Expanding on the lecture week 6

Hollywood and film making has always changed and adapted when new technology has occurred. Now internet is the newest threat with pirate download and free online-streaming. The internet differences itself from the other technologies because it’s impossible to control since it’s so interactive and suddenly everyone can become a salesman or a buyer. Downloading will possibly kill Hollywood eventually, if the movie industry doesn’t turn the tables and create new opportunities for themselves.

As the authors of “The changing digital content landscape: An evaluation of e-business model development in European online news and music” says, young people has grown up with the opportunity to download everything, and are not willing to pay a lot of money for something they can get for free. The authors ask: “Why not encourage these users to start accessing paid content?” (Swatman, Krueger & van der Beek 2006). As we discussed in class a lot of people would download movies from the internet for a certain amount of money if they were guaranteed great quality. If there was a website that everyone could easily access and the download went quickly, I definitely think people would use it instead. It often takes a huge effort to search the internet to find the right movie, in the right quality, from the right site, and you often feel a lot better when you know your download is legal.
Hollywood and the film industry has the possibility to create a new business, it just seems like they need someone to show them the way.

Resource:
Swatman, P, Krueger, C & van der Beek, K 2006, The changing digital content landscape: An evaluation of e-business model development in European online news and music, Internet Research, vol. 16, no. 2, pp 53-80, viewed 31 August 2011, via ProQuest Database, <http://search.proquest.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/pqrl/docview/219843713/13185191FE2102DC2E5/11?accountid=14543>

Week 6 - tutorial task: Make a movie

My group is Cathrine, Nillie and me. We decided to make a movie that shows the timeline for movie development. We will start with a clip of an image/video in black and white without sound, and probably use an old-movie-effect aswell.

Our story begins with a boy, writing a letter for a girl he likes, asking her to meet him. The letter gets blown away by the wind, and the girl never gets the letter.

The next scene is in black and white, with sound. The girl tries to call the boy, but there is a bad connection. The call gets interrupted.

The last scene is with sound and color. The two persons are now logged on facebook. They talk to each other at the facebook chat, and finally manage to meet up, thanks to new communication technology.

We decided to record the video with my compact digital camera. It's really easy to record the video and just add it to the computer trough a wire or by inserting the memory card. We will use Imovie to edit the movie, since that's an easy program to use with the effects we need. 

Expanding on the lecture week 5

In the lecture we got introduced to the paradigm in motion. The paradigm consists of three acts. During the lecture we were supposed to focus on the first act when we were shown the beginning of the movie “Rubber”. The first act should answer the three questions: who the lead character is, what the movie is about and where the movie is set.
The first thing we see is that the movie is set in a deserted place. It takes some time, but we then get to know the lead character, a tire. At first we get sympathy for the tire because it seems weak and unstable and is all alone in the desert. The tire off course cannot speak, so we only get our impression of its personality out of its actions. As is says in Exploring the Meaning of Movies, dramatic action is not so much as what is said, but what is not said… By reading between the lines or watching the actions of a character, we are able to understand their point of view.

That is what the movie is about: Understanding the life of the tire and make up our opinions by its actions and behavior. Even though the tire is all alone, it meets different obstacles on its way, and how the tire responds to these elements makes the plot. The tire early discovers that it has the ability to destroy the things on its way. The tire learn that it can blast bigger and bigger things, and we get the feeling that it gets better self-esteem as his explosion objects increase. With the lack of anyone else being in on the tire’s level, its life gets meaning from destroying things.

A plot point is defined in Syd Field's Paradigm Worksheet as: any incident, episode or event that hooks into the action and spins it around into another direction. I believe that the first plot point is when the tire kills the rabbit. This is the first time it kills something that was actually alive and the music that gets played and the happiness it shows afterwards underline that this is a turning point in the movie. If the tire can kill something living and be satisfied afterwards, it’s capable to do a lot of damage. It gets a whole new personality and seems a lot scarier than before.

Resources:

Syd Field - the paradigm worksheet, viewed August 25 2011, http://www.sydfield.com/featured_theparadigmworksheet.htm.

Exploring the Meaning of Movies, viewed August 25 2011, http://www.theclapperboard.com/view_posting.php?posting_id=129.

Tutorial task, week 2

An interesting and useful application I found was called "How to make powerful connections through social media": http://www.dumblittleman.com/2011/01/how-to-make-powerful-connections.html
I think this link can be educational and useful to everyone that uses the web. Almost everyone I know have a facebook- and twitter-account, and we spend so much time online that we can at least to something useful with our sparetime. Twitter is especially good when it comes to making connections and to keep up with what's happening around us.

