P2P

"from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." This statement stood out to me as I thought about P2P and file sharing. In today's society there is not very many things that are not availible to any person that wants something. They just have to know how to find it. The internet and new technologies of today are a way to cater to our every need without having to work hard to get it. I find that file sharing and P2P sharing can be a good thing and that people can learn from it. As we each learn to use new technologies and the what is available to us. The only way to really do that is by seeing what others are doing and then implement it into our daily lives. P2P sharing can create communities of learners and enable a socail connection to people that are working with the same information that you.
For example, groups working on projects for a class. They might have to download files that the entire group needs so one downloads the file and then shares it with others. Although many people do not use file sharing for such educational reasons all the time. Many people resort to taking files from others and use it for their own. I am not saying that I am not guilty of this, but this form of communication and flexible use of information should not be so strict. Yes there should be restrictions on taking things that are already copyrighted, but there is no real way to stop the never ending webs that sharing files is creating.
P2P file sharing creates social bonds that sometimes would never have been possible before. I am not a person that stays connected on all the forum, blogs out there but the option of having it is good to know. I can search on the internet about a certain subjeact and find ten different types of information to prove my point. YouTube for example there is different videos and clips that I could use for a project all at the palm of my hand. I can use these videos to prove a point that otherwise would be hazy. We have a constant need to stay connected and find out the newest things and the ability to share them with others has never been so easy.

Literacy and Cultural Literacy

Strategies that Hirsch Presents:

• Common cultural literacy
  
• Universal communication requires a common language
• Creating a equal level, for educating
• Degree of education, levels within companies, between schools
  

Action:

• handouts
  
• visuals
• List of Words - present definitions
  
• Key Scrolls - common actions
  
• Second life example:
  
• how to teleport
  
• flying
  

Digital Dialect

The digital dialect is what creates the relationship between digital theory and digital practice. It is used to ground the insights of theory and the constraints of practice to make them more understandable (Lunenfeld, 15, xv). I think that this quote really describes the reading the best. Personally reading the article was a little hard but the above quote really put it into perspective. When I think of digital I think of computers, and ipods and cell phones. I think of the technology that is used to create these devices and how we use them. Often times we use technology for entertainment, not always for the intention that the creators had in mind. I think this is the reason that technology continues to grow. We are growing into a society that is highly dependent on the technology that we have. When computers came out they had very few capibilities and were really intended to get away from having to do so much manual work. But now our lives are on the computer. We have multiple email accounts, banking online, and much more all in the palm of our hands.

I like when Lunsfield was describing the screen grabs. Like when we learned abut the screen shots in class last week. We are able to capture bits and pieces of information and keep them for storage. We are able to put together research from many different sources in a few short ckicks of the mouse. I find it interesting that humans and computer have meshed so well together. In history we dont not do well with change. But when the computer is around we did not fight it we embraced the new ways. I think that this is what Lunsfield was getting at when he was talking about opposites coming together to create a common goal. I still find the overall picture a little hard to understand but hopefully I can find a bit more information out in class.

Digital Photography

What is real and what is not real is a very fine line these days. As a society we can alter pretty much anything that is known to be real. We can alter the way we look to be anything we want. We can put our selves in pictures with people that we have never even met. I find that the age of digital enhancements is only beginning. With the new technologies that we have it is hard to find the things that are actually real. But it is in this type of age we live in with no problem.
Everytime I am in a grocery store I always wait at the ends of the isles looking at the magazines trying to find out the lastest gossip. I find that it is very hard not to want to look and to see what other are doing. They always seem to get the best picture no matter what and be able to make a story out of it. Where is did this begin is what I have to ask myself. How many pictures are we looking at today and they are not any where near what really happened. This is one of foundations that we have to improve upon.
We talked earlier in the semester about technology erasing history. In a way being able to enhance pictures is the same thing. One the one wepage there is a picture of leaders from Germany having a meal, the caption saying that in the original photo had champagne bottles on the table but they were removed when published. What are these people so afraid of. We are being controlled down to the simpliest level. It is hard to believe that there are so many things that can be altered. I hope that information is not turning into a brainwahsing media. We need to find the balance between what is real and what information is not.

