The Dynamo of Volition

Pause right there! Now rewind!

2008-11-13T23:48:00.000-08:00

When creating this blog, I have learned that it is important to know who it is out there on the blogosphere that you want to reach, and for what purpose. When I started a personal blog, it was all about keeping in close touch with friends, and getting a blog because everyone had one. Now I realise why my personal blog only reaches a handful of people.

I also learned that by identifying and understanding the different cultures and contexts of different people and situations, you can easily avoid problems of misunderstanding and misinterpretation. This is very important as having a blog online meaning the whole world has access to it, and I wouldn't want to be saying the wrong things.

I have also related some of my personal experiences with these issues that I;ve written about, such as copyright issues. These experiences help me understand more about the issue and its impact on the publication and media industry.

I shall continue to strive in making sure my thoughts (and attitude!) reach the minds of others and hopefully, they can relate to me and they too will share their thoughts with me.

oh NOEEESSSS is teh netLingo!!!1

2008-11-13T22:00:00.001-08:00

I'm sure everyone has encountered many grammatical errors when surfing through websites, reading e-mails and even chatting on Windows Live Messenger. We find that many Internet users, in an attempt to save time and trouble, shorten the words they type into short forms, abbreviations, acronyms or shorten their sentences leaving many grammatical mistakes. Is this new 'language' acceptable?

Online gamers usually shorten their words to save precious gaming time, as seen in this comic by Scott Ramsoomair. Source: www.vgcats.com

Even though the Internet has been around for a long time, not everyone has fully adapted to the new net lingo (or geek speak like others call it). My mother works in the IT field and is very computer savvy but is still driven to confusion when she receives IMs (instant messages) from my little sister.

Terms that I have, or you may have, encountered on the Internet are like:

FTW - For the win!
ORLY? - Oh really?
ZOMG! - ZOH (yes the Z is there for dramatic effect) MY GOD!
NOOB - Newbie, amateur
ROFL - Roll on floor laughing
LOL - Laugh out loud

Definitions taken from NetLingo.com.

Even emoticons can be considered a part of this new language. If one is not familiar with Emoticons, he or she may not know that 8D or :-) indicates a smiley face. Which returns our attention to the question I posed earlier, is this new language acceptable? Is it ethical? Does it destroy our original Universal language?

Many think that the birth of the emoticon is the answer to all the misunderstandings and inability to read emotion and meaning in the e-mail messages we receive from our peers. A media report (2007) on ABC Radio National states that Professor Scott Fahlman invented the emoticon for exactly this purpose.

Will Scwalbe mentions in the report (2007) that you can make a mistake on email by being too casual, but you can also make a mistake by being too formal. In situations such as these, it is very important that language be used correctly for mistakes like these to never happen.

According to Schirato and Yell (1996), contects are never completely shared by all participants and communication cannot be completely controlled by the intention of the sender. If one person sends an email filled with emoticons, short forms and abbreviations, and it just so happens that you do not understand any of them, there is a high chance that you may just misinterpret the email for a totally different meaning that the senderhad originally intended.

But as far as whether or not this language is acceptable, it has been accepted whether we like it or not. Just as I mentioned in my post about genre change, we have to adapt to new things, and that is a remarkable ability we humans thankfully, are blessed with. We also do not have to worry about net lingo replacing the original English language, as we only use it online.

Well, except for those kids who go out yelling "LOL" every time someone tells them a joke.

References:

Schirato, T, & Yell, S 1996, Communication and cultural literacy: an introduction, St. Leonards, New South Wales.

Funnell, A 2007, Emoticons and email etiquette, The Media Report, ABC Radio National, viewed 11 November 2008,
<http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2064342.htm>

2008, NetLingo The Internet Dictionary, viewed 11 November 2008,
<http://www.netlingo.com/>

Ramsoomair, S n.d., Helm, the other white meat..., VGCats.com, viewed 5 November 2008,
<http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=60>

To filter, or not to filter? Thus is Australia's crisis.

