Jodi's Favorite Group Blog

requested YOUTUBE login info

2008-12-11T15:50:00.000-08:00

I copied and pasted the original post below:

-adrienne

I made us a class wide email account at gmail. This gmail is the email i used to set up our youtube page. Here is the info...

Gmail:

Email: politics.internet@gmail.com
Password: blogging
Security question: What is the name of your Professor?
Answer: Jodi Dean

Youtube:
Account name: JodisClass
Password: blogging363

Class Presentations: Day 2

2008-12-11T13:05:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed the presentations for the most part today. It was unfortunate that computer was not working right away. It really took away from time we could have asked the presenters questions or provide them with any comments. Also, it made the transition from one project to another rushed.

I enjoyed Brandon and John’s presentation about surveillance on the campus of HWS. The video was very well put together from the music and editing options. The beginning and end were pretty neat. I liked how the films you used presented your project and ended the project. The interviews with students seemed professional and serious. It was good to get a vocal viewpoint of people about how safe they feel on campus. I also thought it was great how you went to the security department and got an interview with Bob Cowles. The interview was interesting, I felt like he may have contradicted himself. Regardless, like Jodi’s Favorite Group, the interviews were very beneficial and really gave the presentation a real and serious feeling. It was evident that Brandon and John put in a lot of time, between filming and gathering information.

Jodi’s Favorite Group, minus myself, plus Anna did a good job and I thought their information was interesting. I thought the purpose of the project was appealing as well. The video the group put together had good aspects and bad aspects I felt. For example, the scenes that had another member in the background seemed immature and it was a joke. That took away from the serious aspect of the film. The topic you discussed is important and controversial. Why take away from that with unneeded humor? I can’t help but think of Max’s presentation. His topic was serious yet had mysterious implications. His voice in the film fit the concept and helped strengthen the intention of his topic. I also thought that the interview within the group could have been more serious. It seemed that it was unplanned. I really like the fact that you did personal interview. It is always nice to hear a filmmakers view on the subject. Also, it was very distracting to hear the laughing from the group while the presentation was going on. It distracted me from watching the movie and reading the screen.

On a positive note, it was really interesting to have an interview with someone from the Human Resources Dept. This really helped strengthen your focus on the project. I also liked the statistics you used from polling members of the Hobart and William Smith Community. I think you brought awareness to the community at the Colleges and you revealed some pretty interesting information about the topic of security at school. Your whole group put in a lot of effort to produce the video. It was obvious you spent time to gather information and draw your conclusions.

I had mixed feelings about Yanina, Jessica and Dave’s project. At times, the movie was overwhelming. There was a lot going on and it was hard to read (may have been the screen in the room). It also had a lot going on at all times between images, content and music. Don’t get me wrong; I commend your editing skills. It was impressive, however I was overwhelmed because I felt like the information could have been presented in a more clear and concise way. At points, the amount of editing and features took away from your focus. I knew you were talking about the millennial generation and I realized towards the end how the mash up and presidential election points are influenced by the millennial generation. Or, I think I did? It was clear that you put in a lot of work and your effort should not go overlooked. It was a very intellectual project that had a strong viewpoint.

One thing that bothered me was that some people did not present. More so, some people did not even show up to class at all this week. I apologize if there is a personal reason. However, if you did a project, I felt like you should have at least told the class what you did. I know my group worked hard and it was pretty obvious other groups did as well, so to me, it was disrespectful that some students did not even stand up and say what they did. Have pride in your project. You could have been as simple and straightforward as Corey. He did not have a presentation planned; yet he talked about what he did and his goals. I thought it was great and I got to hear about what he was working on all semester.

I was hoping more people would comment on presentations. I think they are a pretty important part of our class. I know some people probably will not like my comments. I am not saying that anyone’s presentation was bad. I think everyone should be applauded for the effort. I respect everyone’s efforts and think their presentations turned out well. I am not a film critic, nor am I the most talented presenter, so do not take my opinion or view seriously. I am simply just saying what I thought. Plus, I thought that was the point of our class blogs. I know some people will disagree with me. That is fine. I know this may influence your peer evaluation. I understand. That is a risk I will take…ah!

Sam

Class Presentations: Day 1

2008-12-10T06:33:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed the presentations in class yesterday. I especially enjoyed the first groups. Man, they were great. Right?!

I thought Max's presentation was very interesting. I learned a lot. At first, I had no idea what he was talking about. The definitions and terms he had on one of his first slides baffled me. However, as the presentation progressed I really began to understand what he was talking about. First, I thought Max did a great job explaining the definitions of terms he was using. I am not very tech savvy, so it was something new to me to learn about how people can hack or work there way around a system to watch DVD's, listen to CD's and play video games for free. At times, Max presented a lot of information that took mw a few minutes to comprehend. Again, the terminology was confusing to me, but that may just be because it is new.

I liked how he incorporated case studies. This brought a different component to the presentation that gave his information a lot of credibility. Also the examples of how a person can get around a secure system was interesting. Max defiantly knows how to break the system. Be careful!

It was clear Max did a lot of work on his project. His presentation technique was different, but I liked it. When Max explained why he decided to record his voice in the slide show, I could defiantly understand where he is coming from. I get nervous when I speak in front of a large group of people because I do mumble and talk to quickly. I thought that recording the voice added a certain feeling to the presentation. A feeling of mystery I guess. Overall, I really enjoyed his project and I learned a lot.

I thought Pat's presentation was very good as well. I was hoping someone would do a project on the Election. I thought Pat put in a lot of time to obtain the information and facts. It was nice to see some logistics about the election once it has ended.I feel like sometimes people do not take time to look at different statistics once the election ends. It was interesting to see the different numbers, whether it was how much money one candidate spent compared to the other. It is evident that Pat could have multiple arguments for why Obama won. He could pull information relating to specific numbers, the candidate's websites or their campaign policy. Pat had a laundry list of differences among the campaigns and many reasons why Obama pulled away with the victory. Pat had examples for nearly every aspect of each candidates campaign! I think having a strong argument with multiple examples really helped Pat produce a noteworthy project. I kept thinking he could not find more information to persuade the class about why Obama won, but he kept coming out with more! It was nice that Pat dissected the election like he did. I learned a great deal about each candidates campaign.

I thought Pat's presentation technique was strong. His PowerPoint displayed clear and accurate information. It was clean and easy to read. It was nice also because Pat rarely read right from the slides. He knew what to say. Overall, it was a strong presentation that presented great information.

Excited for Thursday.

Sam

HELL YEAH I'M AFRAID

2008-12-05T09:13:00.000-08:00

I would like to respond to yesterdays class. According to Professor Dean we are afraid to take risks and we should do more exiting stuff in class. Apparently, this is the class to take risks and apparently we have done it before. We have been making PowerPoint presentations in 5 minutes and we have been making videos.

However I do not view this as a risk at all. Every time we have done something other than just talking, we have been told to do it by the Professor. Even in class (when the last group presented videos) it was after Professor Dean had told us that she expected more. I cannot remember one time where a student came up (in class) with a new way of presenting. We have been told to do those presentations EVERY time we have been doing it. We have never taken risks in this class and I am sorry, but I do not want to.

I do not want to take risks in this class because every time we do something other than a normal report of what the book says we get a (beep) load of critique. When we made a PowerPoint presentation we had done nothing right. Well, I am sorry but I cannot make a PowerPoint presentation that fast. We might be millennials but that does not mean we can do everything in 5 minutes. I understand that we cannot be cuddled every time we do something, you do not have to give us compliments. But you cannot blame us for never taking risks if the only option after that is getting bombarded with critique. I am afraid to take risks in this class, I AM PLAYING IT SAFE.

By
Merel van Helden

Class 12.4.08

2008-12-04T16:18:00.000-08:00

I liked that we went back into the same groups we were in last time we met as a class. I think that was important because the group could continue their thoughts from the previous class and continue their discussion. Our group worked on developing some bullet points from each chapter to discuss as a whole class. (They may be scattered because I was typing them as we went along.) Some of the important concepts and questions we discussed included the ideas about the most powerful components of the Internet and how did business interact with the Internet in the past when they first encountered it? Invisibility is one. We then discussed how corporations implement the Internet during this time period? We then moved on to talk about the way people acted at work or the way employees have gone about their work. Has it changed or stayed the same? Is the way a person should conduct himself or herself in the workplace embedded in human nature? We also discussed the importance of the Internet on businesses. Is the Internet a good influence? What ways can is it a bad influence? Another topic we talked about in our group focused on people’s view of their boss or another authoritative figure. A person’s voice is essential on the Internet because the Internet allows people to speak without interruption. Our group conversed of the issue of a person breaking free from the typical, the usual. The way a business works is tough and will suck you in, however if you can set yourself aside of the standard, you will succeed. We talked about making mistakes and learning from them. We thought about how do business leaders feel about this? The CTM talks about Fort Business. When a person enters the real world, there is a lot of interaction with outside resources, compared to a number of years ago when business leaders attempted to teach a new employee to stay within the realm of their own office. The importance of networking is huge. A business succeeds with networking.

When we broke from our individual groups into a class discussion, I was very surprised with Prof. Dean’s response to the group work. I guess I did not realize that she was expecting us to make a power point, a new set of thesis, etc. CTM talks about employees voicing their opinion and not being afraid of asking questions. I was experiencing those same thoughts and feelings in class. I was too afraid to say something because I did not want to say something dumb or irrelevant. That is something I need to work on because I do it a lot in other classes as well. I need to voice my opinion and not care about whether it is a dumb comment or not.

Moving on, I give Yanina a lot of credit for her response to the CTM reading. It was thoughtful and intriguing. She definitely helped stir more discussion and move the class in the right direction. I like how she thinks outside the box. It allows me, maybe others, to think differently about the subject as well, stirring other feelings and opinions, which lead to a prolonged discussion. I understand where Prof. Dean was coming from when she explained her reasoning about her unhappiness with our group work. We are in the last few weeks of class and we should have known better to make a better presentation. That is our faults. I apologize.

Excited for next week and final projects!

Sam

Clue Train Thoughts

2008-12-02T13:39:00.000-08:00

I have really enjoyed the book so far. Many statements and claims by the author’s have made me think more about life. I knew that the discussion about authoritative figures and employees would come up in class and I am glad it did. I was interested to hear what people thought on that topic. I am not sure how I stand on business firms wanting young people to think highly of them or having their firm being appealing to our generation. That whole discussion is interesting. I feel like some companies put in an intimating act and some companies do not. Regardless, any success a firm has depends heavily on communication. Communication is important in any line of work.

I thought the first chapter was very thought provoking. The advertising world is making people think they need things and the convenience of obtaining such materialistic things is easy. I believe that people’s hobbies are one way to initiate a conversation that may not occur otherwise. This is one way people can learn from one another and this spreads the knowledge of a hobby to one person and eventually they will tell someone else.

Chapter 2 was interesting. The Internet is a place that is so magnificent that it entices people into the cyber world. People become engrossed in what is on the Internet. Anyone can find something they like or enjoy. This shows how anyone can express his or her passion or feelings online. This is a gateway for others to join them and share their passion for something. I also thought the second chapter was interesting because the author made a claim that the Internet allows people to control their lives more efficiently. Since the Internet has the capability to hold so much information, someone at the cluck of a button can research what he or she would like and surely come up with what they are looking for. It allows people to become more knowledgeable and learn how to think and figure problems out.

Chapter 3 continued a discussion that was intriguing. I agree that silence is the death of anything. When something becomes dead, it is because there is no more discussion about it. Silence is the slow killer of many arguments or discussion. A person who does not do anything does not progress anywhere, whether it is in their work or social life. If you work hard, good things will happen and you will make progress. I believe you will take steps in the right direction.

I am excited to continue reading. After the first chapter, the author presented very upbeat, positive thoughts, which was nice. Sometimes you read books or articles and some author’s can be cynical. The first couple of chapters were great and they were helpful. I learned a lot about how the Internet began and how it works logistically. The focus on our age generation is also beneficial.

Sam

Class 12.2.

2008-12-02T13:07:00.000-08:00

I really thought class today was helpful. I liked that we went right into group work after we read the Wall Street article. I thought the article was very interesting because it involved our generation and this stimulated a lot of people in different ways. The Wall Street article sparked a great discussion latter in the class. Before we get to that though, I think the group work was beneficial. I thought our group did a good job discussing the Clue Train author’s opinions about voice, authenticity and play and the post on Prof. Dean’s blog. We all thought that business needs rules to keep their employees in line. I personally think a business should implement rules because it will help the business run smoothly and efficiently. This helped move the discussion back to the Wall Street article and tie it together with the reading from class. In our group, Anna made very interesting remarks that she shared with the class about people our age needing that authoritative figure and having that person telling us we are doing well. She went on to say that an authoritative figure is necessary for many important reasons to help support the business or corporation and help keep younger employees in line. I really liked her comments on this subject.

Another part of class I enjoyed was Corey’s comments. Corey's statement about a more black and white world rather than a world where people could cut slack was interesting and I agree more with him on his argument pertaining to the black and white world. I think a person’s opinion can vary depending on their work ethic, commitment and competitiveness. I think people should take responsibility for their actions and that includes turning in something late or not showing up for a meeting. That doesn’t cut it in my mind.

