Digital Media Presentation

OUR PRESENTATION ON HARNESSING COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE

Digital Media Presentation

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I found this topic really interesting because it fascinates me how much technology interacts with our daily lives. This concept of 'harnessing collective intelligence' basically shows how much information there is about us out there and how web user activity is stored, used and then resold to us in a format that actually encourages us to buy more things in doing so feeding the entire process all over again. It's nuts, but at the same time incredibly genius.

I personally love those bits that come up on Amazon, 'people who brought this item also viewed' its great for when your trying to find a present for someone or just looking for new music. Basically we like it because it makes out lives easier, yet an even lazier way to shop- related objects to out tastes are rounded up and put in front of us! I also find the statistics which some up '90% of people buy the item featured on this page', now it is even easier to make decisions on which is the best product based on number of sales.

On Amazon I find these little collective intelligence quirks useful, however the same format is now being used on most e-mail and social networking sites to try and target us with specific adds based on the content of our e-mails. This is beginning to feel slightly big brotherish and in a bad way. You start thinking, who is doing this? who owns this information? who might they be passing it on to? and most importantly what else do they know?

The concept of collective intelligence is very closely linked with the idea that all of our internet usage leaves a shadow which websites, like Amazon reuse in potentially friendly ways to boost their sales. However one must be aware that if Amazon can do this all sites must be doing the same and this poses concerns about the safety of our personal information. Credit card companies can monitor what we buy and where, this is how Tesco club card works. They record what you usually buy, and when you go online to do your shopping your 'favourites' are listed there for you. Now this sounds handy but at the same time kind of creepy

Essentially everything we do, purchase, browse, online leaves a shadow, this information is stored somewhere. In this constantly online, connected world we live in personal information is literally hanging around 'the cloud' and who knows what could potentially happen? This is not a new phenomenon however. Interestingly I happened to watch a relatively old movie called 'NET' starring Sandra Bullock made in 1995 which surrounds this concept. Sandra Bullocks character is attacked by such internet giants who manage to find out everything about her and change her identity, forge legal documents etc as a form of blackmail destroying her life through the information they were able to access with a virus online.

But what can we do? stop using the internet? everything happens online these days, even things which used to be optional like your end of year tax return (I found this out from my parents) has to be done online now. Government files have to be exchanged online. This could all be potentially dangerous one day, or perfectly harmless and nothing but a case of paranoia. But we'll never really know what happens to our information once it has been exposed to the internet and 'the cloud'.

Web 2.0 and Web Squared

Web 2.0 and web squared are terms used to discuss the development of the web, it's stages of life. The first stage of the web, surrounded the 'dot.com' boom which in 2001 crashed. Many thought that the internet was going to be over, instead it was reinvented and improved. Tim O'Reilly has written extensively on the subject in 2005 in his paper "What Is Web 2.0" which is available at /public/schedule/detail/10194/public/schedule/detail/10194 http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html

In my mind web 2.0 co insides with the end of dial up and the development of broadband technologies, this may be be incorrect but it is symbolic of the new found internet, bigger and better then before which is the concept behind web 2.0. I myself have no or very little experience of the original Web as I would have been 10 when the dot.com era crashed and although aware of the internet, I didn't really discover things like e-mail and MSN messenger for my self until I was about 13. So I have no first hand knowledge of the differences between the web and web 2.0.

However, in O'Reilly's paper on Web 2.0 he talks about the web 'as a platform' and refers to web 2.0 with the emergence of google, blogging and wikipedia. Such platforms for interaction and expression which were not so accessible with the dot.com era. The dot.com era was more centered around individual websites with pages of flat information on them. Web 2.0 is much more interactive, about hyperlinks and interaction. Using the invention of such links to develop a system to search the web effectively.

Web 2.0 saw the emergence of such concepts as harnessing collective intelligence. The idea that the internet is user friendly and reshapeable information with multiple uses instead of simply digital pages of information. Along with this is the concept of Folksonomy, information which is 'tagged' and categorised by the users. e.g. Flickr, that there can be several ways to tag and compartmentalise information on the web. A focus on services which are provided on the web, via the web as opposed to the previous focus on software. Web 2.0 saw the emergence of the web as it is today, completely open and interactive rather than rigid and with singular uses.

