Net Censorship – The Thin Wedge

As opposed to Chris Anderson’s long tail theory, the Australian Government is attempting to have the public accept a “thin wedge” in the form of enforced censorship.
This thinly disguised attempt to justify control of internet content is masked under the terms of protection of its citizens and for the common good by allowing the government to set up mandatory internet filtering to stop access to child pornography sites, filters which are already available and easily implemented to any netizen who wishes to use them.
Blind Freddy can see that it is an attempt at social control of the internet. If a law like this is passed it gives the bureaucracy permission to block any content they wish, a massive violation of freedom of speech.
There would be no way that any member of the public could monitor the implementation of such a filter – how could one challenge the blocking of internet content when it is blocked and therefore unavailable to be viewed?
There is no doubt that this is an attempt at social control and I am ashamed to hear it come from a government official (or department) in this country which supposedly prides itself on its so-called freedom.
A cynic may look a little deeper into this; it may be the use of a political publicity tool to take the attention away from something else that is being brewed up. Time will tell.
It is very difficult to imagine any intelligent person putting forward such a proposal of introducing something by law into a nation on an issue that is of a global nature and that can easily be dealt with on a personal level. There is very little that can be done about these sites unless they originate in Australia.
And who is to say that even this post could not be “banned” because it may upset the sensitivities of our fine political representatives.
A waste of time and effort in this proposal. The people responsible for this idea deserve public admonition in the waste and pure hypocrisy of assuming control over our personal freedoms. A quick scan of the ISP Level Content Filtering Final Report does nothing to change this point of view.
I am in no way condoning those that are involved in internet child pornography. Federal laws are in place to deal with those partaking in internet child pornography in Australia. I feel it is sufficient.
Results of the Feasibility Study on ISP Level Content Filtering (Feb. 08) can be accessed from this link as well as the results of closed environment testing.
See also this related article on this subject from The Australian.

Long Tail Theory Challenged

This article by Patrick Foster appearing in The Australian on line newspaper on Dec 23 ) attempts to provide proof that Chris Anderson’s “long tail’ theory is flawed. (This link briefly explains the theory).
The article leads with:

“The internet was supposed to bring vast choice for customers, access to obscure and forgotten products and a fortune for sellers who focused on niche markets.
But a study of digital music sales has posed the first big challenge to this "long tail" theory: more than 10 million of the 13 million tracks available on the internet failed to find a single buyer last year.”
I have no problem in agreeing with the data presented but in the presentation of this there is further unpacking that can be done. The reference here is to “sales” on line in reference to a capitalist market system of supply and demand, the creation and use of markets and the availability of the product to consumers.
I am wondering how many of these tracks that are available for sale on the internet have been downloaded for free, against international or local copyright laws and regarded as a sin by the producers of such material whether they be the authors (intellectual owners) or the sellers.
Briefly, the open sourced nature of the internet, whereby anybody can publish or download digital material is causing conflict with the very basis of capitalism. Similarities between a “real world” marketplace and the internet apply with tangible goods and services. It is when we deal with intangibles such as intellectual property (or more broadly defined as anything that is communicable in a digital form) that we run into problems.
As said previously, the open source nature of the internet creates problems in the ownership/control of digital output. Once it lands in cyberspace, there is really only the cultural concept of this ownership and payment for transfer of intellectual property standing in the way of a user (culturally a consumer) gaining access and use of it.
The article assumes that if you want to have use of this music you must pay for it. This is the idea of those that place it there in the first place in expectation of the internet working under the same principles as a real life market place. Bzzzt, the internet is different.
Anderson’s long tail theory still applies in the way that access to obscure and/or niche markets are available. The BIG difference is that the terms of RL market do not apply. Assumptions include people who want the music can and will pay for it (production/consumption). Also that consumers who like the music are happy to operate in cyberspace under real world economic and property rules, rules which can easily be circumvented in the digital space.
Much tension exists in the entertainment industry over piracy arguably because the industry has become a victim of its own elitism. The rules of entertainment engagement are changing and those who have previously become wealthy through real world marketplace commerce are challenged by the digital escape or loss of the economic fruits of their labour (exploitation) of the abstract terms of ownership of copyright and intellectual property.
In other words, the internet is challenging ownership of intellectual property and by extension copyright. I have no problem with praising and admiring those who can produce such wonders of modern entertainment but I do have a problem with the obscene profits made by the few. Perhaps the internet through digitilisation is in the process of forcing a change in cultural values of intellectual property and copyright.
To close and to put it very simply, the internet by its very construction is not owned by any single person, it is communal property, therefore anything on the internet put on by anybody in digital format basically waives their rights of ownership of that digital production, passing ownership of it to the owners of the internet. i.e. the global internet community (netizens).
Get used to it – it’s going to happen. Chris Anderson’s long tail theory stands – but not for those who wish for personal gain. The profit lies in the increased agency of the internet population through epistemological development hopefully producing a better world bereft of those elite who have gained so much at the expense of so many.
Then again, it is evident the Australian government is making plans to control the long tail under the guise of internet censorship for the protection of its citizens. From the long tail to the thin end of the wedge. Netizens beware!!