I liked how Prof Dean brought the class back together after the groups had time finish their discussion. It was nice to hear her opinions about the Wall Street article she handed out and also the reading. It was interesting to hear that Prof. Dean thought all people in the work force should be on an equal level. I never have though about that but the more I do; it has a lot of positive aspects. At first glance, one may not see them, but when you take a step back and think about the pro’s and con’s, I think they are more pro’s. Overall, I was pleased with class and I thought it was great that the article stimulated people and got everyone thinking.

Sam

95 Complaints.

2008-12-01T15:35:00.000-08:00

So I just read the 95 theses and I don't think I get it.

I get that he thinks there should be more communication between both parties and that they are going to fail if they don't start listening to each other but some companies do listen to the market. They have to pay attention to it if they are going to succeed. You can't make money if you aren't meeting your customers needs. I don't think companies need to listen to every comment anyway. Not everyone is going to be helpful and make a positive change. They need to be able to read each other but I don't think businesses are failing all over the place because they don't listen. I think there are alot more reasons that they fall than just not listening.

Becky

Thesis 14

2008-11-24T20:04:00.000-08:00

Corporations do not speak in the same voice as these new networked conversations. To their intended online audiences, companies sound hollow, flat, literally inhuman.

I think this is really true. Corporations do not know what people want but they still try to sell it. Therefore they keep talking in this commercial advertisement way that sounds very inhuman. By trying to be funnier than everyone else they lost all the humor. It seems that when you go online you see only adverstisement. You are getting really confused about the overwheliming amount. Or they try to talk to you in a very mechanic way that attracks no one. I do believe that markets are doing a good job with this. They know how to attract their online audience much better than corporations do.

I think that the introduction gave a very good quote:
"But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about "listening to customers." They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf."

I think that that is the solution for corporations, if they want to catch up to the markets that do know how to speak in a human voice. It is definitly possible for corporations to catch up again, as long as they make a real change and not a fake change by pretending to be human.

By
Merel van Helden

Funny cultural difference

2008-11-23T18:24:00.001-08:00

Hi guys.
I just wanted to tell you guys some cultural differences, even though they are not really related to class. But in the extension of our cultural differences in leisure time I thought I could share this.

The Cannabis College, an advisory body to softdrugs in Amsterdam, has existed for ten years. To celebrate the College holds a festival of ten days, including films and hemp wine. There are awards for people that have praised hemp and cannabis in art and movies and of course there are discussion about the legalisation of softdrugs.

I, for one, think it is ridiculous that my country is doing this, but in the words of Matt: You think why? We think why not?

By
Merel van Helden

gamer theory

2008-11-22T14:28:00.000-08:00

Wark makes some cool points, i do find the idea of Gamer Theory interesting, especially the military entertainment complex Professor Dean talked about during class. I enjoyed when the class discussion moved to the topic of boredom. Two points were made (i dont remember who made them) but they both stand out in my mind. The first was "Boredom is what creates designers" and "Boredom is a liberation...a kind of freedom." Boredom as liberation or a kind of freedom is neat concept. What a cool way to consider boredom? I agree with that point. When you're bored you often need something new to do to keep you occupied. At this point you're free to move away from what you are doing and to try or engage yourself in something new. This ties into the point "boredom is what creates designers" because if people weren't bored or looking for a new entertainment outlet, the desire for new things would be non-existent as well as unnecessary. I wouldn't go as far as to say boredom is the basis of our creativity but I do believe that boredom is quite often the baseline for new ideas.

Overall, Gamer Theory definitely was a difficult book for me. The beginning reminded me a of a riddle but then once we got to the chart i began to feel very confused. Both times after the class discussions i went back and re-read sections of the book because i had a better understanding of what was going on. For me, the foreignness of what Wark was talking about made the experience of reading his book feel like a mini game...One where his content became some secret code that i had to decipher or crack in order to get to the next level of understanding.

-adrienne

A Community all about games - created by You, played by everyone

2008-11-22T14:14:00.000-08:00

so i found this website - XNA creators club online - where you can actually make your own games and then other members can play the games you created. If i understand it all correctly, if you have windows creating / submitting your games is free, but if you purchase the premium membership you can actually develop games for xbox 360, which is cool.

-Adrienne

Gamer Theory

2008-11-21T06:56:00.000-08:00

Gamer Theory has been a book I have struggled with. I have had a very difficult time grasping the concepts the author is talking about. I am not sure I like the format of the book. I know we talked about how the book reads as a game. That bothers me. I do not comprehend material very well if it is not directly stated. I know the points of learning and is dig through information and dissect information. However, sometimes the author just needs to get it out there. I would not mind digging around and figuring out what the author has to say in Gamer Theory, but every time I do or the class does, we get no where I feel. I guess I am disappointed. When i looked at the books for the class that we would throughout the semester, I think I was most looking forward to this one. I guess i did not live up to my expectations. I know I am putting off some strong feelings of dislike towards this book, but I feel like I needed to get it out there. No offense Prof.

Regarding the model we have been so intrigued about the past few class meetings. I don't get it. I don't get what we are supposed to get out of it. I think the only step in the direction of understanding the chart was from the help of David. I was lucky to have Dave in my group when we first went over the chart. He really helped me understand the book for one, and the chart as well. The idea of the lines connecting made sense to me. The idea of progression was intriguing. Yanina also had a interesting thought about connecting the chart with digital enclosure. Overall, I think Dave and Yanina explanations have made the most sense, but I still am having trouble with Gamer Theory as a whole.

After reading over what I just wrote, I realized that i was rather negative in me feelings towards Gamer Theory. I just have had a hard time comprehending the material and understand what the author wants me to learn. On another note, I have really enjoyed our class discussion and what we have been doing. I like hearing Prof. Dean lecture and tell us what she thinks. It is pretty helpful. Talking about our final projects yesterday got me excited to hear what people may be doing. It is approaching soon!

Sam

Youtube to sell advertising on Pages of Search Results

2008-11-20T06:54:00.001-08:00

the title says it all. Check this article out in the Ny Times.

adrienne

Internet in space.

2008-11-19T06:52:00.000-08:00

Hi Guys,
Another fun message from the Dutch News:

"AMSTERDAM - NASA has successfully tested a network that allows distant satellites and space vehicles communicate with Earth as computers with internet.

The software for the network, disruptions-tolerant Network (DTN), was developed by Vincent Cerf, the grandfather of the Internet. He is the inventor of the TCP / IP protocol that is the basis for the terrestrial Internet.
There is the risk that communication will be interrupted in space, because a spacecraft is behind a celestial body or because there is a solar storm. The distance between earth and the space objects make it difficult to send information too. A message from Mars for example, takes 3.5 to 20 minutes to reach the earth - depending on how far the two planets are from each other. On this moment people on earth must determine when the circumstances are most favorable for a transmission to planetary explorers. With DTN that work fully automated.
For the test with the DTN, which was held last month, photographs were sent back and forth between a network with nine points on earth and the Epoxi, a satellite that is on course for a rendezvous with the comet Hartley, in 2010. Next summer there will be a test with DTN on board the international space station ISS."

As you can read the internet is advancing fast. Soon we will not only be able to facebook with people in space but also with aliens :P.

By
Merel van Helden

work now play later?

2008-11-16T21:47:00.000-08:00

Work. Work. Work.
That's what America is all about. The more we can get done the better. work work work...it's ingrained in us. BG mentioned in his blog: "The concept of productivity is highly Americanized in our culture." I completely agree with that statement. It's as though we are trying to find the quickest, most efficient ways to accomplish tasks, and then instead of using the time we gain to relax , we instead take on more tasks. Why have we become a nation of workaholics? Why is relaxation time not guaranteed on a daily basis?...something's got to give...if you want to have one, you can't have the other. I'm not saying everyone is like this but for the most part i feel like America's an uptight nation. To kick back and relax isn't as easy as it used to be. I for one try to balance my work with play. I think it's essential to kick back and relax but I also recognize the importance of getting my work done. I prioritize and with that said, sometimes work isn't my first priority...Play often is, and I'm still successful. To me success isn't just about accomplishing a ton of stuff,... success is getting things done but still having 'me' time. Me time -however you may spend it- is crucial. What good is success if you can't even enjoy it because you are too stressed out or uptight? The way i see it...Life's all about moderation and balance..if you can maintain a balance between work and play and still accomplish everyday tasks then i consider that successful.

-adrienne

Leisure time: BIG SURPRISE and 1 BIG question

2008-11-16T19:20:00.000-08:00

I thought that last class was pretty interesting. Often if you read the book discussion seem pointless because everyone reads the book so what is there to discuss about? But this time we had a good discussion I think. I especially liked the ending. To most people it might seem normal by I am actually still amazed by the way people here spend their leisure time. Now that it is mentioned I see it everywhere.

This weekend I was looking for people to hang out with and everyone was busy, doing something useful. I would actually have to say "useful" because the fact that we can justify it with "it looks good on a CV" does not necessarily mean it is usefull. But still, everyone was busy. It hits me every time: people are WORKING!

The Netherlands is so completely different. There were days last year where I just spend my entire day doing nothing, even spending several days doing nothing. Days where you would spend 6 hours of the day watching movies. Many friends of mine go out 5 times a week until 4am and sleep until 12pm, week in, week out. The only things I can put on my CV are working for 3 weeks during 1 summer at a company that distributes books and a vacation with friends to South Africa where we happened to build an Aids Centre. I would not say that we do not work at all in the Netherlands. I study a lot, but every time I call friends to have lunch they say yes because they can put aside their work for a few moments to do nothing.

This post is not meant to be negative at all. There are so many good things about the system here. I am amazed by the level of discipline people have here. It is hard to find students that study in the weekend in the Netherlands (unless there is an exam the Monday after). In this country you become someone because you worked for it. But still, I couldn't imagine how my life would look if I grew up in the US. I value my "useless" time so much. Just doing stuff with no reason at all. No justification. I would never want to stop doing that. To me, this is the first BIG difference that I encounter between the US en the Netherlands. It only took me 3 months :P.

Another example is vacation. I consider my parents to workaholics. But when I think about it, they have vacation about 7 weeks a year and they still has free days left. I think this is not much at all but apparently it is here.

I can tell you: of all the differences that I expected to find when I would come here for the first time, I never expected leisure time to be one. So I have one BIG question. This is not to be stupid, mean or trying to change anything, I just really want an answer. I really hope someone can explain this to me.

How can people be happy if they are working all the time?

By
Merel van Helden

Useless

2008-11-16T19:10:00.000-08:00

I just realized that I did not yet post my "useless" picture flying trick. So what you do is you go to the website you want to look at. Then you put the following code into the url:

javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.getElementsByTagName("img"); DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=(Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5)+ "px"; DIS.top=(Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5)+" px"}R++}setInterval( 'A()',5); void(0);

And then the pictures are flying. To stop it just exit the website. I must say that I would have never thought that this would actually start a discussion.

By
Merel van Helden

Rory Kennedy

2008-11-13T08:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday there was a speech by Rory Kennedy. She makes documentaries about social aspects of life. I found it very interesting, especial when she talked about the film she made about Helen Thomas at the White House. She told us that (I believe) Helen said that journalism (whether online or not) really is the fourth brange of government in the checks and balance system. Since it is the task of journalism to ask the difficult questions about policy. I think that was a very interesting view and I sort of agree with her. But this does pose the question that was asked in class as well: Who should be the journalists? Should there only be journalism from professionals, journalism that is censored by editors? Or should everybody be allowed to be a journalist? The danger with that is however that it might become (as Brandon said) a wikipedia, where anybody could say anything.

By
Merel van Helden

Gaming v Real life

2008-11-12T08:36:00.000-08:00

"Uncritical gamers do not win what they desire; they desire what they win. The score is the thing." This is often true. A friend of Merel always plays online games, which are easy and there is no real goal. The games are ususally puzzle like games. However, he plays these games because you can win points and if you have enough points you can "buy" a key chain or a mug with those points. In the end this friend is spending a few hours every day playing, not because he likes the game, but because he wants to "buy" something. Even though a key chain or a mug is not really special. He is desiring what he can win, he is not winning what he desires.

The book also talks about knowing the game. The Sims is an allegorithm. As a player you learn the code of the game, you can win if you understand the system, any value can be discovered through trial and error. You can win if you understand that expensive objects make your sim happy and cheap ojects do not. You can win if you understand that you need 4 points in charisma, 6 points in creativity and have 4 friends. But then it just becomes a routine you go thourgh to get more expenive stuff.

Games take images from other media. So its not the content that is special to games, but it is the form. The more the game starts to look like real life, the more we discover how it is not like real life. In its simplest form we do not expect a representation of real life. But when the game becomes more complex we expect a better representation of real life than it can give us. In addition, the game is everything the gamerspace is not. The game seems utopian and therefore we see how the gamerspace is not.

The game and the gamespace have one very important diference. In the game you can quit, you can go back to a previously saved moment in the game, you can start new. In gamespace we however do not have that option. We cannot control time and therefore we cannot always tie the loose ends. In the Sims, when things go bad the Sim looks at the gamer to ask for help. However, in real life the gamer has no where to turn to when things go wrong.

Class and Bruns

2008-11-12T05:03:00.000-08:00

I learned a lot from Prof. Dean's powerpoint yesterday. It brought a different aspect to class. Just a few weeks ago, all the students put together power points and Prof. Dean gave us feedback. I liked the fact that she took the time to put together a power point to kind of show everyone what a good presentation looks like.I thought the power point presentation was helpful because Prof. Dean brought in the student's views and also her own. So it helped looking at the Bruns concpets from different angles. Also, keeping the class format different is helpful. We did something different from a lecture or group work. As many people know, students learn differently, whether it is hands or or visually. So it was helpful in that regard by learning from looking and reading from a power point.

