The Life of a DTC Student

Extra Extra

2010-04-23T08:51:00.000-07:00

While visiting the site syfy.com/caprican I read up on the most current news, sports, entertainment, and such. This site does in fact mimic an online newspaper. While reading the articles they describe what appears to be real life events, people, and companies. While reading the first article I'd encountered about recycling "graystone" computers I was questioning myself if this was real, but then I thought no...there's no graystone computer dealers, but the article is well written and convincing. The pictures which are posted with the articles seem to be actual photos of people and events. Overall, this site is written as if these different communities are present in real life. The readers seems to know what the heck is going on in these "communities" due to their comments left at the end of the articles. If I didn't know what the syfy channel was I would have assumed this was an online virtual community/gaming site. I liked the entertainment section where the users are discussing back and forth the mystery of the "The dead walker" which is a girl no one is able to kill off in New Cap City. Hmmm, maybe this is a game!

4/20 & 4/22 Presentations

2010-04-22T19:24:00.000-07:00

Mark M.~ Topic: Online enabled environment awareness and how cyberspace and online communities are two major tools that help the environment today. You have a good example with the iphone app icosnoop. I think this would be a suitable topic to describe where we are currently with technology, and how these sorts off apps help to raise more awareness because more people carry mobile technology where ever they go.

Sarah F.~ Argument: People portray themselves differently depending on which type of social network they interact in. Chatroulette vs. Facebook is a great example of how people may act differently when presented with a random/anonymous encounter(chatroulette)rather than interacting with an audience of 200+ people(facebook). The two are completely different social spaces and chatroulette provides more freedom to its users due to privacy.

Cassie L.~ Topic: Social network sites and the classroom. I liked your example of areallydifferentplace.com that a teacher created for her students to interact through blogging. I thought it might be interesting to research if there has been studies that prove your theory that blogging helps children develop better writing/typing skills.

Dena L.~ Topic: Social networking and limited privacy. You talked about how privacy regulation is hard to acquire on a global scale and many issues are occurring because there's hardly any laws to protect users. What really interested me the most was the cyberbullying, and why our youth is not protected. Maybe you can focus on why this is becoming a problem, and what will continue to happen if we don't take steps to do something about this issue now.

Michelle A.~ Topic: Interfaces help to create seamless transition from real to virtual and soon they will appear blended. You had some excellent examples of how computers are becoming more and more humanized and I liked your example of business's interacting in secondlife and how people are comfortable in a 3-D environment because it is a repeat of what we see in real life. Last semester I met for a conference in secondlife on the WSU campus in Pullman! I can see this becoming more and more popular in the future.

Brittany B.~ Topic: Mobile location based marketing/advertising. I liked your subject of location based games/Apps and how people are less concerned with privacy. I also like how added in the con of this with your example of the site pleaserobme.com, where people are against Apps like this because your location is always known and you become vulnerable to criminals.

Mark B.~ Topic: World of War Craft and how changes to the game force users to rely on other web sources to learn the game. I think you provided good examples of the need for social interaction in gaming in order to grow and learn from each other. Removing challenges reduces the need and ability to learn which has always been needed in gaming.

Kristopher M.~ Topic: Even if everyone gets online there will still be a divide. I liked the subject of fragmented identities and how people will still be out casted based on their technological tool. Made me think of cheap vs. trendy cellphones and depending on what you have still determines your wealth/status within a community. I liked your example of access to different information based on your location, such as the monitoring of Internet in China and the limited amount of information they are able to view.

4/15 Presentations

2010-04-15T17:12:00.000-07:00

Katie S.~ Topic is a proposal to bridge knowledge and access divide in low income schools. I think you hit all the major points in your proposal. You were very professional in providing a step by step strategy of informing the entire community first, then utilizing tools available such as the tech classes available online for teachers. Before and after charts are a way to provide proof to your findings, as well.

Beau Y.~ Topic is...technology feeds off of the gaming community. Your examples were great in that you compared the military video with traditional joystick and monitor gaming. They are both using the same type of tools, but ones for work and ones for play. I liked your point that the same developers for games probably developed the program to operate the Da vinci machines for doctors(creepy by the way).

James C.~ Topic is...gaming and how it influences a new type of learning in the brain. This is the topic I took away from the presentation. I like your example of mental maps, and how its starts out being 2-D but once you learn the game your mind creates a 3-D map. Your on to something with this example.

Hans W.~ Topic is..social bridging: bridging the chasm. I like your idea and what I took away from it is...virtual communities help teach people whom may have limited knowledge and/or access to the Internet, some of the fundamental tools that are needed to operate, communicate, and gather information on the web.