Web squared refers more accurately to the web that we use today. Web 2.0 is still considered to be highly revolutionary and in many cases still a point of discussion when talking about the history of the web. 'Web squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On' is a second paper written by Tim O'Reilly this time with John Battelle on the subject identifying how the web has since evolved, which can be found at http://www.web2summit.com/web2009/public/schedule/detail/10194

Web squared refers to the current explosion of web applications which have transformed internet usage from a computer at a desk to the mobile/smartphone era. With WIFI basically second nature and the development of sites like Youtube, Facebook and Twitter have demonstrated the insight of collective intelligence in new ways, most of all proving that the real power of these technologies is not the application itself, but the users. All of these sites would be nothing without the users which make them, follow them, update them etc. Web squared also refers to how sensors have changed the way we use the internet, the invention of satnav has transcended into sensors on mobile phones which incorporate the internet in ways which tell us where we are, what we're looking at etc. e.g. Googlemaps has been taken even more further with the use of smartphones, being able to use the application in real time as you walk around.

This new and extreme level of human, web participation has made the idea of being connected almost an extension of breathing and talking in many ways. I heard politicians on TV discussing the Prime Ministerial debate commenting on how Facebook and Twitter enabled the discussion of the debate to happen in realtime with each step of the debate, so that within seconds of the debate having finished there was already public indication online of who they felt had won.

This is an extension of Web 2.0 which was merely considered to be interactive on a new level, Web squared takes the internet and literally incorporates it into a realtime accomplice to our lives. Not just for geeky internet fans but as a recognised and powerful communication tool as mentioned during the Prime Ministerial debate. As O'Reilly and Battelle put it "2009 marks a pivot point in the History of the Web...it is no longer an industry unto itself- the Web is now the world".

This statement may seem as if it is taking things a bit far, but when analysing the way we each seem to use the internet in our daily lives this is sadly quite the reality. The internet is everything from social networking sites to reading the paper online. Literally everything is online, this even go's so far to suggest some people are living there lives online as to some extent this is indeed possible with sites like Second Life. I like to take a cynical perspective of this and think it's nice to still have 'real' copies of newspapers, and phone calls instead of Facebook messages etc. However even I use the internet everyday to stay connected to my world, and who knows where the Web will develop next. What will Web quadrupled hold?

Photoshop

We have been using Photoshop in class in order to make the banner which is now at the top of this blog. I had never used photoshop before and found it really difficult. I had to work on my banner in the library with a friend who could teach me more about how to use the software.

Whilst using photoshop it made me think about a project I did at school about the use of photoshop in advertising and the implications this could have for the audience. See http://mywaronretouching.blogspot.com/ if you are interested (the older posts are probably the most interesting).

When I was using the programme for myself I felt my self getting sucked into that feeling of having to make the project as aesthetically perfect and pleasing as possible. Plus it was really addictive experimenting with all the different tools in order to get the best looking finish. The whole experience was almost competitive.

I wanted to include on my banner logos from the websites I use most frequently as we've been thinking about our own new media use and I wanted to link that to my blog. I also wanted to use an image of water in the background to link the idea that like a ripple of water the internet, and new media is endless, constantly being updated or bringing out new medias which keep us hooked to it. I then changed the colour of the background to fit the colour scheme of my blog as I wanted to keep it looking personalised, as we try and do with all new media's which allow us to express ourselves.

Eight Traits of the New Media Landscape

This article by Henry Jenkins, 2006 which can be viewed at http://www.henryjenkins.org/2006/11/eight_traits_of_the_new_media.html

was the first essential reading for the course and I felt it was a really good introduction to the kinds of debates and issues I will be learning about over the next year. The focus on "emerging cultural practices" rather than "emerging technologies" created a clear divide in my head between the technologies I've been using and how they are actually affecting my life and the way I interact with people.

According to Jenkins the Contemporary Media Landscape is:

1- Innovative

"New media technologies spark social and aesthetic experimentation" I think this is referring to social networking sites such as myspace. when this was popular everyone seemed to me to be obsessed with updating the layouts and backgrounds of their pages. However facebook soon became more popular perhaps because it was easier to use and more uniform.

