Response to the Wikileaks documentary

This is a good, informative and interesting documentary, showing the whole hacking scene that developed even before Wikileaks became public. It’s interesting to see how they defend they work, and that can be related to what we discussed in class, about letting people know and telling the truth, is fundamental in a democratic society. There are some terrible scenes here, especially when the US soldiers kill some civilians in Iraq, because they think he is armed. US soldiers killing innocent people, caught on tape, is of course not popular within the government. This episode reminds me of a story about the “Pentagon papers”, which were some reports that said that the progress in Vietnam was going in the wrong direction. The sitting president said the opposite to the public, and the pentagon papers became public 8 years after they were written, I think. This shows of course that governments will do whatever it takes to not show and tell things to the public which will hurt them. Here is Wikileaks so important, because they are arguing that they are working for the people and the truth. The issue and tension between telling everything and national security is important in these matters. Should you publish every single bits of information, even though it can cause a threat to national security? This is always a dilemma in journalism, especially in times of war. This makes the story of Wikileaks so interesting and important, and I’m sure that Wikileaks will inspire to more discussions and debate in the future.

During yesterdays lecture at AUC held by the famous political scientist Normann Finkelstein, Finkelstein based his argumentation mainly on reports from human rights organizations like Amensty International and Human Rights Watch, but he also used statements from Wikileaks to argue that Israel’s invasion in Gaza in 2009 was a crime agains human rights and international law. Since Wikileaks is classified documents, it is difficult to argue against them.

This shows the impact that Wikileaks already have, and the impact they will have in the future.

Google + stupid + ?

The article about if Google is making us stupid or not has many interesting aspects and several good points I believe that many can relate to. The point laid out about that we usually tend to skim through articles rather than reading them from start to end, is maybe a typical sign about how we behave online. Because of all the information provided to us, we skim in trying to identify if that certain text is compelling to us or not. This is easy online. But I don’t think this is the only point. I also think that people are less concentrated when reading articles online, because they have the opportunity to do something else and click on a link or visit a new page. This is different from when reading a newspaper. This can also be related to academic work. Personally I prefer to print out articles and read them, instead of reading articles online. Not necessarily because I cannot concentrate, but I enjoy reading on paper instead of reading on a screen.

An article published in 2009 refers to studies that shows that Studies involving online learning have shown that “certain users ended up printing out online materials to eliminate the distractions of the technology and to avoid overload” (Chang & Ley, 2006).

As we discussed in class, I think Carr overestimates the impact of technology on certain aspects in life, like the offline life we have when we are reading books. Carr uses some examples of people he have talked to, and they mention that they can no longer read books the way they could before, because they are now more impatient than before, and it seems like Carr is blaming it on the technology. I would agree if the argument was that “I cannot read a book online”, but I will not argue that I’m not able to read a book anymore. When I am in the position of reading a book, that is my main purpose, and I know with myself that I’m not multitasking when I’m reading a book. The “worst” thing I could do while reading a book is listening to music. An expression laid out by Professor Gironda, technology determinism, could be applied to Carr’s thinking. And I don’t believe that we are technology determined in all areas of life yet.

Carr also mentions that when selecting articles to read, we skim through them and hopping from article to article and rarely return to the one we first found. Well, the good thing about this is that when doing academic research and you need sources, you can easily look up sources on the net or read about them online, and you can skim through and try to find if these articles is about what you need. If you, you have to look until you find something.

On the contrary, this skimming can result in that you miss some good articles, because you don’t really get what they are about. Before you had to read the book to understand what it was about and what the book conclusion was. Today you can read reviews and magazines and read summaries on the net. So, there are pros and cons here as well.

What I really like is that Carr moderates himself in the way that he says that he maybe is worrying too much. I also believe in a healthy relationship between technology, online activity and offline activity.

Multitasking

Why are you not supposed to text message while driving or listen to music while trying to learn something new? Because researchers have found out that this phenomenon of multitasking is affecting your brain in a negative way . Studying while listening to music is inappropriate because music in the background can reduce the brain’s ability to memorize, and this will also affect the concentration.

