This is the End, My Friend

So my final blog post for the semester, we’ve had some good times, some bad times and overall some laughs. I’m actually going to miss writing these blog posts, they were fun! Maybe I will continue! Depending on whether I can be bothered or not (most likely not)

Future trends for social media? Honestly? I think smartphones, smart phones combined with social networking (Facebook, Twitter) will be where we’re headed, because the trend of smartphones isn’t dying yet, until Apple stop making them, or somehow damage their reputation, smartphones will continue to exist, and even then something better will come along that could do twice is much. But this new age of mobile social media is definitely going to continue and spread even further.
Although, not so much with advertising on Facebook, (as that was clearly a flop, lol Zuckerberg, more like Suckerberg! Am I right? Wow, nope, that was terrible. Moving right along...)

But, more so a connection with Twitter and developing traditional forms of media to be more interactive and social.

I think we’re going to see a lot more blogs, of people who are both advertisers and users of products, word of mouth online is a huge deal and will always be the reason behind peoples purchases online and that this will be developed even further, by advertisers trying to persuade buyers by being the anonymous buyer who was ‘highly satisfied’ with this product, etc. which kinda sucks!

But anyway, I think  that social media and being ‘mobile’ is going to become the new big thing, well, bigger than it is now. Sorry to say this, but going out to a restaurant with your friends whilst constantly texting someone and barely talking to them will be the new thing. Actually speaking to someone will be considered out of the ordinary. More business and advertising on websites and social networking sites, and text messages will be more popular than ever, I get the feeling most business meetings or interviews will start to be over the phone and most business deals will be online, essentially, everything will go online.

                                              Exhibit A

Oh and Google will probably take over the world also. Give it, 10 years max? and as I type this my laptop is telling me that “google” is an incorrect word because I didn’t put a capital ‘G’ at the start! Well sooorrrry. my point proven right there.
Wow there's even a website for it! http://googleworlddomination.com/

And the internet will own everything! All your personal information and detailed info SOLD to businesses and advertisers around the world! Boom!

First Life Crisis

Being a huuuuuge fan of The Office, when I read that this blog would be about the virtual online ‘game’ Second Life, I immediately thought of this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3d_fqDcN1s

Oh Dwight, why are you so great?
So, that was when I first heard about Second Life, and after that episode of The Office, Second Life became more and more popular.

So after this weeks lecture on Second Life, I, myself decided to check this bad boy out, so I signed up and made myself a cute little pink haired anime type character called Pippypop (not sure of the reasoning behind the name) and I don’t know if it was just my crappy laptop or my internet or the graphics but the game ran soooooooo incredibly slow and took two million years for everything to load that I just gave up after about 15 minutes. It was ridiculous and super frustrating, so if you're unlike me and your laptop can actually handle a small internet game then I would probably be more inclined to continue playing it.

Although, I did have a look through some of the destinations and I just casually visited Berlin and flew around which was pretty fun, also went to some island paradise and found out my avatar can apparently walk underwater, most things on there are super glitchy and I could walk through walls and floors and all kinds of stuff which kind of ruined it a lot for me. If I’m going to have a second life I’d at least like a proper one!

I didn't actually "socialise" with anyone, one person spoke to me but it was in another language and I ran away as fast as I could so it didn't look weird, even though I think we were the only two people in that destination, awkward. Hopefully they didn't take it to heart. 

But the thing I find most annoying about Second Life is the fact you have to pay real money to buy things in Second Life or also known as Linden Dollar (L$). I feel like they should at least give you some money to start off with, geeeeez
Anyway, during the lecture we watched a Four Corners report on Second Life called “You Only Live Twice” This was really informative, definitely check it out, even if you have no interest in Second Life or virtual realities whatsoever, its still very interesting.

The thing I did like the most was the fact that you could actually be a paid prostitute on Second Life and make real money from it haha! Amazing. which brings me to this article http://www.geekologie.com/2008/11/couple-divorces-after-husband.php

So, this is just my opinion but I feel like people use second life as a way to escape from their own crappy lives, there are people in the world who weren’t born as one of the popular kids or overall their life just isn’t as great as they had hoped. So here comes Second Life with the ability to be whomever you want, do whatever you want. For example, being a prostitute, maybe that was your long term goal in school. All the perks of being a prostitute from the comfort of your own home! Also, like not needing $10,000 to go overseas, you can just teleport there and fly around the country!
But, for those who haven't heard of Second Life and had some free time why wouldn’t you stop to check it out? I don’t have any argument to those who are happy on second life and find it better than their own life. It’s their decision, and if they’re doing something they really enjoy or even making money off of it, why not continue?
Even online gaming is becoming less of an anti-social activity, and being seen as something of a sport or just a regular hobby, so why should Second Life be any different? Sure, you could work on your crappy first life to start with, but a Second Life is also an option.