Tutorial task Week 5 - Scavenger Hunt

1. The world's first university was established in 969 in Cairo, Egypt, called Al-Azhar University.
Source: viewed August 23 2011, http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060729054252AAiUY0V.
I found this site by searching for world's first university on yahoo.com.


2. Stephen Stockwell's band is called The Black Assassins. He plays the keyboard and vocals. Here are some of their songs: Death Take Me Now, Drugs, Azaria, Fuck Me Fuck My Dog, Multinational Corporate Lifestyle, Planet X, SWAPO, Death Comes To Townsville, Run Ronnie Run, ASIO, Pain Barrier, Barricades, Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight.

Source: viewed August 23 2011,http://members.optusnet.com.au/~toxicoh/blackas.htm
I found this side on bing.com by searching for Stephen Stockwell band.

3. The world's biggest machine weights 45,500 tons and it cost $100 millions to build.
Source: http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Humor/Workshop/Trencher.htm
I found this site by searching the world's biggest machine on yahoo.com.

4. Justin Bieber's lawyer is Kenneth Feinswog. I think the best way is to call him, his number is: (310) 277-8211.
Source:http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5770032/justin_bieber_and_lady_gaga_in_bed.html?cat=33
http://www.manta.com/c/mms3lh1/feinswog-kenneth-a

I found this by searching for Justin Bieber's lawyer on bing.com. And then contact Kenneth Feinswog.


5. The cheapest way is to fly. At Yahoo! Answers someone had asked how to cheapest get to Melbourne to Gold Coast  and the person got told that planes were cheapest, since it's a long way and petrol is expensive. Someone even said that you sometimes could get tickets from $1 if you are really lucky.
Source:
http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090608074131AAyAcWV.

I found this by searching the cheapest way to get to Melbourne from the Gold Coast on yahoo.com.

6. Hatsune Miku is the first Japanese Vocaliod2 in the Vocaloid2 Character Vocal Series created by the company Crypton Future Media. Her birthday is August 31. She was born/released in 2007.


Source: http://vocaloid.wikia.com/wiki/Miku_Hatsune
I found this by searching Hatsune Miku on Yahoo.com

7. If you go to http://www.webcamsmania.com/webcam/kirovastreetwebcam, you find a live Webcam in Belarus.
I found it by searching webcam in Belarus on yahoo.com
If you go to Antarctica you could stay on the Polar Star boat.
Source:
http://www.addictedtotravel.com/accommodation/countries/antarctica-accommodation.
I found this by searching Antarcitica accommodation on yahoo.com

8. Bryan Adams with Everything I do I do it for you was on the Australian pop charts in week 34 in 1991.
Source:
http://tsort.info/music/yr1991.htm
I found this by searching top Australian pop week 34 1991 on yahoo.com.


9. The car used to make " Google Street View" is one of Immersive Media's camera wielding cars, a Volkswagen New Beetle to be exact.

I found it by searching on yahoo.com. Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2007/06/01/take-a-look-at-the-vehicle-thats-taking-a-look-at-you/

10. I used Bing Translator at http://www.microsofttranslator.com/.

Spanish:


¿Dónde estaba la primera universidad establecida y en qué año?


¿Lo que se llama la banda de Stephen Stockwell y lo que él jugar? ¿Puede nombrar un par de sus canciones?


¿Cuál es el peso de la máquina más grande del mundo? ¿Cuánto cuesta para construir?


¿Quién es el abogado de Justin Bieber, y cuál es la mejor forma para ponerse en contacto con el abogado (más rápida, más fiable)?


¿Cuál es la forma más barata de viajar desde la costa de oro a Melbourne?


¿Quién es Hatsune Miku? ¿Qué empresa ella pertenece a? ¿Cuál es su cumpleaños?


Encontrar una webcam vivo en Belarús. Encontrar un lugar para quedarse en la Antártida.


¿Qué canción fue cima de las listas pop australianas esta semana en 1991?


¿Qué tipo de coche se utiliza para hacer 'google Street View'?


Traducir estas preguntas en español y, a continuación, convertirlos en inglés.


English again:

Where was the first University established and in what year?


What is called the band of Stephen Stockwell and that he play? Can you name a couple of their songs?


What is the weight of the world's largest machine? How much is it to build?


Who is the lawyer of Justin Bieber, and is the best way to get in contact with the lawyer (faster, more reliable)?


What is the cheapest way to travel from the Gold Coast to Melbourne?


Who is Hatsune Miku? What company it belongs to? What is your birthday?