Freemanspeak: Climate Change II – Garnaut’s Data Quandary

Please note that I have respect for Professor Ross Garnaut and his position.
In the compilation of the Garnaut Climate Change Review, Prof. Garnaut had to make a very important decision before compiling the economic side of the paper. That decision was what sort of scientific data to use as a basis for the Garnaut Review. It seems evident that Prof. Garnaut was advised by scientists from the CSIRO who seem to have adopted the findings of the International Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report.
In a nutshell, the IPCC concluded that it is “very likely” man influences climate through the production of carbon dioxide.
The IPCC assessment is itself clouded in controversy scientifically as well as politically.
A consensus theory perspective may argue that society has a need and a right to know if man is stuffing up the climate of this climate and that the IPCC was convened to give the world the right answers to the best of their ability.
A Marxist may suggest that the IPCC was formed to negotiate or manipulate scientific evidence to result in findings that would strike fear into the population of the world using rhetoric of future disaster and catastrophe if the planet as a whole does not do something to change things (i.e. reduce carbon pollution).
Whichever analytical methodology applied, Prof. Garnaut chose to use the IPCC as a basis for data for the Garnaut Review. Delving a little deeper, Prof. Garnaut’s choice of using IPCC data was a good one politically. It satisfies the government that commissioned him to do the report as the acceptance of certain anthropogenic causes of climate change as FACT enables the creation of a paper which can justify future economic policy making by the Australian Federal Government.
In fairness to Prof. Garnaut, he does state that there is scientific uncertainty surrounding climate change evidence but uses rhetoric of consensus in mentioning that it is the majority scientific judgement that man has influence over climate change, a general statement not backed up with any source reference. It could be inferred that Prof. Garnaut is relating to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.
A major problem exists in the selection of the basic data. If the IPCC Fourth Assessment is proven over time to be correct then the Garnaut Report’s use of the IPCC basic data is justified, a whiggish assessment.
However, the IPCC recommendations are not considered one hundred percent scientific fact. Therefore, the very basis of the Garnaut Report could be based on interpretation of the facts, with these interpretations containing data that could possibly prove to be false. In turn, the report then becomes one of selective interpretation which has been accepted by the current Australian Government and used to create policy which will affect every single person living in Australia.

Freemanspeak: Climate Change I - Introduction

I feel a need to publish some thoughts on Climate Change. Climate change has developed socially into an extremely complex issue.
I will take a stand immediately by saying that I am cynical of climate change caused by man which will lead to a catastrophic future for all of us. Perhaps instead of cynical it may be preferable for me to say I am yet to be convinced.
This little set of articles will hopefully enable me to out my thoughts on the climate change subject somewhere so that in the future I can look back and see how my analytical process is proceeding.
My preferences lie in analysis through scholarship of Sociology and Science and Technology (concentrating on Scientific Controversies). To stop me writing a huge single post on the subject I am going to divide it up. There is no plan as to how I am going to analyse this subject as I am one in favour of the organic growth of thought in relation to new media and social analysis. I will simply put a heading of the general subject I am looking at.
I can see arguments for the whole climate change issue containing many opportunities to re-inforce capitalism and profit from something new. Fair enough, science is doing a lot of research on climate change and passing this information on to anybody that is interested. A problem lies in that scientists are healthily debating causes of climate change within their particular scientific communities but when the issue is taken out of the scientific domain and placed into the hands of policy makers things change.
The issues of climate change are impacting upon societies and with globalisation and modern communication means the impacts are world wide. I am going to try to make some sort of sense of it through this small series of posts.

