Assessment Item 3

The idea of the Internet as cyberspace has been a part of our contemporary culture for some time, particularly in the popular medium of film. But is the concept of cyberspace still relevant to our contemporary society? Discuss with reference to your own experience of contemporary media.

“The Internet is a strategic research site in which to study fundamental social processes.” (Smith, Kollock (1999, pp 4)). Cyberspace is a place for learning, a place for communicating, and a place for social interaction. To many people, the Internet represents a place to escape from reality or a place to connect with friends. Cyberspace has enabled people to communicate from across the world with each other, and as such, remains a valued media in today’s society. This essay will explore what ‘cyberspace’ means to us today, within our contemporary society, and will aim to find the relevance it holds in relation to the other media it interacts with, such as television, gaming, and social networking.

‘Cyberspace’, as a concept of a semi-existent space has been around for many years, and people continue to use it as a platform/landscape for their communication needs. Enabling the use of email, forums, games, and media sharing, Cyberspace exists not only within our world, as a tool, but fundamentally also stands on its own, as a world of its own. Mark Nunes states, “the internet is quickly creating its own world … a cybernetic utopia” (Holmes, 1997). Cyberspace is a means to an end, in that without it, and its infinite vastness, people would find communicating and learning much more difficult. As technology has progressed, so has the relationship between it and the people who use it. Internet/Cyberspace creators, as Chodos, Hamovitch and Murphy say, “are often avid consumers of information as well” (C, H and M, 1997), in what has now become an orgy of untrustworthy human thought. From my experience as an Internet user, ‘the Web’, ‘the Net’, or ‘cyberspace’ serve the major purpose of allowing me to stay in touch with friends who I have not seen or spoken to in years. Social media networking sites, like Facebook, have allowed me to reconnect and share my experiences with friends, new and old. As well as this, Facebook allows me to post videos and music I like to my profile so my friends can watch or listen, and comment on them. The vast majority of the time I spend online is on Facebook and Sidereel.com. Where Facebook, allows me to talk to friends, Sidereel.com, built for the purpose of video sharing, enables me to watch American television online. With quick links to video streaming websites like Megavideo.com, Sidereel keeps me up to date with my favorite shows, like Dexter and The Office.

The idea of ‘Cyberspace’ as “the joint network of all existing communication channels and information stores connecting people and machines.” (Heylighen, 1984) is one, which arises many questions as to how it has came to be, and ‘where’ exactly it ‘exists’. As a global community of Internet users, ‘Cyberspace’ allows for the interconnection of billions of people. It serves a unique purpose in providing the world with an unmatchable medium of communication. People continue to explore the Internet, find new sites and become attached. ‘Cyberspace’ is a unique experience for everyone. Governable by anyone and everyone, it allows for absolute democracy within a worldwide medium. People can create and use the ‘space’ in whichever manner they wish. It is theirs and everyone else’s. For this reason Cyberspace still holds relevant truth and meaning within today’s society.

Within ‘Cyberspace’, people can take part in games and/or virtual worlds, which enable them to explore and destroy certain objects, as well as meet new people, and create relationships. With varying degrees of violence and sociability, games like World of Warcraft and the likes of Habbo Hotel serve different yet similar purposes for the gamer/online user. Jan Jagodzinski writes, “it’s not a question whether the created world is as real as the physical world, rather the question is whether it is “real” enough … to suspend disbelief while immersed “in” it” (Jagodzinski, 2004). Where World of Warcraft aims to fulfill a gamers’ want to kill and eliminate enemies, Habbo Hotel is a purely social platform, which provides a virtual world for people to communicate within. However, it becomes necessary to understand that, as Patricia Wallace writes, “the Internet is not cocaine, alcohol, or nicotine. And people who understand why the Internet can be such a time sink may be able to get the problem under control and get back to more productive activities” (Wallace, 1999). From my experience, as a former Habbo Hotel user, it gave me somewhere to be someone I wasn’t, and someone I ‘wanted’ to be. Habbo Hotel also allows you to spend legitimate money in the game to make your ‘room/s’ more appealing to others, thus increasing your popularity. In playing on this platform, I soon realized the dangers that came with such a site. With ease, people could pretend to be someone they weren’t, making everyone a possible victim to online abuse and misconduct. After a few months, my account was deleted for reporting too many ‘dangerous people’ and among other things, finding out a cheat for swearing online. The $75 dollars I had spent on ‘Habbo Creds’ instantly became nonexistent.

