Yep, you read right. This is probably going to be my last post here. Whilst I have enjoyed this module, and am glad I got a taste of blogging, I just don't think it's my 'thing'. Although I've defiantly gotten involved more in communities outside of the university, I think I've been more of a 'browser' on the module forums. I've been reading what's been happening, but as with all the communities I'm a member of, I only really post when I have something to say. This blog must either be a attracting a lot of 'browsers' like me, or none at all :p.
So whilst blogging has been an interesting experiment for me, I'm afraid this is goodbye. Hope you enjoyed it while it lasted.
I often stumble across a piece of news which is interesting and related to online communities. I make a mental note of this, and usually blog about it a few days later when I have time. I was reading the news on my phone when I found an article detailing a French site I though I should give a mention.
Peuplade stores peoples locations on a google map, in order for people who live near each other to meet in real life. I thought this was a really interesting idea, as it sort of turns the concept of the internet on its head. Usually, the internet is about meeting people virtually who usually live very far away. This site seems to use the internet in order to meet people in real life who live close to you.
Whilst I've not been able to try the site out myself, as I can't read French, the idea sounds very modern, whilst at the same time managing to keep to traditional values of meeting people in a real life community. I don't know if I'd use a site like this or not myself if a British one appeared, but I'd certainly look into it.
BBC News (2007) Parisian neighbours meet online [internet], BBC. Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/6233429.stm [Accessed 10 January 2007].
It's my opinion that it does, and I'll explain why.
I'm going to be using religion as an example, but I'm sure influence through online communities is happening in other areas too. In recent months, I've noticed a massive increase in the support of atheism on sites such as digg, youtube and google video. Whilst searching for a completely different topic, I found this (Rundle, M,2007) page, which explained exactly what I'd been noticing. People have been posting videos of Richard Dawkins for example, and posting them on popular video sites. Soon after, social bookmarking sites such as digg make them popular. This has obviously made what's being said very accessible, which has given the topic of atheism a huge boost in online discussion.
Whilst digg (in my opinion) has defiantly helped raise certain topics into people's minds, sites like youtube take this further. For example, there has been one video on youtube (shown below), which challenges people to deny the existence of God. Currently, this video has 627 responses. Whether most of the responses are denying God or not, it has absolutely raised the profile of atheism, and will have influenced at least some people in some way.
(BlasphemyChallenge, 2006)
Keeping with youtube, some users devote almost all of their videos towards promoting, or at least raising awareness of one goal. CapnOAwesome (CapnOAwesome, 2007) defiantly has this approach, and while he says he's not trying to convert people to atheism, I'm sure he's had that effect on some people at least.
I'd like to know other peoples thoughts on this too. I know I used atheism as a heavy example (not too much hope), but I'm sure there are lots of other examples out there too.
CapnOAwesome (2007) CapnOAwesome [internet], youtube. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=CapnOAwesome [Accessed 10 January 2007]. BlasphemyChallenge (2006) The Blasphemy Challenge [internet], youtube. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7QVbJnSPQE [Accessed 10 January 2007]. Rundle, M (2007) Digg and YouTube Powering Atheism 2.0 [internet], Available from: http://businesslogs.com/web_20/digg_and_youtube_powering_atheism_20.php [Accessed 10 January 2007].
I guess technically, this is my second posting here in the same day. I'm on a roll :D.
The topic of this post is how people conceal their identity online, and how people react when they find out that someone has been 'faking it'. I think the best example of this that I know of is Lonelygirl15 (Lonelygirl15, 2007) on youtube.
Lonelygirl15's whole image on the internet was fabricated by some film producers in order to create a fictional video blog. They decided to not tell people that what she was saying in her videos wasn't true to make it feel more 'real' to people. However, when the truth came out, most people responded (Renetto, 2006) very badly, and felt like they'd been lied to.
