Quick Knowledge?

In the new age of technology things are changing quick. These days, the way we attain knowledge is completely different. More and more people have turned to computer screens, and less to pages of books. People are finding alternatives to the old paper backs.

In the article by Sven Birkerts "Into The Electronic Millennium" he talks about how a professor sold all of his books and bought a computer to store all of his information. Although this may seem a little over the top, this is a reality in our technological age. Students are no long turning to books for knowledge but finding it much more accessible to learn through sources of media such as t.v. or the internet. People are becoming less literate in actual writing, and becoming much more competent in electronic communications.

Instead of actually reading books, students will find the "Spark Notes" online. In the digital age, physical copies of books are becoming obsolete. With inventions like the "Kindle," it has never been easier to read books on the go. The Kindle is the object pictured here. It is an "electronic reader". It allows you to download books in just 30 seconds without any wires attached. Audio books downloaded to ipods or other audio players allow people to listen to a book instead of actually reading it. With the growth of technology it has made knowlodge increasingly easier to attain.

The problem with the ease and quickness that is attained through technology comes in laziness. Now instead of studying a text, people will just quickly check the Spark Notes to pass a test. Technology is a blessing and a curse in this sense. It can be used in so many ways to benefit knowledge, but steps must be taken to assure that one does not dismiss learning in their hastiness.

Comm 203
Joel Heslop

Who owns What?

In the digital age that we live in, information flows through all parts of the media. Information is constantly moving, constantly changing. People’s ideas and works become interchanged with others on a regular basis.
The problem that occurs is the drawing of a line between what is legal and illegal in the sharing of ideas.

Digital copyright is something that has had to come about in the coming of the digital age. Now that information has moved from solid hard copies to more “soft” copies electronically, the copyright laws become more of a grey area. People find it harder to protect their works on-line.

I believe that there should be “auto-copyrighting” implemented, because there are so many good works that have been taken and used without proper sighting. “Auto-copyrighting” is just a way to automatically copyright a work once you have completed it. People should have the rights that they deserve for their creations, but those rights should not give them more then they are merited.

The way I look at it, there needs to be a better way to work with each other to profit each other. A site like creativecommons.org is amazing to me. “Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that increases sharing and improves collaboration.” If people are to work together to help each other with ideas, while regulating the use of information it can be a beautiful relationship. The more laws enacted for copyrights, the more people will want to break those laws. If there are more ways that people can self-regulate their works, and try to positively work together to share ideas, I believe that a more profitable use of information sharing will occur.

Comm 203
Joel Heslop

Hurray!

Finallyyy!
Last week we finally filmed our paper prototype!
We had most of our group meet on thursday and we basically all of our prototype pieces together so we filmed the first workings of our game.
It was pretty exciting in my opinion. It went pretty smoothly. We were able to upload to Globaloria.
We are now going to be working together to get all of our parts together and start scripting in Flash.
Should be a good time.

You said WHAT?!?

Ever since things have been published, things have had to be censored. It is no different with the internet. People are constantly pushing the limits as to what is acceptable to distribute. There isn’t a fine line between what is allowed and what isn’t at times. So there are grey areas that appear in the media.

Freedom of Speech is protected under the First Amendment, but obscenity and indecency is not protected under those precepts. The problem with this is that the Internet is not just in the United States, it reaches the world. So how is the Internet supposed to be regulated?

I think that things like “cancelbots” can be a scary thing. While they can be very helpful in getting rid of unnecessary or otherwise crude content, it is scary to think that certain things that you think are beneficial or necessary someone else could just make disappear and not be seen by anyone. If the wrong people get a hold of cancelbots or censoring programs, they could censor any number of people.

I think a more positive way of censorship is setting up communities of self-regulated censorship. Helping each other decide what is necessary and unnecessary, so that the people decide what is right and wrong, not some program someone designed.

Censorship is a tricky thing to work through, but something that is necessary in the world today. Constantly screening what is coming through your computer is always a good idea. Don’t just randomly go to any website, but be careful about the decisions you make on the internet. The internet isn’t some imaginary place that when you log off of it, the things you did disappear. The internet effects millions of people everyday, be aware of what you are posting and viewing and be considerate of those that will be viewing.

Comm 203
Joel Heslop