Find a live webcam in Belarus. Find a place to stay in Antarctica.


What song was top of the Australian pop charts this week in 1991?


What kind of car is used to make 'google Street View'?


Translate these questions in Spanish, and then convert them into English.

Expanding on lecture Week 4

I have never been really into gaming, neither on the computer nor the TV. I enjoy my share of FreeCell, Mario Party and Tetris but only when I’m bored and have nothing else to do. A lot of people I now however play a lot of video games. COD, WOW and FIFA are a normal part of their everyday life, and they can play for several hours per day. Most normal people can easily separate fantasy games from reality. I don’t think you get more violet if you play violent videogames, you know what’s right and wrong and your personality stays the same. However, I do believe that if you play too much and you get too attached to your cyberspace world, it will affect your life – and not in a good way. The danger occurs when the virtual world gets more exciting than your own life, and you therefore choose to “leave” the real world except when you have to eat or sleep.

Gaming has become so normal that there has been made a reality show called WCG Ultimate WCG Gamer. The concept is that the contestants must master real-life challenges that relate to a video game challenge afterwards. When the producers try to transfer the video game into a real world challenge, how do you know what’s real and what’s not anymore? You have to know have to play in the real world, and the virtual world to win. What’s the price? You will become the ultimate gamer. Isn’t that what everybody’s aiming for these days?

Source:
About the show, viewed August 22 2011, http://www.fox8.tv/shows/wcg-ultimate-gamer/about

Tutorial 3 - Database search

1. Stephen Stockwell's first article was The Brisbane Model: Considering A Unique Experiment, from 1995. I used the Taylor & Francis Group database.

Source:
Stockwell, S, 1995, The Brisbane Model: Considering A Unique Experiment, Urban Policy and Research, Vol 12, No 2, p 89-96, retrived at May 06 2008, Taylor Francis Online database.

2. Governor Slugwell appeared in Flaming Carrot Comics in nr 7, 10 and 11. I used the Underground and Independent Comics database.

Source:
Burden, B, 1985, "When the Shoes Aren't Worth the Shine", Flaming Carrot Comics, no. 7, p 3-31, Renegrade Press

3. Aaron Ford-Wright recently published an article where Dr. Gilman reveals concerns about youths and texting. Dr. Gilman thinks that texting can easily take too much space in a youth’s everyday life, and interfere with other social interactions and participation in activities. Teens can easily be distracted from being present to what’s happening around them, and should try to moderate their usage of texting.

Source:
Ford-Wright, A. August 5 2011, Texting a growing trend, but best used in moderation, Pittsburgh Post – Gazette, Post Gazette Publishing Company, Pittsburg, Pa, viewed 17 August 2011, via ProQuest Database.

4. Extract taken from the 1982 Blade Runner Draft Script:

HOLDEN

Describe in single words. Only the good things that come into your mind.

About your mother.
LEON
My...
Leon looks shocked, surprised. But the needles in the computer barely move. Holden goes for the inside of his coat. But big Leon is faster. His laser burns a hole the size of a nickel through Holden's stomach. Unlike a bullet, a laser causes no impact. It goes through Holden's shoulder and comes out of his back, clean as a whistle. Like a rag doll he falls back into the seat. Big slow Leon is already walking away, but he stops, turns, and with a little smile of satisfaction fires through the back of the seat.

As Leon walks out of the room the Voight-Kampff begins to blink, faint but steady.

Source:
Peoples, D. W., Fancher H., Kibbee, R. 2009, Blade Runner (1982): Draft script, Electronic Edition by Alexander Street Press, Viewed 17 August 2011, via American Film Script’s Database.

5. Soukup says that Ong saw the main paradox of the 20th century communication being that human communication works, not only in the sense of its success but in the sense of its expending energy.

Source:
Soukup, P. 2009, "Contexts of faith: the religious foundation of Walter Ong’s literacy and orality", Journal of Media and Religion, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 175-188. Viewed 17 August, via Taylor & Francis database

Tutorial task Week 4

Social Networking

To make a Facebook account you have to agree to the Terms of use. Many people don't even bother to read them because they know all their friends already are on Facebook, how bad could it be?

First of all, the content that is covered by intellectual property right, like photos and videos, can be used by Facebook however they want. Even after you have deleted your own content, they keep backup copies. It does not matter how high privacy settings you have on your account, Facebook owns it all and can use it or sell it to whoever they want to.