Children and New Media

I would like to comment on some transformations I have noticed in children’s relationship to new media.
I consider there has always been peer pressure on children to have similar things to other children whether it is toys, clothing etc. Comparing the present to say the 1960’s (which I qualify) the same pressures were evident then as are now. I think that even in the 60’s we were a part of the consumer society, although the commodities were slightly different but still cost (normally the parents). Eg. In the 60’s kids wanted things like Malvern Star pushbikes, Dunlop volley sandshoes (now called trainers) commodities all the same and that hasn’t changed.
I will argue that what has changed is how they communicate with each other. I would consider that he oldest a child in western democratic society would be when they get a mobile phone (earlier if they are good naggers – sorry , negotiators). There is a very good chance that there would already be a PC in the house so MSN would probably start about ten years old.
Good points: the children are becoming computer literate at an early age. It means that their typing skills will improve as will their use of the English language. They also have access to a large range of knowledge present on the internet (as exemplified by Zac and his tennis racqets).
I think that a child’s social circle would be larger than in the 60’s, although the strength of the relationships would be weaker.
Bad points: The use of modern technology as well as the economies of supplying this technology have widened the have/have nots gap. Another point is that in using things such as MSN and SMS the traditional English language is being butchered, with many words being abbreviated for the purpose and finding their way into everyday use. Also the use of calculators has diminished a basic arithmetical understanding.
Having found myself leaning towards Marxism (as no doubt many of my classmates have figured out) it is easy for me to see the results of consumerism, branding and also the results of globalization in the homogenization of societies (not only in Aust).
I think it is fantastic that children have the use of modern technology but I also think it is important that they are taught values of commodities. Unfortunately, I think this is not happening in our modern world. The penetration of the credit society runs very deep, much to many people’s (and by extension children’s) detriment.
Socialisation of children is now left largely to mass media influences. It is a leviathan that is extremely difficult to battle against. It thrives on children striving to be different, puts increased stress on their development and creates an urge in them to grow up before their time, a difficult experience.
Having said that, I do have confidence in our younger generation. I have found in watching my son’s friends grow up a difference in the way they communicate, staying in contact even when not face to face. The issue of all the porn on the net does not worry me, it saves the parents giving their kids a book on the subject. Like anything, whether on the net or in real life, there is good and bad and children recognise that. Basic monitoring of kids friends and net use is easy enough to achieve and in my opinion all that is required. They know that these violent video games are fictions, and from research and experience it has far less bearing on a child’s outlook than their living circumstances.
Doesn’t matter which historical period you live in, growing up is never easy, therefore I think that sometimes the older generation worries too much.

