Final Reflections November 30, 2009

I was truly surprised by how much of this class’s content I was able to take to take to other classes.  At first I thought that I wouldn’t really need too many of the skills we were learning in class but it turns I have used many of them.  They helped me to get a leg up while working on projects for other classes, while others had to learn how to use things I could start working.

I originally took this class because I thought it sounded interesting and it fit really well into my schedule.  As the course went along I became a little skeptical how some of the topics like gaming, identity online, blogging and twitter would help me in the real world.  But, as we got deeper into the topics I realized that these are some of the things I have already been talking about with friends and at work.

What shocked me the most was how interested I became in some of the topics such as identity on the internet and technology literacy.  I have younger siblings and work in youth ministry and to be able to take some of the things I have learned about identity and talk with them about it was amazing.  The teens are not that much younger than I am but technology defines a huge part of their existence and social life.  I thought it was so interesting to see the difference a few years can make in terms of technology and social life.

I was also surprised to see how little I really knew about technology.  I always thought of myself as somewhat tech savvy (on a PC mind you) but the truth was I knew almost nothing.  Society today requires that we know how to use the basic technology based equipment.  As I am saying that I think about the generation before me and how they had to learn things about computers at a much later age then myself.  Then I think about my sixteen year-old sister who can ever remember not having a computer or internet access.

There is a growing dependency on new media tools and I think that is both good and bad.  It is good in the sense that it has enabled communication on a worldwide scale that was once only a dream.   But it can also be bad when the technological means of communicating replace the genuine face-to-face communication and relationships

I believe there will always be some type of new media coming along to replace its predecessors.  Personally I love getting a chance to play with the new toys, but I also know that they can drastically change our society.  We have to be the ones to make the choice whether they can help of hinder us as a culture.

The musician as a thief: Digital culture and copyright law. November 23, 2009

 

In this week’s article we take a look at copyright law.  Daphne Keller’s article made some very interesting point regarding the subject.  “Artists can now build upon prior recordings themselves, turning the fixed artifact of an earlier artist’s performance into raw material for new work.”

My question through this whole look at copyright is that if you create something completely new then how does the original owner of the pieces have claim over this new work. “Digital recording technology revolutionizes and democratizes this recycling process.”

I understand that artist should have some claims to theirs works, after all that is how they make their money.  But, it you take a small piece from one thing and a small piece from another you are creating something entirely new.

As I am writing this I can start to see the slippery slope that the previous statement could create.  Who is to say what parts and how much are alright to use?  This is where I think that copyright laws should step in.  The goal of copyright now according to Keller is “…to create the economic and legal; conditions within which science learning and culture can flourish.  In pursuit of this goal, a copyright holder is generally granted the right to stop other people from selling copies of her work or derivative works based on it.”

I do think that something should change when it comes to copyright laws.  Is that just because I am a fan of mashups and other things like it, maybe but Keller also gives her point of view on the matter. “..Digital technology allows is to interact with information an make culture in a new way.  Copyright law should respond to the cultural shift if it is to serve its constitutional “Promote the Progress” goal and the first amendment’s free expression goal.”

Long Live the Guild! November 15, 2009

Long live the guild! While watching the documentary on MMORPG’s in class last week this was said multiple times.  At the time I really didn’t understand what constituted a guild in the World of Warcraft game.  According to the official WoW website, “A guild is a group of players that join together for companionship, adventure, economic gain and more.”  These guilds are user made and the article “From Tree House to Barracks: The Social Life of Guilds in World of Warcraft” focuses on how these guilds function within the game.

I have had very little personal exposure to Wow.  I did have friends in high school that would play the game nonstop.  They tried to teach me about the game but I remember very little about it.  I always thought that it was a game with no true purpose where you just went and killed everything in sight.  I knew that some people used the game as a forum for other things but I guess I didn’t realize how many people were doing that.

To enhance game play some players choose to join some type of guild.  I was really surprised to learn that 60% of guilds are formed purely for social reasons.  I was also surprised to learn that in smaller social guilds “the social interactions were extensions of real-world social bonds”.