Facebook is full of ads that they believe suits you as an individual, and is beneficial for both you and the advertiser. But you are able to limit how your name and profile picture are being used, if you change your privacy settings. Facebook can collect information from the device you use to connect to Facebook, and use it to gather information about you they may come in handy later. 

You can choose how much of your profile that is available to others, but your name and profile picture will usually be revealed to everyone. Some people choose to have an open profile, where anyone can see everything, even those who are not a member of Facebook. If you have a closed profile, you have to confirm friend requests before they can see your profile.

You can post everything you want on Facebook, as long as it's legal and does not hurt anyone else. You have to get permission to post pictures of others, and people can report pictures or comments if they think they are inappropriate. If you have added inappropriate content several times, you will get thrown out of Facebook.

Resources:
Facebook, April 26 2011, Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, viewed 16 August 2011, http://www.facebook.com/terms.php.
Facebook, December 22 2010, Facebook's Privacy Policy, viewed 16 August 2011, http://www.facebook.com/policy.php. 

Tutorial task Week 3

Friendster was a pioneer and one of the first social networks, started in 2002. It was started in USA, but is now most popular in Asia. It was a site where you could play games, share music, join groups, discuss, stay in touch with friends or meet new people. It was an interactive site where you could upload pictures, videos, comment and send messages to people from all over the world. Friendster had 115 million members in 2008, but the number has decreased a lot. As other social networking sites expanded, sites like Facebook provided more features that Friendster didn’t have. Facebook got a news feed where you could easily see friends’ updates, discussions and shares as soon as you were online. The status updates made it possible to continuously show everyone what you were doing at different times, and you can tag people in pictures you upload. Since then Facebook have only grown bigger and bigger and they now provide an online chat, and the possibility to even have a video chat.

As Facebook stole many of Friendster’s members, they understood that they had to do something. In May 2011, they went from being a social network to an entertainment site where you can play online games. Even though Friendster “lost” the battle against Facebook, it played a really important role when it comes to inventing one of the first social networks sites and influenced many young people everyday life. I don’t think Facebook would have grown so much so fast, if no one had shown web users how to you could be social by using the internet. Social networking was already a part of peoples everyday life when Facebook came along, all Facebook had to do was to offer new features and apps that made people choose them instead of the old ones.

Resources:

Roeder, L., What Is Friendster.com? What Does Friendster.com Offer?, viewed 17 August , 2011, http://personalweb.about.com/od/easyblogsandwebpages/a/whatsfriendster.htm

Corpuz, N. 27 April 2011, Friendster: It’s a Facebook world, ABS-CBN News, viewed 17 August, 2011, http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/-depth/04/27/11/friendster-admits-defeat-facebook

Molglobal, Friendster living the game, viewed 17 August 2011, http://www.molglobal.net/?page_id=1321

Pachal, P. April 28 2011, Why Friendster Died: Social Media Isn’t a Game, PCmag, viewed August 17 2011, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2384588,00.asp

Perdu, A April 1 2008, The History of Friendster, viewed August 17 2011, http://webupon.com/social-networks/the-history-of-friendster/

Difference Between Facebook and Friendster, viewed August 17 2011, http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/internet/difference-between-facebook-and-friendster/

Kimian July 7 2011, Friendster’s Sample! Sample! Sample!, viewed August 17 2011

http://webupon.com/social-networks/friendsters-sample-sample-sample-part-2/

Reading week 3

Mind Control & the Internet

In her article Mind Control and the Internet, Sue Halpern talks about how a Google-search is not an objective search, but a controlled, personalized search adapted to every single individual. If two people search for the same thing, they will most likely have different links shown on the top of their search. “Google has aimed to contour every search to fit the profile of the person making the query,” the article says.
I use Google a lot. If I want to collect new information I “Google it”. “Google it” as actually become an expression that I use in my everyday life when a question no one can answer occurs. We all not that people in China cannot get the same information as us in Norway, because of strict rules from the government. But I don’t think people even give it a thought that their Google-search is “corrupted” and not totally objective. Google is so well-known and a part of our everyday life that posses an enormous power to affect the public opinion. Hidden Marketing is not legal, why should hidden search agendas be? Inexperienced web users will continuously swallow what Google provides them of information; I think this could be one of the most dangerous tools to help illegal propaganda in the future.

Source:
Halpern, S., Mind Control & the Internet, viewed August 20 2011, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/23/mind-control-and-internet/

Readings Week 2

Theory-Jamming

Jamming is an expression we relate to musicians coming together and trying out different new tunes, songs and pretty much improvise in an informal gathering. Stephen Stockwell relates this types of gatherings with theorists that come together and share theories and discuss different ideas. Stockwell means that informal theory-jamming works better than formal discussions because you get a certain dynamo in jam sessions that makes creativity grow and there are bigger chances of getting difficult questions answered. A jam session is all about creating harmony in the group, and working together to get the music flowing and presented in the best possible way. To make that happen you have to communicate and listen to others ideas and readjust your own.