As for the reading, I find myself agreeing with Axel Bruns for the most part. I feel that news and media practices have dramatically shifted towards the online world and has changed the culture of american news and most importantly politics. THe digital world has allowed people to conveniently receive news without picking up a paper. The opposition of citizen journalism like blogs and chat rooms, have left some people with a sour taste in their mouth. Can you have a meaningful and critical discussion on a blog or in a chat forum? Digital media has allowed people to generate their thoughts into an online template and gives other people the opportunity to leave a comment. I believe this characteristic of most online forums and blogs has made it easier for people to discuss, deliberate and disagree with other people, which definitely has people scrutinizing the digital media world. The use of digital media depends on that person. They choose and decide if they would like to be on the most interactive and individual network when they choose to add their comments and views on a subject. To compare this to mainstream media would not be far off. I think they coincide with one another.

Sam

What Palin has to say...

2008-11-11T09:17:00.000-08:00

Palin signals interest in presidential run and talks about what went wrong this time around.

-adrienne

post election South Park episode

2008-11-11T09:07:00.000-08:00

here's the link to the post election south park episode.

-adrienne

E-Waste Revisited

2008-11-10T23:19:00.000-08:00

In connection with Yanina's teaching day presentation (round 1) of E-Waste, I saw a great segment on 60 minutes last night. The segment was on this new concept of E-Waste in China. The focus is on an American recycling company that talks about the seriousness of shipping American waste to undeveloped countries. They actually traced a shipment from the American recycling company to Hong Kong, and inevitably to a dump-site filled with acres upon acres of wasted computer and television cathode-ray tubes (CRT's) which are the most toxic is addition to the dozens of toxins within computer towers and hard drives.
The dump-sites were actually guarded by gangs, who upon discovery of the reporters attacked and mugged the reporters stealing soil samples and camera equipment. The diseases and repercussions of these toxins being released on the community were widespread and awful. It's very interesting how a month ago, no-one new relatively anything about E-Waste, and now it is of great national concern. It will be very interesting to see the role that the media will play now that this concern has entered the mainstream media cycle.

Here's the link to the video from 60 minutes:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/06/60minutes/main4579229.shtml

???

2008-11-10T19:25:00.000-08:00

So I went to publish the medddiiiaa post this morning and it didn't post so here it is. I don't know what the deal was.

becky

meeeeeeeeeeeeddddddiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

2008-11-10T08:24:00.000-08:00

Deliberation and debate can occur via the internet and other web sources however this type of debate is not as substantial as face to face debate. Face to face debate allows for credibility and people to own up to what they have said. On the internet people can make up anything they want to just to back up their point. On the internet, there is more of the time sensative issue as well. If people are debating via blogging the topic has a chance to settle down if both people are not at their computers right at the same time typing to each other. So i n person debating adds another element of emotions and being active. It is harder to clarify points when they are typed and not in person because you can't ask the other person right away if you understand their arguement correctly. Deliberation and debate can occur in both settings but it is used better when it is done away from the internet.

It is not a opposition to mainstream media it is just another outlet. It is just another way for people to get information and incorporate participation more than mainstream media. It also supports mainstream media because you can access the shows on mainstream, online too. If you miss an episode you can watch it online and catch up. It is also a more individual level because each person can look up whatever they want and are not limited to what is being offered to them like on a news program. For example they may say something like "today we are going to talk about....." and then list their top stories but the viewer doesn't have a choice of what is being shown. Online they can look for whatever stories they want to hear about. The internet is just complementing mainstream media and is not opposing it.

Not so far out.

2008-11-06T06:37:00.000-08:00

I think Adrienne is right and that it is not so far out. (Read her post first) I also think that Juicy Campus is just something useless we look at to entertain us, which it actually never does. And since we realize that it is useless we also do not regard the information on it as valuable. When I look at sites like Juicy Campus I don't think any of it is true. To me it is just a "what if it was true" website.

By
Merel van Helden

this might be a little far out..

2008-11-06T05:45:00.001-08:00

so this idea just popped into my head...

a few classes ago, when we shared our skills to one another, Merel taught the class how to make items on the screen hover and whatnot. This led to a discussion and i forget who said it but someone said something along the lines of how our generation likes meaningless things (Such as the hover tool)...it serves no purpose except to look cool. So now i wonder could we argue that part of our interest in Juicy campus goes back to this idea that we just like meaningless things? If it's used to bash people it's a pointless site, i don't see any purpose in it...do we actually get anything out of it? I certainly don't think so.

-Adrienne

hws students at their finest...

2008-11-05T20:27:00.000-08:00

Kids need places to vent. It’s a shame they attack certain kids online, but I think JD made this point..that you could just as easily be sitting in the café saying stuff about a person with them in earshot. I know people that disagree with me will be like, “what if you were the person being made fun of?...you wouldnt like it…blah blah etc”. My response would be well that sucks, and I might be a little upset, I might be a little embarrased, but I wouldn’t take it to heart. Obviously, no one likes to be made fun of, but it happens, that’s life. You need to have a thick skin…there are always going to be people that don’t like you or criticize you, but at the end of the day, it’s your choice as to whether or not you are going to let what other people say affect you.

Going back to that idea of exposure…I know people talk about me, the thing is, I’m not about to subject myself to it. If I cant control what people orally say about me, why should I expect to control what they post about me?

In response to the question:
--does the fact that people's feelings and reputations are damaged make juicy campus a disciplinary issue? an ethical issue?

Esentially the stuff we see on juicy campus are just rumors /gossip in the digital form. Remove the digital from the equation and we are left with rumors / gossip. What action would be taken if these messages were written on bathroom walls? Probably not much. You can't punish someone for their thoughts. Ethically, i think juicy campus does push the limits a bit, but again, what does it say about the person's character who is posting the hurtful comments?

You cant stop gossip. You have to be above it. Are people’s reputations really damaged?..perhaps on a personal level, but I can’t imagine most people take half the stuff written on the site seriously. It’s a gossip site, people should recognize that as an invalid tool to judge a person. I highly doubt companies or people of great importance are going to check out juicy campus as a way to evalaute the characteristics / qualifications of a person. The more slanderous / vicious the post is, the more it dequalifies juicycampus and the validy of it.

In response to the question: does the fact that we are very small campus amplify the impact of juicy campus?

Yes and no. Yes, if we were a big school it would be much easier for those discussed on juicy campus to blend in and hide. But with or without juicy campus word still gets around at our school because it’s a small campus.
At the end of the day I look at juicy campus and consider it unecessary slander. I find it a little messed up that there’s a site out there encouraging kids to bad mouth one another. But most unsettling is how quick kids on our campus are to do so and the overall popularity of the site in general. I think the anonymity factor draws kids into the site, because they feel less acountable for posting stuff. But atleast for me, if a person isn't willing to sign their name next to their claim, then their post doesn't mean much to me.

-Adrienne

HWS supplies the juice?

2008-11-05T09:47:00.000-08:00

My question is, what is the difference between Juicy Campus and the bathroom stall wall? Gossip is everywhere, but as we all can imagine in college it is nothing like it was in high school. Sure it will spread like wildfire, and for a short time everyone who hears about it will go to Juicy Campus to check it out. But thats where it stops. It is all just stupid gossip.

Since we are such a small campus, Juicy Campus is blown out of proportion. But this doesn't make it a disciplinary issue, it is definitely more of an ethical issue. The school cannot stop kids from posting on this site, but at the same time they cannot punish us for posting on the site. There is no question it is completely irresponsible of students to post such information especially derogatory or hurtful and even threatening.

If the postings develop into threats against students or faculty, then no question the school should intervene to prevent anything serious from happening. For the people who are emotionally hurt by these postings, its tough to say but it is too bad; but they have to move past it. Do their actions prompt such postings, if so then it is a bit of a reality check. And for those who actually post, their deeds will not go unrecognized. If their conscience isn't affected then they are the lesser person.

Chapter 15.

2008-11-05T08:21:00.001-08:00

The amount of internet activity through cites such as myspace, facebook, and other blogging cites has undoubtedly risen and the creation of other factfinders and protest cites has increased too but I don't think they have the potential that Scholz says. Or at least I don't think it has that much potential for everyone. I really think that only certain kinds of people invest alot of time into blogging and social networking online. Some cites are great like the Katrinapeople finder that helped people find their loved ones. Some have great potential but I don't think everyone is so supportive of using the internet to socially network and to make change. I don't think alot of people have enough time to do that. People with families and jobs. I would rather send time being with my family and friends than being on the computer and socially networking. I think he overemphasizes the willingness of people to become really involved online.

becky

Juicy News

2008-11-05T05:44:00.000-08:00

After I left class today, I felt frustrated and I couldn't really collect my thoughts. I didn't know how to feel feel towards Juicycampus.com. The first time I saw this website was last week after Asa's presentation and someone mentioned something about Juicycampus.com. I did not think anything of it and I did not bother to look at it. I simply did not have any interest. However, over the weekend, I read about Juicycampus.com and heard people talking about it. So I decided to look at it on Monday. My first reaction was: "wow this is pretty stupid."

I think the website is pretty immature. It is rather lame of people who young adults to go on a website and discuss the topics they do. It's stupid. I began to wonder why HWS did not take any action or this was not a bigger deal in the media. I am pretty positive other college students are aware of this website.

Since I have looked at the website that one time, I probably will not go back on it again. I just rather not see what is being discussed and see what persons names are on it. It is an immature way to make fun of someone, to get under someone's skin and bad mouth a classmate. I think Juicycampus.com is a place where only trouble can arise from. Some students may have stuff on the website that may get them in trouble with work, school or a relationship. Is the information credible though? Who will take it seriously. Regardless, the website is just a stupid and rather pathetic way to voice your opinion.

The class discussion was rather interesting today. I did not know how to say what I wanted at the time, partly because i was toeing the line of what is moral and ethical. Professor Dean stated that if you expose yourself to the site you shouldn't let the posts affect you. I mean I cannot argue against that. That is true. That is why I have decided not to look at it again. I can see the counter-argument too. I just have not articulated the words for it. I guess I am in the middle of that argument. Ah! I really think the cyberbullying is just so immature and sometimes has gone to far, and the best example going is Juicycampus.com.

All in all, I like the direction the class is heading. There should be some interesting class coming up. I feel like this topic is not dead by any means!

Sam

2008-11-04T21:05:00.000-08:00

"i will never truly forget who this victory belongs to. It belongs to you...."

"the true genius of America is that America can change..."

"if our children should leave to see the next century...what change will they see, what progress will be made...?

"..Out of many, we are one"

I enjoyed Obama's speech...i found it inspiring and I am excited to see what lies ahead.

-adrienne

Media Coverage and the 2008 Election

2008-11-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

Something that I have been following for the past 2 weeks that I think is interesting and might interest other people is the amount of news coverage Sarah Palin is getting in comparison to Joe Biden. In one of my other classes we focus alot on the media and have read several books on media coverage. We have looked at how the media only covers bad things or new things. A woman as a VP choice is a new thing. Violence and scandal often get the top air time because these stories get the most viewers. Sarah Palin has been covered on every major news station and has been very present on SNL but Joe Biden has really taken a backseat to the amount of coverage received. However the most coverage is given to her based on stupid things like how much she spends on clothes for the campaign and her pregnant daughter. The majority of coverage is not spent talking about anything important. There is not alot of policy coverage. It is really our own fault that the news has come to this. These are the stories that gain the most viewers and make the most money. I think it was said best by "Bad news sells best. Cause good news is no news." (Schudson)

Becky

Class on 10.30

2008-10-31T08:12:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed our second go around of student teaching. Everyone in my group had interesting presentations .In my group, Jessica had a great power point that incorporated a lot of statistics about other countries and Internet use, basically what Prof. Dean was talking about at the end of class today. It was very interesting hearing the numerous amounts of statistics. Merel also had an interesting presentation. I thought it was very cool how you could have the images on a webpage float around. Nothing against Merel and what she chose to present, but its amazing the amount of useless applications and gadgets one can find!

As far as the select group of class presentations. I found Abe’s presentation very intriguing. It developed a great discussion. I thought that tool (I cannot remember its name, Amazon kindle?) had some negatives and positives. I think it is important to have a book so you can dog ear pages, highlight and write in the margins. Also, like Mike Suits said, I cannot look at a computer screen for a long time while reading something. It drives me nuts. Some positive aspects of the tool were the accessibility of books for children and people of all age. Maybe this will make people read more? Asa’s presentation was interesting. When he pulled up the website, I heard people giggling. It seemed like people have seen it. I never have. I also didn’t get its purpose. Is it just for gossip or does it serve an educational purpose. Not to put down Asa’s choice of presentation at all, because I definitely learned something, just I was pretty confused.

Overall, I would say this class was very successful. Like Prof. Dean said on Locationf8, everyone seemed to be involved in what other students has to say. Class is a lot more fun that way. Prof. Dean really confused the hell out of me at the end when she explained the format and assignments moving forward. However, I just read the plan for the coming weeks on locatiof8, so I feel better.