2008-11-13T21:35:00.000-08:00

The Internet is big big world by itself and is accessed everyday by millions of people all over the planet of all ages. Everyday new websites are popping up. As responsible surfers, do we know which sites are appropriate for viewing and which ones are not?

I'm sure many of you Internet surfers have come across mature warnings on websites before.

Mature warnings for DeviantArt and Youtube. To turn off these mature content filters, the user has to be legally eighteen years old.

Usually websites that contain mature content will display a warning to the users, then prompting the users to verify their age (members are required to submit birthdates upon registration).

A media report (2008) from ABC.net.au states that the government of Australia is looking to implement a nationwide filter on the Internet. This has become subject to a lot of questioning and criticism. Questions surface, such as "What websites will be deemed inappropriate?" and "What type of websites are on the list of sites that will be banned?"

Michael Meloni (2008) states that the government filter doesn't allow for any fine-tuning and is a poor substitution for parents' or guardians' discretion. The filtering system is 'one size fits all' and this will pose to be a problem for a household as teenagers, children and adults in a family usually share one computer.

He says "As for banning websites that are 'inappropriate', is the Government really in the best position to decide what that is?" First of all, how does a government, let alone a community decide what is to be inappropriate and appropriate? And in what context is a website considered inappropriate or appropriate? Nate Anderson (2008) says, in lieu of their "Save The Children" campaign, the government has called for hardcore sex and drug content to be totally blacklisted, even though adults are of legal age to access this content.

Schirato and Yell (p. 43, 1996) states that social semiotics studies how and why people make meanings differently according to who and where they are socially and culturally. The Australian government has decided to ban websites that Australia as a nation have 'supposedly' made meaning of them to be inappropriate. Then why is there so much criticism? Electronic Frontiers Australia chairman Dale Clapperton (Australia: Filtered Internet Criticised, 2008) says that Australia is run based on liberal democracy, where adults should be able to say and read what they want, and not just what the government decides is appropriate for them.

I am not an Australian citizen, so this issue does phase me one bit. However it is essential for a community to fully understand how they make meanings of situations under within the same context to prevent problems like this from arising.

References:

Schirato, T, & Yell, S 1996, Communication and cultural literacy: an introduction, St. Leonards, New South Wales.

Funnell, A 2008, The Great Firewall of Australia, The Media Report, ABC Radio National, viewed 10 November 2008,
<http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2405376.htm>

2008, Australia: Filtered Internet Criticised, Political Affairs.net, viewed 10 November 2008,
<http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/6454/1/314/>

Meloni, M 2008, The high price of Internet filtering, ABC News, viewed 10 November 2008,
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/24/2399876.htm>

Anderson, N 2008, Australia's Internet filter: could legal content be banned too?, Ars Technica, viewed 10 November 2008,
<http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081028-australias-internet-filter-could-legal-content-be-banned-too.html>

Honey, there's someone called Genre Change at the door, what should I do with him?

2008-11-13T20:18:00.000-08:00

With the existence of blogs replacing traditional journals and MP3s replacing CDs, technology has definitely showed us what it can do. The world has accepted, albeit slowly, many genre changes over the years.

Yamaha has released an upgrade to their little-known vocal-synthesizing software released in 2004, the Vocaloid2, that has brought about a new genre change. Yes, they have found a way to replace human singing vocals with computer generated ones.

The Vocaloid twins Rin and Len singing the theme song for the anime Soukyuu no Fafner in both male and female voices. Vocaloid comes in two languages, English and Japanese, with a wide variety of different voices. Vocals are generated by lining lyrics next to music progression, which the Vocaloid will read and vocalise.

Though the vocals at times may seem a bit choppy and robotic, the program has met with positive reviews and is now very popular amongst Japanese cartoon fans especially (due to the fact that the Japanese Vocaloids like Rin and Len come in cute anime characters). The response for the blogging phenomenon as opposed to the print media was also smiled upon by many people. What about the new genres that were frowned upon instead?

