Thursday 22 August 2013

Week 5 Churn/Social Media

Churn; the rise of small business upon large established companies..

'Is social networking destroying society?'
-new diseases arising, which humans once had built up an immunity to due to the new 'sterile' landscape and lifestyle most prominent.

'What will web 3.0 look like?'
-web 1.0 primarily special interest writing, only able to be read. Non interactive. Very 'static'
-web 2.0 interaction arises, leaves room for response, interaction, instant communication
the term web 2.0 first used in 1999 by Darci DiNucci
Tim O'Reilly 2003 'what is web 2.0?' later motivates the tech community to consider the internet in new ways
-web 3.0 potential for full customization, in our internet experience, dramatic rise in speed and accessibility

The 2000 dot com crash (controversy)

Social Media

Brief uses of social media platforms:
-Facebook: connect with family/friends/peers from anywhere in the world, news, ads
-Instagram: instant photo sharing, allowing for comments, likes, followers, able to see inside celebrities personal life
-Snapchat: private sharing of video and imagery, limited viewing time
-Soundcloud: music sharing, downloads, artist profiles
-Tumblr: image sharing, downloads, artist profiles
-Twitter: though sharing, instant, able to see into high profile individuals' thoughts
-Blogspot: text sharing, images, reading, writer profiles

Each individuals output defines their online persona, potentially different from their physical real life self. -personality, interests, friend circles, authority.
Often employers research potential employees online profile.

A day of glass, looks at the potential technological and digital advances of glass uses in a futuristic (but not too distant) way.


Folksonomy - The people organising information just by their input.

'Participatory culture'
'Prosumers' producers and consumers of their own culture online

open API: sharing data openly via open application programming interface.

Social media landscapes:
Conversations:playing, publishing, sharing
Interactions:localization, buying, networking

making money from social media is an interesting point to look into



Week 5 Social Media Survey

Social Media Survey

Above is the survey I shared on Facebook and encouraged my friends and peer to complete to assist me in understanding further the role social media plays in their every day lives.


I only had it up for three days until I got ten responses.

My findings were that the most easily accessible sites were used most frequently, aka able to be easily checked on a mobile phone while away from home,

None of my participants admitted to feeling anxious after having not checked their platforms for a set perioud of time, which I was supprised about,

In the free written response, there was a reocurring them around liking being able to silently 'stalk' or 'creep' other users without their knowledge,

The highest percentage of users responded that they are on their most valuable platforms every 30 minutes to an hour (not including sleep time)!,

100% of participants said they were happy with thier social media presence..

My conclusions were that:
Facebook and Instagram were the most popular platforms unsuprising, due to their ease of access and sharing capabilities, the lack of anxiety when normal check ins aren't done may suggest that social media is only valuable because it is available, and is not vital to an individuals exsistence, the 'stalking' abilities of these platforms rather than frighten users, is actually one of their favourite abilities, more frequent check ins (30 mins to an hour) are more prevalent than an hour long chat session or profile update & all users who participated in my survery said they were happy with theit social media presence, signalling my social media friend demographic are seemingly more mindful of their profiles than the stereotypical 'party animal' profile presence discussed (who would seem questionable to potential employers) so frequently.

Week 2 the 'substance' of communication

The 'substance' of communication was covered in week 2.
All that the work encompasses; broadly the sharing of information & ideas of an individual or group in the most appropriate form.

New communication technologies push the boundaries, in that it presents the opportunity to communicate, involving the entire planet at once.
Related terms: community, communism, commonwealth, common, comune (com-une=many-one).

The definition of communication: To transfer, transmit or make information known widely.

-Aristotles theory: The speaker produces a message for the listener.
However this does not recognize the noise in which the message is transmitted.

-Shannon Weavers theory: The information source produces a message, to the transmitter, to the channel (the noise source), to the receiver to the destination.
However this does not leave room for the receiver to respond.

Noise-intertextuality: the context of the medium affects the message.

Communication beyond humans eg. human to animal to plant to cell to particle etc

The electromagnetic scale: shows that only a very limited section is what humans see & hear; uv, gamma, telegraph, telephone, radio, x-ray, cinema (mediums)

Thursday 15 August 2013

Week 4 Timeline of early personal computers

Timeline here

Week 3 Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk; the connection of cybernetics and the world of virtual reality and an anti-establishment/ rebellious attitude, to create a genre across all media. An extension on from science fiction interested in new developments of science. Formed in the 1980's and exhibited ideally in the 1982 picture Blade Runner.

Cyberpunk is concerned with the relationship between machines and humans, as well as the closing proximity between the differences of each. Cyberpunk in often concerned with apocalyptic circumstances as apposed to films where the disastrous scenario is the end of the film; cyberpunk is often begun at this point. This genre often too, challenges the emotions available for computers and machines and the way interaction between humans and machines are transforming, as well as the risk this poses to society and humanity.

William Burroughs is credited as being the father of cyberpunk. His writing was concerned with paranoia inside a large, dysfunctional machine/science fiction.

Week 3 New Communication Technologies



Week Three covered a broad range of topics, the two which gained my interest most were the history of computers; from their military focused conception and code breaking beginnings, of which I previously did not know, to the rise (and war)of Apple and Windows, and Alphaville; a movie on the space age future where computers are the source of all information currently unknown and emotions have been outlawed as the computer is master of whom does not posses emotions. Alphaville held a laborious story line but left a lingering concept of the future of computing and Cyberspace. I feel the two topics complimented each other in a way that looked at the past, present and future.

The reading by Sue Halphen, 'Mind Control and the Internet', complimented well the theme evident. Personalizing any element of a machines functions seems to run along the lines of both extraordinary and humanizing. The piece made me realize how personalized my experience of cyberspace really is and why this occurs.

Thursday 1 August 2013

Week 1Techy Kids


Week 1 Introduction Post

Hello fellow New Communication Technology students,
here's my forcibly written introduction post.

I've just started my first semester at Griffith as a Communication student majoring in Journalism and doing a minor in cultural theory and practice. 

Originally from the tiny surf town of just 6000, Yamba was where I grew up. When I finished school I had no clue what I wanted from the world, the only thing I was sure of was that I wanted to experience life from a different angle so I moved to the biggest possible city, right in the heart of Sydney on Oxford street. 

For the past six months I've been studying a diploma in Fashion down in Surry Hills. My course required students undertake ongoing internships, of which my first was at a public relations firm. After three months there I got wind of my favourite publication RUSSH Magazine doing call ins for interns. After two rounds of interviews I had my second internship. During the internship I discovered my passion lay in writing rather than fashion so I packed up my bags and moved back up to the sunny north coast and here I am.

Too da loo