Arguably, the Internet provides an invaluable and indispensable method of communication. The limitless possibilities of Cyberspace are addictive, and people are easily addicted to it. With the introduction of handheld technologies, becoming more and more advanced, the Internet becomes more readily available to those who wish to use it. Certain handhelds also take advantage of the Internet to create online shopping opportunities. The likes of the iPod/iPhone and of sites such as the iTunes/App store and eBay, have made the purchasing of goods, and online media content, very easy. Within our contemporary society, one relying heavily upon the need for quick online connection, ‘Cyberspace’ proves invaluable. People desire to be connected to the net at all times, and maintain a constant connection with their friends and family. Cyberspace as a concept within today’s society remains completely valid. The world continues to use it for all manners of intercommunication, including gaming, media sharing and social networking. As a result of this, ‘Cyberspace’ itself plays a part within our contemporary culture and society.

Bibliography

Internet Sources

1. ‘Cyberspace’ (Heylighen, Oct/17, 1984) http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/cybspace.html

2. ‘Is Cyberspace Destroying Society’ (Birkerts, May/30, 1995) http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/aandc/trnscrpt/birkerts.html

3. ‘Learning to be a citizen of Cyberspace’ (Mosco) http://www.unesco.org/webworld/infoethics_2/eng/papers/paper_21.html

4. ‘Cyberspace Saturates Reality’ (McHugh M. Apr/14, 2009) http://maureenmcq.blogspot.com/2009/04/cyberspace-saturates-reality.html

5. ‘Magic and Cyberspace’ (Drury N.) http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeIV/MagicCyber.html

Academic Sources

1. Chodos, Robert & Hamovich, Eric & Murphy, Rae (1997, pp 65) Lost in cyberspace? Toronto, Canada. Lorimer. Sourced from:

http://books.google.com/books?id=uhwsGcsUY7AC&pg=PA65&dq=%22cyberspace%22+consumers+creators&lr=&ei=n6neSqP9CYbekwTu9-WZAQ#v=onepage&q=&f=false

2. Holmes, David (1997, pp 163) Virtual Politics: Identity and Community in Cyberspace. London, SAGE. Sourced from:

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=x_zOA24lvIIC&oi=fnd&pg=PP9&dq=cyberspace&ots=sgD8L5CF5Q&sig=7n1h67iddsHIxMMMZ1uKh4alMWs#v=onepage&q=&f=false

3. Jagodzinski, Jan (2004, pp 169) Youth fantasies: the perverse landscape of the media. New York, PALGRAVE MACMILLAN. Sourced from:

http://books.google.com/books?id=JvF0wB_PBUYC&pg=PA169&dq=cyberspace+cyber+addiction&lr=&ei=GaHeStbVBY30lQToromeCA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

4. Smith, Mark & Kollock, Peter (1999, pp 4) Communities In Cyberspace. New York, Routledge. Sourced from:

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=harO_jeoyUwC&oi=fnd&pg=PP15&dq=cyberspace&ots=JWSJbKftBQ&sig=4bS2Z6GQatgcR7P83P7m3M6KH4A#v=onepage&q=&f=false

5. Wallace, Patricia M. (1999, pp 189) The Psychology Of The Internet. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Sourced from:

http://books.google.com/books?id=k0Z2-I0zrDgC&pg=RA1-PA185&dq=cyberspace+addiction&lr=&ei=PqTeSvyYMpCUkATtqOW5CA#v=onepage&q=cyberspace%20addiction&f=false

Tute task Week 9

For my essay i have decided to do number 2: The idea of the internet as cyberspace has been a part of our contemporary culture for some time, particularly in the popular medium of film. But is the concept of cyberspace still relevant to our contemporary society? Discuss with reference to your own experience of contemporary media.