Spencer T.~ Topic is..do games generate better soldiers? I liked your example of how games appear so realistic that they entice people to join the military, and how games represent a false image of actual combat. Games can't replicate the RL war experience because like you said the use of all your senses and adrenaline is not present. Good topic.

4/8 Presentations

2010-04-11T21:23:00.000-07:00

Lorena S.~ Topic is censorship in China. I like how you identified the 3 types of censorship in China: governmental, private, and self-censorship, and how self-censorship is the highest practiced, because people do not want to get in trouble by the government. With 40,000 Internet police monitoring the Internet(excellent example)I would watch what I say and do too.

Sheila N.~ Topic is traditional gender roles in "meatspace" and how they carry over into social networking. I liked your example of Club Penguin and how it is suppose to be a genderless site but people are finding ways to enforce gender norms in this space by the words in which they communicate with each other. This site is a great example of how people feel the need to establish a gender identity in a genderless space.

Maurice S.~ Topic is cellphones and how they are changing how agriculture is done in rural America. First I want to say it all clicked when I got home and caught the news and the weather man described an App that gives you up-to-date weather forecasts and alerts that can be sent to your phone. This is a great tool for farmers "anywhere" to get accurate and up-to-date weather info.

Corrinda L.~ Topic is education through gaming. You are accurate in your point that we need to match learning with technology, and that children can in fact learn in a fun way. Good example of a site fungame.com and your discussion of memory games.

Kat C.~ Topic is Internet and is it changing politics? The Obama campaign is a great example of how the Internet is changing politics. I came across an article about this and it talks about how the Internet reaches far more people and delivers far more info than traditional campaigns, which costs billions of dollars for commercials and travel costs. Using info on how Obama's campaign manager utilized the Internet to campaign is a great example of how the Internet is changing politics.

Privacy vs Security

2010-04-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

Holcomb, Bakerlaar, and Zizzamia's essay The Internet in the Aftermath of the World Trade Center Attack addresses the issue of security vs. privacy, and how the use of the web for information and communication can be beneficial in many ways, but it also can be used as a tool for hackers, scammers, and terrorists.

This essay talks about the tragedy of 9/11 and how the Internet was finally able to do what it was invented to do in the 1960's, which was to communicate fast and effectively to government officials across the country, during a national emergency. During 9/11 people were able to communicate via Internet and cellphones to inquire about a missing loved one, or victims were able to let loved ones know they were alive, and sadly some to say one last good-bye. This reminds me of the recent Haiti disaster and how the parents of a college student was on a trip to Haiti with her class. The student was able to notify them by e-mail, and though her parents did not speak to her they were comforted to know she was alive, rather than waiting by the phone or to be notified.

Following 9/11 new websites specifically for donations sprung up everywhere. Sites such as Red Cross raised the funds needed for the 9/11 relief within 2 months. The same occurred with the recent Haiti crisis. We now have ways to donate money by simply texting the number for "Help Haiti". On the other hand, hackers and scammers are using these disasters to try to make a buck, by putting up false donation sites, as well as, text scams to lure victims in.

The issue of privacy vs. security is a tricky topic because we all want access to information. If we are not careful we can be taken advantage of or our information provided over the web can be used against us. In an age where we carry mobile devices that can reveal our location, which can be very helpful for navigation. This same technology unfortunately can be easy used in the future by terrorists to correlate another attack. It's becoming increasingly harder and harder to protect our individual privacy, as well as, our national security.

Far Right

2010-04-01T12:44:00.000-07:00

While watching T.V. a few days ago I saw a news report about the arrests of members from a militia group in Michigan. This militia group, also known as a right-wing extremist group, or anti-government group, caused concern because of suspicious military training videos and posts on their website hutaree.com. Allegedly, this group which call themselves CCR (colonial Cristian republic) was planning to attach and kill police officers, and set off bombs at their funerals in order to kill more police.

According to latimes.com (Los Angeles Times)the FBI has been monitoring this groups website for sometime, as the militia hardly kept their online activities a secret. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit from Alabama that tracks extremists online explains that the major cause for the recent explosion of new extremist groups and activism across the nation, is due to economic downturn and the election of the first black president.

There is a lot more information online about this topic than what I saw on the 30 second news flash on T.V. I was able to find out the name of the website via Internet and explore it myself. I personally think the cause for concern was the post on their site, which read "Training April 24 contact headquarters immediately" that concerned officials. Needless to say, the recent explosion of new extremist groups may be due to the economy and/or Obama, but these groups are able to flourish faster than previous times, because of new media technology, which allows their efforts and beliefs to reach more people.