THOUGHTS ON THE SUB-PRIME CRISIS

I am wondering if anybody is having any thoughts on the problems they are having with the stockmarket in the USA at the moment.
I am going to toss some thoughts out there and see if anybody is interested in replying or commenting.
I think it is very relevant to SOC 104 and would be worth discussing for a little while in tutorials.
Commencing with neo-liberalism. As Mark has noted in the Week 9 lecture notes (p. 20), neoliberalism involves governments privatizing services they were previously responsible for, allowing them to wash their hands of the responsibility to the population.
This process passes responsibilities of the privatised services to tending the interests of shareholders, away from the people using the service. From here it can be argued that responsibilities of the privatized service are transformed. There is a need to try to achieve balance – on one hand creating profits for the shareholders while at the same time providing a service that people are willing to pay for. I am confident in saying that a privatized company will show preference to the shareholders concerns as opposed to those who use/pay for the service.
When Keating in his wisdom commenced the privatisation process in Australia, freeing up markets for free trade and ending many protectionist strategies in place, the process of neoliberalism began. We have seen what were many public owned services sold off in the name of privatization. The point I will argue here is that historically, and I am going back a long way, governments had origins in looking after services that were common to the people when societies grew too big for individuals to look after such things as their own waste disposal, road maintenance, water and power supply, moving later on into the provision of communications and public transport.
The people originally elected representatives to oversee these services. Correct me if I am wrong, but I am at a loss as to how modern government have been permitted to privatise these services that in reality (historically, at least) belong to the general population. It was a common feature of the workforce after World War II that if a person was unskilled or otherwise unemployed they would be able to find employment in one of these public services e.g. Water Board, RTA, Council, Telstra (then the PMG – Postmaster Generals Office). The shareholders of these organizations were the general population, the user pays system here meaning the people that owned the services paid for them. Profits were spent in further employment and the improvement of services. The point here is that there was not the extra economic burden of payment to shareholders.
Moving along to the present day, I fail to see the sense in the sub-prime loans affairs that were permitted in the US recently. People with absolutely no chance of repaying a housing loan were permitted to borrow amounts of money that they had zero chance of repaying. Who in their right mind would propose such a scheme, let alone put it into practice. It was only a matter of time before the system collapsed. A basic argument that could be proposed here is that there is no humanity involved in profits made for shareholders. i.e. Profit first, people last. Conspiracy theorists could possibly read the attempt in the creation of an increased poor (people living in cars), a very neat method of population control.
Here is where I thank my lecturer and tutors. From a sociological viewpoint, and it is difficult to be objective, I will try to explain in terms of conflict. The people in power in tandem with mass media have created a culture where people strive to reach the unattainable. Any of those in opposition are marginalised or otherwise oppressed. The needs of the society as a whole run a poor last to the making of profit. The collapse of companies such as Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac are a result simply of the need for greed. Now it seems as if the self proclaimed most powerful government in the world is going to spend $700 odd billion dollars owned by the general population to keep these companies afloat while still leaving the same people in control. There is no mention of any help going to the people whose lives have spiraled into crisis over the sub-prime affair.
Quite simply, since governments have rated the success/wealth of a nation in terms of things such as average wages earned or Gross Domestic profit and governed using economic models allowing the proliferation of shareholder dominated institutions, there has been a greatly increased movement of wealth towards the “haves” at the expense of the “have nots”. I know I will attract criticism here, but I feel that the capitalists have now acquired so much wealth that the top end has overbalanced, and is now toppling over. It seems to be the best way to put it in layman’s terms. Keep an eye out for possible class conflict.
I will argue that privatisation has added the extra burden of the provision of profit to shareholders, an unnecessary and unaffordable capitalist orientated expense that society in general can ill afford, a process enabled and re-inforced by modern mass media.
Is there anybody willing to have a go at explaining this economic crisis in terms of consensus or conflict theory?
I am open to criticism providing it is constructive.

Click here to access George Bush’s address to the American people on this issue.

INVESTIGATING THE BLOGOSPHERE – WEEK 8

One of our class assignments was to investigate blogs through links on a chosen subject. Chai and myself chose the political unrest present in Thailand at the moment. I thought it would be an easy task to start from one blog which would link with another and so on until we had linked 10 times. Unfortunately it was not to be. We were stumped after two blogs. The exercise was very fruitful as it totally destroyed my concept of the interconnectivity of the internet through links on blogs. I found that it is a simple process to very quickly finish up looking a t a web site created by a mass media organization. This situation seemed to become verified by my classmates as in turn they noted the same difficulties as myself when presenting their findings to the class. It has caused me to reflect on how prevalent the large corporations are on the internet.
It is now going to be very difficult for me to justify any notion within myself from the idealistic viewpoint that the internet would free the public from the tyranny of mass media corporations. It is becoming more evident all the time that the internet is extending the western democratic process of consumerism. I am noting that “businesses’ such as Yahoo, Google and the like are developing what could be termed ‘complete internet experiences’ for users, their sites developed so that the user is coerced through clever use of gadgets to keep returning to their perceived self produced home page which is in reality an attempt to capture the user.
Oh dear, the freedom’s promised by idealists may not be so free after all.