Though genre change may sometimes bring advantages such as convenience and ease (like blogging), it may be worrying to some parties. There was once a time when people found it tedious and expensive to buy music CDs and records just to listen to a song. After the invention of the mp3 file, the world rejoiced to the ease of downloading and sharing music online. However, there were some parties who were unhappy about the change.

According to the website The Napster Controversy, the Recording Industry Association of America filed a lawsuit against Napster for copyright infringement, for distributing music for free amongst Napster users. Peer-to-peer sharing applications like Limewire and Ares are also under fire for sharing and distributing music and movies for free to millions of users everyday. According to Paul Gil (2008) the big ruckus is over the fact that music and movie artists claim that they are not paid rightfully when users share files without the artists' express permission; that users are infringing their copyrights.

In thirty years, will we still see the Recording Industry Association of America filing lawsuits against every music sharing website or application out there? Will they ever be able to win the war? "It is probably not a good thing to have laws that are both unenforceable and widely ignored. The alternative is to come up with a way of managing copyright and royalties that recognizes reality," says Gil (2008). With genre change more and more imminent as the days go by, all we can do is applaud its genius or embrace and adapt to its flaws.

References:

2008, Soukyuu no Fafner OP (Vocaloid Rin & Len), Youtube, viewed 11 November 2008,
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm18-gHt-Vk>

2005, Introduction: About Vocaloid, Vocaloid.com, viewed 11 November 2008,
<http://www.vocaloid.com/en/introduction.html>

n.d., Napster Then and Now: A Brief History of Napster, The Napster Controversy, viewed 11 November 2008,
<http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring01/Burkhalter/Napster%20history.html>

2007, Illegal music sharing the norm, Washington Times, viewed 11 November 2008,
<http://washingtontimes.com/news/2007/jul/28/illegal-music-sharing-the-norm/>

Gil, P 2008, Downloading Music MP3s: Peer to peer file sharing, About.com, viewed 11 November 2008,
<http://netforbeginners.about.com/cs/peersharing/a/aap2p.htm>

What does copyright have to do with art theft?

2008-11-10T23:41:00.001-08:00

On the 4th of November 2008, a new member registered on DeviantArt, the biggest online international art community, under the screen name Anti-ArtThief. Unlike other Deviants (the DeviantArt term for member), Anti-ArtThief does not submit art or works of fiction on DA. Instead, this Deviant reports to the DA administration, cases of 'art thefts'. This is a sign that many Deviants are fed up with having their works 'stolen'; stolen in this context meaning one takes a piece from another person and /or altering it and claiming it as their own.

Many angry Deviants commenting on the user page of an alleged 'art thief', Kokujinmettki, who 'stole' the artworks of another Deviant, ichigo-oh. Kokujinmettki has been reported; the DA administration have yet to take action.

The reason why this is an issue, is that the number of people who know their rights to their works online according to copyright laws are abysmal (even including the ones aware on DeviantArt). I can relate to this issue, because being a member of DeviantArt for three years (my screen-name is ItoMaki), I have had my art stolen before as well.

People are constantly having their videos removed from Youtube because their videos have been found to infringe copyright. I have had a video removed from Youtube due to a third party copyright claim on the audio of my video (although I wasn't the only creating such videos and I had clearly credited the original owner of the audio).

Screenshot of a notice I got when I tried to view my video that was removed sometime last month after being on Youtube for nearly a year.

Janice Byer (2008) states that a copyright is a legal term describing rights given to creators for their literary and artistic works. There are many methods such as applying the copyright sign '©' on their works, along with their name and the year the work was produced. There are other alternatives such as the Creative Commons license for those who may allow some parties to recreate their work for distribution but with credit.