Sam

Class and Reading Thoughts

2008-10-28T14:18:00.000-07:00

Class began today with Prof. Dean laying down the law. She explained final projects and our self/peer evaluations. I think it is pretty straightforward. I know our group has a fun project that we are working on. It involved making a video. Before we had a to make a video for class, we choose to make our final project a video. We had a positive experience from the film class that it only made us more confident to put together a great final video project.
I thought Prof. Dean’s lecture was interesting. She brought up many interesting points. …Wow the wind outside was ridiculous…sorry side note…It was nice to hear from Prof. Dean because I had some trouble comprehending the reading for class. I mean I grasped some of the bigger concepts, but I learn a lot better when someone (aka the teacher) can dissect the reading and explain some of the more confusing sections. Even thought the reading was not terribly long, it was full of interesting points. In regards to Prof. Dean’s chapter Communicative Capitalism there are a few points in the chapter that I disagree with and some I agreed with. One point is the idea about a circulating data stream. I agree that people have the chance to voice their opinion or express their beliefs on the web. The online world has allowed people to become more involved in politics. It is more convenient for many people. However I think that although people may be using the Internet more in terms of political reason, maybe some of the people are not giving a credible comment. Information from the Internet may be credible or not, and I think that it is very important that one knows where they get information from and who is giving them the information. Knowing the source of information is very important for me, especially for schoolwork. I am always careful and second-guess what I read for numerous reasons, which mainly originated in this class!
I am eager to see what people come to class on Thursday and teach. Last time we did this, I really enjoyed it. I think we have a great format set up for class and I cannot wait to see what people come up with. I this assignment will be successful again because there are no guidelines and the doors are open. You pick and choose what you want to teacher. Nice!

Sam

feeling connected through the internet

2008-10-28T10:06:00.001-07:00

This was an interesting quote that I found that relates to how people feel connected to the campaign because of the internet.

"Yet despite the growth in the number of people who are politically engaged online, internet users express some ambivalence about the role of the internet in the campaign. On one hand, 28% of wired Americans say that the internet makes them feel more personally connected to the campaign, and 22% say that they would not be as involved in the campaign if not for the internet. At the same time, however, even larger numbers feel that the internet magnifies the most extreme viewpoints and is a source of misinformation for many voters." PEW report

Becky

Dean Chapter

2008-10-28T09:04:00.001-07:00

One thing that I thought was interesting in the chapter was the idea that it doesn't matter who writes it or who reads it as long as there is alot of circulation of different ideas. I agree that it doesn't matter who reads it but I think it is important who writes it. I think things that are written need to be taken with a grain of salt considering who it is from.

Considering the source is really important when realizing the credibility of the information. People could just post rumors or things that they think are important and say they are facts but if people are not taking into account who wrote the text they may be misinformed. I was always told to be wary of information on the internet because of the fact that ANYONE can put information up. I think it is important to consider who is writing the information and what their background and credibility is.

Becky

Movie

2008-10-27T17:07:00.000-07:00

I thought the movies were great. I was really impressed with all of them. I thought we were getting in way over our heads in the beginning and never thought we would be able to pull it off but I think the teaching day really helped clear things up about how to use the equipment.

Before we went on vacation our group decided that we would look at political satire but I don't think any of us realized that we would have to relate it to the Rebooting America book. I thought we were done with that and were just looking at aspects of the election and how to use technology to make a movie. I thought we would have a hard time relating comedy to the book but as our group brainstormed and talked about ideas, I think ours turned out really well. I think we may have even over related it compared to the other movies.

Overall I think it was a great project and I can't wait to make our final project movie now that we know more about making a movie it's not so hard.

Becky

This is how much we LOVE technology

2008-10-27T08:06:00.000-07:00

I read this in my Dutch paper today. I thought it was a good example of how much we actually LOVE our technology and I thought it was pretty funny.

Man stuck in toilet after attempt to save phone.

Published on October 27th 2008 12:04, updated 12:07
BORDEAUX - A 26-year-old Frenchman got stuck yesterday in an attempt to fish a mobile phone out of the toilet from a train. The fire department had to remove the toilet as well to get the Frenchman out.

With his arm still in the toilet, the man was brought to the hospital according to witnesses. According to the French railways, the strong exhaust ventilation was the cause of the accident. The train was en route from La Rochelle to Bordeaux and was two hours delayed.

By
Merel van Helden

film showing

2008-10-24T17:14:00.001-07:00

I really enjoyed class yesterday. Overall each group did a great job on the videos. Needless to say, each group created an informative film. What i liked best was how each group brought something different to their videos which made for an enjoyable viewing experience.

Like Sam said, Group 2 incorporated the film application techniques wonderfully. Plus, because their film flowed smoothly the message they were trying to convey was quite obvious and well received. They chose an important topic (internet, politics, the election) because of its relevancy to today, especially with our election less than 10 days away.

The third group i unfortunately can't say much about...sorry guys. I was in the process of creating the youtube.com username for the class, so my viewing was limited, but i did listen. Judging by what was discussed in their video, i can only imagine some great images etc will follow...I'm excited to watch their video on youtube.

I enjoyed the last groups video as well. It was nice to hear about gamer theory especially because i have not exactly gotten too far into the book and i was slightly confused by it already. The last group effectively incorporated images, sounds, film techniques etc. to convey a certain tone to the class. It was a great film to end on.

I had a lot of fun working on this project. It was great to choose an area of research and report back on it with a movie. In the beginning i didn't realize we had to relate our findings to Rebooting America, but doing so was helpful for me. I already had a decent understanding of the readings in the book, but using points from it in our movies helped tie everything together for me.

This was a very successful project for me...I think i actually learned more through this entire video process than i would if we had written a paper. Professor Dean could have just been like "okay everyone, write a paper comparing your findings with Rebooting" but she wanted videos instead, which i am happy about. Even though we weren't writing a paper we still had to do just as much research to make our videos informative for everyone. PLUS, we learned how to make videos, something we would have missed out on had we written papers instead. This assignment was a large learning process. Professor Dean let us choose what to research. We chose what we wanted to learn about. I researched the things i had questions about and found answers...another process of learning. I worked with my peers (in my group)...we had to collaborate our ideas, and teach one another about our specific findings. We had to learn how to make videos and some of us had to teach the process to the class...another example of peer to peer learning. The film day = informative...i walked away learning new and interesting ideas...yet another process of learning. This assignment encompassed the many themes of learning we discussed the first few classes in the beginning of the semester. The set up of this assignment allowed for an effective learning process to take place.

-Adrienne

Film Class

2008-10-23T10:40:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed everyone's film. I think they all turned out very well and I think it is safe to say that everyone learned something from this project. Each presentation was different and unique, but provided very helpful information. This was a great project that is different from a paper or even a power point presentation. Making a video allowed me to learn something new. I think the project was very informative and got everyone away from writing another long paper.I think the time limit we had for the video was great too. Since most people are new to making videos, a 5 minute production is feasible and allows a group to get their message across clearly.

I think the second presentation (from Jeff and Mike's group) was really great. I think the film editing was pretty creative. I think they used the film application to make the movie to the fullest. The fade of the music and slides to the pictures and animation as pretty neat. As far as the content goes, I think it was very informative and educational. I definitely understood the message you were trying to convey through the movie. It is fascinating how much information you can pack into a 5 minute or less video. I agree that the internet has a huge affect on politics and definitely has affect the 2008 election. Kudos to your group. Great presentation and use of the film application you used.

The third film (Max's group) was great. I think the content of the film was the best part. You provided some great information that really helped me follow what you wanted to discuss in your video. I think the simple techniques you used provided more comfort to the person watching the film. It was easy to follow and read.

I think the last group's video was very creative. I got a feeling of a real documentary when I was watching it. The music, images and content was really impressive. The film techniques you used seemed veer professional. To make the production even better, the content was there and not only was it there, but it was key information that got across important issues. I think your movie flowed very well from beginning to end. The transitional steps from one thing to another was flawless.

Overall, great project. I learned a lot. The guidelines for the project were nice too. I am not sure I would change anything. People went their own way with the video idea and I think that was the best part about it.

I thought our class discussion was interesting. I did not really follow where the talk was going at first. It took me a few minutes but I started to understand what people were saying and to gather my thoughts. I do think that the internet has made learning and interacting in politics easier. Without question, I think it has. Does it make people more involved in politics. Not sure.

Ah, I am not sure, this topic is not settling in my mind right now. I cannot make up what I want to say. Ill be back with more on this...

Sam

compress your videos

2008-10-23T09:41:00.000-07:00

this is new to me as well, but here are some links that may help you :

Compress movies from Windows Movie Maker

^^a video demonstration. Read the info under his profile because he messes up a word in his video!!!

Compress movies made from iMovie

^^a blog about it

Youtube Info

2008-10-23T09:33:00.001-07:00

I made us a class wide email account at gmail. This gmail is the email i used to set up our youtube page. Here is the info...

Gmail:

Email: politics.internet@gmail.com
Password: blogging
Security question: What is the name of your Professor?
Answer: Jodi Dean

Youtube:
Account name: JodisClass
Password: blogging363

Film Productions

2008-10-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

MoveOn.org wants YOU to vote

2008-10-22T23:32:00.000-07:00

so i received this email today from MoveOn.org (although i have no idea how i became a member):

Dear MoveOn member,

Oversleeping. Getting the car fixed. Having to pick up the second-cousin's stepkids on the other side of town. These are just a few of the reasons millions of Americans won't vote on November 4th.

It's not like they hate voting. They want to do it. They know they should. And mostly, they intend to. But some of your friends won't get around to actually voting because they haven't been reminded vividly enough.

That's why we developed this funny, scary video. It shows people what it might look like if we lose the election by a single vote: theirs.

Here's a version we prepared for you. You're in it—seriously, you. Check it out—and if you like it, send it to your friends:

VIEW THE VIDEO HERE

-Adrienne

McCain Accidentally Left On Campaign Bus...

2008-10-22T19:08:00.000-07:00

funny video thanks to theonion.com Check it out.

-Adrienne

Palin charged Alaska for kids' travel

2008-10-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

"In all, Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters' 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office in December 2006. In some other cases, she has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls."

read the full article here

I am curious if this will go any further...

-adrienne

Class 10.21.08

2008-10-21T10:11:00.001-07:00

First, what a miserable day in Geneva. Second, I think there are going to be some great movies. As I have been reading through the class blogs, it sounds like students have been following some pretty interesting topics. I think people will get pretty creative with their movies. As the class broke into groups ,listening to people talk and some of the music coming form computers only left me excited to see what people would come up with.
I liked how three different people taught how to make movies. Before this class, I was in the dark about where to even start to make a movie. I thought Pat did a great job. The Windows movie “maker” (sorry if that is not the correct name) seemed very easy and simple to use. Adrienne defiantly had a great understanding of the moviemaker she discussed. I liked how she went through the different effects and options you can implement into the movie. As Adrienne went on with Youtube and the “kiss” option, I got pretty confused. I am not that savvy with technology so I am not really sure what flash files and different “downloader’s” do. Max’s presentation was great too. I thought his moviemaker application was more technical but pretty useful, once you figure out all the gadgets. Overall, I think this was a great idea to have some students teach everyone else how to use this programs. The exercise made me feel a lot better about how to make a movie on a computer and use the different gadgets in each application.
I think our group has a great start to our video. We worked today in class on the script of the movie and cleared up some of the logistics I hope it turns out well. We spent time yesterday and this past weekend gathering our information and videos we will use. At first, I thought our video was going to be way to long. However, I think we have organized it well to fit the time time requirement.
As class came to and end, I took a step back and thought about this assignment. This is a very unique and interesting assignment that many college classes do not have the privilege of doing. I think it is neat that we have an opportunity to learn about how to make a movie on our computers. It is something different and not you see everyday in a class. ANyways, I think our group will pull through with a great video for the whole class to enjoy.

Sam

links to acquire video

2008-10-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

here are some links i found:
I used this link (it's meant for windows users) ----> http://youtubedownload.altervista.org/

This one is also good ------> http://keepvid.com/

http://www.tubedownloader.info/

http://www.ilikeyoutube.com/

http://www.idesktop.tv/

ALSO,

Hulu.com has lots of content (TV shows and what not) on it. Check it out!!

Who's Nailin Paylin?....watch and find out

2008-10-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

Hustler's cinematic tribute to potential United States president Sarah Palin...

-Jodi's favorites minus Merel and the cold cold Russians.

ENJOY ;)

research over the weekend

2008-10-19T23:37:00.000-07:00

so this weekend I did a fair amount of browsing on the internet about the campaign, millennials, the campaign and millennials, etc. Many of the sites i stumbled upon i found really interesting, especially the ones that discussed "dealing with millennials" and some were just absolutely amusing, especially some blogs. WHat really sticks out in my mind is the high number of sites discussing "how to manage millennials" and how certain companies are changing their policies in order to better suit us "millennials"...as in instead of us adapting to them, they are adapting to us. It was fun to read about my fellow "millennials" and the characteristics unique to my generation. After a while the websites began to get repetitive except different websites offered different views about "millennials" and politics. Some argued we weren't involved enough, yet others went on and on about the increase of millennial participation in politics, mainly with the current election. I agree with the latter. This made me think of Rebooting America. Technology has made it easier for us to get our hands in politics and it has enabled us to reach one another. I found this excerpt (below) interesting...it's from an online student journal, I'm not saying I agree with her, but I would be curious to hear what you all think about what she is saying... How much do you agree with her? Do you even agree with her? How much of a role does technology play in this election? Is this beneficial?

