the way it is, thank you.

http://blog.gothammediaventures.com/wp-content/uploads/060803_first_second_life.gif