On the Creative Commons official website, it is said that the Creative Commons licenses defines the spectrum of possibilities between full copyright (all rights reserved) and the public domain (no rights reserved). The Creative Commons licenses enables you to keep your copyright while inviting certain uses of your work (a “some rights reserved” copyright).

An Internet user, if he or she were to post their works online, should always claim copyright to their works. There is always the risk that an ignorant user will go against your rights as the person who created that piece of work in the first place, be it a poem, a work of fiction or a simple drawing. Especially since the Internet is a huge network capable of reaching millions of people, all sorts of people. Your works are at risk once you post them on the net, and what you can do to make sure nobody claims it as their own or recreates it for commercial use, is to protect your rights by knowing the power of the copyright.

References:

2007, Get Off My Back, Youtube, viewed on 9 November 2008,
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc2rUuhbUME>

Byer, J 2008, Website Content Theft, About.com, viewed 9 November 2008,
<http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/legalmatters/a/websitetheftjb.htm>

n.d. About, Creative Commons, viewed 9 November 2008,
<http://creativecommons.org/about/>

2008, Kokujinmettki user profile, Deviantart, viewed 9 November 2008,
<http://kokujinmettki.deviantart.com/>

2008, Anti-ArtThief user profile, Deviantart, viewed 9 November 2008,
<http://anti-artthief.deviantart.com/>

The Era of the Blog Part 4 - New forms of media publishing

2008-11-10T23:40:00.005-08:00

Gone were the days when we would video tape our friends' weddings on VCR. Gone were the days when we had to fork out money to buy CDs to listen to music. Gone were the days when we could just rely on our dusty hard-cover (or paperback, whatever suits your fancy) diaries and journals to log our daily lives.

So far I have been discussing the blogging phenomenon. However, technology has paved the way for other methods of media publishing that some Internet users have found quite useful.

Video blogging, or V-logging, is becoming very popular as a means to replace blogging, or just a way to make logs of your daily life more fun. Videos have the power to express what many people may feel difficult to express when writing: explaining certain situations, feeling, emotion and tone. An example of popular v-loggers are Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld, a.k.a. JakeandAmir. They created their own blog-based domain and instead of posting regular text posts of their daily lives in all their madness, they post funny videos of them at work.

A screenshot of Jake and Amir's official web-blog, JakeandAmir.com with a video uploaded as a blog-post.

Andrew Sullivan (2007) wrote for The Australian saying,

"Blogs were and are central to the online discourse, their personal touch presenting information in a way that seems to suit the internet audience best. But something else is happening now that may give those blogs even more power: they are ceding to, or incorporating, video."

Another form of media publishing online has given encouragement and complimented video logging: video sharing. Youtube is probably the most popular video sharing website on the net. Websites like Youtube reach a great number of users in the net, some sharing their videos as a way of expressing their thoughts, some just kicking back and enjoying the show. But just like video logging, video sharing holds much greater power when it comes to getting the message across as videos are shared with millions of viewers all over the Internet.

Sullivan (2007) states,

"Senator George Allen made a minor racist remark at a rural campaign stop in the heart of his conservative home state of Virginia. In days gone by, it would have been a completely trivial piece of base retail politics, and instantly forgotten. But the damning video found its way to YouTube, and then it was carried by the TV networks, and before long Allen's re-election bid hit a brick wall."

With the technology in our hands, there are many more forms of media publishing that exist currently and are yet to be invented. Designers can use these forms to have better chances at achieving their publication goals.

References:

Sullivan, A 2007, Video boosts power of the bloggers, The Australian, viewed 9 November 2008
<http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/530670.php>

2008, Jake and Amir.com, viewed 9 November 2008,
<http://www.jakeandamir.com/>

The Era of the Blog Part 3 - Print Design versus Online Design

2008-11-10T23:40:00.003-08:00

Design has purpose. Different purposes lead to different designs. So how is designing for the Internet different from designing for print?

