Political Participation

Because I am from Norway this blogpost was not easy for me to do, since I do not know that much about Australian politics. I have been given some tasks on political participation, and will now reply on which ones I would do while sticking to my political beliefs.

I searched around for e-petitions and I did find one I wanted to sign. Because I was not sure if i am a "resident" of Queensland or not. I decided to hold of on doing it since the condition of use said something about being fined and imprisoned which is not something I would like to happen. Anyway the e-petition i wanted to sign is called 'Ban on lightweight plastic bags in Queensland' - and I chose this one because I agree, that we use to much plastic, not only in Queensland but all over the globe. If more people knew that plastic is made of oil, and that the ocean is full of it and killing the animals, they might just think twice before using too much of it?

I rarely comment on stuff, not even on Facebook. Not to go in to details about me, but I do have some problems with people judging others opinions, and that is why I tend to comment in my head instead, so the next thing I was to do was respond to a blogger on major news site. I am not going to do this, since I have some troubles with it.

Next on the list was contacting Barack Obama - to do this i could try tweeting him. I am not going to do this either, but I will tell you this; A couple of days ago he was on 'reddit', speaking to the people via social medias. If you go HERE, you can see what he talked about.

When searching the NBN homepage I searched for my postcode to find out when I will get NBN and this was the results:

Print screen (nbnco.com.au)

Next on the list I had to find the local, state and federal representatives where I live. This is where i found information about the representatives: Role in government - I am not going to send them a message, since I do not have anything I want to ask them. And I wont list all of their names, since there is so many. Here is another link to the federal representatives of Queensland: Senators and Members

Doing this, I found out more about Australia and Queensland, and how politics works on the Internet


Pages mention / references: 

http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/work-of-assembly/petitions/e-petitions

http://www.nbnco.com.au

http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/council/role-in-government-206.html

http://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian_Search_Results?q=&sta=QLD&mem=1&par=-1&gen=0&ps=10

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/z1c9z/i_am_barack_obama_president_of_the_united_states

(Post 11)

Social media

This week we have been talking about Social Media, I made a survey about social media use - mostly on Facebook, the results will be out very soon. I would like to use this opportunity to talk about cats on the Internet. No actually, I would like to discuss something I believe is important. About privacy in social media when it comes to police matters. I will use a news story that has been going on in Norway lately, where a 16 year old girl has gone missing - assumed kidnapped. The police wanted to check her Facebook account for possible contact with people, but Facebook will not give out passwords to anyone, not even the police. I wonder when the police can overrule social media, or if they ever will? is there not a time where the "laws of Internet" should not apply? We do not know in this case, if there is reasons for checking the Facebook account, but if there was - it seems just stupid that they cannot get access. Just something to think about.

facebook privacy

Resources:

http://www.nettavisen.no/nyheter/article3448711.ece (norwegian news)

(Post 10)

Survey

Please help me, by filling out this Survey

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

(Post 9)

Cyberpunk Timeline

(Post 8)

Neil Postman on Cyberspace

I just watched Neil Postman on Cyberspace on YouTube. He is talking about what Cyberspace is, and hearing what he said, it made things clearer for me. I still have problems with understanding the term “cyberspace”. Neil Postman explains it by saying it is a “metaphorical idea”, and goes on to saying it is “a place where your conciseness is located when you are using computer technology on the internet”. I have a better understanding of it now, when he also talked about other medias, like where your head is at when reading a book and so on. 

This clip is from 1995 so it may be outdated, but I found it very interesting. He talks about the problems in the 19 century, and how the new technology do not fix the world problems even though we now have technologies that makes us aware of what is happening in the world. I liked when he talked about him buying a car, and that the car had cruise control, and he wondered why this was needed, and the man replied something about, not needing to press the gas pedal. Where Postman says, he never saw that as a problem followed by: “Am I using this technology or it is using me?” Interesting take on technologies right there

(Post 7)

Thoughts on "Blade Runner"

Blade Runner

Going to school might sometimes be hard, and the loads of homework and assignments you get do not help. But being so lucky that your 'homework' is to watch a movie, you cannot complain. I watched Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner' for the first time. I watched the directors cut, and have not seen any other versions of it.