FEMALE BLOGGERS - WEEK 7

Re: Effectiveness of Blogs as a form of Online Communication

Blogs are an effective means of communication in many ways.
Specifically on the gender issue discussed in Melissa Greg’s article. I argue there is a direction in her paper that I do not quite agree with. Some of the feminist arguments are a bit thin for my liking. “Where are all the women bloggers?” There are plenty of women bloggers on line. I have found when looking for Web 2.0 (commencing 2 years ago) that there are many women contributing to intelligencia on the net. I consider her viewpoint in mentioning that women are perceived as blogging about knitting, pets etc. is incorrect. The internet has given women freedoms whch they are free to take. Gender issues are diminished on the internet, especially from an epistemic viewpoint. I consider gender values are only raised due to personal bias and are very easily dealt with on the net. I feel many women have found a new freedom in the use of blogs, for whatever reason. Any argument saying they suffer from exclusion can be argued as false. Actually, Gregg’s mentioning of women’s only blogs which exclude men sounds a little condescending.
I will argue that blogging has given women a platform where they are on equal terms in relation to age, gender, opinion, status and class. If the feminist movement wishes to subliminally crucify themselves by taking a defensive stance instead of taking advantage of the opportunities availed (not granted patriarchically but through the technologies available) then so be it. I for one, welcome all to blog to their heart’s content, feeling free of exclusion issues such as gender, race, status, class, politics and especially the public/private divide.

Week 6: My Activity and Passivity in using communication technologies

This requires another personal viewpoint. I think two sections are asked for.
Firstly passivity; do I just sort of sit back and get modern communication injected into my brain (a la Frankfurt School).
I must admit I consider the Frankfurt school of thought still applicable. Think about it, advertising of products everywhere. I am guilty of falling prey to the mass media advertising machine. There was a time when I would never buy no-name brand products. Bird’s Eye, Kraft, Fountain tomato sauce etc. The same with clothing – especially when Levis jeans became popular. I would only buy Adidas trainers and Billabong T-shirts. Yes, a victim of society, whether I liked it or not.
Secondly - activity. Modern media offers me much more choice in what I choose to view; TV or internet in my case. I watch little programmed TV (say, about 5 hours per week). In my case I watch DVD’s I hire from the video shop much more, preferring the asynchronitical approach. Far exceeding the time spent watching TV is time spent on my PC. Uni studies take up a fair amount of that nowadays but even before that I spent lots of time on my PC, with it becoming a necessary part of my life. I feel active in the sense that I feel I have control in the choices I make in what I do. This ‘activity’ also comes at a price, a price I am willing to pay. The lessening of a face to face social life has been replaced with communicating with people overseas. I feel that I am far more socially active now that I would be without a PC. The hours and money I have spent ‘investing’ in new communication forms has paid returns for me. I feel I am empowered more, have gained more knowledge in fields I am interested in as well being able to communicate with like minded people. The online work exercise in cultural production in my case holds true in many ways, except to find out about that you will have to read my blog.

“YOUTUBE” EXPERIENCE – WEEK 5

The YouTube (YT) experience was certainly something different. I normally had not frequented the YT sites until this week. A brief analysis of YT can describe it as another new example of means of production of a form of mass media in enabling the public to create their own video productions. It is well worth your while to take a look at a video done by Chris Anderson on the “Long Tail”. It is a form of promotion of a book he wrote buy the same name but I forgive him completely because the concept of the “Long Tail” is one I first heard mentioned to me by Jo Kay at Wollongong TAFE a couple of years ago. I will not explain the long tail concept here, better that you have a look at it yourself. I have done a small introduction for Anderson’s video and put it on YT which was a part of my class assignment.
For myself, I have discovered that YT could be useful in future sociological research as well as my new media studies.
At this point in time I am opining that YT will be used as another vehicle for advertising. One example is the popcorn being “popped’ by mobile phones. I will not give the advertisers credence here by mentioning any about it.
YouTube is an extremely popular concept and getting exponentially larger. I have not spent much time reflecting on the ultimate cultural function YT will perform in society and if it has any peculiar social effects. Time will tell as my epistemology develops.
You might also like to have a look at Chris Anderson’s blog.

THANKS TO "MACCA"

I just have to blog this. So my DIGC 101 assignment suffers a bit . Tuff!

PICS OF THE RECENT PARTIAL LUNAR ECLIPSE

As is often occurring these days, I was woken at 5.30 am this morning by pain in my left foot, a result of getting older, I suppose. Knowing there was no more sleep happening for a while I tuned my bedside radio to Macca's ABC Australia All Over radio program.