"Since young people are traditionally seen as apathetic, McCain didn’t bother with the youth constituency. Obama did.

He effectively brought the Millennials into the political process using social-networking sites like Facebook. He inspired new voters by convincing them that their grassroots support is essential to change, and he did most of it on the Internet.

The number of young voters in the 2008 presidential election has tripled compared to the 2004 elections. In some states it actually quadrupled, and Obama got to them first."

-Adrienne

Obama as President...not an interactive cite..just a funny pic

2008-10-18T22:43:00.001-07:00

The reference is to Robin Hood for those who don't get it.

Palin as President...an interactive site...

2008-10-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

Palin as President. Someone emailed me this today.

-adrienne

Class 10.16.08

2008-10-16T15:39:00.000-07:00

I liked the way class began today. I thought it was helpful how Prof. Dean explained what the plan was for the next few class meetings. I always get nervous because there is not technically a syllabus set in stone so I am always afraid we will have a big assignment due when I am not expecting it.

When we split into groups before the power point presentations, Prof. Dean spoke to the two groups that had already gone. I think her comments were very helpful and something we could take and learn from for future projects. I did feel like our presentation was seven separate presentations instead of one unified one. I know I felt rushed to put together something that the teacher would like and help me receive a good grade. I like taking my time on projects, especially with power points because presentations can be tricky. However, I definitely understand what Prof. Dean was saying about a lack of a central theme with ours. Prof. Dean made a comparison of making a presentation for your job in the real world. Would you just put something up and not really know what it meant? No. I would make a power point with a main concept or theme that showed the importance of what I was speaking about. I think this comparisons showed that maybe the first couple groups were not as prepared as the thought and tried to take the easy way out. Maybe? Not sure.

After the first presentation of class today when we had a chance to comment on the presentation and what they group spoke about, I was a tad confused. I felt that Prof. Dean was asking us more about how the groups presenting skills were when I thought the more important question would be how they comprehended the material and presented the most important concepts. I am not saying critiquing a presentation is not important because it definitely is, but other students did not necessarily remark on the content from the book. I am fault because I commented on the presentation when I had a chance to speak about the groups content from the reading material.

I thought the last presentation given today was great. I think the group had a very solid foundation of the main topics of Rebooting America. They presented the material very well and I liked the examples the group used. I thought the group broke down the reading into four simple, easy to understand concepts that allowed everyone to follow easily. I think maybe that is what separated a good presentation from a not so good presentation. One main and big reason why I think this group was above and beyond other was because they were organized. The group only had four people. Does a group size matter? Do smaller groups work more efficiently? Hmm...

As the class neared the end, I think we a productive discussion about the class and what is to come. I think Merel brought up an interesting question about reading assignment and class expectations posted on the internet. I spoke about this earlier in this post and in other posts. I have said that I like how Prof. Dean takes a step back at the beginning of class and clears the air of what is to come in the next few weeks. I like how she puts the work on the LocationF8 site and then says it in more detail at the beginning of class.

Looking forward to learning how to put a video together!

Sam

Word Clouds

2008-10-16T09:41:00.000-07:00

http://tagcrowd.com/

This cite lets you make your own word clouds based on text. I haven't tried it but hopefully it works.

CNN loves Comedy Central

2008-10-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeMypXCUWMw

CNN has been picking up on the coverage of the skits done on Comedy Central. They have reported more than once on the imitations of Palin and then the debate of McCain and Barack. It is interesting that a news station has picked up on the comedy parodies that make fun of the presidential candidates. We did not expect to see comedy reported as news on a semi-credible news station.

50% of college students prefer this to beer...

2008-10-08T00:12:00.000-07:00

...really?

Study claims, many students prefer wi-fi over beer.

-adrienne

Gmail

2008-10-07T16:15:00.000-07:00

I just read this is a Dutch Newspaper:

San Francisco - Google is going to protect drunk and emotional Gmail users from themselves. In the late evening hours and weekends users of the new software known as goggles are required to answer five simple mathematical questions within a minute before the mail is sent. Google made this known on Tuesday. The program is designed to prevent people from sending e-mails which they will later regret. 'Sometimes I send messages that I should not send, "says Gmail engineer Jon Perlow. "Like the time I emailed my ex-girlfriend that I wanted her back." Gmail users can set themselves whether and when goggles is active. "The program verifies whether you really want to send the message," says Perlow. "And how can you better decide whether you're in the right mood than by a solving a few math questions."

I think this is really weird. Nobody would use this or everybody would change the settings anyway if they really want to send a message. And I was wondering whether Gmail registers when you don't get the questions right. SO will Gmail know when your drunk?

By
Merel van Helden

Tweet This

2008-10-07T15:46:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed class today. Twitter, twitter, and twitter.

Twitter is prettying interesting and I thought the “Election 2008” Twitter page was fascinating. When Prof. Dean put that page up on the big screen today, I was so surprised at the amount of activity. A new message was coming up every second. When I think more about it, Twitter is kind of cool and it is remarkable how the whole country can comment on the same page. I was interested to hear other people’s opinions about Twitter today in class. I know I have changed my mind about five times on what my feelings are toward Twitter.

As far as using Twitter in our class during the Debate, I am still skeptical. Jessica made a good point that it is tough to text or type a comment when you are trying to listen to what is being said. I agree with what she said about how listening carefully to every word is important. The reason why I am not fond of “twittering” while watching the debate is because I think it is hard to text or have a small conversation while you are trying to pay attention to what the candidates have to say. Not to mention, if you are texting you cannot see what other people say, unless you want to get bombarded with a lot of text messages. I would like to see what other people are saying and commenting on because sometimes people bring up a good point or they think of a comment in a different way than you do, which may be eye opening. If I had a computer that worked, it would be better situation but I still think it would be hard to analyze what the candidates are saying and develop an intellectual comment in under 140 words.

I think it would be more beneficial to maybe develop a chat room after the debate to have a discussion. How would people remember all their comments though? Well, maybe you could write a few notes or use the Twitter program (if you really are that into “twittering”) and then go back and look at the comments on Twitter and discuss them in a chat room. Well, what the hell is the different between Twitter and a chat room? Ah! I will come back to that another time. All in all, I don’t see many advantages of using Twitter for an academic purpose like our situation with using it for the debate. I feel that Twitter is not a template for an intellectual conversation nor is it useful for academic of social purposes.

On anther note, I think the Meebo application on the Locationf8 site is pretty distracting. I found myself today trying to read what people were writing and also trying to listen to Prof. Dean speak. I think it is kind of rude to not pay attention to what the teacher is saying especially if you are writing nonsense in Meebo. That is just my opinion. To end on a positive note, I think the two-week outlook of our work is a good format for the class and will move us in a good direction. I think people will come up with some good presentations.

Sam

Palin Flow

2008-10-07T10:41:00.001-07:00

By Merel van Helden

The Internet and Us.

2008-10-06T08:34:00.000-07:00

"We are left to explore the many ways that citizens can participate in governance and policy development without becoming a professional member of the governing class. "(16 Rebooting America) We can participate in the political sphere through new media. Chapter 16 also talks about satirical media which is used often in the political arena. Chapter 16 introduced the idea of tactical media. It is use of open media to create new media. In the political sphere it can be used to make satirical videos. Old ideas are combined with others in order to present new ideas. The power of new technology allows satricial artists to be seen all over the world. Many people commenting on the US political seen are not from the United States.

"The Internet holds enormous potential to help rebuild the civic foundation of communities. "(69 Rebooting America) Rebuilding our community can be done by the Internet and now we can be more connected more than ever. We are connected through the Internet for politics, job searching and relationship finding. So many things that have been developed and have come to connect our generation as a whole. It used to be just that the telephone connected one person to another but now we can connect so many more people.

a video related to our demographic

2008-10-05T11:55:00.000-07:00

"More than any generation in history, people who are young today are not free to create an authentic culture of their own. Instead their hopes and desires are intensively studied by marketers, then amplified and sold back to them in a diabolical feedback loop."

In high school we watched a documentary called Merchants of Cool, which documents the idea above. I was perusing the internet and found this website, which i suggest you check out. It explains the basis of Merchants of Cool and some of the quotes/reviews really stuck out in my mind.

"What this system does is it closely studies the young, keeps them under constant surveillance to figure out what will push their buttons,” says media critic Mark Crispin Miller. “And it blares it back at them relentlessly and everywhere."

-Adrienne

"wanna be more than a walking demographic?..."

2008-10-04T15:54:00.000-07:00

iGeneration video. It definitely isn't crazy like the twitter video. I pasted the lyrics below.

-adrienne

And people tried to put us down, when iTunes bumped a post-Cold War sound.
My generation sat the at mecca of malls, Times Square, I'm there, Viacom installs.
So we hit the net while the Trade Center fell, New York met Hollywood, we ran like hell
No Vietnam for us, yo, Iraq it's on. So who agreed upon this cowboy Genghis Khan?
The choice made, baby. Hey we take it back, logged in dropped out, MTV took track.
They sold it back to us and claimed no correlation. The iMac, iPod, iGeneration.
And I'm waiting for the day we can get out. The world is ours, that's the story no doubt.
Want to be more than info super highway traffic, want to be more than a walking demographic!

CHORUS (x2)

"Hey! You're part of it." Talking about the iGeneration.
"Yeah! You're part of it." Talking about my iGeneration.

The iGeneration new organization meant optimization and unification,
When imagination gave participation in creation of culture a manifestation.
The Berlin Wall fell and out we came, the post-Cold War kids laid claim to AIM.
LOL, OMG, yo, BRB. Space, colon, dash, closed parenthesis.
We sat at our laptops and typed away, and found that we each had something to say.
Web-logged our fears, our hopes and dreams. Individuated by digital means.
Fiber optic lenses, DVD, Coca Cola, Disney and Mickey D's.
Flat mass culture, the norm that took hold; I hope I die before I get sold!
REPEAT CHORUS (x4)

This is the I-N-T-E-R-N-E-T ge-na-ra-tion, see?
This is the I-N-T-E-R-N-E-T ge-na-ra-tion, see?

REPEAT CHORUS (x3)

Class Reflectin 10.2

2008-10-03T07:23:00.001-07:00

I was not very happy with class today.

I think class got off to a bad start for me with the discussion of Twitter. It may be different with other people who understand Twitter more, but for me, I was so confused. I understand how Twitter works on a blog. It is simply posting what your are thinking, doing or where you are and people can read it. However, when the conversation about using cell phones and all that jazz, I just did not understand it. Not to mention that You Tube video was creepy. That girl is a nut.

I know this is sort of off topic, but it had me thinking. When someone does not know how to do something or is confused about how something works (like myself and how Twitter works with cell phones), I find it interesting how people think it is impossible to learn or just so overwhelming. People feel that way because they simply are not use to it. It is not normal. It is difficult to learn something that your not use to.

Anyways, the class discussion was OK. I understand the reading for the most part. The discussion in class was a little confusing. I was unclear about what Prof. Dean was asking because of the way she worded some questions. That threw me off. Overall, I think the class was not horrible, but we have had betters ones.

Sam

America's facebook newsfeed

2008-10-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1762639

-adrienne

Political Potential

2008-10-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

There is alot of optimistic political potential for the internet. Alot of bloggers have come to participate in politics through the internet and have become more influentical in politics that evolve outside of the internet.

In chapter 11, it discussed the attention that was brought to the Dan Rathers and CBS scandal. So many bloggers were posting about the incorrect information that was discussed on the network that it led to further media publicity and ultimately Dan Rathers' forced retirement. The Wall Street Journal claimed that it was a huge milestone that the bloggers were such great fact checkers and that they should be praised for their efforts.

The "Rebooting America" article talked about the potential of candidates using the internet and how it may really evolve to reach out to certain demographics. This way it would be more in the hands of the people which would make our government more democratic because that is the way it has historically been. They talked about how the revolution of the internet and blogging could be a parallel to the 1960s and how they had such energy and political force. Blogging and the internet to use it for political use may be our common cause.

However, it could become a negative impact because some people choose to believe what is on a blog without verifying the information. A blogger posted that Sarah Palin was trying to ban certain classics in a local Alaskan library. It spread further than the blog and eventually made it to prime time news. Later the blogger, was interviewed on tv and admitted that he had just made up the post and that it was not true at all. How many people actually saw him admitting that it was false is uncertain and many people may just believe only what they want to hear.

Arghh Matey!

2008-10-01T06:49:00.000-07:00

Prof. Dean asked the question at the end of class of whether or not we, the students, liked and enjoyed the format of the class. I really enjoyed the class because it was interesting to hear what other people choose to teach about. I think when you get about 20 different people together in a class all with different interests and opinions, you will be able to find some pretty interesting topics to teach. I also enjoyed the class format because it brought a different aspect to class. I liked the role reversal. Now the students are the teachers.

I think a way to improve this class would maybe break in three groups. I only say that because I was interested to hear what other people choose to teach. I did think that it was good to pick one person from a group to explain to the whole class what they wanted to talk about.

As far as the group presentations and the five or six people who did speak about what the taught to their smaller group, I thought we heard some interesting presentations. I was very impressed with Yanina's presentation. I think the topic of e-waste is pretty unique. That would be a great topic for a final project because I feel like you could find a lot of interesting information on that topic. Also, I feel like not many people in the United States are aware of the importance of the topics surrounding e-waste, so it would be a great for a class like ours to learn more about it.

