ESSAY CONCLUSION; feels so good to finish

well I just finished my essay and hopefully I sent it the right way.


It was hard coming to a conclusion on the question I chose. As I learn about the morals and ethics of Journalism I can see why so many people are against citizen Journalism.
But in the sense that without them a lot of the information journalist use to create a story would be missing and an important part of the story lost.
I eventually came to the conclusion that having citizens around to take photo's, record and give great detail about events, I wouldn't call them journalists.
I tried to think of a way to explain the relationship of Journalists and citizen journalist and as I love shopping, this way made it more clear for me.
A Professional Journalist is like a really stylish girl, she knows whats in, she knows what colours, what brands and how to wear it. The citizen Journalist is the shirt she wears, yes it is very helpful and essential to what she is wearing as a whole, but it is not the shirt that makes the outfit, it is the girl (the professional journalist) who styled it in a way that no one else could with out her talent.
I hope that also helped you understand via my perspective.

ESSAY RESEARCH

As I hope to become a journalist one day, I decided it would be terrible of me if I didnt chose the essay question about journalism.
I have been reading a fair few articles online about what people think. Is Citizin Journalism Good? or bad? or somewhere in between.
I found out some history about citizin journalist's which was actually pretty interesting.
The footage of American President JFK was actually filmed on a home movie camera; a citizen journalist.
Also alot of the footage and eye witness accounts from 9/11 were all from citizens.
I'm starting to get a better perspective about what I think about it all.

Goodbye NCT!

I have enjoyed using this blog as a work book to compete tasks. Grasping the idea of using a blog was much simpler than I originally expected which has been great.
I look forward to creating my own blog to help me express idea's etc.
I have learnt a lot about how the internet came about and how it has been adapted over time.
Creative Commons was a concept I never even knew existed and now I am open to much more free software and will be able to save myself some dollars.
Facebook's privacy was another thing I had no idea about and I can safely say that although I couldn't bring myself to delete my Facebook (although its not even possible to delete Facebook as you can only temporarily de-activate it) I have taken down most of my photo's, video, poems and personal details.

MY LIFE; AND THE MEDIA IN IT

This is a List of all the media and"messages" I receive and use on a typical day.


IPHONE
COMPUTER
TELEVISION & MOVIES
COFFEE - ZARAAFFA'S BRANDING
FACEBOOK
HOTMAIL AND EMAILS I RECEIVE
GOOGLE
WII CONSOLE
GAMES - SCRABBLE
CLOTHING(SHOES, GLASSES, SUNGLASSES ETC)
VEHICLE
NEWSPAPER
ONLINE NEWS
CATALOGUE
SURFBOARDS (STICKERS ALL OVER THEM GENERALLY)
BUSUS
BILLBOARDS
COSMETICS & OTHER BEUATY PRODUCTS
ONLINE SHOPPING SITES
TELEVISION
NEWSPAPERS
FOOD & ITS PACKAGING
BOTTLES WATER
HEADPHONES
BOOKS
COFFEE CUPS
INTERNET BANKING
PHONE CALLS & TXT MSG'S
STREET SIGNS
TRAFFIC LIGHTS
ELECTRONIC SIGNS ON ROADS




after I started making this list it actually shocked me just how many there were and i'm sure that I missed a lot more than I have listed. This list intrigued me so I did some extra research in a marketing book I had a home and it told me that everyday I would wake up to read 3000 messages a day, that is remarkable.
It has actually inspired me to go camping, "survivor style" and see how long I can last without all this technology etc. I wonder how it will go....

RESPONSE TO JASONS ARTWORKS

Jason's artwork was unlike anything I have ever seen before. I have seen poetry and art but not in its digital form.

From jason's collection I specifically liked;

" I made this, you played this, we are enemies"

" stunningly harmful songs"

"game game game and again game"

I found that Jason's art take's the viewer "into" the art in the way that he has made it interactive. I also really enjoyed the noises it makes, no art I have ever seen in a gallery does what jason's art does, it really speaks to you.