Whilst I can see why many people were annoyed, I also think they caused far too much fuss over it. As far as I can see, they weren't happy because they were under the assumption that her video blogs she was making were true. This wasn't the case, so they therefore felt lied to. However, I'm guessing that if they knew this from the beginning, then her videos wouldn't have been anywhere near as popular.
The reason I'm not annoyed or upset Lonelygirl15 had a whole team of film makers behind her is that as far as I can see, it really doesn't matter. I don't watch videos for their truth, I watch them for their entertainment value, so since I've never met this person, it doesn't matter to me whether what she says is true or not. It would be different if a real-life friend of mine made up who they were of course.
Whilst I don't conceal my online identity by creating a cover story for myself and lying like some people might, I simply filter what some people are allowed to know about me.
(doulostheou777, 2006)
doulostheou777 (2006) Lonelygirl15 comes out! [internet], youtube. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8evwzGCemqI [Accessed 02 January 2007]. Lonelygirl15 (2007) Lonelygirl15[internet], youtube. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=lonelygirl15 [Accessed 02 January 2007]. Renetto (2006) LonelyGirl15 is a FAKE... PLEASE WATCH!!! [internet], youtube. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z05X9nNNXLU [Accessed 02 January 2007].
First off, happy new year to you all. I was meaning to do this post yesterday, but unfortunately it didn't materialise, but happy new year nonetheless.
(rhettsmith, 2007)
I read digg a lot, and I've had this article (Cheng, J, 2006) from their saved in my bookmarks for while a while now, just waiting for the right time to be used. It discusses how people view relationships that began online. Although 2,000 US participants responded, it doesn't say how many of them are actually involved in online communities, which is a shame. I think the thing that surprised me most though was that 43% of those who participate in online communities felt as strongly about the friends they met online as the off-line ones. Perhaps this figure would look different if we knew how many said they participated in communities online.
Looking back on it though, most of what is said seems pretty accurate, for me at least). I probably know more people online than most, due to being an active member of the counter strike community, and of course, using IRC and VoIP because of it helps a great deal. However, I don't think I participate in any of my online communities off-line, neither have I gotten involved in much social activism because of the internet. The only thing that I've yet to do, but probably will, is to meet someone face to face who I first met online.
Cheng, J (2006) We love our Internet friends, really [internet], Available from: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061130-8326.html [Accessed 02 January 2007]. rhettsmith (2007) New Year [internet], Available from: http://www.rhettsmith.com/blog/archives/images/new%20year.jpg [Accessed 02 January 2007].
I was looking for a way to do a response to someone on blogger in a youtube stylie, but couldn't find anything, so this will have to do. This is a blog response to Tall Guy Pete's posts about netneutrality.
This basically involves ISPs blocking their users from accessing certain information on the internet. This has happened to users of a Swedish ISP very recently, who blocked anyone from accessing allofmp3.com (a site of dubiouslegality). This has now backfired (Progmatic, 2006), and has resulted in other web sites (such as the Pirate Bay) blocking users of that ISP from accessing their content. This has caused anyone using that ISP to get pretty frustrated about not having the freedom they want, and will inevitably result in people finding an ISP with their users freedom in mind.
It seems that the ISP in question has now realised the fact that restricting their users from parts of the internet will be bad for business, so they have lifted their ban(Piratbyrån, 2006) on allofmp3.com after receiving a lot of criticism and confused customers about it. Whether they were morally right to ban them in the first place due to the legality of the site is another matter. What I'm concerned about here is the freedom (or lack of) to which people are able to use the internet, and what happens when that freedom is taken away. So far it looks like normal internet users are very much in control of the situation, and will take matters into their own hands if restrictions are placed upon them.
Although large companies can (and probably will) block us from using what they don't want us to see on the internet, we must remember that it is actually us (the users) who have the power. These companies work for us, therefore, if we don't like their policies, there's always another solution to simply accepting what is forced on us.