I thought Asa's presentation was creepy. I am starting to really think twice about the e-mails I am receiving. The most astonishing part of the fake e-mail was how simple it was to search for it on Google. I think Asa maybe choose the third option on the Google search engine page. That is nuts! I really don't think students should joke around with that fake e-mail possibility. You can cause some serious problems and probably get in a good amount of trouble.

Overall, I felt like there was a theme that was circulating around at the end class today. Suspicion. I felt like people were really taken back by Asa's presentation, especially Prof. Dean. His presentation developed a lot of questions and people seemed to be very suspicious of this fake e-mail application.

What did other people think of this. I felt like some people were trying to put their thoughts together but were just baffled by Asa's presentation.

Sam

how to add music to your blog

2008-09-30T20:35:00.001-07:00

My skill was demonstrating ways to add music to a blog. I made a blog to help teach my skill. Check it out.

http://skillsbyadrienne.blogspot.com/

Some of the stuff I covered in the groups today is in some of the posts on the blog. It might help clarify things if you read those.

-Adrienne

Absentee Ballots

2008-09-30T15:40:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, heres a few links for people interested in applying for their absentee ballot. I have a couple of states listed:

Massachusetts:

http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elepdf/absbalap.pdf

Connecticut:

http://www.ct.gov/sots/LIB/sots/ElectionServices/ElectForms/electforms/aabeng.pdf

New York

http://www.elections.state.ny.us/NYSBOE/download/voting/absentee.pdf

New Hampshire:

http://www.sos.nh.gov/Absentee%20Ballot%20Application-2007.pdf

Vermont:

http://vermont-elections.org/elections1/absentee.html

Maine:

http://www.maine.gov/cgi-bin/online/AbsenteeBallot/index.pl

New Jersey:

http://www.njelections.org/absentee_doe.html

Be sure to apply for the ballots soon because time is running out. You can also get in touch with HWS Votes who will help you get set up with your absentee ballot.

Search Engines

2008-09-30T08:47:00.000-07:00

Search Engines on the internet. (Based on a text by Hartmut Winkler: Search Engines)

We can never find the things on the internet. We type in words at a search engine and hope that the right results are presented. This is often not the case. In addition, if you have found a useful site it is impossible to find it back unless you know exactly which words you used or how the site is called. This is because of the types of search engines used. It takes minimal training to find specific websites but it takes years of experience to actually use a search engine well. As a student this is one of my biggest problems.

The first type of search engine is based on classification of words. Yahoo for example has many employees who spend their time classifying words that are used on the internet so that words with the same classification are grouped together. New websites are put into several groups and they pop up when the right words are typed into the search engine. For example pollution falls under Society and Culture/ Environment and Nature/ Pollution. Yahoo has about 320 million websites categorized.
The problems with these kinds of search engines are that people sometimes look for sites that fall outside of these categories. People are looking for words in broader ways than Yahoo for example classifies them. So with these kinds of search engines you have to look at categories not for words.

The second type of search engine is based on words. Search engines like AltaVista read documents and websites and remember every word that comes up, so if people are looking for words than websites that include those words will come up. For example, if you type your name into such a search engine than sites that includes your name come up. AltaVista has about 125 million texts or websites. I believe Google is also this type of search engine.
The problem with these kinds of search enigines is that if you put words into the search engine and you put slightly different words into it the next time, or change the order of the words, than totally different result will come up. It is harder to find things back. In addition, search engines like AltaVista do not recognize words in the same category or synonyms; so you have to be really careful to formulate your question the right way otherwise you will get useless results.

The third type of search engine is some sort of combination between these two. Excite for example reads every word in texts and websites but it also clusters. The search engine clusters those websites and texts together that share many of the same keywords.
The problem with these kinds of websites at the moment is that they are less known and less used. Excite for example only has 50 million websites to search and that means that it suggests only certain kinds of websites. It is less broad and will therefore not always give the websites you are looking for.

Some old tips (most already known):
-Use AND to find websites with all the words.
-Use OR to find websites with all or any words.
-Use AND NOR to find websites with words excluded.
-Use “” to find websites with words lines together.
-Use lower case letters for lower case and capitals.
-Use capital letters for words that have those capitals, not words that use lower case letters.
-Use title: to find websites with words in the title area (certain areas on websites are called the title area and if you put title in the search engine it will look at websites where the words are in the title area, not in the whole text).
-Same for Host:, Domain:, URL: or Link:.

By
Merel van Helden

All in All

2008-09-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

There were a few general points about the book that we all agreed upon as weak aspects. We had the feeling that the book carried many of the core ideas all the way through the book. In some instances this gave the book a flow between chapters and other times it was simply repetitive and tedious. We felt as thought the book could have been more direct in it's points and possibly shed about thirty pages. There was a definite tone of liberal bias and a dislike for the current administration that could have tainted the subjectivity of the book. A few of the examples seemed a little off base or far fetched

But that aside...

The book presented many ideas that caught our attention in a serious way. Particularly the sections about our digital footprints. We often feel that we are free to do what we like on the internet behind some vial of anonymity, but this is certainly not the case. Companies track our every movement online. Once that information is collected the companies are free to do what they like with it (sell, use, abuse). Many people in our group are more aware of what they type in to Google now. After reading this book one can't deny the feeling of prying eyes as the search engine churns. If we want to look something up we are hesitant because we know it will affect our profile, in some computer data base.

Another point in the book was interactivity. Before we did not realize that the interactivity on the internet was so asymmetrical. Most of us thought that interactivity meant that we were just talking and discussing with other people in the internet but now we know that that is not true and that interactivity is a false idea.

We were less interested in the idea of companies using the general public in an interactive way. Such shows as American Idol are letting their consumers act as judges, marketers, and audience. This pushes many responsibilities on to the consumer through interactive response. These ideas we were all very comfortable with and carried much less weight than some more intrusive surveillance sections.

Overall we liked the book very much. It brought up many interesting ideas and he changed our mind on many things about the internet. However, there were a few aspects about the book that we did not like and thought were biased, repetative or redundant.

PS Mustafa, can Merel have her Tshirt back?

Sam the Teacher

2008-09-29T07:59:00.001-07:00

When I was thinking about what to teach on Tuesday for class I had a few ideas. My first idea was to teach about blogs. The reason why I thought about teaching about blogs was because I felt like a majority of the class did not know a lot about blogs before they took this class. Now that the entire class has thrown themselves into the blogging world, I thought there may still be a few people that are confused by some concepts of blogs and how they work. I know myself that sometimes I get overwhelmed with what you can do on a blog. I find something new everything I sign in. Due to that reason, I thought there may be a few people in class that still want to learn more about blogs, the history of blogging and some concepts that surround how blogs operate. I was planning on going through some of the links from the "resource" list on Locationf8. Although I still may do something relating to teaching about blogs, I found a new concept that I am interested in and I think others will be.

The history of the internet. There is a link on the "resource" list on Locationf8 that I will use. I think this will be interesting for a few reasons. I never really took time to investigate the logistics of how the internet began. I feel like there are some interesting concepts that went into the development of the internet and I am unaware of. Overall, I think this may be an interesting topic of discussion. What was your first encounter with the internet? What did you look at the first time you used the internet? Where do you see the internet going in years to come? I hope this may develop into a interesting discussion about the internet. I can only hope.

Sam

brainstorming ideas for teaching a skill

2008-09-28T20:05:00.000-07:00

as i am sitting here reading blog after blog I decided something that would totally enhance this experience would be music. How cool would it be to have music playing on a blog? I am going to do some research and teach myself how to add music to a blog. Therefore my viewers get to hear music when they visit my page. Hopefully then, I can take what i learned and teach it to the class, so they too will know how to add music to their blogs if they want. That's pretty sweet.

-adrienne

reaction to 9/25

2008-09-28T19:33:00.000-07:00

it was nice to hear Professor Dean talk / lead the discussion for a portion of the class. It's great to have the back and forth discussion with my classmates but it's helpful to hear from the professor as well. I think it's more effective to structure class this way. Granted I do learn from what my peers have to say but at the same time I find a portion of my learning comes from what the professor discusses. In the past I have had professors that (for a twice a week class) lecture on the first day and for the second class the students are expected to carry on a discussion (modertated by the professor or the students) that ties into the reading and the lecture from the previous class. This structure does have some advantages such as the extended duration of class wide discussion, but for the most part I do not think it is as effective as the recent structure of our past few classes.
WHen professor Dean lectures and then opens the floor for discussions, these classes have been more effective for me than our other classes. Furthermore, the day we broke off into small groups (tuesday 9/23) and had to teach eachother what we read about was helpful to me. This type of structure allowed us the responsiblity to accomplish an assignment and to then come prepared to teach others about it. I think this is a good skill that is applicable to certain things in our futures, such as our jobs. Overall the combination of shared learning - this idea of peer to peer education- in conjunction with our work outside the class and the lecturing of Professor Dean all have contributed to what I have learned (and what i will take away) from this class. Learning wise, the past few classes have been successful for me, so i hope our classes continue to mantain this sort of structure.

I am looking forward to tuesday's class. This is an exciting opportunity, but also a creative way for me to learn from my peers. I hope to learn some new internet tricks.

-adrienne

Class evaluation

2008-09-28T17:15:00.000-07:00

I am a little late with commenting but just in case. I thought that the class of 9/25 was interesting. I liked it a lot more than the previous discussion. Maybe we were more used to they way it worked, or maybe we just were more played into each other but I thought it was less chaotic but still a discussion.

There were several things why this made a really good class to my opinion. The first one was that the course assessment was explained. Not only about the self assessment and the blogging but also about that our effort into the course is being watched and everything. (We're being monitored :P). Just knowing made me stress less and made me more comfortable to participate.

The second thing I really liked about class is that we first had a lecture, where we could ask questions or object if we wanted, and than had a debate. To me this felt like we actually learned stuff from the professor and in addition could argue about it. To me that is the PERFECT class. Because sometimes I feel like we did not learn anything. Sometimes I feel like we learned stuff that we already learned in the book. Sometimes I feel like the professor is all wrong and I want to comment. This class however, I did not feel any of these things but the opposite. Being able to interrupt the lecture from professor Dean also made it feel less like a lecture and more like the starting point of a discussion. This meant that I had more the feeling of listening actively just to catch the professor at something wrong.

In addition I want to evaluate the class of 9/23 as well. I though that the class was fine. We went into groups and we discussed the book. However, it felt a little repetitive because we already discussed the book in our own group for blogging the day before. Still I do like the format of coming together in small groups and afterwards writing on the board. The negative thing however is that I am scared that the things on the board are either wrong or not really the main points and it sometimes happens that we do not really discuss what the best points are.

By
Merel van Helden

2008-09-25T17:17:00.000-07:00

i started to respond to a post by BG , but my comment was getting to long so Ill finish it here. THis is what i responded to his post:

i never considered this. Yeah, i do text my friends to see what they are up to. And I'm guilty of checking my friends’ pictures out on facebook. But i never considered these actions to be a form of monitoring or surveilling (if that's a word) of my friends. I usually regard monitoring negatively; something that's a hassle or intrusive. With that said I'd hate to think I spy on my friends... but do i? Have i become so immune to a facebook lifestyle that i don't even stop to think what exactly it is I'm doing each time i login to my account? I am going to continue blogging about this on my blog.

and I am going to continue it...

...Now that I stop and think about it, clearly i am monitoring my friends, but in this case i don't consider monitoring in a negative way. I text my friends when i want to see where they are so we can go get lunch or something. When I am on facebook I usually look up friends, write on some walls and that's about that. I do look at pictures but they usually are ones that belong to my friends not attending hws. I do this as a way to just see what they are up to i guess. And some people might consider that spy like behavior and i see where they are coming from. But in my defense, my friends know I look at their pictures, just as I know they look at mine. I look because i'm curious, not because i am a creeper. I don't look through 200 pictures of all of my friends, i just look at the first couple. It’s funny as i sit here typing this I feel like i have to justify what i do on facebook; prove that i am not a creeper. Facebook allows us the ability / power to creep (or spy) on our friends...it definitely publicizes our information.

How we choose to use this power is up to us. As i said before, I use facebook as a way to check up on some of my friends that don't go to hws and i do this because they are my friends and I care about them. I talk to them on the phone as well. I use facebook and my cell phone as a way to maintain communication with some of my friends that don't go to hws. Both of these technologies help to simplify this process of maintaining long distance friendships. Furthermore, these two technologies allow me the ability to stay up to date with my friends and their lives. I choose to keep up to date with certain friends because they are my friends and i care about them. If i didn't care, I wouldn’t bother, but I do care, so I will bother. With that said, if keeping up to date with certain friends, means i am actually "monitoring" them, then I guess I am guilty of that. But I don’t think I’m the only one…

-adrienne

Class 9.25

2008-09-25T15:04:00.001-07:00

I enjoyed how class began today. I thought it was helpful that Prof. Dean cleared up some of the logistics of the course, i.e. grading, final paper, etc. That issue was rather unsettling to me, so it helped to hear Prof. Dean explain what is going on and how she will be evaluating us. It was not that I did not know, but it was nice to hear it from her mouth. I am not sure if that makes sense, sorry.

I thought the lecture was great. We have not heard Prof. Dean speak for a long period of time about the book, so it was nice to have her kind of wrap up the text with her thoughts and statements. It was nice to hear what Prof. Dean had to say about the author and her critiques and areas she enjoyed. Overall, I learned a lot from listening to Prof. Dean discuss Andrejevic and the issues raised in the iMedia chapter.