OR unless you're like our friend Dwight K Shrute and you literally love your life that much that you want a second one, why would there be any harm in that! Who wouldn't want to fly around just for the hell of it? 

Now here are some shots of me during my time on Second Life.
Somehow I ended up in a lovers retreat, although it was pretty nice, it was surrounded by flowers and all things romantic, whereas I was just there solo enjoying it all.
Here's me immersed in some flowers

 Here's another shot of me trying to fly above the lovers retreat, pretty riveting stuff!

The Extra Limb That is Our Phones

Check Facebook, 5 minutes later, check Instagram, ten minutes later, check Facebook, ‘did anyone comment on my brilliant status I wrote? Nope’.
5 minutes later, see how my tiny tower is going. ‘woohoo a message’.
Okay lets go back to Facebook.
 

Aaaaaand that would pretty much sum up a lecture at uni. Oh and write some notes, of course, actually what am I talking about, that would actually sum up my DAY not a lecture.

Before I start this blog, I would like to turn your attention to this video of the very first iPhone launch in 2007

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

(there are longer, more in-depth videos, if you wish to view that, but this is basically a summary)

My favourite part is when the people cheer when he scrolls up and down the phone. So brilliant!

Oh, Steve, Steve, Steve. Where would we be without your creative iPhone genius really? I actually wonder what phones would look like today, considering that every phone on the market is now a touch phone and basically identical to an iPhone.
 

(Martin Cooper, inventor of the mobile)

But, I do wonder if Martin Cooper (the cutie behind the mobile phone, look how cute he looks with his super big phone! Awww) ever predicted the enormity that mobile phones would have in our daily lives in the future when he designed the mobile. When you think about the first mobile phone ever invented and its actual only use WAS TO CALL PEOPLE and you think about an iPhone which has incorporated Facebook, (all kinds of social networking), games, texting, emails, the weather, stocks, camera, maps ALL on the one phone (oh and calling) It’s actually quite amazing.

The iPhone clearly revolutionised the smartphone and mobile phone industry, but how many times a day do we actually turn OFF our phones. And that doesn’t mean Silent, people! I know you all put it on silent when people ask you to turn it off in the cinema, because I do it too! 

I know that I actually leave mine on all day everyday, even at night, even at low battery we all need to race to the charger to charge it.
And for what? What are we actually waiting for that is SO important?

A text from our friends telling us that they just washed their cat?

A simple Facebook comment?

Why have we become so reliant on our phones?

I’m actually ridiculous with mine, if my phone isn’t with me somewhere it becomes a bit of an issue.

Maybe I need to rethink this, and spend some time without it. Even as I type this now it’s right next to me. Why!!!?!?

Okay, so, Donna Haraway in 1985 came up with the “A CYBORG MANIFESTO
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIALIST-FEMINISM IN THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY” with the idea that there are no separations between bodies and objects. ‘Our life force flows through us and out into the objects we make.”

So according to this theory, I am, and basically everyone else who doesn’t use their phones constantly, IS a cyborg. Which in my opinion makes a lot of sense. Our phones have truly become an attachment of us, more of an extra hand or something.

Okay! I’m going to turn my phone off for 20, no, 30, NO 45 minutes! and see how I go.
Yeah take that Cyborg theory!

Social Media + Politics = ?

It can be good, bad and indifferent, or all three. 

Social media and politics sometimes works in the politicians favour (eg. Obama campaign 2011) orrr not so much (eg. Sarah Palin aka Tina Fey look-a-like, who really knows anymore) 

So all of these politicians trying to be celebrities, in my opinion works for only the cool ones, i.e Obama, and that’s about it. I’m not really sure how Obama actually gets away with being so cool, maybe it’s his publicist team, maybe it’s because he’s African-American, or maybe he is indeed a really awesome guy. 

People have seemed to put so much trust and faith into this person as through social media; YouTube videos and pictures on blog sites he has now become the most renowned president with millions of ‘fans’ all around the world. Even I’ll admit he seems like a fairly fun person. Is this because of social media we’ve seen this side to him? His fun loving, sensitive, humorous personality? Without social media he would just be a man with a lecture post talking to America about boring issues, no way would we have seen this side to him.

Just throwing this out there but Barack Obama has over 26 million ‘likes’ on Facebook and over 14 million followers on Twitter.