Warning: Spoiler alert

I thought all in all it was a good movie, all though I still have troubles with the therm "cyberpunk". Before discussing this movie with any others, I sat there in the end wondering if Deckard was in fact a Replicant. In the end we see the unicorn origami, which you earlier had seen Gaff putting around - to show that he knew what the Replicants were dreaming. So by leaving the unicorn, which we saw earlier that Deckard had been dreaming about, this must mean that he is a Replicant too? But why is he so much weaker than the other Replicants? And we can ask ourselves why Roy did not kill him, when he had the chance? Was this because he was a Replicant, or that Roy had human feelings. I do now know, but I do know i liked the movie.

Unicorn Origami

File sharing: From Napster to BitTorrent



gomonews.com



In 1999, an American college student named Shawn Fanning created Napster. Napster was a file sharing computer service which was mainly used to share music in the format of MP3. 1.5 million people were using Napster in 2001 before it got shut down, after being dragged to court by the Recording Industry Association of America. (Napster 2012. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.)

Napster was the first-generation of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, and after followed other P2P like for example ‘KaZaA’ which was created in 2000 by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. (Niklas Zennström 2012. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.)

Most of these different file sharing programs seems to have gotten in troubles with the copy right law, and many faced lawsuits. But it looks as many people won’t give up on file sharing, as it today is still very common – even though it is not all legal. I believe that the most common file sharing program today is BitTorrent, and these days’ people also download movies and TV series in addition to music files. 

To download files using a BitTorrent such at uTorrent which is one of the best clients (as it is free to use and comes without adware or spyware) you will need to go to a torrent search engine. There are many different search engines. Examples of these are ‘MiniNova’ and ‘the Pirate Bay’. Once you go there you will have to put in what you want to download in the search field and you will get options and then select the file you want. When you chose to download a torrent, it will automatically show up in your BitTorrent. And you're done - the download time depends on your internet speed. ('Using BitTorrent' 2010, Apc, 30, 4, p. 42, Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre)

I think Napster influenced today’s file-sharing because it is stilling going on, and I do not think people will stop sharing files in spite of the laws. Maybe one day it will be legal, but I understand that sharing files may affect the movie and music industry, as they probably lose money on people not buying their products because they choose to download it instead.  


References: 

'Using BitTorrent' 2010, Apc, 30, 4, p. 42, Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre, EBSCOhost, viewed 13 August 2012.

Napster 2012. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 13 August, 2012, from http://www.britannica.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/EBchecked/topic/754550/Napster 

Niklas Zennström 2012. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 13 August, 2012, from http://www.britannica.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/EBchecked/topic/1378578/Niklas-Zennstrom

(Post 6)

Library tools and databases

I have been to the Griffith University Library tool online and searched for different books and journals from different authors, so that I can get familiarised with how to search for books, journals and databases, and also learn how to reference right.

Library tools

First I went into the Griffith University library tool and searched for Stephen Stockwell's books. These are my findings:

Stockwell, S 2005, Political campaign strategy: doing democracy in the 21^st century, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne

Stockwell, S & Scott, P 2000, All-media guide to fair and cross-cultural reporting: for journalist, program makers and media students, Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy, Nathan, Qld

Isakhan, B & Stockwell, S (Eds) 2001, The secret history of democracy, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke; New York

If  I were to write an essay on Jean Luc Godards 'Alphaville' I would use the library tool to find books that might be helpful. here are three examples of sources I could have used, and where to find them:

Sanders, S, 2008, The philosophy of science fiction film, University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky

 - this book can be found in the library at College of Art in South Bank.

Buss, R 1994, French film noir, Marion Boyars, London; New York

 - this book can be found in the library in Nathan

Godard, J.L, 2000, Alphaville: a film, Faber and Faber Ltd, London

- this book can be found in the library at College of Art in South Bank, in Nathan and Gold Coast

If I wanted to do a book to do research on social media I could have used this: 

Poynter, R, 2010, The handbook of online and social media research: tools and techniques for market researchers, John Wiley and Sons

- this book is available online. 