There really are no limits with digital art. The canvas in multi-dimensial unlike a canvas. what you see isn't always what you get because the art has levels and can go deeper.

POLITICS & THE INTERNET

1.    SIGN AN E-PETITION:

E-petitions are petitions formed electronically and they help to make a formal request to the parliament. The Queensland Government introduced the use of them for their use in 2002.

I was able to sign the E-petition for creating harsher laws for cruelty to animals.

Found on the website below:

https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/view/Epetitions_qld/confirmation.aspx?PetNum=1600&IIndex=-1

2.RESPOND TO A PROFESSIONAL BLOGGER AT A MAJOR NEWS SITE:

E-petitions are petitions formed electronically and they help to make a formal request to the parliament. The Queensland Government introduced the use of them for their use in 2002.

I was able to sign the E-petition for creating harsher laws for cruelty to animals.

Found on the website below:

https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/view/Epetitions_qld/confirmation.aspx?PetNum=1600&IIndex=-1

2.RESPOND TO A PROFESSIONAL BLOGGER AT A MAJOR NEWS SITE:

I responded to a news blog about the wiki leaks scandal by Simon Jeffery at The Guardian News Site.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/28/wikileaks-latest-developments

3.WHAT IS BARAK OBAMA UP TO TODAY?

I found a blog that keeps up to date with everything Obama is doing. Today he is at the white house with his staff addressing the issue in Egypt.

http://ochairball.blogspot.com/

4 & 5.WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOUR LOCAL MEMBER FOR PARLIAMENT GAVE A SPEECH? CAN YOU TELL HIM WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THE SPEECH?

Raymond (Ray) stevens is the local MP for Mermaid Beach. Ray is also the Shadow Minister for tourism and Fair trading.

The last time he gave a speech was on 10.6.10

His website (http://mermaidray.com.au/databasephp/DisplayPage.php?s_Title=HomePage) allows users to contact Ray via a message which he will respond, this is a great way to let Ray know what you thought about his speech.

He can also be contacted via email on mermaid.beach@parliament.qld.gov.au or you can give him a more direct response to his speech by phoning his office on (07) 5592 0071.

POLITICS READING / LECTURE

Today we learnt about the idea the government has to filter the Internet to provide us with a “cleaner” space.

This will supposedly protect children’s eyes from sites containing indecent material such as pornography.

In class we discussed that if this was introduced, where would it end? What would the government “decide” was not good enough to be seen? Who is to judge for us and decide what we think is viewable or not?

One dangerous aspect of censoring the internet

The introduction of a filtering program would not only filter the Internet, but our right to freedom of speech.

Filtering would was be of great advantage to them, and I’m sure they will exploit this. They will have the power to chose not to disclose important facts and figures about things found out about the government (EG: wiki leaks, never would have happened.)

I do not agree with the governments plan at all, people rely on the Internet for many reasons; storage, research, information, socializing etc. Filtering this will imply great limitations as to what is accessible. 

ONLINE GAMING WORLDS

Todays lecture was interesting because I have just started getting into "gaming". I have never been a big fan of any gaming consoles, online games or anything like this. However I recently bought a Wii and have been playing Super Mario, one of the characters is kidnapped and it is my job to complete the levels, fight the enemies and save her.

I have also been playing the pc game, The Sims, which requires me to create my own world with people and their interactions with each other.

The video at the end of the lecture raised some interesting ideas about just how much digital gaming has become a part of our society.

After researching gaming I came across the ideas of Narratology and Ludology.

Narratology is the study of the story of a game, compared to Ludology (from ludus, the Latin word for "game"), which is the approach that studies game and play activities.

The two need to be connected to that it is not one vs. the other, together the user can have story element mixed with the game play element.

Ludology has created a set of rules for game play; sometimes rules can be interpreted by different companies or organizations to implement the rules of the game, with the chosen narrative. EG; FIFA for soccer.

The above table shows the basic structure of Ludology game play.

A WORLD WITH NO GOOGLE

 1.What is the weight of the world’s biggest machine? How much did it cost to build?


The worlds biggest machine is the Krupp digging machine which was built for mining.