Or what about fan videos dedicated to him; this one has to be my favourite of all. Of course it’s fake but you wouldn’t be able to tell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0CSWKpF8jE

This just gives a whole new meaning to the word ‘cool’ and the only thing this does for Obama is makes him seem better in the eyes of voters across America.
Aside from actually having a huge amount of street cred, Obama is the president that America needs, and has done a huge amount of work towards being that. I think this makes him all the more popular, not only being successful, but extremely entertaining and engaging. 

Social media and politicians sometimes just works and most of the time it just doesn’t. I think if the candidate is seen as someone fresh and cool, new on the scene, their publicists and media ‘people’ can mould their image and turn it into something amazing like our friend Obama here. Or they can try to turn them into something cool and it will just flop, such as our beautiful Koala look-a-like ex-Prime Minister here in Australia, John Howard. He is way too old for social media and that didn’t benefit him in the slightest. He’s the type of man who would trip and fall over once in his life, someone would tape it and he would never live it down. Whereas, back in the day, his opposition Kevin Rudd would trip, do one of his cheesy grins and girly laugh and it would be forgotten. 

This has to be one of the best newspaper changes I've seen;

Does anyone remember Rove’s segment called “Kevin Rudd PM” as a super agent? Google it if you don’t, or haven’t seen it. 

Anyway in the case of politicians and social media I think it shouldn’t be used as frequently as it is now, it clearly doesn’t work for most politicians and should only be carefully managed, as it can be detrimental to a new face in politics. Now that I think about it, what ever happened to John McCain? His social media exposure got him nowhere.

Now I’d like to share a personal favourite picture of Obama;

Produsage?

It’s been a tough day, I have Mondays off from uni and had to tell myself to get this done and stop watching ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’ for this weeks blog. But anyway, enough about me,
Today, this blog is about ‘Produsage.’
Whaaaaat the *expletive* is produsage!? you may ask
Yeah, I know.
I had never even heard of this term ‘produsage’ until last week. It’s pretty hard to form an opinion/stance on a topic you barely know about, but lets put it this way. The term produsage is a lot more common than people think, people just aren’t aware that there is an actual term for it. It refers to the way in which people can alter or make their own version of a particular topic or viewpoint. A major example of this is YouTube and Wikipedia. I mean, I could go into Wikipedia right now and say that Barrack Obama is actually a white 60 year-old female who lives in a shoe with 165 cats if I really wanted to. This is basically what produsage is. Or a parody of a song that someone has created, everyone knows about song parodies on YouTube, and if you don’t look them up. For example there are hundreds of ‘Tik Tok’ parodies by one hit wonder Ke$ha (Now that I think about it, what even happened to her?) and here’s one I found about Pokemon,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOQI-YHwvyU

This was taken off from LMFAO’s song ‘Party Rock Anthem’ the singing, not so great but the lyrics and costumes are pretttyyy gewwwd, in my opinion.
Anyway, if you’re still reading this and didn’t watch the YouTube video and get bored and go back and check Facebook, what I’m trying to say Wikipedia and YouTube are both engaged in the act of produsage- as it is productive usage. There are 4 other sub-terms of ‘produsage’ they are;
-Open Participation/Communal Evaluation
-Fluid Heterarchy

-Unfinished Artefacts/Continuing Process
-Common Property/Unfinished Rewards

The example of Wikipedia is relevant to these four terms and all make up the definition of produsage. When you think about editing something on Wikipedia; think of these terms and how they all relate.

But the main concern of this topic is to do more with the ethics and the future of produsage. What would happen if everyone were to change all the Wikipedia pages to false information, or rip off someone else’s ideas and make a YouTube video from it. The question is, where does this all stop? When does it all become too much, and who has a say of how much we can alter or change, as produsage doesn’t work towards the completion of products, but is based on the community and evolving the product. So where will we go next with this? It is something that will never be finished or at an end. It draws a community and like-minded people together and for something this important in the internet world, I feel like there needs to be more awareness and or security on such a big topic.

for more on this check out this website: www.produsage.org

Wikileaks and YOU

Okay, I’m going to be perfectly honest here and say that unlike what seems like the rest of the world, I don’t know a whole lot about Wikileaks. I know that it is a non-for-profit organisation and the front man is Julian Assange, a 39-year-old convicted rapist (lol, jokes) from Queenslander (wow, 39. He looks a lot older..), but other than that my knowledge kind of dwindles. So I’m going to do my best to come up with a substantial blog post around this topic, so bare with me.

Having little to no knowledge on this topic puts me at somewhat a disadvantage, but I’m going to throw this out there and say that Julian Assange and what he is doing with Wikileaks seems pretty important in my opinion. No one really knows where Julian Assange actually came from, but he seems like an alright guy? Doesn’t he? Maybe a bit mumbly and quiet but it’s the quiet ones you have to watch! True?

