Topics from week 8

Oh week 8 with your rather painful topic of democracy and the political possibilities on the internet, but alas I will carry on and share my rather self indulgent thoughts about it.

One of the topics that I wanted to research further from the lecture was that of free speech and censorship. Its an interesting thought, whether or not the internet allows free speech or if there is a lot of censorship and conflict in terms of copyright. I think that you can't censor the internet in the same way you could a newspaper, or television as it is not as controlled. The internet allows anybody to access and create things on it and there is such a huge number of people who use it. Music is something that is extremely prominent on the internet, particularly leaked and free music that you are able to download. This brings up the issue of copyright and what is the limit in providing what is a lot of the time illegal music downloading. However I think with cd prices o high at the moment and even on itunes, it is not surprising people are participating in the free sharing and downloading of music.

I'm not sure how I feel about the clean feed, it seems a little ridiculous but at the same time it might be necessary. This once again goes back to free speech and peoples right to post what they want and do what they want on the internet, yet this clean feed may make the internet a cleaner and safer place to be because lets face it there are a lot of creepy people flosting around on the net.

Censorship in a democratic society is also a present issue. Its a question of just how much the government can control before its takes peoples rights away and in the end democracy is about what the majority want so whether or not they want censorship it should be up to the people to decide I think. It seems like that would be the best result possible if we want to say we live in a democratic society.

Lecture 9

So this week was Jason's last lecture which was quite disappointing. The dude is pretty damn funny and lets face it a little of the planet in the best possible way. So anyway this lecture was all about how to teach yourself software and was told in a 15 step trial. Wow that just sounded a lot like a proactive commercial.

Step 1 - Figure out what is needed to be done and the best way to do it.
Step 2 - Explore and figure out other software.
Step 3 - Is learning software in a few days possible?
Step 4 - It may take much longer.
Step 5 - Play and experiment with the software.
Step 6 - There will be similar feature that you know of around 10% - 15% from using other programs.
Step 7 - SAVE WORK! Save at every step.
Step 8 - Use 'help'
Step 9 - You will realize that 'help' is useless and made for more advanced users.
Step 10 - Search in different places e.g. google and find specific sites with key words.
Step 11 - Ask questions through forums.
Step 12 - Tutorial books and videos are okay, use them but don't pay for them.
Step 13 - No course is necessary - all you need to know is in steps 1 through 12 above.
Step 14 - Software is constantly replaced - when you just learn it a new one will come out.
Step 15 - Content is vital. When something you make is easy it will be easy for others to make as well. Make sure to learn more and constantly update your knowledge.

What is Barack doing?

"President Obama rallies for reform with AFL-CIO"

Source:
http://www.whatisbarackdoing.com/

Freeware Application

First I downloaded msn messenger as it is a small file but it is very helpful in terms of communicating with people instantly and it is something that I use often as it is so simple to use. I also downloaded a free ipod video converter as it is something that I will use often to get videos of youtube or any video that doesn't share the ipod video format and be able to change its format so i am able to play it on my ipod touch. These both worked very well and I was able to download videos in a different format however the only fault was that they took much longer then they would if I just downloaded them int heir original format.

ePetition

In following the theme of the lecture I found a petition to stop internet web filtering in Government:

Petition:
It is my belief that this infringes on our basic rights to freedom of speech and that this is forming a government that is becoming a dictatorship and unjust.

In practice this also restricts us from knowing and understanding our clients as websites that contain information that is adult or perceived as gambling is also blocked. Are we children? No, then we don't need parenting.

Source

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-internet-web-filtering-in-government.html

Lecture 8

This lecture was called Political possibilities. Stephen Stockwell first started by defining what Cyberpolitics is. He said it was the politics of the internet that existed predominantly on the internet. He also defined eDemocracy which was how the internet assists and controls real world politics that exist on the internet. He also talked about the issue of concentration, centralization, and commercialization of the mass media and how some avenues for democratic participation have been foreclosed. He suggested that the arena of deliberation may be extended via the application of new communication technologies and also shared the theory of the recreation of the public sphere.

Stephen also discussed free speech and the many strange turns that the battle between free speech and censorship had taken on the internet. There was also some talk about Hackers and how they tend to have bad reputations but they also free information by producing alternative routes and spaces for information.

Cyberpunk was also discussed. It is a science fiction genre based on the possibilities in computers, genetics and corporate development in the future. Cyberpunk also has the themes of technology and mythology, utopia and dystopia, cities as machines, technological change and modernism to postmodernism.

Lecture 7

This week Jason took the lecture again and we looked at open source software which is also called freeware. Freeware refers to applications made by users that are able to be downloaded and ued for free. They are made in to go up against oppositions like Microsoft and large companies who charge massive prices.

Freeware allows other users to improve the software through having open source coding so they are able to edit and develop the code and app. Freeware is also very specified and there are programs made to do very small, simple things. Alot of time freeware will take a more expensive program that you have to pay for and adjust it slightly to make another similar program that you can get for free. For instance there is VLC media player and GIMP which is very similar to photoshop.

There are many sites that include freeware applications. Some of these are
- http://portableapps.com/
- http://download.cnet.com/windows/