Digital Identity!

            When I think about the internet, I only can think of digital identity; by saying this I mean most of the time I go on the internet to use my identity to speak to others. With web 2.0 digital identities has come around this is because social networking sites has led to users becoming more interactive by making themselves their own identity whether it is their real selves or if it is a fake identity. The idea of digital identity can sound rather strange and it can lead to you wondering whether you are speaking to someone that has made themselves out to be a very different person. When digital identity first came around it was with sites such as; MSN, Bebo, Myspace and finally Facebook, each of these sites have become popular at different stages of when they have come out. When I was younger I first used MSN which is a chat website designed for people to speak to their friends, yet anyone can make an account and design their own identity and chose who they want to add, this has caused issues in the media and many young teenagers use these sites and are naive as to who they are talking to.

Also as the internet became more resourceful, so did the websites, when I say this I mean Bebo was one of the first social networking sites and it gave anyone who used it a digital identity because they could upload their own pictures, have a personal conversation with anyone they wanted and also give as much information about themselves available for most people to see online. The idea of this does sound dangerous however I do think it gives people a chance to become more confident and interact more than they could or would in the real world. This brings into relation the idea of avatar websites in which people can create their own persona and walk around into different worlds; these are digital identities in which people can create as a way to go into a new reality and be completely different than they can in the real world this can help build confidence for users but also can make users become too involved in a social reality and now with The Sims (a game which wasnt online) is even becoming online interactive means that people will socialise even more using a digital identity. However with Web 2.0 I feel that the site Facebook has been the biggest sensation so far for my generation, even with a film ‘The Social Network’ being released because of how well the website does. As I am a current user on Facebook I feel that my identity hasn’t changed however with status’ updates people use their identities to create more friends or to make themselves seem more popular. I do think that young users in particular need to be careful with whom they speak to but also digital identities could become much more series as the internet evolves.

My Campaign Project!

            Across the world many people campaign for what they believe in or something in which they feel could help the world change even if it is just slightly. When the general election happened in 2010 there were campaigns all over the country in which government party people should vote for, with arguments such as David Cameron being airbrushed on his pictures which caused a controversy in the media as to how he was being campaigned on across the country at that time. Another campaign issue which has risen in the media is the student funds; I feel that this is a strong issue that has caused a large debate as many students have protested to campaign to keep the funds the same and have gone on street protests and vandalised many cities because of it.

            However I feel that campaigning is good and with the new emerging internet people can now make a campaign with any resource such as a camera phone on a cheap budget, I found whilst looking on Youtube people campaign about anything that they feel strongly about and with this it helped me to come up with an idea for my campaign. In our network media group we had to get into a group of 3-4 in which I worked with; Dominique, Rupee and Zoe at first it was hard to think of an issue which we could all campaign about that we individually felt strong about, however once we had sat down and made a mind map of different ideas we found that there were many issues that young people have to face that we could campaign about, yet there was one idea in particular that stuck... We came up with the idea of campaigning on healthy eating; as a student myself I find it hard to stick to a healthy eating regime when I know many takeaways or fast food places which I can go to for a cheap price, also keeping myself fit an active can be a struggle as it is hard for me to find the time. We first went on to the market and different fast food places to film for our campaign, we decided on filming different places and then putting a voice over on top. We also realised that as a student that binge drinking is also an issue, so we added that within our campaign and filmed a pint being drunk, I did the voiceover for our campaign and talked about the issues that can be caused by alcohol and eating unhealthy. I felt that doing the campaign taught me that I should look after myself even though I’m a student, I learnt more than I thought I would have... Here is our video for you to watch!  

What I think to Copyright!

Copyright is something which has been in and out of the media since the internet has come about, this is mainly because many people can take anything such as; music, films or television shows from the internet. After studying the subject in my network media group I had a strong opinion about whether it is good or bad that people can copyright. For my workshop we had to read an article by the famous blogger Cory Doctorow for ‘Boing Boing’  blogging site; about how copyright is wrong; Doctorow states within his article “the reason copyright exists is because culture creates a market for creative works. If there was no market for creative works, there'd be no reason to care about copyright.” After reading this I do agree with what Doctorow is stating, he basically shows that the reason copyright is there is because we want to hear music, watch films and play xbox games so we should pay for it. Also I feel that without our money then these cannot be produced and therefore our favourite music artists will not be able to produce songs.

            Earlier this year the music downloader; Limewire was shut down for copyright infringement. Limewires argument was however that it was just filesharing so it cannot be copyright. I feel that there is a fine line between filesharing and copyright infringement; mainly because even before the internet became as big as it is now and as easy to copyright, people were still doing it... for example when cassette players were around, people would buy a cassette tape and lend it to their friends to record to their cassette players.  I just can’t help but think is this copyright too? The answer is yes, even without the internet people will still copyright, and I do agree with Doctorow, infringement is put into place for a reason. Limewire did have a right to say they were just sharing music, however if everyone shared music then no artists would be able to earn a living as there would be no profit going into the music industry or any other media related industry.