After taking 5 years to design and manufacture it came to a cost of $100 million.

It weighs 45,500 tons.

 2.Find a live webcam in Antarctica. Can you find a place to stay in Antarctica?

A live webcam in Antarctica is The McMurdo Station Webcam, this is found at the main U.S. station in Antarctica on the volcanic hills at the southern tip of Ross Island.

There are no hotels in Antarctica so boats are the only option for tourists.


3. When and what was the first example of global digital communication?  


The first example of Global digital communication was in 1960, this was the telegraph.


4. What is the cheapest form of travel from the Gold Coast to Melbourne?  



A plane ticket can be purchased for $46.34 via tiger airways for a limited time. (5th  of Feb –  26^th of March)

5. Who is Douglas Engelbart? What is he know for?  


 Douglas Englebart is a computer pioneer from the early days of the computer borm in 1925. He is known for inventing the computer mouse


6. What is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact Stephen Conroy?  (who is this guy?)



Stephan Conroy is a government minister responsible for broadband, communications and the digital economy.

He can be contacted through the parliamentary office on 02 6277 7480 or through the ministerial office on 0396501188

7. What song was top of the Australian pop charts this week in 1990?

Love Shack by the B52s

8. How would you define the term 'ontology'? In your own words, what does it really mean?

Ontolgy is a term used to describe various dimensions of concepts and ideas.



9. What type of camera is used to make ‘Google Street View’?


Immersive Media Camera’s (IMC’s), this camera gives a 360 Degree view making it perfect in capturing everything for google street view.


10. Name three computer operating systems (not for phones) that are NOT Apple OS or MS-Windows operating systems?
   a)  who created it and when?  b)  how can you get a copy of the operating system to use on your computer?

SCO was created by SCO in the year 1983, it can be downloaded from their website.

Sun Solaris 7 was created by Sun in 1998, this can also be downloaded from their website.

AIX/AIXL (Advanced Interactive executive with Linux) was created by IBM in 1990, this can also be downloaded directly from their webpage.

REFRENCES:

1.      http://www.worldsbiggests.com/2010/05/world-biggest-diggin-machine-by-krupp.html

2.      http://usap.gov/videoclipsandmaps/mcmwebcam.cfm

3.      http://antarctica.ac.uk/employment/locations/living_in_antarctictica.php

4.      http://www.tigerairways.com/au/en/real_deals.php

5.      http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/englebart.html

6.      http://minister.dbcde.gov.au/contact


7. http://today.ninemsn.com.au/travelandlifestyle/1014383/hits-from-1990

8.     http://protégé.stanford.edu/publications/ontology_development/ontology101-noy-mcguinness.html

9.      http://www.physorg.com/news123336524.html

10.   http://www.computerhope.com/os.html

FREE FOR ALL; Free Software alternatives

When the Internet first came about there was a group of “computer nerds” that shared all their information so they could all learn and swap software free of charge.

Today, companies such as windows and apple charge everyone for everything and the concept of “sharing” you would think had been forgotten.

The creative commons movement has created a community that allows for the old way of thinking, to share.

The creative commons has become a worldwide revolution, their website encourages people to see Free Software as a matter of liberty, not price.

To make this more understandable they have suggested that users think of the software as Free Speech, rather than free beer.

When you purchase software from companies such as windows and Apple the source code’s are hidden, stopping users from trying to change and edit the software.

All CC software allows for users to further alter the software, it also allows for users to distribute the software.

Infact, CC encourages people to help their neighbor and provide them with the free software, as they are a not-for-profit company.

Let’s hope that CC doesn’t go the way of Bill gates and that Freedom of software stays open

PUTTING FREE SOFTWARE TO USE!

Making use of the great software provided free on the Internet I created a 2minute still-image video showing the events of my day at a Festival in Brisbane last year.

The photo’s show from the morning of the festival, getting ready, making breakfast, pre-drinks, then the stage’s and shots of my friends followed by the final shot of us the next day trying to deal with the end result of the day; a big hangover.