Databases

Stephen Stockwell's first article about Brisbane:

Stockwell, S, 1995, ‘The Brisbane model: Considering a unique experiment’, Urban Policy and research, vol 13 no. 2, pp. 89

 

The newest article I found about Internet Addiction was one from Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology: 

Wymbs, B, McCarty, C, King, K, McCauley, E & Stoep, A et al, 2012, ‘Callous-Unemotional Traits as Unique Prospective Risk Factors for Substance Use in early Adolescents Boys and Girls’, Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, vol 20, no 7, pp. 1099-1110

Print screen (griffith.edu.au)

(Post 5)

With or without iPhone?

So you and your family are going on a holiday. You will need to bring your cell phone, so you can call and text people, you will also have to bring your photo camera so that you can take some photos of your trip, you might want to bring your video camera as well so you can film your memories. Maybe you bring your laptop, so you can check your e-mail and the news. Your oldest kid needs to bring his mp3 player, so he can listen to music while the youngest wants his Nintendo game. Or, you could just bring the smartphone!

r.phonedog.com

How can all those things including many more features be in that tiny little box. As long as you have internet access, you can call, text, check your Facebook, your e-mail, the weather, the map, the stocks, blogs, and even your bank. You can also use it to take photos, videos and also edit them. Right there, on that little thing. 

Although your smartphone has all those features, you still might want to bring your camera to get better photos or videos, but still - the smartphone makes it easier in way. After I got my iPhone, I stopped taking my camera with me. I regret that now. I have all my photos in albums on my computer, filed under folders from 2001 to 2011. November 2011, it stopped because I got my iPhone and stopped taking my camera with me. 

I have friends who do not have a smart phone or any other smart device, and are managing just fine without it. I like to think I would to, but I have always been in to new communication technologies, and find it very interesting. But I am also the one who loves it when the power goes out, and you sit there in the dark, with candles and no technologies - playing board games. But that does not happen often, and if it does, last very shortly

I use the new communication technologies to communicate with my friends and family. I use my Iphone, Facebook, Viber, Skype, e-mail. I often also communicate in different games applications on my iPhone such as Wordfued and Draw Something. It is addictive I think. So would I be able to live without it? 

- Of course I would, but I chose not to. 

Communicating



Tetris
Licence: None (All rights reserved)

I have been using new communication technologies as long as I can remember. It all started with my dad’s first computer, even before we got internet connection in our house. We had an old DOS computer which I used to play games on. I loved Tetris, although my mom and my big sister always got the best records. 

Then we got internet connection, back when it was slow and expensive. I found out about mIRC and started making friends from all over the world. mIRC is an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client made for Windows which main purposes is to communicate with other people from all over the world. IRC is used for sharing, playing and also for work. To use mIRC you have to download it to your computer. (mirc.com) 



Ever since I was little I have been amazed by the technologies that keep coming. Every time I hear about a new social network, or a new technology device I need to know more about it.  I make profiles everywhere, although I am not that good at updating everything. I still have my MySpace account, but I am not using it. It is pretty much dead. 

Facebook on the other hand, is the one I am using frequently. I have had my profile since October 2006 and check it daily, as does most of my friends and  family. Our communication is mostly through Facebook, if not texts and calls. I decided to get Facebook because I like those kinds of social networks, where    you can talk to your friends, and share your life with them.

I do not share everything of course. I am aware of the internet, and the information you share is never really “safe” and that you have to be careful. Not giving out your whole name or your address to people you do not know. Not putting out pictures or other information you do not want the whole world to see. I think this may be an issue for younger teenagers, that makes blogs or put videos out on YouTube, and then regrets it a few years later - when it may be to late to make it go away. 

Picture from: mirc.com

So I am up to date with the new communication technologies, and use it every day. How can one really remember why they started using it in the first place? Was it because it was new and exciting or because everyone else did? I guess human psychology does before it thinks, so to reason why I started using it would kind of be backwards rationalizing. I think I started using Facebook and other communication technologies for the same reason I started playing computer games or watching a TV show. It adds value to my life, and it excites me. If that is not a good reason, I do not know what is. For me it feels like if you are not a part of it, you miss out – Big time.

References:

http://www.mirc.com/about.html

(Post 4)

New Communication Technology

Here are three videos from YouTube on New Communication Technology. The last one is how the Swedish people think the new communication technologies will be in the future. Well, actually it is from a TV show and supposed to be funny.

(Post 3)