WEBSITE SHUTDOWN

While I was browsing around the internet searching for PATRIOT act related site shut downs, I ran into digzine.com. I'm not exactly sure what kind of site it used to be, but the Department of Homeland Security has shut them down, and in turn, posted a small blurb on the sections of the patriot act that the site was violating. After a little more digging, I want to say this site had something to do with hackers, and just an online magazine dedicated to hacking. (But don't quote me)

One part of this Homeland blurb that caught my attention, was when it said: "Please be advised that as a part of the formal investigation, the IP addresses of all visitors to this site have been logged and will be examined thoroughly. You may be contacted by representatives of DHS with regard to this ongoing investigation. Under section 506 of the USA PATRIOT Act, failure to provide complete cooperation with investigating agents (including any and all discussion of the substance or existence of this investigation) will in itself be considered a criminal act, pubishable by up to ten years' imprisonment"
I was not aware that the government had that kind of access to information regarding who visited a site, via their IP address. I wonder if they actually have prosecuted anyone just for visiting this site. The whole idea of being prosecuted for visiting a website is scary, very big brother 'esque'.

Click THIS LINK and look at the current page that was taken over by the government.

--David

midterm review

Here is a list of things to review and think about for the midterm on Monday. Please feel free to email with questions.

social web/web 2.0
convergence
participatory culture
produsage
collective intelligence
free culture
control over internet
IP
copyright wars
filtering
net neutrality
Google
ATT
Creative Commons
Patriot Act
EFF
RIP!: A Remix Manifesto
Read/Write culture

Influencing the Internet (Week 28th)

Influencing the Internet

I did some “armature” internet research and found an article that got me thinking about who really controls or “influences” the internet. My conclusion – the people( aka us). We influence change in the internet in order to have better access to the world. Example: we create “online banking [that] allows people to check up on their personal finances pretty much 24/7” versus having to accord to the bank’s hours. Rather than making this ability for only exclusive people, anyone with a bank account is able to access it online. Because this and many other technological internet advances are available to the majority of the human body, I believe that we influence the internet and how it changes and develops.

The link to the article is here: CLICK HERE

~ Tisha

"In Plain English"

It's definitely hard for some people to understand a lot of these web concepts. I came across this series of videos on youtube that would take a concept and explain it "in plain english". I thought it was pretty interesting since it covers a lot of concepts that we are studying. Some of these concepts are: World Wide Web, Twitter, Social Media, Podcasting, Online photo sharing, Social Networking, RSS, and Blogs.

After doing a little more research, I learned that the videos are done by a company called Common Craft. Common Craft basically sells these "in plain english" videos that are designed for training and education. Check out their video on Blogs...

The Changing Definition of Friendship

So I'm not entirely sure that this can be directly connected to what we have been discussing in class but it is quite interesting. As technology makes it easier to meet new people from across the world the definition of what a friend is must necessarily change. Many people would define a friend as someone who you know well, trust, and (key point here) have met in person. This is what I have heard many people say, generally older people or those who don't use computers much, but I don't think this is true. As this article says, social networking sites have changed what it means to be friends with someone. I for one have many friends that I have never actually met but I feel are friends in every meaning of the word. While I don't use social networking sites, such as facebook and myspace, I do a lot of online gaming. I met many people over the 4 years that I played World of Warcraft and I would consider them my friends. I know that at the very least my parents have trouble understanding how I can be friends with someone that I've never physically met, but I don't think that physically meeting someone is a qualifier for being friends anymore. I played with them, I talked with them, I argued with them, shared stories with them, and I know them. That is what it means to be someones friend.

This can be extended from just friends to what is important in life. While I will say that a video game generally be more important events in real life(IRL), sometimes they can be important enough that exceptions should be made. As I have said I played WoW, I admit it and I enjoyed it while it lasted. I did end-game content ranging from Player vs Player(PvP) to Player vs Environment(PvE) and there were times that events in WoW seemed more important to me than something going on IRL. Now this was usually dinner, and on occasion, homework >.>, but that's ok. Anyway my parents never gave me a break and never understood why it was so important to me, and I never understood how having people who were depending on me, people who I had told that I would be there, waiting on me wasn't important. They never understood how people online are still people and they don't like to be kept waiting. I tried to explain its like a meeting for work, you wouldn't want to be late or have to leave in the middle of a meeting to go do something, its the same idea. Now this can be extended outside of gaming and raids, but the fact remains that peoples priorities and the definition of friendship are changing and I can only hope that those who don't understand can cope with the changes because they are coming on fast.

P.S. I know I don't have many links in this... actually I only have 1, but this was kind of a personal rant/interest so I'm hoping the examples from my life will make up for it. And I just like to talk about video games XD. To make up for it enjoy these videos... and yes they are all WoW, its what I know, and no I don't play anymore.



and as a WoW remix, since I heard we would be talking about remixes and such...

YouCity

A new mash-up that might make it big is YouCity.com

Basically, it is a social networking site that lets you visualize all activity within a city or given area in 3D. It also allows its users to learn about the hotspots and events that are scheduled for the future.

In their own Words:

YouCity is a neighborhood-based social network site that helps you connect with local people sharing the same interests. It is a website where you discover on a fun 3D map the city hotspots and exciting local events through people like you.

YouCity combines real-life neighborhood context with social context to provide the first true integration of online social networks with local geography. It creates online neighborhoods that not only mirror every corner of the real world we live in but also change the real world and benefit people's everyday life through revolutionizing the way people creating and sharing local information and interacting with each other and places around them.

it is only available for New York and San Fransisco...

against Net Neutrality

After last class I thought it was important to actually find out the other side of the argument dealing with net neutrality. As I began to research it was much harder to find reliable information against the concept of "Net Neutrality." There was a few ideas that support the banishment of Net Neutrality, but the main arguement is that there is already compition for faster speeds. With the rapid growing rate of the internet we need higher cable usage  to fullfill our needs, and the way to do that without money from our own pocket is to have a compition of companies trying to gain the consumors loyality so the companies would be the ones investing in these cables.  

Overall, I found that most people were for Net Neutrality and only corporations who would be dominate in the internet choices are for corporate takeover but most people find net neutrality the most equal to our countries beliefs.