The music playing is called Paris by Friendly Fired, the band played on the day and I was able to download it Free of Charge on A CC licensed website called CCMixter.
I uploaded my video to you tube to make it easier to upload straight to this blog.

MY SPACE OR THEIR SPACE?

After discovering the scary facts about the real levels of Privacy of Facebook, especially after people consider it MORE private then other networking site’s has prompted me to look in MySpace and compare the two’s terms and conditions.

The first thing I discovered was the MySpace allows any content deemed offensive to be blocked with the click of a button.

The Button which is placed under all photo’s video’s and comments says “report Offensive Content” which notifies MySpace immediately.

I also found that MySpace has the right to take legal action for offending content, such as racism, nudity or for collecting private information, video or photo’s of other users without their permission.

MySpace does state in their Terms of Service that they can use or edit your content, however I found that the difference between Facebook and MySpace is that MySpace grants itself a limited license to your content and in its terms and Conditions carefully states out what those limits are, where as Facebook simply grants itself access to ALL user content and tries to hide this fact.

MySpace does not claim any ownership to owners photo’s, video’s or anything else that is posted through the MySpace service but it does have the right to modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, reproduce and distribute the content on the MySpace Site.

If the user sets their profile to private they do however have more control over the content and MySpace has no right to distribute any such material.

FACEBOOK'S TERMS OF SERVICE: Have YOU read them lately?

Todays lecture went over the terms and Conditions of many social networking sites.

After going through the reading by Amanda Finch I realized that through Facebook I was not only giving out my personal information for the world to see, but I was giving them everything I posted onto the site.

Things like my photos, my video’s, my blog and other comments were all up for the taking if I had posted even a link of them onto Facebook.

Facebook’s terms of service allow them to have all the rights to everything put onto the site, even after you have taken it down.

I have previously tried to delete my Facebook, and it is just not possible, a Facebook cannot be shut down it can only be momentarily de-activated.

In the few weeks I had it de-activated I would still receive emails and notifications when parties were on etc.

Through Amanda Finch’s Blog I also found that by having a “share on Facebook” link on any webpage enables Facebook to do whatever it wishes with the content.

In reading this I immediately removed these links form my own blog.

The story about the teenage boy Killing himself over the Video his roommate filmed of him was horrifying.
The social network site Twitter enabled the room mate to post about his live video attracting even more attention from who ever wanted to watch.

This never should have been able to be streamed.

WHO IS WHO ON THE INTERNET?

Today we discussed the idea of the virtual community.

“..when people carry on public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships…”

 (H. Rheingold, 1993, The Virtual Community)

A virtual community is the online network of people who don’t necessarily know each other but all have a common interest.

We also discussed Individual Identity on the Internet, How a person portrays himself or herself on the Internet is how they create their own “identity”.

People have the chance to create themselves, they can go to any extend to lie or twist the truth in order to appear to others in their virtual community that they are someone they really are not.

The above image from the lecture shows a dog pretending to be something he is not, In reality; this happens everyday in virtual communities.

I’m not saying that dog’s are getting on their owners computers and making Facebook profiles.

People are creating Profile’s with fake pictures or enhanced pictures of themselves and inventing a “new” self online by lying about their interests, hobbies, employment etc.

In this sense they are creating an extension of themselves and their real personality through virtual communities.

Myspace put on Notice

MySpace was the most popular social network in the U.S in 2006. In 2010 owner, news corp, put it on notice, The company said the losses from the site were not sustainable.

MySpace was popular for its customizable profile pages which at first was a great novelty for users, however as time went on, constantly finding HTML codes that did not contain advertising material or virus proved to be both annoying and time consuming.

Since Facebook took over MySpace in 2008, the site has tried to focus more on Music and fan sites, they are even calling themselves an entertainment network instead of a social network.

Through my research and through a survey I conducted with friends who had both of the social networking sites, I found the top five reasons that Facebook has overtaken MySpace.

1.     MySpace layout is confusing and filled with viruses. Facebook offers a clean, neat and simple page.

2.     Facebook has better privacy, anybody can see your picture in a search on MySpace, however a full name has to be searched in order to “add” someone.