"Such transformations broaden the means of self and collective expression", this is definitely an accurate statement when thinking about the internet today for instance this blog is giving me the means to express my views, for free in a place where potentially anyone could view and comment on my ideas. Such opportunities where not available 10 years ago.

2- Convergent

Jenkins talks about how new media is shaped top-down as it is in the economic interest of media conglomerates to "move any successful media content from one delivery system to another in order to maximise profit and broaden market potential". This can be seen in the new technologies emerging such as the iphone where the secret of its success is how convergent it it, this has been realised and created by the producers in order for them to make money.

However, this can also be shaped from the bottom-up by "the participatory impulses of consumers....they want the media they want when they want it and where they want it". This highlights just how much power new media is giving to the consumers, no longer does it seem to be a world where we just consume what we are told we should be consuming but we have been given a voice. As Jenkins puts it "they use the web to talk back to media producers". I think technologies like BBC iplayer are an example of media shaped from the bottom-up as they had to provide a service to keep up with our "on demand" demands of TV as there are several illegal sites offering a similar service they had to keep up.

3- Everyday

There seems to be an ongoing debate about how much these new media technologies are effecting and changing our everyday lives. I often wonder how we used to cope without mobile phones as now the idea of going anywhere without one seems impossible!

My favourite quote from this article is in this section;

"We can no more see the layer of media that surrounds us than fish notice the water they are swimming in".

I think it's a really good metaphor for the world we live in today. I can imagine a fish bowl filled with all the media that I must be exposed to everyday, most of it goes unnoticed though and exists almost like white noise. This is something I think people tend to forget when talking about how the media effects us- just because it is there, surrounding every moment of our lives does not mean all of it is taken in and actually absorbed but maybe about 25-50% of it.

4-Appropriative

This part talks about how new media are appropriate for each person, and how technologies can be manipulated for almost any function. This has very strong links with how the internet can be used for self expression. I like how Jenkins has phrased this "their web pages function as the digital equivalent of the old commonplace books, a heady mixture of personal expressions and borrowed materials" this acknowledges the internet to be a good thing for today's youth. How maybe facebook is the online equivalent to the scrapbooks our parents kept and shared with friends.

5- Networked

Jenkins talks about how the "one sender-many receiver model" which dominated print culture has changed into a "many-many model". Now anyone can easily circulate their work or ideas to a larger community.

This can have many advantages, particularly as networking is considered an important social and professional skill these days but also disadvantages as it becomes harder to communicate to only the people you intended to communicate with "while maintaing privacy from unwanted observation".

6- Global

My immediate ideas about the media being global are advantages for business and easy ways of communication between friends of family who are separated by large distances. However, Jenkins article highlighted some ideas that would not have come to me otherwise.

"This expanded communication will bring about greater understanding; others see the return to fundamentalism a a reaction against the threat posed by these global exchanges."

"Some worry the most economically powerful nations will overwhelm the rest, insuring a homogenization of global cultures; others contend that the world requires constant production of cultural differences in order to satisfy a seemingly insatiable hunger to step outside our own culture".

These issues may be extremely serious however I tend to agree 50-50 with each side of the arguments unable to make up my mind whether these issues pose any threats.

7- Generational

This poses interesting ideas about how "cultural traditions and norms" used to be passed down from generation to generation but now young people are adopting radically different cultural styles and values to that of their parents.

I'm not sure this is directly related to the new media of today as young people always go on to learn new things to that of their parents. I'm not sure how this has changed from 100 years ago apart for the actual technologies at hand have changed. Books were replaced by radios which were replaced by TV's, all these changes saw a generational shift, ours is the internet.

8- Unequal

This concerns us with the idea that people have the choice to be part of or not part of new media technologies, especially when thinking about the internet. However there is a rising feeling within our culture that if you're not participating online that you are then invisible and could be forgotten. This could be the case for those who simply do not have the means to participate.

I guess this is true to some extent but I don't think our culture will continue to preform in this way, I think it is more connected to young people who like to connect to others online. We still use the phone as much as we use the internet and in that sense if you want to communicate with someone then you will regardless if they are online or not, but there is that social aspect of having to be seen and included online.

I think these 8 catergories are a really interesting way of looking at how we use the internet and has certainly made me more aware of how I am using the internet and what he internet may be doing to out cultural practices.