Both traditional print content and online web content are portrayed through layout design. According to Kress & van Leeuwen (p. 4, 1998), the elements of a layout attract the readers attention to different degrees, and through a wide variety of means such as placement in the foreground or background, relative size, contrast in tonal value or colour, and differences in sharpness to name a few.

An article in a newspaper or a magazine, with its elements such as header and supporting images, need to be arranged to establish a reading path so the reader knows what content to analyse first. Kress & van Leeuwen (p. 5, 1998) state that connective devices portrayed through design elements have the effect of expressing that the content thus connected is to be read as belonging together in some sense, as continuuous or complimentary.

A scan of an article from Handmade magazine. The article is divided in four columns, guiding the readers to scan the article in a reading path with ease.
Source: Flickr.

However, on a website, the navigation menu (regardless of where it sits on the page) is the tool that leads the reader to what content he or she intends to read. Walsh (p. 9, 2006) states that unlike a continuuous narrative, there is no beginning or end to the content of a website. The reader chooses his or her own pathway by clicking on menu and navigation buttons as well as hyperlinks.

Screenshot of a website I regularly visit, Avatarspirit.net. Take note of the various columns and placement of content, such as external links and navigation menus.

Designing for print also means dealing with physical traits of the media, like the texture and the weight of the paper that can be used to achieve the designer's publication goals (Miller,2008). For example, glossy paper or art card can be used for posters or brochures to attract reader's attentions.

A designer has many interactive and multimedia features at his disposal when designing for the web, such as video and audio embedding and polls. These capabilities are an advantage to web design as opposed to print design as the lack of technological enhancement does not allow for the use all these features on print.

The way content is written on print and the web differ from each other as well. Books and newspapers tend to contain long bodies of text with sometimes more than enough information than needed. Website contents, like blogs and online news pages on the other hand usually condense the content and post straightforward information without much excess information.

References:

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T (1998) Front Pages: (The Critical) Analysis of Newspaper Layout,
Approaches to Media Disclosure Blackwell.

Walsh, M 2006, The 'textual shift': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts 'Reading visual and multimodal texts: how is reading different? Vol 29, No.1, pp. 24-37 Australian Journal of Language and Literacy

Miller, E 2008, Designing for print vs The Web, About.com viewed 9 November 2008 <http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/printvsweb/a/print_vs_web.htm>

2008, AvatarSpirit.net, viewed 9 November 2008
<http://www.avatarspiritmedia.net/>

2008, Handmade magazine, Flickr, viewed 9 November 2008
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/girl-of-fall/2946604950/>

The Era of the Blog Part 2 - Blogging as a means of creating online communities.

2008-11-10T23:40:00.001-08:00

When I blog, I hope to reach as many people as I can. In addition to that, I hope to reach bloggers who specifically share the same interests as I do or at least are able to relate to my regular musings. When I blog about the latest video games I play, I like getting comments and feedback from fellow gamers online, and when I blog about my day at class, I like getting feedback from my college mates or other college-goers.

How blogs reach different types of Internet users are through the different things the bloggers write about. Therefore we can break down blogs to a number of classifications.

According to Technorati, 2008, blogs can be divided into six classes (as seen on their top menu bar);

a) Business
b) Entertainment
c) Lifestyle
d) Politics
e) Sports
f) Technology

These classifications can further be broken down to subclasses (eg. Subclasses under Entertainment are Celebrity, Film, Gaming, Indie Film, Music and Television).

It is the variety of blog classifications that allow for online communities to exist. the envelopes, for example, is an online shopping blog (this would probably go under the Business classification) started by three of my college mates where they sell articles of clothing and accessories online. On their blog there are numerous links to other online shopping websites. They also have a chatbox, where other online shopping bloggers post their updates to inform the administrators of the envelopes as well as the readers.

Another blog hosting website LiveJournal also encourages its members to start groups and communities, through which they can recruit members who have the same interest as they do. Through these groups they are able to discuss and share their thoughts about the topics relevant to the community.