This is interesting research, all the time I know with myself that I really enjoy listening to music while I study. Or put it another way: I really like listening to music. And I really enjoy to study. So when I study, I find it natural listening to music. And I feel that it works out for the most of the time. Of course it is dependent on the music I listen to, but in general I don’t believe that it affects me in negative ways. But apparently it does. And I can understand why. Sometimes I find myself focusing more on the song than on what I read, and that will result in that I need to read the text again. I don’t think I’m in a special situation regarding listening to music while studying.

At my university back in Norway, University of Oslo, I would argue that most of the students are listening to music while they are studying. I have no data whatsoever to support my guess, but at least I can say that many students at the University of Oslo, and other places as well, is listening to music while studying. But I believe that for someone, they maybe have to have some input from another source, to concentrate. I remember when I started at the university, one of my Norwegian friends said that he “hated reading halls” because of the silence there. He just couldn’t concentrate when he sat in a room with 200 other students trying to focus on his own readings. He needed to be somewhere else. For someone the silence can be awkward as well, and then they maybe prefer listening to music instead of having complete silence.

The argument is also getting support from a report from 2006 . They argued that different forms of memory are processed by separate systems in the brain. The point is that when you try to recall something that have happened in the past, like a name or a book you read, you are using a type of memory retrieval called declarative memory (Patients with Alzheimer disease have damage in these brain areas.) But on the other hand, when you try to remember how to play guitar or ride your bike, you are using procedural memory. The difference is that the last one, procedural memory, requires a different set of brain areas than those used for learning facts and concepts, which rely on the declarative memory system.

In the test the students involved had to separate cards into two different stables while at the same time counting high pitched beeps. The results showed that the beeps disrupted the declarative memory, and they performed better on the task when they were not disrupted by the beep.

The researchers say that multitasking is not necessarily bad, when listening to music can be efficient when working out i.e. But when it comes to learning, they urges us to concentrate on what you are studying.

I will try to think about this when I read something new next time, even though I know it can be difficult. But you should in general listen to science. Or?

lars

Music in the digital age

Relating to my VIP-project about how technology development and the information overload affects us in the way of learning, I also think it is of huge interest to talk about music in our digital age. After the CD got released the music finally got digital, and that created a wide range of opportunities for us as both consumers and users. The analog vinyl and cassette created trouble, according to some, because of sound quality and noise, if they weren’t treated with care. Now the music is taken even further steps, and we can now download files on iTunes and pay a small amount for each song. We don’t have to buy the whole album. We can choose which song we want to buy (this definitely caused or will cause the death of the CD-single). Music is also available for free listening so many places on the Internet, with last.fm and Spotify as maybe the biggest ones. In other words – great opportunities for users and music lovers.

But is this necessarily a positive thing for users? Well let’s not take into account the negative effects for artists that we can download free music or listen to it online. That can be saved for another discussion. Here I will focus on what this music overload will have to say for us as listeners and music lovers.

I love music and listen to it every day, and many hours a week. I enjoy that I can listen to new songs by just checking them out in the Internet, and then I can decide if I will buy the CD or not. I think many people think this way. But well I actually buy the CD? And if i buy the CD, will I have the concentration to listen through the whole CD? To be honest, I will probably buy the CD if it is a band I’m particularly interested in, but I sometimes find myself skipping through the tracks to find parts that I like. I feel this is a bad sign. You don’t value the music today as much as you did or “had to do” before. Then you bought the analog music on, let’s say, a vinyl and you had to hear it through. The vinyl was almost something sacred, or something that contained a lot of information (songs) and to get the right impression you had to sit through all the tracks and decide for yourself what your opinion was. This happens more seldom today, I’m afraid. Therefore I like to buy vinyl. And for several reasons. First of all I enjoy the sound, because it’s analog and not compressed the same way as digital music. And when I buy vinyl, I feel that I get more value for my money. The cover is bigger, the booklet is bigger and I feel that the product is more worth than buying a CD from iTunes, which gives me nothing. Nothing at all. I need to hold the music in my hands. And I feel this is something that will get lost in the new digital age. And when skipping through the songs on Spotify, you don’t take the time to actually try to listen, and give the songs the fair chance they deserve. Music is also art.

