I'm pleased with my coursework grade and think i have performed well on this course so far- probably because i enjoy the subject.
i like constructing products using photoshop/publisher but i find writing the reports difficult.
Monday, 11 February 2008
Friday, 8 February 2008
issues institutions audiences
Digitality
New way of encoding information in a series of either noughts or ones (binary) huge amounts of information can be dealt with in these tiny pieces of code.
Interactivity
New ways of streaming compressed information:
-air e.g. satellites
-phone cables
-ISDN cables e.g. broadband
-cable cable e.g. cable satellite systems
by having the information compressed we can transport more pieces of information as it doesn’t take up so much room when being sent.
Because its interactive, it means you can interact with it, interact with other, get it to respond and reply to it. It means you can upload as well as download
Hypertextuality
Media is no longer linear like on a VHS (A-B-C pathway), its more liquid so the viewer can choose what they would like to do, for example on a DVD (Viewer can choose own pathway) and on an MP3 where a viewer can choose to shuffle songs rather than listen to the whole album in order.
Makes a difference for the people who produce the texts
Dispersal
How information can be and is shared and communicated. To do with market share, size and take-up (who's using it.). how much access users have and how producers target users and maximise their markets. couple with digitality creates huge market for producers
Virtuality
Already-discussed ideas linking with reality and representation. Verisimilitude, like iconography, is how real something is. cartoons are representational. some virtual worlds also representational. what is real? mimicking and representation of the world. who, why and how?
Convergence
New technologies merging into one, like companies. MP3's showing photos. where will it go next and will people use it? Think about size: both of data and hardware, new possibilities
Audience
How does the audience use the technology? Do they actually use it? has it changed the way they use it? did they use it before and has it changed the way they use it if it has been updated? has the technology been led by consumer demand or by the industry? have the people who've made it made us think that we want it? who actually has access to these things? who is disenfrancised?
Regulation and control
Is there any control over the technology's use? who's doing the controlling and should it be there in the first place? what's done about copyright issues? What are the implications of control and people subverting it? is it realistically possible to have this control? what impact of this on the producers? what potential impact is there for the government?
Ownership
who owns the technology and does it make a difference? how much money they have, use the market, compete with one another and how they use their money and their brand to sell various things: games console manufacturing is a good example of this.
New way of encoding information in a series of either noughts or ones (binary) huge amounts of information can be dealt with in these tiny pieces of code.
Interactivity
New ways of streaming compressed information:
-air e.g. satellites
-phone cables
-ISDN cables e.g. broadband
-cable cable e.g. cable satellite systems
by having the information compressed we can transport more pieces of information as it doesn’t take up so much room when being sent.
Because its interactive, it means you can interact with it, interact with other, get it to respond and reply to it. It means you can upload as well as download
Hypertextuality
Media is no longer linear like on a VHS (A-B-C pathway), its more liquid so the viewer can choose what they would like to do, for example on a DVD (Viewer can choose own pathway) and on an MP3 where a viewer can choose to shuffle songs rather than listen to the whole album in order.
Makes a difference for the people who produce the texts
Dispersal
How information can be and is shared and communicated. To do with market share, size and take-up (who's using it.). how much access users have and how producers target users and maximise their markets. couple with digitality creates huge market for producers
Virtuality
Already-discussed ideas linking with reality and representation. Verisimilitude, like iconography, is how real something is. cartoons are representational. some virtual worlds also representational. what is real? mimicking and representation of the world. who, why and how?
Convergence
New technologies merging into one, like companies. MP3's showing photos. where will it go next and will people use it? Think about size: both of data and hardware, new possibilities
Audience
How does the audience use the technology? Do they actually use it? has it changed the way they use it? did they use it before and has it changed the way they use it if it has been updated? has the technology been led by consumer demand or by the industry? have the people who've made it made us think that we want it? who actually has access to these things? who is disenfrancised?