A screenshot of various members of a community on LiveJournal called Harry Potter Knitting, sharing their photos of their hand-made Harry Potter-inspired crafts.

To build a blogging community is very simple and most of the time happens on accident. Jack Vinson (2006) states that bloggers come together due to common interests and are held together by those interests. Not only is it the ongoing passion of the topic of mutual interest is what keeps a blogging community together, but alike traditional communities, these bloggers get to know one another and develop a sense of community and togetherness that extends beyond the common interest.

References:

Vinson, J 2006, Blogging and Communities, Knowledge Jolt with Jack, viewed 9 November 2008,
<http://blog.jackvinson.com/archives/2006/06/26/blogging_and_communities.html>

2008, the envelopes, viewed 9 November 2008,
<http://www.the-envelopes.blogspot.com/>

Technorati.com (2008) viewed 9 November 2008,
<http://technorati.com/>

The Era of the Blog Part 1 - Blogging today and how it benefits us

2008-11-10T23:39:00.003-08:00

The Internet is a part of our daily lives. Most of us go home from school or work to face a computer, surfing the net and checking on Facebook. It is no wonder the blogging phenomenon today is taking over millions of users on the Internet.

A blog, short for web log is a frequently updated online journal that shows entries in reverse chronological order (Glaser, 2006). There are usually no rules to what a blog can be, and are literally online diaries with articles, writings, photos, Web links as part of the postings by the blogger (What is Blogging?, 2005).

The blogging phenomenon continues to grow rampant among Internet users. Technorati, an online search engine for blogs, tracks a total of 112.8 million blogs, and states that the Internet spawns over 175, 000 blogs per day (2008). Blogs have very much literally replaced our old-fashioned diaries and, here is the catch, blogs can do much more than an old-fashioned diary can.

Source: deaddays.deviantart.com

According to Technorati (2008), bloggers usually link their blogs to and comment on other blogs, creating immediate connections like when having a conversation. A research done in Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne has concluded that blogging can help one feel less isolated, more connected to a community and more satisfied with their relationships, both online and face-to-face (Ryan, 2008). One of the researchers, Professor Susan Moore was quoted saying "Maybe they'd just made more social connections," when commenting on the state of the respondents of the research survey, after trying online social networking.

Blogs also bring about monetary benefits. Some people can make extra cash for coffee by blogging and others can make a full-time living. Darren Rowse, a full-time blogger who is making a living off a couple of his blogs manages to earn a six-figure income from blogging through methods such as his own private ad sales and sponsorships, and networks like Amazon.com's affiliate program and Widgetbucks (n.d.).

Blogs are now a powerful media tool in shaping new communities online and increasing the versatility of media and publication. For this reason, the world must embrace this phenomenon with open arms as well as the fact that it's growing so fast that resistance is futile anyway.

References:

Ryan, C 2008, Blogging boosts your social life: research, ABC News, viewed 9 November 2008, <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/03/2178512.htm>.

Welcome to Technorati, Technorati Media, viewed 9 November 2008, <http://technoratimedia.com/about/>.

Glaser, M 2006, Digging Deeper: Your Guide to Blogging, MediaShift, viewed 9 November 2008,
<http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/05/digging-deeperyour-guide-to-blogging136.html>.

2005, What is Blogging?, ABC News, viewed 9 November 2008,
<http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=889289&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312>.

Rowse, D, Make Money Blogging, Problogger.net, viewed 9 November 2008,
<http://www.problogger.net/make-money-blogging/>

Rios, J 2008, Bloggy Vengeance, DeviantArt, viewed 9 November 2008,
<http://deaddays.deviantart.com/art/Bloggy-Vengeance-82030161>

Raison d'Etre

2008-11-10T23:39:00.001-08:00

The Dynamo of Volition is a new blog started for discussion on issues and topics related to the media, publication and design. Hopefully media students and also the general public will be able to gain some more general knowledge from this blog and further expand their horizons on the publication and media industry.