2010-03-26T16:41:00.001-07:00

After reading Julie's comment I decided to write my paper on the topic of privacy and social networks, in particular privacy and Facebook and how they are screwing up.

First I will address the history of Facebook and their initial views on privacy settings. Second I will address the climb in the popularity of the site and how it has the highest membership of all social networks. Thirdly I will discuss Facebook privacy and how often privacy setting are utilized by users, as well, as statistics on users knowledge about privacy settings. Fourthly, I will discuss how the founder of Facebook is now completely changing his views about privacy, now that Facebook is the number one social network. Fifthly, I will discuss the new changes on Facebook, in regards to privacy settings and how users information is becoming public on search engines, as well as, how third parties are collecting information from friends lists and also Apps. Lastly, I will discuss how Facebook's idea of a privacy free society, is far from realistic and give examples of why users need to protect their privacy for such reasons as future employment and reputation.

The sources I will be using so far are...www.fredstutzman.com/papers/ICWSM2010R_Stutzman.pdf, www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebooks_zuckerberg_says_the_age_of_privacy_is_ov.php, www.firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewarticle/2775/2432#p2, www.jiad.org/article130, and www.facebook.com.

Ideas For Final Project

2010-03-22T13:58:00.000-07:00

I'm interested in doing my final project on "cultural patterns and the digital world". I recently blogged about an article I came across on analyzing cultural patterns. The response posts were interesting as people were concerned about being tracked, as well as, invasion of personal privacy. I want to look further into this subject to see if we have something to be concerned about. If new software allows analysis of cultural patterns on the web, do we need to worry about being "personally watched" or the possibility of our actions on the web coming back to haunt us? Or will tracking user activity for the purpose of analyzing cultural patterns be safe and anonymous? Any feedback or suggestions?

Dibbell's-N-Bits

2010-02-26T15:27:00.000-08:00

Dibbell's "A Rape in Cyberspace" is an event that took place before times of virtual community rules & regulations. Mr. Bungle, a virtual character in the community LambdaMOO, performed virtual rape on two voo-doo dolls that resembled two other virtual characters named Exu and Moondreamer. The two characters were emotionally victimized by this event, and sought justice against Mr. Bungle. Mr. Bungle was deleted from this community, but created a new account and came back as Dr. Jest. Deleting Mr. Bungle did not solve the problem what-so-ever. Dibbell discovered some time later that Mr. Bungle was operated by an entire floor of a dorm at NYU, and that only one person came back as Dr. Jest.

I have never been the target of virtual rape, but I have been the target of virtual stalking. During my first semester in Pullman I had accepted a friend on Myspace. His name was Brian So-And-So, and he was from Yakima, and my ignorant thinking was well I don't know this guy and he lives far from me. Brian began IM me via Myspace and I discovered he lived in Pullman. To make a long story short he started being an ass one day and I told him I would take him off my Myspace. That's when things got scary...he told me my address, what car I drove, and where I pick up my daughter. The final thing he said was...don't delete me...by the way your daughter is really cute...do you really want a F-ing enemy? I blocked this guy, and contacted WSU campus police. The detective told me that I was being threatened, and this act was considered harassment. I told the detective everything I knew about the guy, and printed off my history of our conversations as evidence. The detective informed me that there was no Brian So-And-So from Yakima, and didn't live in the dorm like he'd claimed. I was told to delete my profile, and to contact the detective if I noticed anyone following me or lurking around. They never discovered this guy/girls identity.

Describing this event is making me cry, because I can remember feeling so helpless and unsafe. I missed school for three weeks, and had severe anxiety whenever I'd leave my house. I began sleeping on my couch, because I was afraid I would not hear someone breaking in if I was asleep in my room. I had to inform my daughters daycare of the threat against her. Needless to say what happens in a virtual environment can indeed carry over and have a negative emotional effect on your RL.

Analyzing Cultural Patterns

2010-02-18T23:48:00.000-08:00

http://lab.softwarestudies.com/2008/09/cultural-analytics.html

At the above website I came across an interesting article titled "Cultural-Analytics: Visualizing Cultural Patterns in the Era of "More Media." by Lev Manovich, a visual arts professor at the University of California. Manovich and his team developed the Software Studies Initiative to better analyze digital cultural patterns. In 2008, Manovich received a grant from the US National Endowment for the Humanities/Digital Humanities office, which helped get 300,000 hours of computing time on the Department of Energy supercomputers. Manovich and his team are working towards developing visual systems that can follow real-time cultural flow, and can constantly update data from the web in real-time. The need for this software is due to the effects of cultural and digital globalization. Its become impossible to keep track of "global digital cultures" when there are millions of contributors, and billions of cultural objects.