Addictions to the Vitual World

"Virtually is the cultural perception that material objects are interpenetrated by information patterns." (Hayles 69) I really liked this quote and thought that it fit well into what we have been discussing about the the virtual world and how we are fitting into the equation. I think that we are becoming a society that is digitally wired. We are ableto stay connected down to the smallest links. But at times it seems as though we have lost what is happening in the real world. But this is not always a bad thing. We are able to go into so many different directions with technology we have new ways to be creative and enjoy technology.
The article that hit closes to home for me was the Johnson reading where he was describing the the gaming community and the affects that it is having on us today. I think that he makes some valid arguments when he speaks about the fact that the younger generations do not read for pleasure. Most young people today only read books because they are forced to read them. Many young students do not find the time to actually sit down and enjoy the jouirney the the book offers them. They would rather just sit down and try to figure out the latest video game than wonder how a book ends. "People who read for pleasure are many times more likely than those who don't to visit muscums and attend musical performances, almost three times as likely to perform volunteer and charity work an twice as likely to attend sporting events." (Johnson 18) With this quote I found it very interesting how that is not how I see it most of the time.
I do not usually sit down and read book for pleasure and I still volunteer and an go to sporting events. I think that this is a myth in some way to assume that there two types of people the people that into video games and the others who are into reading. But we are not looking into the places where they intersect. Both reading and playing games have the ability to teach people how to do things. We have video games that can help teach young children learn their colors and numbers and enjoy doing it. Reading turns into a old tradition that isolates the reader, and games allow the user to create their own story and create a path to go down.
With reading this article I found that it was very beneficial to read the comparisons between todays new traditions of with using technology and the old tradition of reading a book. We still find ourselves jumping to one side or another. Like we ahve to pick between the new and old. And in this class we are trying to discover the way that we relate to these different ways that information is presented.

The Unfinished Business

Lunenfield begins the chapter with the quote "the business of the computer is always unfinished. In Fact "unfinished" defines the aesthetic of digital media" This quote stood out and me think about society today and how many things we leave unfinished. Computers are naturally unfinished due to the fact that most computers are custom built to the user that is buying the computer.

But when thinking about the unfinished, we have flexibility to discover and change things that if we were sent a computer that was already completed and could not be changed then the user would not have the same connection with the device. But as Lunenfield continues he describes that computers and technology is not the only place that we have unfinished business. We read comic books that leave us hanging and wanting more. We thrive on being about to find out more or that there is something more out there.

Technology is a force that allows all people to access in some shape or form. As new technology and new activities are developed there is always going to be a person out there that it will to test it and to further the technology to the next person. In the other article about the five principles of new media I like how they broke down new media into the ways that it is different from old media and how we are able to access it and mold it to what we want. Being able to use the technology and apply it to our lives is the most vital part of new technologies. We are able to create things that we would never be able to before.

With this untamed tool we are able to make major advances and create a more efficient society. Like we discussed in previous class about how connected we are and the ability to save a life by growing and changes cells in the body. Who knows what we will be able to do next.

Presentations

Today many different types of information ecologies were presented. Some of the topics were ones that would have never thought of as ecologies. I was especially interested in the presentation of chapter 11, ad about the cameras. It was a very interesting topic and now I am going to keep a closer eye on things and who is watching. While listening to the presentations I found that my definitions for my personal information technology were clarified.

I was having a hard time with Locality. I read the definition in the book and thought that it was hard to be able to figure out for my topic what it meant. Now listening to other groups I can look at mine and figure out what it is. Name makes the ecology recognizable, and how the inhabitants that use it. So in having a computer in a class room you would assume that it was there for the kids to do educational things on it.

I have learned that ecologies are in everyday life and they are useful in analysis of the situation helping us understand the group dynamics and the importance or being connected to those around us.