I think theory-jamming is a great way to make progress in communication theory. Jamming makes room for mistakes and you have to cooporate to find the "right answer". Even though it is mostly for fun, if you suddenly play a good song you can write the notes down and you can play the song later and show it to others. Not all of the theories during the jam session will be good, but the ones that are can be written down and passed forward. In that way you make valuable theory, and you may have a great time doing it.

Source:
Stockwell, S, Dec. 2006, Theory-Jamming: Uses of Eclectic Method in an Ontological Spiral, M/C Journal, 9, viewed August 16 2011, http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0612/09-stockwell.php

Tutorial task Week 2

I’ve been using communication technologies for as long as I can remember. I grew up using internet, my phone and computer every day. I never go anywhere without my mobile phone, I spend hours on the internet every day, and I can’t imagine how my life would be without it. Since communication technology is such a big part of my life, I don’t even think about how much of my life that actually depends on new technology.

I think the new communication technology first of all is very useful and has done our lives a lot easier. But I also think it has made us lazier and has created a lot of new serious issues like privacy. A lot of people don’t know how to use the web, and they reveal heaps of information about themselves online. When we use sites like facebook, the owner can use all your information and pictures till their own advantage. We should really think twice about all the personal information we put out there. I have never experienced any privacy issues myself. I think I’m pretty careful when I’m online, I have a closed profile on facebook and never give out personal information unless I know it’s safe.
I think those people who have a personal blog and use it as almost a diary are the ones that reveal too much about themselves. You have no control on who your blog readers are, and everyone that wants to can easily get a lot of information about you. People think they know who you are, and make up their own impression without even talking to you.

I don’t have any internet friends, but I stay in touch with a lot of friends by only talking to them through the internet. Especially now that I’m in Australia and all of my friends and family are in Norway. I don’t think it’s the same thing to talk to someone online and to talk face to face. You can’t really get to know the whole person without meeting them in real life, because everyone acts a little bit different when you meet them face to face. I would never be able to trust a person that I had only talked to through technology, because you can never know if the person really is the person he or she pretends to be.

Resources:
Blogging Dangers and the Disadvantages of Blogging, viewed August 17 2011, http://www.blogging-the-beginners-complete-guide.com/blogging-dangers.html#axzz1VI5Tcqm7

Tutorial week 2

What new communication technology can do:



Adam Ostrow talks about a site that it called ifidie.net where you can leave a video that will be postet on your facebook for all of your friends to see when you die. He also talks about another site called 1000memories where you can post vidoes, pictures and your last goodbyes to your friends and familiy. He also tells about a man who published a post on his blog after he had died, to tell that the blog would now be an archieve. The most amazing thing he talks about is by using old home videoes, he believes you can recreate a dead persons appearance in your own livingroom by using technology.

I think it's unbelieveable that this even is possible. You die, but you can communicate with the people you love after you have died, because of todays technology. That is what new communication technology is all about from my perspective. To be able to communicate in a ways that was never possible before. Of course, you could leave letters to the ones you loved in the old days, but that is nothing compared to what Ostrow thinks can be possible in the future.

Readings: Week 1

As you can see in both Some dates in the history of communication technologies - McGaughey, William (2011)  and The History of Communication, people have been communication trough technology for ages. I find the information in the first article a bit hard to read since it is only a litany of different years and names mentioned in one short sentence. The article is divided into different categories as well that makes it even more complex. What I do find interesting is that McGaughey gave me new, detailed information about technology from B.C.

I liked the second article better because it was easier to get an overview of the whole history. It gave more specific information about each year, and I got the impression that only the imporant dates was taken to consideration. The most interesting fact about both articles talk about the same happening, in different years. The first article says morse coding was invented in 1837, but the second article claims it happened in 1835.

Another thing I found interesting is that none of them are updated with the newest technology. I thought part of the point with online-articles was that they could be updated and brought up to speed with what's been happening for the last decade. Even though some of the technology is brand new, the mobile phone and laptops are quite old, and ready to be written into the technological history.

Sources:
McGaughey W 2011, Some dates in the history of communication technologies, viewed August 1 2011, http://worldhistorysite.com/culttech.html.
About.com, The history of communication, viewed August 1 2011, http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_history_of_communication.htm.