A truck driver that had just returned from driving road trains in the Pilbara (driving with 110,000 litres of petrol up you backside) rang in to say that he was near Parkes, it was bloody cold but something interesting was happening. The moon was disappearing. He described it as the moon setting over the western horizon with the top half chopped off. Macca said he knew nothing about but would ring an astrologer mate to find out.

Wondering if it was the same here I grabbed my digital camera and went out the back. I live on top of a hill looking over Port Kembla Harbour and doubted if I would see the moon as the escarpment to the west makes planetary objects "set" a lot earlier than elsewhere.

The truckie from the Pilbara was right, it was cold AND there was something funny with the moon. I was fortunate enough to get some pics of the partial eclipse of the moon (unlike Bonnie Tyler who got a total eclipse of the heart). Unfortunately, my batteries went flat - a cardinal sin as far as I am concerned - and I only managed to get five pics.

I have posted a part of one of them on here. Do you think I will let you get away with seeing the pic and then just disappearing? NO!! I want to use an internet marketing tool to keep your attention; to make you spend a little more of your valuable time in "my cyberspace". I will post only part of the pic with the "important bit" missing. You will have to click on to a link to go to my flickr site to see the "important" bit and then perhaps be moved to comment or even look at some more of my pics , gaining me increased status in cyberspace.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

By the way, for any students wishing to learn a little more of Australian culture, tune in to ABC radio, 97.3 FM from 5.30 on a Sunday morning and have a listen to Macca, he's a true blue Aussie and a cobber to every Australian. Pity I'm such a bastard for not giving you a fair suck of the sav by fart-arsing around.

P.S.
For the physicists - The sun is coming up behind me when I took these pics. How come the shadow of the earth is on the top half of the moon? Shouldn't the shadow be on the bottom? I promise you the pics have not been retouched.

MySpace EXPERIENCE -WEEK 3

I must in all honesty refer to my MySpace experience as not a very pleasant one. I have created a MySpace page previously (pre Facebook) so that I can keep in touch with what my then 16 year old and his friends were up to. The targetted age group of MySpace users was very clearly pointed out to me then when I was told in no uncertain terms that I am too old for MySpace and to “get off MySpace”. I quite enjoyed the experience of creating my first MySpace using one of the on line coding software programs and found it much easier then than I did this time around. The fact that I had a lot of trouble putting a background picture up for my new MySpace did nothing for my liking of this type of P2p communication. The format is not in line with my preferred set up because of exactly that; the format. I understand that you can pimp your MySpace in many different ways which can very quickly lead to lots of clutter as well as becoming cumbersome in that the page takes a long time to load. The pre-arranged formats that are available did not suit my style of what I consider a decent vehicle for my type of online presence. Perhaps I was bored with the concept of MySpace due to having played around with it previously which clouded my vision. I appreciate it is useful for teenagers to communicate their on-line presence although a quick survey of my now 19 year old son and his friends found that there is only one fronm about a dozen or so of his friends that have kept their MySpace up to date. Most of them now communicate through IM such as MSn and could not be bothered fiddling around creating a MySpace presence. Conclusion – MySpace is not for me, the target audience does not suit, the expectations in the format are not my preferred style and if I did create a MySpace page it would look very much out of place in the genre.

PERSONAL WEBIFICATION - WEEK 4

THE TIME FACTOR

Webification; a new term introduced to me recently. Connoted by me as the representation of myself on the internet. I am allowing myself to use the MySpace area as a place where I allow myself the freedom to put over some of my personal viewpoints. I am finding the subject matter very time consuming and at times frustrating. It is a wonderful thing to be able to create your own public “private” space, one in which you feel you have full control over production as well as the power of being your own censor, deciding the fate of other people’s comments/contributions.

A rare glimpse inside the Webification Room at UOW.
Where time and space are compressed,
alter egos are manufactured
and the cybergrail of perfect interactivication is sought

As my projects develop, I hope to explore the limitations that are imposed on users of the various “technologies” such as Facebook v MySpace v Blogger, all three of which I am familiar with and exemplify a manageable cross section.

