New Media Worlds

30th Apr 2012

I, Human

I can easily slide over the question of the publicized private life as explored by Thompson this week as is seems less a question of what we can do to stop this but more, how do we adapt? I found Johnathan Zittrain’s presentation ‘Minds for Sale’ to be counterintuitive to nature, because we as people are programmed to find the simplest ways possible of doing things, and if people are willing to present their work cheaply or for free, there will always be those out there to exploit it. No amount of regulations can control us. I am not condoning our nature, these behaviours, simply stating the fact of their existence.

In regards to humanity as a structure, this idea ties in to the second part of Susan’s lecture, exploration of ‘social robotics.’ As a science and speculative fiction fanatic, the theoretical evolution of robotic technology within society is not new to me. This reminded me very much of both the book ‘Do Andriods Dream of Electric Sheep?’ (Dick, 1968) as it explores the idea that perhaps we are already a human/technology hybrid. This is explored in a more academic setting in Cyborg Manifesto (Harraway, 2011). But I keep returning to this question -

“If a robot makes you love it, is it alive?”

I have considered two things. Robots don’t make us love them. they are our creation and, ultimately, their processes are still reliant on our programming and teaching. The second thought that stems from this is the fact that, isn’t this how we work anyway. As children we are taught and ‘programmed’ to be who we are.

therefore, are these new social robotics technologies really ‘substitutes for caring, socialising, learning, play, amusement [and] recalling’ (leong, 2012) or are they the real deal, and should we be fighting it?

Sources:

Dick, P (1968). Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Arizona, United States: Doubleday Printing Press.

Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century,” in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York; Routledge, 1991), pp.149-181.

Kissenger: Kiss Messenger, A Lovotics Application. Lovotics.com. Accessed 30 April 2012. http://kissenger.lovotics.com/

Leong, S 2012. ‘New Media Transgressions’ for KCB206 New Media: Internet, Self and Beyond. (Lecture Presentation)

Thompson, J. (2011). Shifting Boundaries of Public and Private Life in Theory Culture Society 28(4), pp. 49-70. Available on CMD.

Zittrain, J. 2009. ‘Minds for Sale.’ (Online Recorded Lecture). Accessed 28 April 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw3h-rae3uo&feature=youtu.be>

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22nd Apr 2012

The Virtual Office, or: how I learned to stop worrying and start loving the web

While attending a conference in Los Angeles in 2010 I happened across two people from my same town staying in my hotel. As it turned out they were two clients whom I had worked for extensively over the past year, and whom I had not met in person until then. Our engagement

I was working with clients across Australia, and in some cases the world, with diverse work hours and communications were done over the telephone and through e-mails. I was still able to develop strong professional and personal relationships with my clients through our direct communications as well as our social presence online.

The way in which we interact with clients, and indeed other fellow employees, in the workplace is constantly evolving. It is understandable that many innovative companies now looking for alternative methods of gauging employability (Silverman, 2012). Dan Shawbel outlines the importance in building an online presence as a replacement for the traditional paper resume, however I believe that both articles fail to address the main reason ‘online presence’ is the new CV. When you are liaising through online and digital means (ie E-Mail, instant messaging, telephone), your ability to fit within the social spectrum of a potential workforce becomes redundant because your online presence is your workplace.

(Jessica Stillman, 2012) stresses the importance of being hired online as reflection of the work practices and interactions gradually moving online. In the same article, Fabio Rosati, CEO for Elance (the world’s leading platform for online employment) states “[w]ithin a few years, your ability to work remotely will be so extraordinarily compelling that we will literally not even feel the need to meet in person,” (Stillman, 2012).

From this we can determine that job recruitment is going digital because the business world is already there.

Sources:

Shawbel, Dan 2011. Forbes. ‘5 Reasons Why Your Online Presence Will Replace Your Resume in 10 Years. Accessed 21 April 2012.’ <http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2011/02/21/5-reasons-why-your-online-presence-will-replace-your-resume-in-10-years/>

Silverman, Emma 2012. The Wall Street Journal, ‘No More Resumes, Say Some Firms.’ Accessed 21 April 2012. <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203750404577173031991814896.html>

Stillman, Jessica 2012. GigaOM. Elance predicts the future of online work. Accessed 22 April 2012 <http://gigaom.com/collaboration/elance-predicts-the-future-of-online-work/>

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26th Mar 2012

“People should not be afraid of their governments. governments should be afraid of their people” (Alan Moore, ‘V for Vendetta’, 1982-85). This isn’t just about anarchy and overthrowing governments - it is about the power of people, of truth, of talking.

I was incredibly sceptical of the opinions of both Shirky and Hamlink in last week’s readings, as their seemed in direct contrast to what I have experienced online and out there in the world of late. Hamlink’s claim that “Lies and deceit are important tools in our social and personal communications” (p115, 2006).I am calling bullshit! Why? In this day and age, and with such fast forms of communication - it is becoming more and more difficult to lie. You lie about what you’re doing on facebook, and a ‘helpful’ friend is quick to point it out to the rest of your friends, make a false claim on tumblr and you’ll be inundated with a bunch of links to other websites that set the record straight, complete with data and facts and research to back it up. Tell your boss that you were sick on monday and they can check your twitter for updates on ‘partying hard friday through sunday’. but these are just first world problems.

Consider that less than a day after the “Kony” video starts circling the web, a stream of posters, bloggers and commenters start pointing out the flaws in the video and the company’s claim, and the fact that is smells like a major scam to me. The power of the internet - and this is something that cannot be said of text messages. Which brings me to Shirky’s article. You’ve all read it so I won’t go into a lot of detail. But i will say that sure, open communication and discussion is great, except when you’re not getting information filtered through to you to actually discuss.

On a personal note (which i promise I will relate back to the article, instead of just rambling on some abstract tangent) my housemate loves to try to get into arguments with me, and quite often we come to an impasse because he keeps saying the same thing and I keep saying the same thing and neither of us can concede our opinion. This would go on forever if it weren’t for this super invention called the internet. Just a few clicks and we can throw in a whole other dimension to what we know. What if the information being filtered through in text messages is a little bit vague or innacurate, Shirky? How can you really know what you are fighting for there? But check out the net and I can almost guarantee that these days, the corporations aren’t running the flow of information. There are enough people out there to be calling bullshit on false information and keeping perhaps a littlle bit of honesty in our world.

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19th Mar 2012

strangers on a train

Susan presented some interesting ideas on new media separating social interactions and decreasing cultural and community identities. However, I felt there was also strong evidence suggesting otherwise.

When a student mentioned using the perception that they are engrossed in some form of artefact (whether it be playing with their Ipod, using social networking on their phone etc) in the previous week’s lecture, it seemed a perfect example of mobile privatisation.

This actually seemed in complete juxtaposition to the reading ‘Identity’ (Levy 2006), where instead of ‘plugging in’ being a method of blocking out possible social interactions, it was in fact creating a new avenue of communication and sharing.

Having lived in the United States for some time, it did not surprise me to learn that it was a common occurrence in public interactions for complete strangers who have chosen to extract themselves from in some ways from their surroundings to still be able to interact with complete strangers, nor did it shock me to know that this did not happen in othe cultures. I find it interesting to note that this is a method in which Socio-cultural Fragmentation may be combated. We may be consuming the same same materials but are still maintaining cultural identities through idiosyncrasies that cannot be shared over the net or through digital means.

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