Millions of people are able to create new media everyday due to sites like Youtube.com and Flickr. People are creating and sharing cultural content, such as, comments, photos, blogs, videos, etc. I think its brilliant that Manovich wants to development software that can use the mass amounts of "born-digital" cultural content to gather information and track global cultures, as the previous tools for collecting cultural data do not apply to the "digital world".

Chapter 5 Passage

2010-02-18T17:45:00.000-08:00

On pg. 181 in Chapter 5 of Digitizing Race Nakamura discusses a passage by John Perry Barlow, called "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace". This passage discusses cyberspace as being a virtual place where anyone can go, regardless of race, and where one is free to share ideas and/or beliefs without fear. Nakamura gives credit to Barlow, in that he addresses race as a problem of access, but this hope for cyberspace is far from reality.

In the introduction of this book, Nakamura states that cyberspace is anything but a place where gender, race, and ethnicity are considered equal(pg. 34)but rather a place where all of these subjects are amplified. Today, many websites are created to bond a certain race or gender. For example, sites such as ivillage.com are communities for women, which leaves out the other large portion of the population...men.

You Can Not See...It's Beneath The Surface

2010-02-12T16:25:00.000-08:00

Nakamura describes a part of the movie in Minority Report(pg. 118), where John Anderton, who is played by Tom Cruise, has his eyes replaced so that digital devices cannot trace his identity. Andertons' eyes are replaced with Asian eyes, but he is not aware of this until shopping in Gap, and he is addressed as Mr. Yakamoto, after having his eyes scanned. This part of the movie is compelling to me, because it diminishes certain stereotypes people may have about race, in regards to the way they "think" Asian eyes "should" look or that a "white" man cannot possibly be Asian. When Anderton is walking out of the store saying to himself Mr. Yakamoto?, it is kind of comical, because he may not get caught by having his eyes scanned, but you know he's thinking the last name is a dead give away in society. It's interesting how when it comes to organ replacement, people don't generally think about race, or at least I've never heard about it. Or maybe if organ replacement is necessary for ones survival, people stop being so ignorant, and realize that we are all created the same, but each have unique features.

This topic made me think of a movie I recently watched named Surrogates. In the movie, Bruce Willis is searching for the person causing "real-life" people to die while operating their "surrogate" robots. Mind you these people stay in their houses while controlling these robots, which are out working and roaming the real world. People who live on the outskirts of town, are considered "outsiders", because they do not want to partake in the new society of surrogate robots. The leader of the "outsiders" is a powerful, big, mean looking, African-American man. However, we figure out the leader ends up being a robot, and is run by an old "white" skinny man, who first created surrogates.

This movie ties in with the other, in that people have preconceived ideas about who people are based on race alone. In the first movie there is a white man who could not possibly be Asian, because of his features?! In the second movie there is a black man who could not possibly be a scrawny old "white "man underneath, because he appears so powerful?!? Maybe this is why there is so much fascination with avatars in the virtual world, as people are not judged on their RL appearance.

It's All About Balance

2010-02-05T15:18:00.000-08:00

Always-On/Always-On-You: The Tethered Self

By Sherry Turkle

http://web.mit.edu/sturkle/www/pdfsforstwebpage/ST_Always%20On.pdf

I found an interesting chapter by Sherry Turkle that addresses technology, and how cell-phones are always turned on, and carried with you, meaning you are able to contact or be contacted by people anytime, and at any location. Turkle goes on to describe a trip she took to Paris with her daughter, and how her daughter was constantly texting friends, and describing her experiences while they were there. Turkle worried that her daughter was missing the RL experience of Paris, due to the constant need to feel connected with her friends via technology. Turkle felt as if her daughter never left home...mentally.