When checking on the tute tasks earlier today this week's wasn't posted. I checked when i got home and now know what to do. All i'm saying is that i haven't got any book/journal references but i did my best to find useful online sources for my online essay.

1. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/cybspace.html - this one tells me all about cyberspace and its definition. And also tries to grasp the concept of a non-existant/existant 'space'. This source will allow me to define 'cyberspace', and to better understand what i am writing about. "a continuous three-dimensional space is generated by computer, which reacts to the user's movements and manipulations like a real physical space would"
2. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=harO_jeoyUwC&oi=fnd&pg=PP15&dq=cyberspace&ots=JWSJbKftBQ&sig=4bS2Z6GQatgcR7P83P7m3M6KH4A#v=onepage&q=&f=false- This source, from a book, details information on the internet. Also talks about the net, cyberspace, the information highway etc. This source will enable me to speak about the internet in today's society. "instead of people talking to machines, computer networks are being used to connect people to people"
3. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=x_zOA24lvIIC&oi=fnd&pg=PP9&dq=cyberspace&ots=sgD8L5CF5Q&sig=7n1h67iddsHIxMMMZ1uKh4alMWs#v=onepage&q=&f=false - This source talks about virtual communities and how they are becoming a larger part of society. This source can help in generally answering the essay question. "The arrival of virtual reality and virtual communities... enframe the human body and human communication"

Puddle of Lecture Blog - Week 8

This week, my mind was forcibly filled with the wonders of cyberspace, and cyberpolitics. Learning about online democracy, or as the cool-cats say 'eDemocracy' learnt just how awesome politics really is..... not.... at allllll. The knowledge of representative democracy was bequeathed upon me, in all its glory; as well as the splendour of 'Direct democracy' which entailed a lot of blabber centring around thoughts, such as : everyone online has (or should have) equal rights in all the decisions made, even if tat means only casting a voluntary vote for something, once in a while.

Then we were told of the gaps in today current 'mass' media, which detailed the online community as one (or a whole) and their voting/participating power equally as one.

Then to my immanent disaggregausal (yep i invented that word - it means 'my disagreement') found out about internet censorship. And don't lie we have all been to sites we maybe shouldn't have been to, even if our excuse is that we were told it was a nice simple picture of a 'loving' family. A little too much love in that family, if u ask me. I never want to see that again... ever! So sure there is heaps of bad stuff on the net but some of it people do enjoy and people should have a right, as they do with speech, to go where they want online.

Then to the world of hacking. Those rapscallions! Nothing i didnt already know, but it's good to get a further understanding of the people behind the online usernames 'nighthawk911'and 'Deathdragon_32boom'. and hey u can tell i'm not a hacker my username is richardp09, but hopefully one day soon.... a hacker will consider my information valuable enough to steal and will change it to 'superdandycoolcat91'..... IT IS MY DREAM

Tute tasks - Week 8

1. Sign an e-petition
I have signed an e-petition against the importation of fur into the UK. (i am half british after all)
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/f/ACTIVE/petition/?id=7&campaign=living

2.Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site
So i responded "Naughty naughty Mr. Hanky Panky." on this site http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/22/georgia-congressman-wilsons-outburst-carefully-calculated/#comment-3006384
This just shows that even though i know absolutely nothing about the topic in question, I as a member of the online community can post a completely random comment to quite a serious discussion.

3.What is Barack Obama up to today?
ppppppppp

4. Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are
Local = Ronan Lee, State = Anna Bligh, Federal = Kevin Rudd

Puddle of Lecture Blog - Week 7

This week we looked at online collaboration, and the difference between free software (like Linux, GNU) and proprietary software (like Microsoft and Apple). We were told to think of free software as the key to sharing a recipe. If we can create a recipe and pass it on to others who then alter it, the recipe can become something newer and much better. This collaboration not only made the software better but made new relationships and created all new content for the cycle between the online community to continue.

TUTE task Week 6!