            However I do feel from a student’s point of view that I cannot afford to buy C.Ds or the latest films and that downloading it illegally is an easier option for me to take. I also think because it is so simple to find a copyright website on Google that I can just search for the latest film or song and watch them within minutes, the downfall to this is that films are never the same as watching them in the cinema as when watching them illegally they are normally filmed by someone sat in the cinema... also I have found that some websites are making it harder for people to watch music videos, for example in 2009 Youtube made it harder for people to watch music videos, and also if a music video comes out in America but not in the U.K I have found a law has been put into place so that it cannot be watched or heard in the U.K until the release date. With this the government are also taking extra precautions by taking measures such as slowing peoples internet down or cutting it off completely.

Pecha Kucha

Pecha Kucha is something which came around in the country Japan in 2003, it is a form of PowerPoint presentation but made faster with around 20 seconds to a slide. Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham first created the idea as people wanted to pitch different business ideas so a way in which to fit so many people in was to create the idea of Pecha Kucha in which each person has around 5-6 minutes per presentation. Since then this has become an annual event taking place each year for participants to pitch their ideas using a Pecha Kucha presentation.  The idea is so that people can take the information faster but also so that others do not talk to long when producing each slide. I felt that this is a good idea because it helps others interact better with their audience and also I find that when people produce a PowerPoint that I tend to get bored quicker because people become nervous, with the invention of Pecha Kucha this is no longer a problem as each point is made simpler and also made more to the point.

We were told in our network media class to make our own presentation based on the idea of a Pecha Kucha, I did this by getting in to a group with 2 other girls from my class in which we decided to base our Pecha Kucha on Tim O’reillys theory on Collective Intelligence. Collective Intelligence is how Web 2.0 affects our everyday lives through websites such as social sites; facebook, Twitter and even this site blogger as it’s a group of people which make the site what it is. For example Facebook would not be a website without a collective group of people to harness the site and make it work potentially as a social networking site.  O’reilly states “The network is opening up some amazing possibilities for us to reinvent content, reinvent collaboration.”   From this I feel that O’Reilly is showing that collective intelligence is a way in which we can become as one and recreate more collective intelligence with devices such as web 2.0. We decided for our Pecha Kucha that we would each have 5 slides with 20 seconds to a slide, I found an easier way would be to put pictures up or quotations and then for myself to write down each point that I was going to make on flash cards for myself to see, that way the rest of the class wouldn’t be reading what I was reading out to them and they would then have to listen to me.

                I felt that our Pecha Kucha went well and it is also a good way to know what one is as it comes across much more professional. When I read out our slideshows I felt nervous but because I had a short time to speak in I didn’t talk too much and also stuck to the point that I had to make. It is hard knowing that you only have a short amount of time but then I didn’t ramble on to much then.  

To view my Pecha Kucha click here:

Psychogeographic Derive

Psychogeography is something that defines the way in we react from the places we go through maps, this can be in any; way, shape or form such as pictures. Guy Debord the first person who created psychogeography in 1955 stated that the idea was; "consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals." From this I felt that Debord wanted to prove how our surroundings affect the way in which we act or behave. I found the understanding of the psychgeorgraphic drive confusing at first as it is hard to grasp the idea around it. I decided a way in which would be easier for me to understand what psygeographic derive was; would be to research various maps that have been used in the past... I looked at one in particular which was based around the London tube station and the route the person had gone on and how they were affected by the various people sat on the tube. I also read an article by Sadie Plant in which she explains the desire that people have to show that their emotions can easily be changed by the place in which they are at and how that every person wants to be a ‘situationist’, I felt that her article explains the derive in a detailed way however it is a very one sided view and I felt that she only explains the article from her opinion and doesn’t take into account how others could be affected differently to the author.

 This lead to helping me with the idea of what I would do for my derive. I came up with different ideas but one in particular stuck out the most in my mind this idea was to walk around the town centre of Leicester and go to various places and see how my mood was affected through the smells of the places that I had been too. This didn’t seem very appealing but I thought it would be a good way to show how my mood can easily change just by the place that I am at. The first place that I thought I could start at was the market as there are so many different smells there. I used smiley faces to show how my mood became affected, this lead to how I also became a situationist because my mood changed as I moved to different surroundings. I felt that it was a good idea to do this as it reflected the way I felt quite easily and I showed how easily my mood can change.



Derive

To view my map click here