Treat it with respect.

What we need and what we “need”

Technology is developing in an incredible speed, and therefore, someone will say, shapes our future in certain ways. As technology continues to develop, we as users are an important factor. The technology develops for a reason, and profit maximizing is of course of on the main reasons. We are the consumers, and the we are the ultimate goal for the technology developers. Referring to this article http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/acers-iconia-is-the-craziest-laptop-of-all-time/ you can argue that this is not something we as users need. The value is not of that much importance, taken our daily lives intro consideration. And what do I mean by that? Well, some of the new things that appear for us, that is a result of new technology, is something we more or less need, even we like it or not. And some things are not that much of a real need. Like this computer with two touchscreens. Will it have any specific functions that our normal keyboard can’t handle? I doubt so. This is more visual and elegance than a “must have” object.

So what are the things that I mentioned as things we more or less have to adopt to, either we like it or not? Because some aspects of the technology is like that. Technology developers are not just operating in a market for satisfying our hobbies – sometimes and quite often actually, technology is developed in areas that affect our daily lives, and creates a situation where we almost have to adopt to the new technology either we want or do not want to. When Internet came, you almost had to learn it. The same thing with mobile phones. And so on. But is this a problem? Well not these examples. But some aspects can be problematic. What about paying your checks on the Internet? It is easy and takes no time at all, and most people do it, but many places in Norway they are shutting down bank sections because no one uses the bank anymore. They all do it on the Internet. And this can maybe create a problem for older people, who doesn’t use Internet at all, maybe.

You have to upgrade yourself all the time to be updated. If you refuse to, than can cost you problems. But the bank example is just about motivation. Some aspects especially in the computer business forces us to upgrade products, and the upgrades often costs more money. In order to keep updated we have to upgrade as well, and pay more money, or else we’ll fall behind. This another aspect about technology development. Some upgrades you don’t need, like iPad. You don’t NEED iPad, in most cases. But some computer based programs, you may need the new software for the program to function, and if you don’t upgrade you probably won’t be able to contact others with that specific program, because your version is to old. As long as the upgrades costs a reasonable amount of money, there is no problem. But who knows. Technology keeps developing, and demands more and more of us as consumers, and we also demand more and more from the new technology.

We’ll just have to wait and see, but it is important that everyone has the chance and ability to stay updated. If technology demands to much of us as customers, we will have a problem but the developers will have a problem as well, since they are dependent on us since we buy their products. Thankfully humans create technology.

Maintaining your offline self

So virtual communities have become more popular the last years, but has been around for sometime. I guess you can define a virtual community in several different ways, but the main point is a place where you are several people at the same place online, discussing different topics and issues. Different virtual communitites attracts different people. Most of us have been in a virtual community, and maybe some still are. There are forums where you can discuss online, and also blogs and certain webpages where people with similar interestes gather together. So what can happen to your offline self when you engage in these communities? Well, for the most we are able to differentiate between who we are online and who we are offline, and by that I mean that we’re able to function as social beings whether we are online or offline. But sometimes it is not so easy. Not for everyone. Especially when it comes to addictive video games, which I would like to charachterize  as a kind of virtual community. Especiallly now since you are able to interact with other gamers while you’re playing. The game Word of Warcraft has caused a lot of attention. In Norway there were some articles about guys (mostly guys yes) who dropped out of school because of intense gaming. Addiction. A guy in my school could name 3 persons in his class that had dropped out of school because of gaming.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/FCC-Activision-Blizzard-Warcraft-College,6689.html

So what is the problem here? You’re online identity is obsessed with the virtual community that WoW provides. You have friends all the time, and there will always be someone online. They are always there. This can take the attention away from your offline life, and the results can be horrifying – not just transform you into a anti social human being, but such things as work, school and spending time with your real offline friends, is not as important anymore. This is the danger with addiction – the ability to create and maintain a healthy relationship with different routines and interests. As a relationship. You have to pay attention to your best part, but still set a side enough time with your old friends. A favourization of one over the other, can have consequences. The art is to find the perfect balance, and this will apply to the users of online communities as well. Balance is everything. In a time where social media takes control and is increasing whether we like it or not, I think we have to pay respect to the values and what we care about, offline as well as online.