Regulation and control
Is there any control over the technology's use? who's doing the controlling and should it be there in the first place? what's done about copyright issues? What are the implications of control and people subverting it? is it realistically possible to have this control? what impact of this on the producers? what potential impact is there for the government?
Ownership
who owns the technology and does it make a difference? how much money they have, use the market, compete with one another and how they use their money and their brand to sell various things: games console manufacturing is a good example of this.
Thursday, 7 February 2008
Moral Panics- Second Life
Think back to our discussions on Second Life. What are the social concerns of the development of the kind of technology discussed in this article? How is it changing the way we interact? What are the issues on control and censorship? Who is left behind? Post an entry of 300w in response to these questions. Do some of your own research and find actual examples to back up your points.
Second Life, as explained in a previous blog, is mostly viewed as a very positive step forward in the world of technology. It allows users to interact with each other and the system itself which is generally thought to be a sociable and enjoyable experience…but there are exceptions.
There are many things that, morally, could go wrong in Second Life and cause a bit of panic to spread amongst users and the relations of users. For one, children can easily use Second Life whilst lying about their age making them vulnerable to paedophiles and general abuse online. Two, there are suggestions that it can be used by terrorists to communicate and plot attacks and Three: it can ruin marriages.
Max, 39, isn’t sure what drove his soon-to-be-ex-wife to have a relationship in Second Life. He says she refused to talk about it, and if he asked questions, she’d just hop online and freeze him out.
“I thought she was going through a depression and she’d get bored and move on with life,” he says. “But she kept getting deeper and deeper.”
Within six months of signing up for Second Life, Max’s wife was spending up to eight hours a day online — and even more on the weekends. She and her in-world boyfriend were in constant contact — even when they weren’t in-world. Max says he found out later that his wife and her avatar boyfriend were having drinks together — in his house — via Web cam.
Max went on Google and started doing some detective work. To his amazement, he learned that his wife had married her in-world boyfriend in Second Life.
“I had my dad looking over my shoulder at the stuff I was finding,” he says. “Just so I could ask him ‘Am I crazy? Am I really seeing this?’”
Max ended up pulling the Internet connection out of the wall, and he says his wife started trashing the house. The end came, says Max, when she threw a punch.
“I’m 6 foot, 200 pounds,” he says. “When she took a swing, I said, ‘no, we’re not going past this point.’” The two are currently finalizing divorce proceedings.
Although Max’s wife did end up meeting her virtual boyfriend in the real world, that often isn’t the case with virtual relationships. Sarah had a plane ticket bought and plans to meet her virtual partner, Martin — but she canceled her trip.
“One day I had the realization that I didn’t really want that guy,” she says. “What I wanted was for my husband to treat me like that guy.”
Sarah and her husband split up, and have since divorced. But Sarah credits Second Life with showing her what she wanted from a partner — attention, affection and romance. She gets all that from her current real-life boyfriend — a guy Sarah says she’ll probably marry.
And even though Sarah’s boyfriend didn’t ask her to, she ended her Second Life relationship last year. As a result, she doesn’t go in-world that much anymore.
“I decided that I didn’t want to partition my love,” she says. “I just wanted to have one person to call ‘sweetheart.’”
Second Life, as explained in a previous blog, is mostly viewed as a very positive step forward in the world of technology. It allows users to interact with each other and the system itself which is generally thought to be a sociable and enjoyable experience…but there are exceptions.
There are many things that, morally, could go wrong in Second Life and cause a bit of panic to spread amongst users and the relations of users. For one, children can easily use Second Life whilst lying about their age making them vulnerable to paedophiles and general abuse online. Two, there are suggestions that it can be used by terrorists to communicate and plot attacks and Three: it can ruin marriages.
Max, 39, isn’t sure what drove his soon-to-be-ex-wife to have a relationship in Second Life. He says she refused to talk about it, and if he asked questions, she’d just hop online and freeze him out.