I also had no idea that there were different types of guilds.  The article named four: social guild, player-vs-player guild, raiding guild, and role-play guilds.  They all have different structures and different way of playing the same game.

The more I read about it I started to wonder how you would go about joining a guild on the game.  With a social guild you can get a group of friends in the game or not and just make a guild.  What about the other types?  The official WoW website offers a guide on picking a guild but I found some other sites that I thought were interesting.  RecruitGamers.com has a specialized website to help WoW players join guilds. I also found classifieds on craigslist for WoW guilds.  Overall, this whole gaming universe (I don’t know if world is even large enough a word anymore) is far more complex then I first thought it was going to be.

The World of MMORPG November 8, 2009

“In South Korea, an estimated one in twelve members of the entire population have played an MMO called Lineage.”

I have to say I didn’t believe this statistic from Wagner James Au’s article “Taking New World Notes”, but the more I thought about it the more I think is has to be true.  The world of massive multiplayer online role playing games, or MMORPG, is expanding its boarders more each day.  The entirety of some people’s lives revolve around these types of games, and I myself have known several of them.

I had one particular friend in high school who would spend all of her free time on this online game where you would create an avatar that was human, animal cross breed thing.  That is really the best way I can think to describe it, I wish I remembered the name of the game but sadly I do not.  My friend would be on this game every day, she was pretty socially awkward and the game was her way to escape that.  She eventually met a boy on that game and they started virtually dating.  I thought this was crazy at the time, and she was not the only one of my friends who preferred online dating to meeting people in public. I had a strange group of friends.

Eventually my friend and her new boyfriend started meeting in real life after dating over this game for about a year.  They lived across the country from one another and when they couldn’t hop a plane to see one another they would meet on this animal game or over WoW.  I lost touch with my friend in the later years of high school mainly because I never saw her outside of school.

So the meaning behind that long winded story was that there are people who’s whole life is lived online.  MMORPG’s are creating an outlet for people to be someone different from who they are in real life.

“I’ve interviewed strippers and Catholic priests, combat veterans and peace activists, socialist utopians and midget warmongers. I’ve profiled entrepreneurs who own whole continents and earn six figure incomes from the buying and selling of virtual land, and a homeless hacker who built a virtual mansion while squatting in an abandoned building.”

I myself was never really a fan of the MMORPG.  I have played WoW and several others but I never really got the point of having an online life when you are given one that is real.  I guess I am curious about others experiences with MMO’s and what is appealing about them.

While thinking about this topic a movie came to mind, the resent release Surrogates.  It is a movie where the virtual world has merged with reality and life is experienced through surrogates.  These surrogates are ideal representations of their users and reminded me a lot of virtual avatars.  In the case of the movie and MMO’s “life” is being seen through these avatars/surrogates while the user is back at home.  What are you thoughts about the connection, or even the lack there of, between the movie and MMO’s?

REMIX November 1, 2009

When I first started to read Lawrence Lessig’s article I really wasn’t sure how interested in the topic I would be.  That was until he got to the part about Stephanie Lenz and her thirteen-month-old son, Holden.

While reading I thought the video sounded cute and seemed like something my mom would email me for a laugh.  I could not believe that a record company went after her for having a barely recognizable song in the background.

From what the article said the quality of the song was horrendous and all you could really tell was that there was some kind of music in the background.  What I don’t understand is why this video was considered so bad for the record company that they felt they had to threaten Ms. Lenz with a $150,000 lawsuit if she didn’t take the video off of youtube.  There are thousands of videos on youtube meant to be used to listen to a song, but that was not what this video was intended for.

Here is a link to the actually video.

I think I have to agree with Lessig when he said that something has to be changed regarding copyright laws.  The laws as they stand allow companies to sue people who post videos, like Ms. Lenz, who’s only intent was to share a cute moment with her family and friends.  What exactly should be done… well, that I am not sure about but I am open to suggestions.

For more ideas from Lawrence Lessig check out his blog.