(boh3m3, 2006)
boh3m3 (2006) Save the Internet! [internet], youtube. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhBzPV9FOgA [Accessed 29 December 2006]. Progmatic (2006) Piratebay blocks Swedish ISP [internet], Available from: http://www.infocider.com/blogs/index.php/programatic/?title=piratebay_blocks_swedish_isp&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 [Accessed 29 December 2006]. Piratbyrån (2006) Blockade removed! [internet], Available from: http://propiracy.org/article/15 [Accessed 29 December 2006].
Reading an article on HEXUS (Kerrison, 2006) the other day got me thinking more about online privacy and how it affects us. It reminded me of a youtube video I'd seen a few weeks back now. It was about a popular youtube figure (Renetto) discussing why he thought that putting his children in his videos was suitable. I've put this video below, and as you can see, he made sure the default image on the video was one to cause a reaction (his aim on youtube is to get as many subscribers as possible). This video (Renetto, 2006) and the follow-up video that was made obviously provoked a lot of responses, which had surprisingly very mixed thoughts on the subject.
Renetto knew that posting images of his children online could cause increased potential risk to them. However, in a similar way, it was his argument that taking his children swimming could cause an increased risk of them drowning, therefore he decided it shouldn't be a problem, since most things in life cause risk. My view is that where possible risks in life should be minimised as much as possible. Therefore, you don't post videos of your children online, in the same way you don't go swimming on your own.
Anyway, back to the HEXUS article. This pointed the finger at social networking sites, such as myspace for people's lack of concern for their privacy online. However, as some of the community posts that followed said, it is the users of those sites that need to be educated and changed, not the sites themselves. It's my view that people should be free to post what they want online (within the law of course), but should be told more about what is safe to upload for the world to see. The slashdot community were quick to point out that this attitude isn't restricted to social networking sites only, as too much information can be given via a simple email or a personal web site.
Kerrison, S (2006) Social network users have ruined their privacy, forever [internet], HEXUS. Available from: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=7499 [Accessed 27 December 2006]. Renetto (2006) Pedophile Alert... What are the DANGERS? [internet], youtube. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ICJCx0BaV0 [Accessed 27 December 2006].
After reading other peoples blogs, and hearing what was said by Janet a few weeks ago, I've decided to make a new start. So far, my blog posts seem to have been simply stating facts, where in fact I've noticed that the most interesting blogs are ones that are opinionated and well written (obviously). I hope that by looking at the way other people write, I can improve my own writing style too. I also intend to write posts in response to other's blog posts, and also comment in posts.
Finally, I think I need a bit more colour on this page, so here's a picture to start me off :D.
http://www.newcybertech.com (2006)
Nitrozac & Snaggy (2006) The Joy of Tech [internet], Available from: http://www.newcybertech.com/blog/wp-includes/images/posts/blogging_joke.gif [Accessed 21 December 2006].
Over the years, various online communities have created different ways for communicating online. These include smilies, acronyms and leet/1337 (elite) speak.
Smilies were created as a result of the ambiguity of internet communication. They were designed to replace facial emotions, which are difficult to convey through text over the internet. At first, simple smilies were introduced, such as the happy/sad face, but eventually, more complex ones were made, which graphical images introduced later on. I tend to use smilies when using almost any communication software that uses the internet as I find it helps to get by message across.
Acronyms were made in order to convey phrases that are used often through only using a few characters on the keyboard. I use acronyms a lot in synchronous online conversations. For example, to say I'll be afk (away from keyboard), I might type "brb" (be right back) or "bbl" (be back later). This is useful for those who know what these phrases mean, but can be confusing for the uninitiated.
Leet speak (1337) was developed primarily as a way to bypass filters on the internet that prevented talk of an illegal or deviant nature. For example, exploits (in software) would become "spl01tz". It is still used today for the same purpose and also by gamers who cheat and try to avoid being punished by using non-ASCII characters in their name. Many people use it nowadays as a source of fun on the internet.