“I thought she was going through a depression and she’d get bored and move on with life,” he says. “But she kept getting deeper and deeper.”
Within six months of signing up for Second Life, Max’s wife was spending up to eight hours a day online — and even more on the weekends. She and her in-world boyfriend were in constant contact — even when they weren’t in-world. Max says he found out later that his wife and her avatar boyfriend were having drinks together — in his house — via Web cam.
Max went on Google and started doing some detective work. To his amazement, he learned that his wife had married her in-world boyfriend in Second Life.
“I had my dad looking over my shoulder at the stuff I was finding,” he says. “Just so I could ask him ‘Am I crazy? Am I really seeing this?’”
Max ended up pulling the Internet connection out of the wall, and he says his wife started trashing the house. The end came, says Max, when she threw a punch.
“I’m 6 foot, 200 pounds,” he says. “When she took a swing, I said, ‘no, we’re not going past this point.’” The two are currently finalizing divorce proceedings.
Although Max’s wife did end up meeting her virtual boyfriend in the real world, that often isn’t the case with virtual relationships. Sarah had a plane ticket bought and plans to meet her virtual partner, Martin — but she canceled her trip.
“One day I had the realization that I didn’t really want that guy,” she says. “What I wanted was for my husband to treat me like that guy.”
Sarah and her husband split up, and have since divorced. But Sarah credits Second Life with showing her what she wanted from a partner — attention, affection and romance. She gets all that from her current real-life boyfriend — a guy Sarah says she’ll probably marry.
And even though Sarah’s boyfriend didn’t ask her to, she ended her Second Life relationship last year. As a result, she doesn’t go in-world that much anymore.
“I decided that I didn’t want to partition my love,” she says. “I just wanted to have one person to call ‘sweetheart.’”
Copying Music Legally
From now on, all music lovers will no longer have to worry about breaking the law whenever they fill their MP3 or make a mix CD to play in the car.
For ages it has been the case that any time a person made a copy of music (such as uploading music onto an MP3) it was technically against the law- an infringement of copyright.
Thankfully this has now changed as the industry agreed that a user should not be punished for changing the format of their music. So long as the user sticks to the rules (you are not allowed to give away or sell the copied material or the original and it must be for personal use only) you are no longer breaking the law. HURRAH!
For ages it has been the case that any time a person made a copy of music (such as uploading music onto an MP3) it was technically against the law- an infringement of copyright.
Thankfully this has now changed as the industry agreed that a user should not be punished for changing the format of their music. So long as the user sticks to the rules (you are not allowed to give away or sell the copied material or the original and it must be for personal use only) you are no longer breaking the law. HURRAH!
Wednesday, 6 February 2008
Iphone
In January 2007, Apple announced to the world the plans for their new product: The iphone.
By June 2007 the iphone (the internet-enabled multimedia mobile phone with multi-touch screen, virtual keyboard and buttons, built-in camera, portable media player, text messaging and visual voicemail, internet services such as email, web browsing and local wi-fi connectivity, has international capability AND supports the Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) data technology) was available in the states on the network AT&T and by November was available in the UK on the network provider O2.
"The layout of the music library differs from previous iPods, with the sections divided more clearly alphabetically, and with a larger font. Similar to previous iPods, the iPhone can sort its media library by songs, artists, albums, videos, playlists, genres, composers, podcasts, audiobooks, and compilations. Cover Flow, like that on iTunes, shows the different album covers in a scroll-through photo library. Scrolling is achieved by swiping a finger across the screen.
Like the fifth generation iPods introduced in 2005, the iPhone can play video, allowing users to watch TV shows and films. Unlike other image-related content, video on the iPhone plays only in the landscape orientation, when the phone is turned sideways. Double tapping switches between wide-screen and fullscreen video playback.
The iPhone allows users to purchase and download songs from the iTunes Store directly to their iPhone over Wi-Fi, but not over the cellular data network."
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