VIP

I want to make a blog about a virtual identity of mine. Back in Norway I am a DJ in clubs in Oslo in the weekends. Not every weekend but sometimes. It’s not very pro, but mostly for fun, and sometimes I play with a friend of mine, who shares my genuine interest in music. I want to make a blog post about my virtual identity as a DJ. So why is this virtual identity? It is not virtual when I am a DJ, because I’m still me. But online on my blog post I am only DJ LoveLarz, which is my DJ name! Spread love to the people trough the music. So in this blog post I will only function as DJ LoveLarz, and not Lars Petter. Because Lars Petter has a huge interest for music, and listens actually most to rock and pop. But he also enjoys some dance tunes and electronic music. So the blog page will only focus on the interest of DJ LoveLarz and show his latest songs within different categories that will work on the dance floor. DJ LoveLarz has no interests what so ever regarding politics, movies, pictures and so on. Here there will only be a focus on music, and maybe some music reviews and links to other pages, and information about other DJ’s perhaps and music styles.

I will probably use YouTube-videos as my main source to music recommendations. I will have different categories of music, but not too many. Three seems most appropriate.  I will also separate my videos into different months, so readers can use it as an archive. I would probably be a mess if every single video or song was on the same page.

I will also have sections where I link to songs on Spotify and maybe to other media sources as well, not only YouTube. I will create a link page to music magazines, other DJ’s and related stuff. The identity of DJ LoveLarz will not be known, because that is not important who that is. The readers shall read the blog because of the music, and not because of whom the DJ is and who he really is.

The viewers will probably be those interested in that kind of music that DJ LoveLarz provides, because there will be regular updates within different categories. As I showed in one of my previous outlines, one of my favorite DJ’s in Norway has a page where he regularly updates his page with YouTube-videos.

The structure will be looking quite like this, whit the newest videos on top, and subpages on the right hand side with links to different months and to other pages:

 

http://trustindust.blogspot.com/

 

But my blog will provide more information than this blog though, because his only focus is on YouTube-videos in the genre of soul and funk.

 

Since I am creating a blog, I want to write a paper about the impact of blogs in general and other parts of the social media on our daily lives and on the society in general. Blogging has become increasingly popular the past couple of years, and maybe earn a full time living on their blogging. What does this mean for the next generation of workers and future employees in firms? Is the media revolution something we can escape or do we have to embrace it in some way either we like it or not? I want to dig deeper in to these questions and try to find out what social media does with us, and how it will affect our lives in the future.

 

Preliminary bibliography:

 

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/10602.imc

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/10601.imc

http://technorati.com/business/advertising/article/engage-or-die-the-impact-of/

http://socialmediatoday.com/

http://social-media.alltop.com/

http://morgenbladet.no/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100604/ODEBATT/706049999

http://morgenbladet.no/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100521/OAKTUELT/705219911/0/DEBATT

 

Tweets

I just wanna write some thoughts about Twitter. So the other day I read a news-article, which unfortunately was in Norwegian so I will not re-post it here, but the story was about the incidents (or accidents) taking place in Libya right now. There was an interview with the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jonas Gahr Store, and the journalist used a quote from the Minister. But the quote was not a conversation between the journalist and the minister, but a quote the Minister had made on his Twitter account. The quote said something about Norway’s responsibility in Libya, and that we would send our army jets towards Libya. Of course, since there was the Minister of Foreign Affairs who made the quote, the journalist took it for granted that it was real. And his Twitter-page is a real Twitter-page, so there is no reason to doubt quotes from his account. But what status do you need as a person, so that journalists can take your “tweets” as your real opinion?