My comment for this week involves time management. I have been busy setting up brand new blogs, Facebook and a MySpace profiles as well as trying to contribute to class discussions for the two core 100 DIGC subjects. Personal experience so far has illustrated to me how much time is involved in achieving any semblance of worthwhile production. I would ask that you reflect on the time taken in the modern era to create this on line presence and compare it with historical forms of communication such as letter writing, or say, an opinion piece such as a letter to the Editor.

Modern technology says NO to just getting on the keyboard and typing out your piece, then posting it off to wherever. (Yes, I know about e-mail, but I will argue that commodification and cultural developments of the technological age demands more, a powerful product to which we are culturally bound and therefore encouraged to participate in.)

A price is paid for the agency to reach a far larger audience. The communication needs to be formatted in a certain way, whether it be on Facebook, a blog or whatever. I will arguer that one item high on the price list is time. I have found that I have spent much, much more of my time setting up an artificial cyberspace that is visually pleasing to me (with my intended audience factored in) than actually creating text or communication in the knowledge sharing sense.

I will also argue that the time factor will continue to play a large part in my future efforts in developing the three elements of communication (FB, MyS, and blogs). I would hazard a guess that each contribution I make would take at least three times as long as if I simply thought about what I was going to write and then wrote it down on paper and posted it as a jpeg on a white background on a web page.

There is a price we pay for the 24/7 divergent, convergent availability of modern communication.

Food I will leave for thought is the possible development of the disappearing private communication in relation to the emergence of public communication.

THE BASIC PURPOSE

The basic function of this blog at "this point in time" is for an assessment.

To this purpose I will be chronicling the progress and attempt to gradually critically analyse my own work. It is important that I address the basic criteria before I commence to diverge on my blog journey.

The first assessment is due on August 15 so I have a little less than 2 weeks to get something presentable. The next and final one is on October 17 giving me 2 short months to polish it.

My own interpretations of what is required and how I go about it will be explained briefly. My thoughts and ideas for improvements will also be logged.So here we go. It is suggested that this can be used as a self-promotional tool for "showing my wares" so to speak.

My choice of template is to try to create an academic feel. The cream page looks a little like parchment, highlighted by the darker brown surrounding it. I am not happy with the width of the page so I will shortly be widening the cream “box”. The two colours set each other off well even though brown is not my favourite colour.

The links are on the left for a reason. When on the right I consider them to be a kind of afterthought. People read from left to right so they will automatically scan the links as they read the post, more so than if they were on the right margin.

I have entered a post of acknowledements to recognize and thank those people whose creative abilities I have “borrowed”. I have also left my original posts on here for reasons beyond me. Maybe because I really like the photo I took of my son surfing – taken the very first day I purchased my Canon Powershot camera. Money well spent!

I now need to commence the serious business of improving my blog. There are many, many things I need to add to this blog so I will start with a few self suggestions.

I believe that a successful page needs lots of white space (in this case cream) so I will try not to clutter things up too much. Other things on the list are to widen the text page; set out the links correctly and very importantly, set ALL of the hyperlinks up so that they open up in a new tab in the browser. I need to experiment with the text a little also.

That’s enough for this post. It doesn’t get done by talking about it. Let the development begin!!! Oh, and lots of pics required also.

Acknowledgements

It is only fair that I acknowledge the efforts of other people whose intellectual property has helped to produce this blog. Although many of them are unknown to me I would still like to thank them for their help. I will update this post as the blog progresses.

I am a great believer in the sharing of knowledge and if I can share my knowledge with somebody else I am more than happy to do so. I create this blog with no intention towards infringements of any copyright or plagiarisation. If I have inadvertently infringed any copyright (either trademarked or intellectual) please inform me and I will deal with the problem immediately.

So from the bottom of his little heart Micael would like to acknowledge:

Basic Web page design “Scribe” by Todd Dominey accessed from Blogger Templates

TIME TO UPATE

Don't worry all of you blogwatchers out there. I am going to now refurbish this blog as part of my DIGC 101 course at Uni of Wollongong. Wish me luck.
I will probably be posting reflections on the progress of the page. Format to be decided on yet. Maybe a sort of Dear Diary to post my reflections.
I will test my hypothesis that once I start (note I am saying only I) that the blog will tend to take on a life of it's own as it is developed.

Good Luck to Me