LAst week we had to make a one minute video of a topic of our choice, demonstrating how easy it is to create a video and add it online

It's a spoof MTV CRIBS video i made of my own house. Hope u enjoy

Watch it in full size here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xp6sErg29c

Tute task Week 7

During the mid-semester break my dad and i took a trip to Southern Africa for a 14-day 'adventure'. Starting in Johannesburg we visited the 'Lion and Rhino reserve' just outside the city (which is massive btw). We then went up through Kruger National Park where i shot a few of the photos, then continuing up Africa we visited Blythe's Canyon and God's Window, then further along to Livingstone in Botswana where we visited the Victoria Falls. On our way back down to Johannesburg we went through Chobe national park and the Karma Rhino reserve before heading back home.

Tute Task week 7 - 3 minute Video

To see video in proper size visit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IymOEYRRSqU

Puddle of Lecture Blog - Week 6

This week we looked at how people and media mix. We viewed some videos of movie trailers that had been altered to change the appearance of the original movie. We saw 'Shining' which was a remade trailer for 'The Shining'. It turned the classic thriller into a romantic comedy centred around a family who need to get away from the troubles in life, so they escape to a grand mansion, where they can reconnect with each other. We also saw 'Scary Mary' a trailer for 'Mary Poppins' remade into a thriller, which really turned it into something that would scare me. They were both great. We then watched a homemade video of a '28 days/weeks later' based film. It was hilariously stupid, but well enough made, with a similar style to 'Cloverfield (2008)'. It was good to see how interactive people are with the new medias of today.

Puddle of Lecture Blog - Week 5

This week was interesting. We looked at some social networking sites, like twitter, and talked about others like facebook, myspace etc. We also looked at isolatr.com the rejection site for people you just don't like. We were all dubbed as "Social Media Experts". I didn't really know how to feel about that. To me it's more of another name for young tech savvy kids. We were introduced to 'Web2.0', the current state of the internet which includes using social networks as forms of communication, instead of email. The rapid, and constant growth of the internet is also a part of the Web2.0 title, in that it is always new and used for more than just calculations, word processing and emailing. The internet today, was described as a place where people with similar interests communicate through new media on the internet.

3D IMing Vs. 2D text IMing

My experiences with 3D Instant Messaging started when i was about 14, with Habbo Hotel. There i could pretend to be an 18 year old. I found it such an enticing thought i spent $75, on fake money, which they called habbo creds. BIG MISTAKE. To my disgust at the time, my account was cancelled for inappropriate behaviour, and i lost my $75 to the pixelated world of time wasting. Meeting new people nevertheless was fun and communicating with other adults (probably also 14 years old) was intruiging. Messagers like MSN i have used in the past, but their format is boring, so now i use facebook and use their chatting system, which is convenient when i want to be checking out photos of people and be doing some facestalking.

Week 4 tute task #2

Q: How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?

A: According to the number of correct matches to a key word, and similarity to any implied contexts (bing.com uses this) a page will appear higher or lower in the search results. Commonly used sites eg. wikipedia will often appear high on the list, as visits to sites, such as this provide the person with the information they need.

Q: Who, or what, makes one page (that you might get in your search results) more useful than another one, so that it is put at the top of your search results?

A: Some sites pay for a higher ranking in the search results. Apart from that though, i have little idea how one makes a site more useful other than being well referenced and with clear concise information easily accessible by the internet users.

Q: What are some of your favourite search engines? why do you like one more than others?

A: I have always used google. I do prefer it over others as it categorizes the results for me, by placing the image results on top, followed by the most visited sites, allowing me to find what i need quickly. I enjoy also using blackle.com (Google's energy saving search engine).

Puddle of Lecture Blog - Week 3, 4

Week three's lecture consisted of a whole lot of nothing with a side of nothing, thanks to the Ekka day holiday. With the absence of our lecturer, Steve Stockwell, our fourth week's lecture called for a substitute. We focussed on the language of film and television, eg. how we communicate to our audience through our use of specific techniques on the screen. This included head and talking space/room, where too little of either seemed to disconnect us from the image/person on screen and too much gave us a sense of discomfort and of abstractness.