Some months ago, a Norwegian soccer player had posted on his Twitter account that he thought that Beyoncé Knowles, the former Destiny’s Child-singer and now famously married to the rapper Jay-Z, was a bit overweight. So one newspaper saw this, and posted it as a news story on their page. This started a huge discussion about pressure about losing weight and so on. This footballer by the way is a sub in a team that is not one of the best ones in Norway. Yet, his “tweet” made some people upset. Of course the footballer didn’t mean that she is fat, but it was just more of a funny joke, because she actually got quite some hips (and I guess that is a fact, and not just my personal opinion).

The example with the Minister of Foreign Affairs seems like an obvious and real statement. But this raises a question of how personal Twitter really is, and what you can allow yourself to post regarding your position in the public room. If a tweet something, most people probably won’t care, or at least the news will not use my statements in any sort of way (unless maybe they were motivated by racism or some far out opinions, or personal attacks). One of the reasons why I address this issues is because many public persons have Twitter-accounts and use their accounts for more personal use. Like journalists. They are public persons when they are writing in the newspaper, but they allow themselves to post almost whatever they want to on their Twitter-page. Here we again see the unclear distinction between public and private, as we discussed in class.

Just some thoughts about how to deal with Twitter. When do you know that your position is of a kind that newspapers and others really care about what you say, and can use that against you? I don’t know.

Could be interesting to discuss this later on.

lp

U.C.L.A. student posts video on YouTube

Don’t post everything on YouTube.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/us/16ucla.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Feducation%2Findex.jsonp

lp

My project

So here is basically some thoughts about my VI project. I am stuck between some different ideas, but I think I have the main plan for my digital project. I think I will use the blog format to create a page where I outline different things that I`m interested in, and post links that`s in my interest. The main purpose of the blog or the webpage is to function as a place where you can quick pick up information about things you are interested in, and the blog will probably suit best for people with the same interests as myself. So let`s say I choose different categories, like Music Reviews, My DJ songs, Book Reviews, Latest Tweets, and so on. The format of the blog will let the latest post be shown first, and what`s good about a blog is that old links will stay there forever so people can always go back in time to see all of my posts. I will try to reach a broad specter regarding different themes and genres, but I will mainly choose subjects that I`m in special interest of. The blog will not be so much about my self in person, but I will maybe outline some stories about how it is to live in Cairo and maybe also tell some stories about the university here in contrast to the university back in Oslo.

But mainly the focus will be as I first told – a channel for sharing links about my interests and things I like or just have discovered on the net. Regarding the last article we read in class, “Into the Blogosphere” my purpose is not to reach out to as many as possible, but rather focus on what I consider as important and what I consider as quality. That will take the pragmatic approach to blogging away.

Here is an example of a blog made by one of my favourite DJ’s. He posts links about songs he like’s and he also plays many of these songs on his live shows. So this is basically for people interested in funk and soul, but it’s so easy to do and yet so genious. Take a look! In Dust We Trust!

http://trustindust.blogspot.com

Regarding my paper, I first wanted to write an academic sort of text about new digital media and new digital rhetoric, and how the new social media channels will be used in the future, and their importance in our daily lives, but not only at a private basis, but also regarding jobs. Then I could dig into the questions of the impact of the new social media, and how it is used and abused. An interesting case would be how Twitter is used by journalists. They appear in a different way in their columns than they can on Twitter, and it would be interesting to discuss if that is a problem or not. I read an interesting article in NYT today, and I recommend you to read it as well, so I’ll put up a link here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/opinion/13pubed.html?_r=1&smid=tw-nytimesopinion&seid=auto

I am not sure how I can link this to my digital project, but I`m sure I will fint a good solution to this. I can write about the effiency aspects of blog for instance, and then my blog will be a good example of that. If you have any suggestions, feel free to post them. I’m looking forward to be working on this project for the next weeks!

lars