Towards the end of the lecture, I thought it was smart of Prof. Dean to stay in a large group discussion rather than breaking up into smaller groups. It was a nice change. I liked the large group atmosphere because it allowed everyone to hear each others voices, rather than only hearing people in a small group. This also was beneficial for students who do not like group work. It probably was a nice change of pace.

One part of the discussion I thought was intriguing was the conversation about TV watching. I thought it was interesting to hear how watching TV help people develop thoughts and critical thinking. Watching TV is like a creative exercise by generating creativity and critical thinking. After listening to this part of the lecture, I really began to understood how there was such a change in interactivity. Another comment that caught my attention was how Prof. Dean said that Alabama (I think that is the right State) did not really show much emotion towards the 9/11 incident and New York City. I was very surprised to hear that a southern state would shrug that off and not be more involved somehow.

Overall, the discussion and especially the lecture was very thought provoking. I thought that listening to Prof. Dean today had people's minds thinking a lot more than usual. At first, I was a little overwhelmed with what Prof. Dean was saying, but I certainly followed her points and stayed right on track. I thought it was good that the discussion did necessarily end in the last few minutes of class. I think that is good because it allows people to write new posts on their blog!

Sam

2008-09-25T08:07:00.000-07:00

i hope today we can continue the discussion we started towards the end of last class (tuesday). There seemed to be a fair amount of people that had opinions to voice. I for one would like to hear what other kids in class have to say about this idea of being monitored constantly and what implications this could have on us and our society as a whole.

-adrienne

a little old, but relevant...

2008-09-25T05:52:00.000-07:00

"There's been a fundamental change in the way the government conducts surveillance," said David Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "And the result is a lot more secrecy and lot less accountability."
Federal agents sought 1,727 warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for electronic eavesdropping and physical searches last year, according to a Justice Department filing with Congress. Just four applications were rejected, although two of them were later revised and approved. The number of so-called FISA warrants jumped by 500 from 2002 and has almost doubled since 2001 when 934 applications were approved.
By comparison, there were 1,442 wiretap petitions in federal and state courts for crimes like drugs and racketeering, according to a separate report from the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said the new FISA figures show the Justice Department "is deploying its legal resources to uncover and prevent terrorist attacks on Americans."
"To keep the United States and its people safe, it is critical that the Department of Justice use every legal means to detect, deter and disrupt foreign terrorists and their activities here in America," Ashcroft said.
But critics of the government's surveillance efforts called the sharp increase worrisome because the work of the FISA court is conducted in secret and allows a lower standard of proof. It's generally tougher for a prosecutor to get permission for traditional wiretaps because they must demonstrate that there is probable cause that a suspect engaged in a crime. There's no such requirement when agents are seeking to gather intelligence from a suspected spy or terrorist. ...

^^for the rest of the article : http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0502-04.htm

-Adrienne

ibutton...a new form of information databasing

2008-09-24T21:45:00.000-07:00

i don't know if anyone has noticed these new doorbell looking things attached to the outside of buildings (mainly dorms) by the entrances or discretely screwed on the walls in classrooms. It is called the ibutton. I encourage you to check out ibutton.com or google ibutton...some interesting stuff comes up.

-adrienne

QUOTE OF THE DAY!!!! 9/23

2008-09-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

" I am pretty sure I am raising future terrorists."
-Jodi Dean.

The Repetition Continues....

2008-09-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

Chapter 7 - IPolitics:
- Political campaigning has entered the database world, a realm of a symmetrical datagathering, data mining and target marketing.

- The point is not that politics has become a form of marketing but that the impact on the political process of marketing strategies changed, using monitoring technology.

Chapter 8 - IMonitoring:
- Peer to Peer monitoring has grown into three categories of romatic interests, family and friends and acquaintances.

-Themes that Room Raiders provide "the way in which interactive communication technologies double as surveillance tools, the norm-enforcing character of peer monitoring as a means of screening for deviance and the confirmation of forensic investigation as a matchingmaking tool."

Chapter 9 - Beyond Monitoring
-Popular media is using technology for people to feel like they are part of the show. (i.e. voting on American Idol)Once they feel like they have ownership they are avid watchers and are now submitting information to the companies instead of the company reaching out for information through research.

-"The century that ushered in the fantasy of an efficiently managed consumer paradise was characterizedin reality by a brutal litany of totalitarianism, fascism, genocide, exploitation world war, and the specter of global destruction." pg 251.

We had trouble discussing the last quote in our group. Does anyone else have any ideas about what he is trying to get across?

Class Reflection - 9.23

2008-09-23T15:51:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed class again today. It started slow but it heated up!

I liked the lecture form Prof. Dean at the beginning of the course. There has been a lot of discussion going on amongst the students in class and on blogs about different issues, so it was nice to hear from Prof. Dean and listen to her thoughts, opinions and statements about some topics related to the reading. It is important to have that authoritative figure in class to lecture about certain topics related to class discussions and bring everyone back to a level ground.

I liked how the class transitioned in group work again. It is kind of nice going from listening to a teacher to listening to your fellow students. I learn great from both. I like listening to students as well because sometimes I can relate to what they are saying and the thoughts they are trying to get out. I thought our group worked well. We had good points from Chapter 4, 5, and 6 to put on the board. Everyone had good input in our group which made the discussion run smoothly and efficiently. One aspect of the group work that I thought was helpful was having time to walk around and look at what other people wrote. I feel like people covered all aspects of the book and did not leave out any main points. I guess that is great and shows that people grasped all aspects of the book and the points the author was trying to convey. I like to see what other people thought and how they interpreted the reading. It helps because maybe someone else's thoughts will help me understand a part of the book or I will learn something that I previously did not know. Overall, people provided helpful input on the book and I feel like no important comments or critiques were left out.

The next part of class was interesting. Jeff Colburn asked Prof. Dean a great question about not feeling comfortable with EZPASS. This sparked a pretty unique discussion. The only reason why I saw it was unique was because some students were arguing with the teacher and not other classmates. I was not anticipating this! I thought it was great discussion and it was nice to see students and the teacher get into a friendly quarrel.

One other note from class. I thought it was really nice when Max had a question about the reading and instead of people jumping on him for his point of view or criticism about the reading. other students helped him understand why the author wrote what he did. It showed how there can be a supportive type discussion and students do not need to always disagree and argue with one another. I thought that was pretty neat and definitely something I learned from. If someone does not neccessarily grasp what the author is saying in a book, students can help the other person in a nice manner without causing a unfriendly discussion.

Back to reading the rest of the book!

Sam

They will find you...

2008-09-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

Report: FBI searches Tenn. student's apartment in Palin hacking case

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9115238

-adrienne

Blog Roll

2008-09-18T18:52:00.002-07:00

Just a really short note:
I noticed that many people do not have our new group blog on their roll. Just so you know.
Merel

Pro's and Con's

2008-09-18T18:52:00.000-07:00

Hi Guys,
I agree a lot with Sam actually, so read his blog first :P. I loved the fact that it was chaotic but I thought it was really difficult to speak your mind if you had to wait for 10 people to speak first. You heard a lot of "going back to the ....subject" and basically I wanted to comment on everything that was said. I could not, because the class already proceeded to the next topic. However, this way many people did get to say something and I thought it was nice to hear some new faces in class speaking up.

However Sam and I disagree about 1 thing. I hate it when people have a conversation but they are actually speaking about something different. I felt people were not listening to each other and kept therefore repeating the same arguments over and over. (I could be guilty to that as well). So I would prefer it if next time we would talk about the same thing and have 4 or 5 main positions for example instead of everyone talking about their own opinion and basically saying what the person next to you also said.

But although there some things I did not like about today, I really liked the fact that we had a real class discussion, where everyone got to speak and the professor said less than usual. It's different from my other classes and I like the fact that there are opposite views instead of everyone agreeing. From all my classes, this one is the most discussed outside of class. But I have to be honest, I do feel that the subject of the class is at times too repetitive and there are not always answers.

As a comment on the experiment of Location F8 I wanted to say something. I really like the idea, it is a geat experiment. No, I do not want to participate, but I think it would be really funny if other people would. However I think there is 1 really big difference between this experiment and what is happening on the internet: I know who is doing it and I meet the person often. I would have a much bigger problem with the experiment because I know the person. Lets face it, other staff of HWS (for example security with the firedepartment) can come in your room anytime and check whether your room is secure. So in that sense we are already being monitored by people, just like we are monitored by the internet. We don't mind them coming in.

By
Merel van Helden

Class was Crazy!

2008-09-18T16:29:00.000-07:00

I thought today's class was very interesting. The class was a bit chaotic but overall, I thought the discussion was pretty productive.

However, I am confused and a bit baffled.

I think everyone has her or her own argument and there is not one central argument being produced amongst the class. That is great thought. That means the discussion will never end! So when everyone in class today had their change to speak, each person was arguing or discussing something different than the previous person. I am not saying that is bad, everyone needs to get their opinions out. On the flip side, it may make having a central discussion on a particular subject tough, or maybe tough is not the right word, overwhelming maybe. I only say that because sometimes I feel like there are five of six tiny arguments going on.

Today, I found myself sitting back and taking the back seat and listening. I did that sort of on purpose. I felt like I sparked a discussion when I voiced my opinion to a classmate about what he is hiding on the internet. So, I decided to sit back and hear what my classmates thought. I wanted to formulate my opinions before I spoke my mind. I figured I could come back to class the next time with some arguments drawn out. I know some people may think: "Why did you not saying anything and want to wait?" Well, I think the reason why I didn't speak up was because I could have made a comment on what everyone had to say, whether I agreed or disagreed. However, it was tough to get my opinion out there when I had to wait to speak. If I wanted to comment on what a classmate said, I had to wait and by the time it was my turn to speak, I had so many other thoughts on my mind about what other people said, I was overwhelmed and couldn't put it all together.

That may sound confusing, but I hope you know what I mean.

I definitely understand the need for an organized list of people who wanted to speak, but I think it affected the flow of the discussion. However, after a person said something, I would have a comment and I would want to comment right away, but I would have to wait until after five other classmates spoke.

I think as the class came to an end, one of the arguments that really came about was if the Internet should be a private or public space. I think that is a pretty good question that will lead to a interesting discussion. I think a lot of peoples opinions are centered on this core question.

Also, I want to throw this out there. It is important to remember if someone does not agree with someone else, it is simply because that person see eye to eye with the other's opinion or point of view. That is great and will only help generate a great discussion. I want to make sure people in class realize that if I or another classmate disagree with you , it is simply because i disagree with your argument or opinion. I am not judging you as a person or attacking your personal opinions. I respect your opinion, view and argument and what your saying. I think its great that you think differently than I do. Just please remember that I am not saying you are a bad person. You are one of my classmates with a different opinion and that will only drive great class discussions!

Sam

I want to hear what you guys have to say...

2008-09-18T16:21:00.000-07:00

class was chaotic today. There are clearly two sides to our debate and our class is split among those sides. I think people had valid points for both sides of the argument, but i don't agree with everything that was said. Not to be a Debbie downer or anything, but to me the reality of it is that we don't have much control over what is happening with our information. Maybe eventually companies and marketers won't have all our info, but i don't see that happening anytime soon. There are two sides to this argument and people are really set upon their beliefs...this clearly is a touchy subject because it is a very personal one.

I don't like knowing that companies can have (or some might say, Take) my info from me, but at this point, it's inevitable. It sucks, but that's the reality of it. Just because I don't like it, doesn't mean that i am hiding something or am exploiting myself on the internet. Fine, let the government see my info and track me and see what i do. But marketers..that's another story.

Yeah sometimes it is convenient to have an ad pop up that is relevant to you, but long term? ...does anyone else keep thinking about Brave New World? When we talk about advertisements there is a lot to consider. For starters, techniques of advertisements. One technique of marketers includes creating an insecurity in the consumer. For example, there was a commercial for Invisalign (the invisible braces) and it showed an adult woman going on a blind date and she arrives at the restaurant to meet her date and when the person believed to be the blind date smiles, we see a mouth, full of a bunch of metal, then all of sudden, the camera cuts to the actual date and when he smiles, there is no metal, because he is wearing the Invisalign braces. Needless to say, the woman chooses the man who has the invisalign braces, because obviously they look better on a grown man than the metal braces do. What the Invisalign commercial did was plant the idea into our heads that if we are an adult and want to get braces we better get the invisalign ones or we won't be attractive. The advertisement therefore manipulates the consumer into believing that we can't risk looking bad with braces, so we should purchase invisalign braces.

^i know that's a bit confusing and wordy but my fear is that overtime marketers will manipulate us with their advertisements...it will just happen over time. Maybe im jumping to conclusions but what if 20 years from now all these ads have caused us to become completely different people? What if they take from us our ability to think for ourselves and be individuals? Advertisements plant ideas in our heads...some will argue that advertisements convince us (conciously or subconsiously) to buy into a particular product or trend. Products, trends, they define a culture and it is through advertisements that we purchase certain products or buy into particular trends. A lot of people are influenced by advertisements.

The more you see something, the more ingrained it becomes in you. The more you think about a particular thing, the more you start to believe it. For example, if you think positively, eventually you become a positive person.

In general, what do you think? Do you think we define our culture? or does our culture define us? And does our culture define the marketers /advertisements, or do marketers and their advertisements define us and our culture?

-Adrienne

Who is really reading this post...?