  

I think Wikileaks is actually doing the world a favour, he’s basically delivering factual evidence to the public, when we all have a right to know. In reality isn’t it the ‘whistle-blowers’ or ‘tattletales’ as they were called in primary school, the ones that should get most of the blame? Not saying that they’re doing the wrong thing either but isn’t hating Julian Assange pretty much a complete slap in the face for the “don’t shoot the messenger” saying. I mean, Julian himself isn’t writing/making these stories/videos and sourcing them to Wikileaks. So why is Assange getting all the blame and hate? Hundreds of reporters and journalists tell lies and stories much worse than Assange, or maybe its because what he is delivering is actually the truth is what people are more afraid of and people have no one else to blame other than him, as the sources are anonymous and most people don’t have the will power to go out and find out more information on what they’re seeing and find the source or stop the person/people involved in such bad behaviour, so I guess they send all their hate to Mr. Assange.

Personally, I think having this technology, and people like this at our disposal now compared to back in World War I or II will make us more aware of what is happening in the world makes us more likely to contribute our time and effort into bettering it and putting our minds together to get something constructive out of it.  Having information like this private for politicians just asks for conspiracy theories and hatred. At least, having Wikileaks gives us that small piece of mind that somewhere out there in this world there are people who care what the public see and want us to be informed. Also, knowing that Assange and his accomplices are doing this for no profit, and have invested over thousands of dollars into this organisation must mean they must just want the public to know what we don’t already. 

Julian Assange; An Accurate Portrait

eExtremists

'Extremism is characterized by dogmatic intolerance, expressed mildly or violently, and inclines toward an inflexible obedience to an accepted authority, shaped by a common ideology or sense of group unity' (Gardner, 1997). Or Contributing editor Richard H. Ward describes it as "part of a broader effort to better understand the motivational, psychological, and sociological aspects of those who would attack societies throughout the world."

Looking through the Wikipedia page of Extremist Groups; there is a list of over 100 extremist groups across the globe,

There are many forces which drive white extremist groups, some of those being;
-Racial Purity
-Anti-Semitism
-Political Hegemony
-Anti-Liberal
-Anti Government (Conspiracy Theorists) 

Extremists use all forms of social media and social networking websites to get their view across, this is similar to digital activists as using the internet helps connect like-minded people with similar interest all across the globe, regardless of physical location.
The internet helps in various ways for these extremist groups; it brings an international audience to selective groups or minorities, it helps with the recruitment of members and the group has maximum image control. Which means they can select how their group is portrayed and control images sent about their group.

Internet is the prime means of communication and marketing in the world. The Internet’s unprecedented global reach and scope combined with the difficulty in monitoring and tracing communications make it the prime tool for extremists and terrorists.

Sites such as Facebook and YouTube have both seen a huge proliferation of extremist use with the greatest increase coming from overseas, particularly Europe and the Middle East. The CD-ROM report, released annually, is designed to assist law enforcement, public officials, educators, parents and the news media to better grasp the scope of hate.

On 4 December 2005, a group of volunteer surf lifesavers was assaulted by a group of young men of Middle Eastern appearance, with several other violent assaults occurring over the next week. These incidents were widely reported and commented on in Sydney media. An initially peaceful crowd gathered in the morning of Sunday, 11 December 2005, and, by midday, approximately 5,000 people gathered at Cronulla beach to protest against a recent spate of violence against locals. This was supposed to be seen as patriotic and heroic but instead it turned into a nasty riot ending up in many injuries and attacks. Then in 2009 came the Australia First Political Party.
The Australia First Party (AFP) is a minor far-right political party in Australia that is federally registered and is also registered to contest local elections in New South Wales, the Party is led by Jim Saleam. This is today seen as an extremist group as it is driven by racial purity and many other factors listed above. According to the programme of the Party, Australia First has eight core policies;

-Ensure Australia retains full independence 

-Rebuild Australian manufacturing industries  

-Control foreign ownerships

-Reduce and limit immigration  

-Abolish multiculturalism  

-Introduce Citizen's Initiated Referendums  

-Strengthen the family  

-Strive to rebuild a united Australia

As you can see what is listed is highly racist, why shouldn’t people of a cultural background be able to live happily in Australia?
It disgusts me seeing Australians so patriotic and wearing the Southern Cross like a badge of honour and disregarding any other culture that isn’t Australian.
Australia already is a multi-cultural nation, take Melbourne for instance. Melbourne is the most diverse and cultural destination of Australia, Melbourne wouldn’t be half of what it is today without other cultures and races with their input in todays society.
Some Australians need to be more open minded about other nations and allow other people to live in this country without making it seem like something illegal or bad. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremist_Groups

http://web.docuticker.com/go/docubase/30595