Jason Nelson's Lecture - Week 9

Jason spoke about the .com crash. There was a lot of money pumped into the internet and then these investors realised they were not making any money. After 2000 these people began to rethink things. Jason highlighted some companies that had done well and made it through and this included Amazon.com. Discussion began about when yahoo was big before Google came along. This led to more talk about - there is always going to be the next best thing. First there was MySpace and then everyone jumped to Facebook and then twitter. Apparently, Google is bringing the next thing out and it is going to be called Google-wave?? I wonder if everyone will jump on board. Google seems to have their hand in everything that happens on the internet. We learnt that Bill Gates/Microsoft is trying to buy yahoo... Though, at the moment Google is still the flavor of the month.

Jason mentioned Cyber Utopia - I gathered this to mean things are constantly changing in the cyber world. This is evident in what was discussed earlier. In a business sense this is bad. Companies don't want to build cyber entities or buildings, as such, then keep knocking them down and starting again. It must be frustrating for these business minded people trying to make a dollar. Some have succeeded and some have failed. Some have done both... Jason described the net as an experimental space. There are brands rising and falling continually. Personally, being a consumer of the goings on in cyberspace, I can't say that I will only commit to one thing/site/company/brand. If something better comes out and all my friends are using that, well I will use it too.

Jason showed us the Wayback Machine found at archive.org - This machine stores information of websites that may not be in use anymore. He took us to the old Griffith site from 1996. Let us just say things have changed for the better.
Now on to some Internet usage stats: Most people only visit up to 6 websites on the internet. These are the sites that people are accustomed to using. This led into discussion about more specific focus of tailoring to people’s needs on the internet. For example, the vampire.net or whatever it was. It was tailored to people into vampires or the elf.com or net that was specifically for people with an elf fetish. These types of sites are showing their success because they can last. The sites that are attempting to get the attention of the masses soon crumble because they cannot sustain the momentum. People generally get bored and move on the something else. Jason said the web works most effectively when individuals consistently updating information run sites. This is rather than big corporations running the show.

Political Participation via The Internet

1. Sign an e-petition:

Tobacco Display Legislation – This e-petition was concerned with removing the proposals relating to the ban on the display of tobacco in shops.

2. Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site:

I responded to Sydney Morning Heralds entertain blog. The topic was concerning Kyle Sandilands being stood down for a month without pay. I said that I think he should be off the air altogether because he is a rude and ignorant human being.

3. What is Barak Obama up to today?

The best way I could think of finding out this information was to check Obama’s twitter. He tweeted that he is in New York meeting with world leaders at the United Nations. He posted a video and said watch this speech…

4. Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are:

Local: Ms Kerry Rea MP
State: The Hon Arch Bevis MP
Federal: I don't know. I couldn't seem to find a clear answer.

5. I found the latest Hansard and Kerry Rea's name didn't seem to appear. I don't know if she didn't get a mention or I ws looking in the wrong place. So I couldn't let her know what I thought because I couldn't find her last speech.

Political Possibilities

Due to strikes, there was no lecture this week. The content made available on elearning dealt with recent political formations emerging because of new technologies. In order to properly understand these political formations, CyberPolitics and eDemocracy had to be defined. CyberPolitics was defined as politics of the internet mostly found on the internet. It deals with how the internet is structured and functions and who decides these things (Internet Society and ICANN). Edemocracy is more concerned with how the internet participates in what is going on in real world politics. It incorporates how the government uses the internet. There was further discussion about defining, more generally, democracy.


In the discussion about mass media I gathered a number of main concepts. The fact that mass media has cut off democratic participation in a number of ways and the advent of new technologies has counteracted this choking of democracy. The new technologies are allowing more people to be involved in mass media and present their opinions and view others’ opinions too. Not only this, but these opinions and voices are appreciated and recognized by poeple. They aren’t just dismissed and ignored. More people are being able to find things out for themselves and not just be told everything from the one source (Newspapers, TV and Media). I see new communications technologies having a positive effect by bringing change in this way. The hold mass media has had in choking democracy is being loosened. Citizens realizing they have a voice and remembering they live in a democracy is important.


Democracy in relation to hackers was then discussed. Hackers don't see anything wrong with breaking into computer systems. They don't see computer systems as corporate property. They are often associated with a computer criminal, but in reality play a minor part in this scene. Hackers are different from crackers. Crackers are involved in criminal activity. They use the information they find, such as credit card details, to rip people off. Hackers are more interested in exploring and understanding hidden information within the canlas of computer systems. 'The Hacker Ethic' is said to have been around since 1960 and hackers adhere to this code. The code is concerned with not harming infromation found by hackers. Hackers are said to create democratic potentialities by finding new ways to information and providing access to these spaces.

My 20th Birthday - 3 minute video

This clip takes you through the happenings of my 20th birthday party at North Beach in Wollongong. The music in the background was created in Photostory by choosing numerous genres/styles, sounds and speed.

Free Culture, Free Society

In discussing free culture and free society three keywords were identified: community; collaboration; and choice. These concepts were presented in relation to computers and the internet. To understand how they relate with computers and the internet a brief history into computer programming and source codes was needed. In the early days of computer programming, the creators would share programs freely. It was a smaller community of people than it is today and these communities were normally based at universities. By collaborating on programs, different writers could contribute and make programs better. To do this, access to the source code of the program was required (the source code is like a recipe for a computer program). Access to the source code was readily available because program writers didn't withhold this information. This collaboration and community of software sharing was later called FLOSS - Free/Libre, Open Source Software. This pleasant community of code writers was interrupted by the monster known as 'Proprietary Software'. Some examples of proprietary software or companies that own the software are: Microsoft, Macromedia and Apple.

The interruption by more business minded people changed the culture of program writers. People began to realise they could make money by restricting access to the source code and making people pay for the program. Altering the source code became restricted because program writers didn't want people tampering with their creations. Richard M Stallman opposed this business minded and money making culture and started up the Free Software Foundation in 1981. This later became known as Open Source software. Stallman's goal was to create a completely free operating system to facilitate Opensource software that people could collaborate on and improve. The idea of collaboration amongst computer programmers could then be restored. Stallman's operating system is known as GNU. One main concept behind Stallman's creation was the idea of 'choice'. We shouldn't have to be dictated to by Microsoft and Apple. Having another option like GNU now enables us to break out of the Microsoft/Apple mould. It gives the sense of community, collaboration and choice back.

Consumption & Production

This week we discussed consumption and production of media. Traditionally consumers of professional media content didn’t produce, but only consumed. This has changed in the advent of new technology. This new technology has enabled the everyday person to create and publicize media content. The technology includes personal media players like iPods, mobile phones and Smartphones (iPhones). These gadgets have inbuilt camera/video camera’s so the user can create, view and publish content on the fly. The medium by which media content is viewed includes ‘big’ screens and ‘small’ screens. The ‘big’ screens of life are cinema TV and PC. The ‘small’ screens of life are personal media players and mobile phones. Through these small screen technologies the consumption of media is becoming increasingly personal. Previously, most media was viewed at a local cinema or hall where a projector was set up and everyone had to share. These media viewing spots were public and only consisted of big screen mediums. This is no longer the case because of the increase in personal media technology.

The ability to upload a video clip on You Tube has opened up the production of media content to almost anyone. Once a clip is on You Tube, potentially, millions of people can view it. Being able to get content out to this many people has caused many to become involved in producing small-scale media projects. In the lecture, we discussed fan-films and trailer mash-ups, which are created by amateurs and sourced through internet sites like You Tube. Here is an example of a trailer mash-up:

Napolean Dynamite / James Bond

One Day - 1 minute clip