2008-09-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

Recently there has been some posts discussing a specific issue pertaining to the class conversation on Tuesday. People in the class feel that Internet patrolling is invading their privacy and is outright weird. Since the beginning, I have said I have nothing to worry about so someone can look up whatever they would like. I am not hiding anything. As long as someone does not get ahold of my social security number, credit card number or any other important information, I am fine with it.

What's to worry?!

My question to all the people who are not on the same page as me. If you are afraid of people looking at information you have online, is it because you are trying to hide something? I say I have nothing to hide because I have not put anything on the internet that would cause controversy. If you are a classmate who thinks your privacy is being invaded and can't believe someone can look at everything you do online, what is it that is online that you don't want people to see?

So do you classmates have something to hide? If you are trying to hide something, why would you put it online? If you have personal information that you don't want to be seen, then I don't know why you would want to put it on the internet, especially since you know people can see it. That also implies to something that is controversial. Why would you want to put yourself in jeopardy of getting in trouble for something you put online. If I have controversial thoughts or something I want to write about, I will make a journal and write my feelings out on paper. Not post it on the internet.

To me, the reason why you put it into the cyber world is basically because your saying you want people to read it and look at your thoughts on a certain issue. You know someone can look at it and you want them too. I don't fully understand why some people think it is weird that people can look at anything you write online, especially if you have nothing to hide. To the people who are uncomfortable with putting things online, you suggest to me that you are posting things that are controversial and may cause some problems. So if that is case, then why even write about them online. I am sure you can find another way to get those feelings out in the open without posting them online where someone can patrol them.

I am open to all comments. I understand I may stirring the pot and please understand that I am not trying to jump on anyone's thoughts or beliefs. I am just interested to hear why you are really concerned with what people see online. What is it that you are worried about?

Sam

Ispy with my little eye...ch 4, 5 and 6

2008-09-17T08:03:00.000-07:00

After reviewing chapters 4, 5 and 6 our group realized that our discussion seemed to be a little repetitive and seemed to reiterate the same ideas. A lot of the simple ideas were over elaborated and that things were more complicated from the language that was used.

Andrejevic talks about how things will be developed to help us further in everyday life such as Smart wear clothing which can detect your vitals and can make you smell nice and other things like that but he goes further and assumes things will pretty much be consumed by technology. That technology will even be used to remind a doctor of medical procedures at the operating table."(122) This is getting a little extreme. Doctors will no longer have malpractice insurance because they will be blaming the computer for telling them the wrong procedure. It will make us as people worse. In the article that we read earlier, about the technology of pencils and writing, he brings the example of Plato foreseeing that our memory would weaken because of writing which is true but it further expands to this example and that people will be less intelligent and would not be able to problem solve on their own because they will have technology to figure everything out for them.

The problem with the development of technology is that for every new thing invented there needs to be 5 safeguards for it. For the key less starters for a car, how to they know that a child isn't entering the car or what if you are loaning a friend your car but if it is matched to a fingerprint how can your friend borrow your car. If your phone is used as your credit card, but you want to let your child borrow your phone how to you make sure they do not charge a $10000 shopping spree.

War on terrorism is the first Internet war, you can access it from your desk. People are asked to participate and be ready. After 9/11 the department of homeland security tried to transfer responsibility to the citizens of the United States through a "Be Prepared" campaign that allowed citizens to feel more responsible and more secure because part of it is through their own hands. Andrejevics sees a parallel between the marketing for interactivity and the marketing for readiness. Profiling and datamining can be used as surveillance in the name of national defense.

When we participate interpassively, everything we do is stored in a database and when we interactively participate people take responsibility for their own safety.

What about the Positive side?

2008-09-17T06:32:00.000-07:00

I may be going on a side track here, but let me know what you think...

When we discussed criticisms and questions in class on 9/16, I am not completely positive but I think a group wrote something regarding the positive side of the debate on Internet patrolling. The other night, I was watching the MSNBC television show "To Catch a Predator." For those of you who do not know the show, its pretty simple. They investigate people who use the Internet to find sex. More times than not, the people who use the Internet to find sex are older people who typically target underage boys and girls. The show sets up a sting in where a young child invites one of these predators to a house and in the end, the police arrest the predator for targeting underage kids for sex.

My point for bringing this up is to illustrate the positive side of patrolling the Internet. Predators who target young children for sex is completely wrong. It's gross and I get so worked up when I watch the show because I cannot believe the people who do this. This is a positive example of internet patrolling and how it can be used in a good way. If the authority can find these predators and get ride of them one by one, they are making a difference. That is one more child the authority is helping and I guess, saving from a life changing moment. If there is a person who can know everything about someone and what they are doing online, but help in a positive way to get rid of criminals like sex predators, I think that is beneficial for everyone.

I may have gone off topic a bit, but it relates to someone knowing everything about what someone else is doing online.

Sam

tuesday (9/16) reaction

2008-09-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

I'm really pleased with the way today's class went. I liked how the structure of the class was switched up a bit. (the idea of ending with a lecture and starting with small group discussions). What we discussed as a class kind of lead us into the lecture...because our lecture was partially coming from our class wide discussion, I for one felt more engaged in the lecture. Typically during lectures, i do my learning by taking a backseat position (more listening, less talking) and take lots of notes. Today on the other hand, my learning was accomplished by more listening, more talking. THe class wide engagment within the lecture was beneficial for me. I was learning through what Professor Dean discussed and learning also through points my classmates discussed. There were a few points where it seemed like our classroom discussion would affect the direction of the lecture. I think this is a good thing.

I wish i had contributed more to my group discussion today...i did the readings. But like Sam, i found that i was less upfront about my ideas because I was working with a new group. I'm used to working with my blogging group, so today felt a bit uncomfortable. Next time we break off into small groups my goal is to get over the uncomfortableness.

I appreciate being told the upcoming schedule, and the readings in advance because it helps me to manage my time better...an essential skill. I'm looking forward to the presentations where were teach our classmates something. Im excited to read iSpy...i find these types of topics interesting and I'm happy we get to discuss them the way we can in class. It's great to hear differing opinions about something that affects us all. I can't wait for thursday's class so we can pick up where we left out...things were really heating up. Plus, as Sam said, I think the people that didn't speak up today come thursday are definitely going to want to speak up and I'm excited to hear what they have to say.

-adrienne

Class Reflection - 9.16.08

2008-09-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed the beginning of class and I thought it was helpful how Prof. Dean discussed what will be coming in the next few weeks. Knowing what is to come is helpful for me. I typically plan out my week with how much work I have and reading I have to do. Since we don't have a syllabus, having Prof. Dean give the class a little outline like she did helped a lot.

Then the class formed four or five groups to talk about the reading and develop five important concepts we thought the author was trying to convey in the beginning of the book. I attempted to start my group in discussion but I could not find the right words for what I wanted to say, so my thoughts did not come out the right way. Our group worked OK I thought. I was not as vocal as I usually am in groups. I took the back-seat. I felt uncomfortable because I was not with my normal group. In the group discussion today in class, I felt there was some tension for some reason. Maybe because some members had different opinions? Not sure. I wish I could have been more talkative though. It was not because I was not prepared but I guess I was not comfortable in the group I was in. I think I am use to the people in my group blog and they understand me. I am not great at formulating my opinions with words. I know that sounds lame, but it takes me a while and the students in my group blog more times than not know what I am trying to say. Formulating my opinions is something I am working on and I think that blogging is helping, so that is positive.

The questions at the end of the class were interesting and developed some interesting discussion among the class. The privacy issue is a pretty interesting topic. Many people have very different opinions, which is understandable. I would like that conversation we had at the end of class to continue. I felt like some people, including myself, wanted to say a few more things but the time ran out!

Overall, I think this class was productive and very informative. I enjoy the book we are reading. I think it develops great class discussion because there is so much to talk about.

Sam

some videos to consider...

2008-09-15T20:43:00.001-07:00

this kinda made me laugh...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGcdFLJrdJY

another way we are being "monitored" ...
I'd be curious to hear what others have to say about these traffic cameras...Who gains?...the town or the drivers?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbW9RGe6odY

-Adrienne

Meetings and privacy

2008-09-15T18:16:00.000-07:00

James, don´t worry about this morning, it went fine. Although I think we should all come to the meeting whether you are really well prepared (like Becky with the laptop) or less prepared. Your peer assessment will be just lower :P, just kidding. I think it is alright if you are unprepared once and in addition you could contribute really well to the discussions we have during our meetings. Our meetings do not only consist of typing what we read in the book but also discussing what we think with a smaller group than the entire class.

The funny thing however is that we talked about exactly the same thing during the meeting. How dangerous it could be when we use our credit card online and manage our finances online. In the Netherlands it seems more secure. When you do pay online or manage your account you need to put your debit card (we hardly use credit cards) in an e-identifier machine and you have to type in your pin number. In addition you have to fill in a number from your log in screen and then you get a response that you use to log in. It seems much work, but it takes actually only 5 seconds and it seems much saver than just needing the info on your credit card.

A short comment on the class of Thursday: I think it was good class. My opinion about ethics is that we can say or post pictures about whatever we want on our own blog. If you work in groups your group mates will correct you and otherwise people will not read your blog. If you comment on other people's blog it is a little different. Just like most, I think that we should respect each other and only comment on the arguments and not the person. However, I think that there will not be any problems in this class.

By
Merel van Helden

2008-09-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

The issues of privacy in this new technologically advanced world is something that strikes me as very important. Just the other day I received a call from my credit card company, asking me if i recently spent $2,000 at tiffany's.com. I absolutely was not, but it is scary that some people know how to use technology and access personal information so easily.
Although at the same time the technology that is being used that allows consumers to interact with company's without leaving their computer chair. Voting for the next flavor of toothpaste, or choosing the color and style of shoe that is your favorite is fantastic. The level of interaction that exists is remarkable, and most of it occurs without us as consumers knowing it.
Also what struck me as absurd, is this idea of "Second Life", where people participate in an online world, and in which they purchase digital goods, with hard currency. And figures point to upwards of $200 million spent in one year on digital goods, that cannot be used in real life. Similar to that is people who, on Facebook.com, purchase their friends gifts with real money. Why would you use real money to buy non-real things. That is pretty stupid.

P.S. (to my group)
Sorry i missed the meeting this morning guys. I hadn't done any of the readings yet, and would not have contributed at all to the group.
-James

ISpy with my little eye assignment 4!

2008-09-15T08:13:00.000-07:00

The first two chapters of the book were an introduction to the rest of the book and really didn't carry alot of information to critique. But we did find some of information and the way that businesses use our information interesting.

The business world has evolved into specifically targeting markets which is far more productive and cost effective. We thought it was very strategic and smart to mail baby coupons to a woman who 9 months earlier had bought a pregnancy test. The methods that business have adopted to become more effective in reaching audiences is not an invasion of privacy that needs concern. The only concern that we would have would be when people get our credit card numbers and social security numbers and as long as our identity is not stolen we are fine with them strategically emailing us and targetting our interests.

Other aspects of marketing that reaches more out to the audiences are the opportunities we are given to interact with products. Nike's time square advertisment allowed people to design their own shoe and then through a text message you were given the style code and allowed to purchase them online. This makes the consumer feel more in part with the product and with the company. Other ways that allow consumers to interact is to allow them to vote for products such as different flavors online and then they would introduce a flavor that is strongly supported by their consumers.

The language that Andrejevic uses in the book such as "monitoring" which is used several times gives a more negative conotation that other words. He could have stated that the companies are using the information to help assist you in your shopping needs instead of that companies are monitoring your every movement so they know how to market you effectively. He talks about how we need to submit ourselves to how the market is changing but it is changing in a more positive way than he makes it sound.

some interesting websites...check em out!!

2008-09-15T06:35:00.001-07:00

for those interested in the campaign I suggest you check out these sites:

www.fivethirtyeight.com

^^ it's all different stats and polls about the campaign as well as some predictions i think.

www.realclearpolitics.com

^^another sweet website in regards to the campaign. There's a bunch of cool links on this page.

-adrienne

reaction to thursday 9/11

2008-09-15T05:36:00.000-07:00

okay so i can't edit the post before this one so ill try posting a new entry instead...

i like the way thursday's class went. I'd be fine with an "anything goes" type of policy. This is a learning experiment so why not get the most out of it? I do believe some discretion is necessary. I think in order for this experiment be effective we need to be honest with our peers when we comment on their blogs. With that said, I believe that as long as we attack the argument and not the person, then we should be set. As i sit here and blog and open up i realize that i might say somehting someone doesnt agree with, but as long as their comments aren't personal attacks on me, i'm pretty sure I am capable of handling whatever they have to say. I'm not too concerned about people posting offensive photos or crude stuff in general. The fact that we have to evaluate our peers and that our grades depend on our comments and other peoples comments, will hopefully act as a filter for what will be posted. If someone continually posts obscene or offensive material, I'm not going to continue reading their blog or commenting on it.

Isn't part of what we learn in class due to our discussions? And aren't these discussions made possible by the work we do outside of class? I have the expectations of my group to worry about. THe last thing I want to do is not be prepared for my group discussions because that will jsut hold our group back...and waste everyone's time. I am more motivated to get my work done and to not procrastinate when I work in a group because I do not want to let my group down. Plus, the better prepared I am for group discussions means the better our group meetings will go. If during our group meetings we have a lot of content to discuss, then come class time we are not only prepared for class, but we have an array of resources to discuss.

-Adrienne