3.     Facebook has a great Instant Messenger system. The chat on Facebook allows users to chat online, MySpace did have a version of this but it wasn’t created till later and no body caught on.

4.   . Myspace became a minefield for advertisements. Facebook has simple small icons on the right hand side for a few advertisements. MySpace has big advertisements all over the place and even embedded into users profiles.

5.     Facebook provided much more entertainment than MySpace. Games such as Farmville are very popular with users. Although MySpace does have music and other games, they are not nearly as popular as Facebook’s games.

Information for this blog entry was found at:

http://techcrunch.com/2008/06/12/facebook-no-longer-the-second-largest-social-network/

http://mashable.com/2007/06/10/facebook-hammers-myspace-on-almost-all-key-features/

http://techshrimp.com/2010/11/18/myspace-announces-mashup-with-facebook/

Video: History of Internet

This is a video telling the history of the Internet. How it began, and how it got to where it is today.
I chose this video because it represents the vivid changes over the past 40 years and relates to my previous blog about the need to preserve the Internet sites of the past, even if they have become a ghost town.

Preserving The History of the Internet

In a world where everyday roughly 175 million people get online to check their Facebook, it makes you think; what would happen if Facebook disappeared?

This is what happened to Geocities, the original social site created in 1995 which allowed users to create their own website, free of charge.

On October 26, 2009, Yahoo closed Geocities for good.

Geocities pages are now gone, if it wasn’t for the few people who archived the site, the community of Geocities would have been lost forever.

The site may not have been making much revenue and its users may have dropped considerably but should it have been closed, for no one to see again?

The site is a part of Internet history, in years to come we will have no collections of what the Internet was in the early years, if we don’t preserve it.

In the reading by Phoebe Connolly, it states that Geocities may not be an example of the best the web could be, but it is an example of what the web was.

“There is a very real chance of this digital culture just disappearing from our lives.”

I had never really thought about preserving the Internet, I thought that everything on the World Wide Web stayed there, I was wrong.

Generations to come have to know what the Internet was like in the past, in order to fully appreciate the technology of the present.

FACEBOOK IN REAL LIFE

This video is acted out as a parody of how facebook would be played out if it happened in real life.
The "jokes" and Exaggeration of truth's seen all over facebook are brought up in this satire.
The idea of being "friends" with hundreds, sometimes thoesands of people is of course not a count of real friends, people you once knew or even people you once said hello.
Many of the people on facebook do not infact know each other at all, or like in this video, they perhaps went to school together 10 or 20 years ago, were not friends then and are not friends now.
Having a facebook page, I have witnessed first hand  having people from my highschool who I hardly spoke two words too want to be my "friend".
I chose this video because although facebook is the most popular form of social media, it has also become a very large extension of the real life we lead (in relation to our hobbies, interest's etc) and an exaggeration of the number of friends we really have.
facebook life, is not real life.

NOSTALGIA OF GEOCITIES

This video is about the nostalgia created by geocities. A man relates losing geocities to losing a piece of his highschool memories. He re-counts what geocities meant to him growing up in his own personal tribute to his first online opportunity to put what ever he wanted out there.
I selected this video because I feel it shows how even though geocities had become dated, it was the beginning of the internet for many people and will always be remembered. This reinforces the idea that an archive for past era's of social media or the internet in general should be created to store our history.
Personally, I never used geocities, however as a teenager I used messenger Live to create a personal Profile, store photo's and say pretty much what I wanted, every now and then I can look back at this profile which remains unchanged and see the comments, photo's, intrests etc that my 15 year old self created many years ago.
Past profiles to me, act like a diary, that I hope in many years to come I will be able to look back on.

DAY ONE

Welcome to Katrina's Medium.


This post is to Introduce myself, I'm Katrina . A Griffith University student studying Communications, majoring in Journalism.


When I'm not at university I like to take road trips to visit friends and find remote beach destinations.


I hope you enjoy following me on my 2 week summer semester safari.


Stay tuned.