For the younger generations the switch from physical to virtual world is done with ease. Older generations may feel pressured by newer technology and societies expectations to be "Always-On" and "Always-On-You", as this can feel like a burden. However, new technology, such as, cell-phones with cameras, Internet, and built in daily planners are somewhat seductive to the majority of the population, as you can do more, and be at more places at once. Turkle is concerned about the fact that technology goes with us everywhere, and this may be taking away from traditional rituals of separation, and a person's need for "down-time". I can see the concern, because as a society we are multi-tasking in ways that previous generations have never been able to. The fact that we can talk to anyone, anywhere, at any given moment and vice-versa, can take away from the separation, and down-time that every human needs. I suppose it's up to the user to acknowledge the need for personal down-time, and simply silence the phone(not just to sleep), and leave it behind once in awhile. Not only do our bodies deserve a break, but our brains deserve one too. Just something to think about...but not too hard :)

Virtual Dating

2010-01-29T12:27:00.000-08:00

I found the topic of discussion quit interesting on pages 257 & 258. Bell discusses different opinions on intimacy and virtual relationships. Bells talks about Bauman's theory on how relationships formed on virtual sites are simply "bonds without consequences". Bell also addressed Gibbens' theory of the "pure relationship", meaning people are able to test out a romantic relationship(virtually)without feeling pressured to stay in the relationship if it's unsatisfying.

A few years ago online dating was viewed as a place for desperate people to go, and was compared to the men seeking/women seeking columns in newspapers. People were once afraid to use online dating sites, as a tool to meet potential partners. Today, we turn on our TV's and see ads like Harmony.com, and hear of many people meeting their boyfriend/girlfriend through sites like these. Also, there are couples who have met by interacting in gaming communities, such as secondlife.com.

Society does not view dating websites as negatively, as it once did. I disagree with Bauman's theory of relationships that form on virtual sites are simply "bonds without consequences" or are "short-lived". New technology provides a tool for people to interact and form relationships in ways we were not able to in the past. I personally know a few people who currently have a boyfriend/girlfriend they met online and plan to move closer to each other when the time is right. I think this type of dating is becoming more common, because people feel they are more able to take thing slow, and really get to know a person before rushing into a committed relationship, which is much more common in the physical world.

Virtual Communities...What is the Definition?

2010-01-20T21:56:00.000-08:00

I participate in the virtual community Facebook.com. I primarily use this site to interact with my friends and family, and to keep them up to date on my mood or things that are going on in my life(sometimes), and they do the same.

I feel this site is a virtual community in some aspects, but also a technological tool I use to communicate with people who live within my community. The virtual community aspect is that I am able to communicate with several people I have never met, and Facebook allows me to form these friendships, which I cannot experience in "real" life. Facebook is also a technological tool I use to interact with people within my "real" life community, such as setting up study dates and times with fellow peers.

Wilson describes the virtual world as a place where one can have separateness and togetherness at the same time. People can live in separate cities, and never meet in "real" life, yet still be able to have meaningful relationships within a virtual community. A virtual community to me is bonds that are formed online that cannot take place in the "real" world.

Here is my example of the commonalities of a "real" and "virtual" community...

I live in Richland, which is a community, but that does not mean I share common interests and values with everyone in this community. I only interact and share my interests with a very small portion of this community. I think the same thing applies to the virtual community. I had to learn how to operate within a virtual community, just like I had to learn my way around Richland. That doesn't mean I will interact with everyone within the virtual community, only a very small portion. To be a member of a community that's "real" or "virtual" you need to know how to function within one or you will not be able to meet and interact with people. This is why there are many different virtual communities, as people have different interests and needs. People do not want to be members of virtual communities, which they have no interest or sense of belonging.

DTC 475 "Cyberspace: First Steps"

2010-01-15T14:14:00.000-08:00

I found that #5 in Michael Benedikts' ten different descriptions of Cyberspace most closely matches my own thoughts, in regards to cyberspace.

Cyberspace: Its corridors form wherever electricity runs with intelligence. Its chambers bloom wherever data gathers and is stored. Its depths increase with every image or word or number, with every addition, every contribution, of fact or thought. Its horizons recede in every direction; it breathes larger, it complexities, it embraces and involves. Billowing, glittering, humming, coursing, a Boresian library, a city; intimate, immense, firm, liquid, recognizable and unrecognizable at once.

The interesting thing is Benedikt wrote this essay before we had Internet, and the web. Cyberspace does indeed form wherever electricity runs with intelligence, as we see today via laptops and IPhones. The world-wide-web is an ever expanding data base of knowledge and thought, which continuously changes and updates. What one may see as recognizable today in cyberspace will become unrecognizable in the future, due to new technology and information. Cyberspace will continue to expand and change just as our cities have over time.

DTC 475-Introduction

2010-01-15T13:46:00.000-08:00

Hey Everybody,

I made it! This was not as complicated as I imagined it would be. Well...my name is Saundra and I'm a student at WSU. I look forward to learning how to be a professional blogger! :)