Puddle of Lecture Blog - Week 2

In week 2, discussion followed that of the different companies in competition with each other to create the new best thing. These were Apple and Microsoft. We heard of the growth of the computer industry, from its birth to its relatively highly advanced state today. In the tutorials we learnt to create our own blog using blogger.com and posted our first post.

Puddle of lecture blog - week 1

Ahhhhh, yes. The first week of New Comm Tech. Well, simply enough, we explored how we today interact with technology, and how it came to be this way. Discussion of new medias, and their role in people's lives today, seemed to play the main role in the lecture. Additionally the rapid growth and expansion of the technology since its arrival was also discussed. We were shown a youtube video called 'Cocaine Jesus' demonstrating the use of new medias to tell and spread new stories. Polls were taken within the lecture to see how many of us used the new social networking tools available to us today, such as the now out-dated myspace, the simple yet informative facebook and the baby of the bunch twitter. With the results showing that facebook was most commonly used throughout the New Comm Tech horde.

Pizza Pizza Partay! Pizza Pizza Toot FrOO

Some Of My Favorite Ads

Tute week 4 answers... i think

1. Gumboots and a beanie. Or a gasmask because of his allergies :)
2. September 2nd 1969 at UCLA
3. a) Bill Gates was born October 28, 1955. b) ?
4. 1989 Tim Berners-Lee invents the WWW at MIT in the United States of America. or somewhere in europe (Switzerland) :D
5. ?
6. 8 pounds 6 ounces
7. a) 1901, during the referendum after the federation in the same year b)
8.
9. Love affairs with mediterranean women and young boys
10. a) Black assassins b) Steven Stockwell

all attained by using bing.com

'IT' is the best!

Two clips from the UK television series the IT CROWD. Both relate to hypothetical issues that we could be faced with today.
VERY VERY FUNNY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWc3WY3fuZU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rNgCnY1lPg&NR=1

So You Think You Can... Make Yourself Look Like An Idiot On The Dancefloor??

"Chernobyl child playing ping-pong", "Milk the Bull", "Arabic Aunt".... my life is complete

Richard Puddicombe: and the lure of the shiny buttons

Technology and Communication come hand in hand for me. From my first game-boy, to my most recently acquired MacBook Pro, i have always been in touch with technology, and not because i thought it was necessary... but because i wanted to. It did and continues to make me happy. Technology offered me a way to learn something new but also gave me the opportunity to have the biggest toy in the playground. So yes, since about the age of 5 i have been lured to the shiny buttons which beg me to press them again and again. Most technology just seems to find its way into my life, whether it's through the television or through spam email, my brain is always aware of the new and hip things about to hit the shelves.

For years it has been said that Diamonds and Dogs are humans' best friends. I don't know about that. My best friends are Facebook and iPhone. Facebook does enjoying hearing about my day and will sometimes delve a little deep into my personal info but that doesn't worry me... i mean it's safe right? So, i have nothing to worry about :). Facebook does offer me many benefits. Because of it, I have been able to get in touch with friends i haven't seen or spoken to in over 13 years. So i thank Mr.Facebook everyday for that. My iPhone is my source of joy each day. I have Facebook on my iPhone, making it the most convenient way to communicate with my friends. It has a camera, and the internet and a GPS and as many games as i can set my fingers onto. There's no reason to not get one!

I have never met a person on the internet and communicated with them on a personal level. It just doesn't seem quite right. I think it's because when you meet someone new you can read they're body language and interact with them in a 3D space. I have however posted on forums and spoke to people with common interests and concerns. It is quite strange as you never can tell whether the information you receive comes from an old pervert, a toddler, or a well-informed teen, but that's what makes it so fun!

Don't get wet blog puddlers!,

Dick P.

The Way Of The Future

Man #3 for such an old man, is still very in sync with the current technologies

This video shows the possible direction technology may take in this ever changing technological climate (minus guy #3 with the Fart Faxer).

Hello puddlers!

Im new to this *that's what she said*. This is officially my first blog. :) ,

Bloggin' Out!